1-What is the aim of Smithing? I mean is it for repair, is it for item modding (not really adding a functional action for it but e.g it is more gold) ?

2-If I cannot repair my weapon anywhere I want how can I use this skill?

How and for what you use smithing?

3-

-We get ores from mines = we can sell them by themselves, no more other usage than smelting

-we smelt ores to ingots =we can sell them and no other usage than making weapons.

-we use ingots to make weapons,armor = ingots to use for other things?

Is the above description true, is there anything you want to add?

1: You do not need to repair weapons and armor anymore. Instead, at smithing stations, you "enhance" them beyond their base (plus skill/perk/whatever) damage or armor rating. Additionally, there are perk requisites for crafting items at a blacksmith's forge; for instance, you cannot craft any material of Steel-tier until you get the entry-level Steel Smithing perk. These perks also greatly boost the degree in which you can enhance items in that perk's material category. When stacked with effect yields from the other two crafting skills (Enchanting and Alchemy), you can potentially buff your Smithing skill to absurd levels and basically make your own Infinity +1 sword out of even Iron weapons if you really wanted.

2: You use it by crafting items at the forge or by enhancing items at the grindstone or armor table. Doing so will increase your Smithing skill. The amount depends on the monetary value of the item crafted; for best grinding, you should make jewelry.

3: Correct. Ores and ingots are crafting materials. Enhancing an item at a workbench or a grindstone will also require one ingot of a primary material that is used in the item's crafting (Steel ingot for steel items, etc). Beyond that, they are technically "http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VendorTrash". Additionally, ores often can be sold to a foreman of a mine that yields that particular ore for a higher value than you'd get from selling to a vendor. The foreman often will say "Here for work? Grab a pickaxe and bring me all the ore you can dig up" or somesuch. Iron mines seem to be the most numerous, but there's usually at least one of any other mineral. They may be a bit out of the way; for instance, the only moonstone mine that comes to mind is Soljund's Sinkhole, in the middle of nowhere in the Reach.

All points in #3 are true, you can do all of those things. You don't have to repair weapons in Skyrim. You can make weapons and armors, and also improve them when build up your smithing skills. Smithing is a very beneficial skill. You can do this at any blacksmith shop in cities and towns, Riverwood and Whiterun's blacksmith shops usually being the first a player comes across. Once you make an item, your skill will start getting better. The first time you play the game and visit a smith, you will get a 'tutorial' from them.

Edit: ninja'd, thanks MadCat.

Additional.......as your level and difficulty setting are raised so baddies get badder ( they don't level like the player, but get replaced with tougher baddies).


This means that eventually some degree of smithing becomes practically essential for any armour wearer or board and bash player


Robe wearers have different skills to warrior types so smithing is not normally an issue for them.

Smithing is the beautiful art of crafting and improving arms and armour

Improve weapons and armour for more protection/damage, make money from jewellery, etc. Want a full set of dragonscale/dragonbone armour? You'll have to make it as the chances of it showing up as loot are incredibly low (I've had one set of dragonbone and one set of scale armour in a couple thousand hours of gameplay)

Smithing is widely known for it's usefulness to completely unbalance the game and it's so broken in practice that will degrade the challenge of almost 90% of the game enemies to nothing. Use it only if you want to breeze through the game without a scratch.

Or if you want to rp as a Smith

If i have to destroy my 80 hours playthrough just to roleplay as a smith, i think i 'll pass the chance and instead i 'll choose a less game breaking profession. I like to feel threaten from the world around me and smithing takes that aspect away a lot sooner than it needs. Not only that but it makes obsolete every Daedric artifact, every armor, every weapon and every loot chest in the game.

I honestly never got how Smithing broke the game, tbh. All three crafting skills at once, sure. But a single crafting skill doesn't hurt at all.

Then again, as a smith I played a pure fighter with no magic skills and only wore looted enchanted jewelry, so *shrug*

I personally don't see smithing as op because I don't use the fortify smithing loop

I remember myself back in the day when topics against smithing was everywhere, i was fiercely defending it as a skill and i had somehow convinced myself that it was an integral skill in the game. One day after a thousands midgame restarts i start searching why i was getting bored after level 15-20 and i was lucky to read a post in gamefaqs from someone who was advising to play without any of the three crafting skills and so i did and of course i never got bored again. Every character i roll goes to the end! Just try a game without using at least smithing and you may understand why it's broken.

That's like 90% of my playthroughs. I've only ever played two smiths in my entire time with the game. Didn't see any noticeable difference other than multiple spellcasters/dragon breath being the bane of my existence.

Though I will be the first to say that crafting (especially the exploitable aspects of it) wasn't handled too well. I think if it weren't for the exploitable bugs, Alchemy would be pretty solid. Enchanting can go die in a fire, and Smithing needs to be tweaked a little.

Both enchanting and smithing giving to much power to the player a lot sooner than it really needs. With smithing in particular i was killing giants and mammoths like i was killing wolves and bandits. Without smithing i have two choices. One to abuse their horrible pathing problems or two to wait until i am 25-30 level and fight them normally. Without smithing, snow bears and snow sabretooth packs are deadly and i always feel absolutely terrified when i am anywhere near their spawn territories. With smithing the world loses the sense of danger from level 15 and without smithing from level 30. Now if you count that you can have a better version of anything the game can give you then there is absolutely no reason for the player to go inside a dungeon.

I agree that smithing combined with enchanting makes any rare weapons and Daedric artifacts useless. When you can craft something ten times better, there's almost no motivation to hunt down those items, except for collector's purposes. But I still enjoy the mechanic, and get a lot of use out of it. Especially in those rare moments when I take a follower along for the ride. I do wish it were more balanced though.

Or... yaknow... you can refrain from abusing it.

What I really like about smithing is that it allows you to choose gear based on looks. If you love the simple hunting bow, you can smith it up as you go and get it to last the entire game. As far as oversmithing and unbalancing the game, that is a choice that the player makes - or not. Gosh I much prefer providing my own limitations and restraints rather than having to conform to the developers (or anyone else's) idea of what is unbalancing. I love game factors that I can control to help provide just the perfect level of challenge for me. Attempting to overly force 'balance' factors into game design necessarily limits flexibility and creative specialized builds where the player chooses and set the limits.

I love having the 'tools' and have zero problem deciding when/if/how much to use them.

Acadian......last statement.........absolutely.


All.....

Smith or not smith and by how much.....is player choice......and very wonderful that it is!


It's easy to complain that smithing overpowers your char......for the way or style YOU play......but what about other people? For example.....I Choose to play on Legendary.......so for me to reach say level 50......very highly smithed gear is essential.


My char could not survive a single hit from a Draugr Deathlord with an ebony Warhammer.....if she was wearing say, unimproved steel.


So what's the logical outcome then if the wish genie obliged those people who would like to see smithing vanish because they don't want to use it? We couldn't play above adept....even that would be hard at the upper levels.


No! I love smithing just as it is......you don't have to use it if your able to play your char without it. In fact I think given the choice, I might like to see degradable gear that's needs repair as well.....as long as it could get though a dungeon crawl sufficiently well. Well that's debatable I guess.


AND if we are talking the other crafts as well.......they are ALL essential for ME


I need an AR of at least 700 by level 40 with an armour skill around 50......or I am DEAD


I mean.....have you seen how much health you lose in a close quarters confrontation with three Deathlords at level 50 on Legendary......it's pretty scary. You can't just stand there sponging it while bashing back in a vicious war of attrition. You have to be very tactical AND have really GOOD armour ( shield and block too).


I could cope with no smithing IF the whole game was rebalanced.......or conversely......cope with a super uber Legendary level if smithing was further enhanced. Oh and no I'm. Not on PC.....so modding it up, down and sideways ain't an option!


Yay for smithing....viva la smithing.......smithioso fabuloso

Thank you.

For me the aim of smithing is to acquire the Daedric weapons and armour and to carry the enhanced enchanted Dwarven Crossbow and the Mehrune's Razor.

Pretty much.

Personally, I found no problem with smithing. It only ever got out of hand when combined with one of the other crafting skills. Having things like Ebony and Daedric readily available to you was offset with how rare the materials necessary are. Well, maybe not Ebony given the one mine...but Daedra Hearts are hard to find. Then there's how slowly the skill seems to level (unless you grind like crazy).

I had a wood elf that used smithing a LOT. This is one area of the game I enjoyed and one of the DLC's let you make the arrows I think. I can't remember. But it was ON when we got that. She'd make beautiful bows and arrows and fur armors. That was her jam and she'd display them and fight with them. She still died. A LOT. So for my game it was icing on a cupcake!

I was about to post the same thing about arrows. The only arrows I ever buy are Daedric, the rest I make myself.

I craft full suits of armor for my followers according to their specialties. Also make them weapons. From finding the ore to finished product, smithing is just fun to me. The other crafting skills... well I'm glad there's trainers.

It depends for me. If I'm just wanting a blow-out god mode game, then I smith and enchant. I don't do alchemy ever, soooo not my thing. And really - with smithing and enchanting, it's far and away enough anyway!

But if I'm doing an RP playthrough, well, I'll smith - but I won't add enchants until late game, and again, I don't do alchemy. It's all dependent on what any given toon is up to really....

I don't mind smithing since it allows you to take low end items and make them legendary. Leaving you with open choice as to how your character looks.


Too bad you can't smith up some daedric artifacts.