Alrighty.

Now regarding Smithing, I comprehend the fact that both your Smithing level and associated perks determine the maximum degree to which you can refine an item.

That is... hypothetically at level 50 smithing you might be able to smith an item to Exquisite, but not Flawless because let's say Flawless would require a level of 60 unless you had the item's associated perk which lowered it to 50.

HOWEVER, those levels in-between... do they matter?

In saying that I mean, at Smithing level 50 if you took that item and smithed it to Exquisite but then took a copy of that weapon and smithed it to Exquisite at Smithing level 55, would the item smithed at level 55 Smithing be better than the one smithed to Exquisite at level 50?

Keep in mind, I'm aware of the fact that you're able to smith an item beyond Legendary, but what I'm wanting to know is if let's call it a "stage 1" Legendary item smithed with a Smithing level of 100 would be better than a stage 1 Legendary item smithed with a Smithing level of 80.

Yes I should probably know this already, but I havn't really dabbled with Smithing with any of my now 5 characters. And the UESP, as far as I can tell, doesn't really specify.

Yes, it makes a bit of a difference.

If you want to get good at smithing, jsut start doing it. Every once in a while, take a weapon you've already improved and try improving it some more. Keep working at it.

Ugh, I was afraid of that. So essentially it's better to get Smithing to level 100 before even bothering. How annoying -.-

Welp, time to go raid a few more iron/silver/gold mines I guess >_<

Or transmute some iron. That always works

I feel the same way; without distinct tiers or limits, everything in-between feels useless.

In fact, because there's no upper limit (infinitely powerful fortify smithing enchantments/potions), I don't even want to bother with any smithing whatsoever. I'm considering -maaaybe- getting it to 100 and using absolutely no buffs to it, because then the 100 itself could be considered a tier.

Yeah, that's the point of going to the mines.

Yepper. I've pretty much just banned myself to making items Legendary ("stage 1") and no further personally. The items I use tend to make it impossible for me to hit the armor cap w/o spells (which some of my characters can't really cast). I don't see much of a point behind one-hit kill weapons and free magicka costs and the sort. Just ain't fun to me that way personally.

I have to disagree, unless you're looking to be too powerful for the game.

Armor is rated with the player, so any additional bonuses it gets comes from the user. Right now, I'm crafting Flawless leather armor, but I can clearly see the armor rating is growing despite the label.

Sorry you're not having fun with it, but I'm rather excited to see how well I can start crafting ebony stuff.

That is, once I unlock the smithing perk for it.