I have read online before that good way to level up armor is with giants or mammoths. I tried a mammoth below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdigsifGrJA

I'd say that's a boring way to level up

Yeah I was bored anyway and was going to call it a night after that. I wanted to try it since I read about it.

Yep, that works.

For anyone who wants to grind up Light/Heavy Armor or Blocking in this way: I would suggest you start with bears or sabre cats and then work your way up to giants/mammoths when you get into the 80s or mid-80s.

Yeah I started at level 83 and got to 100 18 minutes later so do the math for whatever level you are on.

I pretty much did the same thing for blocking on my warrior dude with a shield - he dual wields, but I wanted to get a level or 2 without using the Oghma Infinium on him. Bears and sabre cats work very well at lower levels because they attack so fast.

Mammoths are tough to kill, but they don't do that much damage. I always found frost trolls to be the way to level up block or armour.

I once levelled light armour four or five times by having 3 horkers surround me and attack at the same time. I just used restoration to stay alive. It went quickly but I was lower level than you guys. I just wanted to reach a certain plateau to put a perk in.

Also, with the proper use of stones, and with sleep, it obviously helps.

If you can just stand there and let a mammoth beat on you without dying, then why the hell do you need to level up your armor?

A wolf can work if you back your character against a rock wall, because they will just attack without running around your character. This has worked with Skeevers, too.

Heh, I always do some hand-to hand combat with sabre cats and bears when I want to level up my light armor. It's more interesting that way, and I learn how to evade attacks for my future DID this way. Besides, restoration goes up pretty easily, I don't want to become overpowered too fast. I wish I could limit enchanting too, it just doesn't sit right with my charactre. But I always need to use soul gems to recharge my weapons, so yeah ...

I had my characters killed quickly and brutally by various opponents who seem super strong. I met a Draugr Death Overlords with ebony bow when I was level 21 that killed me with 2 shots in one of the dungeons and he had disarm shout, unrelenting force, and super strong weapons. I got around him finally by sneak shooting him with fire enchanted bow, running away and hiding and sneak shooting him again 5 times.Soon after that I met a dual wielding Forsworn Briarheart boss who kept killing me whenever he got in melee range in one shot. I was around 200 armor then, I think. Once again I got around that by sneaking and and shooting him and 2 hagravens with arrows before he got to me.

Every time that kind of thing happens, I try to buff up my skills, and improve weapons and armor as much as possible. Doing some grinding with mammoths or trolls are not boring in those situations. They are comforting rather. It's like in many movies where the hero get beat down seriously almost to death and after he recovers goes into serious training/montage mode.

Ideally you should smith your armor up to the cap to live longer. If you have that capability it's quite easy to level like that, though I prefer at least one other enemy to be hitting me. Also I like to go from 95 to 100 by saving skill books until then.

For the perks you can buy, and the perk points to buy them.

Yay, I'm going to try this with Fast Healing! It seems like armor skills are the most infuriating, slowly-developing ones, at least in my playthroughs.

I have a question.

Daedric Armor is light, and Dragonscale is heavy, correct?

I need to know, because I prefer Daedric, but I also don't want it to be heavy

Daedric is heavy, Dragonbone is heavy, Dragonscale is light.

Dragonplate, actually - ...bone is Morrowind, I think.

Unlike in Morrowind/Oblivion, Armor Skills/Block in Skyrim do not gain based on the sheer amount of hits you take, but the amount of damage that is absorbed by the armor/shield. Harder hitting opponents, like Mammoths and Giants, will level your Light Armor/Heavy Armor/Block much faster than a weak foe will. But of course, there's also a risk of dying then too if the opponent is alot stronger than you.
In that video, it looks like he's on Novice setting, so the Mammoth is doing half damage (Which is why it's taking awhile to gain), and he probably has some +Health Regeneration equipment on.

Correct on all counts. I have it on novice because if a game is difficult then I get frustrated and lose interest and will put it down and never come back to it. I am by nature an impatient person and re-loading is annoying to me. I enjoy smooth symmetry in a game. The armor is the only part that has health and stamina regenerate. Boots have sneak and carry weight. Gauntlets have carry weight and archery. The Volsung, well is the Volsung!