Yeah I got the goggles already i forgot to mention that - thanks for the tip on alch though. I was thinking of picking up alch and cooking? those seem to the the next two to go for after engineering
You should definitely get food for Stam/Vers buff. You don't even have to be that high of cooking and the fins are easy to farm. Engineering is a must. Alchemy has a flask with repeated use so you only need one and gives +8 primary stat at 19. Alchemy is a pain to level just because vanilla had so many different types of herbs you have to gather.