Chort, Noonwraith and Troll most of the time. Sometimes I swap out Troll for either Griffin, Arachas, Ekidhna or Ekimmara. Depends how much I feel like trying and what my build is. Chort and Noonwraith basically makes you staggerproof though.
Seems like Ekhidna and Ekimmara are favourite most used decoctions.
Difficulties in TW3 is only increasing Damage Dealt by enemies, right ? No different AI or skills from the enemies. To overcome that huge damage dealt by the enemies, Ekhidna, Ekimmara and other healing potions are a must. I bet most ppl including me, also invested skill points heavily on Quen. For surviving.
Mutant or not, being stabbed by human, or bitten by animal or monster can be very devastating in reality, since this is a game, it translates into more damage received. There is the logic in it so instead of tanking multiple stab/bite/claw/punch/etc which shouldn't be possible irl, Geralt has to dodge, parry, use Quen, and react fast which means I as the player have to be able to perform it. BUT the thing is most of us can't do it perfectly. I often read a lot of people have to reload many many times.
It got me thinking why do we, or should I say I, even insist playing on Death March ? It adds more thrills in combat and sense of danger in every enemy encounter BUT reload time takes too long. The idea is fun but reload time ruins the fun. Sometimes I think should I lower the difficulty ? But in the end always think HELL NO I HAVE TO BEAT THIS GAME ON DEATH MARCH !! PERIOD.
With that being said, my point is why do I still insist playing on Death March and suffer reload time many many times, I should be able to play the game as fun from other things, like what's relevant from this thread is what decoctions mostly used, there are a lot of decoctions with various and interesting effects, but most are overlooked and hardly used because I have to use Ekhidna and Ekimmara to combat damage received in Death March. Same with Geralt build, there are a lot of combinations in build but Quen takes the most skill points and a must because of surviving purpose and Quen Bubble for vitality refill.
Playing on Death March is a dilemma for me lol, if I play on normal difficulty, I could probably have more fun from many other things, but instead most are sacrificed to one thing, which is taking a lot more damage. Even with Ekhidna, Ekimmara, Quen and other survival skill/pots, a lot of death and a lot of reloads still happen.
How about you guys, do you insist playing on Death march throughout your playthrough ?