Auriel's Bow breaks the entire back half of Dawnguard

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

Just finished Dawnguard again and I'm convinced that bow is a design mistake. You get it right before the final stretch and it completely trivializes every remaining fight. Especially once you realize you can just spam the sun arrows and watch everything melt.

I get that it's supposed to feel powerful as a reward but there's a difference between rewarding and just... ending the game's difficulty in one weapon. My level 42 character went from actually struggling against Harkon to one-shotting him from across the room. The whole final dungeon felt like I was just watching the bow do its thing instead of actually playing.

Am I the only one who just doesn't use it after getting it? I've started putting it in a chest and using literally anything else because at least then the back half of the DLC actually feels like a quest instead of a victory lap.

 

[DragonbornVet]

Nah, you're not alone but I think you're overstating it a bit. Auriel's Bow is strong, yeah, but it's not like you're forced to use it. The fact that you're actively choosing not to use it kind of proves the point - if it was actually breaking the game, you wouldn't have that option.

The sun arrows are the real culprit imo. They do ridiculous damage to undead and vampires specifically, which makes sense thematically but yeah, they trivialize the vampire fights in particular. That said, Harkon's still got his magic and summons, and the Soul Cairn section before that has plenty of other stuff that won't care about your bow. If you're one-shotting him, that's more about your character being level 42 with probably decent archery perks than the bow itself being broken.

I'd say the real issue is that Dawnguard's difficulty scaling is just... not great. By the time you're doing the DLC you're already established enough that most content's going to feel easy regardless. Throw in a powerful unique weapon and yeah, it feels anticlimactic. But that's less "the bow is a mistake" and more "the DLC doesn't scale well for mid-to-late game characters."

If you want the challenge back, the sun arrows restriction you're already doing works. Or just don't grab the bow until after you've cleared the main quest stuff. Plenty of people do that.