The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Just finished.the vanilla games, after picking up the GOTY edition for around £7. I did find some of the less interesting quests a bit dialogue heavy and agree that combat became less challenging and rewarding as you level up... The Keira Metz quest in the dungeon stood out as being really good in terms of challenge although that may have been because I still had mostly starter gear at that point... I did all of the map icons with the underwater ones getting ultra tedious in terms of sirens and drowners etc... The overall story was very good with some memorable moments being the bloody baron and Kaer Morhen... I did think the final battle and conclusion quite lived up to my expectation though it certainly didn't fall flat... Overall I would say this is a classic and it has to be remembered is certainly quite an old game now.

Wondering if I should take a break and play something else or push on with the DLC
 
Tiny Clanger said:
Very tempted to pick this up on Steam. In terms of the combat - is it worth (as a first time playthrough) using a mod like W3EE? I like the sound of the changes to the combat but am I better experiencing 'vanilla' first?
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I'll echo the Ghost Mode sentiment over W3EE, especially if you play with a controller.

agnes said:
For those saying the difficulty isn't there, I agree, later levels you kind of cake walk everything. I'd strongly suggest playing on Death March mode. It makes it a lot more enjoyable and challenging. Not Dark Souls level, but enough to make sure you're a bit defensive rather than just walking over everything. There is also an option to scale enemies up to you.
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Did it both ways, imo DM isn't really that difficult except you have to be more careful very early on. Also, about level scaling, there are issues sometimes with it that bug out quests, like eg with Djinn. You'll get one-shot by zaps if it's on.

rubberduck said:
Just finished.the vanilla games, after picking up the GOTY edition for around £7. I did find some of the less interesting quests a bit dialogue heavy and agree that combat became less challenging and rewarding as you level up... The Keira Metz quest in the dungeon stood out as being really good in terms of challenge although that may have been because I still had mostly starter gear at that point... I did all of the map icons with the underwater ones getting ultra tedious in terms of sirens and drowners etc... The overall story was very good with some memorable moments being the bloody baron and Kaer Morhen... I did think the final battle and conclusion quite lived up to my expectation though it certainly didn't fall flat... Overall I would say this is a classic and it has to be remembered is certainly quite an old game now.

Wondering if I should take a break and play something else or push on with the DLC
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Push on! The DLCs are SO good and they have just the right pacing & progression compared to the main game. You'll love them. Ofc do Hearts of Stone first.
 
Tiny Clanger said:
Would you recommend it for a first playthrough? Looking at your mod list from earlier I was going to add things like the HDReworked Project and Tweaks but leave Auto Apply Oils until I get bored of doing it manually (just so I can learn what does what)...
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You'll get very bored quickly and not bother applying oils, the mod is essential in my opinion. It also reminds you to keep searching for better recipes. My first playthrough I went pure vanilla, with the mods, it's a much better experience in terms of micro managing.
 
Tiny Clanger said:
Would you recommend it for a first playthrough? Looking at your mod list from earlier I was going to add things like the HDReworked Project and Tweaks but leave Auto Apply Oils until I get bored of doing it manually (just so I can learn what does what)...
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Hmm. I would say it depends on how you enjoy the games. What I mean is this, I played through it just fine without a difficulty mod because I like doing busy-work (like running around finishing everything on the map) & just enjoying the time spent in the world itself. That's how I play all the open world games, it's more about being there rather than facing a challenge (also why I couldn't get much into Sekiro last year). But if you're someone who needs to be on edge, who needs a challenge most of the time, then modding something like Ghost Mode is a good idea, and also because it fixes a fair few bugs which are otherwise still present. And it's also quite beginner friendly in many ways, from the get-go, but it helps to read the info on the mod page.

I'd not recommend not using auto apply oils simply because it's an entirely pointless mechanic & insanely tedious. Basically you have to re-apply oil (if you want the significant bonus dmg it offers) for almost every fight, which consists of just menu navigation. So it fails on being engaging or adding immersion, it's just a stat boost. Sadly they half-arsed this aspect and that's why most people just mod it in order to skip it. Believe me, the game is VERY long, so you want to minimise the annoying/worthless time-costs as much as possible. Feel free to start without though, afaik you can always add the mod as you go if you ever feel like you want it.
 
Thank you Poneros - I think I'll give Ghost Mode a miss and see how I get on - just installing the HD mods now and then will fire it up - assuming my PC can handle it (Vega 56 / i5 4690 @2560x1440)
 
Hi all, I'm thinking of getting hold of The Witcher 3 while it's on offer and wondered what the best initial course was? I've never played any of the series and so am I best just jumping in on the base game or should I be looking to certain mods right off the bat?
 
StevieP said:
Hi all, I'm thinking of getting hold of The Witcher 3 while it's on offer and wondered what the best initial course was? I've never played any of the series and so am I best just jumping in on the base game or should I be looking to certain mods right off the bat?
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I'd just play the base game personally with the HD texture pack.
 
StevieP said:
Hi all, I'm thinking of getting hold of The Witcher 3 while it's on offer and wondered what the best initial course was? I've never played any of the series and so am I best just jumping in on the base game or should I be looking to certain mods right off the bat?
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I'm still playing through but I stuck to pretty much vanilla with the texture packs and a few mods that just minimised the faff.

HD Textures, HD Monsters, Beautiful Grass, All Quest Objectives on Map, Improved Signs and Auto Apply Oils. I tried it without the oils mod but I ended up just forgetting about them so thought I'd give the mod a go.

I've just seen there is a new version of the HD texture pack out too!
 
Playing this for the second time. Took a long layoff after the first playthrough after getting as far as the Isle of Mists- was wracked with indecision when the game told me I'd be unable to revisit certain quests! :D. When the Switch version appeared I couldn't resist, and as cross saves weren't available on release, I started again. Best gaming decision I've made!

I just finished the Battle of Kaer Morhen. Did anyone else hold it together during the scene afterwards? (I didn't!)

Taken as an experience, this game is so overwhelmingly good, and I've just worked out why- I've never felt so .... connected to a game's characters since Planescape Torment.
 
CGrieves said:
Taken as an experience, this game is so overwhelmingly good, and I've just worked out why- I've never felt so .... connected to a game's characters since Planescape Torment.
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And now imagine if you had grew up with the Witcher book saga and read it few more times since afterwards :)

I just wish the netflix TV series hadn't wasted so much of its potential..
 
CGrieves said:
Taken as an experience, this game is so overwhelmingly good, and I've just worked out why- I've never felt so .... connected to a game's characters since Planescape Torment.
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Yup, exactly! People tend to focus on a few aspects of games and judge based on that, but a lot of them forget about judging games in their entirety. It's not just one or two things, it's about how everything comes together as a whole and ends up as greater than the sum of its parts. That's why The Witcher 3 is such a great game, even though it has its lows as well. And, off-topic, also why I held last year's Greedfall in such high regard as well.

I'm just thankful this game's modding allows for so much more replayability as well. When you have something this good you just want to keep it going for as long as possible. Let's face it, the next Witcher game is many years away.
 
Anyone used a potion/oil build? I'm looking through the decoctions and some of them are insane... I never really used potions, only oils which were auto applied (mod). Thinking of using them more this playthrough.
 
agnes said:
Anyone used a potion/oil build? I'm looking through the decoctions and some of them are insane... I never really used potions, only oils which were auto applied (mod). Thinking of using them more this playthrough.
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Not potion/oil, no, they're kinda meh tbh. I mean in terms of investing skill points into them, I otherwise made sure to have all oils upgraded and all that (and also using auto-mod because duh, it's just a dumb mechanic sadly). Decoction builds are the most powerful tho, no doubt:

 
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