you're at level 27 and havent been using your perk points?

Thats clearly your issue. The game is scaling thinking you are. Honestly without your perks your playing pretty close to being as crappy as it was when you first started.

If I were you I would save now, build a player you think you want and use it for a while...if you want to change reload and changing it.

Stick to a few skills only. If it was me I would work on maxing smithing, enchanting. Magic is for teh gehy. Pick either archery or one/two handed. IMO you can probably get away with a major killer like two handed and a back up like archery. or visa versa.

Enchanting maxed and two handed work well cuz with the "2 enchainments per weapon perk" you can dish out a total of 4 maxed enchantments. Also only use grand should gems to enchant, all the others use for either building the skill or recharging weapons.

Well, I've dumped a good bit into magicka, with stamina next, and finally health (another issue). I haven't been using all of my perks, I probably have 10 to be spent. I can still focus on smithing and enchanting, and I realized long ago those were important. Magicka is helpful though with healing and conjuration, sneaking, etc. I do use destruction spells quite a bit, but prefer melee combat whenever possible.

I just enchanted a few good glass axes (two and single handed, stamina absorb), so I'm hoping my melee ability is increased. I will add some perks to those along with my enchanting (which I plan to max out) and see what I can do.

well if you have already dumped a bunch into magica maybe you should build a mage. Smithing and enchanting wouldn't be worth while to invest in really if you go the magic route.

You are at a fork. Stop the magic investing and focus on swords, archery, enchanting, smithing, sneak etc

or go all out and make gayest mage you can can.

At some point, magic stops being as effective as It should be. At a very high level I was using my HP stealing Vampire Daedric Sword and another Daedric sword that gave a ton of fire damage.

The problem is, the higher level spells take way too much magicka to cast and most are AoE instead of missile based. I mainly used the Adept level Destruction spells since they had a good trade off between damage and magicka cost. Obviously it's helpful to wear clothing that reduces the cost of spell casting and increases your magicka pool.

I do agree with HK, I'd start dumping some points into one handed and archery. I don't think you need to invest anything at all in Smithing. You'll find all the armor you need without having to make it...except for the dragon armor...which i always found to be too cumbersome anyway (though there are perks that reduce or negate entirely that penalty).

In the end....do whatever you want, but spend your perks. The only time you should save up if you're trying to get a skill that costs 2 perk points instead of one.

but with smithing you can "better" anything you find or make. Im talking you can more then double the effectiveness of of smithing if you enchant fortify smithing rings etc and drink a fortify smithing potion prior. My bow does like 435 damage right now not including the fire or shock damage that do 41 each.

That's flippin' awesome.

its true..although no matter how much I brag to my GF about it i just dont get the proper respect.

That also takes into account my ring, helmet, necklace, and bracers that each add a 43% archery bonus. (only able to get if your smithing is maxed and you drink an enchanters elixer)

hahaha. I respect you Knutz...

wait...

Get a room you two.

Has anyone maxed out conjuration? In Oblivion that's the route I went and it was awesome. I was summoning high level creatures to take the brunt of battle for me while I snuck up behind them and stabbed them in the kidneys.

I started to go that route. I was never able to summon the best creatures in Oblivion, but like Toad stated, I started to see less and less benefit as I dumped stats into magic. I hope to get there eventually though, but it's not my main focus right now.

I leveled up to 29 and spent 10 perks. I'm much better off now.

Level 13 b!tches!!

I think I'm almost done with the Mage's college quest line. I finished up the night by taking a side trip though. I want to go find that standing stone that gives you +100 carry weight capacity and makes equipped armor weigh nothing. I'm going all out with heavy armor so I'm constantly at my weight capacity in dungeons.

ahh... the steed stone. i think it's in the northeast corner of the map. on top of a hill overlooking the ocean.