Install Raid for Free on IOS/ANDROID/PC: t2m.io/theWelshWizard and get a special starter pack with 500k Silver, Energy and Chicken. Available only via the link and for new players. See you on the battlefield! Thank you all for voting/commenting and being a part of this series! 🍻 FAQs 👇 Q: Boss number 3 says it's boss number 4? 🧙♂: An error on my part, apologies!
@@Marinanor Most of the time I dont even fight him these days, I just run right past him because he's a waste of time to fight lmao, he doesn't drop anything worthwhile and he's slow as hell. Though I think the point is, first timers who fight him are a bit shocked by how a more dangerous creature then just your basic wolf or sabrecat shows up and when you go in guns blazing with your steel sword and flames, you get freaking wrecked lol and for that he's quite memorable for being a boss that kicked your ass the first time you played.
Voslaarum and Naaslaarum are the single coolest bosses in Skyrim. The way they burst out from the ice lake is so cool I'm glad they're the only dragons to do this as it makes the encounter even more memorable. Amazing.
@theWelshWizard I got in trouble with my mum on my first encounter because they made me jump when they burst through the ice. I went "ah fuk" and mum threatened to turn off my PS3. Simple times.
Durnuvir is close purely due to the aesthetic of of his arena and the soul cairn in general. Also the snow elf vampire. And Harkon. Okay I guess every major boss fight in the dawngaurd dlc is cool.
I remember the first time I beat it was only because it got "stuck" behind a rock and I was able to kill it with a bunch of arrows. Most times I'd just run and eventually (if it didn't catch and kill me) I'd be able to get by it. Another time I used the Nords "Battle Cry" to drive it away. This most recent playthrough I decided to do a magic only run so before I went to High Hrothgar I did the college of Winter hold quest before I even went to Whiterun, got the arch mages gear and then I just killed it with a couple of dual cast fireballs.
23:30 Harkon: *Middle of his Monlogue.* "-Are you even listening to me?" Dragonborn: "Hm? Yeah sure, don't mind me, carry on-" *Putting on the Mask, drinking and taking out the Scroll.*
I truly feel like ulfric should have been a legitimately powerful boss ngl. The dude is insanely strong lore wise. And it would have been cool for his in game statistics to represent that.
I remember one fight against the Forgemaster on my Artificer character with a full Dwarven build. Things were getting pretty dicey and my follower well essential was stuck on their last legs. I was starting to think I was gonna lose when a brave warrior stood up to defend me. My Dwarven Armored Mudcrab had, had enough and decided it was time to throw claws. Bravely challenging the Forgemaster to single combat Sir Crab soloed the giant mechanical menance until myself and Derrkethus were able to finish off the minions and join him in battle. A salute to you Sir Crab bravest and most powerful of all crabs, truly the dragonborn would be lost without you.
@@yourfriendlyneighbourhoodl6206 Sort of. It's the anniversary edition for the Switch so it's got all the Creation Club content. The pets you can get are all invulnerable and will occasionally pull aggro, just that time my Crab pulled aggro and wouldn't let it drop. The Forgemaster really hated that crab for some reason.
Oh Krosis! The one dragon priest I never expected to encounter that made me jump! 😂 I remember exploring the area and literally stumbling upon him. He was the first dragon priest I ever encountered and I got destroyed very easily. I went back for him later in my playthrough in the end. 😂
Playing Skyrim for the first time, the dragon attacked me but fortunately then started fighting some wild animals. Me happy how things turned out running to the chest for loot and then Krosis jumped out from his sarcophagus killing me with 2 fireballs... Very memorable 😄
He was my first dragon priest too. It was my first playthrough. In my next playthriugh, I went looking for him in the wrong direction, thinking I'd find somewhere between Eastmarch and the Rift
23:58 Good to see I made it in the top 10, jokes aside love to see someone who still holds passion for this game, thank you welsh wizard keep up the great content!
When I played my level 81 character: 5 - the two dragons 4 - the Galdur Amulet gauntlet 3 - the Black Star guy (mainly because I always do that quest early) 2 - Karstagg (enchanted a whole new armor set for him) 1 - Ebony Warrior (had to actually learn how to fight well to beat him)
I'm doing a Skyrim Survivor permadeath run for the first time, and it is very scary. However... these videos are INVALUABLE to me as they help me plan ahead and set myself up for the vanilla boss fights and more. Thank you for being an awesome teacher!
Damn that run must've been difficult especially that skyrim has some random ambushes here and there. Sometimes you'll get ambushed by a group of vampires, bandits and animals while just exploring around 😂
@lazycarrot6592 I know. It's terrifying at lower levels! Luckily, I'm still going strong. Taking things slow and strategic in fights. Who would have thought having a spellsword build would be so effective??
I personally think Karstaag should be #1. He has a base level of 90, while the Ebony warrior has a base level of 80. He also overall does more damage, and it is also easier to cheese the Ebony warrior from a distance, meanwhile fighting Karstaag, you are in an enclosed arena. But my main point is that where is Thoron on this list? I could maybe understand not putting him top 5 over even top ten, but in my opinion he was one of the hardest bosses to defeat. I defeated every boss in the game, but he was one of the ones that took me forever to defeat. I know he is an obscure boss not to many know, but he deals insane damage and is resilient to mage builds. He also kept on turning my Daedra summons (the Sanguine Rose) against me and made it a nuisance . I eventually had to settle for stealth archer sniping him, then hiding when he tries to get me. I would easily put him over the troll at #5, the troll was extremely easy for me to beat. But overall 3 videos I for the most part agreed with and enjoyed. Love your videos man and keep it up.
I agree as well that Karstaag is probably the strongest npc in the game but the ranking is based on votes. I guess lots of player (including me) had a hard time dealing with the ebony warrior 😂 I think the reason why Karstaag landed in #2 is because he has so many weaknesses. Being undead and having 25% weakness to fire damage opens a lot of ways for the players to effectively fight him. Compared to the ebony warrior that has no particular weakness in his stats and build. The players probably find it more difficult and tricky to figure out effective ways to beat the ebony warrior in a fair fight.
Last time I fought the reaper I was wearing Ahzidal's ring of gimme that ignite spell and combined it with the slow time shout. He was down before any of his minions. Good times!!
The toughest boss I faced in my first complete playthrough of Skyrim was that Thoron guy at the end of the Saints and Seducers quest, I was playing as this generic one handed warrior guy with no enchanted weapons or armor allowed, only allowed to use potions or food to heal. I basically wanted to do a character like out of the old school "Swords and Sandals" films from the 70s and into the 80s, where a strong but otherwise normal guy has to battle impossible odds using only his wits. It was a pretty fun but challenging playthrough.
The fight with the guy inside azura’s star was easy for me… it probably would’ve been slightly more challenging if I had fought him with my first character, a spellsword vampire warlock hellbent on becoming more powerful than the Gods and ascending into Godhood himself, where he would then rule over all of nirn as it’s sole benevolent deity, whether they liked it or not. However, I fought the azura’s star guy with my second character, a simple thief Khajit from Elswyr who came to Skyrim in hopes of finding good work and eventually building enough of a fortune to return to elswyr and provide for his family. The fight was easy with him because by the time I got around to Azura’s Star my sneak was at 100 so I just became invisible in a corner and when the daedra lost me I snuck past them and backstabbed the crazy wizard guy, he didn’t even have a chance to fight, all he saw was somebody enter his domain, then somehow disappear, then in a few minutes appear behind him and kill him
I’m glad you included the 7k steps frost troll in the higher rankings, because I don’t think I’ll ever forget that early-game ass-whooping I received my first play through. Mans had claws like NyQuil.
You forgot to mention that the Gauldur archer brother has unrelenting force shout that makes the fight extremely difficult as you spend most of it on the ground
Karstaag is much stronger than an Ebony Warrior, mostly because you can't summon Karstaag in fight against him and turn this battle into a walk in the park.
Welsh wizard you inspire me to start making my own Skyrim videos because of your passion for this game. Thank you so much for keeping up the journey and providing us an amazing experience!
I remember watching my older brother play Skyrim for the first time neither of us had any prior experience with and ES games. Once he got to the steps of high hrothgar, neither of us could come up with a strategy to kill the troll (with his current gear) so he just ran up the stairs, would turn around to use the first word of unrelenting force to stagger it as it slowly caught up to him. Eventually, he made it to the grey beards and they saved his life. Ahhhh memories
Thank you for the incredible work you have done on this, and all of your other lists. Your quirky humour is a major plus as well. I love playing the game in Survival, and am very grateful that unlike Fallout 4 you can save and experiment more easily. How much would your rankings change depending on Survival mode?
Thank you for the kind words :) Karstaag would probably take the top spot in Survival mode and bosses who primarily use frost would be more of a challenge, especially the twin dragons with the ice!
for the Ebony Warrior, you forgot to mention the fact that he can’t be directly killed by falling damage. The enterprising Dragonborn might see an easy cliff and a target that doesn’t move until attacked first and use their Unrelenting Force, only for the Ebony Warrior to rise from the fall and continue the fight. Now, there are still ways to cheese him, Marked for Death being the most common and easy way, but I think it was neat for Bethesda to implement a feature that makes this fight, that they wanted to be difficult, to not be instantly won with the first mastered Shout the Player would’ve gotten, if they followed the Main Story as their first group of quests.
Voslaruum and Nosslaruum top 5. I'd say they've gotta be up there with Karstag and the Ebony Warrior. I don't remember if you're counting CC bosses, but I also found Umbra to be a jaw dropping fight. The music, the mechanics, it had no right being that epic.
I use Sigrid Gauldurson for soul farming. When he awakens and teleports for the first time, stand up by his coffin and he will only spawn between the three plinths. Use a bow with soul trap and shoot both apparitions first and you can trap them. When he vanishes again he makes two more and you rinse and repeat
Paused at 16:09 to say, by the nine, the mighty party snacks? This is what keeps bringing me back. As for my guess among the top five? Easy pick, Karstaag.
Kinda funny how the Ebony Warrior sees us in pretty much the same way we see him; an optional boss to test how far our build can really go before hanging up the game for a while.
I remember the first time i fought the Ebony Warrior. I was hyped. I had long completed the Dragonborn DLC and used the full powered Dragon Aspect shout that summoned the ancient dragonborn. The fight was tough, i was barely doing damage. Then, suddenly, the ancient dragonborn fus ro dah-ed the Ebony Warrior and he died after falling, like, 5 feet. Anticlimatic end to my first encounter with him.
If all of the bosses fight each other I bet that Karstaag can destroy every boss of skyrim in a 1v1 scenario but the ranking is based on difficulty if they're faced by the player and not just by raw powers and abilities. I think the reason that the ebony warrior had the most votes is because karstaag has many weaknesses that a player can take advantage of during the fight making it a bit easier and giving you a hint on how to fight him more effectively. Compare that to the ebony warrior which technically has no weaknesses and therefore leaves no clear way for the player to beat him. In my experience I had beaten Karstaag in first try using my destruction/conjuration mage build, I've also beaten him with my warrior build by stunlocking him with the shield but I can't count how many times I died fighting the Ebony Warrior 😂 That's why I think the Ebony Warrior deserves to be top 1 because on how difficult to fight him as the player. Karstaag is still the strongest npc tho.
Here’s a story here a few months ago I played on the switch version of Skyrim & I played a character who was meant to be a evil power hungry Lord who used only swords & Conjuration magic & during the fight with lord Harkon he absolutely steam rolled him with Unbra which was doing 104 damage per swing didn’t help that he was wearing Deadric plate armor which I luckily found on a random bandit chief
krosis terrified me when i first fought him, i went to the greybeards to learn new shouts on my first play through and i was expecting just a normal dragon fight and when i got there and krosis attacked me it scared tf out of me
I had no problem dealing with all the bosses. It's the Thalmor Justicars that get me. Even at level 60 one of them tore my last character apart. The one character I decided to make specifically to fight the ebony warrior in 8 years.
Pro tip! Level up alchemy, enchanting, and smithing exploit the restoration loop and make the most powerful gear ever. My current character is Zephyros Darkweaver and I'm currently wearing a pair of boots that allow a carry weight of 15k lbs. A pair of gauntlets that cause 1 handed weapons to cause 16298% more damage and a ring that increases my health by over 20k points. So technically I can still be killed and I can one shot most enemies. Other enemies take 2.
During my current Pure Mage Run, I just summoned a Zombie and let it wail on Jyrik. And holy crap those things are strong! The Zombies (added by the Creation Club Mod of the same name) are surprisingly powerful for how inexpensive the spells are to cast. Even damaged Jyrik through the Elemental Shields!
I came up to ShearPoint from behind, and I saw the dragon and shot a firebolt at it. Once it was aggroed, I shouted Bend Will and approached Krosis. It was so cool to defeat Krosis with a dragon by my side, but he was still a pain to kill. And the dragon just flew away after the fight.
I actually didn’t know about any of Harkon’s mechanics because I usually play assassin and end up one-shotting him with a knife to the back while he’s scolding Serana.
I haven't gotten anywhere near a full playthrough of Skyrim, but I have beaten the main questline and several of the side questlines, killing probably over a dozen of the bosses in the process. So far, Krosis was the only one I haven't been able to beat. In the one encounter I've had with him, I was sent up that mountain on one of those quests that's basically just "here's the location of a random word wall, hope you can get to it" at fairly low level. The dragon fight wasn't that bad, but Krosis was absolutely broken at that level, especially since I was a warrior build. I remember during one of my attempts, the game spawned in a random dragon encounter while I was fighting the guardian dragon as a werewolf. I killed both of the dragons in werewolf form, just to get smoked by the lich yet again. Ended up giving up and haven't fought him since.
I remember my very first time playing skyrim, I was making my way up to high hrothgar with lydia when all of a sudden the frost troll jumped down and 2 hit me, I then spent the next 45 minutes trying to kill him.
Krosis was the first dragon priest I beat, I was really low level so he one shotte me a couple of times but I best him with hit and run tactics, hundreds of arrows.....and it helped that his Ai got bugged at half health and he just stood still once I kept my distance
I like to think that the Reaper was the original one who had dominion over the Soul Cairin before the Ideal Masters showed up, killed him and put his soul into a soul gem before splitting it into 3 fragments which is why you fight the Reapers spirit/soul and not their physical body.
If you're having too much trouble with that troll, you can try running all the rest of the way up the mountain and letting the Greybeards deal with it.
posted before watching any of the videos but, if kvenal the tongue is not on any of the lists I'm going to feel bad cause that man gives me trouble every time I try to fight him.
Number 15 especially at a lower level can be a royal pain especially if you are going in blind without say absorb magica or anything like that of the sorts especially with the Dremora and his staff. I lost count in the vanilla Skyrim how many times I've died to him and good luck as an archer as well
The ice wizard in meridas temple has killed me more times then the ebony knight, alduin, Harkin, and kaarstaag combined. His soul is my most prized possession.
Want to know a fun bug you can abuse with him? His "Shade" appears when he dies, right? It happens to appear every time he dies - you can reanimate his body, and when it dies, you can fight his Shade again. It's useful, since his Shade has a Grand-sized soul and always drops gold. For best results, use a reanimation spell that won't disintegrate the corpse (Dead Thrall, Ritual Stone, necromancy staves) and you can farm him for infinite Grand Souls, or just keep him around as your Dead Thrall for the "gameplay twist" of having to fight his Shade if he dies
Somehow, the 7000 step troll was as easy as The Forge Master at level 56. I don't even remember the fight with it. The battle with Miraak wasn't a big struggle either. However, Krosis was the toughest enemy I've faced in this game. I waš in the early game on first playthrough (possibly quested to defeat the Shearpoint dragon by Avenicci almost right after defeating the first dragon)
The only time Miraak is difficult for me is when he bugs out and doesn’t actually die from Mora. I’ll click on him and it’ll say “this person is busy”. Like I know dude, being a skelly is a hard job, just gimme your loot.
I like how you put in the king mudcrab in part one but didn't include any other extra content bosses like Umbra, the two Daedra in the deadlands from "The Cause" questline, the giant dwarven spider from Forgotten seasons and the champion from the Bittercup quest. There isn't really a lot I would add from the extra content, there might be like 5 or 6 extra's that weren't included here that I considered as bosses. Though considering you put the troll from High Hrothgar in there lol, there could potentially be more. But yeah, the top ones probably wouldnt have changed for me, but I would have put Umbra maybe at like number 3 instead of the two dragons. That son of a gun was *tough* the first time I fought him, probably like diet coke Ebony Warrior tough. He's tanky, hits hard, has lots of minions if I remember and can become invulnerable. Im a Skyrim veteran who has been playing this game since it first released all the way back in 2011, ive beaten both the Ebony Warrior and Karstagg multiple times and even after all those playthroughs, I was surprised by how tough some of those extra content bosses were, its a shame they werent included but hey hoe, thats ok. Great job with these videos, im a big fan about how you conduct the presentation of these videos and I mostly agree with all these rankings...even the frost troll one lol.
the frost troll on the way to high hrothgar only spawns if your lvl is above a certain point. i don't know what that point is, i just know that because i rush up there most times i rarely fight the troll
Who in their right mind puts the Ebony Warrior above Karstaag? I agree that those are the top 2, but Karstaag is by far more difficult than the Ebony Warrior. I also think Vyrthur is a more difficult boss than Harkon, though both are pretty weak. The two Dragons of the Lake are potentially the coolest boss, but I wouldn't put them this high, they are quite easy. Miraak should be third place, and I also struggled more with the Frost Troll on the way to High Hrotghar.
Its depends on your build and just your experience on the matter bud, personally for me, I killed Karstagg quite easily as a stealth archer/duel wielding psycho with absorb health and fire damage but the Ebony warrior was a bit more complicated to fight due to all his resistances and the variety of weapons he had at his disposal. Though I will say that if you play on Survival then Karstagg is on a whole different level due to that chill effect that his aura does to your health. But overall, no matter what build you do for the Ebony warrior, all usually have a challenge and as the wizard said he basically makes most spells useless as well as stealth archers if your not smart about it.
@@sanguine5318 The Slow Time shout allows you to kill the Ebony Warrior before he can even do anything with whatever you're using. *Wickedwind* is a youtube channel that did a "killing the ebony warrior every week" challenge for a while, every time using different methods and I think the longest one was a bit over a minute, but that was mostly preparation. He hits pretty hard, but if you can avoid getting hit, I think Ebony Warrior becomes almost a pushover. (Though still second most powerful boss in the game.)
@@Voxdalian Yeah I'm well aware of that...but you can literally do the same method for Karstagg. I've used the slow time shout and killed them before the big guy could move and it was easier because even with the slow time shout on the ebony warrior, the ebony warrior also has reflect...so there's actually a chance you can kill yourself with the shout. But that doesn't happen with Karstagg lol. But yeah, technically you can just do these methods on both bosses...but I personally don't consider these proper honourable methods since it obviously cheeses the fight. In my message before I was talking about in a "fair fight" with no cheese methods. Just swords, bows and magic.
@@sanguine5318 Shouts are fair. There are obviously also exploits with which you can one-hit anything, but that's not what I meant. Karstaag has more health and deals more damage than the Ebony Warrior. Sitting on top of a rock where Karstaag can't get to you is more cheese than using a shout exactly as it is intended.
@@Voxdalian Yeah shouts are fair but there's obviously quite a few in the arsenal which I are kind of OP, slow time, mark for death, elemental fury, the list goes on. Those kinds of shouts can break the game fairly easily if you know what your doing and make mince meat of both of these bosses, Skyrims just that kind of game lol. For your point on Karstagg having more health and doing more damage, again, it depends on what build your rocking. Mage builds have a better chance against Karstagg as all they need to do is keep away and shoot fire spells at him but mages are ineffective against the Ebony Warrior and would find there gonna have a tough time. Im aware if you do pit the Ebony Warrior in a fight against Karstagg, Karstagg would win most matches due to this high damage and health but thats just AI fighting. What im more talking about is, it depends on the players *experience* fighting them. I'm not trying to say Karstagg is weak, anyone in there right mind would place these two in the top two but their placement depends on your experience in fighting him and playstyle, you personally might have had a tougher time with Karstagg but someone else could have had a more tougher time with the Ebony warrior. Both can be cheesed in a variety of ways but if we take all that away including the OP shouts I said before that can kill both of them, it depends on which one you personally had a harder time dealing with. Karstagg has more damage and health yes and he has the frosty aura when he first spawns in which can destroy you if your not careful (especially on survival mode) but he is way slower then the Ebony Warrior and his attacks are much more easily dodged. The Ebony Warrior is faster, he has multiple resistances and perks that he uses against you such as the reflect I mentioned earlier, his bow packs a punch and can paralyse you so its harder to keep away unlike with Karstagg, he can heal himself back up to half if you dont keep on him but he is a lot more stunnable then Karstagg due to being a human and so can be overwhelmed a lot more easier. So if you say Karstagg is more difficult for you, thats perfectly fine but people can easily find the Ebony Warrior harder because both bosses have abilitys and perks that can destroy a certain playstyle.
i was level 22 on my first playthrough when i met krosis, i was just searcihng for dragons and i was like wtf is this the most powerful enemy in the game
I think Im one of the few who DIDNT struggle against the ebony warrior, but to be fair at that point, I had mad stats and full deadric armor and a daedric greatsword with max mastery on two handed weapons 💀
Install Raid for Free on IOS/ANDROID/PC: t2m.io/theWelshWizard and get a special starter pack with 500k Silver, Energy and Chicken. Available only via the link and for new players. See you on the battlefield!
Thank you all for voting/commenting and being a part of this series! 🍻
FAQs 👇
Q: Boss number 3 says it's boss number 4?
🧙♂: An error on my part, apologies!
I don't know if I'd put the Frost Troll up so high. The right build can take him down, not easily, but not that hard.
@@Marinanor Most of the time I dont even fight him these days, I just run right past him because he's a waste of time to fight lmao, he doesn't drop anything worthwhile and he's slow as hell. Though I think the point is, first timers who fight him are a bit shocked by how a more dangerous creature then just your basic wolf or sabrecat shows up and when you go in guns blazing with your steel sword and flames, you get freaking wrecked lol and for that he's quite memorable for being a boss that kicked your ass the first time you played.
Raid DOES NOT have top notch graphics and deep tactical gameplay. It's a gambling simulator poorly disguised as a video game.
@@highlordlaughterofcanada8685agreed
You know you could have swapped the troll with mirser fray
Voslaarum and Naaslaarum are the single coolest bosses in Skyrim. The way they burst out from the ice lake is so cool I'm glad they're the only dragons to do this as it makes the encounter even more memorable. Amazing.
Yeah, they’re a badass duo in a cool location. One of my personal favourites also
@theWelshWizard I got in trouble with my mum on my first encounter because they made me jump when they burst through the ice. I went "ah fuk" and mum threatened to turn off my PS3. Simple times.
Durnuvir is close purely due to the aesthetic of of his arena and the soul cairn in general. Also the snow elf vampire. And Harkon. Okay I guess every major boss fight in the dawngaurd dlc is cool.
@kristeenlivesay2664 weird how the DLC that isn't about dragons has the coolest dragon fights.
I ran away I wanted none of that 😆
Ah yes the infamous troll on the 7000 steps to high hrothgar a worthy opponent and has earned its place in top 5
Not to be underestimated 😳
I still remember everyone in Ivarstead warning you about wolf packs... But no one warns you about the troll! 😂
I remember the first time I beat it was only because it got "stuck" behind a rock and I was able to kill it with a bunch of arrows. Most times I'd just run and eventually (if it didn't catch and kill me) I'd be able to get by it. Another time I used the Nords "Battle Cry" to drive it away. This most recent playthrough I decided to do a magic only run so before I went to High Hrothgar I did the college of Winter hold quest before I even went to Whiterun, got the arch mages gear and then I just killed it with a couple of dual cast fireballs.
I invested in stamina heavily first and ran like the courier after the drangonborn to high hrothgar
I have never found him difficult, and cannot relate to all the memes and whatnot about him at all.
23:30
Harkon: *Middle of his Monlogue.* "-Are you even listening to me?"
Dragonborn: "Hm? Yeah sure, don't mind me, carry on-" *Putting on the Mask, drinking and taking out the Scroll.*
Still didn’t see it coming 😂
#1 Is J'Zargo, without question. J'Zargo is simply the best. He is also very handsome.
J’Zargo may also be biased 👀
"If anyone sneaks up on us, I will smell them. Or I will not."
@@top_banananaplays That's Karjo. Easy mistake to make.
@brandonquist8394 it's actually both. They both say it.
I truly feel like ulfric should have been a legitimately powerful boss ngl. The dude is insanely strong lore wise. And it would have been cool for his in game statistics to represent that.
I get your point, however he's just as nerfed (compared to lore) as the Last Dragonborn
All things being equal, it's going to be a stomp
I remember one fight against the Forgemaster on my Artificer character with a full Dwarven build. Things were getting pretty dicey and my follower well essential was stuck on their last legs. I was starting to think I was gonna lose when a brave warrior stood up to defend me. My Dwarven Armored Mudcrab had, had enough and decided it was time to throw claws. Bravely challenging the Forgemaster to single combat Sir Crab soloed the giant mechanical menance until myself and Derrkethus were able to finish off the minions and join him in battle. A salute to you Sir Crab bravest and most powerful of all crabs, truly the dragonborn would be lost without you.
All hail the Crab!🎉❤
Were you using mods?
@@yourfriendlyneighbourhoodl6206 Sort of. It's the anniversary edition for the Switch so it's got all the Creation Club content. The pets you can get are all invulnerable and will occasionally pull aggro, just that time my Crab pulled aggro and wouldn't let it drop. The Forgemaster really hated that crab for some reason.
Gordon is powerful in every universe
Hoot Hoot hootie Hoot Hoot hoot
Oh Krosis! The one dragon priest I never expected to encounter that made me jump! 😂 I remember exploring the area and literally stumbling upon him. He was the first dragon priest I ever encountered and I got destroyed very easily. I went back for him later in my playthrough in the end. 😂
Playing Skyrim for the first time, the dragon attacked me but fortunately then started fighting some wild animals. Me happy how things turned out running to the chest for loot and then Krosis jumped out from his sarcophagus killing me with 2 fireballs... Very memorable 😄
Same here.
You know how he said don’t get too close while facing the dragon? Well I totally didn’t know about that. The battle was… intense. And I think I lost
He was my first dragon priest too. It was my first playthrough. In my next playthriugh, I went looking for him in the wrong direction, thinking I'd find somewhere between Eastmarch and the Rift
23:58 Good to see I made it in the top 10, jokes aside love to see someone who still holds passion for this game, thank you welsh wizard keep up the great content!
When I played my level 81 character:
5 - the two dragons
4 - the Galdur Amulet gauntlet
3 - the Black Star guy (mainly because I always do that quest early)
2 - Karstagg (enchanted a whole new armor set for him)
1 - Ebony Warrior (had to actually learn how to fight well to beat him)
I'm doing a Skyrim Survivor permadeath run for the first time, and it is very scary. However... these videos are INVALUABLE to me as they help me plan ahead and set myself up for the vanilla boss fights and more. Thank you for being an awesome teacher!
Damn that run must've been difficult especially that skyrim has some random ambushes here and there. Sometimes you'll get ambushed by a group of vampires, bandits and animals while just exploring around 😂
@lazycarrot6592 I know. It's terrifying at lower levels! Luckily, I'm still going strong. Taking things slow and strategic in fights. Who would have thought having a spellsword build would be so effective??
Major respect for the video quality and continuing to put out skyrim content.
YESSS FINALLY! I was searching for part 3 frantically the other day
I personally think Karstaag should be #1. He has a base level of 90, while the Ebony warrior has a base level of 80. He also overall does more damage, and it is also easier to cheese the Ebony warrior from a distance, meanwhile fighting Karstaag, you are in an enclosed arena.
But my main point is that where is Thoron on this list? I could maybe understand not putting him top 5 over even top ten, but in my opinion he was one of the hardest bosses to defeat. I defeated every boss in the game, but he was one of the ones that took me forever to defeat. I know he is an obscure boss not to many know, but he deals insane damage and is resilient to mage builds. He also kept on turning my Daedra summons (the Sanguine Rose) against me and made it a nuisance . I eventually had to settle for stealth archer sniping him, then hiding when he tries to get me. I would easily put him over the troll at #5, the troll was extremely easy for me to beat. But overall 3 videos I for the most part agreed with and enjoyed. Love your videos man and keep it up.
I agree as well that Karstaag is probably the strongest npc in the game but the ranking is based on votes. I guess lots of player (including me) had a hard time dealing with the ebony warrior 😂
I think the reason why Karstaag landed in #2 is because he has so many weaknesses. Being undead and having 25% weakness to fire damage opens a lot of ways for the players to effectively fight him.
Compared to the ebony warrior that has no particular weakness in his stats and build. The players probably find it more difficult and tricky to figure out effective ways to beat the ebony warrior in a fair fight.
1. M'aiq the Liar
2. Karstaag
3. Ebony Warrior
4. Miraak
5. Harkon
M'aiq the Liar is immortal
and deserves a dedicated video
M’aiq for President 😝
Last time I fought the reaper I was wearing Ahzidal's ring of gimme that ignite spell and combined it with the slow time shout. He was down before any of his minions. Good times!!
The toughest boss I faced in my first complete playthrough of Skyrim was that Thoron guy at the end of the Saints and Seducers quest, I was playing as this generic one handed warrior guy with no enchanted weapons or armor allowed, only allowed to use potions or food to heal. I basically wanted to do a character like out of the old school "Swords and Sandals" films from the 70s and into the 80s, where a strong but otherwise normal guy has to battle impossible odds using only his wits. It was a pretty fun but challenging playthrough.
You're first playthrough was on the anniversary edition?
@@flameesperthefolf9361I mean, I just started my first play through ever on the ps5. Thoron definitely made me annoyed at his garbage balancing
I never heard someone call parthunax party snacks
That's his new name now
His voice a is the voice of Mario
-“it’s-a! Me! Partisnax!
The fight with the guy inside azura’s star was easy for me… it probably would’ve been slightly more challenging if I had fought him with my first character, a spellsword vampire warlock hellbent on becoming more powerful than the Gods and ascending into Godhood himself, where he would then rule over all of nirn as it’s sole benevolent deity, whether they liked it or not.
However, I fought the azura’s star guy with my second character, a simple thief Khajit from Elswyr who came to Skyrim in hopes of finding good work and eventually building enough of a fortune to return to elswyr and provide for his family. The fight was easy with him because by the time I got around to Azura’s Star my sneak was at 100 so I just became invisible in a corner and when the daedra lost me I snuck past them and backstabbed the crazy wizard guy, he didn’t even have a chance to fight, all he saw was somebody enter his domain, then somehow disappear, then in a few minutes appear behind him and kill him
The hardest boss is the frost troll on your way to the old screaming men club
I’m glad you included the 7k steps frost troll in the higher rankings, because I don’t think I’ll ever forget that early-game ass-whooping I received my first play through. Mans had claws like NyQuil.
You forgot to mention that the Gauldur archer brother has unrelenting force shout that makes the fight extremely difficult as you spend most of it on the ground
I agree, i had to use become ethereal shout just to remain standing 😂
The troll is absolutely a boss, good show
Karstaag is much stronger than an Ebony Warrior, mostly because you can't summon Karstaag in fight against him and turn this battle into a walk in the park.
Welsh wizard you inspire me to start making my own Skyrim videos because of your passion for this game. Thank you so much for keeping up the journey and providing us an amazing experience!
That’s awesome to hear! Good luck mate 👍 and thanks for watching!
I always love watching these videos! They are so entertaining
I remember watching my older brother play Skyrim for the first time neither of us had any prior experience with and ES games.
Once he got to the steps of high hrothgar, neither of us could come up with a strategy to kill the troll (with his current gear) so he just ran up the stairs, would turn around to use the first word of unrelenting force to stagger it as it slowly caught up to him. Eventually, he made it to the grey beards and they saved his life. Ahhhh memories
Great video! It was a blast working with you 😁
Cheers David! 👍
Thank you for the incredible work you have done on this, and all of your other lists. Your quirky humour is a major plus as well. I love playing the game in Survival, and am very grateful that unlike Fallout 4 you can save and experiment more easily.
How much would your rankings change depending on Survival mode?
Thank you for the kind words :) Karstaag would probably take the top spot in Survival mode and bosses who primarily use frost would be more of a challenge, especially the twin dragons with the ice!
theWelshWizard: **uploads a video**
Me: "The time has come!"
I know the massive Horker was already quite low, but it is still a funny boss.
Also, the strongest is that massive Mudcrab :)
I personally believe the best challenge in Skyrim is THE EBONY WARRIOR by far !!! You made an amazing video Mister Welsh Wizard... Fantastic!!!
My prediction of top 5
1: karstaag
2: ebony warrior
3: miraak
4: alduin
5: harkon
for the Ebony Warrior, you forgot to mention the fact that he can’t be directly killed by falling damage.
The enterprising Dragonborn might see an easy cliff and a target that doesn’t move until attacked first and use their Unrelenting Force, only for the Ebony Warrior to rise from the fall and continue the fight.
Now, there are still ways to cheese him, Marked for Death being the most common and easy way, but I think it was neat for Bethesda to implement a feature that makes this fight, that they wanted to be difficult, to not be instantly won with the first mastered Shout the Player would’ve gotten, if they followed the Main Story as their first group of quests.
U can kill him from fall damage u just gotta do extra damage as fall damage reduces his health to 1
Voslaruum and Nosslaruum top 5. I'd say they've gotta be up there with Karstag and the Ebony Warrior. I don't remember if you're counting CC bosses, but I also found Umbra to be a jaw dropping fight. The music, the mechanics, it had no right being that epic.
Any idea if you can still play umbra with new update all the way through? I cant even find it anymore... just old version on nexus
Im half convinced umbra has me cause i literally have broken the game 3 times trying to get the old files to work.
glad our favorite wizard got sponsored, hope you'll receive tons of gold.
I use Sigrid Gauldurson for soul farming. When he awakens and teleports for the first time, stand up by his coffin and he will only spawn between the three plinths. Use a bow with soul trap and shoot both apparitions first and you can trap them. When he vanishes again he makes two more and you rinse and repeat
Paused at 16:09 to say, by the nine, the mighty party snacks? This is what keeps bringing me back. As for my guess among the top five? Easy pick, Karstaag.
Kinda funny how the Ebony Warrior sees us in pretty much the same way we see him; an optional boss to test how far our build can really go before hanging up the game for a while.
I remember getting obliterated when I tried to land and fight with miraak. Dude blew me while dismounting animation took its precious time lol
How Interesting, I Never Knew Of A Reaper Boss In The Soul Cairn Before This Video
I may disagree with your list, but i do love your creativity and humor.
nice my favorite wizard is back!
Glad to be back 🧙♂
I remember the first time i fought the Ebony Warrior. I was hyped. I had long completed the Dragonborn DLC and used the full powered Dragon Aspect shout that summoned the ancient dragonborn. The fight was tough, i was barely doing damage. Then, suddenly, the ancient dragonborn fus ro dah-ed the Ebony Warrior and he died after falling, like, 5 feet. Anticlimatic end to my first encounter with him.
i would argue kaarstag is more difficult but less cool and memorable with lesser loot
If all of the bosses fight each other I bet that Karstaag can destroy every boss of skyrim in a 1v1 scenario but the ranking is based on difficulty if they're faced by the player and not just by raw powers and abilities.
I think the reason that the ebony warrior had the most votes is because karstaag has many weaknesses that a player can take advantage of during the fight making it a bit easier and giving you a hint on how to fight him more effectively. Compare that to the ebony warrior which technically has no weaknesses and therefore leaves no clear way for the player to beat him.
In my experience I had beaten Karstaag in first try using my destruction/conjuration mage build, I've also beaten him with my warrior build by stunlocking him with the shield but I can't count how many times I died fighting the Ebony Warrior 😂
That's why I think the Ebony Warrior deserves to be top 1 because on how difficult to fight him as the player. Karstaag is still the strongest npc tho.
Here’s a story here a few months ago I played on the switch version of Skyrim & I played a character who was meant to be a evil power hungry Lord who used only swords & Conjuration magic & during the fight with lord Harkon he absolutely steam rolled him with Unbra which was doing 104 damage per swing didn’t help that he was wearing Deadric plate armor which I luckily found on a random bandit chief
krosis terrified me when i first fought him, i went to the greybeards to learn new shouts on my first play through and i was expecting just a normal dragon fight and when i got there and krosis attacked me it scared tf out of me
I see Skyrim in title, I click. It’s simple.
I had no problem dealing with all the bosses. It's the Thalmor Justicars that get me. Even at level 60 one of them tore my last character apart. The one character I decided to make specifically to fight the ebony warrior in 8 years.
I am back to Skyrim after a long break thanks to you!
The Frost Troll in the 7000 steps is totally justified in its ranking
Pro tip! Level up alchemy, enchanting, and smithing exploit the restoration loop and make the most powerful gear ever. My current character is Zephyros Darkweaver and I'm currently wearing a pair of boots that allow a carry weight of 15k lbs. A pair of gauntlets that cause 1 handed weapons to cause 16298% more damage and a ring that increases my health by over 20k points. So technically I can still be killed and I can one shot most enemies. Other enemies take 2.
I fought Jyrik Goulderson recently, and my follower snatched his staff from the table.
The follower is a heavy armor, two-handed weapon user.
During my current Pure Mage Run, I just summoned a Zombie and let it wail on Jyrik. And holy crap those things are strong! The Zombies (added by the Creation Club Mod of the same name) are surprisingly powerful for how inexpensive the spells are to cast. Even damaged Jyrik through the Elemental Shields!
The true hardest boss is magic anomaly. I'm legitimately traumatized from fighting them at high levels and difficulties.
i feel the ebony warrior would chill out after some caws cenarth, a cup of glengettie tea and a slice of bara brith
I came up to ShearPoint from behind, and I saw the dragon and shot a firebolt at it. Once it was aggroed, I shouted Bend Will and approached Krosis. It was so cool to defeat Krosis with a dragon by my side, but he was still a pain to kill. And the dragon just flew away after the fight.
I actually didn’t know about any of Harkon’s mechanics because I usually play assassin and end up one-shotting him with a knife to the back while he’s scolding Serana.
The Ebony Warrior, aka the only enemy that can kill someone with equipment made with the resto-loop exploit
I haven't gotten anywhere near a full playthrough of Skyrim, but I have beaten the main questline and several of the side questlines, killing probably over a dozen of the bosses in the process. So far, Krosis was the only one I haven't been able to beat. In the one encounter I've had with him, I was sent up that mountain on one of those quests that's basically just "here's the location of a random word wall, hope you can get to it" at fairly low level. The dragon fight wasn't that bad, but Krosis was absolutely broken at that level, especially since I was a warrior build. I remember during one of my attempts, the game spawned in a random dragon encounter while I was fighting the guardian dragon as a werewolf. I killed both of the dragons in werewolf form, just to get smoked by the lich yet again. Ended up giving up and haven't fought him since.
I remember my very first time playing skyrim, I was making my way up to high hrothgar with lydia when all of a sudden the frost troll jumped down and 2 hit me, I then spent the next 45 minutes trying to kill him.
Krosis was the first dragon priest I beat, I was really low level so he one shotte me a couple of times but I best him with hit and run tactics, hundreds of arrows.....and it helped that his Ai got bugged at half health and he just stood still once I kept my distance
I like to think that the Reaper was the original one who had dominion over the Soul Cairin before the Ideal Masters showed up, killed him and put his soul into a soul gem before splitting it into 3 fragments which is why you fight the Reapers spirit/soul and not their physical body.
If you're having too much trouble with that troll, you can try running all the rest of the way up the mountain and letting the Greybeards deal with it.
posted before watching any of the videos but, if kvenal the tongue is not on any of the lists I'm going to feel bad cause that man gives me trouble every time I try to fight him.
Ah, my favorite ally, Partysnaxx... That made my day lmao
I was impatiently waiting for it!
The fact that a generic, not even miniboss enemy was ranked at number 5 shows how many lives that one thing claimed on low-level players.
Great video!
Number 15 especially at a lower level can be a royal pain especially if you are going in blind without say absorb magica or anything like that of the sorts especially with the Dremora and his staff. I lost count in the vanilla Skyrim how many times I've died to him and good luck as an archer as well
The ice wizard in meridas temple has killed me more times then the ebony knight, alduin, Harkin, and kaarstaag combined. His soul is my most prized possession.
Want to know a fun bug you can abuse with him? His "Shade" appears when he dies, right? It happens to appear every time he dies - you can reanimate his body, and when it dies, you can fight his Shade again. It's useful, since his Shade has a Grand-sized soul and always drops gold. For best results, use a reanimation spell that won't disintegrate the corpse (Dead Thrall, Ritual Stone, necromancy staves) and you can farm him for infinite Grand Souls, or just keep him around as your Dead Thrall for the "gameplay twist" of having to fight his Shade if he dies
Top 5 predictions are miraak, harkon, ebony warrior, that ice giant, and... The courier!
I really like these lists and I think that the toughest has to be kaarstag
Somehow, the 7000 step troll was as easy as The Forge Master at level 56. I don't even remember the fight with it. The battle with Miraak wasn't a big struggle either.
However, Krosis was the toughest enemy I've faced in this game. I waš in the early game on first playthrough (possibly quested to defeat the Shearpoint dragon by Avenicci almost right after defeating the first dragon)
Is the “lizard wizard” bit a reference to Sips’ famous Skyrim playthrough?
Alright I’m just gonna say it… Soul CAIRN, not Soul Carn. Other than that, love the video haha!
Yeah that frost troll is no joke when you’re new to the game
What about every named dragon, the first overlord you fight normally in BFB and the Dwarven Centurion in Blackreach
Siddi gauldurson fus-ro-dah spam is mad annoying 😂 three of them shouting then teleporting as I'm trying to smack them 😅😅
The only time Miraak is difficult for me is when he bugs out and doesn’t actually die from Mora. I’ll click on him and it’ll say “this person is busy”. Like I know dude, being a skelly is a hard job, just gimme your loot.
I like how you put in the king mudcrab in part one but didn't include any other extra content bosses like Umbra, the two Daedra in the deadlands from "The Cause" questline, the giant dwarven spider from Forgotten seasons and the champion from the Bittercup quest. There isn't really a lot I would add from the extra content, there might be like 5 or 6 extra's that weren't included here that I considered as bosses. Though considering you put the troll from High Hrothgar in there lol, there could potentially be more. But yeah, the top ones probably wouldnt have changed for me, but I would have put Umbra maybe at like number 3 instead of the two dragons. That son of a gun was *tough* the first time I fought him, probably like diet coke Ebony Warrior tough. He's tanky, hits hard, has lots of minions if I remember and can become invulnerable. Im a Skyrim veteran who has been playing this game since it first released all the way back in 2011, ive beaten both the Ebony Warrior and Karstagg multiple times and even after all those playthroughs, I was surprised by how tough some of those extra content bosses were, its a shame they werent included but hey hoe, thats ok. Great job with these videos, im a big fan about how you conduct the presentation of these videos and I mostly agree with all these rankings...even the frost troll one lol.
the frost troll on the way to high hrothgar only spawns if your lvl is above a certain point. i don't know what that point is, i just know that because i rush up there most times i rarely fight the troll
Shocked to see Karstaag ranked below the Ebony Warrior.
He's definitely a bit harder.
Who in their right mind puts the Ebony Warrior above Karstaag?
I agree that those are the top 2, but Karstaag is by far more difficult than the Ebony Warrior.
I also think Vyrthur is a more difficult boss than Harkon, though both are pretty weak.
The two Dragons of the Lake are potentially the coolest boss, but I wouldn't put them this high, they are quite easy. Miraak should be third place, and I also struggled more with the Frost Troll on the way to High Hrotghar.
Its depends on your build and just your experience on the matter bud, personally for me, I killed Karstagg quite easily as a stealth archer/duel wielding psycho with absorb health and fire damage but the Ebony warrior was a bit more complicated to fight due to all his resistances and the variety of weapons he had at his disposal. Though I will say that if you play on Survival then Karstagg is on a whole different level due to that chill effect that his aura does to your health. But overall, no matter what build you do for the Ebony warrior, all usually have a challenge and as the wizard said he basically makes most spells useless as well as stealth archers if your not smart about it.
@@sanguine5318 The Slow Time shout allows you to kill the Ebony Warrior before he can even do anything with whatever you're using. *Wickedwind* is a youtube channel that did a "killing the ebony warrior every week" challenge for a while, every time using different methods and I think the longest one was a bit over a minute, but that was mostly preparation.
He hits pretty hard, but if you can avoid getting hit, I think Ebony Warrior becomes almost a pushover. (Though still second most powerful boss in the game.)
@@Voxdalian Yeah I'm well aware of that...but you can literally do the same method for Karstagg. I've used the slow time shout and killed them before the big guy could move and it was easier because even with the slow time shout on the ebony warrior, the ebony warrior also has reflect...so there's actually a chance you can kill yourself with the shout. But that doesn't happen with Karstagg lol. But yeah, technically you can just do these methods on both bosses...but I personally don't consider these proper honourable methods since it obviously cheeses the fight. In my message before I was talking about in a "fair fight" with no cheese methods. Just swords, bows and magic.
@@sanguine5318 Shouts are fair. There are obviously also exploits with which you can one-hit anything, but that's not what I meant. Karstaag has more health and deals more damage than the Ebony Warrior. Sitting on top of a rock where Karstaag can't get to you is more cheese than using a shout exactly as it is intended.
@@Voxdalian Yeah shouts are fair but there's obviously quite a few in the arsenal which I are kind of OP, slow time, mark for death, elemental fury, the list goes on. Those kinds of shouts can break the game fairly easily if you know what your doing and make mince meat of both of these bosses, Skyrims just that kind of game lol. For your point on Karstagg having more health and doing more damage, again, it depends on what build your rocking. Mage builds have a better chance against Karstagg as all they need to do is keep away and shoot fire spells at him but mages are ineffective against the Ebony Warrior and would find there gonna have a tough time. Im aware if you do pit the Ebony Warrior in a fight against Karstagg, Karstagg would win most matches due to this high damage and health but thats just AI fighting. What im more talking about is, it depends on the players *experience* fighting them. I'm not trying to say Karstagg is weak, anyone in there right mind would place these two in the top two but their placement depends on your experience in fighting him and playstyle, you personally might have had a tougher time with Karstagg but someone else could have had a more tougher time with the Ebony warrior. Both can be cheesed in a variety of ways but if we take all that away including the OP shouts I said before that can kill both of them, it depends on which one you personally had a harder time dealing with. Karstagg has more damage and health yes and he has the frosty aura when he first spawns in which can destroy you if your not careful (especially on survival mode) but he is way slower then the Ebony Warrior and his attacks are much more easily dodged. The Ebony Warrior is faster, he has multiple resistances and perks that he uses against you such as the reflect I mentioned earlier, his bow packs a punch and can paralyse you so its harder to keep away unlike with Karstagg, he can heal himself back up to half if you dont keep on him but he is a lot more stunnable then Karstagg due to being a human and so can be overwhelmed a lot more easier. So if you say Karstagg is more difficult for you, thats perfectly fine but people can easily find the Ebony Warrior harder because both bosses have abilitys and perks that can destroy a certain playstyle.
Really Challenge: Defeat to Karstaag and Ebony Warrior on Legendary difficult + Survival Mode 😼
Kvenel the tongue deserved a spot on this list
Bruh you just read me the ebony warrior wiki word for word
Your mods are incredible. What pc you have? Awesome quality 😳
Thanks! I upgraded recently and putting it through the rounds. Custom build with Intel i9 13900k and a 4090 gpu
To be honest, I beaten karstagg with the ghost of one the professors, butload of healing potions, ciero, slow time, and dawnbreaker all at level 36.
23:26 or when he starts the conversation, just walk around him, sneak and one shot him with a dagger! :P
Nice thumbnail my man
IT IS HERE!
I _knew_ Malyn was difficult! I thought I was a noob 😭
There’s no way Kostak isn’t in the Top 5 at minimum, if he somehow isn’t it should be considered an international crime
i was level 22 on my first playthrough when i met krosis, i was just searcihng for dragons and i was like wtf is this the most powerful enemy in the game
Boss 5 is SUCH a troll.
Oh tough :)))
Promotion Skip Button: 4:43
Raid sponsors deserve no respect
Stop sponsoring them and you’ll make more money
I prefere raid sponsorship rather than some scam products like racons or something
I think Im one of the few who DIDNT struggle against the ebony warrior, but to be fair at that point, I had mad stats and full deadric armor and a daedric greatsword with max mastery on two handed weapons 💀
You should’ve played as an Orc… *Flips on Berserker Rage*