I got the Nightingale Armor the other night and wanted to upgrade its specs. I have lvl. 100 smithing and fortify smithing apparel( my enchanting is lvl 100 too). I had my smithing apparel on, (about 25% added effect on each item) and I chugged a fortify smithing potion (35% added effect) and I couldn't get higher than flawless armor! I do not have the fine cut void salts in my inventory, I read that having them may bug the armor. I have actually completed that quest. I have all required perks to smith legendary yet I'm getting shorted. Is there anything I can do to get this armor higher?

Wearing 4 peice of smiting gear and drinking a fortify smithing concoction should definetly get you there. You'll find similar problems with some daedric artifacts as well.

yeah, everything else I try to improve jumps straight to legendary. This armor set, however, is the only one thats giving me trouble.

The Nightingale Armor is not associated with any of the Smithing perks, unfortunately.

If the armor is considered leather then you can't take it to legendary since there is no leather armor perk

Well that is the thing, I have read about people getting their set to legendary and they didn't even do anything special, and other people not even being able to upgrade the set at all.

This may not be relevent, but I have had a weird thing happen to me on the last melee character I made. I made 'Legendary' Ebony gear, with no Fortify Smithing gear or potions, and only 81 Smithing Skill. It should be 'Epic'. The only difference between this one and any others I made, was that I went and got the 'Ancient Knowledge' perk, so that my Dwarven Armor had 25% bonus armor and would last me longer. 'Ancient Knowledge' also is supposed to make the Smithing skill increase 15% faster. Maybe that perk is bugged, and is doing something it shouldn't be?

I've had similar problems with Forsworn armour. It wouldn't let my go past flawless, for some reason. Maxed out smithing, all the perks, fortify-enchanted hood and all, still wouldn't let me improve it. Then one day, I was able to. Rather strange.

Thieves guild armour, Nightingale Armour, I've never had an issue.

Well, hopefully this is the same for me then. I've never had an issue with any other armor that I have tried either, just this one particular set. If all else fails, I can cross my fingers that the 1.4 patch will fix it.

I had smithing 50 and it went instantly to flawless so it may be a bug with the armour

You will probably need to get alchemy to 100 with the appropriate perks in order to make the 130% fortify smithing potions.

flukeman62: I am beginning "hoping really" to think that too.

Tallenn: I am hoping it won't take a turn down that path.

**update** I've just been messing around here lately, haven't leveled anything, and decided to see what my upgrade on the armor would be for giggles. It has jumped to epic now, and that was without my smithing attire. I put on my smithing gear and it still gave me epic. I guess if I wait another two days it will give me legendary? Either way, I'm going to exploit the fortify restoration method and see how that goes....when I stop dikeing around in caves.

The bugged smithing is frustrating.