Just curious. Hate not seeing my character's head.

easily, especially with a high level smithing, you can improve like 3 pieces of gear without a shield to get over 600 AR..i did on my warrior, i use ebony gear (bc it looks better than daedric) and i don't use a helm or shield, and my AR is almost 600..all smithed to legendary though

Nice, nice. I'm using all Ebony as well, except for my chest which is Steel Plate. I didn't like the ebony because it made my character look fat Steel plate is very fitting.

I do not wear a helmet and have cap armor (light armor) . It is easy even with just arcane smithing.

yeah, i don't know if you can do it with a steel item but i know for sure you can with a full set of ebony except helm. and you don't need to worry about it after that point bc after 567 armor, extra armor doesn't mitigate anymore damage, so it's pointless.

I buffed a pair of Fur Gauntlets and Fur Boots up to ~800 (each).
Just hand, foot and helm could put up giant numbers without even needing actual armor...
If you stack two (different rated) fortify restoration potions, four fortify smithing enchantments, plus a fortify smithing potion, you can get some really nutty numbers.
You have to be careful that 2-handed weapons don't buff up past 999 damage rating because four-digit numbers won't display.
My Mehrune's Razor (little dagger) is buffed up to 705 or something if I recall, heheh...
But I've backed way off it and just take it easy now (never stacking the restoration potions).
I made some new (dual-enchanted) light dragon gauntlets, boots and helm and buffed them to around 300 each.
One potion, for each piece all buffed at the same time - you can't go buffing pieces with different potions, sending their relative statistics all out of whack.
Try it out on the beautiful Fur Armor, the one with the splendid white fur across your shoulders and including arms (some fur armor doesn't have arms).
This armor you can't make or buy, you must take off dead guys, usually bandits. It upgrades with leather.
Paired with fur gauntlets and fur boots, beautiful.
(Who needs Ebony? Man that stuff's heavy...)
I kinda went 'back-to-nature' with it - it's like the anti-glass, y'know?
But if you like heavy, you can send even Dwemer into outrageous numbers pretty easily.
However some more expensive heavy armor weighs even less than the Dwemer (not that you need the extra armor rating).
Regards

With all legendary dragonscale I have 426 without helmet. Thats with custom fit but not matching set perk. With legendary Penitus Oculatus helm it goes to 575. I use PO helm because I can wear a circlet under.

Ah, yes.. The best armor in the game.

I run around naked and I don't use armor, you should try it, it makes the game harder and fun

considering there is a 200% cap on smithing bonuses, no, you did not make a pair of fur gauntlets that had 800 AR. 200% of the fur armor AR is no where near 800 haha.

Yes, but this doesn't prevent you from using fortify light/heavy armor enchantments, in conjunction with high level smithing, does it?

Also, for all that's worth, you should be able get past the 1200 mark with almost any armor set (I don't think you can do that with iron/hide sets -haven't tried it myself tbh though). Ofcourse, with the 567 cap this doesn't mean anything, but it is quite possible, even as a number.

..there is a 200% cap, so yes, yes it does, and no one is talking about using alchemy to temporarily buff skills

And who talked about temporary buff? I'm talking about heavy/light armor enchantments on rings, amulets, armor pieces, you name it.

As for alchemy, if you can use it even temporarily to hit your smithing further, why not use it and get your results? Is this a game of self-imposed "purity"?

On the contrary, this is an excellent way of keeping your favorite armor set's usefulness throughout the game.

what on earth are you talking about. you cannot make a pair of fur gauntlets get 800 AR because there is a TWO HUNDRED percent cap. 200% of the AR of fur gauntlets is not 800. i don't understand why you're trying to say you did it, unless you used some sort of an exploit. you can do two things: buff smithing increase by 200% and then buff armor rating by 200%, neither of which would make the AR of fury gauntlets 800.

Yes, there is a 200% cap on smithing bonuses, yes there is a 200% cap on temporary alchemy bonuses and YES, there should be a 200 limit on light/heavy armor SKILL bonuses, NOT coming from alchemy, but from enchantments, found on Squire (light) and Knight (heavy) named loot. This is what you're missing.

But it doesn't mean you can push a single item to 800 armor rating. I never said that.

ya, he definitely did say that, i don't know why he's trying to deny it haha...

Why do you even need that much armour, just don't wear a helmet.

i would assume he's trying to get maximum damage mitigation from AR cap without having to use a helmet because he doesn't like covering up his characters beautiful face

Why can't he just not wear a helmet if he doesn't want one, capping armour doesn't matter.

My nick is not Gryphon.
You had no idea that Squire and Knight lines of random enchanted loot even existed and right now, you're just trying to make a fuss to bail yourself out

He's saying it because he's right and your wrong there is no 200% cap. Whoever told you that is either a fool or a liar. I have a character who wears four items of fortify smithing+25% for a grand total of 100. If I was to smith a pair of fur gauntlets it go from 14 to 40 that is an increase of 280%. With my alchemical boosting gear I can make a potion of fortify smithing 108%. Using both the gear and the potion I can bring fur boots up to an AR of 69. A five hundred percent bonus from 14.

Now for the insane number,
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/835/photodo.jpg/

I had to take it from my Camera phone but as you can clearly see 6465.

Invisible caps are sad. Someone says there is an invisible cap and everyone believes it like as if it was free chocolate. Ask for an explanation and people will say that they are invisible and so one cannot see them... This is enough for some to make sense. Why do people so easily accept these? Are limits the new way to go, a hot, new trend?!

Seriously, think about it. One can smith a light armor like a hide armor set, which is the weakest of all, to a rating of 600. A cap of 567 would mean that most of the Smithing tree is cosmetic with regards to armor, and the dragon perk becomes a joke. Are fighters, warriors and blacksmiths not more than divas now?!

Warrior: "Darling, what shall I wear? Steel, ebony, elven, leather or just hide armor?"
Wife: "Go naked..."
Warrior: "Why are you so mean to me???"
...

Take no offence! It is good when young people can be talked into accepting limits without further explanation. It saves parents a lot of stress.

Although I did have my moments of "alright, what should we use for this session?", it's actually good that these beautiful armor designs don't become obsolete, past a certain level.

As for how armor rating is being affected by the presence of a shield and the jewelry I was talking about, here's a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_15hqywJFCM I assembled, as I can't think of a better way to explain things.

Why is it good?

Is defence only secondary to prettiness for you? if so then you should really start wearing a dress.