Reasons to level Smithing in Skyrim

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Beran

Official Writing Team
Reasons to level smithing in Skyrim

Note: I will strictly not mention power-levelling in this article, as it irritates me no end how people can make a gazillion Iron Daggers, get to level 100 smithing and then complain that the game was too easy.

Hello again, guys. In contrast to my last article, I will be focusing on a specific aspect of Skyrim. Today I will be covering smithing, and why it’s vital for you to progress on this skill early in the game.

Smithing is one of the most important aspects of Skyrim whether you are a Mage, Warrior, Thief or any other class of character. The most prominent reason to level smithing is so that you can make your own weapons and armour, rather than depending on the less reliable merchants and blacksmiths dotted around Skyrim’s many hamlets, towns and cities. Once you are able to craft your own arms, you save lots of money from buying the pieces straight off, as you can find all of the items needed to make it dotted around Skyrim, from ores to hides, pelts and leather. Anyway, doesn’t it feel better when you’ve made your own armour?

Obviously, the ability to make your own kit also allows you to sell it on, which brings me to my next reason to level smithing: you can always make a profit, and this, coupled with the fact that you can enchant your armour, means that an endless supply of money awaits you, if you can prioritise this above other skills. Merchants will often buy your items from you for a reasonable amount and if you level speech, these prices can be further improved. This means that if you can ramble around Skyrim in search of resources, you are bound to become rich early in the game.

As I mentioned briefly before, enchanting can help a great deal in securing good prices for your wares, allowing even more money to be spent on smithing. For example, a Daedric Helmet may sell for around 1600 septims, but if you add an enchantment such as fortify magicka to it, it can rise to much higher, possibly over 2000 septims, depending on the soul gem you used. This presents you with much more money to spend very simply and relatively easily.

One of the greatest privileges of having a high smithing level is the ability to quickly change your play-style. For example, if you focus on heavy armour early on in the game and you want to vary a little, and use light armour, you can use your smithing level to make the change as fluid as possible, already having full light armour made from various things from your travels.

A major disadvantage that focusing on smithing can put you at, however, is that as your smithing level gains, so too does your player level, causing enemies to level ahead of you. This means that you have not paid as much attention to more combat oriented skills, you are at a major disadvantage against the powerful foes that you may find yourself up against.

Finally, because your smithing level directly impacts your ability to improve the essentials of your journey through Nirn, obviously you should be levelling it. Improving weapons on a grindstone and armour on a workbench leads to even better kit, meaning your items are better than they were when you made them. All this improvement needs is a piece of scrap material, yes, just a piece, and this can really affect the statistics of your arms.

So I hope I’ve convinced you (if you weren’t already) to focus on smithing as it yields greater bonuses than any other skill. Please rate and comment on my article, as this helps me to improve the quality of what I write, and inspires me to continue.
 

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Oren74

Active Member
I've found that even levelling smithing naturally...results in crafted weapons and armor that make the game way too easy.

I've had the most fun with Skyrim playing a Paladin type character that doesn't craft at all.
 

Shew

Account closed (at sincere request).
I play skyrim as I feel I would if i was there and tutoring under a smith would be one of the first things I would do.
 

Beran

Official Writing Team
I don't know, as a Mage I've forged more than my fair share of armour, most of which was sold on, but some I kept for my followers. Mages can forge armour, but, as you said, in the RPG realism, they might not.
 

Gemini Sierra

Pre-emptive Salvage Specialist
I have to disagree with the comment that smitthing is the most important skill. In my play through I have only done enough smithing to get two perks. the first one, Steel Smithing and then Arcane Blacksmith. I have found that I can usually find armor that I like and with better enchantments than I can usually make. The reason I take those two perks is so that I can upgrade the items I found.
I have actually never found a reason to make my own armor because I usually find what I need.

A major disadvantage that focusing on smithing can put you at, however, is that as your smithing level gains, so too does your player level, causing enemies to level ahead of you.

This too is another reason I don't power level any skill. I level my skills naturally.

As for your reasons to make armor to sell armor in order to make money, well I disagree there too. Why, because I found I can make more money exploring and selling the stuff I find. There is no need to spend the time making armor and enchanting it when I can be exploring and find just as much and seeing the world in the game.
 

Panthera

Don Gato
As for your reasons to make armor to sell armor in order to make money, well I disagree there too. Why, because I found I can make more money exploring and selling the stuff I find. There is no need to spend the time making armor and enchanting it when I can be exploring and find just as much and seeing the world in the game.

True, but I wonder how would you do that if the carrying capabilities wouldn't limit on weight but rather on size of the item. The game as it's now it's like in reality robbing a store and getting out of it with 2 bags full of stuff and trying to fight cops at the same time. Just thinking that I have in my inventory about 20 different potions and each of them x10 it's hilarious...
 

Gemini Sierra

Pre-emptive Salvage Specialist
Aye, and I can see your point. However, my point was that you don't necessarily have to smith all day and level it and perk it out to get good armor. As was mentioned, if you do this you end up leveling your character up before leveling up skills that help in the fight and end up fighting enemies that have been leveled you your level with you not having any skills. It would be like a knight of old saying to his new squire from the smithy, "here blacksmith, put this nice shiny new armor on and go do battle."
 

Pete

Well-Known Member
Very well written article.

I maxed out my smithing to 100 - then discovered that I could produce such high quality leather armor & steel weapons, that I stuck with these. They so fit the character I was playing. Nords don't use glass, etc...

To stick with the role-playing I enchanted blacksmith clothes with a smith perk and always wore them at the forge. After all, who smiths while wearing armor!

Thanks again!
 
I think there are in fact some important reasons not to level smithing or any of the other crafts early on:
  1. To really benefit early on, you need to get the skill high enough to make something genuinely better than what you can as well find or buy. By doing this you end up gaining quite a few levels and making your enemies stronger relative to your fighting skills. You may like the looks of your shiny new armor but the actual benefit is less than what you perceive.
  2. You not only gain levels but must also spend the perks in the smithing tree.
  3. The main benefit of the crafts is much rather to be had endgame, where they may enable you to make a set of gear better than anything you can make. With enough skill and perks you can also profit easily. Therefore it makes more sense to leave it until you've fully developed your main skills (likely somewhere in the lvl 30-50 range).
  4. Profit is somewhat pointless! There's a lack of things to buy in Skyrim (imo) and also due to the shortage of vendor gold you end up either carrying all your valuable goods around looking for vendors or even investing some of your dear perks in the speech tree just to be able to sell more stuff for pointless gold.
  5. Now if you also find yourself playing more than one character wanting to try a different playstyle, you're likely to find the crafts more of a chore than a source of fun. Investing 10-20 perks in the three crafts also makes your chars too much the same, so the point of trying something different is watered down. On my second character I gathered lots of ingredients for alchemy but have ended up just stockpiling them at home for later because the thought of stopping to make pots was too boring. On my third character I decided to skip alchemy altogether... and must say I'm having a lot more fun with the game that way.
 

Doomy

Member
I have just done a run through with my own limitations.
1 never buy materials. Hunt for your leather, mine your own ore, or steal it.
2 never make armour or weapons unless I intend on using them

There were plenty of bandit armour to upgrade and sell at lower levels that got me up to Elven, then the limit on resources slowed my progress. I got to glass soon enough, but not much further.

It worked realy well for me. Gave me money, decent kit without going ott, and was fun to go hunting bears and mines every now and then.
 

jasqid

New Member
Is there any advantages to smithing the dragon armour? I havent found a use for all the bones and scales yet.
 

Dauthmer

New Member
My newest account (I role play on this one) is a dunmer/vampire.

So far, I haven't found the need for smithing or enchanting. I use alchemy once in a while to make poisons (I'm a nightblade/ dark assassin type character) but thats about it.

I've found smithing useless until you reach the lvl 50-55 boundary where you max out your main skills so the only way to gain in firepower is through improving your gear. That is, you could also stay at the same level too
 

Swordsmansmith

Active Member
I've power leveled smithing on every character to get to the best weapons. Plus you have to get to 60 smithing in order to upgrade items already enchanted.
 

Aryan Gb Kumar

New Member
Mages don't forge weapons and armor. Enough said. After all this is a RPG.

In skyrim, you can upgrade your skill by just doing what you want.This makes it a unique RPG different from others.
Thus, Mages can also forge as long as they like
 

Soar Tueth

Member
Is there any advantages to smithing the dragon armour? I havent found a use for all the bones and scales yet.
Yes, at Smithing level 100 you can create the finest armor in all Tamriel. Scales give you light armor and bones make heavy Dragon Plate armor. Scales also improve heavy armor. I've created many versions of these as I learned to enchant them, too.
 

Soar Tueth

Member
I enchanted a ring, a necklace and gauntlets to fortify smithing 20% so that I can improve weapons and armor to their fullest. My @@Dragonscale armor rates 898 without shield. Each have double charms to resist fire & frost, boots muffled and carry 37+ extra weight, helm reduces destruction 20%, restores majica 50%, plus I have special-purpose rings and necklaces to boost attributes (like smithing!) that cost very little to carry. Betimes, I can find a Fortify Smithing elixir.

Happy Hammering!
 

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