When playing an Elder Scrolls title like Skyrim, particularly on higher difficulties, equipment, enchants, and skill distribution becomes more and more essential. With the numerous array of armor, shields, and unique items such as masks to attain in Skyrim, it’s easy to get confused on what to aim for. Below are three of the best armor pieces from each category: heavy and light armor, shields, and masks.
Skyrim Best Armor: Heavy, Light, Masks, and Shields Armor
Heavy Armor: Daedric, Stalhrim, Dragonplate
Heavy armor provides the best raw defensive utility in the game at the expense of dexterity. Reserved for the heavy-bruisers and Alteration school battlemages, this armor class comes at high cost, but high reward. The crème de la crème of Skyrim armors has always been Daedric armor, forged from the fires of the daedric forces themselves. This armor is most easily attained via smithing, requiring Daedric smithing and a bucketload of Ebony Ingots. The Daedric Armor boasts a defense stat of 108, with a massive 96 weight. Despite the armor having no set effect, its raw defense is enough to stagger through even the most perilous of dragon fire. The armor is enchantable, too, allowing for even higher rates of defensive utility.
In a close second is the Stalhrim armor, which can only be found in Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC. Stalhrim armor requires the completion of the quest ‘A New Source of Stalhrim’ and a Smithing level of 80. Pieces can be forged via the use of Stalhrim, leather strips, along with Steel and Quicksilver Ingots. The armor boasts a defense rating of 102 compared to Daedric armor’s 108, but comes in at almost half the weight at 59. The armor has a passive frost resistance of 25%, too, so if your Daedric armor lacks frost resistance, this armor edges it out in frost-heavy fights.
Lastly comes the expensive Dragonplate armor, which boasts a defense rating of 102, but at a slightly higher weight of 64. The armor set has no passive resistances and requires a massive 100 smithing to create. The components, however, are much easier to come by than daedric armor, considering the occurrence of dragon fights in Skyrim’s open world as opposed to daedra. For those without the most legendary of heavy armor perks, however, Dragonplate is an excellent stop-gap before attaining daedric armor.
Continue on for more of the best armor in Skyrim, this time looking at light armor.
