I feel like I'm loosing my mind. Here goes, from the top.
After my most recent visit to the vendors of Whiterun, I noticed that accidentally sold my followers ebony war ax. His was easily distinguishable by the damage rating, guess I wasn't paying attention. I use him as a pack mule and I must've grabbed the wrong one & payed no mind as I sold it. No worries, I figured the easiest solution was to just make another one. Hadn't even gotten around to enchanting it so it wasn't that big of a deal.
I use potions of fortify smithing *only* on items I intend to use and keep for myself or my followers. I really don't care to make potions & go through the hassle of using them for the tons of stuff I sell. So, I grab all my enchanted stuff (ring, necklace, gloves & blacksmith apron), some ebony, leather strips and ore to craft & improve his new war ax. I also grab a potion of fortify blacksmith.
Following are the relevant numbers. My four enchanted items each have 21% improvement to smithing. My potion adds an additional 86%. I know I could get higher numbers by selecting additional perks. I put a lot of thought into this and stopped investing such when I was able to improve leather/iron to legendary. I don't want to overpower myself and I find my tools & potions are adequate. The war ax I erroneously sold had a damage rating of 85. The identical item, prepped for sale (improved using only gear, not potions) has a damage rating of 62.
Despite donning all relevant gear and consuming the potion - the improved item that I intended to replace the one I erroneously sold had a damage rating of 62. Yes, I checked SEVERAL times that all the stuff was equipped and I was chugging the right stuff. It doesn't make *any* sense because items I have for sale, made using the same gear & without potions, in the ACTIVE GAME FILE have the same damage rating. I have 2 ebony war axes for sale in my stash with the damage rating of 62. Frustratingly enough, the same ax I can make now without potions has a damage rating of like 43. I know that I didn't use potions to create the ones in my sale stash & I know Marcurio had one with 85.
I have been contemplating this and making sure all the ducks are in a row for over an hour, and trying to figure out what the problem is. I loaded a previous saves for a variety of reasons. I confirmed Marcurio's ax stats at several points and even found where it went from 62 to 85 (sort of, I tend to use the same slot for a while).
Now, here is where I get even more frustrated. I was racking my mind for things that could impact smithing. I researched potions, there are no retail potions that are more powerful than the ones I make so there's no chance I used one and got that effect. While my enchanting gear is about half of what "peerless" is, I don't think (though it's possible) that I used such a piece of gear. If I did, then I sold it because I don't have it any more. The list of things I don't sell is fairly long, and on that list is enchanted stuff I didn't make. I just keep it, don't know why
. If there was a more powerful item that I stumbled upon, I would have likely kept & used it - rather than just sticking to my set. I don't have any stronger items enchanted for smithing. I recalled the quest that gives "ancient knowledge" and did some research on that. I know I had it at some point but it's not showing in my active powers, nor is the quest in my log. I swear, I had both the power and the quest in my log after level 55 (I'm level 60 now) - but now it doesn't appear to show up anywhere.
Here are my questions, if you care to contemplate them with me:
1) Anyone else have any record or experience of loosing skill/ability?
2) Anyone know anything about quests/powers falling off?
3) I think I read that the Ancient Knowledge power, though the verbiage says 15% learning bonus, it's more of a skill bonus - so it may coincide with my lack of skills lately if it did fall off. Can someone confirm this (exactly what Ancient Knowledge does/is at it pertains to smithing)? I may try to go and find/complete that quest again, to see if that helps.
4) I have dawnguard, hearthfire & dragonborn - in case that matters
5) I have rarely seen an item glitch and not serve it's purpose. I've had deer hides that couldn't be turned to leather. Just sold them, no worries. Is there a chance that one of my enchanted items glitched? Stopped working, effectively died? Anyone experience this? I noted that "fortify smithing" was stated twice at one point citing the ring - but there was no mention of the necklace. Never really payed that much attention to it. Closing it out, re-equipping & checking again showed all items in effect but still the same crappy skill level. I also hope to re-enchant a full set to see if that helps.
6) Anything I may be overlooking?
After my most recent visit to the vendors of Whiterun, I noticed that accidentally sold my followers ebony war ax. His was easily distinguishable by the damage rating, guess I wasn't paying attention. I use him as a pack mule and I must've grabbed the wrong one & payed no mind as I sold it. No worries, I figured the easiest solution was to just make another one. Hadn't even gotten around to enchanting it so it wasn't that big of a deal.
I use potions of fortify smithing *only* on items I intend to use and keep for myself or my followers. I really don't care to make potions & go through the hassle of using them for the tons of stuff I sell. So, I grab all my enchanted stuff (ring, necklace, gloves & blacksmith apron), some ebony, leather strips and ore to craft & improve his new war ax. I also grab a potion of fortify blacksmith.
Following are the relevant numbers. My four enchanted items each have 21% improvement to smithing. My potion adds an additional 86%. I know I could get higher numbers by selecting additional perks. I put a lot of thought into this and stopped investing such when I was able to improve leather/iron to legendary. I don't want to overpower myself and I find my tools & potions are adequate. The war ax I erroneously sold had a damage rating of 85. The identical item, prepped for sale (improved using only gear, not potions) has a damage rating of 62.
Despite donning all relevant gear and consuming the potion - the improved item that I intended to replace the one I erroneously sold had a damage rating of 62. Yes, I checked SEVERAL times that all the stuff was equipped and I was chugging the right stuff. It doesn't make *any* sense because items I have for sale, made using the same gear & without potions, in the ACTIVE GAME FILE have the same damage rating. I have 2 ebony war axes for sale in my stash with the damage rating of 62. Frustratingly enough, the same ax I can make now without potions has a damage rating of like 43. I know that I didn't use potions to create the ones in my sale stash & I know Marcurio had one with 85.
I have been contemplating this and making sure all the ducks are in a row for over an hour, and trying to figure out what the problem is. I loaded a previous saves for a variety of reasons. I confirmed Marcurio's ax stats at several points and even found where it went from 62 to 85 (sort of, I tend to use the same slot for a while).
Now, here is where I get even more frustrated. I was racking my mind for things that could impact smithing. I researched potions, there are no retail potions that are more powerful than the ones I make so there's no chance I used one and got that effect. While my enchanting gear is about half of what "peerless" is, I don't think (though it's possible) that I used such a piece of gear. If I did, then I sold it because I don't have it any more. The list of things I don't sell is fairly long, and on that list is enchanted stuff I didn't make. I just keep it, don't know why
. If there was a more powerful item that I stumbled upon, I would have likely kept & used it - rather than just sticking to my set. I don't have any stronger items enchanted for smithing. I recalled the quest that gives "ancient knowledge" and did some research on that. I know I had it at some point but it's not showing in my active powers, nor is the quest in my log. I swear, I had both the power and the quest in my log after level 55 (I'm level 60 now) - but now it doesn't appear to show up anywhere.Here are my questions, if you care to contemplate them with me:
1) Anyone else have any record or experience of loosing skill/ability?
2) Anyone know anything about quests/powers falling off?
3) I think I read that the Ancient Knowledge power, though the verbiage says 15% learning bonus, it's more of a skill bonus - so it may coincide with my lack of skills lately if it did fall off. Can someone confirm this (exactly what Ancient Knowledge does/is at it pertains to smithing)? I may try to go and find/complete that quest again, to see if that helps.
4) I have dawnguard, hearthfire & dragonborn - in case that matters
5) I have rarely seen an item glitch and not serve it's purpose. I've had deer hides that couldn't be turned to leather. Just sold them, no worries. Is there a chance that one of my enchanted items glitched? Stopped working, effectively died? Anyone experience this? I noted that "fortify smithing" was stated twice at one point citing the ring - but there was no mention of the necklace. Never really payed that much attention to it. Closing it out, re-equipping & checking again showed all items in effect but still the same crappy skill level. I also hope to re-enchant a full set to see if that helps.
6) Anything I may be overlooking?
