I am curious. What people's experiences are with their character class and the difficulty they have the game set at. After discussing with friends what they are playing and how they are finding the combat it seems like the game disproportionally awards a battle Mage or archer sort of path. They are playing at the Master level and seem to be managing most encounters fine. I am playing as a high elf illusionist at the adept difficulty level and I have found that it is nearly impossible for me to engage in anything beyond 1-1 combat at the adept difficulty level and the illusion skills are ineffective against certain enemies. I have decent combat skills , but being a light armor wearer I quickly get overwhelmed by enemies. Anyone else running into issues like this at all? Anyone playing a "alternative" class style and having issues with the combat?

there are no classes in Skyrim.

There are definitely balance issues, but maybe it's because you're too focused in one direction. Illusion is a support sort of magic rather than a main skill. Not to say you can't build to make it more effective, but balancing your character would probably alleviate some of those stresses.

What level are you? I'm playing as a Sneaky Archer, and in the early levels I was having an extremely hard time. Now I'm about to hit 50 and I'm one-shotting mammoths and giants.

High Elf Illusionist?

What? Don't you have a weapon or a killing spell? If you have a weapon killing things becomes easier.

I played on Adept with a weapon in one hand and a healing spell in the other, and I turned up the difficulty from Adept to Expert recently when I hit level 30 cause I was just raping too damn hard. Again, if you want to go an Altmer-mage sort of path, you should at least have destruction or conjuration as one of your mains, otherwise you're pretty much gonna be a pacifistic motherfucker.

To make the magic more powerful, be sure to go to the College of Winterhold and complete those quests, by the time you're done with them you'll basically have infinite Magicka.

@sup909: My first character is sneaky, one handed expert(dual wielding expert, to be more exact), and light armor expert, and an amateur archer. The only magic she knows is healing that's good enough. Most of the times, I can sneak and shoot an arrow and kill most of the enemies with one shot or two. Or I can backstab, which has 6.0X damage or, if I change the gloves, 12.0X damage. She is really strong and I have no problems what so ever. Killing a dragon is a joke. (Lvl 31)

I created a second character just to have a pure mage character and it is really hard. I did not know the game would this much different. A companion is a must because I need a tank, and I would not even dare to kill a dragon or a group enemies more than 2. I definitely understand your pain. I'm just hoping the game would get easier but really, I don't think the game is meant to be played without melee attacks.

I'm playing on Adept using a greatsword and light armor. The only enemies that give me trouble are mages and strong enemies that manage to surround me. I'm level 49 and my Block skill is at 23.

I am playing a Nord on the default difficulty. I have never used any magic or so, I never block anything, all I use are bows sometimes, two hand weapons and dual wielding one hand weapons and I feel like nothing can even hurt me lol.

I may increase the difficulty soon, because with good micro and spam of the bow and shouts you can kill almost anything that is on a higher lvl than you.

I'm playing an orc with one handed, block, and heavy armor skill. I also have points in sneak, archery, smithing, alchemy and enchanting.

I put points into extra damage/defense before I put points into other things. Then I put points into things that help me in combat directly (smithing or times 3 damage with a bow while stealthed). Then I look for talents that help combat indirectly (such as better healing potions or poisons) or things that will help in the long haul (enchanting).

Stealthy Bosmer on master and the game is pretty easy mode. Doesn't take many arrows to kill an ancient dragon and I can insta-stealth kill pretty much anything with daggers.

I have been playing on Master since the beginning and am doing just fine. I'm a one-handed swordfighter who uses restoration spells. If I'm not careful, I can die easily; but that's what I like. The game forces me to stay on my toes and not rush in, blindly swinging my sword like an idiot. It's challenging without being hard or frustrating.

I haven't played with the idea of a class, but I am using one handed weapons and light armor, with a very sparing amount of magic. However, I am getting my ass handed to me. I set the game to the easiest setting (I'm only interested in questing and exploring. Nothing about creating a challenge for myself in this game seems appealing) yet almost every cave I go into, I will come across a group of enemies that will swarm me and end me in seconds. It's usually a case of 2 or 3 melee attackers and one mage. Granted, I play very carlessly, but even then, with my blocking and armour levels where they are, things are tearing me apart. This isn't at all an issue in the overworld where I'm destroying everything I come across (for the most part). Its making quest completion quite difficult

I'm level 17. Playing with a dwarves sword and a bow. My destruction and illusion magic are in the thirties. One handed and archer, may be the low twenties and not much in other combat skills.

@sup909 said:

I'm level 17. Playing with a dwarves sword and a bow. My destruction and illusion magic are in the thirties. One handed and archer, may be the low twenties and not much in other combat skills.

You may be spread too thin. Try to focus on a "major" play style (for example, one handed+shield) and one "minor" (bows, for kiting and as a fallback option should you need to shoot them from afar). You'll have have the odd situational skill (healing, recharging weapons, etc.), but you should try to stick to one style and develop it as much as you can. Also, Illusion is not really an offesinve skillset, so just use whatever you need in a specific situation, but don't depend on it enterily.

What perks do you recommend for bows? The damage ones at the bottom? Time slowing on zoom? What.

@JoeyRavn that is sort of the heart of my question though. Seems like Skyrim is more rewarding towards a combat oriented character? In Dragon Age for example I played almost entirely had a healer to rebuff my party. I almost never actually attacked at all. Skyrim seems more oriented then towards the player as the main combatant even with a companion?

My first character was a mage. I was going along pretty much fine, a few reasonable difficult spots, until I enchanted an outfit that gave me costless destruction and restoration. Combined with third-rank Mage Armour, as well as the magic resistance perks, I feel like I kinda broke the game. That said, I didn't switch up to the hardest difficulty yet, so maybe that'll still be challenging. Should give it a go. I've been having a good time on normal with my fighter character, although I had to switch up to hard after maxing out smithing.

About the bias towards combat roles... Yeah, it does seem like it's been built with offensive specialisation in mind. I think I remember similar comments about Oblivion, though - it's been a while since a Bethesda game really accommodated support or noncombatant playstyles, to be honest. You can probably manage it, but you'll really have to wrestle with the mechanics to stay successful.

Well as a Spell Sword I'm not having too much trouble with anything really. Pretty much any problem in that game can be solved with fire and pointy things. I just wish I had higher lockpick but its kinda hard to level it

@JoeyRavn that is sort of the heart of my question though. Seems like Skyrim is more rewarding towards a combat oriented character? In Dragon Age for example I played almost entirely had a healer to rebuff my party. I almost never actually attacked at all. Skyrim seems more oriented then towards the player as the main combatant even with a companion?

Yeah, you're right. Skyrim is definitely designed around the player killing stuff. Kinda crazy. Absolutely if you have no killing-ness you will find the game seems dead set on killing you. My advice...use the support skills for support, like to support your killing skills.