The Witcher 2 Catch-All

Dark mode is insanity difficulty plus saving and the armour sets. It's going to be tough.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I started my second playthrough over on dark mode and it's... pretty frustrating. I've died a lot in the intro. Nothing has been impossible by any means, but it takes a lot of saving and trial and error. Anyone find this mode is rewarding? I feel like every time I die, I have to game the system in an unrewarding way to get through it. Since Quen has been nerfed, parry takes a ton of damage, and I don't have riposte yet, I feel fairly helpless. I don't mind continuing with it if it gets better. I know the game gets easier as you level up (unless that changed).

I played through the prologue on Dark Mode twice and I didn't die that much. You just need to make not getting hit your highest priority. Are you using all your bombs / traps / signs?

I get everything that you guys mention. It's not exactly that kind of stuff that's my problem. It always seems like something random hits me and then I die. I guess I need to make not getting hit even MORE of a priority than I have. I'll stick with it and see how it goes. It's not like I'm getting stuck or anything. It's just that there are lots of "What the f**k killed me?!?" moments. I'm assuming that's because I suck.

Got the game running smoothly.

Anyone know if the mods work with the EE? I like the mutagen mods that were available and I was hoping for a respec mod.

Vector wrote:

Got the game running smoothly.

Anyone know if the mods work with the EE? I like the mutagen mods that were available and I was hoping for a respec mod.

The mod I used to remove the Dark effect from the dark mode gear worked just fine, so there's that. There shouldn't be much harm in trying, anyway, though I would give my savegames a backup just in case.

Just me, or does the magic tree seem weaksauce compared to the others? I've put two points into swordplay but alchemy looks like the bees knees.

Just killed the Kayran, got 3 levels (went from 9 to 12)! That was pretty satisfying. I still wish the combat controlled better.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Just me, or does the magic tree seem weaksauce compared to the others? I've put two points into swordplay but alchemy looks like the bees knees.

Just killed the Kayran, got 3 levels (went from 9 to 12)! That was pretty satisfying. I still wish the combat controlled better.

Well, the magic tree USED to be awesome until they nerfed Quen. Fully upgraded Quen was awesome. Yrden might be more useful than Quen now. I'd say the swordplay tree is the most fun because there are some sweet moves you can unlock. I did my first playthrough as sword focused. I haven't done an alchemy focused build.

Edit: I forgot to mention something that new players may have missed. Once you upgrade a power with a mutagen, it is permanent. Therefore, never use the lesser or regular mutagens. Only use the greater mutagens as they are not particularly rare.

It's easy to start throwing mutagens in your tree and then realize that you effed up hours down the road once you get some greater mutagens. I had to learn that the hard way as I wasn't paying close attention.

I found an Espandon (a sword) in the prologue that does 20-25 damage. Totally overpowered for that stage of the game. I wonder if it's something they added in EE.

Also, the new chapter transition cutscenes only work in 16:9. Hope they fix that.

Good tip about the mutagens. After the first Witcher's rune system I learned to never put anything in a slot unless I was sure it was the best possible stat boost.

I played through the first time with the sword tree. Alchemy looks fun, but the bonuses of taking reduced back damage, and dealin' more slicing and dicing damage seemed way too cool. The best bonus was actually pretty low key, the longer faster dodge turned out to be the best thing ever.

That's a good advice on mutagens, except I found the grand total of 2 greater mutagens in my playthrough. One was slotted for some mediocre bonus and the other was so useless I ended up selling it. So I finished the game with just one mutagen slotted, for fear of slotting an inferior mutagen.

MoonDragon wrote:

That's a good advice on mutagens, except I found the grand total of 2 greater mutagens in my playthrough. One was slotted for some mediocre bonus and the other was so useless I ended up selling it. So I finished the game with just one mutagen slotted, for fear of slotting an inferior mutagen. :P

I still don't get how the mutagens work. I have a lot of them, but I don't seem to be able to do anything with them on the item screen OR skill screen. How I use!?

Clemenstation wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

That's a good advice on mutagens, except I found the grand total of 2 greater mutagens in my playthrough. One was slotted for some mediocre bonus and the other was so useless I ended up selling it. So I finished the game with just one mutagen slotted, for fear of slotting an inferior mutagen. :P

I still don't get how the mutagens work. I have a lot of them, but I don't seem to be able to do anything with them on the item screen OR skill screen. How I use!?

You need an ability with a little slot in the corner of its icon, and then hit the corresponding button displayed in the lower right. (Skill screen)

IMAGE(http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110618132739/witcher/images/thumb/e/e3/Magic_mutagens.jpg/830px-Magic_mutagens.jpg)

I'm considering starting over. So far I've done all the side-quests I know of in the Flotsam area, killed the Kayran, and did the "Rose of Remembrance" quest. Before I knew better, I spent some skill points on things I wouldn't have knowing what I know now. I'm no longer struggling through every combat, except those with Wraiths.

So I'm looking for input, should I soldier on or head back in better armed with knowledge?

On a personal level I'm a fan of owning my mistakes and dealing with them on an initial playthrough.

I don't think that you will have totally broken the game with your bad decisions.

The second run is for min/maxing.

I just finished the game. I think I feel much as Geralt does - weary of the violence and misery. What a brilliant, beautiful game. I really look forward to the next part. Also: man, the credits are long. I'm waiting to see the final cutscene, and it's taking forever!

ETA: so not worth it. Still, the game itself is now firmly lodged in my top three of all time. Has there been any information on when the next installment is supposed to be due? Have they even started working on it? Off to find the Witcher 2 Spoiler thread, if there is one!

If you plan on playing it again to see the different path (you should :P) you might want to hold off on the spoiler thread.

Also, I think you can skip the credit and hop right to the post credits stuff. In the original version is was just a super short thing though, dunno what it is in TW2:EE

MrDeVil909 wrote:

On a personal level I'm a fan of owning my mistakes and dealing with them on an initial playthrough.

I don't think that you will have totally broken the game with your bad decisions.

The second run is for min/maxing. :)

I'm the opposite way. I generally play RPGs one time, and during that one run I strive to explore everywhere, complete 100% of the quests and secret bosses, and make the strongest characters within my character class. Usually I read a character building guide before I get started to make sure I have a handle on the stats and the systems before I start assigning skill points. If I realize I've messed up, I start over before I've gone too far, and "wasted" too much time.

If it's bothering you, restart, hurry!

Squee9 wrote:

If it's bothering you, restart, hurry!

Yeah, I went ahead and restarted. The main culprit was finding out I missed out on an ability called "Experienced," a passive trait that grants 10% more experience across the board. That's too sweet to pass up.

From my perspective, that's why you need to self-censor what you look at in terms of guides and spoilers before you're done with a game. You never get that first experience again, and discovering things for yourself beats running through a to-do list. TW2 isn't perfectly balanced, but I never felt significantly underpowered, especially at the end where that 10% is going to be felt.

I think putting 10-15 hours in before looking at anything was adequate. Purity of experience is a nice ideal, but I consider it mainly pertinent in regard to narrative or visual elements of the game, not character building. Character building should be more front-facing.

As I said earlier in the thread, I feel your character's progress in the game is too slow, so I'm particularly interested in the experience bonus. I also don't think I would have ever thought to kill every training dummy I come across, because the game in no way steers you toward that.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I also don't think I would have ever thought to kill every training dummy I come across, because the game in no way steers you toward that.

Nooooooooooooooooooo! Good thing I've managed to vanquish my own RPG OCD, because knowing this would've sent me back to the prologue 5 years ago.

Hyetal wrote:
Clemenstation wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

That's a good advice on mutagens, except I found the grand total of 2 greater mutagens in my playthrough. One was slotted for some mediocre bonus and the other was so useless I ended up selling it. So I finished the game with just one mutagen slotted, for fear of slotting an inferior mutagen. :P

I still don't get how the mutagens work. I have a lot of them, but I don't seem to be able to do anything with them on the item screen OR skill screen. How I use!?

You need an ability with a little slot in the corner of its icon, and then hit the corresponding button displayed in the lower right. (Skill screen)

Thanks for that. The slots on the icons seem so obvious once you point them out.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I think putting 10-15 hours in before looking at anything was adequate. Purity of experience is a nice ideal, but I consider it mainly pertinent in regard to narrative or visual elements of the game, not character building. Character building should be more front-facing.

As I said earlier in the thread, I feel your character's progress in the game is too slow, so I'm particularly interested in the experience bonus. I also don't think I would have ever thought to kill every training dummy I come across, because the game in no way steers you toward that.

I've played the game 3 times (completing it once) and this is the first time I've even heard of doing that.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I think putting 10-15 hours in before looking at anything was adequate. Purity of experience is a nice ideal, but I consider it mainly pertinent in regard to narrative or visual elements of the game, not character building. Character building should be more front-facing.

I like it. Also, when it comes to epic RPGs, I don't have the time, and I'm not interested, in playing through a game with a character I am not happy with, don't understand, or who I feel is weaker than he/she needs to be. I'm not looking for spoliers, just trying to learn the system.

Reading up on how Druids work in Dungeons and Dragons and planning what spells and skills to get doesn't ruin the experience of playing the game or character at all. In fact, I love that kind of optimization planning and testing, it's part of the game. When it comes to PC games though, the core rulebooks are replaced by gamefaqs character building guides.

Vector wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I think putting 10-15 hours in before looking at anything was adequate. Purity of experience is a nice ideal, but I consider it mainly pertinent in regard to narrative or visual elements of the game, not character building. Character building should be more front-facing.

As I said earlier in the thread, I feel your character's progress in the game is too slow, so I'm particularly interested in the experience bonus. I also don't think I would have ever thought to kill every training dummy I come across, because the game in no way steers you toward that.

I've played the game 3 times (completing it once) and this is the first time I've even heard of doing that.

Whaaaaaaa? Shoot... At least I'm not through the prologue yet on my second go through.

Blind_Evil wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

The Junk category in inventories is my favorite thing to happen to RPGs.

Eh, I'd rather they just give me some currency and save the step.

Didn't Mass Effect have a funny progression in that regard? I seem to remember getting all loot in the first game and being able to break it down for materials. Then in game 2 being able to break it down immediately. Then in 3 all of the loot just being money.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Vector wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I think putting 10-15 hours in before looking at anything was adequate. Purity of experience is a nice ideal, but I consider it mainly pertinent in regard to narrative or visual elements of the game, not character building. Character building should be more front-facing.

As I said earlier in the thread, I feel your character's progress in the game is too slow, so I'm particularly interested in the experience bonus. I also don't think I would have ever thought to kill every training dummy I come across, because the game in no way steers you toward that.

I've played the game 3 times (completing it once) and this is the first time I've even heard of doing that.

Whaaaaaaa? Shoot... At least I'm not through the prologue yet on my second go through.

After looking it up it's not a huge boost unless you game the system a bit.

Spoiler:

You have to kill 10 of the dummies and they are scattered across the chapters. So you won't get the bonus until near the end of the game. However, during the prologue the dummies will respawn if you wait. So if you wait around long enough you can do it that way.

DSGamer wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

The Junk category in inventories is my favorite thing to happen to RPGs.

Eh, I'd rather they just give me some currency and save the step.

Didn't Mass Effect have a funny progression in that regard? I seem to remember getting all loot in the first game and being able to break it down for materials. Then in game 2 being able to break it down immediately. Then in 3 all of the loot just being money.

Not entirely. In Mass Effect you had a lot of equipment but none of it was junk. You could break it down for omni-gel or sell it for cash. Since you could only hold a certain amount of omni-gel that was only so useful. ME2 and ME3 had the same system of no loot and just being rewarded money and removed selling items.

Vector wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Vector wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I think putting 10-15 hours in before looking at anything was adequate. Purity of experience is a nice ideal, but I consider it mainly pertinent in regard to narrative or visual elements of the game, not character building. Character building should be more front-facing.

As I said earlier in the thread, I feel your character's progress in the game is too slow, so I'm particularly interested in the experience bonus. I also don't think I would have ever thought to kill every training dummy I come across, because the game in no way steers you toward that.

I've played the game 3 times (completing it once) and this is the first time I've even heard of doing that.

Whaaaaaaa? Shoot... At least I'm not through the prologue yet on my second go through.

After looking it up it's not a huge boost unless you game the system a bit.

Spoiler:

You have to kill 10 of the dummies and they are scattered across the chapters. So you won't get the bonus until near the end of the game. However, during the prologue the dummies will respawn if you wait. So if you wait around long enough you can do it that way.

The wiki entry says you get five in the prologue, and there are 6 in Flotsam, which gets you the 10. I tried waiting for the five to respawn in the prologue yesterday over the course of two hours (I was watching a basketball game) and nothing happened.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Vector wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Vector wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I think putting 10-15 hours in before looking at anything was adequate. Purity of experience is a nice ideal, but I consider it mainly pertinent in regard to narrative or visual elements of the game, not character building. Character building should be more front-facing.

As I said earlier in the thread, I feel your character's progress in the game is too slow, so I'm particularly interested in the experience bonus. I also don't think I would have ever thought to kill every training dummy I come across, because the game in no way steers you toward that.

I've played the game 3 times (completing it once) and this is the first time I've even heard of doing that.

Whaaaaaaa? Shoot... At least I'm not through the prologue yet on my second go through.

After looking it up it's not a huge boost unless you game the system a bit.

Spoiler:

You have to kill 10 of the dummies and they are scattered across the chapters. So you won't get the bonus until near the end of the game. However, during the prologue the dummies will respawn if you wait. So if you wait around long enough you can do it that way.

The wiki entry says you get five in the prologue, and there are 6 in Flotsam, which gets you the 10. I tried waiting for the five to respawn in the prologue yesterday over the course of two hours (I was watching a basketball game) and nothing happened.

It probably got fixed when they updated it to the Enhanced Edition.

That'd make sense. Still, you should be able to get the bonus early in chapter 1.