Dryads or Elves - who are the best Archers?

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Dryads or Elves - who are the best Archers?

First off I want to tell that I haven't finished reading all of the books yet (atm Im reading Baptism of Fire), but Im loving everything about the lore and Im interested to what the fellow fans think about this topic. So please don't hate me for asking this while not finishing the lore books first :)

So who are the best Archers in Witcher lore? Dryads seems to be the goddess of archery as they are the childs of nature and they are absolutely deadly with their bow skills, as described in Sapkowski's books.
On the other hand we have Scoia'tael elves who are also masters of archery (elves seem to be superior archers in pretty much every other lores too, like LOTR etc).
In Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, if you choose to help non-humans to defend Vergen, when Iorveth returns with his Scoia'tael reinforcements and when they end the battle with insanely accurate shots on Kaedwen army, Geralt says this:
"One thing is sure: elves are the best archers who have ever walked this earth..." - Geralt of Rivia

So...

OR


My argument would be that Dryads are still better archers compared to Elves. Lets me explain why. Well from what I have learned so far, it seems like Dryads only use / prefer bows and archery skills over any sword while elves are fighting with their bows AND swords. That makes me think that dryads are focusing purely on bows and surprise / distance attacks, what IMO makes them best archers in the lore.

Im interested to see what other people think! And if someone wants to use information from later books - please use spoiler tag and don't spoil me future events that I haven't read yet. Thanks :)
 
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Logically, the dryads should be better archers because of what you said. In LOTR elves had biological traits that enhanced their archery like distant eye sight and so. I don't know if the elves have such things in the witcher lore and I'd like to think that the difference between dryads and elves is little, and they're both good archers.

"One thing is sure: elves are the best archers who have ever walked this earth..." - Geralt of Rivia

"Dryads are the best archers in the lore" - DeadlyShadow47

So... you're calling Geralt of Rivia a liar?? Hmmm... I bet if I tell him he won't be happy with you, but of course I always accept kind orens ;)
 
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So... you're calling Geralt of Rivia a liar??
Nope. It's just Geralt's opinion (atleast in my view).
Logically, the dryads should be better archers because of what you said.
:D

Plus I will add that most dryads are the children of elven males and dryad females, so if elves have somekind of enchanced senses / skills to archery in their genetics - It automatically goes to the newborns. That being said dryads are the deadly archers as it's their main weapon and their main focus is distant attacks with arrows. While elves are doing both, sword fighting and using bows, and does not completely focus on One method.
 
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My argument would be that Dryads are still better archers compared to Elves. Lets me explain why. Well from what I have learned so far, it seems like Dryads only use / prefer bows and archery skills over any sword while elves are fighting with their bows AND swords. That makes me think that dryads are focusing purely on bows and surprise / distance attacks, what IMO makes them best archers in the lore.

I agree because of the aforementioned.

I must say though, the most skilled archer overall I would think is Iorveth.

He is a right handed (he draws his bow with his right hand) AND is missing his right eye (his shooting eye). That takes a great degree of competence. Imagine firing a rifle and trying to look down the sights with your left eye if you are a righty or your right eye if you are a lefty.
 
However Elves can live for centuries if not killed (even tho in current situation it's not likely for Scoia'tael, as they are often massacared in battles) - that being said, I think in time they can reach Dryad's level of archery or maybe even surpass it. But that only goes for very old and skilled elves, not the young ones.
 
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I agree because of the aforementioned.

I must say though, the most skilled archer overall I would think is Iorveth.

He is a right handed (he draws his bow with his right hand) AND is missing his right eye (his shooting eye). That takes a great degree of competence. Imagine firing a rifle and trying to look down the sights with your left eye if you are a righty or your right eye if you are a lefty.

I think the Iorveth thing is a mistake you weren't supposed to notice :p
 
Speaking as a cyclops, if you've got one eye your depth perception is fucked, oh and recently found out 3d movies don't work for you, wondered why for a while. Think that's why you never see Iorveth shooting his bow. Aimed shots aren't too bad, moving targets you're fucked royally.
 
In fact, Dryads become an an extension of the forest, and no one is aware of their presence, not even a meter away, easy point and not miss the shot is easy for them.
 
I cant speak for Witcher and I have never played the game, but in most folklore the human Ranger has always been your best archer, try to think of the Ranger as do it all handyman. Now if some you have played other rpg you know this.
 
He is a right handed (he draws his bow with his right hand) AND is missing his right eye (his shooting eye).
Not that I actually do archery, but I've somewhere caught this tipbit that even lefties draw bows with rigth hand. That it just works that way, maybe because they're taught, or 'cause most bows just are meant used right hand and modelled like that.

I'll stop here and go somewhere talk something I actually know of...
 
Not a competitive archer either, but I do know that it's important to shoot with the same hand as your dominant eye. This is important in shooting sports, especially archery. (In other sports like baseball or cricket, it's different. I'm right-handed, but I'm so right-eyed that I see the ball better from the left-handed side.)

Using the eye that's off your line of sight, as Iorveth is doing, introduces a parallax error, in addition to the windage that you're already correcting for. A skilled archer can compensate for it. But it's not ideal, and it shouldn't be coached.
 
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Speaking as a cyclops, if you've got one eye your depth perception is fucked, oh and recently found out 3d movies don't work for you, wondered why for a while. Think that's why you never see Iorveth shooting his bow. Aimed shots aren't too bad, moving targets you're fucked royally.

Oh this. You made my day Bloth, never considered it. :happy:

I say Elves for the win because they are nimble and can hide up in trees. Any Dryad letting an Elf climb all over you can't possibly win. :whistle:;)

Seriously though...having two arrows aimed at me I wouldn't stay to find out whom the better shooter was.

I do remember a passage of Yaevinn hitting his (moving) target at a tremendous range.
 
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