I will also contribute to those threads about the epic fails of Skyrim.

If you get an attack in Windhelm, the master vampire and his minions will appear near the main gate, to the left of Candlehearth Hall, and the traveller will appear further in at the back of Candlehearth Hall travelling towards the palace. Aussie usually got them as she was coming out of Hjerim, so sprinted around the corner and came out near the palace in order to get the traveller first. My NPC's were all well armed, so usually the thralls were done for before Aussie could get to them, she only had to dispose of the master vampire. It seems the vampires might be tailored to the player, yours is a mage so gets vampires with stronger spells. In Dawnstar if you got a good variety of vampires they came in two groups in different locations as well.

I have not had any attacks in Windhelm yet but in Whiterun the vampire and two thralls seems to attack by the main gate and the traveler if there is one always seems located around the front door of breezehome. I have dispatched of these vampires with relative ease the traveler requires some more work if he is there more so if he summons a gargoyle but it seems I have the most problems in Markarth with two high level vamps appearing one by the main gate the other usually spawns by the mine or by the blacksmiths but I do live in Markarth an travel there a lot.

I wonder if the vampires are tailored to your your current builod, I would not know I have only one Dawnguard save currently and I have yet to see another play through with a different character. You have never had a vampire in a vampire attack on a city use spells against you?

I had two high level characters one with the Dawnguard (50's) and one with the vampires (high 70's) the VL character never got travellers and seemed to get weaker vampires, although maybe it was just taking pity on him for all the Dawnguard he had to fight his way through. I have been too chicken to give my low level character a shot at vampire slaying, he is woeful, and has only been doing the main game. I would suspect any vampires he got would be as woeful as him. The vampires both mine got used spells but nothing very powerful, neither is a mage.

I've experienced 2 attacks so far. 1 in Whiterun after doing the 1st dragon encounter though that 1 was easy. The other one was in Dawnstar and boy was I lucky. 1 vampire was near the ships while the rest of the group was fighting off the khajit caravan. Good thing they're essentials

My current character is a level 55 mage who is in the Dawnguard I am in no real danger from the vampires its the townspeople. My next character is going to be lower level when I join the Volkihar I was working on my current build sense patch 1.6 went live and I am going to finish the Dawnguard side of things before I make the switch to the vampire lords. Its odd that your fighting lower level vampires I always fight the higher end vampires in the cities it that.

The vampires might use more or less spells based off of your build I guess just maybe.

Welcome to Dawnguard all you PC players....be prepared for all the "it's overexagerated" responses

Nothing in my post is over exaggerated in the least I watched it happen an I checked the bodies and shop keeps were dead and I reloaded. Believe it or not.

Well they are going to be waiting a long long time for me to try out a mage on this. Three characters is probably my limit till I get the GotY version for PS3. I do not know if they were low level vampires, my two kill anything pretty easy, but they only mainly seemed to use drain life and conjuration spells. Or maybe it was just my two never gave them a chance to try anything else. None of them seemed able to knock of NPC's in one hit.

I wasn't referring to you or any post in this thread....I've been posting about this issue since DG came out for Xbox....there are some very vocal ppl that are defending how this "feature" works

Oh if you use fighting characters they tend to dish out a lot of damage and nothing can stand against you really at high levels if you have smithing if your a fighter that is. Mages are indeed like glass in this game very fragile and magic in this game is lackluster compared to previous entries in this series but thats for another topic, not here. I have been fighting master vamps and the travelers seem very very powerful indeed for my mage.
Ah forgive the miscommunication then. I have seen them and I do not understand why there is those that defend everything that Bethesda does I love the company but their games are deeply flawed.

I wonder why bethesda didn't look into the feature to see if it was bugged. I'm pretty sure it was brought to their attention, seeing how I remember devs peeking in on these types of threads.

How is it bugged? I have played through it twice and it seems to work just fine.

Yeah the vampires attacking cities is a feature not a bug.

I think city defence favor archery builds. I highly suggest a follower with a crossbow (knockback) - Annekke or Aela. Archers cut down on distance/time, and have less people in your way. I managed to keep everyone alive with the crossbow. I am on the hardest difficulty too. Dealt with vamps with thralls, gargoyles and those death hounds.

I setup my main at Riften because it has most people there with the shortest distance to run into the scuffle. They distract the vamps long enough for me to snipe. And I am using a mod with darker nights too.

I might consider an archer follower and see if that will supplement my mage perfectly.

Gstaff said that the vamp attacks are supposed to stop when you complete the main quest. For some people they did not stop and some people have reported that vamp attacks happen when they are not in a certain place. I know its a feature but it seems like its bugged for a lot of people.

Edit: My vamp attacks stopped though. Well as long as I don't block out the sun. Guess some people are just unlucky.

I will have test and believe me I will report if I get any bug to Gstaff directly. I am very vocal about bugs because they should not be there and they need to be fixed thanks for the heads up I will definitely check it out.

I have experimented, and tried to melee into a scuffle. The NPCs simply get into the way.

Anyways, Annekke uses the crossbow fine, despite being capped at 30. She is the easiest Archery follower to get. The knockback is what you want.

I think if you need to main a home, Riften makes the most sense:

- Where they spawn (market circle and entrance gate) and the distance to close the gap
- Mjoll patrols at evening to night and is useful
- Guards also swarm in fast cause of the short distance

Solitude is probably a nightmare with the distance/coverage.

I think Jenassa is the best follower for your mage. Give her a Crossbow + Windshear. She can be a knockback machine.

The NPCs always get in the way the AI svcks in this game. I will have to find an archer that suits my character and I have to live where my character actually would I am a big roleplayer here.

Ah...ranged followers...

Time to watch as their arrows repeatedly start hitting the other NPCs that rush at the vampires with their daggers!

Another flaw with the AI system...I'm also still waiting to see that one feature that was supposed to stop your attacks from hitting "friendly" NPCs that they talked about...

I use the UFO follower mod and bring a few followers with me at all times. All are equiped with legendary upgraded and fire enchanted cross bows. All carry fully upgraded armor and are set to essential so they don't die. Its my small army. As soon as a hostile appears on my compass they draw their weapons and attack. The last vampire attack I encountered was all vampires dead, one guard dead. must have been changing of the guard cause he was all by himself when they spawned. I am trying out http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21615 to see if it stops random vampire attacks. I RP and would rather see my Skyrim remain full of life... would be tragic visiting the riverwood blacksmith to find him dead and his daughter running around talking about how he is teaching her smithing. Looks like your the new Riverwood blacksmith my child.

AI is not perfect, but I see it as a lesser. I rather they miss their shots than add another body in my way. I am using the EFF mod, albeit without multiple followers and any change to vanilla content by choice. I am not sure if if the hunters bow follower bug persists with the crossbow. The knockback interrupt is a good way to distract an enemy, it's not meant to be a killing machine.

The EFF mod allows you to "residence" AIs anywhere, or wait/relax somewhere over a long term without disarming their equipment. You can technically get many followers to hole up in whichever city you frequent the most.

UFO has that option as well to tell them to relax and wait without fully dismissing them and they retain the gear you gave them. Nice thing with it is Serana won't go with you if you have followers. So I dismissed them, got her to join and then re-invited them into the group. I now have 4 in my group including her. We made short work of a dark robed traveler in Whiterun.