Just fired up the Witcher 3 this week after watching that amazing Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo. It kinda just got me in the mood for some CD Projekt Red (or Cyberpunk...but I'm going to let CP-2077 absolutely destroy the genre for me) so I picked up the Witcher, installed Hearts of Stone for the first time and decided to start a new game on...whatever the 'hard' difficulty mode is, not Death March, but the second highest base difficulty of the game. 

Anyway, so the point of this discussion is just to operate as a general "Witcher 3" discussion, nothing too focused or based only on my stuff (afterall, I don't know how long I'll be playing this run, might not get anywhere near finished) but I wanted to chat about the game as I played, so...yeah

You haven't played Hearts of Stone yet? Man, this must be one of my favorite DLCs ever. I love the story and characters in it so much - I find it better than Blood and Wine, though I never did finish that one (I have to get back into Witcher 3 too...).

So, been having a hell of a time getting used to the game, kind of easy to go through White Orchard (obviously), got kicked around a little bit from time to time, mostly until I fully remembered all the basic combat styles and signs and all...Anyway, so I've hit Velen now and just got into the Werewolf Questearly on, and fuck it's a tough fight for me. I'm not going to be looking up weaknesses or anything, and since I don't have the Werewolf Beastiary page, it's just a fucking tough fight compared to others where I now the enemies weaknesses. 

Anyway, the build I'm running is kinda weird too, going with an Alchemy style, at the moment I have Poisoned Blades 5/5, Steady Aim 2/3 (doesn't seem that useful tbh) and Heightened Tolerance 1/3...oh and Sun and Stars but that was before I decided my character and thought that the 10 V/s in daylight would be useful...it really wasn't. I'm probably going to try and focus on the Bomb and Oil lines primarily, with some Brewing and Toxicity skills. Not entirely sure, it'll just depend on what I need and want to pick up, but yeah ALCHEMY.

Having fun though, I forgot how tough the game is at times, but still just having a blast for now (Honestly, I'm getting pulled into Destiny 2 after getting it for free).

You haven't played Hearts of Stone yet? Man, this must be one of my favorite DLCs ever. I love the story and characters in it so much - I find it better than Blood and Wine, though I never did finish that one (I have to get back into Witcher 3 too...).

Yeah, I never managed to get around to it...Hoping to love it regardless :P

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Dragonborn1721]Dragonborn2021[/url] said:[/b]

So, been having a hell of a time getting used to the game, kind of easy to go through White Orchard (obviously), got kicked around a little bit from time to time, mostly until I fully remembered all the basic combat styles and signs and all...Anyway, so I've hit Velen now and just got into the Werewolf Questearly on, and fuck it's a tough fight for me. I'm not going to be looking up weaknesses or anything, and since I don't have the Werewolf Beastiary page, it's just a fucking tough fight compared to others where I now the enemies weaknesses. 

Anyway, the build I'm running is kinda weird too, going with an Alchemy style, at the moment I have Poisoned Blades 5/5, Steady Aim 2/3 (doesn't seem that useful tbh) and Heightened Tolerance 1/3...oh and Sun and Stars but that was before I decided my character and thought that the 10 V/s in daylight would be useful...it really wasn't. I'm probably going to try and focus on the Bomb and Oil lines primarily, with some Brewing and Toxicity skills. Not entirely sure, it'll just depend on what I need and want to pick up, but yeah ALCHEMY.

Having fun though, I forgot how tough the game is at times, but still just having a blast for now (Honestly, I'm getting pulled into Destiny 2 after getting it for free).

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Werewolf fight wasn't too hard once I developed the right strategy, first time the Wolves kept stunning me which sucked, second time I was trying to rely on Igni too much and third time was the charm with heavy Quen-Swallow-Cat-Thunderbolt combo, plus some good ole' Smack'emWithaSword, the age old technique that we all love. I think it's just taking me more time to get into the real swing of combat, I forgot how weak enemies are in White Orchard and it kind of underpreps you (in a good way) for the real meat of the game. 

After you hit about level 10 things get easier. Hunt down that witcher special gear ASAP. Having enough strong alcohol to replenish your Potions and bombs is hard early on to. Loot the Bloody Barons cellar he has heaps of Dwarven Spirit. When you get to Novigrad theres a whole bunch in the Sewer's you can find during Djikstra's quest too. 

I'm playing a Combat Alchemy Hybrid build. Best fun I've had so far with the game. Just hit level 37 and I can run to decoctions and 5 potions at once plus the bonus from "Side Effects". "Aquired Tolerance"  and 'Synergy" are my two must have skills for a heavy hitting Alchemist. I''ll load up some screen shots of my build and gear so far :)

Gear is just Wolf School (Master Crafted) Though I used Cat School until around level 20. And have a whole bunch Decotions and potions. (I usually use Troll and Water Hag)

Load Out

Alchemy

Combat

Axii

I also unlocked almost all the places of power so collected a heap of extra skill points. (As well as the +2 fro the magic Acorn found on Imlireths body after fucking him up).

Really loving this game atm haha. it's like my 4th or 5th playthrough. Just about finished Hearts of Stone. My favorite quest is the Borsodi's House (Heist mission). Just so much fun lol.

Being a noob, on my first playthrough I didn't touch alchemy until I was a good way through the game - definitely after I reached Skelligr. Man was I missing out. Potions make things 10x easier, almost too easy a lot of the time, and after figuring out potions were good I tracked down the most advanced recipes I could, and with the excess of ingredients I had collected I started chugging potions at every possible opportunity. Never used bombs though, apart from destroying nests, I've never been a fan of gunpowder type things in fantasy games as a whole.

After you hit about level 10 things get easier. Hunt down that witcher special gear ASAP. Having enough strong alcohol too replenish your Potions and bombs is hard early on too. Loot the Bloody Barons cellar he has heaps of Dwarven Spirit. When you get to Novigrad theres a whole bunch in the Sewer's you can find during Djikstra's quest too. 

I'm playing a Combat Alchemy Hybrid build. Best fun I've had so far with the game. Just hit level 37 and I can run to decoctions and 5 potions at once plus the bonus from "Side Effects". "Aquired Tolerance"  and 'Synergy" are my two must have skills for a heavy hitting Alchemist. I''ll load up some screen shots of my build and gear so far :)

To be honest I haven't really had a problem finding alcohol so far, just been finding plenty of it. Been a bit weird because I definitely do remember having an issue with it my first time around, meant I had to buy a lot of food early on (because I was a lot less prepared than I am this time around). But yeah, so far I've managed to make it through most of the Elf-Ruin (with Keira) without buying a single bottle of alcohol or making any...pretty solid compared to what I remember in the past. Still haven't hit Level 5 though.

But yeah, that's essentially what I remember from my previous playthrough, there tends to be a difficulty spike as you enter each new region (with Velen being large enough that there are a few spikes), and for certain key missions and so on and so forth. Reminds me a bit of God of War (2018) to be honest, very similar style of enemy progression between the two games.

Oh yeah, we're definitely running some pretty opposing builds there, mine's got a heavy focus on Oils, Bombs and Quen/Yrden as the Signs with no Combat investment (or maybe just the Fast Attack skill). Yours is probably a lot more effective, but I love bombs (and I think it's made me really sad that I don't have Blood and Wine, a few skills I've seen there seem pretty damn useful) for some reason...I shouldn't but I do :P

[blockquote][b][url=/profile/Zonnonn]Zonnonn[/url] said:[/b]

Being a noob, on my first playthrough I didn't touch alchemy until I was a good way through the game - definitely after I reached Skelligr. Man was I missing out. Potions make things 10x easier, almost too easy a lot of the time, and after figuring out potions were good I tracked down the most advanced recipes I could, and with the excess of ingredients I had collected I started chugging potions at every possible opportunity. Never used bombs though, apart from destroying nests, I've never been a fan of gunpowder type things in fantasy games as a whole.

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To be honest, I 100% cheesed my way through my first playthrough, never using Oils, Bombs (except the most basic) or even any Potions other than Thunderbolt, Swallow and I think one other...healer-y sorta thing. I essentially just threw up Quen Shields, maximised my Fast Attacks and...oh and abused the shit out of my Stamina Regen + Igni to do damage. It kinda worked, but by the end of the game I could kind of just bunker down and dodge anything without needing to bother with all the (cooler) more complicated elements of the game.

I admit that I'm having a lot more fun this time around with the heavy-potion use, I haven't really gotten into it yet, but I love the idea of collecting ingredients and recipes and playing strategically (though it is making me wish the Beastiary was done differently, you know, rather than 'beat monster ---> Learn Weaknesses ---> Profit).