Help required! My char is a Nord and will only use Ancient nord armor and weapons. I know that the iron&leather trees don't improve every 20 levels ie; superior at level 31 and exquisite at 71! So how can I make these items stronger(on x box)? I tried using fortifying perks without success (15% ring and 20% potion but got the same results as when using no perks!) what am i doing wrong? Any advice gratefully recieved !!

Ancient Nord Armor is improved by Steel ingots but requires Daedric Smithing perk to get the full bonus applied. You may already be aware but smithing skill has no bearing on the crafting of an item (using a forge), only on the improving of an item (using the workbench). Get some steel ingots, head to a workbench then put on your ring and drink your potion, check your active effects in the "magic" menu to make sure the bonus is being applied (you might not have time to do this and improve your armor if your potion is only a 30 second one).

You exude some blue glowy dots when the potion has taken effect. So just make sure your other smithing augments are active (under Active Effects) stand n front of the bench, drink the potion, see the blue wisps, and bang away. I would not waste time going back into the menu at this point. The clock is ticking.

You need to wear all the enchanted apparel to get the best results (neck, finger, hand and torso)

I always wondered about the clock here. It continues to count down even when the live action is "paused" in the form of looking at menus?

You're gonna' need 4 pieces of +25% Fortify Smithing gear and a powerful Fortify Smithing potion to get leather-based armors to Legendary. I can improve any leather-based armor past the cap with the gear and a +120% Fortify Smithing potion, but I also have the Light Armor perks that improve the wearing of light armor.

For the Ancient Nord stuff, you'll need the above conditions and/or Daedric perk.

I think the only menu that pauses the timer is the Renaming one while Enchanting.

Strange that Ancient Nord armor is paired with the Deadric perk. I mean, its not Deadric in its origin is it? You improve it with steel too, not deadra hearts etc. Is it to delay the player wearing/improving it till later for some reason?

My favorite priest mask Otar is improved with refined malachite and requires the daedric perk as well for best improvement. That's even weirder when you consider that malachite is regularly for glass armor, which is light, while Otar and daedric armor are heavy.

I use only Nord Hero weapons (made at Skyforge from Ancient Nord/Draugr weapons).
I also created a full set of Ancient Nord Armor, and dressed Lydia in it.
Geez, she looks awesome!
(That's Aela's default armor, I realized... 'nuff said.)

Turns out Lydia doesn't have legs like a linebacker after all. Who knew?
Oh, and I improved her armor set to about 2,000 armor rating before putting her in it, heheh...
Everything double-enchanted too.
Pretty good companion to have, I've had many (but I still love Lydia, tough to beat in that configuration).
Calls for Master difficulty.

Anyway, yes four Smithing (clothing) buffs @ 50% each works dandy.
I used a Fortify Enchanting 250% potion to make those.
But first I made four Fortify Alchemy buffs, to make the Enchanting potion...
It's a bit of a chain-reaction situation, involving Fortify Restoration potions to buff your buffed clothing.
You could get CRAZY potions (like Fortify Smithing 1200% etc.) by stacking two Restoration potions.
But I think they fixed that, so Restoration potions don't stack anymore - it was kinda game-breaking...

Yeah, especially when does that thing where she throws her arms back when she's just standing around.

I haven't patched to 1.5 yet, but I made 4 pieces of Restoration glitched Fortify Alchemy gear just in case I want to mess around with it after they 'fix' it.

Just a note to add: you can enchant 5 items with Fortify Alchemy for an extra boost to your total, Falmer Helm and Circlet can be worn together.

Penitus Oculatus Helmet also.