Skyrim talk:Heavy Armor

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Archive 1: Nov 2011 - Feb 2012

No music at armor rate 600?

Can anyone explain this to me? I had the hardest difficulty, Heavy Armor at 100, set of daedric armor without any shield and active Ancient Knowledge - so displayed rate of armor was 537. If I met any common enemy (e.g. except dragon), no battle music was played. If I add any type of shield and get to something very slightly over 600 - no battle music even for dragons and sometimes even no music in cities (so no music at all). I´m asking about it because skill page says something about 900 but I was definitely under that number. --Luke the Hero 15:49, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Well, I have erased Ancient Knowledge (because I´m on PC), got dragon plate armor instead daedric, so my rating is about 510 - now battle music generally plays on dragon and leveled enemies battles but when I encounter low level bandits or fornsworn, music just doesn´t play at all (nonbattle music is fine now). I still wonder what is cause of this or if it is normal behaviour of the game? --Luke the Hero 15:49, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Multiple links to Light Armor

I thought I read that there should only be one link to another page when another subject is mentioned (the first entry on a page). Now there are several ones to light armor. I might be wrong or the policy have changed. -- MartinS 94.255.233.233 21:45, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

No, you're right. I just deleted the extras. eshe^talk 22:00, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

shield

do any of these perks affect shields? — Unsigned comment by 24.38.223.147 (talk) on 13 April 2012

It doesn't look like it. Shield perks are all in the Block perk tree. – Robin Hood↝talk 05:05, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

The Armor page states that some armor perks do affect shields: "Custom Fit, Well Fitted, and Matching Set perks are applied to shields if the four pieces of worn armor (armor, helmet, gloves, boots) match appropriately. The shield does not have to be of the same set, or even the same skill." - Dasinger on 13 September 2012 — Unsigned comment by 168.215.10.102 (talk)

Tower Of Strength

I dont believe this perk is completely broken: when i got unrelenting force used upon me multiple times by high end draugr, i barely staggered, let alone went flying. Ive also noticed Giant attacks barely stagger me for long either. Im on xbox btw with latest patch running — Unsigned comment by 108.29.105.37 (talk) at 01:51 on 15 April 2012

I was personally under the impression that it affected chance to stagger when you got hit by an attack. Though I could be wrong and testing this would be harder to do since we aren't aware of the base stagger chance on your character. (99.186.86.100 03:43, 24 April 2012 (UTC))

Do you have any new infos about the Bugs section in the article? Are the bugs solved by the Dawnguard expansion / latest patches or do they still exist? Is the Tower of Strength and the Ebony armor Matching Set etc. healed? Aran Mafre 17:51, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

Ditto to the initial comment in this section. I can't remember the name , but the signature location where the captured dragon eventually takes you is LOADED with high-end Draugr, most of which have Unrelenting Force. Having played through this area a few times, I can definitely say my Orc Warrior was knocked off his feet the least (Force Without Effort + Tower Of Strength). I easily resisted 75%+ of the shouts. Noticably, my other characters did not fare as well. Magosian 10:34, 23 August 2012 (CST)

(←) Recently the following bug was removed without comment:

Tower of Strength does absolutely nothing. It does not affect your stagger chance or stagger duration from any source.(vn=1)

It is not bugged. It actually does reduce the stagger duration, not the frequency or the magnitude. Two-Eyed Jack--178.1.114.14 20:33, 14 March 2013 (GMT)

From what I can see in the CK, it does multiply the "Mod Incoming Stagger" actor value by 0.5 . The Force Without Effort ability does the same with a factor of 0.75 and I see no bug there, so it seems reasonable to me that this was a false bug. Any indication to the contrary? --Alfwyn (talk) 23:03, 16 December 2012 (GMT)

I tested this on PS3 with the final patch and found it does not work. I found a Draugr Deathlord that used all three words of Unrelenting Force and tested the stagger duration for a full set of Ebony Armor, Steel Armor, and Dragon Scale light armor. The character I was using had 88 in Heavy Armor and had the Tower of Strength perk. I allowed the Draugr to shout at me four times in each set of armor and was ragdolled every time. I timed how long it took for my character to recover and it was approximately six seconds for each armor type. — Unsigned comment by ‎ 24.1.178.112 (talk) at 23:32 on 26 December 2013

From what I've seen, the recovery time from being ragdolled is pretty constant, and seems to vary only based on the terrain you're landing on, so that portion of your testing isn't relevant here. As far as the chance to stagger that all of you are seeing, anecdotal evidence like this is not a good indicator of whether or not this perk is operating as designed. The bug has been verified, and the fix by USKP is definite evidence that this bug does exist in the game code. It then follows that this bug would still be present on Xbox and PS, and since Bethesda has stated that no further patches to Skyrim will be forthcoming, no further input about the existence or not of this bug is necessary. --Xyzzy ^Talk 00:32, 27 December 2013 (GMT)

@Xyzz- Obviously it continues to be relevant if it is present on platforms that do not have access to the unofficial patch. Hence the entry explaining the bug and what effect this will (or will not) have on gameplay should be reintroduced to the article. --bodhir ^Talk 14:32, 2 March 2014(PST)

The bug entry was added back last September, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say. My point was that the bug's presence has been confirmed, so no further discussion on this talk page about it's existence is needed nor desired. Obviously, players that cannot install the USKP will continue to experience this bug. --Xyzzy ^Talk 05:34, 3 March 2014 (GMT)

(←) Fast forward to 7 years later, and I just had someone ask me to look into this. Not finding anything, I then chatted with Arthmoor about it. As near as we can figure, there was never a bug here, and the current version of USSEP doesn't modify anything about Tower of Strength at all. Since it was only reinstated because the USKP mentioned it, I've removed the bug note and transferred the text of it here, just for informational purposes, in case this comes into debate again at some point.

{{Bug|Tower of Strength does not apply the actual benefits described.|USKP|1.2.3}}

– Robin Hood ^(talk) 02:32, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Well, I DO believe this perk is completely broken. Every time I get this perk, I discern absolutely no difference in magnitude or duration of stagger. I am still spending several seconds with my screen shaking wildly every time a bloody draugr hits me with a greatsword that isn't even honed. As far as I can tell, the stagger is every bit as severe and lasts every bit as long. And "anecdotal evidence" might not be sufficient in some people's eyes to update the page, but it doesn't change the fact that this perk for which I paid THREE perk points is making NO DISCERNIBLE DIFFERENCE. And a perk that costs three perk points but makes no discernible difference is completely broken as far as I'm concerned, even if there is some code that's shaving one tenth a second off of my stagger time. I guess it's time to quit wasting perk points on this perk. And I'm remembering all over again why I usually just go with light armor. It's brutal during the mid-levels, but in the end, it works out way better.

Valeria (talk) 23:23, 11 May 2024 (UTC)

Matching Set

Are only armours of exactly the same type counted for matching set? In particular I'm interested whether the Masque of Clavicus Vile might count as matching when worn with Daedric Armour? -- Haravikk 17:00, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes, the Masque counts as Daedric. I'm using it myself. :) I believe it's the base type of the armour that counts. – Robin Hood↝talk 20:44, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

After eventually getting the perk it seems this is not actually the case; the masque counts for the Well Fitted perk (due to being Heavy armour) but does not qualify for the Matching Set bonus when combined with Daedric armour. Unfortunate, but then even with just the Well Fitted bonus it's easy enough to max out armour, so I can pretty much wear any heavy helmet anyway! -- Haravikk 15:28, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I'm wearing the full Daedric armour set and just equipped the Jagged Crown, it appears that it also counts as part of the Daedric armor set.Burrich 19:58, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't think to check whether this was something that was patched by the Unofficial Skyrim Patch — it is. In the unpatched regular game, the Masque counts as Ebony and the Jagged Crown counts as Daedric. In the unofficially patched version of the game, the Masque is Daedric and the Jagged Crown is Dragonplate. – Robin Hood↝talk 05:57, 15 June 2012 (UTC), Edits in italics: 17:15, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Are you certain? I'm running the latest patch on XBox 360 at least, and the masque definitely isn't receiving the Matching Set bonus when combined with Daedric armour. It receives the Well Fitted bonus for a full set of heavy armour, and I definitely get Matching Set when wearing a regular daedric helmet. When wearing the full set of standard daedric armour the masque appears to receive the Matching Set bonus, however as soon as I wear it the bonus disappears, presumably while wearing a matching set all heavy armour seems to receive the bonus, even items not being worn, but as soon as the set no-longer matches the bonus disappears, which seems to be the case when wearing the masque with daedric armour. I think I kept my ebony armour in a home somewhere so I can check to see if it's still counting as ebony or not, but I'm on the latest patch (that added mounted combat). -- Haravikk 11:25, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Haravikk: Sorry, that was bad wording on my part. I've altered the wording to hopefully be a little more clear. It's an unofficial patch on the PC that fixes the problem; on the X-box, you should be getting the Masque matching up with Ebony and the Jagged Crown matching up with Daedric. – Robin Hood↝talk 17:15, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Another question re: 'Matching Set'. Just what does the game define as a matching set? Do I need all 5 pieces, for example? I only use two-handed weapons with my present character, and therefore don't use a shield. Can I still get this perk, or is it waste of a point?

I don't think you need a shield.--Skyrimplayer 13:16, 2 September 2012 (UTC)

Max benefit?

I've heard that speech's benefits max out at 100, regardless of if you have an item boosting it. Can anyone tell me if this is true of heavy armor? I'd hate to waste an enchantment spot on boosting that if it's useless.

There is a simple and fast solution, you can enchant a low tier item and check yourself if it changes anything for you. If it does, you could let us know, we would be only happy :) --Skyhirider 10:16, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Question about how the perks work...

The head has two slots for armor, the Circlet slot and the Hair slot. Which slot does the Heavy Armour perks Well Fitted, and Cushioned check before they apply their affects.

Because i was going wear the Morokei mask and a Falmer Helmet together, and I wanted to know if those perks would trigger. If it checks circlet slot then i wont get the perks, if it checks the hair slot then i will get the perks. See my dilemma. (Well Fitted) 25% Armor bonus if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet. and (Cushioned) Half damage from falling if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.

EXP gaining

Is it based on damage pre or post reduction? IE: Would it be faster to train in iron or daedric? If training in Daedric would hinder the user, that should be noted 173.219.77.134 22:57, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Fists of Steel and Khajiit Claws

On the Khajiit page it states that the modifier for Claws only actually does 12 points but on this page it states:

• Heavy Armor is the only skill that can directly modify unarmed attacks by way of the Fists of Steel perk. The perk modifies the damage done by unarmed attacks by the worn gauntlets' base armor rating, unmodified by perks, enchantments, or skill levels. This means Daedric gauntlets only add 18 damage to your unarmed attacks no matter what. The Khajiit Claws racial ability should be on par with the Orcish gauntlets (15 base armor rating). The Claws ability stacks with this perk (so Claws + 100% base armor rating of gauntlets + base damage = damage). Making use of the Fortify Unarmed Damage enchantment will further raise the damage done with fists.

Which page is current/correct? 24.254.147.246 10:42, 2 November 2012 (GMT)

Moved from Main Article

Tower of Strength was originally thought to be a broken perk, this is incorrect. Testers were looking at the chance to be staggered, while the perk actually decreases the stagger duration.

Correct or not, this is really more appropriate for the talk page. Kitkat ^{•Talk•Contrib•E-mail} 23:28, 16 December 2012 (GMT)

Speed and Armor

This page states: Heavy armor causes you to move more slowly than when wearing light armor (this may be negated by The Steed Stone or the Conditioning perk). Is actually the speed affected by the worn weight? I found nothing about this, only a relationship with the race height. --176.201.31.122 11:13, 29 December 2012 (GMT)

No, both light and heavy armor have a fixed speed malus, with the one for heavy armor being greater. Whether you're wearing 30 lbs Iron or 50 lbs Daedric doesn't change anything. 92.136.110.163 14:05, 29 December 2012 (GMT)

Nice. Can you please tell me how much is this fixed malus for both?? --109.54.170.119 20:50, 2 January 2013 (GMT)

You're wrong, actor are slowed dynamically regarding how much weighs your equipment (only equipped gears matter). I don't know the skyrim's formula but you can find the oblivion's one on UESP. Parameters to consider if u want to tweak how equipment slows you are fMoveWeightMax, fMoveEncumEffect, fMoveEncumEffectNoWea. For exemple if u set fMoveWeightMax=100 and fMoveEncumEffect=1, u will be unable to move when your wornweight will reach 100. Base values are fMoveWeightMax=115, fMoveEncumEffect=0.3 meaning that you get a 30% penality to your movement speed when u wear 115 or heavier stuff. I dont know about sprinting, i did a few tests, it seems to react differently. Sorry for my english, hope i helped. — Unsigned comment by 88.121.158.79 (talk) at 21:51 on 18 May 2013

This isn't Oblivion. If you don't actually know the formula for movement speed for Skyrim then you can't know if actors are slowed based on worn weight, penalty factor based on armor type, or both. There are significant changes in game mechanics between the two games so it would be erroneous to automatically assume that there aren't substantial differences in things like how movement speed is calculated. If anyone has the actual formula for movement speed for an actor in Skyrim it might be helpful if they could post it. --DagmarH (talk) 22:00, 2 August 2013 (GMT)

Matching Heavy Armor set skill is not working for me.

Before I spent the skill point on the Matching Heavy Armor Set 25% armor bonus perk my rating was 431. I got the perk and it's still the same. I've tried reloading prevois saved games, different armor sets, it makes no difference. Is this happening to anyone else because it really really sucks. If somone can tell me how to fix this I would be grateful.

a list of what you are wearing would be helpful Dawn (talk) 08:17, 28 February 2013 (GMT)

Are you wearing all four pieces of your heavy armour: hands, feet, chest, head? This message was written by Rosalia ^{Tell her what you think...}_{...of her work here.} 08:22, 28 February 2013 (GMT)

Disadvantages

I think the fact that the heavy armor skill tree is far more perk intensive than light armor should be added under comparison to light armor. — Unsigned comment by 124.43.206.7 (talk) at 15:40 on 6 June 2013

"?" on conditioning perk bug

This affect, namely reloading the game and being over-encumbered, happens on my game all the time. It only triggers if the conditioning perk is the difference between you being over-encumbered or not (ie if you would be under over-encumberance regardless of conditioning, you won't suddenly become encumbered. But if the only thing stopping you from being over-encumbered when you reload the game is the conditioning perk, then your character will be over-encumbered). In addition to being fixed whenever I look at my inventory, I find on my game it sometimes is fixed by simply sheathing/unsheathing a weapon. Posting as an explanation for why I removed the tag.— Unsigned comment by 24.200.26.45 (talk) at 11:18 on 17 September 2013

If you have a fix, then note the fix on the article under the bug, don't mess up the bug template. I've undone the edit, so no harm done, but in the future, please make sure your edits are in line with the Style Guide. ThuumofReason (talk) 12:29, 17 September 2013 (GMT)

Orcish

A few months back, I noticed that there was a shift in capitalising "orcish" and "elven". I realised this when I saw that these two words which I myself capitalised in Skyrim:Delphine (which is on my watchlist) had been decapitalised, along with many other pages. I can't find any discussion regarding this on talk pages, but from my observation, from then onwards, pages that are edited or expanded by other users now have these two words decapitalised. So I'm guessing that having these decapitalised is the implied consensus, which I have been following. ~ Psylocke 03:02, 2 November 2013 (GMT)

I did a mass-decap of "elvish" because I had seen a discussion somewhere about this, but for the life of me I can't find it now. IMO, all of these item types should not be capitalized (elvish, orcish, dwarven, etc.) when they are part of an item description, since they are not directly referring to the race, but rather an item that is assumed to be common for these races. A commonly-accepted exception seems to be "Dwemer" when referring to items made of this metal, such as Dwemer cups. This discussion should probably be brought up on UESPWiki_talk:Spelling for consensus. --Xyzzy ^Talk 03:54, 2 November 2013 (GMT)

Oh good, at least we know that there was a discussion. What you said above made sense; I would agree with decapitalising these. I also did a quick Googling and observed that "elf", "orc", and "dwarf" (along with their different grammatical forms) on Wikipedia and other wikis (such as LOTR wiki) are usually decapitalised in general; they're only capitalised when referring to the race in particular, or to someone, such as the Elven Queen Galadriel.

Anyway, given that the past discussion is assumed to favour decapitalising (since you did a mass decapping), and that article expansions by people like Krusty and Biffa usually have these words decapitalised, I believe it's not a stretch to assume that there is an implied consensus. ~ Psylocke 05:53, 2 November 2013 (GMT)

The word implicitly relates to the race, its exactly the same as Nordic. Elf isn't a race, Wood Elf or Dark Elf are. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 14:00, 2 November 2013 (GMT)

Hmmm. Good point. So the races of mer should be capitalized, but mer and elf shouldn't, just like "man" isn't capitalized, but Imperial and Nord are. Makes sense. --Xyzzy ^Talk 14:23, 2 November 2013 (GMT)

(edit conflict) Expanding on my point. I wouldn't base any decision on another wiki except wikipedia, and then again not using any articles on other series of games or books. It's like writing japanese, english, german etc. in lower case, its never right. Orc is a race in ES and should be treated accordingly. Diverging to the Dwemer, Dwarven is the same to them as Wood Elf is to the Bosmer, and even the Lore:Dwemer page is inconsistent in its capitalization. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 14:27, 2 November 2013 (GMT)

(←) I agree with your reasoning on this, Silencer. I'm going to bring it up on the Spelling Guide talk page so that this can be codified. --Xyzzy ^Talk 18:13, 2 November 2013 (GMT)

Reflect Blows

The final Light Armor perk Deft Movement has the same wording but apparently also applies to ranged physical attacks (bows). My suspicion is the same applies here. There are no additional conditions set in the Creation Kit for the perk/spell/magic effect that exclude bows. Unless that condition is hard-coded it should be all physical damage. Should I use this for my mod I will test it and report back. — Unsigned comment by ‎ 87.139.225.49 (talk) at 11:04 on 8 January 2014

Edit: SushiSquid tested this on the Light Armor discussion page, it only works on melee attacks. — Unsigned comment by 87.139.225.49 (talk) at 21:09 on 8 January 2014‎

Light Armor skill increases, even though wearing all Heavy Armor

Strange bug that's been happening to me for a few weeks. My Heavy Armor skill increased up to 93, and then suddenly, since then every time that I'm in combat and get a skill increase, it shows "Light Armor increased to [..]". I have quadruple-checked and am definitely wearing all heavy armor: Daedric Armor, Nordic Carved Boots, Nordic Carved Gauntlets and Nordic Carved Helmet, as I have been since around level 30. The glitch occurred after getting to level 50. Any chance at all that this is happening to someone else out there? — Unsigned comment by 98.245.117.83 (talk) at 18:01 on 16 June 2014

Do you use a shield, and what material is it if you do? Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 18:04, 16 June 2014 (GMT)

(edit conflict) Are you using a light armor shield by any chance? Or one of the two necklaces that provide armor (Saint Jiub's Locket and the Amulet of Articulation)? That's the only thing I can think of. ThuumofReason (talk) 18:05, 16 June 2014 (GMT)

The Amazing Follower Tweaks (AFT) mod, or its Immersive Amazing Follower Tweaks (IAFT) variant can also have this effect, if you've turned on its Synergy Points feature. You'll occasionally gain skill points from the skill advances of your followers and vice versa, so if one is in light armor and taking a beating on a regular basis you'll get some increases in Light Armor skill yourself, "learning by example".

In a vanilla game, I think the shield or amulets explanations above are likely, though all kinds of glitches can happen. One thing to try would be be-equipping everything, dropping all light armor (including shields and those two amulets), re-equipping heavy, going to another cell and getting in some fights until you get an HA skill increase, then come back for the LA gear you left behind.
— Darklocq ^☎ ¢ 05:29, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Conditioning perk and stacking

I've done some testing on the 2nd statement in the Bugs section that reads It is unclear at this time how enchanted armor works with this bug, but is assumed that the enchantments have to match exactly one to one. This will not also work if you have two of the same pieces of armor (i.e. as in the example above), and one is enchanted and the other is not enchanted, as you can't stack an enchanted piece of armor onto a non-enchanted piece of armor of the same type, regardless if either one is equipped or not. I found with patch 1.9 on the PC version, you can stack enchanted and non enchanted armor as long as YOU were the one who enchanted it. If you find enchanted loot, that WILL NOT stack but if you enchant it yourself, it will. Also, the enchantments DO NOT need to match exactly. For example, I carry 2 sets of Ebony armor, 1 set enchanted with fortify destruction and fortify magicka regen (for spellcasting), and another set with fortify heavy armor and fortify stamina regen (for melee) and both sets weigh nothing. Note that I enchanted these myself, I did not purchase nor find them. If this is consistent with what everyone else is seeing, I'd like to update that section. Luke1138 (talk) 19:30, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Not receiving levels from Heavy Armor trainers

First noticed this with Farkas, and thought perhaps it was a bug with him; I can ask for and pay for Heavy Armor training, he takes my money, and the Training This Level tracker in the GUI says I've received training (0/5, 1/5, etcetera), but the Heavy Armor level (usually) doesn't advance. (Once in a blue moon I get a level.) He takes my money, but no level. Just tried Isran, and same thing. Can't ask Kuvar, because I told him the truth about killing Bujold. Searched on Google, but all I found was other people mentioning the same problem, no answers. No reasonable answers, anyway; just people saying the equivalent of "You must be mistaken.", or else "I'm having the same problem, too." — Unsigned comment by 174.56.243.121 (talk) at 01:43 on 22 May 2017

Are you past level 75 or past level 90? Emma of Falkreath (talk) 14:05, 10 March 2018 (UTC) Emma

Does Blocking reduce armor XP?

"Methods that improve armor rating, such as Smithing, skill enchantments, spells, potions or shouts, have no adverse effect on the XP gained." Does this include blocking? Or is only the unblocked damage counting towards armor? — Unsigned comment by Jigoro (talk • contribs) at 23:13 on 11 July 2017‎

If you block a strike, you only increase your block XP, not your armor XP.

Ebony armor is affected by the Light Armor perk Unhindered instead of the Heavy Armor perk Matching Set.

First of all, wouldn't it be the light armor version of Matching Set? The heavy armor version of Unhindered is Conditioning, not Matching Set. Secondly, according to that same bug entry, the issue is fixed by version 1.0 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch. However, in the ebony armor article: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ebony#Ebony_Armor it says that This bug is fixed by version 1.9 of the Official Skyrim Patch, which in theory should be precedence over the Unofficial Patch, correct? MidbossVyers (talk) 11:16, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

I'm going to go ahead and change this to match what is says over at the Ebony Armor page. ParadoxPraxis (talk) 11:45, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Reverse-engineering

Reverse-engineering has allowed me to determine when and how the Heavy Armor skill advances.

To start with: the game iterates over all forty-two body slots on the attacked actor. (Yes, forty-two. Some of these are reserved for run-time use, so they won't appear when editing game data; one of them, for example, is known to be your quiver.) This is not the same as iterating over every item; a piece of armor that is internally flagged to cover the arms and torso, for example, will be checked three times. For each armor, we run a few basic checks:

• Rule the armor out if it is a shield. (If you're blocking, we use a different codepath to increment that skill anyway.)
• Rule the armor out if its weight class is "clothing."
• Rule the armor out if its value times 100.0F is zero or negative.

We retain two counters indicating how many body parts are covered by light or heavy armor (respectively) that hasn't been ruled out. Note that the torso slot counts double, so for example, a piece of light armor that covers both arms and the torso would advance the light armor counter by 4, not 3. After the count, we compute a random integer and modulo it by 6, to clamp it to the range [0, 5]. We then run these checks:

• If the random integer is less than the number of light armor body parts found, then advance the light armor skill.
• If the random integer is greater than or equal to the number of light armored body parts found, and less than the total number of armored body parts found, then advance the heavy armor skill.
• Otherwise, do not advance a skill.

This means that the total range of possibilities can be plotted out on a line graph. Imagine the graph split into three segments: on the left, light armor; in the middle, heavy armor; and on the right, no valid armor; imagine also that the left end of the graph corresponds to zero, and that the length of each segment can vary. Now plot a random number between zero and five, inclusive, on the graph; the segment that it lands in is the skill that will advance.

There are some observations we can make:

• If you have at least six body parts covered by light armor (or five, but one of them is your torso), then damage taken will always advance your light armor skill.
• If you aren't wearing any light armor and have at least six body parts covered by heavy armor (or five, but one of them is your torso), then damage taken will always advance your heavy armor skill.
• If you have fewer than six total body parts covered (with the usual torso caveat), then there is a possibility that being attacked won't advance any armor skill at all.

DavidJCobb (talk) 02:52, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Armor weight - how much of a slow down?

The Conditioning and Unhindered perks say: " . . . doesn't slow you down when worn." So how does the slow down for armor weight work? Is a full 5 piece heavy armor set 15% slower than no armor? Or is it by actual weight, say 55 pounds of weight is 11% slower? The Anniversary edition adds a Ring of the Wind, which says you will be 15% faster. I am assuming 15% faster than no armor, but the ring might work to over ride the weight slow down, or is the ring incorporated into a final calculation? Playing in the Survival Mode, it is advantageous to move quickly through treacherously cold areas, not to mention that, with fast travel being disabled, any speed increase is appreciated. In addition the nerffing of carry-weight buffs makes this perk more valuable. But what is the actual mechanic/formula for speed? I have not been able to find it. Kalevala (talk) 18:52, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

XP gain : mixed set of heavy and light armor

The XP is ramdomly given to one skill or another, according to the proportion between the number of heavy and light armor elements.

I've done several tries and I'm not sure but it seems that chest armor, for example, matters more than gauntlets : if you are wearing only a heavy chest armor and light gauntlets, the XP will be awarded to heavy armor more than 50% of the time.