I love the Steel armor, fits my Nord perfectly.
However, Dwarven armor rating is starting to catch up. I really don't think i will like the looks of Orcish or Deadric armor (haven't seen em yet tho)
Can i improve my steel armor/weapons even more (after Superior)?

Yes you can continuous upgrade the same armor/weapon even as your skill increases.

As long as the weapon has the ability to be improved, it can be upgraded multiple times.

Yes multiple times, I've forgotten how many times though haha.

I am level 35 in Smithing.
I unlocked the Dwarven perk.
How come i can't improve Steel anymore? The highest it will go is Superior.

Because that's the highest skill you have for it.

This may help -

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Smithing

It's based off your numeric skill, not perks.

I think there's Fine, Superior, Exquisite, Flawless, and Legendary.

the increase in how high you can improve your gear is based on smithing level not on the perks you have unlocked (well, not directly, you get the upgrade earlier if you have unlocked the perk for the armor type you are upgrading).

If you like steel stick with steel. Forget about rating. Unless you're being 1 shotted why the need to upgrade?

You need to increase your smithing skill to improve your steel gear. Up until you hit Legendary quality it seems to come in plateaus (ie you have to reach a certain skill level to boost it from Fine to Superior). Once you get your gear to Legendary you can keep improving it as your smithing skill increases (according to a Wiki once you get your AC to 585 you've reached the cap).

Keep crafting items like Leather Bracers or Iron Daggers if you're getting a lot of Iron Ingots/Ore. Also look out for enchanted items like rings, necklaces and gauntlets at armor and clothing vendors that increase your armorer skill.

If you're going heavy armor, you can actually hit the armor cap of 567 with just about any heavy armor when you've got the skill maxed and have enhanced it with maxed and perked smithing. You can even hit it while wearing Steel armor (see http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor), but you'll need to be wearing smithing-enhancing gear while you do your crafting in that case.

This chart has slightly different numbers: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Smithing#Item_Quality

The only real difference is that it says Fine can only be achieved with a Smithing skill of 14, while your link says you can do that with a skill of 1. Not sure which is correct.


Not correct; perks affect how high your skill has to be to improve to a certain level.

don't think so
just upgraded my skyforge steel waraxe to exquisite without getting any new perks
didn't even know it worked like this untill I tried upgrading some other stuff and noticed it was white in the list

I'm already at 100 armorer and realized I could upgrade stuff already at legendary by using blacksmith potions and smithing enchantments.

When I discovered this, I snagged the arcane smith perk and upgraded my weapons again, (they were already legendary) and got maybe another 50% damage out of them. Joy!

Then restarted because I was too uber.

But the patch broke armor enchantments. My dragonscale boots with 70% shock resistance are about as useful now as the sandals I wore out of prison.

I used to upgrade weapons and armour, until I took an arrow to the knee.

I don't know how the Skyforge affects things in terms of weapons quality, though. That might be a factor. I think the perks do affect your ability to upgrade, though, because I've noticed I can improve Steel more than I can improve Iron - and I have the perk for Steel smithing, while there is no corresponding perk for Iron smithing.

I'll have to check it out, though, to see if things are working according to the numbers.