i have a level 50 pure mage character at the moment, now as i continue to level to 81 i was planning to branch out and invest 5 perk points into the first perk of the one- handed and archery tree to turn him into a battle mage at some point. i wont have enough points to do everything i want however i was considering putting 2 points into the smithing tree to be able to make improvements to enchanted weaponry but i want to ask how it works first. so lets say i have an enchanted steel sword, ebony sword and glass sword. if they are all enchanted can i smith them until there base damage is the best it can be or do i need to get the coordinating perk to on the tree for steel, ebony and glass? or do the perks ONLY relate to armor smithing allowing me to make the same improvements that some one who filled the tree up can make? also does my actual smithing level affect the improvements i can make?

you don't 'have' to have the associated perk, but if you do have it you can improve them 2x as much as if you didn't have it. So if you have the steel smithing perk, you could level it up to legendary status sooner than if you improved the ebony without the perk, because without the perk the level you can upgrade to is associated with your skill rank (have to be level 100 to level up to legendary...)

thanks. yeah i just saw that with out the perk i need to be around level 196 to get a legendary status with wont be hard since my enchanting and alchemy are maxed out for those categories so between potions and enchanting a few things it should be able to reach legendary status with out wasting additional perk points in the tree.