At least in the early goings, Master difficulty is *rough*!!

I'm restarting my character, following my accidental X-Box 360 wipe. I'm recreating the same character, Thadious, but I decided to up the difficulty to Master.

It's definitely a different way to play the game, for sure. I've had to change my tactics, and I've noticed that certain things that were more of a luxury on Adept (like summons, for example) are actually way more viable and helpful this time around. I kinda like the new tactics that now come with the difficulty.

It is frustrating, having 10 restarts if I stumble upon a group of bandits, but so far, it's also a more engaging experience.

I'm only level 7 though, so I don't know how it's gonna go from here on out, but so far I'm enjoying it.

I'd be interested to hear what you think in another 10 or so levels, that's the point where I got a bit bored and annoyed with the poor damage output my character had. Combat got tedious and I have really played again since.

I'm curious how it carries over as well. Playing on Adept, the game got incredibly easy. I mean, I could go in and solo entire Stormcloak battalions. I sure felt like a badass to be certain, but there wasn't much in the way of challenge.

I just started playing on master at higher levels, doesn't seem too difficult. But i'm an archer and do insane damage on my bow before anyone can get close to me. I use to one-shot most guys with sneak attacks, on master it takes about 3 shots. But when a guy does get close enough to melee me it gets tough, and followers don't do [censored] on master.

This is why i play on Expert, a good balance. I tried Master & it was a challange, but after level 30 it was taking so many arrows to kill enemies when in sneak, that i just got bored.

I also noticed that with my Expert difficulty level caracter V's my Master one, the Master levelled up so much faster, because i had to hit enemies many, many more times.


Obviously if you use Smithing/Alchemy/Enchanting to the extremes, Master would be more in line with your damage output.

You went from Adept to Master? Brave. I went from Expert (110 hours) to Master (8ish hours) and it's extremely hard.

And smithing. And enchanting. And alchemy.

Fix'ed it for you. Smithing on its own, combined with followers, made master too easy after a while (lvl 30-40'ish for me, but before that the game was actually frustrating - and fun). I got bored with her and try another one; alchemy without followers, and I won't take one handed and shield, but will eventually take alteration up to magic resistance. As a sneaky archer in light (low level non metallic) armor, I'm around level 25 now and light armor haven't progressed at all. Only way for me to skill it is by deliberate grinding (won't happen) or pay for it. So this time, also to help nerf myself a little, I'm gonna put some perks in speechcraft (even if I know money won't be a problem at all).

But in the beginning and mid period, master was actually fun. Frustrating as hell sometimes, but fun

Yeah same here, went up to Expert after level 14 or so and stuck there ever since, good mix of toughness but still is fair enough not to make you frisbee your DVD! I should be able to one-shot kill some lower-mid range creatures that is fair my Bow skill is 82, but harder creatures like Deathlords still take a number of arrows and close combat to kill, there lies the challenge still! I would think I would get bored on Master, at some point you have to stop and realise that you still want to be able to feel even a little like a 'badass'!