I am getting one and two shotted by mages on orphan rock. This is the second side quest where its boss+four against me and Lydia, they have one or more mages, and I cant finish the fight on expert!

This is starting to feel almost broken, like in WOW when you go to a higher level area and are not doing enough damage to compete. Or maybe its because I did not take archery?

Did I go to a too hard area, or should I somehow be able to dodge four mages (some of them atop orpan rock) shooting exploding fireballs that do AOE 100hp damage?

I have picked off two of the mages and saved, but the other ones are hanging out near the rock and when I start fighting one on the ground, the boss launches those deadly fireballs. They have a bunch of health too, it takes 5+ strokes to take them out and while fighting, I am subject to AOE fireballs.

Positioning is everything. I know the rock whereof you speak. Stay close to the base, fight the other mages there, and soon the chief up top will be all alone. Send in Lydia, and let her play fire-ball-catcher while you dig that mage's kidneys out with a rusty lockpick.

The thing to remember here is you don't have to play fair in this game.

I think Mage NPCs are broken in Skyrim, I've got 1 shoted lot of time even i got 500 HP.
Just keep trying and try to gank the strongest foe first...its work for me after few times.

Yea it's clearly "broken like wow" since there is something that can kill you! Preposterous!

The one shooting fireballs is a Hagraven. I had a hard time with this fight as well, and I'm not playing on expert; i have it set on the default difficulty. I had to scale the side of the mountain near Orphan Rock and hide behind a conveniently placed boulder and take out the Hagraven slowly with my bow. It's tough, and I'm not sure if you can do it on expert, but I wouldn't call it broken. What's broken is when the game's lag is so bad, you can't even play, which is my issue.

nobody is broken... you just have to be tactical and expect to get one shotted.. i mean the first time i got one shotted i wasn't expecting it, but after that i always expected and took proper precautions. it's all meant to challenge you and force you to think in my opinion.

lol i also remember my first fight with alduin.. unrelenting forced me off the throat of the world

Hargravens are a high level. Without scaling, the Hargraven at Orphan Rock eats people alive.

So, you need to level up a bit.

She was one of the tougher bosses I faced as well. I ended up finding a rock to hide behind so she couldn't hit me with those fire balls and eventually wore her down with a bow.

I just hit level 10, 1h+shield, heavy armor. Maybe I am too low for this. I thought the game scaled all the foes to your level?

OK, so at least other people found this difficult. I don't want to move the slider down because then the majority of the content it trivial. Thanks for everyones feedback.

I have tried picking off the individual mages on the ground, and then I decided to sprint across the log to the boss and attempt some power strokes, but the blast knocks me off the log last few times I tried.

Also, it was late and the middle of a snowstorm so visibility was terrible. I think I'll go back in the morning.

The mages are reaally powerful, but I am going to level up more to see how I fair against the higher level spells.

It doesn't. Bethesda removed it because of whining. Instead, some enemies do, but most change to different types (for example, Ice Wolf, Bandit Thug, Bandit Outlaw, etc.)

Since the Hargraven is an essential part of a quest, it force-spawns at Orphan Rock, without scaling. So it's INCREDIBLY difficult. The armor and shield won't help you against it.

I can tell you the lay-out. On a small hill, there's a tent. Run to it, and look for a fallen log bridging to the rock with another tent on it. Run across the log, and dance around that tent for protection from the Hargraven. Hit and run until it dies, and try to avoid it's fireballs. You'll need to use Healing a lot, or a lot of potions.

You are a Warrior going up against several Mages, you need magic resist gear or you will get rolled. It's not just you. Save the quest for later and try again when you get some magic resist gear.

Thanks very much! I have a stack of 10 minor healing potions and I have low level restoration. In the thick of combat I cant heal myself fast enough to stay ahead of the fireballs. So basically I can chain chug the pots in two sittings, and resto has been less useful.

Re: scaling, this explains alot. I was picking up these small sidequests in Whiterun, in hopes of getting my 1h to 40 before joining the companions and furthering the main questline. I guess this is a quest that requires more skill. (Its about healing the tree in Whiterun, which I suppose is a pretty big deal.) Thanks so much for explaining how it works.

Thank you. I'm going to pack it in.

I have this feeling though, that if I get really lucky with enough restores, that the chest on top of the rock will have a really sweet drop which would help me in the long run.

Todd Howard warned in an interview that some areas are best avoided until you level up, I actually like this, it forces me to go away, rethink and level up before returning.....with vengeance :flamethrower:

When fighting Hagravens, your best bet is to hide in cover. Dart out, force them to fireball and dart back in. Then sprint to the next hiding spot while they're looking for you again. Do this until you're up nice and close, shield bash or shout them in the face and start swinging. Up that close, they'll switch to their inferior claws.

Dude, Skyrim is supposed to have places that are higher level than you. Not everything is scaled to you. You're supposed to level up and come back later.

Thanks, I didn't know. I thought it was like WOW where all the quests are level appropriate. I thought it was a random kill quest and would be easy. I'll go back when im more powerful.

Comparing this game to WoW is like comparing Jessica Alba to Sarah Palin. Wait..make that bald Sarah Palin.

Ohh, I just did it!

It took about 10 health pots and 6 stamina pots. I sprinted around the big rock in the middle to lure the mages, then when I got to cover behind rocks on the fringe, I potted my stamina, and was able to engage each mage individually.

Then lydia went out as a fireball decoy, I sprinted across the log and struck down the hargraven. It took about 20 axe strokes, it has lots of hp, but I was able to use restoration while running circles around it to restore my hp, then get back to work with my axe. I used the shout and a couple shield bashes as well.

Cool fight.

I couldn't pick the lock on one of the chests; Lydia had to do it.

This was the best fight so far in the game. Here I was worried the game was turning out to be easy. I had to use all my abilities to win this.

I Noticed..........lol Just did that quest yesterday and that freak wasn't throwing fireballs, she was throwing frikkin NUCLEAR BOMBS. But in the end I ripped its head off.

There's a Stormcloak camp right by Orphan's Rock with a perfect vantage of the whole Hagraven lair. Go up there, pull out your bow and sneak-shot that [censored].

The mages are a pain, but I never fought all 4 at once. 2 at most. Hargravens are stupid, move slowly and you just need patience and good enough dps to kill them. Sprinting over the tree trunk was epic however.

I just sprinted across the log, fus da rah'ed the [censored] and knocked her down then dual flurry her ass and chugged stamina potions to keep it up and healing potions. She doesn't flame bomb in her own face and tries her claws but I owned her pretty hard. It wasn't easy, but I got in there quick and kind of lucked out. I think I died the first time or two though, said F that, took off and leveled up about 3-4 levels and got better gear and some perks, came back to win