Smithing past Daedric is pointless and I'm tired of pretending it isn't

[WhiterunModder]

So I'm on my third playthrough and I finally stopped grinding to unlock Ebony Smithing. And like... why? You get Daedric armor which is already absurdly strong, then you unlock Ebony Smithing and suddenly you're crafting gear that's marginally better for like triple the perks invested.

The perk cost-to-benefit ratio falls off a cliff after you hit Daedric. You're spending points in a tree that already demanded a ton of investment just to squeeze out maybe 5-10 more armor rating. Meanwhile you could be putting those perks literally anywhere else and getting way more value.

I think the real issue is that Daedric gear looks cooler than Ebony anyway so nobody actually cares. You hit that perk, you craft your set, you're done. The game should've just stopped there instead of making you grind another 30 levels of smithing for Ebony that you'll never actually use.

Does anyone actually stick with Ebony gear long-term or do you just craft it once and go back to whatever you had before?

 

[TamrielTactician]

I get the frustration with the perk cost, but I think you're underselling Ebony a bit. Yeah, the armor rating bump is smaller than earlier jumps, but on higher difficulties it actually matters - I'm running Legendary right now and that extra 10-15 points per piece adds up when you're tanking dragon breath or getting swarmed. Daedric stops being enough somewhere around level 40-50 depending on your build.

That said, you're not wrong that the perk investment is brutal. The real problem isn't that Ebony is bad, it's that you need like 90+ smithing to get there and the perks between 50-90 are just... incremental. It's a slog for diminishing returns, and if you're not min-maxing on Legendary or Survival, yeah, you could absolutely skip it and do fine.

The gear aesthetics thing is subjective though - Ebony looks way cooler to me than Daedric's edgelord spikes, but I get why people vibe with the demonic look. That's just taste.

Honestly if you're not enjoying the grind, just don't do it. The game doesn't force you to use optimal gear. Plenty of people beat Skyrim in iron armor if they want to.