Heavy Armor perks are a trap and nobody warns you about it

[DragonbornVet]

I'm on my 5th playthrough and I just realized I've been wasting perk points on Heavy Armor for literally years. Like, the actual damage reduction caps so fast that investing past the first couple perks is just padding your numbers without changing how the game plays.

Think about it. You get the first perk in the tree and suddenly you're taking way less damage. Cool. But then you're supposed to dump points into the ones that reduce weight and improve specific armor types, and for what? The damage reduction difference between wearing full steel and full daedric is like 5%. You're still getting hit the same way. You're still chugging potions at the same rate on Legendary.

Meanwhile you could've grabbed a couple perks in Blocking and actually changed how you play, or dipped into Alteration for actual utility. But instead you're sitting there with Heavy Armor rank 4 thinking you're safer when you're really just... slightly less squishy than before.

The real trap is the weight reduction perks too. If you're heavy armor enough to need them, you're probably already overburdened because you're looting everything. Just get the Steed Stone and move on.

Am I off base here or does anyone else feel like Heavy Armor is just the "safe" choice that doesn't actually reward you for investing?

 

[TamrielTactician]

Disagree pretty hard on this one. The damage reduction does cap, yeah, but you're underselling how fast it actually happens and what that means. Getting to like 80% damage reduction is genuinely game-changing on Legendary - you go from chugging potions constantly to actually being able to tank hits and play aggressively. That's not "slightly less squishy," that's a fundamental shift in how combat feels.

The thing is, you don't need to dump 15 perks into Heavy Armor to get there. The first perk plus one or two of the armor-specific ones gets you most of the way. After that, yeah, the returns flatten out and you should be grabbing other stuff. But that's true of literally every skill tree. You're not supposed to max out Heavy Armor - you're supposed to grab what you need and move on, same as Destruction or Pickpocketing.

The weight reduction perks are actually useful though, not a trap. The Steed Stone is great, but it only gives you 100 carry weight. If you're running around in full Daedric with a two-hander and 47 potions, that's not cutting it. I'd rather have the perk and the stone than just the stone and be stuck at half inventory.

Also - and this might just be my playstyle - Heavy Armor perks let you actually ignore Alteration entirely. You don't need Mage Armor if your armor does the job. That's the real value. You're trading perk points in one tree for freedom in another.