[Tattersail_]

Some useful advice there, learning the way, I am currently in the Bloody Baron plot line, but have been looking for side quests that are around my level instead. I feel I need to go back to White Orchard though if possible as you all have mentioned.

[Morgoth]

Tattersail_, on 30 June 2017 - 09:27 AM, said:

Some useful advice there, learning the way, I am currently in the Bloody Baron plot line, but have been looking for side quests that are around my level instead. I feel I need to go back to White Orchard though if possible as you all have mentioned.

You can always return to White Orchard, as with all other areas once you've discovered them.

The joy of exploring in the Witcher is that although you have the classic hidden treasures and monster dens all over, you will also encounter an implausible amount of unique and creative sidequests.

[Mentalist]

Tattersail_, on 30 June 2017 - 09:24 AM, said:

I am not sure where I am at the moment, if I am in Velen am I able to go back to White Orchard?

I don't think you can. I wasn't able to go back and pick up the Gwent cards I was missing until close to the end of the game.

As I said, for low-level exploration, check out the western coast.

[Morgoth]

Mentalist, on 30 June 2017 - 11:31 AM, said:

Tattersail_, on 30 June 2017 - 09:24 AM, said:

I am not sure where I am at the moment, if I am in Velen am I able to go back to White Orchard?

I don't think you can. I wasn't able to go back and pick up the Gwent cards I was missing until close to the end of the game.

As I said, for low-level exploration, check out the western coast.

I'm pretty sure you can fast travel back to White Orchard at any time, but it's been a while since I did so maybe I remember it wrong.

[Tattersail_]

What cities are in White Orchard

[Aptorian]

I think White Orchard was accessible via the zoomed out map, maybe?

[WinterPhoenix]

I'm like 95% sure you can travel back to White Orchard whenever you want to, I mean I'll check for sure in a little bit when I put the game back on, but I'm pretty sure you can make it back whenever you like. In earlier patches for the game there were 2 different money exploits you could use in White Orchard that I'm pretty sure I remember reading where available basically all the time. Including just killing the cows there over and over to sell there milk with no repercussions, they actually added something to the game called the 'Bovine Defence League', if you kill too many cows then a level 27 Chort will attack you and respawn constantly, which I find hilarious. The thing with the Gwent cards and not being able to get them in earlier patches was because the quest 'Incident at White Orchard' makes it impossible to ever get anything from the innkeeper there, later patches gave her cards to the merchant you save from the Griffin with Vesemir right near the start of the game.

All that being said, if you're already in Velen, Mentalist isn't wrong when he suggests the western coast as a good exploration/leveling area, it doesn't have 5 Places of Power though and missing out on those 5 points early on is a pain. Also I think there's one guarded treasure somewhere in that area that's guarded by very high level Bilge Hag, but it's right out on a spur of land, hard to just happen across.

Adding to my comments above, I actually agree entirely with Serenity, Alchemy is godly but it really only reaches those levels once you've discovered more potions and decoctions especially. Each formulae you discover makes it more powerful than the last with the Acquired Tolerance skill and by the end game when you can run 3 decoctions + two of either Thunderbolt/Tawny Owl/White Raffards/Maribor you're basically untouchable. I'd say mid game, perhaps somewhere around the time you first get to Skellige is a good time to respec towards Alchemy+Combat/Signs, If you're really on it with sidequesting plus purchasing new formulae from herbalists, you should have quite alot of useful potions and decoctions by then. Early on I'd say the best way is pretty much what I said above, pick Muscle Memory or the Strong Attack equivalent (or a mix of the two) then take the Delusion skill if you're interested in extra dialogue options and such. Then decide whether you want to stick mostly with Combat or go with a Signs build, later on once Alchemy is more viable you can respec to it if you wish, or just go with what you've got. Once again though I cannot stress enough how good the Fleet Footed skill in the combat tree is, Fleet Footed + Quen is all you'll ever need on defense.

EDIT: Yeah White Orchard is only available on the map if you zoom out (triangle on the PS4), basically it's just the village of White Orchard and it's surrounding farms and stuff, no other cities, Tattersail

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 30 June 2017 - 10:24 PM

[Tattersail_]

Doing ok. Level 8, doing a lot of side quests. My main quest is still Bloody Baron. I have a werewolf quest that must be bugged. Ie faced a lvl 8 werewolf in the Lady of the wood quest. Smoked him quickly. I was level 7 but the level 7 werewolf in the woods quest I can only get him to 70% then the dialogue and then he just does not die.

[Tattersail_]

Not sure how armor works yet. Just sold it all. Any tips on what I should focus on? Is Quen 1.0 better than quen 2.0

[Aptorian]

Tattersail_, on 08 July 2017 - 07:10 AM, said:

Doing ok. Level 8, doing a lot of side quests. My main quest is still Bloody Baron. I have a werewolf quest that must be bugged. Ie faced a lvl 8 werewolf in the Lady of the wood quest. Smoked him quickly. I was level 7 but the level 7 werewolf in the woods quest I can only get him to 70% then the dialogue and then he just does not die.

Might be bugged. Had that happen one more than one quest, all though most of those issues were fixed over time by CDPR.

Just in case it's not a bug I'll mention that research is an important aspect of witchering, especially when you're new to the games. Read up on the monsters you are fighting. Werewolves for example have some kind of regeneration/berserk ability that means if you're not very strong or well prepared, they can be almost impossible to kill.

Tattersail_, on 08 July 2017 - 07:11 AM, said:

Not sure how armor works yet. Just sold it all. Any tips on what I should focus on? Is Quen 1.0 better than quen 2.0

I've forgotten everything about those things but as far as I recall it's a logical progression. Higher values are good. Some gear is suited towards a faster, more agile playstyle, while other gear will make you able to do more brawling without worrying about taking too much damage.

As a rule, the Witcher Gear you craft will almost always be stronger than the stuff you find around.

[WinterPhoenix]

Getting closer to the end of my NG+ playthrough and the platinum trophy finally, mostly a straight shot of main quests to the end again. Death March has been easier than I expected, though the sections where you control Ciri are just downright annoying, no potions, no oils no bonuses whatsoever, it feels weird because she's supposed to be a big deal but even lowly wolves are more difficult to deal with. Not looking forward to the Crones again.

[Serenity]

Haven't played much in the last week or two (been distracted by the games I got in the Steam sale ) but I'm just about at the point where I'll head off to Novigrad for the first time.

[Malankazooie]

Awwww... did you guys see this? Oh man, I think I got some dust in my eyes. ALL THE FEELS!

[Serenity]

^^ Yeah, love it! Especially Roach sticking her head in at the end

I also sat through the whole PAX panel, which was reasonably entertaining.

[Gothos]

Just a bit of a look back here.

Late last year I finally decided to pop through Blood & Wine after a long time of it just sitting there, purchased, untouched. It started out interesting enough, some old friends showing themselves, great new location, all that stuff - looked great. But, regardless, a couple of days later I found myself reluctant to launch the game again. I realized that while I love some elements of the game (tracking is awesome, most quests are well done and involved, the atmosphere is excellent, etc), some other elements annoy the hell out of me. Enough to not finish an arguably brilliant expansion.
I think I could bring this down to four key elements that could be surprising:
1. The combat.
I mean, seriously, how many hours can you stand arkham asylum clicky-clicky semi-auto combat? With all of its irritating targeting (sticky target? haha enjoy being stabbed by one of the other 7 folks around you! dynamic targetting? enjoy making a roll-lunge halfway to that dude somewhere behind you instead of continuing your combo!) and sometimes infuriating mechanics (yeah that shitstained starving marauder with a garden hoe has been flawlessly blocking all my attacks for several minutes now, that's completely plausible!), sometime mid-2016 it stopped being entertaining, and by 2017 became seriously painful to stomach. When you start missing Gothic's combat, of all games, you know something's not quite right.
2. The open world.
Yes, it's vast. Yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it feels just about dense enough to not feel completely ridiculous nor empty. Yes, the ambient sounds are godly (especially wind and rain, absolutely brilliant). That's not my point.
My point is, the open world nature of the game combined with the DLC raising your level softcap create some seriously cringe-worthy scenarios. You may be able to one-shot an archgryphon or a wyvern if it's in a low-mid-level area, but then you run into some common bandits and they're 20 levels above you and 3 of them can take you down in seconds if you're not being completely gamey or come back later. You can take out a terrifying leshen with ease, only to struggle against some level 83 deserter ten minutes later. This, for me, broke the immersion created by the incredible world created for the game. This could also be due to monsters being disproportionately easier to fight than even the most basic human enemies. It always bugged me, but with B&W the scale just became impossible to ignore.
3. Crafting and inventory.
By the gods, the crafting and inventory. There are just so many useless crafting recipes and materials! For gear, the only stuff you'll be crafting, ever, is the witcher gear sets. Even of those, there are so many that trying to find the one you just got to upgrade is an irritating chore (this just gets twice as bad in new game plus). On top of that, if you do craft the witcher gear, you're pretty unlikely to ever use any unique quest rewards or treasures, ever. This creates more inventory clutter than most MMOs could ever hope to achieve. Sifting through all this every few levels saps my will to play at an alarming pace.
4. Character progression and balance.
There are some talents/traits that are absolutely broken (like extra effects from mutagens, guard damage reduction), while most others are completely forgettable (whirlwind looks cool but will get you killed every time). For item enchantments from Heart of Stone, the first and cheapest tier is also the strongest (encumberance class reduction and permanent bonuses from blacksmithing). Signs are, again, weird - Quen is pretty much obligatory, while I don't think I ever used Igni. On top of all that, I really don't like how you have limited 'slots' for talents, which just caps your development at around 35-ish and then you rely on mutagen drops and higher level gear to get stronger..... all in all, I hate this system.

Honorable mention: PLEASE let me hotkey/quickmenu oils, the most useful of alchemy things! Please!

To to sum up... this is still a great game, but as time goes on, its ties to the open world craze (thanks, Skyrim!), the crafting craze (thanks, Minecraft!) and the prevalence of cutscene-like-presentation over gameplay begin to show more and more. It's not perfect. Sometimes I wish it was a bit more like Gothic (yeah, yeah, I'm a fanboy, it's true). Sometimes I wish this wasn't such a huge blockbuster product.
But hey. Can't have everything.

[Mentalist]

Your criticisms are fair, but honestly, just like every single Witcher game, the combat can be made laughably broken simply by maxing out Aard to the point where everyone flies away and ends up stunned and primed for insta-kill finishes (and in B&W, you can also use your mutagen talent to add freeze effect to Aard, which goes beyond OP). combine that with a Griffin build (+200% sign damage on Master-crafted set and...yeah)

For that reason, I didn't mind the open world. It really doesn't matter what level anything is, when I have ice magic and AoE stun/knockdown as my default sign.

Crafting I found annoying after they overhauled the economy in HoS and some rare materials got way too expensive, while at the same time merchants got significantly less money. And the absolutely ridiculous price tag of the enchantment quests didn't help.

[Dadding]

Haven't posted here for a while, but still have notifications on for this thread. Glad some people are still talking about the Witcher.

You've definitely got a point that the open world aspect of Witcher 3 breaks the immersion and leads to some odd situations. I think Witcher is a game more suited to a linear story, and that's what Witcher 1 & 2 do so well. It's one of the reasons #2 is still my favourite over #3. There's more of a sense of urgency, and the devs can focus on the story more if they can point you in the right directions and you can't just run away and side quest for days.

I do disagree with some of your ideas about combat balance though. While you may have found a combination that works for you, a lot of what you mention as broken or useless are actually quite powerful in their own right. I've played through the game three times, with a different build each time, and each time I didn't feel pigeon-holed into specific abilities. Whirl is one of the most powerful combat effects in the game, especially if you're using it conjunction with certain decoctions, or the ability that increases the range of your sword. Quen is useful, especially early game, but by putting points into alchemy so that your potions heal you, I never used Quen, and instead focused on ignii (the constant fire stream is very powerful), and yrden. The fact that while you have Quen up your stamina doesn't regenerate cripples your ability to use signs. As for Enchantments, while you might have stuck with the first level, the other levels have useful effects as well, like imbuing your weapon with a sign effect, fatal blows generating stamina, increasing the range of whirl, etc. I think Witcher 3 does a great job of making many different builds that are all viable, depending on what you prefer.

Makes me want to play through it again ...

[Serenity]

Dadding, on 19 March 2018 - 04:29 PM, said:

I do disagree with some of your ideas about combat balance though. While you may have found a combination that works for you, a lot of what you mention as broken or useless are actually quite powerful in their own right. I've played through the game three times, with a different build each time, and each time I didn't feel pigeon-holed into specific abilities. Whirl is one of the most powerful combat effects in the game, especially if you're using it conjunction with certain decoctions, or the ability that increases the range of your sword. Quen is useful, especially early game, but by putting points into alchemy so that your potions heal you, I never used Quen, and instead focused on ignii (the constant fire stream is very powerful), and yrden. The fact that while you have Quen up your stamina doesn't regenerate cripples your ability to use signs. As for Enchantments, while you might have stuck with the first level, the other levels have useful effects as well, like imbuing your weapon with a sign effect, fatal blows generating stamina, increasing the range of whirl, etc. I think Witcher 3 does a great job of making many different builds that are all viable, depending on what you prefer.

Agree with this. I loved being able to change my build and play styles, didn't feel pigeon-holed at all. I didn't even contemplate an alchemy build until a couple of you here suggested it, and it turned out to be so much fun, even though I only switched to it late in Blood & Wine. I did carry it over into NG+, though, and still love it, but I've not played a heavy armour/tank or Cat school build, so I want to give those a go as well. The other thing I really like about NG+ is not having to worry about the crafting or collecting ingredients for potions/oils, so I don't get that criticism tbh, although I may change my mind if/when I set out to get the mastercrafted heavy armour . . .

Okay, so I'm a W3 fan, no doubt, but I do agree with a lot of the criticisms of the game (my particular bugbear being that Geralt lumbers around like a three-legged elephant, for instance, and it's almost impossible to get him to stop where you want him to). Aloy's movement in HZD puts this to shame. Plus the inventory system is horrid - I ended up using mods to label oils and potions so they were quicker to find. Sometimes the quests rely too heavily on using Witcher senses and searching for red dots the size of a pixel (slight exaggeration!), which can get very tedious. I find the swimming controls counter-intuitive and atrocious, and often got myself stuck underwater in caves or shipwrecks, breath running out and trying to work out how the hell to get out. And then they wait until the expansions to introduce giant spiders? Bastards!

So I've got no problem with people not liking the game, or having things about it they hate. It's far, far from being perfect but - for me, at least - it rises above its faults. It'd be a shame not to finish B&W but pointless forcing oneself through it if you're not enjoying it. Life's too short, etc etc.

I ended up really liking the combat, especially on Death March, where it makes me plan ahead and use different tactics depending on the enemy. I use all the signs to one degree or another, and potions and decoctions. I can't remember Whirl ever getting me killed - it's great. Now I can't say I've one-shotted an arch griffin, but I did have a brilliant fight with one in NG+ during a thunderstorm where I took it out in three hits because I'd chosen my potions and decoctions specifically for the battle and weather conditions. It was very satisfying. Plus I love the open world, and the fact that you can wonder into areas that are deadly for your current level (incidentally, there is an option that was added in one of the patches for upscaling lower level enemies, if you don't like the easier areas). Sure, structurally it's odd, and it means the vitally important, race-against-time main quest gets shoved to one side whilst you go and help an old lady find her frying pan, but that never bothered me. Ciri can wait. I was too involved.

Which brings me to the cut scenes and characters. I absolutely hate the way dialogue scenes are presented in a lot of RPGs. I hate staring at talking heads, one yacking whilst the other stares vacantly into space and people stand around in the background doing nothing. So the way W3 takes that and adds cinematic flair was a revelation for me. That, plus the characters, the story, the side quests and the open world made it the most immersive experience I've ever had with a game. And I haven't even mentioned Gwent. It's practically the only mini-game I've ever enjoyed. Got to get all those cards

I think this is the longest post I've ever made on here

[acesn8s]

Arise thread, arise!

I picked up the GotY or Complete version the other week (has both DLC add ons). It's my first Witcher game and I love it. I'm at 12th level and just finished the Bloody Baron's arc. I love the creepy old world atmosphere. The Crones were awesome. The bees flying out of the one's eye, the hood and collar on the large one, the sack of limbs on the 3rd. When faced with choice in the tree, I sat there and contemplated for a few minutes. I love that there is no black and white choice.

I can't wait to get back to it tonight. I was running around Velen trying to clean up some side quests and got taken out by a high level Griffon near the southern portion of the map (trying to repair the last shrine on the low-level quest).

I've been loading up on the quick attack skills, got the Cat-style brown skill, and am wearing light armor. It seems to pay off with my fighting style right now.

[Serenity]

acesn8s, on 08 October 2018 - 01:00 PM, said:

I can't wait to get back to it tonight. I was running around Velen trying to clean up some side quests and got taken out by a high level Griffon near the southern portion of the map (trying to repair the last shrine on the low-level quest).

The one flying around above the ridge? Yeah, I remember that one. You'll be back one day to teach it a lesson, I'm sure.