Even though I love my Battlemages, I feel that the game is getting to easy now that I know how to fully utilize summons, illusion and alchemy. Besides, after 120+ hours on three different mages, and 400+ hours in total (of which none is with a non-magical character) I'm looking for some variation as well as a new challenge.

I'm thinking of making a warrior, my first in Skyrim, on master difficulty with a few combat mods like http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2700 to boost the AI (or would I be better off using a mod that doesn't change damage values like http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=77499392?).

The thing is, even though warriors and assassins have been my bread and butter in all past Elder Scrolls games, I don't know a thing about them in Skyrim.

When I picture my end-game warrior I see a master swordsman with wide experience in other tools of the soldier like armor, shields, axes, maces, daggers and bows.

One-handed
Two-handed
Archery
Block
Light or heavy armor, or both - Which one is the most beneficial in the long run? I've had great fun mixing in the past but I guess that I'll have to commit myself to a single discipline now that I'm going with Master difficulty.
Smithing - just Steel Smithing, Arcane Blacksmith and whatever is needed to improve Steel Plate, I'm not overly interested in crafting armor, more of using it like the old Armorer skill.


Of these trees I'm only really familiar with One-handed. I'd really appreciate opinions on which perks are useful and which to avoid.