ThievesDB armor scaling question : V

» Mon May 28, 2012 5:21 am

I'm starting an alt tonight and he/she will be the antithesis of my main. Total [censored] of a guy/gal who's main goal in life is to kill everyone. My philosophy behind this character is taken from a movie line: " Some people just want to watch the world burn."

Anyways, rather than quest and explore and all the fun things I have enjoyed so far, I wanted to get started right off with the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood. I have no clue to how join either, though I can guess, but my real question is if that's smart to do right away. example: If I get the nightingale armor by the time I hit 15, will be it be severely less powerful than had i waited till I was over 30?

I know in the end it doesn't matter TOO much as I can just craft my own set and use enchanting to make it more powerful, but the armor you get from both guilds is just more "assassin" looking than light dragon armor or glass.

» Mon May 28, 2012 10:34 am

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Leveled_Items shows the level thresholds for all leveled items in Skyrim.
The Nightingale set looks better than it is though, imho. The stats on it isn't that great compared to the (ancient) shrouded set which isn't level dependent.

» Mon May 28, 2012 2:49 pm

The ancient shrouded armor isn't very good at all, even compared to the standard DB armor. The only benefits it provides are 50% more resistance to poison, +15 more to archery, a little less weight and a little more protection. The Nightingale armor is better looking, and it is excellent armor for a character who is focused on general sneaking and assassinating. The Thieves Guildmaster armor is better for general thievery, and the best possible benefits come from mixing the different parts to make a custom suit. The only problem with the Nightingale armor is that it requires the player to be level 32 before receiving the benefits that place it above the DB armor.

» Mon May 28, 2012 10:42 am

The ancient shrouded armor isn't very good at all, even compared to the standard DB armor. The only benefits it provides are 50% more resistance to poison, +15 more to archery, a little less weight and a little more protection. The Nightingale armor is better looking, and it is excellent armor for a character who is focused on general sneaking and assassinating.

The two sets makes you equally good at sneaking.
Double sneak attack damage is -much- better than fortify one-handed (which doesn't work on daggers) for assassinating. Fortify lockpicking is irrelevant.
Poison immunity / frost resistance is situational. Extra stamina is ok, but not that useful for sneaky characters.
The cowl's extra 15% damage compared to the standard cowl is pretty huge as it scales well with sneak attacks. Fortify illusion is irrelevant.