On the Matter of the Smithing Tree and Perks

[bumbayker]

Hi guys. I've been playing Skyrim for at least 2 months now and my favorite skill is Smithing. I'm not sure if this has been discussed before but I haven't seen such a topic on the forums. After some analysis, I realize that the Smithing Tree/Perks were not well designed. Some could say the same for other skill trees as well but I'd like to address Smithing particularly since it's one of the most used skills in the game. I know that there are those who created mods in an attempt to fix or improve Smithing and I salute them. Headbomb particularly seems to working towards the right direction but I think there's still more that can be done.

 

First off, the perk progression IMO are somewhat messed up. After the Basic Smithing perk the tree branches off to three namely Arcane Smithing, Elven Smithing, and Dwarven Smithing. Arcane Smithing is simply a one shot deal and a dead end. The path of Elven Smithing basically represents "light armors" while the Dwarven Smithing path is for "heavy armor". It's seems pretty simple but next Elven Smithing in the skill tree progression is the Advanced Smithing perk which looks very out of place. Glass Smithing isn't very appealing since it's slightly better defense over Elven but heavier. The "heavy armor path" seems better however getting Dragon Smithing feels very lackluster since Daedric Smithing is far better in every way and you can get it before getting Dragon Smithing. Dragon Smithing seems only a compromise and just different aesthetics. Light Armor users can benefit with Dragonscale armor but that's about it if you play vanilla.

 

Second, is how the Smithing perks only categorizes to just Light armors, Heavy Armors, and Enhancements. Out of the 10 perks only 2 are enhancements (Arcane Smithing and Advance Armors) IMHO, I feel that each Smithing type should have their own unique properties and should have both light and heavy armor versions and not be classified exclusively to just light or heavy similar to Dragon Smithing. Some might argue that ingot material used in crafting them classifies the armor as "light" or "heavy" which is quite valid. However I don't see why both light and heavy armor can't be crafted with the same main ingot material. At least if they have their own unique properties switching to another armor/weapon of a different smithing type isn't necessary unless you are after it's special qualities. On a side note the quicksilver ore is the most useless of all the Smithing material components. It's only used for crafting Elven weapons and Elven Gilded Armor and can just be thrown away or sold if you don't use Elven gear. I have no idea why Bethesda even bothered adding quicksilver at all. It just makes crafting Elven gear harder which I find stupid since it's one of the earlier perks on the Smithing tree.

 

Anyway, that's my opinion on Skyrim's smithing. I love the skill but I feel that it could have offered more with a better design. Feel free to express your own opinion on the subject but please no flaming or bashing.

[MrTastix]

Yeah, the biggest problem I find with Smithing is the redundancy of the previous smithing tiers once you've reached Daedric or Dragon. The entire light armor path is also useless primarily because you'll still be wanting to use Daedric weaponry.

 

I use a few mods that "fix" this, I'd get their links but unfortunately, my polytech blocks out the Nexus sites (and usually the forums, but not today, for some reason).

 

Psychoelf's "No More Ability Perk Trees" is particularly useful for Smithing, because you simply skip all the useless perks and only spend points on Daedric and Dragon Smithing. The main issue, of course, is that you'd have to hold out on spending any perks in the Smithing tree because you can't respec conveniently (you could remove/add perks via console commands, but that's tedious and inconvenient). This may make leveling slightly harder if you're used to making your own gear.

 

I also use the Dragonbone Weapons mod (there are two, - both are compatible with each other and I recommend both - the other one being "Dragonbone Weapon Pack 01") which not only adds some sweet Dragon weapons but can also improve Dragon armors, as well, making Dragonplate a viable option after Daedric, for heavy armor users.