I too am disappointed that Dwarven is weaker then Plate, especially when you can get Dwarven earlier if you know where to look.

"Dwarf armor comes up short. Film at 11."

Lore out side Elder Scrolls (Tolkien in particular) has Dwarves as masters at building things. Orcs are are not that great at much.

In Elder Scrolls Orcs are supposed to be the master craftsmen at least of armor and weapons. Dwemer are experts at technology and machines.

So it's kind of okay. But I do thing Dwemer armor should be better than steel plate armor.

Hmmm, well maybe it should have been better than steel plate, but you know... it looks cooler at least.
And as others have said dwarfs aren't the classic fantasy dwarfs, and they've been gone for a long time, I guess the Nords have had longer time to perfect their craftmanship.

My problem with armor and weapons in Skyrim is that it's SO redundant and shows complete lack of imagination. Every category has a dagger, a sword, an axe, a mace, a greatsword, a battleaxe and a warhammer, and then they just have slightly different properties and looks. So friggin boring. And you can't even make a Nordic Greatsword style of sword in, say, Ebony. If at least they had made all the weapons and armor smithable in your choice of material there would've been something to break the redundancy, but nope...

They built Orsinium out of iron.

Are you kidding, me??? It's the closest thing Skyrim has to a space marine power suit!

The reason why the Dwemer disappeared is because they tried to ascent to immortality. The rest is a mystery. And the Dwemer were not midgets. The dwarf thing is something the giants came up with, and the name stuck.

These were not your typical Middle Earth Dwarves so forget what you learned from Lord of the Rings.

Actually it appears you misread my post. I said Tolkien Orcs are not good at much.

But Elder Scrolls Orcs are great craftsmen.

It is well-known that the best smiths are Orcs, followed by a semi-close Nord.

Dwemer are not traditional dwarves that make the most badass of armor, they were technologically advanced with machinery and science, not necessarily armor making. They weren't even very warlike, relying more on their machines to fight for them, so they wouldn't waste resources to make the biggest and baddest armor they could and put it on an organic when they can put it onto a 20-foot tall centurion that spews hot steam and is much more difficult to take down.

Dwemer, being the most intelligent of the Mer most likely relied on indirectly defeating enemies as I stated above and Dwarven armor was moreso their version of guard armor I'd imagine. On top of this, the Dwemer disappeared some 5000 years ago if I remember correctly. 5000 years is a long time for the surviving races to perfect their craft.

It should still be noted that despite being 5,000 year old armor, it still beats traditional Steel and Iron, hands down.

As I stated before, I think that Steel Plate is only better than traditional Dwarven armor is because it has extra Cordorium reinforcing the steel- note that "normal" steel armor, and the steel platemail from previous games, are worse than Dwarven armor.

the worst is orc boots, you look like your feet has elephantitis of the orcs.

big ole elephant boots, horrible. most of the boots look bad

It is my least favorite armor by far

Not to mention 5,000 years is a long time for the quality of an item to degrade as well. The bigger problem is people think Dwemer = Lord of the rings Dwarves. When instead Dwemer are more like Elves with the intellect of gnomes from Dragonlance.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Dwemer

why is orcish better than dwarven .-.
i really feel it should be

Iron Steel Orcish Dwarven Ebony Daedric

> Dwemer are more like Elves with the intellect of gnomes from Dragonlance.

... without the Rube Goldberg instinct.

Sorry to break it to you but the dwarven in tes arent any shorter than a human. bummer I know

I think the Dwarven armor looks good. It is the bling armor of Tamriel as it looks golden.

Just like Orcish armor is primarily for Orsmer, I think of Dwarven armor as being primarily heavy armor armor for Redguards as Dwemer ruins are massively part of Hammerfell & Redguard lore. Redguards cherish Dwemer artefacts and Dwarven armor is made of Dwemer salvaged metal parts. Every Redguard that joins the military must first brave a Dwemer ruin.

I think the more traditional looking armors such as iron, steel, Steel plate & ebony look better than some of the higher ranking armors.

The light armors at most look terrible. The city guard armor (such as whiterun guards), leather & thieves armors are probably the best.

Some of the armors look more like I'd expect on an African tribesman rather than a Norse influenced Nord. When I first saw the resident Redguard in Whiterun, I even thought it was an armor from Hammerfell with an African influence.

If I would be in charge of lore consistency in the game I would make Dwemer Armor (not Dwarf dammit! )

-Much rarer. Dwemers are long gone and their ruins throughly sacked in past the millenia
-Better rating than Ebony/Glass; as someone said their alloys are much sought after because of their durability
-Medium armor. Oh, snap! Wait...

This is a common understanding and it would make sense. Morrowinds look very much like it was salvaged from steam spheres and was not inteded to be used as armor, while Oblivions look like it may have been intended as armor. Skyrims look like it is made from metal using more modern design.

I've read multiple in game books about this, as the Dwemer fascinate me. You've just got to understand that back in the first era, That armor was top of the line high class stuff, some of the in game books even account about an old legend where Dwarven armor was used to fool an army into thinking the wearer was a mechanical golem. According to books, at the time full body armor that completely encased the wearer was practically unheard of. As a few user have stated... if the Dwemer were still around, I'm sure their armor would have progressed with the times. I actually think removing the Dwemer from the game lore wise was a great move, as the Dwemer were all about mechanics and science over everything else. They were one hop, skip, and half step away from guns and cannons and such, and who wants that in TES?? hell no. =P

In one book it was told that what is nowadays called dwemer armor is actually just pieces of their machines such as centurions. Found pieces of the machines are combined to make "mix-and-match armor".

I think it's the best looking armor in the game, except for the helmet. It's especially good looking if you have cbbe and armor mods installed. Oh my