What are the top 10 best armours in skyrim?

Answer 1

If 'best' is armour rating alone,

Daedric,

Stahlrim,

Dragonbone,

Ebony,

Orcish,

Steel Plate

Dwarven,

Steel,

Iron.

Stahlrim and Dragonbone are equally protective, but Stahlrim is lighter.

Answer 2

Really? A request for a top ten list? Here's an idea, why not go over to one of the Skyrim wikis, pull up a list of armor and sort by armor value, and you'll get something like: Daedric, Dragonplate, Ebony, Dragonscale, Orcish, Glass, Steel Plate, Elven Gilded, Scaled as the top ten by armor rating, and they're only a few points off of each other.

Outside of raw statistical fact, you must then be looking for opinion, which doesn't have a place on a site like this, so let's throw some mechanics out there so you understand how little your choice of armor really matters:

Armor rating is internally capped at 80% damage reduction, which happens at rating 567 if you're wearing armor. You won't get any messages or warnings, but if you have your armor rating in that neighborhood, getting it higher won't help. The upper-tier heavy armors are designed to hit the cap fastest with the least amount of skill, but at the same time, their weight is prohibitive. Everything has tradeoffs.

An expert skill (75+) with smithing and the appropriate perk, plus a moderate (50+) armor skill with a few perks can make ANY full suit of armor surpass this. Really, even raggedy fur armor can be gotten up past the armor cap. The question is, then, how much skill is required to get it to that cap. The lower-tier armors need more skill and higher levels of improvement perks in order to get there than the higher-tier armors do.

Between two suits that have surpassed the cap, the next question is weight. This starts favoring the lower-tier armors at higher skill levels, because they weigh considerably less.

That being the case, the best armor would then be whatever flies your flag. Even if it isn't ideal now, it will be as you level up. You can go through the game with the same suit you wore at level 1 and it'll still be as valid as the top armors, assuming you invest time into maintaining it.

Honestly: if YOU like it, then it's the best armor for you. Splitting hairs over protection versus weight, or how much skill it takes to get it to the armor cap doesn't matter if the wearer is satisfied.