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

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's a long questline, but enjoyable, yes. For some, it's their favorite quest(line) in the entire game.

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Just be warned that if you say anything negative about the game the fanboys get pretty rabid.

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Time to go meet the Baron now
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Huh, he's got a kind of Robert Baratheon look to him. Wasn't really expecting that, I guess.
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Ooh, it's Ciri

Wait a second, does she have the same VA as Hawke?
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Yikes, the monster deck is kinda scary to play against. You look away for a second and the opponent has 50 points worth of cards on the field
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I think monster decks often put stuff in a single row, though, so you can use those cards that kill everything in that row (I think there was something like that) or something to lower their attack power to penalize them. Or, you can just use spy cards to maintain hand advantage for the next turn. If you have a crappy ramshackle deck, though, yeah, you can get a beatdown.

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I still don't have enough cards to play with anything but the Northern Realms deck, so yeah, it was a little rough. One round they hit 100 points.

You really get your money's worth from the biting frost cards.
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I'm starting to understand those memes about Geralt just running around challenging everyone to games of Gwent.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Yikes, the monster deck is kinda scary to play against. You look away for a second and the opponent has 50 points worth of cards on the field

Frost cards absolutely nuke Monster decks. It's pretty easy to cause a opponent to blow their load in round one then freeze them all.

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Oh goodness, this family has problems. Drunken fights, runaways, and a miscarriage to top it all off.
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Tbh I thought CE would be more interested in this.

I guess I just make boring topics.
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I've been following. I'm at the end of the game and probably halfway through Heart of Stone myself.

Now I'm stuck with a shitload of money from hitting every single undiscovered location on the map before doing the story

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What's the deal with the crossbow? It one-shots everything underwater, but does less than even scratch damage on land
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This is... this is bad, right?

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

What's the deal with the crossbow? It one-shots everything underwater, but does less than even scratch damage on land

The crossbow is meant to be used purely as a utility tool, mostly to ground flying enemies. It isn't meant to be a damage dealing weapon because that just isn't how Witcher's roll.

That said it is the only attack that works underwater and because no one wants to shoot a swimming Drowner a dozen times, it's power gets jacked up when both you and the enemy is exposed. Honestly their entire underwater combat system is just super underdeveloped. They could just as easily not had swimming enemies and achieve similar results.

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I've been playing it for a few weeks too. Everything is still so pretty and I think it's really cool how the trees are all creaking under the wind and gives forests a spooky atmosphere butttt....

everything is kicking my ass. Does anyone got any advice for a novice witcher piplup

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Cowthief posted...

everything is kicking my ass. Does anyone got any advice for a novice witcher piplup

I'm anything but qualified myself, but from what I've gathered so far

- Keep Quen up as much as you can. It only blocks one hit, but that one hit can make a lot of difference
- Don't stop dodging. Also, at least in my experience, dodge stepping is much more useful than dodge rolling since rolling places you too far from the enemies to follow up effectively
- Remember to use oils. They don't get used up once you make them, so you can reapply as many times as you want

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IIRC, all enemies have their own little AI and habits in battle, so once you learn 'em, it's pretty easy to kill things. For instance, I remember drowners leaping back before they lunge forward.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

What's the deal with the crossbow? It one-shots everything underwater, but does less than even scratch damage on land

You can get OHKO headshots on land, too, but it's way harder. Note that when you're using a boat, you can also OHKO sirens that are clinging on, which stops your boat from being damaged (as quickly). It's a good thing to know, 'cause I don't believe the game ever says you can shoot the crossbow while in a sitting position.

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Well now the Baron's compound is on fire, as if the poor bastard didn't have enough problems already

Oh my, that was a lot of things that just happened
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Oh wow, that botchling

That's, uh, quite a thing there.
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I actually teared up a bit when they were reburying it.

Now I'm following the lubberkin and wondering why no one is remarking about the weird glowy thing zooming around
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Bet your ass they are
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Now traipsing through a cave looking for the Wild Hunt

Keira Metz must be someone from a previous game.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Now traipsing through a cave looking for the Wild Hunt

Keira Metz must be someone from a previous game.

She actually isn't but she is a character Geralt knows from the books.

Witcher 3 references back to the books much more than the first two games. There are a lot of characters that Geralt sees and interacts with like they have history despite not having shown up in a game prior because he knew them from a book. So the good news is that if you didn't play the first two games it doesn't matter much, you are on the same footing as a non-book reader who has played them. It's also good because the game will give you the relevant information about the characters because they assumed most people haven't read them.

I highly recommend reading the character entries when you meet characters for the first time. It often gives you that info.

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I have been reading the character entries, yeah. The bestiary has been really helpful too.

Think I'm gonna have to read the series at some point.
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I also just started playing very recently

While there's plenty of Steal Swords to pick from, there's not a lot of Silver Swords
But i did manage to pick up a Silver with +68 dmg over the original


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It seems that witcher gear is always the best, but all the quests I've gotten to get witcher diagrams are way above my level, so I've been stuck making do with other things.
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There were witcher diagrams in White Orchard for Viper (?) gear, IIRC. I think it was just two swords or something, but it's better than some of the other jank you find that early on.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

It seems that witcher gear is always the best, but all the quests I've gotten to get witcher diagrams are way above my level, so I've been stuck making do with other things.

You are essentially right up until Blood and Wine. Witcher Gear is both better than the stuff you find randomly, but upgradable in a way no other stuff is. Crafting is another one the game's underdeveloped systems. Despite the game throwing a million diagrams at you, Crafting mostly exists just to make and upgrade your Witcher gear.

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I've learned a very valuable lesson about not trying to kill level 33 monsters when I'm level 8
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Yeah, you can sometimes accidentally wander into areas where you get straight up murdered by high-level stuff. Which isn't to say that they can't be killed at low levels, using dodging, Quen, etc...it's just harder and a time investment. Most XP comes from main quests, IIRC, so random baddie encounters aren't the best way to level up.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

I've learned a very valuable lesson about not trying to kill level 33 monsters when I'm level 8

Yeah, eventually you'll get to a point where you can punch well above your level. But not at 8.

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There's one fast travel point in particular that has a few ghouls right next to it that are way above my level. It's caused a couple tense moments when I forgot and used that point by accident.

Also, the Scoia'tael remind me a lot of Dalish elves.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

There's one fast travel point in particular that has a few ghouls right next to it that are way above my level. It's caused a couple tense moments when I forgot and used that point by accident.

Also, the Scoia'tael remind me a lot of Dalish elves.

Its part of a quest too. I remember LOVING the moment where I could beat them. I just wanted to open up the whole map too ;_;

and yeah, the Elves...boy there's a lot of history in Witcher. Some history you will likely not know about but to sum it up: the world as it is now, were two separate worlds which seemed to be based on one side with humanity and another side with elves and magic and monsters. Suddenly the two worlds collided into one and elves and humans began fighting for dominance.

Witchers were made by humans to face off against the monsters that now suddenly wreaked havoc in their world. At least that's what I remember of it.

game just crashed on me
that never happened before

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It crashes a lot for me

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I haven't had any so far
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Letho has arms like redwood logs and a voice like ground up gravel. What a specimen.
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I would have issue where the game would freeze up but the sounds kept playing. It just made me get used to quicksaving a bunch.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Letho has arms like redwood logs and a voice like ground up gravel. What a specimen.

he's one of the main antagonists in Witcher 2

the trailer for Witcher 2 is what got me to buy the game

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WwCXw8m0PHI

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Letho only appears if you do a certain question right in the Nilfgaardian barber session, IIRC, so if you lucked into it, good job. It also results in one of the best lines in the game later:

Roche: (angry that Letho is here) Why is the kingslayer so important?
Letho: Eredin's a king, ain't he?
Roche: Fuck you.


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Wait, this is where the trail of treats is? That girl from Ciri's segment earlier was lost as hell then. She was way off to the north.
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This lady's, uh, not quite all there.
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Is it bad that the first thing I thought of when I got to the Whispering Hillock was that one Skyrim dungeon with the dude pretending to be a ghost?
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There is some weird shit going on under this tree
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I'm not really all that inclined to free a spirit that's been killing villagers for, what was it, three years? I mean, shit, it just sicced a werewolf on me outside.

Edit: Goof god, the Crones. I'm feeling really uneasy about this whole thing.
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So they ate the children? Jesus fuck
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I killed the tree

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