Archer getting Dusted in Dustman's Cairn, Proving Honor Quest (SOLVED)

[jjs82x]

I am level 22 Archer (with minors in Alchemy/Enchanting). I am something like 53 Archery, with all the perks I can get with that archery skill. I am on the Proving Honor quest, with Farkas. Made it through Dustman's Cairn to Dustman's Crypt with lots of potions and reloads. My character is woefully, and I mean WOEFULLY underpowered for full frontal combat. I am at the room that can be viewed from the caged catwalk. I can throw a flame Atronach, but that and Farkas, combined, occupies the three silverhands for about, ooohh, 8 seconds; then, if I do not run, I am down in another 3 seconds. It is not even close. If I try to snipe from the catwalk: My first sneaked, poisoned shot takes off about 10% of the first silverhand's health; then Farkas leaves me there in my snipe position and goes barreling down the passageways to meet the foe in the adjoining room (which is not visible from the catwalk) where he is cut to pieces in short order.

I have yet to kill a single enemy from the mentioned room.

Any bright ideas from you sneaky types?

[Shrapnel]

Well, thing is with Skyrim archery you are either the Green Arrow and knocking dudes off their feet in one shot or you're in a situation like yours.
How I handled archery was I coupled it with Sneak. The initial battles are really long, but your sneak skyrockets and then you can use your sneak to slowly, painfully whittle your enemies down until you have the archery skill to really take them out.
Plus sneak has a nice 3x multiplier for sneak bow attacks

[grishalit7]

This is probably isnt going to be correct for an archer build like yours, but:
Improve armor( light is better for archers) and weapons.
Enchant the weapons with ice(10 points without potions or perks) and poisen them(alredy done).
Enchant armor with fortify health.

To the point: if you cant use close combat and cant take them out from ranged sneak, destraction magic can help. Of course if nothing goes reload before entrance and go improve armor.

My experience: with steelplate heavy armor set(220 or so rating), 250 health(lvl 30), and a couple of (Immersive wepons) swords(each dealing extra 20 fire/ice damage), I managed to chop the 6 silverhands in group battle without dying. Of course I used an extra 60 rating from Stone flesh and adept destraction magic spells. Whenever they chopped 3/4 of health I would retreat, heal through potions, and fry them with firebolts.

If you had a higher armor rating or health middle-open range plas elemental damage from enchants and poisn would be right enough to push through.

Hope I made sense!

[Bomb Bloke]

Depending on how far back your saves go, you could take a detour up to the greybeards. They're very high level and have bucket loads of health. Despite this, they're not very perceptive, and tend not to notice things like a crazed stealther with an iron dagger (weaker the better) wailing on them from behind.

Sneak attacks raise stealth very quickly, and once maxed you can let Farkas do his thing while you shoot arrow after arrow. Fire from a dark corner (dark is important - light levels matter), move if they get too close, and you should be able to kill them all without being spotted.

Oh, they'll look for you, but at high levels even direct line of sight at close range isn't good enough for them to find you. If you get that final stealth perk it becomes all the easier to force enemies from "attack" mode back into "search" mode.

There's an illusion perk that makes your spells noiseless to enemies. You'll want that one, too.

[jjs82x]

Thank you for the help.

So, there is no way to keep Farkas from blowing your cover? Bummer. (...sigh...) I hate to throw in the towel after plugging away at this for some six hours, but looks like I need to reload from before I accepted this quest and tune up my character. I don't have an enchant on my fine Dwarven bow, and did not load up on the best poisons and health potions. And I did put off the greybeards in order to do this. Maybe they need a visit....

[Archnecrotyr]

I myself would personally suggest using a 2h weapon in close combat if less then 2 people are in range of you. you can still block, and will deal more damage overall per power attack. beyond that, having tons of stamina never hurts. more stamina means more running.

[jjs82x]

Heh, heh, yeah. I saw a YouTube walktrough, and the guy was a level 5 or 6 with a 2H skill of 40 and he was one-shotting most of his opponents. Would be nice. I've totally neglected my 2H skill; but, hey, I've tried everything I can think of, so why not spend another 10 minutes on this project before calling it quits. If it works, I'll post the results here.

[Rhuto]

There might be another solution...not sure..haven't done it...but here is the idea...

When Farkas run off...don't run after him...just hide in the room before the bridge(but same zone)
Farkas can't die from other then You...he will be knocked down...but will raise again and fight more...so if you don't want to do the other have suggested..you might see if he can wear them down that way :)
If they run over the bridge and into the room, and you feel they will take you...zone back, because I don't think they will zone after you...again just speculations ...I also think you get Farkas back when zone.:)

[Reaper_223]

This mission is one that has stood out in my mind for a looooong time... This mission is completely one sided when it comes to the fights in the hallways. The only character I have played this with that did not have much trouble was a sword and board warrior. Everything else ended up getting rapetrained here, repeatedly. Its a rough section of game for sure. The way my sneaky archer type guy finally beat it was by using a bow with frost damage on it, kiting them all over hell and back.

[jjs82x]

"Rapetrained" -->LoL!! Thank you Rhutto and Reaper for the advice and for helping me feel like my character was not so much of a loser! I was beginning to wonder if there was something catestrophically wrong with my build.

I had actually loaded an earlier save and was off on a tangent (the 2H trick did not work. My 2H skill was 16). I will go back to DM crypt save and try the hide and wait; and (if that doesn't work) kiting. BTW - I tried a Frenzy poison but the enemy was too high a level for it to work. I do have one paralyze potion and some other poisns for use while kiting.

[Reaper_223]

I wouldnt worry about your build being wrong that early. I had a 2H using orc that wore heavy plate get rolled in that hallway a few times before resorting to pot spamming and his racial. I honestly think that section of the mission is so difficult because 3 of the guys are using 2H weapons and you have no room to dodge the attacks unless you kite backwards. You will eventually run out of hallway and get smashed.

[jjs82x]

YES!! I did it! It was a fluke discovery from trying out Rhutto's advice: I followed Farkas down from the caged walkway down towards the fight, to see exactly where that fight would take place (I intended to then reload and NOT follow him --> hide. But I wanted to know where to later see if combat had ended. Well, I caught up to him and he stopped. Then I went back the other way and he followed me! Woot! After several tries I got him to just plain stay put. I sniped the two 2H warriors (about 3 to 4 poisoned shots each) then Falkas, my Atronach and my bow put some hurt on the little lady who was left solo.

Now... how am I going to take out the end room draugrs? I think I saw a wiki on how to NOT have to fight all 17 at once...

Hey, thanks a'bunch, all who chimed in to help!

[Skyrimnut]

Yeah, Dustman's cairn is hard cause essentially you are by yourself, as Farkas is really quite useless. I have had excellent success as a shield mage going in. My sword and boards and dual-wielders also did very well, as did a sneak crossbow (crossbow being the operative word) archer and two-handers. I play on either default or Expert difficulty, usually no crafting builds on Vanilla Skyrim. A standard archer will do decent if you have a good bow and some perks. The conjured bow is nice for this crypt.

They don't all come out at once. Usually it's in trios. Finally, Farkas seems to get it together at that point. Oh, absorb the word wall and if you have a soul, activate that shout before you grab the Wuuthrad fragment. It's a pretty useful shout against draugr.

[Brandybuck]

I found that section to be the hardest in the entire game if I'm in the lower levels. If you're an archer, he trick is to sneak, shoot, and run. Ignore Farkas, he just likes to run forward and engage. Use him to your advantage since he's essential. Let him come crawling back to you, then move in again. Atronachs are good, as is Fury.

If you're not the sneaky time, then at least sneak through that catwalk to the next section, because you don't want to aggro everyone all at once.

[jjs82x]

Thanks for the comments, Skyrimnut and Brandybuck. I am playing the default difficulty ("adept" I believe).

Just wanted to put a postscript on this: I made it to the final room and looted everything I could see, except the one thing which I knew would trigger the final battle. Then I saved before triggering, thinking that there was no way I would survive, just wanted to see what I was up against. And... I survived the fight, first time! It was no problem compared to getting past those Silverhand dirtbags in the room under the caged walkway.

[jconan7777777]

there will be many more challenges ahead....gl dragonborn