Useless potions

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I was experimenting with different builds yesterday and found that "synergy" skill actually increase sign intensity only for activated skills but not for mutagen themselves.
So despite shown +60% it is actually +55% in characters stats (40 base, 15% from synergy). So overall gain from synergy is max +50% (15+15+15+5). And if you don't use vitality mutagens (because vitality bonus is generally useless), you lose 10% intensity/attack because you need to keep "synergy" activated. So you need to spend 25 character points to get real +40% extra intensity/attack power.. this is garbage, not only potions are not that powerful, but alchemy path itself is not very effective.. yes in boss fights alchemy is your way to prepare for battle without "clearance potions" and will help to defeat much more powerful enemies but the price for this is too high.
The key problem is vitality mutagens.. they must give more useful bonus then vitality.. because it is easy to obtain quen with intensity 150+ (just 9-12 character points) and quen makes you way more durable then any vitality/potions both in absorbed damage and speed of healing.
 
At first the cat potion didn't seem very useful but after playing with my TV's settings (I use TV for both computer and console) I realized I simply had the brightness/contrast/etc set badly. After calibrating the TV, the torch and cat potion are extremely useful in caves and other dark areas.

As for Swallow, you can use it at the same time as food for double the regen (assuming you're using 80 regen food as I think Superior Swallow is 80 regen per second) so it isn't obsoleted by food/Gourmet talent.

Gourmet just makes using food more convenient since food is already extremely plentiful so it's really just a quality of life improvement at the cost of a valuable talent slot and no mutagen synergy.
 
I've come to really, really like a few decoctions (Katakan, Troll and Cockatrice). Also finally tried out some Blizzard (superior version, as it was in NG+) and found it to be great.

:thumbup:

So, only Maribor Forest remains a useless potion that I never use. Plus most decoctions.
 
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.


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


A food should not, in any case, recovers health faster, than the "standard" Swallow potion.

Superior swallow doesn't necessarily recover health faster than food. Food comes in three tiers:
50 HP/s for 5s
50 HP/s for 10s
80 HP/s for 10s

It's funnier because even the "superior" version of swallow heals no faster than top tier food. They heal at the same rate of 80HP/s.

Superior swallow gives 80 HP/s for 20s at base potion duration. Equipping alchemy skills will prolong potion effects. Gourmet gives 20 minute duration for food which cannot be achieved by any healing potion.

Superior swallow sure doesn't heal any faster than top tier food (like pork, for instance).

Without the Gourmet skill, Superior swallow would have a somewhat questionable upper hand, because it lasts twice as long, but incurs a toxicity cost.

With refreshment skill maxed out, potions do give an insta heal worth 25% of max vitality, and may prove useful. Other than that, the Gourmet skill lets food overshadow healing potions by a huge margin because of the massive duration.

Even if you have your refreshment skill maxed out, it's better to use a low toxicity potion, like black blood (15 toxicity) followed by a bite of top tier food, instead of using swallow (20 toxicity) to give you the same 25% insta heal + 80HP/s over time. With Gourmet skill equipped, a single bite of food becomes sufficient for an entire fight and a few more, making swallow virtually useless. Of course you may still use swallow to accelerate HP regen, because it stacks up with the food effect.

It is indeed true, as OP has claimed that gourmet skill makes food hyper-useful, and renders healing potions near useless.
 
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I agree with most of the other Posts. I keep White Raffards's and Swallow on the immediate use buttons on X-box. I use Tawny Owl, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Full moon in fights, also Philtre. I look carefully at the others according to the type of enemy. I agree several of them are useless distractions. I would prefer a shorter list of really useful potions. I find the toxicity very annoying. it would be more fun if you could take more potions at once. The toxicity cuts in too quickly.
 
Don't know about useless.. Especially in NG+. I use Ekimmara and Water Hag together. Makes a huge difference in Boss fights.
White Raffard's is a must on hot key.
Never use Swallow or Cat. I have Gourmet and use Metamorphoses mutation. Allows seeing in dark as part of witcher sense.
 
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