Armors are bad in skyrim

[Akon2009]

Ok so here is the thing.

 

No NPC wears rare armor, I have met only two NPC:s that wear Steel Plate armor and everyone else wears cheap and common armor like iron and steel (not steel plate!).

 

The randomness of the rare armor spawn totally bugs me. I go through dousins of dungeons fight through hordes of enemies on a legitimately made character and defeat bosses that are near invincible and it gives me some mage cloaks and nord weapons at most. While some random chest in a place I cannot remember gives me an ebony chest. :dry: In my opinion you should be able to find some Epic armor through dungeoning without forcing the players to learn smithing.

 

The lack of unique armors bugs me as well. The only people that get those are a handful of faction leaders and even then they are not always combat fitted and even if they are they are usually worse than regular, forge-able clothes.

For example, Wolf armor, worn by Kodlak and Skjor is unique and it symbolizes the companions. But it has low DT and is sold by the smith. In my opinion the Ebony armor should be worn by Jarls and Orc chieftans should wear Orcish armor. Some of the thalmor should be wearing Glass armor.

 

To me it seems that the game is made to force a player to level such skills as alchemy, enchantment and smithing in order to access the high tier equipment, such as glass, ebony, dragon and daedric.

But there is no point to it! on any level beneath Master I can walk through the game with whatever I can find. You would think that Master difficulty is made to be played with high tier armors but the mobs still kill you within 5 hits (havent checked with daedric or dragon armor).

All you can do on Master difficulty is either play ranged or sneaky - which removes the point of using heavy armor! The game simply becomes less "wow I died to Centipede demon again, should probably study his attack pattern better this time!" and more "I need to glitch this AI so it doesn't hit me and I have an actual chance".

Mind you it would be a fair trade if you would have to max out alchemy, enchantment and smithing for melee character on Master difficulty, it takes hours of to level them up and a lot of money.

 

SO, The only armor used by NPC:s is iron and steel, with dwarven at highest. The good armors are not accessible in game through looting, only through random spawns at merchants and chests. They are not that efficient on higher difficulties.....are they only there for the aesthetics only? Then why not use them to strengthen the impression of important NPC:s?

 

 

I have 70 hours gameplay. It is not too much in a game published by Bethesda but plenty to get an opinion of such... faults.

 

My question is: how did you get your armor?

[JanusForbeare]

The way I see it, what you have is the option to wear whatever option you find most cosmetically pleasing or RP appropriate. The base armour values may vary, but by improving your armour's quality, you can play through the game in leather, if that's what you want. Personally, I like this aspect of the smithing system, as I'm one of those TES gamers that doesn't like to be dressed head to toe in glittering golden plate mail and lord of every guild in the province. I'd much rather be Joe Smith.

 

That being said, I do feel that the more ornate armours (like Stormcloak officer's armour or General Tullius' armour) should be accessible to players who complete the appropriate questlines.

[FordPerfect]

Apparently armor class is effectively capped at 480 or sumthink. After that it changes nothing. So having epic daedric armour is really not necessary as far as protection goes. With the correct armor perks in light or heavy you can be fully protected in the common armours.

 

Anywho.. I've found a complete set of Dwarven armour with my mage (I gave it to Lydia cuz.. I'm a mage :P ), but she's just level 15. I find steel plate on bandit bosses pretty regularly. The wandering jerks (ones that tell you to go cry home to your mama) have ebony armour sometimes at higher levels, and I've gotten glass armour from bandits too. Mostly though I smith my own stuff really early on. My Dunmer Witchhunter forged his own glass armour around level 5. My Orc forged her Orcish armour and weapons around level 3 (and never changed them. She's level 50+ now). Both were for roleplay reasons - Glass armour is a Morrowind thing, Orc women are born with smith hammers in their hands..

 

I would like to see a smith mod that lets you pay to have equipment forged/upgraded at a smithy though. With differently skilled smiths to boot (no forging Ebony armour in Riverdale).

Edited January 7, 2012 by FordPerfect

[PR4Y]

I'd like to point out the fact that you are simply wrong with a few things...

 

 

1. I fought a Draugr Deathlord last night that was equipped with an Ebony Shield (I'm level 45)

2. Dragons drop level'd gear... so if your a high enough level, expect to see equivalent loot.

3. Only access to good gear is from smithing? Wrong. I have a level 42 alt account that has never done any crafting skills and I play just fine on Masters using looted equipment.

 

 

 

You claim you have 70hours on your character, which is fine.... but don't claim that Bethesda is at fault for something when clearly you've just either had bad luck or are doing something wrong.

 

 

 

I WILL, however, admit that there needs to be MORE mobs with levelled gear. The few times I've run into mobs like this, they were usually Bandit Chiefs, Draugr Deathlords, or the like (highest tier of given enemy). It's funny, playing on Master difficulty at level 50+ and STILL getting attacked 80% of the time by people with iron weapons and hide armor. Defeats the purpose of difficulty levels IMO.

 

 

When the CK is out, perhaps I'll work on a mod that adds more realistic level scaling... where instead of just scaling stats, equipment possibilities are given as well.

 

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Apparently armor class is effectively capped at 480 or sumthink. After that it changes nothing. So having epic daedric armour is really not necessary as far as protection goes. With the correct armor perks in light or heavy you can be fully protected in the common armours.

 

MAX armor rating is around 580.

Edited January 7, 2012 by PR4Y

[Akon2009]

I'd like to point out the fact that you are simply wrong with a few things...

 

 

1. I fought a Draugr Deathlord last night that was equipped with an Ebony Shield (I'm level 45)

2. Dragons drop level'd gear... so if your a high enough level, expect to see equivalent loot.

3. Only access to good gear is from smithing? Wrong. I have a level 42 alt account that has never done any crafting skills and I play just fine on Masters using looted equipment.

 

 

 

You claim you have 70hours on your character, which is fine.... but don't claim that Bethesda is at fault for something when clearly you've just either had bad luck or are doing something wrong.

 

 

 

I WILL, however, admit that there needs to be MORE mobs with levelled gear. The few times I've run into mobs like this, they were usually Bandit Chiefs, Draugr Deathlords, or the like (highest tier of given enemy). It's funny, playing on Master difficulty at level 50+ and STILL getting attacked 80% of the time by people with iron weapons and hide armor. Defeats the purpose of difficulty levels IMO.

 

 

When the CK is out, perhaps I'll work on a mod that adds more realistic level scaling... where instead of just scaling stats, equipment possibilities are given as well.

 

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Apparently armor class is effectively capped at 480 or sumthink. After that it changes nothing. So having epic daedric armour is really not necessary as far as protection goes. With the correct armor perks in light or heavy you can be fully protected in the common armours.

 

MAX armor rating is around 580.

 

 

I was actually hoping that the gaming community would point out to me what I exactly I did wrong. I am not a hard core TES fan but a FO fan. But I loved the game and I wanted the beautiful armors but leveling smithing was a pain and I even went as far as adding perks through console commands.

 

As of right now my character is level 35. 70 hours played on adept. I have finished main quest, Stormcloak vs Imperial questline in Imperial favor and Companions and College guild quests. I want pretty armors but they do not appear. And what is the talk about Max armor rating? 580 sounds insane, I've never gotten even halfway to that!

 

Someone please HELP ME

[surg23]

Without smithing, the best armors you are going to see are Glass and Ebony, which should start dropping from mobs around lvl 40, though it could take some time/luck to acquire a full set that way. Yes the armor cap is 576 from memory, which is 80% physical damage reduction.

 

I'de suggest starting a new game on master difficulty, not doing the main quests until level 40+ and perhaps level smithing.

[Cyrotek]

I found heavy dragonbone around level 45, so it can drop (but incredible rare, ~150 hours and just one drop). The only think ive never seen droping is deadric stuff.

[Lachdonin]

Some of this gear, such as Ebony and Glass are both rare and expencive. Trade in Ebony was, for centuries, restricted solely to the East Empire company, and a full suit of Ebony Armour was worth a good sized town. Glass is supposed to require months of alchemical tempering before you can work it without it shattering. Then the construction of Daedric armour is supposed to involve a complex ritual where you bind a living Daedra to the Ebony as your forge it. Well, or you can go to Oblivion and try to take it off a Dremora...

 

Personally, it always pissed me off in Oblivion when when i'd run into bandits who are wearing gear worth more than Whiterun's quarter-century tax income. Even Steel Plate is a complex and expencive armour, and i feel its more than appropriate that the instances of it are rare.

 

The forging system has its own issues... I'd much rather time lapses when forging. A dagger should take an hour or so, and a full suit of Ebony armour should put you out for at least a week. Regardless, actually having to gather the materials and forge these rare and potent armours is much more realistic than finding some random bandit in full Daedric with a glass battleaxe.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Lachdonin

[Sheralynn]

I found heavy dragonbone around level 45, so it can drop (but incredible rare, ~150 hours and just one drop). The only think ive never seen droping is deadric stuff.

 

I found a daedric armor with alteration enchantment. As well as a dragonplate shield with magic resist.

 

In a previous playthrough I found an unenchanted dragenscale armor.

 

Daedric and dragon apparel is very rare though. Daedric weapons are more common at higher levels. Especially daggers and 1h swords.

 

I'm now lvl 40 and glass and ebony is plenty available. I keep the enchanted pieces and got all kinds in my chest already. Enchanted boots and gauntlets seem to be more common then helmets and armors. Unenchanted items are found everywhere and stores sell them too.

 

The other day I got attacked by a random breton wearing a full ebony armor set.

[Feanoro]

As far as glass armor goes, the Thalmor DO wear it. There's a sidequest you get where you can choose to wipe out the Thalmor prison of Northwatch Keep (or whatever it's called) and you'll find at least a few people in glass armor there ( not to mention TONS of elven ). It's why that's one of my favorite dungeons in the game.

 

Also if you're over level 40 I think you'll find that the Draugr Deathlords throw away their Ancient Nord gear and come at you with ebony waraxe + shield, greatsword, sword, battleaxe and ebony bow+arrows.

 

At even higher level (I think 46+, that seems to be the level at which you get the best version of everything including all leveled items), you'll start getting drops in the rare armor categories. On my first character I used heavy armor and got dragonplate drops, on my current character that only uses light armor and has 17 heavy armor skill I got (without me being able to make them myself at the time) a dragonscale helmet, shield and boots and a daedric waraxe. I also got tons of ebony gear in all shapes and sizes including enchanted armor pieces/weapons (currently using an ebony bow of blizzards I found in some chest and that daedric waraxe that I enchanted myself with soul trap).