What skills are good choices for Training?

Since it seems just about any skill can be power-leveled, I would like to know which takes the longest so i can use my fortune to pay a trainer to help me out.

Which skills are hardest to level "manually", and could most stand to benefit from free levels from training?


Solution 1:

In a general sense, I focus on paying to level skills that would take a long time to accrue manually:

  • Lockpicking
  • Whatever armor I don't use often (e.g. Heavy Armor for a sneak thief),
  • Conjuration
  • Sneak

For the rest, I just alter my play style to have them level up quickly, or I use a number of exploits to level them quickly.

I leveled up block extremely quickly after level 53 by going into a dwemer ruin with a Master Dwemer sphere and just let it wail on my light armor and on my shield, and healing myself with a restoration spell. It took about 30 minutes, but I went from 50-100 in that time for block, and light armor went from 60-90.

Solution 2:

I'm aiming for a level 70-something-do-everything-god-like character. So I train the skills I don't use. For example, I started out a mage (so I trained archery) and when I got level 100 destruction I switched to 2-handed heavy warrior (so I trained single-handed).

The beauty of Skyrim is: if you change your play style, it doesn't really matter.