I've played both and I have to say, the path of the vampire is much better since you get a sexy follower and more powerful weapons as well as 24 hour access to vampire cattle for those pesky cravings.
I'm running through the Dawnguard questline and for some reason Durnehviir went all puppy dog. HE JUST WON'T DIE. So I gave it a rest for the night. Tomorrow also starts my new life as a Vampire Lord. How is it?
Pick up some books every once in a while, you might learn a thing or two. End-quest items in spoiler Spoiler Some tiara thing that lets you use two standing stones at once - I took this one Some shield that turns enemies ethereal for 15 seconds on bash A staff that summons a dwemer spider or sphere guardian for 60 seconds Now I'm at the Soul Cairn, and trying to find all of those goddamn shreds of paper. Edit; Sarge, I think the soft level cap is still in effect, I don't see why it wouldn't be. I can't be for certain though as I'm only level 29
Having played through the DLC I'm left feeling rather indifferent. It was hyped up quite a bit as an "expansion" with substantial amount of content. Don't get me wrong, the Vale and Soul Cairn were interesting places, but then so was Black Reach and like Blackreach...there is almost nothing to do in them, it's just a lot of walking. Maybe I'm a little spoiled after watching all the different mod videos people have made for skyrim depicting some truly amazing things and instead received what seemed more akin to your average DLC than this epic expansion. Ohwell, I mean I still enjoyed it, guess I was just expecting what Todd Howard was billing it as.
Not that I intend on getting it, because I have no MSP and I'd rather get back to skyrim at the end of its lifecycle, but I was expecting a mini-expansion, not a full-blooded Bloodmoon/Shivering Isles type of thing based on what Todd Howard said.
I was also kind of disappointed with the DLC. When your doing the Dawngaurd questline you think to yourself "What are the vampires doing while all of this is happening?". So I started up another character to do the vampire questline only to realize the quests are very similar to the Dawngaurd questline. But yeah, I was hoping for new towns and new things to explore.
it was pretty much what i expected. the first DLC of past bethesda games has never really added much more than new quests. its usually the second thats more of an "expansion pack" with new places to go.