Believe it or not, Legendary has hundreds and hundreds of higher levels, but they all just say "Legendary". Also, Ebony armor is bugged, and doesn't get the Matching Set perk bonus... that might explain the discrepancy, if you have that perk.

Yes, you can equip Falmer helms (I know... silly, right?). In fact, there's a bug that lets you equip a Falmer Helm as well as a circlet, so you can wear 2 pieces of headgear (instead of just one) for more enchanting slots.

-Loth

If it helps you at all...I can stand in a dragon's breath and the health meter doesn't move very much. I just stand there and fire back at the blast. What I'm wearing: cloth, specifically the Arch-Mage robes with unarmored boots. By wearing no armor, I can use the Alteration Stoneflesh/Ebonyflesh spell and the Mage Armor Alteration Perk will work to armor me. I have some Magicka regen jewelry but not sure if that helps the armor hold up. I also have the perk that help with the duration of the Alteration spells. When the Health meter does move, I can gulp some potions to regain health. I haven't had an ancient dragon yet and the elder dragon was tougher than earlier dragons. I have to be careful of arrows. Hope something in there helps!

This. I stopped attempting to sneak at all on my characters wearing heavy. I'm not sure if enough work on sneak compensates for it to make it viable (ignoring the weightless perks).

Personally I made a switch to light armor for any of my characters that engage in melee combat after 1 heavy user and never looked back. I found the increased movement much more fun to play with and the loss in defense not much of an issue.

The levels vary for each type or just across types?

That must be it then, because, yes, I have that perk. The Orcish set isn't way higher...just a few points - not enough for me to abandon my Ebony set. Plus, I get too many compliments on it - alas, I'm vane. XD

Magic! XD

Yeah, any info and examples help. Thanks.

How smithing works is to add a small flat number to the base damage of your weapon or armor. For weapons, the bonus per level of improvement is either +1 or +2 (usually +2) -- for armor, the bonus is either +3 or +4 (usually +4). The reason you see bigger numbers than these in game is because of how skill and perks multiply against the base, so having a high skill and/or a lot of perks will show a big jump in damage or AR with just one level of improvement.

Anyway, once you get to Legendary status (if you have the smithing perk for the material, this requires only a smithing of 91), then you can keep improving your gear with each +17 of smithing skill. So how do you get a 108 skill in Smithing? The answer is: with blacksmith potions and fortify smithing enchanted gear. These items can increase your effective smithing skill above and beyond the "top limit" of 100.

It is noteworthy to say that smithing bonuses are the exact same across all platforms, regardless of weapon type or material... for example, with all other things being equal, an iron dagger will receive the same bonus as a Daedric Warhammer when improved on a grindstone; and an iron helmet will receive the same bonus as Daedric Boots -- as long as you have the smithing perk for the material. If you do not have the smithing perk, then the numbers to reach the next level of improvement are different, and much higher. Epic will still be Epic, for example, but without the perk, you would need a smithing level of 134 instead of 74.

-Loth

I think I'm getting it (this is hard XD ). So, if I have the Perk for Ebony (which I do) when I make it Legendary it will be the same if I made it at 80 as if I made it at 100 or 120 (so far I have two items that boost Smithing)?

You must have had a potion/enchant effect active when you improved the Ebony, because to get Legendary you need a smithing skill of at least 91. I know the in-game descriptions say that your smithing improvements are more effective, which might lead you to think that you can get a bigger bonus -- but this isn't true, unfortunately.

Anyway, to get the next level up from 91, you need a 108, and after that, 125... and so on, and so on (keep adding +17 -- or sometimes, it's 18 -- see the chart below). The character screen doesn't show the total modified skill number (which svcks), so you have to do the math yourself. If your skill is 80, and you drink a +20% potion (for example), then your effective smithing is 96. Simple enough, yes? Just add up all the bonuses from your gear and/or potions, and multiply that percentage by your normal skill level.

Here's the chart for determining what effective smithing you need for when you DO have the perk (it's different and much higher if you don't have the right perk):

14 : Fine
22 : Superior
40 : Exquisite
57 : Flawless
74 : Epic
91 : Legendary
108
125
143
160
177
194
211
228
246
263
280
... and so on, and so on... there is no real limit except for your smithing skill + boosts

-Loth

PS Yes, you can get Smithing levels well over the 200's. With a custom smithing pot that you make when having a 100 alchemy and all the perks, you can make up to a max of +130% Smithing potion... so with just that pot and no enchanted gear, you can get a 230 Smithing score! Add in the max crafting gear, which is 4 separate pieces of +29% smithing (need 100 enchanting and all relevant perks), and that becomes a max of +246% total! Yikes! Given that smithing improvements are mostly +2 to weapons per level, I'm sure you can see how high your damage numbers can go when you are adding like +30 or more to the base which then gets multiplied by weapon skill, perks, and other enchants to raise your weapon skills. You can do literally thousands of points of damage per hit like this -- especially if you power attack (x2), or sneak attack (up to x30 -- holy crap!)

It may have been over 91 - I just know it wasn't 100 at that time and I didn't have the two items (amulet and gauntlets) yet.

Im running pure mage. no wep no armor. Alteration and Destruction magic are my only deffence and offence. when I use Ebony Flesh with all my perks im at 300 armor not including if i use a shield which does add. Master Robes and rings and stuff make my Destruction magic cast cost to 95% so only Ebany Flesh eats my magic up but since other spells cost nothing i can fire off rapidly fireballs and Thunder Striks.

its very hard in the begining till your enchantment is good enugh to make casting cost less. then your like god, 6 dragons in 2 min without using any restoration or postions. all
Ancient Dragons and Blood Dragons. wimps all of them lol

With the Steed stone, my mage can finally carry a lot and she looks awesome in Ebony Armor! It's all for fun.