Alright so I've been wondering something for awhile now and I want to get it off my chest.

What's the deal with muffle enchants? Are there random drops of muffle equipment you can disenchant? Cuz from what I have all muffle boots can't be disenchanted. I prefer to make my own gear and enchant them. And as cool as Nightingale is, I want my own muffle boots.

Secondly, how good is the muffle enchant exactly? At first I thought all sneak perks were necessary, but muffle makes it sound like that's all you need.

While we're talking about Nightingales, why is the world does nocturnal give nightingales a sword? I mean REALLY? A freaking dagger maybe? That would be so much more useful. For an armor set that utilizes illusion, you think you wouldn't need a big sword. It's a small thing, but I don't get my x15 bonus with it. Major letdown

I guess this would also be a nice place to drop my new build idea.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#114513

The idea is a sneak-warrior type dovahkiin who primarily uses a bow, but he can still hold his own up close, using shouts to supplement this. Maybe rush in, fire breath to weaken a group then finish them off with dual wields. Or maybe casting dragonhide then going in with elemental fury.

Something along those lines. Haven't decided if I want to omit magic entirely or not. Also, which word of meditation do you think would be best? They all seem equally viable to me.

The idea came from the character in my sig, who, as I've mentioned got way too one-dimensional, although he was a hell of a lot of fun to play

I love the sword... But i understand a sword and dagger along witth the rest would be nice.

I like to dual wield the sword in my right with a soul steal dagger or mehrunes razor in my left.

The muffle enchant gives 0,5 muffle.
Muffled movement gives 0,5 muffle.
Silence gives 1 muffle.
Muffle spell gives 1 muffle.

Effects stacks additively (sp?).

You move completely silent with 1 muffle. Anything beyond 1 muffle is useless.

From http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Muffle_%28effect%29

As I understand it from that wiki, then the items you find or buy that have muffle on them, only provide 50% noise reduction, not full silencing. So it would be best to enchant your own boots, or just get the Silence perk, to get full silencing?

Yep, any boots you enchant with Muffle yourself will always be at 1 muffle, no matter your skill in enchanting or soul used (missed that in my earlier post).

I'd use self enchanted boots if I don't plan on going deep into the Sneak tree or, obviously, replace the enchant with something more useful if I do take the Silence perk

A tip about Sneaking, the Ebony Mail doesn't help.

No, but muffle does. I've never used Ebony Mail, it sounds interesting but Steed Stone, Conditioning and or muffle helps offset the negativity of heavy armor.

So it seems to me Nightingale was enchanted so that you could spend less time in the sneak tree, and more elsewhere? I just don't get why they give you muffle enchant on boots when sneak characters likely have silence already. Even more, Nightingale armor promotes the nightblade playstyle, which includes use of the muffle spell. Which again, negates the purpose of muffle enchant. I understand they give you a lot of different ways to get certain skills, but when is enough enough? On my first play through, I felt like so many things went to waste. Anyway, endrant, What do you guys use?