Ok Light Armor seems to raise kinda slow as it is, and on top of that when I'm sneaking around most of the time either backstab or using archery, it seems I never get hit! Am I going to have to rely on a skill trainer or exploit? Any tips for keeping this skill up as I level?

You'd have to get hit increase your armor skills. Try attacking animals and such and keep wacking them and letting them get good hits on you. That seemed to help me.

Purchase or make some cure disease potions, find some Skeevers/Wolves and practice Restoration while levelling Light Armor, or pay for the training.

If you don't want to pay for training, getting hit is the only way to level it up. Use the Thief Stone and make sure you're rested before battles, and each hit will count for more.

It takes a very long time to level up armor with a character like yours. A theif/assasin does everything he can to avoid melee battle.I'm at lvl 69 and still not at 100 light armor.

I go wolf, mud crab, sabe cat, an bear hunting to raise my levels.

letting skeletons and other weaker enemies hit you 5 or 6 times per fight also helps raise your level pretty quickly

Ok, kinda figured that. Guess it's training and time spend standing around getting hit. That's the one thing I don't like about Elder Scrolls skillup through use system as opposed to experience-based spending, it leads to silly situations like standing there and letting rats and wolves smack you around on purpose.

Nobody forces you to train like this. If you hardly ever get hit, why do you need to have high Light Armor anyway?

On my archer on Master I let it level up naturally, haven't taken any perks so far (I might eventually though) and only used Smithing to improve my armor - to Epic, that's as far as I can go on Thieves Guild armor without using Alchemy or Enchanting (only Smithing gear I looted). My armor rating is terribly low, but I don't mind, because I don't get hit anyway. Seems like you're in similar situation. So why grind?

I go to the mine near Riverwood. Can get from 3 to 6 low level bandits to beat on you. When you get tired of it, run out dont kill them.

Oh, for those times when I do get hit as a safeguard. You've not having any trouble raising it on Master? I'm playing on Expert and it seems I'm fragile... even on my warrior with heavy armor I felt that way. Seems all my characters can dish out damage but not take it. Maybe I need better armor or should do some smithing early on, I dunno.

i use wolves and draugr to level both heavy and light armor skills.

i stand there let them hit me and heal myself until i reach the level that i want or i get bored of doing it.

I have had the exact same problem.

Trainer is a merchant in Riften, so you can sell her junk and train in a loop which is convienient. For the 75+ trainings you have that DB guy.

I think this was my single largest expense with my assasin character.

Or you can sit in the wild getting bit by rats for hours- but this is kinda meh IMO

Yup. I am level 61 with lots of perks in Sneak, Archery, Alchemy and Conjuration, and Light Armor is one of my lowest skills (have been paying for training in heavy armor, block, and two-handed). I have no perks in Light Armor, so getting hit can hurt a lot. I am slarting to move toward a dual-wielding character where I use alchemy to stay alive while should I get hit while swinging the swords.

i have found that training is much too expensive after level 50.

around 1500 gold per level and the cost increases.

nah, i use my money elsewhere and get eaten by rats.

Huh. I hadn't thought to do this.

try it it works pretty well.

Yeah, my archer could definitely use more protection, but the way I play it a good thief is never seen, never heard, and I think I'll skip the last part since I'm slaying people by the dozen.

I admit I sometimes get dangerously close to dying, especially in closed spaces like forts and dungeons where I can't run and hide, but that's where assassin's backup skills save the day - an atronach can divert the attention from you, Illusion spells can get several enemies off your back, a day spent mixing all those lingering and paralyze poisons suddenly doesn't seem wasted anymore. And if it's not enough, well, why not run and fight another day?

It does look a little different on a melee assassin, for example when you try to backstab a boss enemy and it doesn't work out quite the way you planned it. I imagine high armor skill and a decent health pool are necessary in such situations? Then there's really no other way but to grind it, either with a trainer or with mudcrabs. But hey, it's the way it works, you've got to pay if you want to learn. Seems fair to me, even if somewhat costly.

Personally, with no perks in Light Armor whatsoever, I get by with Alchemy and a bit of Smithing and Conjuration. It's certainly doable.

Right. The thing is this (training at high levels) is one of the last moneysinks the game has to offer. How many threads do I see complaining about mountains of gold and nothing to spend it on. Not that a trainer solves the problem in a stagnant economy, but for me it keeps me active. Sure I could sit there getting rat-bit for hours- but I just loot and earn my trainings. Different strokes.

I believe much of the confusion stems from the fact that your displayed armor rating is not exactly accurate. In full armor your real number is boosted by 100 points. So when you upgrade from 100 armor to 150, you expect to be able to take 50% more damage. Instead, you are upgrading from 200 to 250, which is only a 25% increase. Conversely, a 15 damage sword is truly doing 50% more damage than a 10 point sword.

You might also be putting more perks into weapons rather than armor. That, and sneak multipliers could be affecting your perception.

I let a troll hit me while I healed, at that point, I was faster than the troll so when my health and mana were low, I could run around and not get hit. I did this for a couple of in game days until my light armor was about 60 (and my total was 50)

a troll? WOW

they keep killing me with about 6 shots.

This was at a high level, I wouldn't recomend this for low level people

Considering I can easily clear over 3000 gold selling junk enchanted daggers in just one town-run, the prices on training are dirt-cheap. Buy training.