I have up to dragon armor through the light armor smithing tree. Is it worth the four perks to grab the other side of the tree just to create daedric weapons? I know a few people who did that, but they were bow stealth and needed maximum damage, whereas being melee stealth the 30x multiplier plus shadow warrior has let me run through everything thus far without much trouble, and the exceptions- ancient dragons- wreck me so fast I have to bow them down anyway.

Relatedly, could it depend on the difficulty you play at? I'm on adept, so it seems entirely possible that enemies I can one-shot now (level 55) would require a stronger weapon to do the same thing on Master.

playing on adept you should be more than fine just sticking it out with your glass gear or any unique/artifacts you have found. For my rogue i actually went just the heavy side for the weapon bonuses and you still get light dragon armor.

The new glass looks more like heavy armor than any of the heavy armors also so i didnt go that path. Also you get some nice sets from the thieves guild and dark brotherhood to use for light armor.

I play on master. The only smithing perks needed are steel-arcane.

Reasons:

1. For a stealth character. 30x damage sneak attacks can kill anything in the game if you have a dagger that does > 70 damage. There is no need for a daedric whatever. A good (steel at early levels) and later a elven/ebony dagger will one shot everything in the game if you take the armsman perks.

2. Any simple gamefound random smithing rings/amulets can be combined with a Blacksmiths elixur, and take any decent armor set to legendary. You hit cap armor. The rest is just numbers.

Smithing is quite silly for someone who plans to stealth, but that is my opinion (and something I have empirically proven by playing) and YMMV. I am just a stickler about perks- I hate using them for stuff I won't need (like taking locksmith perks.)

everything udey said is correct. I just get the smithing perks because i like the look of the ebony and daedric stuff for aesthetic reasons.

Fully upgraded Elven weapons are 5% less than Daedric. It's not worth the perks if you want to go light armor to take Daedric.

Thanks. One thing:


IMO, dragonscale makes smithing completely worth it. When I was using armor I found, up through elven, anytime I was spotted I got smashed hard. I could dodge all day, but one lucky smack and I'd lose half my HP from an idiot with a steel two-hander. Once I made my dragonscale that stopped being an issue, which became critical once I started doing quests that required me to travel with someone (e.g. Farkas on the Companions quest), as I couldn't stealth or shadow warrior kill anything with them up and fighting.

Given proper buffs any armor can get to cap, and then it is all the same, so dragonscale just looks different.

The armor you get from the thieves guild quests, and even the dark brotherhood stuff, are very good and can last you a while if you are perking up your light armor skill instead of smithing. Honestly the number of perks you would spend to be able to do dragonscale, you could just put into light armor and wear some quest items and get the same net effect.

I don't think there is a point to smithing for anyone other than warrior types.

A good stealther can finish the game with an iron dagger.

I took the right side up to Dragon for the Armor and the ability to make Daedric Daggers that completely trash everything. I also took the middle tree of Enchanting in order to get some kick butt enchantments.

Maybe I will have your blacksmith make something for my spellsword someday.

as far as I know, the one-handed perks don't affect daggers.

Armsman perks do.

Bladesman perks do not.

One-handed damage enhance items do not.

Armsman do work (just tested). The specific Axe/Mace/Sword does not, but the rest of the perks in the trees do. Yes you can perform decapitations with daggers

Blade of Woe fully upgrades with 100 sSmithing and Arcane Blacksmith and does more damage than a Daedric dagger. Also, if you have the Pickpocket perk that allows you to steal equipped weapons, you can get two of them, making dual wielding possible.

Join DB, steal one from Astrid, then get the one next to her on the ground later in the questline. You don't even need an ingot to upgrade it to Legendary.

how does this whole decapitations perk work? I can't remember getting enything but the normal finishers since I got it. I'm dual-wielding btw, if that matters.

Afaik, if you stand still while power attacking, you have a chance to insta-kill people with a fancy animation.