Current Events > Today I start The Witcher 3

(+) Yeah! (+)

his voice is stupid and the combat is repetitive and kind of boring. The DLCs are both really good tho, and Yen is hot af.
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spanky1 posted...

You shouldn't really do stuff that's over your level.

This. I mean, you can if you want, but the game is designed around you coming back to it later when you're leveled a bit more, not going into hour long fights.
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Met Kiera Metz. Going to do her quest line because shes hotter than the baron. Tomorrow though, I need to take a beak.
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Russman posted...

Met Kiera Metz. Going to do her quest line because shes hotter than the baron. Tomorrow though, I need to take a beak.

I like how you can almost see her nipple. B)
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spanky1 posted...

Russman posted...

Met Kiera Metz. Going to do her quest line because shes hotter than the baron. Tomorrow though, I need to take a beak.

I like how you can almost see her nipple. B)

I thought there was a bit of red
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So I just finished Keiras quest line. Questionable where she lies on the hot crazy scale
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Man, I love this game.

I turned the barons miscarried daughter into a ? something and followed it around, met the assassin from witcher 2 and helped him kill a ton of people, started that quest with Keira, then crossed the river north to explore and found a quest up there, currently in some inn outside that giant ass city, just completely lost and absorbed at this point. Only thing is the AI for gwent is pretty damn bad and makes it laughably easy. Really glad I decided to start out on deathmarch, feels like it would be far too easy otherwise
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Ive actually lost every game of gwent I played so far
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maybe its because i played it on the standalone version before playing this so i know the strategies
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I think I'm about to hop back into it lol, really liking it so far. Also the biggest complaint I have is by far how you cant talk or interact with like 95% of the npcs
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Russman posted...

Ive actually lost every game of gwent I played so far

Play the Temerian Kingdoms deck that has a built-in Clear Weather ability (the enemy plays lots of those types of cards) or the Nilfgaardian deck that has tons of spies (winning through pure card advantage). I personally prefer the latter, especially the commander power that lets you play a card from the enemy discard pile (i.e. getting back your spies that were on their field at the round's end).
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Nilfgaard spies are the end-all, be-all method of winning. Usually what I like doing is this:

Round one: play bunches of spies. If you have enough, your opponent will usually pass first as well, since you've buffed their side. At this point you should have way more cards in your hand than them. At this point you can decide to either overtake them and take the round (or tie and win because Nilfgaard), or pass without playing anything on your side and let them take the round.

Round 2 (won round 1): Just play everything. Even after overtaking the opponent in round 1, you should still have more cards than them. Just overwhelm whatever cards they have left.

Round 2 (lost round 1): often, your opponent might play one or two cards, but they'll pass and let you easily win the round. AI trying to conserve cards for round 3, most likely. If this happens, just take the win, playing as few cards of yours as possible. It not, you should still have way more cards than them, so just keep pace with them until they either pass or run out of cards. Take the win.

Round 3: same as round 2 (won round 1). Best them by just having more cards to play still.

Obviously, deck build is important. This works better later in the game when you've built out your Nilfgaard deck a bit more. But it's practically unbeatable.
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^thanks for the advice. Ill do the spy thing because its easy.

Im almost done with velen. There are a lot of high level areas that I dont think Im meant to go to though. Im level 11 and I just got destroyed by a pack of 26+ ghouls.

Im also going on vacation for the next week so I wont be updating for a while.
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

Russman posted...

Which 2 are best? Signs and alchemy?

alchemy builds can be pretty damn powerful but they heavily rely on potion usage. for your first time through the game a Sign build will probably be the easiest. on NG it's pretty powerful but i hear that on NG+ (or difficulties higher than 'normal') it's not nearly as good.

pump your sign based skills and definitely max out Quen. i went with Quen, Igni, Yrden, Aard (skipped Axii) and then maxed the combat skill that increases damage of light attacks. get the Griffon Witcher armor set because it boosts sign damage

Here is what you need for a sign build:

Greater Blue mutagens
Blue skills to attach them to. (One of which should be the first Axii upgrade, Delusion I think.)
The brown skill that makes medium (read: Griffon) armor recover your stamina faster.

That's it. Literally none of the sign skills are useful except for the first Axii upgrade and maybe Explosive Shield if you're not doing a sign build. Charm is kinda cool on Death March since every standard enemy one-shots other enemies, but it's bugged to hell if you have Delusion, which is essential to use Axii at all. Sign intensity is the only thing that matters. It's what determines if Aard knocks down for instant kills and if Igni ignites for hard CC and percent max HP burn. For stuff like golems that is immune to both skills' status effects, you are screwed with a sign build no matter what. You could try the armor melt ability or alt Yrden, but they offer such minimal effect that it really doesn't matter what you skilled. For everything else? With some sign intensity, you defeat all those dragons, cockatrices, griffons and whatnot by setting them on fire and watching them flail in place taking thousands of damage despite you being 20 levels down.

Alt signs are just there to look cool and have absolutely no practical use whatsoever except for Charm, which is bugged to randomly interrupt itself if you have Delusion. The sign intensity upgrades are ridiculously, unbelievably skill-point-inefficient compared to just getting it from mutagens and gear. Yrden range would be okay if Moon Dust bombs didn't eliminate any reason to ever use Yrden. Quen needs no upgrades for a melee build and is useless in a sign build since sign builds just hard CC everything to death.

Throw your skill points into the green tree to get the two skills increase your toxicity limit and drug yourself to OP levels. Then realize that you hate the way it messes with your appearance and the UI and go do a red build where you mash light attack and the dodge button (dodge, not roll!) and win at everything.
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28 hours in. Level 6 and a half. haha, this is a looooong game if you do side content and explore
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^damn im lvl 11 at 17 hours
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Northern Kingdoms deck has just as effective spies in it. That's what I use. And I use the leader ability that doubles the siege row power, and save that for last.
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spanky1 posted...

Northern Kingdoms deck has just as effective spies in it. That's what I use. And I use the leader ability that doubles the siege row power, and save that for last.

Northern Realms with every spy, medic, and bond unit (other than PFIs) plus three decoys is really really strong and easy to play. The Northern Realms faction ability is broken, and all the others suck. But you have to start playing early so you get all the good cards from NPCs like the Baron before they're no longer available.
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the_rowan posted...

spanky1 posted...

Northern Kingdoms deck has just as effective spies in it. That's what I use. And I use the leader ability that doubles the siege row power, and save that for last.

Northern Realms with every spy, medic, and bond unit (other than PFIs) plus three decoys is really really strong and easy to play. The Northern Realms faction ability is broken, and all the others suck. But you have to start playing early so you get all the good cards from NPCs like the Baron before they're no longer available.

I never really was a decoy fan.
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spanky1 posted...

I never really was a decoy fan.

Decoys are literally just more spies and medics. They're broken. You really need at least two. Being able to revive multiple bond units is a big deal.

I rounded my deck out with some high-value golds (golds worth less than 10 points aren't worth using unless they have a special ability since they can't be boosted), some high-value siege units, a Commander's Horn (for three total: one Dandelion, one horn, one from Foltest), I think one Frost because Frost counters Monsters super hard and does pretty well against the other non-NR factions (the other weathers suck). Don't remember if I had any other tech cards.
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Northern Realms > Monsters > Nilfguard > Elves/Dwarves
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cleared up a TON of ? marks on the map and getting ready to do the shrieker contract next time i play
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Anyone who actually says Yennefer is better than Triss clearly hasn't read the books.

Yen is downright awful, her introduction may be the worst I have ever seen for a character you are meant to like.
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The_Ivory_Man posted...

Anyone who actually says Yennefer is better than Triss clearly hasn't read the books.

Yen is downright awful, her introduction may be the worst I have ever seen for a character you are meant to like.

Too bad the voice actor for Triss is... not great. I couldn't ever really like her since her lines are pretty much all delivered terribly.
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Corrupt_Power posted...

The_Ivory_Man posted...

Anyone who actually says Yennefer is better than Triss clearly hasn't read the books.

Yen is downright awful, her introduction may be the worst I have ever seen for a character you are meant to like.

Too bad the voice actor for Triss is... not great. I couldn't ever really like her since her lines are pretty much all delivered terribly.

I'll agree.

Personally, I think the Polish dub is worth a listen, I'm not typically someone who rushes to yell "subs over dubs!" But I do definitely think it's worth a try.
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The_Ivory_Man posted...

Anyone who actually says Yennefer is better than Triss clearly hasn't read the books.

Yen is downright awful, her introduction may be the worst I have ever seen for a character you are meant to like.

To me, Yen and Geralt almost have a Domme/sub relationship going. In that context she's great for Geralt.
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Well, just finished wandering in the dark quest after doing the shrieker contract, now doing magic lamp quest.
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Im gonna do that one soon.ive finished the main quest
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Do all the ? marks show up from examining the notice boards?

Are there hidden ones?
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solosnake posted...

Do all the ? marks show up from examining the notice boards?

Something's revealed by viewing those boards. I think it's the local question mark stuff...
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solosnake posted...

Do all the ? marks show up from examining the notice boards?

Are there hidden ones?

If you look at all the notice boards it should reveal all the question marks.

But honestly at a certain point you can just ignore them.
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spanky1 posted...

solosnake posted...

Do all the ? marks show up from examining the notice boards?

Are there hidden ones?

If you look at all the notice boards it should reveal all the question marks.

But honestly at a certain point you can just ignore them.

Depends on whether you're willing to miss out on Places of Power, really. Instant free skill points never stop being relevant. Everything else tries to give you formulae you haven't found yet or weapons caches; non-Witcher weapons and armor are completely useless, but they're a good source of money, while the formulae are incredibly important to find up until you have them all (which will be in the middle of whichever you do first out of Velen or Skellige if you go for any real number of question marks).
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the_rowan posted...

spanky1 posted...

solosnake posted...

Do all the ? marks show up from examining the notice boards?

Are there hidden ones?

If you look at all the notice boards it should reveal all the question marks.

But honestly at a certain point you can just ignore them.

Depends on whether you're willing to miss out on Places of Power, really. Instant free skill points never stop being relevant. Everything else tries to give you formulae you haven't found yet or weapons caches; non-Witcher weapons and armor are completely useless, but they're a good source of money, while the formulae are incredibly important to find up until you have them all (which will be in the middle of whichever you do first out of Velen or Skellige if you go for any real number of question marks).

Eh, the game is easy enough to where you can use non-witcher equipment I think. I honestly think the treasure hunts are boring, and on my second playthrough I completely ignored them.
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GATTJT posted...

Also are either of you playing on PC? I'm reading the IGN review and it says it runs at 60 fps on ultra settings with a GTX 980, which doesn't sound accurate to me. Unless it's very well optimized.

It runs pretty damn well on PC. I had most settings maxed on a 1920x1080 monitor using only a 960 and had a pretty smooth 60.
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Gonna play some more in a bit hopefully.
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solosnake posted...

Gonna play some more in a bit hopefully.

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So I got back from vacation and played for a few hours. I finally went to novigrad and met Triss Merigold. I dont know whether Im going to pick her or yennifer yet. I dont like how half the quests Im getting are for level 25s and I have to ignore them for now. I also dont know if I should go to akellige or finish all of the novigrad quests.
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Ill say though that I really like this game. Its probably too 5 all time. I like it better than Skyrim so far. Ill wait to see how the endgame/top level mechanics work.
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The main quest level requirement may be higher, but there's no harm in going to Skellige whenever you want. There are no quests that auto-fail by going there (though this does happen when starting a few other quests) and you can travel back and forth as you please.
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Quorthon109 posted...

The main quest level requirement may be higher, but there's no harm in going to Skellige whenever you want. There are no quests that auto-fail by going there (though this does happen when starting a few other quests) and you can travel back and forth as you please.

I might go then. Ive been in this velen/novigrad area for a while now. Hopefully skellige has a different setting.
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So I got into gwent and did the unique card quests, although it was too late for the barons card. Yennefers is my best one by far. Medic cards seem to be the best alongside the trumpet players for their *2 ability. Spies arent worth it for me at the moment because most of my cards are still really shitty.

Novigrad itself is gigantic and Ive been doing stray quests here and there. I did the master smithy elf quest and Rosa van attres sidequest. I thought she was going to be a romance option but apparently Geralt took offense to something she said. She was totally justified in killing those peasants.
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The Witcher 3 is on another level compared to most games. But there are specific design choices not everyone may like. It's like a fantasy Mass Effect but way bigger and more complex.
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Russman posted...

So I got into gwent and did the unique card quests, although it was too late for the barons card. Yennefers is my best one by far. Medic cards seem to be the best alongside the trumpet players for their *2 ability. Spies arent worth it for me at the moment because most of my cards are still really shitty.

Spies are literally ALWAYS the best cards in the game.

If you win round one and you have more cards remaining than your opponent, you win the game automatically by just playing cards in round 2 until your opponent is out of cards. It doesn't matter if they're ahead by 10 points; they still have to play a card every time you do.
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the_rowan posted...

Russman posted...

So I got into gwent and did the unique card quests, although it was too late for the barons card. Yennefers is my best one by far. Medic cards seem to be the best alongside the trumpet players for their *2 ability. Spies arent worth it for me at the moment because most of my cards are still really shitty.

Spies are literally ALWAYS the best cards in the game.

If you win round one and you have more cards remaining than your opponent, you win the game automatically by just playing cards in round 2 until your opponent is out of cards. It doesn't matter if they're ahead by 10 points; they still have to play a card every time you do.

Spies and monster spam decks are the most annoying to play against. The one old sage thats a notorious velen player had 10+ cards on the melee section at once and I didnt have a blizzard card. Its dumb that one monster summons ALL of the others like it.
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Ive continued whoreson juniors quest line. Met the king of temeria and might do trisss quest line next. Also saw a charlatan on the side of the road parading a wyvern as a basilisk. Which reminds me, I still have to kill that wyvern from a few weeks ago.
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Random scene of Geralt brutally beating whoreson junior lol
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It is kinda annoying when most quests are way higher level than you are. I'm a completionist type so when I go to a new area I like to do every quest, kinda triggering when I can't.
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Vyrulisse posted...

It is kinda annoying when most quests are way higher level than you are. I'm a completionist type so when I go to a new area I like to do every quest, kinda triggering when I can't.

Yeah it keeps cluttering my journal. And I lost the horse race against the baron as Ciri so I have one single failed quest sitting at the bottom. That irks me. There are so many quests in this game too. I have. A million side quests so some things I want to do I put off until I finish the current quest line, and then I end up 5 levels above the recommended level and stomp it.
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Ive decided to romance Triss. I have a thing for redheads so it tipped the scales in her favor.
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Im still in Novigrad. So many quests in this game. Im sure Im going to be so overleveled for skellige. I have the hang of gwent too. I win most of the time. its just a matter of having good cards mostly. If you can stack heroes and medics you can win any game
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