Just wondered if anyone knows much about this. I've read the details about how this armor rating cap is supposed to limit damage reduction to 80%, but then I realized 80% is not a consistent amount, but fluctuates depending on how you set the difficulty. Example:

On the Adept difficulty, If a Forsworn archer hits you for 400 damage, and your armor rating is 500, then that represents 80% damage. But lets say you bump up to Master, and the same archer now has double damage, meaning he hits for 800 damage. Would that not mean that your AR cap is now 1000 for that same archer? 800 damage would be 80% of 1000. Or are there intangibles in this formula that I'm not aware of?

567 is the cap which is 80% resistance
500 health with 80% resistance
400 damage taken on adept with AR cap makes you lose 80 health.
800 damage taken on master with AR cap makes you lose 160 health.
200 damage taken on novice with AR cap makes you lose 40 health.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor#Armor_Rating

Armor cap is 567 (with all four main armor slots occupied) and at that point damage reduction is 80%. Armor rating does not directly reduce damage as a solid number, it defines the actual reduction percentage. The difficulty setting serves just another multiplier that comes on top of others.

So, the bottom line is, once I hit that number, the most damage I will ever take, from any enemy, on any difficulty, is 20% of my health. No more getting one-shotted (unless a dragon bites me, I guess).

And the elemental / magic damage is separate from this, correct? Can you ever get 100% protection from, say, fire from a dragon's breath? or is there a cap there as well?

There is an 85% cap on magic resistance.

I also read some comments from people in the Wiki forums who claimed to have tested this armor rating cap using the alchemy/enchanting exploits, and found that it wasn't a cap, but just a case of diminishing returns. They talked about making armor with an AR in the billions, and reducing damage to zero. Is there any truth to this?

No, the most damage you take is 20% of the damage inflicted upon you.

The difficulty serves as primary multiplier. Example: enemy X deals Y amount of damage. This is first multiplied by difficulty factor (novice = x0.5, adept = x1, master = x2, etc.). Then it's multiplied again by the damage reduction defined by the armor rating. The numbers michaelpk gave in message #2 show how that works.

1 billion AR isn't any different from 567.

That's what I assumed from the way the armor cap was described. Once you hit 567, there was absolutely no point in upgrading armor any more, or taking any more perks. Then I came across that forum discussion where people said they tested, and found it wasn't accurate, that they did in fact reduce their damage to zero after hitting unrealistic armor ratings. So, Terra, do I take it from your post that you don't believe this is accurate?

Here's the link to the discussion I mentioned:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Armor

This is what the person said, about halfway down the page:

Walking around with billions of armor myself I can confirm that the cap does not seem to be a hard cap, if a cap exists at all. On my current character I have around 4.4 billion armor and I literally receive no damage whatsoever anymore. Playing on Legendary, so receiving 300% but even then I never even see my health bar pop up (a sign of receiving damage).

Obviously, even if this is true, the AR cap would work, more or less, the way people assume, since an average player isn't going to make armor like that. But I certainly am interested if people have tested, and found the cap to actually work more with diminishing returns, rather than as a hard number.

Ninja'd kinda.

That's some pretty big diminishing returns down you think?

Absolutely. But it does make me want to know more about the scale of the diminishing returns, that's all. On my current playthrough I'm at level 43, playing on Master since level 40, using Steel gauntlets and boots (upgraded to Legendary with perk), Ebony armor (upgraded with no perk), and Otar, (upgraded with no perk). My Heavy Armor skill is at 99. I'm getting very close to the oft-quoted armor cap, so I want to know if there's any point in either getting better armor, or using perks to upgrade what I have a bit further. I like having goals, y'know

The guy is talking out of his bum anyway. A 32-bit program coded too handle a number over 2 billion isn't common.

567 if wearing a full set and 667 if wearing a partial set are the only numbers that matter.

Fair enough, so, my next question.... since I don't need to use any more perks in Heavy Armor or Smithing (as I'm nearing the cap), do you have any suggestions as to where to direct my perks? I won't be able to get any more physical protection, but I've been thinking about continuing on the Restoration route. I'm around 50 in Restoration, but have no perks used in that school. My magic is still unchanged, at 100 though. Or would enchanting be a better choice, since I can just reduce the magicka cost on healing anyway. I'm working toward a good setup for Legendary difficulty. I played on Expert until level 40, then switched to Master. I'm thinking I would make the jump to Legendary around level 50.

Hey - so keep in mind you are taking 20% of the damage per hit. If you have the max AC and walk into a bunch of swinging blade traps, you'll still die 'cause the damage per hit adds up (and possibly quite quickly). Ask me how I know...

Get good at using the blocking/bashing mechanic. Getting good at bashing will allow going through 1v1 boss fights without taking much, if any at all, damage. This has less to do with perks and numbers and more to do with just being good at the game.

Full daedric is the best you can get. Not including rings, jewelry of course. So that should push you to 567.

I do that a lot with my two-handed attacks, which has been my core combat skill from the beginning. I use the third person camera, which I find helps me anticipate when to interrupt a lot better. But I'm mostly trying to find the best protection for when things turn into a mosh pit. For example, at the end of Unearthed, I had the Dragon Priest and 3 or 4 draugr all running around at once, so it was a little tougher trying to concentrate on the big guy when all those others were pecking away at me. But I suppose this example is kind of extreme, since most situations don't require that kind of crowd control. Anyway, thanks for all the tips anyway!

the 80% is actually a soft cap... You can get above that, but with diminishing values...Test 567 armor, then try over 1000armor, and tell me theres nio difference..

I dont use the Restoration glitch, and my highest armor rating was around 1600-1800, and there was CONSIDERABLE difference in dmg taken from when i changed to a set that had below 800 AR...Enough so that i decided immediately after that encounter to go back to my higher set, and was once againa walking tank...This was when i was on my ps3, so no mods, no nothing...Before any of the dlc also i believe...

Sincde then, ive upgraded to the legendary pc edition, and have modded my lil hiney off.. Primarily a sword&board plauyer,im now trying pure mage, and assassins, or barbarians in light, or no armor...Ive had SUCH a difficult time adjusting to the difference in dmg intake without my shield, and with light armor it almost frusterated me to the point of returning to a tank/paladin.. Nevertheless, i stuck it out, and have since had to drop from Master/Legendary difficulty, to Adept/Expert...Maybe i got too used to such high AR, and a shield with the limitless bash/stunlock, that i simply need to relearn to play.. I did iinstall some mods that adjust Ai, so that they dont allow stunlocking, use better attacks, and dont act like walking target dummies... Much better now, though bosses always seem to 1 shot me no matter how much buffing, potions, healing, followerss i have with me...

Edit: One thing ive never understood is damage from archers... Arrows seem to iunflict maximum pain, no matter the AR.. Anyone else experienced this? Once to the point where im able to take several power attacks to the forehead, with a warhammer, arrows still seem to penetrate much harder.. Any varification here?

There is no difference.

This all has to do with your approach to the fight though, there is nothing stopping you from a roleplaying standpoint (I'm a big bad warrior that doesn't use magic) in using a scroll of firestorm or something to decimate weaker opponents so you can focus on the boss.

One trick I've recently started practicing on my sneak character is popping an invisibility pot and dropping huge damage scrolls into large groups of enemies. Immediately after the cast I'll shout for "Become Ethereal" - and line up my kiting on the boss mob with bow stiff arms and staggering attacks.

Is that 667 number accurate? I remember reading that the armor slots are not all calculated equally, so it depends which piece you are missing

Each of the four armor pieces (torso, head, hands, feet) always have hidden armor rating of 25. Thus the cap is 567 with all main slots occupied, 667 with no main slots occupied or between them depending on how many slots are occupied.

Thanks for that. I despise the look of helmets in this game, so that information is useful