Once you’ve got ingots, you can buy leather strips from any blacksmith, as well as fletchers, general stores, and random merchants. These are scattered all across Skyrim, but perhaps the most accessible one is outside Warmaiden’s in Whiterun. First you need to check what materials you’ll need for example, an Iron dagger only requires an iron ingot and some leather strips, whereas you’ll need three dragon scales, two dragon bones, and three pairs of leather strips to craft a Dragonplate breastplate.įor ingots, you’ll need to buy them or smelt ore in a Smelter.
So in order to get the best armor in Skyrim, you need to craft it yourself. If you used Greater, Grand, or Black Soul gems and have your Enchanting skill tree maxed out, even an Iron helmet could be worth more than a Daedric breastplate.
Either way, two weapons and a full set of armor, as well as a ring and a necklace, gives you access to a whopping 16 enchantments. Perhaps you’ll have an extra 100 points of carry weight, or maybe your Magicka will regenerate 50% faster. If you’ve spent skill points getting enchanting perks, such as the ones that increase the buffs you’re placing on your weapons, you can reap massive benefits from wearing a full suit of enchanted armor. Once your enchanting hits level 100, you can actually place two enchantments on any piece of armor and weaponry you want, provided it’s currently disenchanted. If you craft daggers in Whiterun and enchant them at the Enchanting Table in Dragonsreach, you can sell them for more than you spent on the materials, which enables you to turn a profit while effectively grinding Smithing and Enchanting. Smithing is quite an easy perk to level up, so reaching level 60 won’t take long at all. Even on the hardest difficulty, wearing these with the right ensemble of buffed bling can make even the most vulnerable mages devastatingly powerful. In fact, the Archmage’s Robes, which you’re awarded after completing the College of Winterhold storyline, are kitted out with fantastic enchantments. However, a lot of mages simply wear robes, which aren’t the most protective clothing in the world, but have some incredible enchantment potential. If you want to run a Battlemage set, perhaps wielding a sword in one hand and ferocious firebolts in the other, you can enchant it for buffs to Magicka regeneration and spell costs. Although combat with swords, axes, warhammers, maces, shields, daggers, and bows is well-suited to standard armor, magic is a different kettle of fish. The one outlier in this situation is mages. However, if you see yourself as the latter, you’ll want to charge into battle wearing the most elephantine hunks of metal you can find. Are you an assassin-type, silently scouring the dimly-lit oubliettes buried far beneath dubious embassies? Or are you the kind of person to leap headfirst into the fray, wielding a walloping warhammer with wicked wisdom? If you tend to lean towards the former, you’ll want light armor, which will make your sneaking more effective and your stamina more manageable.
However, before deciding what the best Skyrim armor is for you, you’ll need to commit to a playstyle.