I'm having some difficulty lately trying to think of a new build. Obviously I want to wear light armor because there are so many that look cool. But unless I'm playing a sneak-thief, why bother? Heck, with enchantments and spells, I could even wear a full set of Daedric and get away with the occasional sneak.

I've been told to wear light because it "weighs less and I can move faster." Is that really worth losing all those armor points?

Please tell me the benefits of light armor so I can wear it and not feel like I'm handicapping myself.

Well, the bare truth is that with the extra effects you mention there is nothing light armor do better than heavy except that it gives you higher stamina regen when you get a certain perk. That said the higher tier light armor can reasch the armor cap, so there is that.

YES. Light armor - with smithing and enchanting upgrades - is AWESOME. All the protection you'll ever need, with a lot less weight, and it looks good. Also - your stamina lasts much longer because it weighs you down much less.

Heavy armor is proving to be a profound disappointment for me. Ebony and Dragon Plate look good, but between the weight and the stamina drain, the extra protection doesn't even come close to making up for its deficiencies.

When i abused crafting I could get any armor to the armor cap, so light armor actually saved me perks. But if ur not going to go all out and abuse smithing it just depends on the type of character, archers and thieves and assassins should wear light

Thank you guys.

Okay, so stamina is the big selling point with light.

If I want to create a paladin or a tank type character who takes a ton of damage but kills much slower, I should choose heavy because stamina won't matter as much (I'll just need enough for those massive swings of my mace). But if I want to move around a lot, dual wield, or float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, there is no substitute for light. Yes?

ummm...i would say the opposite...anyone who wears Heavy Armor is just gimping themselves...lets look at this:

1. Light Armor becomes weightless at 50 skill....HA requires 70 skills AND HA requires you to take two useless perks to get weightless.

2. Light Armor DOES NOT need the Steed Stone freeing you up to use a different stone such as Warrior, Lady, Lord, or Atronach Stones.

3. Light Armor looks way better then Heavy armor...its not even a contest...all the Cool armor sets are Light Armor IE: Dark Brother Hood, Theives Guild, Guild Master, Nightengale, etc.

4. Glass Weapons are more then enough to beat the game...on level 50 i can kill anything quit easily with Glass Weapons...Ebony can be found easily, and Daedric Weapons are not even needed....everyhting in the game dies so easily anyways even Glass Weapons are overkill...so no need to even bother with the Heavy side of Smithing which frees those perks spots for other things.

5. You can easily reach the Armor cap with Light Armor.

I remember back in the days when I first started playing TES and i was always a Heavy Armor user....well about 2 months into Oblivion, Many of the "old pros" who had been playing the game much longer then me told me

"Heavy Armor is a waste, its not needed, your wasting time and skill points into something you could use better elsewhere"

They were pretty much spot on....Light Armor is better then Heavy is every way...the only reason to use Heavy Armor is if you prefer its looks....

Early on HA has a better rarting then Light, but Light allows you to move faster, weighs less, can carry more, and you can sneak.....you cna take the Lord Stone to fill the gap AND get a 25% Magic Resist as icing on the cake....with HA you have to take 2 useless perks and reach 70 skill before it becomes weightless...or use the Steed Stone and give up The Lord Stone, Atronach (IMO are much more useful then the Steed)

Light Armor has many advantages, I wore HA on my 3rd character just for RP....and i most likely will not go back to wearing it again...its just a waste and IMO outside of Iron, Steel, and Steel Plate HA just looks awful...Dwarven, Orchis, Ebony, and Dragon Plate Armor just look god awful......

On the Other hand, Fur/Hide/Studded, Elven, Scaled, Glass, and Dragon Scale Armor looks very nice in comparison, and the DB, Nightengale, and TG armors just add icing on the cake.....

I personally like the Ebony mail armor. So i modded myself an enchantmentless version of it along with the accessories as light armor.

Thief, hunter, assassin and arches wears light armour. It looks good, uses less stamina using with daggers and bows, you can sneak better and move faster. Also there is some useful perks in light armour.

Good points. I don't agree with everything you wrote but there's a lot of food for thought here. Mind you, I've used both. It's not as if I'm coming into this as a heavy-only guy who never wore so much as a pair of hide boots. But for me, role-playing trumps all. So as I sat down this afternoon and thought about what kind of character I wanted to make, it was important to me that my choice of armor had function as well as role-playing importance. It certainly has function, so I can see that now. Thanks.

It's all about roleplaying for me. Some of my characters want to wear light armor, some want to wear heavy. It all depends on the character.

1: Increased unarmed damage and reduced fall damage is hardly useless, IMO at least.

2: You do not need the Steed for HA either, just saying. I play without it just fine.

3: That is a matter of opinion. Personally I like the Steel Plate armor the most in the game, then the ebony armor.

4: I use steel weapons on my level 30 Breton Crusader. They are good enough for expert difficulty.

5: True

Just my tidbits on those points. One is not gimping oneself by using heavy armor IMO, unless you want to make a sneak character. Its perks is clearly directed more towards a warrior type.

It comes down to what you think looks the best. I personally like to smith my own armors so I'm partial to heavy. You can sneak in HA, you just need the perks. Throw a sneak enchantment on the boots and you're as silent as anything wearing light armor. And if you use Illusion, then none of that matters because you can just cast Muffle.

I did the entire DB in Ebony armor because by the time I got around to it, I didn't want to have to start all over with light armor. An armor rating of 180 or 600+? I don't think poor Narfi cared that the silent assassin that slit his throat was wearing ebony armor. Not exactly a role-player's wet dream but that stuff doesn't matter to me.

But like others have said, if you work on your smithing, you can get any armor type to the cap.

Try sneaking in heavy armor. Mobs two dungeons over will hear you.

Only race fit for heavy armour in this game are Redguards with their stamina regen ability. That is unless you invest lot of points in to stamina, or have absorb stamina effect enchanted on your weapon.

light is better with enchantments and all that stuff and it′s light

One solution to this problem is the Muffle spell. You can sneak better with Heavy Armor when this spell is used.

Its really not that hard to sneak in heavy armor.

I am jealous, I play on xbox so no mods. The Ebony mail is my favorite armor too but the poison cloud, which is a cool effect, really gets in the way, esepcially in first person. Love the look of my stealth archer with the ebony mail along with the nightengale boots, gloves and hood. Looks bad ass, especially with his ebony bow and arrows equiped.

You should wear light armour because it looks good, and weighs less.
It gives as much protection as you need without weighing you down.

Heavy armour is a pain in the ass and not worth it.
They sound like they're dying when they run, you burn stamina, and on females, it has stupid boob plates.
Some of it really stupid looking.
When you ar'nt wearing it, it's a pain to carry.
You can end up expending so much stamina when running, you've got none left for attacks.
You do the run for a running power attack, get there, you've got a quarter or less stamina left and can't do it.

The only thing I regret when not having heavy armour is not being able to use the falmer armour and dwemer well.

You can sneak in heavy armour as easily as light or robes.
You just need muffle boots.

Light armour is the best way for most builds.
And most of it it actually looks like proper armour, no boob plates. All flat at the front.
The ugly glass armour is the exception.

You have more stamina, you don't run out nearly as much, and with enchantments it has as much strength, etc as you would need.
You don't eat nearly all your stamina doing the running in a running power attack, and not have enough to do the actual power attack.

I have used both Heavy Armor and Light Armor. And you have many good points here. But all of your objections to Heavy Armor can be answered. All in all, both styles of armor are viable. But in my opinion, if someone is going to be a warrior, heavy armor is clearly better choice. For stealth style and archers, I agree that light armor is a better fit.

I do not take weightless perk in Heavy Armor. I just take 2 perks at the bottom to boost damage reduction. This gives comfortable protection in the beginning.

Steed Stone is great for Heavy Armor. It's a great deal. It takes the place of 6 perks. Heavy Armor gets Heavier as you move to more advanced armor. In the early game, a heavy armor user can manage perfectly without Steed Stone. I personally take Lord Stone in the beginning for extra protection. If you stay with Wolf Armor, which is fairly light, Steed Stone is not such a great deal.

This is personal preference. In my opinion, light armor does not look good at all on male characters. At the moment, my favorite armor is Steel Plate. I used to like Elven Armor and Glass Armor a lot, but my taste changed.

I agree. I use Skyforge Steel Steel or Blades Sword and they are good enough for me. My primary bow is Elven Bow.

True, but it's easier with Heavy Armor. The main advantage of Heavy Armor is in the early game, I think. Light Armor gives you very little protection compared to Heavy Armor in the beginning, when every point of armor rating matters.

Heavy Armor gives a lot better protection than Light Armor in the early game. Heavy Armor with Lord Stone gives a lot better protection than Light Armor with Lord Stone. I do not use the 2 perks in heavy armor and I do not worry about reaching 70 skill. Later on, I will often switch from Lord Stone to Steed Stone. By that time, I have largely solved the Magic Resistance problem through enchanting, Mara, and Alteration.

This is personal preference. Some people like some things and other people like other things. I do not like the way Dragon Plate Armor looks either. I also do not like the way Dragon Scale Armor looks. I stay with Steel Plate Armor. It's fairly efficient perk-wise. You only need Steel, Elven and Advanced perks in smithing, and only 2 perks in the Heavy Armor tree to reach the armor cap. And you feel fairly safe from very beginning of the game and keeps pace with leveling enemies naturally.


Personally, I'm okay with Glass. I'm mostly okay with Scaled, except for the silly looking helmet. Dragon Scale Armor looks horrible in my opinion. DB outfit looks like a clown suit. Nightengale looks silly. TG armor is kinda okay, I guess.

50% stam. regen perk FTW!

All I wear is light armor because
A. stated above.
B. You get all the defence you need, even if your not a sneak theif( I am though,so I dont even need much, cause Im never seen)
C. weighs a lot less, and skill to make its encomberence= 0 takes a much lower skill level.

These, coupled with my play style, and my personal love for the thieves guild armor make Light armor the preferable choice IMO.

I'm a Heavy Armor user and I have 110 Stamina. I do not have problem with running out of stamina. I carry vegetable soup and use it sometimes. I carry stamina potions that I find, but I almost never use them. I sprint sometimes when I need to close gap to the enemy. Just regular running and occasional short bursts of sprint is enough for my moving needs. I don't power attack much, but if I need to I can do continuous power attacks with vegetable soup.

Boob plate looks silly on female heavy armor, I agree.

Mobility is KING! If you can doge an attack(IE DRAGONS) you are golden brotha...

personally I like light armor appearance over heavy.

Light armor takes up less space in your inventory then heavy armor.

You can sneak just as well in light as you can in heavy with the right perks.

Only heavy armor lets you get unarmed combat perk.

Light armor has a perk that helps with stamina regain. but heavy armor has a perk that doesn't slow you down when running.

Comes down to what you like and what works for you. My lv 60 Nord has 80+ in both heavy and light so I can switch between the two with ease.

but my female orc looks sixy in fur... just sayin

Heavy is for warriors and is what I use on mine. Warriors don't sneak in my book. They walk in with a big weapon, or shield + weapon and kick ass. Screw all that hiding and sneaking crap. I'll save that for my whimpy mage or so my assassin can get backstab multipliers. My warrior doesn't need it.

Heavy perks are great and as far as I'm concerned are better than the light armor perks. The stamina regen increase for light helps when you're out of combat, but I can have enchants that do the same thing. It's not something I consider a deciding factor.

As far as power attacks and running goes, take the hits and you'll be to 70 in no time. I was there by early to mid 20's. After that my armor weighed nothing. I also put a ton of points into stamina which increased carry weight so I never needed the Steed Stone. With a great shield and plenty of armor protection I never had health issues. Never had to raise it all that high. I put no points into magicka. My warrior only used beginner level resto and only inbetween fights. No need to waste points on Magicka.

I like the look of heavy on my warrior. He looks awesome in a nice set of heavy armor. I like the Companions armor best since I felt like I had to earn it and my warrior role played that quest line pretty heavily. I consider him to be a strong part of that group and he is really devoted to it so he wears that armor with pride.

It's really down to what you want for a character. As others have pointed out, Light Armor can be plenty strong and I have characters that wear it. But Heavy just felt right for my warrior and I wouldn't have it any other way regardless of advantages or disadvantages either way. In the end that's all that really means anything. What do you personally like for your character?