So I just hit 100 with my smithing skill tonight, crafted a whole set of Dragon Heavy Armor, upgraded it to legendary quality, and realized that it offers less armor rating than the Daedric set. Why isn't Daedric Armor unlocked at 100 instead? The Daedric set was more annoying to craft also. After looking, the only argument I can find for why Dragon armor has a lower rating is because it is lighter than Daedric. This point is invalid seeing as how the Heavy Armor tree allows you to make all heavy armor weightless.

What a waste.

Why does it matter? The AR is at 567. Dragon Armor was likely a nice little bonus.

Besides, Dragonbone Weapons < Daedric.

I wasted a bunch of time leveling smithing from 90 to 100. It takes away from the rewarding feeling of maxing something out when it doesn't actually improve your character.

If you take the Dragon armour perk, you can make both Light and Heavy armour. That's why (in the vanilla, non-Dawnguard, game) for Light Armour players it could be a good idea to go up the RHS of the Smithing tree: you get the strongest weapons + the best light armour.

Dragon Armor offers both Light and Heavy Armors (Dragonscale and Dragonbone respectively), whereas Daedric only offers Heavy Armor. Either armor can easily reach the cap, so the few points that Daedric gets aren't really valuable anyway. Furthermore, Dragon weapons (Dawnguard required) are stronger than Daedric.

So pound for pound, the Dragon Smithing perk is much better than Daedric:

1. Easier to craft (especially arrows)

2. More variety

3. Stronger weapons

4. Identical defense potential if you hit the armor cap.

Daedric armor is only slightly better, the two options are equally worthy.

Because Bethesda made some odd yet possibly necessary decisions when trying to make a gameplay friendly, UI friendly, and lore friendly compromise between Dragon and Daedric armor.

I thought this would talk about why bone is stronger than metal... Anyway, the weapons are worth it for the perk.

Did you get your little arrow backwards? Aren't dragonbone weapons more powerful than daedric?

Daedric stuff seems to have some very passionate fans for some reason, it would irk them immensely to think there was superior equipment, I thought dragonbone was? (and I found great satisfaction in that since I don't like daedric and I don't like the fans of it - disappointing news - I never level my smithing up high enough to find out)

I actually wasn't aware of an armor cap. After looking it up, I am even more annoyed. Why would they make the cap so easy to achieve?

Dragon Smithing is better then Daedric but only if you have Dawnguard. Otherwise Daedric is superior.

Why did you even make it the dragon armor? Its ugly.

Aaaaaaaand there's THE answer.

It's not that bad looking.

maybe because Deadra are more powerful then Dragons i mean a Dragon compared to a Deadric Prince a Dragon is just a toy...

But in my Opinion i preffer Dragon Armor over Deadra unless im a Dunmer!