i go for style. in nightingale armour. with some elevn gauntlets for extra bow damage.
i did have a helmet with extra bow damage but it just wasnt cool to wear so sold it

I choose Roleplaying !

looks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>power

I just refuse to use "ugly" equipment I even modded the archmage robe to change its look although the original was not THAT bad

your kidding its the best looking heavy armor after plate !!!!!111111!!!!oneoeneoe

I tend to wear normal clothes around town, or at the very least, take off my helmet. I don't worry so much about what I look like while adventuring though- except of one of my characters- I just recently completed a set of plated steel, which to me is the best looking heavy armor in the game.

With some skill in Smithing you can stick to Hide armour the whole game if you want.
With Light Armour perks and Smithing you can reach the armourcap easily.
At level 48 with my Dunmer I run about in Shrouded Gloves, Shrouded Boots and Guildmaster Armour. Looks really badass.
My 37 Nord I use Nordic Steel and Helm of Yngol. It is Legendary quality, and i'm at the level cap. Looks awesome.
Looks before stats I say. Never used helmets in Oblivion for instance, all of them except for Crusaders helmet was butt ugly.

Aesthetic, always.

Currently using Linwe's Cuirass, Nightingale Boots and Mourners Hat for my skinny pale fem Nord. Got a black strip of warpaint across her eyes and an Ebony greatsword on her back. Love the unique look.

Moot point with weapons for me, as the ebony swords are really good stat-wise, and look awesome too. I was only supposed to use Elven stuff, but one look at an ebony sword and it was pure weapon lust. If you gotta have it, you gotta have it. Still only wear Elven on the rare occasions my character does take any armour though.

I go for looks on my female Thief. While the stats were nice, never liked the Dark Brotherhood armor set as it looks like your character is in a body suit. So I let it sit in my house chest scoping for mods cause it was only a matter of time.

The wait was worth it, look at the screen shots, the green set in particular looks even more amazing in game

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4708

For me it is one and the same. My favorite armor and weapon can achieve good defence and damage with smiting.

After I played, I always have the desire to equip my altmer mage with deadric armor.

This. Also my male characters use heavy armour and my female characters use light armour - if any at all. I'll let a female like Lydia wear heavy though because I am assuming she is a tough hardy, trained Nord who is very capable.

My char wears:

Fur Armor. (stamina & stsmina regen)
storm cloak officer gloves. (archery & 1h)
storm cloak officer boots. (1h & carry capacity)
Basic tan cloth mage hood. (enchanted: archery & waterbreathing)
Shield of Ysgramor

skyforge sword & hunting bow (both legendary but not enchanted, i use potions instead)

i like the appearance of the fur armor, i also have my scaled armor set which i like very much. But I keep going back to the basic fur armor (version that covers all).

The full storm cloak officer set is just straight awesome and i do have it. But as im playing i kinda like to separate myself my looking like all the other storm cloak officers. I wear what i think i probably would wear if i lived in Skyrim.

Id be a hunter & a dragonborn second. I like the hunters in this game, thier camps small tents. They carry little, and travel light. I think they are awesome. Thats where id be if i were in skyrim. Id help ulfric and the greybeards the same but when not having to save the world....id be lost somewhere in the snow and mountains hunting and fishing and absorbing the awesomeness of skyrim. The design of skyrims world just rocks on so many levels.

For me, looks over power. I wore fur armour until I.completed Thieve's Guild because I thought it was perfect for a.Khajiit to wear. But then I saw Nightingale armour and it looked great for a sneak, so I.kept it. I use the Dark Brotherhood gloves though.

The Dark Brotherhood armour does.look good too, but it was weaker than my nightingale armour and didnt have the perks I found useful, so in that regard I have to choose power when the looks part is met obviously.

In other words, the best armor, because noone wants to die.
Except suicidal characters... Hm...

Lots of emo characters on here.
Looks > Life

My characters are all life > looks

My steel and leather wearing ranger says other wise. Having an upgraded skyforge steel sword using smithing, alchemy and enchanting means I don't need to use a daedric sword, which frankly looks like a 12 yr old designed it

I would have to agree with you, i never really thought about it like that. I like glass weapons and the more cool looking items. but if your wearing fur and steel later on in the game your armor wont be as good, can you keep upgrading it to keep your armor rating at a safe level for further along the game?

looks because i hate the high end weapons and armor........they look like something form WoW. you can easily max out your armor rating even with early armors because of the way smithing works. i use skyforge steel weapons and scaled armor for my light characters and orcish/steel armor for my heavy characters. havent had a reason to bet anything beyond that even on master difficutly. it may take an additional hit or two to kill something but at least i dont look like a japanese robot ninja.

Through smithing and enchanting you could role with full iron if you wanted to. Turning down the difficulty is another option as well.

My hunter is level 40 and uses leather armor.

how do you make your weapons legendary with potions i thought you always had to use enchantment.
But anyway ill go along with this because i thought it was fun.
Character name is Devin
Race-Breaton
Level-13
Skills-Destruction,Restoration,One-handed,Archery,Smithing
Favorite weapons-Glass bow

Once you hit 90-100 smithing you can create legendary weapons. However through fortify smithing enchantments and potions you can exceed the legendary limit and give more damage and protection. Doing this my skyforge steel sword does more damage than a normal legendary daedric sword. Obviously you could do the same to the daedric but it is pointless when you are doing so much damage and prefer the look of another weapon

I use the things that create the right look for the character, which has been mostly steel, iron, and hide. Thankfully with the perk system and increasing skills there hasn’t been much of a problem.

Pleasing over power because pleasing will still be as good as power. Ebony Armor looks better then Dragon, yet Dragon has a higher armor rating, I'd be inclined to go with the Ebony Armor.

I hardly use the 3rd person view, So I go with power. And the rare compliment from guards about my Ebony mail is always nice.