Question about leveling armor.

[Salem Graves]

If I want to level heavy and light at the same time, would wearing leather boots and heavy for the rest work? Or would it be easier to just level one at a time?

[wicked lester]

They'll both level but slower. You might run into over-levelling issues where your level goes up but armor isn't as high as you'd like.

[John]

There are 2 calculations, calculation for 4 pieces of armor, or anything extra like a shield. It doesn't even matter if you wear anything on your body, it still calculates it

basic (4 items, helm, armor, boots, gloves)
2 pieces of heavy armor (chest and boots)
1 piece of light armor (gloves)
1 piece of clothing, circlet or nothing (head)

If you get hit, you will have a 2 in 4 chance to get exp for heavy armor, a 1 in 4 chance for light armor, and a 1 in 4 chance you won't level up anything.

If you have a shield (light or heavy, no torch), or the amulet which has an armor rating. The chance of x in 4 will change into x in 5 chance, or even x in 6 chance.

For instance, you wear nothing except a light shield.
If you get hit, you'll have a 4 in 5 chance to not level up anything, and a 1 in 5 chance to level up light armor.

xp calculations are based around the physical damage an enemy does.

This is how i have noticed armor level up, i could be wrong but there were times when i indeed had nothing equipped but a shield to test things out. And it gave me xp for that armor class about 1 in 5 times.

[Perplex]

Armor jewelry count as light armor also (and the Paladin shoulder shield).

Like Amulet of Articulation, https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Amulet_of_Articulation

The amulet registers as light armor, benefiting from all associated perks in that skill tree and increasing the skill as any armor would. It will not, however, prevent Mage Armor or Matching Set from functioning.

[steventirey]

Originally posted by Perplex:

Armor jewelry count as light armor also (and the Paladin shoulder shield).

Like Amulet of Articulation, https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Amulet_of_Articulation

The amulet registers as light armor, benefiting from all associated perks in that skill tree and increasing the skill as any armor would. It will not, however, prevent Mage Armor or Matching Set from functioning.

Most jewelry does not count as any type of armor. The only two exceptions I know of are the Amulet of Articulation and the Locket of Saint Jiub.

[Zap]

Early in the game you want your armor rating to go up as fast as possible. So all your armor should be the same type, either all heavy or all light. There is an armor cap at around 550-600 depending on what armor you are wearing - 567 if you are wearing 4 pieces of armor and no shield. Once you can reach the armor cap it can be worthwhile to mix light and heavy to improve both skills.

[Perplex]

Originally posted by steventirey:

Originally posted by Perplex:

Armor jewelry count as light armor also (and the Paladin shoulder shield).

Like Amulet of Articulation, https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Amulet_of_Articulation

Most jewelry does not count as any type of armor. The only two exceptions I know of are the Amulet of Articulation and the Locket of Saint Jiub.

If it has armor it counts as light. But few jewelry pieces have armor.

[Alex]

1. in general, you should stick to a single defensive skill (light armor, heavy armor, alteration). Without investing into the perks, those skills will be nearly worthless, and buying out multiple, redundant skill trees is way too wasteful. Not to mention that you'll miss out on the full set perk bonuses.

2. On the other hand, levelling multiple parallel skills at the same time may lead to underlevelling. Since many enemies are level-tied to the player, every increase in your level needs to translate to an adequate increase in your fighting capability. Or you'll run into this:
https://imgur.com/draugr-were-training-8M1cj3Q

3. If you want to level indefinitely, it is more beneficial to reset a skill by making it "legendary", and then get it back to 100. Underlevelling or having a handicap through a skill reset is not quite as punishing for an already well-equipped, rich, high-level character.

4. In the case where you want to mix in a shield of a different armor type, don't worry, the various "full armor" perks don't even check the shield.


But to answer your question, you can just mix'n'match your armor, and the skill increases will be distributed based on the armor coverage. It will be very inefficient, but it'll work. Alternatively, levelling one skill first, then, when you can afford to offset the handicap, the other one, may be slightly less punishing.

P.S. Of course, it would help if you could explain what you're actually trying to do.

[Rez Elwin]

While possible to level both at once, it's easier to do one at a time, as well as more efficient, and there really is no reason to level both, perks unlocked in the armor trees (save for one) are mutually exclusive, only working on that type of armor.

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by Rez Elwin:

While possible to level both at once, it's easier to do one at a time, as well as more efficient, and there really is no reason to level both, perks unlocked in the armor trees (save for one) are mutually exclusive, only working on that type of armor.

Main reason I wanted to do that is because I was thinking about trying to max all skills on a character since I've never really done that. Was going to change up my playstyle with each new faction I join.

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by Salem Graves:

Main reason I wanted to do that is because I was thinking about trying to max all skills on a character since I've never really done that. Was going to change up my playstyle with each new faction I join.

Then don't do both at once, level one then the other, max smithing while you're doing so, that way you can massively improve the second set, I would do heavy first then light, and specifically acquire the Deathbrand Armor from Solstheim. You need to be level 30 to do that quest, but you should reach that before maxing out heavy armor.

Deathbrand is a pretty decent set, but the main point as then when the full set is worn, it offers more protection that unimproved deadric armor, despite being light. It should easily reach the cap if improved making the leveling a bit easier and less punishing.

I'll also add that playing on a lower difficulty will speed up the leveling of armor, and playing on a harder one will slow it down.

Finally, if you just want to level the skill fast, drop the difficulty to the lowest and go try to hug a giant.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Salem Graves:

Main reason I wanted to do that is because I was thinking about trying to max all skills on a character since I've never really done that. Was going to change up my playstyle with each new faction I join.

Not a very good idea, tbh, both from a game mechanics and role-playing approach. Well, the role-playing aspect is your own turf, so let me give you a pointer how to offset the gameplay difficulties with this approach. You need to pick the right order in which to do the factions.

1. Do the University questline first, since more fights will be of magical, not physical nature, so your armor rating won't be as important. Offensive magic has also a weird difficulty curve, it starts out as very strong, but you will hit a dps cap far earlier than with physical weapons (which can be improved with smithing/alchemy/enchanting). However, utility spells like waterbreathing, light, detect life/death will come in handy later on, regardless of level.

2. Next one should be the Companions, so you can make up for any gaps in your skills with magic, potions and enchanting. Just do that out of sight from those muscleheads, they don't seem to like magic. Despite being magical furries. Damn hypocrites.

3. Afterwards, DB, then the Thieves guild, or perhaps even both in turns. There's not that much melee fighting if you do it correctly, except for maybe the last part of the Thieves guild questline. But with a high level, powerful gear, and good potions, this shouldn't be that difficult.

[Edgemoor]

Levelling both at the same time is not a good idea. You will most likely find that your damage reduction against enemies will become a problem i.e. you will take a lot of damage and struggle with some encounters.

It's best to choose one and level that first. But even then how the skill levelling system works may mean your armour skill will level too slowly and enemies will eventually do a lot of damage.

It's why you get to choose which constellation will give you a 20% experience increase to certain skills i.e. warrior, mage or thief.

Light armour is a thief skill, heavy is a warrior skill so unless you choose the Lover stone (+15% exp to all skills) one will under level.

If you have the patience you can find a skeleton in one of the halls of the dead to hit you and then heal as necessary to train your skill.

You may need to pay a trainer to bump up your armour skill if that happens, which can be expensive.

Two trainers, however, are also merchants so the amount of gold they have available will be their normal amount plus what you spend on training.

For heavy armour there is Gharel in the orc stronghold of Dushnik Yal, south of Markath. And for light armour there is Grella the market trader in Riften. Both can train you to 75.

[John]

Originally posted by Alex:

Wall of text about how everyone should "totally" play the game

It's his game, he can do whatever the ♥♥♥♥ he wants to do. There is no best questline to do first, it's his save, his character, his playtime, who made you the defacto Skyrim gamer.

[Alex]

Originally posted by John:

Originally posted by Alex:

Wall of text about how everyone should "totally" play the game

It's his game, he can do whatever the ♥♥♥♥ he wants to do. There is no best questline to do first, it's his save, his character, his playtime, who made you the defacto Skyrim gamer.

How about you calm the F down, dude? He wanted advice, so he got some advice.

[Zap]

You could also consider mods like "Resistances Rescaled". The vanilla scale means that armor gives little protection early on, but increases rapidly as you approach the armor cap at 80% Damage Reduction. Once you reach the cap, any further increase in Armor Rating has no effect on DR. "Resistances Rescaled" replaces the vanilla DR curve with a hyperbolic curve. As a result the DR increases faster early on, but extra points of AR have less and less effect. There is no need for a cap, to get to 100% DR you would need an infinite AR. There is an MCM if you want to tweak the effects.
Using a mod like this could offset the disadvantage of splitting your armor xp between two skills.

It is here if you want to have a look at it:-
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20503