The Witcher 3 Catch-All

I played through the main story on Xbox One and finished with around 160 hours, but I had a bugged quest with trying to get one of the gear sets (I can't recall which, but I remember it being the exact one I wanted). After much Googling, the best answer I could find was to uninstall everything, delete the save and start from scratch, which I was not going to do. So I bought it on Steam like I should've done in the first place

I also recently acquired Witcher 1 and 2, and I think I'm going to marathon the whole series. Witcher 3 was very possibly my favorite gaming experience of all time, and I'm aching to devour as much Witcher-related content as I possibly can. Any tips for making the first 2 as enjoyable as possible are definitely welcomed for any of you Witcher vets out there that want to chime in

Tailsnake wrote:

Finally got a chance to play some of the Blood and Wine DLC (had to give up on even considering a NG+ since I can't afford to drop an extra 100 hours into this game). I had almost forgotten how amazing this game was, I had to keep stopping so I could explain to my increasingly annoyed GF how well paced, natural, a well-developed everything felt.

I also switched from a Sign build to a potion build and... well potion builds are broken. I went from having ~5000 vitality to having over 20000 vitality with the right buffs triggered and massive vitality regen. Plus, I now carry around 9 copies of each bomb (also, they're all cluster bombs now). I tried increasing the difficulty from blood and bones to death march and turning on level scaling but it's made no difference, potion builds are just insanely strong.

The potion build as had the added benefit of making Geralt actually look grotesque enough to justify some of the reactions people have to him (now it's the people that treat him normally that seem odd).

Tailsnake, I'm interested to see more about this build if you have a screenshot you could post or a guide you can link to I'm going to run through the whole thing on Death March, and I feel like my build when I played through on XbOne won't cut it.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I should be able to get in the beta whenever that happens because I signed up within minutes of the announcement at E3.

I immediately opened another tab and registered for the beta when they announced it during their press conference. I'm super excited for it.

I really like the first Witcher, but it's a VERY slow burn in the beginning, and sometimes it feels like it goes out of its way to make the experience less enjoyable. Then there's the bugs that are still hanging around. Go in expecting to have to be patient for several hours, and save VERY often. As I recall I did a signs-focused build and that kept things interesting in the combat department.

MountaineerWR27 wrote:

Tailsnake, I'm interested to see more about this build if you have a screenshot you could post or a guide you can link to I'm going to run through the whole thing on Death March, and I feel like my build when I played through on XbOne won't cut it.

I've uninstalled the game to avoid the temptation to play more, but from what I remember it was something along the lines of this with greater geen mutagens in all the slots and a couple of deconcoctions (IIRC I could use 3 doconcoctions at once with this setup). You end up spending a bit more time in the menus to make sure you're using the right oils/potions than you do in other builds, but you're basically unkillable by anything that isn't a massively higher level than you are and your ability to take out groups like the Hanse hideouts in B+W with bombs is pretty insane.

beanman101283 wrote:

I really like the first Witcher, but it's a VERY slow burn in the beginning, and sometimes it feels like it goes out of its way to make the experience less enjoyable. Then there's the bugs that are still hanging around. Go in expecting to have to be patient for several hours, and save VERY often. As I recall I did a signs-focused build and that kept things interesting in the combat department.

Indeed. One must know going in that you will get bogged down in act 2 in Vizima. The solution I found, in 2 complete play throughs, was be willing to walk away for a while when it started to drag. The pay off is absolutely worthwhile.

Fellow Witchers! Share your favourite money making schemes here! Having been given a tour of my new estate in blood and wine, I was rather dismayed to find that my butler dude wants 5000 Witcher pounds to paint the bloody house. Looks like a pretty deep money sink, but most of my coin is still going toward buying new potion recipes and stuff. Any tips?

Go clear out a Hanse base, sell all their equipment.

Also, check out the levels on your crafting materials. You won't be doing a tonne of crafting at this point and don't need all that wood.

When I watch videos like this I realise how much of a noob I still am.

Well,
I just finished the Blood and Wine main quest line. After sinking a total of 250 hours into the WItcher 3 and all of its expansions I feel really bummed out, like my best friend moved away. What's even more sad is that I don't have any red wine, and that just seems like the right thing to toast with right now......guess I have to settle for some scotch.

MountaineerWR27 wrote:

I also recently acquired Witcher 1 and 2, and I think I'm going to marathon the whole series. Witcher 3 was very possibly my favorite gaming experience of all time, and I'm aching to devour as much Witcher-related content as I possibly can. Any tips for making the first 2 as enjoyable as possible are definitely welcomed for any of you Witcher vets out there that want to chime in

I just played through Witcher 1 and 2 earlier this year before finally starting in on 3 recently.

For Witcher 1, the advice above is sound. Remember that it's an older game at this point, and the menus and interface absolutely show it. I also got a fair number of crashes, so definitely save often. Act 2 does run long, but keep at it.

Witcher 2, you DEFINITELY want to install the Full Combat Rebalance patch. It's a semi-official patch, since it was made by one of the dev team. It makes the combat feel a lot like the combat in Witcher 3, and also changes the way the skill trees behave in a good way. Just know that you can't install it on top of an existing save. I found this out the hard way and had to restart after about 10 hours. The fact that I decided the mod was worth the restart should tell you something. I also found the combat in Witcher 2 kind of hard to wrap my head around, moreso than 3, and wound up playing it on easy to get the storyline. No regrets.

Chaz wrote:

Witcher 2, you DEFINITELY want to install the Full Combat Rebalance patch. It's a semi-official patch, since it was made by one of the dev team. It makes the combat feel a lot like the combat in Witcher 3, and also changes the way the skill trees behave in a good way. Just know that you can't install it on top of an existing save. I found this out the hard way and had to restart after about 10 hours. The fact that I decided the mod was worth the restart should tell you something. I also found the combat in Witcher 2 kind of hard to wrap my head around, moreso than 3, and wound up playing it on easy to get the storyline. No regrets.

The combat in Witcher 2 definitely is the weakest in the series - I actually quite liked the weird rhythm-based system of the first game. Unfortunately I never got around to replaying it, so I never experienced it with the combat rebalance.

After I finally got my new GPU recently (had been stuck with a semi-broken one since about a year back) I finally could get started on the DLC for Witcher 3 - at least that was the plan. Once I had the game started up I decided to instead start a New Game+ and get into the DLC once it felt right. I'm now about 60-70 hours into my new game and apart from randomly running into two Knights from Toussaint whom I had to tell that they'll have to wait a couple of weeks while I sort stuff out I haven't even seen any of the new content. And yet, even playing through stories I already know and only occasionally making different choices, I'm still having the time of my life. Having the minimap turned off and not using fast-travel works even better the second time, since I already know my way around many places. This game just offers an experience like none other, every moment spent in the world of The Witcher 3 is pure joy to me.

kergguz wrote:

When I watch videos like this I realise how much of a noob I still am.

Wow,
The ending of the video where he's attacking everything is insane! I feel really dumb now.

Hassasain wrote:
kergguz wrote:

When I watch videos like this I realise how much of a noob I still am.

Wow,
The ending of the video where he's attacking everything is insane! I feel really dumb now.

I've changed up my build a bit to make something similar, but I need to go further into alchemy than he does because the extra vitality it gives me is my crutch. I'm just not as good at the game as he is obviously! Also, when I was trying to copy his build, even though we are similar levels I found I didn't have enough skill points. I realised that he must have discovered more places of power than me. Cue an online hunt and multi-hour search for all the places of power I'd missed (most of them in skellige).

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I think I'm ready to tackle my first series marathon. I haven't really set a timetable for when I want to have them all complete, but I finished 3 just a few months ago, and I'd like to spend enough time away from it that when I get back to it I feel just a little bit like I'm seeing an old friend from high school and not just revisiting something that is still very fresh. Might be difficult, since 3 resonated with me SO much, but I'm thinking I don't want to get back to it until at least next summer, so I'm thinking finish 1 by mid-October, start 2 around Christmas, and then see where that leaves me when I finish it.

Hassasain wrote:
kergguz wrote:

When I watch videos like this I realise how much of a noob I still am.

Wow,
The ending of the video where he's attacking everything is insane! I feel really dumb now.

Frankly I don't think the game is hard enough to warrant this degree of min-maxing.

For reference, my finish times on the first two games, which were relatively completionist, but only a single playthrough, no "let's revert and play the alternate paths" stuff:

Witcher 1: 43 hours
Witcher 2: 27 hours

(mind blown) Golden Oriole makes you immune to Archespore poison attacks?!! (/mind blown) Good grief, I wish I'd known that. Archespores were the bane of my existence in Toussaint.

imbiginjapan wrote:
Hassasain wrote:
kergguz wrote:

When I watch videos like this I realise how much of a noob I still am.

Wow,
The ending of the video where he's attacking everything is insane! I feel really dumb now.

Frankly I don't think the game is hard enough to warrant this degree of min-maxing.

Well, I respectfully disagree. I found the game difficult enough for stuff like this to grab my attention. I mean, death march is just over the hill and far away to me. Props to your mad skillz though.

Ha, fair enough!

Ansel support is coming on August 15th in case anyone was wondering like me.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Ansel support is coming on August 15th in case anyone was wondering like me.

Damnit -- and here I've been using a debug/free camera mod to take shots on my way through the DLC like a sucker.

Boudreaux wrote:

(mind blown) Golden Oriole makes you immune to Archespore poison attacks?!! (/mind blown) Good grief, I wish I'd known that. Archespores were the bane of my existence in Toussaint.

Upgrading Golden Oriole enough will eventually cause poisons to heal you, which is also handy.

beanman101283 wrote:
Boudreaux wrote:

(mind blown) Golden Oriole makes you immune to Archespore poison attacks?!! (/mind blown) Good grief, I wish I'd known that. Archespores were the bane of my existence in Toussaint.

Upgrading Golden Oriole enough will eventually cause poisons to heal you, which is also handy.

I also had trouble with those Archespores. Oh well.

Blood and Wine is done. I need some time to digest it, and I'll probably post some more spoilery in depth thoughts tomorrow, but wow what a piece of DLC. CD Projekt are so generous with their content. Really satisfied with the whole Witcher 3 experience from beginning to end. I mean there have been a few niggles and bugs, and my worst complaints were a couple of bosses that were just pretty horrible to beat for me. Still, W3 was game of last year for me, Blood and Wine might just top my list this year too.

kergguz wrote:

Fellow Witchers! Share your favourite money making schemes here! Having been given a tour of my new estate in blood and wine, I was rather dismayed to find that my butler dude wants 5000 Witcher pounds to paint the bloody house. Looks like a pretty deep money sink, but most of my coin is still going toward buying new potion recipes and stuff. Any tips?

Get in a boat and visit all of the ? marks in Skellige in the water. You will have to make multiple trips to sell stuff but you will be rolling in gold after. Beware, it gets a tad repetitive...

kergguz wrote:

Blood and Wine is done. I need some time to digest it, and I'll probably post some more spoilery in depth thoughts tomorrow, but wow what a piece of DLC. CD Projekt are so generous with their content. Really satisfied with the whole Witcher 3 experience from beginning to end. I mean there have been a few niggles and bugs, and my worst complaints were a couple of bosses that were just pretty horrible to beat for me. Still, W3 was game of last year for me, Blood and Wine might just top my list this year too.

I couldn't agree more. I finished almost every quest and I still want more!

More detailed thoughts on the Blood and Wine expansion.

Spoiler:

First of all, my ending- The Duchess and her sister both died, Beauclair went into mourning, it was quite a melancholy finale. Regis was hounded by fellow vampires and decided to head for seclusion in Nilfgaard. Geralt went home and was greeted by Yennefer. Nice chat. Actually, seeing Yennefer made me Google other possible endings to see if Triss would appear instead had I romanced her in the main game. Indeed, this is the case, and Ciri shows up if you romanced neither of both. It was only during this search that I realised that it's possible to have the Duchess live, and also her sister! Not only that but her sister is a romance option which blew my mind because in my play through it was never close to being a thing.

I really enjoyed the main quest line, the vampires were insanely powerful and very menacing throughout. The Unseen Elder freaked me out, and it was refreshing to come across a monster that even Geralt would have no hope to defeat. The one disappointment was how easy the Detlaff fight was- a bit anticlimactic after I'd seen him and Regis one shot about 50 soldiers earlier in the game. I also wanted the option to go back and kill Orianna. Actually come to think of it I haven't checked whether or not it's a post game option, I will do so tonight.

I didn't do all the side quests, but those I did were a lot of fun. My favourite was the tourney, despite Guillaume's appalling French accent! There were lots of throwbacks to both previous games and also to the books. All in all, a lovely expansion, and a fitting end to Geralt's adventures.

It's back to the pile now for me, but I'm almost certain to start a NG+ later in the year.

kergguz wrote:

More detailed thoughts on the Blood and Wine expansion.

You really need to watch the alternative path through the last quest, it's pretty amazing.

Sonicator wrote:
kergguz wrote:

More detailed thoughts on the Blood and Wine expansion.

You really need to watch the alternative path through the last quest, it's pretty amazing.

Yeah I watched some on YouTube just now.

Spoiler:

Sex in the clouds... Wtf??

I did the alternative path. It was wonderful.

I just got out of White Orchard last night. My jaw dropped at the size of Velen. I'm so excited to have so much content, and so scared of all the future decision! This game is truly amazing. Here's to hoping it doesn't interfere with grad school/life too much.