Please, enlighten me.

Both can get to 80% mitigation I feel. At least I know I had 500+ armor with Daedric armor and then now with my Nightingale armor and nearly 100 light I have 527. Both can become weightless. But hey light armor has more unique sets.

It comes down to looks. Crafted Heavy is better looking than crafted light I think.

However, light does have more unique sets and IMO better, more streamlined perks.

The biggest differences between heavy and light armor are during leveling. Once you have mastered both of them then the only real difference is you're a lot harder to stagger in heavy armor but you get a faster stamina regeneration with light armor... oh and heavy armor absorbs fall damage. While leveling heavy armor is more encumbering but provides a lot more protection then light armor, light armor offers some protection but slightly encumbers and cloths do nothing. As such big tank people wear heavy armor as they are more looking into taking damage where as people who need to be lighter or quicker on their feet take light armor.

Even the best sets of unique armor have issues competing against what a player can make themselves with enchanting, so unique armor is only really useful if you aren't going to be spending points in enchanting.

After you have the weightless perk it's really just about the look of it and the other perks. It doesn't even seem to make a difference when sneaking once you have weightless armor.

Yeah quite true. But while I like Daedric armor it feels totally out of place with the world and setting. At least stuff like Nightingale, Savior's Hide, etc. fit in more. If only Imperial/Steel was better. :\

I've always prefered the look of light armor and once you get to the high end, protection wise and perk wise there isn't a huge difference.
What matters is what you plan to do from the start, early on you should decide are you someone who will spend most of their time in melee combat or ranged.
As Heavy does favour melee players at first and Light for ranged players obviously.
That should make your decision for you.

I hafta agree. The high end stuff looks cool, but just doesn't fit the game setting that well.

Rocking a set of exquisite Scaled armor right now. Better than Elven, and looks like it belongs!

You can use Steed Stone to remove armor weight and penalties plus add 100 carry weight during early levels, makes heavy very very powerful early on.

Honestly, I wear fur boots, fur gauntlets, and fur armor with no top, I wield a greatsword and am a nord with max weight. I look totally epic. With enchanting at 100 and some good soul gems, my armor is pretty good, but mostly i rely on my health and ability to kill everything before it hits me to win.