Ok so I'm finally going to get myself into Dawnguard, it's been a long time coming, but now I'm coming to the end of my vanilla Skyrim adventure.

- I've completed the main questline

- I've completed the Companions questline

- I've completed the College of Winterhold questline

- I've destroyed The Dark Brotherhood

I've also explored pretty much every dungeon/cave and completed most of the side quests and Daedric quests, but the rest can be done in the future.

Anyway, what I wanted to ask is that when I install Dawnguard will the Vampire attacks immediately begin? Because I don't want to get straight into the Dawnguard questline, I just want access to the Dragonbone weapons so I can use them in the vanilla quests I have remaining. I'm about to start the Civil War questline and it kinda feels odd wearing Dragonbone armour and not wielding any Dragonbone weapons.. so would I suddenly see a change in the World of Skyrim once the expansion is installed? Because I don't wanna start travelling to cities and see vampires eliminating all the local residents.. (Yeah I've heard about those vampire attacks -.-) I just wanna be safe in the knowledge that I can download this expansion and just be able to have access to the Dragonbone weapons, rather than getting svcked into the questline when I'm not quite ready for it! There's the small matter of a Civil War to be won

Also, one more thing.. my character is a level 55 battlemage.. will I find Dawnguard too easy? Are the battles any tougher? I don't want it to be a walk in the park, I'm playing on Expert difficulty as it is.. I fought about a dozen Draugr Deathlords at once during the Main Quest in Skuldafn yesterday and they didn't really pose a threat. (Although my gear set-up is pretty badass ) So that's all I have to ask really, cheers guys.

Unfortunately, you will be experiencing vampire attacks. Especially at your level too, as they usually don't start occurring until around Level 10.

As for the difficulty of Dawnguard, try a quest or two on Expert and see how it runs, if it's easy, bump up to Master or legendary

Ah shoot, so I should just wait til I finish the Civil War questline then before starting Dawnguard? That's a shame. I was hoping to get my hands on the Dragonbone weapons >.<

Personally, I'd install it regardless. Could add an interesting element to the otherwise bland civil war. Could be interesting if you and your foe were in a skirmish, then turn to see a common enemy

Avoid fast travelling to towns/cities at night. If you must FT go to the stables outside towns/cities and try to only enter them in the daytime. This will stop the vampire attacks wiping out useful merchants and NPC's. Once you complete the DG questline the attacks will stop.

^^^ This. I have a lvl 42 mage that never started DG ( said no ) She's doing Dragonborn. Other than the 1st ( in town) scripted death of an npc, none have died in my game, well except that wandering bard. I play on 360, but I know their are mods if you are on pc, that will get the npc's to run inside during vampire and dragon attack's.

As I have a character that is doing Dawnguard, I can't uninstall it, so I just play but keep the character out of towns at night unless they are going to be inside a tavern or their house.

You know, you remind me of myself as a vampire hunter. All I cared about was, killing vampires, shooting crossbows, and drinking garlic water... Word of advice, if you shoot a crossbow, mind the pointy end.

Also, at your level you will get a Dragonbone mace, batlleaxe, and bow and arrows from three massive dark energy bone spirit thingies.

It's radiant.

It could happen immediately, but also isn't uncommon to go through the whole questline without any cities ever being attacked.

Maybe a vampire trio in the wilderness and that's it.

On PC?

If so, there is When Vampires Attack mod, which makes regular NPC characters run indoors when the vamps attack. You still have a small chance someone will be caught up in a fight before they get to their house, but for the most part it will be you and the endless city guards that do the fighting.

If not, load it up and simply reload a save if someone dies you didnt want to die.

Unfortunately not mate, I play on PS3. I'll probably just steer clear of cities during DG though and focus solely on the questline

Be aware, that even after you complete the DG missions, the vamp attacks will continue to occur, iirc. :/

The Dawnguard vampire attacks stop after a player completes the questline, these are the attacks that wipe out towns and cities. Vanilla Skyrim vampire attacks will still occur throughout the game but are in no way as dangerous and don't wipe out entire towns.

I have a character who started out as a vamp with the Volkihar, cured him and stopped doing their quests, and now I'm plagued by both random DG attacks as well as vampire town attacks...commit yourself to a side is all I'm saying

Yes commit to a side and complete the questline. What is a man of your experience thinking of quitting half way through the questline Haggar? I expected more from you! LOL

Most town NPCs usually have protected status so the vampire attacks really aren't a big deal. Try and lure them to a group of guards and you'll be fine.

Why would a battlemage need dragon weapons?

Yes they are cool to collect and display in your house but the crossbow and steel axe from this DLC are a lot more fun and deadly.

Just something to think about.

In my game all the DLC are loaded from the start and I love it but then again after my second playthru I now play on Legendary and the DLC baddies

make it even more challenging.

They are a big deal when they kill blacksmiths, merchants and NPC's that can stop entire questlines. I purchased DG the day it was released and experienced one of these attacks in Riften, to cut a long story short the vampires had killed Healga who was crucial to the thieves guild questline and rendered it unplayable for my character. About 6 weeks after the release everyone was aware of the problem but that unfortunately did not help me at the time.

I joined the Dawnguard , want to know why?

Is anyone aware of the Vingalmo Glitch on both consoles? I'm sure you all are. After you've turned everyone into a vampire that he asks you to turn, the vampire quests end with him. All of them, even after you kill the people, to avoid the glitch from freezing all the other vampire quests; as in the quest he gives you will be active yet unavailable because Bethesda only allowed him to ask you to turn 5 different NPC's and when they are all turned or dead, well the quest stays active without an objection. They should have made his quests fail automatically to where you can talk to the other members. But no, the quest makes its to where you cant take anymore vampire quests.

Now you can reload your save point to avoid this, but eventually the other vampires tell you to pay him a visit no matter what you do and how many times you reload your save to avoid him. You also kill other vampires anyway. If you're in a vampire covenant. Most vampires should look away. In most vampire movies, if a vampire is part of a really old coven, No vampire would touch them or the coven would murder that vampire. So the Harkon's coven had a lot of holes in it as you go around killing ( thin blood) vampires anyway as you would in the Dawnguard. So, again I'm pointed in joining the Dawngaurd. Another reason is, Serana makes you a vampire lord anyway whether you join Harkon or Join Isran. It doesn't matter.

If Serana turns you into Vampire Lord while you're in the Dawnguard, well you get kicked out of the Dawnguard until either Aeila gives you a second and final chance with the beast blood or the mage in morthal cures you.

I joined the Dawnguard also to learn how to make bolts and get some good equipment. If you have Smithing maxed out and have really good armor and weapons to begin than the Dawnguard equipment seems pointless to have. Say for instance I had fully smithed Daedric Armor and really good weapons than the equipment that the Dawnguard has is kind of useles. The cross bow is one of the things I played with, but I prefered the bow because it was way faster to use.

But either side you join, has both results. Both become useless eventually. Both sides kill Harkon. I think the vampire side should have bene way way different. I think if you're a vampire you should CHOOSE whether you want to serve Harkon, keep him as an underling, imprison him, or kill him. Instead the vampire faction was too broken for me. If I join the Vampires, the main quest is still the same aside from the Chalice quest and the radiant enchanted item quests.

You still kill Harkon. You still get the Moth Priest. You still do a number of the same things, and you still kill other vampires. It would be cool if you could choose to recruit vampires in the guild and turn people yourself without the Vingalmo Glitch. Honestly I've found Vampire Lord more useful in the Dark Brotherhood. Also, if you're leader of a vampire coven. Shouldn't you be the one telling the vampires what to do, not the other way around?

At least in the Dawnguard, you don't take over. Isran is still giving the orders which makes better sense. Why should we as the Dragonborn always take over a faction? Thats one positive thing I like about the Dawnguard. I don't have to be a leader.

the Dawnguard is all good if you love killing vampires. But the vampire side is so glitched on the consoles that its not worth joining after the main quest is complete.

Honestly you better off going with the Dawnguard. You can always leave them later when you ask Serana to turn you and go do quests for another faction that pays you in gold.

Thats another thing I hate about the Dawnguard and Vampire Factions. They pay you with enchanted items that the merchants can't afford unless you have most of the perks in the Speech.

So eventually which ever side I chose. I end up not doing anymore work for them. So it didn't hurt me one bit leaving the Dawnguard. There was alot in the DLC that disappointed me. What I didn't like about the Dawnguard was you only got two types of Cross Bow. Steel and Dwarven/ Dwemer. If you had Smithing maxed out, than you could max out your cross bow with a fortified smithing skill and the other cross bows including the dwarven bow were useless.

At least you can leave the Dawnguard side with Serana. Either way, its a win win situation.

It is the one dlc with the most unfixed glitches. I enjoyed it, but Dawnguard could have been better.

I just started it as well, and it sort of weird me out when your pretty follower starts chopping wood, ha!

I think she likes to keep busy after being imprisoned for so long! LOL

lol... just about anytime you stop, she will find something to do. It's one of the interesting things about her.

Ha well I wanted to change my vamps appearance then decided I like him better as a mortal...sadly I have to accept that filth in my blood if I want to finish the quests. The Volkihar vamps don't like when you return home as a mortal.

I'd start it as soon as possible. The crossbows use utility at the higher levels rather rapidly, and the armor isn't very high end either.