I thought the Soul Cairn was awesome at first. Then I had to go fight the 3 bosses. I had shut off my compass at the time, and Valeria gives you some directions like "the tallest towers". So not helpful.

Ever check the 'map' while in that place? It's ... strange.

Anyway, I ended up running back and forth across that landscape more than I wanted. Think I've had my fill of the Soul Cairn.

i thought it was awesome my first time, haven't played the d/c a second time because i just got bored of skyrim in general. But my favorite part was the Reaper, remeinded me of the lich boss from gauntlet dark legacy

Reaper was weak and disappoinitng. Not to mention he had no purpose.

Lol so what is it? Biper says it was the best part and you said it's weak and disappointing?

The fight lasted like 10-15 seconds. I was level 52 or 53 with Dawnguard Rune Axe and Nord Hero Sword. He might have hit hard, maybe I used pots, but honestly it happened so fast that I was like "Wha...?!".

Matter of opinion I guess, I hate the Soul Cairn...but not because it is boring, but because the place is creepy. I dont find it boring to be honest but maybe its just me.

I was just a little mad I couldn't fast travel. It was sort if boring.

Fast travel where?

Uh... Around the Soul Cairn, where else?

i personally fell its a single worst-annoying place in all of the skyrim

The Soul Cairn could have had its aesthetics without the entire zone being completely dull and empty.

The page fetch quest was awful and the Reaper was so anticlimactic. I spent maybe 2 hours in the Soul Cairn and after 30 minutes I honestly couldn't wait to get out because of how boring it was. When an "aesthetics" choice (if that's what it truly was) starts having a negative impact on gameplay you have a serious development malfunction.

What is this reaper? I did the main quests and left the place ASAP.

I remember killing the guardians and finding some guy in a tower, fus ro da, he fell off the tower and that was it. I didn't even know he was a quest target I just finished a quest by knocking him off the tower.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Soul Cairn quite a bit. I thought the lore behind it was interesting. The scenery was a nice change of pace compared to normal Skyrim. The quests and enemies in it were interesting. I also liked the new conjuration spells that were available there. Sure it was big and fairly empty and confusing, but like some other people said that is the point.

I'm very curious. Other than personal opinion on what the Soul Cairn is, nor based on NPC comments. How do you know it's supposed to be a navigational nightmare?? If you have insider information do you have anything you can share on Hearthfire?

Personally, the Soul Cairn was WAY cool... at first. Then it just got so very annoying. It's one thing for a level to feel creepy and such. But feeling bothersome and tedious just isn't a good thing.

That said.. I love my and my Skyrim and Dawnguard too.

I love it. The way the area looks and the fact that there's no map for the place forces you to use landmarkings, which I like. I love the look of the place. Reminds me of the outworld in mortal combat.

Visually it's stunning but there's a touch of " lack luster " when you enter. By " lack luster " I mean that there's a real lack of undead evil things standing in the way of you and your objective, my first time there I expected to end up with a hand cramp because of fending off the undead horde. All in all I think there was a total of 25 things I killed,including the keepers, so to me it wasn't as scary as it could have been, it could have done with more hostile NPC's or at the very least make it so that the floating spirits that buzz around sap you of a small percentage of life force if you choose to go it as a living being and not a vampire. This then would make those few encounters you have more deadly all because your health is being drained on a constant basis.

I have been playing casually, and just entered it last night. It has a different feel than normal skyrim (sort of like dark souls) so the contrast was interesting. But, the layout is definitely confusing. I have 7 pages, only one shard, and killed the keepers. We killed the drag, but he seems hopelessly perched/dead on top of the tower. Cannot interact with him. Quit around 2am. Serana and her mom continue to fire elements at him while he shows no health remaining. Will have to reload, and do that battle again, because I dont think it ended correctly. Thus, my opinion is that I think it was a great idea, but suffers from some definite implementation flaws..

The lost vale and soul cairn are only worth seeing one time. I don't think I'll ever do those again because yeah it's big but there's nothing in it really.

I've read many times on this forum that the Forgotten Vale is brilliant.

haha but then theres me who agrees with him, it was kind of annoying. And the glitched quest marker made it a bit more annoying. I couldn't tell if it wanted me on top of some unclimbable mountain or something xD

I mainly am not repeating the DLC because of the forgotten vale and darkfall cave. Although I liked the portion of forgotten vale that took place over the ice.

Forgotten Vale is mostly a large area to do nothing but run around in and take in the sights. Theres some combat, but most of the traveling you'll be doing is purely travel.

Indeed. I'm actually put off doing the Dawnguard main quest again because of how dull the Soul Cairn is.

glad I wasn't the only person

i think it is exactly how it should be dark empty with the soultrapped souls scattered around the area
Only problem i had was finding that damn skull and when i found it i never found the owner again

Finding the skull was kind of weird for me, it didn't seem to be pointing me to it. And eventually I ran into it by accident. The owner I think was the same thing. I just happened to pass him.

I think the design is well done in soul cairn. If you're just there for the main quest thing, you have no problem finding it and you get it all marked. If you want to navigate, on the first time it was very confusing but on second playthrough i was already able to navigate it so much i had no real issues finding jiub's opus pages nor any other stuff. Kinda like Blackreach, i mean, Tower of Mzark there is easy to find and easy to reach but there's much to explore and get lost in if you feel like it. And Soul Cairn really hit the nail on the head with the overall feel, i mean, i almost felt bad sending souls there by soultrapping them

And as far as Arvak's skull quest goes, quest marker doesn't point you towards the skull but towards the previous owner's soul, which will spawn in the vicinity of the skull once you pick it up.