So I just bought Morrowind GOTY off of Amazon and I love it, but the combat is annoying the crap out of me! Since I'm use to Oblivion combat I died to a rat in the first mission in the Fighters Guild. Now I can't even kill the 2 egg poachers--mind you they have no armor, and a pickaxe, and I have an iron longsword, and bonemold armor.

Any tips/tricks to improve my hit-n-miss ratio? I probably get like 2 hits out of 7...

You should be getting about 4 out of seven at first and as your skills improve it will rapidly increase to about 6 out of 7. Make sure your fatigue bar is full. Fighting with low fatigue will drastically reduce your chance to hit. Use potions and enchants to restore it. There is an amulet you can buy for cheap at the mages guild in Balmora that will restore fatigue.

Also make sure to use a weapon you are skilled in, so if you are using a long sword, make sure long blade is one of your major skills. You need at least one weapon skill as a major skill and you should use that type of weapon. You need at least about 25 skill in a weapon to have a decent chance to hit. Once your weapon skill reaches about 50, you will rarely miss unless your fatigue is low or your agility is damaged. Hitting enemies depends on a number of factors, including your skill, your agility, your luck, your enemy's agility and luck and any active spell effects.

What is your race and class? It is recommended to have at least a 30-35 in your main weapon attribute to start off with.

Keep your stamina full !!!!
That will increase the chances of success for basically every single action you take, so it's very important.

As said above, make sure you start the game with a weapon skill at least at 35-40

And be sure you're using the correct type of weapon.

Patience.
Morrowind is most difficult at the start, so struggling a bit is normal.

yeah, after the first couple levels, the main game becomes a breeze really.

What difficulty do you play at? I play at default, and I'd say the game stops being painfully difficult at about level ten and doesn't really become easy until ~30. I mean sure, by 15 or so parts of the map become easy (your average bandit cave and so forth), but there are still plenty of challenges to be found for those who want them--a daedroth remains a challenge even for high level characters, I've found.

An important thing to note is that if you just tap the attack button you will generally do just one point of damage. Hold it down for a short time to make sure you get a full swing.

i play on normal/default..............

by level 20 i could go up to many of the MQ bosses and nearly two shot them.

at level 20+, you are essentially a god among mortals in the game world.

The only places you would have a hard time with is the expansions, and even then a lot of that is because you are zerg rushed.

You wrote something different in your earlier post. In that post you wrote: "after the first couple levels." The "first couple levels" is not level 20+.

even after the first couple levels, it becomes pretty easy.

I find the game starts becomming easy around level 20 to 30 depending on the character.

Here's the thing about that...

If you don't power-level your character, but just play the game as it unfolds, and stick to your class skills, working your way through a reasonable number of factions, and doing the MQ, you won't reach level 20 before you've gone a long way in the game. And at about that time, you're ready to start the expansions.

The problem of being overpowered happens because people make it happen. They go find that high-level gear early, and they work for +5s at level-up. They train hard, use and train skills (like Alchemy and Enchant) that aren't part of their class skills, and try to get the "best" of everything. Then they complain of being overpowered.

nope, i just have a habit of doing A LOT of side quests, and i only use alchemy/enchanting when it fits my character, Otherwise, the only OP thing i really do is get the daedric weapon from that one guy for finding the mine (even though said mine was realyl easy to find, so the dunmer who want to find it must not have looked very hard, lol)

I am quite poweful for a thieve but oh god, in combat I usually die. Which is why I use stealth a lot and sneak attackes. Yes stealth in Morrowind. So far its been good, nearly become leader of the Thieves Guild, only two more missions to become the leader of House Hlaalu and upto the Corpus Cure quest. So far my character is quite succesful, thanks to a lucky find in Balmora. Ever felt that you bonded with some of your gear? I did with my Shadowmask Ring. I think it did 50 or 60% Chameleon.

Lol. Complaining about being OP after you use player knowledge to go for a Daedric weapon?

How on Nirn does your character know that anybody was looking for the mine, and who tells your character how to find that person?

You're powergaming. That "quest" is not possible to stumble onto. No NPC in the entire game will direct you to enter that mine, and then to go into a supposedly haunted house in Vivec, find the reclusive owner, and then specifically bring up the subject of the mine.