The Witcher 3

[Mabster]

Re: The Witcher 3

I know what you're saying. I did a quest last night where I got jumped by 3 guys and got my *** handed to me repeatedly before I finally got savy and beat them.

[DGuinta1]

Re: The Witcher 3

Soo cool, standing upon a wintery mountain top as I watch in the distance a heard of animals cross thru.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The Witcher 3

I'm coming up on the home stretch.

The relationship situation got resolved.

Spoiler

End up with neither. No regrets, would smash all again.

[jvalverde88]

Re: The Witcher 3

Spent about a hour playing gwent and I finally beat the soothsayer, took me about 15 tries but I beat him.

[Mabster]

Re: The Witcher 3

I finally figured out a nit pick problem with in this game.

The maps need a fog of war effect so I can better figure out where i haven't explored. The question marks do a little but there's buildings and areas around the map that I have no idea if I've explored or not.

[Flawless]

Re: The Witcher 3

76 hours later, credits roll. What a ride. What a game.

It's not perfect, but what it aims for, I think it does so more consistently than any other open-world RPG.

The lengths in which CDPR go to have every quest have some story and context, and how well their integrated into the world, is seriously impressive. The sheer amount of quests that tell varied, creative, and interesting stories, is astounding. It really feels like they focused on the narrative and quest design first, then the wrapper was the world. It's so cohesive and for such a large world, it feels surprisingly handcrafted for the most part.

I turned off Points of Interests when I got to Velen, and from that point there was very few things I did that felt like filler. For side-quests, my expectations were continually being subverted. What I thought would be trivial or straightforward, turned out to be way more involved. The Witcher 2 had some of this, like with the troll quest in Flotsam, but nowhere near to the extent as in The Witcher 3.

Despite how much I enjoyed this, I'm not sure I will replay it. I'm completely satisfied with the choices I made and the ending I got. Really looking forward to the expansions though.

[ehh]

Re: The Witcher 3

Got this game over the weekend with my purchase of an Xbox One, this is not my typical type of game and I'm little lost. As a mostly sports-gamer I've spent about four hours playing thus far but all I'm doing is running around and button-mashing to kill monsters. The depth of the game is overwhelming for someone like me lol.

The whole potion/magic/alchemy/making potions etc has me a little lost.

• How often should I be making potions?
• Do you guys have all of the items memorized so when you loot something and find Item XYZ you're all excited because you know it's important?
• The health-meter-refill process confuses me. I press Up on the d-pad and an icon pops up with a clock. Is that how powerful the health refill is? How long it takes to apply? Do people use that mid-battle?
• How often do you use the magic abilities in the wheel menu (think it's R1?)? Is there a consensus best one? The shield perhaps?
• When you're battling monsters, let's say a pack of them ambush you, do you run away or stay and fight? Granted I stink at combat it seems like it's usually smarter to run lol.

Any other general tips would be great. Gracias!

[DGuinta1]

Re: The Witcher 3

It's overwhelming at first then you start to pick things up. Just make sure you manually save as much as you can. Enjoy the ride!

[ThatMichiganFan]

Re: The Witcher 3

Got this game over the weekend with my purchase of an Xbox One, this is not my typical type of game and I'm little lost. As a mostly sports-gamer I've spent about four hours playing thus far but all I'm doing is running around and button-mashing to kill monsters. The depth of the game is overwhelming for someone like me lol.

The whole potion/magic/alchemy/making potions etc has me a little lost.

• How often should I be making potions?
• Do you guys have all of the items memorized so when you loot something and find Item XYZ you're all excited because you know it's important?
• The health-meter-refill process confuses me. I press Up on the d-pad and an icon pops up with a clock. Is that how powerful the health refill is? How long it takes to apply? Do people use that mid-battle?
• How often do you use the magic abilities in the wheel menu (think it's R1?)? Is there a consensus best one? The shield perhaps?
• When you're battling monsters, let's say a pack of them ambush you, do you run away or stay and fight? Granted I stink at combat it seems like it's usually smarter to run lol.

Any other general tips would be great. Gracias!

Yeah, I understand. Generally, I usually only play 2K, Madden, and other sports games. I went to best buy to pick up an audio adapter for my XB1 controller, and decided, "why the hell not" and bought the game. At first, I sucked. Never played any of the witcher games, and combat seemed difficult. I always died, even if only fighting a few drowners. But the more I played, the more I got used to the combat system, potions, and the world in general. Now I've played the game for 140 hours and I am still not finished with the main story.

Witcher 3 Tips

Play Gwent. It is actually fun, and is important in some later quests.

Dodge/Parry a lot. Know when to attack, counterattack, and wait for your opportunity.

Know your monsters. I rarely use the yrden spell, but against wraiths, I use it exclusively. Some monsters have weaknesses you must exploit.

Explore. There is so much to discover and find, and many locations are not even marked on the map with a ?. Just explore your surroundings and see what you can find.

My Favorite Stuff

The Quen (Shield) sign is your best friend. Upgrade it often.

I also use the Igni (Fire) sign often, because it can stagger enemies, and it can cause them to start burning.

I usually only use 2 potions, Thunderbolt and Swallow.

If I see a pack of wolves I usually run. It's by worth my time to fight them all.

Hope I helped a little, enjoy playing the game!

[aukevin]

Re: The Witcher 3

Got this game over the weekend with my purchase of an Xbox One, this is not my typical type of game and I'm little lost. As a mostly sports-gamer I've spent about four hours playing thus far but all I'm doing is running around and button-mashing to kill monsters. The depth of the game is overwhelming for someone like me lol.

The whole potion/magic/alchemy/making potions etc has me a little lost.

• How often should I be making potions?
• Do you guys have all of the items memorized so when you loot something and find Item XYZ you're all excited because you know it's important?
• The health-meter-refill process confuses me. I press Up on the d-pad and an icon pops up with a clock. Is that how powerful the health refill is? How long it takes to apply? Do people use that mid-battle?
• How often do you use the magic abilities in the wheel menu (think it's R1?)? Is there a consensus best one? The shield perhaps?
• When you're battling monsters, let's say a pack of them ambush you, do you run away or stay and fight? Granted I stink at combat it seems like it's usually smarter to run lol.

Any other general tips would be great. Gracias!

I'm still early on in the game as well (20 hours or so), so this is what I've gathered so far....

Making potions is a little different in this game compared to other games I think are similar like Skyrim. Once you learn how to create a potion (recipe given to you or you find it/buy it) you craft it and it goes into your inventory. But you never have to craft it again. When you meditate (R1 and then square on PS4 not sure on X1) the potions get automatically refilled. Not sure if you ever run out of supplies for the potions to get refilled, it's always worked for me. I use the Swallow one you'll get through a quest a bunch, but then there is another one that I bought a recipe for that refills your health bar in chunks rather than a slow regen that Swallow gives you.

Oils are more stuff you can craft to be applied to your sword in combat to deal extra damage to specific enemies. These don't have to be replenished either from what I tell. The problem is finding the recipes to make the different oils. I'm not sure where you get them other than looting. You have to apply them to your swords before the combat though, so I usually forget.

There's no user leveling to alchemy to what I can tell. You can make anything you have the recipe for. When it comes to crafting weapons and armor different blacksmiths and armorers around the world can craft better items, but early on that isn't a big deal because your level isn't high enough to wield or wear high leveled weapons and armor. By the time your level is up you'll be used to the game and the crafting system hopefully and you'll find a master crafter that can make the higher quality stuff.

When I'm looting I used to grab everything but eventually my pockets filled up. Buy bigger saddlebags for your horse to increase your pockets, but they still fill up. I still loot a ton, especially items that regen health like water, food, etc. I also loot any recipes or crafting diagrams I find so I can make the stuff. I usually loot all the weapons and armor I can and sell them back to blacksmiths and armorers (they usually pay better for those items than merchants). I generally leave the junk items alone but sometimes I pick them up too.

As for fighting, I use Signs a lot. Definitely use Igni the most, then the telekinesis blast a good bit too when someone has a shield. I leveled up the Delusion ability early enough to open up dialogue options. Then the magically trap Sign is needed when you start fighting ghosts.

With my weapon, I usually only use fast attacks and that's what I have in my limited Character slots right now. (I'm at level 15 so I finally have about 6 ability slots open). When I first started out and I only had a couple ability slots I used the Fast Attack and Igni. Then I added Quen (shield), and the Sun and Stars general ability that regens health.

As for dodging, something I had to get used to was using the actual dodge button (circle on PS4) and I always have my block trigger pulled it seems unless I an purposely trying to parry an attack (press it when you see the enemy info above their head flash). Because of the way I fight in the Batman games, I was using the X button (A on X1?) to jump away and then back into battle, which is a good tactic in Batman, but not so much in this one. Just lean on the dodge button to slide out of the way of attacks. Just don't let the enemies get to your back if you can help it.

[Chizzypoof]

Re: The Witcher 3

The whole potion/magic/alchemy/making potions etc has me a little lost.

• How often should I be making potions?
• Do you guys have all of the items memorized so when you loot something and find Item XYZ you're all excited because you know it's important?
• The health-meter-refill process confuses me. I press Up on the d-pad and an icon pops up with a clock. Is that how powerful the health refill is? How long it takes to apply? Do people use that mid-battle?
• How often do you use the magic abilities in the wheel menu (think it's R1?)? Is there a consensus best one? The shield perhaps?
• When you're battling monsters, let's say a pack of them ambush you, do you run away or stay and fight? Granted I stink at combat it seems like it's usually smarter to run lol.

Any other general tips would be great. Gracias!

• You just need to create the potion once. Once you create it all you have to is Meditate to refill.
• I can't even remember the last item I picked up. If there is one thing I wish they would improve the sorting in the item menu. To answer you question, the important quest related items will be separated from the rest of your inventory.
• Try to use water or raw meat in combat to heal early in the game. Equip food in the the D-Pad down slot. The Swallow potion is good but it stops healing you if you get hit. I use it when I know I can dodge an enemy. The time that appears shows how long the potion will remain active.
• The signs are all pretty good in their own right. I lean toward Igni and Yrden the most. You can play around with the different signs.
• Early on I ran from groups.

Other tips for early game:

I stuck with only leveling fast attack. You will be able to respec your character throughout the game with buying a potion that merchants sell.

Kill the Archers first.

Dodge and roll are your friends.

Try to live with the decisions you make.

A couple of points in Axii will help you in coversations.

Meditate to refill potions and your health when not in combat.

When assigning points, remember you have to activate the upgraded spell to see the effect.

Don't lock onto enemies when fighting groups.

[DGuinta1]

Re: The Witcher 3

I am having a tough time refilling certain bombs. One of the types to complete a quest. And tips regarding bombs?

[ThatMichiganFan]

Re: The Witcher 3

I am having a tough time refilling certain bombs. One of the types to complete a quest. And tips regarding bombs?

My favorite bombs are the Dancing Star and Grapeshot, but the Direuritium Bomb is also very useful. It blocks all magic abilities, so you cannot use signs, but also blocks the magic abilities of your opponent. Which quest are you trying to complete? And what do you mean refilling bombs? Every time you meditate, your bombs, potions, and health should all refill to the max.

[choadler]

Re: The Witcher 3

My favorite bombs are the Dancing Star and Grapeshot, but the Direuritium Bomb is also very useful. It blocks all magic abilities, so you cannot use signs, but also blocks the magic abilities of your opponent. Which quest are you trying to complete? And what do you mean refilling bombs? Every time you meditate, your bombs, potions, and health should all refill to the max.

If you are playing above the 2nd difficulty setting, health does not recharge after meditating. Broken bones and death march, I think the difficulty levels are called.

[ThatMichiganFan]

Re: The Witcher 3

If you are playing above the 2nd difficulty setting, health does not recharge after meditating. Broken bones and death march, I think the difficulty levels are called.

Yes, that is true. I am playing on the default difficulty. I may be wrong, but I thought that bombs/potions refilled when you meditate on all difficulties.