im a little confused, people going on about necromages and amazing stats and blah blah blah. Do the boots improve the effects of already equipped armor.

It adds +10 into your enchanting skill, therefore raising the % / #'s you can 'create' on new enchanted items. (If you are wearing the four armor pieces)
Vampires with necromage get +12

Evidently there is a max, I think its 10 percent anyway.

I used my previously 29 percent alchemy/smithing suit. It consists of enough items to give four "fortify smithing" and five "fortify alchemy" (making use of the falmer helmet, golden circlet thing .)

After then wearing the four Az whatever stuff as well, to enchant a NEW suit to 32 percent, upon trying to do it again the new higher "fortify enchanting" of 43, it gave me only 32 still just like the fortify alchemy of 40, or whatever.

So with the plus 10 you can make a set that is plus 32, but that appears to be the max. So more than plus 10 would be moot. Even with a higher set, you'll still just have the fortify enchanting that is only so high (to use coupled with the 4 piece for the 10 percent bonus.)

So the max I could have on equipment was 52 percent to stuff like one hand, block, archery, and 81 percent magicka regen or disease resist (48 percent shock and fire resist, etc.)

So the four piece Az(whatever) set, is something I only put on while enchanting something up (while also ingesting the fortify enchanting potion, maxxed as far as I can.)

Wearing exactly four pieces of the Ahzidal set will net you +10 Enchanting skill, like SilverFerret said. Wearing five pieces will not give you the bonus, and you have to wear the boots to get the bonus. Also, the Ahzidal dragon priest mask counts as part of the set. The effect is called "Ahzidal's Genius" and can be seen in your active effects list. This doesn't boost items that are already enchanted, only items that you enchant while wearing the gear.

Another new bonus for Enchanting is the Seeker of Sorcery ability, which increases Enchanting by 10% and is granted by the Black Book: Sallow Regent (found in White Ridge Barrow IIRC). You can also improve Alchemy by 10% using the Seeker of Shadows ability, and Smithing by 10% using the Seeker of Might ability. But keep in mind you can only have one of these three abilities at any given time, meaning to get the maximum out of your crafting skills you will have to go to Apocrypha and switch between them a lot.

As for the new cap on looping Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Enchanting, see this copypasta from a post I made elsewhere:


If you do use the Falmer Helmet exploit then you'll get higher numbers since it lets you make stronger Enchanting potions (the reason the above poster didn't get higher numbers is likely because they did not use Seeker of Sorcery). And you'll get much higher numbers if you're a Vampire and have Necromage. But I didn't test those, so I don't know the exact magnitudes.

Thanks, but I think I know all too well about enchanting exploits, I'm better at it than anyone, but I'm unfamiliar with this falmar helmet exploit, what is that?

The Falmer Helmet exploit is a bug that allows you to equip a circlet and the Falmer Helmet at the same time. It lets you equip 5 items that Fortify Alchemy (or Fortify Archery, or any magic school) at once.

That's a pretty bold claim for someone who didn't even know about the Falmer Helmet exploit...

This works with the PenOc helemt also worn by those special imperial guards if you want a light armor helmet that you can wear a circlet beneath. THere is usually a penoc guard inside the building at Dragonbridge you can kill and take his helmet.