This is a speculation thread on what skills we have, what were removed, their names, and what dimensions of the new crafting system would fall under what skills.

We know the total number of skills in Skyrim is 18, Oblivion had 21.
For one, we know mysticism was removed, but effectively replaced with enchantment.
Blunt and Blade were replaced with 1h and 2h.
Hand-to-hand will probably fall under the 2h section, as the forms of combat have been condensed down to 1h, 2h, and marksman. Lowering the skill count to 20
From what we can see in the screenshot, Armorer was renamed into Smithing.
Alchemy was ported into the stealth section of skills.
Athletics and Acrobatics will probably be condensed down into a single skill. Lowering the Skill Count to 19.
The last thing I can think of to meet that 18 is the merger of Mercantile and Speechcraft.

Any thoughts or corrections on what I have said?

Here is my list
Combat:
One hand
Two Hand + Hand-to-Hand
Smithing
Block
Athletics + Acrobatics
Heavy Armor

Magic:
Alteration
Conjuration
Destruction
Restoration
Illusion
Enchanting

Stealth:
Alchemy
Security
Speechcraft + Mercantile
Sneak
Marksman
Light Armor

Other suggestions include:

Sneak and Security have been merged

Heavy Armour and Light Armour have been merged.

Combat:
One hand
Two Hand
Smithing
Block
Hand to Hand
Heavy Armor

Magic:
Alteration
Conjuration
Destruction
Restoration
Illusion
Enchanting

Stealth:
Alchemy
Security
Speechcraft
Athletics
Marksman
Light Armor

I think i read or heard it somewhere, that Athletic's and Acrobatic's had merged. or something like that.

EDIT: @ResistanceKnight, you don't have a stealth/sneak skill...


Seems like that is a very likely explanation of what happened.


1h
2h
Archery
Smithing
Alchemy
Enchanting
Destruction
Conjuration
Illusion
Alteration
Restoration
Acrobatics+Athletics?
Speechcraft+Mercantile? (there is a skill that ends in -aft)
Sneak
Alchemy
Block
Heavy Armor
Light Armor
Security

That's 19. Could they shove security in with sneak and just make a 'stealth' skill. Or combine block with each of the armor skills?
EDIT2:
-I guess I failed to give the perk system greater though. It would make sense to have a 'Defense' Skill, with the perks being block/heavy/light armor. (or perhaps even unarmored?)

-I think it's safe to assume athletics and acrobatics will be separate perks within a combined skill.

-A stealth skill with perks being stealth-attacks, sneaking, pick-pocketing, lockpicks (maybe a return of probes?).

-Speechcraft skill that deals with personality/persuasion/bribery/information gathering/bartering/etc.

-Smithing skill could likely include Repairs, construction of armor, construction of weapons, etc.

-Alchemy will probably have 'cooking' under that heading, though it will be interesting to see how that's implemented (ie, whether it's necessary at all, and what the advantages would be if you did cook...)

-The fact that they're referring to Marksman as "Archery" now gives me very little hope for other things like crossbows/throwing-darts, but I'm too ecstatic over the new bow-system to really care. I love the overhaul in that regard.

EDIT 3: The more I think about it, the more sense it makes to have a 'Defense' skill instead of three separate skills for the armors and block. For example, if you know how to wear a certain type of armor, the skill is very transferable to other types of armor.

Such as:

----------------Player 1 (light armor) -----------------------Player 2 (heavy armor)
Defense----------------100 -------------------------------------------- 50
Light Armor------------75-----------------------------------------------15
Heavy Armor-----------25 ---------------------------------------------- 50

In that case, even though Player 1 has the immensely larger defense skill, the heavy armor skill would be comparable to Player 2. Though I'm only guessing on perk levels, I think the idea is clear.

Acrobatics and Athletics being merged makes the most sense to me



^this looks about right. though heavy and light armor should be merged and sneak and security should be different.


sneaking and opening locks are two very different things

Sure thats an accurate list? That means sneak was either removed or merged into security. All the same, I think we should look into the crafting system. I'm curious about that right now, is it going to be part of the skill its most like, or will some parts be handled differently?
Cooking, though it could be part of alchemy I guess, it seems unlikely. Smithing is part of well... Smithing

I did a list of 18 skills a while back,i try and remember what they are.
But one thing i did remember is that archery,was in stealth.
Now in the new thread " confirmed features" it says about combat skills have merged one handed,two handed,and archery.
I'll need to re-read some of the info again,as i can't remember.
But does that mean archery is now a combat skill,instead of stealth?
If so i may need to re-think my 18 skills.
Does anyone know this for sure?

I put sneek and lock picking under security. In my mind, if lock picking is a minigame, it doesn't need a skill, a perk here or there to make it easier would work just fine. If its based on player skill instead of character, what's the point of having a skill there in the first place?

Also, security should also contain your ability to blend in durring the day as with the night. Dressing a specific way to get into specific places you normaly wouldn't be able to, being able to blend in, being able to use the darkness...it all should be in security.

Combat:
One hand
Two Hand
Smithing
Block
Hand to Hand
Armor

Magic:
Alteration
Conjuration
Destruction
Restoration
Illusion
Enchanting

Stealth:
Alchemy
Security
Speechcraft
Athletics
Marksman
Sneak

^This is my guess

I think we can at least rule out this option: there'll be Heavy Armour, Light Armour, but no Block. In such an option, using a shield would be distributed across two skills. I doubt Bethesda will go that way.

I hadn't considered your suggestion of a single Defence skill which contains Shield, Heavy Armour and Light Armour. It's an interesting thought. Not sure I'd like the game to go that way, and to be honest I doubt it will, but an interesting suggestion nonetheless.

That would be a well needed change as the two often walk hand in hand for true athletes

I refuse to believe sneak and security have been merged. Makes ZERO sense.

I disagree my friend,i think it makes total sense.
Security is breaking in,unlocking..to me that goes hand in hand with sneaking.
If you are a rogue,thief,assassin,your breaking in somewhere to steal,or murder etc,and you would naturally want to do that undetected.
You wouldn't just stand there in broad daylight,unlocking someones door etc.
To me merging these two skills makes sense.

I think the issue might be finding enough stuff for the Security skill to govern. It didn't do a lot in Oblivion. Bethesda might have just decided to make Security a perk tree in a general Stealth skill - there's perks to open Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard locks (as a suggestion). They might also have figured that lock-picking tends to be the sort of thing you do when you are sneaking, which might have added motivation to merging the two skills.

I wouldn't like this either. I would have preferred to have seen Bethesda try to do more with Security. But, to be honest, I'm not confident.

Let's see, here's what's pretty much confirmed:

Combat
One-handed
Two-handed
Smithing
?
?
?

Magic
Destruction
Alteration
Restoration
Conjuration
Illusion
Enchant

Stealth
Alchemy
Marksman/archery
Stealth
Speechcraft
?
?

Athletics and Acrobatics are almost certainly cut, I think. There was a remark in an article that they didn't want us hopping around all day to gain levels, and I'd guess that would also apply to running around. I'm guessing we still have Light and Heavy Armor, and Security; Merchantile is probably now part of Speechcraft. This leaves us with two more Combat slots, and what I would consider three good candidates: Hand-to-Hand, Block, and Medium Armor. Hand-to-Hand could be folded into one of the weapon skills, or Block could be folded into weapons (for parrying with weapons) and armor skills (for shield use), or we could just not have Medium Armor again.

lol,why would they combine skills like "security" and "sneak" or "speechcraft" and "mercantile" or "athletics" and "acrobatics" but not combine "hand to hand" with something else.
Are you telling me that "hand to hand" is more important than say "security" and thus should remain as it's own skill......wow,just wow.
No way is "hand to hand" it's own skill.It will surely be combined with another skill,most likely "2 handed" as other people have mentioned.

Marksman is now Archery, by the way.

One possibility is that both athletic and acrobatic is dropped, would not like it but a possibility, one comment was you don't need to jump around anymore.

Cooking is a craft without skill, same with many other things like mining, might have perks but no skill.

The reason hand to hand would have its own skill would be the same reason why marksman has its own skill instead of being put into the two handed combat skill. Combat is basically being broken up into the basics of the style, hand to hand uses no weapons, one hand uses one handed weapons, two handed uses two handed weapons, and marksman uses ranged weapons.

Hand to hand would warrant enough perks to be a skill on it's own,more so than athletics,acrobatics,and security.
To me it makes more sense to combine athletics and acrobatics,and sneak and security.
Hand to hand is it's own style...seperate from holding weapons etc.

remember the skills now hav to govern perks so it could happen since i cant imagine security havin many specific perks but i think acrobats and athelitics hav more of a chance of mixing than stealth and security.

also i agree with st frantic about h2h

Problem is that combat need one more skills, yes I would join it with 2 hand, move archery under combat as this grouping is just a category with no impact on the game.
Instead I fear that they drop both athletic and acrobatic and keep hand to hand as separate skill.
This would leave security and stealth separated and bows under stealth.

I don't understand the purpose in merging heavy and light armor. So there is only 1 skill that increases player defense and that's "armor"?

The OP seems legit to me.

I think that now the classes are out of the window, we do not need to categorize the skills into three archetypes any more, as the players can choose any skill that they like and improve them, as they like:

• Stealth
  
• Security
  
• Archery
  
• Perception? (versus Stealth and Illusion)
  
• Speechcraft + (Mercantile)
  
• Alchemy
  
• Illusion
  
• Conjuration
  
• Destruction
  
• Restoration
  
• Alteration
  
• Enchanting
  
• Smithing = (Crafting+Repair)
  
• Hand to hand
  
• One Handed
  
• Two Handed
  
• Defense = (Block + Parry?)
  
• Armor? Survival? Athletics? What?