Ever since 1.5, with the change to Smithing using the values of items, I've always wondered whether the old rule of Smithing Leather Bracers was really the best way to level. I mean, they do use the least amount of material, but they aren't exactly worth much. So, with some calculations to back me up, I hope to answer this question, if only for myself.
To start, I wanted to find out the minimum amount of material (Raw Leather) needed to smith the different parts of Leather armour, without any excess (no leftover Leather Strips). Here's the numbers:
- For Chestpieces, a minmum of 19 pieces of leather makes 4 pieces of armour.
- For Boots, 5 pieces of leather makes 2 pieces of armour
- For Bracers, 3 pieces of leather also makes 2 pieces of armour
- And for Helmets, 9 pieces of leather makes 4 pieces of armour.
Currently, Bracers still look like the best option because of the fact the only use 3 leather. But that's only small scale, and they numbers don't really mean much by themselves. So the next part, comparison. For this, I needed to find the smallest number that when divided by each of the Raw Materials number
,equals a whole number. I simply did this by multiplying the number of Leather for chestpieces by multiples of 5, and divided that number by the others. The number I arrived at was 855. So from here, the calculations are:
- 855 / 19 = 45
- 855 / 5 = 171
- 855 / 3 = 285
- 855 / 9 = 95
Once again, the bracers still look like the best option. But there is two more calculations to do: adding those numbers to the respected numbers of armour pieces, then adding that number to the values of said pieces. This is what those calculations look like:
- 45 * 4 = 180 * 125 = 22,500
- 171 * 2 = 342 * 25 = 8,550
- 285 * 2 = 570 * 25 = 14,250
- 95 * 4 = 380 * 60 = 22,800
So, the final numbers show that, the item that, in theory, gives you the most experience for Smithing is the Leather Helmet, but only just. The Bracers are the second worst, beaten only by the Boots. So, that's proof that using your head really works! (Cheesy joke to end a boring post
)
