Hey, well let me say that the game really has been great so far first off.

Now, to my recent observation after having fought like 4 dragons so far.

Every single dragon fight has resulted in a relatively easy battle, which primarily is due to the fact that they sooner or later just decide to land in front of my character and say basically "ok, so you coulnt hit me in the sky.. well here I am come kill me".. and I quickly kill them by using a shout plus blade attack. I havent died once yet in a dragon fight.

In retrospect, Ive died numerous times fighting frost trolls, of which I can take down, but have to be very carefull and whatnot. I died a number of times taking down some boss type creature in the far north, forget its name, but it was a really epic battle to finally take it down.

I guess.. what I'm questioning here, is why are the dragons both so easy, and so seemingly 'stupid' in their behaviour, which results in a less than epic experience, when all along I've been under the impression the dragons are supposed to be basically the ultimate foe that threatens the whole of Skyrim.

Again, I really like the game, and basically all aspects. It's just that it seems backwards the dragons are less capable and dangerous than various random creature spawns you run into along your journeys.

Play on a harder difficulty. Skyrim is not fun unless you are playing on at least Adept.

Agreed.

It's a blast on Master.

As said above, play on Master. For the longest time I was afraid to and thought it'd be too hard when in fact it's pretty easy. It feels natural playing on master and can't imagine playing on anything else now...

Also, I hate draons and I find battles with Atronachs more memorable since they're so few and far between.

Yup, Master's the way to go. Although, I do find it brutal at low levels imo (unless maybe you really, really power game your build, which I don't necessarily do), but once you become stronger it becomes more tolerable, while generally remaining challenging.

On a side note, however, dragons are definitely weaker than they should be, relative to Skyrim's other monsters. I once had a Frost Troll completely take care of a Dragon for me ( I returned the favor by pumping him full of arrows).

Underpowered dragons can be remedied on PC with mods such as Deadly Dragons (which has considerable acclaim, although I haven't downloaded it yet myself). If you're on console, bumping up your difficulty is your best bet, I suppose.

Eventually master is going to be as easy as adept at a really high level say 50. So if you're looking for more of a challenge do it while your still young.

I'd dare say master is almost too easy, and a harder difficulty beyond it should be added.

Maybe because of your build, I've yet to encounter one, I'm holding off from the Main quest until I feel ready, but when I get there, it will feel like a whole new game... kind of how Dawnguards release, but this will be a dragon DLC for my character, if this makes any sense. My build is a thief alchemist, who is getting much better in combat, utilizing bows at a distance and dual daggers at close combat coupled with pisons. I can't even imagine a dragon fight yet, shouts will prove usefull for sure.

EDIT: I play on adept difficulty.

Yeah, increase difficulty.

On PC you can install http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3829 mod. I was disappointed in dragon battles until I installed this mod.

^ This.

And they only stay grounded after you damage them enough that flight becomes impossible. Hence the crash landing they sometimes do.

you must not be on a high enough level and playing on easy. ancient and elder dragons kick some serious but.

dragons don't feel fun to kill at all with a bow, it's always so anticlimactic. i had 2 pimped out forsworn ravager archers with suped up daedric bows and arrows along with my daedric bow and arrows, people were like oh no a dragon is burning our crops, and i was all like TAKE THE SHOT DAMN IT, next thing you know, dead dragon filled with daedric arrows.

Early dragons are weaker than later dragons. Dragons keep scaling with you. Depending on your build and how you deal with their fire and frost attacks, there might come a time when you will find dragons quite strong.

Low level dragons are very weak and they are easy compared to trolls, sabre cats, bears, giants and mammoths. But giants and mammoths don't get tougher as you level up while dragons do. Later on, you will find trolls very easy to deal with, while Dragons not as much.

The only fights I've found consistently more difficult than dragons, were dragon priests. Dragons are definitely the most memorable for me, though.

Especially when they spawn in areas where is no there to land and I'm playing one of my pure melee classes (that don't have Dragonrend yet either)...

Bethesda doesn't really do boss battles or memorable combat encounters...you are better off looking for that in other games.

Because you're the Dragonborn, the Ultimate Dragonslayer.

Could also have something to do with high-quality weapons. Ever tried killing a dragon with just an iron sword?

Try master difficulty.

Personally my hardest fight is when fighting both frost dargon and elder dragon at once, along with nahkriin and a draugr death lord. now at lower difficulty this situation although quite hard but shouldn't be a problem but on master, it turns into the hardest battle I've experienced even more than alduin.

Yea and dangerous one fire breath might kill you Lol

Dragons are WAY too easy.

Those things should just bite your face off.

Whats worse than piss easy unmemorable dragons? I tell you
Unmemorable dragons with bloathed damage and hp
To fix them, one would must redesign dragon encouters overall,

Yeah, I'm not playing on Master but I am on Expert. Add being a vampire to the mix and when you hear the dragon you need to find an escape route in case it's fire and not Ice. Dragons are potentially the most terrifying enemies in some situations. Others, not so much...

I'm on master and I punch them to death, of course I've only fought two weak ones so far, the first one you fight at the watch tower killed me as I was low level with not enough health, second I stumbled near his mountain top was way easier as I was level 16 by then, first time he landed he seemed to take a lot less punches than those bandit chiefs. I've only had to run away from two battles with my unarmed build, there was nothing I could do against this wisp mother thing, by the time I got close to it I was dead from the ice spikes. Also the Hrothgar Frost Troll, it was healing it's health faster than I could take it out so I had to let the greybeards deal with it.

Play as a weedy Illusionist, and those dragons are suddenly the biggest threat in the game...

I think it comes down to the dragon souls. If they were as difficult to kill as they should be, getting 50 something souls would be crazy hard. Anyone remember a few months back when elemental resistances weren't working, that made the dragon battles alot better.

Ancient Dragons on master is a pain. In. The. Butt.