I prefer light gear because with very few perks you have very little weight and you are still at the armor cap. But now that I'm planning out a new character I'm wondering how many light armour perks I need.
What I have found so far about getting the best smithing is this:
- Obviously you need 100 smithing and the create/improve dragon perk.
- You can get a 15 smithing skill bonus from the quest Unfathomable Depths (huge!)
- By making Improve Alchemy enchants and Improve Enchanting potions a few times you can create +28% smithing bonus on gear (is this the max?). By putting that on gloves, ring and necklace you can get 3*28 = +84% smithing. By using the bug that you can stack a Falmer Helmet and a Circlet you can add 2*28 = +54% to that for a total bonus of 54+84 = 138%.
- By making the best Fortify Smithing potion (uses Falmer Helmet stack with Circlet bug) you can get another 147%.
According to the formula found here this would give an effective smithing value of:
Effective smithing = ROUND(((100 + 15)/0.86) - 16) * 2 * 2.38 * 2.47 ~= 1387
Is this the best obtainable? What would the armour value of the created set of Dragonscale have?
Most importantly, would it be possible to reach the armor cap without utilizing the perk "Custom Fit"? This would open the possibility of using a Falmer Helmet + Circlet opening up two more enchants.
Note: I don't want to use is the fortify health bug giving you insane smithing bonuses.
Best Answer
The armor cap is at a mere 567 displayed rating (667 total = 567 displayed + 100 hidden rating. You get 100 hidden rating for wearing armor on head, hands, feet and chest).
If you are serious about spending the minimum perks for light armor capping, you shouldn't use dragon and you shouldn't use enchanting/alchemy. You should do this.
You can reach 610 armor rating with 9 perks and minor un-perked assistence from alchemy or enchanting. 567 is the armor cap.