[Mentalist]

Spent many hours this weekend witchering away, went to bed round 2 last night. Again.

At this point I'm basically done all the optional stuff. There's still some mansion-prettying stuff to do, and I need to wait 2 more days to pick up my extra reward for the "wine wars" questline.

Beyond that, i'm finally advancing the main quest. It's ok so far. I'm suspecting the "it was Nilfgaard" all along resolution for some reason, but that's just gut.

[Mentalist]

I spent about 30 minutes at the end of my last Witchering session reading the glossary,

I've gone past the point of no return, did the first spectacular set of setpieces, had a bunch of story, another mini-boss fight, and I've been presented with a branching choice.

I feel the story hit its high note with the revelation, and playing any further will just dissapoint, because the characters are dumb idiots and got themselves into a mess where there is no good solution for anyone.

I want to do the pacifist thing, but it both sounds less interesting, and also, I don't know if Geralt would really] do that.

I mean, we all love it when games give us tough choices, but come the fuck on!

Also, I know almost for a fact that after I mke this choice, I will NOT go back and see the other ending. Because that would diminish everything.

Or I might just start playing smth different. THAT is how perturbed I am. Damn you, CDPRED.

[Aptorian]

If you are at the fork in the story I think you are, then yeah, that was a hell of a choice. For what it's worth, it doesn't make much of a difference in terms of consequences. Even the pacifist-like solution ends horribly... like a Witcher story should.

By the way regarding the story, if you choose the path I did, this trailer will suddenly become even cooler then it was during W3s release:

[Mentalist]

That may have been a spoiler, Apt?

(I dunno. Am I gonna have to fight O? She seemed cool. I don't want to fight her)

Re: the fork:

Spoiler

personally, I feel Detlaf (sp?) crossed the line when he unleashed a swarm of lesser vamps to kill innocents. But I really like Regis, and, well, he's probably the only one with perspective to understand Geralt. But on the "what would Geralt do?", it's tipping towards killing at this point.

The violent way is counter to my general approach to monster-related dilemmas. I also feel confident that since there's an ancient powerful vampire involved, someone is gonna do something stupid, and we'll get a "nice job breaking it hero!"

The peaceful approach seems logical (it's what they should've done BEFORE), but at this point I can no longer justify sparing Detlaf, because he has willingly caused mass murders of basically innocent people. And sparing him just because Regis wants to, seems callous of these new victims.

[Serenity]

I put off getting this game for ages, as I wasn't keen on the second one. Finally picked up the GOTY edition on Steam in the Black Friday sale and I've been addicted ever since. I'm currently approaching the end of the main story, not been near any of the expansion stuff as yet.

Out of curiosity, did any of you re-spec your builds at all/often? I did it once fairly early on as I wasn't happy with some of my initial choices. Now, at level 35 and with (currently) 52 ability points to play with, I'm thinking of doing it again.

At the moment I have mastercrafted Griffin armour and swords and a signs-based build, but I want to make it more focused on Igni and Axii than I currently have it. But then I've also started to collect the Wolven armour so, once I have that up to mastercrafted, I may re-spec again into a combat/signs hybrid. It seems odd to be considering this so late into the game

[Dadding]

Serenity, on 25 January 2017 - 02:40 PM, said:

I put off getting this game for ages, as I wasn't keen on the second one. Finally picked up the GOTY edition on Steam in the Black Friday sale and I've been addicted ever since. I'm currently approaching the end of the main story, not been near any of the expansion stuff as yet.

Out of curiosity, did any of you re-spec your builds at all/often? I did it once fairly early on as I wasn't happy with some of my initial choices. Now, at level 35 and with (currently) 52 ability points to play with, I'm thinking of doing it again.

At the moment I have mastercrafted Griffin armour and swords and a signs-based build, but I want to make it more focused on Igni and Axii than I currently have it. But then I've also started to collect the Wolven armour so, once I have that up to mastercrafted, I may re-spec again into a combat/signs hybrid. It seems odd to be considering this so late into the game

Witcher 2 was awesome. You're crazy I re-speced several times. First I was a sign heavy build with a focus on Quen, Yrden, and a little bit of Igni. That was my first play through. Then I switched to an alchemy heavy build for NG+, with a focus on bombs and lots of potions. There's a particularly difficult fight in the first expansion that is made more difficult if you want to get one of the achievements. Then I tweaked my alchemy build to be more focused on decoctions, and started using Aard. Then finally ended up with a sword-based build with alchemy on the side for the last expansion. Whirl was kind of overpowered.

Overall I think alchemy was what interested me most, and had the most potential.

[Serenity]

Dadding, on 25 January 2017 - 02:48 PM, said:

Serenity, on 25 January 2017 - 02:40 PM, said:

I put off getting this game for ages, as I wasn't keen on the second one. Finally picked up the GOTY edition on Steam in the Black Friday sale and I've been addicted ever since. I'm currently approaching the end of the main story, not been near any of the expansion stuff as yet.

Out of curiosity, did any of you re-spec your builds at all/often? I did it once fairly early on as I wasn't happy with some of my initial choices. Now, at level 35 and with (currently) 52 ability points to play with, I'm thinking of doing it again.

At the moment I have mastercrafted Griffin armour and swords and a signs-based build, but I want to make it more focused on Igni and Axii than I currently have it. But then I've also started to collect the Wolven armour so, once I have that up to mastercrafted, I may re-spec again into a combat/signs hybrid. It seems odd to be considering this so late into the game

Witcher 2 was awesome. You're crazy

Probably! I may well go back and have another crack at it when I finish 3, and I'll probably end up loving it. I did enjoy the first game, too.

Dadding, on 25 January 2017 - 02:48 PM, said:

I re-speced several times. First I was a sign heavy build with a focus on Quen, Yrden, and a little bit of Igni. That was my first play through. Then I switched to an alchemy heavy build for NG+, with a focus on bombs and lots of potions. There's a particularly difficult fight in the first expansion that is made more difficult if you want to get one of the achievements. Then I tweaked my alchemy build to be more focused on decoctions, and started using Aard. Then finally ended up with a sword-based build with alchemy on the side for the last expansion. Whirl was kind of overpowered.

Overall I think alchemy was what interested me most, and had the most potential.

Interesting! Did you find that any of the changes you made backfired and/or you didn't like them? I'm just about to hit the final set of quests in the main story, so I'm wondering if it's a bad time to change from the play style I'm used to.

Your first build sounds similar to my current one. Even though I'm thinking of re-speccing it's not because I've got bored with that build, more that I think using Axii for Puppet and Domination could make it even more fun. I was messing around with a skills calculator earlier on and came up with this for a signs build (with a bunch of points left over to add some flexibility for swapping signs in and out, like Aard Sweep):

SIGNS


and then this hybrid for when I get the Wolven armour up to mastercrafted:

COMBAT / SIGNS


Any advice appreciated!

[Dadding]

Serenity, on 25 January 2017 - 04:49 PM, said:

-snip-
Any advice appreciated!

I only touched Axii for the achievement, since I wanted to 100% the game. I found it's very situational. Even with fully upgraded Axii, it's still a pain in the ass to get your new "followers" to do any damage. The 20 kills took ages to grind, even when all I was doing was letting them kill people. For me it was only useful if you're outnumbered and wanted to take people out of the fight temporarily while you focused others. But YMMV.

With the super OP bombs that split into shards and do a butt-ton of damage, I killed myself a few times. But I don't know if I could have taken on that first DLC achievement without the bombs. I kind of cheesed it and just spammed bombs. Only super useful if you have the most upgraded bomb formulae though.

Your build looks good, though I'd always suggest going into alchemy. You get a whole lot of health points, and if you're high enough you can constantly run around with 2-3 decoctions that boost your max HP even more on top on their normal effects. And the perk that makes all your potions (not just swallow) heal you is a good send.

Once you get to Blood and Wine there are a couple of alchemy-based mutations that are really godly too. What can I say, I'm an alchemy fanboy.

At your level I don't think you really have to worry about strategies backfiring on the final few quests. Besides, I found that the hardest enemy in the main quest wasn't at the end, but rather (not sure if you're there yet, happens on top of a big hill, boss in question is surrounded by Succubi)

Spoiler

Imlerith

[WinterPhoenix]

Got to agree with dadding, Alchemy is godly especially with some of the mutations, running mutiple decoctions that add to your health is amazing, and like Dadding says the perk that means they all give little bits of health back is just brilliant.

Basically I'd say whether you go combat or signs back it up with some alchemy and you can't go wrong. I would suggest that combat/alchemy is easier to pull off, but only because I am rubbish with signs lol

Spoiler

I agree with you about Imlerith as well. Far and away the hardest fight in the main game, though I'm not sure how much of that is because I finished all DLC content before tackling the end of the main game, including Toussaint. The main story finale was so easy by that point. Hardest fight I had in the whole game was probably the Frog Prince, it was exceedingly difficult as I was not overpowered by that point. Whereas by the time I reached Detlaf my gear and build was basically godly.

I need to go back to this game. I'm still missing a few trophies. Couple in the main game, need to do a NG+ so I can get the Deathmarch trophy, plus I mixed and matched alot with abilities so I actually never got the trophy for all perks in one tree somehow lol Plus the David and Goliath trophy for Blood and Wine and a couple for the HoS dlc; rebounding arrows, murdering cows and fighting all the shadows at the same time in that boss fight near the end, I think.

[Mentalist]

Now I'm tempted to go back and finish B&W.

[Serenity]

Dadding, on 25 January 2017 - 06:13 PM, said:

Serenity, on 25 January 2017 - 04:49 PM, said:

-snip-
Any advice appreciated!

I only touched Axii for the achievement, since I wanted to 100% the game. I found it's very situational. Even with fully upgraded Axii, it's still a pain in the ass to get your new "followers" to do any damage. The 20 kills took ages to grind, even when all I was doing was letting them kill people. For me it was only useful if you're outnumbered and wanted to take people out of the fight temporarily while you focused others. But YMMV.

With the super OP bombs that split into shards and do a butt-ton of damage, I killed myself a few times. But I don't know if I could have taken on that first DLC achievement without the bombs. I kind of cheesed it and just spammed bombs. Only super useful if you have the most upgraded bomb formulae though.

Your build looks good, though I'd always suggest going into alchemy. You get a whole lot of health points, and if you're high enough you can constantly run around with 2-3 decoctions that boost your max HP even more on top on their normal effects. And the perk that makes all your potions (not just swallow) heal you is a good send.

Once you get to Blood and Wine there are a couple of alchemy-based mutations that are really godly too. What can I say, I'm an alchemy fanboy.

At your level I don't think you really have to worry about strategies backfiring on the final few quests. Besides, I found that the hardest enemy in the main quest wasn't at the end, but rather (not sure if you're there yet, happens on top of a big hill, boss in question is surrounded by Succubi)

Spoiler

Imlerith

Yes, I've done that bit. I'm just about to

Spoiler

go looking for the Sunstone

I've spent the last few sessions finishing off secondary quests and contracts, and now getting the Wolven armour diagrams.

I think you're right about Axii. I re-specced to the Signs build I posted above and soon found that there's a bug - if you have Delusion and Puppet equipped at the same time then Puppet doesn't work. I tried the workarounds I found online but I was fairly disappointed even so. Shame.

WinterPhoenix, on 25 January 2017 - 06:54 PM, said:

Got to agree with dadding, Alchemy is godly especially with some of the mutations, running mutiple decoctions that add to your health is amazing, and like Dadding says the perk that means they all give little bits of health back is just brilliant.

Basically I'd say whether you go combat or signs back it up with some alchemy and you can't go wrong. I would suggest that combat/alchemy is easier to pull off, but only because I am rubbish with signs lol

Spoiler

I agree with you about Imlerith as well. Far and away the hardest fight in the main game, though I'm not sure how much of that is because I finished all DLC content before tackling the end of the main game, including Toussaint. The main story finale was so easy by that point. Hardest fight I had in the whole game was probably the Frog Prince, it was exceedingly difficult as I was not overpowered by that point. Whereas by the time I reached Detlaf my gear and build was basically godly.

I need to go back to this game. I'm still missing a few trophies. Couple in the main game, need to do a NG+ so I can get the Deathmarch trophy, plus I mixed and matched alot with abilities so I actually never got the trophy for all perks in one tree somehow lol Plus the David and Goliath trophy for Blood and Wine and a couple for the HoS dlc; rebounding arrows, murdering cows and fighting all the shadows at the same time in that boss fight near the end, I think.

Noted about alchemy, too. Due to the Puppet bug I decided to re-spec (again) to the hybrid combat/signs build for now, and I've set about upgrading the Wolven armour. Got it up to Superior quality now and it's getting expensive - down to 6,000 crowns in my pocket now So I'll hold off the mastercrafted set for the time being. I'll put some points into Alchemy after I've tested this build a bit - I've still got some to spare.

I love this game! 121 hours and counting . . .

Thanks both of you for the advice

[Serenity]

So this is what I've ended up with after a bit (a lot!) of playtesting today:

COMBAT / SIGNS


You were both certainly right about the alchemy - along with Active Shield it gives him great survivability, and the combat skills mean I'm using swords a lot more than signs which is making it even more fun

Also, I've got the Wolven swords and chest armour up to mastercrafted. Just need to recoup some money now

[MTS]

Dammit, now I want to do a replay so I can get around to Blood & Wine!

In my initial playthrough, I didn't really touch alchemy. Seemed a bit annoying to be constantly replenishing ingredients. Went heavy combat instead. For NG+ I went combat/signs with a focus on Quen, Yrden and Aard. I found that was fairly powerful (particularly the slowdown of Yrden).

Spoiler

Imlerith

was thus made a fair bit easier as he was easier to dodge.

I'll have to try alchemy next time when I play with mods like School of the Roach/(Extended/Enhanced) Edition.

[Mentalist]

Aard spam + knockdown beats all. Ever since TW1 that's been an unbeatable combo for me.

Made all the more visceral in TW3 with those finishing moves.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 27 January 2017 - 02:49 AM

[WinterPhoenix]

Genuinely never found signs to be all that great outside of Yrden and the slowdown effect, which is very good. Other than that I made use of Axii for the dialogue options and Igni situationally - mostly when I was trying to get the Trophy for applying all 3 crit effects tbh. I found that Alchemy/Combat is extremely effective and combined with the slowdown on Yrden is generally untouchable, and this was without even touching strong attacks which I found to be subpar compared to fast attacks in general - whirl is beastly. Now this being said, I still haven't played through on Deathmarch, so I cannot say that I wouldn't find more use for signs with a difficulty spike, but outside of certain trophies I never found them all that useful - certainly not useful enough to justify taking points away from Combat and more importantly Alchemy, in an attempt to get more out of Signs in general.

[Serenity]

I enjoy using signs. I had Igni and Yrden maxed out until a couple of days ago. But I must admit it's been a huge amount of fun to change up my playstyle and use the swords more, using potions and decoctions as well. Taking down a level 35 archgriffin in three hits was amusing It's even more fun to cast Igni on a bunch of enemies, set them all alight, and then wade in with Whirl

I just finished the base game storyline. I feel strangely bereft, even though I've got the two expansions to play, having been so involved in it for the last couple of months.

Spoiler

I didn't get the best ending for Geralt, having well and truly stuffed up his love life And I got the middle ending for Ciri, where she goes off to become the future ruler of Nilfgaard.

So I've still got some improvements to aim for when I get to NG+.

[WinterPhoenix]

Serenity, on 27 January 2017 - 08:05 PM, said:

I enjoy using signs. I had Igni and Yrden maxed out until a couple of days ago. But I must admit it's been a huge amount of fun to change up my playstyle and use the swords more, using potions and decoctions as well. Taking down a level 35 archgriffin in three hits was amusing It's even more fun to cast Igni on a bunch of enemies, set them all alight, and then wade in with Whirl

I just finished the base game storyline. I feel strangely bereft, even though I've got the two expansions to play, having been so involved in it for the last couple of months.

Spoiler

I didn't get the best ending for Geralt, having well and truly stuffed up his love life And I got the middle ending for Ciri, where she goes off to become the future ruler of Nilfgaard.

So I've still got some improvements to aim for when I get to NG+.

Yeah I remember that feeling after I finished the game as well, the story and world really sucks you in like no other game I've ever played.

Regarding your spoilered bit:

Spoiler

I genuinely feel as though that is the best ending for Ciri, perhaps not in terms of personal fulfillment, but certainly in terms of the good she can do, it will always outweight the lonely wanderings of a single Witcher. I had Geralt end up with Triss as I cannot stand Yennefer frankly. Though I'm willing to admit that this is coming from a position of relative ignorance surrounding the source material, I have never read the books and only played 2 and 3. Perhaps she is a more sympathetic character in the books I cannot know.

[Mentalist]

re: spoilers:

Spoiler

If you were familiar with the source material, you'd be wondering just how much good she would do. Don't get me wrong, Ciri is awesome and a kick-ass char, but she's gone through a ton of trauma in her life. (Not the least of it being a powerless, hunted orphan in a war-torn country. Twice). Would she really be capable of navigating teh cutthroat Nilfgaard politics? none of her prior training (witcher, sorceress, brigand, mercenary) really fits that mold.

I genuinely felt that teh life of a relatively obscure witcher is a better choice for her, given that this way she won't be involved in the machinations of the powerful that have been scarring her life since childhood. She saved the universe, ffs. She earned some reprieve.

RE; Yen. Same thing. Given her history with Geralt (and given T'riss basically concealed said history for 2 whole games. Knowingly) I felt that Yen was the only correct choice. T'riss was Ciri's "big sister" figure, while Yen was her "mother" figure. Reading the books made the choice for me.

[Serenity]

WinterPhoenix, on 27 January 2017 - 08:51 PM, said:

Regarding your spoilered bit:

Spoiler

I genuinely feel as though that is the best ending for Ciri, perhaps not in terms of personal fulfillment, but certainly in terms of the good she can do, it will always outweight the lonely wanderings of a single Witcher. I had Geralt end up with Triss as I cannot stand Yennefer frankly. Though I'm willing to admit that this is coming from a position of relative ignorance surrounding the source material, I have never read the books and only played 2 and 3. Perhaps she is a more sympathetic character in the books I cannot know.

Re the ending:

Spoiler

Yes, it was bittersweet and downbeat, and I really liked that. And I loved the cinematic quality of it, which is something this game is great at - the way the camera panned back as she rode away and then it faded to black. I don't do happy endings, generally, lol. I did watch the other endings on YT last night and liked all of them for different reasons, but I still liked this one the best.

Re Triss and Yennefer, although it was because I stuffed up in, ahem, romancing both of them, I felt the end was kind of fitting for Geralt, to end up alone, especially as I've got to go on and play the expansions.

Mentalist, on 28 January 2017 - 12:27 AM, said:

re: spoilers:

Spoiler

If you were familiar with the source material, you'd be wondering just how much good she would do. Don't get me wrong, Ciri is awesome and a kick-ass char, but she's gone through a ton of trauma in her life. (Not the least of it being a powerless, hunted orphan in a war-torn country. Twice). Would she really be capable of navigating teh cutthroat Nilfgaard politics? none of her prior training (witcher, sorceress, brigand, mercenary) really fits that mold.

I genuinely felt that teh life of a relatively obscure witcher is a better choice for her, given that this way she won't be involved in the machinations of the powerful that have been scarring her life since childhood. She saved the universe, ffs. She earned some reprieve.

RE; Yen. Same thing. Given her history with Geralt (and given T'riss basically concealed said history for 2 whole games. Knowingly) I felt that Yen was the only correct choice. T'riss was Ciri's "big sister" figure, while Yen was her "mother" figure. Reading the books made the choice for me.

I'm reading the third book at the moment, so they may well change my mind about the ending - and maybe change some of my decisions - by the time I get around to a NG+.

Re Ciri:

Spoiler

I liked what Dandelion's voiceover said at the end - "From her father she'd inherited an empress' political instincts. From Geralt she had gained a sense of simple, human decency. Few monarchs boast both traits - which is quite a shame . . . "

This post has been edited by Serenity: 28 January 2017 - 10:12 AM

[Traveller]

Make sure to upgrade the silver sword as often as possible. And start using the signs. I haven't played it for ages but I remember a sort of force push that cleared the way when you get mobbed, knocking them back and letting you counter.