The least useful skill in Skyrim?

[osheao]

as said before, useless perks is the better question, since, every single skill can be useful depending on play type. for me, it's very obvious that the lockpicking skill tree is absolutely useless for EVERY play type. the lockpicking system was poorly implemented and the perk tree is horrid.

 

[Bruce of High Rock]

I have a different view, and hope I don't, as a newbie here cause too much controversy with it. This is just MY opinion.

Personally, I feel the skill least useful to ME, is, enchanting, and I say that comparing this version to the way it was done in Oblivion, where, if you knew the spell (say, pack mule), and you had grand soul gems, and enough gold, you could, for example, enchant your entire armor set to "feather" 40 points per piece...at master of heavy armor, where it became weightless on you, (you need the "conditioning" perk for that now), with my Deadric armor enchanted for feather I could carry like 900 or something like that.

Same thing for weapons- if you knew the expert or master level destruction spells, had the big soul gems and a bunch of gold...well you get the idea. Because of the way I play, I can't see investing perks in enchanting, and until you have a skill over say 60 and a bunch of perks, the weapons and armor you find will be more powerful than the ones you can create, as a beginner in enchanting. As I've said elsewhere, why would I destroy a sword that deals 35 fire damage, to create one that deals 6? Now as far as CLOTHING, I do use it now and then, say, to imbue water breathing on to a ring, and things of that nature, but as far as creating powerful weapons and armor enchantments to me, personally it's not worth the perks. My smithing is always high (and perky) enough to raise base damage on most weapons to "Legendary." As I create Deadric weapons as soon as possible, then upgrade them, and do invest perks in one handed, archery, etc, that plus say gauntlets that enhance bow damage that I can find in a chest somewhere, put the damage of the weapons at well over 100.

I wouldn't call lock picking the skill "useless" although people have made good points about refraining from investing in too many perks in it. The way I usually play is, once I've made a new character, I go to Riverwood and do Faendal's favor, which gets me my first follower without having to do the main quest if I don't feel like it yet, then do the Thieves Guild quests up to where you get the skeleton key. Yes, not a good move normally to go into Dwemer ruins at that low a level, but, Karliah and Byrnjolf are with me). Once I've done with that, I go all about Skyrim, merrily opening any chest or door in my way, while still improving my lock pick skill, and I do invest in the ones to the left...wax key etc...and as I wander about I buy picks wherever I find them, take them off dead bandits etc. When I have a lock pick of 90, and about 3,000 picks, i take the key back to Nocturnal. Now, I have plenty of picks to work the locks on my own. Doing this I have never had any problems lock picking, even at say level 6, so, I don't worry about the other lock pick perks, either.

Just my opinions....

Regards

Bruce

 

[EleanorUnicorn]

I have to correct you here on your misguided take on Illusion..

ahh.. thankyou streets for educating me! i never realised dual casting meant double the level power when it came to illusion, i always used to get annoyed because it constantly said 'enemy resisted calm/fear' etc! and now i know why so, thankyou! might go back to my mage character for a bit and start illusioning the crap outta everyone

 

[Iceman_mat]

Now I understand every skill has a use, but don't you agree that some skills are over all less useful then others do to the very nature of the skill? Now I do not thing any skill is useless, but I do find some less useful then others, and not just because of play style but do to over all usefulness to almost any build or character in general.

Note: Please ignore the poll I accidentally hit enter while trying to remove it do to lack of option space for options

EDIT: I meant this to be a question which ignores the usefulness of perks or special items/enchantments. How useful is the skill itself without considering any specific perks/items.

Lockpicking is not useless, it is used, often and if you know how to do it, fuq the skeleton key (never got it, picked master locks with like novice perk.....if that)

I would say a skill that is not so usefull would be speech. True you can get it for price haggling / w.e but i'm pretty sure it is a tree that not to many players invest fully into as they can make their own armor, weapons as well as find such things themselves.

-Cheers

 

[Dagmar]

Lockpicking is not useless, it is used, often....I would say a skill that is not so usefull would be speech.

You use Speech every time you buy or sell something, so going by the criterion of something being useless or not based on how frequently it's used Speech is far from useless. You also use it every time you try to persuade or intimidate someone.

 

[Iceman_mat]

You use Speech every time you buy or sell something, so going by the criterion of something being useless or not based on how frequently it's used Speech is far from useless. You also use it every time you try to persuade or intimidate someone.

Right forgot about that, duh moment lol

I would have to change that to block then. Easier to dodge enemies I find then trying to block the attack

-Cheers

 

[Templar of Talos]

Alchemy: The amount of Potions you find in dungeons is ridiculous, so what's the point in making your own? And poisons? Hah! Never use them, I can normally one shot anything you can poison.

 

[Hacksaw]

I notice that the original post didn't want to get into perks, but we're all doing it. If we discuss the 'least useful skill without perks', then we're simply discussing secondary skills, outside of our areas of specialization (where all the perks are).

Without perks, I'd say the least useful skill is destruction. No character would have enough magic power to take down enemies with direct damage spells, and a big supply of arrows is much easier to come by than a big magic pool.

But if the real discussion is "Which skill is the worst place to invest perks?" then that's another story. The Skeleton Key allows you to be a master lockpick with no perks at all, and the Speech perks are purely a matter of convenience -- all my high level characters are wealthy enough without any speech perks.

 

[Hacksaw]

Alchemy: The amount of Potions you find in dungeons is ridiculous, so what's the point in making your own? And poisons? Hah! Never use them, I can normally one shot anything you can poison.

While you do find lots of potions, alchemy can still be a useful moneymaker for all those cheap, lightweight ingredients you pick up.

 

[Templar of Talos]

The Skeleton Key allows you to be a master lockpick with no perks at all

You don't even need The Skeleton key to open master locks with no perks in Lockpicking. All you need is patience and a few hundred Lockpicks. They're cheap enough to buy and you find lots of them on dead bandits.

 

[Xarnac]

Once you take away perks, as was retroactively done by TC, you start getting into a representational and esoteric meaning of the skills/words. The skills end up transcending gameplay and the mechanics for their real world and deduced Nirn-logic counterparts. Or the words/skills/ES existence means nothing more than the games and lore allow, with fan logic unraveling the finer outcomes. So in the end nothing is as useless as another, regardless of perk acquisition or not. As one is a key to another and without it, all crumble. The tuned precision that makes up ES quantum workings (on the lore level), and allows all styles of play through the gameplay mechanics, whether literal or not.

Actually, taking away the perks from the debate makes equality for all skill's usefulness even clearer.

 

[Hacksaw]

Now I understand every skill has a use, but don't you agree that some skills are over all less useful then others do to the very nature of the skill? Now I do not thing any skill is useless, but I do find some less useful then others, and not just because of play style but do to over all usefulness to almost any build or character in general.

Note: Please ignore the poll I accidentally hit enter while trying to remove it do to lack of option space for options

EDIT: I meant this to be a question which ignores the usefulness of perks or special items/enchantments. How useful is the skill itself without considering any specific perks/items.

Usefulness of a skill without perks? If you haven't invested perks into a skill, then its either useless or close to it because you're finding other ways to achieve your goals. You also ignore level advancement, where extra health, mana, and stamina are assigned. So its a no-brainer that most of the magic schools are useless to a combat character who never grew her mana pool and has no enchanted items (or perks) to reduce casting cost.

I think what you were trying to get at is "Which skill is the least useful overall, for all types of character builds?" Either that or "Which skill is the worst place to invest perks?"

The useless skill idea was a serious flaw in Oblivion, where magic spells allowed you to open locks without the lockpick skill, sneak around without the sneak skill, and improve disposition without the speechcraft skill.

I don't think there's a skill in Skyrim that can be completely and wholly replicated by other means. And they can all be useful if you choose to use them.