Just need a bit of advise guys on which type of armour would benefit me the most. I'm playing on master difficulty and am finding the game to be really hard, considering I am 1 hand/destruction specced.

The more I played I came to depend on the companion almost exclusively to survive most fights, as well as conjuration, illusion (crowd control), enchanting, smithing and restoration. I'm well aware that destruction is quite poor at the higher difficulties, but I'm at a point where I need to decide which armour type would be the best to persue. I find myself getting one shotted by the following creatures >>> Dwemer Centurian, Ice Troll, Most Semi Decent Bandits that are dual wielding, Dragon Priests <<<

I was thinking that the reason for this is that I'm not protected enough, and need to go heavy armour perks with good smithing improvements. Has anyone else played a battlemage type character at this difficulty level ?

The problem is that the game doesn't reward you at all for using 1h + spell. It's basically the most challenging combination you can pick. And unless you plan on powerleveling enchanting, you have to split your stat allocations and put some into Mana, which dents your HP pool.

Still, you shouldn't be getting 1 shot, if you are using smithing and upgrading your gear. Did you put no stats into HP or something?

As for the light vs heavy question, no problem with going heavy, I believe. Probably for the best if you are constantly in melee with people.

Had one of my characters wearing full upgraded dwemer armor at lvl 14 get killed from 90->0 in one arrow by a random bandit while exploring. I had put all points into health and had perks for heavy armor and was wearing a shield. At expert difficulty. This is what I missed from oblivion.. this is the way it's supposed to be :tes:

For a non-sneaky character heavy armor comes out on top in the end-game since it offers more protection and the weight can be removed with a perk.

Heavy. No reason to use anything else unless you sneak a lot.

I'd use Alteration instead, but if you must have armor then heavy is the way to go.

I really did consider going robes and the mage armor perk, leaving one handed behind. But the perk is SO bad at higher difficulties, compared to any armor type with perks. There is practically no incentive to go robes, the same bonuses can be applies via enchanting.

Thanks for the tips guys, I guess I'll be going for heavy armor.

Once you hit the armor cap (which you can do with pretty much any armor) light gives better mitigation due to the 10% dodge perk. And it has less perks in the tree.

Heavy armor is easier to reach the armor cap with and doesn't require questionable alch/ench cycling to do so.

I would recommend not relying on alteration.
I've done a few mage builds now and having to keep juggling so many spells via the horrific UI (PC player) made them a nightmare to play, the least fun by far, purely due to the UI. (Destruction not scaling didn't help)
Have one less spell to try to find every fight would be a major plus!

I believe you can smith light armor to reach the armor cap, so really it is down to the perks and the looks. I would probably go for heavy as the sorcerer archetype is something I remember fondly from Oblivion!

Light is better, unless you max your heavy armor perks. We can move a good bit faster which can mitigate lots of damage just by stepping out of the way. Very important on master.

In heavy this becomes far more difficult as you just move to slow. Dodging dragons is very difficult in heavy as you can't outrun their fire breath. You could use your shout to help but I'd rather use them for other things.

Currently I am wearing full set of light, with some carry and mana reducing enchantments. Destro mana is 100% reduced and conjuration is 80% reduced. (I refuse to use the exploit that allows 100% reduction in all schools.) I also went 500 hp and 250 mana. Have not had any problems with this setup so far.

This will sound idiotic, but what is the armour cap, and how does mitigation differ depending on AR ? i.e. whats the damage reduction % per AR at master difficulty ?

Thanks.

Alternation is actually kick ass, cos the perks you use into alternation would be otherwise wasted into heavy armor and the master alteration dragonhide spell lats for 45s with no perks like stability that doubles it's duration or dual casting that doubles it again - the damage mitigation is 80% so it's on par with the best armors in the game, but then again you either need to invest some points into magicka or wear a few mage items, cos the spell is going to cost you about 200 mana with the alternation master perk. Works fine for my nightblade style character, I didn't go for the mage armor perk since I find it obsolete ebony flesh might give you 300 or 400 armor, but then again once you get dragonhide you don't want any other alteration spell besides paralyze so in the long run you maybe don't wanna pick those mage armor perks




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

I agonised over this for hours, until it really started pissing me off actually, so I just bit the bullet and went with light because I can carry more and move better. I'll just put a few more perks in enchanting and make it a bit stronger that way.

Not saying that's the way to go it's just the decision I made and I'm glad I made it so I can now get on with building around it.

Not really, the master alteration spell Dragonhide caps your physical mitigation, and you can take the magic resists in the tree for non-physical defence as well.
Alteration is the armor tree for mages, but it also has utility and paralysis. Either way, their is no point in using light armor for anything beyond asthetics, it doesn't have the upsides it should have to counter the reduced armor rating.

I agree with this ... battle mage in skyrim has to either dual cast or drop both spells and pull out weapon and healing spell or 2 weapons. Weapon and destro spell has no advantage.

I rock full daedric enchanted to increase magicka/magicka regen
works out pretty good for me...

edit: I use 1hander and destruction.

Yeah, but destro is somewhat weak. I'd think a conjuration battlemage would do better, summon minion, summon weapon, dual wield away, harvest souls for your enchanted 1 hander and just conjure a bow if you need to range it.

One thing I'll say, I searched the net a lot about this, you get a lot of ppl championing both light and heavy. Bottom line: the choice is yours man

Choose what you like aeshetically. With alchemy/enchanting/smithing loops you can pretty much cap armor rating on any light/heavy armor, so it all comes down to what you think looks nicer. However, if you want to know which is better at that point, Light Armor wins. Weighs less, easier to sneak in, has 50% faster stamina regen, and has a 10% chance to flat out mitigate damage from an attack. This is all assuming armor rating is capped, of course.

If you ignore the anti-stagger of heavy, the 10% reflective blow damage and the zero weight perk in the heavy tree. Should have just left it at the asthetics.

Honestly, staggering almost never happens. And even going into the left side of the heavy tree would be a further waste of perks, furthering the lead Light Armor has on it.

Heavy all the way. I got enchanted ebony armor boosting both magica and regain speed (100%). I usually have enough to take down most enemies by first conjuring a frost atronach (to draw enemy fire) and then finishing them with a few dual casted lightning bolts (expert). If I run out of magica I just have to move around for a few sec and then I can throw another one, or drink a potion.

The rant about mages being weak is just untrue.

However in case more the one enemy is still standing I finish them off with my trusty skyforge great sword doing 130+ damage steals 30 health. That's when heavy armor comes in handy.

Also I'm the archmage now.

Honestly, Asthetics.

Let me break it down. Assume Dragonscale (Light) vs Daedric (Heavy) and both have capped Armor Rating.

Light Armor Perks Required:

Agile Defender - 1/5 - Increases armor rating for Light Armor by 20%.
Custom Fit - 1/1 - 25% armor bonus if wearing all Light Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Unhindered - 1/1 - Light Armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down when worn.
Wind Walker - 1/1 - Stamina regenerates 50% faster in all Light Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Deft Movement - 1/1 - 10% chance of avoiding all damage from a melee attack while wearing all Light Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.

Total perk points spent: 5

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Heavy Armor Perks:

Juggernaut - 1/5 - Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by 20%.
Well Fitted - 1/1 - 25% bonus if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Tower of Strength - 1/1 - 50% less stagger when wearing only heavy armor.
Matching Set - 1/1 - Additional 25% armor bonus if wearing a matched set of Heavy Armor.
Reflect Blows - 1/1 - 10% chance to reflect melee damage back to the enemy while wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Fists of Steel - 1/1 - Unarmed attacks with Heavy Armor gauntlets do their armor rating in extra damage.
Cushioned - 1/1 - Half damage from falling if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Conditioning - 1/1 - Heavy Armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down when worn.

Total perk points spent: 8

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Comparisons:

Light Armor: Better to sneak in, 50% stamina regeneration increase, and 10% chance of avoiding all damage taken from an attack, save 3 perk points.

vs

Heavy Armor: Half damage from falling and unarmed attack boost (Seriously?), 10% chance to reflect melee damage to enemy (and still take said damage to yourself), and 3 more perk points wasted.

Aesthetics aside.

Man great post, glad I picked light

Of all the posts about this I've seen around the net, this one is the most informative. I'm sure someone will, but I can't see how anyone can argue with that!