Did anyone go full alchemy tree?

[aozgolo]

Did anyone go full alchemy tree?

I recently beat the game on Sword & Story difficulty at 93 hours focusing on a Sign Tree build, but now plan on starting over a new playthru on Death March and I wanted to focus on Alchemy a lot more but when I look at the Alchemy tree...

My god is it boring and confusing. I played all the way through on lesser difficulty never worried about stamina or even fully understanding what adrenaline is and everything about the alchemy tree suggests simple incremental increases, and basically while the numbers look arbitrary I am curious if it truly translates to a very noticeable difference in gameplay.

I certainly want a challenge in the game and I want to be far more focused on potions and alchemy and prepping for each battle I face but I am curious to hear from anyone else who focused on the alchemy tree and what their experiences were?

 

[JackofTears]

The main thing I focused on was increasing my toxicity levels so I could afford to take two elixers at a time and still take a few healing potions during a combat. A couple of those elixer combinations are outright baddass.

 

[MetalBlood]

Going full on alchemy is the strongest build out there. Especially once you get to the bomb split skill etc. Done it before and it absolutely murders everything when you throw 6 grapeshots at once. Same goes for being able to drink 10 potions. Really helpful, especially against more durable enemies like elementals. Being able to buff sign intensity, stamina regen, damage output, health regen and all that at the same time really has its benefits. Add on top of that absolutely overpowered bombs and youve got the alchemy tree in a nutshell. Very hard during the first few levels but once youve passed level 10-15 its starting to get easier. Past 25 its a cakewalk, even on death march.

 

[Sharpy47]

Interesting. I will try full alchemy tree after I will finish my first-current swordsmanship tree playtrough.

 

[Costa417]

Interesting. I will try full alchemy tree after I will finish my first-current swordsmanship tree playtrough.

Swordmanship is the best. The Undying skill is the best in the game: till you have adrenaline points you will spend them to refill your vitality if it reaches 0. With full bear gear you basically cannot die

 

[Black_Iris]

I recently beat the game on Sword & Story difficulty at 93 hours focusing on a Sign Tree build, but now plan on starting over a new playthru on Death March and I wanted to focus on Alchemy a lot more but when I look at the Alchemy tree...

My god is it boring and confusing. I played all the way through on lesser difficulty never worried about stamina or even fully understanding what adrenaline is and everything about the alchemy tree suggests simple incremental increases, and basically while the numbers look arbitrary I am curious if it truly translates to a very noticeable difference in gameplay.

I certainly want a challenge in the game and I want to be far more focused on potions and alchemy and prepping for each battle I face but I am curious to hear from anyone else who focused on the alchemy tree and what their experiences were?

Alchemy (without modding the game) is by far the most powerful tree of the three (yes, even of OP signs as Quen, Axii or Yrden). End game is practically a walk in the park with permanent swallow and insane vitality.

So, if you really want a challenge either stay away from Alchemy (at last for the Brewing/Trial of the Grasses branches) or mod the game.

 

[Jayzzy89]

i go with full DAMAGE build . defence and potions for nuubs

 

[drona.667]

alchemy oils skills and potion skills would make Geralt a tanker OP build. add with griffin school skills, wearing medium armors (especially griffin set), a couple of quen sign skills and decoction (especially Troll decoction, regenerate your health in or out of combat with almost one hour duration), any normal level enemies almost could never harm geralt.

 

[Nurmi90]

Didin't see any reason to go full anything, and I just cherry picked all around cool things, which ended up me being adrealine healing swordsman with two Decoctions always on.

Red
Adrealine doesn't decay from taking damage
Adrealine heals

Blue
Exploding Quen
Better Axii

Green
Poison
Each alchemy recipe gives +1 toxicity
+1000 health from each Decoction
+50% stronger mutagens

Yellow
Signs generate Adrealine
Adrealine increases sign intensity

If I'd continue the game to get few more points, most likely I would take that Red skill which makes signs to max out when adrealine is full.

 

[pakupalos]

http://goo.gl/oC0uYy
here's my build - ursine/alchemy with strong attacks(2 last slots are interchangeable,you can go for bombs, or full on potions, or some signs even)
alchemy mostly opens up lategame, early in the game,with weak potions and low amount of recepies, it doesn't provide any benefit, especially talents, influence barely noticeable
but later on, when you get tier3 grade potions (especially blizzard combined with Resolve talent) Geralt becomes nearly unkillable, and still deals tons of dmg with strong attacks
so i wouldn't recommend starting with lvling up alchemy, and only switching for it at least from lvl15 or even higher

 

[OutgoingHermit]

The alchemy tree is pretty strong. I think the worst talent there, believe it or not, is the one that activates a second potion effect whenever you drink one. Half of the time it activates something useless (Killer Whale) or something you actually don't want (Cat).

 

[CoconutChriss]

Yesterday I managed to brew the Superior Tawny Owl.... that potion never runs out at night. That is so sick.

 

[dukeandearl]

I am thinking about my second playthrough and focusing on just one tree, and going Alchemy sounds interesting. I just did a hodge-podge first, then cleaned it up with a potion before endgame.

 

[Salfordio]

No, but I'm tempted.

Speaking of full trees, my first Sword & Story playthrough with fully perked combat tree was much tougher than my current Blood & Broken Bones playthrough which is exclusively sign built.

How much of this is down to me knowing the game better now is hard to say, but mage-y Geralt certainly feels stronger than his pure warrior alternative. I can still slice and dice with the best of them, only now with the added fire power of... well, fire power.

 

[ThePrody]

i don't like improving bombs , it feels just like mega-Igni , way too op , also bombs don't exactly fit well in this medieval setting, i doubt people will still fight with swords when they could just throw bombs at each other , this is not magic - everyone can do it .
In my opinion, a full Alchemy build (without bombs ) on Death March is not exactly easy .

 

[Black_Iris]

In my opinion, a full Alchemy build (without bombs ) on Death March is not exactly easy .

I can assure you it is. It's not bombs that make alchemy powerful, it is the brewing and, to a lesser degree, trial of the grasses, that make it as powerful as it is. Bombs are just something more.

 

[ThePrody]

yes but you also miss all the bonuses to attack damage from the combat tree , i will try an all-green build just for curiosity but i'm not too optimistic about it

 

[Salfordio]

yes but you also miss all the bonuses to attack damage from the combat tree , i will try an all-green build just for curiosity but i'm not to optimistic about it

I thought so too, but my pure signs build doesn't feel that much weaker at sword-play than my all combat one. Most of the attacking power doesn't come from the skills, but the synergy those skills have when socketed next to attack mutagens, but you can make up the damage with potions, oils and spells.... the latter being almost op when combined with the easy to find blue mutagens and griffin armour.

---------- Updated at 09:17 PM ----------

The above sounded a little down on the combat tree. It wasn't intended to be that way. I had a load of fun with my first pure warrior run through the game. There are certain skills I really miss using, like the one that powers up signs with adrenaline points, or the bleed effect on all quick strikes. The problem is that those skills are right at the end of the tree, and require a massive investment in skills that - while fun - are hardly essential to beat the game on the harder difficulty settings.

An all signs build also has drawbacks, namely that there are not enough active slots to use all your bad ass spells and their alternative fire modes.

 

[kissybyc]

Speaking of full trees, my first Sword & Story playthrough with fully perked combat tree was much tougher than my current Blood & Broken Bones playthrough which is exclusively sign built.

Exactly. Swordsmanship does not offer many game-changing skills until tier 3. Early skills (other than Undying) are mostly small buffs. Alchemy and Sign trees in the other hand offer game-changing skills very early on.

I'm currently going with main Alchemy side Sign build, and it's much stronger than the swordsmanship I went for in my first playthrough.

 

[TheLocoMofo]

Alchemy builds are where it's at.

I'm playing a bomb/potion/crit build on Death March and once you unlock certain skills, you can turn yourself into a walking death machine.

I played a full combat build on my first play through on Blood & Bones and this build is much stronger and more fun to play.