Hey guys,

About a week ago I started a character on master, and let me say it has made this game 10 times more fun than it was before. I'm proud to say I have made it all the way to level 29 without having to turn down the difficulty once. But I am starting to run into some problems now. There is a lot of enemy that can 1-3 shot me no problem and it starting to get a little frustrating. I am running a duel wielding, heavy armored warrior/sneaky hybrid. I do plenty of damage from sneak attacks and power attacks thats not really the problem. It's his durability.

For reference im going to include some of my stats,

318 armor rating, this is including the bonus from the lord stone
my resistances seem to be pretty good with the supliment of potions and the bonus from the lord stone.

I guess what it really comes down too is, does reaching the armor cap really make that much of a difference? I am about halfway there and I mind as well be fighting naked, I die in about the same time anyway. I have a set of blades armor smithed to superior ( my smithing is quite low, I only use it for the weapon and armor upgrades. I do use some smithing equipment to jack it up high enough for it to actually be somewhat useful though.) this is currently the best armor available to me.

I am fairly balanced in my skill distribution with 74 heavy armor, 79 one handed, and 84 sneak. The only other skill worth mention is my alchemy which is at 49 ( I do make quite a bunch of health potions to make up for my extreme squishyness.)

At this point I am actually kind of upset I didn't go with light armor. They look cooler, have better perks (imo) and to top it off would probably work better ( due to easier dodging, less carry weight etc.) The idea of my character was to make a duel wield warrior that could toe to toe with stuff, and still sneak around and assassinate for fun, but hes turned out to be just an assassin in heavy armor.

What am I doing wrong? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Go learn some enchanting, it can make all the difference in the world. But really, my game got easier for every level gained, not the opposite :/

Dual wielding can be pretty challenging if you don't plan on crafting some decently overpowered weapons for yourself like everyone else seems to.

Heavy armor and light armor can both hit armor cap and leave you equally mobile when perked, so the choice is mainly aesthetic. Armor cap will help and magic resistance is very important, but a dual weilder just doesn't eat damage well by design. If you're going to be a damage sponge you'll need the shield perks and obviously a shield.

If you want to stay dual wield my strategy would be to assassinate the hard hitters in a group of enemies and tank down the rest.

I advice too get an good follower too aid you in battle the wizzard in riften,s" Bee and Barb" would be an good sidekick for your build

But its true an sneaky character is almost the only option too tackle higher difficulty,s playtrou,s

High Lvl Draugers are a real pain in the @ss expecially the Bow users they play it dirty too you know

This is what I end up doing, but is of no use when those big bad elder dragons start biting my head off in one chomp. As for the follower thing, I have Uthgerd. She is decked out in the best gear I can find and does a pretty good job soaking up damage, but she does get in the way alot and lets face it she can only take so much of a beating. More than me, but only slightly more. I suppose picking up a shield is always an option, but it would end up killing my character design, not to mention the late start I would have on the block tree would prove troubling. But yeah thanks for the tips guys, keep them coming if you can.

don't forget shouts when fighting dragons. slow time is great with a dual wielding toon as is elemental fury. if you've not tried elemental fury as a dual wielder....i highly recommend it.

Armor rating goes on a curve, so the closer you get to the cap the more each point is worth. I don't think you need Enchanting, but you might want to ramp up Smithing, get a potion or two and hit the cap. Maybe also start carrying around a shield and buy some training in Block. Just use it situationally. Shields can be fun to use and have a lot of good perks.

For dragons you may end up breaking down and using a bow. But as geckoman said Elemental Fury is very good, just try to get around to the back of the dragon.

I've had a lot of success with the Ice Form shout and it's fun to use. Blacksmithing is very much needed is you're using armor and weapons. Some enchanting is also useful. Before they started patching, ebony ore/bars were very rare, since patching all the blacksmiths have them when I'm in my 20s. I can't help the urge to get blacksmithing up to 80 quickly, but anyway I'm telling you Ice Form. Also if want to search around you can find a summoning staff. Ice form, then fast heal/close wounds/summon atronach, continue fighting. It's the only way I play with my 2h and my weapon damage is at...120 at the moment. That's pretty low for a level 30.

Also, you will notice a fair amount of protection when your armor is over 400, anything less at your level, especially without block, is asking for pain.

Yea, you're probably not going to be able to go face to face with elder/ancient dragons without a shield. You'll need to make friends with the concepts of archery, finding cover and/or having companions or other NPC's tank for you. As mentioned above shouts can also help but you don't want to stand in front of a dragon for too long.

Another useful item you can get to help you with encounters you can't tank is the Sanguine Rose. It's the reward from a quest chain you get at level 14 and it summons a Daedra to fight with you. You can recharge it indefinitely so long as you have soul stones.

Yeah, like geckoman said, shouts are good. Well timed shouts have saved my life more times than I can remember.

I played a stealth dual wield dagger / archer character, then a 2-handed warrior and now I'm playing a pure mage.

For dual wield, since you can't block, it seemed to play better as a stealth character. I would get into melee battles occasionally and especially once you get up to level 25+, you can engage more lower level enemies directly and it's fun because you deal a lot of dps with those dual wield power attacks. But the stealth gameplay is primarily about avoiding direct melee, especially bosses. I put all my points into Stamina, kept Health at 100 and no armor perks at all. The character was all about sneaking everywhere and backstabbing enemies without engaging in melee because I would frequently get one-shotted, which was exactly what made the stealth aspect so much fun, because of the sense of danger lurking around the corner.

If you want to engage in more direct melee, especially with bosses, it helps to be able to block, which you can do with 2-handed weapon, but it's more effective with a shield. If you have already invested in one-handed, you may want to try using a shield for dealing with especially tough enemies. Many shields also provide elemental damage protection, which is helpful for high level draugr and spell casters. You want to stagger them and interrupt their spells and shouts. You can do this with a shield bash or 2-handed weapon power bash (hold down block and press attack). There are some really excellent block perks as well.

If you are using some archery with this character, then you can make use of perks like Steady Hand and Power Shot to dispatch large groups of advancing enemies before they can get close to you. This helps when fighting bosses as well and Power Shot can stagger them and interrupt enemy spells and shouts.

Eh I didn't want to use spoilers. You can also get summoning staves and scrolls. I wouldn't feel too bad about looking them up on the wiki because there isn't a quest or explanation for it, just trial and error.

Yeah, I haven't really used a whole bunch of archery or magic on this character to be honest. I mostly deal with ranged problems by sneaking up behind them and eliminating them. I also use fire breath shout quite often on things just out of reach. But I am still quite squishy, I'll aim for hitting 400 armor asap and see if that helps.

As for smithing, I feel that power leveling it up would do more harm than good at this point. It would inflate my level, and give me even more problems with my already problematic defenses.

In that case, when you are in the shops (blacksmith, misc, clothing), always check for +Smithing items. And look for those +50 Smithing potions.

At your level, the game usually is getting easier.

I usually max out 1 crafting skill by level 40 or so. For your character, smithing might have been better than alchemy. You can still level it, but the game might get too easy if you use both alchemy and smithing. Of course, you can always stop making potions if you find it getting too easy.

One-hits from dragons (or anything) mean that they're doing more damage in their attack then you have health. So you need to raise your health and armor rating, which means perk investments in armor, smithing armor, and putting more points into health. Also, as people have said, shouts can help, and it's a good idea to attack dragons from the side, and to keep circling as they try to face off on you (if you're not already doing that).

I had a warrior with only a little bow skill who was running into insta-killing dragons, so I reduced melee with them until I got stronger. It's not difficult to avoid melee with a dragon, but it requires patience because the fight can last a while if you don't have decent bow skill.

Once again thanks for the tips guys, I really am appreciating the insight. To make a point about health, I have alot of it. Last time I looked i was around 320 health points base. with about 150ish in stamina. So health has always been the priority in my build. Picking up a bow might be a temporary solution for now until I can get enough smithing equipment to artificially increase my smithing to the point of legendary upgrades.

I agree. Smithing at this point would probably hurt more than help. I think part of the problem in the first place is that you inflated your level with "on-the-side" stealthing. In my experience these charcter concepts that include things like "stealthing on the side," "smithing on the side", "pickpockiting on the side", "hooking on the side," really don't flesh out until later levels. It's best to stick to one concept and slowly work in the sidebar. Meaning straight up melee for the majority of the time and doing an occasional sneak attack when it's just too hard not to do it until the later levels when you can afford to gain a few levels on stealth. Mid level 20's with 85 sneak kind of forces your hand to play the sneak 100% of the time, and then you have no choice but to stick to the stealth and seldomly work in the straight melee instead of the other way around like you had intended.

As others have said, shouts are the answer. You don't gain levels shouting, and some of them are extrememly powerful in the right situation. My personal favorite for the dual weild warrior: slow time... LOVE IT!