Abigail doesn't get escorted your thinking of Vesna from the inn and yes she can die. I played the beast fight over and over again trying to kill the damn thing with no luck and most of those times abigail died--i thought it was for good? Although later in the game i've seen other NPC's seemingly die but get back up again after the battles were over. But, certain NPC's CAN DIE i know.I only beat the beast once and abigail had died so, i restarted the battle over again--maybe i didn't need to? I finally remembered the specter oil blade coating that abigail had talked about earlier in the game but had not yet made one or purchased it from abigail so I started game over again since i didn't have any save files that would take me back far enough to purchase it or proper ingredients to make it. Second time around I made sure I had it and killed the beast in about five blows.
To the 66 year old who started this thread--I'm 62 myself with lousy hand eye coordination. To win this fight you need to be level 10, and you must know the Aard sign. You should also pick up the Igni sign in the crypt; it will save your bacon many times later on. You need to learn how to make blade coatings--most notably the spectral oil. Most important, to me, you need to know when to RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. I know it doesn't feel very macho to run away from an enemy, but you won't win this game unless you do so from time to time. The fight with Azar, for me, consisted of me running, Azar chasing and catching Igni blasts from me as soon as my endurance was high enough to send another his way. There are MANY other times I needed to run. You can skip that whole, beautiful, mob scene just before the dogfight by hitting the escape key just as it starts. You should come out of the cave with zero toxicity, because the potions you take in the cave will have worn off by the time the main fight starts. When it does, take a blizzard potion and run. When you've slightly outdistanced the mutts take a tawny owl and run. Finally take a swallow (take it last because it is much shorter duration than tawny owl). By this time the blizzard will have just about run out. Use the Aard sign to blow out the dog generators. Finally, start hitting the Beast with the Aard sign, and watch to see if he's knocked down. Ignore the barghests except to the point of not letting them surround you (running required). When you see the Beast fall, you can kill it with a single sword thrust. The remaining barghests will be unsummoned, and will vanish. The mob of villagers are relatively easy to handle (hardly any running required). Hope this helps you out.
@DanConnors Actually you don't need to run away from Azar Javed as long as you can protect Geralt from stun and knockdown by Azar (Willow tastes fine then). Once I tried it without Willow and Gerat was hit by these effects very often and unable to launch an attack. Then Geralt takes a Shrike or a potion for life. The best blade enhancement is the Perun rune, alternatively Crinfrid or Brownoil. I always take this collection and don't need a single sign as support 
Well, different strokes... It is refreshing to know that there are different ways of beating Azar than just running round and round the room, tossing fireballs at him as you run. By the time the fight started I was pushing the toxicity barrier (which I figure is around 55), loaded with a tawny owl, swallow, and blizzard. My witcher has gotten so good at running by now that it's usually his first option. You know, you see a flock of Royal Wyverns, toss a fireball into the middle of them from maybe 100 feet away, get off one more while the enraged birds are trying to close and eat you, and then you run (pausing only long enough to torch them one after another). Did that a lot on the Isle of The Lady. I collected enough Wyvern meat to feed every starving elf several chunks.
Thanks for that tip--I just learned something new!!! I have noticed one thing, which to veteran players is probably old news. If you make a cat potion that is high Rubedo (I believe) not only will it enable you to see in the dark, but it will also enhance your vitality regeneration. You don't recover as quickly as from a swallow potion, but it is a pretty good healer--sort of like getting 2 potions for the price of one.
it is not news, but cannot be said often enough: use secondary effects, they are really worth it. rubedo cat saves you a swallow in most caves...good bc of easy ingredients is also albedo tawny owl, nigredo swallow, rubedo cat...with a decent oil, like cinfrid or argentia (depending on weapon) nothing can really stop you...i never even bothered with bombs, though king and queen seems to be a goody
Albedo is also not a bad secondary ingredient to cultivate ... if your rate of regeneration for vitality is fine with you, using albedo dominant potions will lower the toxicity of subsequently imbibed potions ... so i tend to make my cat potions albedo dominant and i take them first it's a matter of personal preference ... no one seems to shout about the benefits of nigredo, but i'm sure there are many situations where it could be used too eace:
... if your rate of regeneration for vitality is fine with you, using albedo dominant potions will lower the toxicity of subsequently imbibed potions ... so i tend to make my cat potions albedo dominant and i take them first it's a matter of personal preference ... no one seems to shout about the benefits of nigredo, but i'm sure there are many situations where it could be used too eace:I use Nigredo potionsgamewidow said:it's a matter of personal preference ... no one seems to shout about the benefits of nigredo, but i'm sure there are many situations where it could be used too
actually i almost always use nigredo swallows since the ingredients are so plentiful. the weed shani wants (forgot the english name), drowned dead tongues, and something else. i always had less rubedo ingredients so i used them for tawny owl. when going for more than these two potions (which you rarely need), I take the long ones before meditating, than use albedo tawny owl, nigredo swallow and rubedo somethingelse (depending on situation, but often just for the secondary effect..)
ok first i would like to say that i do not rely on group and use group very sparingly, i have played the game twice through now without any points assigned to either group steel or silver. this is to avoid troubles with the headhunter. i have found a way using fast steel style to work like group just with out all that unaimed waving that seems cause colateral damage. When facing a group of monsters back up, it helps keep them positioned in front of you. you want to keep the monsters in front of you as much as possible. I have in fight with 4 or more monsters been able to "string" or "chain" these combos to devistating effect by actually killing a full health target with hits from combo 3 and 4 only. for example;in a fight with monsters A, B, C, D, i start on A and let combos 1 and 2 land then turn to B (timing and propper positioning is the key here) and trigger combo 3 and 4, the result after the first round is, A is damaged, B is dead. then attack A again with combo 1 and 2, sometime A will die, then turn to C and land combo 3 and 4, result is A is badly damaged or dead and C is dead, at this point all i have to do is hit A once and then use combo 2,3,4 on D or just kill D normally. the object is to reduce the amount of damage you must absorb by thinning the numbers down as fast as possible. The idea is to kill a target without having to work the combos up on that target and then deal with the next target starting the combos all over again. I hope i am clear enough on this and hope to have a video made and posted. The key to stringing these attacks is position and timing and if you get it down right you can dispatch groups of adversaries in a crowd of people and damage only those who deserve it. AsaiP.S. i know this sound crazy but it works very well.
It does, as I use it on occasion myself, though I generally finish one opponent, then just continue the sequence on the next one without pause. But group style is devastating against numerous monsters when you are surrounded and put points into it. The knockdown effect is especially good for getting a reprieve. And once you get boosted silver swords, e.g. an earth-rune boosted one...
Asai makes very good points. I ended up resorting to this method later in the game too since my group method seemed to not work on a lot of the monsters/soldiers in the latter part of the game. But, group method is quicker and very effective on the lower level monsters earlier in the game.Just curious, does anyone know? I finished the game on normal and decided to work on all the side quests. I figured I would go to Hard since I am pretty experienced at playing this game. I was a little confused doing "The Price of Neutrality" my sword icon doesn't flame up when it's time to start the next attack chain. Is this because I am playing on Hard difficulty? ???EDIT: Thanks Edirr. That was what I started doing and seems to work okay but, not as easy thats' fer sure. I just thought maybe it was a bug, guess not. eace:
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