wow, thanks for the detailed answer! I'm definitely gonna try this out.

I have never put a point in health since 11.11.11. As a result the game has been challenging from the get go.

Fighting giants with melee is probably the most exciting thing to do in the game. You really can't let them hit you even once. I've discovered that the most effective tactic to take is to run behind them under their club when they do a power attack, and then swipe at their legs. Blocking slows you down too much, and if you miss on one block, you'll be flying to the moon. Just watch out for the their left hand swipe, as it is just as deadly as the club and much faster.

Killing a giant with archery isn't too bad. Just a matter of hiding in the rocks, it can still get pretty tense if you get surrounded by giants and mammonths attempting to climb to your position. Lots of thundering feet.

For mages, its really a matter of staggering them. If you miss a stagger, just sprint away. Nothing too challenging here. I killed a dragon and giant at lvl 14 at the same time, without too much effort just by staggering. But that was on Adept.

I recently ramped up the game to Expert since the default still seems too easy. I just wish there was a difficulty setting that didn't decrease my own damage so much while making my enemies as deadly as I am. Master is just plain stupid with only 100 health, but Expert seems like the best balance so far.