Kind of a newb question, but I figured I'd ask.

Is there any benefit to wearing mixed armor types. For instance, leather on the body (light), but perhaps nordic steel gauntlets (which look awesome) on the arms (heavy). Would that give me the opportunity to level up both light armor AND heavy armor? Is that too good to be true?

I ask more b/c I like the look of some of the heavy stuff, but generally prefer light armor over all. Plus, the extra few points in armor are always helpful to be sure.

Thanks in advance!

No benefit at all. In fact, a lot of the armor perks don't work if you mix and match anything beyond your shield.

I wish it were so. You don't have to be "optimized" though. At a certain point, none of perks that reward wearing an armor of the same type truly matter. It's just not the best way pf going about it.


Even the trailer character is somewhat like this? Studded armor, with iron gear elsewhere. I like Fur armor with an iron helmet myself.

Other than your Shield, Armor should be of the same type. Of course, this is if you take a couple of Perks that make wearing the same type of armor a benefit. If you don't take those Perks, then it does not matter what you wear.

As for wearing both types and leveling up, that is an interesting thing to consider. As to how the game will allocate hits, and hence Armor Skill ups. I wonder if it is random, or divvied up equally or by some other ratio. As there is no locational damage, there is no way to even influence what gets hit in battle.

Ok, thanks folks. I'll admit, I was hoping for some sort of two for one deal for my Khajiit. Ah well. Sticking to light until its time to level up heavy just a bit.

You could wear light and spend your training on heavy. Especially if you're just aiming for the unarmed damage perk for your Khajiit.

I actually think wearing mixed armor would mean you level each skill more slowly. Which might be a good thing if you don't want to raise them and level (after you get 590 or so armor, there's no point to raising those skills).

I've read that magica regeneration is decreased depending on the armor you wear (body only), so running a mage in heavy gauntlets, boots, and helmets with no / light armor on the body might make sense.

Mitheledh reads the mind of this One. Most disturbing.

I wear light armor to be faster and heavy armor on hands & feet, increased damage for hands and increased carry weight for feet

wear what you like the best & works the best for you..

I use steel plated armor, all steel plate except for the helmet, I use the imperial helmet with the black feathers coming out the top and has a closed face, looks bad ass. Then again, im only using it cuz i need to get to level 81 to get all perks for all schools of magic, save a few.

You get the benefit of increasing two skills at once.

there is a perk for wearing matching armor set, either light or heavy, and if you invested into it, think is around 25% armor rating.
probably good for melee.

if you come across a piece of armor, like a dragon priest mask with 3 type elemental resistance, its worth to use it compare to getting the armor rating.

My Thief/assassin wear's the acient Nord Armor when not "working", as I happen to like the looks of it. For the Armor tree perk's, I just usually take the "bottom" 5, 1st anyway, then work my way up the tree. Because I am really just traveling in heavy, fighting whatever happens to attack me first, it's leveling up slower than light. I also haven't taken any of the heavy perk's at all. Or training, just the "book's".

If I liked any of the upper teir light armor, I probably wouldn't be doing it this way. Acient Nord armor look's more like light armor than some of the light armor, for Female anyway.