Having gotten bored with the lvl. 38 Breton mage I had played about 150 hours with, I decided to create an orc melee warrior and try out Master difficulty.

Boy do I miss that Breton magic resistance. I'm about level 19 with the orc, and I'm still being resoundingly creamed by many, if not most, enemies. Without a follower to tank for me, I'm toast in any situation in which I face more than one enemy simultaneously.

For the record, I'm not using the enchantment/alchemy/smithing loop. I'm just upgrading my gear at what I imagine is the "normal" pace. I'm slowly bringing my enchanting up, but right now I'm pretty much relegated to the enchanted gear that I find--and I'm not finding much that's helping me on the damage resistance front.

Does a melee build get easier at some point? Or does it just get harder?

Melee gets seriously easy once you hit the armor cap or get close to it, and have some base magic resistance.

I am looking forward to that.

I will say I am still enjoying the build. Just when my enthusiasm for the game was starting to flag, this new character has rekindled it.

Go do the Agent of Mara quest from the priestess in Riften. It has a handy little reward for all characters.

I had the same problem as you, and I must say, it will get much easier. I am level 35 now, and I have no problem destroying anything that comes in my way. I think Daedric gear helped me out a lot. Warrior's become way more enjoyable the farther you get into them.
Good luck!

I've heard the agent of Mara quest is worthwhile. I just reached Riften so I'm going to try that soon.

I'm finding that melee is requiring more skill, timing and forethought than I expected. Since I can't really go toe-to-toe with most enemies, I'm using everything at my disposal---powers, terrain, whatever. Anything to keep me from chugging potions--which I hate doing.

Embarrassing Confession: I didn't know I could shield bash until about lvl. 12.

Are you using a shield or not? If you are block running and the elemental resist perks are a godsend. If you're not just hit the armor cap and stack magic resist as fast as possible.

Atronach Stone.

I've been using the Lord Stone, actually (+50 Armor and +25% magic resist). Would you say the Atronach stone is better for a melee warrior? I'm not doing much casting, so absorbing magicka didn't seem to hold much appeal.

And yes, I'm relying on my shield quite heavily. I'm covetously eyeing that elemental resist perk, but my blocking isn't high enough yet.

The fun is when you struggle, IMO. The best part of my breton warrior, was at the beginning, that 25% magic resist was useful though. If you strive to meet the armor cap and do 100+ damage as soon as you can, it gets boring for me.

I went for sword + board, with conjuration and restoration, on master from the start. When you level block up to the max, it becomes another weapon, power bashes do good damage with the 5x perk. Conjuration is good for sponging damage, thats what you need early on.

I would use the atronach stone over the lord stone, but I use conjuration, so that wasn't an option. The lord stone is a good alternative though.

Atronach is better because it provides 50% magic protection as opposed to 25% from Lord. Since you're going to max your armor rating sooner or later - sooner if you're using heavy armor - magic is what you have to worry about most.

yeah after you get some more magic resistance it will be a lot easier. And shield is awesome imo

Ok i have a orc on masters 2.
It is a 2 handed Battle axe warrior + conjure flame. First you need to have block, no dual wielding warrior for you!. Shield or no shield get that shield bash as quickly as you can. It is your best live saver. If you block correctly you get out alive fairly good. If you fight against a mage, Prepare to swallow your whole storage of health /resist magic potions. Now if you fight a big uber overlord sword draugr. you have to block every attack correctly (or counter bash) to live it through.

If you fight against a big mage > try your conjure atronach (fire or ice, depending on what he is casting). Mostly your mana is drained to the bottom after casting a conjurer so you really rely on shear power of your weapon and your armor.

I smithed my own armor . I only used what i could find (so no buy ebony/daedric ignots etc), nor did i use the smithing glitch. Dwarven armor became my first complete "uber" set (dwemer ruins). Even with that armor i was dead in 4 hits without block....
I used the enchantments to boast up my health (so you will not see those finishing moves being practised on you so quickly).

i hope these tips might help you.

Good notes, thanks all.

Conjuration would definitely be a big help; I've just been eschewing it since my last character was a conjurer. I've resolutely left my magicka at 100--just enough for restoration spells.

I didn't want to use a follower either for my melee build--I really wanted to tough things out--but I gave that up after I realized I just couldn't clear any dungeons once I reached lvl. 10 or so and the enemies became more powerful.

I may switch to the Atronach stone. I didn't realize that 50 percent Magicka absorption was the same thing as 50 percent magic attack resistance.

Well, it's not the same. Absorbtion = spells have 50% chance to do nothing when they hit you, but when they do they do full damage. Resistance = spells always work, but the damage is always reduced.

I guess this might work differently on Master where you can actually get one-shotted by a spell, but since you're not going Ironman I'd still go with Atronach.

it gets pretty easier right after you take :
1. agent of mara (mag res)
2. lord's stone (mag res + AR)
3. quick reflex perk on shield tree
4. get spellbreaker / shield ysgrammor VERY early in the game...personally i would go for spellbreaker and i had it before i reach level 15
5. create yourself frost and storm atronach staff to help you obatin spellbreaker (optional)
6. ALWAYS stock your inventory with plenty of vegetable soup or beef stew (unlimited access to power bash/ power attack..literally)
7. magic resistance perk 3/3 on alteration tree (2/3 if you are breton)
8. ward absorb from restoration tree (additional ward absorb that stacks with spellbreaker 50 points magic damage absorb)

6 things to do and before you reach 15,except for the alteration perks and ward absorb,hehehehe...happy hunting man and good luck..

cheers