Death March difficulty - just how hard it is?

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Death March difficulty - just how hard it is?

So first of Im Level 4, finished every main/side quest in White Orchand prologue in the region, and Im about to move to Vizima. Playing on Normal difficulty.
Im going almost 100% with a Swordsmanship's path like I do in every Witcher title, atm have my fast attack dmg upgraded to 5/5 and since reaching Level 4 I can slice my way through most of the humans / creatures with no problem. Signs for now are doing pretty well aswell, even without upgrades, as Im fine with them as they are atm. I don't even care about alchemy or making potions as basically they auto-refill and on top of that I have plenty of food to eat to restore my vitality.

So finally that being said my questions is... Should I wait and progress further or I can switch to Death March? I love this game to death and I want every encounter to feel rewarding. I know that in DM food really becomes important as Vitality doesnt restore itself, and meditation doesnt work either for that matter. Also how hard is the combat and does failure mean a perma death?
 
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So finally that being said my questions is... Should I wait and progress further or I can switch to Death March? I love this game to death and I want every encounter to feel rewarding. I know that in DM food really becomes important as Vitality doesnt restore itself, and meditation doesnt work either for that matter. Also how hard is the combat and does failure mean a perma death?

Go Death March and never look back.

What can I say?

I lose a lot and die a lot. If I'm on the ball an focussed, I always win - or at least clear out in time to survive. Prepare as if every fight meant death. Every fight.

It's not permadeath. It is very hard. One or two hits and you're dead. That's it. Everything likes to lunge and they like to pair up. That said, you can also kill them really fast - I got 5 opponents killed in less than 5 seconds.

When you win a fight against well, nearly anything it feels rewarding. Beating someone or something five levels higher than you feels great! I took the first Wild Hunt lieutenant I met on my first try by playing smart, timing my dodges and cuts, using potions just right and watching my flanks.

It felt great.

Onwards to Death March!
 
I play on DM and get killed a lot - and I love it.

That said, most of my deaths happen because of the flukey targeting system, which makes it almost impossible to never make mistakes in a prolonged fight. And a single mistake is very often deadly, because the difficulty of DM is achieved by making every common bandit both tougher and stronger than Geralt. Depending on the enemy (and countless other things), you need to hit them 2-20 times more than you can get hit by them.

Not quite the way hard difficulties should be implemented in games, IMO.
 
Even level enemies are usually no problem, higher level ones can be tricky. Much higher level ones = turn tail and run.
I like it, makes exploration interesting and dangerous. What I don't like is the ridiculously low XP from mobs, makes killing higher lvl monsters not feel rewarding at all.
 
Go Death March and never look back.

What can I say?

I lose a lot and die a lot. If I'm on the ball an focussed, I always win - or at least clear out in time to survive. Prepare as if every fight meant death. Every fight.

It's not permadeath. It is very hard. One or two hits and you're dead. That's it. Everything likes to lunge and they like to pair up. That said, you can also kill them really fast - I got 5 opponents killed in less than 5 seconds.

When you win a fight against well, nearly anything it feels rewarding. Beating someone or something five levels higher than you feels great! I took the first Wild Hunt lieutenant I met on my first try by playing smart, timing my dodges and cuts, using potions just right and watching my flanks.

It felt great.

Onwards to Death March!
Thank you for your answer, sir. I think you convinced me. Any tips how I should manage my Skills? Will I still be good if I will continue focusing just on true-swordsmanship skill tree?

---------- Updated at 06:35 AM ----------

Story and Sword is an easy difficulty. ;)
Oh I got the name wrong, but like I wrote in my post - I do play on Normal dif, just can't remember the name now as Im not at home atm.
 
Death March.... hmm...... I must have died a dozen of times... I must have been on the verge of throwing my computer out a dozen of times..... hmm.....

If you got no patience best not to touch Death March or you might find your Computer broken by your own hands :p
 
yes, I have been playing deathmarch since launch myself..
it is fun.. however challenging.. but not impossible.

I do regret the XP gains though.. they seem very minimal

I wish there was a breakdown of all the difficulty levels with regards to xp gain, challenge, difficulty etc..
 
I started the game on Death March, and honestly, I can't see the game being enjoyable at lower difficulties.

And Death March isn't hard. I think the first few levels are probably a little tough, but if you take your time and approach each fight with some preparation and startegy, it's not so bad. I recommend people just turning up the difficulty for a random enemy fight, and try to take on enemies slowly.
 
Death march... I love it. i find that I am significantly more likely to die from a mook encounter than a "boss" fight. Why because in a boss fight i am focused and work on making sure I "dance" through the combat. using sign's, potions, food, bolts or bombs and swords. Yet in a mook fight I think "I got this" and get cocky and the enemy spanks be for being cocky. Then for the next hours or so i am focused then i start to think pffft combat with scrubs is easy get cocky again and "smack" I get a painful reminder what death march is about.

I love exploring on death march as you really get an idea what stumbling upon a camp of bandits in the woods means. I love the satisfaction of surviving a tough fight. Getting the can't touch this achievement was really satisfying when you earn it on Death march, as killing 5 foes without taking any damage without using Quen isn't exactly the easiest thing to do on this difficulty.
 
I started the game on Death March, and honestly, I can't see the game being enjoyable at lower difficulties.

And Death March isn't hard. I think the first few levels are probably a little tough, but if you take your time and approach each fight with some preparation and startegy, it's not so bad. I recommend people just turning up the difficulty for a random enemy fight, and try to take on enemies slowly.

+1

Death Match is the way to go. Anything lower than that makes it too easy.
 
So in order to survive in Death March Quen upgrades are necessary? Because Im going with a Swordsman's path.
 
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I just spent about one and a half hours trying to do the damn shrieker contract as a lvl 4 Geralt with 3 in fast atack and 1 in igni.
Also, a bit earlier I needed to get somewhere, and on my way I kept encountering these same two drowners that kept killing me...over, and over and over again...10 loads later, they were dead.
So yeah, DM is FRUSTRATING a lot of times, but HIGHLY rewarding when you actually do a monster contract that you've been on for the last 90 minutes.
 
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