I'd like to share my experience on Solstheim that I had using the Vampire Lord form. I'll start this off talking about the Ashspawn. They aren't particularly difficult to defeat as a Vampire Lord, but they do use fire spells and they can't be resurrected, as they turn to ash upon death.

Next, we have the seekers.Seekers are those floating creatures with tentacles that are, more often than not, found in the daedric realm Apocrypha. Being that they aren't humanoid, it should come as no surprise that they cannot be gripped or paralyzed. I believe they cannot be raised from the dead either.

Next up, the Lurker. This behemoth can be gripped in a way, meaning that you can grip him, but he will not be lifted from the ground, thus rendering you unable to throw him. I actually need to do more testing on the Lurker to find out if it can be paralyzed or raised, so I'd appreciate any information on that.

The Werebear and Werewolf. Both of these creatures can be found on Solstheim, and neither are affected by Vampiric grip or Corpse Curse. The Lycanthropes in this game seem to be very anti-vampire in their resistances.

Miraak. Nothing works on him. Don't be Vampire Lord when fighting him. He'll laugh fire at you, and his dragons will too.

Karstaag. I will always remember this fight. It reminded me so much of the movie 300. Remember the scene in the movie where the courier for Xerxes came to Sparta and started boasting his master's wealth and power? Then, Leonidas had the Courier's men dispatched just before the Courier got kicked down a well? Yeah, that scene. That's basically what happened to me when I decided to pay Karstaag a visit. I show up with his skull, Vampire Lord form ready (thinking about how inferior he'll be versus a vampire lord), and I placed it on the throne. I ran to the opposite side end of the room, and turned into a Vampire Lord. I summoned two gargoyles, as I heard this mini boss was challenging. He dispatches them each with one hit (like the couriers men). I'm annoyed. He heads for me. I try corpse curse. Doesn't work. I use bats to dash away to avoid getting hit. Tried vampiric grip. Nothin'. Vampiric reflexes? Wasn't enough to get away from him. He pummels me and stomped me (like getting kicked down the well). Apparently "This is Solstheim!"

In conclusion, I think any vampires going into this dlc should stick to stealth. I'm not saying the Vampire Lord is totally useless, but I think you'll find yourself unable to use half your arsenal on a number of occasions. The only thing you can really count on is vampiric drain. Good luck and happy travels. Any comments, questions, or info is welcome.

Good read, enjoyed the "This is Solstheim" part I disagree though... I found using VL in Solstheim to be a breeze, though I haven't faced Karstaag yet. Other then him though, it's been easy. Maybe level dependant?

Indeed good read thanks for preparing me, gonna level my dark elf in the Vampire Lord form... Well i'm a pc player so i have some mods that make my Vampire Lord form a bit stronger

Really? I absolutely kill everything on that island in VL form. As long as you don't stop moving, you're fine.

And yes. I'm playing on Master difficulty.

My Vampire Lord works just fine on Solstheim.

I've beaten Miraak with my Vampire Lord as well, but because he's the first Dragon Born, I didn't even try to use Corpse Curse or really much else, and that's because I figured (going into the fight) that he'd be too powerful for it.

So I just summoned a couple of Gargoyles, used "Supernatural Reflexes", and "Mist Form" when needed. If my Magicka fizzled out, then the Vampire Lord's "Poison Claws" and the "Cloak of Bats" are actually very effective on Miraak. But more than anything, I just kept my distance and just pummeled him with "Life Drain" until Hermaeus Mora took over the fight.

With Karstaag, I took basically the same approach as I did with Miraak. Since Karstaag is a ghost/undead/whatever, I never entertained the idea that "Corpse Curse" or "Vampiric Grip" would work on him, mostly because the guy is freaking powerful. But I would summon two Gargoyles as often as possible, and with a liberal use of "Bats", I could keep away from him. I was pretty much a "Summon Gargoyles, peg with Drain Life, use Bats, peg with Drain Life, use Bats, summon more Gargoyles, use Bats, Drain Life, repeat until either 1)Karstaag gets a lucky shot and I die, or 2) I win.

With the Werebears and Werewolves on Solstheim, I just treated them the same as I do with the Werewolves I'd rarely meet in Skyrim (like when I was wiping out the Companions... ). I just kept my distance, peg them with "Corpse Curse" and "Drain Life", and if they were ganging up on me, a couple of Gargoyles help to even the odds.

Which also puzzles me, why does your Corpse Curse not work on the Were-critters? It works just fine for me...

Seekers? Naw, they float, so I never even tried to "Vampiric Grip" them, nor did I think to try the "Corpse Curse", I just figured that since they're Daedra that it naturally wouldn't work. I just kept my distance, and again, summon a couple of Gargoyles and liberally use "Vampiric Drain". They go down pretty quick in my experience.

Lurkers have the same walking/running animations as Skyrim's Giants do, so I battled them the same way. I'd use "Bats" when they'd get close, and only then if I couldn't kill them with "Drain Life" before they got into personal-threat range. Other than that, they're pretty slow and while they hit like the hulk, it's easily avoidable.

Other than that, I absolutely slaughter everything else on the island. Nothing has really been able to stand against me for long.

This is just my experience when my Vampire Lords go to Solstheim. It might not be a bad idea to stop and observe an enemy before charging in with your Vamp, maybe plan the powers that you're going to use ahead of the battle, and think about what type of creature an enemy is before picking those powers as well.

I'm not saying that my plan or how I run my Vampires is superior, but I have been playing exclusively Vampires since Daggerfall, and I appear to be having a slightly easier time of it than you are. lol

But this is just my observation when cruising through Solstheim in Vampire Lord form. Take from it what you like, do with the information as you please.

Good. Technically, at some point in the game, everyone is playing the same character with the same powers, maybe a little different to how you do. Having a superior-complex like yours doesn't make your character stronger. Just saying.

That did sound kind of bad, didn't it...

But it is actually pretty easy for me in Solstheim. I simply do what I do listed in my above post, I wait and observe (I'm a patient predator), and I pretty much destroy what ever character I choose go go against, or who chooses to go against me. The effect is that I'm pretty much walking through every enemy I face.

But where I disagree with you is on the "everyone has the same character eventually" part. Two people may very well have the same powers, but how and when they are used in a fight will very much determine how well the fight goes for you.

I use nothing but the Vampire Lord Forme on my level 81, and as with everything else, Solstheim was no problem for me. Granted I played on Expert, not master. Though I will say, the creatures of Solstheim are indeed better equipped to fight the VL than the base creatures of Skyrim. But still, the Vampire Lord Forme will always be broken beyond belief.

My werewolf claws still work... Werewolves RULE!

It did... let's move on from it

Meh... it is what it is.

Moving forward.

How often do you use VL in combat situations? And how often (if ever) do you feed?

Never feed, and I frequently shift for a combat and/or just roam the land in VL form.

I've evened out a bit in the past several months. Now my assassin spends a pretty equal amount of time sniping people and slashing throats as he does in Vampire Lord form eating their souls.

See I tried to stay in VL form as much as possible, but found it was upsetting too many of the locals. On one of my games, I was forced to start again after causing said upset on Whiterun without a save... Had a bounty when I entered the city, without thinking changed form and it went downhill from there. I do like the VL form a lot but think it's a shame we can't access our inventories of pick stuff up. Not the end of the world, and it only takes a few seconds to change, pick up said item and change back

I'm in the same Boat. I've seen a lot of people talking about finding Vampire Lord difficult to use in Solstheim but I've had little issue. Between the gargoyle, Serana, and my character, I've not had too much trouble. I tend to stay on the ground if I can too, as I much prefer claws to magic. I only really tend to use Drain life if my health is taking a beating.

I've also seen quite a few complaints about seekers and lukers in VL form, but they seem to go down fairly easy with drain life. I'm honestly curious as to what people are finding bothersome about it? is it just that they can't grip and paralyze mobs?

I think it's more of a level issue then actually using the VL. I could be wrong though. I don't have an issue using my VL on Solsthiem.

I suppose that's entirely possible. My main character is only level 51 because I go super slow through content,but I can see someone at level 25-35 having some issues. I find that once Enchanting hits 100 pretty much the challenge is over so I suspect that might have something to do with it. Doesn't the VL form take into account any enchantments on your gear? That can be pretty substantial too.

Good thread, I am kind of glad to hear this, vampire lord will always be the anti humanoid and that is enough for me. I mean I would assume the Ebony Warrior could be gripped?

Anyhow, the Vampire Lord is too much of a faceroll, if you could grip & paralyze everything almost but dragons you would flat out have 0 challenge of any kind of way. I play on Master with WARZONES mod on PC & take it from me you could have hundreds of humanoids (anything that isn't a mammoth or a dragon etc) and you would own the entire battle field.

I love how powerful a Vampire Lord is and how much fun they are but I will welcome any foes that force me to play out of VL form.

I think you're just playing the VL wrong. The VL was almost a neccessity for my playthrough as a vampire.

The ash spawns your right about, they svck to be a VL against.

The seekers always spawn a copy of this. The best way in the game to counter this is to summon two gargoyles to aid you. Strength in numbers. After simply proceed to claw them and they go down without a fight.

The lurkers are nothing impressive at all. I don't see a problm with these guys. Drain them to death. It doesn't take long.

Miraak also is much easier with VL. summoning gargoyles diverts his fireballs to them, allowing you to claw away at him.

and as far as Karstaag, VL was 100% needed for me. Vampiric drain and bats bats and more bats to keep my distance.

In short, Vampire lord is perfect for the DLC if you use it right. And don't forget the claws! They are always taken for granted.

--edited because I felt "failing at VL" sounded too harsh and changed what I meant to say.

When I decided to take VL for a spin again in one of the dungeons. the morag tong one as it's all humanoids

I'm reading a lot of skepticism towards what I said, and that's fine, but let me point out that I never said that the Vampire Lord isn't viable, or that you will die a lot when you go to Solstheim. I said that you will find yourself unable to use many of your powers, and be forced in many situations to rely solely on Vampiric Drain, as The bulk of Solstheim's creatures don't accommodate most of the Vampire Lord's abilities. The only time I actually died using this form was in the fight with Karstaag. This isn't a review of the overall competence of this form. You can definitely defeat these creatures, even on the hardest settings. All I'm saying is that you are often limited in what you can use. The Vampire Lord can get you through Solstheim, no doubt, but there are definitely better methods.