As the title says i'm just trying to see if people using this skill and if they do, how when and why. I'm curious because i personally find it a little too much and most of the time a game killer.

To be a little more clear. My level 36 two hander with all the appropriate %damage perks, one ring of 'major sure grip' and a pair of gloves with the same enchantment is able to deliver with his ebony great-sword 110+ damage per hit. If you count in the extra 25 damage for the fire/frost/shock version of the same weapon you have a weapon that can bring down a giant with 4-6 hits or maybe 7-8 on expert difficulty. A respectable strong and balanced weapon.

Now my problem with smithing is how drastically it improves the weapon and how much its messing with the damage formula. Improving the above weapon to superior quality will raise its damage to 160+ make it able to kill almost everything in the game with 3 hits! Improving it even more will make the weapon able to kill everything in a matter of seconds trivializing any sort of challenge or character progression.

Smithing itself is improving only the base ratings of a weapon or armor* but all the percent calculations of perks and equipment a high level character will probably have at the late game can really break the final damage/armor rating. Any thoughts?

*A flawless quality elven sword damage is only 11+7=18. Totally fine, but in a mid to late game character, that 18 damage can become 250+!

I do when it is appropriate to the character I am roleplaying. When it is not, I don't.

Mostly, I do smithing when I play warrior-esque characters. A character who is strong, very physical, who would seem to enjoy swinging a hammer, is a character I'm likely to do smithing with. Characters who are physically weak, uninterested in physical exertion, who are bookish, are characters I am unlikely to do smithing with.

I let the game handle the damage numbers. I'm interested in roleplaying, not numbers.

this one can tell by your anolysis that your most probably playing adept or expert and thats why everything is so over powered after smithing

Smithing its a totally diffident story on Legendary ..........without it, you wont stay alive for long, it as simple as that........or you have to be a genius in combat to play with no armor ratings

a Dragonbone mace fully upgraded to 450pts damage will only scratch a Deathlord Archer or a Legendary Dragon, you have to put in 5-6 POWER HITS to get the kill (thats if you got the stamina to do so) ........

and it can only take 2 DIRECT POWER hits from your oponent to kill you

give Legendary a go and it might change your mind,

but at the end of the day you are very correct, Smithing on low levels is overpowered, ......BUT..... it wont save you from the likes of the Ebony Warrior Or Karstaag ........even on adept ......they will kill you EASY

All my orc characters use smithing (i had just a few characters that weren't orcs anyway). Even my mage that isn't using armor/weapons at all, still use smithing to craft nails, iron fittings, hinges and locks to build her home (you can;t buy them, so you have to craft if you want a Hearthfire home).

I have only one rule regarding smithing: don't buy ores/ingots, use only what you get while exploring (same goes for Enchanting/Alchemy for those character who chose those skills).

Playing at Legendary difficulty from level 1, i have to disagree with Sah. Smithing is not overpowered at low levels. Even with Superior Steel armor set and Steel sword, a Bandit Leader was quite a challenge. One power attack from his two-handed sword left me with 1/3 of my HP. Adding the dark night setting (Purity - realism on a rainy night), i was quite a thrill.

https://youtu.be/Tt8ob6j3Vkg?t=666

Fair enough Pseron even if i disagree with your philosophy. Numbers in our case with Skyrim can change the whole game. Being able to kill a snow bear in three hits with a smithed weapon instead of 12 is a massive gameplay changer as you can see. Snow bears are normally creatures to be reckoned with and if you find one in the early game you have to run or at least use some form of tactics to kill them(poisons,shouts etc). You can't afford to stand and exchange blows with a snow bear because they can tear through your 200hp like paper. Using smithing on the other hand will make the same encounter trivial taking away a big part of the challenge and the nice feeling of character progression.

You're right Sah, i normally play on expert and i recently tried master to test the same improved weapon but nothing really changed. I cut an Electromancer in half without even bashing him. One standing power attack plus a normal one the the guy was dead. I normally dread these guys and i always have my shout ready along with a strong poison in hand before i engage them but the improved weapon trivialized the encounter with them completely. I haven't played legendary yet but i will test it soon even if i dislike damagespoonging. Imagine how many hours will take to beat Benor in a fist fight on legendary!

I typically limit the crafting skills. If I'm going to smith for better weapons and armor, I likely won't mess with enchanting or alchemy. I do have a few enchanted items that have been improved, but I found them. If I find an item with an enchantment, that doesn't mean I'll use it. My character is very specific about weapon and armor types and may smith an enchanted item only to unload for gold. Depending on the enchantment, my character may not mess with it at all because he may think it is evil or without honor. He's an Orc. He's very specific about what he thinks and typically looks down on magic and using souls for enchantments. I can't explain it. It's just how he is.

There are also a few times when I'll purchase ore or ingots. If I've got pricey items to unload and the merchant is low on funds, I may purchase something like ingots to give him/her money to unload what it is I don't need or want. The only ore I'll typically buy to use is iron since so much is required for building.

Out of all of my gear (mostly Ebony), only the blade and gauntlets are enchanted (I think I'm lvl 36). I don't even know what the blade enchantment is and it likely needs to be recharged as I tend not to carry filled soul gems. Brute force is all that is needed.

I have had characters that were into all three and those characters became overpowered. The craft has to fit the character. My sneaky types tend to mess with alchemy and if they smith, it will be leather/hide only and few skill points will be thrown into the skill tree. Mages tend to lean towards enchanting and likely will not bother with alchemy and certainly not smithing.

It makes a difference in my opinion.

I think you'd be pretty close in damage output if you went without the enchantments and smithed instead. It's not the same with armor enchantments. They are comparatively useless. So for armor you really need smithing if you want to up their ratings.

This is correct, I'd say. And it actually "works" for roleplaying, since armor use would be more likely associated with the smithing craft.

I don't associate warrior-types with magic skills like enchanting; that's more the province of the spellsword or battlemage. So (playing at Adept or Expert), I tend to use either enchanting or smithing for any given character, but not both. That's not to say that my warriors don't use enchanted items that they find; they just don't make them. And likewise, my enchanters might make enchanted daggers or jewelry to sell, but they never put any perks into smithing, so they can never temper their enchanted gear to higher quality.

The result is that weapons and armor remain "realistic" in their effect, and keep the game fun.

It's useful until you get all your best gear and upgrade it all. Once you have full daedric armour and a dragon bone sword, you don't really need the smithing skill.

It's not smithing that's making you OP its the enchanted gear,I only use that stuff up to maybe level 20 and even then I only use 1 piece.


I don't like being able to just slaughter everyone because it gets boring,smithing is a good way of fine tuning your damage output which is especially relevant with 2H because you can probably get OP before level 10 with gear and potions.


Also I only get 2 first tier 2H perks max until after level 50 or so,also for me smithing is great for armor because I don't spend perks on armor and it's great for making money with a degree of realism


If you want to be really OP get all 3 words for that shout where you swing faster, I had that and it only took maybe 10 sec to kill a powerful Draugr.


All that you have to do is fine tune your damage output according to your difficulty,I play on master and I like to have drawn out fights with a 2H sword so getting all 2H enhancements would be counterproductive.

It's fine as is. If Smithing would make me too powerful (not a problem for me) I would not use it. If you don't like how powerful it makes you, don't use it, mod it, raise the difficulty setting or otherwise change how you play.

Usually i don't but the idea of improving your favorite weapon then make it magical powered by a trapped soul of a human and giving it a name is hard to pass.

Same here. I had a character who was just a smith! Through console command trickery he would sell armor and weapons to my other characters. That was pretty fun!

Trying to crunch out the numbers just makes the game boring to me like a chore.

But on smithing, I would have preferred if it was a bit more complicated, having to do things like finding recipes for the more rare armor, or at least variations on certain armors. But I always enjoy crafting, gives my characters things to do that doesn't involve being a murder hobo is always a fun thing.

Most of my warrior's use smithing, though some do not. Some of my Battlemages and Spellwords will use some smithing. It has to suit the individual character.

On Adept or Expert they will temper up their armor and weapon's once every 10 lvl's or so... For the most part they will wear the same kind of armor their whole Story, unless for one reason or the other, it suits their story for them to get a different type.

When a character changes armor, it tend's to be a "mercenary" type character...and they wear what ever is best that they can find or loot... they rarely smith though.

Except during out DiD competition's smithing is only done on a random basis and never to make Over Powered armor... Except in Competition... The characters rarely do more than one craft and if they do...2 aren't perked at all...

Perk's depend on the character.. if they are supposed to be good at smithing, they get some perks.. otherwise, none. I play at Adept and Expert.. really I wouldn't need to smith ( or enchant or alchemy) except I use some mod's that make the "enemies" harder.. and better armor is often needed.

It sounds like you are viewing Smithing as a means to an end, personally I enjoy the whole process. My warrior/Smith/Hero enjoys visiting the mines and wilderness areas where ore veins are located. Part of my "job" as a hero, is to make these areas safe for normal working folks, just like a guard in game, or a policeman, or firefighter in real life. I just happen to be better at it, since I'm the Dragonborn!

Once I have mined the ore, as payment for my services of making the area safe, (heroes gotta earn a living too ya know!) I'll stop by a smelter and refine the ore, then start smithing. Sometimes I make jewelry or weapons to enchant and sell to earn income. Since I do have the ability to make it, I usually outfit myself in the best gear I'm able to make, and sometimes enchant. I enjoy every step of the process.

As far as high end weapons making my character "overpowered", it doesn't bother me, at least on this character. As the Dragonborn, I'm supposed to be able to stand toe to toe with Dragons! The only other beings in the game that can do that are Giants, or maybe really powerful mages. I also need to be able to walk into a bandit stronghold, and clear out the bad guys for the Jarl when his guards can't handle the job!

In short, I'm a one man wrecking crew that can walk in and get the job done!

Then again, I'm not a gamer in the usual sense. I've never played on a console, or with a controller. Jumping around like a ninja, twirling weapons, and dodging enemy attacks isn't why I play this game. For me, combat is just something I have do to progress with the quest, or other activity I'm pursuing at the moment.

Incidentally, now that I've completed all the quest lines I'm interested in, the game HAS gotten boring after 300 hours, so I'm getting ready to start over with a new, possibly different type of character!

Oh, and don't forget, just because you can create a nuclear powered dragon bone weapon with duel enchantments, doesn't mean you can't just pick up a steel longsword and use that!

Smithing is fun, but it's true that, if you want to, you can use it to make your character overpowered. On Adept at any rate. I had a light armour wearing, battleaxe user and it didn't take that long before he could shrug off most attacks (e.g. stroll through a hail of arrows!) and kill pretty much anything in a few hits.

The beauty of smithing is you can improve any gear you want, even the low level stuff. Then it's just a matter of how you prefer your character to look.

There's also nothing saying you have to smith up your gear that high. You can choose not to

I like smithing the way it is. I can customize it to fit my gear to my taste. I can use smithing to make me into a god or use it to break even in the world that in conjunction with changing the difficulty.

Usually, I do all crafting, just because I enjoy them as an activity. I have had characters that I semi-roleplayed that used none, one, or two of them, also.

I'm not a huge fan of combat, so the overpowered weapons/armor don't bother me. As others have said, either up your difficulty level if it bugs you, or use a "lesser" weapon

Yeah, if you move in combat as much as a stone pillar does around the building.

The idea is fantastic, and it's much better than how it worked in past games (simple item repairing with portable hammers). Unfortunately, final execution was flawed. 1. there weren't enough restrictions. Mini quests to enable some things, optimally in form of tutoring by another smith, requirement of rare items that have to be smelted instead of bought, nothing. You could just grind by making thousands of iron daggers, casually enter a shop, buy a couple of daedric hearts and a stack of ebony ingots, and bam, you're walking around in full daedric set. No one can prevent people from grinding, so it was a bad approach. 2nd flaw is- exactly that, you need to grind the crap out of the skill to be able to go up. I create an entire steel set on my own. I upgrade every single piece, from boots to a helm, even a shield and a sword, and a bow that I occasionally use. No, now I have to create another 100 pieces so I can move up to dwarven, and there is no other way.

They even added several really immersion and gameplay breaking stupidities, I mean, really stupid things, whoever designed it that way needed to be slapped. 1. every single freakin smith and merchant can sell dwarven ingots. Why?? Dwarven ruins are dangerous, aren't overly explored, and dwarven items are far from commonly used in Skyrim. So why the hell would a merchant in Whiterun sell them? Same goes for a few others. Real immersion breaker (just like septims in dwemer ruins, but this is a topic about smithing). 2. Plate [censored] armor. I get gang banged by these 6 bandits, and the baddest mofo of them wears this really awesome armor. I managed to kill all of them, and man, does it look cool on me. Sweet, I'll just proceed over to the nearest table and improve it. Oh wait. I can't improve this heavy armor, because I followed the heavy armor path in smithing. http://img15.deviantart.net/b086/i/2013/105/f/7/genius_in_hd_by_lemmino-d61sxub.png.

The position of Steel-Plate armors in the perk tree is exactly so that people who don′t go the heavy side can still be good at some kind of heavy armor. It′s expensive enough (3 perks, 50 smithing) to justify it.

And maybe I got it wrong, but you′re saying that the fact the skill needs grinding is good, as in easy or op, and bad, as in weak or annoying, at the same time?

"You could just grind by making thousands of iron daggers, casually enter a shop, buy a couple of daedric hearts and a stack of ebony ingots, and bam, you're walking around in full daedric set."..."now I have to create another 100 pieces so I can move up to dwarven, and there is no other way."

If not, sorry.

You can also train with teachers instead of grinding anyway. I always saw the process of me going to a smithy, buying materials and crafting dagger as an actual lesson instead of clicking a button "Train", but the option is there.

I like smithing in order to get the dragon armor and weapons. Usually I get my smithing skill maxed out at 100 fairly early in the game so I can get the dragon weapons and armor. After I have all these, smithing becomes useless for me so I just make smithing legendary to get back the perk points I spent on it.

Smithing adds the ability to put perks into offense and/or defense in a way other than simple skill advancement in the weapon or armor type. A skilled smith can create a one or two-handed weapon, or bow, equally, so I can put off my weapon choice until later if I do smithing early. Ditto for Light/Heavy armor, but less so, as that decides which side of the tree to follow.

It also allows you to over-commit on offense and smith up an awesome weapon of your favored kind, while ignoring armor completely.

The same number of perks thus gives your more game variety if smithing is included, and variety is the thing that keeps us coming back and playing again.

My most demanded feature for crafting for the next game is crafting services i would likely pay to craft that deadric sword.