Lol, Volunne, yeah I went there and was suprised too how difficult he was, but I think that has to do with the way the bosses scale in dungeons vs how they scale on the overworld (I think it's slightly different). On top of that, his weapons drain stamina and slow you. Makes him REALLY difficult. That is where a helper comes in handy, or you have to use his own medicine against him. I just kept using drain stamina on him, and he couldn't use his power attacks. His regular hits took about a quarter of my life (at level 20). Not exactly sure what level you supposed to do the dungeon at. If you run around too much, you can aggro 2 other skeletons further down the corridar (by the word wall), and that is REALLY bad.

Bosses are bosses because of their high damage output or high defense/hp. I dont understand this complaint. Should we get rid of bosses? Or just make a normal skeleton ar the bottom of dungeons and just give him a name? Anticlimatic for sure. There are many ways of dealing with enemies in skyrim, check out some strategy guides if you are falling on hard times

What you are basically saying here is that melee is not a valid gameplay against bosses, and everyone should just skill up their archery or spells (ie. ranged skills).

Put other way around, being oneshot or twoshotted everytime you get close as melee is how the game should work?

On some bosses, sure, ranged might be what you need. I done that myself on bosses that disarm alot since they are difficult to fight unless you have cover to use when they do disarm shout. But what you are saying is that EVERY boss in the game that has high damage output (read: not due to particular abilities the boss has) MUST be fought using ranged tactics.

That in, and of itself, just proves my point that the bosses are designed really bad.

So now people are complaining the game is too hard? Few weeks ago everyone was complaining it was too easy.

Bosses should be tougher, if you are finding them impossible then either you are really bad at combat or turn down you difficulty slider.

FYI blocking has a timing aspect to it now, so the longer you hold up your shield before an opponent strikes the more damage you will take. The stand their with you shield up until you opponent strikes method from Oblivion doesnt work in Skryim. Time your blocks and you will take alot less damage.

I guess you're right, but I can't really see a solution. Ranged provides so much more in the way of tactics that you'd be able to defeat an enemy that is much higher than your own level- line of sighting, retreating and hiding, etc.

What are viable fixes for meelee? All I can think of is lowering damage taken and increasing damage output. Isn't that what lowering the difficulty does??

They are leveled with your character so if you have a tough one, the boss will be tougher. Frost breath slightly slows down the bosses, but may kill the others. The Skinner guy would have trashed me if I had not become a werewolf. It is easy to not pay attention to your health when you have an armored guy in your face beating you down.

it could be bacause he outlevels you in a bad way - leave, level up, come back, kick his [censored]

Beating a boss with melee isn't that difficult. Just learn to time your shield bash and you'll never get hit.

This is the only reason I take issue. Dragons simply aren't enough of a threat in comparison to Forsworn Briar Hearts, making me think, "Am I really the only guy who can kill the dragons? Cause these other dudes have some wicked power." I wouldn't mind as much if Dragons were a 1-3 hit death, as it would be an expected challenge, but when I've just finished beating the snot out of one only to turn and lose to a Forsworn it just seems really backwards.

However, these difficult bosses always have a number of ways to be handled. For one thing, fortification potions are a great help (fortify health, heavy armor, two handed, and health regen in combo). Dragon shouts you should have access to regardless of character archetype like Slow Time, Ice Form, Unrelenting Force, and Fire Breath can be total life savers. Generally speaking, you should either try to get in a good sneak attack on a boss (Aura Whisper + Throw Voice are a great help, especially with their fast cool down rates), and immediately use Ice Form or Slow Time after so you can keep bashing the crap out of him if you want to go pure melee. Otherwise, start from a distance and unload as many arrows or destruction spells as you can - a follower or conjuration would help too with the ranged hits. Once he closes distance use any of the four shouts I named - my preference is slow time, since I can easily dodge around an incoming strike and wail on him from behind with all my power hits, easily go into the menu and eat some stamina potions, and pop back out to finish off. There's no exploiting here, it's just smart use of the powers you earn as you play.

A lot of those one-two hitters coming from bosses are their power attacks too, so try to use ice spells, shouts, or elemental weapons to drain their stamina and keep them from doing this. My main issue is my lack of magic resistance, so often times mages are my tough enemies - therefore I use electricity to drain their mana while using Slow Time to dodge their spells and close distance. Wards help a lot too, and there's a special shield out there you may want to find if you're having trouble with mages like I am.

Overall I don't take issue with the difficulty, and I enjoy the challenge, but the difficulty of dragons VS briar hearts needs to be switched.

I agree only because of the lame-ass finishing moves they pull off. You'd think they'd at least wait to see if the blow is going to connect before calculating that you're dead, but the second a boss starts his attack animation the fight is over.

I think this game's combat would benefit from some dodge and parry that works in close-combat, just to make melee styles that don't use a shield more viable. Something as simple as a quick jutting step to the side that side-steps a power attack, but costs stamina, would be fun. Also, an ability that lets you close distance on archers as opposed to the shields ability to deflect arrows. Dual wielding really does svck in this game.

Dodge and weave. Since I learned that my character can actually move in a battle, I have had few attacks land on me when I am facing the enemy. Now, the guy that comes up behind me, that is an issue.

I like the fact that this game can kill me from time to time. It reminds me that there is a still a challenge at level 38.

I agree with the OP. The gap is obnoxious. Not insurmountable, just not fun.

I would rather see them do only a bit more damage than normal, but give them a fat stamina bar and an increased tendency toward power attacks. Meanwhile, the "turn,your slider down" crowd can be told to turn their slider up.

Marked for death is great on slews of high level enemies and bosses. ive gotten to the level where you can encounter 3 draugr deathlords and a draugr death overlord in 1 room + some of them summon frost atronachs. 1 well aimed marked for death helps alot for power attacks or wide effect magic. but after a certain level, even bosses arent that hard anymore. just need to play smart.

Right tactics and gear are very important. Yesterday I fought two Draug Melee Bosses (lvl 30 and lvl 45! on expert difficulty) at once with my dual wield Warrior (lvl 30, Legendary Ebony gear, Ebony war axes, offhand enchanted with chance to paralyze). I used the slow time shout and killed the lvl 30 first while evading attacks from the lvl 45. Then I fought the big guy. Dual wield power attack with some lucky paralyzing hits (and slow time shout again) and he dropped dead on the floor; my character only had a tiny sliver of health left.

I took me three attemps to win this encounter, as I stepped into flame traps during the first two. Lydia (lvl 30, Full Ebony Gear) was present, but only good as a decoy for about 5 seconds, as she got two-shotted by the lvl 45...

Try quaffing a few resistance potions.

I just ran into my first Elder Blood Dragon and that one made the other dragons pale in comparison. Normal dragons I can 3 shot them. The elder dragon took a lot more damage before it went down and it did put out more hurt.

Bosses are suppose to be difficult, so I see no problem with the amount of damage that they cause. If your a Nord use Warcry, easiest battle ever except against Dragons that's a different animal.

Dodge and weave works on some mobs, such as trolls and giants.

The thing is they don't glue to your face like bosses in dungeons do. Also the bosses in dungeons hit alot faster for vast amounts of damage. You'd think the slam of a troll or giant would hurt, considering you have time to back off before the hit lands, but no...

As I said, trolls and giants are great fun to fight since you can dodge and weave alot like that.

Bosses though hit like a jumbo-jet in the face even with their regular hits (read: not power attacks), making it tough to avoid damage at all unless you are using ranged.

Also, "just learn to time your shield bash" doesn't really work unless you have a shield, and the perk. Furthermore, you can't really shield bash a guy killing you with 2 arrows from his bow at 50 metre range, or one spamming ice spells for that matter.

I've found that Become Ethereal has become one of my most trusted shouts as a sword and board Nord during high damage encounters and is especially useful for closing gaps between you and ranged.

It has a very short cool-down and running while ethereal does not use up stamina. Use this to close distances to archers and/or casters. For heavy hitting melee type bosses just use it to either close distance or gain distance (running away).

I agree with this. If all of these high level bosses and npc's (not necessarily just bad guys) are so tough and dragons are only modestly challenging, what is the point of the Dragonborn in the first place? Sure the Forsworn Ravager at the top of that camp at the entrance of Sky Ruler Temple can't kill them forever by devouring their soul, but she can kill everyone that comes near there for as long as it takes for [censored] Aldruin to come raise them again. I mean she could kill them easily. So why then do we need the Dragonborn again?

Really the only tactic you have is offensive (stagger) or backpedal and side step. Those are the best methods to handle damage. Mitigation is terrible in Skyrim as you should never be getting hit with how the game works. Really and truly people who Block are using an inferior mechanic when they could be avoiding damage entirely. They could lower damage to make it more forgiving.

I think a lot of people are missing the point. The OP is not asking for advice on how to beat bosses in melee. The point is that the it is a bit absurd that the bosses are more powerful than Dragons, yet the entire point of the game is the great world ending threat of the dragons and pivotal role of the Dragonborn?

So the question is, how is it that dragons are that much of a threat when there are lots of people running around who could kill them easily if necessary? Essentially that is a design problem they should have made dragons or bosses or differently.

That skinner boss charged me and killed me quickly the first time too. The next time I thought I would try to new power I just got and he was on the floor in three or four swipes.

I think what they're saying is that the difficulty should be more than just numerical supremacy. It should involve tactics and better AI.