Hey,

I just got the Ebony Mail. It has some awesome stats, but its heavy armor... I suppose lore has made it this way but seriously... You complete a 'has to be' stealth mission and you get a heavy armor as a reward.

My question is if I could use this with an advantage if I get the heavy armor perk 'conditioning' to reduce encumbrance and then go full/partly heavy armor. I want as little detection as humanly possible, armor rating is second priority.

The reason the heavy armor thing might still be worth it is that I havent really taken many hits and as such my light armor skill is still low(26), I always fight from stealth

Hope you can help me with this ^^

You might as well as go with ebony mail because of its effects and ur light armor skill. As long as you have the perk that reduces armor noise u should be fine.

I use Ebony mail and steel cuffed boots/gauntlets and I sneak around just fine. If your sneak skill is adequately levelled, and you have the right perks, it makes no difference what you're wearing.

I sneak in Ebony Armor (body, gloves and boots) with absoluetly no trouble, The only time I get detected, is when I am in line of sight. My sneak is 76 with only one rank in "Stealth" and "Muffled Movement" (Muffled Movement pretty much overrides any negatives of Heavy Armor's noise). I imagine that I will be nigh undetectable when I max the sneak perk tree.

I say go for it.

Don't max Sneak perk, there's no need to go beyond 1/5. Enchant muffle on boots instead.

You don't need muffle on your boots with Ebony Mail; you're already completely silent in it. And if you want all the Sneak perks, you would get Muffled Movement which also negates any sound you make caused by your armor.

Ebony Mail is perfect for thieves wanting to benefit from heavy armor instead of light, and the added bonus is that you can stealth kill enemies and NPCs without incurring a bounty. As long as they're in a hostile state towards you, the armor will gradually wear down their health.

If you view in 3rd person camera, you actually see your character turn near pitch black when the stealth of the armor "engages." It can be annoying in 1st person with trying to line up a shot with an arrow, though.

I always multiclass-wear the heaviest armor available while using marksmanship and sneaking. I will never be hit half the time, and when I do get into combat I barely take any damage. Ebony mail is my favorite daedric artifact.

Consider this.
Reasons to wear heavy armor:
-Looks
-Weightless perk
-Damage reflect perk (superior to dodge perk)
-Higher possible armor rating

Reasons to wear light armor:
-Looks
-Initially lighter than heavy armor, and potentially weightless
-Dodge perk
-Perks work in werewolf form
-Rare Enchantments from the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quests.

I still prefer heavy armor over light, but it's all up to personal preference. I occasionally wear light armor...
...even though it negates some heavy armor perks, but the enchantments are worth it.