not sure if this fits in the forum....gaining level 20 means you can get umbra...she is definitely a challenge...lets hear how you did it......did you attack her from upstairs , go down and talk to her or what...and what weapon did you use?

You can actually get Umbra at any level. Once, when bored, I brought the difficulty down to very easy, and killed her at level 1. Mind you, it was incredibly hard, even on very easy, but it massacre's all creatures, as it is about 5x as powerful as the normal weapons around that level. If I fought her fairly, I do a sneak-attack with a paralysis poison, and then beat her to near death on the ground, and finish her off in combat.

that is cool...i never tried earlier....but my favorite was when i waw tough enough that when she hit me she died on the spot...

one time also i beat her with rockshatter...of course i beat her many times....but she is intimidating especially for those that beat the orc in morrowind

Double posting is baaad.

I just summoned Daedroth, Clannfear, Faded Wraith and Bound Bow and Arrow and running around the 4 pillars while shooting her and using a strong Shock & Fire spell for a long, long time.
This was done at level 20. at 39% difficulty and with OOO.

A mix of Calm, Paralyze and Shock spells along with lots of Barriers, Summons and Heals on 75% Difficulty at level 23. The whole fight took around 10 minutes and considering I could only take 2 hits before death it was quite scary for a long time. I managed to get through my whole stock of Restore Magicka potions in that one fight, I had a nice stack of 50 I had built up before that.

I shot her full with magical arrows and then I've took my sword and finished her

I typically don't mess around with Umbra until my character has a decent chance of standing their ground with her. I prefer to engage her in honorable battle; not spray her from head to toe with aerosol cheese.

I'm also not interested in premature possession of the Umbra sword. At low levels, with sneak bonuses, it's just too ridiculous.

Same as Honorblade, zero weight end game quality weapons, because they are essential, you cannot be disarmed, and if you hotkey them, you can keep them in jail.
Sounds good, but eventually you will find that all the fun and sense of achievement is gone when you find other weapons. The first time you find a marauder warlord with a Dwarven longsword, the first time you kill a vampire patriarch, and get an elven shortsword, all wonderful moments, unless you get Umbra or the Honorblade too early, then anything else is relegated to the 'loot to sell' category.

i carry the swords i start with myself...no magic or anything...thats the sword i found and i carry it....and i don't leave it till i buy a house to keep it in....i am a strange character but like us all.....we have stuff that makes us different..i have had some characters.....but ones first sword is something until you run into something it doesn't work against...then everything changes....one of those fighters guilds has a silver sword if you need it.........i love the game

I have always approached Umbra the same way. There are lots of details to my approach, but the highlights are:

Disintegrate her weapon until it breaks. She will unequip it, place it in her inventory and switch to h2h.
Disengage from her and go hide.
Sneak back up on her and pickpocket the weapon from her. Being nice, I reverse pickpocket her a permabound claymore in exchange.
I RP that this frees Lenwin (Umbra) of the curse placed on her by that sword so that she is free to return to Pells Gate.
I could then repair the sword and use it, but I normally drop the evil cursed thing in a lava pit.

Try it. Oh, and try not to get killed.

I wait until my character is of appropriate level, talk to the people in Pell's Gate and find out the story, go and talk to Umbra and find out her story, then engage her in honorable combat - sword against sword - skill against skill. Then I return the sword to Clavicus Vile (I have absolutely no use for a sword whose only enchantment is a 120 second soul trap), take the Masque, and put it on a shelf at Rosethorn Hall. I have no particular use for the Masque either, but it looks nice on display. And I like to return the sword to Vile in part just because his dog says not to.

Poisoned Arrows

I agree skill vs skill I also like to see what my character is all about since I'm at level 48 and haven't done that mission yet I might try and see what she's all about on highest difficulty wish me luck lol.

I remember jumping on one of the pillars surronding her and killing her like that...

Umbra, I believe, is the strongest sword in basic attack. If it was unenchanted, it would be more powerful than any other unenchanted weapon. Anyway, I always get Umbra, Goldbrand, and Azura's Star. Umbra soultraps the creatures into azura's star, and I use azura's star to fuel Goldbrand.