Light or heavy armor question (vanilla game)

[Abyssian]

I know, it's an old question but... what is the difference between fully leveled up both armor skills? Besides heavy have bigger armor number, but light looks cooler (at least dragon armor). Does light armor have something worthy in the skill tree to pick it over heavy as non-warrior character?

[Mugiwara]

Largely play style, but for light armour you have faster movement so easier to avoid attacks plus a perk that has 10% chance to avoid damage entirely as long as I am recalling correctly as I tend to use mods for perks now.

[Abyssian]

Originally posted by Mugiwara:

Largely play style, but for light armour you have faster movement so easier to avoid attacks plus a perk that has 10% chance to avoid damage entirely as long as I am recalling correctly as I tend to use mods for perks now.

Interesting, i will look into that. Thinking about installing it... again.

[Rabblevox]

If you want any stealth skills, light is pretty obvious, mainly. But if you fully commit to heavy, alchemy, and crafting, you can get it weightless, noiseless, and invisible. It breaks the game, (being a fast, invisible, silent, invulnerable tank with dual wield can break ♥♥♥♥), but damn it's fun!

[Sairek Ceareste]

Movement speed difference (until you get the perk where armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down), and well... perks. And the armor value rating.

Though, armor value formula in Skyrim is... bad. Really, really bad.

Every piece of gear has a hidden +25 armor bonus that the game doesn't tell you about, and it won't show up in the armor rating value (shields also count for this hidden bonus). Additionally, a matching set (All Iron, all steel, all Elven, etc), provides a +25% bonus to armor rating provided by the matching pieces of set. Clothing and robes do not provide any hidden bonuses of any sort.

Additionally, any (true) armor value below 300 is pretty much pointless and contributes next to nothing, while after that 300 point, the damage reduced by armor rating increases exponentially. 300 armor value reduces physical damage by only around 15%, while another 300 for a total of 600 reduces it by nearly 70% - almost 5x more than the points before it.

Also, 80% damage reduction by armor value is the hard cap. Anymore than that does nothing. This is incredibly easy to get with light armor if you just temper your equipment with decent smithing and wear a matching set if you keep in mind the hidden +25 bonus for each piece of armor by default.


You'll reach the armor cap at 542 displayed armor rating when wearing all four pieces of armor and a shield,
567 without a shield,
or 667 when not wearing any armor or shield at all.

[Abyssian]

Originally posted by Sairek Ceareste:

Movement speed difference (until you get the perk where armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down), and well... perks. And the armor value rating.

Though, armor value formula in Skyrim is... bad. Really, really bad.

Every piece of gear has a hidden +25 armor bonus that the game doesn't tell you about, and it won't show up in the armor rating value (shields also count for this hidden bonus). Additionally, a matching set (All Iron, all steel, all Elven, etc), provides a +25% bonus to armor rating provided by the matching pieces of set. Clothing and robes do not provide any hidden bonuses of any sort.

Additionally, any (true) armor value below 300 is pretty much pointless and contributes next to nothing, while after that 300 point, the damage reduced by armor rating increases exponentially. 300 armor value reduces physical damage by only around 15%, while another 300 for a total of 600 reduces it by nearly 70% - almost 5x more than the points before it.

Also, 80% damage reduction by armor value is the hard cap. Anymore than that does nothing. This is incredibly easy to get with light armor if you just temper your equipment with decent smithing and wear a matching set if you keep in mind the hidden +25 bonus for each piece of armor by default.


You'll reach the armor cap at 542 displayed armor rating when wearing all four pieces of armor and a shield,
567 without a shield,
or 667 when not wearing any armor or shield at all.

Is this theory personally tested?

[Abyssian]

Originally posted by Rabblevox:

If you want any stealth skills, light is pretty obvious, mainly. But if you fully commit to heavy, alchemy, and crafting, you can get it weightless, noiseless, and invisible. It breaks the game, (being a fast, invisible, silent, invulnerable tank with dual wield can break ♥♥♥♥), but damn it's fun!

I was silent killer in heavy armor many times. I even remember having 100 in sneaking, crouching in front of a bandit who was leaning against wall near the hideout door, literally under his chin and he didn't react. Crazy. Wearing sword in left, dagger in right hand, doing insane one-hit sneak kills. A good times.

[steventirey]

Originally posted by Abyssian:

Is this theory personally tested?

This has all been tested many times over the years. There isn't anything hidden about how the mechanics work. The hidden armor rating for armor pieces exists. There is an armor cap, and his numbers about it are correct. Both light and heavy armor can reach the armor cap. It is easier to do with heavy armor, of course, but light armor can reach it as well.

When it comes right down to it, the differences will be mostly visual and perks. For perks (assuming all are taken), light armor has better stamina regen and has a 10% chance to avoid all damage from a melee attack. Heavy armor lessens the amount of stagger that happens to you, reflects 10% of melee damage you take (but unlike the light armor perk, you actually take the damage), halves falling damage, and boosts unarmed damage. Heavy armor gives you more bonuses, but the bonuses of light armor are likely better.

[Heimdall313]

Either is fine, you can pick pretty much any set you like and once you raise Smithing pretty high, you hit the armor cap or close enough to not matter.

I like light armor for not having a movement speed reduction regardless of skill, and for the Stamina Regen. Fall Damage reduction of Heavy armor is mostly meaningless (you generally take a tickle or its instant death) as I just use the invincibility shout before jumping a cliff.
Stamina regen is useful even on a pure mage for lots and lots of sprinting.

[alexander_dougherty]

You can reasonably quickly get either type of armour to the level where you can use the weightless perk for them. The rest is down to what other perks you want or the look you want.

Light Armour is generally considered to have the better perks (although the perk that causes some of the damage to reflect back on who is attacking you in Heavy Armour is good too) while Heavy Armour looks better.

[OldMemes.biz]

It really all comes down to your personal style, as with leveling and perks each ends up being pretty much the same in a broad sense. If you concentrate on Heavy you can reduce and flatout nullify the weight penalties, which you can ALSO do with the Light, except Light starts off by its very nature, well... lighter. It's a Rob Peter to Pay Paul thing in the beginning; start out with more protection but slower movement/higher encumbrance OR start out with less protection but more nimble movement and lower encumbrance.

But as you start to level and invest in their respective perks, Light will eventually provide much higher than its base protection (as will Heavy); Heavy will lose its weight penalties without sacrificing protection (as will Light); and eventually, one's as good as the other. The only difference will be which you invested more in. In my experience it only really matters early and mid through your playthrough. They both end up in the same place, really.

Skyrim is very hand-holdy and very much an example of a game that doesn't "let" you screw up. Some might take umbrage with that assessment, but it's true and I say it as a fan not a detractor.

[SpeedFreak1972]

It's an aesthetic one really apart from perks you can hit the armor cap with almost any armor

[Alex]

Light armor has better perks. With heavy, you are forced to waste two perk points on useless stuff like more unarmed damage and fall damage reduction.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Heavy_Armor

[OldMemes.biz]

Originally posted by Alex:

Light armor has better perks. With heavy, you are forced to waste two perk points on useless stuff like more unarmed damage and fall damage reduction.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Heavy_Armor

Yeah that's true, I do dislike being practically railroaded in to taking that unarmed damage perk.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Alex:

Light armor has better perks. With heavy, you are forced to waste two perk points on useless stuff like more unarmed damage and fall damage reduction.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Heavy_Armor

Not useless.

Unarmed damage perk makes the few brawls you have to do easier.
Fall damage reduction can save your characters life (it has saved me several times from having to reload an earlier save when it left me with a few points of health)

And Heavy Armour looks better than Light Armour, for example Carved Nordic Armour is some of the nicest looking in the vanilla game, while most Light Armour leaves me looking for a mod or three to improve them...

[Alex]

Originally posted by OldMemes.biz:

Originally posted by Alex:

Light armor has better perks. With heavy, you are forced to waste two perk points on useless stuff like more unarmed damage and fall damage reduction.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Heavy_Armor

Yeah that's true, I do dislike being practically railroaded in to taking that unarmed damage perk.

Unarmed is basically worthless in vanilla, with the exception of some ultra specialized builds, and fall damage reduction may be nice, but its certainly not worth an entire point. How often do you even fall? Well, unless you are trying to play it on console, lol.

It's like the devs decided that "conditioned" should cost three points for "balance purposes" or whatever.