Useless potions

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Useless potions

The latest DLC is out, but food still recovers life energy faster and more effectively than Swallow potion. How is this even possible, and why wasn't it fixed? It makes the potion basically useless.
It is the same situation with Cat potion - because of the fact that it is much lighter in caves and dungeons now than in previous games, the Cat potion is basically not needed at all. Do the devs plan to fix it somehow?
 
the superior swallow potion recovers health faster and during more time than food, and some caves and interiors are totally dark, and the torch only lighten a few steps, the cat potion allows to see almost the whole cave or interior with good definition, besides, you can't use some attacks using a torch,
and like vesmir said: witchers dont use fire, for it cast more shadows and reduce visibilty, they fight in darkness or drink cat potion
 
I'm not sure what game you're playing, but in mine the Swallow is far superior than food and caves are very dark, I go though a lot of cat. You should check your monitors brightness level or the in game gamma levels.
 
I'm not sure what game you're playing, but in mine the Swallow is far superior than food and caves are very dark, I go though a lot of cat. You should check your monitors brightness level or the in game gamma levels.

The dungeons are now darker than in past, you are right... To save my cat potions and because I don't want to mediate so often, I use normaly a torch... And it looks very cool if Geralt fights with sword and torch! ;) Test it! :thumbsup: But you can use then only the light strikes... :(
 
Well, I actually never used Cat potion. The caves and dungeons in the base game are bright enough to see everything. I almost never used torch too. And my monitor has brightness level on 8 out of 100 + the Game Mode option is on.

But to be honest the thing was way better in Blood and Wine - Toussaint caves forced me to use torch more often. So I'm glad they've done something in that direction.
 
The latest DLC is out, but food still recovers life energy faster and more effectively than Swallow potion. How is this even possible, and why wasn't it fixed? It makes the potion basically useless.
It is the same situation with Cat potion - because of the fact that it is much lighter in caves and dungeons now than in previous games, the Cat potion is basically not needed at all. Do the devs plan to fix it somehow?

Have you tried using White Raffard's Decoction? That's my go-to, right there.
 
I only ever needed Cat in one dungeon: the contract with the Arachas in the mine in Velen. All other dungeons were plenty bright enough, and I don't have a very bright monitor. If they wanted to encourage Cat use they should have made dungeons dark like TW1 and not made everything greyscale when it is consumed. I avoided it for that reason alone.

Most useless potion for me would be Water Hag Decoction because it doesn't work.
 
The OP does have a point with Food regeneration vs Swallow potions. Food is ridiculously plentiful in this game if you're even slightly a hoarder. There is a quest involving Triss at a party that alone can provide enough food to last you pretty much the entire game if used efficiently. Couple that with the fact that Food doesn't have any toxicity costs and it's a no-brainer which is better. Don't get me started on the 20 minute bonus Food regen passive!

Honestly ever since I discovered this I have never gone back to healing potions, with the exception of the Ekhidna Decoction. All that said, I can understand if the devs never get around to fixing this, since they seem to have a lot on their plate atm, and it doesn't break the game in any major way. A forgivable mistake, imo.
 
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It is the same situation with Cat potion - because of the fact that it is much lighter in caves and dungeons now than in previous games, the Cat potion is basically not needed at all. Do the devs plan to fix it somehow?

When you use dark night mod and put the gamma on your TV down, the immersion is back and the cat potion is useful and necessary again ;)
 
Did you play on DeathMarch? Did you play the DLCs? I would say I'm a pretty "decent" player, and don't usually die by bossfights, Ilrmerith was the only one were I needed 2+ attempts.

HOWEVER I have to say, I really used many many potions in the B&W DLC, food is good but you can't compare it to Superior Swallow! I don't want to make ads for my own videos, so don't click it if you don't want to, but it's a good example. I don't think I would be able to beat this boss without all the Superior Potions that i had. Even when I used my quen shield and he hit me with his ravens, I died with Full HP and 100% quen shield! Potions did the job:

[B&W Boss-Spoiler:] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDqLBkoEXsI


The only thing I don't like in TW3 is the infinite amount of Oil that you can just re-apply while fighting...

To the cat potion: You might be right, I still used it to find clues for quests, or chests easier. Why do you think anything would change if you make caves "darker"? You have a torch anyway and I think many people just use that :)
 
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actually what's really useless are a lot of the decoctions. i think the only two that see frequent usage are ekimmara and ekhidna. fiend (+20 carry weight) is occasionally useful as is werewolf.

only others i've used past those would be cockatrice (use all alchemy potions one more time) and wraith (automatic quen if single hit drains more than 1/3 vit)...and that was JUST for the Olgierd Von Everec achievement.
 
Yeah, decoctions are mostly useless.

I normally have the Ekidhna active. Sometimes, I'll add Wraith (that quen shield), or Ekimmara, sometimes Troll (health regeneration), sometimes Fiend (carry weight). I sometimes used the "you gain more health for each enemy slain" for shit and giggles while sailing in Skellige, but the usefulness is questionable.


Potions I regularly use:

- Cat. I can go through the whole stack on those days with the rain in Velen/Novigrad, simply because it's so dark that I don't see further than 10 steps without it. I use them when sailing at night. I use them in caves. I sometimes use them in houses too. And yes, maybe I shouldn't play while it's bright outside, because that's exactly when the game is just too dark. :p

- Tawny Owl. Always useful for the Quen/Ekidhna combination..

- Swallow. Regenerates far more than food does, heals me for 25% upon being thrown in.

- White Raffard's. For those "oh shit, 95% health gone because I made a blunder" moments.

- Black Blood. Must have in BaW.

- Golden Oriole. Also a must have in BaW (take this, stupid archespore!)

- Killer Whale. For seeing something in the sea and for diving.


All the other potions are rarely if ever used in my games. I mostly use them for "heal 25% health now!" panicking in fights. But yeah, my favourite potions are oddly enough on the list of "useless potions" of the OP.

Interesting. ;)
 
Agree on the decoctions. I have almost all of them by now (except Succubus and Doppler) but I rarely use any of them except Ekhidna (sometimes in combination with Archgriffin), sometimes Fiend (when I've been too greedy looting and poor Geralt carries too much weight). Very rarely I use the one against wraiths - can't remember the name, the one that deals more damage to wraiths.

Potions I use a lot:
- Cat, mostly in caves although the torch looks nice as well. Still, if there's a fight coming up, I don't want to have a torch in my hand :)
- Swallow and White Raffard to heal Geralt during fights
- Golden Oriole. Very useful against Archespores
- Black Blood in B&W

The other potions are there but I hardly ever use them. Occasionally, I'll take the whale potion for diving, sometimes thunder for attacking and tawny owl. Very rarely I use the drowner potion that allows you to pass by them without them noticing it - pheromones, I think :)
 
Most useless potion for me would be Water Hag Decoction because it doesn't work.

I used Water Hag decoction often (PS4) and it definitely worked (since I went only with signs and alchemy, +50% to damage were very visible in damage numbers during the battle).
It works cool in one-on-ones with tough guys - enemy hits your active quen, restore your health to maximum, and then is staggered by quen explosion so you can safely make 3-4 hits with +50% damage.
One of the most useful potions if you don't use much red mutagens.
 
I've never used decoctions before (except once I had the werewolf one that I used a few times) because I've thought they're just not worth the toxicity cost. Now, however, I've decided to brew all of them that I find recipes for, and some of the ones I cirrently have are actually useful. For example I drank a Wyvern decoction before fighting the Shrieker, and since I took no damage during the fight the decoction definitely helped me kill the monster faster.

I tried Water Hag decoction, too, and from what I could tell it was working.

Some decoctions (Basilisk for example) are still useless to me, and so are a few potions. I've never used Maribor Forest or Blizzard, and Petri's Philter only once or twice. Adrenaline builds fast enough on its own (especially since I use plenty of red skills) and Signs are purely support skills in my gameplay.
 
The thing with the Cat potion is it tends to outlast my stay in a dungeon. I believe the fully upgraded Cat lasts over 15 minutes (without any alchemy abilities), which is typically a lot longer than the time I spend in any given dungeon.

Also, I rarely use decoctions. MANY of them seem pointless. Only used the Archgriffin decoctions a couple of times during boss fights, but that's it.
 
The thing with the Cat potion is it tends to outlast my stay in a dungeon. I believe the fully upgraded Cat lasts over 15 minutes (without any alchemy abilities), which is typically a lot longer than the time I spend in any given dungeon.
The second stage of cat potion lasted for about six minutes before B&W was released and with it the patches. I always had to meditate or drink White Honey in order to get rid of the effect. With superior cat potion, it's almost impossible to leave a dungeon during daylight because you can hardly see. Again - meditate or drink White Honey. Sometimes, however, I found myself in dungeons that had me use up all my cat potions because they were that extensive.
 
Use invigoration enchantment.

Use Ekimmara, Water Hag, and Succubus Decoctions.
Then feeeeeeel the powah.
:thumbsup:

In addition to above, I rarely use the Full Moon potion. I don't know, the extra vitality doesn't bother me, especially if you are well rested in Corvo Bianco.
And the last time I used Cat potion was 2 playthroughs ago. :evil: I only used it as an experiment if I can't be hypnotized by the Fiend in the Morvudd contract.
 
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