"Soul Trap Wait" spam levels my conjuration ridiculously quickly. In less than 30minutes I am 100 conjuration. This feels like a bug, but then again illusion has the "muffle wait" spam, which is just as fast as the soul trap wait spam. Restoration also has a "damage yourself from traps and heal then wait spam" and alteration has the "waterbreathing wait spam". So is soul trapping a corpse legit like the methods listed above or unintended behavior like attacking an invincibile non-hostile npc to level your combat skills, or doing the fortify restoration potion + enchant alchemy thing?

It's a single player game, you decide what you do, or if you call something 'legit' or not.

I'd question the point of playing if you power level your skills or use those exploits, but if you enjoy it, do it.

I like to play with 100hp, only upgrade magicka, no items, no fast travel, and saving only at a bed. I like to view grinding as training i.e. you go into the mountains for ___ days to train. Even with two storm atronachs I still keep dying cause the archers don't switch targets to the atronachs, and if they do they switch back to me so even with the exploits the game is still very challenging for me.

It is a feature that allows grinding, use it or don't, your decision.

I always try to increase my stats that are tied to a faction when I am about to become a leader of it as it would seem weird that the leader of the College of Winterhold would know barely any spells and have really low stats.

...just remember:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9245-Skyrim-Tales

That was awesome.

I'd call it an unintended glitch. Think about it. Why would any Conjurer worth his salt seek to trap the soul of the already-departed? It should NOT work, as there is no soul in a dead body for the spell to latch on to.

At least using these exploits on a Mage does not hurt as badly as using them on a Thief or Warrior, a large pool of Magicka is always helpful for a Mage, as long as your character does not back into a wall

That was great!

I suspect it's a glitch, but it could be a crumb tossed to us by the devs.

its not a bug; its a feature!!! do with it what you will. if you powergame, sure, if you rp, i recommend not

You're never going to justify it for me, it defeats the point of the game, I'd never do it.

If you enjoy it do it.

Ok thanks guys. I guess I'll bound sword grind against horkers cause thats makes sense lore wise. Soul trapping a corpse without a soul does sound stupid but then again, summoning an atronach by itself should level experience lore wise, just like muffle does for illusion.

I am more likely to use the training and easy power ups for a skill my character is not using, if my character was a mage I would be using spells to get conjuration up more and I would have perks to help with that, and I would have more magika. Since none of my characters are really magic specialists, yes I cheat a bit by trying to soul capture a body where the soul has departed. I actually only recently learned that trick. I am getting practice casting the spell, if it actually filled a soul gem each time I would consider it a glitch. Not that I am going to sit there doing that very long since it is more fun conjuring up an Atronach or something else. But at 75 I have got all the skills my character uses at 100, I have got all the skills my character sometimes uses to 100 and I would like to eventually get one character to the highest level. With no perks for conjuration it is going to take a lot conjure Storm Atronach casting to get it to 100. Since I am mainly an archer (conjuring the bow was just too slow), currently working on two handed skills, I usually forget to conjure anything anyway.

I would call it more of an oversight than a bug.
... also, I have no idea what "wait spam" means. Too much Spam could certainly cause you to gain weight, if that's what you mean. The sodium content is ridiculous as well. One time I was cooking Spam and eggs and my wife asked "What smells like dog food?" Breakfast. That's what.