Hardest fight in Skyrim

[enyamerT]

Probably the Rat King at an early level. After getting killed over and over again, I just abandoned the quest and leveled up. Went back when I was a werewolf and managed to kill him easily.

who is the rat king?

Hamelyn - he's part of a Thieves' Guild quest, and yes he was a serious PITA.

My hardest so far was probably Malkoran, during Meridia's quest. His version of Ice Spike can easily one- or two-shot anyone without serious resistances. Took about a dozen tries, but I finally got him dead by backing him against a wall and whittling him down while shield bashing him regularly to keep him from casting.

[Blackie_Chan]

I had leveled all of my crafting skills well ahead of my other skills, but unfortunately had not gotten them high enough to make the pendulum swing towards my direction by making crazy gear. I decided to go on the companion quest Silver Hand where you prove your worth. Now I cakewalked the beginning part which made me think, that the levels were prescripted and not tied to my level... then I got to pick up the axe fragment. Every dragur in there was a Scourge, Wright or Deathlord.

Did I mention i was still in basic gear because up until this time I assumed it was volume of hits not damage that leveled skills?

It took me 5 hours saving at critical times in the fight, trying multiple tactics after each save, back tracking on saves because i got nuked after the save in an "impossible to avoid" way, and finally triumping. You may ask, "why not just go back on a save" well I had turned off autosave, worried about killing my game (not that it mattered at my level), saved manually on one game data file.

Most fun and hardest play time ever. Reminded me of Demon Souls.

[Dohva.]

I have a new one to add to this list: the

Spoiler:

last room in Snowveil Sanctum Thieve's Guild quest with the word wall.

There were 2 Draugrs to start off with, one was a deathlord. Before starting a fight with them, I counted at least 4 more tombs. So the tally was up to 6 draugr. But there were more that broke out during the fight. We were totally outnumbered and I was summoning deadra and fire atronachs left and right, still getting hammered. Those stupid draugr were also summoning frost atronachs! GRRR. I died several times, even with my level 37 assassin who is also master illusionist. Damn that was hard. But wait, after the battle, I was looking around the room, and 2 more draugr broke out of tombs I had not seen! And I thought I had looked around the room thoroughly. UGH it was terrible. It [&@%!] me off so bad I woke up the next morning wondering how I could have made that easier on myself. Ahhh, Skyrim, why do you do this to me?!

[Svetlana Kronborg]

I can't believe no one else has posted this or may be I just missed it

Spoiler:

The very end of the Potema quest.

There's lightning bolts everywhere. Every Druagr seems to know the disarm shout. Every time I kill anything it gets resurrected and starts fighting again. I must have died a dozen times as nothing seemed to work - sniping from the doorway, hiding in the hall and letting my follower slug it out for me, using a summons staff.

I'm on my third character at lvl 49. I still have not started her quest.

[Spartacus]

So far has been this Boethia occultist that randomly appears in the wilderness. Im playing a mage so I use stone flesh which gives me 200 armor rating. This occultist is using a mace and he kills me with one blow. Go figure.

[azuarc]

I'm surprised so many people have trouble with basic draugrs or dragon priests. I would eventually hit a rough patch in one of those fights, but nothing that would cause me to die multiple times. Although, I must admit, the game got a hell of a lot easier once I used the Atronach as my sign since magic (which is what typically killed me quickly early on) was almost inconsequential at that point.

[Resolute Crusader]

I snuck inside a forsworn fortress without being seen (think it was that one near the end of deepwood redoubt), even though i didn't know anyone was there and I got caught before the end, I ended up using storm call and most of my scrolls and pots

[Swampy]

I can't believe no one else has posted this or may be I just missed it

Spoiler:

The very end of the Potema quest.

There's lightning bolts everywhere. Every Druagr seems to know the disarm shout. Every time I kill anything it gets resurrected and starts fighting again. I must have died a dozen times as nothing seemed to work - sniping from the doorway, hiding in the hall and letting my follower slug it out for me, using a summons staff.

I'm on my third character at lvl 49. I still have not started her quest.

Forgot about that. That was so hard.

[MaKo]

I'm surprised so many people have trouble with basic draugrs or dragon priests. I would eventually hit a rough patch in one of those fights, but nothing that would cause me to die multiple times.

I think it is a combination of your playing style and the places where draugr exist. I must admit that when playing mage I have some claustrophobic feelings when being locked in small chamber full of swinging swords and flying arrows, and I must also admit that it is not a nice place for a warrior either. With my mage(s) I play stealth, with my warrior(s) I play "fair fights", except against spellcasters in all flavors, as I hate them so deeply.

Furthermore, the level you are also affects to the difficultiness; the beginning can be very hard, after which is slightly get easier for a moment, until you start to reach levels giving you harder opponents. For example, you start meeting higher level Draugr at approx. level 20-30 onwards, and you are far from ready to meet them and their ebony weapons; also, dungeon bosses are usually much harder than you can deal at early and mid levels. Nowadays I give up and come back later, if I meet a creature who can kill me with a few swings and who hardly notices that I'm tickling it with my toothpick.

Although, I must admit, the game got a hell of a lot easier once I used the Atronach as my sign since magic (which is what typically killed me quickly early on) was almost inconsequential at that point.

Magic is definitely a great threat in Skyrim. I have trusted on Breton + Lord Stone + Agent of Mara + Aletartion perks to reduce the damage down, usually about 65-75%. Large amounts of magic resistance make especially dragons and dragon priests much easier, as their main attack is magic. I had a good lesson from this when playing Skyrim between patches 1.2 and 1.3, i.e. magic resistance was not working at all. I also think that it is easy to forget racial resistances (Nord and Dunmer), and then encounter trouble when meeting spellcaster using different elements. For example, draugr usually use frost, which mean that Nords may think they are tougher than they are, and then meet a fire mage to show the power of magic

Even that I usually try to get high magic resistance (as I really don't like spellcasters), there are still spellcasters who can kill me in direct fight. Especially frost magic is deadly against warriors, as it slows you down and makes you a sitting target to other enemies.

[Red Guardian]

Now I remember the hardest fight I ever had. It was for Azura's quest.

Spoiler:

Those damn Dremora's + the Necromancer killed me 6 or 7 times. I think I wasted something like 20 health potions.

[azuarc]

I also think that it is easy to forget racial resistances (Nord and Dunmer), and then encounter trouble when meeting spellcaster using different elements. For example, draugr usually use frost, which mean that Nords may think they are tougher than they are, and then meet a fire mage to show the power of magic

I had not considered that. You may very well be right on that account.

[enyamerT]

I can't believe no one else has posted this or may be I just missed it

Spoiler:

The very end of the Potema quest.

There's lightning bolts everywhere. Every Druagr seems to know the disarm shout. Every time I kill anything it gets resurrected and starts fighting again. I must have died a dozen times as nothing seemed to work - sniping from the doorway, hiding in the hall and letting my follower slug it out for me, using a summons staff.

I'm on my third character at lvl 49. I still have not started her quest.

Oh, man. I completely repressed the memory of that fight. I actually did that one before Meridia's quest (Dawnbreaker certainly would have helped).

[Marco]

Try going into shimmermist cave at about level 10. It's northeast of whiterun. not far. Have fun taking on the falmer gloomlurker AND the dwarven centurion at the end. Here's me thinking, great, I can hide in a corner and let them duke it out, and finish off the winner. No, they team up on me? I thought dwemer machines are hostile to falmer? Is that not the case?

[Billy Bones]

Man I couldn't even get past the chauruses in Shimmermist at that level.

I found Morokei not too bad at level 42 but the Valthuume boss Haavnorik was probably my toughest battle to date - I was level 20 and had not previously encountered a dragon priest. Krosis was also a [&@%!], coming straight after a dragon fight, but it helped that I had Lydia with me at the time.

Potema was another tough fight, but more epic than difficult. Nasty little surprises towards the end too...

[thespacephantom]

Morokei. Ohgod, Morokei. He was impossible for my pure mage character to beat, even at the lowest difficulty.

[Elenath]

So far, a Draugr Deathlord in Sarthaal. I gave up on beating him and decided to come back later five levels ago, haven't gotten around to him since.
Krosis was really annoying too. I was way below his level, and the first time I charged up and had both him and the dragon attacking me at once. That was a shock. The next time, I was better prepared, but it still took forever to bring him down.

[Ilikeskooma]

Ulfric! just kidding, that was the worst boss fight ever, he died in two swings. I MEAN really? Big bad boss my butt!

[Red Guardian]

^ Fight him with low light armour and a weak weapon with the difficulty on master. All you'll see: Shouts and shouts. And shouts.

[Da_BossMaN69]

Something I kind of don't really understand is everyone's fear/weakness to mages of any type in this game. I mean I know their spells pack a lot of power to them, but I find them easy to be honest with you. 90% of the time I fight against a mage I do so round cover, and at that point the rest is easy. Even with the higher dragon priests I don't really see how they'd be that tough.

Granted they have like 2-4 hit kill spells but they're health/defense really is laughable compared to any dragon really. With the one priest in Valthume, Hevnoraak, despite having spells that could one hit kill me at level 20, I had enough damage and enough shouts to get the job done.

Now I don't know how many people know about the parry move you can do, but it really makes a difference in any fight really (block + attack, at the same time), because if some one knows how to really use this any mage fight becomes easy. All it is, is dodging the spells than wait for the opening, get it and power attack to stagger them, then use the parry and power attack, simple rinse and repeat, do this and you won't let the mage get in a second hit, and due to their usually low health, all it takes is 3-4 hits.

[Valus]

The whole quest "The Wolf Queen Awakened". The entire thing is just endless fighting. First you just fight a few draugr then high-level vampires and at the end you have an endurance battle of high-level draugr that Potema re-animates over and over while dodging her swirly lightning beams, then after killing all the draugr it looks like it's over and you have to just "retrieve Potema's remains" but the remains turn out to be a her ghost with an enchanted daedric sword. So after that you get her remains, which is just a skull wearing a circlet, and that's pretty much it, not really worth the reward you get, i think it was just gold, I do use her sword all the time, though.

[Pavouk106]

The Shearpoint battle was really tough. I saw a dragon and thought "Yeah, next easy soul". I was dumb. I was running all around the place, dodgind spells and trying to get rid of dragon's breath attacks, healing almost all the time. I used call dragon shout and the one to call ethereal nord. Nord died almost immediately Dragon won the fight for me. Killed both, the dragon and the priest.

But the hardest fight was inside Azura's star. I can't withstand anything which uses destruction magic and there were three dremoras inside. I was dead almost right after converstation finished. I skipped this battle (become ethereal shout, run to the target, killing spree, Azura teleports me back, no dremoras harmed during cleaning of the star). This was so hard that I had to quit fighting ang "go around".

[Unionhack]

I once had to fight a Volkihar Vampire and a Dragon priest at the same time. No one came out of that one looking pretty.

[Voice of the North]

Krosis - I should've ignored that letter from a "friend"..
Instead of trying to help me, he just lures me to some Open-Air Dragonpriestlair.
Which rhymes.
I was level 15 and died about a million times - before finally getting on some stones and hide up there, out of view.
I used my Fire breath from there to damage him a little bit and then retreated out of sight to load my shouzt again.
As it did little damage and had to recharge all the time it took me nearly an hour to kill him.

Second would be some random dungeon, where I encountered around 30 draugr in a giant chamber - they were leveled, and due to high level they were deathlords - all of them.

[Imperfect Three]

By far the hardest situation I've ever been put in happened two days ago. I had just created a new heavy armor, one-handed/block warrior character because I was always using two-handed as a warrior.
I wanted to explore the area near Riften because I had never got a chance to do that since I always stuck to the main questlines ie (Theives Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Companions, etc..). So I headed off to the southeast to scale that big snowy mountain and I saw an Ancient Nordic Ruin called Forelhost and of course I wanted to explore it.
I got a quest to go after a mask of power named Rahjot from a Stormcloak Officer outside. At the time I was level 2 with basic Heavy Imperial Armour and an iron shield/sword and several minor and regular healing potions.
I didn't expect the draugr to be all Death-Lords, Wights, and Scourge/Lords and used most of my potions in the first area. I had to lure my enemies into their own traps to kill them by that point and the final battle with Rahjot was ridiculously difficult, I have no clue how I managed to defeat him.
I ended up spending 2 1/2 hours in that ruin and came out with a full set of Ancient Nord Armour, an enchanted sword and the mask Rahjot. Plus I was level 11. Hardest dungeon of my life!

[MaKo]

I got a quest to go after a mask of power named Rahjot from a Stormcloak Officer outside. At the time I was level 2 with basic Heavy Imperial Armour and an iron shield/sword and several minor and regular healing potions. ... I ended up spending 2 1/2 hours in that ruin and came out with a full set of Ancient Nord Armour, an enchanted sword and the mask Rahjot. Plus I was level 11. Hardest dungeon of my life!

Oh god, I can really feel your pain I too have a temptation to go to look for the masks and dungeons at low levels, and sometimes they are just impossibly difficult and frustrating, but after all the hard work, the satisfaction to come back alive having the mask in possession is just unbelievably