This has been my issue as well, I haven't yet beaten him tho because I refuse to use health potions. Really wish I had three legendary nord warriors to help!

Some people may be confusing Alduin fights here. This is the spoiler forum, so I'll go ahead and say it: You actually fight Alduin twice.

The first time is on the Throat of the World, after using the Elder Scroll to learn the Dragonrend shout. That fight IS hard, at least it was for me. On both characters I've played it on, I went through a ton of healing potions, just to survive his breath weapon. It took several minutes, I had to reload several times, and no matter what I did, it was extremely challenging. That fight was EPIC.

The second time is what everyone is complaining about. The very last fight of the main quest, you fight Alduin again, in Sovngarde. This fight is easy for anyone. The only way to fail it is to play it stupidly. It is just a fact that the ancient heroes can easily kill Alduin all by themselves- all you have to do is refresh the Dragonrend shout until he is dead (he can't be damaged unless under the dragonrend effect).

I don't regard 100% cast reduction as an exploit. The issue with Bethesda's games is that when you get into a powergaming/minmaxing mindset, the balance crumbles crumbles quickly. It seems they will never get better at this.

agreed it should have just been the Player and the "Nord Heros" should have just stayed inside like the wimpy babies they seemed to be.

And there's the rub. I touched on this in my post, and suggested some relevant improvements, but there's really no way to do it for the full range of power levels characters can attain due to the vast difference between the extremes. Any fight geared towards the 'twinked-out' characters will obliterate pretty much anything else, while those same characters will walk all over anything aimed at less powerful characters.

One possible answer, although I know some folks will hate the idea, is to borrow a page from fighting games and have the AI itself scale. In these games, the higher the difficulty the faster the AI reacts and the better it handles its move-set, often to the point where you need tournament-caliber skill just to keep up. Now, I don't suggest ramping things up that far, since Skyrim isn't meant to be brutally difficult, however if the AI recalibrates itself according to the difficulty setting and the player's power level then it would always provide a challenge. I don't know if such a thing can be implemented or not, as I don't know the AI's architecture, but I would imagine that at least something along these lines should be possible.

That's what happens when you make your character overpowered, you shouldn't complain really.

You have the solution. I've been kind of annoyed that increased difficulty in Tes games simply means more damage done by mobs, more hp for them and you doing less damage. While that stuff should play a part a more difficult AI should be relied upon to provide the bulk of the difficulty increase. If they just made bosses smarter and gave them a few unique abilities we had to contend with it would make a world of difference.

Also some of the maxing of characters is a balance issue, the extremes that can be reached in weapon damage are a mistake. Or that's the impression I've gotten at least. So if they balanced things a bit it would be easier to solve the difficulty problem.

how did i make it overpowered? i didn't use any enchanting, robes can't be improved by blacksmithing, and my alchemie is to low to make any usefull potions.
i got the 100% reduction by finding all the clothing from killed mobs, chests that are scatered around and completing quests.. i allmost never use any shout.. the one i used the most is the sprint to get to hard to get places.

If i would be overpowered i would have alchemie / blacksmithing / enchanting all on 100 and make the best set there is.. but the only thing i have on 100 is destruction and BS.

But the post was about the fight against Alduin.. if you just play the game, get gear from killing and questing, the fight is just to lame easy.
Both on the mountain and in sovngarde.


and i've seen several nice tips for the game makers to look into.. (that is just a hint)

You're just special then, because the first fight with Alduin was [censored] hard as hell.

I think it's a matter of build. My illusion based thief really struggled with Alduin on the mountain top due to my low hp. I had to put a ton of points into Magic since I don't have much cost reduction gear and he could kill me by just looking at me. It took at least a dozen tries to get him down.

it just depends on what class you play, as a mage it is just plain simple whit the destruction stun lock and whit marksman its just as easy.
had a 34 warrior whit marksman on 100 and a improved abony bow.. he was down in 5 shots.

also what race you play whit is of importance, as an argonian i had fast HP regeneration, wich is very usefull to have.

true.. i can think of some class builds that are harder to play whit, but every class has it own ups and downs.
the thing that killed me the most while playing a mage was a mamoth skull hitting me from hehind..

but as a thief you use daggers i suppose, the deadric razor can beusefull if the enchanting hit chanse is a bit good, and the thieves guild gives some nice ones whit absorb hp. If anything else fails, just grab a bow and get him down, just make sure you get out of his blasts asap.

Funny fact, Mehrunes Razor can actually 1-shot him.

Yeah the fight required a follower to keep his attention, Mjoll decked out in upgraded Falmer armor. Constant use of Dragonrend to keep him down, and regular use of Clear Skies to get rid of those meteor showers as even those damn things could kill me easily lol. Then liberal use of the bow and hiding behind the world wall.

He still killed me a lot but I eventually won. Was a ton of fun considering challenges can be few and far between at level 57.

I agree. I'm level 49 (wearing the Nightingale Armor and Masque of Clavicus Vile looking rather dashing, I will add), armed with Dragon Rend. This battle is a continuous kick to the 'nards!
Alduin will quickly rise up again, thus not giving me much time with my bow. Meanwhile, Paarthurnax is just lollygagging whispering to Alduin "Nice day guv'nor! Fancy a cup of tea?"

For the love of the 9, Paarthy-baby, KILL HIM!!!

*facepalm*

When the 3 heroes jumping about beating on Alduin I just felt I was in the way...I got in 3 sword strikes before they wasted him...SIGH...

Masters.

+120% fortify archery.

7 arrows = Alduin down.

Most anticlimactic kill in gaming history.

Epic fail.

i defeated alduin using my fists and no shouts he landed on his own accord and it still wasnt very hard.

and im a girl

yea I do agree that the fight was pretty easy, I had spellbreaker on so the only way alduin could hit me is by using melee. weird thing is I didn't even die once which is odd because I've died 5X more in Skyrim than I've evevr died in Oblivion.

I once ate a huge burrito and it was absolutely delicious!!!

That statement is just as helpful and valid as yours above... Seriously!

it wasnt suppost to be helpfull it was suppost to prove a point!! that alduin is to easy!!!!!!! far to easy.
SO YEAH !!!!SERIOUSLY!!!!

I know. I use dragon rend and he lands. one hit with mehrunez dagger and hes down =( Reloaded a save after words

Seriously?

The Alduin fight was NOT easy.

I am totally yanking your chain.

[img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png[/img]

So I kicked Dagoth Ur's butt. I kicked Almalexia's butt. I kicked Hircine's butt. I would have kicked Mehrunes Dagon's butt, too if they'd let me, even if they'd had "Ridiculously Insanely Difficult" difficulty -- I had reflect damage over 100%. I beat Gears 3 on Insane, too, although this last one took four of us (in Arcade mode) a couple of months to do it. I don't mind an easy boss fight for a change. Why? Because at this point Sonja's the baddest ***** walking around in Tamriel!

Here's a solution to the problem. Try going through it with no perks, on Master level, and run around in regular clothes. Maybe that will be a challenge?