How should I invest my perks?

[xkinsey]

At the moment, I'm playing a kind of generic brutish warrior, with heavy armour and 2h weapons. At the moment My main 4 skill trees are Heavy Armour, Two handed weapons, Smithing and Speech. With a few others on the side like block and enchanting that I'm less woried about.

I'm not sure whether I should spread my perk points evenly between those, or to focus mainly on one or two at a time. What do you think?

[Duneman]

As long as you're pumping points into Health at level up you'll be fine. This is because enemy kill cams operate based on your total health, and basically ignores your armor rating.

Personally I always put 3 perk points into Speech to unlock Merchant. The ability to sell anything to anyone is just too convenient to pass up; it also unlocks a few rare alchemy ingredients at merchants.

The weapon-specific perks(sword, axe, or mace) are generally underwhelming and can be skipped. Definitely get the one that offers a chance of decapitations with power attacks though, since that can proc any any point.

Leveling armor is also a slog, so maybe pay for some training. Vilkas with the Companions in Whiterun is a Master trainer. Getting 70 in Heavy Armor though lets you unlock the perk on the left side of the tree that makes heavy armor weightless when worn. Try to supplement the physical defence with some magical defense: boots/necklaces of elemental resistance, the Lord Stone(25% magic resist), the Atronach Stone(chance to absorb spells), etc.

In the early levels, before level 20 or so, the perks come fast, so feel free to spread them around. After that leveling slows though, so perhaps keep the points around to focus on key areas.

[NecroMaster]

There a build I did called the Paladin.

It was a warrior build that could use defensive spells effectively.
My race was Breton

The skills I invested in were
One handed
Block
Heavy armour
Alteration
Restoration
Enchanting

Oh it’s also noteable I activated the atronarch Stone

At first this build was a little tough as restoration and alteration did jack but as I improved the build easily became op.

The ridiculously high resistance to magic made spell casters worthless.
While the damage resistance made frontline fighters worthless.

This build is probably the 3rd most fun one I made.

[Bansheebutt]

I tend to focus on gaining new abilities than upgrading specific attributes early on. This isn't for optimal-ness, but for making the game more enjoyable.

For several levels, you can get by fine on Rank 1 of the Damage boosting perk for your weaponry, especially since you're invested in Smithing. In fact, I only say to take that perk just so you can access other perks in the weapon tree, like Sweep and Champion Stance.

Haggling and other speech perks are best taken as early as possible, as they will help you earn more gold for Training sessions for Armor and Crafting skills, if not Speech itself.

(Also, not that it matters, but with the skills you've mentioned your character sounds more like a Knight than a standard warrior.)

[fauxpas]

If use swords; pick up the critical chance perk.

[xkinsey]

Originally posted by Duneman:

As long as you're pumping points into Health at level up you'll be fine. This is because enemy kill cams operate based on your total health, and basically ignores your armor rating.

Personally I always put 3 perk points into Speech to unlock Merchant. The ability to sell anything to anyone is just too convenient to pass up; it also unlocks a few rare alchemy ingredients at merchants.

The weapon-specific perks(sword, axe, or mace) are generally underwhelming and can be skipped. Definitely get the one that offers a chance of decapitations with power attacks though, since that can proc any any point.

Leveling armor is also a slog, so maybe pay for some training. Vilkas with the Companions in Whiterun is a Master trainer. Getting 70 in Heavy Armor though lets you unlock the perk on the left side of the tree that makes heavy armor weightless when worn. Try to supplement the physical defence with some magical defense: boots/necklaces of elemental resistance, the Lord Stone(25% magic resist), the Atronach Stone(chance to absorb spells), etc.

In the early levels, before level 20 or so, the perks come fast, so feel free to spread them around. After that leveling slows though, so perhaps keep the points around to focus on key areas.

What about stamina? I get that putting points into health is good, but using 2 handed weapons takes a lot of stamina and can often be a detriment to me when in combat.

[Duneman]

Your first 10 levels or so can be put into stamina if you wish, giving you 200 base stamina. At that point though the leveled enemy lists will start to kill you if you don't start heavily investing into health. A Blessing of Arkay from a shrine can help, since it gives you 25 points of extra health. Having a follower to split aggro helps too, but be wary of enemies with two-handers for the next few levels.

Also, for stamina concerns in combat you could try eating some of the Soup items. The 'restores health/stamina per second' effect is a flat regen bonus. So long as you have at least 1 stamina you can use bashes and power attacks to keep enemies off balance.

Later on, maybe at levels 40-50, you can invest another 10 levels into stamina if you wish. Anything more than that serves little purpose though, especially since your worn armor should be weightless at that point and not hinder your movement speed.

[fauxpas]

I personally tend to run a pattern.

Mana
Health
Stamina
Health
Mana
Health
Stamina


Once I get enough Stamina that I feel comfortable ( Dune's suggestion of ~200 Stamina is a pretty good number to shoot for.) I go to a simple;

Health
Mana
Health
Mana


But then again I don't like enchanting 100 Mana reduction to make spells free (or virtually free) because I think its cheesy.