The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Combat Skills

Your Class will decide which skills are your Major Skills. Major Skills level up much easier than Minor Skills do. All Minor Skills level with the same difficulty, it is your playing style that will choose which skills level up faster than others. As you become more proficient in specific skills, you will gain access to a few new perks in them. The perks come with each mastery level you gain.

The Basics


 * All skills start off at level 5.
 * Once you've made your choice for Major Skills, these will be referred to as Minor Skills.
 * Major Skills start off at level 25.
 * Further skill bonuses can be received through your Birth-sign and Race selection, which will be added on top of the Major and Minor Skills.
 * There are many books & scrolls throughout Cyrodill you can read which will increase a skill by one level.
 * Simply open the book and you will receive a skill increase.

Armorer
Governing Attribute: Endurance An Armorer can repair weapons and armor to maximize their effectiveness. You need a Repair Hammer to use this skill. Journeyman Armorers can repair enchanted weapons and armor, and more experienced Armorers can also repair Daedric weapons.

Leveling Armorer Whenever you visit a smith or weapons salesman just buy repair hammers and do it yourself instead of paying them to repair your armor. If you want to level even faster, join the Mage's Guild and make a disintegrate Armor spell on self. After you break all of your armor just repair it again.

Athletics
Governing Attribute: Speed Athletics affects how fast you can run on land, how fast you can swim in water, how long you can hold your breath, and how fast your Fatigue regenerates.

Leveling Athletics Auto-walk into a wall and then go see a movie. Swimming gets skill increases faster then running so if you really want it to go up go jump in a lake, just grab a Water Breathing item. This skill tends to skill up itself without you really working on it if you're like me and run all the time. A good skill to use trainers on.

Blade
Governing Attribute: Strength Blade governs how much damage you do with daggers and swords. It also allows different melee moves and power attacks.

Leveling Blade Fight with daggers. The more slashes you hit with, the better. It doesn't matter at all how much damage you do. You could also find a really weak dagger and beat up a creature you summon.

Block
Governing Attribute: Endurance Block determines how much damage is reduced when you block an incoming attack. The more you gain in this skill the more likely you'll be to block since it reduces damage more.

Leveling Block Turn the game's difficulty down all the way (if it isn't already there), then you have two options, you can find a weak monster, tape down the block button, and forget about it for an hour; or you can find a strong monster. if you choose to find a strong monster keep an eye on your health. This trick is made even easier if you are good at restoration and can constantly restore your health.
 * Caution: Your shield will slowly degenerate. Once it reaches 0 you will stop gaining experience for block and start training armor. To prevent this carry multiple shields or kill off whatever you are fighting once in a while so you can fix your shield. Being at the Journeyman mastery level will stop this from happening as your shield will not be damaged while blocking. You could also make or find a shield with the reflect damage ability as the monster will die before you.

Blunt
Governing Attribute: Strength Blunt governs how much damage you deal with axes, maces and hammers. It also adds new power attacks and melee moves.

Leveling Blunt Use the weakest blunt weapon you can find. The more heads you crack, the better. It doesn't matter at all how much damage you do. You could also find a really weak axe and beat up a creature you summon.

Hand-To-Hand
Governing Attribute: Strength The ability to fight and kill foes with nothing but one's own hands. While not as powerful as using a weapon (and certainly not as good to block with), hand to hand combat is fast and doesn't use as much fatigue. Higher skill levels give you more power attacks which can be used to paralyze and disarm opponents.

Leveling Hand-to-Hand Summon a monster and punch it in the face until it dies, then summon another and beat it up.

Heavy Armor
Governing Attribute: Endurance Characters skilled in heavy armor will make better use of iron, steel, dwarven, Orcish, Ebony, and Daedric Armors. The Higher your level, the more protection it offers and the slower it decays.

Leveling Heavy Armor Leveling Heavy Armor is the same as block, except don't hold down block. This will cause your health to fall much faster so it is best if you have a lot of potions or are skilled in restoration.