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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.

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    My approach was to always set everything to legendary asap, unless I had a good reason not to (e.g. I wanted to make some dragon armor and needed to farm a bit). Its a pain in the butt when you do it the first 2-3 times, but after that, your stats help you stay afloat every time you do.
    – Smogen
    Aug 31, 2020 at 21:45

2 Answers 2

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+200

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.

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  • Nelson, thanks for this - an interesting answer. I have included more info in the OP. All your points are very valid.
    – C26
    Aug 26, 2020 at 9:31
  • I should also add that not all enemies are scaled. Enemies from locations you have already been to, such as dungeons, are locked to the level that you were when you first entered. One could always go back to those dungeons to level up against an easier enemy gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/34615/…
    – C26
    Aug 26, 2020 at 13:41
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    Unless the dungeon reset, which can happen after 30 in-game days or less. Once it resets, the scaling kicks in, but in general there are limits to the scaling. However, scaling will definitely affect you if you continue on your latest quest lines.
    – Nelson
    Aug 26, 2020 at 18:38
-2

After a lot of consideration, I came to the conclusion that I should make light armour legendary. I should point out that Nelson's answer was useful in helping me think about things, but most importantly, his comment about smithing/enchantment.

EDIT: I should point out that after the mod edit, this 'answer' of mine seems to make no sense. I previously wrote how I then went ahead and played with light armour at 15. I was able to level up quickly and not sustain any significant damage. I was helped by having some legendary smithed weapons and one or two pieces of enchanted armour/jewellery.

I now use one-handed/block more than two-handed and made one-handed legendary yesterday, with light armour being 100, block on 92 and using a legendary smithed ebony war axe. Very shortly after I was set upon by several draugr, some of which were deathlords. Even though it took longer to hack away at the deathlords, I sustained no significant damage.

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  • Thanks for the edit, Wrigglenite, but the reason I included that stuff was to show why I chose the way I did, plus some evidence showing why I felt it was the right choice. Sure, the images weren't necessary, I suppose. Still, OK.
    – C26
    Aug 31, 2020 at 11:52
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    If you want a challenge play at Legendary difficulty right in the start. The game changes a lot... things are genuinely scary right in the beginning.
    – Nelson
    Aug 31, 2020 at 15:15
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    This sounds like a thank you note to Nelson's answer, which would logically be the accepted one. You might be the asker, but this reply doesn't make sense as an answer.
    – Joachim
    Sep 1, 2020 at 19:25
  • Because, as much as I appreciate his input, Nelson suggested neither, and I went with light armour, which was the right decision for me. Additionally, his caveat was given in a comment rather than the main answer. Sorry if that sounds fastidious, but I 'accepted' the 'answer' that was right for me. And also, a lot of my justification [like, 80%] was edited out by the admin and was several paragraphs longer. I can't do anything about that. So this answer, as it has ended up, feels rather flat.
    – C26
    Sep 1, 2020 at 21:57
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    My answer could've been edited, but I've added my comment to my answer.
    – Nelson
    Sep 17, 2020 at 13:37

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