Fighting Miraak; I'm stumped

[Soondead]

I'm on top of this tower after taking control of one dragon. That one got killed, so I controlled another. I'm down to just one dragon, but Miraak is no longer on top of the tower, he's off somewhere. I can take control of the last dragon, but I've never been able to actually fly one using WASD; they seem to just fly around randomly. If there's a target nearby, I can select it with Space and then attack it with Ctrl but Miraak is apparently out of range so.... What am I supposed to do here exactly? Did the game glitch and I have to go back to an earlier save, or is this intentional and there's some secret I'm supposed to just pull out of my hat here...?

[steventirey]

You never get to control dragons that way - they fly in predetermined ways. You can lock on to a target and order them to attack it, and they will at least try to do so. Dragon riding isn't all that great.

Once you have started the fight with Miraak, damaging him enough causes him to sacrifice a dragon. Controlling them yourself may mess that up.

[Soondead]

Originally posted by steventirey:

You never get to control dragons that way - they fly in predetermined ways. You can lock on to a target and order them to attack it, and they will at least try to do so. Dragon riding isn't all that great.

Once you have started the fight with Miraak, damaging him enough causes him to sacrifice a dragon. Controlling them yourself may mess that up.

Ended up reverting to an earlier save no less than three times, trying different tactics that all ended in a softlock with Miraak out of reach. Heeding your advice, I tried it by just landing at the first opportunity and laying off the dragons, and yep... that worked. Thank you.

So, in conclusion; I get the power to control dragons, but actually using that power softlocks the quest. What fantastic game design.

[steventirey]

Originally posted by Soondead:

So, in conclusion; I get the power to control dragons, but actually using that power softlocks the quest. What fantastic game design.

You can still use it after the quest, with most dragons you come across. While you can sort of fight with the dragon (by targeting things for the dragon, and you can use some spells assuming you can actually hit anything), its more useful for fast travelling. You can't go to any place on a different map (which includes inside walled cities), but fast travelling on dragonback can still be done in survival mode.

[worm_master]

I use it to "Not fight dragons" Legendery game mode dragons, r not to be taken lightly, so i simply "friend" it, an leave.

Of course u do end up, running into the same dragon again, an then u gotta shout it friendly.

[R4ndomG4mer]

You're not supposed to take control of the dragons during the fight. They're essentially just there to act as living health potions for Miraak.
You're meant to just fight Miraak directly, and several times during the battle, when he gets low on health, he will kill and absorb the soul of one of his dragons to heal himself. But do take care, as his battle is known for being glitchy, so if you lower Miraak's health too quickly, he will derp out while trying to heal himself and the battle will never progress properly.