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

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think I like the duchess
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Good heavens, this statue quest
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And the award for most-difficult-for-no-real-reason fight in the game goes to... that Extreme Cosplay quest.

Good gods. Those things could kill me in three hits, and I don't think there was any way except spamming dodges and getting lucky that you could avoid the fire mages' spells. I had to cheese the fight by standing on the stairs where they wouldn't follow me to recover health.
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Time to go to the creepy abandoned castle with a vampire torture chamber. Nothing can go wrong with that at all.
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This place is just pure evil, man. These journal entries about human livestock make me so uncomfortable

Poor Regis. Lifting the curse on the wight felt so good, and now this is just brutal.
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Wow you're actually ahead of me now. I checked off all the undiscovered locations and got all the grandmaster equipment first. Just upgraded the house all the way. Now I wish I didn't sell some sweet armor, but I have a ton of older stuff in the chest. I guess I could buy it back, but I'll prob never step foot in that house and look around again

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Yeah, I did several main quests in a row, but now I think I'm gonna take a break and do some exploration
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Geralt has absolutely no patience at all for these arguing ghosts. I think that's the only time I've heard him raise his voice at anything in the entire game.
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Archespores are kind of annoying to fight. Sometimes I just don't do any damage to them, and I'm not sure why
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Wow you're going to hate this horserace

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

And the award for most-difficult-for-no-real-reason fight in the game goes to... that Extreme Cosplay quest.

Good gods. Those things could kill me in three hits, and I don't think there was any way except spamming dodges and getting lucky that you could avoid the fire mages' spells. I had to cheese the fight by standing on the stairs where they wouldn't follow me to recover health.

Yeah I died a couple times and almost a third time. Had to find a way to cheese that one and got the grandmaster gear right after

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Whoa, there's a Skellige Gwent deck now? This is intriguing.
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Nice that this tells you exactly where the cards are. Will make putting the deck together a lot easier
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Lmao, Birna Bran's card image is her chained to the rock
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Alright now, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the overall objective for the Skellige deck is to pray that you draw Cerys, faff about for the first round to make the opponent waste cards, win round 2 with shieldmaidens and berserkers, then use Crach's ability and Cerys to bring the shieldmaidens back to win round 3.
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Bruxae and Alps are pretty serious business. I haven't really used bombs for anything up until this point, but I feel you kinda need Moon Dust to fight them

Also, I think I figured out why I wasn't doing any damage to the archespores before. It was drawing my steel sword instead of the silver sword for some reason. I only noticed because I'm using Iris, and I caught the sword glowing red while I was fighting.
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Oh shit, I can walk on water here. What manner of tomfoolery is this?
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I like this shoeshining kid. He's got a knack for business.
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Selling the royal wine is considered high treason. These guys really take their wine seriously.
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Oh my god, one of the knights at this tourney is wearing that shitty suit of armor that the dwarf armorsmith at Crow's Perch made for that one quest. That's fantastic
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A nice ending to that quest. Vivienne is free from the curse, and it doesn't seem like Guillaume is affected.
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I loved the tourney. It also can get you mad Lake points if you do it right.

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I already had all the virtues except valor, which I took care of with the tourney.

Time to go get that sword
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*whistles*

This sword is quite a thing.

So, if I'm understanding this right, it basically levels with you, except that you have to use it to kill things in order for it to level?
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

*whistles*

This sword is quite a thing.

So, if I'm understanding this right, it basically levels with you, except that you have to use it to kill things in order for it to level?

aerondight? that sounds about right iirc

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Alright, so Orianna here is clearly a vampire, right? She shows up with Regis and Dettlaff all of a sudden, and keeps talking about how she's known them for aaaaaages *wink wink*. It's odd that Geralt doesn't seem to be picking up on it.

That scene at the table was so good, though. That was an extraordinary amount of tension.
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Uh oh, another point of no return. What sidequests does this one fail if you don't finish them?
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Huh, it doesn't really feel like it's getting close to the end of the main quest

Anyway, here we go
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Holy shit, the vampires just cut down like 15 guys in a matter of seconds.
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Oh, what a twist

The Duchess's sister has been quite bad
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And Dettlaff wasn't kidding about attacking the city. There goes any sympathy he might have had.
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This fairytale land is quite a change from the bloodbath in the city
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What's the Little Flint Girl? I'm not familiar with that one.
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Huh, guess I'd just never read that one.

Big Nameless King vibes from the cloud giant fight. Is there anything cooler than fighting an enemy on the top of stormclouds?

Ahaha, and there was a Dark Souls bonfire in a cave after the fight.
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Ack, the entire city is on fire
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Hoo boy, they really stepped up their game for the boss fights in the DLCs. The second phase in particular of the fight with Dettlaff was just incredible.
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I was absolutely terrified that Syanna was going to make good on her promise and kill her sister during that ceremony. I hadn't even realized I was holding my breath until it cut to Geralt and Regis.
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"After all that toil, I believe we deserve a bit of a rest"

"That we do"

And then he looks straight at the camera.
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

I was absolutely terrified that Syanna was going to make good on her promise and kill her sister during that ceremony. I hadn't even realized I was holding my breath until it cut to Geralt and Regis.

She can in fact kill her depending on your choices.

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Oh, I don't doubt it at all. I think things would have gone very differently if I hadn't given her that lecture on forgiveness before the ceremony.
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Aww, Yen is here now. Sounds like she's moving in permanently, too

All we need now is for Ciri to show up
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I still have a few sidequests left from the main game, but man, I don't ever want to leave Toussaint. It's so pretty and bright and the people not only don't insult Geralt as he passes by them, they sometimes even compliment him. I've reached the conclusion that the North can get fucked.
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Overall thoughts on Blood and Wine

- Like I said above, Toussaint is a wonderful area and I never want to leave

- I really liked Regis and the duchess. Still not sure how I feel about Syanna; I don't think she deserved to die, but it seems like she got off kind of easy for 4 murders and an attempted fratricide. Dettlaff was a pretty effectively sympathetic villain up until he went off the deep end and attacked the city. After that point, I don't see how you could possibly justify letting him go.

- The main quest felt like it could have gone on a bit longer. In particular during that three day span where Geralt appears to have sat on his hands doing nothing.

- The fight with Dettlaff was fantastic, especially the second phase.

- Some of the new enemies were kind of annoying to fight. Archespores attacked too fast and kikimores had their toxicity thing. I didn't mind the panthers and centipedes, though. Bruxae and alps actually made me use bombs, which I appreciated.

- I think it's a safe assumption that Geralt's story is done now. The logical path forward is to follow Ciri, but they'd have to come up with a convincing way to strip her of her powers. I'm also positive that Geralt would be killed at some point in the narrative to drive the story (because that's always what happens), and I'm just not okay with that.
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if they kill geralt we riot. let the man retire :(

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No Ciri, then? Boo hiss
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UnholyMudcrab posted...

No Ciri, then? Boo hiss

What build did you end up going on your playthrough?