This game just isn't hard enough.

[Black_Iris]

So are you telling me you are choosing to spam signs when you play the game? If so that is your own responsibility. Sure it's the games fault for enabling such a playstyle, but it's ultimately your fault for consciously doing it.

You can simply not spam signs.

You don't either need to do it as just a single cast of an upgraded Igni on a not invulnerable burning enemy (and they are not so many) kills it in a couple of casts. There are so many videos of people killing the Arch Griffing level 48 with a signs build in just 3 seconds, with a single cast.

But anyway mine was a single example to make you understand a point but it seems like you have missed it completely by going again to the route of "just don't do it". Sure, don't play a signs' build, don't play a swords' build, don't play an alchemy build... don't play at all and make your own fantasy difficulty in your own mind.

Again, you can simply choose not to use such bonuses. If you know these things make you strong and you continue to use them whilst complaining about the game being too easy, you are at fault since you can simply not use them. Youa re making the game easy.

Did you even READ a single word of what I said? How can you "skip" those bonuses if they are intrinsic in the skill themselves? Just by the act of investing in signs' skill you get a bonus to stamina regeneration (+1s for EVERY point, so, given that the majority of signs skill have 5 points, it means +5s for every slot - and just +5s of stamina regeneration is a lot). The only way to "skip" those bonuses is to not take skills at all (because ALL trees have insane bonuses like that) or use a mod that tone them down or remove them completely (as Better Combat).

---------- Updated at 11:59 AM ----------

That is a very extreme opinion.

It is how the Witcher games used to play before this last iteration. As I made you notice, Witcher 2 hard difficulty was almost impossible for someone that never played the game before.

We sure do. But no reason not to exchange arguments. Although I think we said everything we have to say by now

Ok, but let me just tell you that you are a little contradicting yourself here: first you point out that you like the combat because it forces you to adapt different strategies to encounters. When I make you notice that this DOESN'T happen in difficulties where this SHOULD happen and in fact this is the motive why many people, like me, are discontent with those difficulties, you say that you don't agree with it.

It's either one or the other: or you want a system that forces you to adapt or you don't care.

 

[roizumaaku]

When I played Witcher 1, you really need to prepare before battle because you can't use any potions during. Today, the Witcher has gone to gamer friendly. Also, the dialogues were far more adult oriented especially the Director's edition.

Over all, the W3 game is fuckin enjoyable. I love the content especially following through the story from Witcher 1.

 

[riotamus]

I also thought the game was becoming kind of easy-ish, but then I took an arrow in the knee met Imlerith.

 

[Death132]

Did you even READ a single word of what I said? How can you "skip" those bonuses if they are intrinsic in the skill themselves?

Did you read?

Black_Iris - "Hell, even just taking all medium armor and investing in Griffin school (taking a single slot) gives you +25s stamina regeneration! "

Me - "you can simply choose not to use such bonuses"

Meaning, don't use the Griffin Skill.

The only things that sign upgrades do, is make the signs more powerful. So don't upgrade them. You can still use signs without them being OP. You can still use melee without it being OP. If you have instant stamina regen, simply DON'T SPAM. Your own stubbornness prevents you from doing such so in the end you are 100% to blame. You have a solution to every complaint, so stop complaining.

I am perfectly happy with the difficulty as I'm capable of using self control. If I had a problem with Upgraded Igni doing too much incineration damage, I'd do what a logical thinking person does. NOT UPGRADE IGNI. The same can be said for nearly every single complaint you give.

Please tell me, if a harder difficulty came out, what would it do? Give Griffins more HP, more incineration defense, or simply make the incineration effect weaker? How does any of this differ from the exact same effect you'd get by not upgrading Igni? It's literally THE SAME RESULT ACHIEVED BY DIFFERENT MEANS.

You seem to not be capable of avoiding such abilities since you continue to complain about them. Is some intrinsic force coercively making you put points into these things that make you powerful? If not then these complaints do nothing but make you look ridiculous.

 

[LiarOnElmstreet]

Ok, but let me just tell you that you are a little contradicting yourself here: first you point out that you like the combat because it forces you to adapt different strategies to encounters. When I make you notice that this DOESN'T happen in difficulties where this SHOULD happen and in fact this is the motive why many people, like me, are discontent with those difficulties, you say that you don't agree with it.

It's either one or the other: or you want a system that forces you to adapt or you don't care.

Okay, I'm gonna answer you on this one, but then I'll stop arguing about how I answer. Let me also tell you it is not that nice to start discussing your dialog partner.

I'm not contradicting myself, and you were also not magically making me notice something. You were merely pointing out your opinion, that is all there is to it. As I said above: I don't agree with you. Where I say all fights already have a different approach, you say you need that approach to be the only approach to use not die. I disagree as I did from the beginning.

 

[yoobzon]

I feel that I have to clarify one thing on behalf of those of us who think the game gets too damn easy after a certain point (I always say it was the Isle of Mists for me). First of all, almost noone argues that normal and easy difficulties should be changed. Those two difficulties are perfect for casual players willing to experience the great story. Heck, if you want to play TW3 as a hack and slash action title, normal might even be too hard as it is.

The problems lie with Broken Bones and Death March difficulties only. People are kinda disappointed because early game on Death March forces you to learn all this preparation tactics , positioning etc. Once you master them the game kinda fails to give you a good challenge to test all those skills you learned. Experienced players learn this wonderful combination of oils, potions and positioning and then we realize the game doesnt actually force us to use the full extent of the things we learned.

The combat system is actually great and it's actually a shame that the balance is just way off late game. I'm starting my 3rd playthrough and in the first 2 tries I discovered at least 5 different builds that become seriously overpowered late-game. As I mentioned before, the Better Combat mod fixed most of it for me and with the mod TW3 is my best game ever. It's just a shame that vanilla fails to get the balancing right.

If the combat was crap I wouldnt even be complaining. I actually believe the core system is the Third best TPS combat in the history of gaming (after DS and Batman). It's just a shame that balancing totally spoils it for people who take their time to really learn the details. Hard modes in games should keep demanding skill improvement from the players. In TW3 the difficulty curve on DM goes up and up and suddenly it totally stops. That's certainly not how it was intended. Like I posted here before, it looks like CDPR realized that the game is too hard overall and did a rushed difficulty adjustment at the end of the production cycle. Bacause the tools to make the game much more challenging are certainly there, they are just not used.

Also, I have to admit that, On Death March, there are 2 fights late game that are not a cakewalk. Imlerith and Caranthir fights are lots of fun, I have to give CDPR some credit (especially Caranthir goes from a breeze on Broken Bones to a Formidable opponent on DM). I just don't understand why they would not bring all the other late game stuff to a comparable difficulty.

Lastly, to those of you suggesting that we should cripple ourselves to make it fun: stop it! Learning all those tactics and experimenting with them is what is so good about this game. After I put a lot of effort in finding a smart combo, why should I be punished for being too smart for the game? If it was just one OP build, I would agree with you. But when it's 5 there is something wrong with the balancing.

P.S: My criticism comes from a place of love, not hate. Even the vanilla balancing issues do not diminish my overall love for the game

 

[ju5t_me]

Was TW2 known for a challenging, enjoyable gameplay experience? I only finished finished "Dark" when it came out and don't remember the game being hard at all... had the same trades as TW3 though... tedious for the first few hours, gets easier as you progress through the game and use Quen when in doubt, maybe not to the same extent, but I don't think the harder difficulties were particularly well done either.

In fact I haven't played a game with a really enjoyable "hardcore mode" in a long time... last one was NG:B about 11 years ago.
And if you look at achievement stats it's pretty obvious why... ~1% of all players across platforms have the achievement for Death March, but I'm fairly certain most people that actually tried got it... so most people simply do not care.
Harder difficulty usually just means scaling some properties with a static factor... which hardly ever leads to a pleasant gameplay experience.
What you really want is new enemies, encounter composition, new AI, tactics, carefully applied scaling etc. but that's just too much effort for the handful of people that actually tackle this content.
Pretty sure the game was balanced with the new player playing on normal in mind... so the main content can't be too difficult for someone that wildly spread skill points, is on the lower end of the level requirement, used very few places of power and so on.

Personally don't think you can fix the combat by shifting some numbers around... sure you can fix some skills that give too much/too little "bang for the buck", but for non shitty combat you'd have to rework almost every aspect. Clunky Controls, options during combat, enemy AI and the very limited movesets, the actual skills (almost exclusively boring passives and quite a bit of useless trash)
Most mods seem to make the awful combat last longer... which is not a good thing in my book.

I do agree tho, that making a game challenging should not be the players responsibility... the Souls games are considered hard, cuz... they kinda are... but have a few builds that break the game and make it easy... not the other way around.

 

[TheLocoMofo]

You realize you are in a VERY VERY VERY small minority with this statement? I said several times that many people even find Blood and Bones too difficult.

That's why we have multiple difficulties to choose from. These people should choose a lower difficulty, nothing wrong with that.

If you can play Death March half assed without any deaths then congrats you are in the 1 percent of pro gamers. You don't speak for anyone other than yourself and the small vocal minority in your same boat. This is when you find other ways to make the game harder. Nothing other than stubbornness is keeping you from doing such.

Completely and utterly false. 1%? Make up some more stats please. Just check the many posts right here on this very forum complaining about how easy the game is... Clearly there's an issue.

You're saying difficulty settings are pointless and we should just limit character progression in an RPG if we want to be challenged. Really? All we are asking for here is for Death March to feel like it's described in game "You're truly insane and loving it".

You keep trying to ram down everyones throat that we can make the game harder by limiting how we play it. While obviously true, it's been clearly explained multiple times to you that this isn't a proper solution. Especially once more and more people become more experienced putting in hundreds of hours and are thirsting for a more challenging experience? What do they do then? Not all formats are lucky enough to make use of mods.

I mean the whole concept of difficulty settings is to give people the choice to play on a level they're comfortable with. You basically want to exclude a whole group of players that enjoy challenge, how is that beneficial for the game in the end? I honestly have no clue why you're so against making the hardest difficulty available in the game actually hard. It's really quite complexing.

 

[Death132]

Completely and utterly false. 1%? Make up some more stats please. Just check the many posts right here on this very forum complaining about how easy the game is... Clearly there's an issue.

You're saying difficulty settings are pointless and we should just limit character progression in an RPG if we want to be challenged. Really? All we are asking for here is for Death March to feel like it's described in game "You're truly insane and loving it".

You keep trying to ram down everyones throat that we can make the game harder by limiting how we play it. While obviously true, it's been clearly explained multiple times to you that this isn't a proper solution. Especially once more and more people become more experienced putting in hundreds of hours and are thirsting for a more challenging experience? What do they do then? Not all formats are lucky enough to make use of mods.

I mean the whole concept of difficulty settings is to give people the choice to play on a level they're comfortable with. You basically want to exclude a whole group of players that enjoy challenge, how is that beneficial for the game in the end? I honestly have no clue why you're so against making the hardest difficulty available in the game actually hard. It's really quite complexing.

It's complexing to you because you are miscomprehending my motives.

My 1% comment was in regards to people who can half ass Death March without ever dying, not the people who want more difficulty. But to counter your point about the many posts here. Witcher 3 sold 4 million copies in it's first 2 weeks and surely has continued to sell even more. Compare that number to the minuscule number of people who come here. You'll realize the people here are a very very small bunch.

I never once said difficulties are pointless. I would prefer Witcher 3 to have a higher difficulty setting in which all enemies scale with your level while always being a few levels higher than you. This way you never out level them. And of course I want potions, bombs, oils, to be necessary in order to survive. I want everything you guys want.

I never once suggested mods and I myself don't use them for difficulty. My point is simply to tell people that they have many easy ways to emulate the exact results a new difficulty would provide. An even bigger motive is to point out how ridiculous it is to complain about an insignificant overpowered buff/skill whilst refusing to disable it. As I already said...

1. Someone complained about Upgraded Igni. If a harder difficulty came out, what would it do? Give Griffins more HP, more incineration defense, or simply make the incineration effect weaker? How does any of this differ from the exact same effect you'd get by not upgrading Igni? It's the same exact result achieved through different means.

2. What about damage in general? A new difficulty making enemies take more damage gives the same exact result as not using Red Mutagens or the plus 25% light/heavy attack skills.

3. Stamina regen is too quick? Simply don't spam and use restraint. It's literally that easy. What's mind boggling is someone who complains that spamming signs makes the game too easy, as they continue to spam signs while playing. It's like someone who's allergic to peanuts, complaining about their throat swelling up, as they continue to eat peanuts. Just don't eat the peanuts and don't spam signs.

None of these changes remotely deprive you any more than a new difficulty would as they do exactly what that new difficulty would do. They give you the exact same result and require almost no effort.

These don't fix everything, but I don't see why there is such resistance to the most simple and convenient changes that you yourself can make.

 

[elementuk]

Well we can't all be as Uber as you can we. I'm re-playing it from 'Just the Story' to two more up from that and finding it very hard. I haven't mastered the 'parry and counter' timing. How dull games must be for you. Did your Mother swallow a console controller just so you could prepare in the womb?

 

[ju5t_me]

Completely and utterly false. 1%? Make up some more stats please. Just check the many posts right here on this very forum complaining about how easy the game is... Clearly there's an issue.

Actually his guess was pretty accurate, just look at the achievement stats on steam
A mere 1.3% even achieved "Walked the Path" around .5% of all players got the achievement on PS4 last time I checked. While those are obviously not all players, those platforms should provide a decent sample size... certainly a better one than the 30,50 maybe 100 people that complain on this forum.

Most issues that make DM too easy aren't even related to the difficulty at all and no amount of number shifting will fix that... at least not properly.

 

[yoobzon]

Well we can't all be as Uber as you can we. I'm re-playing it from 'Just the Story' to two more up from that and finding it very hard. I haven't mastered the 'parry and counter' timing. How dull games must be for you. Did your Mother swallow a console controller just so you could prepare in the womb?

Look, I'm physically disabled and normally the hardest difficulty is way too hard for me (because i have muscular hypotonia in hands and legs and the reaction times simply are not quite there). I usually play on hard (the Equivalent of Broken Bones here) and I struggle a bit but I have fun. I am certainly an above average player but due to Ehlers Danloss Syndrome Type VI (look it up!)I will never be a pro, just a decent gamer.

Death March in the last third is out of balance when you compare it to other games because even with my slightly off timing I died only 4 times in the last 25 hours of play on DM (2 on Imlerith , 1 or Caranthir and one random fall to my death, thats it). I would love to tell you that I'm the king of the world but when your muscle tone equals the muscle tone of a 8 years old you can't be a top gamer.

And guys, why do you get so sarcastic and defensive? No one says that this is a game breaking weakness. It's still a great game,, just not as hard for experienced gamers as it was initially planned. I'm sure they are going to fix the difficulty and everyone will be happy. We are pointing this out not because we want to hate on CDPR but because the combat framework in itself is pretty great and a simple rebalance will fix the combat almost entirely

And @Death132 , please, for the love of god, stop suggesting that we skip some builds and bonuses. This game has an extremely complex and fun progression system. We spent a lot of time working on our builds and getting all the right oils and mutagens. Why should there be a point in the game where I limit myself just to keep the combat interesting? When you give us a fun, complex framework you just can't say : "Hey, from The Isles of Mists on stop using all the cool stuff you've learnt because you are too smart for the game."

 

[Death132]

This game has an extremely complex and fun progression system. We spent a lot of time working on our builds and getting all the right oils and mutagens. Why should there be a point in the game where I limit myself just to keep the combat interesting? When you give us a fun, complex framework you just can't say : "Hey, from The Isles of Mists on stop using all the cool stuff you've learnt because you are too smart for the game."

I understand where you are coming from in regards to bombs, alternate signs, oils, potions. You want to take full advantage of them as do I. But my recent points have had nothing to do with preventing you from using "cool stuff". Unless you consider a static damage bonus as "cool stuff" that you can't imagine being without. These three points specifically expose exact complaints made in this thread. If you say these points are asking too much/depriving you and you refuse to follow them whilst continuing to complain about the very issues they address, then it's nothing more than stubbornness. Not upgrading Igni Incineration isn't depriving you as you can still use Igni.

As I said before....

1. Someone complained about Upgraded Igni easily killing a Griffin with it's Incineration effect. If a harder difficulty came out, what would it do? Give Griffins more HP, more incineration defense, or simply make the incineration effect weaker? How does any of this differ from the exact same effect you'd get by not upgrading Igni? It's the same exact result achieved through different means.

2. What about damage in general? A new difficulty making enemies take more damage gives the same exact result as not using Red Mutagens or the plus 25% light/heavy attack skills.

3. Stamina regen is too quick? Simply don't spam and use restraint. It's literally that easy. What's mind boggling is someone who complains that spamming signs makes the game too easy, as they continue to spam signs while playing.

There is no excuse for someone to complain about Upgraded Igni making the game easy whilst continuing to Upgrade Igni.

"It's like someone who's allergic to peanuts, complaining about their throat swelling up, as they continue to eat peanuts."

If nobody can dissect these three points, then I respectfully request that no one even reply and we agree to disagree since these points are conveniently avoided with simple responses that don't counter anything.

 

[randyrhoads]

How can people want perma death is beyond me. What happens when you die from a boat bug that propels you into orbit? Why you go on the forum and start a complaint thread ofc. There are other ways to make a game more difficult but the time for that is during the dev cycle. Anything afterwards just feels artificial.

 

[yoobzon]

I understand where you are coming from in regards to bombs, alternate signs, oils, potions. You want to take full advantage of them as do I. But my recent points have had nothing to do with preventing you from using "cool stuff". Unless you consider a static damage bonus as "cool stuff" that you can't imagine being without. These three points specifically expose exact complaints made in this thread. If you say these points are asking too much/depriving you and you refuse to follow them whilst continuing to complain about the very issues they address, then it's nothing more than stubbornness. Not upgrading Igni Incineration isn't depriving you as you can still use Igni.

As I said before....

There is no excuse for someone to complain about Upgraded Igni making the game easy whilst continuing to Upgrade Igni.

"It's like someone who's allergic to peanuts, complaining about their throat swelling up, as they continue to eat peanuts."

If nobody can dissect these three points, then I respectfully request that no one even reply and we agree to disagree since these points are conveniently avoided with simple responses that don't counter anything.

You can complain about certain skills being overpowered simply because igni is not OP from the start. It becomes OP somewhere late game and it's damn hard to judge whether the skill has reached the overpowered stage. There is constantly this lingering thought in your head: Should I really nerf myself or maybe it was just a couple of easier opponents? Same goes for better items, you keep thinking to yourself: this is the hardest difficulty, there has to be a reason for those items. What I did on my second playthrough was I obly upgraded my equipment after I died more than once. And still I finished the campaign with a level 16 unique medium armor and the swords you get from crach (which arent even that good). Dont you think thats kinda annoying?

If this was an impossible request, I wouldnt say anything. I'm currently replaying the game with the aforementioned Better Combat Mod. I just killed the Shrieker (the level 9 cockatrice). It took me 4 tries and an epic 4 minute long winning encounter to achieve it. Afterwards I felt like a god My point is simply that a simple skill and potion rebalance has made combat a super exciting feature of the game. If I could have just one wish it would be for C DPR to include a similar rebalance as the fifth difficulty. A lot of people are shitting all over the combat system, which is totally unjustified. This combat system is amazing, it just needs a simple rebalance for more experienced players.

I'm complaining about it only because it is a very achievable goal that will give the game some proper "street cred". One guy achieved a fix for 90% of the complaints, I'm sure CDPR is capable of doing the same in a week of work. Personally, I'm a happy camper now with my favourite mod, I just dont want keep reading opinions about shitty combat online. With a rebalanced fifth difficulty most of those complaints will lose credence

 

[Death132]

I understand where you are coming from now @yoobzon. Thanks for clearing it up better.

As I've made clear, I have no issue shaping my own difficulty, but I understand the need for CDPR to give people what they want with a proper new difficulty.

 

[pralima87]

I don't want Perma death.
But I do want to feel like every enconter matters.
After level 10 or less you start to get way to OP.
Igni and a high intesity makes the game a walk in the park.

And people saying don't use signs, mutagens, decotions, potions, bombs and so on.... well I really like all that stuff.
I want to play the game at full capacity.

After hitting level 18 I´ve just stop playing because is too easy and I'm on Death March from day 1.
I love the game and all its mechanics.
It really feels like you are a Witcher.
But please we need some re-balance

 

[BoboTheMighty]

I would really like to see something done with human opponents ... they behave like they're completely drunk and seem resistant to slashing weapons, even when wearing almost nothing but underwear.
Overall, what this game needs is better, faster, more agressive AI and skill rebalancing. Few more active abilities would also help.
I still think Wild Hunt has a better gameplay than at least 75% rpgs out there, far above anything you'll find in Bioware/Obsidian/Bethesda titles...it just needs that extra "push" to be great.

 

[Vosur.158]

OP: "Look at me people, I'm such a hardcore player that this game is easy for me LOL"

 

[ellestin]

I'm on Death March and apart from the occasional death by monster mobs or way higher level opponents, the game is a breeze. I don't want to know how easy it is to play on Just the Story! or even Story and Swords... Do enemies just melt in front of you as soon as you raise the sword?

I'm not complaining, game is what it is, but I'll definitely try a rebalance mod on a second playthrough if nothing is done by CDPR. Hard, minutes-long encounters are way too enjoyable to miss out on them by being chronically OP for most quests after lvl. 12 or so...

I also agree that more dynamic and cunning human opponents would be a blast. As it stands, bandits and soldiers mostly behave like retards. I loved fighting the doppler masquerading as Geralt, though that one was fairly easy, too...