Current Events > Playing The Witcher 3 for the first time *ongoing spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

This has been in my backlog for like 3 years now, so I figured it's finally time to give it a whirl. Never read the books or played the other two games, but I kinda have a vague idea of what happened.
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PC or console?

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PC

Got both DLCs too
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Winds howling.

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Nice. Make sure you download some mods for it.

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Well, that opening cinematic was pretty cool.
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Skip alchemy almost all together in your first play through. Quen is a godlike sign

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Feline School Witcher Gear is the best.

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my suggestion is to check out the character glossary every time you meet a new character and their page gets updated. the story is kind of tough to follow if you don't know the books or previous games, but the glossary fills in all the gaps and it gets updated as things happen to the characters.

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Make sure you play on the hardest difficulty setting, it'll be a pain in the beginning but you'll appreciate it later. Also check all lootable crates and barrels in quest areas and dungeons and stuff since they can sometimes hold recipes for oils and potions

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Hexenherz posted...

Make sure you play on the hardest difficulty setting, it'll be a pain in the beginning but you'll appreciate it later. Also check all lootable crates and barrels in quest areas and dungeons and stuff since they can sometimes hold recipes for oils and potions

I'm playing on the second highest difficulty. Might turn it up later.
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Use your Witcher Sense in pretty much every building, cave, etc you go to. Sometimes chests and such can be difficult to spot.

Alternatively, once you get it Cat's Eye potions are a godsend.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

PC

Got both DLCs too

I was going to recommend that you play the DLCs, because they're often better than the main game, IMO.

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Oh, so that was a dream. I was thinking it was a flashback.
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Dont expect the combat to evolve in any way. Its shit

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So is food and drink the only way to heal myself? That's kind of limiting.
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you can also heal by meditating, iirc.

it also passes in-game time.

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g0ldie posted...

you can also heal by meditating, iirc.

it also passes in-game time.

To my understanding, meditation doesn't heal you on the difficulty I'm playing at.
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oh yea, sorry about that.

I played on normal, so I wasn't aware.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

So is food and drink the only way to heal myself? That's kind of limiting.

Yeah I just meditate to heal if I really need it. The game is great and I still say do alchemy. I enjoyed the alchemy a lot. Also I used my witcher senses EVERYWHERE...I love this game. It was also my first time playing Witcher or knowing anything of it. When I watched the show, I went in blind.

I've seen a couple merchants carrying Gwent cards now. Should I be buying them? Is Gwent something I need to do?
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I mostly ignored it, but Gwent is surprisingly fleshed out, and people seemed to enjoy it.

edit: and there are rare Gwent cards, so you should keep an eye out

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Invest in the perk that makes food healing effects last longer, helps a lot.

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This quest is called Twisted Firestarter. Gotta say I wasn't expecting any references to The Prodigy in this game.
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IIRC there are one or two quests where Gwent plays a somewhat important role and can affect the outcome so having better cards and a better deck can help a lot.

There's also a mod that turns every combat encounter into a Gwent game >_>

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Wow, yeah, that Gourmet perk. I thought it meant 20 in-game minutes, but it's 20 actual minutes. That seems kind of overpowered
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Yeah, the perk that lets you recover health easily for a long time is OP.

If you're the sort who likes to repair weapons and stuff, consider buying repair kits (?) from blacksmiths instead of shelling out for their immediate repairs. It saves coins in the long run.

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It does kind of feel so far like the weapons degrade a little too fast
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Personally, I just used degraded weapons (which are still usable, but have stat penalties, IIRC) and switched to good ones I'd find afterward. Always search those random chests you find in rivers and ruins, 'cause there may be nice swag inside (if not items, at least recipes/blueprints). There aren't a ton of unique weapons to keep, but those are the ones I'd put in the stash chest, not regular trash.

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It's nice that oils don't need to be recreated every time you use them
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Yeah the potions and oil system are huge improvements over what they had in the previous games.

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I played it for a few hours but the clunky combat absolutely ruined it for me.

PokemonYoutube posted...

I played it for a few hours but the clunky combat absolutely ruined it for me.

Don't get this take, it's just as smooth, if not smoother, than any other action/adventure game out there. It's not as technical as like Dark Souls but it's also not trying to be.

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im reading the books. i visualizing henry cavil as geralt but with the game's voice lol.

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Hexenherz posted...

Don't get this take, it's just as smooth, if not smoother, than any other action/adventure game out there. It's not as technical as like Dark Souls but it's also not trying to be.

Eh, I guess I'm more used to Arkham-style combat. I enjoyed the combat in, say, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor much more than in Witcher 3.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Wow, yeah, that Gourmet perk. I thought it meant 20 in-game minutes, but it's 20 actual minutes. That seems kind of overpowered

Gourmet is great in the early game but eventually becomes just okay later.

But don't worry about fucking up progression or anything. You have the ability to reset skill points around midgame. So go nuts and experiment.

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PokemonYoutube posted...

Eh, I guess I'm more used to Arkham-style combat. I enjoyed the combat in, say, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor much more than in Witcher 3.

Witcher and Arkham games both have bad combat tbh.

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Back in the saddle. Gotta go talk to these Nilfgaardians.
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Helped an old woman find her pan. And they say witchers are heartless.
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So the big empire in this game is... the fantasy Dutch? That's interesting, can't say I've really seen that before.
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You're still in White Orchard?

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Yeah, I'd taken a break for the night
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Griffin is kill. That was a nice little fight.

People were talking about the combat being bad, but I've been fine with it so far. Now, granted, I'm not very far in, but still.
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People often complain about the combat, but it's perfectly fine in most cases -- certainly a huge step up from Witcher 2. The swordsmanship + bombs + arrows + signs equation can just wear thin over the course of 100+ hours.

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Aw shit, he's asking stuff about The Witcher 2. Guess I've gotta look some stuff up.
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Why hello there, Charles Dance
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Lmao, won a game of Gwent because the guy played all of his cards except two in the first round
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Card advantage is very important in Gwent, so getting the opponent to overextend is a good strategy. Later, you can get spy cards you "give" the opponent in exchange for drawing cards, and both players can take advantage of that.

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Heading to the Bloody Baron now. I've heard that this questline is really good. Probably stopping for the night here, though.
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