there are way way too many threads that mention heavy and light armor.


for RP reasons, I went with light for my thief.

but now I want to better understand the differences and benefits of heavy and light armor.

I looked on UESP.net and I assumed that the best heavy armor had higher defense than best liight. but it was not so! they both have similar ratings.

so what is the benefit of heavy armor?

Heavy armor gets less stagger and a chance to redirect damage back at the enemy. And I do believe fully upgraded daedric armor protects you more than glass. :/

The actual question is, why would anyone want light armor? Just pick the steed standing stone and it's like you aren't wearing anything at all if you want to sneak around.

Access to different perks, like fist of steel and stagger resist (not sure if this works, I heard it was buggy?).

Easier time getting to armor cap in mid game.

That's about it. In the long term I've read that light armor is superior.

The differentiation between light and heavy armour, particularly as skills, is an incredibly stupid aspect. Armour requires, compared to most other skills, basically no actual skill whatsoever, the benefits of it make no sense, and the way it levels makes no sense. Other than that, it's boring, as it's a completely passive skill, you just level up automatically as you go assuming you happen to be wearing it.

Light Armor uses a lot less stamina sprinting, which will come in handy for the classes that needs to close up fast and have plenty of stam left to power attack

IIRC, the armor is maxed. Heavy armor gets you sonner to that max level. But light armor has that 10% chance of evading attacks. This might add up and be better in the end. But someone with those number knowledge can correct me if I am wrong.

Not a warrior type but I would probably like light armor for the 50% extra stamina regen.

Depends on your style of fighting...do you want to evade, or take things head on.

Also when you redirect hits with heavy armour, you still take damage. Light armour has a 50% stam regen and a 10% chance to avoid getting hit with melee.

Of course heavy armour has that amazing perk that improves your bare knuckle brawling (lolol). For heavy armour to be viable for any build other than a tank you need to use a standing stone to offset the lack of perks.

I can see no reason to go heavy unless you're a full on tank. Just my opinion, I'm sure many will disagree but there you are.

IMO light armour is the way to go unless you are a full on warrior,

good to know. my thief is level 43, no way I would do heavy armor. the only heavy armor he wears are these gauntlets that give %35 bow damage, more than any other single item I found.


but I have a level 4 paladin/tank. so he will do heavy armor.

Heavy armour gets less staggers and a chance to damage those who hit you. Light gets stamina regen and a chance to avoid physical damage.
How easy / hard it is to reach the cap depends on perks / skills and which birthstone type buff you take.

Edit: The values shown on EUSP are base values and increase depending on skills / perks. That small difference can become quite large with all the modifiers in place (though you can reach the cap with either depending on choices).

Light has less weight than Heavy. It's also far superior for stealth, but offers less protection.

I've noticed a significant difference between the protections, but my characters in Light Armor seem to be able to sprint for a MUCH longer time.

I have used both light and heavy armor. I find they are both about the same. I like light armor because it weighs less and I can carry more stuff.

I have to buy training to keep my armor skill relevant to my level. Assuming you're playing intelligently and blocking/dodging hits instead of just absorbing everything, armor skill doesn't really keep pace with your weapon skills. Armor is your last line of defense and as such doesn't see as much use as your primary lines of defense, only one of which is actually a skill.

I wonder what shape a "Dodge" skill would be if it were designed into the game.

For the most part, light armor gives you stamina recovery boost, heavy armor is in the same category as the best weapon deadra if you smith one branch.

That perk saved my life when my disarmed hammer lay 20 feet away in the darkness.

I really miss medium armor.

Heavy has slightly better ratings early game. As a result, I think it is slightly superior "un-perked". To cut a long story short, Heavy is best for the jack of all trades, Light is far better for almost any pure build. This is only a very loose rule of thumb.

Heavy armor is better if you're going to stand there and take every hit head on, without a thought to defending yourself. If you're being agile, sneaky, ranged, or doing anything in order to protect yourself, light armor is an excellent choice.

You don't have to worry about being staggered if you're moving out of the way, or shield bashing, or your opponent doesn't even know that you're there.

The only reason heavy armor is "better" is because you get access to Daedric weapons, which have the highest damage in the game. We're not talking 50% higher or anything like that, but there seems to be a fair percentage of min/maxers on the boards, so even +0.0001 is unequivocal, absolute, objective superiority, irrespective of everything.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that 600 AC is the level at which you get the maximum benefit from armor (it still only stops 80% of damage with 20% getting through). With the right perks in the appropriate tree, a matched set upgraded to Legendary by smithing (for some sets you have to get to 100 smithing then add on skll boosting items when you upgrade it) and either Light or Heavy Armor skill maxed at 100 you're supposed to be able to achieve that 600 AC with any set of armor in the game. I haven't tested this myself so I can't swear if it's true.

The difference between Light and Heavy Armor is that you can reach that 600 AC at much lower skill levels in armor and smithing.

i prefer heavy armour as i do tank (Daedric Legendary) i currently have 430hp and 140 stamina, and 83 heavy, 92 one handed, and 87 block, and i never find my self even getting close to dieng, when i use light armour i get hit alot easier.

Does anyone know for certain if the Steed stone affects stealth in heavy armor? I use it with my heavy armored Nord, but just for the utility of more sprinting and extra carrying capacity.

Seems like it would be pretty broken if you could be super sneaky in clunky crap like Dwemer armor.

The actual question is, why would anyone want to use a Steed Stone just to be able to sneak when you can do same thing with a single perk and use a much better Stone instead.

The actual question also is, why would anyone want Heavy Armor when Light Armor can provide same damage resistance AND 10% chance to avoid all damage AND faster Stamina recovery AND requires less stamina to sprint.

This. Unfortunately, this doesn't become obvious until reading the forums. I chose heavy armor for my character. I would so much like more stamina.

Without intimate knowledge of smithing perks and ability to improve armor, its definitely not clear that light can reach the armor cap. It seems like heavy should be better.

Heavy armor provides substantially more protection UNLESS you are using smithing perks and smithing increase items/potions/enchants to improve your armor. IF you are constantly improving armor via smithing with the aid of enchanting and potions, then you are right in that there is no real difference as you can make even fur armor reach the 80% damage reduction cap; however, if you do not wish to...for lack of a better word...powergame your way to uberness with smithing modifiers via enchanting and alchemy, then heavy armor is a better choice for a melee character as your armor is going to be high on account of heavy armor's better base protection - which is further increased over max base protection (minus smithing upgrades, obviously) of light armors.

Make sense?