Smithing, alchemy and enchanting.
First time I played through I maxed alchemy. I didn’t put any points into smithing. Second play through I leaned hard into smithing and partly enchanting, and I felt the payoff was way better.
Simply improving your items makes it worth it. Once you get pretty skilled you’ll make some serious sets too!
I think if you raise alchemy you can make better potions that raise your other skills so you can level them up faster.
I don’t remember for sure. All the mechanics for all the Elder Scrolls games blend together in my head now.
The extreme version of this is called the Alchemy/Enchantment loop where you feed two skill-improving skills into one another. But be aware, this is the kind of thing that can end up taking the fun out of a game for some people.
Also, it’s worth being aware that because of the way later Elder Scrolls games scale enemies, any time you’re working on a noncombat skill the draugr are training.
