Character Builds, Ability Points, & How to Kick Ass Thread

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Character Builds, Ability Points, & How to Kick Ass Thread

  • Primarily Combat Build. Blood and Fear!

    Votes: 193 34.9%
  • Mostly Signs. Your Mind Is Mine.

    Votes: 74 13.4%
  • Alchemy. Mutant and Proud of It.

    Votes: 82 14.8%
  • Hybrid, some of each. Polymath!

    Votes: 215 38.9%
  • I also love the General set! Lots of use.

    Votes: 27 4.9%
  • Can't decide. Many Respecs lie ahead!

    Votes: 37 6.7%

  • Total voters
    553
You guys know you can get legit god mode?
All you need is Delayed Recovery level 3 and Superior White Raffard's Decoction.
Dring as many potions as you can to pump up your toxicity level, then dring Raffard and enjoy god mode until your toxicity drops lower than 70% (which is rarely happens within one fight)

Has this been nerfed or patched yet?
 
I use a hybrid Combat + Signs build, just as I did in TW2. I also use oils, bombs and potions when needed too, especially against numerous enemies or the unusually strong ones (like fiends). I guess we could say I'm an all-rounder since I really use everything (personally I think that's how TW games are funnier).

For damage I go with fast attacks mostly, though I also use strong attacks here and there. I rely a lot on Quen since my health and toxicity tolerance are low and I save it mostly for Swallow if needed, and Aard / Igni for crowd control depending on the enemy/situation. I use Axii mostly for enemies with shields, and I guess Yrden is the Sign I use the least, though its second form is quite useful for crowd control too, especially against humans.

Regarding bombs, the ones I use the most are Grapeshot, Moon Dust and Samum, and the gear I use is a combination of Wolf School and Cat School gear. Fits my build perfectly and looks pretty cool.


I liked @iCake build too, really powerful. If used well I think the Alchemy/Adrenaline build is probably the strongest, though it may be the hardest to play with at the beginning of the game. Personally I prefer mine, but yours is the most interesting build IMO.
 
I'm just modifying engine level variables that determine how all hairworks assets are being rendered.

Does that mean Griffons and bears and everything else? Can you post a SS of a bear above ultra please? If that is even runnable... I imagine it must be the most taxing hairworks can get, right?
 
One that makes you immune to overdose on potions. - Don't die of them.

Which one is that? There is Heightened Tolerance but that only increases overdose threshold by 5%, not immunity.

One that eliminates toxicity gained by consuming potions in mere seconds. - Still have to use all the other potions at will.

I also can't figure out which one this is. There is endure pain that increases vitality by 50% when toxicity exceeds safe point and Fast Metabolism that drops toxicity by 5 points per second.
 
Which one is that? There is Heightened Tolerance but that only increases overdose threshold by 5%, not immunity.

Yes, that one. By 5% with each level of the skill. 5*5=25% at its finest. Well, I don't know if it's actual immunity, but it's very close to that 95% of maximum toxicity at least. All in all it gives me the ability to drink 3 decoctions at once .and not suffer the constan health drain effect as a consequence. I can even drink a 30 toxicity potion on top of that and don't reach the overdose state. So I'd say it's immunity.

One that eliminates toxicity gained by consuming potions in mere seconds. - Still have to use all the other potions at will.
I also can't figure out which one this is. There is endure pain that increases vitality by 50% when toxicity exceeds safe point and Fast Metabolism that drops toxicity by 5 points per second.

Again, it's indeed "Fast Metobolism". It actually drops your toxicity by an EXTRA 5 points per seconds. Drinking a 25 TP potion with that skill will let you completely recover from that in a second or so, maybe 2 at best.
 
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Yes, that one. By 5% with each level of the skill. 5*5=25% at its finest. Well, I don't know if it's actually immunity, but it's very close to that 95% of maximum toxicity at least. All in all it gives me ability to drink 3 decoctions at once .and not lose my health as a consequence. I can even drink a 30 toxicity potion on top of that and don't reach the overdose state. So I'd say it's immunity.



Again, it's indeed "Fast Metobolism". It actually drops your toxicity by an EXTRA 5 points per seconds. Drinking a 25 TP potion with that skill will let you completely recover from that in a second or so, maybe 2 at best.

Actually it's 1% per level. I listed the full effect of 5% which doesn't seem like much and that's why I never tried it. Fast Metabolism is also 1 second per level or 5 seconds for 5 points. I've never tried that one either but have used Delayed Recovery which maintains the potion effects unless you fall to 70% toxicity (fully filled).

BTW what is your thoughts about Killing Spree which increases critical hit chance by 50% is toxicity is above zero and Hunter Instinct which increases crit chance by 100% if adrenaline points are at their max level?
 
@Goodmongo

I don't know what game you're playing but it is 25% at level 5. You using mods maybe?



Delayed recovery is only useful if you're not planning on using decoctions and any skills that increase maximum toxicity level. Why? Because Decoctions toxicity doesn't count for this skill and more toxicity points mean more potions need to be consumed to reach that 70% threshold and beyond.

Killing spree is a good skill overall, but unfortunately it only works when fighting groups of enemies, so the use is very limited. Most boss fights are one on one and there you'd like this skill to work most.

The hunter instinct... Well, I was actually very excited to get it but upon testing I realized that the skill doesn't work at all. I googled if it's a bug or something and what I'd managed to dig up was that the skill description is misleading, it only works on crit hit from behind... Isn't worth it at all.

As for the Fast Metabolism, I've already said that it's not just 5 points of toxicity loss per second, it's extra 5 points of toxicity loss added to your default toxicity loss rate. That counts to losing 30 TP (White Raffard) in about two seconds. Very usefull for anyone wanting to stuff up on decoctions and still use all the other potions with no problems.
 

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@iCake, Thanks for clarifying. I was looking at an on-line skill calculator and not the actual game when I posted those numbers. And thanks for replying about Killing Spree, Delayed Recovery and Hunter Instinct. I was completely mislead about those. Based on your descriptions they really aren't worth it.

I would like to ask another question. Rend and Sunder Armor. Rend ignores enemy defenses while Sunder specifically mentions damage resistance. So does Rend ignore armor and resistances or do you really need Sunder?
 
Rend doesn't ignore armor, it ignores defense. What it means in practice is that Rend hits through any kind of blocking, be it a shield, sword, two handed weapon, crouching golem etc. To top it all off, Rend is the only way you can ignore enemies attempts to block your strikes. This is why I consider Rend to be the very best skill in the game. Very very useful, a must if you ask me.

Sunder armor... Yes, it lowers the damage resistance, but as with any kind of armor penetration its usefulness has a very wide curve depending on how much armor your opponent has. Sadly we don't have that many heavily armored baddies in this game. Most notable are Elementals/Golems, Wild Hunt Warriors and insectoids with their chitin. So the skill is also situational, to make the matters worse it doesn't last the whole fight, in fact its effect is quite short, can't say how long exactly. So I say the best way to deal with heavily-armored foes is not this skill but anything from this list:

- Going for as high DPS as possible.
- Getting gear and/or runes with inherit armor penetration.
- Archgriffin Decoction - it targets percentages rather than absolute numbers.
- Forgetting about it all the way, they'll fall anyway :)
 
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Bear Trouble

Specifically Ursine Adrenaline build for my Geralt.

I've read about how utterly awesome it is, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Went out and got all the mastercraft Ursine armor and weapons. Put everything I have into adrenaline point regen etc... and I'm getting my arse handed to me by level 33 fallen knights. I'm 37 atm working my way through the DLC.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm building up adrenaline and when I go to cast a sign it eats the adrenaline but nothing casts it seems. I can use my whirlwind attack which is great except for the infinite blocking NPC's can sometimes do, or the auto parry from the large Halberd and Hammer users.

I feel much less powerful than I did when I was running full Feline and balancing 3 fighting types in Quick attacks, Signs and Potions / Decoctions. I'm planning on heading back to something similar to what I had if I can't get this to work. Right now I'm pretty miserable.
 
Just curious

Any one try to use only crossbow, bomb and fist to finish Witcher3? lol

Maybe use Aden when necessary
 
Specifically Ursine Adrenaline build for my Geralt.

I've read about how utterly awesome it is, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Went out and got all the mastercraft Ursine armor and weapons. Put everything I have into adrenaline point regen etc... and I'm getting my arse handed to me by level 33 fallen knights. I'm 37 atm working my way through the DLC.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm building up adrenaline and when I go to cast a sign it eats the adrenaline but nothing casts it seems. I can use my whirlwind attack which is great except for the infinite blocking NPC's can sometimes do, or the auto parry from the large Halberd and Hammer users.

I feel much less powerful than I did when I was running full Feline and balancing 3 fighting types in Quick attacks, Signs and Potions / Decoctions. I'm planning on heading back to something similar to what I had if I can't get this to work. Right now I'm pretty miserable.

The ursine armor or heavy armors in general, are poor in stamina regen. If you're the kind of fighter whose dependent on signs. This is not the one for you. :)
 
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Any one try to use only crossbow, bomb and fist to finish Witcher3? lol

Maybe use Aden when necessary

Have you ever tried to finish a spider inside your bedroom without a vacuum cleaner but only using fists, nail-guns and salad-bowls? :D



No, because this would lead right to the next Darwin Award.
You have to admit it`s the same way impossible than playing Witcher 3 without swords and magic spells *ggg


(Note to myself, order more Yachticon-poison and spray even more Permethrin toxin on every square inch of every furniture and wall in the house to prevent this from happening.....)
 
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Specifically Ursine Adrenaline build for my Geralt.

I've read about how utterly awesome it is, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Went out and got all the mastercraft Ursine armor and weapons. Put everything I have into adrenaline point regen etc... and I'm getting my arse handed to me by level 33 fallen knights. I'm 37 atm working my way through the DLC.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm building up adrenaline and when I go to cast a sign it eats the adrenaline but nothing casts it seems. I can use my whirlwind attack which is great except for the infinite blocking NPC's can sometimes do, or the auto parry from the large Halberd and Hammer users.

I feel much less powerful than I did when I was running full Feline and balancing 3 fighting types in Quick attacks, Signs and Potions / Decoctions. I'm planning on heading back to something similar to what I had if I can't get this to work. Right now I'm pretty miserable.

The leveling of NPCs in HoS is off because those Knights are well above any other creature of that level in the game. Ursine armour is really for a tank build, to stand there, soak up damage and chop away with your sword. Unfortunately unless you're a significantly higher level you aren't soaking up the damage from those guys. As Drinkz says, it has a negative effect upon your ability to cast signs. You're better using lighter armour, bombs and your cross bow to thin their numbers out before engaging in melee.
 
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The ursine armor or heavy armors in general, are poor in stamina regen. If you're the kind of fighter whose dependent on signs. This is not the one for you.

I thought casting signs could be used to build some adrenaline as well. The tanking... Idk perhaps I needed to bolster vitality more, but the knights with the halberds were 4 shotting me with ease.

I don't prefer to spam signs but keeping Quen up is a big deal for my play style.
 
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A bit of spoiler first

In HoS, you can enchant your ursine armor to make them a medium-type armor, then add Griffin school techniques in your ability to boost your stamina regeneration.
Which makes whirl, rend, and signs more frequent.


If you're into Quen, why not use Wraith decoction? :)
 
Level 70 Build

I might just suck at searching, but I can't find a topic that deals with endgame builds, so I'd like to open this up for suggestions. I am currently level 70 (and have been for a while), I've completed the main game on New Game+ Death March difficulty (including all sidequests and all points of interest besides the annoying water ones on Skellige), I completed all sidequests and points of interest so far available in Hearts of Stone and I'm about to start the main HoS quest.
As far as I know, I have all of the unique equipment in my chest (never dropped or sold a single one of them) and should have all the diagrams, runes, glyphs and runewords available.

Yet as you will see, I am using a full Witcher gear set - that's because I did not find a better equipment for a non-sign build, as far as I know.


Main Stats:
========

Silver sword DPS: 4339
Steel sword DPS: 3148
Armor: 762
Signs bonus: 762
Health: ~7700 (goes usually between 11000-16000 with Moonwraith decoction)



Skills (all Maxed):
=============


COMBAT:
Muscle Memory
Resolve
Fleet Footed
Precise Blows
Razor Focus
Whirl

ALCHEMY:
Heightened Tolerance
Poisoned Blades
Acquired Tolerance
Hunter Instinct
Synergy
Tissue Transmutation


MUTAGENS:
2x Greater Red
2x Greater Green


Gear
====


Legendary Mastercrafted Feline Armor w/ "Protection" Glyphword
Legendary Mastercrafted Feline Boots, Gauntlets and Trousers w/ Greater Quen Glyphs
Legendary Mastercrafted Ursine Silver Sword w/ Greater Bleed, Burn & Poison glyphs
Legendary Mastercrafted Ursine Steel Sword w/ Greater Bleed, Burn & Poison glyphs


Decoctions (always active)
====================


Moonwraith (switching to something else for particular Boss fights)
Ekhidna
Katakan

When in trouble, using different combinations of almost all the potions



The tactics are obvious -
mostly just bashing fast attack and Whirl, while keeping protected by Quen (and healing myself casting it), on harder fights (understand: Eredin, Imlerith or large groups of 62+ monstersI step aside or roll away a lot. Most creatures up to about lvl 64 can be killed simply by walking to them and holding Whirl, they die before the sequence is done. Biggest issue (besides mentioned Eredin and Imlerith - I was forced by the game to fight Eredin without decoctions though) are shieldbearers and long weapon holders, but that's probably just me sucking :)



PLEASE, MAKE THIS BETTER :)

My goal is to have the ultimate Geralt ready for Blood & Wine.
 
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