Dragonborn (DLC) Discussion

[SilentPsycho]

February 5th, huh? Ack. I dunno if I can wait that long.
Ah, well. More time to finish From-Blackest-Reaches.

Edit:
And Verina. I forgot about her.

Same here. I've gotten to a point where two of my current favourite characters kind of have nothing left to do, at least not without spoiling my plans for them. I suppose I could use this time to work on completing Dawnguard with my vampire mage though. I haven't played with her in a while.

[Marelo]

Quick question: Does Dragonborn allow for casting on horses as well as on dragons? The few people I've seen talking about it (through Google searches) say it does, but they all seem kind of shaky on it. Confirmation of this would make my day.

[perylousdemon]

Gee, and only a month later than it was supposed to be out...

Better late than never, I suppose.

[Huntershound]

Gee, and only a month later than it was supposed to be out...

Better late than never, I suppose.

It was supposed to be out "early 2013". From an annual standpoint February is still early.

[perylousdemon]

Gee, and only a month later than it was supposed to be out...

Better late than never, I suppose.

It was supposed to be out "early 2013". From an annual standpoint February is still early.

Yes, and the DLCs are only supposed to be exclusive on Xbox for 30 days. That was what I meant by my remark.

[soda popinski]

All the complaining gets old. Beth makes great games, and they are doing their best to get them out for everyone. You're not entitled to anything from them. Give them your money if you want, or don't, but let's quit all the whining

[GodsBePraised]

I have to agree. It sucks, especially for PS3 users. Bethesda has had a bad history with PS3 games long before Skyrim came out though. Glad they get to purchase all DLC's for 22.5 bucks soon though.

Some entitled PC users really need to quit whining though.

[Mr.Argonian]

This is great, better late than never. And putting them on sale at half price is a really great sign of good faith from Bethesda, showing they understand its been along time and we deserve a reward for our patience.

This is going to bring me back to Skyrim. So I can spend another six months playing it without a break.

[Crimson-Claw]

This is great, better late than never. And putting them on sale at half price is a really great sign of good faith from Bethesda, showing they understand its been along time and we deserve a reward for our patience.

This is going to bring me back to Skyrim. So I can spend another six months playing it without a break.

Might be time to change your status!

[perylousdemon]

This is great, better late than never. And putting them on sale at half price is a really great sign of good faith from Bethesda, showing they understand its been along time and we deserve a reward for our patience.

This is going to bring me back to Skyrim. So I can spend another six months playing it without a break.

Might be time to change your status!

I assume he's waiting until they actually release the DLCs before he does that. Not counting his chickens before they hatch and all that.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

I really hope there's at least one new DLC before Bethesda stops working on new Skyrim content in favor of another Fallout title. As much as I love me some post apocalyptic goodness, TES is my favorite game series and it's maddening to have to wait literally years between installments in the main series. TESO will help ease that wait a bit, but it's not the same.

[Arterion]

I have a lv. 21 Nord warrior skilled in One-Handed (sword), Block and Heavy Armor. Is he enough for Dragonborn or do I need to level him for a few levels more? What should I bring to Solstheim and if there is something that I should prepare before travelling to the island?

[Pilaf The Defiler]

I have a lv. 21 Nord warrior skilled in One-Handed (sword), Block and Heavy Armor. Is he enough for Dragonborn or do I need to level him for a few levels more? What should I bring to Solstheim and if there is something that I should prepare before travelling to the island?

It depends on how skilled you are as a player, what gear you're wearing, what difficulty you're playing on and whether you intend on fighting a certain optional boss.

[Arterion]

As for skill I usually train my block and evade on giants as soon as I am out of Helgen, also 400 + hours of Skyrim of which almost half on hard difficulty level hopefully credit me as a skilled player. As for my gear I have a full dwarven armor set with a shield and a sword, all tempered to my smithing skill level 55.

I play on hard with my melee characters, it is less fun when you do so with a caster (15 firebolts per boss is a bit boring...). My gear is unenchanted bar the ring with a regen stamina.

[CBR JGWRR]

The short answer is everything does more damage to you and has vast amounts more health. If they found Alduin straight forward to deal with, then they should cope with Solstheim.


You know how regular restless draugr are in say, Bleak Falls barrow?

That's roughly how often draugr deathlords are on Solstheim - when going through Raven Rock mine you will face at least 5, even at level 1 or 2. (The upshot is you can have ebony weapons really early, if you survive...)

Solstheim on novice difficulty is like expert or master on mainland Skyrim, it is much tougher. Stay above ground where possible.


Bandits - about the same as Skyrim bandits, only they have better equipment. Mostly the bandit outlaw level as opposed to bandit level.

Rieklings - low damage output, but fairly numerous. They are like a cross between an Ewok and Crazy Frog, only without the music.
The follower rieklings are awesome, one of them took down a dragon single handedly after upping his equipment.

Dragons - weirdly, they are likely to be your easiest opponents on Solstheim. Mostly found near Raven Rock or Tel Mithryn, IME.
Honestly, IMO, you'll be glad to fight a dragon after some of the things out there...

Ash spawn - ugly [&@%!] with [&@%!] of health and damage dealing ability. one's with swords/clubs take out from range (they resist fire damage, and appear to be weaker to ice) ranged ones take out in melee. [&@%!] lethal in all guises.

Avoid southern Solstheim, they appear from the ash itself, usually right behind you. I've seen at least 3 attacks on Raven Rock's defences by them. If possible, avoid the south "road" out of Raven Rock, it starts a [&@%!] difficult quest to kill a general and 4 or 5 ash spawn guarding him.

Killing one would feel like an achivement if it wasn't for the fact the bar stewards are so numerous...

Spriggans - the burnt spriggans of Solstheim are a bit different to Skyrim's spriggans - they resist fire damage, and are weaker to ice. And have more health. And do more damage.

Dwemer ballista - their shots ignore armour, and at high levels have immense damage capability. 2 of them together killed my level 81 Altmer before she had a chance to cast a healing spell...

Creatures of Apocrypha
- tentacle trap things - can give diseases, and are best avoided.
- Seekers - Weird looking tentacled things which cast drain health/stamina spells, have high health levels. Come ion two sorts normal and high. As far as I can tell, the only difference is the high ones have more health.

They all drop books and sometimes spell tomes - I've found a flame thrall spell book, close wounds, banish daedra, and conjure seeker spell tomes from them.

- Lurkers - 3 sorts. basic lurker, lurker vindicator, and lurker sentinel. Appear to be levelled. All have high health, melee and short ranged attacks.

Stay out of the green liquid at all times.


Other survival tips

Bring potions, lots of them - resist fire and restore health being the best.

Keep your eyes primed - the ash spawn are non existant one second, bearing down on you with fireballs and ash/fire weapons the next - any time you can get to prepare could well save your character's life.

Always save before starting a quest in case it's too difficult.

Don't go south out of Raven Rock.


Equipment

What I feel is the bare minimum is on easy difficulty:

At least an armour value of 300
Sword damage of at least 40
as many restore health potions as you can get
health value of at least 250 odd

You might get away with less, but I wouldn't fancy trying...


HTH.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Yeah. I agree with the Alduin thing. If you beat him without too much trouble, you can handle this DLC. I wouldn't recommend it for any character who either hasn't done that or who you make an educated guess as being not up to the task.

[Mauin]

Well, in that case, all of my characters should be fine. I play on Master and my three main characters are hardly damaged by anything (they're enchanted to the point where they're demi-gods). The only one who might be a problem is Verina, but she's also well-enchanted. Though significantly less than Vulom and the others. Sitting at level 40 right now and she's got a 92% resistance to fire, frost, and shock, coupled with a 40% resist magic and the 30% spell absorption from the Atronach stone. She's also equipped with Daedric armor (armor rating is probably over 600 at 70 in Heavy Armor) and has over 300 health and stamina including enchantments. She can handle the Dragons added by Deadly Dragons, so I think she should be fine.

Besides, she'll be at a higher level by the time Dragonborn is out for PC. And she should be finished the Main Quest. Maybe.

[CBR JGWRR]

She'll be fine in that case. Just watch out for Karstaag and master level dwemer ballista's, they're are the only things to give my level 81 altmer any trouble, and she has much less magic resistance than that... If any at all...

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Yeah...the ballistas are a new type of enemy with a very powerful ranged attack. They can eat away even a well equipped character's HP. Karstaag is completely optional as a boss encounter and was intended as an easter egg and hidden challenge. He can be completely bypassed and his quest is unmarked.

If you do decide to challenge him, save first. He's the strongest single encounter in the game.

[Derp53]

Yeah...the ballistas are a new type of enemy with a very powerful ranged attack. They can eat away even a well equipped character's HP. Karstaag is completely optional as a boss encounter and was intended as an easter egg and hidden challenge. He can be completely bypassed and his quest is unmarked.

does it help to say Dwemer ballista's penetrate armor on my nord. But never do more than 60 damage? Cause my character is a level 54 heavy armor, sword and board type character with a 1181 armor rating and at least 50% to frost, fire, and shock and I just chop ballista's like a hot knife through butter. On master difficulty too, where my sword only does like 180 damage.

[Mauin]

They don't sound like they'll be too much of a problem for any of my characters, but we'll see. I am eager to test them in battle against new opponents.
Verina does over 200 damage with her Dragonbone Battleaxe and Bow (83 in Two Handed and 66 in Archery, combined with smithing improvements and 40% two-handed and archery enchantments). The others... Eh, let's just say they bring down Dragons (strengthened by Deadly Dragons) in mere seconds and leave it at that. Without enchantments.

But I am looking forward to the new opponents. The old ones get boring after a while.
New land to explore and new loot to find is good, too. My older characters have covered all of Skyrim and have nothing related to their stories left to do.

[kailay]

I'm actually fine with it coming out next month. I wouldn't have been able to buy it this month.

[GodsBePraised]

Yeah...the ballistas are a new type of enemy with a very powerful ranged attack. They can eat away even a well equipped character's HP. Karstaag is completely optional as a boss encounter and was intended as an easter egg and hidden challenge. He can be completely bypassed and his quest is unmarked.

If you do decide to challenge him, save first. He's the strongest single encounter in the game.

The Ebony Warrior may be more difficult.

[CBR JGWRR]

Yeah...the ballistas are a new type of enemy with a very powerful ranged attack. They can eat away even a well equipped character's HP. Karstaag is completely optional as a boss encounter and was intended as an easter egg and hidden challenge. He can be completely bypassed and his quest is unmarked.

If you do decide to challenge him, save first. He's the strongest single encounter in the game.

The Ebony Warrior may be more difficult.

Not really. he drops good loot though.

He's about the same as facing a level 40/50 odd Player character IMO.

[Dohva.]

I'm actually fine with it coming out next month. I wouldn't have been able to but this month.

I know, the timing is perfect! Just 2 weeks before I start school soooo...awesome.