This was remedied with "blood-kegs" and the new manners to feed. If you reach stage 4, just sneak behind an NPC in the wilderness or use a vampire's seduction spell and feed, or you can simply use the blood bottles collected. Vampirism was never intended to be a "gift" in the ES games. There always has to be drawbacks that are equal to the gifts. Same for werewolves. I just think Bethesda is going toward making things super easy for players and appealing more to casual gamers while everyone else is left hanging saying "Wtf?"

Werewolves get minor drawbacks now: Lack of sleep? Really?

I couldn't agree more.

Ever snuck into Markarth at night as a S4 vamp without getting spotted or killing anyone? Awesome stuff

Whether or not Vampirism is a "gist" is entirely dependent on the individual's point of view.

To some, it is a rightful disease that need to be cured and eradicated.

To the next guy, even though it's listed as a disease, it feels more like an intimate blessing from an Aedra or Daedra.

Very much it does depend on the point of view of the person RP'ing the character in question.

That quoted post is full of so much win lol.

OT: I never played vampire before because i'm the kind of person that likes my towns full of people, and i'm bad at sneaking, which i know you will tell me not to play a vampire then, but i can't help wanting to anyway though I do agree with the comment on blood "pots" and non-infecting wild werewolves, unfortunately the rest of the stuff doesn't really bother me, but I won't know for sure for at least 30 more days because i'm a pc player.

Previous Bethesda DLC has always had some disappointments, but nothing I ever felt strongly about. Like say Mothership Zeta wasn't as great as it could've been, but it was okay. Win some lose some etc.

Dawnguard for me has been a mixed bag as well. Husky pet dog? that's worth the price of admission alone, and the Dawnguard fortress is the type of home I wanted for my dragonborn for a very long time. The face sculptor was also very welcome, though this could've been patched in instead of being a DLC feature.

However the vampire attacks have increased my OCD levels even more than they were already. And this is a bad thing for me because I prefer the organic immersive gameplay without having to worry too much about what's going on behind the scenes (glitches, poor design etc)

I like it, I don't think it needs to be changed or removed at all, and I would be sorely disappointed if the Vamp attacks did get removed.

There. I've said my piece on it, I'm done with this subject.

Okay, move along then. Other people will continue.

I honestly think they should make it so you're more powerful as you feed so that way people want to got out and feed at least that would justify no stage 4 attacks while still keeping feeding worthwhile

Biggest disappointments with what I've heard about this DLC (PS3 so haven't played it) concerning these things.

1. The Volkihar are nothing like they are in Immortal Blood. Nothing against the Vampire Lords and whatnot, but why couldn't there be Volkihar that are like what we've come to expect? And don't tell me "Because they've never been discussed in lore" because while the Volkihar have been discussed in lore, they certainly weren't this. Let's look at this another way. If we told legends of table, a magnificent table that could cure diseases and bestow knowledge, and this table was named Frank, it wouldn't make sense that when we actually found this table, it was actually a coaster, still named Frank, but rather than cure disease and bestow knowledge, it sang Catholic Hymns to blue grass music and vomited into your shoes. You couldn't really say it's the same thing you've been hearing about for years.

2. The vanilla vampires are "Thin-Bloods" so they are exactly the same minus the perk tree and transformation. This raises an important question: Why would you even want to be one of these vampires? It also destroys an entire faction you could have joined in Dawnguard. Instead of it being Group A versus Group B, you could have joined a third group, these other vampires, and either wiped out both of the other groups or created a truce between you and one of them to destroy the others.

3. Wild Werewolves but you can still only get Lycanthropy from one person (and only twice)

4. No werebears. Like the vanilla vampires being a different clan, these could have opened up new playstyles for people, and be a great contrast to the werewolves fast but fragile combat style.

5. Vampires being unable to change their faces. REALLY, Bethesda? I've made this point in other threads, but why would you make it so that the vampires you have been heavily marketing for this DLC can't use this new feature that has been heavily asked for?

6. The continuous dumbing down of Vampire and Werewolf drawbacks. Let there be sun damage and forced transformations. It's the price you pay for your power. Now we aren't even acknowledged for being vampires until you go Underworld on them. Did they suddenly forget what other vampires looked like? And why? Feedings easier than ever, so why remove incentive to do it?

7. Last, but certainly not least, the continued decision to keep the reverse feeding mechanism for all vampires. I thought this was supposed to be unique to the Cyrodiilic strain. Why should Vampires even be encouraged not to feed in the first place? It doesn't make sense to me. This is just done so that they don't have to do a real vampire overhaul, where you'd start out as a fledgling with maximum weaknesses and little to no bonuses, but as you feed on more and more people you become stronger and stronger to the point you have maximum strengths and weaknesses are nearly non-existent.

Basically my same exact concerns. I wonder if Bethesda will change these things. Though I doubt it. It all comes down to the fans. Bethesda wouldn't of changed the stage 4 feeding if people didn't whine and pout about it.

I guess they think we all want to be goth superheroes....

Agreed with all this (Besides Werebears...[censored] Bears)

They may have taken Stage 4 attacks out, but they added other things to somewhat even it out. The sun weakens you more than it did, Frost damage is no longer 100% immune, same goes for weakness to fire. Vampiric drain is still as useless as it's always been, ect. Vampire Lord is severely overpowered, but it's still fun to play as. I would have liked the Face Changer to work, but I made sure to do my best with her the moment I downloaded Dawnguard.

Werewolves as random encounters are really fun, even if you can't catch the disease from them. And also the newly added Vampire Lairs that can be found around Skyrim. I thoroughly enjoyed, and am enjoying, this DLC. It's not perfect, but it made Skyrim fun for me again, which is really all I wanted.

Oh, and regarding the Hell Hounds? I want to take them but they're pretty weak. Shoulda made them stronger IMO.

As someone who plays a non-lord vampire, the only thing I really got is the not-getting-attacked and the Seduction upgrade. But I only ever fed because of the stage-4 danger anyway, so the Seduction upgrade doesn't do much for me.


Ultimately the only thing I actually like is the Soul Cairn, which I looooove. And probably also the Dawnguard Fort, but I haven't seen what it's like in the end.

Just wanted to throw out that Molag Bal being connected to the vampires did NOT come out of left field. That's actually lore-friendly, as he's the father of all vampirism. Clavicus Vile didn't create Cyrodilic vampires, but rather just bestowed upon them the ability to blend in with humans.
That's about the ONLY part of the previously established lore that they seem to have stayed true to.

But yeah I agree with the post.

Am I the only one that gets the feeling that if you have a conversation with Todd Howard about a new addition, all you have to do is use the word "epic" and it makes it in?
"Hey Todd how about we add Vampire Lords?"
"Why? Those are a blatant rip-off of other media, we've never mentioned them before and we'd have to completely retcon the Volikhar."
"Because vampire lords are EPIC."
"OMG WTF BBQ ADD DEM RIGHT AWAY!11!!"

Like every part of Skyrim gives the impression that it was aiming for that word in particular.

And the cool diving dragons. I so wish there were more. Plus huskies that you respawn. Everything seems to last just one time which is sad when they're good.

Hey at least the armored trolls re spawn...

Don't forget important npcs dying in towns from attacks when you aren't even there. I hope this stuff doesn't become canon lore.

Sorry if I'm being an idiot but are you being sarcastic? I thought they did respawn but haven't checked and so don't know. They do respawn don't they? On a side note the stuff that does come back is the vampire attacks on towns which get annoying when you have suicidal important quest giving npcs.

Don't worry they do respawn

Also just wanted to mention I sincerely doubt they patch this DLC. Based on what I've heard about patching DLCs, it's just too much of a hassle and probably won't happen.

The real question is: Will Bethesda fix this or will they attend to the new Elder Scrolls http://www.lilomaternity.com/blog/images/baby-crying.jpg demands to make an easier game?

Come now, Longknfe. You know that's not true. Just look at how magic and speech skills turned out.