Okay, so i'm level 8 walking to that cave to do the quest for the greybeards. All of the sudden my controller shakes and here comes a dragon
I start blasting him with arrows and hitting him with an axe when he lands and i'm doing almost no damage.
by the time I get him near a quarter of the way down I'm out of all potions and he kills me
Am I doing something wrong or am I just to low a level?

What type of dragon? They can be hard to kill sometimes.

I'm not sure I'm thinking just a regular one. You tell by the name right? if so the name was just "Dragon" lol

I think the dragons sort of arched from being tough-ish early on, to being pretty easy by the late teen levels through the 20s, but once I was level 32-33, I found a few of them were very tough fights.

Also, depends on how you are fighting them. I have a level 8 Bosmer atm, and just encountered my first regular dragon coming back from High Hrothgar... I had to melee it as well - the trick is to keep moving and keep away from it's head. (Helped that Lydia kept drawing aggro on it). I hacked away, occasionally got knocked by his wing, but staying away from it's frost blast kept me from having to use too many potions.

The first dragons you encounter (not the very first one, but the ones right after) are some of the toughest opponents you will face. Unless you didn't start the MQ until you were high level. You do so little damage against dragons when you are low level. Just stay away from it's mouth - dragons can't turn fast. And be aware that resistances are busted on PC atm, so stay away from his breath too. Get a tank - companion, summon, whatever. Or let townies tank for you.

Sometimes if your having difficulty, it's better to run and get help, or just run. Sometimes you can get some tough ones when you hit a new power of ten in level.

Yeah those are just the normal one, if you are not wearing heavy armor or have a shield you I would advise against close combat. Not sure how you are perking/playing, but I used heavy armor and shield in my beginning levels and it worked out pretty well. The dragons bite for alot and the fire doesn't help either.

That's what I ended up having to do lol sprinting and shouting all the way to my desination

Do you happen to know where Lydia hangs around at she left me when I did a quest for the companions and I haven't been able to find her...

If you have a house, like mine in Whiterun, she will be in there. I'm not sure if she will stay anywhere else.

As long as you haven't bought Breezehome, you'll find her in Dragonsreach. If you've bought the house, that's where you'll find her. :wink_smile: