What would be better suited for my Argonian assassin character? He's excellent with bows and reasonably good with illusion magic, but his melee combat is extremely poor. Should I be a werewolf to add up for my inefficiency in melee combat in Argonian form?

You have to choose for yourself. There are more benefits that come out of being a werewolf rather than a vampire tho

Your an assassin? I don't think the werewolf or the vampire lord form is for you tbh. But if you want something to improve your melee I guess werewolf.

The way I see it. The Werewolf is the "Warrior" type class of the Beast World, while the Vampire Lord is the "Mage" type class of the Beast World.

So depending on what you get depends on what you want, since Assassins are stealthy they "may" lack for brutal hand to hand combat, and "may" lack powerful magics.

Now if you aren't fond of Magic and like "Fist Fighting" get the Werewolf.

If you like Magic and like attacking from further away get the Vampire Lord.

Bethesda MAY introduce a Beast that is more like a Thief type class, perfect for sneaking, so.... a Shadow Demon, a Ghost/Phantom/Poltergeist who knows.

I hope this helped

do two saves and play both

Yea do two saves its your best bet. But a heads up serana makes being a VL blow. She greatly weakens it. You feel like god in both forms though they tear up the battlefield. Werewolf makes quick mince meat of anything with its running power attack. VL just owns the field in magic and can hit weaklings hard and fast. Bigger guys take a little longer for them though than the wolf. Just remember serana throughs VL effectiveness out the window in my opinion.

if you dont want two saves (because of roleplaying etc) just do two characters

you only need a lvl 10 and above char to start the quest)

VL are heavily based on magic so mage characters will benefit from them, while people who play as pure juggernaunts will want to be a WV

I enjoy Vampire Lord more. Warewolf form is kinda dull for me all you do is slash targets mostly. I like taking guys and throwing them Only complaint is stupid VL form not being able to go through alot of openings.

The speed of the werewolf gets plus points for me. Forget horses and horse combat, all I need is my trusty Ring of Hircine to get anywhere I want in 5 mins.

(I know I could Fast Travel, but I try not to...)

Werewolf = has to get close to do damage but is very fast to make up for it.

Vampire Lord = Can do massive amounts of damage at range with magic and in close with melee and is very fast.

I personally enjoy VL.

Oh and werewolves have to swim..Vampire Lords fly over water.

Being a Vampire gives a buff to illusion and sneak so Vampirism is better for sneaking/magic characters than Lycanthropy.

This

Vamp lord. The magic attacks are brutal, and you get stat buffs to boot, I noticed in the region of 150-200 added to my magicka pool and 300 bolted onto my health after taking the first perk. Doesn't matter if your weedy, this is the hulk-out transformation

I played werewolf on my khajit assassin pre dawnguard. It was more of a fun factor than anything. If you play an assassin correctly and with the right gear, you can pretty much one shot anything without being detected. I used werewolf form "just for fun". Now personally I do like werewolves over vampires, so I made a new toon to play dawnguard and didn't want to give up my main (but I found out you can switch back and forth between but with limited chances).

I made a dark elf assassin VL. As of right now, VL is extremely OP and I find it fun being able to terrorize the countryside at will (well when it's dark). I don't have to worry about being on a timer and I can shift in and out whenever I want. I can go on a rampage, kill a group of bandits, transform out, loot, transform back and not loose anything in the meantime switching forms. You can also use the sprint button and "fly" with your wings. It's pretty fast and probably equivalent to a running horse or faster IMO. You can also hover/fly across water when you are in your caster mode. The only vulnerability is being caught during the day, but you learn to play around it. Not to mention you can still do things around town during the day without any other hindrance, such as if you need to sell loot. You even have unlimited use of your night vision perk. I haven't played werewolf post dawnguard but I still don't like the fact of being on a timer. The only downsides of a VL is that it's rougher in tight spaces but for me, when I normally dungeon crawl, I play my character as is, the assassin. I change forms only if I feel like just tearing things up and fast. The other is that casting and melee seems to be slightly buggy (on xbox). I can hold down the attack button to charge a spell but it doesn't respond. The same with melee attacks and if you try to do a left and right attack at the same time, your toon will just stand there zoned out.

It's more of a personal preference but right now I find VL much more fun than werewolves.

The Werewolf Form is almost exclusively for Warriors. A high Health pool is practically required to survive as a Werewolf.
The normal Vampire Form is both Stealth and Magic oriented. You gain a +25% Sneak Bonus, as well as a +25% Illusion Bonus (Which assists in stealthy endeavors as well). The Vampire Lord Form, is Mage oriented. The higher your Magicka pool, the better.

My Nord Warrior is a fully perked Werewolf, my Dunmer Nightblade is a Vampire Lord, and my Argonian Mage is a Vampire Lord. My Breton Spellsword is neither.

I remember saying werewolves were for warriros and vampires were for mages/stealth once and people tore me apart saying stuff like, werewolves can be anybody dumby head!

But all those perks are practically desighed for those specific classes. VL is perfect for a mage and just regular vampire for works out great for stealth characters. I contracted lycanthrapy on my mage character to get rid of this stupid magic glitch that makes people think my undead thralls are summoned all the time when they arn't.

Now my health is pretty low because I pour pretty much everything into magic almost and being a werewolf is almost impossible. VL here I come.

This ^

As in low magic no VL, low health no WV, that is if you want the optimal experience

A thief transformation? Count me in

Only thing I could think of is something along the lines of a banshee which can warp and assassinate people with bone claws.
Better yet, a grim reaper looking fellow, without a scythe. That travels through shadows*!

Could be given by Nocturnal, seeing how Vampire Lords come from Molag and Werewolves come from Hircine.

This is actually a really great idea!

I'm assuming that since you have Illusion magic, your build is at least slightly set up around casting. Therefore, I'd say go with Vampire Lord, and side with the Volkihar. There are certain rewards you get that will boost your proficiency with spellcasting enough for you to make good use of your transformation.

Here's what I find, the VL abilities only truly benefit a character invested in magicka, so its slanted heavily towards a mage character. However the basic human form of the vampire has abilities that greatly benefit an assassin especially one who uses illusion. You may want to go Vampire Lord simply for the basic abilities and ignore the transformation.

The only real requirement for a werewolf is maybe alteration, they regenerate stanima quickly enough that heavy investing isn't necessary(it helps but isn't a requirement like magicka is for VL abilities). The reason a werewolf wants alteration is for perks like atronach or magic resistance to buff up his magic defense and possbile for the armor spells, A vampire lord has the same concern. As both transformations don't let you keep your customized equipment magical defense is a big issue.(and your base Breton/Nord/Dunmer resistances won't work after you transform). Agent of Mara+Magic Resistancex3+Lord Stone=70% magic resistance. A great benefit to either vampire lords or werewolves.

So again my advice to you is go vampire lord but don't bother much with the transformation unless you have a lot of investment in magicka(i'm guessing your assassin used cost reducers for illusion).

Going to Jail or casting a cloak spell also removes those active effects for future reference.

Ooh, that is god to know! I have had that glitch forever.... ruins the immersion.

Since you use Illusion, and Vampires have a 25% boost to Illusion.... I would go with Vampire Lord. Plus, it is super cool when you get Vampire Grip. You can just throw people off cliffs!