The main reasons to join either side for most players...which do you guys prefer and which is better in the long run

Haven't done the Dawnguard side. So I'd have to go with Vampires. Haven't done Dawnguard due to lack of... well... wanting to do it.

I'd go with crossbows, I was excited about them the most out of the dlc but for me they're way stronger than regular bows. Haven't done all the vampire side yet so I don't know about every artifact yet plus I wouldn't be able to have enhanced crossbows or make exploding bolts.

Dawnguard side was better IMO.

Vampire lord is underwhelming. Crossbows are badass.

1 Hitting Mammoths from 100 yds away is worth the Dawnguard side alone. The mechanics behind VL are shaky and difficult for some users. I personally didn't have a problem, but quite a few of my friends say they have trouble controlling magic and claw attacks.

The Ring of the Erudite's pretty amazing, but these explosive bolts are even better! I guess it comes down to whether you prefer archery or magic.

I will go with Crossbows so much more appealing imho.

I prefer the vampire stuff since i only play pure mages and i never wanted nor cared about crossbows so anything the dawnguard side offers is of no interest to me.

If you are an archer then CBs are more than enough but if you DONT use Archery then any Vamp Artifact is better

same for me.

i do not like being bad and stuff like that so i chose the Dawngaurd. my dwemer corssbow has 264 dmg so that pretty cool i think.

Depends on the character I guess. I have a melee sword and board who relies on archery as a secondary weapon and for that crossbows are perfect, absolutely perfect. I just love them. If I played a "pure archer" I think I'd find them a bit too slow to recharge.

I'm an archer and I still prefer the vampire side.

I've done both sides and have done atleast 20 hours in Radiant quests for both with all of the artifacts for both. There are also DG artifacts including the Rune warhammer, the shield and the war axe. Besides that, in my opinion, the crossbows add alot more variety to the game. I still prefer bow and arrow, but my OCD regarding needing to have tons of arrows and bolts gives me more things to do. I think in the end, instead of benefits, it boils down to whether you think it's cooler to be a Vampire Lord or if you think being a Vampire Hunter is cooler.

Do you need to buy weapons like the Rune Hammer or does it involve doing one of those radiant quests? I have OCD when it comes to arrows/bolts as well.

They're radiant quests from Florentius I think his name is. He constantly lies about him and his buddy Arkay.

Damn, thanks man. I knew I didn't do all the radiant quests.

Vampire Artifacts.

I don't have to worry about reloading or running out of ammo. I have much more variety in the Vampire Artifacts than I do with the Crossbows. The Vampire attacks are already boss, the artifacts make them Deific-like powerful (I can take down an entire Giant Camp, Mammoths and all, without ever getting hit once).

Toss in the Vampire Royal Armor to help my Magica Regen rate... I'm like a God of the Dead.

With all of this power, Crossbows mean very little to me.

The dawnguard artifacts are cool, but like most ancient and/or legendary weapons you get, they aren't what you use in the long run.
Anyways, I like Gearbane, my Enhanced Dwemer Crossbow with the Notched pickaxe effect on it, but finding and buying the bolts is a hassle, seeing as i only use Dwemer bolts.
I haven't seen the Vampire artifacts yet.

you can craft dwemer bolts if smitthings your thing as for picking a side i have 7 chars most will be dawnguard

With no points specced into archery, I can still OSOK most bandits and Vampires.

I'm 81 and mainly one hand dragonbone sword, with falmer heavy shield and heavy falmer set/shellbug helm (still
qualifies for "matching set" in the heavy armor tree.)

My armor is legendary, double enchanted for one hand and archery where possible (with other stuff where not.)

So I love my legendary enchanced dwarven crossbow, which is 310 damage (even though I'm not
all the way up in the archery tree, as far as maxing the initial archery damage.) I've got the double
damage sneak perk, as well as the time slows down when zooming in archery perk. That makes using
the crossbow fun.

I've got a ton of dwarven shock bolts, since I had so many freaking void salts.

I don't know about the vampire side, but any of the artifacts I've found (as well as the dawnguard helm and shield)
mostly have crap enchants on them and often don't let you enchant them further. So they are junk to me. They
are also no where near as damaging as my dragonbone sword, already legendary and then with 29 fire
and 29 frost added (I also put those enchants on the enhanced dwarven xbow, it shows that 50 percent
ignoring armor thing, but you can also indeed put two other enchants on it )

I never had any interest in being a werewolf, so I cured that right away. The vampire thing also sounds dumb to me;
from posts I've read, even the lord is kind of gimpy and only fun to use on lesser things (with you switching
to your regular self/gear for the harder mobs.)

The strongest crossbow you can get is stronger than the strongeat bow in overall damage plus it negates 50% armor . You can still a vamp lord if you do the dawnguard side anyway, you wouldnt reallly be missing out. I would go dawnguard.

nice

I dont see how everyones damage is so low, mines like over 800 non enchanted.