i have two problems with the armor skills / perks...

1) i think its kind dumb that they increaes when you get hit...ok there are not a lot of options but this opens a lot of room for "soft cheating" and on the other hand brings us to my other problem

2) i dont get hit... i have played with several characters now, and the only guy that did actually increase the heavy armor perk on a stead pace was a 2h warrior...and mostly because i didnt really care for blocking or timed it very well...but for my assassin, ranger, mage, 1h/shield... i hardly see the usefullness...as soon as you have a shield you will probably block (with some practice) around 2/3 or more of the incoming blows (or simply dodge by backing away)...so it seems that unless you fight dw or maybe 2h (and are bad at blocking with the weapons) i dont see a lot of reason to invest heavily in the armor perks and rather invest in shields, or in alteration when carrying robes...

whats your experience with that?