Skyrim Perks Ancillary: Smithing (Part 4)

Ebony Smithing-

The highest level of heavy armor and weapons that are available for sale in the land of Skyrim, Ebony armor and weapons are gothically beautiful and staggeringly strong.  While unfortunately limited to heavy armor and weapons only, the value of this impressive gear is undeniable, outstripping anything else that uses relatively mundane resources.  Fortunately, there’s a handy ebony mine behind an Orcish stronghold in the central East edge of the map, so it’s pretty easy to get ahold of the Ebony Ore you’re going to need long before you need it, and probably multiple times over too.  It’s worth noting that this armor, like Orcish armor, weighs measurably less than Dwarven armor- although it still will take up a hefty chunk of your carrying weight.  If you were able to hack it with Dwarven armor, you’ll be fine with this.

Daedric Smithing-

Daedric weapons are the nicest you’re going to find in the game, mods aside, and Daedric armor is beat only by dragonplate in terms of raw protection.  While this makes this perk seem like a must-have, there is one significant issue- making Daedric equipment requires going out and killing Daedra to get the Daedric Hearts that essentially power the gear.  At the later levels this is only a moderate issue in terms of being skilled enough to slay the things, but it’s sometimes hard enough just getting ahold of the materials for Ebony armor, so you may find the equipment more trouble than it’s worth.  You can also get such items by finding them as loot, but they are rare and the weapons are equally or even moreso.

Dragon Armor-

Probably the most valuable perk on this list overall, the Dragon Armor perk lets you do something with the remains of those dragons.  You know the ones, they keep dropping out of the sky while you’re going about your merry way and attacking you?  In fact, those dragons are part of what makes this perk so very useful- there’s really no way you’re going to reach the point where you have the perk without also having plenty of materials saved up to use with it.  What’s more, it lets you make both dragonscale (Light Armor) and dragonplate (Heavy Armor) armors, so unless you’re a robe/cloth clad wizard you’re going to be benefitting greatly in combat for having this perk.  You could choose to rely on finding some instead, but being the best of armors, it’s as rare as you might expect and, like Daedric armor, cannot be found in stores anyways.