Witcher 3

You can do a melee/bleed or melee/poison build that works very well, especially against bosses. In the original game nothing is going to be as fast as an Igni/Signs build when doing normal mobs/POIs.

But the melee builds are much better against bosses.

Jorren said:

Controller is making for a much more enjoyable experience. Had to switch to Tell me a story to get used to controller a bit though, it has been years since I have used one.

Also, holy crap does the HD pack make a big difference. Game was great looking before but wow!

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Get the LOD mod too. Next Generation LOD BETA

The best part of this game for me is the combat physics. It's a little janky, but on death march, its somewhat challenging but more rewarding, and cleaving a bandit in twain, decapitating his buddy, and then disembowling the straggler is some of the most satisfying things I can remember doing in a 3rd person game.

It doesnt happen all the time either, but cutting off a dudes arm, then slicing another guy in half from his groin up is incredible.

Jozu said:

The best part of this game for me is the combat physics. It's a little janky, but on death march, its somewhat challenging but more rewarding, and cleaving a bandit in twain, decapitating his buddy, and then disembowling the straggler is some of the most satisfying things I can remember doing in a 3rd person game.

It doesnt happen all the time either, but cutting off a dudes arm, then slicing another guy in half from his groin up is incredible.

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I play on PS4, so maybe the relativism of the experience is different, but though the combat does get better as the game goes on due to widening options, visually and mechanically I don’t think it competes with games like HZD or God of War. If you want visceral, satisfying combat experience play God of War. For me what primarily makes Witcher great is are the RPG elements and story.

Man, now that I think of it, I’d sell a kidney for a Witcher 4 that employed the God of War engine and combat mechanics, but employed all the same rpg elements of Witcher 3.

If you really want to be amazed, crawl down the rabbit hole of "X small details you missed about Y". This kind of attention to detail is a major part of why Witcher 3 is so amazing.

Also Gaunter O'dimm is at the inn at White Orchard at the beginning of the game and you talk to him during the quest to question the guests for clues about Yennefer.

Which had absolutely no bearing at all at release because you don't meet him again until Hearts of Stone where he is essentially the actual main antagonist.

After putting about 5 hours into the PC version and changing pretty much every single default keybind for KB/M I would recommend playing the game on PC this way instead of switching to controller.

The biggest issue with KB/M and combat is the default keybinds make no sense and detract heavily from gameplay:

Step 1: Rebind fast and strong attack off the mouse buttons. In a game like this where you typically attack 1,2 or 3 times and then dodge (doing so in the direction Geralt is facing), when you constantly click to attack while also trying to keep the field of view in the right direction you get this dizzying, janky camera that is all over the place.

Step 2: Rebind dodge to a key that isn't so awkward to use. Alt isn't impossible to use but it sure is uncomfortable. For me the best setup is Dodge on left click and Parry right click.

Step 3: Don't worry about setting two different keys for attack. Attacking is the only keybind option we have available by default that let's you bind a modifier. For me I found that the E key was the easiest for me to spam while still controlling Geralt with WASD so I bound Fast Attack to E and use Shift as my modifier so Shift + E is Strong Attack. E is the default interact keybind so I rebound interact to R.

Step 4: Bind the Sign/Secondary Weapon menu to a key that is comfortable. I leave this as the default which is TAB because it's convenient enough and I like the default for sign casting at Q and they are right next to each other. Use this menu to switch signs rather than the sign scrolling keybind because scrolling through signs one by one is slow and when you use the menu not only is it faster but it also pauses the game (or at least puts it into super slow motion)

You can also download keybind mods that let you bind specific sign casts to individual keys and add Shift/Alt/Ctrl modifier keybind functionality.

All this together makes playing with KB/M much better than playing with a controller for me and saved me money on buying a controller for my PC (which I don't currently have).

You also get the added benefit of actually being able to use the crossbow without feeling like a toddler trying to use a fork. KB/M Turns crossbow/bombs into an FPS and you'll likely never miss your target again, even without any points in the slow time skill.

And one last thing. Controlling Roach is about 1000% better with a KB/M. Which also means horse racing is a joke and you're not going to get stuck on the thinnest tree in the world for 5 minutes and want to throw your controller.

Blazin said:

Finished the main story and got the bad ending, I didn't have a save that was anything less than like 10hrs back that was still prior to me messing it up so had to suck it up and do that part over. I have the DLCs to go thru and it was too defeating to do that with that kind of finish so had to rectify that. I'm assuming I should do the hearts of stone first.

I was a little frustrated with not always knowing what to pick, I never took Ciri to Emrys but only because I figured I'd do it later if she wanted but we ended up never even discussing it which there is no way to know what future choices they will give you without spoilering it online.

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Should have just asked Gaunter O'Dimm what to do.

Blazin said:

Finished the main story and got the bad ending, I didn't have a save that was anything less than like 10hrs back that was still prior to me messing it up so had to suck it up and do that part over. I have the DLCs to go thru and it was too defeating to do that with that kind of finish so had to rectify that. I'm assuming I should do the hearts of stone first.

I was a little frustrated with not always knowing what to pick, I never took Ciri to Emrys but only because I figured I'd do it later if she wanted but we ended up never even discussing it which there is no way to know what future choices they will give you without spoilering it online.

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There's a bad ending versus good ending? Fuck. I'm gonna fuck it up, I know it. Time to Google I guess?

I just have been using strong attack, dumped points into str training and crushing blows, I'm lvl 10 and have been timing my attacks in unison with dodge and parry and I'm just wrecking shit.

I use Aard (29% intensity increase) mostly along with heavy attacks and get a good amount of execution kills. It's fun as fuck.

Also got an awesome steel sword that has 75% crit dmg increase, that along with hangman's oil (got skill to increase oil dmg), chugging a thunderbolt and heavy attacks absolutely CRUSHES humans. I two shot pretty much every human enemy with zero problems.

Blazin said:

Finished the main story and got the bad ending, I didn't have a save that was anything less than like 10hrs back that was still prior to me messing it up so had to suck it up and do that part over. I have the DLCs to go thru and it was too defeating to do that with that kind of finish so had to rectify that. I'm assuming I should do the hearts of stone first.

I was a little frustrated with not always knowing what to pick, I never took Ciri to Emrys but only because I figured I'd do it later if she wanted but we ended up never even discussing it which there is no way to know what future choices they will give you without spoilering it online.

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You can always do a new game+ on Death March. That was what I did when I also got the worst ending during my first playthrough. Yes, it's better to do hearts of stone and later blood and wine. Maybe you will be more satisfied with the ending of blood and wine.

Same thing. I also made several decisions not knowing final impact, but it's better not to know I guess...

Crone said:

There's a bad ending versus good ending? Fuck. I'm gonna fuck it up, I know it. Time to Google I guess?

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Yep, several different endings. It depends about your taste but my advice is to

Raskoljnikov said:

You can always do a new game+ on Death March. That was what I did when I also got the worst ending during my first playthrough. Yes, it's better to do hearts of stone and later blood and wine. Maybe you will be more satisfied with the ending of blood and wine.

Same thing. I also made several decisions not knowing final impact, but it's better not to know I guess...



Yep, several different endings. It depends about your taste but my advice is to

Spoiler

not be overprotective father to Ciri.

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Got it. Thank you.

iirc there are 3 primary endings to the main game. One bad ending and two good endings, although some people say it's one good ending and one bittersweet ending.

This game is incredible. Just ploughed a hot blonde sorceress, then fucking decapitated the whore for lying to me.

Its amazing how none of these side quests feel like a boring trek. Everything feels meaningful. They even did a great job with itemization curve. The inventory system is meh, but finding new weapons and gear feels rewarding.

Been knocking out the lower level quests I had in my log, as well as contracts. It's been a good time, but I'm over leveled most of this stuff now. I have a mod that still gives me some experience, so the grey ones are not totally useless. Thought about just rushing the main story, but what fun is that?

I still remember 2 great side quests - with some God and the second one was with "pigs".
It's a shame to miss side quests. There are great and fun surprises!