The Skills:, 18 in total, these are the lot. Options

[Thomas Kaira]

COMBAT:
-Archery
-Block
-Heavy Armor
-One-Handed
-Two-Handed
-Smithing

MAGIC:
-Alteration
-Conjuration
-Destruction
-Illusion
-Restoration
-Enchanting

STEALTH:
-Alchemy
-Light Armor
-Lockpicking
-Pickpocketing
-Sneak
-Speechcraft

So what is of note here (along with my thoughts, of course)?

1. Alchemy has been moved to Stealth specialization, with Enchanting and Smithing in Magic and Combat, respectively. This gives each specialization its own "crafting" skill. Warriors make weapons, mages enchant weapons, and rogues make potions and poisons. Makes sense to me.

2. Archery has been moved to Combat. I'm not too sure of why this was done, as now Stealth is the only specialization without a native means of defense, but I've never done pure characters, myself, so I see no harm from this.

3. Mysticism is indeed gone. I never used it all that much anyways.

4. Pickpocketing has been separated from Sneak. Well, I'm always a fan of new skills, so I'm interested to see how this will work out.

5. Athletics is gone (wasn't really much of a skill anyways), as is Acrobatics (likely integrated into Light Armor, as rogues really do need that ability to dodge).

6. Mercantile is gone (good riddance), likely integrated into Speechcraft. Makes sense, after all, Mercantile is a form of Speechcraft, is it not? Anything to make that skill more useful, because in Oblivion, Speechcraft was a joke.

7. Blade and Blunt are now redefined as one-handed and two-handed. This is really the only change I see up there I disagree with, as fighting styles are very different between hilts and hafts and neither weapon type can be interchanged smoothly. You just don't fight the same way with a sword as you do with an axe, and being proficient in one does not automatically make you proficient in the other. Still, at least the player will be permitted to make that differentiation.

8. Hand-to-Hand is gone, as well. Likely merged into Two-Handed combat. Again, doesn't make much sense, as again martial arts is a very different combat medium from fighting with weapons, but the player can still make the choice, or choose not to if he wants.

This post has been edited by Thomas Kaira: Aug 8 2011, 05:35 PM

[ureniashtram]

If you hate Skyrim so much, why bother posting your hate? Isn't such a waste of time, moaning and groaning and whining about 'how Skyrim sucks, now woe is me!' 'Skyrim sucks, I must hate at it just because I had my hope dashed about a Morrowind remake!' "Skyrim sucks and I must bash it just because I CAN!'

Yeah. We get you the first time. Some people actually LIKE the direction Skyrim is taking. And they are bound to take offence at this ridiculous notion of yours of 'hate Skyrim because ..etc'. If you hate what the direction the ES is taking, why don't you go to the other classical RPG games like Baldur's Gate or something? Sure, maybe the Elder Scrolls IS going mainstream action-RPG with more focus on action, but what can you or I or anybody can do? One thing for sure; hating/moaning/crying won't bring what you want. I really think that you should direct your troll-y-ness elsewhere because you're really offending some people here. Or at the least live with what ES has become.

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The only thing I frown upon is the combat techniques for melee weapons. TK said it all, it should be different. But I guess I can live with the changes, particulary to Mercantile and Athletics. I'm fairly neutral at what they did to Mystiscism and also Athletics.

Now I'm excited about the crafting skills! Nothing like making a weapon and have it broken by the end of the day!