Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-11442700-20130716134620/@comment-75.68.28.99-20130825171935

All the people on forums saying his gear is "usless" just don't know how to use it to make themselves 100% unkillable by magic, and over 80-90% resistant to physical attacks, while ONLY having to max out ONE single skill tree, 2 if you want to benefit physical defense even further than 80% (Alteration is required, but to surpass 80% physical defense, Light Armor, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, and/or Alchemy). To achieve similar results, you would have to devote at least FOUR skill trees to defense, while having few left for offense, depending on your level (ex: Alteration, Smithing, Light or Heavy Armor, Enchanting or Alchemy combined), whereas just using Miraak's gear leaves you tons of space to use whichever skill trees you want for offense, whether Archery or any of the Magic and Weapons trees. I use it all the time, with awesome results, and I only ever play on Legendary. All you have to do is max out Alteration, which is extraordinarily easy to do quickly, and you're 1-2 easy steps away from your choice of between 60-100% spell absorption, which is the one stat that doesn't have a cap. If you don't want to be a vampire and/or waste perks in Restoration to use the Necromage buff for 100% spell absorb, you can much more easily get 100% just with the Atronach Alteration perk (30% absorb), the Atronach Stone buff (50% absorb, +50 magicka, -50% magicka regen), and Miraak's 3 piece gear set (you actually only need to wear the chest and one other piece for the last 20% absorb). This makes you 100% immune (plus you absorb the magicka) to ANY spell, dragon's breath, shout, elemental damage, etc, which makes all the tricky high level mage bosses a joke.

While this leaves you weak to physical damage, since his armor can't be upgraded at all, you already had to max Alteration for Atronach; that means you can just do the Alteration Ritual quest at the college for the Dragonhide mage armor spell, which is the equivalent of a fully damage-capped armor set (80% damage reduction) PLUS it stacks with the minimal armor you get from Miraak's gear. This is why Miraak's gear appears to be weak, because if you could upgrade the pieces, it would be too easy to become literally unkillable. BUT, a trick to maximize this is one that people seem to forget; you can wear an extra hood (Thieves' Guild, Blackguard Hood, etc.) over ANY Dragon Priest Mask, including Miraak's own (it's not necessary for any of this; I personally just love the style). Hoods are the easiest pieces to upgrade, and if you combine a novice or expert  Smithing skill  with Enchanting and/or Alchemy, you can bring the hoods armor rating well over 100 with ease, leaving you with a total armor rate somewhere between 150-350, depending on your Armor skill perks.

HOWEVER, that is then ADDED on to the 80% from the Dragonhide spell, giving you well over it's 80% physical damage reduction, and 100% immunity/absorption of magic, making you just about unkillable; you could only die if you took way too many physical hits from the strongest characters in the game. If you want, enchant your leftover pieces (hood, neck, ring, ) with whatever stats you want to use in combat, or find good pieces (for melee I like the Locket of Saint Jiub which actually adds a bit more armor, unique for a necklace, and the Ring of Namira to make up for missing stamina, and the cannibal feed buff.)