Any tips on fighting Vampires?

[TGW]

My first encounter was around Whiterun and had Lydia with me. Both of us were decked out in full glass armor and my character "Ragnar Blackmane" was a level 39 nord warrior with shield and legendary glass mace enchanted with fire (24 points of fire dam).

I had plenty of health potions plus battle cry and 4 shouts on hand so I felt confident. I could barely harm her before she had my 350 health down to almost zero. Even after gulping down all of my 20+ potions (100 and 150 health restoration each) I couldn't even get her to half her health.

WTF? How do you take down vamps??

Thanks for your help with any tips and strategies.

Edit to add details: All of our armor is crafted to legendary status and enchanted with extra one handed damage output and extra defense (depending on the piece of armor). My Ragnar has Armsman 4/5 and Bone Breaker 2/3 plus all the light armour perks available up to Matching Set. We even are wearing rings and pendants with extra damage output bonuses! *shrug*

 

[Gemini Sierra]

first thoughts
- gulp down magick resistance potions
- you don't mention a shield, get one, ramp up blocking so you have stagger (?) and get close for shield bash.
- poison weapons with magik drains so they have to fight and not suck your life (red glowy streams)
-if you use magic (destruction in particular) use lightning. If you have destruction high enough it will stagger them and cut their spells off

 

[TGW]

first thoughts
- gulp down magick resistance potions
- you don't mention a shield, get one, ramp up blocking so you have stagger (?) and get close for shield bash.
- poison weapons with magik drains so they have to fight and not suck your life (red glowy streams)
-if you use magic (destruction in particular) use lightning. If you have destruction high enough it will stagger them and cut their spells off

Nice tips. Thank you. That's the kind of thing I've been looking for. And yes, as a one handed fighter I do have a shield and power bash. Since that encounter, I've upgraded both of us to Dragonscale Armor (go figure... I can kill lots of dragons but not a single vamp! lol)

Magic resist and poison weapons with magic drain here I come!

 

[Doomy]

Vampires are supposed to be weak to fire, but I have never had them cause me any trouble except need to use a cure disease

 

[TGW]

Yeah, that's what I expected when I went at her with my fire enchanted mace. I've noticed that there are fledgling versions of vamps as well so I'll try to find one to try out my new tactics.

 

[3v3r]

Get damage magicka poisons. They will help, also you can try runes.

 

[TGW]

Thanks. Can you tell me more about 'runes'? I've never heard of or seen any, if that's what they are actually called.

 

[Sacrier10]

get the fire breath shout. Works like a charm

 

[TGW]

Thanks. I have the first word for Fire Breath but it didn't seem to do much. I'm going to hunt down the other words. Thanks again.

 

[A5ko]

You're probably best taking Jacob along with you. He has a latent resistance to Vampires, especially those that originate from terrible love stories. He also can turn into a werewolf at will just as long as you remember NOT to equip him with a shirt. There's a bug currently with werewolf NPC's that only affects those with shirts on.

If you're still struggling you can always find a hysterical 40 yr old single mum who will beat on the Vampire in order to score with the terribly younger werewolf.

Just my 2 pennies.

 

[TGW]

I'll keep that in mind about Jacob. What a weird bug. So far, Lydia and I have been through so many battles (and multiple 'resurrections' when she got killed) that I'm partial to her. Maybe I'll have her take a much needed break though just in case.