My character tries very hard to save as many as she can with healing/shield spells through the Defense of Bruma part. When she comes back out of the Great Gate and too many soldiers, Jauffre, Baurus, etc., are dead, I reload and try until the best result possible is achieved. I am level 20 today in the vanilla game. Tthere are 14 of us fighting because Allies For Bruma was completed. I'm wondering a couple of things.

1. Would it be better to NOT do Allies For Bruma and limit the fighters with a better chance of success to have fewer dead or would they likely die because they were few in number?

2. Has anyone ever gotten to Light The Dragonfires with Jauffre and Baurus? I've gotten to the Palace and Temple District with Jauffre but never Baurus. He hasn't survived the Great Gate yet.

3. Has anyone ever gotten Jauffre and/or Baurus through to the endgame?

And this game I reverse pick-pocketed armor and weapons for the whole group but six died. Asking for help before I try again. Any tips appreciated...thank you.

For me, atleast the captain of the guard dies, Jauffre has made it in one of my playthroughs, but thats it. Baurus usually dies too.

It's pure luck, I don't think there's anything you can do to save them.

The quest is a death fest imo, depending on what level you do it all but a few are going to die.
Due to the fact that guards A.I when facing npc's and monsters when not one on one svcks terribly, only against a pc are they any where near effective.
I have got them through it at level 30+ but its a headache no matter what difficulty level you set the game.
I can understand timeframe issues, but a few bowmen on towers, and other barricades would have made it at least easier to defend.

One hint, water walking, invisiblity, and master made healing potions you can close the gate very quickly, just by lava running.

On an earlier character, I once completed the MQ in that very way. Level 45, 75% difficulty. I did the Allies for Bruma Quest. I got all cities to join up, excluding the Imperial City of course, :shakehead: (never have understood that)
I RPPed weightless Daedric Armor and weapons on all guards there. All of them. All the items were enchanted, either by use of sigil stone, or grand soul gem.

Pre-battle, I went to the Arcane University and made some spells specific for this battle:

1. AOE Shield and Health
2. AOE Speed
3. Targeted Serious Health Restore Spell

Pre-attack (within about ten seconds) I cast AOE spells on my buddies. The whole battle I am running in to take a couple whacks at whatever is going after Martin, then returning hurriedly to run laps casting spells to buff my group.

I saved all of them only once, and that was after about 3 reloads.

The coolest thing after every Great Gate Battle, at least on 360, is that when I come back out of the Gate, and the rubble has cleared, there is always one Dremora frozen in a death throe... he stays there for about a week before disappearing. The last frozen Dremora, was falling backward, after being tagged by four arrows which were sticking out of his chest, but froze before he hit the ground.

EDIT: The only thing that svcks, which ruins immersion for me anyway, well, doesn't RUIN, but makes it hard to believe, is when all your allies continue to wear their new Daedric battle armor wherever they go. I pretend that they were the elite squad sent to deal with the Crisis, and now have gone back to their original postings.

You're not going to believe this because I sure don't. I replayed the two quests about 6-7 times. The worst outcome was 6 lost and twice I got it down to 3 lost. On one of those, Viera Lerus lived but was killed by a bear going down the mountain after the battle. That just wouldn't do so I replayed it again. She leaves the battlefield for home as soon as the battle is over so I hurried ahead of her and took care of the bears and bandits all the way to IC. I hope she made it the rest of the way to Bravil.

Ok, the unbelievable part. I counted 12 out of the 14 leaving the battlefield at the end but couldn't find bodies except for Daedra. I figured it was just a glitch and the missing people just hadn't made it. Of course, if was Jauffre and Baurus missing and I was sad. I wouldn't know for sure though until i went to Cloud Ruler Temple for the Paradise quest.

omg, they were both there!!! I'm so happy. This is the first time Baurus has ever made it.

Big Daddy, before I posted I had done almost what you suggested but had actually done less armor than you did. Next playthrough I'm going to do more like you did. What I had done differently this time was the KOTN Crusader armor. I always keep the boots, gauntlets and greaves so I can cast Shield and Heal using less Magicka than regular spells. With that much healing going on, I run out of Magicka fast so I used Welkynd stones to keep going until I entered the Great Gate.

And that's it. Thank you everyone for your tips. What an intense quest. It was great. See you in IC.

Added: My character went on to do Light The Dragonfires and it was really rough...harder than in an earlier game. Martin kept dying and I had no hope that Jauffre and Baurus would live through it...but they did. I couldn't believe it. It looks a little strange to see them in those Daedric cuirasses but they're alive and on their way back to Cloud Ruler Temple. I went to Bravil to check on Viera Lerus and she was there. Since I'm on a PS3, I only have a limited amount of time before the animation bug hits me so this third game turned out better than I could have hoped. Take care all.

i remember when captain burd's armour was broke and he fought the battle in some green garments :laugh:

the funny thing is, he, baurus and a battlehorn man-at-arms survived

My first play-through, a good many guards and at least one of the named Blades died defending Bruma. Things turned out better during my current play-through. I only lost one guard. Both named Blades survived. (They also survived the Imperial City final confrontations.) Ironically, several more guards were lost after-the-fact due to road hazards met while returning to their home cities.

What helped, I think, was to station myself strategically near the opening Gates, then quickly whack mobs as they materialized. I'd soften 'em up a bit then, with them pounding on me, run 'em to a specific group of waiting guards. Once those guards were engaged I'd head back to my near-gate position and wait for another spawn of mobs, which I'd again whack on and lead to a different group of guards. As soon as the main Gate opened I rushed inside, leaving outside defenders on their own. Not a perfect system, and I'm sure luck had a lot to do with it. But it seemed to have worked well enough.

-Decrepit-

It may help if you do the Great Gate at as low a level as possible. Jauffre and Baurus have fixed equipment (unless you RPP better) and that seems to be one reason they are easily killed. At lower levels, their equipment may be good enough to keep them alive.

For me, they always seemed to die while I was inside the gate, so buffing them before you enter may also help.

@Kicenna -

By level 45, I am a Master Alchemist. I make a buttload of restore magicka and health potions before I go do this. At Master level, and all apparati (sp.?) , my restore magicka potions refill my magicka very very fast, for a very long time. This is how I can rapid fire high-costing magicka spells, fast, as all the AOE spells are a serious drain on my pool. If I need a boost in between, I mainline a Welkynd Stone right there. You can also wear enchanted armor or clothes with fortify magicka for extra powerful spells. But I prefer speed over armor.

I display the KOTN armor. I love the quest, truly love it.... but I hate looking like a crusader. I bring my own armor to the fight there.