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Should I Legendary My Skills in Skyrim? A Comprehensive Guide

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So, you’re staring at a Skill Tree in Skyrim, it’s maxed out at 100, and that enticing “Legendary” button is beckoning. Should you do it? The short answer is: it depends on your playstyle and goals. Legendary skills can be a fantastic way to keep leveling and experimenting, but they also come with significant drawbacks. Let’s delve deeper to help you decide.

Legendary skills allow you to reset a skill back to 15, refunding all Perk Points invested in that tree. This allows for continued character progression beyond the initial level cap (which is technically nonexistent anyway, thanks to the Legendary system). The major benefit is gaining more levels and, therefore, more perk points. If you want to become a perk point powerhouse, then legendary skills are the way to go. The other main benefit is you can level up only skills you want to use and experiment with. If you only want to level up stealth skills like sneak and pickpocket, you are able to level up exclusively on those without having to branch out into skills you don’t want to use like heavy armor or destruction.

However, dropping a core combat skill like Archery or One-Handed back to 15 can leave you feeling surprisingly vulnerable, especially at higher difficulties. Carefully consider the consequences before making a skill legendary.

Understanding the Legendary Skill System

Before diving into specific skills, let’s clarify the mechanics of the Legendary system.

How it Works

When a skill reaches level 100, the “Legendary” option becomes available. Activating it:

Resets the skill to level 15.
Refunds all Perk Points spent within that skill tree.
Allows you to level the skill again, contributing to your overall character level.

The Pros and Cons

Pros:

Unlimited Leveling: Break free from the level cap and continue earning Perk Points.
Skill Specialization: Focus on leveling skills you enjoy and find useful, even at high character levels.
Experimentation: Respecialize your character by reallocating Perk Points into different skills.
Late Game Leveling: Levels are easy to acquire in late game due to the more difficult challenges.
More Perks: Legendary skills increase the number of perks affecting the player over time.

Cons:

Temporary Weakness: Combat skills reset to 15 can significantly reduce your effectiveness in battle.
Re-Leveling Grind: Leveling a skill from 15 to 100 takes time and effort.
Skill Tree Dependencies: Some perks higher in the tree will be inaccessible after going legendary.

Which Skills Should You Make Legendary?

The best skills to make legendary are highly dependent on your character build and play style. Here are some general recommendations:

Good Choices

Skills leveled up slowly: Skills that are slow to level up are good to be made legendary in order to boost progress and gain more perks.
Skills that are easy to re-level: The easiest skills to level back to 100 will result in the best progress.
Crafting Skills (Alchemy, Smithing, Enchanting): These skills are generally safe to make legendary, as they don’t directly impact combat effectiveness once the items are crafted.
Magic Skills (Alteration, Illusion): These can be relatively easy to level back up, especially Alteration. Alteration has some very useful spells for any class, with Flesh spells being some of the most powerful in the game, particularly higher-level versions like Ebony Flesh.
Speech: Though not as impactful, leveling Speech can be done passively through bartering, and its benefits are mostly QoL.
Skills That Don’t Make Sense: Don’t bother going legendary for a skill that is part of your core combat build.

Proceed with Caution

Combat Skills (Archery, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Destruction, etc.): Making these legendary can severely impact your combat ability. Only do so if you have a solid backup plan (followers, alternative skills) and are prepared for a temporary power dip.
Armor Skills (Light Armor, Heavy Armor): While less impactful than weapon skills, dropping your armor skill back to 15 will significantly reduce your armor rating.
Restoration: This is one of the most needed magic skills in Skyrim. Leveling restoration is painful and difficult.
Destruction: Leveling Destruction in Skyrim is difficult, but it is also valuable in combat.
Conjuration: Like Restoration and Destruction, Conjuration is very useful in combat.
Heavy and Light Armor: Leveling heavy and light armor is very difficult.
Illusion: Like Restoration, Destruction, and Conjuration, leveling Illusion is difficult.

Skills to Consider Avoiding

Archery: At Level 100 Never ever make Archery legendary!
Skills you use in combat: Never do it with skills you use in combat unless you wanna be a newbie combatant all over again.

Tips for Legendary Skills

Plan Ahead: Before making a skill legendary, consider how it will affect your character’s overall power and gameplay.
Prepare for the Re-Leveling Grind: Have a strategy for quickly leveling the skill back up. For example, crafting iron daggers is a fast way to level Smithing.
Use Training: Pay trainers to level your skill back up quickly.
Utilize Standing Stones: The Thief, Warrior, and Mage Stones can significantly speed up skill leveling.
Save Regularly: If you’re unsure about making a skill legendary, save your game first.
Smithing: Smithing is a very good choice to make a skill legendary.
Alchemy: Alchemy is a very good choice to make a skill legendary.
Skills affecting damage: Don’t make skills affecting damage legendary.
Skills affecting defense: Don’t make skills affecting defense legendary.

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to make a skill legendary is a personal one. Weigh the pros and cons carefully, consider your play style, and don’t be afraid to experiment! And remember, learning through play is a valuable approach to mastering games, as the Games Learning Society knows well. Visit GamesLearningSociety.org to learn more about this concept.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are 15 frequently asked questions about the Legendary skill system in Skyrim:

1. Does making a skill legendary make it level faster?

No. Each time you take a skill to Legendary, it will always take the same amount to level up. Your character will require more experience to level up in general, but it will always take the same amount to level up a skill.

2. Is it harder to level up on legendary Skyrim?

It isn’t harder to level up using legendary skills, but it is harder to level up the higher your character level gets.

3. What is the fastest skill to level up legendary in Skyrim?

Alteration is perhaps the quickest and easiest skill to level. Alteration has some very useful spells for any class, with Flesh spells being some of the most powerful in the game, particularly higher-level versions like Ebony Flesh.

4. How many times can you make a skill legendary in Skyrim?

There is no limit. You can make a skill legendary as many times as you like.

5. What is the max level in Skyrim without legendary skills?

If you don’t make any of your skills legendary, the cap is level 81.

6. Is there anything better than Legendary in Skyrim?

There’s no status past Legendary, however you can still improve the quality of the item if you get your Smithing skill high enough to do so.

7. What is the max legendary level in Skyrim?

Since patch 1.9, there is no maximum level anymore.

8. Can you get level 100 in every skill in Skyrim?

Yes, all characters level up their skills at the same speed with use, and as such you’re able to, eventually, reach the maximum level of 100 in every skill tree.

9. How many legendary skills do you need to get all perks?

You could get all perks at cl 252, but that take 809,475 points. You would have to legendary a skill 147 times.

10. What happens when you max out a skill tree in Skyrim?

Fully maxing out the skill trees in Skyrim doesn’t grant any extra rewards, it is still an amazing accomplishment.

11. Can you max out all skill perks in Skyrim?

It is not possible unless you cheat. Even if you max out all your skills you’ll only be at around level 80. There are 251 perks.

12. Is Legendary the highest upgrade in Skyrim?

Legendary is the highest, but it can still be upgraded further if you get higher +smithing gear/potions.

13. What happens on legendary difficulty in Skyrim?

At the most basic level, Legendary reduces the amount of damage you do to 25% while increasing the amount of damage the enemies do by 300%. This has a couple of effects: weapon, blocking, and armor skills level a lot faster.

14. What is the easiest skill to level in Skyrim?

Conjuration is one of the easiest skills to power-level since it doesn’t require you to actually summon anything to gain experience.

15. Should I legendary Archery?

It is a relatively good idea to make combat skills legendary.