Skyrim Perks Ancillary- Sneak (Part 2)

Light Foot-

Another iffy perk choice from the Muffled Movement side of the skill tree, it’s hard to say how useful Light Foot is.  On the one hand, you don’t have to worry about triggering traps that aren’t noisemakers or tripwires- which elminates most of the damaging traps you’ll run across.  On the other hand, not only doesn’t it affect your followers (who are more likely to stumble into traps than you anyways, and can accidentally catch you with the damaging part) but it also prevents you from using enemies’ traps against them (particularly fun with rockslides).  Make sure you actually want to use the effects of this perk before taking it, or at least make sure you care huge amounts about Shadow Warrior.

Assassin’s Blade-

If you tiptoe up and kill things, you want this.  Daggers tend to do 1/2 to 2/3 the damage of most other one-handed weapons, but with this perk they deal murderously more on a sneak attack- nearly twice as much as another weapon with Backstab.  Just be sure you’re ready to swap to something heftier the moment that first stab is done, or you’re really going to regret bringing a four inch knife to a two-foot-club fight.

Silent Roll-

One of the only two non-iffy perks coming off of Muffled Movement, Silent Roll can give you a lot more sneaking opportunities, letting you dive for cover when you would otherwise be spotted and squished like the devious roach you are.  It’s even a faster method of movement than regular sneak-sprinting- but it also consumes a lot more stamina, so don’t try to lean on it for any sort of actual travel.  Save it for getting into position without being seen.

Silence-

Basically the same as having the Muffle spell active all the time, this is the third ‘debatable perk’ from the Muffled Movement branch.  Since the spell or enchantment does the same thing without consuming a perk, you want to look carefully at how much and when you would need this before deciding to pick it up- there’s a distressingly good chance it’s not worth your perk point.

Shadow Warrior-

If you really are interested in the Muffled Movement branch of the Stealth perk tree, this is probably the reason why.  This is a great perk to have when you’re a stealth-stabber, because you can use it for emergency getaways, taking a breather, or even repeating a backstab in the middle of a fight.  This is especially useful for snipers, since the further away an enemy is, the longer it takes (and less likely it is that they’ll succeed) for them to find you again.  Keep in mind that if you’re at melee range, your enemies will spot you again virtually immediately, so you need to either be ready to hide, or already positioned and weapon drawn to pull a quick backstab.  This can actually be pretty hilarious if you’re only fighting one target, though- circle around behind them quickly and crouch and you might occasionally hide entirely from them.