Hi there, just a quick one...

Once I reach 100 smithing, can I just take all the light armour perks and then take the dragon armour perk, and then use that to craft the heavy set? Or will it only let me smith the light variation unless I take it from the heavy side? Could save myself a perk this way.

Thanks for any awnsers.

don't know if I get the question exactly....

but if you have 100 smithing and the craft dragon armor perk then you can craft both heavy and light sets.

EDIT: think i understand it better lol, the perk tree doesn't care which route you take to get to the final perk, once you get it it's the same no matter what.

Perk unlocked means you get everything that perk entails

Only thing that the perk really does is make a difference in how high you can improve the armor on a work bench etc. Legendary or Epic, I think never crafted the heavy version. Personally I play a light armored character but the game is so outta balance I took the heavy armor skills to have better crafted weapons, the more damage you do the less you have to defend.

You can go up the light side to get to the heavy dragon armor (and craft steel plate along the way). That will save you perks, but you won't be able to craft the best weapons in the game (daedric).

*edit* I actually wish that I had gone up the heavy side on my lightly armored archer, because I end up using assassin and thieves' guild armors anyway and I'd rather be able to craft a daedric bow.

Yes you can. I may be misunderstanding you but it sounds like you're trying to get the best heavy armor by going up the light side to save a perk. If this is the case it would be better to go up the heavy side and stop at daedric. Daedric armor is better than dragon armor and also allows you to make daedric weapons.

It's been answered above already really, but to clarify..

Going up the left side of the smithing tree will not allow you to go from Dragon Smithing to Daedric Smithing. The line between the two does not work from left to right. As for your question regarding if you will be able to craft both. It sounds like you want to skip as many perks as possible to get Dragonbone, don't bother, Deadric is far better.

Personally I would always go for the Daedra crafting simply because weapons don't seem to have an easy damage cap to reach, armour however is much easier to cap.

With fully improved Glass armor (alchemy, enchanting, smithing maxed), you'll need to spend 1 point in Light Armor to reach the cap, 0 if you use a shield. Same with the dragonscale armor.

The difference between glass and daedric weapons, also fully improved, is less than 10%. I'd say that those 10% is not worth spending 2 perks on.

Thanks for all the awnsers. However, I would like to elaborate.

First, although I understand the level cap does indeed go over 50, there are around 55 perks I would like to choose for my charicter, if I go down the left side I will be spared one of these, which means its more likely for me to actually achieve this.

Secondly, although I understand that daedra armour is better, making and improving it will take a long time and cost alot of money, as I only rarely see ebony ingots for sale (about 200-300 gold) and have yet to even find one of the daedra hearts. Where as, I have about 40 dragon scales and bones, so I'm guessing making them won't be such a problem at all.

However, a good point was raised on weapons. What is the weight on a glass one handed sword and its damadge, compared to the daedric weapon? If the weapon is worth the extra weight I may just go with the daedric perk for the weapon and try to find a way of massing up on the materials I need.

To make it easy for you.

Ebony
Gloombound Mine, North East of Skyrim near an Orc Encampment contains more than enough ebony ore to create a full set of daedra armour (upgraded) and Daedra weapons.

Daedric Hearts
One respawns in Jorvasskar on a plate by the Harbinger.
You can farm them at the shrine of Mehrunes Dagon 4 at a time.
You can buy two from an elf at The College of Winterhold. These respawns every 48 hours or so. They cost about 900g each however.

Job done.

This. The materials are actually quite easy to get hold of once you know where to look. Just go to the mine for the ebony and then sell the dragon bones/scales to get money for daedra hearts. You only need 6 hearts to make full daedric armor (inc shield) and a weapon.

Looks to be easier than expected. I guess thats all sorted then. Thanks to everyone who posted here, but it looks like I'm done.