How is the combat in W3EE? The videos look so bleh... Seems like all you do is use different distance attacks, and get around everything.
Much better because it is much more systems oriented than just action and action changes are much better than vanilla.
TW3 is action oriented system while W3EE is stat driven system equally as action system.
There are so many changes that it is very hard to even start talking about changes.
So the main changes:
Stamina - Unlike Vanilla it is used for physical combat now like in Dark Souls, so simply attacking, dodging etc you can deplete it very quickly. Game doesn't go completely Dark Souls but you can't just play like vanilla anymore and you need to take into account stamina
Poise - New stat not existing in vanilla. Like in DS it handles stagger and your ability to counterattack and defend your self as well as your ability to stagger opponents outside of depleting their stamina. If you go for poise build you will be able to block and counter every attack in the game.
Animation rework - much more predictable, less flair. Stances govern how geralt attack so if you are away from enemy and you actually want to attack that enemy then Geralt for 100% will use long winded attack that will get you close to enemy. If you are very near then attack will be quick. That doesn't sound like much but it is in fact crucial as game feels less janky. Riposte/defense is a lot reworked and you can defend from almost all sides aside from directly behind you same with riposte.
Kicks/special attacks - you can easily execute kicks and other special attacks to do different things like sap enemy stamina, make extra damage etc.
Dodge/Roll revisited - looks normally but behaves a lot different. Roll doesn't have any i frames and dodge has but those iframes don't start instantly like in vanilla. Also there is now new stat covering safe angle of dodge which can be decreased/increased by gear so just dodging around will not really give you advantage with huge group of enemies.
Preparation - You can't drink while in combat, potions and oils last much longer. Drinking and applying oils while you meditate TW1 style gives them additional bonuses to time and effectivness.
New control scheme - If you are pad user like me then you will apreciate it. R1 light attack, R2 strong attack, L2 block/riposte. Insta casting without swithcing spells: L2 + square = ard, L2 + L1 = igni itd. Specials: L2 + R1 = kicks. L2+R2 = heavy double attack. There is new camera for K
users but i play on pad so vanilla camera and targeting are best for me.
No levels - No monster levels, no gear levels, no skill levels, no xp, no nothing. Game is entirely flat. With your first common longsword you can finish whole game if you really want it. Drowners are drowners, gryffins are griffins etc. This also means you can go straight to skellige or any place and try to beat it square without feeling like game is to easy to hard because you are to early here or to late. No exp either so you earn skillpoints only when you find places of power or when you use abilities you have, drink potions, make oils etc. The difference here is that each sword type, weapon type, armor type etc have its own uses which enables you to create interesting builds from get go. So one type of sword might give you chance to freeze someone, other type of sword might give you huge mallus to fast attacks but huge bonus to strong attacks etc. Basically all stuff are enablers.
Unique stuff is unique - You dwell into abyss, do 30 minute dungeon and at the end of dungeon you find "relic" sword that looks like just any other sword you have. IN W3EE if you find relic weapon most of the time it is actually "ruined" and you need weaponsmith to refurbish it for you. Then once you shill out huge sum of money and materials you will get your weapon and it will have unique abilities. That doesn't mean "better" but more like tools. For example i have my new silver sword that switches off specters regeneration ability permanently for duration of fight BUT it does overall 40% less damage. So this silver sword is pretty shit for everything other than specters but it absolutely murders specters. Armors are much more alike as there are far more of them but they still work like tools.
------------------------
Overall combat and whole process around it is much more enjoyable. You don't need to spec into Queen if you want to go full frontal with pack of enemies because blocking/riposte works really well in combat and in fact it is much more preferable way of doing things than both as long as you can pull it off. You can also go into heavy armor and poise so you won't be staggered around like crazy in vanilla TW3. The bigger groups of enemies are problem but you can pop up blizzard which will slow down time before every strike and riposte/prance around in full group of enemies which was not really possible in TW3 vanilla.
What i described isn't really full either. Imho the strongest point of mod is that it enables shitload of builds compared to vanilla and you can really create interesting builds. Virtually no part of combat and systems around it was untouched.