Does anyone else seem to have this problem or am I closet ADD case? I'm talking about getting bored with my character builds.

Last night I started my fourth character--a Wood Elf--specializing in archery and sneaking as my primary focus. What my secondary skills will be I don't know yet but I'm trying to go the sneaky route; not an assassin, per se, but the closest you can get without crossing that line. So I'm not sure if I should specialize in alchemy, light armor, conjuration or screw magic altogether, but I digress.

Eventually I come to a point where I get bored with my character. The highest character I've made is an orc warrior, level 37. I've invested close to ninety hours in that one character, but upon playing last night I just got bored and disappointed. Disappointed because I'm decked out in legendary orcish armor yet my guy still can't manage to hold his own in one-on-one fight. Specifically I decided to investigate a cave and got creamed by two bandits who put Lydia down almost instantaneously (thanks for nothing, Lydia), and then when they were finished with her they both double teamed me. So I decided to start a brand new character going the way of stealth and archery since that's been helpful in the past and more along the lines of my play style.

Stuff like that really pisses me off. I put so much work into this one character and two bandits can take me out. Am I not playing right or something? I'm using a warhammer as my main weapon. I'm above-average in archery and sneaking, but I depend more on stealth with my warrior character than I do charging in and being able to obliterate everyone in my path.

Maybe it is just me and I'm not playing the game "right" or I'm missing something, but I've followed all the warrior skills, I improve all my weapons and armor to the maximum they can be improved. I don't know what I'm missing.

Must be you. There are many players on this board who can breeze through the game on master difficulty without any effort whatsoever.

I'm not one of these myself, so often have found myself in the same boat as you.

For example, a recent level 52 character in ebony armor was still getting fried by nasty sorcerers, etc.

Likely has more to do with my "charge in and hack away" play style than anything else.

Anyway, to address your main point, I've run into the same "boredom" issue with Skyrim characters and in other games. I find I enjoy the beginning of a game much more enjoyable than the end, so often have found myself restarting on Skyrim and those other games.

I just dumped the level 52 character mentioned above and restarted ... though this time it was more that I'd screwed myself up in a couple of ways than anything to do with "boredom".

The game in general is completely boring.

Odd that your having difficultly with that equipment, what difficultly are you playing on?

sorry, you're a closet add case. like me

don't play MMOs LOL

Yeah, mages destroy me because I can't reach them before they just fry me. I try to sneak attack them as much as I can to get the bonus and then run in for the kill before they heal themselves. Ironically the type of play style I like is more suited for archery and/or magic. I like to have as much distance between myself and the target as possible. Maybe that's why I svck so much at CQC in the game because when they're all in my face swinging their weapons I start to have a panic attack and I start to fumble with the buttons with what to do first (counter-attacking, blocking, power attacking, gulping potions down to stay alive or refill my stamina, etc.).
"Expert" difficulty. I mean, it's not like I'm dying every two seconds. But it just seems every so often I run into an enemy(-ies) that can just wipe the floor with me, and leaves me staring with a blank expression saying, "WTF?" I thought I was this badass warrior dude with all this armor and kickass warhammer.
Nah, I don't find MMOs appealing in the least. No worries there

yeah this game is extremely repetitive I can't deal with it anymore I can't believe people are able to play so much without mods

I sympathize with your situation. I have been in the same situation before. Some caves/forts are more difficult than others. Can you give us more information about this character? What's your armor rating? What's the damage output of your warhammer? Do you have potions that you can use in the middle of the battle? What's your Magicka:Health:Stamina like? Can you tell me the name of the location if you remember? I think you might have to put in under spoiler. What's your Heavy Armor skill level? Two-Handed skill level? How many perks do you have in those two trees?

I think using potions is very helpful for melee characters. It's like a free reset button without having to start over. You go from 30 health to 400 health instantly. I think good melee players are not afraid to use potions. Use them liberally. You can always buy more at potion shops. You don't have problems with money do you? At level 37, you probably have more money than you know what to do with. You probably should be able to buy everything at the potion shops in 5 cities without blinking. Do you have vegetable soup? All good melee characters carry vegetable soup, right? Also remember that you are a dragon born and you have shout capability. I think whirlwind shouts are very useful for closing distance quickly or running away. Very powerful for melee characters.

Have you tried a battlemage? They are not exactly a wuss at close up combat, but the idea is to keep the enemies at a distance.

My biggest tip is to lvl up as evenly possible with your skill's, IF something get's to outa wack, you end up with 1 shot dead. I noticed this with my battlemage took a look at his lvl's on everything and noticed how low his armor was compared to other thing's. so I went out and "picked" fight's with wolves and whatever crossed his path not using magic up close and personal til his armor rating started to go up.

I don't know where you are going, but I find some areas more difficult than others. Whiterun area is pretty easy, while heading north to Dawnstar can be a challenge depending on what level your character is.

Here's everything you asked for:

Armor rating = 579 w/ shield - 499 w/o. Warhammer damage = 83 base + 15 extra fire damage. Yes, I routinely use potions or apply poisons to my weapons. Magicka = 100, Health = 343 (modified), Stamina = 246 (modified).

The location was
Skills - Smithing = 85 (highest perk: Ebony smithing), Heavy Armor = 77 (Juggernaut 4/5, Well fitted, Tower of strength, Matching set), Block = 52 (highest perk: none), Two-handed = 82 (Barbarian 5/5, Champion's stance, Skullcrusher 2/3, Great critical charge, Devastating blow, Sweep), One-handed = 47 (highest perk: none), Archery = 60 (Overdraw 3/5, Critical shot 1/3), Sneak = 74 (Stealth 1/5, Muffled movement).

No, I don't have any problem with money since I loot everything I can (of substantial value) and then go back to towns to sell it all and/or improve weapons and armor. No, I don't have any vegetable soup, but I'll make some since I have enough food as well. And I use my shouts as much as I can. I have the amulet of Talos which helps reduce the time between shouts. I alternate between that and the Gaulder amulet which adds another 30 points to my magicka, health and stamina.
I think I'm being consistent with balancing out everything. I'm definitely not over-powered in any one skill. I think I did make a battle-mage character before but never played him that much because I ended up making different characters.
Check the spoiler above for the exact location.

Everything looks great in terms of armor and damage. I think you mentioned above that you are vulnerable against magic users. Perhaps you need to buff up resistance against magic. Was the bandit boss you had trouble with a magic user? How is your magic resistance and fire/frost/shock resistance?

I will follow this thread closely, because I too have encountered the same "frustrations." My level 46 Dark Elf, Heavy armored, Spellsword getts his butt handed to him at times that catch me completely off guard and while the game is reloading, I am staring at the screen thinking "WTF just happened?"

I started him out with light armor (because I like the way leather armor looks), but got tired of getting slaughtered, so he's now sporting enchanted, flawless, steel plate armor (I have ebony armor, but it's just too darn ugly) and enchanted flawless ebony weapons and yet occasionally I'll engage some fur wearing Orc swinging an iron warhammer who beats me half to death while I'm whacking him with my sword...after I've zapped him with fireball or chain lightning. And now I've got ancient dragons to contend with. YIKES!!

Very Frustrating. I'm playing on the Xbox 360, so no modding for me. I must be doing something wrong.

Don't feel bad... I'm at ll 62 and was taken out by the group of bandits outside of Whiterun. Anyone wielding magic can really ruin your day if you don't oat attention! If you picked up Lydia too early, you know her level will be equal to that. Check the spoiler section on how to level her up. Frankly, I find Aela such a good match for my sneak/archer character, I wish I'd married her instead of Ysolda.

I'm not a heavy gamer, Skyrim is the first game I've invested any serious time in. I played my way up to expert. Now I basically am pretty tough. I get killed when careless. If you are frustrated, you can always drop the combat down a level. Crap I have 300+ hours on my character....

Try out different characters and classes - I have the same problem, until I find a character who 'clicks' with me and I'll use for hundreds of hours. Perhaps a thief or pure Mage? Very fun builds, and can be challenging. I've also wanted to try a Dwemer researcher, specializing in destruction.
Also try switching what gender you play - it can be interesting to look through the eyes of a female if you tend to play male characters, and vice versa. Role play can also make your game much more interesting, if you have the patience and don't do so already.

you need to pot up! just take as many health potions as you can carry next time.

Hi, here's my motto: "Those who run away live to fight another day."

Sounds to me as if you're playing over your head, but don't want to leave a fight for some reason?

Also, if you're on the PC, you can make Lydia "essential," and she'll never die, just goes down on one knee if she's really hurt.

And no, you're not the only one. For example, I started my fifth character about a month ago. She primarily is an assassin, using a bow and sneaking.

But, in order not to get bored too soon with her, she's a permanent level one - no increases in health, stamina, or magicka, and that also means no skills trees and no perks.

E

Again I'm so glad I got the special edition that has lots of variety and isn't super repetative. Seriously this is one of the least repetitive RPGs I've played. I'm amazed by the variety of things to do and quests myself.

Have you spread your perks to thinly ? I did that with my first character. My new one is a heavy knight each perk goes on heavy armour two handed weapons smithing and two archery perks thats it nothing else. You say that your warrior depends on sneaking and stealth. If your armour and melee levels are low compared to your overall level of 37 then thats why your getting creamed in one on one combat. The warhammer is a slow weapon it might do a lot of damage but if your armour skill is low then your in trouble.
I have found its best to stick to one style if you want light armour then only wear light armour. If you spend time in heavy armour then your skill in both light and heavy will be low. When that happens some chump with a warhammer smashes your brains out in a couple of hits. Its when your characters overall level starts to get high that the problem really takes affect.

Based on your stats perhaps its time to upgrade to Ebony equipment and hit the armor max without a shield equipped? Your two-handed stats look good but your war hammer only does 80 something damage? (I believe they are the heaviest weapons to swing, too). Might be time to boost that too?

I would like to touch upon the importance of magic resistance as you level up. In the beginning of the game, there are very few strong magic users so it's perfectly alright to ignore it for a while. But starting around maybe level 25 or 30 you really start to feel the need to get protection against magic. If you don't have magic resistance, or a matching elemental resistance against the mage or vampire or other magic users, it's like fighting without armor.

You will find rings and necklaces and other things in random loot and stores that give you 10% or 20% of magic resistance. They seem weak, but are in fact very powerful. 100 points in armor rating means 12% damage reduction, so wearing 2 25% gives you the same protection against magic users as having 400 armor rating! Keep them and wear them when you need it.

You can also boost magic protection in couple of ways. Lord stone gives you 25% resist magic. This is amazing amount of magic resistance. You can also get 3 perks in alteration magic for 10% magic resistance each. There is a fun and easy quest you can do that gives you 15% additional magic resistance from the priest in Riften. You will notice that once you have enough magic resistance, fighting mages become a lot easier.

Yes on the magic resist! Armor, per se, will do nothing against magic attacks. I play a breton for this reason (25% resist) and will always grab the Lord Stone (+50 AC and 25% resist - extremely powerful). I optionally can equip a ring (18%) and shield (18%).

Magic resist can only be enchanted on 3 items (ring, shield and something else) so getting these permanent ones without taking up a valuble slot is a good idea.

Yes, Mara be praised. She will confer 15% and can allow you (me) to free up a slot (ring/shield).

Thanks for all the replies, guys. Just a quick update: I did manage to overcome the problem I had. I just took my time and was more strategic about fighting versus running in and getting wailed on. Lydia is surprisingly holding her own as well, and I'm using her to distract the enemies while I strafe around them to attack from behind.

For me, the game became dull after the first 65 hours. I found it to be too easy at times and way too difficult at others (random enemies with ridiculous amounts of health), and the poor writing and repetitive quests caused me to lose intellectual interest after the first ~20 hours. The amazing scenery and interesting locations kept me playing for a while though, and, imo, that is Skyrim's greatest strength - well, exploration as a whole it's greatest strength. So maybe if you spend most of your time in the game exploring the many locations and looking for interesting items it would be more fun, and you'll probably run into fewer high level enemies - most of the time at least.

Whenever I encounter a tough mage, I usually don my elemental negating armor (None of which were enchanted by me as they're bought or foundlings) and whack away while trying to stifle a snicker at their feeble attempts with their puny little kitchen knives!

As far as dealing with those bandits, I would go into third person-mode and have at them with a pumped up one-handed skill and a heal spell at the ready, I would also hold off of perking the block or heavy armor as well and just concentrate on your weapons and the restoration arts as they already include shield-buffing spells for those pesky bandits!

My current character is a battle-hungry Redguard who is faithful to the stromcloaks as he will soon join Ulfric in his battle for independence from those imperial fools. He also shies away from magic, save for mastering the Restoration arts and who also fancies himself a OK alchemist.