Hello my name is Goddick. I am a vr14 Dragonknight; sword and shield/2 handed warrior who was part of an expeditionary mission to scout/survey/engage Aldmeri Dominion controlled lands. My group was comprised of battlehardened warriors,assassins, and mages.... many who have fought as far back as the Wabbajack Campaigns. As Daggerfall soldiers, only the best men and women were enlisted to spearhead this campaign. I am reluctant to admit this, but i was chosen to be part of this group because My Templar Brother was de-commisioned from the DC army due to his uncooperativeness to join the Weapon X program, a program where Templars are turned into vampires for an edge in the Cyrodiil war. I was a second-string replacement, but i would die for my Daggerfall convenant and for my battle brothers. This was noted by Grand Warlord and Commanders so i was placed at the front line of engagements. This is where i learned the true heart of Aldmeri Soldiers, or...lack of it.

Our first mission was to recapture Nikel outpost, a fortification that the Covenant had been finding increasingly difficult to hold because of a particularly powerful Aldmeri force using "unusual and....dark tactics. This was not the first time the Aldmeri resorted to using tactics outside the standards of war. The Tamriel War Conventions had already once banned them for use of land scarring negation magic,a powerful spell that the High Elves and their allies seemed to have somehow exploited to cast quickly; as easy as a novice mage casting a light spell. Many scholars have already contemplated the idea of the Aldmeri Dominion one day ultimately falling as a result of their own reckless tampering with magic and relations with the Daedra....

We recaptured Nikel with ease using standard sieging and flank protection. We then prepared in large numbers at the breach and quickly took both guarded points inside the outpost. It was then we heard the sound of bats and a feint smell of putrid rot mixed with stinky turd juices in the air.....one of our Templar warriors joked that Aldmeri cowards may have trained bats to fight for them. We had not repaired the breached postern in time before an equally sized army of Aldmeri Soldiers charged into us. Our reaction time was near-perfect and we met them head-on with a wild assortment of spells and steel and unique skills that each Daggerfall warrior personally groomed and mastered. However, it quickly became evident that this Aldmeri army was trained to uniformly use 3 main attacks: Impulse blast, Dragonknight Standards, and Batswarming. My shield offered little protection against the swarming, but i was able to survive long enough to see my battlebrothers get ripped to shreds by a....vampire army and their Thrall lackeys.The enemy formation never changed, always charging into us and batswarming then planting fiery standards and impulsing. Aldmeri healers would keep them alive long enough to repeat this process over and over until we were finally defeated at Nikel.

I was laying on a cot half dead inside a forward camp seething with rage at how easily we were defeated. I tried to understand and learn what we did wrong to have been humiliated in such a manner. I remember our soldiers dodging away from these powerful spells only to be chased by batswarms until they could dodge no more then quickly taking heavy damage from the bats and impulses. I spent hours looking for an answer and thats when it dawned on me. I had to become Dawnguard.

The build

In my campaign in Thornblade this weekend, i put down my sword and shield, a very tough choice, and i decided i would focus on that which i hate the most...Vampires. Using killcounter-addon i was able to log my total kills of vampires (those hit and killed by evil hunter and silver shards) for the entire weekend. I am happy to report that i killed over one thousand vampires. My weapons of choice are 2handed sword and Bow. Here is the link to my build. Use it, and you will destroy these creatures. The build is also friendly to killing non-vamps as well, even in a solo situation.

http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#mzczgx0k9MOV08injt8Lxs48uELs8Lxss8GRFH8LxRn8wABe8uEI18uELs8wAEb8lLxM8DohZ8p7JMdBvT6MdBvj6MdBEI6MdBEp6cdBET8x7HLsfr6Lsfw6MwGN16MwGAs6MwGAa6MwGAb8g7HrsXy6rsXt6MipLW6MipL46MippV6Mippo6Mippq8l7Dmop6mzoC6rzky6Lzkg6MuvVB6MuvVD6MuvVJ6MuvVO8B7DLzsa6MGkXa6MGkXf6MGkXG6MGkXN8P7ardYw6rdYi6rdYh6cLncp6cLncn6zLyjz8U7MmrWv8Z7pznrJs6cnrJi6cnrJG6cnfeO8za7mrGF48zf7ozNbo6rNbk8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX
My Health 2886
My Magicka 1600
My Stamina 2100
My Stamina recovery 122 and 138 with dragon blood.
Weapon power: 220 with 2hand sword & 212 with bow
Critical hit chance 50%unbuffed+30%Molten arms (weapon skills and attacks)+20% potions=100% chance minus a full impenetrable foe at 70-80% crit protection= Youll have 20-30% chance to crit them with weapon skills/attacks.
Gear set: Full medium 5 Hunding's Rage and 2 Night mother.
Weapons. Bow with disease and Covenant 2handed sword with 1k armor reduction.
Potions: Wpn Crit potion Stam/crit/wpn damage, and Basic Stam potions, and vanishing potion 30% movement speed/vanish for 3 seconds.


The preparation: Evil hunter+ Molten Armaments+Reflective scales(+crit chance potion). Youll do this constantly every 4-6-15-30 seconds, The first 2 skills return hundreds of stamina per use and/or proc. If you miss a prep, dont worry it happens.Molten will help build ultimate as well for low cost so use it often.
The offensive rotation on vamps: Venom Arrow+Silver shards then spam Silver Shards only unless he is a caster (spells with longer than instant cast) then rotate venom+silverx2 back and forth. Good against dark flaring vampire templars.
The follow-up/finisher rotation: Once vampire is 50% health: Weapon Swap ***quickly+Crit rush+ Executionerx2. If the target has too many allies protecting him then Soul Strike as a finisher.
Your fighting range: Try and stay 22 meters or closer. You are using a bow, but your finisher is a 2 hander so try and stay close enough to deliver that killshot.

Protip #1: If you have to retreat from 1 or more enemies, use dodge spam and reflective scales but try not to sprint until you absolutely have to. Sprinting *drops your stamina recovery to zero. This may be a bug but you can see it for yourself if you have your skill tray up while running. I use a mix of both when retreating.

Protip #2: Use tab to lock on a target once you find your vampire and youll never lose track of them in big battles. This is a real nightmare for them and they will hate your guts for it.

Wtf,Why not use snipe?: Snipe is a decent alternative to venom but it is slow and your attacks are meant to be done fast and in quick succession. You dont want to let off for a second when shooting down your foe.However, it is powerful so it can work well with Silver shards. Another thing to note is that my log of reflecting snipe back to enemies shows it hitting them for up to 850+. If you are snipe shooting a reflect dk, you could end up taking massive burst dmg.

How to spot a vampire: use the kill-on-sight addon to record the names of regular vampire players that you kill often(the names will show up on killcounter log). Khajit are the easiest to spot, being completely white furred. Their tails are pure white so even a helmet cant hide their vamprisim. As a rule of thumb, treat all Nb's as vampires because many are. Vampires are cocky, youll see many of them bolt escaping or charging into large groups. Look for the ones who move into these groups like they are fearless. Tab them and kill them while keeping yourself out of the way of batswarm. There is no greater satisfaction than saving a raid from an overconfident vampire by proccing silver bolts and turning them into blue ash. A vampires biggest weakness is that they are very greedy in batswarm mode and want to kill lots of players at one time. Use that as a basis for finding and destroying them. GL