What's the point of Cat Feline Swords?

[TouPoutsou]

What's the point of Cat Feline Swords?

I wonder what am i missing, because as it is right now i find zero reason to use them.

Griffin swords are the best for sign builds. HOWEVER even in pure melee DPS, they do add more than feline swords, due to 5% crit chance + 15% crit damage add more DPS.

Ursine swords have the best base damage, and of course 75% critical damage, making them by far the best swords of all witcher schools in terms of DPS. Additional to that, they also provide adrenaline point % which makes them the best for adrenaline builds.

Feline swords have 15% chance to cause bleeding. Well normal bleeding is pathetic, so it's a pretty bad bonus as it is, but besides that, most people going for cat school gear and swordmanship, they spec into crippling strikes anyway, which gives you 100% chance to cause bleeding, and this bleeding is way more powerfull than the normal one. And the effects DO NOT stack, i have tried it.

So please, inform me, what am i missing? Which build can utilise these swords better than one of the other 2?

 

[Eesti]

bleeding is really strong to be honest because any enemy that has regen wont be able to regen + it could save your arse
ursine sword +set is good when you're adrenaline based (regen hp with adrenaline, add dmg with adrenaline etc) and with the more stacks of adrenaline, and traits about it with a crit you will deal an absurd damage, plus you are also immortal the first time you get down to 0% hp because once you have a stack or 2 or 3 of adrenaline, if you have a trait (which i dont actually remember the name) it regens part of the hp based on the adrenaline you have (just for once, i dont know when it triggers again)
griffin sword + set is good when you use alternative igni or yrden (deals tot dmg per second) etc but i would never reccomend to go full sign..

anyways theres no real "suggestion" its all about your playstyle, if you're full melee i'd go for ursine, if you're agile and you dont want to keep always hitting you could go for feline (bleed is actually really strong)
if you want to die you could try griffin, thats a pretty nice build for dying

 

[csf60]

I found griffin to be the best set overall because you can craft its upgrades earlier than other schools' gear, so until you have mastercrafted everything, a superior griffin sword will beat enhanced cat or ursine. Also, the griffin armor skill point is the better of the 3 for me personally.

 

[riotamus]

Isn't bleeding percentage-based rather than flat damage? So yeah, it is weak-ish on normal enemies, but really useful against hp-sponge bosses (which is where you actually need any extra advantage you can get)

 

[Patoson]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Feline swords have critical chance, whereas the others have other stats. For me, critical chance is more important than the critical damage bonus, since I use the Cat School skill.

Even if you have a lot of critical damage, if you have a very low critical chance, then it will never matter because you will rarely do criticals.

 

[Killyox]

Each and every is good. You don;t need crazy high Sign Intensity. I have all sets and weapons Mastercrafted andignitingatm I use cat. I still have 100% chance for knockdown and to burn someone with igni.

Cat + 80% attack from mutagens + 80% sign intensity from mutagens + armor with 3x greater aard 3x greater igni and 1 silver dmg. I have enough sign intensity to knockdown burn and protect myself while having superior power in dmg.

I like this combination of swordsmanship + signs. From signs I use melt armor, aard sweep, suggestion, quen bubble and puppet

---------- Updated at 10:52 AM ----------

I wonder what am i missing, because as it is right now i find zero reason to use them.

Griffin swords are the best for sign builds. HOWEVER even in pure melee DPS, they do add more than feline swords, due to 5% crit chance + 15% crit damage add more DPS.

Ursine swords have the best base damage, and of course 75% critical damage, making them by far the best swords of all witcher schools in terms of DPS. Additional to that, they also provide adrenaline point % which makes them the best for adrenaline builds.

Feline swords have 15% chance to cause bleeding. Well normal bleeding is pathetic, so it's a pretty bad bonus as it is, but besides that, most people going for cat school gear and swordmanship, they spec into crippling strikes anyway, which gives you 100% chance to cause bleeding, and this bleeding is way more powerfull than the normal one. And the effects DO NOT stack, i have tried it.

So please, inform me, what am i missing? Which build can utilise these swords better than one of the other 2?

Ursine are not the best for dmg. Cat swords are if you use Cat School Techniques talent which gives you +100% crit dmg if you have all light armor. At this point +10% crit chance is more valuable than +75% crit dmg. With Thunder and swords sharpened I crit with fast attacks for ~3000

---------- Updated at 10:54 AM ----------

bleeding is really strong to be honest because any enemy that has regen wont be able to regen + it could save your arse
ursine sword +set is good when you're adrenaline based (regen hp with adrenaline, add dmg with adrenaline etc) and with the more stacks of adrenaline, and traits about it with a crit you will deal an absurd damage, plus you are also immortal the first time you get down to 0% hp because once you have a stack or 2 or 3 of adrenaline, if you have a trait (which i dont actually remember the name) it regens part of the hp based on the adrenaline you have (just for once, i dont know when it triggers again)
griffin sword + set is good when you use alternative igni or yrden (deals tot dmg per second) etc but i would never reccomend to go full sign..

anyways theres no real "suggestion" its all about your playstyle, if you're full melee i'd go for ursine, if you're agile and you dont want to keep always hitting you could go for feline (bleed is actually really strong)
if you want to die you could try griffin, thats a pretty nice build for dying

Burn is also great for that. I once burned Troll for 9500 per sec just from burn dot alone XD

 

[TouPoutsou]

Ursine are not the best for dmg. Cat swords are if you use Cat School Techniques talent which gives you +100% crit dmg if you have all light armor. At this point +10% crit chance is more valuable than +75% crit dmg. With Thunder and swords sharpened I crit with fast attacks for ~3000

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No they are not. I have grinded myelf to level 38 and i have tried many builds. My favourite is cat school techniques with fast attacks. With Ursine swords i get around 200 more DPS than with Cat swords. It's a quetion of 25% crit chance and much higher crit damge, and higher base damage as well, vs 35% critical chance and far lower crit damage. The tooltip is also higher with Griffin school swords. And the difference in damage becomes even more when using thunderbolt, where you have 100% critical chance anyway.

 

[Dude27]

Because they look nice

 

[Killyox]

No they are not. I have grinded myelf to level 38 and i have tried many builds. My favourite is cat school techniques with fast attacks. With Ursine swords i get around 200 more DPS than with Cat swords. It's a quetion of 25% crit chance and much higher crit damge, and higher base damage as well, vs 35% critical chance and far lower crit damage. The tooltip is also higher with Griffin school swords. And the difference in damage becomes even more when using thunderbolt, where you have 100% critical chance anyway.

I am lvl 37 and also tried many different builds I still prefer cat due to bleed. 200 is not enough of a difference to sacrifice bleed for it. Bleed/poison/burn is amazing for spongebob hp monsters. Everything else dies to 2-3 hits either way so that 200 is not that great.

Most enemies also die rather fast so while crit dmg on paper may be better, you will down enemies more consistently with higher crits chance because you will have less of an "overkill" but more often crits that finish enemies quickly.

PS

How do you have 35% crit chance? Where from? I compare purely Mastercrafted cat vs ursine with witcher gear and talents which should be 15% vs 25% eventually 20 vs 30% with decoction.

This may be the reason why Bear for you is better - because the more crit you get the less you benefit from it. 15% vs 25% cat wins (with 100% cri dmg from skill for cat gear and from Precise Blows). 25% vs 35% it's very possible bear takes it over. I still prefer Cat bleed + aard + crit (i use a lot of aard sweep with 100%+ KD)


This is more or less what I have atm (cause bombs and the rest of stuff is to bothersome vs normal monsters)

http://www.gosunoob.com/witcher-3/s...xsign_1_2|10xsign_2_4|11xsign_1_5|12xsign_2_5

Lets me easily switch cat and griffon around XD and using sometimes Whirlwind or Crippling Strikes
Mastercrafted Cat Gear with 3x Greater Aard Glyph 3x Greater Igni Glyph and 1x dmg from silver as well as silver sword has 30% total bleed (i poison with bomb, burn with igni and bleed with sword). Steel has stagger iirc. Human enemies are easy anyways. 2x 10% red mutagens 2x 10% blue mutagens.

 

[Gerudon]

Because they look nice

And the ursine Steel Sword has the wrong icon in the inventory screen, so that is out of the question as well.

No really: There is no reason not to build and use swords from a different school anyway, so if someone doesn't like the Cat swords, don't use them.

 

[TouPoutsou]

I am lvl 37 and also tried many different builds I still prefer cat due to bleed. 200 is not enough of a difference to sacrifice bleed for it. Bleed/poison/burn is amazing for spongebob hp monsters. Everything else dies to 2-3 hits either way so that 200 is not that great.

Most enemies also die rather fast so while crit dmg on paper may be better, you will down enemies more consistently with higher crits chance because you will have less of an "overkill" but more often crits that finish enemies quickly.

PS

How do you have 35% crit chance? Where from? I compare purely Mastercrafted cat vs ursine with witcher gear and talents which should be 15% vs 25% eventually 20 vs 30% with decoction.

This may be the reason why Bear for you is better - because the more crit you get the less you benefit from it. 15% vs 25% cat wins (with 100% cri dmg from skill for cat gear and from Precise Blows). 25% vs 35% it's very possible bear takes it over. I still prefer Cat bleed + aard + crit (i use a lot of aard sweep with 100%+ KD)


This is more or less what I have atm (cause bombs and the rest of stuff is to bothersome vs normal monsters)

http://www.gosunoob.com/witcher-3/s...xsign_1_2|10xsign_2_4|11xsign_1_5|12xsign_2_5

Lets me easily switch cat and griffon around XD and using sometimes Whirlwind or Crippling Strikes
Mastercrafted Cat Gear with 3x Greater Aard Glyph 3x Greater Igni Glyph and 1x dmg from silver as well as silver sword has 30% total bleed (i poison with bomb, burn with igni and bleed with sword). Steel has stagger iirc. Human enemies are easy anyways. 2x 10% red mutagens 2x 10% blue mutagens.

You can have an additional 10% crit chance with assasin's gauntlets. I always prefer them to feline ones. The build i prefer using is something like this

http://www.gosunoob.com/witcher-3/s...5_333_355_415_432&alchemy=143&general=231_341

Crippling strikes is OP as hell. That's my problem with the feline swords though. The normal bleed does not stack with crippling strikes. Anyway i guess it does not matter anyway since i have found far better swords than any witcher school sword, but i do not use them because i am already way too OP.

Edit: This skill calculator always bugs for me. Ignore the points shown in alchemy.

 

[Killyox]

It seems it pick the stronger bleed. For example my Crippling Strike does 125 dmg per sec vs enemies with little HP but against stronger monsters I see sometimes 125 from skill and like 250-500 from bleed proc on sword. Sometimes more. I don't find Crippling strike that strong. It all depends on the type of enemy.

I don't use any non-witcher gear even if it's better. I am a witcher after all Got to have a looks and no need for more power.

For the whole game I used witcher gear pretty much exclusively. When I crafted Griffin for the first time I never ever used non-witcher gear again XD