The Witcher 3 Pre-Expansion Thread

I've started on Death March and while I am still only level 4 every encounter is challenging and demanding. You have to watch the enemy animations dodge at the right point and use the bestiary. 2-3 hits will drop you. It was the same with Witcher 1, too easy on normal, very good on hard, cause you had to use alchemy and time your attacks wisely. The only way to play the witcher series is on the higher difficulties.

 

I always dreamed of an RPG whese bosses were more than an exercise in patience, but actually brought more challenge and "strategy" to the table, and are more than just "inflated HP". But hey, I'm a dreamer (actually, some MMORPGS got better, at this, with bosses actually requiring something vaguely resembling "tactics").

I'm taking some Brownie Points from you, for mentioning Dark Souls.

 

I don't even.

You know what bro. Next time don't go for easy but Deatch March. Then come back with your revised theory about combat

 

Also you go with level scaling, people bitch. You go with non-level scaled system, they bitch again. I bet my left nut if CDPR went with Gothic-like system ppl ITT would say "trololo this is stoopid you can kill everything on level 1 trololo".

Truly, everything is shit.

 

I recently played TW2 on "Dark mode". It appears just crazy impossible at the beginning, but after level 6/7 and some practice (read: "deaths"), it becomes quite easy. What remains really hard is fights vs groups, and the worse if in a tight space: then, it's just random... A miss, a critical, an enemy randomly ending up behind you (hit from behind = instadeath, more or less), Geralt failing a roll or getting caught in furniture. I even got Letho down the first time (in the ruins, a much easier fight compared to the final fight VS him) in very few attempts (less than 5).

I will agree with you on this, though: the harder difficulty settings DO add some challenge to the game (what I don't like is that it challenges my patience/resilience rather than my skill or ability to come up with successful strategies), so there's that. I still think combat is dull/boring, and I'm pretty confident Death March won't really change my mind, after my first 25 random deaths VS trash mobs.

 

I'm playing on Death March mode and I suspect that indeed they lower your damage when fighting mobs over your level. In fact I encountered a wyvern with level "??" which I could not hurt at all.

Also the combat is fucked up. I enjoy fights 1vs1 (somewhat resembling boss fights) but like I've said before: it's a circus when there are 3+ opponents.

 

See my reply to Deranged, about that (just above).

Hey, I'm sorry if I find combat shit. But hey, earlier in the thread you can find a list of all the things I do like about TW3 (and I like them a lot!). Don't get all butthurt because I find the combat shit, I'm a storyfag after all, and I'm really glad you like it, whatever your reasons.

 

But it's twitch combat, not TB. You don't come up with successful strategies in twitch. Even in the best twtitch bames it's all about learning the patterns of the enemies and then exploit it to the best of your twitch ability. Ever watched some experts playing Dark Souls, a game with the best action combat by far? You can also say there's hardly any challenge for them. And boss fights are all about patient gnawing at their ankles. You wanna tactics and strategy, you came to the wrong game bro.

I'm not butthurt. On the Codex you can trash whatever you want provided you give your reasons. And I just disagree with your reasons is all.

 

Combat and difficulty were much better in Witcher 2. Ironically, since they talked so much shit about how bad it was in 2 and how they wanted to improve it, and even hired people to "improve" it.

Never believe their lies. </Memento>

Also, no. It isn't twitch combat. In a twitch combat game you have animation cancelling and your reflexes are the primary thing being tested. Witcher series has always been a timing game. 1 can't be compared to other titles, but 2 and 3 are very obviously trying to do the Dark Souls timing gameplay (no animation cancelling, dodge at the correct time, attack at the correct time) but just in a really shoddy fashion. I have no clue why you think its a twitch game when you yourself use words like "timing".

 

Can't say the game is easy on death march, but it's difficult for the wrong reasons. HP bloat, massive damage resistance on enemies. If they had made it so you could 2 shot most fodder enemies they way they do you while keeping the insane aggressiveness (goddamn wolf packs). Instead you're forced to bunnyhop around and only attack when it's totally safe, which gets old until you're geared\leveled enough to actually be on the offensive.

As for not being able to hurt some stuff much higher level than you, I think it's an artifact of everything being percentage based. Enemies that have a lot of damage resistance are pretty much invulnerable if they're red, while something like a water hag can be taken care of even if it has 14 levels on you.

 

ITT: lots of Dark Souls fanboys.

 

Witcher 2 was ridiculously hard on Dark difficulty... The only reason I enjoyed Witcher 1 on hard and currently Witcher 3 on very hard is because it feels more connected to the story. You have to carefully plan in advance your oils and potions, study the weaknesses using the bestiary e.t.c.

 

This. This. This. That's exactly the same as Dark Mode for TW2. Goddammit guys, even the newfag gets it.

And since we're at it, welcome to the Codex, Dookins . We're nice people, really.

 

2 actually had a much better preparation/Witcher element to it, since alchemy was both strong and had to be used in advance. In practice this just meant a lot of metagaming, but its sure preferable to the mindless potion gulping of 3, or just not using potions at all because they make so little difference.

Liking Dark Souls is fine, but thinking Dark Souls is the only blueprint of action games and calling it "twitch" is downright criminal. It's like these fags have never played Bayonetta or Darksiders.

 

(I had no real problem with it, and I'm a storyfag who hates combat and doesn't even own a console)

 

I'm guessing most people who call Dark hard never made it past the beginning of Act I threshold. It's a long slide into easy mode once you get a few levels. Maybe this is why the character system is so shit in 3. "If the player doesn't ever gain any power, they can't complain about reverse difficulty curve!"

 

Yeah, so just like in every RPG ever created.

Sure, you can hop around endlessly.

Or you can use all those abilities and tools you have at your disposal and never ever use on easier difficulties. Come up against a pack of 10 wolves on Death March? Coat your blade with beast oil, drink thunderbolt, blizzard and tawny oil, then white honey to cleanse your system and pop in a few more decoctions of your choice. Then ready your bombs, preferably northern wind and samum and crowdcontrol the shit out of the pups with your aard and igni.

 

What can I say ? I didn't manage to get past ACT 1 on Dark indeed. I had to lower the difficulty (I think one level below) in order to finish it. So far I am finding Death March on Witcher 3 much more satisfying... To each his own I guess.

 

lmao what are you even saying

white honey removes buffs, it doesn't just lower your toxicity

plus you don't need to use any potions/buffs/oils to kill hard enemies whatsoever, it's not even that useful, the buffs given by consumables are pretty minor (thunderbolt, for example, is only like 10% damage increase in 3 as compared to 32% in 2 with proper talents)

The problem isn't that Death March is hard, the problem is that even on Death March all your tools in 3 are utterly pointless outside weapon damage + Quen. It's just poorly designed, with a character system even more hollowed out than 2's just decent version.

 

It's easier at a baseline, so I can understand someone preferring it to 2 if they never made it past some difficult part in 2. As someone who found 2 on Dark just difficult enough to provide a modicum of interest, 3 makes me feel like I'm playing Shadow of Mordor again or something. Yawnfest 2015, but as they say, your mileage may vary.

 

I am still at the beginning, but I've found Swallow and the trap sign pretty useful.

 

Yeah, swallow's the only potion I regularly use in 3. Thunderbolt is technically useful, but the damage bonus is so meagre that I just never bother to swap it into slots most of the time, or remember to use it. The potion swapping/low duration design is certainly to blame in large part for this, the UI really wants you to not play Geralt in the way he's supposed to be played. Why would I spend half my time juggling inventory screens to gain a small bonus to damage when I could spend that time killing the enemy instead?

I miss 10 minute potion uptime from #2 so very much, but I guess CDProjekt doesn't want me to use alchemy anymore.

 

Because I use "twitch" as a synonym to "action"? I have no clue why you think "twitch" means animation cancelling.

 

J_C taking his apologist talents and using them for CDP now that he's abandoned Double Fine.

 

So you don't like the game?

That's cool bro.