Stealth Skills: The Path of Shadow – Light Armor

Light Armor allows you to make more effective use of hide, leather, Elven, glass, Dragonscale, and related armors. Light Armor offers a good balance between weight, protection, and mobility and is recommended for stealthy characters or those with other forms of protection (such as a good shield or the occasional ward) to supplement their defenses.

Your Light Armor skill increases when you take damage while wearing light armor, based on the damage of the incoming blow. If you’re wearing more than one kind of armor, the incoming damage is divided up among the pieces before being used to calculate skill uses, so wearing more light armor will allow this skill to develop faster.

• Constellation: Path of Shadow
• Available Perks: 10

Available Light Armor Perks

1–5. Agile Defender (5 ranks) ★

• Rank 1: Increase armor rating for Light Armor by 20%.
• Requires: None
• Rank 2: Increases the armor rating of your light armor by 40%.
• Requires: Light Armor 20, Agile Defender 1
• Rank 3: Increases the armor rating of your light armor by 60%.
• Requires: Light Armor 40, Agile Defender 2
• Rank 4: Increases the armor rating of your light armor by 80%.
• Requires: Light Armor 60, Agile Defender 3
• Rank 5: Increases the armor rating of your light armor by 100%.
• Requires: Light Armor 80, Agile Defender 4

6. Custom Fit ★

• You get a 25% armor bonus if wearing all light armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
• Requires: Light Armor 30, Agile Defender 1

This bonus stacks with Agile Defender and Matching Set—a must-have for anyone serious about using light armor.

7. Unhindered

• Light armor weighs nothing and doesn’t slow you down when worn.
• Requires: Light Armor 50, Custom Fit

This perk reduces the weight of the light armor you’re wearing (it doesn’t affect the weight of armor in your inventory) and eliminates its movement penalty. If you’re not sure whether this perk is for you, try out the Steed Stone ability (from one of the Standing Stones) first: it has almost the same effect and won’t cost you a perk.

8. Wind Walker

• Stamina regenerates 50% faster in all light armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
• Requires: Light Armor 60, Unhindered

9. Matching Set

• Additional 25% armor bonus if wearing a matched set of light armor.
• Requires: Light Armor 70, Custom Fit

This bonus stacks with Agile Defender and Custom Fit. Make sure you have a matching set before taking this perk, though.

10. Deft Movement

• You have a 10% chance of avoiding all damage from a melee attack while wearing all light armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
• Requires: Light Armor 100, Wind Walker OR Matching Set

This perk gives you a 10% chance of avoiding all damage from a hit when wearing a full set of light armor. It’s a noticeable but unreliable bonus: if you’re lucky, it might spare you from a lethal blow.

Racial Benefits

• +5 Light Armor
• Argonian
• Dark Elf
• Nord
• Wood Elf

Trainers

• Journeyman: Scouts-Many-Marshes, the docks of Windhelm.
• Expert: Grelka, the marketplace or streets of Riften.
• Master: Nazir, Assassin of the Dark Brotherhood, Falkreath Hold Sanctuary.

Other Resources

• The following quests can also increase this skill:
• Other Factions Quest: Finn’s Lute.
• Daedric Quest: Discerning the Transmundane.
• Favor: The Bandit Slayer*
• Favor: Item Retrieval (Bandit Camp)*