Light armor vs heavy armor

[Cherry]

The question is, which do you prefer to use, and why?

For me, there's no simple answer. Statistically, I prefer light armor. I level up smithing with pretty much every one of my characters, so light armor does offer sufficient protection while not restricting mobility and stamina usage. Plus, Wind Walker's 50% extra stamina regen is very nice indeed.

Heavy armor, on the other hand, does have a significant advantage going for it: appearance. Most light armor sets in Skyrim just don't look good imo. Either it's the stupid skirts that are everywhere (studded, scaled, etc) or they don't look like they should be called "light" (glass, dragonscale). Heavy armor sets do often look really badass and cool. Even the regular steel set looks very cool imo, and then there's Orcish, Nordic carved, Orcish, Blades armor, Dragonplate...

This is not to say that all light sets look bad. For example, Dragonscale is one of the coolest sets around, and the sets associated with the Thieves Guild (standard tg armor, guild master's, blackguard) look good too. Also, the Bosmer armor set looks amazing as well. I'm glad I have skyrim for on the pc.

So, I'm often faced with a conundrum with a new character. Do I want to look like a badass, or do I want extra stamina regen with a not-so-cool armor set.

What's your opinion?

 

[Mookie]

Stamina is never a problem. Drink a soup and you can swing away power attacks for 10 minutes without ever loosing stamina. I say go badass

 

[Jeremius]

For me it depends on the build. I knight/crusader/warrior? Of course heavy makes sense. light armor works well for the barbarian/assassin/thief builds.

 

[Cherry]

Stamina is never a problem. Drink a soup and you can swing away power attacks for 10 minutes without ever loosing stamina. I say go badass

The problem is, I don't want to be reliant on soup/potions for my stamina.

And of course, just as Jeremius stated, the RP for the character matters a lot, too. If I'm going berserker or thief, then light is the way to go.

 

[Mookie]

Stamina is never a problem. Drink a soup and you can swing away power attacks for 10 minutes without ever loosing stamina. I say go badass

The problem is, I don't want to be reliant on soup/potions for my stamina.

And of course, just as Jeremius stated, the RP for the character matters a lot, too. If I'm going berserker or thief, then light is the way to go.

But you are reliant on soups and potions in RL for stamina arent you
I havent seen anyone who hasnt eaten in 30 days runing around
Secondly its not being reliant. With LA you will run out of Stamina, just a bit slower. With HA+Soup you have infinite stamina for hacking away.

Also, Nordic Berserkers arent that lightly armored, in RL or in the game. The Orcish ones are thought.

But none of that is important, its your game, play as you like. I personaly play the entire game in Studed armor + Iron gautlets, helmet and boots.

 

[ColleenG]

After using heavy armor for the first 5 or 6 characters, I switched to light. I probably won't go back to heavy. With the exception of glass, I think light looks better on females. The dragonscale armor looks like cute little shorts! Azidal's armor is sexy and the Deathbrand armor is great up until you get your dragonscale armor with dual enchantments. And as we all know, it's not how good the armor is, it's how good it LOOKS!!1!1!

Technically, I think either is effective if you take the first 5 armor perks and perhaps enchant the armor with fortify light/heavy. I always use the Steed Stone because of my greedy nature so weight is not a factor.

 

[khazan99]

But none of that is important, its your game, play as you like. I personaly play the entire game in Studed armor + Iron gautlets, helmet and boots.

That's a nice look, yeh. After playing so long in different combinations, hoping to squeeze out every armor point, I also just decided to go with what looks good or interesting for the character. Mixing and matching Light, Heavy or even plain clothing is a lot of fun (and challenging to play, too).

Ex: Belted tunic, plain hood, gloves and Leather Boots for my acher:

 

[Jeremius]

Stamina is never a problem. Drink a soup and you can swing away power attacks for 10 minutes without ever loosing stamina. I say go badass

The problem is, I don't want to be reliant on soup/potions for my stamina.

And of course, just as Jeremius stated, the RP for the character matters a lot, too. If I'm going berserker or thief, then light is the way to go.

But you are reliant on soups and potions in RL for stamina arent you
I havent seen anyone who hasnt eaten in 30 days runing around
Secondly its not being reliant. With LA you will run out of Stamina, just a bit slower. With HA+Soup you have infinite stamina for hacking away.

Also, Nordic Berserkers arent that lightly armored, in RL or in the game. The Orcish ones are thought.

But none of that is important, its your game, play as you like. I personaly play the entire game in Studed armor + Iron gautlets, helmet and boots.

Like I said, BARBARIAN, not BERSERKER. Like the D&D kind of Barbarian.

 

[Derp]

Jagged crown + dragonbone armour looking amazing for a king of dragon hunter look, just wish they had a matching weapon in vanilla.

 

[Aspettami]

I came back to the game after a very long break and decided to create a crossbowman character. While light would make me more agile, I find heavy to be more forgiving, especially considering the long reload time of the crossbow.

 

[Cherry]

Something that just came to my mind: Have you ever tried sneaking in heavy armor? How much would the Muffle spell help in that regard?

 

[Derp]

Something that just came to my mind: Have you ever tried sneaking in heavy armor? How much would the Muffle spell help in that regard?

I honestly believe muffle is broken in all aspects (at least for consoles).

I have tryed every know combination, pre-enchanted muffle boots, player enchanted, no boots.

Also tryed heavy, light, clothes, and no armor with different muffle+sneak perk combos.

Fully maxed out sneak perk, muffle spell exc exc... and everything still detects me when im not sneaking.

 

[Cherry]

Something that just came to my mind: Have you ever tried sneaking in heavy armor? How much would the Muffle spell help in that regard?

I honestly believe muffle is broken in all aspects (at least for consoles).

I have tryed every know combination, pre-enchanted muffle boots, player enchanted, no boots.

Also tryed heavy, light, clothes, and no armor with different muffle+sneak perk combos.

Fully maxed out sneak perk, muffle spell exc exc... and everything still detects me when im not sneaking.

That's strange... I've had a character with maxed out Sneak tree and muffled boots, and I could literally run up to a bandit, dance can-can, run around in circles and jump up and down and he didn't notice me as long as I stayed out of his line of sight.

The thing is, the Muffle effect doesn't stop the enemy from seeing you, just stops them from hearing.

 

[Mookie]

But none of that is important, its your game, play as you like. I personaly play the entire game in Studed armor + Iron gautlets, helmet and boots.

That's a nice look, yeh. After playing so long in different combinations, hoping to squeeze out every armor point, I also just decided to go with what looks good or interesting for the character. Mixing and matching Light, Heavy or even plain clothing is a lot of fun (and challenging to play, too).

Ex: Belted tunic, plain hood, gloves and Leather Boots for my acher:

Exactly. Skyrim is too easy as it is. You can run the entire game in the starting equipment if you are not using mod. I go for the studded+Iron early, Ancient Nord mid and Dragonbone late game if playing a Nord.
With archers I mostly look like Faendal

 

[Cherry]

But none of that is important, its your game, play as you like. I personaly play the entire game in Studed armor + Iron gautlets, helmet and boots.

That's a nice look, yeh. After playing so long in different combinations, hoping to squeeze out every armor point, I also just decided to go with what looks good or interesting for the character. Mixing and matching Light, Heavy or even plain clothing is a lot of fun (and challenging to play, too).

Ex: Belted tunic, plain hood, gloves and Leather Boots for my acher:

Exactly. Skyrim is too easy as it is. You can run the entire game in the starting equipment if you are not using mod. I go for the studded+Iron early, Ancient Nord mid and Dragonbone late game if playing a Nord.
With archers I mostly look like Faendal

I like your philosophy! It's the same I follow, although I do tend to use effective armors like Dragonscale or Nordic carved. Although I don't use them for their stats but for their looks. Honest!

 

[imaginepageant]

Normally, I stick with light armor, for all the reasons already listed.

But in my last couple of playthroughs, I started mixing light and heavy armors—something I've always been somewhat afraid to do, but finally dove into because I'm a veteran player, dammit, and I don't need the security of the Custom Fit perk! Mixing armors is great for the aesthetically-minded player, since it opens up so many different, and awesome, combinations. One of my favorites, for females, is the Thieves Guild Hood, Ancient Nord Armor, and Stormcloak Officer Gloves and Boots. Totally badass.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Honestly it depends on what I'm doing.

I prefer light armor most of the time and on most of my characters (with the exception of elven. I have used Glass but that was on a flamboyant character).

However - on those characters that I'm playing as hero's and Companions, I usually use heavy armor (especially wolf & nordic carved).

I still remember fondly my heavy armor 2 handed imperial from my first playthrough though. The heavy just has so many better looks.

 

[Derp]

Something that just came to my mind: Have you ever tried sneaking in heavy armor? How much would the Muffle spell help in that regard?

I honestly believe muffle is broken in all aspects (at least for consoles).

I have tryed every know combination, pre-enchanted muffle boots, player enchanted, no boots.

Also tryed heavy, light, clothes, and no armor with different muffle+sneak perk combos.

Fully maxed out sneak perk, muffle spell exc exc... and everything still detects me when im not sneaking.

That's strange... I've had a character with maxed out Sneak tree and muffled boots, and I could literally run up to a bandit, dance can-can, run around in circles and jump up and down and he didn't notice me as long as I stayed out of his line of sight.

The thing is, the Muffle effect doesn't stop the enemy from seeing you, just stops them from hearing.

Forgot to mention I tested all these with invisibility and quiet casting.

 

[Cherry]

I honestly believe muffle is broken in all aspects (at least for consoles).

I have tryed every know combination, pre-enchanted muffle boots, player enchanted, no boots.

Also tryed heavy, light, clothes, and no armor with different muffle+sneak perk combos.

Fully maxed out sneak perk, muffle spell exc exc... and everything still detects me when im not sneaking.

That's strange... I've had a character with maxed out Sneak tree and muffled boots, and I could literally run up to a bandit, dance can-can, run around in circles and jump up and down and he didn't notice me as long as I stayed out of his line of sight.

The thing is, the Muffle effect doesn't stop the enemy from seeing you, just stops them from hearing.

Forgot to mention I tested all these with invisibility and quiet casting.

Really? I've used Invisibility + Muffle with maxed out sneak to just run through a dungeon (literally run, no sneaking) and no-one detected me

 

[Derp]

That's strange... I've had a character with maxed out Sneak tree and muffled boots, and I could literally run up to a bandit, dance can-can, run around in circles and jump up and down and he didn't notice me as long as I stayed out of his line of sight.

The thing is, the Muffle effect doesn't stop the enemy from seeing you, just stops them from hearing.

Forgot to mention I tested all these with invisibility and quiet casting.

Really? I've used Invisibility + Muffle with maxed out sneak to just run through a dungeon (literally run, no sneaking) and no-one detected me

Everything detects me and it's gotten to the point I just do nothing but non stealth builds now.