In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, the best heavy armor in the game is the Daedric Armor, and can be crafted by the player. Even though Dragonplate Armor requires a higher skill to craft, Daedric Armor still has a higher base value, i’m guessing since the parts are harder to come by.
Dragonscale Armor is the best light armor in the game, since there are no light options in the Daedric Armor line.
Crafting Daedric Armor
In order to craft Daedric Armor, you need to get your Smithing skill to 90, and you’ll need a single Daedra Heart for each piece, which are quite rare and only drop off of Daedra.
The best place in the game I’ve found to farm Daedra Hearts is at The Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon, in the mountains east of Morhal. Four Dremora will spawn there every few days after you do the “Pieces of the Past” quest line from Silus Vesuius in Dawnstar. Alchemist merchants all over Skyrim have a chance to stock them as well but they are fairly rare, and I would suggest buying them any time you see them if you plan to make any Daedric Armor.
Carfting Dragonscale Armor
In order to craft Dragonscale Armor, you’ll need to get your Smithing skill up to 100, and you’ll need some parts from a dragon obviously. Luckily there is an abundance of dragons roaming Skyrim, and you’ll probably have far more than you’ll need way before you can craft the armor (hopefully you’ve been saving them).
You only need fourteen dragon scales to make the entire set (including the shield), and each dragon typically drops around three after each kill, so it really doesn’t take many dragons to make a full set. The other parts required are iron ingots, leather, and leather strips, so it really is fairly cheap armor to make.
Upgrade Your Armor
To make your armor as good as possible, you’ll need to upgrade it and put a good enchant on it.
When you upgrade a piece of armor on the Workbench, it takes your current Smithing level into account to determine how much the weapon is upgraded, so make sure to equip any enchanted gear with bonuses to Smithing, and purchase or create potions with bonuses to Smithing as well to get the most out of your upgrades. You’ll need a Smithing skill of 91 to fully upgrade Daedric Armor.
The enchants you use is really up to you, but I suggest using enchants that increase the primary skills you use in combat, like one-handed, archery, destruction, etc. I also typically carry around a few alternate pieces of resist gear to make those mage fights a bit easier. Don’t forget to create or purchase potions that increases Enchanting to get the best enchant effect possible.
