Started with a two-handed axe preference because hacking things to pieces is about as uncomplicated as it gets, but later in the game, I started going up against enemies that took fifty stamina-devouring swings to kill if they weren't in the mood to turn around and box me to death in seconds (despite having awesome perks and the best equipment available), so I decided melee was for the birds. I abandoned my level 34 barbarian halfway through the game and rolled a stealth+archery character.
Ironically, choosing the "walk softly and slowly, then stop and shoot" tactics has allowed me to clear dungeons about three times faster than if I'd charged in wearing a battleship's worth of health-fortifying armor and swinging a flaming axe that would let a lumberjack one-shot a forest, because instead of having protracted, exhausting battles, I can just drop entire groups with sneak crits from my pimped-out bow before they can decide which direction the arrows are coming from. I don't even touch my health pots until the game drops a scripted and pissed-off enemy right on my head.
Aela's gonna be delta tango foxtrot on arrival, which is fine by me because I'm a sucker for women in warpaint.
