Been asking this question around lately. And some agree with me on saying that its better and more fun to find weapons/armors rather than crafting your own. I AGREE!!! HOWEVER! From what I have been playing so far, I have NOT YET found any good weapon or armor. What are these people talking about?

Chests give the same loot over and over and over again.

Enemies? Pfffft! Please! Everytime I take down a bunch of enemies and loot their bodies its the same dumb and useless armor and steel sword over and over again.

So what are these people talking about when they say "finding your own weapon and armor is awesome". Really?! Where is it??? This game doesn't give PHAT LOOT. Am I doing something wrong here? Do I have a specific setting in Skyrim off? What's going on?

You must just be unlucky. Within the first hour of the game, I went from a starting bow, to a Hunting Bow, straight to an Orcish Bow, then 20 minutes later an Elven Bow. 3 hours later, I got a Forsworn Bow, and 3 more hours later an Ebony Bow. So basically, within the FIRST DAY OF PLAYING THE GAME at a normal pace and just doing Companion side-quests and miscellaneous quests, I was able to get the second-best tier Bow in the ENTIRE game.

Unfortunately that's all I keep finding. New and slightly better bows. Nothing for armor or swords. Same armor over and over and over again.

I've found a whole lot of unique weapons and armor in game.
you do have to look for it, and you dont awlay find it in places you would think itis.

I currently use Blades Armor; as well as the Blades Sword (enchanted) and Dragonbane. cost to me- nada
I problably have about 20+ ea. unique weapons and armor that are pretty decent, which i keep in my house.

These are all unique, enchanted items.

Steel batte axes, greatswrords, Elven bows, warhammers....... i dont even pick them up anymore, because unless I plan on enchanting them, they weigh more than they are worth.

The whole point is to balance the game for yourself.

Use that steel. Once you start to kill higher levelled enemies, you'll get better equipment. Smithing is poorly made to make the game far too easy.

The only thing I use smithing for is to increase the quality of the armour I find; I never craft armour or weapons.

My current armour is the Imperial light armour I started with - convenient because I roleplay as an Imperial soldier (well, Legate now) who's more of a agile warrior/scout. I'm at level 35+ now, so I kept up its rating by choosing Light Armour perks and smithing.

Once again, do the Daedric quests.

I was playing that way on my second character. I've upped smithing and enchantments, and I was only upgrading and using stuff I found and purchased, but I ran into a few spots where I was getting my butt kicked, and I wasn't finding a lot of better armor and weapons, so i finally crafted some. I still switch out my armor, unless I need the more powerful set. And I wear it when I'm playing my punchcat. He still gets his butt handed to him on occasion, but punching through the majority of a dungeon, or knocking out a frost troll is pretty fun.

I like wearing stuff I make myself. I'm currently lvl 24 and am wearing a Steel Plate and wielding a Skyforge Greatsword, both homemade and non-magic. I kept a Dwarven bow I found cause it has Soul Trap, but I'm going to make my own Ebony bow as soon as I'm good enough. I don't power lvl any skills, so it'll take a few more levels before I'll be able to do that. The craziest thing I've found so far is an Elven bow and an Ebony set of bracers. Not amazing by any means at lvl 24.

Where do I get these quests from?

If I "improve" the armor I find. Then what good would it do me to go and "find" better armor? Especially I just improved my own to be kick-ass armor.

I've RPed some chars and will provide you with my insight.

One was an orc 2-handed smith. He has a full orcish set he crafted on his own and destroys all things physical. It was great fun, but as they say, smithing sort of breaks the game because you become almost immune to bandits and animals. It is difficult to fight mages and casters, though. This character has the best armor rating, brutal melee, but bad anti-magics (yet to perk-up and see how it unfolds).

Then I have a Khajiit assassin who gets all his gear from killing, pickpocketing and stealing. Never crafts, and occasionally improves her gear. This is the best offensively geared character because of rings, amulets, and other nifty goods I've managed to pickpocket from NPCs. If it's useful, I take it, when not useful, I sell it. Not very good armor rating because of Light Armor and perks. My playstyle does not require defense, but offense and sometimes it's the luck of the draw that determines if I succesfully get new gear or get thrown in jail and loose everything again. Fun, but can be frustrating sometimes.

Finally I tried an Altmer pure spellcaster. He NEVER loots ammo or weapons, except for disenchanting purposes. He doesn't wear armor of any kind or brandish any weapons unless conjured or required. This has been very hard but adds another level of difficulty to the game, which has become a challenge. I only craft jewels for enchanting, selling every other 'useless' ore.

In all 3 cases, my choice to hunt/buy/steal/craft equipment has been very fun. I don't use unnecessary perks according to RP/class purposes. This may be very straight-forward builds, but I will later on try different characters/builds/skills. Go according to your classes, you will enjoy it or choose what best suits your role.