My current character is a Redguard Shaman custom class with the Atronach birthsign. His skill specialties are all the magic skills plus alchemy, with Intelligence and Luck as favored attributes. He's hardly ever using any weapons, instead favoring his (custom nature-themed) spells and a staff of fire he found along the way. He's not wearing any armor, and instead has a full huntsman's outfit (enchanted with fire/frost/shock shield). He's level 10 now. Up to this point, I've only trained in armorer, so I could get it to the level where I can repair my own magic items (the staves). Now that I'm at that point, I'm not sure what I should train next. I don't use too many of the other skills except for sneak, and that's leveling fine on it's own. However, I don't want to waste the opportunity to train. Any suggestions on what to train next?

Also, side note, are there any strengths to blunt weapons? It just seems that there are either slower or have shorter range than their bladed equivalents. Just curious. Thanks.

Well is your destruction or restoration low? I find them two hard to level on my past characters, they were warriors though. So that said maybe athletics? I find athletics the slowest to level, acrobatics isn't too bad as I jump around everywhere so it levels often, so yeah I'd go for athletics.
Unless you need to get to a certain level in a skill to use a specific spell or make a specific custom spell and it requires the skill to be expert to use it.

Not too clued up on the blunt weapons question, but I agree with you they seem slower and feel like they have shorter range.

If you want to make use of your 5 skill training sessions per level, I recommend restoration. It can be one of the hardest skills to increase, especially at the highest levels. Plus I think it's quite a useful skill.

- Athletics is another one, but since you said you aren't using weapons much, you may not have to worry about that skill. It simply makes your fatigue consumption when using weapons and such, more efficient.
- Mercantile is arguably the hardest skill to level up manually, but you can get rich enough without a high mercantile skill.
- Destruction may be hard to increase manually, but not as hard as restoration.
- Speachcraft may also be tedious to increase manually, but nothing that illusion can't fix. Illusion increases fast enough just from casting those kinds of spells.

Given the skills you seem to use, the above posts suggesting restoration and destruction make sense because they are slow to level.

Another consideration that may or may not be of concern for you is attribute gains. Let's say you don't really use much blade/blunt or h2h but want to go for a +5 for a level up - use those three strength skills as you need to in order get a combination of 5 skill ups, then go train one of them for 5 more. Again, this is only if you care about working or planning your attribute gains. Sometimes that could mean working with skills you may not use a lot and suggestive of buying training perhaps.

I'm assuming that with a magic-based character you've got most of your magic skills the way you want them, but I'd point out that Illusion only really gets good at higher skill level, when you can cast Invisibility, Chameleon, Paralyze, and strong Command spells. It that skill is of interest, it might be one to train up.

It's a little late now, but staves don't get repaired, just recharged.

Not a concern for me. I'm using the SPAM mod, so my potential attribute gains are the same every level.



I thought about restoration. I'm at 50 now, but it's leveling up kind of low. I thought I should avoid major skills for training because in being linked to my leveling, I never have to worry about them falling behind. Also, I created "cantrips" that cost 1 mana for each spell school. When I want to bump up a skill, I just rapid cast the cantrip until I get a few points, then chug a potion or use a well to regain mana.



That's what I thought, too. Not to mention, they are large in size so they really obstruct your view when drawn. Staves are bad enough, which is why I often have a magic dagger. I guess there isn't any more to it.



They do if you use them to block. Besides, also keep a dagger on hand, that I well eventually enchant with absorb magica.



Is it a big deal for a non-physical character? I don't see much of a use for fatigue, and I can circle enemies fast enough with my mediocre speed/skill.



That's true, though I created a Destruction cantrip (the weakest Destroy Weapon spell I could craft), so I could level both Destruction and Armorer at the same time. Also, I only take 1 level for every 7 points of Destruction skill, this way leveled enemies don't outclass my ability to dish out damage.



Yeah, as soon as I could, I created a Charm/Fortify Personality spell to the max for 2 seconds.

Ah...I see. Well then, I stand corrected. This comes from a non-blocking Mage character. No wonder I never had to repair one. I was also under the assumption, you were using summoned weapons. Very well, carry on then. :goodjob:

Yeah, I feel like Blunt is outclassed by Blade in almost every category. Although Blunt weapons tend to do more damage than their Blade counterparts (and only by 1 or 2 points), they are MUCH slower and heavier, not to mention nearly all of the best enchanted weapons tend to be blades later on in the game. I would urge you to train Illusion; in my opinion, that's the best magic skill (and perhaps overall skill) in the game. While it's true that the lower level (<50) spells are kind of lame, the higher level spells are some of the most satisfying in the game (Invisibility, Silence and, of course, Paralyse).

Sounds like you've got most skills covered then, the only other one I can think is armourer? Would be useful if it's mastered.