Skyrim:Heavy Armor

This article is about the skill. For the physical equipment, see Heavy Armor (item).

Skill: Heavy Armor
Specialization: Combat

Heavy Armor is the skill governing your ability to move and fight in heavy armor. Each skill point increases your armor rating from heavy armor by 0.4% (1.5% for NPCs). The Heavy Armor skill tree has a total of 8 perks, requiring a total of 12 perk points to fill.

In-game description: Those trained to use Heavy Armor make more efficient use of Iron, Steel, Dwarven, Orcish, Ebony, and Daedric armors.

Additional types of heavy armor that are forgeable: ancient Nord armor, bonemold armor^DB, chitin heavy armor^DB, dragonplate, Imperial armor, Nordic carved armor^DB, and stalhrim armor^DB. There are also a few types of generic, unforgeable heavy armor: Dawnguard heavy armor^DG, Blades armor, Falmer armor, and wolf armor.

Skill Perks

Juggernaut

Fists of Steel

Cushioned

Conditioning

Well Fitted

Tower of Strength

Matching Set

Reflect Blows

Heavy Armor Perk Tree

Perk	Rank	Description	ID	Skill Req.	Perk Req.
Juggernaut	1	Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by 20%.	000bcd2a
	2	Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by 40%.	0007935e	20 Heavy Armor
	3	Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by 60%.	00079361	40 Heavy Armor
	4	Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by 80%.	00079362	60 Heavy Armor
	5	Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by 100%.	00079374	80 Heavy Armor
Fists of Steel		Unarmed attacks with Heavy Armor gauntlets do their armor rating in extra damage.	00058f6e	30 Heavy Armor	Juggernaut
Cushioned		Half damage from falling if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.	000bcd2b	50 Heavy Armor	Fists of Steel
Conditioning		Heavy Armor weighs nothing and doesn't slow you down when worn.	00058f6d	70 Heavy Armor	Cushioned
Well Fitted		25% Armor bonus if wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.	00058f6f	30 Heavy Armor	Juggernaut
Tower of Strength		50% less stagger when wearing only Heavy Armor.	00058f6c	50 Heavy Armor	Well Fitted
Matching Set		Additional 25% Armor bonus if wearing a matched set of Heavy Armor.	00107832	70 Heavy Armor	Tower of Strength
Reflect Blows		10% chance to reflect melee damage back to the enemy while wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.	00105f33	100 Heavy Armor	Matching Set

Usefulness of Reflect Blows

While the description of Reflect Blows seems potent, it does not entirely work as described. Indeed, opponents who have the perk (such as the Ebony Warrior) can one-hit-kill you in certain circumstances if the perk triggers, but the damage is calculated a little differently for players.

The perk will not reduce damage taken. When it triggers, a melee attacker will take some of the damage dealt to you, but you will also take that damage. If your character that has reached the armor cap of 567 (which grants an 80% damage reduction) is attacked, the damage reflected back at attacker is also reduced by that same 80%. The damage reflected back is also affected by the Block skill, which caps at an 85% damage reduction. The usefulness of the perk becomes questionable as the most damage you can mitigate with heavy armor and block is 97%, meaning you will reflect only 3% of the damage an enemy does to you. On Master difficulty the perk becomes almost worthless because while you take double damage, the damage you reflect is subject to the 50% damage reduction.

Comparison to Light Armor

Advantages:

• By default, heavy armor is more protective than light armor - at least, until the armor cap is reached. However, the higher base stats of heavy armor makes it easier to achieve higher armor ratings early in the game. Due to the way Armor Rating functions, each additional point of armor is more valuable than the last, making even small differences more potent than they might otherwise appear.
• Heavy Armor incentivizes players to take damage, thereby leveling their Heavy Armor skill up faster. A player will reach high levels of Heavy Armor significantly faster than they would with equivalent Light Armor, where dodging is more encouraged, which does not reward XP.
• The Fists of Steel perk provides an extra source of damage for unarmed combat, which is unique to heavy armor. This can be combined with the Fortify Unarmed enchantment and any racial bonuses to provide a viable alternative to weapons and magic. This is particularly useful in situations where a player's weapon may be Disarmed.
• Heavy armor has perks for significantly reducing falling damage.
• The Tower of Strength perk renders players heavily resistant to stagger effects, most notably Unrelenting Force. This substantially reduces the frequency of the player being ragdolled and needing to climb to their feet, mitigating what can be a significant vulnerability even for otherwise powerful characters.
• The Reflect Blows perk essentially grants every set of heavy armor a 10% chance to punish a melee attacker. Though the usefulness of this perk is questionable, as long as the player does not mind taking a lot of hits in melee, the bonus damage helps.

Disadvantages:

• Heavy armor weighs more than light armor, which causes the player to move more slowly and takes up more of their available carry weight. For most players, this disadvantage can be negated with the Conditioning perk or the Steed Stone effect.
  • Due to the extra weight of heavy armor, stamina is consumed at a greater rate while sprinting in heavy armor without the Conditioning perk or the Steed Stone effect.
  • Due to the heavy nature of heavy armor, specializing in heavy armor is a bad choice to players who prefer to be agile and/or wish to most conveniently carry multiple sets of armor/clothing with a variety of enchantment combinations.
• Once armor cap is reached, light armor and heavy armor become equal, as they all provide the same 80% physical damage reduction.
• Heavy armor is not stealth friendly. Wearing heavy armor creates more noise while moving, which makes it harder to sneak. This can be negated with the Muffle enchantment or spell as well as the Silence perk in the Sneak tree.
• Heavy armor does not boost stamina regeneration, whereas the Wind Walker perk turns every set of light armor into an extra source of stamina regeneration, making light armor a great help whenever stamina is needed for attacking, blocking, and/or sprinting.
• Heavy armor does not (have a perk to) completely negate incoming damage, whereas the Deft Movement perk allows every set of light armor to randomly completely negate the damage from 10% of melee attacks. Since no armor can provide more than 80% physical damage reduction, the Deft Movement perk makes light armor more protective than heavy armor against melee attacks once the 80% cap is reached. Unlike the Reflect Blows perk, Deft Movement is always useful, especially for surviving on Master/Legendary difficulty.

Skill Increases

Character Creation

The following races have an initial skill bonus to Heavy Armor:

• +10 bonus: Orc
• +5 bonus: Imperial

Trainers

• Gharol in Dushnikh Yal (Expert)
• Farkas of the Companions in Whiterun (Master)
• Isran^DG in Fort Dawnguard (Master)
• Kuvar^DB in Thirsk Mead Hall (Master)

Note: Trainers that double as followers can train you for "free". They will still charge you, but you can get the gold you spent back by checking their inventory.

This exploit is no longer possible as of version 1.2.6 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.

Free Skill Boosts

• +1 Heavy Armor from Brunwulf Free-Winter in Windhelm for clearing a bandit hideout.
• +1 Heavy Armor (and other combat skills) from Giraud Gemane (Bards College) for completing the quest Rjorn's Drum.
• +1 Heavy Armor (and Block, Archery, and One-handed) from Wulf Wild-Blood^DB for finding his brother during Filial Bonds^DB.
• +5 Heavy Armor (and other combat skills) by selecting "The Path of Might" from the Oghma Infinium after completing the quest Discerning the Transmundane.

Skill Books

• 2920, MidYear, v6
• Chimarvamidium
• Hallgerd's Tale
• The Knights of the Nine
• Orsinium and the Orcs

Gaining Skill XP

• Armor skill increases are based on the raw attack rating (plus any power attack bonuses) of an enemy strike.
• Methods that improve armor rating, such as Smithing, skill enchantments, spells, potions or shouts, have no adverse effect on the XP gained. For example, a character with an armor rating of 400 will receive the same XP as a character with an armor rating of 100 for the same enemy strike.
• The number of heavy armor items simultaneously worn by the player does increase XP gained. For example, receiving damage while wearing four pieces of heavy armor will result in more XP than wearing three pieces.
• Regenerate Health potions and enchantments can help with staying alive while training, potentially allowing you to leave the game unattended. This can also be accomplished with natural health regeneration during brawling sessions with NPCs or when fighting very weak enemies like skeevers, though skill gains will be very slow.
• If the player is wearing a mixed set of heavy and light armor, XP will only be awarded to one skill. The more items of a type are worn, the more likely that type is to be rewarded. For example, if a player wears 3 pieces of heavy armor and 1 piece of light armor, the XP will be attributed to heavy armor 75% of the time.^{[verification needed — see talk page]}
• Train with 2 giants for quick XP gains. (Recommend health of at least 300 to train)

Notes

• Once your Heavy Armor skill is level 30 or higher, guards will begin to say, "Best offense is a good defense, am I right?"
• 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 Steel Nordic Gauntlets (12 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.
• Note that when leveling up Heavy Armor, you have to take damage from an outside source—Equilibrium, for example, will not level up the skill. The amount of damage a blow would cause will dictate the amount of experience you gain, not the number of hits you take. One way of leveling up Heavy Armor is by fighting giants. From a starting level of 15 in heavy armor, by training against a giant at normal difficulty (adept) you can reach a level over 50 in around 5 minutes of bludgeoning, provided you don't die. A healing spell and potions can be most helpful while training. Note that at early levels and at higher degrees of difficulty, the giant's ground shatter attack is often fatal with a single blow.
• The Cushioned, Tower of Strength, Well Fitted and Matching Set perks also work with the Diadem of the Savant (even though it is classified as Light Armor), if you don't want to wear an actual heavy helmet.

Bugs

• With the Conditioning perk, when you carry more weight than you could without the perk, and you save a game, upon loading from inside the game, you will be over-encumbered (as if you didn't have the perk) until you open your inventory. This typically occurs only after an event, such as your death, removing all of your active effects. If you die and then quickload, you may become affected by this bug until you relaunch the game. The same behavior can be observed with the Steed Stone effect which is identical to Conditioning and the Light Armor perk Unhindered.
  • If this happens, entering your inventory will let the game readjust your carry weight to its proper value.
• With the Conditioning perk active, you can stack the same type of Heavy Armor that is currently equipped without adding to your Carry Weight. For instance, if you have an Iron Helm equipped and have another Iron Helm in your inventory, they will stack onto each other as if they are both equipped, but you will not gain additional Armor Rating or enchantment bonuses after the first equipped helm. Armor of the same type that you have enchanted will also stack but enchanted armor that you find or buy will not stack. The type of enchantment does not need to be the same in order for the armor to stack.
• Ebony armor is unaffected by the Heavy Armor perk Matching Set.
  • The Official Skyrim Patch, version 1.9, fixes this bug.
• When wearing an ebony helmet in third person, you may notice that your character's shadow does not have a head.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch, version 1.2.2, fixes this bug.
• Dawnguard heavy gauntlets^DG do not benefit from the Fists of Steel perk like other heavy gauntlets.
  • The Unofficial Dawnguard Patch, version 2.0.0, fixes this bug.
• Armor types introduced in Dragonborn incorrectly get only a 20% bonus from Matching Set instead of the expected 25%.
  • The Unofficial Dragonborn Patch, version 1.0.5, fixes this bug.
• Golden and Madness heavy gauntlets^CC do not benefit from the Fists of Steel perk like other heavy gauntlets.
  • The Official Skyrim Special Edition Patch, version 1.6.318, fixes this bug.