I took the perk "Matching set" under heavy armor and for some reason it has zero effect on my AC. Im wearing helm, chest, gauntlets, boots. Do you need a shield to get the benefit from matching set? Or is the armor value just not displaying properly for ebony armor?

Edit: This really svcks, I busted my ass to get a full set of this armor specifically because I thought it looked awesome for my character and now it doesn't even work.

The Ebony armour sometimes glitches for people.

Also the Ebony Armour doesn't look that impressive, I prefere the Ancient Nord armour, looks so much cooler and it fits in with the rugged style.

Ebony armour to me looks freaking awesome on a female, but makes a male look fat (the gut area looks bigger than the shoulder section)

I like the Ebony armor because it has the right look for my character, if I was playing a barbarian I would probably choose differently.

Anyhoo, does anyone know a possible fix for this problem?

To everyone their own I guess.

If its a glitch, there is no fix (short of Bethesda patching it). File a report with them.

You don't need to use a shield with your matching set, and you can even use a light shield and still get the benefit when it's working properly. All I can suggest is unequipping, saving, restarting your game, loading, and then re-equipping.

Incidentally, what's your armor rating with the set on? If it's more than 567, or 547 with a shield, you've hit the damage reduction cap and won't get any benefit from an increased rating anyway.