[ACT I] On talents:

[kelticpete]

[ACT I] On talents:

Ok.After reading 100 contradictory posts about the beast and how to kill it ("focus on the beast!" "kill the barghests first!" "use aard!" "use specter oil!" ....I tried a variety of ways.I have a general question and a specific one:1) people have posted in the past their first thought on What talents are best and what are useless...what are your thoughts?"2) I am thinking of taking Aard level 2 to stun that beast. I got so frustrated I deleted my old game so i would not be tempted to quit a restart, and am restarting the whole game. I had no trouble with the game til the beast. What talents are KEY to kill the damn beast?

 

[username_2075709]

Aard works.Just have to remember the game uses some sort of random figure to determine whether or not you stun your opponent. So while it might not stun the Beast 5 times in a row, if you keep trying eventually it will.

 

[kelticpete]

if I am remembering right, the stun at level 2 makes it work 25 percent better?also, at first i thought I had to powercharge the sign. I don't seem able to powercharge a sign when I am in combat, but I only tried it with the beast and the barghests...I am confused at to what powercharge does/is/works.

 

[Gamewidow]

I can tell you (and I dread the beast still --- i find it to be the worst fight in the game) that I never use aard as I've had the same problems you describe -- the gratification is not as immediate as implied by many of the posts, though, I'm sure that as stated before it does eventually work.

Spoiler

I do put my talents into aard to make sure that i could stun, but i have only managed to stun the beast once, more often i kill it straightforwardly using Strong or Fast steel (which ever one allows me to land a blow --- i sometimes manage it on strong and those blows are better, fast does tend to be more reliable, but then you only chip away at the beasts hit points and it takes too long). If I'm feeling like i just don't want to be bother "working" on the fight, i brew a full moon, a willow and a maribor forest before the fight, take them, meditate for one more hour to removed all toxicity, then meet the villagers. I chug the swallow only once the fight starts ... but sometimes doing that gets me killed ... so again, personal preference. (Technically you don't have any of those recipes, so your view of whether that is cheating or not comes into play ... and full moon requires vermilion which you can only buy from Abigail in Act I and she only sells it one portion at a time, except the first time when there are 2) I've done this fight twice on hard, the first time i gave up in frustration and handed the mouse and keyboard to my husband who has better gaming battle skills and he killed it ... the second time was just a few days ago and i managed it myself actually using aard -- that took 3 tries -- and got him on my first attempt. I've also done this fight on medium about 20 times. I've never tried easy as i always begin on medium and only drop down if i have to. I don't usually go to hard unless it presents many more interesting options.I can tell you that i've found very little difference ... on medium, i find that i don't really even need potions, except cat and swallow, and actually very few swallow ... only for boss fights.On hard, i am forced to use potions almost every time (but i've formed some might bad habits, so i still don't, and it's still not usually too much of a problem -- but i am stubborn)I do focus on the beast and ignore the barghests and Abigail -- no time to worry about her (she'll get up anyway after) and i always try to have a meteorite sword already by that time which helps too and i pump my stats at the echinops cave if I feel they are not high enough (i.e. i don't even try unless my Geralt is level 10 or higher) It's just a hard fight when you are still a fledgling character and there is a lot of randomness to your success or failure. I assure you that ALL other boss fights in the game are not as frustrating ... some are tricky, yes ... but that's the key, almost every boss creature has a vulnerability that has to be identified and exploited (or sometimes it's the environment which holds the key, but there's usually something and Geralt usually makes a leading comment about it)

finally, this game is *so* not about the battles ... just try to bear that in mind when you are reloading the beast fight for the 10th time and grab a beer (if you are of age) ... and remember, that really is as bad as it gets, all the other fights are way more manageable -- as usual IMHO

 

[Corylea.723]

I have truly lousy hand-eye coordination, so I always have to kill boss monsters the slow, hard way.Remember that you don't have to engage with ANY of the monsters 100% of the time. I usually whack the Beast for awhile, then run around in circles while Swallow does its work, then whack the Beast some more when I've regenerated enough hit points.The first time I played, I killed the Beast without specter oil and without Aard, though I recommend both now.If you side with Abigail, she spontaneously heals you back up to full strength a couple of times during the fight (only if she's conscious, of course), and I find that to be immensely helpful.

 

[kelticpete]

just checked my mail at the internship I started today. writing grants...nice but would rather be playing witcher!I did not have any aard sign and had spent my talents on silly stuff like fistfights...so I started over last night and zipped through the first part. it is amazing how fast things go when A) you have already read it once and B) you know where everything is.I have spector oil, tawny, sparrow...and blizzard. I will try a combo of them or all and aard. cross you fingers for me.

 

[Corylea.723]

cross you fingers for me.

*crosses fingers**crosses toes for extra insurance*

 

[petra_silie]

Spectre Oil and whet- or grindstone for the blade worked fine for me and swallow potion. I tried group style and strong style. I noticed there is one phase when the beast doesn't summon new bargets. I took that chance and switched immediately to strong style. I used Aard not very often cos Geralt was very low on endurance and I hadn't Tawny on hand... and was too lazy to brew it :angel:btwDid you listen to Eagles 'Hotel California' when you started the thread? ;D

 

[platinumvanguard]

Spectre Oil and whet- or grindstone for the blade worked fine for me and swallow potion. I tried group style and strong style. I noticed there is one phase when the beast doesn't summon new bargets. I took that chance and switched immediately to strong style. I used Aard not very often cos Geralt was very low on endurance and I hadn't Tawny on hand... and was too lazy to brew it :angel:btwDid you listen to Eagles 'Hotel California' when you started the thread? ;D

I didn't think you could use specter and a grindstone at the same time.

 

[mpetros]

Spectre Oil and whet- or grindstone for the blade worked fine for me and swallow potion. I tried group style and strong style. I noticed there is one phase when the beast doesn't summon new bargets. I took that chance and switched immediately to strong style. I used Aard not very often cos Geralt was very low on endurance and I hadn't Tawny on hand... and was too lazy to brew it :angel:btwDid you listen to Eagles 'Hotel California' when you started the thread? ;D

I didn't think you could use specter and a grindstone at the same time.

I'll bet she meant one or the other, as you are correct, you can only use one at a time.

 

[kelticpete]

At 11:59 i killed the beast. I had been putting spectre on my sword and trying to use aard. when aard was low I tried fast swording him. I aarded him and it looked just like any other time and then BAM my queast updated and he was dead. btw, I just got out of the sewers and went back in. Am I right in thinking I should wait a while on the graveirs?

 

[username_2075709]

btw, I just got out of the sewers and went back in. Am I right in thinking I should wait a while on the graveirs?

Go kill those graveirs.They're good exp and if you go back in they respawn and you can kill them again and again.

 

[Gamewidow]

Just save first there are 4 graveirs and and 5 ghouls IIRC

 

[petra_silie]

I'll bet she meant one or the other, as you are correct, you can only use one at a time.

Yes, I meant one or the other

 

[kelticpete]

I did a few things before seeing mister graviers: 1) upped my bronze levels of silver sword 2) got necrophage oil. it was easy. oddly, the first time I went down I spawned them in different, more deadly way than the second time around.

 

[kelticpete]

i did not listen to the eagles but i was thinking... "i just can't kill the beast!"and then i realized we were using steel sword...like steel knives. cool

 

[Eri94_user70]

If the beast gets on your nervs and you can't play the game anymore, that would suck. But you can always borrow someone elses game save at the point after the beast was killed. And I have game saves that takes you past the beast. I know alot of people frown at getting a game save to pass you through, but there isn't much dialog after you kill the beast. The town is on fire, and everyones dead from the fires the beast left behind, and then you go to the side gate of the castle and the guards lock you up in the dungeon. Look at off topic section under game saves too in this forum board.

 

[kelticpete]

I beat the beast.because my game runs fine except when A) lots of fire and B) close bunch of mobs, I find that AARD until the beast is stunned is the way to go. 6 reloads later, the beast is dead.

 

[ringeck]

Ok.After reading 100 contradictory posts about the beast and how to kill it ("focus on the beast!" "kill the barghests first!" "use aard!" "use specter oil!" ....I tried a variety of ways.I have a general question and a specific one:1) people have posted in the past their first thought on What talents are best and what are useless...what are your thoughts?"2) I am thinking of taking Aard level 2 to stun that beast. I got so frustrated I deleted my old game so i would not be tempted to quit a restart, and am restarting the whole game. I had no trouble with the game til the beast. What talents are KEY to kill the damn beast?

theese are irrevelant.there is a major clue we get in the book and speaking with Abigail - The Beast is of Alzur Deamon kind (or alike - don`t have english ed.). It`s strenght depends mainly on plot choices Geralt makes. I checked it, and with some choices beast is much stronger.I killed it 6of10 times on hard, using igni, aard and oils. fending off barghests with strong group style and using aard and strong against the beast.on different plot choices I made, I was able to kill it only 2 times of 10. It was more resistant to signs and had more life.

 

[kelticpete]

they may be mitigated, but not irrelevant.the fact remains that strong or weaker, the beast will eventually, after enough reloads, get stunned by aard and allow you to kill him one shot.if plot changes make him stronger, that mitigates or makes more difficult the aard stun but does not make it irreleveant.it would be interesing to know what plot choices seemed to effect him.