i'm playing through on Master, and at first it was EXTREMELY difficult to get around because i had every intention of making a complete thief/assassin build..full light armor, daggers, bow..etc.....i'd get ambushed by bandits and trolls and get one shotted...for awhile i relied on Lydia to tank for me while i sat back and barraged enemies with arrows..now, i just sneak through every dungeon and sneak attack everything and one shot them...how you like me now Draugrs? Dwemer Sphere Gaurds?
the games gotten incredibly easy now that my toon is such a stealthy badass now...sneak attacks are doing x30 dmg lol
right now i'm using a mixture of Cicero's Gloves (double sneak attack damag with one handed weapons), Shrouded Gloves (backstab does double damage), Shrouded Cowl (bows do 20% more damage), Nightingale Boots (wearer is muffled and moves silently), Nightingale Armor (increases stamina by 30 pts. increses frosts resistance by 30%), and Krosis (lockpicking, archery, and alchemy are 20% better), Ebony Dagger (Superior; 26dmg), Blade of Woe ( 24 dmg, absorb 10 pts of health), Ebony Bow (Superior; 58dmg), Necklace of Eminent Wielding (one hande attackes do 30% more dmg) and Ring Of Major Wielding (one handed attacks do 25% more dmg)
maxed out stealth tree, maxed out archery tree, a few one handed perks for blades a dual wielding, currently working on alchemy for better poisons
i'm really only looking for a better body piece, but i use the stamina for my bow zoom, and to run away like a bitch when stuff detects me, crouch to stop combat (100 stealth perk), pop an invisibility potion or use the nightingale ability to turn invisible, then i come back and shoot them in the face with my bow
the only thing i can't really figure out is if Krosis and Shrouded Cowl do the same thing..Krosis says archery is 20% better...Cowl says 20% more dmg...i'm assuming Krosis effects the archery skill tree and not the dmg..but not sure..i mainly just keep krosis on because it looks so badass, matches my cicero's gloves, and i make a plopsload of potions
as far as getting rushed, like i said, i make a ton of potions, so i poison my bow with paralysis and keep firing arrows at them (might add some dmg heatlh poisons on there as well once they're down)..i seldom take any dmg unless it's from a sniper