Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Perks System Information

Being one of the most anticipated games up to this time in history, it seems as though Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is revolutionizing everything about role playing games. I personally haven’t played an Elder Scrolls game, but be sure that I am picking this puppy up as soon as it is released. If you’re doing the same, check out my article detailing the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Collector’s Edition to see if you’d want to pick the $150 package up.

With the new addition to the Elder Scrolls franchise comes a new perks system in which a player receives an awesome new perk each and every time they advance to a new level. The old stat system is still included in the background while this new perk system is laid over top as the main focus. Each perk requires certain skill requirements before you can unlock them, so each one won’t be just an easy-peasy unlock.

There are a total of 280 perks in the upcoming game and they are spread across three ‘constellations’ for each class. You can intermingle between each skill tree to cross-breed classes as you please. Let’s move on to the good stuff and see some awesome perks!

Warrior

The Warrior – Archery

• Bows do 25% more damage
• Zoom in
• Zoom in slows time
• 10% Crit Chance
• Move faster with drawn bow
• Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies
• Chance for paralyze
• Draw bow 30% faster

The Warrior – Block

• Quick Reflexes
• Elemental Protection
• Deflect Arrows
• Shield Charge
• Deadly Bash
• Shield Wall
• Power Bash
• Bash Disarm

The Warrior – Heavy Armor

• Increase armor rating by 20% (5 ranks)
• Unarmed attacks with heavy armor gauntlets—damage increased by gauntlets’ armor rating
• Half fall damage if all in heavy armor
• Additional 25% armor if in matching set
• 25% armor bonus if all in heavy armor (not matching)
• 50% less stagger if all in heavy armor
• 10% damage reflected back to enemy if all in heavy armor
• Heavy armor weighs nothing and doesn’t slow you down

The Warrior – One Handed

• Hack and Slash
• One Handed Prowess
• One-Handed Tactics
• Bone Breaker

The Warrior – Two Handed

• 2H weapons do 20% more damage (5 ranks)
• Attacks with warhammers ignore 25% armor
• Attacks with battleaxes do extra bleeding damage
• Attacks with greatswords do extra critical damage
• Power attacks cost 25% less stamina
• Standing power attacks do 25% bonus damage, chance to decapitate
• Sprinting power attacks do double (critical) damage
• Sideways power attacks hit all targets
• Backward power attacks have 25% chance of paralysis

The Warrior – Smithing

• Steel Smithing
• Arcane Blacksmith
• Dwarven Smithing
• Elven Smithing
• Orcish Smithing
• Advanced Armors
• Glass Smithing
• Daedric Smithing
• Ebony Smithing
• Dragon Smithing

Mage

The Mage – Alteration

• 50% Magicka Cost (5 Ranks)
• Dual casting overcharges for more powerful spell
• Absorb 30% Magicka that hits you
• Alteration spells have greater duration (Ranked)

The Mage – Conjuration

• 50% Magicka Cost (5 Ranks)
• Dual casting overcharges for more powerful spell
• Bound weapons do more damage
• Bound weapons cast Soul Trap on target
• Bound weapons banish certain creatures
• Reanimate dead with 100 more HP
• Summon 2 Atronachs or reanimated zombies
• Summon Atronachs at twice the distance
• Summoned Atronachs are twice as strong

The Mage – Destruction

• 50% Magicka Cost (5 Ranks)
• Dual casting overcharges for more powerful spell
• Shock damage has chance to disintegrate targets if health is low
• Frost damage has chance to paralyze targets if health is low
• Fire damage has chance to make targets flee if health is low
• Place runs 5x further away
• Fire spells cause more damage (Ranked)
• Shock Spells cause more damage (Ranked)
• Frost spells cause more damage (Ranked)

The Mage – Illusion

• 50% Magicka Cost (5 Ranks)
• Dual casting overcharges for more powerful spell
• Spells work on higher level animals
• Spells work on higher level people
• All spellcasting (from any school) is done silently
• Spells work on undead, daedra and automatons
• Fear spells work on higher level enemies
• Kindred Mage

The Mage – Restoration

• 50% Magicka Cost (5 Ranks)
• Dual casting overcharges for more powerful spell
• Healing spells 50% more effective
• Spells more effective against undead
• Magicka regenerates 25% faster
• Once per day autocast 250PH restoration when health drops low
• Healing spells also restore stamina

The Mage – Enchanting

• Enchantments 20% stronger (Ranked)
• Enchanted armor 25% stronger
• Soul gems provide extra magicka for recharging
• Death blows to creatures but not people trap souls
• Health, Magicka and Stamina Enchants are stronger
• Extra effect on already enchanted weapon can be applied
• Shock enchants 25% stronger
• Fire enchants 25% stronger
• Frost enchants 25% stronger

Thief

The Thief – Alchemy

• Potions 20% stronger (5 ranks)
• Potions for restoring Health, Magicka or Stamina are 25% more powerful
• Poisons are 25% more effective
• Poisons last for twice as many hits
• Two ingredients are gathered from plants
• 50% resistance to all poisons
• All negative effects removed from potions, and positive effects removed from poisons
• 2 effects of an ingredient are revealed when testing it for the first time instead of 1

The Thief – Light Armor

• (Detail pending)

The Thief – Lockpicking

• Wax Key – Enables you to make a copy of a key for a lock you just picked
• Further detail pending.

The Thief – Pickpocket

• Light Fingers – Reduces the influence weight and value of items on your chance of successfully pickpocketing an item (5 ranks)
• Night Thief – Pickpocketing unconscious/sleeping NPC works almost every time
• Poisoned – Silently place poison in other peoples’ pockets to harm or kill
• Cutpurse – Pickpocketing gold is 50% easier
• Extra pockets – Carrying capacity is increased by 100
• Keymaster – Pickpocketing keys almost always works
• Misdirections – You can pickpocket equipped weapons
• Perfect Touch – you can pickpocket equipped items

The Thief – Sneak

• 20% harder to detect (5 ranks)
• Sneak attacks do 6x damage with 1H weapons
• Sneak attacks do 3x damage with bows
• Sneak attacks do 15x damage with daggers
• Noise from armor reduced by 50%
• No longer activate pressure plates
• Sprinting while sneaking performs silent forward roll
• Running does not affect detection stance
• Crouching can make hostile enemies lose sight of you and search for new target
• Vanish – Forces your attacker to focus their attacks on another while entering combat in sneak mode

The Thief – Speech

• Buying and selling price 10% better (5 ranks)
• 10% price from the opposite sex
• Invest in shops and increase available gold permanently
• Master Trader – all shops have 1000 more gold to spend
• Buy and sell from any merchant regardless of what they normally sell
• Intimidation attempts are twice as successful
• Persuasion attempts are twice as successful
• Bribe—forces guards to ignore your bounty

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