I been playing Skyrim like an addict for almost the full 7 days it's been released...and I'm sure others have. Fancy that I finally want to take a breather for a moment and ponder how others may have built their character.

I've read people saying it's a slow leveling process after 50-51... I beg to differ, but that's not the point of this thread. Being at 57 (almost 58) at the moment and looking around the community a bit, I feel like most people went Battle Mage (Heavy Armor + Sword + Destruction combo) at first. I myself went Ranger/Assassin type until I hit about 50 (when I maxed most out).

Thus far, I progressed like this (in-order)=

Class:
Wood Elf

100:
Sneak
Archery
Light Armor
Lockpicking
Block
Conjuration
Smithing

90s:
One Handed (98)
Heavy Armor (92)


50-70:
Alchemy (71)
Enchanting (66)
Pickpocketing (60)
Restoration (51)

Perk Regrets:
Wasting a Perk into Dual Casting under the Destruction tree because I never Dual Cast at all... let alone use Destruction skills.

Perk Happiness:
Conjuration - Bound Weapons capture Souls... which makes it way easier to Enchant ^^
All Archery- Paralyze, Critical, More Arrows (even though 2-3 kill opponents)!!1
Light Armor- Bonuses wearing set/all Light Armor ... 700+ armor baby <3
Sneak - Bows do more damage & easy dungeon clearing ;p
Smithing - Allowance to improve Enchanted gear... Dragonscale armor (Light) for invulnerability! And Dragonplate (Heavy) to level me up in Heavy Armor x)
Lockpicking - Picks start near unlock & Picks don't break (Skeleton Key Status!)
Alchemy - Was never an alchemist in past games...but it's so useful early on!

[Notes]:
-> I haven't undergone any Training Lessons other than 3 times with Destruction (too expensive for my taste)...


Still have quests to do, and most likely will try to get every skill maxed...but just in case I don't: What's a good build to try?
P.S. Will not try boring old Battle Mage xd

i have a high elf battle mage enchanter if that sums anything up...

Level 8 (about 12 hours in)
Nord Warrior
- One-Hand 32 (only focusing on WarAxe)
- Heavy Armor 24
-Block 24
- Smithing 20(something)
- Restoration 20

....Yep. Go Hulgar!

oh my gosh, you have the exact same build as me!
i'm also focusing on 1 handed war axe

I started out thinking that magic looked like fun and put my first point in destruction.

Then I remembered how much I love playing stealthy smooth-talking type characters as I found my sneak skill going up and up so decided just to concentrate on that, and haven't used magic since.

My highest skills are sneak (in the 80s somewhere, and only the top perk of the tree left to get I think), speech, 1 handed, archery, and alchemy. But I'm saving up points to put into lockpicking and pickpocket when I get the required levels in those skills for higher perks. I've joined the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood.

Do I regret the point I put in Destruction? A little, but it's not the end of the world. I always tend to play with a wider spread of skills than a very specialised character might - Skyrim is less kind to those spreading skills out, but I don't have any aversion to putting the game difficulty lower if necessary,

Well I've restarted a few times, last char was a stealth hunter using archery/conjuration, but powerleveled smithing and regretted it, so made a new character :

Only lvl 20 so far, and havnt progressed the main story at all yet.

Mage : Going pure mage route, playing on Expert difficulty.

Race: High Elf (got to love the racials, nxt race down i would have chosen was breton for the magic resist
Main Magic Arts:
Conjuration 48 - Option to conjure up backup on the harder fights help and the use of the soul tap ability to fill my soul gems
Destruction 45 -
Alteration 49 - With the mage armor perk, armor buffs can get decently high, also detect life is a neat feature for large caverns.
Restoration 40 - Healing for myself and companion
Ilusion 35 - was trying out the buffs such as courage/rally, and seeing wat impact they made for my companion, still not sure how effective it is, and thers no numbers for the spell around.
Enchanting 50
As of now have no intention using Armor of any sort, trying to keep with the typical Mage gearing.