Illusion/Assassin Build (Refinement Question)

[Mystified]

OK I have a level 35 Bretton Illusion/Assassin (can I say how much I LOVE this build).

I've maxed stealth, pretty close to maxing illusion, and have most of the perks in both trees. I only recently (late 20s) started adding archery into the mix just to deal with dragons, but I'm not sure if lugging around the Nightengale bow and tons of arrows is really my style. I've got the few necessary perks in 1 handed (just enough to benefit daggers) and light armor (a few points for boost defenses) and I'm also working on Alteration to eventually get max magic resist (although being Bretton + Lord Stone + Mara has already done me very nicely there).

My play style is dagger in one hand, illusion spell in the other. On to the fine tuning questions!

1. I'm considering the idea of dropping archery all together and going conjuration. I have an unwritten rule...NEVER take a follower with me (and for those who know this build you know why) but there are those quests (cough...compansions...cough) where you are forced to have some lumbering warrior with you who just royally destroys how you do business. Throwing a pet in the mix and invising/stealth attacking as needed seems to make more sense (and draws more attention away giving me time to stealth kill). Not something I'd ever use on my own when I can just throw down frenzy and watch everyone kill each other, but it works for those follower situations and dragons as well. What do you think? The only thing I use archery for is killing dragons at the moment. The skill is kinda low (42).

2. I've ran this build completely on light armor (currently sporting a mix nightengale set with some ancient shrouded). I've begun to ponder the idea of going with robes instead...I'm still leaning towards light armor, but I know with alteration, you can get some great defense in those oh s___ moments. I'm a little perplexd how, at 100 sneak, with all the perks, some enemies can sense me when I'm crouch/sneaking up to them (uninvised). I have muffled boots as well. I read that light armor still makes noise (beyond just footsteps) and the only way to be completely silent is to go robed. Any thoughts? And if robed is better, what robes should I use? I have a set of the archmage robes (the ones you get off the table in his room) as well as a full set of shrouded robes from DB. Does it make more sense to go this route?

3. I've been using the blade of woe for quite a while. I am working on enchanting and smithing but I didn't want to be thrust into higher levels too quickly that I didn't have the combat skill to fight. Now that I am getting to that point of one shotting everything (ps quiet castiing is king), I am starting to work on those things but it will be a WHILE before I am making dragon bone daggers. Is Blade of Woe the best for now, or should I be searching for something better (or just focus on getting to the point where I craft/enchant my own and let woe carry me through until then).

4. Finally, I've been putting my points into health and magicka (roughly the same) with the occasional point in stamina. Right now I think my stam is 200 and was planning on leaving it there permanently. Magicka is around 260, planning to get that to 300, and then everything else has been health (around 250 ish now). Keep in mind those numbers are boosted slightly because of some effects I have going on. Does that seem like a solid plan?

Thanks for the advice!

[FanaticalVanilla]

Can't help much on those finer points as it's completely up to you but What I like to do with my Illusion assassin build is run it with illusion spells such as invis and calm/frenzy which is damn fun. A good thing to is to get the 15 times damage perk with a dagger sneak attack and couple it with the double damage sneak attack enchantment (making sneak attack damage x 30) you get from the dark brotherhood gloves and it's a damn good thing for getting up close or 1 hitting a dragon.

[Mystified]

Yep, I have all that, thanks for the advice though! I am just trying to fine tune a few things in the build, make sure I am still on the right track. Take care!

[MeinChurro]

You could have just gone bound bow when you were lower level, never have to lug around a bow or arrows (survival mode), but you are pretty high level now to be using it, in my opinion. It's probably too late for you to just go bound bow, so I'd suggest just doing the main story until you get the shout to bring dragons to the ground, and dump bow&arrow.

I wouldn't bother with conjuration, I'd grab some shouts. Throw voice, aura whisper, disarm, etc.

At level 30 I probably would finish up smithing and enchanting, at the very least for upgrading your gear profiiciently, you want to be able to upgrade like crazy. Legendary you absolutely need enchanting, and smithing already maxed out by now. past level 25 or so the enemies with regular unupgraded even uniques, takes like 15 years to kill.

[Mystified]

I've already got Dragonrend, just haven't gone far beyond that with the main quest.
My only concern is sure, I could shout a dragon down (and do), but estimating where he is going to land, running their invis, and trying to get a backstab off before he takes flight again can be a little tricky. I've never tried backstabbing a dragon, doubt it would be a one shot kill like 99% of everything else I fight.