The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

[Blarghagh]

Latest post in 10 days:

 

 

 

The main quest in Blood & Wine didn't feel like the supposed 20 hours.  Overall, including side quests and contracts, I probably spent over 20 hours on it.  But the actual main quest seemed closer to the 8 to 10 hour range.

[GhostofAnakin]

I decided to go ahead and start a New Game+ play through.

 

It's kind of amusing to see my starting armor (the Kaer Morhen armor and hunting trousers) have superior stats to the grandmaster witcher armor that carried over from my last game.

[Gorth]

The game was on a 50% off sale (the GOTY version) late December. Decided to pick it up from GOG. At my current catch up speed on old games, I should be ready to play in about 2-3 years

[redneckdevil]

Man it's such a great game but I haven't been able to finish it yet. To much of a backlog of games I wanna finish. I'm gonna finish it after I finish FF 15

[BrotherFerg]

I liked w3 and all but I wish the story was more focused on the wild hunt as I found that more interesting than the typical track this person down quest. The world blows me away though so beautiful feels so real.

[Vaeliorin]

I ended up quitting after I spent like 6-8 hours trying to clear out all the points of interest I had left around Vhelen (sp?) and there were still about 40 to do (though apparently a bunch of those were from Hearts of Stone and too high level for me.)  It wouldn't have bothered me if they were interesting, but pointless loot and random level 3 enemies when I was in the high teens or twenties (don't recall exactly) don't compelling gameplay make.

 

Someday I'll go back to it (and start over) but I don't know how I'm going to get through all of those things (and I can't ignore them...I can't leave things in games undone, it drives me nuts.)

[Wrath of Dagon]

I found I'm having to do all the points of interest because I'm below the recommended level for my next main task. Looks like it's going take quite a while to get through the game, I'll play it off and on in sections so I can play other stuff as well.

[Fenixp]

I found I'm having to do all the points of interest because I'm below the recommended level for my next main task. Looks like it's going take quite a while to get through the game, I'll play it off and on in sections so I can play other stuff as well.

Points of interest reward you with next to no XP. You get most XP for main questline, then for secondary quests (this is tiered even further by getting more XP for secondary quests directly tied to main questline as opposed to those which are not), and you get the least XP for... Well, anything else, really. Additionally, the game rewards a lot less XP for quests which are way below your level.

[Gorgon]

Yep, which leads to a kind of obsolescence for most of the game content after a while. You can still do it, but it's going to be too easy and the loot is going to be useless. 

 

Not unlike Borderlands 2 a lot has been ruined with levels and leveling. 

[Wrath of Dagon]

 

I found I'm having to do all the points of interest because I'm below the recommended level for my next main task. Looks like it's going take quite a while to get through the game, I'll play it off and on in sections so I can play other stuff as well.

Points of interest reward you with next to no XP. You get most XP for main questline, then for secondary quests (this is tiered even further by getting more XP for secondary quests directly tied to main questline as opposed to those which are not), and you get the least XP for... Well, anything else, really. Additionally, the game rewards a lot less XP for quests which are way below your level.

 

You do find new quests in the points of interests though, and things like abandoned villages and monster nests that do give XP, and places of power which increase your skills. Anyway, I did all the available quests and finished the starting area at level 3 and recommended for next area is 5, which is kind of strange, but I'm hoping if I do everything I'll at least get as close as possible to where I'm supposed to be.

[Gorgon]

You will have the opposite problem soon enough. 

[Orchomene]

In the first area, you may want to do all the points of interest.

Then, in Velehn, you should be less focused on this but more in following the main quest and the secondary quests around the area where the main quest leads you to. You can then look at the point of interests of these area without going too far.

Around the tenth level, you go to the cities and the secondary and main quests around those areas until about the twenties where you can go to Skellige and follow main/secondary quests and the interest points.

After that, you can go back to Velehn and clear the areas you missed.

This way, you won't lose too much your interest as if you focus on finishing Velehn and its points of interest, it will become boring half way.

That's my two cents advise.

 

Points of interest are way better in Blood and Wine by the way.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Btw, I started playing with the 360 controller but dumped it for the Steam controller when I realized I really need to map the signs to face buttons, which I can do with the Steam controller, and even mapped the quick save.

[Gorgon]

Being a hopeless powergamer I googled the locations of all the stones of power and went and got them as the first action in a new area.  You really need those if you are going to experiment a bit with your build. 

 

There is a respec potion available in Novograd and once you have it you can try different loadouts on Geralt. 

[Katphood]

Just finished the Big Game Hunter quest in Blood & Wine which was great. I find the Blood & Wine expansion to be very calm and soothing for some reason. 

[Wrath of Dagon]

The decision to restrict loot by level seems very dumb to me. What's the point of getting loot if you can't use it anyway? In general the RPG systems seem weak so far, the rest of the game is very good though.

[Fenixp]

What's the point of getting loot if you can't use it anyway?

You're asking this question about a game in which you'll eventually find a wooden stick that's many times more powerful than a Witcher sword. Itemization in W3 is lazy and the entirely of progression mechanics sucks.

 

... So like 99% of all RPGs then!

[licketysplit]

80% of the loot I hoarded only for money. That's literally all it's useful for. I guess I do the same in most RPGs but W3 is particularly bad when you do special quests and hunts which are supposed to give you unique items, and there's a good chance they'll be below your level. If you play the expansions, which imo are substantially better than the base game, then it's worth saving all the crowns you can. There's an awesome rune in HoS which magically extends the length of your blade and wading through groups of mooks is fun as hell. 

Edited January 6, 2017 by licketysplit

[Wrath of Dagon]

which magically extends the length of your blade

Too bad I can't do a good Beavis and Butthead imitation.

[evilcat]

Finished Witcher 3. But havent beat it, since havent played Gwent at all, also ignored some side quest and bounties, and there are still dlc. But it feels good. It is nice to have game, which you can play and have fun, and finish, but still have big chunk left in case you want come back. That is the way to go.

 

That game was perfect and it will be some time before anyone will beat that. Sorry Skyrim but your quests are dull and so is combat.

[RangerSWG]

Finished Witcher 3. But havent beat it, since havent played Gwent at all, also ignored some side quest and bounties, and there are still dlc. But it feels good. It is nice to have game, which you can play and have fun, and finish, but still have big chunk left in case you want come back. That is the way to go.

 

That game was perfect and it will be some time before anyone will beat that. Sorry Skyrim but your quests are dull and so is combat.

Can't call it perfect. But I'm much afeared no game will approach its quality anytime soon. As far as leveled loot goes, PoE does the same thing. But at least W3 has the Wolf Hour decoction that allows you to bump your item restriction up 2 levels for duration. I would say 2/3rds of my loot went into crafting. Minus swords off my victims of course. Never a shortage of bandits willing to commit suicide by Geralt. (Love in Blood & WIne when Geralt mutters to himself about this.)

 

And while I wouldn't say combat in the Witcher 3 is 'perfect,' it definitely feels more like a master swordsman who has to rely on brains as well as brawn throughout. No matter how overpowered you are, carelessness gets you in a world of hurt. I like it better than W2 combat, which seemed more like an exercise in QTE mashing at times. But YMMV, some prefer W2. 

 

Also have to agree with the previous comments about Blood and Wine, it's just about a flawless capstone on Geralt's story. And of the Main Game areas, only Skellige was as fun (to me) as Touissant is. Another area of agreement, ignore the level guide on the Main Quest when you get to Velen, at least until you hit level 10. You can do most of it with only a couple tricky fights. And the worst one you have sorceress backup from one who doesn't inadvertently kill you with every casting, (Hi Triss!) Marigold must have wasted me five times during her quest with the Witch Hunters. After you're lvl 10, hit the secondaries and don't let a notice board go to waste. Once those within your level range are exhausted, and only then, go around random exploring. Not only does random killing give you less...much less...than quest pursuance, but because W3 uses repair mechanics on your gear, it's very easy to get caught in a money-trap, where all your killing does is render you too poor to keep your gear in order for when it's needed. I actually struggled with this hard until I read the forums and saw the advice to disregard the Velen Main Quest level instructions. Then I went questing, found myself lvl 15 in less time than it had taken to get from 5 to 8, and the game got much easier. 

[Fenixp]

As far as leveled loot goes, PoE does the same thing.

Huh? PoE doesn't have leveled loot in any way, shape or form. The only thing level influences in PoE when it comes to loot is enchanting (and I ... Think some randomized loot? Or is that day of the month?). And loot in PoE attempts to make sense at least - when you find a high-quality sword, it'll remain a high-quality sword throughout the game. When you find a high-quality sword in W3, you'll throw it away in a few levels because there's a stick with +150 damage. Edited February 18, 2017 by Fenixp

[HoonDing]

Ultimately, one of the most forgettable games I've played.

[FlintlockJazz]

Finished the Witcher 3 and Heart of Stone but hard drive died a death before finishing Blood and Wine and wound up starting from scratch again.  Never knew there was a quest with a character that was an obvious homage to Bobba Fett in it the first time.  Sad that I did not kill him like I wanted to, fooking Fett and his overratedness...

[RangerSWG]

Finished the Witcher 3 and Heart of Stone but hard drive died a death before finishing Blood and Wine and wound up starting from scratch again.  Never knew there was a quest with a character that was an obvious homage to Bobba Fett in it the first time.  Sad that I did not kill him like I wanted to, fooking Fett and his overratedness...

Jango Fett, Boba's father, actually. But still, someone who needs suicide-by-Geralt. Don't recall if you get the opportunity to provide it, either. Amusingly enough, I did that quest, and wasn't thinking about the reference until after the fact.