Hi all,

Would like to use Glass armor as I find it the coolest craftable set in the game. That being said, I don't want to level up alchemy AND dump a bunch of points into enchanting to get to the armor cap of 567.

That being said, is it possible to get close to the armor cap with just a set a normal gear enchanted with +smithing? So I make 4 sets of armor that have the highest +smithing enchant I can get w/o perks in enchanting. Then make my set and upgrade it. How high could I get the armor rating?

Glass? That's insanely easy to get to the cap. If you can't get it to the cap w/o potions, just by a cheap fortify smithing potion and use it.

Really? I just did some weak math and I was only seeing it get to 300 or so

My armor rating in Dragonscale is 1971.
I know I can get glass to within 10% of that.

But you need 100 smithing, alchemy and enchanting, and other things besides. Search youtube, you'll find what you need.

I remember on my other game with glass armor, smithed and with relative light armor perks I was weighing in just over 2000.

Just need to get enchanting up with the perks and create a crafting gear with fortify smithing and a vanila Blacksmith Elixir you buy at the apothecary should get you around 1200 to 1400 armour rating.

Better when you can make your own potions. So far, I've managed to make a 29% enchanting potion and a 115% smithing potion. I understand the max for those are 32% and 187%, respectively. There's a youtube vid on it; need to watch it again.....

Yeah but he doesn't want to put perks in to Alchemy. And who needs armour with 2000 armour rating, when it doesn't do anything beyond the 80% threshold?

It should be no problem at all to get Glass to 567 with 100 Smithing and Light Armor.

Maybe they've changed the Restoration potions in a recent patch (so they no longer stack), we were just discussing this in another thread.
But I have personally made both Fortify Enchanting 350% and Fortify Smithing 1200% potions.
I can tell you it messes you up pretty good!
For example, you don't want to buff up a two-handed weapon much beyond ~600 damage or so.
They will slowly grow even stronger (as your two-handed skill increases) and next thing you know, you're wearing a fortify two-hand enchantment and your weapon's stats no longer display properly - they will not display damage in four figures!

@ Shaen
Yes glass is great (and wonderfully light), since my beloved Elven stuff has kinda fallen from favour, heheh, in these post-Oblivion Crisis days...
Glass is the best candidate for hitting the cap fairly easily, with a non-insane buff.
I like to hit the cap with just armor, helm, hand, and foot.
(Since the shield is not always equipped...)
There is a glitch, also, where the shield's enchantment(s) are not applied even when it IS equipped - so don't enchant anything important or crucial on the shield.
I hit the cap easily with just helm, hand, and foot. Don't really need armor...
But I do carry Fur Armor (buffed up to 265) for emergencies.
Again, as time passes your Light Armor skill will increase, and therefore so will the ratings.
With a high Light Armor skill the cap is much more readily reachable.
L8R

What? Since when? I have never seen any mention of this anywhere, and I read info on Skyrim constantly.

Link to credible source, or it never happened.

I 2nd this. I used an enchanted shield for quite a while, and the enchantments certainly and clearly applied (health and magic resist).

Seriously. You don't need a spreadsheet (see what I did there?) to get glass up to the armor cap. The glass perk and the best +smith potion in the wild will probably get you there.

If you take all the Light Armor perks tha increase armor and improve it to legendary it should provide the armor cap or atleast be very close. Close enough for it to be useful.

My armor rating with Nightingale (which doesn't even have an associated smithing perk, as it's basically the same as leather statistics-wise) is in the 600's or so with a 50% smithing potion and max-enchanted smithing armor. Glass would be ridiculously easy to do this with.

Awesome, thank you for all the responses.

That's just dumb. You know that after 567 AR, it have no effect? You can have AR at 10 billions witout it being better than 567.
Just sayin', that's a waste of time and needs unnessecary grinding.

You guys all cheat shamelessly. 2000 armor rating? How is the game even fun? As soon as I am over 300 I think it starts to get too easy - even on master. No smithing, enchanting, alchemy, or sneaking with a warrior. That is good times.

I know!
Health and Resist Magic, great choices.
With a one-handed weapon equipped, and the shield, check your active effects (stats).
Everything good, right?
Then, speed-button to your bow or any two-handed weapon.
No more shield = no more shield enchantments for the moment...
Then, speed-button back to one-handed - the shield reappears.
But check your active effects! The enchantments are not always applied.
I have to manually unequip my shield, then re-equip it - then okay, the enchantments appear.
I first noticed this because my Health was way down compared to Stamina.
It's because the Stamina enhancement is always there (boots or whatever) but the Health enhancement comes & goes...
Mostly goes.
Even with the shield equipped; check it yourself.
It's a known issue, mostly you hear about it regarding four pieces of enchanted garments (ie. for Alchemy or Smithing).
You should always double-check Active Effects to make sure all four are applied...
Same with the shield!
Note: the problem seems to be when changing weapons rapidly in battle, say fighting a Dragon.
You're pounding him with the bow; then he lands.
You quick-switch to one-hand (ie. Dragonbane).
Check the stats! Your shield is equipped but the enchantments may or may not be...
Just my $0.02
Regards

I recall having an armor rating of 500, or so, wearing all glass with my smith only character. However, this was only after taking some of the Light Armor perks.

This is an interesting question, I just tried calculating it by hand. It seems that achieving armor cap is possible without getting any perks in enchanting or doing any alchemy. Please correct me if you find errors in my calculation.


Glass Armor:

Armor 38
Boots 11
Gauntlets 11
Helmet 16
-----------
Total 76

Smithing 100
Enchanting @ 100 without any perks
50% increase from default 8% is 12%
Fortify Smithing 12% each
4 x 12% = 48% increase
Effective Smithing 148

Potion of Fortify Smithing
50% Blacksmiths elixir
148 * 1.50
Effective Smithing 222

Smithing level 222 gets you to Legendary Level 8
+23 for boots gauntlets helmet
+46 for armor

38 + 46 = 84
11 + 23 = 34
11 + 23 = 34
16 + 23 = 39
-----------
Total 191

Light Armor Skill 100 will give you 50% increase

191 * 1.5 = 286

Take 5 perks in Agile Defender 100% increase

286 * 2 = 572

Or take 4 perks in Agile Defender and one Custom Fit will give you 80% and 25% increase.

286 * 1.8 * 1.25 = 643

[Edit] looks like I misread the original question. The OP does want to put perks into enchanting. In that case you get 25% fortify enchanting gear each.


Enchanting @ 100 with all relevant perks

Fortify Smithing gear = 25%
4 x 25% = 100% increase
Effective Smithing 200

Blacksmiths Elixir 50% increase
Effective Smithing = 300

Smithing Level 300 gets you to Legendary Level 13

+32 for boots gauntlets helmet
+64 for armor

38 + 64 = 102
11 + 32 = 43
11 + 32 = 43
16 + 32 = 48
----------------
Total = 246

Light Armor Skill 100 will give you 50% increase

246 * 1.5 = 369

Take 3 perks in Agile Defender for 60% increase

369 * 1.6 = 590

Hitting the armor cap is totally unnecessary. Just use 100 smithing, some decent blacksmithing gear and one of the potions you find or buy in a shop. That will be more than enough armor to get you through anything in the game. Skyrim just isn't that difficult.

No, you do NOT need those because you went almost 4x past the armor cap

You're missing the hidden 20points of armor per piece prolly.

Besides, you don't need enchanting. Just stop by the general and blacksmiths at every town you pass through, every time you pass through. You're looking for smithing gear. Combined with the "Improve glass armor & weapons twice as well" perk, you'll have no problem hitting cap without putting 1 perk in enchanting or Alchemy.

Doesn't mean you can't USE enchant/alchemy.... say you get another set of smithing gloves... disenchant the weaker set and set about enchanting the best smithing pieces (torso, necklace, and ring I believe) you can with your limited enchating. Likewise you can do the same with Fortify Smithing pots, and even better to make a weak alchemy set to boost the potions you make... again, with NO perk investment.

No need to perk or worry about power leveling enchant/alchemy.... just level them normally (you SHOULD be leveling them normally anyways though enchanting you might want to do a little extra work enchanting looted, high quality weapons you find in dungeons before selling. Recharging enchanted weapons lvls VERY slowly. Alchemy you should be makign health pots anyways with looted ingredients. Wheat + blue mountain flower = nice health pot. Spam them)