I've finally encountered the ebony warrior...and wish I hadn't.

To be honest, I'd seen the name bandied about but thought nothing of it. I even thought people were referring to the characters I sometimes met on the road: you know, the ones in full ebony armour and wielding magika as well as being handy with bows and swords.

How wrong could I have been!

I've just had my backside kicked halfway around Skyrim by him, four times. I lasted about a minute the first time. My last effort was about six minutes of hell before he blasted me into oblivion. He makes Legendary dragons look as fierce as hamsters.

I've now looked at videos for how people defeated the guy. Most of them did it by magika and dual-casting but my magika is just about good enough to light my way around dark caverns. The one bloke who beat him with a sword used grand healing like it was going out of fashion and he was only playing on expert difficulty. I've no chance of that. My magika isn't high enough, nor would it recover quickly enough. Another bloke blew him down the cliff and hit him with fireballs from safety while Serana drew his fire and took the onslaught below. I'm not using a follower.

I went at him with my best Daedric armour, Spellbreaker, an enchanted dragonbone sword and a batch of restore health potions. I had him down to about twenty percent health or so a few times but the b***** just kept getting up again. I have dragonborn force and hit him twice with the full three words of Unrelenting force twice in two of my all too brief encounters. Did he disintegrate? Did he heck. I was hitting the bloke for thirty seconds or so while he was lying flat out on the floor and he still wouldn't die. I tried marked for death on another occasion with the same sorry outcome.

Edit:

Victory is mine (on master level, anyway).

I made a mace with fire and shock damage on it instead of using the sword with absorb health and stamina. I thought that might work better since he was using the frost cloak. I Hit him a few times first with the Dawnguard exploding bolts of fire then waded in while the dragon was attacking him. I got a few bashes in before the dragon took off and he turned on me, then just used the shield/mace combo relentlessly (no power swings with the mace, just swinging repeatedly as fast as possible). I needed two potions of ultimate health and down he went...I still wouldn't want to have a go on legendary difficulty.

Sorry, but that was funny as hell! I'm glad you finally beat him!

I've never met him, as none of my characters got that high in levels. I have heard stories however, and I don't really want to meet him myself, LOL.

Grats, laddy! I've never met him either, and doubtful I ever will.

IIRC you only meet him in Whiterun. Yea Ebony Warrior is no freaking joke, this is a battle you can't win with pure power @_@.

I doubt I'll ever meet him anywhere since I've never had (and probably never will have) a level 80 toon.

Congrats on taking him down. Would you be surprised if I told you he's not the toughest enemy in the game?

Technically there is two reasons to level that high and beyond.

1. Just about all trees maxed out.

2. Max out any that you couldn't before.

Loot doesn't get better. Enemies don't get stronger, but the few that level with the player just gets bloated HP to ridiculous levels.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I feel quite proud now. I have to add that the encounter was one of the best experiences I've had in the game. I was literally shaking with an adrenaline rush each time I tried to kill him. In hindsight, his dialogue was really quite amusing throughout each battle, saying things like, "that's more like it!" if I got a few decent hits in.

Krymzon74, I can believe that he may not be the toughest in the game but he's the hardest I've had to tackle yet. Who are the other baddies? If I have somehow managed to avoid them until now, it would help me to persevere with levelling up my other skills since it would give me something to look forward to. I don't want to know what they're most skilled in or how they fight because that would spoil the fun (I quite liked the abject terror that filled me when old ebony bonce laid into me).

Malyn Varen and his cronies were tough and so was Miraak . I had to kill Miraak twice because my dragonborn force did disintegrate him first time round, before he could subsume the final dragon soul. I was left with my dragon and the final enemy dragon circling endlessly with no way to complete the quest.

Glad I gave you a laugh Andra. I always try to see the funny side of things...you should have been here while I was playing. I was pressed back in my chair as if he wouldn't hurt me the further away from the screen I was. I can't remember what I was saying out loud at the time but most of it would probably have been censored.

Sorry for how late this is, but: Congratz!

Marked for Death is your best friend.

I wasn't laughing at the battle, I know it had to be tough! Just wanted to say that first off. I got the much needed laugh at the hilariously funny way you wrote the description of said battle. (which is a good thing for me) I could almost see and feel what you went through!

(and if Krymzon is referring to a certain 'cold and large' nemesis from DB, I don't believe it, as he was tough, but fairly handily dispatched in my game.)

I seem to recall meeting him Windhelm.

Hi.

First off, Andra, I took your comments the way you meant them, so no probs. Thanks for clarifying what you meant, though: that's thoughtful.

As for where he is found, I can confirm that while my daughter was doing one of her favourite fishing jobs for Delvin, the warrior walked up to her when in Markarth, near Cidhna mine. she was worried that she'd done something wrong and passed the gamepad to me. This was the first I'd seen of him. He is certainly not restricted to one location.

I'm still hoping to find baddies that are worse than Ebony bonce.

Karstaag is level 90. His quest is a hidden one for good reason. He is immune to a lot of things including enchantments. He starts the fight with a giant frost cloak to sap your stamina, and summons friends. Once defeated you can summon him three times and three times only, the ability will disappear after it's used up. I've only had one character that was able to defeat him, he's brutally difficult.

Oh I know what I need to do now haha.

Thanks Krymson.

I've definitely not met him...I'm intrigued.

I guess I'll have to do a bit more walking around and talking to people to find out how to trigger this beast.

when you say you've only had one character that could beat him, I wonder if my own can do it, especially with me at the controls (a 49 year old with bad eyesight). Still, that's what life is all about isn't it? Finding out new things.

Karstaag? I'm trying now to think what area he may be from based on the name. I'll do my best not to use the web to find out. It's what made Ebony-bonce so refreshing...he just came at me out of the blue.

I'm also now assuming that I may need to get to level 90 before I meet him. If that's the case I need to be making my mind up about what trees to make legendary because levelling up is getting painfully slow.

Come on Karstaag! Don't be a chicken! Show yourself! I'm only a 'little elf' as every NPC in the game keeps reminding me (quite funny that, because I'm only 5'-5" tall, personally).

hello every one

this one has two videos of her self with the ebony warrior .......both are done with no potions, pausing or magic used ........WARRIOR

the first video is made playing Legendary and it shows of how insane combat is with him (shows 4 one hit kills) ..........the second is from an official DiD competition, Difficulty Master

#1 https://youtu.be/hW0TWtpz5Yo

#2 https://youtu.be/42OYNlBwJJY

Heheh, I'm really going to have another go at him. Keeping your distance and filling him full of arrows seemed to work last time, but then I do that with everyone.

I saw some guy supposedly kill him on legendary with one shot from his bow. Do you defeat him in melee?

One-shot kills are always possible, melee or Ranged. Just depends on how much effort you put into the work. Raise your alchemy, Smithing and Enchanting high enough for long enough, you could make an Iron Dagger strong enough to render Karstaag into Mulch (again. He got rendered into mulch in Bloodmoon already).

I beat him with a level 183 character with many tricks up my sleeve. I used health steal enchanted weapons when attacking his summons. Separate weapon when attacking Karstaag. Stamina potions a plenty because his aura drains it all away at the start of the fight. Fire runes and jumping around. If he has a weakness it's fire. Lots of healing potions. The Black Book that makes it so I couldn't kill Lydia, she'd get back up again from time to time and distract him a little after being downed. Dragon Aspect + Slow Time. Etc. Basically I had a ridiculous character and it was still a challenge. Anyone who one shotted him used the restoration loop.

I always seem to meet him in Riften.

Glad you managed to beat him OP. He can be a heck of a fight.

I got impatient with the nomadic lifestyle while desperately seeking Susan...no, that should be 'desperately seeking Karstaag'.

I went on the inter-webby thing and found out where he was and how to trigger a confrontation...then I made the pilgrimage.

I was a bit wary since my character is only a 'little elf' as the guards so condescendingly keep reminding me and she's only level 82. Kapow! I get launched across the cavern with the blast that heralds Karstaag's dramatic entrance. Wallop! After staggering drunkenly to my feet the ice beastie clobbers me again. Biff! I get one blow of my mace in before I'm laid out flat like a rug...and just as lively as one too.

Wow. Time for round two. This time I sprint heroically towards the back of the cave to avoid the initial hit. Panicking is definitely useful at this point. I didn't think I could press the attack button that fast. I use two inferno-like dragon shouts after wapping a sun-hallowed arrow into the hulking brute (I couldn't get more in because he shakes the ground so much). Bish bash bosh goes the mace. Down down down goes Karstaaag's vaunted health level. Kerthump! Whoosh! A pile of steaming remains are all that is left. I was a bit disappointed to get a reward that could only be used three times, alongside a few charged soul gems, but that's monster slaying for you. It doesn't pay as well as it should.

I tried a few times to beat the old guy on Legendary difficulty for a laugh but I wasn't smiling for long: nothing but bitter failure came my way. Maybe I'll have another go at him sometime on that difficulty when I feel brave enough.

By the way, this Legendary attempt resulted in some more mayhem...see my post in the General Discussion section for more details.

I was surprised in the end. I didn't think he was as tough as the Ebony Warrior. Maybe that's because he's nothing like as nimble, or maybe it's because my style is better suited to that kind of fight. Either way, old ebony-bonce gets my vote for toughest opponent in Skyrim. Now, he was a legend.

Ouch! Guessing I'm glad I never had a character that high or found him LOL

I've never met the Ebony Warrior, primarily because I get to bored with the gameplay at Level @60 and start a new character. (If I understand correctly, EB can't appear until the player character is at least Level 80.) But everything I hear about his awesomeness makes me think one thing: Where the hell is he in Skyrim's Hour of Need? Is he soooooo egocentric that he really doesn't give a good gods-damn about the troubles and woes of others? If he was Evil enough, he could easily become the manifestation of the Second Coming of Tiber Septim, but then rule like Potema. If he was Good, he could easily eliminate 95+% of banditry, stamp out Thalmor influence everywhere, restore the Empire to a new Golden Age, etc. Instead, he sits around wherever it is that he has holed up and twiddle his thumbs until anyone appears to threaten to displace him from his title of Most Awesome Ever.

What a waste.