I can't seem to get a hang of the combat system
I played through the Witcher on Dark mode several times without any issues, and I've played the Witcher 3 for about 10 hours now on normal difficulty, and I still don't feel like I've gotten any better with this games combat. Sometimes it feels like I'm getting worse D: Enemy tactics and behavior don't really seem to change that much between difficulty levels, the only difference being the amount of damage they can take and dish out. So far fighting humans has been absolutely fine for the most part (although avoiding arrows can be a pain at times, especially if Geralt hasn't entered combat mode), and 1 vs 1 fights of any kind work beautifully regardless of the enemy type.
My main issue has been with mobs of monsters, like drowners and ghouls, or beasts like wild dogs and wolves. Against these kinds of enemies you simply cannot parry or counterattack; the only way to avoid being hit is to either dodge or roll out of the way. Now against a single enemy this works great, but when your going up against 3 or more enemies, what inevitably happens to me is the following: A wolf runs at me, closely followed by his friends. He lunges at me, I dodge (not roll) out of the way. But in the process of dodging that one wolf, the wolf directly behind him or next to him also lunges at me a moment later. Once Geralt is dodging in any particular direction you can't seem to change the direction of the dodge, or initiate a new one, in other words you are locked into the animation. By the time I regain control I've already been struck by the second wolf's attack. Sometimes this can result in a stun lock depending on the attack sequence of that particular foe.
It seems that the main strategy to dealing with these types of enemies is to dodge their lunging attacks, and then hit them whilst they recover from the miss. But in doing so I encounter another issue: I simply cannot get to that enemy in time to attack as a result of the rather large distance created when I dodge their lunge, and because Geralt decides to slowly walk during combat instead of moving swiftly. Usually what happens is I dodge the attack, but by the time I manage to get within range to attack, they've already recovered and are able to attack me again, or I get swarmed by the other enemies before I can even reach them, forcing me to either take the hit, or dodge out of the way, preventing me from actually attacking.
I just can't seem to get any kind of crowd control going, as the enemies seem to always stick with one another, no matter how much I try to kite them, with no real stragglers that I can pick off as I would in the Witcher 2. The targeting system also seems a bit stiff, but this might just be me.
Now theoretically I could just keep dodging out of the way and hit the enemies with igni, keep dodging until my stamina regenerates and repeat, not using my sword at all, but this seems rather silly considering that Geralt is a Witcher not a mage.
So my question is, what am I doing wrong? Would Yrden actually be effective in these kinds of situations?
I played through the Witcher on Dark mode several times without any issues, and I've played the Witcher 3 for about 10 hours now on normal difficulty, and I still don't feel like I've gotten any better with this games combat. Sometimes it feels like I'm getting worse D: Enemy tactics and behavior don't really seem to change that much between difficulty levels, the only difference being the amount of damage they can take and dish out. So far fighting humans has been absolutely fine for the most part (although avoiding arrows can be a pain at times, especially if Geralt hasn't entered combat mode), and 1 vs 1 fights of any kind work beautifully regardless of the enemy type.
My main issue has been with mobs of monsters, like drowners and ghouls, or beasts like wild dogs and wolves. Against these kinds of enemies you simply cannot parry or counterattack; the only way to avoid being hit is to either dodge or roll out of the way. Now against a single enemy this works great, but when your going up against 3 or more enemies, what inevitably happens to me is the following: A wolf runs at me, closely followed by his friends. He lunges at me, I dodge (not roll) out of the way. But in the process of dodging that one wolf, the wolf directly behind him or next to him also lunges at me a moment later. Once Geralt is dodging in any particular direction you can't seem to change the direction of the dodge, or initiate a new one, in other words you are locked into the animation. By the time I regain control I've already been struck by the second wolf's attack. Sometimes this can result in a stun lock depending on the attack sequence of that particular foe.
It seems that the main strategy to dealing with these types of enemies is to dodge their lunging attacks, and then hit them whilst they recover from the miss. But in doing so I encounter another issue: I simply cannot get to that enemy in time to attack as a result of the rather large distance created when I dodge their lunge, and because Geralt decides to slowly walk during combat instead of moving swiftly. Usually what happens is I dodge the attack, but by the time I manage to get within range to attack, they've already recovered and are able to attack me again, or I get swarmed by the other enemies before I can even reach them, forcing me to either take the hit, or dodge out of the way, preventing me from actually attacking.
I just can't seem to get any kind of crowd control going, as the enemies seem to always stick with one another, no matter how much I try to kite them, with no real stragglers that I can pick off as I would in the Witcher 2. The targeting system also seems a bit stiff, but this might just be me.
Now theoretically I could just keep dodging out of the way and hit the enemies with igni, keep dodging until my stamina regenerates and repeat, not using my sword at all, but this seems rather silly considering that Geralt is a Witcher not a mage.
So my question is, what am I doing wrong? Would Yrden actually be effective in these kinds of situations?