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-How to Play Deadly Dragons-
This is where I get up on my soap box and write about what you need to do to survive with this mod... Which is kinda pointless when you think about it. How difficult DD becomes depends on what kinda of settings you use, what type of character you're playing, and what mods you're using with it. Anyways here's a few tips, pointers, and guidelines that may help you out.
Unless it's a Legendary Dragon on Master difficulty, vanilla dragons aren't really a threat to an experienced player. There combat A.I. routines become predictable, and it just becomes kinda mundane. Blast them with spells/arrows, smack them around when they land, and then go berserk when they get too tired to fly. That's before you take into account people who make themselves virtually immune. So generally speaking, people have gotten used to the idea of dragons as a source of free loot,dragon soul, and a small nuisance.
Armor is not the best defense
Sure, armor is awesome for when you're in melee combat. You'll absolutely need a good suit by the early 40's. But that Legendary Dragonplate armor with 567 defense isn't going to do a damn thing when a dragon disintegrates you with fire/lighting/poison/cold/magic damage.
You *WILL* need elemental resistances
This is so blatantly obvious I don't know why I'm even bothering to write it down. But if I had a dollar for every time someone complained because a dragon annihilates them with extreme prejudice... Only to find out they're playing on "Expert" with no elemental resistance items... Well no shit Captain Obvious... If you're going to go off on a quest to be the Dragonslayer of Legend, you're going to need some sort of elemental protection. So the first thing you're going to want to do is acquire some of those items. In the lore-friendly version, this just means fire & frost. But for the standard mod, you'll need fire, frost, lightning, poison, and even Magic resistance. The Atronoch Stone also helps out with this.
Set It and Forget It
Admittedly, this is easier said than done. It takes a while to figure out exactly what you want your settings to be, and it really depends on your play-style, character, and mods. But for immersions sake, try to set things once and leave them alone. More on this at the bottom of this later.
Use Cover, Stupid
You might be able to fight dragons on the open plains, laughing off torrents of dragon-fire and taunting them with your impenetrable armor in vanilla... But that crap isn't going to work here (providing you're a not a sissy-lala and have the settings down low). You fight from cover, *always*. So whenever a dragon opens it's mouth in your general direction, you duck behind a building, a big rock, a f***ing tree, or something. Just put something between yourself and it's mouth.
Stay on the Move
Didn't I just say to use cover? Yup, I did. Some of the new dragon abilities are pretty nasty, preventing you from simply camping in a certain spot and exploiting cover... So when death rains down from the sky or erupts from beneath your feet, you best get you ass moving. You'll find that you'll leave the worst of it behind you.
"Clear Skies" smiling at me...
Any time a dragon uses a shout that creates some sort of weather effect, use this and it'll cancel it out. Awesome eh? And here you thought it was just nice for getting rid of the rain.
Save Alduin for Later... Like srsly.
The "World Eater" was a total wuss-bag in Vanilla. Now he's more like an amped-up Legendary Dragon. So think twice before you try to take him on.
"Dragonrend" is cheap
Unless you're just not in the mood to deal with a dragon, or need to prevent it from ruthlessly murdering a nearby town, just act like Dragonrend isn't there. It cheapens encounters and makes the whole "dragon slaying" aspect of Skyrim really trivial.
Settings - What do I want?
There are a lot of options available to you, so the very first thing you need to do when you install this mod is to open the MCM menu and start tweaking. And no, that doesn't mean just being lazy and selecting a difficulty preset. That's the lazy way out and it probably won't be what you really want. In all honesty it's probably too hard anyways. Even for the masochistic Dark Souls veterans.
Think about your past encounters for a bit. These things are supposed to be Dragons, not flying lizards or Pterodactyls. Do dragons die too quickly? Do they deal enough damage to be believable? Should they knock down or stagger you when they land? Should they stay airborne the entire time until they're low on health? Should they have new attack types?... These are the things you need to think about and make a judgement call each option.
You can use my own personal settings below, or you can figure this out for yourself, the right way. It will take some time and some prep-work, but it can be done. The best way to figure out difficulty is to tune the mod so that the strongest variants are still hard for your end-game character, but not unfair. Here's what you'll need to do;
*Make a level 81 test character
*Give it all the proper/ideal perks and equipment for that level
(if that means crafting/enchanting/potions, do it)
*Go to the lone watchtower outside Whiterun. Save.
*Spawn (through the command console) the hardest dragon variants in your chosen version.
*Fight them, adjust as needed, rinse and repeat until you've found the right balance.
*Remember (or write down) your settings.
...But What settings do you use?
If you can't be bothered to figure this out for yourself, my own personal settings are below. I don't use any major overhauls like SkyRe or other dragon oriented mods. I like my dragons to be capable of taking on an entire town, garrison, or Giant group by itself and still be able to fly away afterwards. Seriously capable of turning my ass into an over-sized turkey leg if I'm not careful. For reference, I play a Warrior/Archer who Smith's and Enchants his own gear, with a side of supportive spells.
I want to specifically point out that I don't exploit the Smithing upgrade system, nor do I stack multiple enchanted items of the same type. I max the Smithing tree and use the "Blacksmith's Elixir". Same thing for Enchanting, all perks, level 100 skill, and I drink a "Enchanter's Elixir" beforehand. So I have dual-enchanted equipment and slightly better than normal "legendary" weapons & armor. I believe, with all my enchanted gear on, a Daedric Sword was dealing around 136 base damage.
Version: Lore Friendly
Attributes: +110%--------------Stagger: On
Melee Damage: +30%---------Special Skills: On/Off
Armor: 0-----------------------Knockdown: Off
Magic Resist: 0----------------Combat Behavior: Default
Magic Damage: 50%-----------
Assault Timer: 96 Hours
Randomizer: 36 Hours
Safe Zones: On
Unleveler: On
Assault Type: One dragon *only*
6 comments
However i have an issue when an assualt happens i get attaked by nothing and it never stops until i get out of that area.
I have immersive creature,jackga monsters and icegolem installed,any tip?
As said by some 3dNPC in the college, it is a lot more efficient to avoid damage, than to heal it.
Steadfast guard can and will do wonders when playing this, even in +250%, keep one in hand if the dragon is not in melee range and you have the mana/restoration skill to hold.