Skills give tiny bonuses yet perks give massive ones. In some instances a skill needs perks.

So- whilst most spell skills do reduce magicka usage (or enchant usage) the perks Do most of the reduction. Things that increase the act by a precentage seem to do most of the power changing too.

Then there's the crafting skills

with smithing you improve what you have (fine weapons, legendary weapons etc) but the Armour part is a bit silly. Why do i need to get perks to make new armour? Surely skill alone should be enough to make new armour
With enchant.. weapons might change with skill but i for one didnt notice any difference in the quality of enchantments between starting levels and 53 (before i got it's first perk)
and with alchemy- if there is a difference then i have not noticed it.


Problem is that some of the perks are just... Not neccesary. Some of them should automatically be unlocked in my opinion (n/j/a/e/m in magics or 0/25/50/75/100 in one place perks and the smithing perks too whilst we are at it) il probably make a mod with this. But still... a lot of things done with perks should have been done with skills.

I agree that skill progression seems far too reliant on perks. I'm much more in favour of slow, natural progression rather than sudden leaps in ability.

I disagree about Smithing though. It actually makes sense for the ability to make a certain type of weapon/armour to be a one-off thing you can choose to learn in the form of a perk.

I tend to agree at least partially.

It does not make very much sense that you can be 100 (master) in a skill and still be completely useless at it.

I like the current system, and think it works well. It makes leveling up seem like less of a slow linear process and actually feels like real progress is being made when you get certain perks.

Whilst I agree that perks do contribute more to a characters power, I would rather see that balance addressed by the reduction in their power rather than folding them into the skills.
Quite a lot of the perks are simply too good. This makes others seem worthless by comparison. Some skills could also use some tweaking too (smithing I'm looking at you!).
I know people are going to say 'Stop right there! Don't nerf me!!' but by reducing some of the perks in strength you would also provide greater challenge (something people are complaining about).
This would also make skills seem more valuable, no longer would 40-50% increases through skills seem 'worthless' to some, as the perks themselves wouldn't be so overshadowing.

Then again when the construction kit comes out this will be fixed on PC to suit people's tastes. I don't see much getting changed outside that.
It also doesn't help with the massive amount of misinformation being thrown about regarding what the skills do (or don't do) themselves without perks.