Whats up with the Dragon Priests?

[marciosilva]

First off, I need to say I play Skyrim in a relaxed mood, to appreciate landscape, sometimes I even roam in my horse walking instead of running, and its a lovely game indeed. I play it for the fun, and not to say "I finished all the quests in the harder setting available, I'm good".

 

I started to play in the lowest difficulty setting to get to know the game and feel, and now I'm currently playing on my 3rd character, on Adept (the most average and default setting). I felt that in the lowest setting, the game could be a bit too boring for someone who has played enough, so I'm getting quite well for now on Adept.

 

However, yesterday I was heading to Shearpoint to clear a dragon and claim the Word in the Wall, when the Dragon Priest Krosis pops up from the coffin. I had my quicksave from a bit ago, so ran into the guy after defeating the Dragon. The bastard killed me in one hit (I managed to avoid one hit, but the second was too much). Tried again with a quickload, and died again. Tried again and got killed, over and over..... You get my point. By this time, I reduced the difficulty setting to Novice, and changed back to Adept after killing the guy. Well, I barely made it out alive and had to use almost all of my health potions. Scrolls, powers, shouts, I used them all, none did good damage. My character has died before because I was using the wrong tactic, but with this lich, I used every trick in the book and his health bar barely drop.

 

The thing is: why are Dragon Priests so godlike hard? Even in the lowest setting, they are a real pain. Alduin is clearly easier to deal with. I like a challenge, deal some damage, drink up a potion, keep damaging, I'm ok with that. But using a lot of potions to heal myself per hit I do? Is Skyrim an RPG or a "drink up potions" contest? I spend more time using potions while in combat than playing with the movement keys and swinging my sword proper. That is a bit ridiculous. Makes no sense having a player use ALL health potions in a single fight (and I had a few minor, average, and some stronger ones, all for nothing).

 

IMHO, Dragon Priests are way too much power-leveled. Dragons are easier. Alduin is easier. Other end-quest bosses are easier, or better leveled / better challenging. I frankly don't think they are a fair fight. They should at least, have a weaker armor so people have a change to damage them, when they are not flying away hiding in the flames they cast. But even my greatsword swings seem to barely scratch them. For more, they cut the immersion of the game, making the player loading the last save endless times, even on lower settings. I would not be upset if I were playing on Expert or Master, but I feel I can take on every single oponent in this game, from Novice to Adept; but Dragon Priests are not fair as they are. Period.

 

Thank you for reading my ranting :)

 

Regards, and happy hunting

[robanybody2000]

Yes i see that. Dragon priests are THE most hard to kill creatures in Skyrim plus they deal tremendous damage. I remember when dealing with Morokei...took me almost 6 hours and abbout 100 loads. Nevertheless they are interesting combats.

[Pentigan]

I'm starting to think that proper sneaking technique is a bit overpowered, with a bow and use of darkness I usually take the Dragon Priests out in a few shots depending on if they're weak to fire or not.

[landy8]

marciosilva, just wait for your character to become stronger. When he's about 50th level, Dragon Priests become... dealable.

 

As for the Shearpoint, I would recommend the following low level strategy:

Kill the dragon, learn the word, then run away as fast as you can. You'll return later.

 

As one NPC in one old game said:

"One who fights and runs away lives to fight another day".

Edited May 7, 2012 by landy8

[marciosilva]

I remembered the possibility of running away, but aren't monsters and npcs leveled according to the player level?

[landy8]

I remembered the possibility of running away, but aren't monsters and npcs leveled according to the player level?

 

Dragon Priests are unique characters - they are not levelled. Just like Alduin will remain the same Alduin despite the number of encounters with your character.

[kevkiev]

That brought back memories. I stumbled onto Shearpoint right at the beginning of my first game. Went right to Whiterun from Riverwood and became Thane. Took Lydia out right away for a meandering stroll and ended up stumbling upon the Shearpoint dragon. Took us a few tries to kill it (I was barely alive at the end) and I made the mistake of hanging around to gloat. Kinda freaked when I heard the Dragon Priest emerge from his resting place. Ended up an utter disaster. I ran away while Lydia took an awful beating. The priest and its Atronach would ease off when she was just about dead but then beat her up some more as soon as they could. She musta stopped attacking cuz she eventually found her way to me, hiding behind a rock. Compare that to much later on when I eventually became a god of death - installed the Might Dragons optional Priest file and still found them killable. A lot tougher than usual, but nothing even close to my harrowing first experience with one.

[RedRavyn]

To my knowledge Dragon Priests are locked at level 50. This is why he's so insanely difficult to deal with. I'll outline my strategy for dealing with Krosis (and pretty much all the named Dragon Priests).

 

First of all, be prepared, but also be reassured. The only dragon lair (there are ten) that is guarded by a Dragon Priest is Shearpoint. When taking on any Dragon Priest, I consider the following things to be important to consider:

 

Potions: Fortify Marksmanship, Fortify Conjuration, Fortify Sneak, Resistance to Fire, Resistance to Frost, Resistance to Shock, Healing, Health, Health Regen, Magicka, Restore Magicka, Magicka Regen, Paralysis Poison, Lingering Damage Health Poison, and Damage Health Poison. Any of these you can get your hands on will prove invaluable. Does it sound like you should be an alchemist? Absolutely!

 

Spells: Fire Bolt, Lightning Bolt and Ice Spike at the very least. You need ranged attack spells. The more powerful the better. Getting them from scrolls or staves is good, and a selection of the appropriate staves will give you multiple uses without depleting your Magicka (which you might need for something else). Invisibility and Muffle are good buffs. Conjuration spells you might want to consider include any that conjure up combat help. In the case of Krosis, the Dragon Priest at Shearpoint, you'll want to use Flame Atronachs because they have a resistance to fire. Again, use of scrolls or a staff is recommended to free up your Magicka to use for other things. Conjured creatures won't generally last long against a Dragon Priest, but they're good sources of distractions -- even the lowly Familiar.

 

Gear: Know your enemy. When Krosis first attacks you it will very likely be with Fireball. It seems to be his favored M.O., and knowing that, now, you might want any kind of Resist Fire gear you can scrape together. I tend to travel with a selection of elemental resistance gear and trade the items out as I need them to defend against fire, shock, and frost based attacks.

 

Followers: Don't use non-essential followers when tackling a Dragon Priest, unless they're "throw-aways". You're not looking for cannon-fodder, here, but for followers who can actually be of some use to you as diversions. While Krosis focuses his attention on them you can get in some "free" ranged attacks. If they're essential they aren't going to die. Think about doing Clavicus Vile's quest when you take on Krosis, and make a detour to Shearpoint with Barbas as your follower on the trip to Rimerock Burrow. The big mutt can take out Krosis all by himself, although it will probably take next to forever for him to do it. Since he's godmoded he's not just "essential", but he simply can't take any damage at all. That means he'll be all over Krosis like bees on honey for the entire fight.

 

The strategy is actually pretty simple. As Melka, the friendly Hagraven in Blind Cliff Bastion says, the trick is to not bleed to death. How do you avoid this with Krosis? By not getting hit by his fireballs. Take advantage of the game engine. It auto-aims to the center of a target. On the Dovahkiin that's about waist-high. There are obstacles around Shearpoint that you can stand behind that are perfect for this. Krosis will invariably hit the obstacle with his fireballs, but you can shoot an arrow over it. Just stand far enough back that you're not in the fireball's area-of-effect and you'll be essentially invulnerable.

 

Krosis may well attempt to flank you, though, so you have to stay mobile. Hid behind things. Pop out for a quick shot and then duck behind cover again. Heal up and do it, again. Just remember that the game can get off a shot instantly. You have to take time to aim. That means the moment you peek out of cover Krosis will fire a fireball, so you'll have to take at least one hit in order to get off your shot unless you're very good at "snap shots" and don't need to aim. This is why you need as much "resist fire" going as you can. You can dodge a fireball, though, and it takes him a moment to "reload", so use that little interval to time to your advantage.

 

With followers or conjured creatures, paralysis poisons can make all the difference in the world in defeating Krosis. He can't fight while he's down, and your allies will have multiple free attacks, as will you. It's still going to be a long, drawn-out fight unless you get really lucky (or you're way over Krosis' level). The secret is in managing your resources, whatever they are, and using every trick in your arsenal. With a good strategy and sound tactical decisions you shouldn't have much of a problem defeating any Dragon Priest.

[hankas]

Heavy Armor perked up as much as you can and resist magic potions does the trick for me.... or stealth as Landy8 says above. I have noticed the game is much harder between levels 20-40 depending on how you are using your perks. My current character has mastered conjuration and keeps a couple of raised Ancient Vampires around, they make short work of just about everything. I may have to get rid of them to keep the game challenging.

[thompsonar]

You certainly can't take on a dragon priest too early in the game. Like other people said if you're a warrior type you will need some resist potions or they will kill you easily. If you don't have any magic resistance at all it's going to be a short fight and not go well for you. As for your damage on them, you just have to be at a high enough level, like everyone else has said the priests are not leveled.

 

I kinda like how hard they are. It doesn't bother me when a game has "boss" type characters that are stronger than the main quest boss. The last Final Fantasy game I played was like that I think it was FF XII. It had a bunch of area bosses that were insanely hard and kept me playing even after I beat the game. There were a couple that I never could defeat even with maxed out character (probably my bad tactics). I think there should actually be more characters like this to keep the game alive post main quest and at a high level.