Question about the Armorer skill.

[Serpya_Wolfgand]

Give it or take it. How high would it usually need to be before it came to the point where buiyng repair hammers from a smith and repairing your itens yourself is actually most cost-effective then paiyng the smith to repair then?

[SeaGtGruff]

I always try to repair my gear myself as much as possible, partly because I hate paying others to do it, but mostly because the only way to level it up (without paying for lessons) is to use it at every opportunity.

[Serpya_Wolfgand]

Yeah, and when I find hammers, I will use then, but I am just wondering when it becomes a worthwhile investment to actually buy then. Because of how much money I find myself forced to waste on bribes( My character's Personality isnt exactly bragging material ), I have to expend my money carefully.

[Wolfborn]

It sounds like whatever mod(s) you're running are making the game considerably more challenging than the vanilla version. In 7+ years of playing the game, I don't think I ever used bribes more than maybe half-a-dozen times, if that. Pretty much every NPC should tell you whatever you need to know as long as their disposition towards you is at least 30, and it usually takes deliberate effort to get their disposition lower than that, even with a low personality. I'd be interested to know why and in what circumstances you're being forced to make all these bribes.

As for the hammer thing, there's no easy answer. I don't think anyone's ever done a cost-benefit analysis of hammer cost vs. skill level. It's also quite possible that your mod(s) have changed something in that area as well, meaning a vanilla answer wouldn't do any good even if I could give you one. The only thing I can suggest is to check how much it would cost to have a smith repair your things before you use a hammer to do it yourself, and see how far you get with the hammer vs. the smith's cost.

If you're looking for a free source of hammers, the best place is the Fighters Guild. It might be worth joining them even if you don't intend to do their quests just to get the free hammers from the equipment chests in the guild halls. (Again, mod(s), YMMV.)