Quest Order questions?

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Quest Order questions?

I'm playing my first ever playthrough on death march and the main quest is leveling me up too quickly so I had a few questions. This is really the first rpg where I want to avoid levels lol.

So I mean I'm level 16 now and I'm running into quests that are greyed out. My general strategy is too do side quests that are level approperiate or when I'm a level or two above those will level me up further then I go do a chunk of the main story since those quest just hurl insane exp at me. i could focus on doing the story quests first but then I'd out level most of my side quests very quickly.......... And how do you go about solving for instance those level 2-3 side quests like the courier's documents quest right outside novigrad when I was level 3 as I was leaving white orchard and obviously leveled up in no man's land quite a bit before reaching novigrad?

I find it difficult to keep juggling side quests and story quests for maximum experience while maintaing a low level. Do story quests grey out as well? My strategy so far has been to do side quests first because they will level me up less and then do the story once all the side quests that are level appropriate have been done. Is that the right way to go about things?

Now I've got a level 16 quest to get to skellige but I have a ton of side quests and level 12 story quests to do in Novigrad I'll probably be level 20 before I can go to skellige? I've already paid the boat captain. I wish they had a working mod for this

Also does protective coating actually work? I have it up to level 4 and you'd think with 20% DR it would be noticeable especially on death march where enemies can take such large chunks of health out of you

Cheers, :)
 
I don't think there's a right way, it's really down to how you'd like to set the pacing for yourself. If you're more interested in the side content, then focus on that, but keep in mind the game will be fairly easy for you when it comes to the main quest. It's what you should do if you're a completionist, or into open world RPGs and you're more interested in having your own adventure than following the plot. You're just going to have to accept, then, that you'll outlevel a lot of the content, not really a way around it.

If you're looking for an experience closer to what you would get from a less open RPG, then you should probably stick to the main quest, picking up the occasional side stuff you stumble upon. You'll still get to do quite a bit of side content that way, so it's a fairly balanced approach, or at least I found it to be such. This way, most of the quests you do - both main and side quests - should be around your level. But you'll have to be okay with not doing everything - the main quest does a good enough job leading you around the map, but you will miss some things. It's worth noting that you can keep doing side quests (with a few exceptions) after you've beaten the main story, but you'll be overlevelled.

Protective coating does work, in my experience. I tend to get an extra hit or so before Geralt dies, it's not a massive bonus.
 
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I worked on quests usually 4-5 levels below me. *Or* at my own level but a higher priority (as when collecting armour diagrams that I want to wear *now*).

There were often some left over that greyed out, but there weren't ever very many. These I did at my convenience, or left for later ~ they won't be any less efficient done very much later, nor get any easier than one shot kills (and you *can* always carry a rusty steel sword for dealing with that pack of low level nekkers (swap out both your regular steel and silver swords, and swap in only the rusty steel and you have a mild challenge for overlevelled quests, if you also tone down the offensive signs)).

Reached Level 37 with no grinding, no glitch mining, with level 35 before the final battle, level 36 afterwards, and one more in the remaining quests.

Depending on your other armour, protective coating can do relatively little (base armour is poor, protective coating blocks at least some of the damage), or make you practically immune to damage (base armour is resisting most damage, protective coating closes out most of the remaining damage, from that creature type). It is useful to have superior oils, and to have all the types (and to regularly refresh them with the currently most useful one (even if there are still a few uses of the same one present). Note that many of the "fancy" armours have very profound voids in their armour resistances, and no armour applies it's "Armour" value against elemental damage, this is damage that cannot be blocked and is resisted only.

Protective coating *only* protects against the enemy the current oil injures. So until you get "hanged mans oil" it will have no effect on humans, and until "Beast oil" no effect on wolves or bears... which are the biggest problems in the early game.
Drowners and Ghouls are resisted by/damaged by Necrophage oil, which *is* available in White Orchard, and Wraiths are resisted/damaged by Spectre Oil *also* available early. ... but Wraiths are also elemental damage which ignores all armour values, and only is reduced by Quen, armour resistances to elemental damage (reasonably rare), the wraith decoction and the spectre oil/protective coating.
 
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Long story short.. Its impossible to do all the quests without getting overpowered/overleveled. Trust me Ive tried.
And in the end you'll pretty much end up at the same level depending on how many side-quests you did. Even though you dont get a lot of XP the quests are still awesome.

Dont worry too much about it.
 
The way the leveling of the quests is structured, I think it tries to force/emulate a narative but, I too find that the Geralt's leveling is too quick. In my first DM playthrough, I am level 11 andworking on quests that are 4-5 levels bellow me . So far I manage to keep up and had only one grey quest that was already too low.
I've noticed that 6 levels bellow you the quests turn grey.
 
The way the leveling of the quests is structured, I think it tries to force/emulate a narative but, I too find that the Geralt's leveling is too quick. In my first DM playthrough, I am level 11 andworking on quests that are 4-5 levels bellow me . So far I manage to keep up and had only one grey quest that was already too low.
I've noticed that 6 levels bellow you the quests turn grey.

Yep more than 5 levels lower or higher will not give you a lot of XP
 
I'm a completionist I will do all possible quests before finishing my first playthrough. I found it challenging early on but now lol. I slaughter everything and I'm only level 16 Town guards still give me some trouble but they only ever aggro me if I pick up some loot in their vicinity it's so random. I can pick everything clean but in a few select areas they will aggro me. On DM you have 20% less exp that's why I was asking if I can manage level 35-37 that will be sweet. I will be a real killer then.
 
I didn't see *any* difference in XP between S&S and DM... if anything I levelled faster in DM on my second play because I Greyed a smaller proportion of quests and failed none.
 
I didn't see *any* difference in XP between S&S and DM... if anything I levelled faster in DM on my second play because I Greyed a smaller proportion of quests and failed none.

You do get less exp on DM. There is a difference.

This game is in need of some level scaling somewhere along the line. Maybe the main story should scale with you. If you want to level up and explore without focusing on the story it does'nt work to well. You're basically shoe-horned into doing the story. I think the same applies to gear/armour in the game. You're shoe-horned into light,medium,and heavy in a way. These things need to change.
 
I recently played with no side-quests, only the story. Haven't touched anything, even Zoltan's quests was unfinished (cos it's unavoidable) but in the middle of it you can ask him to do something else for you. Being a true friend he won't refuse, so you can delay to finish his quest to post-game. Anyway I finished the game up at level 29.

Quests' levels and XP really need a good rework, spoken few times here and on steam
 
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I'm a completionist I will do all possible quests before finishing my first playthrough. I found it challenging early on but now lol. I slaughter everything and I'm only level 16 Town guards still give me some trouble but they only ever aggro me if I pick up some loot in their vicinity it's so random. I can pick everything clean but in a few select areas they will aggro me. On DM you have 20% less exp that's why I was asking if I can manage level 35-37 that will be sweet. I will be a real killer then.

So am I, but you can come back and do most of the quests later. That way you're not gonna get too overleveled.
 
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