Benefits of Light Armor vs Heavy ?

[Smelgafeld]

I usually make warrior type characters with heavy armor and sword/shield. But i wanted to try something a little different a while back so i made a dual wielding , bow using ranger type character. For RP reasons i chose to follow the light armor perk tree. But im wondering what the benefit of light armor is? I dont seem to move any faster than my warrior type character.. I guess i do have some extra weight that i can carry ( but theres a heavy perk that negates weight as well as a light one so this is kinda moot)and thats the only benefit i see aside from some of the light armor perks but there are also nice heavy perks too.

 

Is it just an aesthetic/RP difference? I dont do the sneak thing so maybe some benefits come in there?

Edited March 22, 2012 by Smelgafeld

[Anya29]

I'd say aesthetics and carry weight, but then there's a perk that removes the carry weight. With smithing and levelling it's very easy to improve any light armour with perks to get it up beyond the skyrim armour cap of 567. Even easier at lower levels with black sacrament armour as you have 5 pieces of armour, not the usual 4. (Boots, cuirass, gloves, cowl, scarf). Edited March 23, 2012 by Anya29

[RitchieTheMerc]

I guess the only real benefit to HEAVY armor is that it will give you more protection early on in the game, but after you've passed a certain level (like 25ish) if you've ramped up your Light Armor perks enough, your light armor can be just as effective as heavy. So, really the only benefit is that heavy armor is more effective EARLY ON.

[aarons6]

i think the only real difference is light armor has that stam regen perk, and heavy armor has that dont get knocked back perk..

 

other then that its pure looks as both can be bumped up to max.

[Brandy1123]

The weight of heavy armor at the start is still prohibitive. At the cost of carrying capacity, you may squeeze out a few more armor points. I think the small ammount at the beginning is better put towards retrieved treasures then to have it go towards armor. At low levels if you are fighting within your character/player skill range, the armor wont make that big of a difference. The ammount of weight carried vs stamina, to me, makes any heavy armor obsolete. The only armor in the heavy armor class that is worth wearing is the Obsidian mail. Wearing that is only advantageous do to its enchantments.

[Oruboris]

I wish there were real differences in speed and stealth between the two, but I've played both and can't really see a difference. The fact that you can make either weightless at about the same point in the game when money becomes pointless [because you'll be swimming in it] just makes it worse.

 

I'm not a Bethesda basher, I've played and loved all the Elder Scrolls series for years, but this is one aspect of the vanilla game that seems like it would have been an easy fix, and added a lot of realism.

[ProjectVRD]

It makes you wonder what it was like in some of the meetings when they decided what should be in the game... such as that silly armor cap. Why on earth would somebody be told to code in the armor ratings and then tell somebody else to completely make that first coders work obscelete with the capping system? This is why the world needs less managers.

[robanybody2000]

In a long run Heavy Armor is the best choice.

Ex: You can enchant the boots with Muffle or having the Silence perk in Sneak and still have the same Sneak efficiency, you don't take only half fall damage, after conditioning it's weightless (20 levels is not THAT much).

Also, one efficient way of leveling up Heavy Armor is by fighting giants. From a starting level of 15, by training against a giant you can reach a level of over 50+ within 5 mins of getting bludgeoned, provided you don't die.;)

[Mithoron]

I'd love to see a mod changing how Heavy vs Light works. Heavy should always offer more protection at the expense of mobility, whereas Light should be more mobile at the expense of protection. I would think each would affect stamina usage and rengeneration. Not sure on the rest...

 

But in Skyrim, it's purely aesthetics IMO...

[TWarrior]

Check tr3nd0s overhaul. He revamps Light vs heavy