Why does everyone sleep on the Dawnguard questline ranking

[RiftenWanderer]

Okay so I keep seeing people rank Companions > Thieves Guild > Dark Brotherhood > Dawnguard like it's gospel, and I genuinely don't get it. Dawnguard's got some legitimately great stuff buried in there that people just... skip over?

Like, the vampire lord stuff is whatever, yeah, but the whole Forgotten Vale section and then actually dealing with Harkon? That whole final act feels way more cohesive than the Dark Brotherhood's recipe for disaster questline. Plus you're actually making a choice that matters for the whole DLC instead of just following a checklist.

I think people just remember the vampire early game being annoying and write off the whole thing. But if you actually push through to the back half it's solid. Way better paced than Companions which honestly falls apart after you get the Graybeards stuff sorted.

Am I the only one who'd rank it higher? Or is there something about Dawnguard I'm actually missing that makes people dislike it this much?

 

[TamrielTactician]

I think you're onto something, but I'd push back a bit on the pacing argument. Dawnguard's back half is genuinely good - Forgotten Vale is beautiful, and the Harkon fight has real weight to it - but the early game bloat is worse than you're giving it credit for. You're doing a lot of fetch quests and radiant jobs before the story actually kicks in, and on replays that's brutal. Dark Brotherhood at least gets you into the actual plot faster.

That said, yeah, the choice thing matters. Siding with the Dawnguard vs Harkon actually changes how you experience the endgame in a way the Dark Brotherhood's "pick a target" jobs don't. And Serana's questline is way more developed than most people admit - she's got actual character depth if you actually talk to her.

Where I'd disagree though: Companions doesn't fall apart after the Graybeards stuff. It gets worse, sure, but the whole Kodlak questline and the Ysgramor's tomb section feel like they're trying to do something. It's just... messy execution. Dawnguard's problem is more that it's frontloaded with tedium, not that the story itself is weak.

I don't think you're wrong that Dawnguard gets underrated. People just remember it as "the vampire DLC" instead of "the vampire DLC where the actual questline is solid." Fair ranking bump imo.