Ebony Warrior fight is impossible with my current build and I have no idea why

[DragonbornVet]

I'm level 81, playing on Adept, and just got absolutely demolished by the Ebony Warrior. Like, not even close. I was doing fine against Miraak and Karstaag but this guy just walks through everything I throw at him.

I'm running a battlemage setup - heavy armor, one-handed sword with a destruction spell in the offhand. I've got Impact in destruction so my spells should be staggering him but they're barely landing. He just keeps closing distance and my sword damage feels like I'm tickling him. Is there something about his AI or resistances that I'm missing, or is my build just fundamentally broken at this point?

Should I respec into something else for this fight or am I just not playing it right?

 

[RiftenWanderer]

Impact only works if the spell actually staggers the enemy, and the Ebony Warrior has crazy high magic resistance - like, he shrugs off a lot of spell damage before you even get to the stagger part. So you might be landing hits but not doing enough damage to trigger the stagger effect. That's probably why it feels like your spells aren't working.

The real issue though is that battlemage at level 81 is kind of split between two things that don't synergize great for a tanky melee fight. Your one-handed damage scales with one skill tree, your spells with another, so you're not getting the full benefit of either. Miraak and Karstaag are different fights - they're more mobile and your spell interrupts probably helped a ton there, but the Ebony Warrior is basically a walking wall with a sword.

If you don't want to respec, try bumping up the difficulty temporarily, get some heavy hitters in - maybe swap to a two-hander or dual wield, or go full destruction and keep distance. Or honestly, just tank his hits and out-heal him with restoration if you have it leveled. What's your one-handed skill at right now? And do you have any perks in heavy armor past the basic ones?