Greetings

I've been playing for 50+ hours since release. Been going with a battle-mage type build. Single handed sword in my right hand with spells in the left. It's been easy so far, but I want to scratch it and roll rogue. Nothing beats breaking into peoples homes and stealing everything while they sleep XD

I want to make my next character something I'm proud to invest copious amounts of hours into so I want to make sure that I do it right. A few of my questions; Whats the deciding factor between using a bow or dual daggers in any given battle situation? Should I be more focused on bow or daggers for maximum efficiency? Do I start off a fight with a sneak based stab in the back or bow? Also, I want to play the game on a higher difficulty so I was wondering if smithing/alchemy are going to be very helpful. And if they are- and I start working on them a lot in the beginning- will I be leveling solely based on my potions and gear upgrades, making the difficulty spike up?

Any helping hand would be very appreciated, waiting to get started on my re-roll until after I know exactly what my game plan is.

Thanks!