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

+

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)
 
Ok, so I'm done with the Main game and HoS, great DLC by the way.
Anyway, I have the Steel/Silver Viper Venomous swords and have the following:
Steel has the Preservation
Silver has nothing on it yet, so should I put 3 Greater Chernobog stones on it for +15% Attack Power or Severance?
Also, if I have Preservation on the Steel, does it also apply to the Silver sword if not, should I use Preservation on the Silver as well?
Lastly, since both swords have +15% chance to poison, would putting 3 Greater Morana stones for +15% Poison on the Solver be even be better for a total of +30% chance to poison?
 
@Exentryk
I have a question offtopic. I noticed in your video here: https://youtu.be/Gx5x8ZLyI5w?t=133 that you don't have active buffs visible on the screen, but when you open quick access menu they're shown there. For me active buffs were alway visible or not based on the HUD settings, and they are still the same now on the 1.10 patch PS4. I started a thread about that issue and reported this 2 months ago and got the reply it'll be fixed: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/thre...sn-t-show-current-buffs?p=1891525#post1891525 I see it's working for you, where did you set it up to work that way?
 
I was testing Replenishment upgrade and it seems to be doing ok, but it's nowhere close to optimal and I plan to waste some more time with this build - it focuses on Igni and Rend while using a lot of potions. 100% burn chance is important.

Level 38 with Ofieri Saber and Sarrim:

57% base burn chance
10% from 2 sockets in Nilfgaardian Guardsman's Gauntlets
10% from 2 sockets in Relic New Moon Trousers
15% from Ofieri Boots

This leads us to 92% burn chance and you could swap New Moon Trousers for Mastercrafted Wolven ones to get another 5% burn chance, but that's barely not enough and you are 3 percent short. Fortunately - both Ofieri Saber and Sarrim give you the required burn chance, so I'm using New Moon Trousers (they slightly outdamage Mastercrafted Wolven Trousers).

Level 39 with Venomous Viper Swords:

57% base burn chance
15% from Ofieri Gauntlets (replacement for Nilfgaardian Guardsman's Gauntlets)
15% from Mastercrafted Wolven Trousers (replacement for Relic New Moon Trousers)
15% from Ofieri Boots

102% total burn chance, but the overall damage output is decreased a little for the sake of poisoning and experience gain.
If you want stronger gear, you could always sacrifice 25 toxicity and use Petri's Philter. I simply don't find it very practical.

Besides burning chance, the build is pretty straightforward, but I certainly missed a few things... The choice of trousers is questionable as well... The first video shows 23000 critical hit followed by 16k and 18k (way more effective combination).
In the second video, consider it a guide how to build this funny shit, I destroy Toad Prince in 25 seconds. Insane damage.

[video=youtube;r-u1SKqM640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-u1SKqM640[/video]

To go even higher with critical hit damage, you could:

1) Replace Mastercrafted Feline Armor (Heft upgrade) with Relic New Moon Armor (Levity upgrade)
2) Replace Bear School Techniques with Cat School Techniques (+100% critical hit bonus damage)
3) Replace Ofieri Boots with Relic New Moon Boots
4) Replace Heightened Tolerance with one more Offense Ability to get higher Attack Power bonus

This doubles your Rend crit damage, but your regular strong attacks are almost two times weaker.

etc. etc. There are definitely more optimizations that I just cannot think of right now. Time will tell.

For burning, you could be using Petri's Philter and say goodbye to multiple White Raffard's usage.
Or you could just keep Heightened Tolerance, 25% higher overdose treshold > 15% attack power.


 
Last edited:
@Exentryk
I have a question offtopic. I noticed in your video here: https://youtu.be/Gx5x8ZLyI5w?t=133 that you don't have active buffs visible on the screen, but when you open quick access menu they're shown there. For me active buffs were alway visible or not based on the HUD settings, and they are still the same now on the 1.10 patch PS4. I started a thread about that issue and reported this 2 months ago and got the reply it'll be fixed: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/thre...sn-t-show-current-buffs?p=1891525#post1891525 I see it's working for you, where did you set it up to work that way?

I am using a mod that shows the buffs in the radial menu. I like to play clutter free of HUD elements as much as possible.
 
I am using a mod that shows the buffs in the radial menu. I like to play clutter free of HUD elements as much as possible.

Damn... I'm screwed on PS4. I played with active buffs turned off, having about 10-15 active at once obscures 1/3 of the screen, but I hated I couldn't check how much time left I had for potions to last. I was hoping they finally fix this to work like it was intended and described in tutorials.
 
Any thoughts on the below questions?

I have the Steel/Silver Viper Venomous swords and have the following:
Steel has the Preservation
Silver has nothing on it yet, so should I put 3 Greater Chernobog stones on it for +15% Attack Power or Severance?
Also, if I have Preservation on the Steel, does it also apply to the Silver sword if not, should I use Preservation on the Silver as well?
Lastly, since both swords have +15% chance to poison, would putting 3 Greater Morana stones for +15% Poison on the Solver be even be better for a total of +30% chance to poison?
 
Last edited:
Any thoughts on the below questions?

Chernobog doesn't work as intented - therefore Severance is better if you wish to use it. Preservation on just one sword applies to both of them. You could increase your chance to poison indeed, but you could also use bleeding runes, or go for a combination of multiple effects (poison + bleeding + burning). Invigoration and Replenishment are powerful as well.

I don't see a problem there. The boots have base 10% Igni bonus.

Thanks a lot mate. I fixed it. :^)

Also, decided to see how much damage my practical dps build would do with a crit hit. Here is the result ;)

When I was trying to get the highest crit, I got 43k with Sarrim and I'd crit for like 45000 with Viper Venomous Silver.

 
Last edited:
Chernobog doesn't work as intended - therefore Severance is better if you wish to use it. Preservation on just one sword applies to both of them. You could increase your chance to poison indeed, but you could also use bleeding runes, or go for a combination of multiple effects (poison + bleeding + burning). Invigoration and Replenishment are powerful as well.

"Chernobog doesn't work as intended " that's too bad, so maybe I'll just go with +15% burning, I like that effect and it is a form of crowd control although on a Silver Sword it may not be as good as it would be on a Steel Sword as there are more human swarms than monster (Nekkers and Drowners are not a problem anymore)
 
Last edited:
Yeah Wasabi, I think I didn't even have thunderbolt or waterhag active in my screenshot (toxicity is low there). Neither did I have preservation active. But good to see you got close to 45K. I'll try to see the max I can get when I'm fully decked out.
 
Last edited:
I played a bit more with my Rend and Igni build and decided to give the full New Moon gear (except for gauntlets) a shot.
You eventually realize that it's just as ridiculous as with the fast attack build. Who needs Bear School Techniques when you can use Cat School for 100% critical damage bonus? You get another 110% from all the gear, 75% from Sarrim and more from red abilities. 40k crits are hilarious and the build is doing fairly well in any situation. When you get swarmed by fast enemies, you can use Igni and bombs with a few attacks here and there. I will add a short video explaining the build and gear a bit, as well as the correct usage of adrenaline points. Some combat is included too and despite making many mistakes, I didn't get punished for them at all thanks to the strength of this build. :} When fighting knights in the last clip,
I should have used White Raffard's to activate Water Hag Decoction, but I just simply forgot to do so. Still much to learn.

Ended up with this gear:

Nilfgaardian Guardsman's Gauntlets (Assassin's only have 1 socket also 50% crit damage bonus > 10% crit chance)
Relic New Moon Armor with Levity (considerable replacement would be Mastercrafted Feline)
Relic New Moon Trousers (considerable replacement would be Mastercrafted Wolven)
Relic New Moon Boots (Ofieri Boots would give you 100% burn chance = you don't have to use Petri's Pilther)

Greater Glyphs of Igni in all sockets to increase sign intensity and burning. With this gear, I have to use Petri's Pilther.

Core bombs: Superior Northern Wind for Rend synergy, Superior Grapeshot for some AoE damage (and to drop shields)
Core decoctions: Water Hag for 50% higher damage when full HP, Archgriffin is powerful against high vitality monsters, Katakan gives you additional 5% crit chance when you use regular attacks a lot, Ekhidna and/or Ekimmara for more fun
Core potions: Thunderbolt for 35% Attack Power, Petri's Philter when you want to watch the world burn, White Raffard's to keep full HP for Water Hag, Tawny Owl for more stamina, Maribor Forest for adrenaline, Blizzard against fast enemies

You can spam decoctions and potions when you have 2 tolerances. 240+ Toxicity with a 25% higher treshold than usual.



Modus operandi is:

Enter the fight with one adrenaline point, use Igni to buff your sword, use Rend or a regular attack, use Maribor Forest to get another adrenaline point - use Igni to get another buff, then attack again.

Don't forget to use necessary bombs, oils, potions and decoctions. For overly autistic Rend attack:

1) Get 2 or 3 adrenaline points during a fight (you already have one as you enter combat)
2) Use Igni to buff your sword
3) Consume Maribor Forest and gain yet another point
4) Rend Attack with Igni buff and 2-3 adrenaline points

40000+ critical strikes are fun. ;D Unless you don't enjoy obliterating high vitality monsters.

The rest is explained in the video... Always use your first adrenaline point with Igni to buff your sword.

 
This is my favourite build, it's not super overpowered or anything, but still very strong and lots of fun to use on Deathmarch difficulty. For PC users, it also works well with difficulty enhancing mods.

Video for skill setup:

https://youtu.be/kIoe3DPY9pk

Equipment is full Ursine (+Ursine Swords) for defense and adrenaline generation. It has enough toxicity to have 3 decoctions active at the same time (I usually run Ekhidna, Archgriffin, and Troll). The main draw of this build is that you do good melee damage, can play around with a lot of potions and decoctions and (thanks to Rage Management) can also use a lot of signs in combat. The signs aren't going to be very strong, but Quen will still absorb at least one hit for you, Yrden will make Wraiths corporeal, Igni has a chance to ignite fools, and Axii can be used to set up very nasty combos like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=821rX4I8hAs

In conclusion, mostly melee focussed with good damage, but with lots of room for shenanigans with potions and decoctions and the ability to cast lots of signs. Not min-maxed, but still very fun to use in my opinion.

---------- Updated at 09:00 PM ----------

Wasaabii28 Oooh boy, this looks crazy. That Igni sword buff thing sounds particularly interesting.
 
I played a bit more with my Rend and Igni build and decided to give the full New Moon gear (except for gauntlets) a shot.
You eventually realize that it's just as ridiculous as with the fast attack build. Who needs Bear School Techniques when you can use Cat School for 100% critical damage bonus? You get another 110% from all the gear, 75% from Sarrim and more from red abilities. 40k crits are hilarious and the build is doing fairly well in any situation. When you get swarmed by fast enemies, you can use Igni and bombs with a few attacks here and there. I will add a short video explaining the build and gear a bit, as well as the correct usage of adrenaline points. Some combat is included too and despite making many mistakes, I didn't get punished for them at all thanks to the strength of this build. :}

Been following your builds and videos with a lot of interest, really good stuff, cheers. Now that you have tested both builds -- the fast and strong attack versions -- which do you prefer for day-to-day play? My personal opinion is the fast attack build, just because I find it easier to deal with lots of mobs, and it seems the strong attack version (which I admit does a LOT more critical hit damage) is more suited to super strong, lone enemies, which I feel the fast attack build can still handle, given a little more time. I've never had an issue dealing with a single, strong enemy, but more so groups of strong enemies. On an NG+ level cap, I'd say just take both of course, strong and fast attack skills.
 
You crit-people make my polymancer seem so... inadequate. But then again... I would find nothing amusing about a pure DPS build. I like the fact of having abilities from every tree, it makes me feel more like a witcher.
 
Been following your builds and videos with a lot of interest, really good stuff, cheers. Now that you have tested both builds -- the fast and strong attack versions -- which do you prefer for day-to-day play? My personal opinion is the fast attack build, just because I find it easier to deal with lots of mobs, and it seems the strong attack version (which
I admit does a LOT more critical hit damage) is more suited to super strong, lone enemies, which I feel the fast attack build can still handle, given a little more time. I've never had an issue dealing with a single, strong enemy, but more so groups of strong enemies. On an NG+ level cap, I'd say just take both of course, strong and fast attack skills.

I've played with both of these builds for multiple hours and I think I like the fast attack one a bit more as well. I was always a proud felinefag. I never used Ursine and/or played with Rend before the expansion, but I wouldn't say that
strong attack builds are weaker (just a bit slower) in groups of enemies, as long as you use your WHOLE repertoire.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The build that I'm currently trying is more sign oriented version of the last one (Igni + Rend). Igni damage and stamina regeneration are much higher and you can use one or two additional signs. You can even drop the Igni Intensity since
25% doesn't increase your damage output a lot and go for any different combination. Three Aard, Yrden, Quen or Axii abilities combined with just regular Igni. But so far I liked Igni Intensity together with two Yrden abilities, still testing it.

You sacrifice Synergy and use 3 sign abilities with one blue mutagen and 7 offense abilities with three red mutagens.
Strong attack abilities could be swapped for fast attack ones, depends on your prefered play style. Both work just fine.



Ofieri Saber with Replenishment upgrade
Sarrim with Replenishment upgrade
Mastercrafted Griffin Armor, Gauntlets and Boots with +50% Igni
Mastercrafted Wolven Trousers with +20% Igni

Petri's Philter, Thunderbolt, Water Hag & Tawny Owl = around 3000 DPS, 50 stamina regen and +180% Sign Intensity

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What I prefer in my day-to-day play and what I also used in my second playthrough of the expansion was a pretty funny and somewhat successful experiment. It's a combination of fast attacks, Aard and Igni - the build was focusing on both 100% Stagger and 100% Burning. You can do SO much shit with it. I fell in love with the diversity and just kept using it.



Ofieri Saber with Replenishment upgrade
Sarrim with Replenishment upgrade
Mastercrafted Feline with Levity upgrade
Assassin's Gauntlets with +10% Igni (in storms Nilfgaardian Guardsman's Gauntlets with+20% Igni)
Relic New Moon Trousers with +20% Igni
Relic New Moon Boots with +10% Aard

> AoE knockdown against groups of humans and monsters
> Firestream because Geralt doesn't like undercooked meat
> 25% Sign Intensity on Aard or Igni and adjust the glyphs

Instead of Crushing Blows you can be using something else, such as Deadly Precision. I like to add some strong attacks here and there when fighting bigger enemies (with the Igni buff on your sword your strong attacks hurt like a motherfucker even with a fast attack build) and the critical bonuses are too nice to pass on. Getting adrenaline points is easy thanks to Razor Focus and Maribor Forest. Tip top kek fun = knocking a guy down with Aard while you have an adrenaline point, so that your sword gets the Aard buff, then attacking another guy which knocks him down, then you just finish them both off. The Witcher 3 combat can SOMETIMES surprisingly be more diverse than its romance. You could also use Yrden or Axii.

From decoctions, I was using Water Hag and/or Katakan almost all the time. You can also use Ekhidna or Ekimmara.
Potions as usual, Thunderbolt, Tawny Owl, Maribor Forest and White Raffard's - 240 Toxicity gives you many options.

You can do various combinations and your damage is decent in every situation. Regular Igni AoE damage in combination with Grapeshot can kill a group of annoying little dogshits within 5 seconds. Whirl empowered with Igni is always pleasant. Or you could just knock everything down. Another shiny moment of autism was baiting like 10 monsters into chasing me, freezing them with Northern Wind, then burning everything with Igni and finishing off with a glorious meatspin... Fireworks!

If you want different swords, you could use Petri's Philter. I created a small PDF with more explanation (zoom in).

Should you still find yourself in trouble, don't forget that you could use Superior Blizzard and all the oils and other bombs. When you get tired of Replenishment or don't want to use it, there's always Invigoration. You could also be the bored one and use Severance and/or Preservation... Bleeding, poisoning and burning effects are nice (or combine all three of them).
 
Last edited:
Combat Skills:
Arrow Deflection 3/3
Precise Blows 5/5
Crushing Blows 5/5
Whirl 2/5
Rend 5/5

Sign Skills:
Melt Armor 3/5
Delusion 3/3
Active Shield 1/3

Alchemy Skills:
Poisoned Blades 4/5
Acquired Tolerance 1/3

General Skills:
Griffin School Techniques
Focus


This is my 41 point "True Wolf School" Hybrid build. It is a true "all around" build that forces you to use all the tools at your disposal and it's by far my favorite way to play the game. The gear set is obviously full wolf school set. I use attack power runestones, and igni/aard glyphstones to make sure I hit 100% burn and stagger. (Further testing is needed to decide the viability of quen glyphstones. (Yrden glyphstone is useless..)) Use whatever potions to suit your playstyle/skill level.


Besides the fact that this is hella fun to play, I also love this build because of how beautifully it falls down the skill tree. That + the fact that it's such a low requirement makes me strongly believe it's the build the developers really wanted you to play with the gear.


FAIR WARNING: This build is not OP, does not use cheese, and requires you to be a badass at all times. Do not mistake this build for easy mode!


Edit: You can switch out focus for sunder armor for a variation that does better against bigger monsters, but, of course, raises the skill point requirement a few points but is still realistically attainable in 1 death march playthrough.
 
Hey people I finished my campaign some months ago with a Ursine/adrenaline build was really nice but I played as an heavy swordsman with no particular tactics however this time I'm looking for Fast/Attack Cat school build for a Death March game....however I've really no idea in how to create this build.

Can someone who did a Cat School fast attack build share his experiences with me.?
1)Which Combat abilites you need? The fast ones ok but which in particular? Is whirlwind a good choice?
2)Which signs better support a Cat School build? Quen? Aard? Which other abilites should I consider in the Sign tree?
3)Which Decotions improve my fast attack skills? What should I specifically look into in Alchemy tree?
4)Special abilities? I guess Cat School techniques is important but aside from that?

Thank you for you imput and suggestions! :)
 
Top Bottom