Melee'ing a dragon. How not to get eaten? : V

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:46 am

Title says it all really...How do I avoid being eaten by the dragons? I started a melee character yesterday, and I find it almost impossible to defeat a dragon without turning the difficulty down :confused:

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My first character is a mage, and fighting dragons is so much easier with spells!

It seems to me that half the times I approach a dragon to melee it, it just picks me up, shake me a few times and then throw me to the side, dead... even if I approach it at full health the fight is over before it begins.. :ermm:

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What am I doing wrong?

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:59 am

You have to kill it before it kills you. Just about everything in the game is like that. Melee takes skill. You have to learn to block. You have to train up weapon, armor and block to be effective.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:01 pm

Don't come at him from the front. Come from the side and watch out for the tail, too. If you have a companion or horse to distract him, it makes that easier.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:46 am

Wow, that can actually happen? I've never seen it, haha.

What I usually do is attack it from the side, particularly its wings. Does the job well enough.

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:29 pm

I've found 2-hand weapons are more effective than 1-hand attacks due to the extra range, you only have to worry about the breath attacks then.

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 11:53 pm

What's your health pool like?
I've only seen them eat my character when the health is relatively low. (mostly at early levels too come to think of it)

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:02 am

Attack it's butt.
Norly.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:34 am

Another option, if you have a shield, bash his nose like a bad doggie, then smack him with your weapon. Super effective, but you will need lots of stamina to keep it up. Really fun, though.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:52 am

don't stay in front of him, if you have a follower use him as a bait and attack it from behind

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:12 am

Just save before the fight and reload until you kill it. Most games including Skyrim appear to notice this and make the monster just stand there and nicely get killed the fourth or fifth time

. It feels hollow but oh well, later you'll be OP and 2-shot him

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:13 am

Heal before your healths drops below 50% otherwise you'll be its munchies.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:07 am

Yeah, Elder and Ancient Dragons sometime one-hit kill my character if their health drops at all, while my thief needs to fire arrows from Elsweyr to avoid it. Not really a problem against lesser dragons, though. Against those i usually just cheat back, using the "tim" console command (unable to die, but arrows, magicka, health and stamina get reduced normally) and reload if it kills me fairly.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:05 am

hah.. I'd find it much harder to play as a mage. But yeah, what others said, get used to blocking. And of course, gear up. If you're getting torn apart too quickly, then more than likely it's an armor problem. Not to point out the obvious or anything, but just making sure....

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 10:33 pm

Attacking it from the back is effective, especially if you find a position in which he can't touch you with his tail. (a bit hard)
I got eaten quite a few times on lower levels, when my health got extremely low in a few hits. I suggest you use potions when you see your health bar on the half or so.

Edit:
Also try blocking his breath if you decide to go front. Since I'm pretty sure Shouts are magic, use something that resists magic (like the Spellbreaker) and carry some Resist Frost/Fire potions around. Actually killing the dragon is easy, the harder part is protecting yourself well.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:14 am

I just had a dragon swoop out of nowhere, a dark brotherhood asassin swoop out of nowhere, and a sabre tiger swoop out of nowhere. Melee'd them all. A typical day in Skyrim.

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 8:42 pm

I've never had any trouble killing dragons in melee. Make a good weapon (yes, one handed works fine), give it a nice enchantment, and spam the power attacks.

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:53 pm

I don't make anything with enchantments myself, although having a few items looted with them is good enough. Especially defensive enchantments. I don't consider myself elite or anything, but it can go overboard and makes the game terribly easy. The opposite of the OP's problem.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:15 am

Heal before your healths drops below 50% otherwise you'll be its munchies.

This.

It seems that the dragon "eating" you is a finishing move. Keep your HP up so this doesn't happen. As you level and get stronger (and tougher) it will be harder for the dragons to get your health low enough to the point where he trigger his finishing move.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:57 am

The first time this ever happened to me it just made me laugh..every time after it just made me angry.

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 8:07 pm

Stagger it with your shield (a.k.a. hit it with your shield). It has a nice side effect of interrupting which can be a lifesaver in the early stages of the game.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:18 am

I've found that taking on a dragon with a pure melee character not surprisingly more difficult than other types of characters.

And for me, even with tons of health points, a single dragon bite is deadly.

Obviously the key thing is to avoid their mouths. A companion or summons makes a great distraction. Also I try to fight dragons in a place with a lot of boulders and rocks and other barriers. Then attack from the side or back. If and when the Dragon starts to turn to face you, then run behind something before it can bite.

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:02 pm

well....

shield + 1hand

shieldbash, hits, shieldbash, hits

dragon: dead

you: untouched

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:36 am

I assume the instant death munch attack occurs once your health falls beneath a set level, my first character was a heavy armor orc with high health and I was never eaten by a dragon, I pretty much always ran up to its face and smashed it to death with a warhammer ,my 2nd character however is a mage with 0 armor rating and 200 health and has been eaten quite a few times even when I had taken no previous damage. I do not know if the attack bypasses armor rating but having lower health definitely results in becoming lunch more often.

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:38 am

I use a battle axe, shout elemental fury, then run in and hit him with power attacks until he's dead...power attacks stun him and the shout makes my attacks too fast to recover so most dragon fights are over quick and easy. The only damage i take is the fire blast as i'm rushing him but frost dragons breath barely affects my nord

I've never seen a dragon munch me or toss me but i've done many kill animations with my axe

» Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:59 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvevLZqYljQ&feature=results_video&lr=1&ob=0 Might help you out?