I'm on PS3, so sadly, I haven't had the chance to play Dawnguard yet (and so far, my buddies on Xbox haven't gotten it, but they have Skyrim).

That said, I've always been a big wolf and werewolf enthusiast and was quite excited to find them in Skyrim, as they were missing sorely in Oblivion. Since release, I have used and, I believe, mastered the beast form--I'm still competent enough to take on mammoths, giants, dragons, Whiterun guards and anything else the game can throw at me, even at high levels, without the DLC.

Dawnguard has served to further excite me, and I anxiously await its release on other platforms so that my Nord paladin can grow in strength exponentially. From what I understand, werewolves have become incredibly potent: a fully perked werewolf deals 140(!) damage per hit with huge DPS and strong power attacks that can launch anything short of a dragon or mammoth, has 150 extra health and stamina and can heal 100 points of health by feeding on virtually anything, can run faster than a humanoid can sprint and can sprint faster than a horse. Already that's some incredible force, but werewolves have access to one of three potentially powerful howls ("shouts") at a time.

This, I think, is where the problem lies.

Werewolves have a perk tree in the first place to balance out with the vampire lord. Compare a werewolf's melee capacity, then, to its counterpart: vampire lords can potentially (with a certain pair of artifacts I know little about) have 150 extra health and three ways to siphon health from enemies, two of which happen primarily in melee range.

Ideally, a melee-centric vampire lord will have 150 bonus to health, relatively good melee attacks (I don't know the base damage or many details about power attacks) with an extra 20 points of poison damage in every hit, a cloak of bats that siphons health from enemies in melee range (10 points per second, I believe--correct me if I'm wrong), the ability to regain all health by killing a humanoid enemy with a power attack and access to all of the night powers, which include a teleportation dodge (Bats), temporary invincibility combined with increased regeneration rate on all attributes (Mist Form), and a treat that works, I expect, like a better version of Slow Time (Supernatural Reflexes, which is stated in-game to make you move faster while enemies move slower as opposed to making everything slow and making you not as slow). On top of all this, a vampire lord can switch to "magic mode" at any time and is not limited by a blood-fueled, temporary transformation. Finally, a vampire's main form of attack is siphoning the health out of people, which lends itself to constant survivability.

My gripe is this: that despite an entire perk tree dedicated to balance, werewolves can only access one power (howl) at a time while vampires can access several. Can vampire lords use different night powers in succession if one is in cooldown and another isn't? Even if they can't, they still have access to all their powers.

In terms of melee, werewolves may do a boatload of damage, but it seems to me that vampires have the upper hand. We only have one artifact (the Ring of Hircine), and all it does is enable multiple transformations per day--something vampire lords can already do. The only reason that ability is even valuable to us is because we can normally transform just once daily and because the transformation is temporary; vampire lords suffer neither of these shortcomings. I'm not saying that it's a bad idea that werewolves have a time limit--on the contrary, I'm fond of the bloodlust--but it's upsetting that we only have one artifact that doesn't even buff our transformation. I wouldn't even consider the Totems of Hircine artifacts in that respect; they merely allow us to use our perks, while vampire lords have access to all their perks at all times as soon as they're unlocked. On top of this, vampire lords get (I think four) different artifacts that boost their attributes and abilities.

The least, I believe, that can be done for werewolves is that they should be allowed access to the Favorites menu to switch between howls. It's nice to be able to detect life, but it's sad when vampires can do the same without having to sacrifice the utility of three other perks and two whole powers (for that matter, vampire lords can detect all creatures; I'm not sure that even an upgraded werewolf can detect Dwemer automatons).

And this is all when compared to a melee-centric vampire lord. I'm not asking for werewolves to sling spells, but how about allowing us to sneak?

A good compromise, as I imagine it, would be the following:

-Grant werewolves a sneak mode that works similarly to the Sneak skill. Silent sneak attack criticals (werewolf assassinations!), slower and quieter travel, ability to remain undetected, etc. Very basic. Obviously, no howls in this mode (similar to how vampire lords cannot access blood magic on the ground).

-Allow us to access and switch between all howls via the favorites menu.

-Give werewolves different buffs depending on which totem was last prayed to, similar to how they and standing stones work now. Perhaps the Totem of the Hunt would buff Sneak mode while the Totem of Brotherhood would allow us to summon a third werewolf or make the existing two stronger, etc.

Fair and simple, I personally think. What are your thoughts, folks? I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have mastered both the werewolf and vampire lord forms; they must have interesting and well-sourced opinions on balance.