Karstaag fight is genuinely broken and I'm not sure if it's me

[RiftenWanderer]

I'm on my 4th playthrough and decided to finally do the Iceborne Jarl questline from Dragonborn. Got to Karstaag and I've fought him three times now and every single time something feels off. Like, he'll just freeze me solid and I can't break out, or he'll teleport away and I literally cannot find him in the arena. My follower just stands there doing nothing while I'm getting pummeled.

I'm playing on Legendary difficulty with a melee build (One-Handed and Light Armor) and I'm level 47, so it's not like I'm undergeared. But this fight feels less like a challenge and more like I'm fighting invisible walls. Did they patch this at some point and it's still broken on Anniversary Edition, or am I just missing something obvious? Like is there a specific strategy I should be using that makes him not teleport spam?

Also my follower (Serana) won't attack him at all, just stands in the corner. Is that a known bug or does she just refuse to fight him for some reason?

 

[DragonbornVet]

Karstaag's AI is legitimately janky, ngl. The teleport spam is real - he'll phase around that arena in ways that feel less like strategy and more like the fight just doesn't want you to win. You're not imagining it.

The freeze thing though - if he's perma-freezing you, that's either a perk issue or you're getting caught in a bad loop. Do you have any frost resistance gear? Even 25-30% helps break the cycle. One-Handed on Legendary is rough for that fight since you need to close distance constantly and he just keeps yeeting himself away. Honestly a ranged option (even just a bow for when he teleports) would trivialize it way more than melee does.

Serana not attacking is the real problem here. She's bugged in that fight - it's a known thing where followers sometimes just refuse to engage Karstaag. USSEP might've patched it, but if you're on AE and not running USSEP, you're probably stuck with it. Try dismissing her before the fight and summoning a different follower, or just go in solo with some summons of your own (Conjuration can carry that fight hard). Dremora Lords eat Karstaag alive if you stack them.

What difficulty were you on in your previous playthroughs when you beat him? Legendary melee is genuinely one of the worst approaches for that specific fight.