So, I destroyed Dragonborn

[Kayyyleb]

So anyone else start laughing gleefully in Gyldenhul Barrow? The floor was literally covered in piles of gold. Literally. It was like beating the DB questline all over again.

[UrgeNexus]

I more or less powered through the main quest on a level 50 character, did a fair amount of sidequests but not all of them. I enjoyed it a hell of a lot and I've now made a Dunmer Mage. My Nord Warrior plowed through everything with virtually no difficulty whatsoever on Expert, so I decided I wanted to do it again with a slightly less overpowered character, plus I feel like being a mage will fit the general theme of the DLC much better.

 

Overall, I'm happy with it. Nostalgia is not something I have a problem with, the minute I set foot on Solstheim memories of Morrowind (My favourite game of all time, a game which means a great deal to me for many reasons) washed over me and I couldn't help but smile and just walk around Raven Rock looking at buildings, the guards in Bonemold, the ash fields, the waves hitting the shore, it was beautiful. At that moment the DLC had me.

[billyro]

I'm up to the part where you have to go purge the stones: so far the main quest is boring.

 

But I care not, for the Morrowind throwbacks are goooooood. :)

[zombierelic]

I more or less powered through the main quest on a level 50 character, did a fair amount of sidequests but not all of them. I enjoyed it a hell of a lot and I've now made a Dunmer Mage. My Nord Warrior plowed through everything with virtually no difficulty whatsoever on Expert, so I decided I wanted to do it again with a slightly less overpowered character, plus I feel like being a mage will fit the general theme of the DLC much better.

 

 

Depending on the mods you're using that might turn in to a nightmare. With Sky Redone, Deadly Dragons, and such at master difficulty my level 30 pure mage with armor spell/elemental protection enchantments is one shotted quite often by dragon's and even the Seekers can become a big threat, but if your determined I'd recommend going big time in to conjuring or grab a follower to tank.

 

But anyways on topic. I'm half loving, half hating it. I love the Lovecraftian feel of HM realm. But the main villain just doesn't seem all that big a threat. They really needed to add at least a quest or two more in at the start to build him and his action up as more of a threat like his unseen nightmare-ish nature seemed at first, rather than just some mention of unspeakable things and Deadric Lovecraftian-esque books/realms and a few villagers being brainwashed. Or gone completely in the nemesis direction like they seemed to be doing with him just randomly showing up to to steal your dragon souls and calling you weak. By doing both they ruined him in my opinion.

 

To sum up my reaction

 

Evil cult. eh, Ok another one.

Boatman. hmm evil cult, and missing memory while traveling to a far off land, not bad.

Talking stone, brainwashed people, ancient evil. Awesome

Dungeon, evil book, and realm of HM/being told I was out of my league while he's flanked by various horror, returning to defeat said horror's. Epic.

Kill a dragon, taunted and souls stolen, quickly due away with talking rocks. He just lost his unseen horror-ness, and is a jerk.

More Dwemer. Eh, still cool.

More HM, fight dragon, dead shaman. Not bad.

"Crap did this part already, they should really fix that to be in a set order." Tame dragon, boss fight. Would have been better if I'd done it in the right order but, oh well still a better boss fight than in Dawnguard.

 

The side quest weren't bad but can be neatly summed up as more of the usual.

[UrgeNexus]

I more or less powered through the main quest on a level 50 character, did a fair amount of sidequests but not all of them. I enjoyed it a hell of a lot and I've now made a Dunmer Mage. My Nord Warrior plowed through everything with virtually no difficulty whatsoever on Expert, so I decided I wanted to do it again with a slightly less overpowered character, plus I feel like being a mage will fit the general theme of the DLC much better.

 

 

Depending on the mods you're using that might turn in to a nightmare. With Sky Redone, Deadly Dragons, and such at master difficulty my level 30 pure mage with armor spell/elemental protection enchantments is one shotted quite often by dragon's and even the Seekers can become a big threat, but if your determined I'd recommend going big time in to conjuring or grab a follower to tank.

 

But anyways on topic. I'm half loving, half hating it. I love the Lovecraftian feel of HM realm. But the main villain just doesn't seem all that big a threat. They really needed to add at least a quest or two more in at the start to build him and his action up as more of a threat like his unseen nightmare-ish nature seemed at first, rather than just some mention of unspeakable things and Deadric Lovecraftian-esque books/realms and a few villagers being brainwashed. Or gone completely in the nemesis direction like they seemed to be doing with him just randomly showing up to to steal your dragon souls and calling you weak. By doing both they ruined him in my opinion.

 

To sum up my reaction

 

Evil cult. eh, Ok another one.

Boatman. hmm evil cult, and missing memory while traveling to a far off land, not bad.

Talking stone, brainwashed people, ancient evil. Awesome

Dungeon, evil book, and realm of HM/being told I was out of my league while he's flanked by various horror, returning to defeat said horror's. Epic.

Kill a dragon, taunted and souls stolen, quickly due away with talking rocks. He just lost his unseen horror-ness, and is a jerk.

More Dwemer. Eh, still cool.

More HM, fight dragon, dead shaman. Not bad.

"Crap did this part already, they should really fix that to be in a set order." Tame dragon, boss fight. Would have been better if I'd done it in the right order but, oh well still a better boss fight than in Dawnguard.

 

The side quest weren't bad but can be neatly summed up as more of the usual.

I suppose in the end it all comes down to the fact that "More of the same" is exactly what some people want, whereas others want something new. Personally I think Dragonborn offered a fair bit of both, I haven't explored all of Solstheim yet but the dungeons I've been to offered some fun new puzzles and generally more interesting level design, which is a good thing. Another unrealted thing that struck me is how friendly everyone in Raven Rock is. I was expecting to be treated like utter crap by the native Dunmer, but everyone I met was genuinely welcoming and showed appreciation for my help. That kind of threw me off at first because I was expecting a completely different attitude from them, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

As for the Mage thing, I'm not using SkyRe or any mods that make the game signifigantly harder, vanilla Expert tends to be a decent challenge for me and I haven't had any trouble with my mage so far. I think the issue of difficulty was mainly due to the fact that my character was level 50, wearing legendary and heavily enchanted Dragonscale. He was essentially invincible before setting foot on Solstheim. I'd heard from everyone how ball bustingly hard the DLC was, so I prepared for just that.

[zombierelic]

I suppose in the end it all comes down to the fact that "More of the same" is exactly what some people want, whereas others want something new. Personally I think Dragonborn offered a fair bit of both, I haven't explored all of Solstheim yet but the dungeons I've been to offered some fun new puzzles and generally more interesting level design, which is a good thing. Another unrealted thing that struck me is how friendly everyone in Raven Rock is. I was expecting to be treated like utter crap by the native Dunmer, but everyone I met was genuinely welcoming and showed appreciation for my help. That kind of threw me off at first because I was expecting a completely different attitude from them, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

As for the Mage thing, I'm not using SkyRe or any mods that make the game signifigantly harder, vanilla Expert tends to be a decent challenge for me and I haven't had any trouble with my mage so far. I think the issue of difficulty was mainly due to the fact that my character was level 50, wearing legendary and heavily enchanted Dragonscale. He was essentially invincible before setting foot on Solstheim. I'd heard from everyone how ball bustingly hard the DLC was, so I prepared for just that.

 

I completely dropped the ball on that until you mentioned it. But now that I think about it is odd that such a "private" people were more warm and open (except the guards they were still sarcastic at best.) than much of Skyrim was even after saving the whole place but I guess thats not really a bad thing other than on immersion/lore.

 

Also. Yeah, in vanilla your immortal by that point. But anyways you shouldn't have any real problem, even with my insane hardcore difficulty I didn't have to much of a problem with anything but the final boss fight.

[matthias5770]

Just made a new heavy armor, destruction and conjuration 1h Dunmer. It almost feels like morrowind when I first got there..... the DLC is much better on lower level characters. My level 35+ just kinda rolled through it (level 41 now post MQ and with full Deathbrand).

[UrgeNexus]

I suppose in the end it all comes down to the fact that "More of the same" is exactly what some people want, whereas others want something new. Personally I think Dragonborn offered a fair bit of both, I haven't explored all of Solstheim yet but the dungeons I've been to offered some fun new puzzles and generally more interesting level design, which is a good thing. Another unrealted thing that struck me is how friendly everyone in Raven Rock is. I was expecting to be treated like utter crap by the native Dunmer, but everyone I met was genuinely welcoming and showed appreciation for my help. That kind of threw me off at first because I was expecting a completely different attitude from them, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

As for the Mage thing, I'm not using SkyRe or any mods that make the game signifigantly harder, vanilla Expert tends to be a decent challenge for me and I haven't had any trouble with my mage so far. I think the issue of difficulty was mainly due to the fact that my character was level 50, wearing legendary and heavily enchanted Dragonscale. He was essentially invincible before setting foot on Solstheim. I'd heard from everyone how ball bustingly hard the DLC was, so I prepared for just that.

 

I completely dropped the ball on that until you mentioned it. But now that I think about it is odd that such a "private" people were more warm and open (except the guards they were still sarcastic at best.) than much of Skyrim was even after saving the whole place but I guess thats not really a bad thing other than on immersion/lore.

 

Also. Yeah, in vanilla your immortal by that point. But anyways you shouldn't have any real problem, even with my insane hardcore difficulty I didn't have to much of a problem with anything but the final boss fight.

I see that as a tactic used by the Guards to subtly let you know that they are in charge, if you behave yourself then there won't be any trouble, if you don't...well then the Redoran Guard will kick your ass right back to Skyrim if you're lucky. What I liked the most about Raven Rock is that it seemed very real, the people of Raven Rock are living on the frontier and without cooperation they won't make it there. Hence it would do more harm than good to be unwelcoming and hostile to outsiders, especially when said outsider can help them deal with the islands many dangers and bring goods and money into their economy. They are a product of their environment.

 

Similarly, the Dunmer of Windhelm are products of a hostile environment, but one where they are essentially treated like crap by everyone. The Gray Quarter isn't an environment that encourages cooperation and good will towards outsiders, but rather segregation and disdain for the people who treat them poorly. While there are Dunmer in Windhelm that want to get along with the Nords and Nords who feel the same way towards the Dunmer, the general attitude of both parts is understandable. Not good, but understandable.

 

If we compare the two groups, I see them representing the old and the new Dunmer. The Windhelm Dunmer are clinging onto the way of life they had in Morrowind before the Red Year and before the Tribunal was destroyed. At that time, the Dunmer could be xenophobic and unwelcoming, because they had three living Gods protecting them. Morrowind used to be untouchable, the Windhelm Dunmer generally seem unable to cope with such a massive change in their way of life.

 

Then there's Raven Rock, the new Dunmer. These people are living in the new Morrowind, right out on the frontier at that. While they've embraced a new (Or rather old) religion, one that denounces the Tribunal as false gods and represents a return to tradition, they also recognise the fact that Morrowind and the Dunmer people are broken. Rather than lament this fact however, they instead work to rebuild. They are willing to work hard to build a better future, rather than cling to the past. I'm very excited to see what happens to the Dunmer in the coming years, if the attitude I see as prevalent in Raven Rock is anything to go by, there is some hope that Morrowind can rise from the ashes so to speak.

 

Just made a new heavy armor, destruction and conjuration 1h Dunmer. It almost feels like morrowind when I first got there..... the DLC is much better on lower level characters. My level 35+ just kinda rolled through it (level 41 now post MQ and with full Deathbrand).

Out of interest, at what level have you gone to Solstheim with this new character? I was thinking of having my mage finish up the College of Winterhold before going there.

Edited February 8, 2013 by UrgeNexus

[SarinGlave]

I am really not impressed with this game at all. I rarely have had any issues with Skyrim or any of its DLC so far, but this thing was so badly glitched, it just ruined it for me. The setting was interesting, but looked like more of the same, only with mushroom houses. Every single main storyline quest was glitched to the point where I HAD to use the console to progress. The Stones wouldn't cleanse, Miraak would regenerate 3 times and then completely disappear, never to return. Very annoying, and disappointing. And the story itself is incredibly brief. It is FAR too easy to get to Miraak. The NPC's around me are just dull and lifeless, with little personality. I actually prefer the Dawnguard story and characters in comparison. At least there was more they made me do, other than "Get book, Cleanse stones. Make guy read book. Kill Miraak." I also liked that you were part of something. The Dawnguard fought beside you. That's something I really missed. You don't feel like you're PART of the Skaal. They aren't an army. They just kind of do their own thing and leave it to you. I did like the culmination of the Hermaeus Mora story. I found that part REALLY interesting, but it just kind of deflated. I thought you were going to end up battling him somehow. And am I the only one who found Miraak's voice a little lame? It doesn't really command the fear it should. Well, I'm nitpicking at this point. The real problem is the glitching. That absolutely ruins an already weak story. It's a shame, too, because this had SO much potential.

[lolozori]

the bethesda fanboyz where saying this dlc was delayed because of bug polishing... ho boy they where wrong Edited February 9, 2013 by lolozori