I just started a Dunmer sword n' boarder using heavy armor and NO smithing, enchanting or alchemy (though I may make poisons) and it is a whole new game. I am on expert. I started with light armor and quickly realized that it would not do. I dumped three perks into it, but called it a loss and switched to heavy armor.

Anyone not smith? What difficulty and class?

I don't smith but I do a bit of alchemy though. I play on master as a sword and board heavy armour without a helm.

Depends on my character.
Some of them only improve things, others wouldn't have the knowledge so they only buy or find their stuff.

I like to upgrade my gear to Legendary status. Going beyond that is where the system fails. If Beth wanted to fix it, that is what they should have focused on. Instead the just altered the progression, which needed adjusting, as well.

So, yes I use Smithing. Pending the character, it may be more Alchemy or Enchanting. Or it may be a combined effort of all three. As long as the gear can reach Legendary. Playing with a Sword that does 60 damage, at Legendary, is more satisfying, rewarding and balanced, that playing with a Sword that does 120 damage, just because your Smithing skill allowed you to increase the status waaaay past the initial Legendary mark.

Assassin playing on expert, not using smithing as a thing to improve my gear but do from time to time use up what resources I have gathered to sell the weapons.

The game is very much different from when you use smithing as now I rely on finding the good weapons rather then just smith them myself.

Count me in.

Never had a problem using default weapons and enchanted gear to bring down any opponent.

My third file is a Kajiit werewolf build, and I have no need for smithing. Alteration's Dragonhide is cast before transformation and then I go to town. I always play on master, and this is by far the hardest min/max playthrough so far.
Sneaking isn't an option in beast form, and the only spells that carry over is dragonhide which helps out a lot. Timing my roars is also key to survival. Did I mention I die a LOT? I find myself not transforming due to how underpowered werewolves are, which defeats the purpose. I might pick up Hircine's ring to keep the game more interesting with random transformations. I suppose a breton would have an easier time with their once a day powers, but I prefer the kajiit for the bonus damage to unarmed combat.

I do smith.
Vriddi maxed out Enchanting and Smithing and got very OP quite quickly.
Griselda took the Steel Smithing and Arcane Blacksmith perks. She got OP too but not because of Smithing although eventually she was able to upgrade stuff other than steel to legendary.

Did you use enchanted armor which gives +smithing bonuses to smith stuff?

I did on my previous character, but never use it any more. It makes the game too easy. It's also nice exploring the world to obtain better gear.

If you do not use loopholes like drinking +smithing potion or using gear with +smithing, was smithing still too powerful?

I don't see any reason not to use smithing, its part of the game just don't overdue it and create OP stuff :S

not just me - thank goodness for that! i actually NEVER use smithing, it just takes so long and upgradeing the skill must take weeks , i tried it once at alvors smithy and i was like "yup....this...is....DULL" still i thought everybody else upgraded to master before now , ha ha this is great!

Before 1.5, it was dirt easy. You can get 100 smithing just from smithing iron daggers alone. Now they make it scale to the base item cost similar to alchemy, and now rightfully so it is difficult to level.

Depends on my characters. Some don't have any knowledge of smithing or don't like it. I did have a couple that were expert smiths though. I lost my saves reccently so while I write up a new character I am taking a little break from actually playing

makes it more realistic too and indeed a skill that you to "invest" time/gold/effort in

I just want to know whether 100 smithing and enchanting are still too OP if you do not use loopholes like drinking +smithing potion, and wearing a full set of +smithing armor to craft things.

How about enchanting? Is leveling it also scaled to the base item cost?

This. Smithing is fine, just do not use potions/enchantments of fortify smithing.

I would add that you should also limit the fortify weapon skill enchantments. Just use one piece, not four. Makes the game much more enjoyable. Otherwise it becomes very boring

I hate to love smithing.

My new character will only choose steel and elven smithing, only going to use a dagger as they can be smithed for increased damage but really the weapons only become silly strong when combined with smithing + fortify 1 handed enchants which do not affect daggers. No more grinding smithing either - mining ore and using transmute to make gold necklaces is the way forward.

One other thing. As far as Smithing and using mods, some weapons can only be obtained by Smithing. Still, the main thing is not to take it past Legendary. Steel weapons and Armor can reach Legendary from taking the Steel Perk and having a Smithing skill of 91.

Even if you use Alchy and Ench to get to 91, You may be ahead in the leveling for now, but that won't last long. As you will still be leveling when you kill stuff, with that newly improved weapon.

All of my characters only perk one and only one crafting skill. To me it just makes more sense that someone can only specialize in one craft. So I've played some that perk Smithing and others that perk only Alchemy or Enchantment. While I have done all of these I must admit that unless I'm playing a mage, the Smithing craft seems to give you the best benefits.

My current Arcane Archer (Bound Bow) does not smith or wear armor, and destroys on MASTER difficulty.

I've smithed on all three of my characters. On the first one, a melee, I smithed for better/newer equipment. It didn't overpower me (didn't powerlevel it, so I only hit 100 at lv48), and since I didn't Enchant, I still found plenty of better equipment in loot. On my later characters.... well, it looks like I'm always going to have Smithing on all my characters, because plenty of mod authors seem to like putting their new armors in the crafting recipes.


After 1.5, it's dirt easy. You just have to look at the recipes, and find new recipes other than "Iron Dagger".

I done some testing for other reasons, and was developing the Smithing skill with iron and leather. It seems that Iron daggers are still, "the best bang for buck", as far a s material. I was testing for something else so I could be mistaken. But just from having the materials in hand and watching the bar go up, it appeared to be close. The number of IDs to craft is up there. Before it was 475, now it's over 2000.

I could have used other materials, but iron and leather was easy to manage.