Right now I am a level 35 two handed warrior with maxed out two handed combat, block upgraded partially (the center part of the perk tree), and heavy armor upgraded partially (the entire right side of the perk tree)

I have 300+ health and stamina and my armor rating is around 400. My weapons do 70-80 damage, some are enchanted and some are not. I am playing on apprentice at the moment.

I was going to do archery next but I think I have decided not to bother. I don't want to be a weakling all over again upgrading a combat skill and I haven't wished for a ranged weapon since I was fighting dragons without dragon rend.

So smithing seems relatively straight forward, just get supplies to upgrade weapons and armor, I guess I should have been doing this from the beginning.

Enchanting is not straight forward since you have destroy weapons to learn an enchantment so I guess I should have been hoarding crap enchanted weapons just to learn enchantments.

My main question is does anyone bother with alchemy because I can't see myself applying poisons to weapons constantly, recharging enchanted weapons is annoying enough.

Another question is how much of a difference can smithing and enchanting make from this point, are they definitely worth while? I think I still need to improve my character substantially before I can face the insane standard difficulty.

Personally i think all 3 equally but you have not got that or an opt out as an option

Enchanting is the most rewarding to me since it works for everything: magic cost reduction, weapon damage, even boosting other crafting skills.

With good enchanting, you could more than double your 2H damage. Even with only 50 enchant skill, you can double it, with 100 you can get +160% or more with potions. At level 20, I would expect to have 150 damage weapons at a minimum with 50-60 enchant.

I think probably you find adept difficult because of low damage weapons. Let's take an example: steel greatsword at 17 base damage. add 5 for exquisite smithing gives 22 damage. Getting 2H to 100 with 5 perks gives x3 for 66 damage. 50 enchant with 4 perks gives another 108% for 137 damage. Going to 100 enchant with 6 perks gives 160% for 171 damage. That's what you should have. With a better base weapon you could easily be over 200 damage not to mention that at 100 enchant you can dual enchant the weapon for 80-140 more magic damage (depending on you Destruction skill).

For a warrior, smithing is pretty basic. My very first warrior didn't bother much with it, and she was pretty useless later on in the game, when she began to meet the real powerful enemies.

Personally, I can't do without alchemy. I'm addicted to healing potions, lol. I avoid taking too many perks in it though, usually only the first 2-3 of the basic level for a character who also uses smithing, I don't like feeling OP. I mainly use it for healing and stamina potions (or magicka for mages), resist potions, and sometimes poisons (which I usually only apply on bows for the first shot, or have as a back-up when I run into real trouble). And for money, of course!

Enchanting is the crafting skill I think is hardest to be really good at, and easiest to do without. Even though my current warrior dabbles a little in it, I usually only go for it and perk it seriously on mages (who need cost reduction, fortify magicka and so on).

0_o Well I can't argue with that, I'll have to do enchanting at least.

While I'd like to vote 'All of the Above', because all three are profoundly synergistic, the fact is that Enchanting is the straight up most powerful of the three skills out of the box. With a filled Enchanting Perk Tree you can boost your two-handed skill, health and magic resistance, and add brutally effective enchants to your blade. However, where things get crazy is when you do all three. Read http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1342463-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-10/ for full, exhaustive details.

Basically any build that isn't a pure mage will require Smithing to some extent.

I hate you TC I am split between Smithing and Enchanting.

*Need 5 minutes for further review*

Smithing.

I am more into creating armor the most vs weapons, enchanting, and alchemy. Something about the smell of smoke, fire, metal/leather, and tender love that makes wearing armor I made, improve, and feel (and hope) I am wearing a true craftsmanship.

LOL. Good emotional and RP decision if that's how you like it. Enchanting does require some tedious grinding (worse than smithing IMHO) and if that makes you not enjoy yourself, don't do it.

From a strictly practical game mechanic point of view, though, Enchanting is far more productive since it can provide as much extra damage and protection from weapons and armor as smithing (actually more damage if you use elemental damage enchantments) and also give the options of magic cost reduction, magic resistance and other utility uses.

The numbers strongly favor Enchantment but the most important thing is to have fun; if smithing is your thing, go for it.

None of them are useful and all of them are useless. It's whatever fits the character.

it totally depends on your character's build as well as your personal preference of enjoyment and play style.

However, as it has been said for a practical usage.

Smithing, unboosted, at Lv. 100 to an on perk improvement about doubles base damage value.

As mentioned, Enchanting can double your damage in the range fo 50 enchant. with a few perks. Doing a bit more at 100.

Alchemy can boost it even further though the effect is temporary if using the Fortify X handed skill potions.

Also as mentioned, if put to work in a harmony, products can be Amazing, and too many OP. (example, my Daedric Sword on my high lv with 100 in all 3 and boosted through alch and enchant over tripled my swords base damage, and added about another 60 with enchants (though I have all 5 magics at 100 it doesnt go higher.) To a total of abobut 200. (compared to a normal doing about 45)

My personal favorite is Enchanting, although it is tedious to get the Soul Gems, its effects are amazing, and highly customizable.

The variety also applies to Alchemy (which also takes some grinding (more of get some money, buy lots of ingredients, mix pots, sell and repeat)) Though its effects are temporary (though in some cases unique and/or more powerful) Smithing however is really only essential to a Warrior (or anyone that heavily relies on their armor/weapons)

If you combine them all well, you can make a super sneaky theif/assassin (fortify sneak/muffle/invisibilty what not) who has a super good dagger, and if you have thte perks and can almost never fail.