I'm very confused. As an elf, I deal far more damage (around 2000 per hit) with sword+shield, compared to using a bow/crossbow (around 400), despite the difference in the weapons' stats being very small. The sword has somewhat slower attack speed, but it's still significantly better, even compared to using Triple Shot...
...But I've now found out that my best damage is with no weapon at all. Bare-handed, my damage per hit is barely inferior, yet my attack speed is far superior, resulting in my best DPS. What the hell?