Anyone else feel like vampires still came up short? All the good things about it have major drawbacks. I'll just name a few.

Serana- She makes your vampire lord weaker. If your a vampire most likely you'll want serana as a companion so why would they make her decrease your powers? Also, She can become a follower no matter who you join and you can still become a vampire lord while siding with the dawnguard.


Deathhounds- They die very easily when your vampire lord uses vampiric drain. Again its a major gimp for a vampire lord because anytime you transform you have to make sure there out the way before you cast your spell. Since they only use melee attacks I don't see that happening.

Mission- Joining the vampires made me think they would be organized,smart and loyal. All they want to do is stab each other in the back and they benefit my character very little. There's no vampire exclusive followers but the dawnguard has plenty! The worst part is that my main goal is to stop a vampire.Really? I could've joined the dawnguard for that.

There's a lot more issues I'd rather not touch on but I just wanted to know if anyone felt the same way I did.I mean I love what they did with the appearance,perks, and vampire lord but it seems Bethesda favored the good guys....again. It's black and white and that's something bethesda said they would stay away from.

Yeah, screw all the exclusive powers, the strength of a vampire can be found in their followers...

Care to be a little more specific?

I somewhat agree. I'm glad that the vampires finally get a DLC and whole new powerful transformation. But I still wish they would've made the base vampire form more powerful. Upgrading vampiric drain so It's at least decent to use. All stats being stronger and increased at night time. And enthrall spell so I can have a thrall. etc. The death hounds could be stronger but I only use them for RP reasons. I actually like the fact that there are vampires that want to fight for Harkon's throne. I wish they had done more with that.

Serana nerfs your power in Lord form. Apparently.

Never tried.

The whole vampires fighting for the throne is interesting but as a new member of the faction it seems less welcoming. My main point was that dawnguard are favored over the vampires by a long shot. There's crossbows, Infinite armored frost trolls, A variety of companions, spells and armor. It would be good if vampires had things you couldn't get besides joining them but you could get almost everything from the vampire side as a dawnguard and thats my biggest problem.

I understand what your saying I think and I agree.

As a vampire you get vampire armor and vampire form, and loot some dawnguard gear.

As dawnguard you get vampire armor from loot, vampire form, new weapons, new spells, and so on.

As in, every benefit of the vampire side can be gained on the dawnguard side, but not vice versa

Now that I agree with. You can even get a vampire hood on the dawnguard side but not on the vampire side? I mean it would be nice if vampires got the ability to summon different variants of gargoyles, and to have different companions. We do get jewelry that boosts our VL powers and the blood of the ancients so there are some benefits to joining the vampire side. I guess maybe if the only way to become a vampire lord was if you joined the vampires would've created a much better incentive to join the vampires.

That part really ticked me off with the DLC too... Everything you can get by joining the vampires, you can get by joining the Dawnguard, except the Dawnguard have even more cool stuff, spells, weapons, Followers, you name it, but what makes it even more rtarded is that you can even become a Vampire Lord, even though you are with the Dawnguard........... Wha?.....

Volkihar? Organized? Hahahaha. No friend, they are as savage as they come. Yes, they have their own little group therapy sessions in their main bloody halls, but that is it. Their organization only goes so far before everyone stabs each other in the back.

Supposedly Serana making you weak is a bug, which Bethesda has yet to be fixed. It has nothing to do with the storyline as to why she weakens you.

Death hounds.. I don't use followers at all. Don't bother with them if they just get in your way, it's your choice to take them.

They portrayed vampires as what society thinks they are like. The older the vampire, the more life means nothing to them. All they can do is scheme, plot and plan for power. Power is really all they have left in the mortal world. This involves taking out other vampires, pushing them aside somehow (normally by making them look bad) or getting their rival killed. They work together just because they have to and normally for better survival, not because they want to.

Even though I enjoy playing a vampire lord, I do have to agree that this expansion pretty much forces you to play as a vampire if you want to get the full effect. The next toon I want to play will be a werewolf yet I don't want to side with the Dawnguard either, so this kind of twists your arm into playing it.

For a bunch of blood hungering savages, they sure know political backstabbing.

I was hoping for some cool new necromancy spells.

Instead I got some Conjure spells (which people consider necromatic?) and some armor which I can't use because then my three mage armor perks are wasted. I never found any cool vampire robes, or any spells which really caught my interest.

What bothers me most is that I see this awesome bat-faced monster of a vampire on loading screens, but I can't seem to look like him.

They do, but that is normal in every clan. Even animals have their own expulsion system when running in packs.