Is it worth using some Smithing Perks on the Heavy side if you are only going to wear Light? Is the improvement in Ebony and Daedric weapons v.s. glass worth using the perk to improve them?

Only if you are a crazy 'I must have the highest damage item" type person. when actually compared I think they come to 10ish points of damage difference.

EDIT: and to be honest, I went light armor all the way to dragon armor, but really only use the armor and weapons I get for factions/quests as I have no problem surviving and killing with them. I just use my smithing to modify items as well as making armor for a companion if I so choose to take one.

I went down the heavy side to craft heavy armor for my companion, with the intention of making Dragonscale armor for myself with Daedric weapons. I used Dark Brotherhood and Nightingale armor for most of the game anyways, so crafting my own until I got Dragonscale was not an issue.

I definitely found more Orc and Dwarf weapons while playing also, and was able to improve them more.

Glass weapons are just ever-so-slightly lower in damage to Dadric. Skyforge Steel/Elven weapons are just abit behind Glass. The old rule that states, "If it's not Dadric it's CRAP!" no longer applies in Skyrim.


There is surprisingly little difference in damage output of the weapons that fall under one of the smithing perks. Weight on the other hand there is a larger difference.

Agreed, if you consider the weight to damage ratio, light weapons are vastly better as they do very comparable damage but are quite a bit lighter.