User blog comment:Sgt. S.S./Are dragons possibly too much of a challenge?/@comment-4851212-20120301210433/@comment-1365289-20120303193747

Piss Easy dragons, even on Master. It's hard not to 1-4 kill them in melee.

Magic resistance is trick. Lord Stone, Agent of Mara, and Level 3 Magical Resistance (Alteration Perk) and you have something like 60-70% magical resistance, passively. Combined with the Fire/Frost resistance of a DarkElf/Nord or the Magic resistance of a Breton, their breath attacks literally cannot hurt you. The minor damage they do inflict is early healed off. Note that magic resistance caps at 80% reduction, but magic & fire/frost each have separate caps. So 80% magic resistance + 80% fire resistance = 160%~ overall, the end result is basically that element cannot hurt you.

Next trick is understanding armor rating. Dragons do not have an armor rating, at all, ever. Beth tried to balance them going purely on health alone. The late game dragons may have thousands of health, but they die even quicker than early game dragons, because the player's ability to inflict damage grows exponentially throughout the game. Late game a two handed character can get warhammers and greatswords that deal anywhere from 300-400 damage a hit (with appropriate armor enchantment). This is excluding power attack damage, criticals, or any other kind of damage buffs from say, dragonslayer blessing. Even the strongest dragon takes full damage from melee & archery, even though the dragons melee damage to the player is being reduced by his/her armor rating. 567 is maximum armor rating thats beneficial, higher armor rating only influences fists of steel, and damage reduction is capped at 80% (at 567 rating). Currently I have a suit of Ebony, minus the helmet, that does that. Because I like the unhelmeted look. On my head I'm wearing an enchanted circlet.

It's entirely possible to create such powerful armor and weapons without abusing the fortify alchemy fortify enchanting exploit. All I did was wear the dragon mask that increases Alchemy, and a necklace and ring of enchant alchemy (whatever the grand soul enchant will add at 100 enchanting, usually its 40%). Then I just made fortify smithing potions, and ta-da. No need to do the exploit back and forth until you get OP numbers.

So in conclusion, a high passive magic resistance (the easiest two being Lord Stone & Agent of Mara), maximum armor rating (Lord stone also adds 50 armor rating) easily obtainable with Daedric, Dragon, or Ebony armor, and a strong weapon are all you really need. The point is truly not to kill the dragon fast, its to make yourself as impervious to the dragon as you can. Hope that helped.