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Hey guys! I've recently started to play Skyrim again after years not playing and have been doing some research on how to maximize armor/block ratings on a tank character. It's been fun, and the UESP is super useful! I was wondering about something that left me stumped, though.

On the Block article (), math is done so that one can find how much fortify block is needed to achieve 85% damage reduction of power attacks per shield. All well and good, seems like I'd need 38% fortify block for my Dragonplate set. I don't recall if 38% is achievable without exploits, but I'm assuming it is, especially with the Dragonborn DLC. Anyway, sounds good to me.

No similar discussion, however, is done on the Armor article (). I was wondering if this meant that the damage cap is such that it is not possible to get more than an 80% * 0.66 = 57% reduction on power attacks. If that is not the case, I did some math based on the article and, if displayed armor rating is A, (0.12*A + 3*5) * 0.66 = 0.8 gives A = 886 approximately. So with a shield one would need 886 displayed armor rating to achieve this hypothetical 80% reduction on power attacks cap, or 911 without a shield. This is also pretty achievable - with 100 Smithing and the relevant perk + all the relevant perks, the Skyrim armor calculator (google it, UESP doesn't let me post) tells me as armor as low as Ebony can get there, and with some potions/enchanted gear it's probably possible to do it with most heavy armor sets. So it seems like a total of 38% fortify block enchantments, plus improved gear at 100 Smithing with the relevant perks and all shield/heavy armor perks comfortably gets me all the physical damage reduction (including power attacks) I can get (besides using Dragonhide, I guess), from both normal and power attacks.

Can anyone check me? Am I wrong anywhere? Is it actually unnecessary to get above the armor cap for some reason? I was just wondering why the Block article mentioned needing more blocking to get the cap considering power attacks, but the armor article did not consider that. If I'm correct I'd love to detail the math so we can append the armor article with this, of course. In any case, please let me know if anything is wrong so I can adjust my in game plans!

wait, does power attack reduce your armor??? or does it simply increase attack power and then result just goes thru same armor formula as regular attack just with higher damage input?

From what I understand on the block article, power attacks count your block as lower - since the article says you must multiply your current blocked percentage by 0.66 to get to how much damage you block on a power attack. I assumed this was the same for armor

its probably mean that it does 1/3 more damage than regular attack from same enemy with same weapon, as to that "multiply by 0,66" its means : example you get 100 damage when blocking against regular attack, to get 100 damage from power attack while blocking you need 1/3 more block/armor (but then you will get about 66 from regular attack)

as to armor cap its same whatever against regular or power attack , its just power attack inputs more damage into formula while damage reduction stays the same , as damage reduction is is in percentages of damage inputed ( like 80% reduction stays 80% reduction power or not, just applied on different amount of damage)