Armor cap way too low?

[Lampros]

Someone said the effective armor cap was around 560s, and that this was easily reachable. But I did not realize how easy. When I looked, Lydia at level 38 already had 1k-plus; and I was at around 470, and just adding 1 entry Perk in Light Armor (whatever it's called) got me there.

Isn't this a bit ridiculous? What's the point of armor caps having so low that a mid-level character in light armor can reach it after taking 1 Perk in light armor?

[Urgh]

Maybe the stats on the armor you're wearing is ridiculous?

[Lampros]

Originally posted by BloodFireIce:

Maybe the stats on the armor you're wearing is ridiculous?

Huh? It's still a problem - an itemization problem.

[Alucard †]

its not problem with armor cap but the fact how much it absorbs damage.. you are nearly immune to melee damage yeah you can really quickly reach armor cap ... it redners armor % perks useless since you can just put 1 point in them and just rely on smithing / enchanting

sorry if i made weird typos and such i'm a little tipsy

[ZarahNeander]

Originally posted by Lampros:

What's the point of armor caps having so low that a mid-level character in light armor can reach it after taking 1 Perk in light armor?

No they can't, only crafters can. Obviously it would be silly to balance the game around one specific play style

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Lollipop:

Originally posted by Lampros:

What's the point of armor caps having so low that a mid-level character in light armor can reach it after taking 1 Perk in light armor?

No they can't, only crafters can. Obviously it would be silly to balance the game around one specific play style

No, it wouldn't be silly to balance around something that is easily achievable, and many folks would try to achieve.

[76561198133591931]

The effective armor rating cap is like 564 I think. But what makes it the level cap is damage reduction cap. Armor can only protect you for a maximum of 80% of damage. And you hit that percentage at AR 564. I believe that every point in Armor Rating protects you from 0.142% of damage. Do the math. How high does AR need to be to max out at 80%? I use a mod

SkyTweak. {LINK REMOVED}http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33395/?

This mod has many features. But one of my favorites is the ability to reset damage reduction cap, so I can also up the AR cap at the same time. It can also reset max resistance level. i.e. poison, disease, and elemental.

[BanditoRalf]

The max AR is 564, which is equal to 80% damage reduction. Due to game mechanics, if your armor rating is higher than 564, then the game automatically brings the AR down to 564.

On a side note, what is your smithing and alchemy at?? If you decided to grind those to max level, then yes the AR is super easily capped. If you dont level your Smithing, then reaching the max AR is going to take a long time.

And remember that the AR caps at 564, there is one way to exceed the cap, but you have to glitch and cheat the game to do it.

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Someone said the effective armor cap was around 560s, and that this was easily reachable. But I did not realize how easy. When I looked, Lydia at level 38 already had 1k-plus; and I was at around 470, and just adding 1 entry Perk in Light Armor (whatever it's called) got me there.

You don't say exactly what armor you are wearing. In any case, what you see for Lydia doesn't matter because Lydia's armor rating depends on Lydia's perks, not yours.

Armor is capped at 85%, which is around 570 for most people (there are some weird things in the calculations that make this a bit ambiguous). With the right perks, it's possible to get this rating with just leather or steel armor. By the time you're wearing Daedric and Glass armor it's trivial. My last playthrough, with just Dwemer smithing and the Ancient Knowledge perk, I was at the armor cap around level 30.

Now if you just have one Light Armor perk (one rank of Agile Defender), and zero Smithing perks, something screwy is definitely going on. If that's the case, I would look at your other mods and see if something is "overhauling" Skyrim.

[BanditoRalf]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Originally posted by Lampros:

Someone said the effective armor cap was around 560s, and that this was easily reachable. But I did not realize how easy. When I looked, Lydia at level 38 already had 1k-plus; and I was at around 470, and just adding 1 entry Perk in Light Armor (whatever it's called) got me there.

You don't say exactly what armor you are wearing. In any case, what you see for Lydia doesn't matter because Lydia's armor rating depends on Lydia's perks, not yours.

Armor is capped at 85%, which is around 570 for most people (there are some weird things in the calculations that make this a bit ambiguous). With the right perks, it's possible to get this rating with just leather or steel armor. By the time you're wearing Daedric and Glass armor it's trivial. My last playthrough, with just Dwemer smithing and the Ancient Knowledge perk, I was at the armor cap around level 30.

Now if you just have one Light Armor perk (one rank of Agile Defender), and zero Smithing perks, something screwy is definitely going on. If that's the case, I would look at your other mods and see if something is "overhauling" Skyrim.

^^^^^ This guy explains it better

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Banditoralf:

On a side note, what is your smithing and alchemy at?? If you decided to grind those to max level, then yes the AR is super easily capped. If you dont level your Smithing, then reaching the max AR is going to take a long time.

And remember that the AR caps at 564, there is one way to exceed the cap, but you have to glitch and cheat the game to do it.

Smithing was maxed in my low 30s; Enchanting was maxed in mid 30s; but I am still stuck in low 90s in Alchemy, and I am level 49.

Not interested in either exploiting or cheating; I think it ruins games - in most cases.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Originally posted by Lampros:

Someone said the effective armor cap was around 560s, and that this was easily reachable. But I did not realize how easy. When I looked, Lydia at level 38 already had 1k-plus; and I was at around 470, and just adding 1 entry Perk in Light Armor (whatever it's called) got me there.

You don't say exactly what armor you are wearing. In any case, what you see for Lydia doesn't matter because Lydia's armor rating depends on Lydia's perks, not yours.

Armor is capped at 85%, which is around 570 for most people (there are some weird things in the calculations that make this a bit ambiguous). With the right perks, it's possible to get this rating with just leather or steel armor. By the time you're wearing Daedric and Glass armor it's trivial. My last playthrough, with just Dwemer smithing and the Ancient Knowledge perk, I was at the armor cap around level 30.

Now if you just have one Light Armor perk (one rank of Agile Defender), and zero Smithing perks, something screwy is definitely going on. If that's the case, I would look at your other mods and see if something is "overhauling" Skyrim.

I am wearing Dragon stuff; they are both enchanted close to max for someone who was (then) in level 30s (only Alchemy wasn't maxed but still high 80s back then).

[Lampros]

Update:

After over 100-hours, I can only conclude gear - especially crafted gear - is over-powered in a way I seldom see in other RPG games. At level 38, I was already easily able to down level 50 Ancient Dragons in a few hits; incredibly, even Lydia in her mid-40s (after I disabled all the AFT stat and damage boosts) was able to solo one with ease with virtually no loss of health.

Of course, you may say that this only happens if you have crafted gear. But the fact of the matter is that - given the "Jack-of-all-trades" path you are encouraged to follow - many people will craft, anf they will inevitably end up with over-powered gear. You can't give people the easy paths to achieving their goals, make it legitimate or legal, and then tell them to forbear themselves and walk the narrow, difficult path.

Anyways, I guess what I am saying is nothing new: The balance between player characters armed with crafted gear and vanilla mobs is way, way off. Someone said that Elder Scrolls isn't really about designing balanced encounters between player characters and monsters, but I feel sometimes too much is too much, as I've simply never seen an RPG made this "easy" by crafting or a legitimate, non-glitched mechanic.

Overall, Skyrim is an amazing game, perhaps the finest RPG experience I've ever had. Still, there are some glaring deficiencies - many needless deficiencies perhaps - and combat balance surely heads the list. (And I don't think "play it at harder difficulties" is a good riposte, as 1) I don't think even the hardest difficulty will be harder, but merely longer; and 2) "average" difficulty should still be reasonably balanced.)

[ZarahNeander]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Update:.

Anyways, I guess what I am saying is nothing new: The balance between player characters armed with crafted gear and vanilla mobs is way, way off.

Yes, it is and the only solution are -surprise- mods. The funny thing is: every TES game has it's loopholes, allowing the PC to achieve demi-god status. In TES3, it was Alchemy and Enchanting, in TES4 we have spell making and Skyrim, well, needless to explain. I wonder if that isn't a intentional design decision to cater the instincts of power gamers.

Originally posted by Lampros:

(And I don't think "play it at harder difficulties" is a good riposte, as 1) I don't think even the hardest difficulty will be harder, but merely longer; and 2) "average" difficulty should still be reasonably balanced.)

You're right. Harder difficulty should make the mobs smarter/higher lvl/better equipped, but not tedious bullet sponges. Maskars Oblivion overhaul gets it right, sadly, not available for skyrim.

[Nevermore]

I think it is wholly ridiculous that someone wearing Fur armor has the same protection as someone in Dragonbone or Daedric armor. People claim that they wouldn't want to be restricted to using those types of armor to reach the armor cap....but, honestly. It's just stupid. Sorry. If you're wearing light armor, you should get hit harder. I don't care. Light armor should provide more mobility, and perhaps a dodge chance--but a paper bikini shouldn't provide the same armor protection that a full-metal, can't-tell-the-difference-between-it-and-a-supped-up-garbage-can does. I don't want heavy armor to soak up 100% of damage, but I want the grinding to actually *mean* something. You hit end-game armor rating mid-game. It's ridiculous. There's nothing left to work towards, and further than that, it makes several perks meaningless. There's like 175% additional armor rating in perks in the heavy armor tree. You don't even need them. They become worthless. Then people say, "well, in legendary, perks are unlimited, so it doesn't matter". Except it does, since I could have put those perks into something more useful, in the meantime, instead of having to relevel my heavy armor, which already took half the game.

To say nothing of being slowed down in heavy armor. It makes heavy armor a joke.

[Dead Dragon]

Do not do not power level smithing in this game. Ever. Problem solved. Get something like wintermyst enchantments and utter uniques, which will make exploring the map much more worthwhile. Then smith / upgrade only what you want to use on your character at the time + jewelry to enchant / sell that you have the materials for, without buying more mats, if you want too.

Crafting a bunch of iron daggers may seem like a good idea now, but it's not. You're only robbing yourself of potential fun. The game gets piss easy, and you leave yourself with no equipment worth finding. So why open chests, why explore dungeons, why play at all, etc etc.