Armor rating cap?

[MeltedLemonade]

When I see this question online I tend to get some varying and confusing answers.

I have full dragonscale armor that has a 1290 armor rating. I've recently heard there is an armor cap thats supposed to be 567.

Simply put. Is my protection actually capped 567 and the 1290 is just a display or not? Basically do the extra points not do anything past 567?

As weird is it sounds I'm on Switch. I am NOT posting anything on reddit

[steventirey]

The extra points do nothing past a displayed rating of 567. That is why its called an armor cap - there is a cap to the protection.

The armor cap is actually at 667. Its just that every piece of armor (as well as shields) provides a hidden 25 points of protection. So if you have a full suit of armor plus a shield, you hit the cap at a displayed rating of 542. Full suit of armor but no shield, its 567. If you go the mage route and don't wear armor at all, you need a displayed rating of 667.

Note that other defenses have a cap as well. There is a cap on magic resistance and on each energy resistance. Though energy attacks are also magic attacks, so both energy resistance and magic resistance apply to things like a dragons fire breath.

[psychotron666]

Armour caps at 85% damage reduction, which is the 567 (or 667 if you aren't actually wearing armour and just using spells/enchants). So yes, there is no point in increasing it beyond that.

Likewise magic and elemental resistance caps at the same. You can't be fully immune to damage.

[John]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

Armour caps at 85% damage reduction, which is the 567. So yes, there is no point in increasing it beyond that.

80%, and it's obtained with 667 armor. It's just that every piece of armor (no clothing or jewelry) has an invisible 25 armor, including shields. Steven has the slightly more detailed info.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by John:

Originally posted by psychotron666:

Armour caps at 85% damage reduction, which is the 567. So yes, there is no point in increasing it beyond that.

80%, and it's obtained with 667 armor. It's just that every piece of armor (no clothing or jewelry) has an invisible 25 armor, including shields. Steven has the slightly more detailed info.

I edited my post probably like seconds before you posted this lol.

But yeah, thanks for the correction on the 85%. I guess it's actually 80%. I think it was 85 for oblivion.

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by steventirey:

The extra points do nothing past a displayed rating of 567. That is why its called an armor cap - there is a cap to the protection.

The armor cap is actually at 667. Its just that every piece of armor (as well as shields) provides a hidden 25 points of protection. So if you have a full suit of armor plus a shield, you hit the cap at a displayed rating of 542. Full suit of armor but no shield, its 567. If you go the mage route and don't wear armor at all, you need a displayed rating of 667.

Note that other defenses have a cap as well. There is a cap on magic resistance and on each energy resistance. Though energy attacks are also magic attacks, so both energy resistance and magic resistance apply to things like a dragons fire breath.

This here is correct. Its only the hidden +25 armor per armor item equipped in an armor slot that makes things a bit confusing.

[a moth of the starry heart]

According to the UESP, the Dragonhide spell stacks with the armor cap for a total of 96% physical damage reduction. AFAIK that's the highest you can get in vanilla. Too bad ritual spells are a pain in the ass to use regularly.

UESP also says that a Breton Vampire with the right perks and abilities (Agent of Mara + the Necromage perk and all three levels of Magic Resistance) can achieve a magic resistance of 87.5%, just barely over the normal cap. Doesn't work when you have have the unofficial patch though.

[alexander_dougherty]

Armour cap increases slightly if you have a shield.
Resistance to magic caps at 85%, as does resistance to an element, but if you combine the two carefully you can get almost 97.75% resistance (engine stll messes up some of the maths so it's never exactly what it should be)