I'd like to add:

Most of the complaints about dragons (that I see) could be easlity fixed with a patch.

Lets not lose hope on them.....I mean....they're dragons!

I wish they got harder as you level up and give off greater rewards... I know they do this to some extent but not enough. The first dragon you fight you should as hard as the last dragon you fight

Agreed. Although whether Bethesda decides to address such things in a patch, is the real deciding factor here. Those of us on PC can always self adjust them, though our less fortunate console players would be out of luck in that case.

If nothing else, Alduin over all others needs a serious overhaul, and by overhaul I mean they possibly have to scrap the entire fight as it is and start over to make it actually interesting and challenging, while different from every other dragon we fight.

So what would make them better imo?


Mobility on the ground, stop standing in place like a Tank, to some players you arent.

If the player is whacking your face and takes 30 secs to give on stagger on the Dragon that player needs to be Batted away.

USE THE SWOOPING and Bite throws more often, it doesn't have to auto kill but it changes things up.

Wing and tail slaps should throw you back.


Biting should have a percentage of bypassing armor.


More shouts availible to the Dragon like Teleporting, Slowing time down where IT moves faster (ever seen a slowed dragon after you use frost breath? hilarious) going ethereal.



Change the Dragon types, you have Dragon and Elder Dragon who can use frost breath, why? other than the language why? how about Dragon then Elder Dragon or Frost Dragon then Elder Frost Dragon or Blood Dragon and Ancient Dragon equivalents? get them to move more and prioritize better, I don't want to be the center of attention out of 1 heavily armed warriors? but I do say wtf when its going off to fight a Mud crab, please do not allude to Dragons having Attention deficite disorder..

The lack of versatility is what suprised me.

They went to all the effort to come up with Thu'um and stuff, just to only have the dragons use 1 breath style attack. And its not like the AI can't handle Shouts, Draugr and Greybeards use them fine.

I'm a bit biased when it comes to dragons (as you can probably guess from my avatar), but I think Skyrim has done the best dragons ever in a game. <3

That's one of the big ones in my opinion. I mean, why is it that our upstart dragonborn knows more of their words of power, than the actual dragons who created/speak it naturally? :whistling:

I mean, Alduin, the eldest dragon only knows 3 shouts? Really?

fighting them is just fine at any level, the part I hate is actually getting to that step, when I'm trying to shoot arrows at this thing circling above, and then it gives up and flies away, would be nice if attacking dragons would actually attack.

When I first heard there would be shield bashing in Skyrim I thought it would be fun to try a kill a dragon with shield bashing. When I found out you could easily murder a dragon on Master with shield bashing though I just had to let out a sigh that not only was it possible but easy to kill a dragon this way, even if it takes a few hits to do it.

Dragons could definitely be quite a bit stronger.

Dragons are lackluster. Nord sword and board on master difficulty, did not abuse crafting mechanics and just wait till they land and bash stun and then whack till dead.

Not even Elder dragons and Ancient Dragons are a problem if I keep my shield up. A little disappointed.

Wish they had more attack methods and animations. Breath fire, snap with the teeth, breath fire again, fly off, rinse and repeat. Oh, and that jumping on the dragons head finishing move is completely [censored]. All the dragon had to do was swing violently from side to side real quick and you would fly off in an instant. Not to mention that it never looks right. Always half on and sword strikes look rediculous.

I Love the Dragons. I like watching them fly in the distance. My only gripe with them is, everytime I fast travel to the college, their's a dragon to fight. The court yard looks like a bone yard. At the college they are easy, I have pillars to hide behind. Climbing up the side of a Mountian on the other hand, can be challenging. But I have more trouble with killing the Draugr deathlords.

cliffracers 2.0. my warrior with no ranged capability beyond shouts curbstomps anything less than ancient on expert, and ancients only require that i down a few looted potions. i had to restrict myself from ever using dragonrend just to make the fight last more than 30 seconds... in which case they always get ADHD and fly off to fight a mudcrab or something. i already have more souls than i know what to do with. the frost troll at high horthgar, a random snow bear, and draugr deathlords (who mind you cant ragdoll me because i have the perk that stops it) put up much more of a fight and are much more fun to fight.

its just a game of hide of seek while i hit them with the occasional fire-frost breath, then when they are dumb enough to land i sprint attack them repeatedly until they are dead or fly off, rinse and repeat. the only time a dragon really gave me a challenge is when i accidentally aggroed krosis and had to fight both of them; i was only like level 23 or so in that fight BTW. even 2 dragons at once wasnt a challenge.

what went wrong? random encounters are a double-edged sword, and instead of risking the occasional town massacre for a much more engaging and challenging dragon encounter, beth just made them weak and plentiful, making both edges of the sword as dull and safe as possible.

The first Dragon at Helgen was a bit glitchy for me, so I was a bit put off. The first proper dragon fight was probably the best having no idea what to expect and seeing it wipe out all those guards. Unfortunately the routine gets old fast and dragons become pretty annoying. The only other dragon fights I found challenging after that (so far) are when combined with other enemies.

Sort of wish they could throw you around outside of the kill animations, for instance when you approach one from the ground and they do that kinda weak looking wing flap attack it might turn out a bit more brutal if it could knock you off your feet (but not outright kill you).

Also never seen a melee finishing move on a dragon ? Apparently there are some but maybe my character just isn't strong enough yet ?

I wished they was more powerful and used a bigger variety of shouts. Other than that I think they are interesting and I like the fights they are fun but to easy and predictable.

in a word, epic.

There's nothing like the feeling of sprinting to close into melee range with a dragon once it lands, with that special music that only plays during dragon fights playing in the background. They have so much weight behind them, and feel massive and dangerous to fight. You feel like a real Nord hero with your tiny sword and shield, staring one of these monsters in the mouth. Awesome.

No. Ew no.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGZwS4LVd6E&feature=related The problem with Skyrim is that the game doesn't make the dragons bad ass enough that defeating them feels epic. In Vagrant Story, if you didn't come in with the proper equipment to resist their breath weapon, there's a fair chance that you could get breathed and that was it. Also, their damage resistance was to the point if you didn't have proper weaponry to fight them, you could be doing almost no damage. Of course, you could get to a point where dragons were easy to take out, but it wasn't handed to you on a sliver platter - you had to game the game to be able to take down dragons with ease. I'm not saying Skyrim dragons need to be Demon/Dark Souls hard... but, well, Bethesda should have tried to capture something close to that feel. They're too easy, and if you game the fights, you can one-shot them. Leveled dragon enemies shouldn't be one-shotable ever.

I guess there are always mods. First thing I would do is make dragons unable to be staggered. Second, make the breath weapons ignore magic resistance, only reduced by actual elemental protection. After that, I'd like to see some new dragon types. Thunder Dragons, Earth Dragons, Dark Dragons, Undead Dragons, Holy Dragons, and then maybe some special "Dragon Primes" that are meant to handle even the most insanely powerful players (Ruby and Emerald Dragons anyone?). Seriously, when you enter a dragon's lair without knowing what is to come, you should be fearful of the fight. I don't know if I've ever felt like I needed to bring some resist potions because I was under geared for a dragon fight. The closest I've ever felt to that in this game is the first time I battled a Dragon Priest and it wiped the floor with me. Every new dragon encountered should be like that, mopping the floor with you if you don't have the gear or the potions for the fight.

Vagrant story had dragons? I played the ass off that game and the only memorable enemy that springs to mind was that chick with a bunch of arms. Azura I think her name was (no relation to Elder Scrolls Azura I think)

I voted: They are weak, but it's probably because I play on Adept or a lower difficulty or my charcter is overpowered.

I played on Adept during my first playthrough. Haven't encountered a dragon on anything other than that so far.

The first few dragons were challenging because I did so little damage and they 1 hit KOd me, but after unlocking Dragonrend they became pathetic. Even without it now they aren't much to talk about besides their ability to absorb damage like it doesn't even effect them. But once you learn there attack patterns they are easier to kill then Ice Wolves.

Yeah it had dragons and it had wyverns. The wyverns were a joke but the dragons could be deadly if they breathed you and you didn't have the proper protection up. The most memorable dragon is probably the Earth Dragon. First dragon that really challenges you. Later on you get into the groove of dragon battles and you have stuff like Dragonite, along with the proper wards, so they become easier, and eventually arguably trivial especially when you NG+, but the Earth Dragon... he was a tough cookie. I think part of it was that dragon breath wasn't "magic" damage, so you couldn't just flat out ignore it. You needed the proper resistance. I don't think run of the mile dragons that ambush you should necessarily require you to wear resist gear in Skyrim, but when you wander into the lair of a dragon, I feel there should be the expectation that you came for an epic battle.

You know, another game that had dragons was World of Warcraft. The one thing I will give that game is that when you wander into a dragon's lair and you're looking at it and it is looking at you, the tension before the battle is huge. I've never felt threatened like that in Skyrim. I think maybe once ever I saved the game before a dragon battle.

I'm honestly more than a little disappointed they did not take any cues from the Monster Hunter series, as far as diversifying and making their dragons challenging.

you shoot dragons with music? i always roll with potshots, personally.
/smirk

I love them. I've only played on Adept so far with my first character but might boost it for a different character.

I don't mind them getting easier when I'm high level. After 60 levels of dragon-bashing, it feels only natural being able to destroy them easily. If your character would still be getting owned by them all the time at that level, then it would seem they aren't a very good dragonslayer in the first place.I think it only makes sense for dragons to get easier in general as you level up. It's a sign that you're getting more powerful, and getting used to how to deal with them.

Yes after a while they become predictable. But honestly. How unpredictable COULD they ever be? They only ever have 2 attacks: breath weapon or melee (bite or tail slam). And the two finishing moves (grabbed in teeth and thrown, or fly-by swoop attack pick-up and drop). I'm glad they're more bestial like that and don't cast spells like a mage or anything. Occasionally they use some shouts but not often.

Unless they're Elder, I really don't have any problem with them. But then again, I play on Adept so...

Models look great. The AI is pretty good when they strafe bomb you.

It's gonna be nice when a Modder allows us to buy and ride these...