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Asehujiko posted:
Wait, really? That's crazy... I didn't do full alchemy on either playthrough (did normal for Roche's path and dark for Iorveth's path), I generally just put points into what fit how I wanted to play, which meant spreading them out. Now I kinda want to playthrough again just to go crazy with alchemy. On the subject of GOG/Steam, one thing that really annoys me is that the ONLY way you can get the Mac copy of the first game is via Steam. I bought both through GOG because that seemed like the best way to support the developers (which may or may not be true), so I really wish they would either give you the Mac download on GOG, or provide a Steam key if you want it.
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Jul 8, 2012 15:42
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Alchemy always wind in every game. Makes you wanna think twice about making fun of Kalkstein in the first game.
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Jul 8, 2012 15:56
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Well, poo poo. Alchemy it is. I didn't take the bomb damage trait until really late in my last playthrough (because I was rushing for Impregnation) so I never really came to understand the true power of bombs. Should be fun knocking Saesenthessis out before I even get to the top of the tower. Not to mention Catalysis, which has got to be the most powerful two-point investment I can think of.
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Jul 8, 2012 17:32
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If you still want to fully upgrade Yrden, you need to spend 8 points in the Mage tree. So that leaves you with 20 points for Alchemy. I need to try an Alchemy spec one of these days just so I can finally use a potion that isn't Swallow, Tawny Owl, Rook or Petri's Philtre. Lycus fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Jul 8, 2012 |
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Jul 8, 2012 18:49
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GoldenNugget posted:I kind of wished I preordered the steam version for the achievements, especially considering steam users got a complimentary GOG backup. Everyone got a complementary GOG backup. http://www.gog.com/en/witcher2/backup/ And... according to that page, it's available for The Witcher as well! I'll update the OP to reflect that shortly.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:19
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Coughing Hobo posted:Everyone got a complementary GOG backup. http://www.gog.com/en/witcher2/backup/ Yeah but no complimentary Steam version.  I want Steam Achievements.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:33
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Fuzz posted:Yeah but no complimentary Steam version. Well you can't have them 
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Jul 8, 2012 21:44
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Lycus posted:I need to try an Alchemy spec one of these days just so I can finally use a potion that isn't Swallow, Tawny Owl, Rook or Petri's Philtre. That's really the best thing about Alchemy, even in my Normal run. Potions like Lapwing, White Raffard's Decoction (something like +85% vitality for only -6% damage with 2/2 Catalysis), Gadwall (the potion Swallow wishes it could be), and Thunderbolt make most of the Swordsmanship talents look downright laughable. Honestly, I can't see myself ever doing a build that doesn't include two points in Catalysis ever again; those potions are just too good to pass up. Add that to the all of the +damage and damage resistance while you have raised toxicity and you'll start to wonder why anyone would bother with Swordsmanship at all. Well, beyond Footwork, Position, and maybe Riposte, anyway. Alchemy only really shines when you know what's coming, though. If you don't have time to drink your potions you're at significantly decreased effectiveness; this is especially true in boss fights like Chapter 2's Draug. Your bombs and some early Swordsmanship traits can help you out quite a bit, of course, and if you're a good player you can probably beat anything just by dodging around and attacking carefully. For myself, I'm starting to think about this sort of build:
Either that or, if I feel like playing it closer to my comfort zone:
Harrow fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jul 8, 2012 |
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Jul 8, 2012 22:19
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Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Group Finisher. However, have you gotten Heliotrope before? I like it, but I kinda feel like it's not worth it if you're not going to use Igni to charge it super-fast.
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Jul 8, 2012 22:34
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Yeah, y'know, I'm not that enthusiastic about group finisher either. The more I think about it the more I think that the Swordsmanship line's best talents--period--are the earliest ones in the tree. Footwork, Riposte, and Position are all great, and the rest are just... well, not that impressive. Okay, Tough Guy and Invincible are kind of nice, too; I'm not going to turn my nose up at damage reduction and major vitality boosts. But really, all of the numerical boosters are hugely outdone by what you can accomplish with Alchemy. What I'm concerned about is that I don't think spamming Igni as my primary attack sounds all that fun. That said, I'm more than willing to use it frequently as I dodge around slashing--that sort of "magic knight" playstyle sounds great. If I go heavy mage/alchemy, should I expect to go pure Igni spam, or is it more of an even split between signs and swording?
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Jul 8, 2012 22:49
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Draug is an incredible pushover if you know his weakness. His shield only covers his front, from behind you can directly attack his much smaller and weaker hp pool. Sometimes, his first move will be to bullrush you the moment you are done loading. Roll backwards diagonally and you should be in a position to backstab him several times. On my Dark run, Virgin was able to kill him in 8 hits before he recovered
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Jul 8, 2012 23:43
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Regarding Alchemy and bombs: Do the "bonus damage while poisoned" talents affect bombs and signs, or are they only for swords? How about the traits that give you a higher chance of inflicting critical effects? That sort of thing will determine how useful bombs like Dancing Star, Grapeshot, Zerrikanian Sun, and Red Haze will be in the late game. While 2 points in Alchemist for +100% bomb damage will probably make Grapeshot one-shot most things in Chapter 1, eventually it won't be that great, right? (Luckily the first few points of my various planned builds are all the same--Footwork, Riposte, get Catalysis--so I can keep playing while I'm indecisive.)
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Jul 9, 2012 00:28
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Agent Noun posted:What I'm concerned about is that I don't think spamming Igni as my primary attack sounds all that fun. That said, I'm more than willing to use it frequently as I dodge around slashing--that sort of "magic knight" playstyle sounds great. If I go heavy mage/alchemy, should I expect to go pure Igni spam, or is it more of an even split between signs and swording? But the thing about Igni is that it charges Heliotrope really fast. If you're not upgrading and using Igni regularly, you probably won't be using Heliotrope very often. Asehujiko posted:Draug is an incredible pushover if you know his weakness. Lycus fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jul 9, 2012 |
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Jul 9, 2012 00:45
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Lycus posted:That's how do it. The tree's called "Mage", but you don't actually play it like you'd play a wizard in other games. You're a swordsman who uses signs a lot, that's it. Doesn't the Vigor expenditure seriously dampen your sword damage? ...and is there a mod that makes the Armor of Ysgith look less like a coral reef?
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Jul 9, 2012 00:54
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Yeah, but you should have a lot more vigor. In addition to the point in the basic skills, there's three more points in the Mage tree. And of course, you should drink potions that you give you more vigor regeneration.
Lycus fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Jul 9, 2012 |
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Jul 9, 2012 01:09
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Asehujiko posted:Alchemy also allows you to skip several bossfights, you can getthe dragon down to 0% before the boss is finished with it's opening animation in the tower, causing you to automatically win the rooftop fight the moment you enter the area. Typical, I did Swordsman on my first playthrough, then shifted to Signs when I went back to do Roche's path. I didn't do Alchemy at all other than to get the Alchemy achievement via loading an old "From A Bygone Era" save to "cheat" it. Both those other skill trees made the Dragon Fight doable but frustratingly long. I liked the Group Finisher that Swordsman gave you, Heliotrope was neat in concept but building up adrenaline for it was a bit of a pain in the rear end. Still, there are still a couple of choice variations I haven't tried out yet, such as the Spellbreaker questline, so maybe in a little while I'll do another runthrough of the game using Alchemy.
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Jul 9, 2012 01:26
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Yeah, one issue with the Mage tree is that doesn't really provide you with anything against the dragon, but I don't think that's a huge deal since it's a pretty easy fight anyway. But about Heliotrope, like I said earlier, Igni actually charges it really fast. None of the other signs seem to move the bar much, but it shoots up when you start throwing Igni. It's probably the only reason to use Igni at all, since otherwise it's better to just use bombs.
Lycus fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Jul 9, 2012 |
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Jul 9, 2012 01:41
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It seems like that could work really well with another adrenaline skill, too. If you go deep into Magic and Alchemy, use Igni to rocket your adrenaline bar to the max, and then trigger it, you'll get Heliotrope and berserking at the same time. Sure, you could go for Group Finisher instead, but why not slow down a huge group of enemies while simultaneously doubling all your damage? At least in my head, it's real pretty.
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Jul 9, 2012 02:24
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Agent Noun posted:It seems like that could work really well with another adrenaline skill, too. If you go deep into Magic and Alchemy, use Igni to rocket your adrenaline bar to the max, and then trigger it, you'll get Heliotrope and berserking at the same time. Sure, you could go for Group Finisher instead, but why not slow down a huge group of enemies while simultaneously doubling all your damage?
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Jul 9, 2012 02:39
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Lycus posted:But about Heliotrope, like I said earlier, Igni actually charges it really fast. None of the other signs seem to move the bar much, but it shoots up when you start throwing Igni. It's probably the only reason to use Igni at all, since otherwise it's better to just use bombs. Before it was nerfed Quen charged adrenalin ridicuasly fast. But yeah now if you want to use heliotrope igni is your only hope.
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Jul 9, 2012 02:42
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Agent Noun posted:Regarding Alchemy and bombs: And yes, it will two shot human enemies in the epilogue just as good as it does in Flotsam.
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Jul 9, 2012 08:47
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The first quest I did in Flotsam was Troll Trouble, and unfortunately during that quest Thaler's messenger gets killed. To add to the fun, I forgot to loot his corpse after I killed Dmitri, meaning I missed the formula for the dragon's dream bomb. Any chance there's another way to get it in the game, or is it time to load a save from about four gameplay hours ago?
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Jul 9, 2012 19:06
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Cedric doesn't sell it?
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Jul 9, 2012 19:22
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Oh, hey, he does. The wiki made it sound like the messenger was the only way to get the formula, but 111 orens to Cedric and all's well. Thanks.
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Jul 9, 2012 20:57
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So, I just finished this game and holy poo poo. I want to play through it again and do Iorveth's path. But in retrospect I can't bring myself to betray Roche. He's such a loveable rear end in a top hat. The part in the epilogue where he's defending Anais against those Kedwenis kind of broke my heart. Dude's really loyal to his dead king.
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Jul 11, 2012 00:22
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Batmans dad posted:So, I just finished this game and holy poo poo. I want to play through it again and do Iorveth's path. But in retrospect I can't bring myself to betray Roche. He's such a loveable rear end in a top hat. The part in the epilogue where he's defending Anais against those Kedwenis kind of broke my heart. Dude's really loyal to his dead king.
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Jul 11, 2012 01:37
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I do have to say though that after trying it both ways, I thought that Iorveth's path was more fun to play but in a horrible location that was annoying as hell to travel around in, while Roche's path was fairly uninspiring until poo poo hit the fan and then it just becomes a huge improvement over Iorveth's side, and Roche is just an awesome character. I chose to have Roche let Anais go into Radovid's "protection" but with him as her personal bodyguard which I felt was the best possible option of those available. I assume if you choose not to take that path, that Roche will try and protect Anais all by himself until she's old enough to claim the throne herself? I deleted the local game content to free up some space on my Steam drive (with a backup on another drive so I don't have to download it all again) and I'm already kind of thinking about another run-through of the whole game, though I have so much other stuff I should be playing.
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Jul 11, 2012 12:17
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SpRahl posted:Before it was nerfed Quen charged adrenalin ridicuasly fast. But yeah now if you want to use heliotrope igni is your only hope.
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Jul 11, 2012 12:53
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Jerusalem posted:I chose to have Roche let Anais go into Radovid's "protection" but with him as her personal bodyguard which I felt was the best possible option of those available. I assume if you choose not to take that path, that Roche will try and protect Anais all by himself until she's old enough to claim the throne herself? If you rescue Triss that's more or less what happens although there is also the option of giving Anais to Natalis and letting her become a kick rear end queen.
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Jul 11, 2012 16:01
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SpRahl posted:If you rescue Triss that's more or less what happens although there is also the option of giving Anais to Natalis and letting her become a kick rear end queen. poo poo, I didn't even consider that (or find out it was an option) and I kind of wish I'd done that now. I suppose there is no possible way for Saskia to rule the Pontar Valley and Anais to rule Temeria is there, both require taking different paths and cut off Geralt from having any influence over the other, right?
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Jul 12, 2012 00:41
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Picked this up for 360 on account of all the praise. FUUUUUUUUCK THIS GAME. I have never been so frustrated by a videogame. I didn't think an RPG could have worse combat than Alpha Protocol/Skyrim but here we are. And the great thing is it's terrible in it's own way. Fighting is completely unfun, I die on almost every group of enemy at least once. If it's not the camera that fucks me, it's the stupid blocking mechanism / terrible animation poo poo that leaves me character not doing a goddamn thing while I mash buttons. I wish I could say I was being bested by the challenge of the game, instead I'm being frustrated by a broken combat system. Like really really broken, and the OP should have be the first warning. The game is honestly not fun to play, but hey in between the frustration you get some RPG story poo poo so HOOOOORAY! In short gently caress this game. This loving game could be written by Shakespeare and you still wouldn't out weigh the terrible core gameplay. e- AHDDFADFAHDFaSDLFKASDF fucklingh gently caress gently caress gently caress once again same loving PUDGY TOWN bandits, FUUUUUUUCJKM YOU VIDEOGAME FOR MAKING ME THIS ANGRY Morphix fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Jul 12, 2012 |
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Jul 12, 2012 00:58
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Morphix posted:Picked this up for 360 on account of all the praise. This was me entirely when I first bought the game but stick with it. At some point it will "click" and you'll learn to love the combat. I had the same problem with Max Payne 3 but then I got to the final level and then it all came together. Only advice I can give you is experiment and learn to roll often and never, ever fight fair. Throw bombs, always try to use magic when possible and fight dirty. If you have to litter a battlefield with snares go right ahead and do just that.
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Jul 12, 2012 01:06
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Morphix posted:Picked this up for 360 on account of all the praise. This isn't a button mashing fighting game, you have to take things carefully and use all the bombs/potions/traps tools available to you.
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Jul 12, 2012 01:17
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Morphix posted:Picked this up for 360 on account of all the praise. Can't say I ever had trouble with the combat, and thought it was pretty good. Don't just "mash buttons" for one thing. Try to stay back a bit to gage your enemy, and then move in for the kill.
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Jul 12, 2012 01:23
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Morphix posted:Picked this up for 360 on account of all the praise. The combat isn't broken by any means. I prefer it to games of a similar style any day of the week. You just need to learn that not every game is about smushing buttons and winning instantly, even though the recent trend in video gaming seems to live by that philosophy.
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Jul 12, 2012 01:26
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Did you do the tutorial? It rather painstakingly takes you through combat step by step, explains what to do and when to do it, pits you against a variety of combatants (ranged, melee, singular, multiple, shielded etc) and even gives you a test run of combat at the end of everything and then suggests a difficulty level for the main game based on how you do. I found the combat pretty entertaining in the game, though it's not the greatest combat system I've ever used (that would be the Batman: Arkham games), but you can't just leap in and try to bash your way to victory against a large group of armored dudes with swords, pikes, shields and crossbows.
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Jul 12, 2012 01:29
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Red Mundus posted:This was me entirely when I first bought the game but stick with it. At some point it will "click" and you'll learn to love the combat. I had the same problem with Max Payne 3 but then I got to the final level and then it all came together. This is unbelievably true. Rule 1 of being a witcher: never fight fair. Thing is, this game isn't interested in letting you make mistakes--even on normal--so don't ever hold back. Make and use bombs (the first time I used Grapeshot on my first runthrough was an eye-opener). Use traps when you know you're going to be fighting (especially if you do the Endrega Contract sidequest in chapter 1). Use your signs, even if you don't specialize in them; the best ones, like Aard, Quen, and sometimes Yrden, don't need any point investment to be worthwhile. And roll like a madman. Unless you have the Riposte talent from the Swordsmanship tree, parrying/blocking is kind of a last resort. It hurts you anyway, and unless you take a talent from the Training tree that lets you block from all angles (and you should), it's just not worth doing. Now, setting up an enemy for a killer riposte, that might be worth a Vigor point and a little bit of health, but otherwise you're better off dodging or casting Aard. I hated this game's combat at first, but you're right, it just clicks eventually and you get into the rhythm of it. Edit: Because this is on my mind and I've just played through this part on Hard for the first time: don't give up on the game at the kayran fight (didn't spoiler it because it's a nonsense word to anyone who doesn't know what it is, and if you do, you already know you're going to fight it). I honestly think it's the hardest fight in the game (yes, even harder than the chapter 1 boss), primarily because it's unforgiving. While its attacks are easy to dodge, getting hit by one usually means getting hit by both, and on Hard and above that probably means you're dead. It's a fight that pretty much tells you how to win but then demands picture-perfect execution, and there honestly isn't another fight like it in the whole game. I got pretty frustrated with it earlier today because I kept rolling at just the wrong time and getting juggled to death. Harrow fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Jul 12, 2012 |
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Jul 12, 2012 01:39
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Beginners should probably lay off the blocking. That's more for advanced play (and particularly if you're speccing into parrying and riposte). The primary way to avoid attacks is rolling. Roll, roll, roll.Jerusalem posted:poo poo, I didn't even consider that (or find out it was an option) and I kind of wish I'd done that now. Lycus fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Jul 12, 2012 |
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Jul 12, 2012 03:13
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A question I've been meaning to ask related to Ves on Roche's path, near the end of it. After Geralt and Roche discover that Henselt had all the Blue Stripes killed and raped Ves, Roche sends her off to make the boat ready for them. Afterwards, Geralt says,"She's lying," and tells Roche that something about her story doesn't ring true. Is there any resolution to this? I don't recall anything coming up regarding it again, outside of making the proper and correct decision to let Roche murder Henselt.
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Jul 12, 2012 03:38
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Lycus posted:Beginners should probably lay off the blocking. That's more for advanced play (and particularly if you're speccing into parrying and riposte). The primary way to avoid attacks is rolling. Roll, roll, roll. Jerusalem posted:A question I've been meaning to ask related to Ves on Roche's path, near the end of it. After Geralt and Roche discover that Henselt had all the Blue Stripes killed and raped Ves, Roche sends her off to make the boat ready for them. Afterwards, Geralt says,"She's lying," and tells Roche that something about her story doesn't ring true. Is there any resolution to this? I don't recall anything coming up regarding it again, outside of making the proper and correct decision to let Roche murder Henselt.
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Jul 12, 2012 03:38
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