Defense cap with Fur armor

[🐼PANDArek]

I'm planning to make new character similar to barbarian (Legendary Difficulty). I wonder if I can get fur armor w/o helmet/shield to reach the armor cap 567 or close numbers. I think it'll be hard with full fur set (w/o helmet and shield) so instead of fur bracers and boots I'll use scaled counterpart.
What I'm planning:
*100 Light Armor Skill - 5 perks in Agile Defender
*100 Smithing Skill - Advanced Armors perk (for scaled bracers and boots)
*100 Alchemy Skill - 5 perks in Alchemist, Benefactor perk
*100 Enchanting Skill - 5 perks in Enchanter , Insightful Enchanter
make:
116% Fortify Smithing gear
116% Fortify Alchemy gear
130% Fortify Smithing potion
(numbers were taken from Internet, I don't know what max % you can get since I never played with so much boost)

upgrade:
Fur armor - 23 base armor
Scaled Bracers - 9 base armor -(Advanced Armor perk)
Scaled Boots - 9 base armor -(Advanced Armor perk)

and use Lord Stone for extra 50 armor if it's necessary.

I know I can check it through console but I never used cheats and I get lost when I read all those console commands. I also don't want to use exploit.
Is someone here who already beat the game and/or tried reach armor cap with low valuable armor and can check what armor numbers I'll get if I follow this plan?

Thanks in advance.

[istvan_v]

This is not exactly the same as you described, but I just tried the following:
* full set of hide armor without shield
* 75 light armor, 3/5 Agile Defender, Custom Fit, and Matching Set
* 100 smithing, 123% fortify smithing enchantments, 134% fortify smithing potion
* Lord Stone (+50 armor rating, +25% magic resistance)
And the resulting armor rating is 582.

[🐼PANDArek]

Thank You for the info.
I considered using Custom Fit and Matching Set but I hate helmets, maybe I'll download mod that removes helmet requirement. It may work.

[istvan_v]

Without a helmet it is more difficult, because Custom Fit and Matching Set no longer work. But I think you should be able to at least get close to the cap, if I recall correctly from the UESP wiki, tempering adds 46 to the armor ratings with your skill/enchantment/potion values, so it would be something like:

Fur armor - ceil((23 + 46) * 1.4) * 2 = 194
Scaled bracers and boots - ceil((9 + 46) * 1.4) * 2 * 2 = 308
Lord Stone = 50

That is a total of 552. But without a helmet, you also need 25 more for the cap, so it would have to be at least 592.

Edit: other than using more than 4 fortify smithing enchantments, a +29 fortify light armor enchantment may also be enough.

[Grathagis]

I think you can reach the max cap. if memory serves you can wear 6 items (in vanilla) with fortify smithing. when you have a mod like Left-hand Rings and Bandoliers you can go higher.

[🐼PANDArek]

That is all I needed to know.
Thank You.

Originally posted by UESP wiki:

With a base smithing skill of 100, the relevant armor smithing perk, four 29% fortify smithing enchantments, and a 130% fortify smithing potion, the effective skill equals 874.84 (item quality = Legendary 26), which yields a bonus of +92 to armor and +46 to other items.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by DarekBrowarek:

116% Fortify Smithing gear
116% Fortify Alchemy gear
130% Fortify Smithing potion
(numbers were taken from Internet, I don't know what max % you can get since I never played with so much boost)

Personally I've taken the numbers a fair bit higher.

A lot depends on the Dragonborn expansion, which has a couple of crafting aids; one's Ahzidal's Armor, which you get during Unearthed:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Dragonborn:Unearthed

You get a 10% bonus to enchanting while wearing it.

And the other is the Sallow Regent:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Dragonborn:Black_Book:_The_Sallow_Regent_%28quest%29

It effectively adds 10 points to either Smithing, Enchanting, or Alchemy, depending on whether you pick Seeker of Might, Sourcery, or Shadows (and you can change your choice as often as you like). As with the bonus from the Notched Pickaxe, these bonuses are effective even if your base skills are at 100, though apparently the pickaxe is completely broken without the unofficial patches.

Combining these with the regular crafting loops, I get a suit of +164% Smithing, and a potion of +174% Smithing. Throwing in Seeker of Might + the pickaxe + the relevant Light Armour perks, the three bits of armor end up showing me 774 defense together.

[Grathagis]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Originally posted by DarekBrowarek:

116% Fortify Smithing gear
116% Fortify Alchemy gear
130% Fortify Smithing potion
(numbers were taken from Internet, I don't know what max % you can get since I never played with so much boost)

Personally I've taken the numbers a fair bit higher.

A lot depends on the Dragonborn expansion, which has a couple of crafting aids; one's Ahzidal's Armor, which you get during Unearthed:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Dragonborn:Unearthed

You get a 10% bonus to enchanting while wearing it.

And the other is the Sallow Regent:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Dragonborn:Black_Book:_The_Sallow_Regent_%28quest%29

It effectively adds 10 points to either Smithing, Enchanting, or Alchemy, depending on whether you pick Seeker of Might, Sourcery, or Shadows (and you can change your choice as often as you like). As with the bonus from the Notched Pickaxe, these bonuses are effective even if your base skills are at 100, though apparently the pickaxe is completely broken without the unofficial patches.

Combining these with the regular crafting loops, I get a suit of +164% Smithing, and a potion of +174% Smithing. Throwing in Seeker of Might + the pickaxe + the relevant Light Armour perks, the three bits of armor end up showing me 774 defense together.

I tried that trick with the Black Book. Alchemy works as all your Thieving skills are 10% better. Enchantment and Smithing do not work as those 10% bonuses are aplied to different values. eg. Magic Cost is reduced by 10% and that has no effect on crafting Enchantments.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

I tried that trick with the Black Book. Alchemy works as all your Thieving skills are 10% better. Enchantment and Smithing do not work as those 10% bonuses are aplied to different values. eg. Magic Cost is reduced by 10% and that has no effect on crafting Enchantments.

This is something I've put a fair bit of testing into - all choices from the Sallow Regent affect a crafting skill.

In the case of enchanting, the bonus ability even flat out tells you it buffs enchanting (if not in the game, then in the UESP article). I've tried it myself to be sure.

In the case of smithing, things are a fair bit more complex. It's certainly a warrior skill, and you certainly get a buff. The catch is that your ability to improve items doesn't map directly to your total smithing ability level - you need to crank things up until you qualify for the next quality level before you'll see a difference. This leads some players to (incorrectly) believe that certain buffs aren't working, when really they just need to stack more buffs / skill points / whatever before they'll see the effect.

For eg, without Seeker of Might I can only get the three items up to 724 in total. (Yeah, I forgot to enable it on my first test, hence I've got that knowledge on speed-dial...)

(Edit: 714, now that I check the screenshots...)

[Grathagis]

Do you happen to know what these quality levels are ? Because even after I upgrade my weapons or armor to Flawless (or the last stage), I can still improve them by using potions or crafting gear. The name still stays the same, but the values increase.

[Bomb Bloke]

Yes, they're listed here:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing#Item_Quality

The last stage isn't Flawless, but rather is termed Legendary (it's Bethesda's pet adjective for this game). When you hit it, the quality levels continue, but they're all called Legendary from then on.

[Grathagis]

sorry. my bad. I always get mixed up on the small stuff. you are right, it is legendary. but my point was simply this: using fortify potions and armor leads to enhancements on your weapons and armor. from what I could tell the name was determined not by your basic smithing skill, but by the combined effects. when I use smithing (using all the tricks), even at smithing 15 I can upgrade to an almost 3-4 times better equipment piece. thus getting in a higher bracket at once

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

but my point was simply this: using fortify potions and armor leads to enhancements on your weapons and armor. from what I could tell the name was determined not by your basic smithing skill, but by the combined effects.

It is determined by the combined effects. But my point is that there are points in between quality levels where you can improve your skills / buffs without qualifying for the next quality levels - these tend to lead people into thinking certain buffs aren't "working" when they're really just insufficient at their level to see the benefit.

For example, a 10% bonus (such as that from Seeker of Might) at skill level 15 may not even grant any additional quality levels. At 100 skill, however, you'll get a few.

[Grathagis]

I suppose that by revisiting the Black Book attributes and doing them in sequence you will get quite an effective crafting skill. But in the end it is overkill. Yes, I did the fortify alchemy gear, make a fortify enchantment potion loop. I think at the end of it I got glass armor with a total defense value of 2000-3000. Since the max cap is around 600 or so, that value places light armor and heavy armor in the same range. And the only reason to wear a specific armor then is because of personal choice and looks.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by Grathagis:

And the only reason to wear a specific armor then is because of personal choice and looks.

Which I'm glad of - it removes any guilt of not using "the best" armour, because it's all the best once your crafting skills are sufficient.

Anyway, the numbers we get are indeed overkill. But still, it's somewhat fun to see exactly how high you can push them without "cheating".

[Grathagis]

true. that is the fun part. I think my fortify smithing potion was at 232%.