Well, I tried to use a melee build again. It's been a long time since I used a primary melee build. I've been using magic focused builds for almost a year I guess?

Here is my problem: A level 31 warrior, tries to take on a daedroth. But no worries, he's well armoured, agile, and has a dwarven claymore at 100 hp. He keeps spamming attacks on the daedroth (my warrior doesn't like blocking), and it takes him 50 seconds to take down 1 daedroth. But then, the daedroth is accompanied by 3 other daedroth, a clannfear and a frost atronach.

Is this normal? I'm not used to long fights against common enemies. And by the time I killed 2 daedroth, my claymore is at 34 health, and my armour at 48. So how do I handle these situations? Yes, I always have a second weapon

Well... first, bluntly, Daedroth's are big, slow, hulking beasts - you should be able to kill one without ever getting hit at all. Armor shouldn't even be an issue in a fight with something like a Daedroth (and in fact, I have one claymore fighter who doesn't have any armor/enchantment protection at all, as a largely successful test of just that idea).

Standing in front of an opponent and spamming attack is never a good strategy, no matter the character or the weapon. It's good that your warrior doesn't like to block - that's a poor strategy with a two-handed weapon anyway - but he should be taking advantage of the benefits of a two-handed weapon, primary among which is reach. By moving around, keeping his distance and either stepping in long enough to get off an attack or attacking the opponent the instant it's close enough, he should be able to win the battle without even getting hit. I've tried it both ways and they're about equal really - waiting for the opponent to advance to you requires positioning oneself so that other potential opponents can't get to you (in a tunnel, for instance), but makes it easier to time power attacks for much more damage, while moving around allows you to battle multiple opponents even in open areas, but takes more practice and makes power attacks difficult at best.

My other suggestion would be to enchant that claymore. Dwarven isn't the best you can get by any stetch, but that's actually of less consequence - the difference between the base damage of the various weapons isn't all that great in the long run, particularly since a good Grand Soul enchantment of elemental damage (equal amounts of all three is the most effective) will do far more damage than the base damage of the weapon anyway, so the few extra points you might pick up by trading up aren't that big a deal. That said though, the extra durability of better weapons might make a difference. Though with a good enchantment, you won't have to hit anywhere near as many times, so you might be able to get by with Dwarven anyway.

Why the dwarven claymore? they're are so many better weapons avaliable at level 31. I'd also like to say that using two handed weapons' greatest strength is their reach, pretty easy to stay out of an opponents range and still chop them up.

Also deadroths aren't leveled iirc so they shouldn't have gotten any harder from when you were level 16. I'd recommend tweaking the difficulty to find something you find funner, it doesn't do anything except decrease the damage you do and increase the damage you take and i find at higher levels boss enemies just take to long to kill at anything above average difficulty.

Never gotten a melee character to that level - mid 20s is my top, and I am not averse to using enchanted weapons or on-touch spells in combat. Weakness to 100% for 7 seconds on touch, followed up with attacks from a melee weapon enchanted with that element usually make short work of anything. Carry 2 or 3 weapons and create a Weakness spell for each, learn your foes' weaknesses and swap up as needed. Daedroths (all Daedra except Storm Atronachs) are weak to shock damage so make a lightning sword and go to town.

Also, the Dwarves made some weak weapons. At your level you should have access to every type of conventional melee weapon in the game. Even if you have a preference not to use magic, an Ebony Shortsword does more damage, with 4.5 times the health of your Dwarven claymore. It also swings faster, so you can pour the damage in, and with less burden. The only thing you are giving up is reach.

If you really want to use a big slow 2H blade, then at least go with Glass. 22% more damage per hit, 3.7 times the health, though it does weigh more. If you don't mind the extra burden of it, Ebony Claymore gives you 33% more damage than Dwarven with over 7 times the health.

Whiteguy1x is right: Daedroth are always level 14. They will always have 280 Health. They do have 100 in Combat Skills, 60 Strength and an Attack Damage of 40 so they may do some damage if you let yourself get hit too often. I can't imagine it would take 50 seconds to kill one though, but maybe that's due to the Dwarven sword.

For a melee fighter, I'd suggest a good sword/board combination. Two-handers are really more for the light-armored types. I'd see to the Jemane brothers' situation, and get the Escutcheon of Chorrol, and then talk to the nice folks at Boethia's Shrine (bring a Daedra Heart along), and get Goldbrand. Equipped with those two items, you ought to find Daedroths (and everybody else) a lot more manageable.

Edit: The above artifacts are just general suggestions. The point is to go with good, enchanted gear. And Reflect Damage is very useful against anything that attacks physically.

I forgot to tell about the mods xD I've got a few mods installed that manipulate the levelling system. So elven is the best I can get now, but I didn't have the luck to find a claymore of them. Health is not my problem. And the reason why my armor breaks that fast is because my character is not a journeyman in heavy armor yet.(almost)

Could it be that the mods are the problem? A wrong combination perhaps?

Aside of that, I remember that the Will-O-Wisps were damage sponges too. Even at higher levels.

Correction... My character is level 18. I mixed two entirely different characters up. And with entirely I mean that one lives in Skyrim 4E201. I must be looking like an idiot right now. xD

Thanks for the help. But my character doesn't like the daedric princes. I have thornblade, but it breaks the RP.


EDIT: The time I spend to kill an opponent is really annoying. Especially with skeleton champions and aliens(dagon's creatures).

I mix these games up all the time. I've been doing it ever since Oblivion was released. So I know the feeling very well.

Yeah, I'm often confused, too. Think nothing of it. It's the natural state of being human, methinks.

I would think that if you're not going to use some of the more powerful artifacts, you'll either have to find some other way to cause more damage faster (poisons or magic), or the alternative is to move the difficulty slider more to the left until things feel more balanced.

And I also still question the Claymore. You can get a one-handed sword that does as much (or more) damage, and it allows you to use a decent shield (blocking with a shield is more effective than parrying with a weapon.) At your level (18?), you should be seeing Ebony longswords in Marauder-type loot. An Ebony longsword does quite a bit more damage than your Dwarven claymore (and it's faster.)