If you equip both light and heavy armor...

[Dubnoman]

If you were to wear, say, light armor on most of your body, but then heavy armor for boots and gauntlets and helmet; a mix and match of the two, would you level up both skills from taking damage? Or does it defer only to the body armor (i.e. - steel armor, leather armor, etc.)? I'd like to know. I wouldn't mind leveling up both if I could.

[vertex23]

Yes, it just takes longer.

[Perraine]

It will level up both armor types, though it seems to be at a slower rate, however you will not get any of the perk benefits from wearing all of one type or the other ...

Also look at the Armored Circlets mod, this allows you to forge AND wear a matching Circlet instead of a helmet for pretty much all material types AND it maintains the matching set bonuses that require a helmet.

[RedRavyn]

Note that your shield doesn't count as part of the requirement for getting the bonus for wearing all the same type of armor. Thus, you can wear all light armor and use a heavy shield, for instance. You'll get the perk bonus for having light armor, or even a "matching set" if all the pieces are of the same sort, AND you'll level up in both Light Armor and Heavy Armor (as long as you have your shield equipped and use it for blocking).

[Dubnoman]

Note that your shield doesn't count as part of the requirement for getting the bonus for wearing all the same type of armor. Thus, you can wear all light armor and use a heavy shield, for instance. You'll get the perk bonus for having light armor, or even a "matching set" if all the pieces are of the same sort, AND you'll level up in both Light Armor and Heavy Armor (as long as you have your shield equipped and use it for blocking).

 

Kudos given to you. That is a great idea. But it might make light armor raise slower. I want to raise my light armor as fast as possible. Still, I'll consider using a heavy shield. Would having light armor for everything except the shield make them both raise slower since both are being raised? Would it give normal gains for the light armor when I take hits (no blocking) and then slower gains with it for successful blocks with a shield?

[vertex23]

Note that your shield doesn't count as part of the requirement for getting the bonus for wearing all the same type of armor. Thus, you can wear all light armor and use a heavy shield, for instance. You'll get the perk bonus for having light armor, or even a "matching set" if all the pieces are of the same sort, AND you'll level up in both Light Armor and Heavy Armor (as long as you have your shield equipped and use it for blocking).

 

Kudos given to you. That is a great idea. But it might make light armor raise slower. I want to raise my light armor as fast as possible. Still, I'll consider using a heavy shield. Would having light armor for everything except the shield make them both raise slower since both are being raised? Would it give normal gains for the light armor when I take hits (no blocking) and then slower gains with it for successful blocks with a shield?

 

The amount of time it takes is dependent on how much of the kind you have on. If you wear full light armour, it will increase at the highest speed, if you wear a heavy shield, it will take a little longer.

Think of it like this, there's 5 pieces of armour, if you switch out one for heavy it will behave as such:

5 = 100% Light, 0% heavy

4 = 80% Light, 20% heavy

3 = 60% Light, 40% heavy

2 = 40% Light, 60% heavy

1 = 20% Light, 80% heavy

0 = 0% Light, 100% heavy

[RedRavyn]

I'm not sure if vertex23's math is applicable to the way that the game actually does this, but he could be right.

 

Let's use the example of wearing a full set of light armor and using a heavy shield to illustrate how I think this probably works. To my knowledge, you gain experience with your armor skill whenever you take damage from a hit. This means if you don't use the shield at all then your Light Armor skill advancement won't be affected, since every hit will be on the armor you're wearing. If you successfully block an attack then that hit will count as advancement in Heavy Armor. If you don't block the attack, then the hit will be on your apparel, and so will affect your Light Armor and not your Heavy armor.

 

In short, I don't think it's quite as simple as veertex23 suggested, since the probability of hitting your worn armor or the shield is not entirely random, but is dependent upon your skill with blocking (not your Block skill, but your actual gaming skills in using the shield to block attacks). However, I suspect that his suggestion regarding the mixing of armor pieces is true. You have armor for head, torso, hands, and feet, though. I doubt the shield counts as a "passive protection", so it shouldn't be included as the fifth piece of armor. At least that's the way I'd have done it had I designed the game. If you don't try to block with the shield then the shield is a non-issue. I could be wrong about that, though.

[QueenHollyAlice]

I know this is an old post, so my apologies to those "necropost" nitpickers, but It's still a relevant topic and I have something current to contribute to those who find this the same way I did (as it was the top suggestion on my search on the subject). There is a mod, right here on Nexus, that will let you wear a full set of BOTH light and heavy armor at the same time. It's a mod that let's you craft Invisible Armor (in both light and heavy, including shields). This armor takes advantage of the slot system for a number of benefits. You can wear invisible armor naked so you can run around nude but still have an armor rating, it can be worn over clothing-class items to give you total freedom of fashion, or it can be worn with other armor. For instance, you could wear full heavy armor and add light invisible armor, or vice verse. The slots were carefully selected, it seems, so they don't take up the base armor slots but still count toward all relevant stats and perks (including Matching Set, etc.) This post help me understand how the system worked and, hopefully, my contribution will help others to manipulate said system to their advantage.