Ways to Fight Dragons on Skyrim Elder Scrolls V

Among the many cool things you get to do in the new, blockbuster video game Skyrim: Elder Scrolls V, is fight dragons. Dragons are tough buggers that are more likely to kill you if you don't have the right gear and battle approach. Let me share with you some tricks and tips for successful combat against dragons in Skyrim.

The name of the game, when fighting a dragon, is to stay ALIVE! If your health level gets to low, the dragon will eat you. There are two types of damage that the dragons of Skyrim inflict...fire and frost. Both are leathal. In order to successfully battle a dragon, you must be equipped to resist those types of damage. There are two ways to do this...potions and apparel (armor, rings, necklaces).

One of the easiest things you can do to increase your odds against a dragon is to load up on plenty of Resist Fire, Resist Frost, and Health potions. You can purchase them at the alchemy shops in the various towns and villages around Skyrim. You can also create your own potions by gathering ingredients and using an alchemy table. The more you make potions, the better they will be. Here are some of the easiest to find ingredients to look out for as you travel around Skyrim.

RESTORE HEALTH: Blue Mountain Flower, Blisterwort (mushroom found in caves), Monarch Butterfly Wings.

RESIST FIRE: Snowberries, Dragon's Tongue, Fly Amanita (mushroom found in caves).

RESIST FROST: Snowberries, Thistle, Purple Mountain Flower.

The buzz is all true. It is no joke. Skyrim, the Elder Scrolls V is simply the BEST role-playing video game ever created. With half a dozen races with different abilities and dozens of groups to join...each with their own story line of quests, you can play this game over and over and it won't be the same. My own son is on his third game. Each time he has played as a different race (Nord, Khajiit, Imperial), with different fighting styles (heavy-armored warrior using shield and mace, light-armored sneak wielding dual blades, a mage using magic only), and joining different groups each time (Stormcloaks, Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild, Imperials).

The stories are complex, the game-play satisfying, and the graphics are absolutely stunning. Skyrim is a completely free world where you can wander and explore at will. I highly recommend this game to anyone from mid-teens on up. Combat is pretty graphic, and some of the places are downright scary making this game unsuitable for children.

Available for xBox 360, PC, and Playstation 3

Potions are great in the beginning of the game, when it is hard to find or create good armor of your own, but having great, enhanced armor changes everything. One of the pieces I picked up early on was the Ancient Helmet of the Unburned. It offers 40% resistance to fire damage. You can get this fairly early in the game, if you join the College of Winterhold and do the first major line of quests associated with them. Just adding this one piece of armor greatly increased my survivability against a fire-breathing dragon. I later added ebony boots with 60% resistance to fire, that I bought at a shop in Solitude. I am now impervious to fire.

Another way to gain enhanced armor is to make it yourself. Use the local blacksmith's equipment often and increase your skills. If you just make a batch of leather bracers every time you come into town, you will level up quickly, and will soon be able to make the good stuff...like dragon and ebony armor. Then, disenchant any enchanted armor you find to learn the skill, then enchant the piece of your choice to gain the enhancements you want. The more you enchant, the better your enchantments will be.

As you level up, more and more enhanced arms and armor will become available to you , both in the shops and as prizes won in battles and in chests found around Skyrim.

Enhance your own armor, weapons and jewelry using the Enchanter's table, found at any court mage's room in any town. Use a Fortify Enchantment potion to boost your ability as you work and your enchantments will come out stronger. You will also need a good supply of soul gems. Larger soul gems will make weapons that with enchantments that last longer. Enchantments on armor, crowns, necklaces and rings don't run out, but using a larger soul gem when you enchant them will increase their abilities.

Here's a good video tutorial on enchanting items.

This is my favorite way to bring down a dragon. The most useful spells against dragons are Fireballs, Lightning bolts and Ice Spikes. Conjuring an Atronarch is highly effective as well, because the Atronarh will not only fight the dragon for you, but will provide a distraction keeping the dragon from trying to eat you. You can then sneak up on the dragon, once he is downed, to deliver the finishing blow, either by magic or blade. Other magical weapons are the shouts and staves.

Best Shouts for Dragon Combat: Marked for Death (Weakens health and stamina significantly), Dragon Rend (forces a flying dragon to land), Storm Call (will call down powerful lightening to strike the dragon, but be careful. If you have a companion, it can strike them too and kill them. This happened to me. Poor Lydia).

Best Staff: Staff of Magnus - This staff is obtained through a College of Winterhold quest. It drains magika, and with magika is all gone, it drains health. Remember that dragon attacks are primarily magic. Once the staff has drained their magic, it kills them very quickly.

CAUTION: While throwing fireballs at a dragon is intensely satisfying, if anyone else gets hit by your fireball they will turn on you and try to kill you. If you have a companion, they might leave you in a huff for hurting them, or you can accidentally kill them. Reserve using fireballs for when the dragon is in the air and no people will be harmed by it's power.

This is a very difficult way to battle a dragon. Some people like the challenge of it though and will only use archery to kill dragons. It takes longer than other methods, so be prepared for extended combat.

Ways to improve the damage you give to dragons is to...

1 - Level up in Archery skills

2 - Use High level bows (Ebony or Deadric) and arrows that are enchanted. Any destruction enchantment or drain health, magika or stamina enchantment will work the best.

3 - Apply poisons to your arrows to hasten the dragons demise.

4 - Use the landscape to find shelter from the dragon's fiery or frosty blasts.

This is my preferred method of fighting a dragon. I use magic...primarily fireballs...to ground the dragon, and an enhanced Deadric mace to finish him off. Dragons will fight mostly from the sky until their health is low, then they fall to earth and you can attack them directly with weapons. If you have high level weapons, you can finish them off pretty quickly, and you may even trigger a cool critical-blow sequence where you jump up on the dragons head and deliver a killing blow.

CAUTION: Don't let your health get down too low or the dragon will deliver a killing blow of his own. He will eat you. End of battle.

If you've played the game, what kind of tactics do you use against dragons? If you don't play the game, watch the videos and tell us which type of fighting you would most likely use.

If you have played the game, or only heard of the game, tell us what you think of it.