Skyrim Dragons- Act I: Autumnwatch Tower

Autumnwatch tower is another place a dragon heads to after you complete Dragon Rising.  Another unnamed dragon, this one can be at once both easier and harder to deal with than Mirmulnir, depending partly on whether or not you’ve seen the Graybeards and learned the Whirlwind shout yet.

This tower is located to the Southeast of the Throat of the World, and it’s in a nook on the edge of unclimbable mountains.  The terrain around it is craggy and broken, and immediately around it are littered stone remains.  There’s a secondary tower right next to it that is smaller- you mostly want to ignore this other than to make a note that the dragon really likes landing on top of it to blast at you with its breath weapon.

The breath weapon of this dragon is also rather significant- it’s a blast of Frost.  This means that if you rely on your Endurance for anything you’re going to -hate- being hit by it.  It also distorts your vision when it hits you if you’re in first-person mode, thanks to the Frost damage graphics- so be aware of that.  Because the dragon is likely already at the tower when you arrive, you’re going to have some difficulty getting into the right position- this is where your Whirlwind Thu’um becomes really significant.

Your safest way to fight the dragon is by ducking into Autumnwatch Tower itself and using the doorway to peek out of so you can shoot at the dragon.  This works fairly well- except that the angle of the doorway is inconvenient for shooting out of and the dragon’s breath reaches through it partway.  Mostly that’s just inconvenient, though.  The real trouble is reaching the tower in time when the dragon gets here before you.  The broken stone littering the ground is really hard to read as terrain, so you’re going to need to sprint- and focus entirely on moving.  Ignore the dragon, inasmuch as you can.  If it comes around to blast you with frost breath, you need to respond immediately with your Whirlwind shout or you’ll get slowed by the blast and take a load of ice in the back- not a fun prospect.

Once you’ve managed getting into the tower, though, it’s a smooth if fairly slow fight until the dragon gets a bit below half health, at which point it crashes and then attacks on the ground.

As with other major fights, the indestructible follower is a massive aid here, distracting the dragon and dishing out continuous damage to it.  Doing this alone is much harder, requiring you to wait in the tower until the dragon takes up a position where you can see it through the door, and then sniping at it much as you did while it was flying.  Not only will you have to peek out of the tower from time to time to guide the dragon in- a dangerous prospect with the broken terrain keeping you from really walking it backwards- but bows are usually considerably less damaging than melee weapons, and magicka needs to recharge.  Still, thanks to the presence of the towers, this is a winnable fight, even at passably low levels.