Or is it pretty much necessary to create flame/frost thralls to shield for you? Im making a Breton assassin atm, currently lv 16 in helgen with lv 100 sneak. I fought an ancient dragon on legendary last night on my bros game, i won but probably couldn't have without frost thralls tanking and beating at it, while being immune to its breath

Will 25% (innate Breton resistance), 10%(first level of magic resistance perk in alteration), atronach stone and fire/frost resist boots suffice?

For my game, Im doing (possibly) Archery, Illusion, Sneak (right side of tree), Alchemy, Smithing, and Enchanting.

I've never tried legendary without grinding, on my bros game it still felt like a challenge. Mainly want Illusion for Invisibility, Muffle, and Mayhem for groups.

Duck! No, not a duck, actually duck! You need to use the terrain to your advantage. Find the best cover from a dragon's attacks, and rely on some form of ranged attack to weaken the dragon before you close in for the final showdown. You don't need conjured creatures to shield for you, it's simply one approach among many. What you do need is to be able to gradually weaken the dragon without taking too many reloads in the knee, and some form of ranged attack is your best bet whether it be using spells, scrolls, bows (perhaps combined with poisons) or conjured creatures.

Move fast and use the landscape around you to avoid damage and use bow and melee weapon and shouts if you have any. That's all you need. It takes time but you can do it and if you are a smith you can do it even easier. I avoid using poisons, spells, enchanted weapons or combat healing no matter which difficulty I'm playing on. And remember never to fight with a dragon on open range where is nothing you could use as a shelter. If you see dragon at such a place it's better to run and fast.

Wards. A lesser ward will do. Before they breath fire put it up (it has a charge up time so do it before the attack, not on e it's begun). Don't let them get in meleerange or instead instadeath animations will happen. Be a Mage. Or go home.

Using cover instead of just standing there helps a lot.

When they land, if you're a 1H w/shield or 2H warrior, stun lock them and power swing.

The shout that turns you Ethereal really helps too when running up while the dragon is shouting, or when they are shouting from above. Use it just as they start and look for cover or if it outlasts the shout, prepare a poisoned arrow (having the poison last for two strikes from the weapon is a great perk to have).

the Bend Will shout

Wards + Destruction magic

/thread

So.. be a destruction mage with alteration armor for melee battles?

I would not recommend fighting against higher-leveled dragons up close AT ALL, irregardless of your armor and weapon choice, because they can chomp you in 1-2 bites anyway.

Your best bet is to keep away at a distance and use wards and/or cover for defense while casting spells from afar as an offensive measure.

irregardless *eye roll*

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

It may sound silly yet it's still a word irregardless of how it's used

My mage owns dragons easily between dual cast stagger, wards, minions to tank, and high magic resist.

My melee character uses the dragon shout that forces them to land, but if you dont have that, I would recommend getting the block perk that reduces elemental damage by half when you block. It helps for when they wont land. I just fire arrows at them until they land, then stunlock them with shield bash and kill.

It can be done without enchants or magic my friend Simply improve your gear to top tear ( armor cap and weapon damage of around 200 ), take the Lord standing stone and be sure to use plenty of cover. A companion/follower is another good defense, only issue there is that you need to keep tabs on em, make sure they don't get killed. Which usually means taking the dragons attention away from your companion so that they can heal ( if you equip them with potions ). Trees make for great cover so when ever possible try and lead the dragon into a group of trees, if it lands it can't fit through the trees and if it refuses to land the tree canopy will provide great cover from it's breath.

Rock outcrops are another good thing to use for cover, dragons have a hard time climbing even on the slightest of inclines so you can exploit their slow movement and inability to climb. There's plenty of fallen forts and what not as well that you can use. Next would be knowledge on how to fight a dragon. Attacking it's shoulder with bow and arrow while it's in the air will injure it's wing which in turn forces a crash landing, the Unrelenting force shout will interrupt it when it uses it's breath and it will even dissipate the incoming damage if timed right.

Staying by the dragons hind quarters ( back leg ) will as well aid you when facing the dragon on the ground. The dragon can't double over on itself so it can't bite you and the tail can't reach you, just stay by it's hind leg or rib cage ( if you can ) and you will only receive damage from it's wing bash which isn't all that bad really.

Hope I helped a little, happy hunting