So I've played Skyrim for a while now. I've completed every guild questline at least once, several times for a few of them, and I would consider myself knowledgeable of the game and game mechanics. However, I've never tried playing on Master difficulty. Demon's Souls is one of my favorite games and I've heard that Master is comparable to that, although that comparison could be terrible, I dunno .

Before someone inevitably says it, I will not play with an uber powerful assassin archer. I already have a character I intend to play Master with; a light-armored spellsword utilizing all schools of magic except Illusion and to an extent, Conjuration (I'm using a bound sword for now) as well as specializing in shock magic. For role play purposes, shock is the only element my character uses, Shouts included. So that means I'm not screaming at my enemy before spewing fire at his face.

The help I am looking for, though, has to do with tactics and just general advice to help me along my way. I currently play on Adept and I'm going to gradually switch to Expert, then finally Master. So I won't throw myself suddenly into the new difficulty. But yeah, any general tips and tricks are most welcome. Useful Shouts, potions, enchantments, basically anything you can throw at me.

Enlighten me with your knowledge, forum!

EDIT: Now that I think about it, this might be in the wrong forum... Whoops.

Hmm. Never, ever rush in. Always examine your surroundings, anything you can use to your advantages.

Based on your time played, I wouldn't expect you to face too much difficulty.

As for tips? Uhh...

- Your surroundings are your friend. Use it to your advantage. Especially against ranged attacks.

That's really all I got.

Sadly, Master will not be quite the difficulty spike that Dark Souls would provide. The only difference - literally the only one - is that you deal less damage, and you take more. IIRC, on Master it's half damage dealt and double damage received.

That said, I love Master! Dying in two or three hits rather than 10 or 20 is a nice change of pace. In light armor, your focus should be on avoiding damage (dodging) rather than tanking it. Your conjured creatures still do normal damage, so they are a great beef gate to hide behind, especially early on.

Using all magic schools and one-handed, you'll have no problem at all. I'd advise jumping right into Master. It's like jumping into cold water - better to just hop in instead of slowly wading.

Summon Dremora Lords.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/577866905447658088/8155A4A3132265527152AC7B3A2B100F0F37A64B/

Well I've been playing on master now since about two months after release and play without using companions for the most part, so ill give you some things I do that help me survive.

-Watch out for arrows. Unless you wear heavy armour, people left right and centre can one hit kill you with a single arrow (usually the stronger dudes like bandit chiefs, draugr deathlords and whatnot). The whole point of the exercise isn't to let yourself get hit with any arrow period, as they can be lethal.

-Mages are a pain in the ass, they can kill you in like 1-2 spells as they do the most damage the quickest. I almost always go for the mages first, whether that means hitting them with a paralyze poison and cheaping them out on the ground (I'll do this in desperate situations) or power attack locking them into position or hitting them with a fury spell depending on what class/style you're playing as. Mages like to heal themselves almost full when they have like no health (which takes a lot longer to go down in master), and they wont drop to the ground and 'yield' for as long as other people, so it can be a pain.

-Watch out for two handed wielders. With light or no armor (if going pure mage or whatever), they can one hit kill you. Lots of times if they just get close enough to you while you are even slightly damage, you will get locked into an execution and not have a chance to dodge it.

-Try to stay away/dodge from all power attacks from anyone. Most of those will almost always take away all or most of your health.

-In the early levels, run away from bears and jump onto a rock or something, try to fight them smart (cheaply), or if you got fear spells you can always use them, or conjure up a decoy. These guys are literally some of the most dangerous monsters in the game for awhile. In fact, anything that lunges at you is very dangerous (sabre cats, frostbite spiders, etc)

-Try to fight groups of people smart. If that means running down a hall and fighting only two at a time, to running constantly, turning around to get a few hits in and continuing on. Don't ever let them surround you. If it does happen and you're getting mobbed, take out the weaker guys first (bandits, novice mages etc) as they die the quickest, but on master can still do noticeable damage. The less guys attack you the better.

-buy every healing potion you can find. Even though the key of most battles is to try and not use any potions if you don't have to, the healing potions are good for emergencies, and go by fast. With thief characters I always hit up alchemists and jack all their potions, but with other characters ill just buy them and make them.

-Canis root and swamp fungol pod are two easy and cheap ingredients and together they make paralyze poisons. If you're gonna use alchemy in any degree, these potions are easy to make and very effective. The only things they don't really work on are undead and dragons for the most part.

-You may or may not want to do smithing. Frankly, I myself barely, if ever use smithing on master, even with my warrior characters and I don't have too much of a problem. Ill just take the 5 perks in the corresponding weapon skill and that's usually sufficient enough for me.

-Those healing circle scrolls (the ones that make undead up to level 30 something flee) are actually useful when you get overrun by draugr. (or likewise the dawnbreaker is a very useful tool in this regard as well).

Two shouts that are particularly useful are:

-Ice Form (even if you only have level one, its still very useful. If aimed right, you can hit big groups of people with it, taking out the heavy dudes while they're down on the ground, leaving the others frozen for as long as possible. The cooldown time on it isn't that bad either).

-Become Ethereal (especially for magic base characters, this spell is great for recuperating magicka in the middle of battle. Other good uses are taking hits from power attacks or enemy shouts. Good for when a dragon hovers above you and fires off its deadly breath and theres nothing around to hide behind. You can also use it before jumping to fall off any height you want and surviving.)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If I think of any more really useful tips, ill post em up.

It's not that bad, It might just be me though.

From my perspective, (Master, No HUD, basically no Defense, Limitations on keeping myself from being over-powered) I can just suggest getting good at avoiding things, getting hit is not an option for me