My best move is to alt dodge to the side big stuff. Then to use the dodge roll when I am fighting groups.
I can't get the alt dodge timing down. I keep wanting to hold alt press direction instead of holding direction and pressing alt and it doesn't work that way. Rolling is great for Drowners - 2 fast attacks, roll behind them and finish heavy.
5 different things? huh? maybe we are doing something different? i find the combat very fun. i just use a lot of Quen Sign, dodging and the occassional random food in my quickslot. I don't really use potions at all unless it is something really nasty, but then again I have zero points put into alchemy. my character build also focuses more on avoiding damage than buffing with potions so maybe that's why i'm less annoyed with it? i don't know. as far as identifying ingredients, yeah.. theres a lot. i usually dont pay attention to what i pick up. more along the lines of if i see something i dont recognize, i make a point to pick it up. i have so much of the bushy yellow flower that i ignore those... that's about as discriminate as i get.
gihzmo's right. if you are looking for something specific, i suggest buying it from an herbalist (they have a plant branch icon on your minimap). once you have created a potion, you don't have to worry about finding more ingredients for it; most potions get refilled using a single arbelest(sp?) potion when you meditate. same goes for bombs. the system for refilling potions is actually simpler than it was in witcher 2 i think. the difference is that i think now there are more ingredients than before. i think the intent was to make stuff harder to create initially, but easier to refill.
yeah.. that no health regen on the 3rd difficulty setting makes things much harder. i'm playing on the second setting too. and everyone is absolutely right about the dodging. dodging is huge in this game, but more on that in a sec. blocking and countering is still really important when fighting humans and swarms of weak enemies...especially nekkers. In fact, with large groups of nekkers i have to use an alternating combo of block->dodge->fast attack (repeat as needed) to kill them without getting steamrolled by 6-8 of them. they can stun lock you even if you are consistently dodging because they can close on you so fucking quick. general rules of combat i go by: match speed with speed; fast enemies = fast attacks, slow enemies = strong attacks block weak enemies and dodge strong ones side step dodge smaller enemies with shorter reach and roll dodge larger enemies (and bosses) with longer reach necrophages are not as weak as they appear; all of them can break your blocks so make sure you are dodging them watch out for double strikes; normal wraiths are a good example of this; they often swing twice. be sure you avoid both before making your own attack. block + counter if you get overwhelmed by humans (w/out 2-handers), nekkers, and other large numbers of weaker enemies; it works especially well with nekkers as they are relentless in their attacks when they get close enough, but they can't break your blocks. just wait them out until you see an opening. combat is set up in such a way that you really can't rely on one tactic for dealing with all enemies. blocking, countering, side step, roll, fast attack, strong attack... you really do have to utilize all the "tools in your toolbox" depending on what you are facing.
One tip to add to Magnus' awesome post: When you're wailing on someone and they take a step back to dodge your next swing, either block or dodge yourself, don't keep pressing the attack! If you swing and they dodge, they'll have counterattack priority on you if you swing at them again, and their attack will stagger you. Also, when fighting a group, I've found the most effective method is to just keep cycling through the enemies with one fast attack so they can't ever wind up big hits, and cycling through a group of enemies will naturally cause you to move around, dodging a lot of blows without actually spending the stamina to roll. I'm playing on the 3rd difficulty, and I decided to go with buffing up Yrden and Fast Attacks. Yrden is amazing, because it not only slows down their movement speed, it also slows their attack animation, so it pretty much doubles the frames you have to parry/riposte their blows. Still use Quen for bosses, since most don't seem phased by my buffed up Yrden.
I very rarely find myself using heavy attacks so far. Mostly a lot of Aard and fast attacks. If you stun somewhere with Aard a lot of the time you can execute them quickly before they recover.
yep, derak is right. when an enemy succeeds in dodging your attack, back off and get ready to evade... they are probably only a second away from attacking you. if i'm facing off against a single enemy (especially bosses), i will wait for them to attack first before nailing them with a 2-4 hit combo. as soon as they dodge, though, i switch back to the defensive. i went school of the cat with light armor and lots of blocking, countering, and dodging... so i've had to practice avoiding damage by necessity. i like it though because of the bad-ass factor and it looks cooler to watch like a real sword fight yeah... i understand. my strong attacks are actually not really much better than my fast attacks because of how my skills are right now. however, i still use strong when i need to close a distance to my target. strong attacks are really great for after you rolled away from an attack and you are *just* far enough that a fast attack wont reach. also, the sundering armor skill is not to be underestimated; 25% reduction of enemy's armor. like i said though... its circumstantial as to which atack is best.
I basically never block, it seems like there are only a few enemies where it works, and it's much, much better to just dodge, or roll, seems like. I also almost never use heavy attacks and have been dumping points into upgrading my fast attacks. I guess my main beef with the actually combat mechanics is that the various forms of combat don't flow together very well: I can't really weave signs/ranged with normal attacks, and trying to use those ends up really breaking the fluid combat style they seem to be going for. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, though. also, re: potions, I was exaggerating for effect. I was just frustrated at having to backtrack to get a bunch of extra shit to fight the griffon (though this was on a much harder difficulty setting). Now that I'm at the second difficulty things are going much better. I'm also getting better at gwent, which is nice. I assume the noble guy in Zimir Spoiler where you talk to the emperor the first time or whatever the hell its called is not a deck I'm supposed to play early on, because I got crushed like 4 times before I called it quits. Still trying to get enough cards for a monster deck, but it seems like most of them are random rewards from playing.
it really does depend on the situation and the player. block is important for weak enemies that overwhelm you and it is great if you can get the counter timing right. when you start getting swarmed by 6 or 8 nekkers, you will see. you can get by without using it, but i can honestly say i find it very useful against weak enemies... and archers.. fuck archers. in regards to cards: actually, i did beat the noble in vizima my first time there, but it took a fair amount of luck (6 tries i think?). if you have commander horn and decoy cards, he is easier. i think he is also melee heavy. so a few frost cards might not hurt as an alternative.
On an unrelated note, generic red mutigens are extremely rare (not the creature-based ones). However, I found a consistent way of getting "lesser red mutigens". In Velen there is a level 16 fiend that drops all mutigens. He has about a 1/7 chance of dropping lesser reds. It can be a little tedious to farm, but he's a great fight and great way to practice your dodge skills. I can't recommend fighting him before lvl 12, though. Fiends are a bitch to fight. Very big... very quick. Still, if you are desperate for red mutigens, it is your best bet for early game. Check thumbnails for details and location:
I'm on second hardest, heavy quen dependency with fast attacks and barely any blocking as it tends not to work on monster. Food heals well enough that health regeneration isn't an issue. Nothing is immune to quen. For slow attacking bosses you can just recast it and they can't hurt you.
okay, so there's a guy in the tavern in Oxenfurt who is giving me fits in Gwent. keeps taking my rare cards when he wins, then gives me shit about beating me. Is just murdering him an option?
I am pretty sure you can pretty much murder anyone you want... but the guards will not be happy with you.
pretty sure if you lose, you don't permanently lose any cards. i haven't noticed it anyway. are you sure about that?
