Some of them are. Particularly, Improved Hiding. Light Fingers and Trafficker are both excellent if you steel and sell stuff. Locksmith is useful for vWGT, and Kickback is good if you're bad at committing crimes undetected.
Force lock can save you time if you open every chest you see, like I do.
Apart from improved hiding, the rest are really most needed while leveling up the skill line, unless you steal.
Australian on PS4 NA server.
Everyone's entitled to an opinion.
Depends on the passive, obviously, but if you can use it then it's definitely worth it.
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster...when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you..."
Mostly fast opening of chests and other locks (great for WGT).
Those that pick pockets basically need the passive to increase the chance of being successful.
Sneak cost passive is really great for anyone who likes to sneak and a basic must for Cyrodiil
Rank 3 and one point in Trafficker are a necessity if one plans to do any meaningful thieving and/or the Dark Brotherhood/Thieves' Guild quest lines.
I consider everything beyond that to be a nice option. That is, I do not need the sneak or thieving passives (or even additional ranks in trafficker), but once one gathers enough shards and completes enough story quests, they are nice to pick up. Unless, of course, one deliberately aims to do a lot of thieving/chest hunting/et cetera, in which case these passives are sort of like the core of the build.
Up to L17 is needed to force every chest open with ease.
Especially If you have a designated thief like I do:
Khajiit
5 pce Night mother's embrace
3 pce Night Talker
CP points dumped into stealth attributes and stamina recovery..
You can sneak around and loot everything from everyone without being seen. I can sit next to a merchant and pick their lockbox when they are a foot away.
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If your just pvp oranything other than stealin then no. But if your stealing yes. I think thevies guild helps but i am still ch3xking numbers on to different toons.
On my toon with max legermain and max theives guild i can loot 26 blue items every 15 minutes.
On my toon with only max legermain most i have done is 11 in 15 minutes.
I am still testing tho. Because i got 2 purple drops on the lower toon amd only one one the other.
I lost it all to a one hit wonder guard tho looking for wanted posters.