Pimpin' Melee>Crippled Melee and Alchemy
Just sayin'
True! Alchemy seems like a real pain to rank sometimes, too. I would go ahead and finish all melee skills. If you've done Refining and Production Mastery already, why not go into ranged? They compliment each other pretty well if you ask me. You get a long ranged skill for when melee doesn't work, and the DEX from ranged skills can open the doors to many stronger weapons.