I just learned last night that the masks count as heavy and light armor, this is a bit disappointing as a couple of them are certainly aimed at mage type characters and I had been thinking of getting the mage armor perk.

Now I'm wondering if it would be better to forget the perk and use the mask with boot and gloves, I'm sticking with robes however. Or are there alternative options to the masks that are just as good and don't count as armor?

I would hate to make either choice now only to find out later that I would rather have gone the other way.

I've only found armour versions so I don't think there are any cloth versions. I guess you could play as a battle mage and as you said go with the mask, boots and gloves. Armour can be improved far better than clothing in anycase.

I'm not even sure mage armor perk is worth it even unarmored. Once you get the master alteration spell (80% damage reduction), the mage armor perk (and all the "flesh" spells seem pointless). BTW, fully perked ebonyflesh will give you 400 armor, which is around 50% damage reduction.

Uh, I think you misread my post. I know that all the masks count as light or heavy armor. Was wondering if there was equal alternatives to the masks that would allow the use of the mage armor perk.



Hmm I'll look in to that, thanks for the info. You make a good point, and I always travel with a companion or I have so far at least.

The perks svck for 2 reasons. One armor will be stronger, 2 the master level armor spell does not work with the perks. Just ignore the perks and wear armor. The level of stupid in game mechanic design in some of these skills is astounding to me.

Well as I said I will only use the boots and gloves if I do wear armor as I am sticking with robes. Also I should add that I don't plan to use heavy armor at all, just light gloves and boots. Doing that and sticking with the robes for RP reasons, I feel more like a mage that way.

Would still like to know if there are equal alternatives to the masks though, would be more inclined to use mage armor then even if it's not that great simply for increased protection and RP reasons.

Yeah, I was also pretty bummed that the best diadem/circlet for a mage I found was light armor.

None of the dragon priest masks are any good for mages...

If you're stuck on using robes get an unenchanted hood and stick 25/25 cost reduction enchant on it.

Uh.. I beg to differ. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Artifacts

There is no real reason to wear robes in this game other than roleplaying. You can enchant armor to be just as good as robes, perks make armor weightless, and give it a variety of other nice bonuses...

Did you read the rest of my posts? If you had, you would know I am using robes for RP reasons. I am well aware that you can enchant armor with just about anything you want.

Can we please get back to my original question and the topic at hand.

As soon as the CK comes out, I plan to make those masks unarmored and change up the Alteration spells a bit:

Change Dragonhide to 150 base ar (600 perked) and 25 spell absorption. Change Atronach to 25 from 30 spell absorption (cause I'm ocd like that). This will be a nerf for unperked mages (but still useful) and a buff for perked mages. 600 ar is about 75% damage reduction (80% is a hard cap even for armor).

With these changes a master perked alteration mage could have 75% damage reduction and 50 spell absorption going into battle easily. Add atronach stone or dragonskin breton power and they could be immune to all magic for 60s (and refilling magicka). Not too shaby, but not OP in my opinion...and then the mage armor perks stay useful.

This would certainly be a mod that I'd get, unfortunately though I'm on console for now.

which mask are you thinking of? 100% regen on Morokei, vs 30% resist 30% absorb + -25% spell cost for one or two schools. Frankly just don't bother with the mask unless your character is already perked for light armor. Assn/spellsword type? And in either case there might be better options.

I just rolled on by Morokei and enchanted myself a destro/resto circlet. Frankly 100% regen is a pretty bad bonus, it needs more.

Nahkrim feels itemized at battlemage types.

Morokei is awful. AWFUL. Magicka regen is largely useless unless you are running around spamming spells *OUTSIDE OF COMBAT*. The moment you enter into combat your regen is cut down to shreds. Nahkriin is less powerful than a 25/25 enchanted hood/helm although it is passable to wear if you have somehow managed to not get 100 enchanting by the time you are killing dragon priests.

Mage Armor perk is 200% / 250% / 300% btw guys, fully perked ebony is 300 not 400.

So what you are saying is I can enchant something that is as good or better than +50 magicka and 20% reduction on Destruction and Restoration costs?

I'm asking because I don't know, have not gotten that far yet and don't want to regret either decision later. I say this because your post is slightly condescending.

There are 4 slots to enchant fortify : Chest, Helm, Necklace and Ring. If you use the helm mentioned above you can at best get 95% cost reduction. Whereas if you custom enchant the helm to 25% you get 100% cost reduction which renders any bonus magicka pointless since your spells don't cost anything. With 100 enchanting you can put 2 enchants on each piece so you can effectively get 100% cost reduction to both destruction and restoration instead of only 95%.

I'm not sure on the difficulty you play on but on higher difficulty this is practically required to be able to cast enough spells to actually get through some encounters without using magicka pots nearly non-stop.

Ok, I see what you are saying now. Dunno how I feel about 100% cost reduction, seems to defeat the point of even having magicka. Not that I can fault anyone for going with that, but I'm not sure I would want to make things that trivial.

50% can't be correct when you reach the cap at 580.

There's invisible AR as well as display AR, given that you're wearing all four armor pieces, 567 is the cap for the display value. Wearing four armor pieces gives an additional "invisible" AR of 100, hence a 667 = 80%. I got all this from the latest equations on uesp.

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

In the notes it says that clothes do not count as armor (i.e. not counting towards invisible AR).

40 AR = 4.8% DR (standard oakflesh, lol)
100 AR = 12% DR
300 AR = 36% DR (current fully perked max ebonyflesh...bleh!!)
400 AR = 48% DR
600 AR = 72% DR

My bad, thanks for the correction. I guess I'd change that as well in my mod.

So is it worth it to get the Mage Armour perk or no?

Should I invest in the Mage Armour perk or no? By reading this thread, I'm still undecided.

No!. It is only good in the short term, once you get the master level spell those 3 perks are totally worthless and have gone to waste. assuming you are leveling to 50ish 3 perks is far to many perks to throw in the garbage. I think it is horrible game design to have the end spell destroy 3 of the perks you have in a fairly small perk tree, but there you have it.