Do armor sets have maximum armor caps?

I created a set of Dragon Scale armor with 100 smithing and improved them to legendary, they had an armor rating of 584(502 without the shield). Here are the individual ratings for each piece of gear (with 5/5 light armor skill bonus[100%], 25% all light armor bonus, and 25% matched set bonus).

Armor - 232 Boots - 84 Gauntlets - 84 Helmet - 103 Shield - 83

This adds up to 586 (or 503 without the shield) and yet the armor rating I get is 502 without the shield, and 584 with the shield.

I took another set of dragon scale armor and made and improved them while wearing +100% bonus gear to smithing. I got gear with much higher ratings as follows ..

Armor - 300 Boots - 119 Gauntlets - 119 Helmet - 138 Shield - 102

And I still get the same armor ratings, 502 without shield and 584 with shield.

Has this worked properly for anyone else? Could it be a bug? Is this intended? Any information would be helpful =] I'd really like max armor resistance without the shield on.

Thanks!

UPDATE - I took my original set of dragonscale gear back to the workbench wearing my +100% smithing gear and was able to "upgrade" that set to legendary with the new armor ratings and that set worked just fine, must have just been a buggy set of dragonscale gear. Selling it to a vendor and rocking my 674 armor rating without a shield =D

Thanks for the help/ideas guys!

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5 Answers

There shouldn't be an armour cap for items, but there is a cap on the amount of damage you can mitigate (80%) this comes at 567 displayed armour rating.

With that said, even if you go over it should still display what your actual rating is, just won't mitigate more than 80% of the incoming damage.

My guess is a bug or you're doing something wrong.

Source

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This adds up to 586 (or 503 without the shield) and yet the armor rating I get is 502 without the shield, and 584 with the shield.

Armor rating of each piece is rounded when displayed in the UI. The unrounded armor ratings are summed to make the total (which is then rounded for display).

Here's some possible numbers:

Armor - 231.7 Boots - 83.7 Gauntlets - 83.7 Helmet - 102.7 Shield - 82.6

• Shieldless - 501.8 rounds to 502
• With shield - 584.4 rounds to 584

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I'm really guessing it's a bug because I'm experiencing the same thing on my Xbox version. I went and did the quest with the Blades and collected the blade armor. Unequipped, it adds up 50 more than what it actually gives me when equipped. So the AR ends up dropping. I've tried to investigate this further, and all the answers I've received is "it's a bug".

A suspicion I have personally, is the armor inevitably adjusts to your level. Let's say, the armor itself has it's own level unequipped, but immediately changes depending on your stats. That would make sense in regards to the instant adjustment the armor makes. I have no immediate way to test this theory so no promises. It just makes sense in my head.

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The Dragonscale set can go much higher than 502 armor; I just made myself one with 873 armor + 104 shield armor (and I know it can go even higher).

• Armor: 432
• Boots: 141
• Gauntlets: 141
• Helmet: 159
• Shield: 104
• Total: 977

I made it with +100% Smithing enchants (boots, gloves, ring, and necklace, each with +25% Smithing enchantment) and a +82% Smithing potion (total 182% Smithing boost).

The Majesty Dragonscale Armor (Legendary) Armor 654 The Majesty Dragonscale Helmet (Legendary) Armor 309 The Majesty Dragonscale Gauntlets (Legendary) Armor 285 The Majesty Dragonscale Boots (Legendary) Armor 285

Made this with smithing potion 130%, set of armor, ring, amulet and gloves that add a total off 116. smithing skill 100, total of 346%

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