Skyrim Perks Ancillary: Smithing (Part 3)

Dwarven Smithing-

Comparable to Elven armor and weapons, the Dwarven equivalents have one drawback and several advantages.  First of all, the drawback- the armor is something on the order of ten times the weight of Elven armor, and the weapons weigh generally a third again to half again as much.  The damage of the weapons is enough better that it might well be worth the extra weight to you, while the amor, being Heavy Armor, can’t really be compared quite the same, using a different skill entirely.  The second advantage to Dwarven Armor is that rather than requiring two different kinds of ingot, they require only one- Dwarven Metal Ingots.  This has to do with the last advantage- Dwarven Metal is not found in ore veins throughout the land or mines full of bandits (and other passable or less savory individuals).  Rather, Dwarven Metal is found by going into Dwarven Ruins and collecting various bits of Dwarven scrap- specifically, anything marked Scrap Metal, Metal Plate, or Decorative Metal Strut is likely to yield Dwarven Metal Ingots when brought to a smelter.  While this can be -very- hard on your carrying capacity to haul around, the simple fact is that Dwarven ruins are excellent places to go to train your combat abilities against the leftover automata and gather valuable/useful loot, as well as being key to a number of major quests and quest lines in Skyrim.  This makes Dwarven Smithing a hugely valuable perk even if you don’t use Heavy Armor, providing you an extra benefit from any Dwarven ruin you enter for any reason, and therefore more reason to go into these excellent training grounds.

Orcish Smithing-

Orcish Armor tends to be roughly the same strength as Steel Plate armor, lagging behind just a touch.  Orcish weapons, on the other hand, are generally superior overall to both Dwarven and Elven weapons with weight better than the Dwarven implements and even slightly better damage.  Even if you do use Steel Plate armor, the weapons are going to stay useful until you start digging into Ebony and Daedric objects, so this perk remains useful for some time despite coming in later in the game.  Also, if you like heavy armor but want to have a jagged, semi-tribal feel, this armor is very visually pleasing and intimidating-looking without being quite as gothic as Daedric armor.