Dawnguard's vampire perk tree is actually broken for melee builds and nobody's noticed

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I've been doing a vampire playthrough and just hit the perks that let you drain stamina and health in melee range, and honestly? They completely trivialize combat in a way that even Necromage abuse doesn't touch. You're essentially getting free sustain that scales with your One-Handed or Two-Handed damage, which means a vampire warrior just gets stronger the longer a fight goes on.

The Dawnguard perks are all about burst damage and utility (which is cool, don't get me wrong) but the vampire tree is just... passive healing that never runs out. You don't need restoration, you don't need potions. You just hit things and stay at full health. It's wild that everyone talks about how underpowered Vampire Lord form is but sleeps on the actual melee vampire perks.

Has anyone else broken a playthrough accidentally with this? I'm on Legendary and stuff that should be threatening just melts because I can't die.

 

[NordOfSolitude]

yeah the melee drain perks are genuinely underrated. I think people sleep on them because Vampire Lord form is so front-and-center in the DLC's marketing, so everyone assumes that's where the power is - but you're right, the actual sustain from draining health and stamina on hit is insane once you stack it with decent weapon damage.

the thing that gets me though is that it's almost too good if you're not careful about difficulty. on my Legendary vampire warrior run I basically had to stop using the drain perks halfway through because regular combat stopped being engaging at all. I'd just walk into a room and everything dies while I heal to full. it's less "broken" and more "trivializes the entire point of Legendary difficulty" imo.

that said, I don't think it's quite as bad as Necromage abuse - that's still the nuclear option if you actually want to break the game - but yeah, melee vampire is way stronger than people give it credit for. the Dawnguard perks are fun (especially the ones that let you summon gargoyles or whatever) but they're burst tools. vampire sustain is just... you win by default.

have you tried gimping yourself a bit to make it fun again, or are you just rolling with it?