Reason i ask cause over a fair few characters (restarted or otherwise) I always find myself asking the same question when my smithing reaches 30.

Light or heavy?

I using light armour on my archer character, so i would thought using light armour side would help!
But with all the good light armour in the game "nightingale" etc been unable to improve with smithing via perks i thought i should use heavy for daedric weapons (now arrows)

With the light side.. i use less perks 3 (4 with arcane) opposed to 4 (5 with arcane) and i wouldn't mind just making glass arrows instead (they look nice plus both sides now lead to dragon which is best)

Oh and my character im currently playing the most is going be a vampire/ vampire lord wearing royal vampire armour (boosted by advanced armour perk light side)

But i miss out making ebony /daedric arrows.

What would you guys chose?

To be honest i wouldn't mind just using glass gear till dragon or even then keep glass... suited the vamps in oblivion.

I roleplay so it's up to my characters to decide, not me. Some of them prefer light, some of them prefer heavy. A few wear no armor at all.

I almost always pick heavy just because of the weapons.

depends on the character rangers are a mix for me, i usually use mage robes with imperial boots and bracers. if you want to sell the armor than heavy.

Nah money is not an issue i i dont wear heavy at all, i do like wearing clothes with minimal armour but it fails when a dragon appears! i am leaning to the side of light but ebony armour is my favourite in the game

First character wore light armor, so I did the light side. Second character wore heavy armor, so I did the heavy side.


And every character since then has had to do both sides, because I want to try out interesting armor mods, and the mod authors frequently stick their armor into the crafting menu (sometimes without regard for material. So you might find light armor, crafted with ebony, in the Daedric or Dragon sections.)

Yeah, to be honest i would use them all but i try to stretch my perks

I use whichever I intend to have my character wear.

Guessin light? to be honest i like armour has looks > armour rating, Glass looks nice but its too bulky, but i liek the idea of role playing a glass weilding vampire turned heroic dragonborn with dragon weapons

If your going to be wearing the Royal vampire Armor that's light, it does have a clothing look, but with the armor perks, so with arcane smithing you should be able to increase it enough that dragons aren't a factor in armor/clothing choice. It's concidered leather for smithing purposes. My Battlemage wears it around the house, cause I think it looks kinda cool. Use heavy armor boots and Gauntlets and helmet if you like wearing those. Perk the light side only high enough to be able to improve the Royal Armor, then perk up the heavy armor so you can do the other things you like.

There's the vampire armor. It looks pretty nice to me. Especially the royal one. And I got it to the armor cap.

Thats the plan!

Currently im wearing scaled armour with a iron helmet ( dragon born look)

Thinking sticking to light side, i can improve my scaled with advanced too

I always perk the entire tree(smithing), that way if my armor mood changes I'm able to smith either light or heavy. I tend to swap out armors an awful lot so it was smart for me to perk the entire tree, personally I like the heavy stuff but there are a few nice looking light armors out there as well.

I might consider perking out the entire tree.. its not like i cant have both

Just go with whatever armor your character prefers. There isn't a big enough difference in weapon damage to make a difference. Especially now with dragonbone weapons, if you are on xbox and have dawnguard, there is no real reason to go the heavy path if your character uses light armor.

I love how glass weapons look anyway, so I never had a problem with just going down the light patch. Plus its not like you can't use weapons from the other side, yea you won't get the damage as high as the weapons from your side of choice, atleast not as easily, you would have to use enchanting and potions and if you did the same with a weapon you have the perk for, the perked weapon will still be stronger.

So if you really want the freedom, just go down both paths, smithing is only 10 perks, and if you are running a simple melee/archer build, you should have the perks to spend. But there is really no reason to take one side just for weapons/arrows unless like I said, you are just a melee/archer build and smithing is one of your main skills. If its just to accentuate the build you already have, stick with one side.

I'm currently rolling an Orc who will be going both sides of the tree. This is my 10th character and I've still yet to make any dragonbone gear - the nearest I got was Daedric with my battlemage. I'll be crafting all my followers' gear, so it will be good for those with only light armour skill.

I go for the light side for the weapons (like daggers and bows), not sure if the heavy side got better weapons though.

I just checked the glass armor...and am I the only one who thinks it looks like elven with snippets of glass thrown in?

Yes you lose perks to add somewhere else but it helps in the long run if your like me and the " style of the day " changes just about every time I turn the game on

Or if your companion uses the other side of the tree...

Or that yes if you like taking companions that is.