Good Lord, I said I wouldn't do it, but...

Purpose of this thread:

This series of threads are dedicated to exploring mechanic interactions, build optimizations, and novel aspects of the game engine, in an attempt to find their outer limits. By knowing these limits, individual players can make an educated decision on how to play the game, in an effort to play in the way they find the most enjoyable.

Previous Threads:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1266212-2469-armor-3199-damage-using-smithing-alchemy-enchanting-only-31-perks/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1275179-2419-armor-6399-damage-using-smithing-alchemy-enchanting-only-33-perks-329k-backstabs/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1279078-2419-armor-6399-damage-using-smithing-alchemy-enchanting-only-33-perks-329k-backstabs-post-3/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1289727-2419-armor-6399-damage-using-smithing-alchemy-enchanting-only-33-perks-329k-backstabs-post-4/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1300996-armor-cap-ridiculous-damage-enchanting-alchemy-smithing-only-21-perks-thread-5/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1310006-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-6/, http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1313851-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-7/, http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1317202-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-8/

Contributors, in no particular order: Jerich, Cheshyr, Domilasa, Whisk3yjack, Nerevar X, DieBySword, Dimeron, gabriel_eliot, Excessive, fragonard, Human Being, wtflag, Barlow, Lothario, Vermilion Sparrow, pms00, bobjim123, dr.hieronymous.alloy01, lendial

tl;dr summary:

• Any Armor can reach the Armor Cap of 567, which is 80% Physical Damage Reduction
  
• Magic and Elemental Resist stack, and cap at 85%, which is 97.75% Magical Damage Reduction
  
• All weapons can do obscene damage with the proper perks and crafting skills
  
• Destruction spells can do obscene damage with the proper perks and crafting skills
  
• You can use any weapons and any armor, and still have a viable character

Base Character Template, Crafting Gear

The original discussion assumed melee combat, and a desire to maximize Armor Rating, Magic Resistance, and Weapon Damage. As such, Daedric Crafting was assumed, and a either One-handed or Two-Handed was incorporated into the baseline.The result was the following template:

• Enchanting (8) [100]: 5/5 Enchanter, Insightful, Corpus, Extra Effect
  
• Alchemy (7) [100]: 5/5 Alchemist, Physician, Benefactor
  
• Smithing (5): Up to Daedric
  
• {Weapon Skill} (5): 5/5 Armsman or 5/5 Barbarian
  
• Heavy Armor (1): 1/5 Juggernaut

These perks enabled:

• 29% Fortify Enchanting enchantments
  
• 29% Fortify Smithing enchantments
  
• 32% Fortify Alchemy potions
  
• 130% Fortify Smithing potions

Your process should look something like this:

• Purchase and Drink a Fortify Enchantment potion (=25%)
  
• Fortify Alchemy enchantments 28% x4
  
• Fortify Enchantment potions 32%
  
• Fortify Alchemy enchantments 29% x4
  
• Fortify Smithing enchantments 29% x4
  
• Fortify Smithing potions 130%

This enables a total of +246% Weapon and Armor Improvement. It may be wise to make multiple of the potions during the process, just in case your spend too much time in the enchanting screen.

When the above crafting equipment and potions are used to craft and enchant your gear, you end up with some astonishing results:

• Full Daedric Armor: 2125 Armor
  
• Daedric Bow: 562 Damage
  
• Daedric Dagger: 171 Damage
  
• Daedric Two Handed Sword: 605 Damage
  
• Daedric One Handed Sword: 518 Damage

These values assume 4x Fortify Weapon Skill enchants, and 4x Fortify Armor Skill enchants. It was disappointing that the Fortify One-Handed enchant didn't apply to daggers, but the cumulative 30x multiplier from Sneak perks and Dark Brotherhood gear made it apparent why this was the case. These numbers are fairly extreme overkill, regardless of game difficulty setting. 1500 Armor Rating was wasted due to the Armor Cap, and Dual Wield Sneak Attacks hit for over 32k after additional buffs from potions and racial abilities! In addition, it was fairly simple to hit the Magic Resistance Cap. Given that Ancient Dragons only have 3.1k HP, their melee attacks could be reduced to as low as 60 damage (lower with shield), and we could now stand in their flamebreath without noticing or caring... it was time to bend our efforts towards enabling player flexibility through optimization.

Skyrim Alchemy 101

In the right hands, Alchemy can be one of the most powerful tools in the game, although you will see (or have seen) many threads on these forums bemoaning the fact that it is a very difficult skill to level. Some things to keep in mind concerning alchemy:

• The experience you gain by making potions is directly proportional to the gold value of the potions you produce
  
• You can boost your experience gain in Alchemy by wearing Fortify Alchemy enchanted gear, having the Thief Stone activated, and being Well-Rested by sleeping in a bed
  
• Using more than 2 ingredients to make a potion for a singular specific effect (such as Fortify Smithing) is a waste
  
• You can have potions with multiple effects -- for example, Snowberries+Hawk's Beak+Mudcrab Chitin yields a potion that resists fire/frost/lightning and also restores stamina
  
• There is no correlation between using expensive ingredients and the value of your potions, so there is no reason to not use the cheapest ingredients you can get

The most valuable (and thus, the most experience-yielding) potion you can make is by combining a Giant's Toe, a Blue Mountain Flower, and a Blue Butterfly Wing. The flowers and butterfly parts can be gathered in the "starter" area plains west of Whiterun, and a Giant's Toe can be looted from a slain giant... but who wants to tackle the big guys when you're a low level? Good news: there are Giant's Toes just laying around in Skyrim, waiting for an adventurer to grab and mix into a potion worth ten times its weight in gold!

• 3 in dawnstar, The White Hall
  
• 3 in college of winterhold, drevis’ room, arch mage’s quarters, hall of attainment
  
• 2 in Nightcaller Temple (The Pale) *
  
• 2 in Honeyside (Riften)2 in Castle Dour, Emperor's Tower (Solitude)
  
• 2 inside East Empire Company Warehouse (Haafingar)
  
• 2 in Palace of the Kings Upstairs (Windhelm), in Wuunferth the Unliving's room
  
• 2 in Calixto's House of Curiosities (Windhelm)
  
• 2 in Proudspire Manor (Solitude)
  
• 2 (one on the dead Giant on the altar and the other in the stone bowl) at the camp just south of Sundered Towers
  
• 2 in Nightcaller Temple (The Pale) *
  
• 2 in riverwood, delphines hideout
  
• 2 in hagraven altar west of karthspire
  
• 1 in hall of vigilant
  
• 1 in Falkreath – deadly concoctions
  
• 1 in Largashbur – outhouse
  
• 1 in riften, elgrims elixir

If you aren't up for a "snatch and grab" operation for the Giant's Toes, you can always make something different: Hanging Moss+Blue Mountain Flower or Salt Pile+Deathbell. Both are excellent value potions with common and easy-to-find ingredients.

Here are some relevant formulas for mixing potions to use in crafting:

Fortify Smithing = Blisterwort, Glowing Mushroom, Sabre Cat Tooth, Spriggan Sap (glowing mushroom can be found in most falmer caves, blisterwort can be found in chillwind depths)
Fortify Enchanting = Blue Butterfly Wing, Hagraven Claw, Snowberries, Spriggan Sap (blue butterfly wings can be found in the plains region west of whiterun and snowberries can be found in snowy regions)

Crafting Console Commands:

Raising Skills:
player.advskill (skill) (uses) - Simulates using the skill x times. You can change the skill name and the number to level up naturally (doesn't screw up stats)

Smithing:
player.additem f 10000 - 10k septims
player.additem 2e4ff 10 - 10 Grand Soulgems (filled with Grand souls)
player.additem 3ad5b 10 - 10 Daedra Hearts
player.additem 5ad9d 10 - 10 Ebony Ingots
player.additem 877c9 1 - Gold Diamond Ring
player.additem 877f1 1 - Gold Diamond Necklace
player.additem db5d2 5 - 5 Leather

Alchemy:
player.additem 63b5f 10 - 10 Spriggan Sap
player.additem 1b3bd 10 - 10 Snowberies
player.additem 7ee01 10 - 10 Glowing Mushrooms

Armor, Block, and Physical Damage Resistance

Physical Damage Resistance is fairly straight-forward. The higher your Armor Rating, the larger the incoming damage reduction. The graph of percentages is linear; one point increases it by a fixed percentage of .12%, so an Armor Rating of 100 = 12% damage resistance. This makes the hard cap of 80% = an AR of 667, but there is a hidden bonus you get from wearing armor pieces (NOT clothing), and this bonus is equal to 40 for a chest piece, and 20 for all other pieces, for a total amount of 100 "hidden" armor bonus when you are wearing all four types of armor. This "hidden" rating is the same regardless of material type or smithing improvements/enchants, and causes a skew from 667 in the final calculation for the armor cap. By wearing 4 pieces of armor, the cap is lowered to 567 (displayed), since 100 AR is there that you "don't see".

It turns out, with an Armor Cap as low as 567, there is a TON of flexibility in how you armor your character.

A brief summary:

• Steel Smithing requires the least perks; Wolf Armor is the lightest Steel Armor
  
• Elven Smithing requires an additional perk, but is the absolute lightest basic armor

Domilasa took the time to do exhaustive testing on all the Armor Types to determine the number of perks required to improve armor to the Armor Cap.

Assumed: NO Ancient Knowledge perk! This perk is bugged; check the bugs section for the appropriate chart.
The chart below is read: {Type}: Perk Count / Armor without Shield | Armor Perk Details | Crafting Perk Details

Heavy:

• Deadric: 6 / 570 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Daedric Smithing
  
• Dragonplate: 8 / 702 | 1/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonplate: 7 / 702 | 1/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Ebony: 6 / 685 | 1/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | Ebony Smithing
  
• Orcish: 5 / 675 | 1/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | Orcish Smithing
  
• Steel Plate: 5 / 666 | 1/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | Advanced Armors
  
• Dwarven: 4 / 649 | 1/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | Dwarven Smithing
  
• Steel: 3 / 639 | 1/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | Steel Smithing
  
• Iron: 5 / 580 | 4/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | None

Light:

• Dragonscale: 8 / 660 | 1/5 Agile Defender, 1/1 Custom Fit | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonscale: 7 / 660 | 1/5 Agile Defender, 1/1 Custom Fit | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Glass: 6 / 643 | 1/5 Agile Defender, 1/1 Custom Fit | Glass Armor
  
• Scaled: 5 / 618 | 1/5 Agile Defender, 1/1 Custom Fit | Advanced Armors
  
• Elven: 4 / 607 | 1/5 Agile Defender, 1/1 Custom Fit | Elven Armor
  
• Leather: 5 / 585 | 3/5 Agile Defender, 1/1 Custom Fit, 1/1 Matching Set | None

This shows us that any Armor can reach the Armor Cap. It also pointed out that Steel and Elven require very few Perks to reach this cap. The choice between approaching Dragon Armor from the Light Armor side or the Heavy Armor side is based on your weapon material preferences (see next post for more details). It's possible to save an additional perk or two if you choose to use a shield:

Heavy (with Shield):

• Daedric: 5 / 590 | None | Daedric Smithing
  
• Dragonplate: 6 / 673 | None | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonplate: 5 / 717 | None | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Ebony: 4 / 567 | None | Ebony Smithing
  
• Orcish: 4 / 647 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Orcish Smithing
  
• Steel Plate: 4 / 630 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Advanced Armors
  
• Dwarven: 3 / 620 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Dwarven Smithing
  
• Steel: 2 / 609 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Steel Smithing
  
• Iron: 4 / 594 | 3/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | None

Light (with Shield):

• Dragonscale: 7 / 633 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonscale: 6 / 633 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Glass: 5 / 617 | 1/5 Agile Defender| Glass Armor
  
• Scaled: ???
  
• Elven: 3 / 580 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Elven Armor
  
• Leather: ???

Amazingly, you can reach the Armor cap using basic Steel Armor and only 1 Armor Perk! You pay for that frugality in Weight. A full set of Steel armor weighs 64 (generic weight units). However, Wolf Armor, which is just another variant of Steel Armor, only weighs 32.5 (generic weight units). If you're going Heavy Armor, and you're tight on Perks, Wolf is definitely the way to go. For Light Armor, the answer is much simpler: Elven is the cheapest and lightest. It's also worth noting that Ebony Armor with Shield and No Armor Perks provides exactly 567 Armor Rating.

It's interesting to note that all of these numbers were achieved without ANY Fortify Armor enchants. As long as you get the core crafting perks from the Base Template, you can customize and improve your armor and enchantments without worry.


Block:

Active Blocking stacks with damage resistance from Armor, being applied to any damage that makes it through, and is capped at 85%. When you have 100 Blocking, the following happens:

• Daedric Shields block for 63% damage resist
  
• All weapons block for 60% damage resist
  
• Iron Shields block for 56% damage resist

About the Shield Wall perks: the perk descriptions in-game are incorrect. Each level of the perk adds 10% to Blocking, which is multiplied against skill in the same fashion as Fortify Blocking enchants. For example, if you have 60% damage resistance (unperked) from blocking, then each level of the Shield Wall perk will add +10% to that base 60, meaning that each level will add a total of 6% damage resistance. Basically, the Shield Wall perks are +10% Fortify Blocking enchants. A quick look at the table above shows that 4 ranks in Shield Wall is enough to hit the cap (and then some) for Daedric Shields, and will give 84% (pretty close to the cap) for all weapons... but an Iron Shield will need all 5 levels of Shield Wall to hit the cap.

Blocking with zero skill or perks:

• Daedric Shield 53% (rounded)
  
• Iron Shield 50%
  
• All Weapons 42%

So we can see that the blocking mechanic is inconsistent for weapon blocking when compared to shields. At low skill levels, weapons are inferior to an Iron Shield, but better at higher skill levels.

Nearly all Blocking perks work with weapons... the only ones that don't are: Arrow Deflection, Elemental Protection, and Shield Charge. Block Runner works just fine with weapons, and will even supercharge your stealth to make sneaking happen at running speed. As a side note, doing a "shield bash" with a 2H weapon instead does dramatically more damage than properly using a shield, and the Bashing perks work fully as intended with regards to blocking with weapons.

Bashing damage stats (rounded up):

• Daedric Warhammer : 7 Bash / 21 Power Bash / 102 Deadly Bash
  
• Daedric Greatsword : 6 / 18 / 90
  
• Iron Warhammer : 5 / 14 / 68
  
• Daedric Shield : 5 / 14 / 68
  
• Iron Shield : 3 / 8 / 38

A couple other odds and ends:

• No known enemy has Armor Ignore abilities, even though the player has access to 75% Armor Ignore.
  
• Lord Stone is a flat 50 Armor Rating added to your final Armor value after all other effects have been calculated.
  
• Heavy Armor Damage Reflection does not decrease damage by 10%; it just reflects incoming damage.
  
• There appears to be a "bug" with enemy finisher moves; the game calculates if an attack will kill the player before any dodging or active blocking comes into play.
  
• The Decapitation perks are simply alternate animations for a player's "killing move", they do not insta-kill your enemies unless they were going to die anyway.
  
• The Steel Smithing perk governs improvements in a number of miscellaneous equipment "flavors"... Falmer armor/weapons, Blades equipment, and Redguard types fall under this category. It is worth noting that Falmer armor has the same weight and stats as Wolf armor.

Magic: Resistances, Absorption, and Support Gear

Magic Resistance is actually a lot simpler than most people make it out to be.

• Magic Absorption is applied first, and is a hit-or-miss chance to completely negate all the effects of a spell.
  
• Magic Absorption has an 80% Soft Cap; Bretons can get it to 100% once per day.
  
• Magic Resistance is applied next. Incoming damage is reduced by the Magic Resistance percentage.
  
• Magic Resistance caps at 85%.
  
• Elemental Resistance is applied to the remaining damage. Remaining damage is reduced by the Elemental Resistance percentage.
  
• Elemental Resistance caps at 85%.

Magic Absorption applies to all effects, including damage, stamina drain, mana drain, slows, burning, Dragon Shouts, weapon enchants, and poisons. Notably, it also effects Conjurations, which actually makes it possible to fail a summon due to this effect.

There are only a couple sources of Magic Absorption:

• The Atronach Stone: 50% - South of Windhelm
  
• Alteration Tree: 30% - Atronach perk
  
• Breton: 50% - 60 second racial ability

There are a number of sources of Magic Resistance:

• Breton: 25%
  
• Lord's Stone: 25% - Southwest of Dawnstar.
  
• Agent Of Mara: 15% - Quest starts in the Temple of Mara at Riften
  
• Alteration Tree: 30% - Magic Resistance perks
  
• Enchant a Ring, Necklace, or Shield: 23% each
  
• Savior's Hide Armor: 15%
  
• Shield of Solitude: 10-30% (leveled) - Quest reward for http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Wolf_Queen_Awakened
  
• Potion of Resist Magic: 32% each

Likewise, there are an abundant number of sources of Elemental Resistance:

• Dunmer: 50% Resist Fire passive
  
• Nord: 50% Resist Frost passive
  
• Block Tree: 50% - Elemental Protection perk
  
• Otar: 30% to all 3 elements - Dragon Priest mask, Heavy Armor
  
• Enchant a Ring, Necklace, Boots, or Shield: 43% each
  
• Potion of Resist {element}: ???%

If you're willing to spend a few extra perks in enchanting, the Fire Enchanter, Frost Enchanter and Shock Enchanter perks can give you an additional 11% effectiveness when creating Elemental Resistance enchants. Combined with Otar, this would mean you only need one of each to reach the Elemental Resist cap. This also has a side effect of better weapon enchants if you choose to go elemental on them.

Becoming a Better Mage through Support Gear:

It turns out, there's a lot you can do with crafting to benefit a Mage. There are really 3 major mechanics for this:

• Reduce the Mana Cost of a Spell School using an Enchantment
  
• Increase Damage / Duration / Effectiveness of a Spell School using a Potion
  
• Make the enemy more susceptible to your magic with a Poison

The most commonly known mechanic is to use enchanting to reduce the Mana Cost of a Spell School to 0%, thereby making spells from that school free. This enchant can be placed on Headgear, Necklaces, Rings, and Armors (including Robes), and each one can exceed 25% mana cost reduction. There is no benefit to exceeding 100% mana cost reduction (I tried; I was sad I couldn't regen mana by casting spells. :-p). With the Extra Effect perk, you can actually reduce 2 schools to 0% Mana Cost. Not too shabby.

The other two improvements are through Alchemy. In Enchanting, Fortify {Spell School} reduces mana cost. In Alchemy, Fortify {Spell School} improves their relative effects:

• Fortify Alteration: Increases Duration of Spells
  
• Fortify Conjuration: Increases Duration of Spells
  
• Fortify Destruction: Increases Damage of Spells
  
• Fortify Illusion: Increases Level of Spells
  
• Fortify Restoration: Increases Strength of Spells (bugged)

My favorite part of this list is the Fortify Destruction potion. +162% Spell Damage! So an appropriately perked destruction mage can throw around 235 point DualCast Thunderbolts regularly, and boost that to over 615 points for 60 seconds with a potion... all without spending any mana! That sounds pretty effective to me. But it get's better.

Alchemy also provides poisons like Weakness to Magic, Weakness to {Element}, and Weakness to Poison.

• Weakness to Magic: Magic Damage taken after the poison is applied is increased. Max is 100% from Vendor (???), 65% crafted.
  
• Weakness to {Element}: Elemental Damage taken after the poison is applied is increased. Stacks with Weakness to Magic. Max is 97% crafted.
  
• Weakness to Poison: Poison Effects applied after THIS poison is applied are increased. Stacks with any unique poison effect-list. Max is 65% crafted.

While we still need to do more controlled testing, the numbers seem to indicate the ability to two-shot an Ancient Dragon (Roughly a 2.5k Dualcast Thunderbolt). Hit them with an arrow coated in Weakness to Poison / Weakness to Element combo. Hit them with another arrow coated with Weakness to Magic. Drink your Fortify Destruction potion, and call down wrath from the heavens. This is even more exciting if you're a Shock Mage with the Disintegrate Perk.

While it's a bit of a juggling act at first, and it requires quite a bit of preparation... you don't need to use it all. Just carrying around a few Fortify Destruction potions should make your Evoker a lot more fun to play. You can also go the other direction, and make a number of unique Weakness to Poison variants, and they will all stack, so you can create some truly epic damage numbers... if your target lives that long.

What affects my damage or my charge usage for enchanted weapons?

There are several ways to boost the damage of your enchanted weapons:

• The perks Fire Enchanter, Frost Enchanter, and Storm Enchanter increase the damage of your enchants upon item creation only.
  
• The Destruction perks that boost damage will affect elemental damage of weapons on the fly, i.e., you do not need to make a new item to see an improvement.
  
• A Fortify Destruction potion will boost your damage for as long as the effect lasts.

There are also several ways to help conserve the charges of your magical weapons:

• Using Fortify Destruction gear will reduce the magicka cost of your spells AND the charge usage of your weapons as well.
  
• Having a high skill in the Destruction school will lower the charge usage of your weapons.
  
• The Enchantment perk "Soul Siphon" will also extend how many uses you get from magical weaponry, by stealing a little bit extra from killed enemies.
  
• The Enchantment perk "Soul Squeezer" will make your recharges with soul gems a little more efficient.

Concerning Weapon Speeds and Styles

There are loading tips in-game that roughly describe weapon swing speeds, but one of them is incorrect. A 2H sword does not swing faster than a 2H axe -- testing has revealed that they swing the same speed. For dual-wield characters, the speed of a dual attack is dependent upon the weapon you are carrying in your left hand, so the fastest you can get is by carrying a dagger in your left hand. Unfortunately, the Fortify One-Handed enchant does not apply to daggers, so that is something to take into account when choosing your weapons.

Weapon styles have been debated throughout this entire thread series, and it has been determined that Dual Wielding is the most powerful style you can play. DW Power attacks are x3 damage (this is simplified, but suitable to make the point), and given the extra enchanting slots afforded by using 2 weapons, it only makes sense. This is not to say that 1H plus Shield or 2H is ineffective... quite the opposite. All weapon styles are effective and viable using the crafting gear, and can even go so far as to trivialize combat entirely. You can one-shot Alduin with a dual-wield power attack. With a 2H warhammer, you can 2-shot him. It's time to bring some sanity back into the numbers so the game remains fun to play.

After some further debate, it was determined that keeping the damage into a reasonable area was both a matter of personal taste and some simple calculations. It was suggested by Cheshyr that we restrict ourselves to only being able to kill Alduin with ten standing power attacks in order to not yawn every time we got into a fight. Since Alduin has 3370 health, the numbers are determined by difficulty level:

• Adept: 169 single weapon, 112 dual wield (in each hand)
  
• Expert: 253 single weapon, 169 dual wield
  
• Master: 337 single weapon, 225 dual wield

Upon considering the power of the crafting template, anyone can see that these numbers are not very high. Just using the crafting template and the relevant perks in one-handed, a Daedric Dagger does enough damage on Adept, and that is without any one-handed enchants (which don't apply to daggers, anyway). We are still working on creating a chart concerning these numbers vs. perks and weapon types required to match these criteria.


How Smithing Works to Improve your Gear

Getting a smithing improvement for your equipment only adds a small flat number to the base damage or AR for the item in question. You will see (or have seen) many threads on these forums bemoaning the fact that Smithing is overpowered, and this is true for the fact that improvements to the base values of your gear are multiplied against skill, perks, and enchants. For example, a smithing improvement to an "Exquisite" weapon that becomes "Flawless" (1 step up) will add a grand total of exactly 1 point of damage to the base damage. This is true for any weapon improved in this way, because all smithing improvements are applied equally across the board, regardless of weapon type or material type. For example, an Iron Dagger improved from normal to "Flawless" gets +6 to the base, just the same as a Daedric Warhammer.

Although the descriptions in-game concerning the effects of Blacksmith Potions seem to imply that the improvements themselves are better, this is not true. All enchantments and potion effects that concern Smithing will do nothing but increase your effective skill. This is how you can get such huge numbers using the crafting gear... you aren't smithing with a skill of 100, you are smithing with a skill of 346. It is worth noting that there is more than one level of "Legendary", which is the "last" improvement type... they just stopped giving the improvements unique names after a certain point.

Improvement level : Smithing skill required (with material type that has been unlocked in the smithing tree) : Smithing Skill Required (with unperked material or leather)

• Fine............. : 14 : 14 / bonus to base weapon damage +1 -- armor bonus +2
  
• Superior....... : 22 : 31 / +3 -- +6
  
• Exquisite...... : 40 : 65 / +5 -- +10
  
• Flawless....... : 57 : 100 / +6 -- +13
  
• Epic.............. : 74 : 134 / +8 -- +17
  
• Legendary.... : 91 : 168 / +10 -- +20
  
• Legendary2.. : 108 : 203 / +12 -- +24
  
• Legendary3.. : 125 : 237 / +14 -- +28
  
• Legendary4.. : 143 : 271 / +15 -- +31
  
• Legendary5.. : 160 : 305 / +17 -- +35
  
• Legendary6.. : 177 : 339 / +19 -- +38
  
• Legendary7.. : 194 / +21 -- +42
  
• Legendary8.. : 211 / +23 -- +46
  
• Legendary9.. : 228 / +24 -- +49
  
• Legendary10 : 246 / +26 -- +53
  
• Legendary11 : 263 / +28 -- +56
  
• Legendary12 : 280 / +30 -- +60
  
• Legendary13 : 297 / +32 -- +64
  
• Legendary14 : 314 / +33 -- +67
  
• Legendary15 : 331 / +35 -- +71

The chart continues much farther, but the upper limits of this probably do not bear further discussion here. A glance at the chart reveals the true power of having perks in the Smithing tree: you can improve many more stages into "Legendary" by having a perk for the material. With full crafting gear from the template, you can only reach Legendary6 with unperked material improvements, but with the right perk unlocked, you can get to Legendary15, which is a difference of +16 base damage for weapons, and a full +33 for armor pieces... with four pieces of armor, that amounts to a bonus of 132 AR -- and that is before you even factor in skill, perks, and enchants that multiply against this number!

Of course, it stands to reason that someone with a very high skill with combat perks and enchants will get a very nice boost from a single step in the smithing improvement ladder, whereas a beginning character with no skills to speak of will see very little gain from Smithing. This is why it is advisable to avoid "power-leveling" the Smithing skill at early levels on high difficulty settings -- your player level will go up, but you will not have the combat ability to face the opponents who also level up to match you. Smithing improvements will not be very sizable without the skills and perks to back them up, and you will have a difficult time against many of the game's monsters and NPCs.


About Critical Hits, Bleeding Damage, and Armor Penetration

The weapon specialization perks are not good investments... for swords, getting the critical chance perks at most will add 10 to your final damage, because the critical damage is calculated from the base weapon damage, and does not take skill, smithing, or enchants into account. Bleeding from axes WILL stack with itself after multiple applications, but it is a low flat number that does not take skill, smithing, or enchants into account. Maces/Hammers perks sound like a good idea until you realize that very few enemies you face in the game will have any kind of appreciable armor, let alone skill with that armor. No monsters (Dragons, Spriggans, etc.) have an armor rating above zero, meaning that armor penetration is not very effective or even applicable for much of the game.

For comparison's sake, using the axe bleed perks will pay off the most in terms of damage, simply for the fact that they stack with each other, and are guaranteed to proc with every hit. However, monsters that do not have blood like Draugr, Atronachs, and Dwarven Constructs (this is an incomplete list) are immune to the Bleed effect.

Movement Speeds

You may have noticed that wearing heavy armor slows your character down a little bit as far as running around and bashing things in the head goes. It has been determined through testing that the total worn weight of your equipment is directly proportional to how much you are slowed. Interestingly, the slowdown is not really noticeable while wearing light armor, but when you step into Iron gear, things start to drag. By the time you are wearing full Daedric, you will be chugging along at only a moderate speed, and can easily be caught by most any NPC or monsters, with the noted exceptions of Mudcrabs and Horkers. To put a little more spring into your step, make sure that you use the Steed Standing Stone or spend some points to get the Conditioning perk in the Heavy Armor tree.

Expenditure of stamina while sprinting functions in exactly the same way -- a high total worn weight is bad. In full Daedric armor, you will not be able to sprint for more than a couple of seconds. Again, get the Steed Stone or the Conditioning perk to counteract this. Testing has revealed that there is no appreciable difference while wearing full Elven armor when compared to wearing nothing at all, so the Unhindered perk has limited value to those who wear Elven, and it can be argued that even Glass armor is not heavy enough to warrant the expenditure of a perk point for the purposes of helping your sprinting.

Bugs and Exploits, Other

Marksmanship Potion
It appears that the Marksmanship potions increases damage from ALL weapons, not just bows.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615803-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61142033
Using this, you can stack multiple piece of enchanted armor, thereby increasing your alchemy or smithing effectiveness.

Restoration Loop
Reminiscent of the Morrowind Alchemy glitch, restoration potions enhance the effectiveness of equipped enchants. Effectively gives you unlimited power. A number of people have used this to roll over from 2147483648 to negative values... which indicates Skyrim uses Signed 32-bit Integers for storing certain values.

Multiple Headgear Bug
There are several pieces of headgear that can be equipped over a circlet, allowing you to double the number of enchants for your "head" slot above the normal max of 2 (with the Extra Effect perk):

• Falmer Helm
  
• Penitus Oculatus Helm
  
• Jagged Crown

Three Helmets
Specific race/gender combos suffer from a texture glitch that prevents them from rendering headgear such as Ancient Shrouded Cowl or Thieves Guild Hood. For these combos, this glitch allows you to equip three helmets. This does not work for race/gender combos that properly render the texture.

• Equip the broken texture helmet.
  
• Equip a Falmer Helm or Penitus Oculatus.
  
• Equip Circlet #1
  
• Equip Circlet #2

There is an occasional bug-within-a-bug where you cannot stack the three items. The fix for this is to remove one circlet from your inventory (e.g. put it in a chest) then take it back.

Ancient Knowledge Bug
Ancient Knowledge is a quest reward Perk you get for finishing the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Unfathomable_Depths quest. It is supposed to give you a bonus to armor rating when wearing Dwarven Armor, and make it so you learn Smithing 15% faster. Instead, it appears to boost the Improve Smithing effectiveness, and it stacks with all the other crafting synergies we've created thus far. It may also be impacting other skills.

Below is the Armor Value chart when you have the Ancient Knowledge perk bug.
The chart below is read: {Type}: Perk Count / Armor without Shield | Armor Perk Details | Crafting Perk Details

Heavy:

• Deadric: 5 / 589 | None | Daedric Smithing
  
• Dragonplate: 6 / 579 | None | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonplate: 5 / 579 | None | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Ebony: 4 / 570 | None | Ebony Smithing
  
• Orcish: 4 / 670 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Orcish Smithing
  
• Steel Plate: 4 / 664 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Advanced Armors
  
• Dwarven: 3 / 648 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Dwarven Smithing
  
• Steel: 2 / 634 | 1/5 Juggernaut | Steel Smithing
  
• Iron: 4 / 604 | 3/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | None

Light:

• Dragonscale: 7 / 655 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonscale: 6 / 655 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Glass: 5 / 643 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Glass Armor
  
• Scaled: 4 / 619 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Advanced Armors
  
• Elven: 3 / 609 | 1/5 Agile Defender | Elven Armor
  
• Leather: 4 / 606 | 2/5 Agile Defender, 1/1 Custom Fit, 1/1 Matching Set | None

The chart below is read: {Type}: Perk Count / Armor with Shield | Armor Perk Details | Crafting Perk Details

Heavy:

• Deadric: 5 / 731 | None | Daedric Smithing
  
• Dragonplate: 6 / 717 | None | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonplate: 5 / 717 | None | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Ebony: 4 / 705 | None | Ebony Smithing
  
• Orcish: 3 / 691 | None | Orcish Smithing
  
• Steel Plate: 3 / 686 | None | Advanced Armors
  
• Dwarven: 2 / 665 | None | Dwarven Smithing
  
• Steel: 1 / 651 | None | Steel Smithing
  
• Iron: 3 / 621 | 2/5 Juggernaut, 1/1 Well Fitted | None

Light:

• Dragonscale: 6 / 676 | None | Dragon Armor (from Heavy Armor Side)
  
• Dragonscale: 5 / 676 | None | Dragon Armor (from Light Armor Side)
  
• Glass: 4 / 663 | None | Glass Armor
  
• Scaled: ???
  
• Elven: 2 / 625 | None | Elven Armor
  
• Leather: ???

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1332899-am-i-the-first-to-discover-this-synergy-with-necromage-perk-and-vampirism/

When you are infected with full Vampirism, getting the Necromage perk in the Restoration Tree will boost ANY effects that involve the player as a target, since the player is tagged as "Undead". This is not limited to spellcasting, but applies to enchanted equipment as well. It is possible to break the "ceiling" on the crafting template.

Requirements

• 70 Skill or higher in Restoration
  
• 3 spare perks to spend in the Restoration tree
  
• Cannot be a werewolf

Process

• Contract Sanguinare Vampiris by letting a Vampire NPC cast Vampiric Drain (the red spell) on you. This checks against disease resist and has a 10% chance of landing per cast.
  
• Wait 3 days to evolve Sanguinare Vampiris into Vampirism. Do not use any Blessing Shrines and do not cure disease as this will remove the Active Effect.
  
• Purchase Novice Restoration, Regeneration, and Necromage perks in the Restoration tree.
  
• Any apparel with effects that have a value (e.g. this does not work with the Dark Brotherhood backstab gloves) will have their Active Effect boosted by 25%. This is not shown on the item stats, only under Active Effects.
  
• Any potions you drink or spells you cast that show up under Active Effects will have their effect boosted by 25%.

• Equip your 29% Fortify Alchemy gear set. Each piece is boosted by Necromage to 36%.
  
• Using Circlet, Falmer Helmet, Gloves, Necklace, Ring, create 42% Fortify Enchanting potions. (VALUES NEEDED FOR NON-FALMER STACKING. NOT IT.)
  
• Drink your 42% enchanting potion, which is boosted by Necromage to 52%.
  
• Create another set of Fortify Alchemy gear, which is now 32%.
  
• Equip the 32% Fortify Alchemy gear set. Each piece is boosted by Necromage to 40%.
  
• Create 45% Fortify Enchanting potions.
  
• Drink your 45% enchanting potion, which is boosted by Necromage to 33%.
  
• Create another set of Fortify Alchemy gear, which is now 33%.
  
• Create a set of Fortify Smithing gear, which is also 33%.
  
• Equip the 33% Fortify Alchemy gear set. Each piece is boosted by Necromage to 41%.
  
• Create 46% Fortify Enchanting potions to use for enchanting and 184% smithing potions to use for smithing.
  
• 46% Fortify Enchanting potions are boosted by Necromage to 57%. 184% smithing potions are boosted by Necromage to 230%.

Curing Vampirism

Keep in mind, you do not have to remain a vampire if your goal is simply to make better gear. After smithing and enchanting your weapons and armor, you are free to cure vampirism. Unlike the werewolf curse, Sanguinare Vampiris may be contracted again after being cured, and it can be cured again an infinite number of times. You are not restricted to playing as a vampire if you merely want to utilize this bonus for making gear. However, your worn effects, potion effects, and spells will not receive the extra 25% bonus while you are cured.

Text-Based videos

pms00 made a few videos with overlay text instructions if this is still confusing. Sorry, no commentary:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45E4B2Yu1Z8
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr0ZjXt6BHM
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw1Yw1XHry4

Victory! i mean thanks
Something has appeared that can dramatically change the landscape of optimized character building:
you get 25% bonus to all abilities and skills as a vampire with the necromage perk. It seems you are able to boost enchanting and smithing potions even higher and as a result it is now even easier to reach critical breakpoints.

Shouldn't that be in the same section as glitches? The underlaying cause is identical to the fortify resotration bug, which is to say something that boost spells end up boosting your own enchantments.

other than that just want to say, do not get bladesman perk, the critical only affects the base damage of the sword. Just want to get that out there so people don't put perks into it.

On another note, NPC do get perks. Although I do not think anyone has the armor ignore perks. If there are any I must have missed them.

The issue is im not sure if its a glitch or one of many undocumented feature.

This is a good point... as awesome as the Necromage effect is for vampire characters, it is quite arguably an unintended glitch. I will, of course, add to the OP's and get it in there... I just copypasted as fast as I could so nobody would accidentally break the post chain for the Guide.

Man, we've got some homework to do to fill THAT in... damn. I'm begging here... can somebody help me go through all the posts in threads 7 and 8 and file some reminders in this thread for what is missing?
-Loth

PS I'm gonna start on Blocking now, since I was involved in that discussion.

-Non restoration offensive spells affecting undead, can be argued and probably is a feature
-Self buffing spells having greater effect on yourself by being a vampire, IMO bug as the perk clearly state against undead, implying offensive only.
-Boosting enchantment, as much as fortify restoration loop can be also be considered an undocumented feature. From an engine point of view, the root cause is the same, ie, things that boost spells also affect enchantment.

Werewolves?

Maybe I missed it as I skimmed through looking for good info about it, you guys have some amazing results.

We knew it would be you. Glad you came around!

LOL Don't worry... I hate myself right now for doing this. Are you gonna help me sort through all the stuff that's missing from the other threads? Pretty please?
-Loth

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...
Thanks Loth, really appreciate it.

Okay, I updated the Guide a little bit, but there's still a long way to go. If you ever wanted to be a part of the magic of the Character Design Freedom threads, now is your chance to become a contributor! Think of the glory and immortal internet fame! Your name will be poorly sung in taverns all throughout Skyrim, without hardly any missed notes by the bards! YOU WILL BE AWESOME!!

We need some number-crunching as far as weapon damage/perks go to hit our "damage cap", plus I'm sure that I missed all kinds of stuff from earlier threads that could stand to be added to the Guide. If there's a call to go deeper into the vampire/necromage anolysis, I'm sure we could flesh that out quite a bit. I basically just posted a blurb and linked to the other thread, but it doesn't have to stay that way. Still, I'd be hard-pressed to move such a thing from the "bugs/exploits" section, due to how the Necromage perk's wording is fairly straightforward. I mean, I love how you can use the Become Ethereal Shout literally forever due to the Necromage boosting, but you have to admit that game designers probably didn't have that in mind when they released it.

-Loth

More info on necromage. I didn't do the number crunching for hitting the caps but can if no one else is willing.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1332899-am-i-the-first-to-discover-this-synergy-with-necromage-perk-and-vampirism/

When you are infected with full Vampirism, getting the Necromage perk in the Restoration Tree will boost ANY effects that involve the player as a target, since the player is tagged as "Undead". This is not limited to spellcasting, but applies to enchanted equipment as well. It is possible to break the "ceiling" on the crafting template.

Requirements

• 70 Skill or higher in Restoration
  
• 3 spare perks to spend in the Restoration tree
  
• Cannot be a werewolf

Process

• Contract Sanguinare Vampiris by letting a Vampire NPC cast Vampiric Drain (the red spell) on you. This checks against disease resist and has a 10% chance of landing per cast.
  
• Wait 3 days to evolve Sanguinare Vampiris into Vampirism. Do not use any Blessing Shrines and do not cure disease as this will remove the Active Effect.
  
• Purchase Novice Restoration, Regeneration, and Necromage perks in the Restoration tree.
  
• Any apparel with effects that have a value (e.g. this does not work with the Dark Brotherhood backstab gloves) will have their Active Effect boosted by 25%. This is not shown on the item stats, only under Active Effects.
  
• Any potions you drink or spells you cast that show up under Active Effects will have their effect boosted by 25%.

• Equip your 29% Fortify Alchemy gear set. Each piece is boosted by Necromage to 36%.
  
• Using Circlet, Falmer Helmet, Gloves, Necklace, Ring, create 42% Fortify Enchanting potions. (VALUES NEEDED FOR NON-FALMER STACKING. NOT IT.)
  
• Drink your 42% enchanting potion, which is boosted by Necromage to 52%.
  
• Create another set of Fortify Alchemy gear, which is now 32%.
  
• Equip the 32% Fortify Alchemy gear set. Each piece is boosted by Necromage to 40%.
  
• Create 45% Fortify Enchanting potions.
  
• Drink your 45% enchanting potion, which is boosted by Necromage to 33%.
  
• Create another set of Fortify Alchemy gear, which is now 33%.
  
• Create a set of Fortify Smithing gear, which is also 33%.
  
• Equip the 33% Fortify Alchemy gear set. Each piece is boosted by Necromage to 41%.
  
• Create 46% Fortify Enchanting potions to use for enchanting and 184% smithing potions to use for smithing.
  
• 46% Fortify Enchanting potions are boosted by Necromage to 57%. 184% smithing potions are boosted by Necromage to 230%.

Curing Vampirism

Keep in mind, you do not have to remain a vampire if your goal is simply to make better gear. After smithing and enchanting your weapons and armor, you are free to cure vampirism. Unlike the werewolf curse, Sanguinare Vampiris may be contracted again after being cured, and it can be cured again an infinite number of times. You are not restricted to playing as a vampire if you merely want to utilize this bonus for making gear. However, your worn effects, potion effects, and spells will not receive the extra 25% bonus while you are cured.

Text-Based videos

I made a few videos with overlay text instructions if this is still confusing. Sorry, no commentary:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45E4B2Yu1Z8
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr0ZjXt6BHM
  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw1Yw1XHry4

agreed that it should stay in the bugs & exploits section if there is room. also, i am surprised the falmer helmet isn't there now that i am looking.

Holy crap, how did that happen... no mention of it, or the Penitus Oculatus helm either (needs confirmation on this one).

-Loth

PS Thanks for helping out! That's some good quality posting there.

Edit: if somebody can confirm that PO helms also have the dual-equip bug, then I'll put both of them up together at the same time.

How come that my Daedric Dagger has 177 damage and not 171 as mentioned above? Dagger improved once only to Legendary with only 4 x 29 fort. smithing and a potion of 130. That's all..

EDIT: And what means: 4 x Fortify weapon skill enchantment / 4 x Fortify armor skill enchantment ?? Are you enchanting items with fort. one-handed and fort. light armor 4 x each. But how can you wear all those items for smithing?

Do you have the Ancient Knowledge perk from doing the Unfathomable Depths quest?
-Loth

Yes, but it says Blacksmithing increases 15% faster..

Ancient knowledge perks appears to be fortify blacksmith by 15% instead of increasing the speed which it levels up. So if you don't have that perk your weapon and armors will be slightly less effective.

That "4 X" is a kind of shorthand that means "wear 4 pieces of gear with". For making Smithing equipment, this means a ring, a necklace, leather gauntlets, and clothing. For Alchemy equipment, this means a ring, a necklace, a leather helmet, and leather gauntlets. You can substitute different pieces for the leather, you can use normal gloves instead of gauntlets, or an ebony chest armor instead of clothing, etc... the material type doesn't matter -- it's where the piece is worn that matters, because certain types of enchantments can only go on specific types of equipment.

-Loth

PS And now that I see you have the Ancient Knowledge perk, that is definitely why your dagger does 177 instead of 171. The description for the perk is incorrect, like Dimeron said. You are getting an extra 15% boost to your Smithing skill from that perk.

Jagged crown also has the bug.

Morokei is supposed to have is own unique enchantment "+100 magic regeneration and -20% shout cooldown" according to scripts found. I expect this is something that will be fixed eventually.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Artifacts

Combined with talos blessing and talos amulet and necromage/vampire combo's +25%, a total of 75% shout cooldown reduction can be achieved.

This enables almost Ui Tiid Klo Ui or Eternity Slow Time. Almost because you cannot recast the shout while the effect is on, but you can recast it immediately when it is over.

Fighting large number of opponents is possible in this manner without illusion now, although some special opponents like 50 bow wielding Dragur Death Overlords still needs special care to avoid being rag dolled by their Fus Roh Dah.

Wait... there's another one? LOL can somebody make a list or something -- I'm not savvy with the exploits, here.
-Loth