So I was deciding on what armor I wanted for my barbarian warrior. I sifted through a ton of options before settling on what I thought fit his character. Now I was paying attention to the armor rating. I was trying to keep a balance between the armor that looked good for him but also offered decent protection.

Which brings me to my question, when deciding armor for your characters, do you decide based on looks, armor rating, or a bit of both?

Looks.

Looks, again.

Looks

Looks.

Unless I find the armor rating puts me in a tight spot, in which case I resort to enchantments and smithing improvements and armor spells and perks. If that don't work, I go for the next best looking armor.

let the trends continue. Looks.

Looks for me, also. I don't know or care what my character's armor rating is, most of the time.

Looks as I usually roleplay more than stat-hunt. Most of my characters would find something like daedric as too odd to use.

Looks. There are a lot of ways to get the AR you want without choosing armor you don't like.

Looks, never cared about rating in any game.

Looks.

Smithing and enchantments can make armor rating negligible or a non-issue altogether.

Rating until I get my [censored] together, and then looks

Seeing as how many of the higher-rated sets are, to me, not aesthetically pleasing to the eye, I prefer to stick with the lower-rated, yet more aesthetically-pleasing sets.

Looks. I like to mix and match.

looks. I love the imperial heavy armor.

Armor rating. I am of course kidding. Definately looks!

That's kind of my thoughts, too. Most of the "upper end" armors I do not find pleasing to look at. Looks for me, too

Looks!

Always looks!

Both.

It has to look good and the parts should go together, but if I get a higher rated set that looks equally good I change.

In other words: I don't stick to leather the whole game just because it's leather.