For heavy armor characters, you obviously want to take the right-side path, as most of that is heavy armor.

For light armor characters, you'd THINK the left path would be a better choice... but actually the right-side path is still better.

If you go up the left, you'll gimp yourself on damage because the highest tier weapons are only on the right (daedric + ebony). You will not be able to upgrade daedric or ebony weapons through smithing very effectively due to lacking the respective perks (in fact, if you go left, the best weapons you'll have after using the grindstone are going to be glass weapons).

On the other hand, if you go up the right, you'll be able to have the best light armor in the game (you can make dragon armor with just 1 extra perk), AS WELL as being able to make and improve twice as much the best weapons in the game.

Would have made much more sense if you could go to daedric from dragon armor (going from the left) but you can't.

TL;DR: right-hand smithing path is better than left-hand path for everything even for light armor players.

Can you go up the left and around the top and down the right?

May be true, but one or two points of damage pales in comparison to 30X sneak attacks, so I can waste a couple of points!

Otherwise.... yeah, I agree it does seem a little unbalanced. Oh well! Games still fun

No, you can't.

And actually, OP, there is very little appreciable difference between Glass weaponry and Daedric weaponry. 2 points of damage total. With 'Legendary' level, that maxes out at 4 points. So you're doing slightly less damage, and unlocking Glass Armor, which is very, very good armor.

But dragon armor is still better than glass.

And it's not just 2 points of damage -- you need to factor in the scaling from improving the items with the grindstone. I did a test with my character, and my daedric 2h weapon does 20 more damage than my glass weapon (have perks for both using console to test), this is with very little +smithing equipped too. I guess you do have a point though... if someone just wants dragon armor he can 'save' a perk but be limited to glass as the best end-game weapon (glass weapon with perk > daedric weapon without perk in damage).

Considering light armor is 1000X better than heavy armor in this game it's an even trade. The armor reduction is the last thing warrior types will need to worry about after getting legendary dragon armor made and getting relevant armor perks.

You clearly should have been able to go around wholly in the tree though.

The difference is much greater with archery.

Base damages:

Glass bow = 15
Daedric bow = 19

Glass arrow = 18
Daedric arrow = 24

And, of course, as Genome mentioned, this difference gets multiplied with perks + enchanting + alchemy.

The real question is whether it's worth sacrificing some short term pain (having less good armour) while maximising long term benefits (best light armour and bows + weapons; without wasting perks on stuff you won't use in the endgame).

Heavy armor is better than light armor.

Actually, thinking about it some more... it may not be as lopsided as I thought.

Left path to dragon armor takes 1 less perk than right path... but the tradeoff is that you'll be limited to glass weapons as your end-game weapons (with the glass smith perk, improved glass weapon > improved daedric weapon in damage since you upgrade it twice as much). So it comes down to whether or not you want an extra perk, or if you want to be able to do more damage & use the higher tier weapons.

I guess if your character does light armor either path works well. If you go heavy the right path is the only option. Good enough.

This.

Light armour is good for people who need lots of stamina, like archers and thieves, but heavy armour is superior in every other way. I use heavy and went left, and do not regret it at all.

In light armor and I barley get scratched on high difficulties. Dragons can't really hit you in melee if you are smart, and shield bash is f'n OP and the stam regen makes light armor the best build for shield bash spam. Ever have a dragon breath fire on you after taking him down? Not if you use a shield lol. 1h weapon damage with sprint+power attack is retardedly powerful, meaning more stam the better.

Getting hit by melee just shouldn't happen in later levels. Armor rating becomes irrelevant after having 400 or so just so you won't get 3 shot, easily achievable with light armor. Best part is you don't even have to perk up block!

Once you reach the dragon armor perk, you can always go right of it to access daedric gear for the weapons.

Going left serves you well for the entire game, because you get access to light armor and their respective weapons.

Going right will only benefit you near the end for the daedric weapons, but that means you cannot make any armor for yourself.

Going left is still the best for light armor people.

? I thought you needed the ebony smithing perk to get the daedric smithing perk.

I have yet to do anything serious with smithing. But based upon my understanding of how it works, if I had a stamina-intensive build I'd go for glass armor and weapons, and regardless of which side I went with I would not take dragon smithing.

Anyway, one simple fix might be a mod that gives one lower level on the opposite side of the tree whenever you take a smithing perk - ebony smithing when you take glass dragon smithing, orcish smithing when you take glass smithing, and dwarven smithing when you take advanced smithing, if you take the light armor path. And for symmetry elven when you take orcish, advanced when you take ebony, glass when you take daedric.

hey guys, is the dragon armor light or heavy?

Both. There is light dragon armor (scale) and heavy dragon armor (bone).

Sorry my bad. Yes that's true.

thanks

too bad no dragon weaons what were they thinking..... terrible