Witcher set items render the loot system/ crafting obsolete

[Rathiel]

Witcher set items render the loot system/ crafting obsolete

After my first playtrough, which ended with level 35, I really felt that the set items in the game made any loot I found or crafting obsolete.

I rarely ever had to compare Weapons, since anything you find is like 4-6 levels below your current level and can't be compared to the bear weapons i used.

For armor I switched between cat and bear school and I absolutely never had to even bother comparing, since there is barely any reason to switch here too, with few exceptions like crafted relic heavy armor for rarely beneficial effects like 100% poison resistance and something like assassins gloves.

I think it's really sad that all the effort that went into creating these nicely detailed items is diminished by the fact that the items can't compare to the "set" items.

So I'd really like to see some more changes to the items in the game like:

1. More armor/weapon variatons with actually useful stats, which perform better in specific builds
2. More crafting reciepes for unique gear that is actually not completely inferior to set items
3. Crafting or looting of items should bring them closer to your current level to make all rewards and reciepes viable

I think the crafting system works well up to level 10 or 12 like many mechanics, but then it really loses importance aside from crafting set items.
So, whats your opinion on this matter?

 

[Xehanort7]

I feel the same as you. Actually I'm wearing full cat armor and everything I come by or can craft is worse than that. I plan on making a bear armor too so that I will switch between the two when I feel comfortable. Aside from these two, the only other armor I wore is the Temerian DLC one which looks beautiful, but that was till I got the cat one.

 

[Dude27]

Not really
Most rare items have better stats than witcher sets. Of course item level should be close to equal.

 

[Millian]

Set items are supposed to be better than "regular" gear. Bringing regular gear up to the level of set items would remove any incentive to get the sets and make them thoroughly unimpressive.

 

[Rathiel]

Set items are supposed to be better than "regular" gear. Bringing regular gear up to the level of set items would remove any incentive to get the sets and make them thoroughly unimpressive.

Yet they are the easiest to get and craft and I don't intend to make regular items better then sets, but at least relic items should at least be equal or worth crafting, right now most of them are not.

 

[KingKnee]

I think it's a problem as well. Set items shouldn't be "just better" than everything else you find. I'm level 19 now and only weapons are sometimes better than my witcher set, making looting armor uninteresting. When stuff starts to compete with my set, I get to upgrade it, making it pointless again.

Items should have more ways to differ from each other but they put all the "special abilities" into potions (decoctions), abilities such as life leech and health regen. If items had more special abilities it would become more a matter of preference than X beats Y.

 

[Rathiel]

I think it's a problem as well. Set items shouldn't be "just better" than everything else you find. I'm level 19 now and only weapons are sometimes better than my witcher set, making looting armor uninteresting. When stuff starts to compete with my set, I get to upgrade it, making it pointless again.

Items should have more ways to differ from each other but they put all the "special abilities" into potions (decoctions), abilities such as life leech and health regen. If items had more special abilities it would become more a matter of preference than X beats Y.

Exactly, the set items are pretty much the only items for their armor type that add modifiers that are actually all great and unmatched by other gear.

It's sad to see relic items being almost completely inferior and also not having other sets or relics rival them with different benefits.

 

[Ravici]

As has been stated in numerous other threads, this is in fact a falicy.

Many looted armors and weapons are better than the school gear. It's a myth, like Elvis working in maccy d's.

 

[KingKnee]

As has been stated in numerous other threads, this is in fact a falicy.

Many looted armors and weapons are better than the school gear. It's a myth, like Elvis working in maccy d's.

Weapons can be, not armor 1:1 in my experience. Show me a pic of an armor that beats a feline set at level 14 for instance?

 

[Rathiel]

As has been stated in numerous other threads, this is in fact a falicy.

Many looted armors and weapons are better than the school gear. It's a myth, like Elvis working in maccy d's.

Like ? Any links/quotes ?
When compared on the same level I really didn't see any to really bother crafting or equiping, especially when I find them 4 levels below me.

Assassin's gloves are one of the rare expamples I could come up with, or the heavy ones with 50%crit dmg which might be betterish, but non the less it's sad that an easy to get set is in my opinion superior to like 99% of the items in the game.

 

[Ravici]

Weapons can be, not armor 1:1 in my experience. Show me a pic of an armor that beats a feline set at level 14 for instance?

Like ? Any links/quotes ?
When compared on the same level I really didn't see any to really bother crafting or equiping, especially when I find them 4 levels below me.

Assassin's gloves are one of the rare expamples I could come up with, or the heavy ones with 50%crit dmg which might be betterish, but non the less it's sad that an easy to get set is in my opinion superior to like 99% of the items in the game.

Let me just throw a quote from the other thread I was talking about

So, having just hit 26, these are the stats I currently have

Superior Feline Armour:lvl26:165 def
15% Attack
8% piercing resistance
11% slash resistance
11% monster resistance
35% elemental resistance

Freya's Warrior Armour:lvl20:134 def
10% piercing resistance
30% bludgeoning resistance
30% slashing resistance
5% bonus exp from humans and non

The slashing is 3x greater on the lvl20 stuff. Ok, the def is 31 better on the feline but the weight!
I have to stick to the Freya stuff because it weighs 3.92 whereas the Feline weighs 7.66 and there just isn't a big enough stat increase to justify it.

 

[Arius87]

The main problem for me is that the armor sets are blatantly easy to obtain. As soon as you get the treasure maps the spots where you find the diagrams are marked on your map. This isn't really fun. It should be challenging to find them. There should be a real treasure map with drawings on it and not quest markers. There should be landmarks which you have to discover. Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim did a far better job in that regard.

And the second thing is that they should use very rare crafting materials. I still remember how a pain it was to get the piece of a draugr armor to craft the oathbreaker armor in TW2. But on the other hand it was very rewarding! They could add this rare crafting mats in the witcher contracts. So that these special monsters have the ingredients you need.

 

[Siven80]

The problem as i see it is that the loot you pick up always seems to be several levels below your level so theres never any reason to equip them over the witcher set pieces.

For crafting, maybe adding more rare ingredients for the witcher gear would help make the other crafted gear more useful.

 

[Evilone666]

Same with some quest rewards where you are at the same lvl as the quest and when you get your reward Sword/Armor and you see that your witcher gear is better, it pisses me off, went trough all that for nothing