Novice crew checking in.

Kidding, usually play on adept.

I always play on default difficulty. I prefer to alter my difficulty with mods. Right now I'm using a mod called Deadly Monsters (part of the Deadly Dragons mod). Deadly Monsters comes with really nifty sliders that allow us to fine-tune the numbers for Health, Magicka, Stamina, Armor Rating, Melee Damage, Magic Damage and Resistance of all Creatures, Humanoids, Undead and Wildlife in the game, on the fly, right from within the SkyUI menu. It is really wonderful. I wish Morrowind and Oblivion had something like this.

With how Bethesda keeps doing difficulty, always default, with mods to increase difficulty.

Hmm, have to check that monster mod out.

Expert or Adept. Depends on my mood and the character I'm playing.

Depends on how strong the character is.

Master or higher through the high level monster's hardcoe mod:
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27866

But only because I use a lot of mods, like destruction damage scaling with level and new enchanted items and so forth that make things easier.
Difficulty's just a damage slider, so I like it set where I can take a single power attack from an enemy before I die and or a few light attacks.
And I like it where most enemies take 10-20 hits to kill.

Recently switched to Expert from Adept because I couldn't get enough practice with one and two handed weapons or with the bow to advance. Nothing seems to have changed but the fights are tougher so skills advance more quickly.

Master, Adept, sometimes Novice

Master, and only master. I've made it a law for myself.

When I get my gear the way I want it (Not OP), I set the difficulty to Master. Otherwise, normally Adept.


Though, on Master, Forsworn Briarhearts are a [censored] if you're a warrior.

Adept here.

There are times when I think of moving the difficulty slider up, but when I end up fighting 5 draugr deathlords who keep spamming unrelenting force, I'm glad that such odds don't end with my character being dead, where it might on expert or master difficulty.

I don't mind that my dragonbon character is powerful. If I built my character up properly, I don't want them being killed in one hit from a power attack. I want challenge, but not where it feels cheap.

Master difficulty. Enemies have become far too easy on Adept, and I couldn't take the instant kills anymore, bumped the difficulty up to Expert. But then I thought "What the hell" and bumped it to Master. Now enemies are quite challenging and Dragons now kill me in seconds if I don't take cover (this one requires a lot of potion chugging). Either way, I enjoy it. My main character is level 64 (going to level 65) so I need a good fight now and then. Once I start a new character, I will drop the difficulty to Adept. I think the higher your level, the higher the difficulty will need raising. But I would never go under Adept difficulty. We're all men here!

I never go below Adept. I play Expert and Master when im bored and Adept for fun and RP.

i always play on expert or master but usually just master now.If i were to play on default or adept the game would be way too easy for me.

Adept, always. (ditto for Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc...)

Don't bother with difficulty mods, although some I've used in past games (like scaling mods for Oblivion, or FOOK for Fallout 3) have had some effect on the diff.

Adept mostly, I once had a character that I did on master, but I didn't follow it through.

Expert.

Will knock that back to adept if / when I install SkyRe

Adept. Always Adept.

Adept or expert. Never saw the need to go higher.

Novice or easiest on every game because combat is not my specialty. I play for other reasons.

Master. I played adept when I first got the game, then tried expert for a week or so. Now just master.

Master is the only way to get any challenge at all, once your character levels up a bit...
And it's still too easy.
Plus I use "Resilient Dragons" and "Higher Level Enemies" mods.
Got jumped by four Draugr Deathlord Demigods last week, and I died!
(First time since, I dunno, Christmas maybe)

I find there are two "plateaus" that are reached playing the game:
First - once you can smith enchanted items. Instant upgrade from Adept to Expert (unless you like it too easy).
Second - once you can double-enchant items. Instant upgrade from Expert to Master.

I mean, if you are wearing a ring that protects against both fire and frost, how scared of dragons do you need to be?
Not very.
That's why Resilient Dragons have thousands of health, and Shout at you like crazy...
Fun!

This is like saying "I have reached Level 20. Never saw the need to go higher"...?

Expert. Haven't tried lower or higher, Expert seems a good balance for my liking.

master