On my third toon, Dark Elf Assassin Archetype with deep dual wield, light armor, some archery (dirty dragons...), alchemy, smith, and sneak.

Looking at smithing and I can't determine the best course of action to go with as far as perks for the smiting tree. I only have enough by 50 to go heavy or light. I would go light for the armor sets OR go heavy side for weapons.

What have my other fellow assassins gone with during the course of their adventures?

Heavy... Light craftable armors seem more fitting for Warriors than Assassins - WAY to conspicuous.

I only put 2 pts in smithing, 1 for steel to level it up and another in arcane smithing to upgrade magic items and armor. You will find plenty of armor and weapons to use without having to craft them and this way you will be able to upgrade all of them.

I say light. This is because (1) you get to use it for armor while you are improving the skill (2) glass bows are pretty much as good as daedric bows (higher fire rate and if you are against one guy sneaking you will one-shot him anyway) (3) you can hit the armor cap with legendary glass armor, and while you can find or buy enchanted glass armor, it is hard to find enchanted dragonscale.

Light Armor.

Weapons are easy to find and with Perks, even an unimproved non enchanted Iron Dagger will take out almost any enemy with the right attack.

Depend of what armor you plan to wear, if on high end, you plan to use DB or thief armor, then you will have no use of light armor crafting. If you plan on using dragonscale, you might as well taking heavy side, since it lead to both dragonscale and dragonplate. If you plan on elven or glass armor, go light.

1 or 2 daedra/ebony weapon are easier to find/loot than 4 matching piece of armor.

Take into account you may want to use daedric quest's weapon, which partialy remove the need for crafting your own weapon, except for improving them twice as much.

How much do you like the look of ebony and Daedric weapons? If you can live with glass, go for light.

I can live with glass weapons, and I plan on using theif armor combined with DB gloves (hate the rest of DB armor, ugly) until I get nightingale.

So you are not planning on using your own armor then? Why learn to craft them?

Btw, an assassin should go offense before defense, a strong custom made weapon with crafted poison is your best weapon, no need for extra thick custom armor, especially if you go 5/5 in light armor training.

From what you are saying, go heavy for daedric bow, dagger/sword.

Yes, smithing perks don't cover these armors.

i whent Heavy for the wepons all the rest you can get in the world

Depends on how difficulty the game gets for my toon before I can get nightingale. If there is a significant span in levels till I can get nightingale gear, I'll wear elven or scale. Unless the DB and Theives guild armor is upgradable and worth wearing defense wise...any comment on the upgradability of either of these sets?

this guy is pretty right on...thats what i use on my assassin, just the steel perk and arcane smithing. Just keep upgrading your steel daggers, they get better and better. of course they'll never be as good as other weapons, but i assume you will be getting sneak attacks with 30x damage almost exclusively, and in my experience my steel daggers dont let me down. keep smithing at 2 perks, i focus more on alchemy for extra damage when need it, and its very effective.

Um... if you are making a living with backstabs, then you will waste your time taking a bunch of weapon smithing perks.

Arcane smith - will improve all the great DB/TG whatever armor or weapons you need. 2 perks.

A daedric dagger == a steel dagger with 30x hits to one shot anything, and you save a heap of perks... so that you can be a more flexible assassin, not a more flexible blacksmith.

No need to get it for armor either. Since we are in spoiler section - the 25% bonus from the riften argonian quest combined perks and with stock smithing enhancers and potions will put any armor above cap- All the better to keep your DB gloves, since no enchantment compares to their power for a backstabber.

Looks like I got ninja'd with advice above.

Shrouded, Thieves and Nightingale are upgradeable to Legendary, but because of the materials they use, they aren't covered by any "double" Smithing perks, so there is no point choosing the light armor perk path if you are definitely using those armors. Their raw rating won't get as high as glass (which is covered by a perk), but they have nice enchantments. However, if you look around you can find comparable glass armor eventually.

Sounds like mixed reviews on how to spend the perks, but most folks agree it's good idea to at least skill smithing up, right? You won't get the 2x improvement bonus from perks, but your smithing skill still impacts your overall ability to improve equipment.

that is my exact combo
TG curiass
DB gloves, boots, and hood.
dual daggers
bow

Go for heavy. I just leveled smithing here and there without putting any perks in it,(just upgraded normal gear) until i got to the level where i just feel like the perks were most well spent there and got daedric and dragon etc

Heavy is the best for both. Dragon - best armor for Light. Daedric - best weapons for both. You don't even need armor however as an Assassin. Armor rating does not matter as you should never be getting hit.

edit: snip