Skyrim: Heavy Armor = Hand to Hand Skill?

[Kahlil]

I'm trying to see if I can play Skyrim with a mostly Hand to Hand
character. The description of the "Fists of Steel" perk says:

"Unarmed attacks with Heavy Armor gauntlets do their armor rating in
extra damage."

Does this mean what I think it means: Leveling up Heavy Armor makes you
punch harder? The "armor rating" number displayed for my gauntlets goes
up when Heavy Armor increases.

Also, the description for the Juggernaut perk says:

"Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by X%."

If this is the same "armor rating", then leveling up Juggernaut might
allow heavy gauntlets to compete with non-magical weapons.

One thing I DID notice is that punching things seems to make my Heavy
Armor rating increase. I don't know if this is because they're directly
related, or just because I'm getting hit more when I use hand to hand
fighting. But I'm starting to think that the "missing" Hand to Hand
skill was simply combined with "Heavy Armor".

Holding down both mouse buttons with two empty hands makes you do a
rapid series of punches that drains your stamina really fast, so with
enough points in stamina that might be a viable main attack.

[Xocyll]

Kahlil <kah...@nyc.rr.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

>I'm trying to see if I can play Skyrim with a mostly Hand to Hand
>character. The description of the "Fists of Steel" perk says:
>
>"Unarmed attacks with Heavy Armor gauntlets do their armor rating in
>extra damage."
>
>Does this mean what I think it means: Leveling up Heavy Armor makes you
>punch harder? The "armor rating" number displayed for my gauntlets goes
>up when Heavy Armor increases.
>
>Also, the description for the Juggernaut perk says:
>
>"Increases armor rating for Heavy Armor by X%."
>
>If this is the same "armor rating", then leveling up Juggernaut might
>allow heavy gauntlets to compete with non-magical weapons.
>
>One thing I DID notice is that punching things seems to make my Heavy
>Armor rating increase. I don't know if this is because they're directly
>related, or just because I'm getting hit more when I use hand to hand
>fighting. But I'm starting to think that the "missing" Hand to Hand
>skill was simply combined with "Heavy Armor".

In the previous Elder Scrolls games the only way to increase your armor
skills (other than training) was to actually get hit by something.

I'm guessing since you're hitting things, the armor is taking hits and
thus your skill goes up.

To make sure if it's just H2H hitting that's doing it, and not taking
hits as usual, you'd have to find something to punch that's too
slow/awkward to hit you back.

Hrm, can you use a shield and punch with one hand only, blocking
incoming shots with the shield?

Xocyll

[Kahlil]

I haven't tried it in combat yet, but I just conformed that you can
throw punches with a shield equipped. That should solve the biggest
problem I've been having. I do decent damage, but with two empty hands
there's no way to block (unlike in Oblivion). Last night at level 11 I
was actually able to box a grounded dragon to death. But the lack of
blocking caused me a whole lot of trouble against a snow Sabertooth cat.

I think I'll start carrying around a shield just for situations I can't
handle with two empty hands. It kind of goes against the spirit of my
character. I created "Sir Lang the Clubber" to be a combination
boxer/blacksmith.

[Walter Dazinger]

In article <5zJvq.26126$ql3....@en-nntp-12.dc1.easynews.com>,

Kahlil wrote:

>One thing I DID notice is that punching things seems to make my Heavy
>Armor rating increase. I don't know if this is because they're directly
>related, or just because I'm getting hit more when I use hand to hand

To test this you could try to equip light armor only except gauntlets and
fight for a while, see if it increases your HA rating. Of course there is
still a chance you get hit on your hands by attacks...

Might be a tedious task to kill a dragon with upper cuts and haymakers, though
:-)

WD

[Kahlil]

By now, with my level in the 20's, I've actually killed about 4 or 5
dragons with hand to hand fighting. It really isn't that bad. With
Juggernaut at level 4 and Flawless Steel Plate Gauntlets, the Armor
rating of my gauntlets shows about 63. Plus I disenchated the "Gloves
of the Pugilist" and used them to enchant my Gauntlets and necklace with
+Unarmed damage, so I should be doing over 70 damage per punch.

I don't think punching directly raises Heavy Armor, but it's easy enough
to raise Heavy Armor by just equipping Healing and letting things hit you.