I guess I should explain better. Character A dual wields, whereas character B goes for single weapon combat. Assuming they both level up these skills, player A has a clear advantage. The main benefit of a single weapon is that you can also block, but in order to this you need to use a valuable skill slot. Essentially to dual wield you need to level 1 skill, but to go for the sword and shield option, you need to level 2 skills, which makes the dual wielding option the obvious winner, unless the shield option is superior in some way. I dont't want to lose the block skill, and I cant see it being ditched, but I'm struggling to imagine how the skill options will be presented without being unbalanced.

Is that making sense?

Edit: Ah, I forget that you dont have major and minor skills anymore. That might mean that this doesn't matter.

How do we know that Athletics is out? If the GI magazine implied there's no attributes, then how is speed going to be regulated if not by Athletics?

I still believe that we won't have skill classes. Someone here said that Todd said something about "the 5 skills in the magic class" or something like that. Possible. but that can't be a skill class like the ones in Morrowind and Oblivion. There will be 18 skills in skyrim, 18 can't be made up of fives. Also, it's clear that with the skills we are sure to see, there will be 7 "magic" skills: Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, Restoration, Illusion, Alchemy and Enchanting. It's clear that Todd meant the "casting" magic skills, and only classed them based on how they work.
The other possibility is that alchemy will be a stealth skill, so we have 6 magic skills. That's the reason that I really dislike the skill class system. Magic and combat are OK, but "stealth", that's just ridiculous. In stealth we in Oblivion had marksman and light armor, both obviously combat skills. Also speechcraft and mercantile that have nothing to do with stealth. If this is true, we will also have alchemy. Alchemy might not be a clear magic skill, but it's by far anything resembling stealth.

Edit: Where do people get it from that there are no attributes?

Because they haven't seen any in the screenshots and the mag doesn't talk about them when talking about level (we pick a perk and/or to increase health, stamina and magicka).

What if they actually are improved when the skills improve? :turned:

The magazine implies that there are no more attributes. It explains the interface, and attributes are not included in the section where it tells you your name, level, race, and skills. The picture in the magazine also shows this section, and attributes are nowhere to be found.

Also, if there were attributes, Intelligence would no longer be one of them because raising magic points is now decided at the end of each level whether or not you want to raise magic or stamina.

With all of this, it's more likely that there are no more attributes.

I'll start with the ones I know:

1. Alchemy
2. Illusion
3. Conjuration
4. Restoration
5. Destruction
6. Alteration
7. Enchanting
8. Smithing (perhaps with armorer merged into it)

Now for some guessing:

9. Blade
10. Marksman
11. Blunt
12. Block
13. Sneak (with security merged into it)
14. Speechcraft (with mercantile merged into it)
15. Hand to hand
16. Polearm
17. Armored (heavy and light armor merged together)
18. Unarmored


That's just my guess list

I think it's plausible to say that block is within hand to hand. I mean, hand to hand includes blocking blocking with your bare hands naturally. Maybe blocking with a blade or shield is just a perk.

That's not logical, you might be able to block with a sword or shield, which is not hand to hand.

The 18 skills i think will be in skyrim are:

Marksman
One handed
Two handed
Block
Hand to hand
Destruction
Alteration
Conjuration
Illusion
Restoration
Enchant
Alchemy
Sneak
Security
Acrobatics
Smithing
cooking
mining

That's why it could be a perk. Hand to hand implies blocking with your hands, maybe you can specialize in a type of blocking. Maybe the skill isn't named hand to hand but melee or something.

I get the feeling this is a non issue. I don't think you need to be seeing it as you will be splitting any kind of skill points between 2 skills opposed to the 1 dual wield.

How much faster would using duel wield level up as opposed to a single weapon. I expect at a similar rate. You will probably be making a similar amount of hits in either style to dispatch an enemy, maybe slightly in favor of the dual.

That not only makes no sense, but it's also more complicated than just having a block still to apply to all combat types
Hand to hand basically means using your hands in combat... Ever heard of hand to hand fighting? It doesn't specialize in blocking in anyway, sure you can block but saying that hand to hand should include block is a bit ridiculous. It can't be simply called "melee" because melee is more than using hands, using a sword is melee too. And having a perk to specialize in blocking would also be a bit redundant, there would have to be a perk for hand to hand, blade, marksman, blunt, etc and it would just be ridiculous.

Having a single skill dedicated to blocking is more logical. Maybe the effectiveness of a block can be dependent on both your block skill and your skill in whatever it is you're wielding.

I think you may be rather close to it.

Id say


Marksman
One handed
Two handed
Armor
Hand to hand
Destruction
Alteration
Conjuration
Illusion
Restoration
Enchant
Alchemy
Speechcraft
Security
Athletics
Smithing
Survival
and one unknow skill likelya dragon power elated skill

The only skill That I'm worried for is Hand to hand. I don't want it to be merged with the other skills, I want it to be its own skill. You can't really justify putting it with anything else, plus its my favorite skill

I agree, personally I would be genuinely disappointed if they removed the armour skills

Let's see...

There are 18 skills total. I'm assuming that is 6 skills ON AVERAGE for combat, stealth, and magic.

Combat: I'm assuming that Acrobatics and Athletics are merged into one. Maybe "fitness" or something like that. And it's confirmed that smithing is in. So...

Smithing
Heavy armor
Blade
Blunt
Axe
"Fitness"

Magic: Pretty much everything but mysticism, so...

Destruction
Alteration
Conjuration
Illusion
Restoration
Enchanting (Woohoo!)
Alchemy

Steath: Again, Acrobatics is most likely merged with Athletics, so...

Light Armor
Sneak
Persuasion
Marksman
Security

Just a rough guess.

I'll make my list, just to gain gloating privileges if mine turns out being right. Wouldn't that be neat?

Combat:
1 Handed (Most weapons used with a single hand, such as daggers, maces, axes, swords, etc used with a single hand, and can therefor be dual wielded)
2 Handed (Most weapons requiring both hands to function properly, including war-hammers, claymores, and great-axes)
Unarmed (Punching and possibly kicking, best when using both hands available)
Polearms (Spears, halberds, glaives, and other such pole-based weapons, could be 1 or 2 hands)
Shield (both blocking and bashing)
Smith (the crafting skill associated with combat, used to make and repair weapons and armor)

Magic:
Illusion (same as Oblivion)
Alteration (most likely encompassing some aspects of mysticism)
Destruction (same as Oblivion)
Restoration (same as Oblivion)
Conjuration (same as Oblivion)
Enchant (the art of enchanting physical objects with magical properties)

Stealth:
Marksman (bows and crossbows)
Sneak (same as Oblivion)
Athletics (encompasses Oblivion's athletics and acrobatics)
Security (same as Oblivion)
Charm (a combination of Mercantile and Persuasion)
Alchemy (has no magical attributes, and is therefor moved to the crafting skill of stealth)

The names will not be correct, I was just going for the feel of each skill. If attributes really are removed I think this would work well, with 5 skills and 1 crafting skill/profession in each specialty.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that armor skills are completely out of my conjecture, which would be noticed anyway with a quick glance of the list. I do not think the armor skills really make sense, and I think the devs feel the same way.

-illusion
-enchant
-alteration
-destruction
-conjuration
-restoration
-alchemy
-fighting(weapons are all the same right?)
-armor(no need for multiple armor skills, armor types just affect speed like in fallout nv)
-slaying(how else will you kill dragons?)
-gardening(for old people roleplayers)
-smiting(for finishing moves)
-smithing(for making underpowered amor)
-mining
-talking
-stealth(sneak+security+marksman+unarmored+handtohand, cause they're all the same thing)
-cooking
-fishing

I can't if you're being serious or if you're trying to be funny...

historically spears are one of the first and most common of weapons used in warfare. Plus the image of impaling your enemies on 10ft of Imperial steel is just cool! Or hurling a short throwing spear into a dragon before wading in with your massive sword/axe.

generally its just something different and adds more roleplaying appeal.

EDIT: Plus spears just seem like a natural weapon to tackle a dragon with. My image of a Dragonhunter would be someone wielding a massive bow, a long spear and a shield/sword combo for Long/Med/Short range combat with a dragon.

Combat
--------
Heavy Weapons (Two handed weapons including polearms/spears)
Heavy Armour
Shields (Includes the ability to bash and block)
Hand to Hand
Light Weapons (Single handed weapons)
Smithing (Armorer with the added feature of making new equipment from materials)

Magic
-----
Conjuration
Destruction
Enchanting
Alteration
Restoration
Illusion

Stealth
-------
Light Armour
Sneak (Security and Sneak combined)
Marksman
Athletics (Acrobatics and Athletics combined)
Speechcraft (Mercantile and Speechcraft combined)
Alchemy (Not just standard alchemy, also helps with cooking food)

A guess: Everything else intact, but mysticism removed, armorer merged/changed to smithing, and athletics and acrobatics removed [two skills that were kinda usefull, but both of which would now (prolly even unintentionally) affect too much the leveling, as all skills affect it].

everyone is assuming that the SMI skill is smithing I think it is going to be smiting

There's two handed magic so that might be taken into consideration in a new 2h skill. I do get the impression they are going for less linear skill design overall with the perks and all.