Heavy v Light
Is there any benefit from wearing light armor other than less encumbrance and higher movement rate? I know that heavy armor is supposed to make noise when moving, but I have very little trouble sneaking around in Ebony armor. I've literally had Draugr and human mobs standing right in front of me and grunt or say, "I guess I'm just hearing things." and walk away. I'm at level 33 and my Sneak is at 61. Now I didn't move when they were right in front of me, but I've been moving fairly close to mobs in the heavy armor and they don't notice. Granted I'm probably a little over-leveled for some of the dungeons, but still: sneaking in ebony armor and not being noticed? :\

I haven't started an Assassin-type yet so maybe when I do I'll notice a huge difference, but so far I've been able to avoid detection fairly well in heavy armor.

Robes
I could've sworn I read somewhere that magical armor spells (wards and maybe others - I haven't started a mage-type yet so I don't know all their defensive spells) do not increase the armor rating of light and heavy armor, but one friend of mine claims it does. So what's the truth?

I just don't like any of the armor except for TG Guildmaster - which I console in when my girls get to about the right level (because I won't do the TG questline). I sure hope the modders do some decent armor when the CK comes out....

And here I thought the armor in WoW was bad....

As far as sneakiness - if you're using heavy and not having issues, why sweat it? I don't use sneak so no clue if you could better what you're doing by changing armor types....

Light armour has some different perks than heavy, which make all the difference.

With full perks, Heavy armor has the highest armor rating and a chance to reflect melee damage, plus a few useless shenanigans like less stagger and fall damage.
Light armor has lower rating, but a bonus of +50% stamina regen, and a chance to completely dodge melee hits.
Fully perked they both weigh 0...

Robes are just useless, once you get your enchanting high enough just get your mage to wear heavy armor with enough enchantments to make any spell you use cost zero mana...
Btw, no armor triples the effects of oakflesh, stoneflesh etc with the correct perk, but still, the total armor they add is about as much as a good chest piece of heavy armor alone... so, it doesn't matter..

Alteration has several spells such as oak flesh, ebony flesh that improve the caster's armor rating. Alteration also has a perk call "Mage Armor" which makes those spells twice, 2.5, three times as strong if you're not wearing any armor.

The mage defensive spells work just fine on armored characters, which is one of the main arguments most folks have for playing battlemages that wear armor. If you are in robes or clothes (total armor rating = 0), then a couple of perks in the Alteration tree make defensive spells much more effective, but in all truth, it is still better, number-wise, to wear armor instead of relying on those perks for defense.

Having said that, when you finally decide to play a mage, you might discover that wearing armor is not necessary anyway, because you won't be getting hit due to conjuring allies and using illusion spells and whatnot. So... I suggest you use whatever looks cool on your character, and not worry so much about number-crunching when the time comes.

-Loth

I found it much harder to sneak in heavy armor. My heavy armor character has to walk while my light armor character usually could run/sneak. The heavy does seem to attract attention easier, necessitating a full stop. Doesn't mean you can't sneak in heavy armor, but sloppiness will result in getting swarmed. I have to admit though, it is pretty awesome to sneak in, creak the armor a little to draw out an enemy, then jump out from behind a pillar and squash them like a bug with a big battle war hammer.

light armor has some pretty cool perks that heavy armor does not. And robes look cool and are good for mages, I like heavy armor on my spellblades because it looks cool.

OMFG that stuff was cartoonish.



The mage I make will probably be a female and I like the look of the Light Armor (Heavy Armor too, but that will be too weird for me on a Mage ) - especially the Glass stuff (f-ing beautiful ) so I ask this: is there any trashy looking armor in the game or does it all cover everything up? XD Yeah, I'm like that.



Ah, I kinda' figured this was the case, but have no baseline. FWIW: I don't sneak around everywhere, but I like to fire an arrow or two from the shadows to weaken them a bit before they close on me and also to kinda' F with the mobs. "I guess it was just my imagination." Yeah, you've got a vivid imagination with that arrow in your neck...I can see it too. XD

Alas, Talos would be ashamed of me...no self-respecting Nord basher should be sneaking around.

Edit because "$lutty" was censored. <.<

I chose heavy armor because my guy is a warrior tank but even still i like how heavy armor looks and it doesn't weigh anything when you get the perk. I'm also a guy who likes to sneak everywhere and i find it surprising that I can sneak up to anybody from the side in a lighted room and they still wont detect me. Of course though I do have some sneaking perks and the ebony mail. Overall, it depends on your character and what skills they're based on.

You, sir... are in luck. Forsworn Armor is skimpy (light armor), and if you are on a PC, then there are 1.57 million different mods to make female armor incredibly trashy and mostly see-through. The female mage I'm playing right now is decked out in what amounts to a pair of band-aids and a cork.

-Loth

If you are not using smithing and enchanting, heavy armor can reach the armor cap easier. While light armor is bit harder to hit the armor cap.

If you are using smithing, then light armor is superior than heavy armor. It is well, lighter, better for sneaking, and can hit the armor cap just as easily as heavy armor. Plus if you want to invest the perks you can get 10% dodge, which is way better than the 10% reflect damage, which do not actually reduce the incoming damage.

Robes are generally pointless. However, I do keep a set of cloth summoning gear all enchanted with -% for conjuration for the purpose of casting thrall spells. Keep them around because they are light and you are never in combat if you need to cast thrall spells.

Yeah, I like the dodge thing because I'll have a hard time staying back from the fray.


Yes it is! I've recently started running around in the area with the Forsaken and it is hot! XD ...but I'm on PS3 so I can't mod it out, but I'll live.


Edit to correct spelling of "dodge". <.<

Yeah, the comments crack me up, especially with my super sneaky archer. "I guess I was just hearing things." Uh, yeah. That's why there are 5 corpses of your buddies laying around you and you've got an arrow in your knee.

Yes! I totally want one of them to say that when there is literally an arrow through their ears. XD I will actually take a pic with my phone when that happens. There won't be any audio, but I'll know.

Try playing on master difficulty. You'll quickly understand why sneaking in heavy armour is a bad idea unless you have invested a lot of perks in the Sneak tree.

If you use the Steed guardian stone your armour will weigh nothing and will not slow you down. This goes for heavy and light armour. So if you're looking to save some perk points you can do it this way. Plus you get 100 points extra carry capacity.

There is no penalty for mages using any type of armour like their was in Oblivion. However, you will need to invest a lot into Enchanting to make it viable as mage robes boost mana regen rate and reduce spell cost which you will have to enchant onto your armour.

I wouldn't bother sneaking in heavy out of self-imposed RP reasons. It's just weird rolling around in Orcish plate.

On my newest/newish spellsword character (or maybe mage assassin.. can't decide) I'm a little tempted to draw things out for a long time, get close to the cap, and might train a little in everything.

For heavy armor be sure to get all your perks, or just get the "Stead Stone". Light armor, I honestly think you waiting your time, although some looks pretty cool. As for robes though, other than true RPG reasons, with enchantments you can match their advantages. So they're isn't a reason to sell yourself short. Keep in mind that you are a Dragonborn, a natural born dragon slayer. With that said, slay you some dragons and look good doing it.

Oh, don't misunderstand: I don't Sneak everywhere all the time - just at the start of some of the fights to weaken an individual and separate the clusters. I do plenty of bashing. XD

light armor all the way because i like to horde everything i find and its tough in full daedric plate..

Oh [censored] thanks for making this thread I just now realized haven't put much into my light armor skill! :'(

Robes really are worthless besides for learning the destruction+magicka regen from them for your armor and having one that's conjuration+magicka regen for summoning your thralls.

I have light armor... because in my player have more defense than any heavy armor that i have find so far...

i upgrade the skill of light armor of course... but i think the sneak skills is pretty cool... especially this that you make 6x damage with daggers...

Falmer armor look nice too. (The "helm" is forsworn, glove, boots and torso are Falmer)

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/2269/screenshot5fd.jpg

I can sneak up to most critters in broad daylight face on, my sneak is just about maxxed out and I use muffler enchantment on my boots. Not invested much in the sneak tree except quieter heavy armour of course.
If you want a little speed boost while sneaking fully decked out in heavy armour (probably any clothing in fact), get yourself perked up on blocking so you move faster with a shield raised. You can fairly zip about dungeons while sneaking that way.

Instead of starting a new thread I'll ask this here:

I've been wearing Ebony (Legendary) since like LVL 21 and just now got around to making Orcish (Legendary) just so I'll have it (I'm a 'collector'. XD ). I noticed that the Orcish pieces are slightly better and slightly lower in weight, but the Orcish perk is lower on the tree. WTF? o.O

FWIW I made the Ebony at Smithing 80 and the Orcish at Smithing 100, but I figured Legendary was Legendary regardless of Smithing level. <.<


Yeah, that'll be sweet when I start an Assassin-type.


Oooo, nice. While on the subject of Falmer armor: can/will our characters equip the helmet? ...since the helms I've seen have the eyes blocked because they're blind anyway. XD

Edit: to add "helmet" for clarification