So... I recently decided to take of my Dragonplate and blend in into the Skyrim's society. It made me feel strange that noone in cities is wearing anything better than a steel armor. I felt out of place. Anyway, I've equipped Imperial Bracers, Boots, General Tullius's Armor, two Imperial Swords. Upgraded them as much as I possibly could and set of to try it out. I had no problems with survival, until I encountered an Ancient Dragon. After just a few seconds an animation appears and I'm being thrown away like a doll... R.I.P.

Suggestions? General Tullius's Armor is weak I know. After upgrading ( max flawless ) it has rating of 62, where Dragonplate over 200. My Heavy Armor perk tree is maxed out. I also would like to stay away from helmets and keep my dual wielding.

You could turn down the difficulty

Or else you're better of fighting ancient dragons from a distance ( bows, spells, staff,..) It kinda makes sense that you can't just fight toe to toe with the strongest opponents.

Surely you can do better than flawless.... Try upgrading wearing +blacksmithing gear and using +blacksmithing potions...available from your local shops. My toon is easily able to upgrade steel to legendary quality with 100 blacksmithing and purchased blacksmithing aids... no exploits and not fully perked blacksmithing tree.

I think 100 blacksmithing + the steel perk makes legendary steel, but the General Tullius armor is not affected by any perks.. I guess he would need a 100% smithing bonus to get it to legendary

I have blacksmithing maxed out also. Do I really need it over 100 to upgrade the armor to Legendary? Than maybe I should enchant my ring to increase my Heavy Armor skill over 100?

I don't wanna use bows nor magic in any form.

Yes, you would need a considerable bonus to smithing to get legendary.. And even then; since you don't like helmets you lose 25% armor from the Well fitted perk, as well as 25% from the matching set perk + the armor on the helmet or shield.. So getting hit by an ancient dragon will still kill you pretty fast..

Easiest thing to do is just turning down the difficulty.

Yea but then everyone else will be just too easy...

Anyway, just upgraded the armor from 62 to 68, Legendary, did the same with Blades set .