Skyrim: Vampire Lord or Dawnguard?

Hi guys,

Did bought your DLC yet? Did became a Vampire Lord? I joined the Dawnguard and convinced me by their cause. (Too bad, I was suppose to have Lord Harkon's blood and be a Vampire Lord but I found out that the bloodsuckers plans to blot out the sun. I like the sun so I'm gonna put a bright sunlight into those vampire's faces.)

 

I took the Vampire Lord route..

This reminds me to make sure I have a save game so I can replay it the other direction when I finish.

 

Haven't played Dawnguard yet (hell, I haven't even been to High Hrothgar yet, but I have over 30 hours of gameplay), but I think I'll be a Dawnguard, in light of all the other "non-evil" choices I tend to make in games like this.

I do enjoy shooting things with my shiny new Dragon bow, though!

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As a mage, I'll probably also take the Vampire Lord. Plus, the Dawnguard seem lame in comparison
An option to blot out the sun sounds awesome, even though I found out the effect only lasts for one day.

Still, I've read that the Dawnguard storyline is better than the vamps, so we'll see.

 

Plan to do a few new playthroughs after I get Dawnguard, not sure whether to go with volkihar or vamp hunter first. I guess I'll just play out the game normally and decide whenever I come across the new Dawnguard content.

For those of you making a vampire character, which race are you going to choose? Does the normal (non-Vamp Lord) appearance look different with Dawnguard?

 

I'd save the better for last... Dawnguard first, then Vampire.

 

I think I've logged ~70-80 hours without even going half way through the main quest.

I feel kind of crappy though - skyrim has so many INSANE modders, forking out for an extra storyline seems kinda cheap (when there are already quest mods available... admittedly not as polished).

Its the same with the Creative Assembly and their total war games - most of those games are barely playable without the mods, yet they charge for the smallest DLC (empire and shogun 2 particularly come to mind).

Vampire lord is too fun though. Save at the point of the decision making and play through once as dawnguard and once as a vampire.

 

Nice guys Oh yeah for the mage builds out there you'll do better being a Vampire Lord, no foe could ever touch you! For me, I'll just stick around with Isran and do brainstorming on how to put those bloodsuckers to extinction. But i made an alternate save so I could play as a Vampire Lord too.

I haven't used a mod before in Skyrim, not much of a fan in playing mods. I already played Dawnguard because i finished the main storyline and slayed Alduin 4 months ago (110+ hours of gameplay i made on this... and i guarantee that i'll add up more!).

I enjoyed much of the new features in the add-on, especially now we have weapons made of Dragon bones, i finally got what i wanted: Dual-wielding Dragon blades. And oooh, i like using the crossbow too

BTW, what builds do you guys have? I have my Imperial Dovahkiin (MASTER One-handed, Heavy Armor, Archery, Smithing, Restoration)

 

All the best builds max the trade skills with the appropriate perks.
Smith/Enchant/Alch stacked are the three most powerful skills in the game as they result in equipment that massively overpowers you in comparison to everything else in the game.

After that, you just decide how you want to kill things.

My favorite right now is Breton Nightblade. Invis in one hand, dagger in the other. Anything that isn't a dragon is rediculously easy to kill even on master. Illusion spells for anything that manages to see you. (as you get higher you won't need to bother) For dragons, I just use Destruction magic, but archery would do just fine too.

I will likely make that character a vampire.


I am rebuilding a Nord Berserker (2H weapons, light armor, very little magic if any) for fun as I love the 2H animations and results. I will likely make him a vampire hunter.

Anyone else hate dual wield with a passion? it's SO clunky and not being able to block is very bad.

 

I barely touch magic besides healing spells and invisibility. I tend to rely on my trusty dragon armor (except the helmet; that's still the standard-issue iron horned one, since it just screams Skyrim with all its might), daedric axe, and dragon bow to get me by, and it seems much easier to kill things that way. Though, ironically, I am somehow Arch-mage of Winterhold.

 

I do not have DLC yet, but I imagine I will play as Dawnguard and kill the Vampires. I find it more fun to kill them than use their powers. I have a level 50 Rogue. I killed my horse, and never use companions as they both alerted my presence spoiling my sneak attacks and bonuses. Well did kill a few companions to charge Ebony blade.

I never use magic, and only carry invisibility potions and ultimate healing potions.

 

My follower (Lydia; also my wife) is invincible and cannot set off traps due to the Amazing Follower Tweaks mod. She also has 1,000 max carry weight thanks to the same mod (but I recently found one that gives myself 10,000, so that's largely irrelevant now). I leave her at home when I'm doing thieves' guild missions, though, as she is horrible at sneaking, and can't be invisible. Otherwise, though, I don't sneak. I kill everything and loot the corpses.

If anyone hasn't actually seen this yet, I'm this guy:
Skyrim Hoarders - YouTube

 

Cool! Who are you really in this sketch, Glarthir? Either way, it's an honor, I LOVED that sketch!

And yeah, playing with a dual-wield fighter seems awkward. I guess it's a very high-risk, high-gain type of character, kinda like the Mass Effect 3's Vanguard class. Not my cup of tea, either.

I have three main characters:

1. A High-Elf mage: a pure glass cannon. She could bring down huge amount of enemies with a single spell, swat ancient dragons like flies in a matter of single digit seconds, cause the gentry to fight among themselves and let her minions do her dirty work for her. But if one measly enemy got close enough and it was Game Over. Even cladding her with high-quality armor didn't help much, so I made her a sneaky mage with an ability to assassin enemies here and there when I got the chance. I finished the main plot with that one.

2. A sword and board (shield) Orc/Werewolf - the meanest SOB this side of the Empire, the sword and shield Orc is a very unbalanced build, as he walks this world like an untouchable god. It's like playing the game on easy mode, and later, on god mode. Only dragons caused any sort of an issue, especially ones in tight areas that refused to land where I was forced to pin-cushion them with silly, useless, arrows instead of whack at them once or twice and drop them. I stopped playing him mid plot (although I did spend more than 200 game hours on him, mind you) because it was getting really boring, eventually. Even mods didn't help, as even overly toughened-out enemies only needed a quick berserk and it was all over.

3. My latest build is a Breton mage/warrior - the best of both worlds. If I feel like summoning and blasting, I can do just that. If I feel like going toe-to-toe, no problem. A very versatile character, not a weakling one-hit-kill, not a boring whack-a-mole character, either. Balanced and fun, just for my liking. I'm just 30 hours in on that one and waiting for my new laptop to continue with it.

There was a Khajit thief there as well (my first char), but I really didn't like the gameplay with that one and abandoned him at level 20. I guess I'm just not the sort of person for stealth gameplay, as I lack the patience for it. There were others in there as well, but never an archer, I really don't like archers for some reason (maybe it has to do with the fact that I lack any sort of skill or accuracy? Naaah... )

 

I only just acquired Dawnguard, and about to play it!

 

I meant I play like Glarthir, not that I am him in that video.

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LOL! Well, you should have been more clear about it, then

 

Yeah it's clunky and you can't block either. It's just that i got used to it and its power attack delivers a fatal blow to any type of foes out there, without block im defenseless so i switch to my Fus-Ro-Dah to buy me some time to recover and power attack downed enemies. (Even more with the critical sword attacks or ignore armor for maces.)
As for those Dragons, i ask them not to fly with my Dragonrend shout.

As for taking punishments, i use Drain Vitality shout to keep my health and stamina up. (In case of cooldown, i use health potions.)