The 10 Best Perks Skyrim's New Leveling System Has To Offer

[TheBalance]

Wrote up something, posted it on my site as well- ya can read about it here - (and help a writer out) or just check it out down below.

 

Been posting a lot about Skyrim lately - I'm as obsessed as anyone. Keep checking out my blog and there'll be more to come next week. Feedback is always appreciated, PM me if you want to get in touch.

 

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Coming up with this list was tougher then I thought. Skyrim has a few excellent perks in it, some of which didn't make it here - mainly because their uses were either too focused on a single role - or they required a lot of investment for comparably little tradeoff. No need to keep droning on though - in no particular order, my version of the best ten perks in Skyrim is as follows:

 

Impact (40 Destruction) - Most dual-casted destruction spells stagger opponents. Not only is staggering an opponent cool and hilarious, but it buys you valuable time as a caster in order to make distance, or land a few more spells. Invaluable to any character that uses magic as its primary source of damage.

 

Mystic Binding (20 Conjuration) - Bound weapons do more damage. Not just more damage, a lot more damage. An early early level character can, at Conjuration 25, buy the bound sword spell, and have a ~20 damage one handed weapon. It escalates with Conjuration skill as well, so its always useful, never breaks, and gets stronger as you use it. Conjuration and One-Handed Weapons raise simultaneously while your using it (and raise quickly) all one-handed perks apply as if you're wielding a sword as well. The downside? You need to summon the sword before you fight, which can be annoying. The upside? You also get to summon minions, which are excellent sources of additional damage.

 

Silent Roll (Sneak 50) - While Sneaking, pressing (Alt by default) run will allow you to execute a silent roll forward. Good for closing gaps, requires a somewhat minimal amount of stamina (You can roll 20x with 200 stamina) and great for positioning for backstab multipliers, or just getting around enemies and dodging spells, or dragons breath, with some practice.

 

Assassin's Blade (Sneak 50) - Backstab multiplier increased to 15x. Coupled with Silent Roll this more or less assures you always kill your opponent with a successful backstab. Satisfying and sinister, this perk is easily the highest damage/investment perk in the game.

 

Power Shot (Archery 50) - Stagger opponents 50% of the time. This is to archers what Impact is to mages. Staggered opponents don't move or attack, buying you more time to finish them off.

 

Elemental Protection (Block 50) - 50% Fire, Frost, and Shock resist while blocking. Laugh at spell casters and dragons as they try to damage you with magic. Coupled with playing a Breton (25% magic resist by default) this perk literally assures you that you never have to worry about damaging spells or enchanted weapons ever again.

 

Everything in the Enchanting Tree - From more powerful enchantments, to being able to put TWO enchantments on a single item. The entire tree is worth investing in, as it gives you the maximum benefit out of every piece of equipment. A must have for anyone looking to get the most out of their character.

 

Mage Armor (Alteration 30) - The three levels of this perk gradually increase the amount of armor granted from alteration spells. If you're playing a pure mage, or meleeing in mage garb, this perk is for you. But much like Mystic binding, it requires you to buff yourself with armor spells before combat. Not hard to manage, but can be cumbersome to some players.

 

Fighting Stance/Champions Stance (One/Two Handed 20) - A significant reduction to stamina costs for power attacks when wielding one or two handed weapons, respectively. Less stamina use = more power attacks = lots of pain.

 

Atronach (Alteration 100) - Absorb 30% of the magicka of any spell cast at you. The only 100-level skill on the list. Atronach lets you absorb and regenerate magicka automatically every time a spell is cast at you. Alteration, if used at all, is fairly easy to level, and also provides a 30% magic resistance in the tree (via three ranks in the Magic Resistance perk at Alteration 30). The entire tree really bears noting, as you can easily outfit your character with everything except a shield just by using alteration spells prior to combat.

[MrTastix]

I see that Elemental Protection is in here, as is Atronach, but not Magic Resistance, which offers 10/20/30% base magic resistance.

 

Deft Movement from the Light Armor tree is also extremely useful and it, alongside the perk (in the same tree) that increases stamina regen by 50% in Light Armor, makes Light Armor so much more valuable than Heavy Armor (stagger be damned).

[Korodic]

pretty good points. Personally I think it is also a good idea to max out your smithing and one handed damage with enchanting. I just made some blades that get 164 damage (without perks maxed in one hand, nor did I master one hand yet!) I kick A**. :D Not to mention I didn't even enchant them yet.

 

What I did: enchant all clothes + etc I could to hold both potion and wep/armor improving WHILE using a fortify smithing potion, I created these beauties. I am able to TEAR through guards. I also just found this dragon shout that lets me swing the blades incredibly fast. I am certain this is a lethal combo for anything I get close enough to.

[Miraboreasu]

Charging strike is phenomenal for sneak characters. It STACKS with silent roll, meaning you can blaze on in there, do a power sneak attack on someone, and have forward momentum enough hit someone before they have time to react.

[Sheralynn]

As a stealth assassin the most useful and essential perk trees are the Stealth and Archery.

 

All my effort go into completing both trees.

 

Some deem this as over powered as I can indeed take down Giants and Death lords with very minor effort if using the right strategy. Still, I have to be in the shadows for it to work. In direct combat I lack other skills, especially protection. Some perks in armor and smithing for upgrades do help but staying stealthy is a must for not getting overwhelmend.

 

I cannot simply charge in an start bashing several enemies at once. I'd be dead in seconds. And dont forget that fighting dragons requires always open combat. Can be pretty hard without the benefit of high tier armor or elemental protection.

 

Next thing on the list would be the enchantment perks, all the way up to double enchantments. Now we can build resistance without losing the stealth enhancing gear.

 

Finally smithing provides the opportunity to forge and upgrade my main weapons, thebow and the dagger.

 

Only then you can pretty much dominate fights and do not have to scramble for cover whenever discovered,

 

- stealth

- archery

- enchantment

- smithing

 

Those are mine.

[jy02521671]

this is my list

 

1) deadric smithing, what is better than a set of deadric armor? what weapon has more damage than deadric weapons? doesnt matter if you go range or melee fighting, deadric weapons has the most damage

 

2) twin souls, while demora lord is OP as hell, whats better, is having two demora lords. (be careful with shouts and chain lightening, might aggro your own demoras)

 

3) impact, very useful, can chain stun a dragon to death without taking a scratch

 

4) extra effect, can enchant 2 effects on one item, making you twice as powerful

 

5) unhindered/conditioning, light/heavy armor doesnt slow you down and dont weight anything, what is better than runing twice as fast and having more space in your backpack? on top of that, stamina cost less when you run. alternatively you can get steed sign but there are way better signs to take

 

6) deadly aim, bow attack have 3X sneak bonus, primary damage output for stealth characters, plus you can pick up backstab on the way, good for some situations. I learnt my lesson on assasin's blade perk the hard way while on breaking out silver blood mine quest, and i shall never take that perk again. i always play on master difficulty. you'd think 15 times damage should take out Madanach one hit no matter what right? well try it out and see for yourself.

 

7) a better perk for dagger is savage strike, couple with mehrune's razor, i can watch those death animations all day long

 

8 ) bone breaker, probably the most OP perk in the game, imagine you can take down a dragon in 5 sec

 

9) perfect touch, what is more satisfying than stealing from your enemy till he has nothing left than his flappy dong? 'whos got the big sword now son?'

 

10) arcane blacksmith, its not the best perk but it is an essential perk, you need it to put enchants on your improved weapons or improve enchanted items.

Edited December 14, 2011 by jy02521671

[TheBalance]

All the points above make sense - but food for thought, I was aiming for the best perks per investment. Smithing perks you use once, to make the armor. Then that point is wasted. Enchantments is the same argument, but you use them 2x per piece of equipment, a little more useful and situational-granting then just creating the armor itself. I get where you're coming from though.

 

I feel you on the master difficulty and the assassin's blade perk. I stopped playing on master because its just a waste of time. I hate that game developers make harder difficulty settings = bigger numbers for the enemies. You can easily kill anything in this game safely by abusing the AI enough, which is what you're forced to do more often then not on master. Standing in melee range (as a melee character) just isn't an option, you'll die in a fire. Ranged characters get 1-shot if melee's get to them, etc. It's too much of a chore for me. And that's coming from someone who usually makes fun of people for playing on 'normal' because its too easy.

[firsTraveler]

I find Silent Roll completely irrelevant because sneaking in this game is so very easy. I hope someone can make a mod that gives npcs more situational awareness and faster reflexes.

[TheBalance]

Silent roll just lets you close distance and avoid things easier, even in combat. Sneaking is easy, especially with practice.

[MrTastix]

All the points above make sense - but food for thought, I was aiming for the best perks per investment. Smithing perks you use once, to make the armor. Then that point is wasted. Enchantments is the same argument, but you use them 2x per piece of equipment, a little more useful and situational-granting then just creating the armor itself. I get where you're coming from though.

 

When the Creation Kit becomes available proper respecs (it is possible now, just tedious to do) will essentially turn all Smithing, Enchanting and Alchemy perks into throwaway skills: Skills you use once, then forget about.

 

What needs to happen is Smithing, Enchanting and Alchemy need to be rebalanced so that any upgrades you make to a weapon, piece of armour or a potion as reverted as soon as you lose the ability to craft that upgrade.

 

Here's an example of what I mean:

 

A Daedric Helmet by default gives a base armor rating of 23 (that's its base value: the AR it gives before perks and skills affect it). With a Smithing level of 100 and the Daedric Smithing perk you could double that value and craft it into a Legendary version of the same item.

 

By default, if you were to respec now you'd still keep the upgrade you just made to the helmet. But after a mod has been applied, you'd need to keep the perks to keep the upgrade. If you respec and don't take Daedric Smithing, you lose the Legendary upgrade and it becomes a standard Daedric Helmet.

 

Enchanting and Alchemy would work similarily. Any enchant could be made but the effects of perks such as Enchanter, Insightful Enchanter or Corpus Enchanter would be removed. Likewise, any potions made whilst you had the Alchemist perk (among others) would be downgraded to their original format.