Another important Larp archer skill is ‘running over uneven ground while ducking trees and not loosing all your arrows’. Personally I use a belt quiver and grab it left handed when I run.
[quote]And on a similar point, I will be making a universal habit of checking nocks on recovered arrows, I assure you 
I’ve shot field before, not really my thing, but I’m not too bad, so that should be solid.[/quote]
If you have never done larp archery it’s worth talking to people before hand on the no goes such as the weapons checkers, this being more important in the regards to the arrows and what checks you need to do on them before loosing them as it’s abit more involved than just checking the nocks. I’m always happy to go through the checks with someone but I will say I’m not a checker or ref and might not know all that is allowed/dis-allowed in the system.
the checks that I’m aware of and off the top of my head are:
nocks are not loose
head is not loose
shaft is not cracked or splintered
shafted is not other wise distored
flights are all attached
the head is not water logged or caked in mud
the head is still padded or undamaged to the extent that it’s could pose a risk.
also you are responsible for every arrow you use, even if someone says they have checked them it is up to you.
In terms of making your own, it’s much safer with the Golfball heads now about, because they fit like blunts - constructing your own heads is the really risky proposition.
Being able to do your own fetching and knock setting is good - you’ll be able to do minor repairs safely. If you talk nicely to most of the arrow suppliers they should be able to supply arrows at pretty much any stage of construction, so you can buy shafts with the blunt fitted for you to fletch yourself in your own colours.
It’s worth getting familiar with different styles of arrows so you can safety check and fire back the ones being fired at you. 
The rule-of-thumb when I was doing bow comp testing for the LT was that your draw-length in inches should be no more than the range in feet - so no more than a 10" draw at 10’ range. The maths gets a bit fuzzy if you are using a lower poundage bow, but as it is always safer to under-draw than over-draw that’s still a good basic guideline.
Bear in mind that I stopped doing the tests about 10 years ago, so the test has probably changed since then, but the basic safety advice will still be good even if you’re not going to be quizzed on it 
Feel free to PM me if you want to ask anything off the thread.
Get religion. Possibly after your first battle. No skill requirement.
Take a military unit as your resource, and badger your nation’s general(s) until they let you get involved in the military council.
Or take a fleet, and get involved in the Trade game - sell the resources you bring in at the highest price, buy whatever your group needs at the lowest possible. Try to find out what people will want next season, and direct your fleet accordingly in downtime…
Or join the Militia.
Good ways to get introduced to people when you hit the field include making sure you find your Egregore (spirit of the nation) as part of their role as an NPC is to make sure new players find their game. They’ll introduce you to some people to get you started.
Make sure you also get yourself along to the new players meeting, it’s usually on in the Tavern an hour or two before time in on the Friday. Ask in the God tent for details of when it’s on to confirm when you pick your pack up.
Archer scout with a bandolier of potions can cover a lot of ails. As long as you have the money to cover material costs, you can run through the woods firing arrows into the sunset and saving people with nasty injuries till the cows come home. Quicker than physicking, and over a long battle likely cheaper than magic.
As other people have pointed out, you can leave the potion brewing to a non-com you’re mates with. All you need to do is get herbs into their hands. That’s Anvil work, and there are plenty of ways to get the money for herbs. Fleets are good for that. You could always just have a herb garden, but fleets are more versatile and better to enchant.
Hero Points plus Unstoppable is a sensible pick for any scout to improve your survivability. You can forgo it and drink a Tonic of Surging Flame before every battle but that’s going to be very expensive over time. Cleave on a sidearm is nice but enchantments are cheap and you likely only need one. If you find you’re using it lots, you might consider a Biting Blade, which will free up your enchantment slot. For your final point, Stay With Me is a nice utility skill to have, if you are out of potions and haven’t needed Unstoppable.
More than anything though, being a good battlefield archer is about knowing your limits in and out of character. Be quick and alert, pick your targets and know how you’re getting back to your friends at all times.
One thing to consider is that you don’t have to spend all your points so you might want to have Marksman and then have a look to see if magic or healing or making things appeal to you once you hit play, if you can find a teacher (you will be able to) then you can even pick it up during the game.
As people have said for heavy armour your cheapest option is likely to be a maille shirt (t-shirt style) and then greaves for the legs (you can get these from traders). You need the torso and either head or two limbs (or four half-limbs) covered, so if your shirt is to the elbow then you’ll be grand with greaves.
You may find you can get a shirt which goes to knees and elbows for not much more, and if so that’s a good idea.
Archery is excellent in the current game location, which is a huge field without the massive forest area where arrows used to get lost much more easily and have much less potential due to trees obscuring sight/shot.
An interesting ‘staying alive’ build is: Archery (4) Hero Points (1) Cleave (1) Second Wind (2) because the hero points can be used either to restore lost hit points with 2nd Wind or to quickly end a fight if an enemy gets close to you (cleave)
If you want to get quick and easy game outside of the combat then you could do worse than take a Congregation for your resource: this entitles you, at no xp cost, to be part of the Synod which comes with assorted meetings, things to vote on, and random constitutional powers. I find it a great plot window, personally.
Also note that you can participate in battles as an NPC orc (indeed you are obligated to if you fight as your PC, but at your first event you could just NPC twice to get a feel for it) and PD will provide you with a few arrows from their stash for that purpose. Last time I took a bow to NPC we also got a half-hour tutorial/reminder which consisted of a lot of range-finding shots at a couple of refs - which was very helpful.
Second Wind IMO is not as good as Unstoppable for an Archer, if you’re jumped you’re generally dropped, if you’re not you have the mobility to get to a healer.
Having healing potions (attainable from a freindly apothecary) or Stay With Me is an excellent choice for an Archer as well, you can easily double as a roving backup healer
[quote=“Iulian”]
Get religion. Possibly after your first battle. No skill requirement.[/quote]
Most of my off-field game comes from printing - if you have skills to make things (trinkets, bags, whatever) you can spend time selling them. You can decide you want to collect stories of heroes of the empire, or find out about history, or delve into religion - anything that gives you a good reason to go around and meet/talk to people will be great.
Actually, I lie, most of my off-field game comes from talking to people, printing is just an excuse, and my group are fabulous for chatting to - if you don’t have a group then spending some time speaking to other folks and finding one (you will certainly benefit from having good folks to take the battlefield with!) is a good idea!
I don’t use a bow except when monstering, and then I use sword, buckler and a waist quiver (I don’t usually have any arrows - I no longer own any so either get some of PDs or return them when kindly given by other folks). If I have room I bring heavy armour but usually just end up with medium - and that suits me fine. In the past I haven’t worn a helmet as an orc, but have plans to bring a maille coif for the next one as it isn’t very heavy and looks good.