Mine already have. And while they may be as frequent as dragon attacks, they're more difficult to deal with because they spawn in random places and will often kill npcs before I even know what's happening.

There shouldn't be Vampire attacks until you're far enough into the either the Dawnguard questline, or are sufficiently levelled. Vampire Masters are practically boss fights and they're not even levelled opponents now.

If anything, I've found that it'll sometimes spawn the vamps outside the walls, right next to you, rather than within.

It's an invasion... invasions don't care if you're an unprepared flower merchant. the whole point to the urgency of the expansion is that Vampires have increased in number and are now trying to exert their dominance over Skyrim.

There is no "shouldn't be until". That's like telling the Axis powers in WWII to "hang on until my forces are ready so it'll be a fair fight"...

It's no worse than Dragon attacks. Actually act like the Dovahkiin and handle some business.

Disregard that dragons only spawn after you beat the one outside of Whiterun. And not in groups. And not nearly as frequently. And one actually has the potential to stop them from killing everyone if they're skilled enough.

Exactly, low level players are spending most of their time in the area of Whiterun Hold, so whether you like it or not that Vampire army is coming for you. Death Hounds have the potential to solo non guard NPC's, so having to deal with 4-6 mobs while trying to keep NPC's alive with a minimal skillset, along with the fact that the Vampires bring their buddies back to life, it's chaos.

At least dragon attacks are leveled. From what I'm hearing, these vamp invasions are not so much.

They aren't, it tends to be Master level Vampires with a few cronies.

Really? Have you tried various characters of various levels? Also, if they're called "Master Vampire" They could be level 18 or level 42, as they are levelled without name change.

If it's true they're all hard then that really svcks though.

Well now all of Whiterun is gone, only essentials. Kinda bummed because this is my good character and he didn't kill any citizens...

Out of curiosity...do the vampires who attack cities have a different name or seem different from vampires you fight in the rest of Dawnguard?

You make a valid point, but there's still a way this can make sense. An invasion takes time to muster. Maybe it only starts off in small skirmishes between vampires and vigilants / dawnguard outside of cities, and as the MQ continues, you the invasions increase in frequency and start within cities, and as your level increases so do the vampires and guards. It would make the invasion a little less brutal, and satisfy your logical point as well.

They're just regular vampires not Lords. But so far I've only seen Vampire Masters, the problem I run into with my lvl 81 character is by the kill I kill them he's killed like 5 people he's always running around can be hard to get a good aim.

Prior to dawnguard I fast traveled to the thieves guild and about 20 draugr were waiting.. One kept appearing after two other fast travels. Enemy spawns on fast travel are rediculous and don't make any sense, it just shouldn't happen.
Currently my dawnguard quests haven't taken me near towns but if it is as bad as it sounds I hope my level 81 character can handle it, especially considering all my characters enemy are top level including vamp thralls! I don't see how they can just spawn into a fortified town without alerting the guards outside the walls and being stopped by them.. It just shouldn't happen. Even if there is a war on.
The essential npc's that get killed are supposed to have a relative replace them acording to Todd at the initial demo of skyrim! I have only seen that happen once.. Yet heaps of others are killed and not replaced.. That is just a little bit BS!! If they actually delivered what they promised none of this would be an issue.

Can you reverse pickpocket superior weapons and armor onto guards to use. Grinding out Smithing with Dwarven, might as well put it to good use.

I think you can reverse pickpocket weapons I hear that's what some people are doing making crossbows and handing them out to guards.

@xophoenix

They are disguised as "Traveler"s until they reach a certain spot in the city, then they attack.

They are leveled random attacks. It doesn't matter if you're level 5, 18, 38, or 72 (I've tried it at all of these levels). The Vamps are still labeled as Master Vampires every single time, but the abilities and the stats of said vampires are leveled to the character level.

At lower to mid-range levels, the City Guards will almost always just punk the hell out of the invading vamps. At later levels, the City Guards do have a difficult time with defeating them, but you're the Dovahkiin. This sort of stuff is what you're there for. And by the time you hit your later levels, you should be knocking off master Vampires with relative ease, regardless of how much they run around, unless we have a bunch of poor character builds floating through Tamriel...

LOL as a PC gamer, some of the comments on this and the previous thread have cheered me up no end!! , i mean in a funny way!!

I see people saying weapons is doable, but nothing about armor.

I would like to see this fix, cause solitude, windhelm, and whiterun to name a few is pretty empty, and it's sad that I can't continue the Skyrim main story due to the vampires being overly powered and killing everything person insight.

Let's assume for a second that, since we are the Dovakhiin, we should just "man/woman up" and fight off the vampires every time they come in. Doesn't that become annoying and tedious? At what point do we cross the line from "engaging challenge" to "annoying hinderance"?

Can anyone put a bloody video on youtube so I can actually see this damn event ? So many posts about it got me worried about purchasing the DLC at all. Give me a video so I can see it myself ... and not after they wiped out the entire city, I want to see the entire beginning and the end of it.

Thank you very much...

or the vampires that hide in each city that Gunmar or whomever should hinder then attack since they're scout is dead and the other vampires give up the attack per se. but I don't see this being fixed no time soon.

What about every bandit attack on the road? Every Hired Thug Group? That DB assassin encounter or Thief? While we are at it let's remove wolves and bears from the game so that nothing ever attacks anything and the game is a sit around and do nothing sim ok?