The Elder Scrolls Online’s latest expansion, Elsweyr, is a new land full of the cat people called the Khajit and it’s every bit as strange, quirky, and charming as you’d expect. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Elsweyr is the introduction of a new powerful enemy in the world of Elder Scrolls Online, dragons.
These dragons can yield some incredible loot, especially the golden dragon Nahviintaas, but only if you manage to kill them and survive the battle. Here are some tips to get you started becoming a dragon hunter in this strange new land that at the very least will give you a chance at survival.
10 Dragons Can Be Anywhere In Elsweyr
The dragons can attack at any time, anywhere in the land of Elsweyr. The dragons can spawn practically anywhere and upon spawning will roam the area looking for a tasty meal, sort of. For whatever reason it seems Bethesda has decided to make the dragons an optional engagement, meaning you as the player have to start the fight.
This is good news for the more casual types who just want to check out the world without getting assaulted by fiery lizards every few feet, but bad for those who want the immersion of a dragon invasion. In any case, surviving these dragons lands is easy if you never pick a fight in the first place.
9 Finding Dragons
Supposing you do want to get into a tussle with these fire breathers you’ll have to find one first. Elder Scrolls Online has made the spawns occur independently of player proximity, meaning a dragon can spawn where no one is around and the player will have to go looking for it.
Considering they wont attack the player and instead roam the lands indefinitely it can be hard to find and aggro a dragon before they fly off. Fortunately each dragon has their own map marker that you can use to keep track of where the dragon is going. This is also helpful for laying a surprise attack, which you will want to do.
8 It’s A Group Project
These dragons are tough creatures with brutal attacks and around 14 million hit points. They also have unique abilities and aggro mechanics that will quickly ruin your day if you don’t have other people to trade blows with the monster.
It doesn’t matter how high your level is or what kind of build you have or what gear you have on, you are probably going to die if you try to fight one of these things alone. Fortunately, there are a lot of players wanting to fight these creatures for the thrill or farming purposes and every extra weapon is welcome, so find a group.
7 This Is Not Skyrim
It’s important to note that this is not Skyrim and you are not the Dragonborn. You don’t have powerful shouts that can wreck the enemy and you will not be absorbing anything from them. In Elder Scrolls Online each player is an average Joe trying to become something more and you are not given any advantage over dragons.
It’s also important to note that these dragons aren’t the same as the dragons from Skyrim, later entries will explain the difference. If you were expecting to tackle these brutes on your own using Skyrim tactics, you will have a bad time.
6 Learn The Patterns
Every generic dragon in Elseweyr follows a similar attack pattern when battling players. Once the dragon is aggroed it will drop to the ground and fight using a variety of melee and ranged attacks. After a certain period of time or after taking a certain amount of damage it will launch itself into the air and strafe the battlefield with fiery attacks, afterward it will land on a rock or structure nearby and throw fireballs, and then at some point it will fly down and fight again from the ground.
Learning this pattern of attacks is important to surviving a dragon fight. It should also be noted that it will spend most of its time on the ground, for some reason.
5 On The Ground
As stated before the dragon will fight from the ground the majority of the time and most of its attacks are in this state. For players who get too close the dragon can summon devastating spike attacks in its proximity, lash out with its wings and tail that can one-shot weaker opponents, it can summon meteors to pummel the area and has a Shout Of Power attack that deals a blast of cone-shaped energy in front of it.
Typically you’ll want to keep your distance from the melee attacks unless you have ridiculous tanking ability. If you find yourself in the path of a Shout attack you can throw your shield up and block some of it as it’s considered a heavy attack by the game.
4 When Flying
It doesn’t fly for very long, but when it does it will sometimes carpet the area with an attack called Stafe Scorch. This wave of fire will rain down on enemies and ignite the area for a few seconds. While you can get some potshots in while it’s flying away you should be prepared to start booking it when the dragon begins turning, because when it gets turned around it’ll begin its attack run.
It should also be noted that during this phase, and sometimes others, the dragon will summon Iron Atronachs to assist it in battle. They can cause problems while players are focused on the dragon so have a few members of the group assigned to deal with these summons.
3 When Perched
After carpeting the area with flames the dragon will find something to land on top of, typically a large boulder or ruined building. This is when the dragon is at it’s most dangerous because it will start peppering the area with Fireballs that do devastating damage to anyone they strike. The best way to avoid this attack is to get out of the dragon’s line of sight by huddling up at the base of whatever it’s sitting on and it’ll focus it’s attention somewhere else.
If that’s not your thing then you should bring a ton of friends with you to serve as distractions and get ready to dodge in case you become the distraction for someone else.
2 Overconfidence Will Get You Killed
This happens a lot in bigger groups when some players haven’t received any major damage in a while. A person will get cocky and find themselves flattened by a dragon wing or get a face full of fire because they weren’t paying close enough attention to respond to attacks.
These dragons have lots of health and even with large groups, it’ll take time to die. So it’s important to stay on your toes, pay attention to the attacks and minions, and don’t slip up because you can quickly die if that dragon aggroes onto you.
1 Why Bother Fighting Dragons
Apart from the novelty of fighting these fiery beasts, many players are finding dragons to be one of the best things to farm for loot and gold right now. In fact, most item drops that have the name Elsweyr in them will either be powerful for your own use or go for hundreds of thousands of gold in the markets.
You’ll need to find a group large enough to quickly take down dragons, but if you follow the above tips and hunt these beasts cautiously, you’ll find yourself swimming in gold and valuable loot in no time.