Trying to refine my dwarfs skills, would like a little input. I have picked 10 I like, can only have 8 though so need suggestions on which 2 to cut and why. They are:
Weapon Lore, Trading, Armor, Agility, Parrying, Constitution, Concentration, Dwarven Lore, and either Axe Lore OR Ranged Combat.
I know that whether I go pistol and shield or axe and shield I will want a shield for the extra defense, so I am leaning towards Parrying over Agility. Axes and Pistols both seem rather nice, I dunno which is better in the long run. According to the Sacred wiki most of the dwarf uniques are guns, and guns have higher attack speed while axes have higher damage. Forge lore seems like a possible cut, but tbh I like that whole "forge on the go" and their resist socket adds "find magic item" (useful) instead of the standard NPC blacksmiths resist w/ "mental regen" (useless for dwarf, no magic skills) so I would like to try fitting it in somehow. Even if I cut Agility in favor of Parrying, I will still need to cut another skill from that list yet they are all such good options. This is strictly for solo play

Here are some elaborated threads about Dwarf builds:
http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/forum/252-sacred-guides-dwarf/

Thanks, but I have already looked through those. They only tell you how to build "their" Dwarf , they didn't offer much in the way of basic suggestions for people not following their builds. Just a lot of "pick this here, do this there" and not much "here are ideas to help you do it yourself"

Well the thought is appreciated so thanks. I am just trying to figure out which skills of the ones I listed would serve me better in the long run. I need to start focusing on a single weapon type so I can use the higher level "min skill required" weapons, but are guns with their range and higher attack speed or axes with their raw damage better in higher difficulties? Same with Parrying/Agility. Agility offers decent levels of Attack and Defense but Parrying offers considerably higher defense since I use a shield all the time. Which would be more useful, the medium bonuses to both Attack and Defense or the substantial bonus to Defense? Sadly their are only 10 skill slots, so having to narrow it down to 8 is such a pain lol At least I set it up so I can pick my 2 start skills.
Just to be clear, this is all for a new dwarf. I'm starting over, and this time I know the skills and stats better so I won't be making the mistakes I made last time...like taking both axe lore and ranged combat while completely disregarding weapon lore heh

From what I remember when playing the game, Axe lore is better in the long run. While the guns are interesting, the damage is a bit low. I'd drop Agility for Parry due to getting a good attack and defense bonus from the buff combat art.

Never played a dwarf.

But, do you really need trading on a dwarf? A dwarf can find good equipment easily, without trading, so that trading isnt that useful like for example on Battle Mages, is it?

Generally it is always better to do more damage than to do damage very often. That is because the resistance affects the damage much more, the more equal it is to it. Later on you will fight enemies with huge resistances (on some places and especially on high difficulties). Here the whole stuff is explained in a more detailed way: http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/topic/3783-inner-works-of-resistances/

But the initial damage of the weapon doesnt say much, it is a combination of weapon (in general equipment) and your spells or combat arts. It is even possible that a weapon with lower damage stats do more damage than one with higher stats depending on the skill you use. I dont know much about the dwarves, but in either way you have to get the specific skills on a high level while keeping the regeneration times low. How to do it, is described here: http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/topic/3802-ca-and-spell-regeneration-formulae-base-value/

Finally you can find here some general talk about weapons and armors:
http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/topic/4300-tharkanes-weapons-armor-figuring-it-out/
And here you can find a collection of set and unique items (like weapons) to get a clue which items you can expect to find (but dont forget that the stats differ on different levels and difficulties): http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/SacredUnderworld/Pages/Items.html