SPOILER ALERT
OK before you say i have the best armor so its easy. I played these characters form the beginning on master and it still wasnt really all that bad. Yeah its challenging which is good but i did all the dungeons and crap at a very low level on master difficulty and it took me longer to progress through but you still can do it. Yeah having top [censored] armor makes it easier but it doesnt kill the game by making it SO easy.

Seriously people, im not saying Master is easy because it definitely is harder.

But even with Dragon scale armor( with [censored] enchants) upgraded and my upgraded daedric bow, taking down an enemy just takes a little bit more time. I really dont die that much on Master.

Sometimes they might get a lucky shot and hit me really hard. If your having a hard time, you might be balancing you character's magick. health, and stamina in a poor pattern every time you level. You might not be focusing on two or one of the three choices and decide to spread them out amongst the three.

But if you focus on two you can make your character have a ton of health and some stamina and [censored] magicka.

Try getting the right guardian stone. I forgot which its in the north on an ice berg or something but it gives you +50% physcial resist. and +50% magicka resist.

I fight ancient dragons on my lvl 43 archery charcter on master and will go one handed with fast healing in the left hand. Having a high restoration skill is a good idea. just use all the time, you most likely have to anyway.

If your an archer and you have to fight a mage or something, they usually like to back off and kind of cast at you from a distance. I like to find a door, and strafe left and right kinda poking myself out with my arrow pointed at hi, drawing his fireball to be cast at me, slide back behind cover of the door, and pop RIGHT back out using the archery slow motion perk to give him a good shot to the face.

Search every room you go into for every item you can find. This will lead to finding alot of potions that you wont even have to buy and then theyl be there for you when you need it most in combat.

Every NPC in the game acts the same. If you are fighting one. Get close enough to them so they can hit you with their sword or ahmmer or wahtever. then right when they start to bring the sword back, time it right and back up, their swing animation will continue and you can then walk in and slash them and then back out again. Basically, taunt them to swing, dodge it, hit them when they are recovering from the swing.

If your having a hard time with sneak. (Spoiler) Go to Boethiahs shrine and do the quest you can get Ebony Mail from Boethiah which has an amazing enchant on it that will make you almost invisible when sneaking and it looks super badass!

Dont forget to use your shouts, i find myself forgetting to use them sometimes. My favorite would Mark of Death. This makes any opponent like 5 times easier to kill. Also get Become Ethereal for when your about to die and it will save your ass many times.

Then youll come to those times where youll find a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS MAGE. Especially on master, shooting fireballs at you 3 times a second that do an ass ton of damage each time. For these moments, especially when im on my melee character, can be the most difficult. This is where you need to have SOME sort of conjure to help you.

Forget companions they svck and GET IN THE WAY. And when they die, well, theyre dead forever.

With a summon you can use it to distract the enemy while you take shots at them. So it might be a good idea to put a lil bit of time into conjuration. OR if your like me who didnt want to put any time into that tree on either of my characters. Its best to find a staff. My favorite staff that you will most likely come across randomly or buy. Would be a staff of the Frost Atronach.

The Frost Atronach is an absolute tank and will do you wonders. AWAYS pick up soul gems in rooms that you should be searching through so you can recharge your staves and weapons in the middle of a fight if you run dry.

The best staff to get for this is the daedric artifact called The Sanguine Rose. Its very unique looking and summons Dremora with Two-handed swords and full daedric armor. How more badass can that get?

And they say awesome things like "Are you prepared for your Death?!"

You get this staff by participating in a drinking game with a Man named Sam Guevenee or something and he turns out to be sanguine.

Summons are better cause right when they die you can summon them again. However i only use them for really tough parts.

make sure your also choosing the right perks that apply to your character and what hes good at. Dont put points in something you dont use that often or that you think you could go wtihout.

You could also try Blocking. And playing in third person might help as well.

Try doing power attacks. Alot of them. Put points into power attack perks and then youll be cutting everyones head off.

Hope this helps.

Nice lenghty post and welcome to the forums.

ha thanks

Wow, lots of spoilers in there. I agree that the Rose was one of my most prized quest rewards, but some of the tactics you've described could be construed as exploiting. I play as a Khajit Smuggler (stealth archer), and one way I amp up the fun level is that I never use a companion (which you already alluded to) and more importantly I NEVER cast a spell-- ever. No restoration, no illusion, no nothing. In fact, I will not even learn new spells on this character. It makes the game a LOT more fun and forces me to make due with poisons and health potions.

I'll also NEVER buy crafting materials from merchants, I only use what I can get via hunting, mining, and dungeon crawling. I won't exploit skills, either (i.e. your leveling stealth tip). Restrictions are awesome and make the game even more fun

Lots of good tips here. Thanks for these.

Lol at quoting the entire OP... Try sniping it next time.

Anyway, I have a 43 destruction Mage and it's pretty easy, but that's because of impact IMO. I can solo any dragon, dragon priest, whatever.

Just started a sneak/archer. Only lvl 7 but keeping it on Master. Cleared out a mine of bandits no problem, but then I met some bounty hunters (sent by a dead woman) and I had to run. I barely could dmg them and the guy with a 2h basically 1 shots me lol.

I like it tho, and having the high lvl chat gave me a lot of experience for this run.

Oh yeah the armor isnt an exploit though. The enchant on just makes it REALLY hard for you to be detected.

I had to turn my eyes away too many times due to a lot of spoilers.

Spoilers are not allowed in General Discussion.

Yeah I find master easy on most characters i've made so far. A bit meh.





Can't wait for some nice difficulty balance mods.

Master difficulty is good if you want to be an elite monster at what you do and be really challenged. Like enchanting+alteration+ max smithing as soon as you can.

But my brand new character has no interest in making money or super-smithing or enchanting and will wear leather and hide armor for a good portion of the game. Relying more on stuff like bleeding perks for his axes, block, archery and alteration. And then in the late game give my Khajit some Elven armor. So for this kind of character, I will do normal difficulty.

Yeah.... I just woke up...

Im sorry for the spoilers guys i tried to edit it and put that in the title but it wont let me change that...........ill edit the post then

Seriously?

Really getting tired of people talking crap about throwing it down on Master level when they're rocking the best equipment in the game.

I play on Master but I don't use Smithing, Enchanting, Alchemy or skills that make me powerful easier. I just like to role-play, finding armor/weapons during exploration. I like my characters to be either Warrior/Mage/Thief and not mixed for a certain type. Unless I'm playing a Paladin which has healing only, or if I was playing a Battlemage. I don't like adding skills to benefit my character if it puts them out of my personal role-playing. This makes Master a lot more challenging but more fun for me personal. Some people may enjoy maxing smithing/enchanting and making awesome gear. I've always been a find your loot person. I just wish there was better loot hehe. All the things I do seem to be not as good in the game haha. I made a Pure Destruction Mage using robes and only using loot I find or am given, I also thought Magicka Regeneration would be good so I was storing up a lot of it until I realised it's not so good during battle. I really made that character set-up to die, but it's how I like to play.. It's not very strong but it's very fun to me

I'm more about playing for role-play fun than to make powerful characters that can do anything for any time. Just not my style I guess. I just like to gain experience while exploring and such, not power-leveling or trying to get a skill to 100. I just go with the flow of the river. It really feels like I'm playing and gaining the experience.

I just started a new character. I play on master and never used forging or enchant except to improve a weapon I found. I haven't really specialized either.

I have good one-handed, alteration, sneak, restoration, archery, light armor, block, pick pocket. I'm really balance. The sneaks helps a lot to start tough fight with an edge over the ennemy. Initially I wanted to have good illusion for the sneak helps and invisibility, but I haven't found those spell yet.

I've made a pure warrior and finished main quest, but it was too easy and always the same. I've also made first a pure sneak archer character, but it was too easy too.

It is almost like in real life. You have to pay attention or you might die quickly. The Frost Atronarch is my favorite distraction when facing mulitple enemies.

I quit reading when I read you had dragon armor and daedric and then said it wasn't bad. Of course it isn't bad when you're decked out. On master difficulty most enemies can barely even scratch you when you have that easy to get armor cap. The danger of master is when you're just starting out, although it isn't that bad if you start every battle with a sneak attack.

I specifically DID NOT read the OP, or any other post in this thread, but I wanted to make a statement about how wrong I think this topic is, and I don't think anyone should read the OP.

It's not about getting better and besting the game, or playing it with one hand behind your back. It's about having FUN, and that can be achieved at any difficulty level, specifically the one that matches your play style. So instead of trying to get better, try to find a difficulty level that meets your skill level and play style.

If you want to play a half naked barbarian with a Battleaxe, Master difficulty is probably not the best choice, etc. Enjoy the game, don't kill it!

I'm finding master difficulty to be just right even without enchants or smithing or any min/maxing other than putting alot in the 1h tree. Still only the boss fights and multiple enemies are where it gets tougher.

Honestly comparatively the game is just not that hard so far. However there is some sense of danger and challenge on master.

Personally I think that without some feeling of danger to the world immersion is greatly diminished, that's why I play on master..not for the feeling of being uber or anything like that, it just forces me to actually pay attention to stuff a bit more, and run away sometimes..I think that's much more fun in RPG than just being able to slaughter with impunity.

I started these characters out on Master difficulty and it still really isnt all that bad, you just have to focus on what your doing and fight without getting hit.