The Witcher 3 Pre-Expansion Thread

[toro]

Fuckin hell. The fights with several wraiths at once are tough as hell. And those where you gotta fight several groups of them in a row without rest is absolutely brual on deathmarch. These are the only instances I just had to lower the difficulty - in the scene with the Baron and the botchling and in the Penitent quest. I simply can't reload battles 20 times or more.

FUUUUUU.

I TOLD YOU!!! :D

Now you understand what I was talking about.

Edit: I did not lower the difficulty but I needed like 15+ tries to win the botchling fight. 5+ wraiths is simply rape.

 

[toro]

Game comes pretty close to how I would imagine my perfect open world action rpg. Throw in the opportunity to design a character, let quests have more solutions based on what skills/class you have and I'd be finally having the game I've envisioned since Arena. Still, what we got here is fantastic in its own right. Been spending an awful amount of time with this and am still not getting close to bored. Haven't seen a world crafted this lovingly since Ultima 7 came around. Makes me genuinly excited to see what they'll come up with in their cyberpunk game.

Your taste and imagination are shit. Old Gothic is still better than this.

 

[WhiteGuts]

I like Gwent, I just can't be assed to buy all them cards.

 

[toro]

Guys how optional is that Gwent shit? I'd rather avoid learning it and skip it completely. Does it come up as mandatory in some quest eventually?

It's optional but also fun. Won everything in Velen which basically gives you all the special cards.

I don't think you can win the special 15 Dmg Geralt card cause it will be weird to be Geralt having a card with Geralt.

Edit: It seems is not strange enough for the game. I got also the Geralt card.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

I'm really shit at games and action games per se, so could anyone recommend an easy-to-find-and-fight spot where I can find a better silver sword than the standard one, so I can finally win against this /=(/$?&&/"=

Spoiler

Pesta

?
I'm level 7 or 8 btw....

 

[Multidirectional]

I'm really shit at games and action games per se, so could anyone recommend an easy-to-find-and-fight spot where I can find a better silver sword than the standard one, so I can finally win against this /=(/$?&&/"=

Spoiler

Pesta

?

Do you use Yrden? I had trouble with it too until I've tried that.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I'm really shit at games and action games per se, so could anyone recommend an easy-to-find-and-fight spot where I can find a better silver sword than the standard one, so I can finally win against this /=(/$?&&/"=

Spoiler

Pesta

?
I'm level 7 or 8 btw....

Use Yrden and bombs for that fight, also having oils help a lot. Save bombs for the "swarms" or you can use igni on them. But that will give her some untouchable time becuase your yrden expires.
Try not passing inside her because she poisons for a good amount.

 

[Gerrard]

After playing for 40 hours I realized that when fighting from horse you can hold down the attack button to keep the sword ready for swing.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

I'm really shit at games and action games per se, so could anyone recommend an easy-to-find-and-fight spot where I can find a better silver sword than the standard one, so I can finally win against this /=(/$?&&/"=

Spoiler

Pesta

?

Do you use Yrden? I had trouble with it too until I've tried that.

This, and also this...

For those in need of some sweet 8-ish level or around gear - in wester-most Velen there is a small keep called 'Lonesome Rock' or something to that effect when translated, north-west of the Baron's castle, where the land ends.

It's guarded by a 14 lvl monster that is quite easy. There are two ways to get into the keep and even if you can't beat the monster it will not get you get inside. The place is part of the 'Griffins School' quest.

 

[norolim]

The thing is your video proves that 3+ enemies combat is a button smashing fest. Also you killed them all this time but at the same time the fight could have ended badly.

On the Death March! difficulty every mob is moving faster and your fight would look different. It would be even more chaotic.

Actually I think there is no point in pursuing Death March! difficulty cause it unbalances the game and this shit affects the overall experience.

Edit: I'm an idiot and I'm tired. It's obvious your are an dodge expert.

That's what I was saying - the difficulty goes up drastically with every additional opponent - that's the way it should be (or at least, that's the way I like it).

So, of course the fight could have ended badly. And it did, to be honest. I recorded that fight several times, mostly because I accidentally blew up those fucking barrels on the shore or the AI bugged out on me, but also because I got killed, only just made it and destroyed them without even getting hit once a few times. This just proves that fighting 3/4 enemies is difficult, and 5+ practically impossible (doesn't have to be lvl 3 drowners, 5/6 lvl 2 wolves would bite me to death in seconds).

And it's far from being a button mashing fest (not sure if you acknowledged that at the end or not). If you look closely, I even avoid linking attacks, so I can always be ready to dodge. It's an exercise in patience. With one drowner, on the other hand, I can easily button mash (better quality video, this time):


Level 4 drowner, btw.

And it's not like there is no way to deal with large groups of monsters. Take wolves, for example - you can meet packs of 5-7 in WO. The game gives you opportunities to deal with such large groups (at least as far as I noticed, may be different later). They don't just sit there, waiting for you to attack. The pack moves around and often 1 or 2 wolves separate from the rest to chase a rabbit. That's when you strike, and once you reduce the numbers to sth you can deal with, you finish the job. It's all patience and correct approach.

The question is: Is there such a big difference between difficulty levels?

I'd say so. The AI works differently on higher levels (they only bloated HP & DMG on the hardest diff.). I described it here.

 

[Trash]

Game comes pretty close to how I would imagine my perfect open world action rpg. Throw in the opportunity to design a character, let quests have more solutions based on what skills/class you have and I'd be finally having the game I've envisioned since Arena. Still, what we got here is fantastic in its own right. Been spending an awful amount of time with this and am still not getting close to bored. Haven't seen a world crafted this lovingly since Ultima 7 came around. Makes me genuinly excited to see what they'll come up with in their cyberpunk game.

Your taste and imagination are shit. Old Gothic is still better than this.

Wow, edgy. The first and second Gothic games are classics. They've however aged a lot and the controls, combat, boss fights and last sections of both games are utter shit. But hey, enjoy those rose tinted glasses.

 

[GrainWetski]

You only like games before the Xbox One was released because of nostalgia, scum.

 

[Ulminati]

I'm really shit at games and action games per se, so could anyone recommend an easy-to-find-and-fight spot where I can find a better silver sword than the standard one, so I can finally win against this /=(/$?&&/"=

Spoiler

Pesta

?

Do you use Yrden? I had trouble with it too until I've tried that.

This. incorporeal foes like the pesta only take 10% damag eunless you use Yrden or one of the special bombs. Sword upgrades are all over the place. Griffin School gear is lv 8 or 9, so you could go hunt that set. Check the armor/blacksmiths for maps, buy them and read them to start the quests.

the griffin school armor was the best gear (excluding sword upgrades) I found until lv 14 where I did the cat school gear quest.

 

[Trash]

Wraiths need Yrden, spectre oil and a strategic approach. A bit of thinking before enganging and voila.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Finally able to get into the game after updating drivers and all.

Whoever decided that you'd be locked within the room during the brawl with Napp oughta be made to play Realms of Arkania HD forever.

 

[Dookins]

Not the only or even close to worst instance of that, one scenario has you fist fighting in two guys what nearly amounts to an elevator.

 

[Perkel]

This is what divides men from shitty piss drinkers.

On Death March i had more than few times when i was outnumbered 10 to 1 with bows and shit and i had to fucking learn how to fight in groups cc. Naturally in cc roll away and run away don't work.

Never attack one guy contantly. Contantly change direction of attack and dodge not back but at direction of evemy but with slight right or left movement.

If you will attack one guy contantly this means that dude behind you will attack non stop
If you will dodge back instead of forward you will again meat slash from back or you are risking dodge into hitbox of some dude who you can't see.

Parry blows and riposte blows when you are absolutely sure that you are in safe area. It is better actually to have swing at two dudes who are near each other rather than on one as your swing will hit them both.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

This is what divides men from shitty piss drinkers.

On Death March i had more than few times when i was outnumbered 10 to 1 with bows and shit and i had to fucking learn how to fight in groups cc. Naturally in cc roll away and run away don't work.

Never attack one guy contantly. Contantly change direction of attack and dodge not back but at direction of evemy but with slight right or left movement.

If you will attack one guy contantly this means that dude behind you will attack non stop
If you will dodge back instead of forward you will again meat slash from back or you are risking dodge into hitbox of some dude who you can't see.

Parry blows and riposte blows when you are absolutely sure that you are in safe area. It is better actually to have swing at two dudes who are near each other rather than on one as your swing will hit them both.

All of this however, is hard to apply for fist-fights in fucking tight spaces.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Fuck the markers: There clearly seems to be no way to play without markers. I mean, you can turn most of them off - without the minimap, you can ensure you only see one Activated Quest marker in the main map. But then there aren't enough directions given in most cases, in dialogue or journals. You start with 7 or 8 little clumps of houses visible in the map, and often there's no easy way to figure out which one they are talking about. I wish I could just have the minimap on without the markers, but that's also apparently impossible, and soon that whole thing is drowning in herb icons (which you can turn off in main map but... not the minimap?).

Really?
There was one euphoric review by a German magazine implying the opposite:

So entfalten Quests mit örtlichen Richtungsangaben auch ihre Stimmung: Wenn der Alte in einem Dorf mich darauf hinweist, dass ich am Ende des Tümpels bei den Gänsen einen großen Stein finde, an dem ich rechts in den Wald abbiegen soll, wo ich wiederum einen Pfad finde, der zur Hütte einer Hexe führt, macht das Suchen danach ohne Minikarte mit Zielanzeige natürlich ungleich mehr Spaß!

google translation with lots of corrections:

Spoiler

So quests with local direction information create their mood : If the old man in a village indicates that at the end of the pool at the geese where I find a big stone I should turn right into the forest, where I again find a path which leads to the cottage of a witch, that's far more fun without minimap with target display!

Wow, how come Google translate doesn't know anything about German grammar?! That was just abysmal!

I kinda trust that guy, he was one of the very few professional dorito munchers critics that dared to call out Bioware on their epic fail called DA:I. Also he's specialized in reviewing CRPGs for them. Then again he doesn't exactly claim that all quests have such convenient directional descriptions but he implies it.
Are quests without good directions the exception or the rule? Is playing without navigation system viable?
Perkel , how did you do it?
And where do I find that MC guy you mention all the time?

 

[Perkel]

Perkel , how did you do it?

If there is no clear direction open map and look for place. Once you get there you usually don't need to use map at all.
Secondly exploration itself helps a lot.

Like in quest of Keira Metz where she mentioned tower that she wanted to check and i already knew what tower she was talking about due to me being there.

Orchard garnison was the same thing. Herbalist was easy to find as she had shit ton of crops near her house. Problematic was hunter but garnison dude said he lived near the woods. So open map and look for secluded house near the woods.
Character often mention where you need to go and only occasionally they don't say anything about place.

Most problematic is/was novigrad as exploration of every little house there is kind of time consuming proccess. But as i started doing quests in Novigrad i didn't need to use later map as i know perfectly well where i can find characters.

Like for example Dendelion girls quests where i had to visit them. 2 of them lived in mansions which means high class district to the north. 2 of them were rather poor so either slums disctrict or village outside of novigrade near walls.

Biggest problem for me was to find first time and second time triss house as Yennefer literally says she live in novigrad and that is it. At least in second case Triss says where she lives but slums area isn't exactly small but it was hard to find right door to her house.
I know from my memory where bathhouse lies, markets, whole docks area, temple disctrict etc. Where differnt inns are, Vivaldi, hatori etc.

As for quests involving forests etc this is where exploration comes in. Most of quests given in villages are self contained to village area. So if you start a quest you know it is something near it. So intead of fallowing some quest marker i simply explore near vicinity of village.

Though i didn't do many sidequest (something probably like 10%) i fallowed mainly mc with occasional sidequests where it fit narrative.

Oxenfurt is the city which gives me problems but mostly probably because i didn't do much questing there and mc doesn't actually have much to do with Oxenfurt. Still finding Witch Hunters HQ and butchering motherfukers was amazing.

 

[made]

Fuck the markers: There clearly seems to be no way to play without markers. I mean, you can turn most of them off - without the minimap, you can ensure you only see one Activated Quest marker in the main map. But then there aren't enough directions given in most cases, in dialogue or journals. You start with 7 or 8 little clumps of houses visible in the map, and often there's no easy way to figure out which one they are talking about. I wish I could just have the minimap on without the markers, but that's also apparently impossible, and soon that whole thing is drowning in herb icons (which you can turn off in main map but... not the minimap?).

Really?
There was one euphoric review by a German magazine claiming the opposite:

So entfalten Quests mit örtlichen Richtungsangaben auch ihre Stimmung: Wenn der Alte in einem Dorf mich darauf hinweist, dass ich am Ende des Tümpels bei den Gänsen einen großen Stein finde, an dem ich rechts in den Wald abbiegen soll, wo ich wiederum einen Pfad finde, der zur Hütte einer Hexe führt, macht das Suchen danach ohne Minikarte mit Zielanzeige natürlich ungleich mehr Spaß!

google translation with lots of corrections:

Spoiler

So quests with local direction information create their mood : If the old man in a village indicates that at the end of the pool at the geese where I find a big stone I should turn right into the forest, where I again find a path which leads to the cottage of a witch, that's far more fun without minimap with target display!

Wow, how come Google translate doesn't know anything about German grammar. That was just abysmal!

I kinda trusted that guy, he was one of the very few professional dorito munchers critics that dared to call out Bioware on their epic fail called DA:I. Also he's specialized in reviewing CRPGs for them.
Are quests without good directions the exception or the rule? Is playing without navigation system viable?
Perkel , how did you do it?

Luibl hat sein Herz am rechten Fleck wenns um RPGs a la Gothic geht.

In my experience he's right in most cases: NPC do give directions, though they are often very brief, ie. "west of here, not too far" or not note that says "I've hidden the chest near the haystack". It works if you do the quest immediately and are willing to look around a bit, but there's no way to read up on those directions in the journal at a later date. No way to ask NPCs for directions to landmarks and such either, you're expected to use the map if you get stuck.

What you can't do without a compass are the treasure hunts for witcher gear because those those begin with maps that mark the spot where you need to search, unless you stumble upon them by chance. Once you start the quest and find some clues you can usually progress without relying on markers though.

So I'd say it's not doable 100% but you can minimize the usage of the helpers quite a bit.

 

[DeepOcean]

Watching on youtube right now... Jesus Christ CDPR overcompensated on the tutorials this time. People were annoying with the demand of extensive tutorials on Witcha 2 and this time CDPR delivered on the tutorials. That whole area White Orchard, it feels like a huge tutorial area and the story take a long time to get going. The dude I'm watching spent hours before reaching that scene on the trailers with the Emperor hiring you to go after Ciri, I had to jump the gameplay bits or it would get boring. So far, I liked the story pacing on Witcha 2 better, with shit happening fast or Witcha 1 where the outskirts of Vizima section reaches an interesting climax. The White Orchard is just some boring village where nothing happen, I was more interested on the backstory of that phantom on the well, that would be a much more interesting contract to do on the main story than fighting the griffin. The problem is that griffins have no class, I prefer demon dogs made of fire.

 

[cvv]

Anybody's playing without the minimap at all? How do you even do quests where all you get is "there's a treasure somewhere off the coast"? And then you have to swim like ten minutes and search within a small yellow circle. How would you ever find a place like this without any marker whatsoever?

Not to mention quests in Novigrad where the quests says "found a dude living somewhere in the Bits". Or sometimes you don't get any directions at all. Just "find Eustace the corpse collector". Good look searching for him all over Novigrad, especiall with the NPC names being so tiny and generally damn nigh illegible.

 

[bonescraper]

 

[Perkel]

Watching on youtube right now... Jesus Christ CDPR overcompensated on the tutorials this time. People were annoying with the demand of extensive tutorials on Witcha 2 and this time CDPR delivered on the tutorials. That whole area White Orchard, it feels like a huge tutorial area and the story take a long time to get going. The dude I'm watching spent hours before reaching that scene on the trailers with the Emperor hiring you to go after Ciri, I had to jump the gameplay bits or it would get boring. So far, I liked the story pacing on Witcha 2 better, with shit happening fast or Witcha 1 where the outskirts of Vizima section reaches an interesting climax. The White Orchard is just some boring village where nothing happen, I was more interested on the backstory of that phantom on the well, that would be a much more interesting contract to do on the main story than fighting the griffin. The problem is that griffins have no class, I prefer demon dogs made of fire.

This is kind of hilarious for me. Because if you actually fallow quest instead of fucking around around orchard that place is literally 20-50 minutes long.

Go to village inn -- > Ask dudes about Yennefer --> Garnison --> Herbalist --> hunter ( i think one of them is actually optional) -- gryphin --> garnison --> inn
the end.

Imo i think it is design to first drop people into closed small area so they will taste sidequesting, mc and exploration and in the same time they won't get lost or sidetracked by other quests.

Once they are accustomed to it drop them into Velen

Anybody's playing without the minimap at all? How do you even do quests where all you get is "there's a treasure somewhere off the coast"? And then you have to swim like ten minutes and search within a small yellow circle. How would you ever find a place like this without any marker whatsoever?

Not to mention quests in Novigrad where the quests says "found a dude living somewhere in the Bits". Or sometimes you don't get any directions at all. Just "find Eustace the corpse collector". Good look searching for him all over Novigrad, especiall with the NPC names being so tiny and generally damn nigh illegible.

Finished whole game without minimap. Switched off also ton of other things like place of interest etc.

1. Never had a problem with them. Witcher sense usually worked. Like in case of that searching for shield on battlefield. I see battlefield and i know i don't need to look in forest for it.

As of rest i said above in different post how i deal with that.

Eustace was actually very easy as he was literally picking up boddies so some trecking around novigrad in poor disctricts and i found him without problem especially since cutscene fires up auto near him.
Same with that mansion part in same quest. I was there with Triss earlier so i knew where it was.

I think common answer for almost all woes is exploration but like people said sometimes you really need to fuck around to find some place or simply world map if you are tired of looking.

I think hardest for me was to find that dude with goat place for some ritual at night. I looked it near that village for like 30-40 minutes. I turned worldmap and this was actually on same island with Keira Tower.
I was there before but i couldn't really connect that place and ritual.