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I have a Dark Elf Spellsword and I'm trying to progress with the Blades story line on my current playthrough of the Xbox GOTY version on XB1X. This is my 1st time ever playing a SW and I'm now level 15 with a Long Blades skill that's close to 100 and a Restoration skill just in the mid 40's. The problem is that none of my other skills on the Blades requirement list are close. Of those skills on the list I don't have high levels for, I'm most interested in raising Speech Craft, Sneak and Marksman. I've put enough point into Personality to get it overcome my Dunmer deficiency and raised it to 40. While Mercantile is raising at a nice pace, Speech Craft (still 7) has been glacial - so much so that I'm really not considering it. It's been a good 4 years since I last played, but that was a custom class on the PC version with at least 4 major & minor skills on the Blade advancement list.

I'm advancing through both the Mages Guild (now Magician) and recently joined the Fighters Guild - now Protector. I have Destruction at 51, so I'm gotten some nuke spells for ranged combat. That said, compared to ES IV Oblivion which I replayed recently, spell and long range don't exactly seem like compatible terms in Morrownd. I currently have spent little play time on Marksman and Sneak (no training) and currently have Marksman 10 (30% to next lvl) and Sneak 8 (20% to next lvl.) I have been advancing my Agility (currently at 54), which I've been getting nice level-up bonuses for due to taking hits to raise Block. I've befriended one of the local thieves guild trainers at the Southwall who will train me in Sneak for cheap. I also have the ring that provides 30% chameleon. I have close to 4K gold and considering spending some for Marksman or Sneak training. I've played specialists in both of those skills back in the day, so I still have some idea of how to play them effectively. I enjoy playing an at-range-snipe or up-close-&-sneaky equally, so no real preference.

So I'm wondering if anyone could give some feedback on which of those 2 skill would best suit a Spellsword? Or perhaps more importantly, which is likely to raise faster outside of training?

Promotion through the ranks of the Blades is automatic as you progress through the Main Quest. None of the promotions you get actually check the skill/attribute requirements, so the requirements are basically meaningless. Unless you're interested in meeting the skill requirements for role-playing purposes, you can pretty much just ignore them.

Many thanks for the reply. I didn't realize I could ignore them, so that makes things a lot easier. I did invest some gold in Sneak and that's been paying off.