» Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:48 pm
While there is no correct way to play the game, i have a few suggestions/observations:
1) Very few skills in Skyrim are worth completely maxing out perk-wise. Archery can be done just fine without the time-slow perk, 2 extra perks in critical shot, and the last perk. The critical shot perk is especially unimportant, as critical hits in skyrim dont work nearly as well as one would expect (critical hits are only based off of the base rating of your weapon, not the total damage shown in your inventory, making the added damage relatively low).
Sneak doesnt really need the first perk (Stealth) filled out, 1-2 points in it is enough. As you are an archer, you probably wont need the Assassin's Blade perk. The others are up to you.
Alchemy perks would depend on what you intend on using it for, same with enchanting. For enchanting, the central perk tree is the most important.
2) Getting to lvl 81 isnt really required, and takes a fair amount of work/game time. You can easily beat the game and main quests by lvl 50, and i find by then ive pretty much taken all the perks and skills i need.
3) As for other skills, Light armor, pickpocketing, smithing, illusion and restoration can all be quite handy. Light armor is good because you probably will get hit at some points (Powerful enemies like dragons will one shot you at higher levels and/or difficulties if you do not have any armor rating!), pickpocketing makes picking pockets easier as well as the perk that adds 100 points to your carry weight, smithing for obvious reasons (may make you overpowered depending on how far you go), illusion spells can be very good but not only requires a lot of investment perk wise but also steps on the toes a bit with the sneak skill, and restoration is useful to pretty much any character as well as needing minimal perk investment to be useful.
One handed can be good for an archer as a back up, but i tend to not need it when i play archers. If you want to use it, stick with the first perk (armsman). The lockpicking tree has a reputation for being useless, and as someone who has actually taken perks in it to try it out, i can say the reputation is justified. None of the perks really make enough of a difference to warrant perk investment.