Hey Guys ^-^
I've been playing Skyrim for quite some time now (50+ h) and made my way to Smithing being at 100 and Enchanting at 83.
So I - playing as a mage with heavy armor - forged myself a dragon armor, using enchanted clothes and ring and a potion to maximize the armor value.
Then I went to the enchantment table to enchant my legendary armor but... when I apply any enchantment to it, it loses more than 50% of it's armor rating! I've made a screenshot to show what I'm so concerned about.
http://imgur.com/BotL8
Does this only occur because my enchantment skill is not 100? Or because I used enchanted items to maximize the result in smithing (this would kind of svck, because they would be of no real use then)?
Anyway, please reply with anything that could help me. This just cuts through my plans heavily.

I believe that after enchanting something you have to re-upgrade it.

That wasn't the case with all my other armor. My daedric armor for example (smithed and upgraded with smithing ~90 and no enchanted rings or such) has still 182 armor value after enchanting, still being legendary. Same for all other armor pieces I enchanted till the dragon armor came.

No, it keeps the upgrade even if it does not show on the enchanting screen. I speak of experience.

Hmm. That's interesting.

You have to have a perk to improve an enchanted item. As a wizard, I haven't been putting perks into Smithing. I've improved a few of my follower's weapons and armor, then enchanted it. Didn't notice the improvement was lost. Not saying it didn't happen, just didn't notice the slight drop when working the enchanting side.

A "slight drop" wouldn't be much a problem I'd care about. From 228 to 110 just for some magicka regeneration is, however. You need to think that the helmet, gauntles and boots also get enchanted, lowering the overall armor rate from around 520 to ~240.

Indeed, it seems that if you don't have the perk to improve enchanted items, well you cannot enchant improved items either because when you enchant, the game removes the improvement.

It makes sense too, the perk would be close to useless without that rule since you can always improve first and enchant later.

You need the Arcane Smithing Perk to be able to both enchant and improve the item.

Well, then it would be very strange that it worked before, since I smithed and improved my heavy armor since pre-Ebony (can't get the name now). As I said in #3, it always worked like a charm with them. The dragon armor is the first one where this problem occurs.

Disconfirm. I made my Orcish (Flawless) armor and enchanted it without the perk.

Not really. It's nice to be able to improve an item after it's already been made to accommodate a skill increase.

Arcane Armor perk allows you to upgrade enchanted armor. In the reverse, it also allows you to enchant upgraded armor.

You can't enchant an armor that has been improved without the enchanted smithing perk. With that perk, the armor rating stays the same. Without that perk, you lose your upgrades to the armor if you enchant it.

Working as intended. You can't get around the need for the enchanted armor perk by upgrading first then enchanting second.

Well, I might just try to get back in-game and upgrade that perk, to see if it brings any improvement. Will report back soon.
EDIT: Actually, it works now. Seems like I either had luck that it worked without that perk before, or it's a bug... Wait, both possibilities refer to a bug...

It's just reports the starts temporarily wrong. Once you enchant it it returns to the prior stat.