Equipment Edit
Before fighting any of the dragon priests, it is essential that you have the correct equipment. Always stock up on Resist Shock, Fire, Frost and Resist Magic potions. These 4 potions will mitigate a large portion of the damage dealt by the dragon priest, making the fight easier. Depending on your class, it would also be wise to buy a potion that boosts damage (i.e., Potion Of Destruction, Potion Of The Warrior or Potion Of True Shot). Also bear in mind that potions have 4 grades: Potion (Weakest), Draught (Weak), Philter (Strong), and Elixir (Strongest). The strongest potions, Elixirs, may be purchased from any Alchemy store for less than 800 Septims. Finally, any armor which you can enchant with Resist Magic or Resist Elemental Damage will give you the final edge needed to take on the dragon priest.
Protecting against elemental damageEdit
It is possible (and simple) to find gear in game that protects against a percentage of elemental damage. That percentage stacks. If you have the right gear, it is completely possible that you can completely nullify any and all elemental damage, as the Priests have no known melee attacks. For instance., Spellbreaker can be used to block all spells used by the priests.
Coffin exploitEdit
Get the Priests to come out of their sarcophagus, run and rest for 1 hour. Come back and they'll be laying down in their tomb with the top off. They are triggered just like any Draugr, so you can sneak up on them and get a critical sneak hit/kill. Followers flagged as essential can be used as tanks here.
Rock formationsEdit
Many areas where Priests are fought contain ledges, cliffs, and rocks which can be used as cover to snipe them from a distance with bows. They retaliate with long ranged spells but often hit surrounding terrain. It is possible to stand behind a rock formation and have the Priest come to you without attacking. The Priest will simply stand there and you can shoot it with arrows (confirmed with Krosis).
Unrelenting ForceEdit
When the Priests are near the edge of any kind of cliff or ledge, use Unrelenting Force to push them off the edge. Some Priests will back away towards the edge anyway, so keep attacking until they are there.
FollowersEdit
Bring an invincible follower (Dark Brotherhood initiate, any Blades member, Derkeethus or Barbas) and use the Summon Spectral Assassin power. Their purpose is to provide a distraction for the Dragon Priest, allowing you to attack him and dispatch him with ease. Also, even if your character is non-blade oriented, it is highly recommended to use a Silver Sword, as it is very effective against the undead, regardless of its low damage value.
Staff of MagnusEdit
After defeating Morokei, one of the eight named dragon priests, he drops the Staff of Magnus which is used for the College of Winterhold questline. It is also extremely useful against all the other dragon priests. Using the Staff of Magnus and a constant healing spell is a very easy way to defeat any of them. It drains Magicka at an extremely quick pace and the healing spell will only be needed for the first 10 or so seconds of combat. After that, the dragon priest will be helpless as he has no melee attack and his magicka is drained. It will then start to drain his health as well. It takes a while so make sure to have a stock of filled Soul Gems for recharging the staff.
The Warrior strategyEdit
One way to defeat Dragon Priests is to hit them with power attacks. This staggers them, preventing them from attacking. A decent number of stamina potions will be needed, or a single food item that provides Stamina Regeneration over time (as the food item prevents stamina from completely depleting, allowing continuous power attacks). Another way for warrior characters to defeat Dragon Priests is to pin them in a corner so they can't back away to a range where they can just repeatedly hit you with magic attacks. This method can require a large amount of health potions or magicka potions if a healing spell is used.
The Speedy Gonzales strategyEdit
If you are playing with a warrior focus and once you have the Elemental Fury shout, simply activate the shout and rush forward. A room with a Priest inside it will look different from normal so you should be able to anticipate. Determine which crypt they will rise from and run for that one. If done properly you should get anywhere from 2 to 5 hits in before they are fully standing. This technique is extremely useful for Warrior with a Two-Handed Weapon focus
The Shield strategy (Spellbreaker)Edit
Get hold of the artifact shield Spellbreaker.( Shield is given as a reward in the quest 'The Only Cure') This shield gives you a bubble of antimagic even after you lower the shield, so if you don't have the perk for running shield charge you could raise the shield get the bubble and run towards your foe.
Ebony Blade StrategyEdit
With the Ebony Blade killing Dragon Priests becomes easy. First when triggering the Dragon Priest get as close to its coffin as possible. Immediately start to hack away at it when reached. If taken, infinite Absorb Health enchantment will allow an easy kill on any Dragon Priest. Trying to stay close to the Priest is the priority. Most Dragon Priests will back away, so it is best if you corner your enemy first.
SnS: Sneak and Shield Edit
When playing a character with high sneak, one of the best things you can do when facing a Dragon Priest is use a shield. Sneak up to where the priest lay and attempt to hit him with a Sneak Attack. Regardless of whether the sneak attack was successful or not, you'll usually be in a prime position to keep positional pressure on him. If he moves, just roll to follow and you're back in position. Staying in his grill is important to this strategy. So why the shield? Well, many of you may have noticed that, for the most part, Dragon Priests take a pretty decent amount of time to cast a spell. However, it takes very little time to perform a basic Shield Bash. So little time, in fact, that you can typically utilize the Shield Bash to stuff whatever the Dragon Priest was trying to cast on-reaction. You can follow the Bash with an attack or two, then Bash again. If done properly, the Dragon Priest will die and will have had little, if any, chance to do anything.
Best of all, it really doesn't require any special skill allotments or equipment. You don't even need to invest points in Block for it to work because you're only using an unaltered Shield Bash to interrupt spell casting. The only thing you really have to worry about is your character's stamina. That can be mitigated with proper rhythm or Stamina potions. The same principle even works on Dragons!
Time FrameEdit
Once you have learned the Slow Time dragon shout, it becomes much easier to kill Dragon Priests, particularly if you have a high damage, but low health. Simply hide just out of the Dragon Priests line of sight, use the shout, and quickly hit him with everything you can during the effect. When Slow Time expires, go back to running and hiding until the shout recharges, and repeat until you kill the Dragon Priest
Backstab StrategyEdit
For those who favor the use of stealth, many fights, particularly the one on one variety, become amazingly simple. This can be used to make the normally terrifying Dragon Priest easy to cut down. If the Dragonborn has taken the liberty to invest in Stealth, he will already have the useful Assassin's Blade perk, which allows the Dragonborn to deal fifteen times regular damage with daggers. Coupled with the Dark Brotherhood's Shrouded Gloves, the dragon priest can easily be killed in one decisive shot. The formula for this can be expressed as 30*15*2*2 = 1800 where thirty is the damage of a well upgraded ebony or daedric dagger, fifteen is the backstab damage of the Assassin's Blade perk, two is the multiplier from the shrouded gloves, and the last two is the damage gained from a power attack. As you may well have guessed, 1800 damage is more than enough to kill a dragon priest, even of the named variety.
Should there be any trouble attempting for the backstab, the best course of action is to either hide until you are hidden from the priest, or employ an invisibility spell/potion, which can allow you to deal the killing blow without having to spend some time in hiding. A good thief player will also easily be able to work around anything conjured by said dragon priest.
Another idea is to stay at a distance and pepper the priest with arrows. Use the occasional invisibility potion and the fight will be easy.(only tested on Hevnorak.)
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