Your Best Tactics for Dragon Fights (spoilers, of course)

[Mouse]

So, if you have had fights with dragons, what tactics you have found useful and what haven't worked? I am curious to hear others' experiences.

 

Thus far I have had two proper fights, besides the first main quest dragon fight and one improper. The improper one was where giant first stole my kill by engaging and killing the dragon before me, and then had the gall to rob me of life after robbing the kill.

 

First successful fight: Used bow and loads of arrows, running from one side of the hill to another at Shearpoint. I basically whittled down the dragon, while managing to survive by having the stone and the hill block most of the breath weapon blasts.

 

Same tactic didn't work out north of wayward pass, when dragon used strafing rather successfully. Mind you, that dragon's breath weapon was much more powerful and had better reach.

 

I am eager to hear your experiences on how to get the dragons depart with their lives.

[HanPL]

To be honest I play on medium and figting with Dragon is just to easy.

 

I have Companion who takes Dragon aggro.

When Dragon lands I just use my 2h fiery axe + potion that give 300% to strenght + 50% faster stamina regeneration (plyaing nord warrior ) after about 2 landings dragon is dead

[marrow12]

I just bash him with my two scimitars(still early in the game) when he lands, then use heal when he's in the air. then sprint away when he uses his breath attack(still take a good bit of damage though,) then bash him again when he lands until he dies, this doesn't work well in some cases though.

[pandabear]

I let my Housekarl and Flame Atronach draw the dragons attention, while I deal some serious spell damage to it.

[Med111]

Bow and resistance potions is all I need. I enchanted every possible equipped item with + bow damage enchants

[Mouse]

Two more dragons down now. Bow and running seems to be actually quite good combination. At least if there is some obstacles nearby to use as cover if things get bit hairy. Oh, and second one killed literally on own home's doorsteps. Good that the dragon corpses do not stay intact after their death, or I wouldn't have been able to get inside .

[dancecat]

I wait for it to land, then I punch it in the face until it dies.

 

I actually havn't used a single weapon or spell yet.

[hoast]

Dragonrend em

wait till it gets down

go to his side

Elemental fury

beat the living shit out of it

repeat

killed around 40 so far

[AureliaVlasta]

My first dragon went like this...

 

The dragon comes in swoops around the tower, lays down a couple swathes of flame. I manage to pop it right in the forehead with a well timed arrow. It lands right on top of me. I try to retreat while lobbing arrows into it. It looks down just before I can get out of its range, and in true Jurassic Park T-Rex fashion, swallows me head to waist and then flings my dead corpse up OVER the tower we were defending.

 

It was an awesome way to die.

 

As for defeating them, fire resist potion + Archery boosting potion + HP potions + Elven Bow stolen out of the Whiterun castle seems to work pretty well!

 

 

[dysfunkshunal]

I wait for it to land' date=' then I punch it in the face until it dies.

 

I actually havn't used a single weapon or spell yet.

[/quote']

Either you're a troll, or you're playing on Novice...

 

My tactic involves always fighting with a companion, since the companions are all tanks compared to you. I use sword in right hand and fire or ice spell in left hand, depending on which type of dragon I'm fighting. When the dragon lands, I charge with the Shout that you learn first in the game (but I know two words of the shout now). That shout sort of paralyses him for a minute, then I just spam my sword while simultaneously spamming the fire/ice magic attack.

 

When he decided not to land, I just hold the sprint key to get out of his way before he blasts. During that time, my companion is usually dealing bow damage. And that gives time for magicka to regenerate.

 

I use potions if he has got me pinned in his breath weapon and it looks like I might die, but for the most part these 'switch hit' attacks with a companion work pretty well. Plus, the fight is more theatric.

 

Still, occasionally your companion or some random enemy kills the dragon. The AI for the dragon isn't always the best. I had two fights in a row, where the first one the dragon disappeared behind a mountain and I could hear his breath weapon but not see him. I watched his health bar vanish amazingly fast. Way faster than I could take it down. Then, he was dead. Something killed him and I had no idea how to get around the mountain to find him (nor would I want to, considering I didn't do shit to kill him), so I just reloaded my last save. Next save, I was fighting on a tower roof. He landed on the side of the roof and started his breath weapon. I was attacking, and attacking, and attacking. Then, I noticed his life reached zero. He was frozen solid. Not dead, not alive. Just a glitch that caused him to turn from a dangerous dragon into a tower hood ornament. So I had to restart again.

 

But this is Bethesda, people. And don't even get me started on the two horses I lost due to a bug causing them to fly 100 feet in the air and then plummet to their death.

 

[Irishredneck]

I use my horse.

 

For some reason horses cannot die. Even burning and bitten the wonderful horse keeps aggro on the dragon, and continues to attack it. The dragons seem to LOVE horse meat, and they cannot kill a horse!!

 

Dragon lands and goes after the horse. I run up and whack the dragon. Easy-peasy, Lemon squeezy!

[DocClox]

• Don't stand in front of the bitey end
  
• When you can, whack it and whack it and whack it
  
• When you can't, KEEP MOVING
  
• If it breathes on you, sprint and heal
  

 

 

[pandabear]

I've been tearing them up with my conjured bow lately. And I'm a mage character.

 

After electrocuting so many, I wanted to switch it up a little.

 

Maybe Mehrunes Razor works on dragons? Instantly killing a dragon with the razor would be kind of cool.

[Vyrce]

I just let shadowmere tank em and shoot em in the eyes with bows.

[ThatOneFurryInEveryFandom]

Best heavy armor I can find (including a mask from a dragon priest that ups my elemental resistances enough that if I had a nord character, ice dragons would be lame) and dragonrend...a LOT. Used to be unrelenting force, but that doesn't stop them from flying. When I can, I'll keep to my light armor and shoot them with arrows until they find me...Only works where they can't easily see you, so once they're in the sky it's back to the usual.

 

Also, if it's to strong for you for some reason, run towards a populated area. Guards take them down strangely easily considering the game's story.

[DocClox]

Also, if you're chasing (or running away from) a dragon, watch out for Giant camps.

 

There's nothing more irritating than getting squished flat by a giant because you were too busy looking for the dragon.

 

(I swear there's one of them out there that deliberately tries to lure me into the damn things...)

[booyah999]

For random encounters in the open world, I will try to get a snapshot with the bow to get the dragons attention and then try to lead it to an area where there is a concentration of aggressive mobs. If you can get the dragon focusing on a pack of wolves or giants you can peck away with a bow or magic.

 

When it comes down to a ground fight, if you have put focus on alchemy all you need to do is just drink the appropriate resistance pot and just go to town with you best damage. Just for fucks sake stay away from the mouth unless you want to be combo chomped and have to reload.

 

Town fighting is a bit different only because I've accidental whacked a guard or two and got the shit kicked out of me after the dragon died. So wait till the dragon perches and thwack away. Right now I have 3 dragon corpses that just have all sorts of fun doing physics collisions all over the entrance of Whiterun.

[ThatOneFurryInEveryFandom]

Town fighting is a bit different only because I've accidental whacked a guard or two and got the shit kicked out of me after the dragon died. So wait till the dragon perches and thwack away. Right now I have 3 dragon corpses that just have all sorts of fun doing physics collisions all over the entrance of Whiterun.

 

If you play it smart, you'll sit back and wait for all the guards to die at least before you go after the dragon yourself. Worst case is that you have to fight a weakened dragon and have no guards to stop you if you go on a rampage. Best case is a free soul.

 

Speaking of...A pair of dragons attacked dawnstar when I went there last. One fell in the middle of town, and the other tried to run and crashed near a troll...both were ice dragons. Troll won. Two free souls.

[labrat]

A bastard Elder Dragon had me cornered so ran into a barrow to rest up, bugger, only one exit. Every time I came out into a wall of flame, plastered with flame repellant and got off a couple of shots into the middle of the inferno. Its health barely wavered while my health dropped like someone pulled a plug. Out of potions, forced back into the barrow for recuperation.

 

Finally came out while it was sweeping the area and spent a happy hour sneaking and sniping across the frozen wastes. Reduced to using emergency Falmer arrows (gnat bites). Never killed the damn thing. It gave up after I sheltered in a shack, must have exhausted its range.

 

Don't remember having so much fun and achieving so little in a game before.

 

Best tactic? Choose a weak Dragon that's fighting someone else. If you have to get involved shoot it with a well-poisoned high power bow from a great distance. Have killed one in HtoH using DragonBane, but I think it must have been ailing or something because my PC has lousy melee stats.

 

Folks who say Dragons are easy just haven't met the right Dragon yet.

 

Has anyone successfully killed one on the wing?

[galgat]

I just bow shoot um, and run, look for cover, keep my eyes on that little red dot in the compass.

 

I have my enchanting very high, ( my ebony Bow does like 150 damage now, plus fire damage 40% & things on fire take extra damage.) and I wear lots of Bow killing Percentages items on. I know there are better bows out there, but I like this one.

 

and I use wards.

 

And if there are not a lot of people around I used that shout that calls the lighting down on them.

[ThatOneFurryInEveryFandom]

Has anyone successfully killed one on the wing?

 

Once they take enough damage they fall to the ground and can't fly anymore. The only way to kill one in the air is to one-shot it somehow, which is lame.

 

 

ALSO

 

If you get your resistances up enough, (and you'll need too) you can take on elders rather easily. Past that, they're monsters.

[BunnyBunny]

I tend to summon a flame elemental to agro it, pretty much. they can last for a while against fire dragons, but die quickly against frost ones. while they distract the dragon, I toss fire/frost at their backs.

when the summon dies, or I piss it off alot, I find an object (rock, tree, house) and hide behind it while mana replenishes. if it chases me, I do the circle strafe approach. just circle around it to keep the object between us. then summon another elemental, get it to pull the dragon away, then go back to shooting it.

 

I've yet to die from a dragon doing this. I've also managed to take down a troll or two using this method.

[Guest Donkey]

So far the best tactic is use hide and attack tactics. Never be in open when fighting these creatures.

 

look around see a rock ?? They cannot use there attack spell on a rocks. Just make sure to keep on your tows and you'l do just fine. And keep moving a moving target is harder to hit, then one who is standing still.

 

If i don't have a bow try range spells. they will keep flying but that is also there weakness, there turning points.

 

Also if your lucky like what happened yesterday to me, there where beers and trolls nearby they will also attack these creatures for you.

[Presto]

I've been playing on Adept and have had no issues taking them down with my bow alone. They don't seem to do much more than fly around and land every once and awhile. As long as I have room I can just back up when they land and do my best to dodge their breath attacks while I pelt them with arrows. The only issues I have are when they land and I'm in a very narrow space so we end up sharing where we have to stand.

 

Just picked up the sword in the Sky Temple that apparently owns dragons so I'll need to see if I can use that when the next one comes around. Would be interesting if I could disenchant it and use the enchantment on a bow...

[Ryanhabs]

I start off with Lightning storm as its a continuous cast and do my best to dodge the flame attacks while its in the air, or I use dragonrend to get it to the ground and once on the ground Its a lot of running in circles to hit it from behind with something sharp. If you clever enough you can also pollute the ground with rumes and once it starts to give chase run it through the rune landmines while blasting the hell out of it with lightning storm every chance you can. They seem to drop pretty fast that way.