The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone Expansion

[Tacgnol]

The mutated blood one in the expansion skill tree that gives you damage reduction based on adrenaline points basically makes you immune to damage when paired with a sword build.

Sounds pretty lulzy as my current build has maxed resolve too (damage doesn't reduce adrenaline).

Yeah that's the route I went as well. It's really broken when paired with the expansion ability.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Sodafish]

Well that's one more reason to avoid the runewords tbh. That and the really annoying glow on enchanted items. Yay! Luminous piss yellow on my sword whenever it's swung about!

 

[Sodafish]

Forgot to mention that the soundtrack to HoS is also really fucking good. That main motif is simple but hauntingly beautiful, especially in the "Go Back Whence You Came" variation. Przybylowicz knows his onions.

 

[Konjad]

This add on is shit. Quests are derp, dialogues are so edgy that they're cringeworhy. Was is written by different people than the original game? Because it feels like it.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Merlkir]

Wrong expansion, wrong thread.

 

[Konjad]

I was kind to Shani and accidentally had sex with her. wtf. this is some bioware style of writing where just not being rude to someone ends up with fucking. the shit is this fuck.

 

[Starwars]

Can you even avoid having a romance with her? They certainly seemed to push for a romance there even if the player doesn't necessarily want it.

 

[Wolfe]

Yes, you can. However, the romance does seem shoved down the player's throat.

 

[imweasel]

This addon is truly a great waifu simulator. Anyway, I can hardly wait for my Geralt to get into Shani's panties.

Oh Shani, you seductress ginger.



The moneysink is also nice, but the runewright powerups are really underwhelming.

 

[Sodafish]

Severance is definitely worth it if you use whirl or rend though, and it's only a 2nd tier one. It's actually very OP with whirl. 3rd is a waste of time.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[NotAGolfer]

Finished it too.
Really great expansion albeit a bit short imo but still more than enough for 10 Euros.
It excels at the one thing the main game was pretty good at too, storytelling. Gameplay was meh though, except for some of the boss fights. Both the gardener and Iris' worst nightmare felt new and challenging and I also liked the toad. Gameplay was very much on rails for the most part, but let's be honest, the main game wasn't that different.
Will try to finish Blood and Wine but I'm very close to being fed up with storyfag gameplay for quite a while tbh. There are movies and books that are more fun to watch/read where you don't have to follow stupid questmarkers without thinking and without actual challenge while gawking at the beauty of the scenery and the epicness of the story unfolding.
Fights are a joke on the second hardest difficulty level and turn into pointless time-consuming HP bloats on the hardest one. It's still not that bad since you are often forced to at least change your attack patterns and quaff some potions or use a sign but after a while it still plays like braindead autopilot for the most part.

I have to disagree on weapon and armor enchantments being useless, Severance was extremely op (practically turning whirlwind into an auto win combo) and Entanglement also very useful. I'm pretty sure there are other enchantments that are comparably powerful if you don't use the light armor & quick attack build I chose.

And I found Quen to be pretty useless later in the game. The active shield that replenished your HP was nice but the passive one just broke down too easily against most enemies. And I felt like the ability to push back enemies is a waste of one precious active skill slot (I don't want to push them back, I want to kill them the fastest way possible ^^). Maybe I didn't invest enough in it but using Yrden after applying Entanglement to my armor was the better choice in nearly every situation. Or Axii to get enemies with strong defense to lower it or fight each other.

 

[Grimnir]

The runewright is worth the money imo. Severance is OP with whirl, but it's just as good with rend. It nearly doubles the range of rend, which allows you to mindlessly spam an unblockable attack. Add that decoction which heals you whenever you spend stamina and it's nearly impossible to die.

Deflection lets you ignore archers. Levity lets you use the cat school skill. Entanglement is great with a signs build. Prolongation and whirl allows you to keep all potions going indefinitely, including that potion which grants invulnerability for a few seconds.

And the fully upgraded runewright is a master armorer/blacksmith with a fast travel point nearby, so you don't have to waste time running around Crow's Perch and Novigrad to upgrade stuff.

 

[you know what time it is]

Good expansion, liked it more than vanilla quest. But lack of meaningful choices is annoying, the whole Shani bit and at the end:

Spoiler

I wan't to outplay wannabe devil and take on Olgeird myself, fucking cunt deserves a proper ass whooping and a life without a couple of extremities, but full of regrets

 

[Sodafish]

You know this reminds me: I never once used Iris after he gave it to me. Is it any good?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Sodafish]

Meh.

Shields are broken in this game tho tbh. That bullshit about them dropping them when tired or axii'd? I never once saw it happen. Also they can never be blown over with aard, even with 200+ sign intensity and the aard mutation. Ridiculous.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

If you are so sign-oriented you have 200% sign intensity just burn them with alternative igni. Alternative igni is especially effective against them because unlike regular enemies they won't try to run-up to you and hit you but will slowly advance towards you making them easy targets.

 

[Sodafish]

Alt igni is a pile of shit since they nerfed it.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

When was it? I still used it against enemies with shields in HoS and B&W. It worked like a charm.

 

[Sodafish]

Always seemed incredibly underwhelming when I used it. The regular igni is far more effective, albeit not on shield mooks.

 

[Doktor Best]

I was kind to Shani and accidentally had sex with her. wtf. this is some bioware style of writing where just not being rude to someone ends up with fucking. the shit is this fuck.

The difference between just being friendly and engaging a romance is quite blatant. You have to be a social cripple to fall into that "trap"

I mean which line of dialogue did you expect?

"EY MEDIC BITCH, GOT SUM WINE. WANNA BANG?!?!?"

 

[imweasel]

Indeed. There are numerous options to put Shani in the friend zone if you wish.

 

[Konjad]

I was kind to Shani and accidentally had sex with her. wtf. this is some bioware style of writing where just not being rude to someone ends up with fucking. the shit is this fuck.

The difference between just being friendly and engaging a romance is quite blatant. You have to be a social cripple to fall into that "trap"

I mean which line of dialogue did you expect?

"EY MEDIC BITCH, GOT SUM WINE. WANNA BANG?!?!?"

She asked me if I want to spend some more time with her, and I said yes. I thought we'll spend time as friends, not fucking.

 

[typical user]

I was kind to Shani and accidentally had sex with her. wtf. this is some bioware style of writing where just not being rude to someone ends up with fucking. the shit is this fuck.

The difference between just being friendly and engaging a romance is quite blatant. You have to be a social cripple to fall into that "trap"

I mean which line of dialogue did you expect?

"EY MEDIC BITCH, GOT SUM WINE. WANNA BANG?!?!?"

She asked me if I want to spend some more time with her, and I said yes. I thought we'll spend time as friends, not fucking.

Had similar case with Triss. She is about to leave with sorcerers on a ship and CDPR decides it is perfect moment to do her. I let her go as I expected I would have a chance to meet her again at more apropiate time not when at least half of these people shat their pants on their way to the docks, some parts of the town are burning and witch-hunters can come anytime and finish the job. That's how I got Geralt as forever alone.

 

[Jezal_k23]

Great expansion, finished this one today. Didn't want Geralt to have sex with Shani because O'Dimm kind of encouraged him to and I thought this might come into play later. I was not about to do ANYTHING he suggested I do other than the absolutely necessary stuff. The haunted house sequence was my favorite part of it all, great stuff overall. Overall some great fights especially in comparison to the base game, in which none really stand out that I can recall. Glad they called it expansion instead of DLC, otherwise I might have puked all over.