I figured people also experience this when doing the MQ.

The thing about elder dragons is that your very first encounter with that type usually happens at a level when you're too weak to deal with one of those.

Around level 20-25 or so. You don't win that battle as much as survive it.

You're having a stroll about the Reach and then suddenly, an elder dragon appears for the first time in that gameplay. It attacks with Fire Breath and instantly depletes over half your HP. You think "No, no, no!!" and desperately try to find a rock to hide and heal yourself. Then you decide to go up against the dragon and realize the bites deal a lot of damage too.

It proceeds to chew and spit you out, and you feel happy for having saved the game when the fight started. After a couple humiliating attempts, you finish the elder dragon before it does by a stroke of luck.

I was in Dawnstar, on my way to find Anbjorn, and I see the dragon flying overhead, my first, and I just said to myself, "I'm too busy to kill this thing. Let's let the proud people of Dawnstar kill it." I turn away as I see it swoop down and breath fire. My screen just said QUEST FAILED, OBJECTIVE: ... FAILED, QUEST FAILED. Because three non-essential, quest giving beings don't have the brains to go inside their house.

I remember by first Elder Dragon well. It was in the reach, nearby some waterfalls. Unfortunately, it was duo. An Elder and a Frost Dragon.

Let's just say someone met their end that day.

My first elder dragon wasn't that bad I believe. It is hard to remember my very first character, but he was a sword and board guy, and I believe the first elder dragon I fought was right after I picked up Spellbreaker. When you get the perk that reduces elemental damage with shields, you can pretty much shield bash your way to victory. My subsequent attempts at killing elder dragons followed the OPs format though lol.

I remember my first was in the Tundra.

By Azura that thing kept killing the [censored] outta me.

I tried everything from

To

And the end result was me running into whiterun and letting the guards die do damage to it for a bit while I shot it with arrows...T'was...horribly fun lol.

I was playing a Shock based Mage with 100 Health and Trollish Magicka Absorbtion.

High Spell Absorbtion and Shock Spells just made the Elder Dragon land and go Melee.

At least My character lasted two bites thanks to Dragonhide.

EDIT, playing run from the very angry Frost and Elder in Skudafn because Storm Call was a new Shout I had not used before, but at least I had a slightly more durable character and plenty of places to avoid becoming BBQ Dragonborn.

Skuldafn 11-26-2011, still have the Save

I think my "first" was in the swamps around Morthal. If I remember correctly, and this is not a given, I was near the Abandoned Shack. Talk about open ground! I basically kept trying to keep the shack between it and me, healing as I could. I had NO resistance equipment at all. My iron arrows did not even tickle it. Luckily, the Dragon had ADD and kept going after mudcrabs, spiders, chaurus, and the like

I think I ended up reloading coming out of Solitude, never defeating it

That sounds like a funny book/short story.

I don't remember my first Elder Dragon encounter, so i don't think that it was very hard.

Well, I don't literally mean your first encounter ever. What I'm trying to say is that, in every gameplay where you do the MQ, the first elder dragon appears at a level you're not ready for it yet.

I remember it well. It was my first character so I didn't know much about choosing good perks or building a character that could take care of herself, so I never went anywhere without a follower. I get challenged to a drinking contest, accept, and find myself without a follower in a city I've never visited. As if that wasn't bad enough, here comes my first Elder Dragon. Oh joy. Thank Akatosh for city guards; with their help, I managed to kill the beast with a minimum of fuss...and I discovered that my character was actually pretty good on her own. After that encounter, I started doing quite a bit of solo adventuring to prepare for any future times when I'd be without followers.

I think the first was at the orc stronghold in the reach to go get my follower, ghorbash the iron hand, and once I did, it attacked. Luckily I lured it to reachwind eyrie, and then shouted dragonrend at him, and then left Nirn's atmosphere.