In Skyrim, is it better to make a weapon or armour skill legendary if both are at 100

the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim

My light armour is now at level 100 and my two-handed is at 90. I'm tempted to make light armour legendary. Should I wait till two-handed is at 100 and make that legendary or should I make light armour legendary now?

Which choice will make me less vulnerable in attacks? I don't want to make both legendary since I feel I will lose too much power if I do.

For context:

  • My character is currently level 41;
  • I have already made two-handed legendary once, so this would be the second time if I chose that route;
  • Smithing is at 60, enchantment is at 50, I may be able to use these to extra advantage;
  • I use a Dwarven Battleaxe which is smithed to "legendary" quality, which may give an advantage should I choose to make the two-handed skill legendary;
  • I have boots which give me 50% resistance to fire and a Necklace of Frost Abatement, which gives me 60% protection against frost magic;
  • I have the Aetherium Crown which is charged by the Atronach Stone [50% spell absorption].
  • Using my full set of chosen light armour gives me 270 points protection. I am currently under the Lover Stone, but if I switched to the Lord Stone, this would raise it to 320 with the additional spell protections mentioned.
  • My Saviour's Hide armour also gives me an extra 15% protection against magic. My armour is smithed to a mixture of "exquisite" and "flawless" quality.

My current thinking, based on a now deleted comment by user l I, is to make two-handed legendary again, since my armour + enchantments gives me a lot of protection.

Best Answer

Neither are good options*.

Skyrim have scaling enemies and expect you to be at certain level of combat effectiveness. Dropping either of those skills to starting values will be highly detrimental.

To test it out, save before a fight that you don't have any problems with, then reload and make one of the skill legendary. You will find that the fight is now 10 times longer, or you are outright dead in seconds.

*There is a caveat. If your Enchanting, Alchemy, and Smithing are all 100, and you are decked out in max enchanted gear with max boosted Smithing (even without the Restoration infinite Smithing bug), you'll still be invincible with all your skills at base levels.