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Grand bows = bows made with a grand/black soul gem.

Short Version:

Best bow (kill bow)
Daedric bow
-Soul Trap-1s
-Drain Health 100pts-1s
-Fire 10pts
-Weakness to Magic 100% -4s

Best Bow (poison)
Ebony bow
-Drain Speed 100% -1s
-Soul Trap-20s

Long Version:

Starting at level 11, Will-o-the-Wisps require a bow capable of doubling the Drain Health enchantment. Such a bow requires a grand or black soul gem and a character with Journeyman Destruction skills (to be able to cast a Weakness to Magic spell). Apprentice skills in Mysticism (to be able to cast a soul trap spell) and Azura’s Star greatly aid the ease of using the bow.

A lightweight bow is adequate (3-shot kills) even when the big deadric monsters first show up, but then the monsters with leveled health start to get tougher. At that point, a properly enchanted deadric bow repaired to 125% is well worth the extra weight and allows you to make 2-shot long range zoom kills in the Oblivion deadlands.

For 1- or 2-shot kills of the leveled-health monsters found late in the game, you need a bow dedicated to delivering poison. A slight ‘cheat’ is helpful by way of a Drain Speed spell easily derived from a diseased animal bite, a quick-save, loading/starting a game with an orc character, and then a reload of the quick-save and a trip to a spell making alter. That sequence enables the game and the enchanting/spell alters to see the disease drain as a character-owned spell effect. It works because orcs have a drain as part of their greater power.

Drain Speed 100% for 1 second causes monsters to forget they were shot, and it gives the archer safe time while the poison acts. A long duration soul trap enchantment on top of the drain makes for the best 1- to 2-shot poison bow I could come up with. Note that ‘weakness to poison’ effects are weakness spells and apply in the same way--the first shot places the weakness on the target to act on the following hit/s. Therefore, a weakness to poison enchantment is difficult to use with a bow.

Determining the best Grand bow was easier to do than for the Greater bow. Storm Atronachs have the highest health of any non-leveled creature (350) and the highest possible resistance to an elemental damage (100% shock), so the best bow must be able to kill a Stormy as efficiently as it kills its lesser cousins. Additionally, the powerful undead creatures found at upper levels, are susceptible to fire and immune to frost. For that reason, frost was not considered.

Three types of combinations were modeled: 1) Fire and shock with 100% weakness to magic (six combinations). 2) Fire and shock with weakness to one element at 100% (plus weakness to magic=100% and drain health 100pts). 3) A fire damage series from 27 to 10 where weakness to magic was varied to take up the rest of the 85 enchantment units. Four additional combinations were included; fire+shock+frost (=34 damage), fire-shock 9-3 [WtM 99%, DH100], fire-shock 9-3 [WtM=100, DH=98], and fire-shock 7-5 [WtM=99%, DH=100].

Damage effects were calculated factoring in the natural resistance of the Storm Atronach and the weakness spells added by the enchantments. They were run with both a 3x first shot (Sneak) and a 1x first shot. In-game testing with five glass bows (fi-sh-fr 10-0-0, 9-3-0*, 8-4-0, 7-5-0*, and 6-6-0), using a series of arrows from elven to daedric, indicated that the damage formula the game uses was not as simple as mine, but I was only off by between one and two points. What matters is the ranking of the different combinations, not the damage value.

In addition to testing the damage combinations, weakness duration was also tested. Light enchantments of 2, 3, and 4 seconds were placed on bows to see how long it took for a follow-up shot to hit while a weakness was still in effect. Two hits in two seconds was nearly impossible without using a partial draw against a close target. Making a follow-up shot in three seconds was possible but difficult during ‘active’ combat situations. Four seconds allowed limited turn-flee turn-shoot maneuvers, dodging fireballs and frostballs, making aiming adjustments on long zoom shots, and aiming around summoned creatures (spriggan bears and conjurer pets).

Three- and four-second hunting bows were extensively tested in Oblivion lands, Ft. Nomore, and Shadow’s Rest Cavern. From the testing I found that a four second bow was less stressful to use and killed just as well as a three second bow.


Best Bow-s
The three best enchantment combinations based on the ability to kill a Storm Atronach (350 h.p) in two shots (one sneak shot and an exposed follow-up):
1) Fire-Shock-Frost 10-0-0 (damage=350), 2) Fire-Shock-Frost 9-3-0-WtM 99%, (dam.=348.9) and 3) Fire-Shock-Frost 8-4-0 (dam.=348).

Bows 2 and 3 needed a more powerful arrow in the test (Glass bow+Ebony arrow vs. Glass bow + Glass arrow for the 10-0-0 bow).

So the winning combination was:

Soul trap 1-s
Drain Health 100-1s
Fire 10pts
Weakness to Magic 100%-4s

Several 3-second bows enchanted with double-weakness (element plus magic) were more powerful, but they could not kill with fewer shots in the hands of a master-level marksman. When using weaker bows at levels 11-18 the extra second may make an even greater difference than with a powerful bow because three shots in a row need to hit within the weakness window with the light bows.

In-game, I use a lightweight black bow until level 20 (killing with three shots instead of two). Then I get a deadric bow from Claude Meric’s Kajiit lackey outside of Malada (High Fane). I leave that quest open until then for guaranteed daedric sword, bow, and armor.

****

The effectiveness of the poison bow surprised me. It is fire-and-forget in many cases, so you can shoot more than one goblin warlord/mage in a big cave room and wait around for the sound of the soul trap filling gems to let you know when each one dies.


Poison bow and poisons.

Goblin Hunter, a.k.a. Elephant Gun
(Goblin Warlords, Goblin Mages, high level Ogres, Minotaur Lords, Xivilai)
Grand Soul Gem
Ebony* or daedric bow
Soul Trap-20s
Drain Speed 100%-1s

This bow was fun to use while sneaking around with 30-35% chameleon (e.g. Kajiiti’s ring).

When monsters live with the poison past the soul trap duration, they need a casual non-poison shot to catch their souls. Their auras turn from purple to green when the trap wears off. Xivilai sometimes inactivate/resist the trap magic even when a silencing poison is used, but switching to the Grand-Killer bow usually takes their soul.

*Ebony allows for easy icon recognition when switching off with a daedric kill-bow. There are times when things go wrong and you might need to use unpoisoned arrows to finish a kill, so I feel that it is best to use a powerful bow even for poison. To kill a level 50 goblin warlord using one dose of Master level Alchemy triple (Fi+Sh+He) poison, it takes six sneak shots (3x damage) using a daedric bow with glass arrows, or an ebony bow with ebony arrows. Both bows require seven shots when using dwarven arrows. Minotaur lords will go down in three shots from daedric+elven or ebony+glass.

The best way to kill goblin warlords at high levels is with one shot 3X poison, one shot 2X poison (which will result in death), and a third unpoisoned shot late in the wait if you want their soul, (two doses of 2X poison will not kill at level 50).

Goblin mages carry staves and use them when silenced, so a 2X damage poison with Silence and Paralyze (e.g. Frozen Stiff) works well.

Bowhunting conjurers and necromancers at high levels is challenging, but a bow can be used in their lairs much of the time as long as you are prepared to defend yourself with spells and/or melee weapons. Evil mages seem to be immune to the ‘I forgot I was shot’ effect of the speed drain, and even when silenced, they run at or away from you as soon as the shock of the hit wears off. They have relatively low health so I use the “killer” bow with the Mage Manager poison. It stops them from reacting just long enough for quick follow-up shots. Altmers usually go down in one shot from the kill bow. Bretons may need back-to-back shots. Things happen fast so there is no time for a damaging poison to work. Mage Manager stops them from instantly blasting you with a staff or spell, or summoning a pet that can block your secondary shots. But it doesn’t stop them from running at you with a dagger or mace, so you have to stick another arrow or two in them quickly while they are stunned.

Light bottle (wt=0.1) poisons.
Note that the ingredients for the three poisons do not have to overlap except for the initial lightweight “naming recipe.”

For minimum bottle weight, name the bottle using the first list of ingredients and the first ingredient when there is an A>>B option. The order of the ingredients is crucial to keep the low weight, so enter them as listed and be sure to enter the bottle name again before creating.

Sorry for the formatting. It looks better tabbed or in a proper table but those would not post right so I used the dashes. The recipe lists run from top to bottom, not side to side.
“Triple Burden”-3X
Shock, Burden, Health, Fire
-----------
Ectoplasm
Fly Cap
Spiddal >> Imp Gall
Steel-Blue Cap

“Frozen Stiff”-2X
Frost Damage, Silence, Paralysis, Health Damage
------------
Nightshade *et al.-----------Milk Thistle--------------------Daedra Venin
Frost Salts>>Vampire------Frost Salts>>Vampire------Dryad Saddle Poly Cap
Milk Thistle--------------------Harrada-------------------------Frost Salts>>Vampire
Harrada-------------------------Daedra Venin-----------------Harrada

*Peony is a good substitute for nightshade but many things that damage health work.

“Mage Manager”-0X
Damage Magicka, Paralysis, Silence
------------
Bergamot----------------------Daedra heart------------------Rat Meat
Fennel--------------------------Fennel--------------------------Fennel
Milk Thistle--------------------Clannfear----------------------Clannfear
Motherwort--------------------Mort flesh----------------------Daedra Heart

List of ingredients and some locations with an abundance or easy access (other than the Arcane University garden.) Check the Wiki for a complete list.

Ectoplasm--Benirus Manor in Anvil (Do not finish the quest, they respawn.)
Fly Cap--Imperial cemetery
Spiddal--Skingrad + Arcane Univ. alchemy shops, Oblivion worlds (O.w.)
Imp Gall--Robber's Glen Cave, early level monster dungeons (e.g. Sideways Cave)
Steel-Blue Cap-- Weynon Priory and W-cntrl Orange Rd, Leyawiin sidewalks, Imperial City planters.
-----
Frost Salts--Belda, Ft. Black Boot, Ceyatatar, Fieldhouse Cave
Vampire Dust--Lipsand Tarn (12), Barren Cave (6), Ft. Redman (5), Ft Carmala (5).
Harrada--Skingrad and A.U. alchemy shops, O.w., some dead Oblivion gates.
Milk Thistle--West of Shardrock (>30) and further west from the (Ayleid well to Sandstone cave (>30), Leyawiin sidewalks.
Nightshade--Southern West Weald
Dryad’s Saddle Poly.--Door at Sandstone Cavern (nr Shetcombe Farm), Door at Ft. Istirus (2 each), Wendir ruins (supposedly 6-7 but hard to find).
Daedra Venin+Hearts--Oblivion lands, conjurer dungeons
-----
Bergamot--Entire Bawn Penninsula, W-cntrl Orange Rd.
Fennel--Niryastare (+Lord Stone north), Ft. Hastrel, Last Chance Camp, Ft Wariel.
Motherwort--Everywhere
Spiddal Stick--Skingrad + A.U. alchemy shop, Oblivion worlds
Clannfear claws--Oblivion worlds at mid levels

Skingrad alchemy shops = Sinderion in the West Weald Inn’s basement and Falanu at All Things Alchemical.