Talents - info, recommended [SPOILERS POSSIBLE]

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I find Quen a usefull sign. At least if you want to use potions in battles. When you know you'll have a tought fight, you can get prepared, but often, in the Witcher, you are caught in a fight you were not forseeing. Quen is the only way to put some oil, or drink a Blizard potion before being beaten to death.
 
godot said:
I use Yrden traps all the time. Usually, they can be set before starting a fight which allows you to recharge their endurance cost - in other words, they effectively cost nothing. The poison, blinding and stupor enhancements are together very powerful. I'd not recommend getting Yrden's special power up attack for two reasons; the effect can much more easily, quickly and cheaply be replaced by a bomb and there seems to be a bug that activates the special attack (at twice the endurance cost!) when all you've tried to do is plant a trap. I can't wait to reach the level 5 Yrden and try out the Ring of Death. ;D
I agree. Though I'm also Igni/Aard, Yrden on just a full bronze load is very useful. It knocks people back quite effectively. I'd like to give "ring of death" a go myself. Probably strictly a last act skill though, as it would take all your golds to get it.
 
Hey, gang:Just started playing and I can already see that I'm gonna get sucked into yet another RPG. :)In any event, I'm not a very smart person, so the hardest part of RPGs for me is distributing talent points. I never know what to do. I looked on the Web last night for some character builds, but couldn't find anything. Can anyone here recommend some effective talent point builds? I'd hate to get twenty hours into the game only to realize Geralt is gimped!Thanks so much.Attirex
 
Attirex said:
Hey, gang:Just started playing and I can already see that I'm gonna get sucked into yet another RPG. :)In any event, I'm not a very smart person, so the hardest part of RPGs for me is distributing talent points. I never know what to do. I looked on the Web last night for some character builds, but couldn't find anything. Can anyone here recommend some effective talent point builds? I'd hate to get twenty hours into the game only to realize Geralt is gimped!Thanks so much.Attirex
I don't have any "optimal build" for you, there hasn't gone by nearly enough time for that to have surfaced. I can tell you what I think works great, but then again you might play the game very differently from me. So you might end up with something that's in your view "gimped". If you don't want to trial and error yourself (which is the best way to do it in my oppinion) you could always... Cheat.http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/code/915112.htmlAs for my configuration, I always go with the stat priority as such:StrengthDexterityStaminaIntelligenceAnd the signs as such:IgniAardYrdenAxiiQuen(I only use the top two).And combat styles as such:Strong SteelFast SilverStrong SilverFast Steel(I use signs for group control).Hope it helps.
 
Since you don't have access to a silver sword in chapter 1, some people may think about putting points into the steel sword skills. That would make sense, except that once you hit chapter 2 you will find a mix of monsters(most fights will be monsters where silver works better). So, I spend my points in chapter 1 starting with select intelligence ones, herbalism and oil creations. I don't use oils all that often, but they help, and on hard difficulty they really help.For those who have not played through the game yet, you will learn that some creatures die a LOT faster with a strong attack than from a fast attack. Silver sword works best on most MONSTERS, so keep that in mind. I found as the game went on that I used silver a bit more than steel until chapter 5, so focused a bit more on those when it came to combat.Strength and Dexterity are of course required to advance strong and fast attack styles, so you will be using these a bit.For chapter 1, boosting Aard(stun should be one of your early selections) will really help with many fights. Through the rest of the game, Aard will save you a LOT of pain, and can seem almost overpowered at times.There will be people who powergame and look for the easiest way to get through the game, using the most powerful signs like Igni and Aard. I personally never used Igni all that much since Aard and intelligent use of sword abilities will let you get through most of the fights easily enough. With that said, look at how you are playing the game, and focus on the skills you use. If you have read this thread, you know that most people use Aard and Igni as their primary signs, but you should play the way you want. If you want to focus on swordplay, then go that route.Some people like to run around gathering enemies and using group, but not everyone wants to play the game that way, so again, look at how you play the game. I didn't upgrade group all that much since I found that fast and strong really did the job for me. Again, it's all a matter of preference in how you play.
 
Thanks for the info, guys. I completely missed this stickied topic, and like a n00b, posted my question about talent points as a new topic. Apparently, the mods moved it to this thread (took me a while to figure that out). See? I am dumb. :)In any event, I'm not surprised that the game is really too new for anyone to have recommended builds. So I guess my question is, should I focus my points on any particular spec early in the game to avoid getting pwnd? Or is that not really a relevant question? I've played only about two hours, and have leveled only once, FYI.Thanks....
 
Attirex said:
Thanks for the info, guys. I completely missed this stickied topic, and like a n00b, posted my question about talent points as a new topic. Apparently, the mods moved it to this thread (took me a while to figure that out). See? I am dumb. :)In any event, I'm not surprised that the game is really too new for anyone to have recommended builds. So I guess my question is, should I focus my points on any particular spec early in the game to avoid getting pwnd? Or is that not really a relevant question? I've played only about two hours, and have leveled only once, FYI.Thanks....
Just doing simple quests in chapter 1 will level you fairly quickly. Turn in the barghest skulls, and other simple things will level you up decently.With experience, you will be able to do decently through chapter 1 even without spending ANY points. Strength will help your vitality(hit points), endurance will help you use Aard to knock down or stun enemies. Dexterity will help you avoid being hit, and intelligence will help with a number of useful skills(making grease to make your weapons do more damage, bomb creation to do all sorts of things like stun or blind enemies), and from there, you can then decide if you want to boost your fighting abilities. You should be switching your fighting style based on what you are fighting and how many you tend to fight at one time.When you are fighting only one thing at a time, it will tend to either be fast, or strong. A strong enemy(also heavily armored) will die faster when you use strong attacks(z key). A fast enemy will avoid those strong attacks, so you need to use fast attack(x key). If you are fighting 3 or more, going to group attack(c key) will help a lot.Make sure you advance your attack sequences as well. When you see the sword-cursor turn to flame, that is when you click again to get to the next attack sequence. As you go from sequence 1 to 2 to 3 and up, the damage you do will increase, which will knock your enemies down a LOT faster. Note that on hard difficulty you do NOT get the cursor changes to tell you when to click for the next sequence, and that does make it a bit harder.Once you learn the tricks to how to fight, and what styles/weapons to use on them, knowing what skills to spend your points on will really make more sense to you.
 
So, I haven't read any of the surronding literature with the not being able to speak (or more to the point, read) Polish!Would anyone that has like to offer their idea of the skills Geralt would have trained in that would be most "Canon" like. What abilities where most common for him in literature, and how did he go about defeating the biggest nasties that he had to defeat?
 
to make a plug for early bronzing of axii, there are several fights where you can limit the damage you are taking by using that sign on one of the tougher opponents at the very start.a great example is the fight with the professor towards the end of ch3, where two kiki soldiers pop up behind you to join the fight. axii one of the soldiers, and he will keep the other soldier off your back while you focus on the prof.I'm halfway through ch4, though, and haven't seen the need to push it beyond maxed bronze (minus the fear effect).my only complaint about the yrden traps is the small size of them; it's hard to use in strategic fashion without planning ahead most times. if they don't get bigger with silver/gold levels, then I think that each level of silver should allow you to lay one more trap. so, one trap for the two bronze levels, two for level three, 3 for level 4, 4 for gold level. make a nice wall of traps for incoming groups.do they get bigger once you raise them to level 3/4?also, i do notice that if you add the "powerup" skills, if you go beyond fully powering the sign up (just keep holding down the l-mouse) and let it go off, you get an explosion instead of a trap that does decent (about 2/3 of the equivalent igni level) damage to everyone around you. could be usefull against opponents resistant to fire (but those are pretty damn rare - too rare, in fact).
 
Hello all, this is my first post in the forums. :)Having finished the game once on Medium difficulty, I noticed that, when using chain attacks, I rarely got past the third attack in the sequence. Usually the opponent either goes down after the second or third attack (because he hasn't got many HP, thus eliminating the need for continuing the chain), or he blocks/parries my attack, causing Geralt to restart his attack sequence from the beginning.Because of this, I have never seen a level 5 attack, and I very seldom see a level 4 one. It has been said earlier in the thread that you don't get higher-level bonuses until you actually execute their corresponding attack. Is it really necessary to invest silver and gold points into 4th and 5th level fighting styles? Am I better off investing them into more useful talents like str/dex/sta/int and Signs? ???Maybe I should play my next game on Hard difficulty. What's your take on that?
 
yes, it does seem that on med diff., there is no need to go to invest your gold talents in combat levels, far better spent on your basic stats (str, end, dex, int).the level 4 combat attacks require you to hold the left mouse button to "charge" them up, then release. they are very powerful, but easily interrupted, so either use good timing, spend a lot of points on dex and doge perks (or blizzard potions), or use something to temporarily immobilize your foe (stun/blind bomb for example), to give yourself enough time to wind up your level 4 attack and release it.the level 4 steel group attack is just devastating if you manage to fully power it up before releasing it. looks very cool, too.i can think of times when a level 5 strong-style attack might have come in handy, but by and large, I think those can wait until well after you put some gold talents in your primary stats.of course, just maxing out int and igni and spamming that will take care of 90% of foes in the game, AFAICT.probably a different story on hard.
 
Several Talents have upgrades of the same skill. If you get Crushing Blow 2 does that render Crushing Blow 1 useless? So I assume you can save points by not purchasing Crushing Blow 1?
 
As I understand it, level 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 skills relate to the part of the combo you're on. So if you pick crushing blow 1 and 2, then it may trigger on hit 1 of the combo, and then hit 2 of the combo. If you pick say crushing blow 2 only, it may trigger on hit 2 and thats it.Of course, I could be entirely wrong, in which case:a) Let me know with a swift /backhandb) I just played through the whole game while having completely misunderstood the mechanics. c) I'm gonna feel stupid
 
When browsing talents for me the Swords Talents appear more benefitial after reading their descriptions than Attrribues (int,dex,stam) except for Strength which seems excellent. So I put all my points into swords (fast and strong) I'm only 1 hour into the game and I have my save where before I spent my points I don't want to regret spending sword points. However I just read the Sticky Talents post at the top of this page it doesn't show swords as even a worthy mention when spending points it pretty much says Strength > Igni > Arad.... then a mix of whatever. I'm thinking of loading my save and spending those points to Strength / Igni / Arad instead since poeple say those more usefull.When should you start putting points to (Swords) what other stufs more usefull that should recieve attetntion before going sword route?Also is it wise to max both Group and Igni? they both seem to effect AoE the same but differently
 
I've tended to load both Attributes and Sword somewhat equally along the way. That's especially easier early on because you can spend those Bronze talents. It's not until Level 15, I believe, that your first silver talent comes along and you still get a few bronzes to play with. Point being, Strength is fine, but don't neglect the others especially Intelligence unless you're playing at the easiest level. Your ability to make potions, bombs and increase the effects of your signs goes up. Mine have tended to go strength, dex, Int, stam. There's room to build whatever kind of character you want. It's really up to you.
 
Planewalker said:
Having finished the game once on Medium difficulty, I noticed that, when using chain attacks, I rarely got past the third attack in the sequence. Because of this, I have never seen a level 5 attack, and I very seldom see a level 4 one.
I see this a lot more on Hard difficulty.
Planewalker said:
It has been said earlier in the thread that you don't get higher-level bonuses until you actually execute their corresponding attack. Is it really necessary to invest silver and gold points into 4th and 5th level fighting styles? Am I better off investing them into more useful talents like str/dex/sta/int and Signs? ???
In short yes, as stats always apply in combat while a specific sword style may not.I just got the game and I've played through Chapter 1 three times in search of a good build. Here's my resulting build strat:1st, upgrade Ard with Stun. This makes Ard offensive against 2 types of resistances instead of just 1. After a successful cast you can usually kill 1 opponent instantly and, in my experience, sometimes 2. In my game play experience Stun is more useful than knockback as it keeps opponents in easy reach.2nd, I recommend upgrading all stats to 1.3rd, I acquire Oils. Oils are useful against the high HP gouls you face in Chapter 1. With Necrophlange Oil, it seemed my Steel sword was almost as good as a Silver one. I imagine I could 1 or 2 shot gouls with Necrophlange Oil on a Silver sword.4th, I get Herbs. Herbs can be sold for 1-2g in Chapter 1 if neccessary. Think of it as gambling money and use the resulting gold to buy any herb and monster books you dont have asap.5th, I upgrade all Steel sword styles. I purchase lvl2 in each style. This applies to all styles. I ended up using all styles.6th, I upgrade Igni with Incineration and +dmg. Igni is incredibly useful with Incineration.7th, I purchase +dmg modifiers for all lvls of all Steel sword styles that I can.. . . that usually takes me through the bulk of Chapter 1. I put additional talents into some of the stat abilties for Str, Dex and Stam.My fundamental build strategy is to have 5 in all stats and sword styles.
Planewalker said:
Maybe I should play my next game on Hard difficulty. What's your take on that?
I recommend it. In my experience it made every opponent lethal which made the game more challenging/fun for me.
 
that's what the manual implies, and has been reinforced by various commentary from other players and the devs themselves (several threads on this).the only advantage to adding the level 1 perks, is that you might get lucky with some of the specials like precise hit or pain, and keep your opponent stymied as you continue your attack sequence.typically though, yeah, I think you get "more bang for your buck", if you invest in the level 2 specials first, then go with the level 1 if you have extra talents.the "pain" effect is best given by cinfrid oil as soon as you get the formula.the extra damage perks seem pretty useless at level 1, just look at your base damage (typically very low for the first attack) and you are only adding 10% to that. so if you're doing 5-10 for your first attack series, adding 10% to that is pretty insignificant. becomes much more significant in your second attack series, where you can add 20% to double the damage of your level one attack.
 
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