So this is all pre-Dawnguard, but at the moment, am I the only one that thinks Werewolves really svck in combat?

I ask because I read the occasional thread where people talk about fighting as a werewolf, or playing as one a lot, and even doing well at it.
My problem is that they seem incredibly weak!

I can do a fair bit of damage, that's fair, but the other day I had trouble just taking on three basic bandits. Four arrows from one and I was dead....

Inside, it's impossible as there's no room for manoeuvre, and outside it's just a matter of time really. I find it hard to fight if there's more than about two enemies.

So is this a common experience, or am I doing something really wrong?

*Always* use your roar to get people running. That makes it much easier; you can then hunt down each enemy one by one, and they make for very easy prey.

It makes sense; divide and eat.

EDIT: The Sprinting power attack is also incredibly strong.

Yeah I used to do that. I think though that I've activated some totem thing in the Companions base, and now my power/shout isnt the fear thing, but something that doesnt appear to do anything. And I cant see a way to change it back! I can only activate it again, to reapply what is already there :-/

Werewolves are useful early in the game. But my character is tremendously more powerful in human form now so I never wolf out anymore. Perhaps this new perk tree will change that, though.

Try and get the rest of the totems; one of them enhances the fear roar.

Like others have said, the howl is very powerful. Also, power attack make enemies go flying, even giants.

I didn't like werewolf form. No armor meant death early and often. Attacks kept freezing too. :\ Got rid of it asap. Made me reluctant to try being a vampire and have another big long quest getting rid of that too. (Still haven't touched vampirism. Didn't care for it in Oblivion much either. Why does it always mess up the female faces? Argh!)

Perk tree has me crossing my fingers though.

Vampire removal quest is very short, I thought...?

Werewolf level 100 perk - BE ABLE TO OPEN DOORS!

Do you mean locked doors? Cause my werewolf opens normal doors just fine!

Same here, never had trouble with unlocked doors before.

I agree with the OP, Werewolf combat is crap. You drop like a fly, and do almost no damage with the basic attack. Hell, even the "power" attack is only good for knocking the enemy over so that you can get some basic hits on them and try to do some damage. And the lounge attack needs space to pull off and can(atleast for me) miss a lot. As a werewolf, you shouldn't need to use a roar to make your enemies run from you so you can take pot shots at them as they run/cower in fear. Also, fear should be an automatic thing when one sees A FREAKING WEREWOLF!. Seriously, why do these bandits not [censored] themselves at the sight of me and why are theses peasants so eager to charge at me with an iron dagger?

edited for grammar

Haven't played as a vampire so I don't know. Dawnguard will definitely make both werewolf and vamp more appealing though.

+9000

I never had much trouble as a werewolf to be honest. I wolf out occasionally to have a bit of fun with a large group of enemies, humans in particular so I can heal and extend my time. and if someone is strong enough to resist the fear roar I just knock them on their ass and wail on them, roaring every once in a while to keep their henchmen at bay.

As soon as I turned into a Werewolf the first thing I wanted to do was take on a Dragon, it was gonna be the most awesome battle ever! Then the Dragon nearly 1 hit me with it's fire and ate me.

That's when I started to notice how terrible the Werewolf is.

This, i was pwning everyone in werewolf form, even those whom i was to week to kill as human, and tried to take a dragon, with same result as yours, while i pwned the dragon in human form,

For me Werewolf lacks 3 things atm
-Character progress (well this ones out, hope dawnguard will fix this good)
-1st person view, some times its annoying to navigate trough tight corridors, dungeons
-Leap jump to a enemy could be too OP but to balance this it could have high stamina requirement

Once you reach Lvl 45+, Werewolf Form reaches it's cap of 80 damage. The new "Bestial Strength" perk will increase that by 25% per point, so +100% damage for 4 Points in Bestial Strength, so a claw damage of 160 then. The Sprinting Lunge Power Attack is pretty powerful...when it works. Alot of the time when i go to Lunge (Especially against Mammoths), the power attack completely fails to go off, even if there's enough range between me and the opponent. I think it's a bug.
Werewolves drop like a fly (Especially at high levels) because they have no Armor Rating. Their high Health does not compensate for this, since the Health doesn't scale like Damage Mitigation does. Plus the high Health just means you need to feed that much more often to keep it up, while higher Damage Mitigation would make you require less feeding to stay alive.

I think the idea of being a werewolf was more for a role playing purpose. I noticed immediately that when i fought as a werewolf that i was very weak, so instead i would go around Skrim killing and eating random people for fun. Also, being a vampire helps with frost immunity and sneak, so it is very helpful for sneak players to be vampires, but again being a vampire is about role playing as I like to break into people's houses and feed on them, in my opinion that is the most fun part about being a vampire. With Dawnguard however, Bethesda is making Vampires and Werewolfs better for combat reasons by adding perk trees and the Vampire lord transformation.

Where are you getting the info on Werewolf perks from?

Ah, well I can tell you the vanilla vampire removal quest is very easy. You just need a filled Black Soul Gem, IIRC, and that's it.

Really? Thanks for the information. And it's something simple this time around, thank the gods. That Oblivion vamp removal quest was punishment. It soured me on vampires ever since. But maybe I will try it in Skyrim.

There is pics of it scattered across the interwebz.

One of the new perks lets you get twice as much health from feeding, and another adds 100 points added to health and stamina.

I agree, the only too things that make the Werewolf powerfull is the roar and the Power attack that knocks them to the ground.