I do not really care for smithing, So I was wondering...once I reach higher levels will I have trouble staying alive? I used light armor and my offense is archery and one hand plus shield.

No, you don't need Smithing.

Despite people on the forums whining about how they power-grinded it to max and abused potions to be able to improve their weapon ten times beyond the base damage, and then saying they feel OP.

I use archery only, and I am level 40. I can take out the strongest enemies easy with a dwarven bow+sneak. I wouldn't worry about smithing unless you're interested in making a daedric bow(legendary) or something along those lines. :celebration:

it helps ALOT, for the majority of the game you will be dependable mostly on what you can craft and upgrade for your strengh.
I only play on master and personally I wouldnt play an archer or melee buildup without perking or at least leveling smithing, your armor wont mitigate nearly as much dmg nor will your weapon do as much dmg without doing so, and relying on loot for item type changes... is just not realible.
this not to mention you HAVE to perk at least a few points into it in order to upgrade enchanted armor.

you can get away with a heavy sneak archer build, but for that thers no point in armor or block or melee for that matter, glass cannon gameplay is advised there, with some pots to makeup for the lack of perks to upgrade your bow.

It's not needed but its certainly the road to easy street regardless of difficulty.

It's completely reasonable not to use Smithing. My light armor warrior use a bow, along with a 'sword and board', with no Smithing whatsoever. He's probably one of the most fearsome characters I've made, and was able to handle three mammoths and two giants at once at around level 12.

You don't need Smithing. It's a crafting skill that's abused to often to catastrophically strengthen builds. But it is in no way needed. You'll get powerful equipment just fine without it.

play on master and you'll see how usefull it is to pass it up while leveling.

Thanks for the advice guys... I want to save my perks for the fun perks, like shield charge lol...and want a challenge when playing

Given how easy it is with smithing without abusing it (no enchanting or alchemy) for my warrior, I would say your more than safe passing it up. If you wind up having trouble late game you can always add it in to your build. Seeing as how 50 is only a soft cap you will have extra perks to invest at some point. Think max cap is 81? At least that is what people are saying.

No you don't, you can still improve one of the top tier sets over the armor cap, the only advantage to smithing really is getting a low tier set like steel over the armor cap or get more damage out of your weapon.

shield is the best melee skill there is tbh, best defence and actually solid offence aswell, but if you want a challenge I assume you are playing on master, and if so you will definetely want smithing, leveled minimal, perked recomended.

its a difference between being 2 shoted and three shotted, and the difference between needing 20 swings to kill and needing only 10, figuratively speaking.

getting more dmg out of the weapon and hitting higher armor ratings early on is all its about.. makes HUGE difference in master.
good luck reaching the armor cap with light armor without taking and perking smithing....
also good luck upgrading enchanted items without it...