Is light armor worth using with a 1H + Shield Warrior?

Well you generally don't want to be taking too many hits while wearing light armor, and a shield user would generally be blocking attacks instead of dodging them. But it could work, if you played it right. Better off with heavy armor.

I prefer the Light Armor & Shield combo actually. I save Heavy armor for when I'm using Two-Handed weapons as then I need the extra protection.

Was just wondering while watching the Skyrim trailer. The guy appears to be using light armor.

I wouldn't go with Shield and Light armor, the only time I would use a shield is if your using Heavy Armor. You take too much damage with Light Armor in order for the shield to be useful and me personally I would rather have that left hand be a Restoration Spell to keep my HP's up. If the blocking was like Oblivion it would be a different story but it's not.

Yea, the issue is that they prefer the 'resistance' style of defense.
You can't actually block anything (except arrows), your shield just boosts your resistance to damage.

Yes, because well smithed/enchanted light armour can easily hit the 672 armour cap.

So what are the pros and cons of both?

Light armor is lighter. A lot lighter. Shield is still very useful, especially if you get the perks to deflect arrows and elemental damage. With a good Smithing skill you can upgrade light armor and it works fine. I've got a level 18 character now who still wears upgraded leather armor and having no problems at all health wise.

Light Armour -
Pros: Lightweight, easier to sneak, some perks allow for easier stamina regen
Cons: Generally weaker armour (although smithing/enchanting can compensate for this)

Heavy Armour -
Pros: Higher armour value, some perks give +unarmed damage, some perks give higher stagger resistance. Skill 100 perk > than light armours 100 perk (10% damage reflect over 10% dodge)
Cons: Significantly heavier (compensated by steed stone, or conditioning perk), makes it difficult to sneak, cant sprint anywhere near as far.

I would say that LA is actually preferable when using a shield, specifically because of the +stamina regen perk.

Some of the best features of using a shield with a serious block skill investment is the ability to shield bash, power bash, etc. Only problem is that this takes some significant stamina to (ab)use.

I'd assume that is why it is available to you to have Light Armour shields. There is no reason it wouldn't work, you have less protection, so the shield will come in handy, providing you are using it right. I'd like to say that the shield bash/power bash and Slow time perk combination work great, whenever they go for a power attack you can bash for a stagger and to cancel the attack.

That said, this is Skyrim, there aren't any limits, in TES, a silent Heavy/Light armored Variant Battle Mage favouring war hammers is a perfectly understandable character. However the perk choices might be a pain.

I use light armor, and a shield as well when in a pinch... Especially in Dwenmer ruins.

As was said, light armor is a LOT lighter. We're talking 1/4 the weight. And has "most" of the protection. The best light armor (torso) in the game weighs 10 and offers base 41 protection, the best heavy armor weighs 50 and offers base 49 protection.

The light armor skill tree also has a perk that adds 50% stamina regeneration, which is fabulously useful for shield blocking and bashing.

Down sides:
- Heavy armor offers resistance to being staggered, light armor does not.
- Smithing light armor does not give bonuses to smithing the best weapons.


Personally I just started a light armor/block character so I'm curious to see how it works out myself. But I've done some research and I don't think it will be a problem. My general combat philosophy is that it's better to not be hit at all, so staying mobile is the best armor. Followed by blocking with the shield, and leaving worn armor as your LAST line of defense.

One note on the smithing minutiae: if you go heavy smithing, then your enhancement becomes half the damage of the weapon, and the enhancement is the same between all material "tiers". As a result, the base damage difference between a Glass Sword and Daedric/Ebony Sword is actually not too bad. It'll still be a clip behind, but you won't be gimp by any stretch.

1) Light armor + shield combo needs less AR points to hit the damage cap.
2) 10% dodge negates 100% of dmg when sucesfull, the 10% reflect only hits your target for 10% , you still get hit for the 100% total dmg dealt by the enemie )
3) Sneaking in light armor is easier + you can get sneak perk quicker.
4) 50% stamina regen faster > falling from hights

Down sides:- Heavy armor offers resistance to being staggered, light armor does not.- Smithing light armor does not give bonuses to smithing the best weapons.

Stagger resistance dosnt give any benefit, you still take the same amount of time to get out of stagger and always stagger if power attacked. Its better to go with the slow down time in shield tree.
You can go heavy armor way and get to dragon smithing and get the best light armor, after all there are better quest and unique LA out there.
Shied got the 50% element resist perk and thats something cool

It has worked for me. I am playing a stealth illusion character but when combat is unavoidable I pull out mace and shield. I have a few points in LA but none in blocking.

Yeah I use Light Armor and Shield as well. Works great, even with only basic perks! You'll probably find yourself switching up your offense quite a bit. More than with straight heavy armor warriors.

This doesn't make any sense. Why would I take too much damage in light armor in order for a shield to be useful? I woudl say the extra armor plus damage resistance is more effective in light armor.And when you get spellbreaker it's even better.

My current character is 2H/LA. Once I learned not to stand in front of the enemy but actually move around, the armor gives me the protection I need.

Best part is Scale Armor looks pretty cool in a Nordic Nord classic steel style, and the stats aren't piss-poor. Plate Armor looks like ass (needs better trim / frills).

The light/heavy rating of shields have no effect in-game. They are simply assigned by material type. None of the perks for heavy or light armor affect shields or is affected by shield rating (i.e. heavy/light)

I go Light Armor and One Handed + Shield.

Shields are crucial if your rolling light armor I feel.

The ability to run up to an opponent bash him/her with your shield before they can draw their weapon or right when they are about to attack, effectively stopping the attack all together is powerful.

Cant take the dragons fire bomb in your face? Shield bash the dragon and he will stop attacking and shake off the blow. Giving you time to slash him up.

Light armor, you need to be aggressive.

Considering that light armor gives you that 50% boost to stamina regeneration, you're almost encouraged when you run light armor with a shield. I can bash a guy in the face and slash him way more times before I run out of stamina. Then, worst comes to worst, I can pop Adrenaline Rush and there's just no way my opponent is going to survive. Since I'm primarily a sneaky git who relies on putting arrows in your head from a distance, light armor just holds all the cards for me. I am intrigued at the concept of dual-wielding daggers, but we'll just have to see how that goes further down the line. I'm only level 19. Actually, I think I'm more like 22. I just haven't bothered going into the level up screen in a while.

ok guys don't forget that the heavy armor tree forces you to waste 2 perk point on the half fall damage and increase unarmed damage perk, 2 perk wasted is a lot and as people have already said you can easily reach the armor cap with light armor.Plus you save one more perk on the smithing tree.

The main reason why light armor is WAY superior is obviously dragon scale versus dragonbone armor, as a female char it's not even a contest.

Sure Daedric armor looks good enough but come on you're DRAGONborn, might as well have an armor that fit the jobs, besides after 400 hours playing oblivion daedric armor kinda lost it's spark in my eyes.


PS: one thing to note is that in Oblivion is was easier to level up ligt armor than heavy armor because you're supposed to get hit less, so every hit counted more toward increasing the skill. I haven't tested this in skyrim but it could still be true, it's possible that a 200 damage hit the face with light armor will increase your skill level faster than with heavy armor, since the skill up is based on damage recieved and not number of hits. not easy to test sadly.