Letho fight is absolute trash!

[Rizilliant]

Idc how many times Ive played this, certain fights are just pure BS.. Might as well lay on the floor, and army crawl for the duration of this♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ This fight, and the Boss in the field in Act 2 are why I would never even attempt Insane difficulty... I see no way of doing it without cheating...His insta Aard, and ability to cast and slash 3 times faster than anything Geralt can do infuriates me to no end..

[DeathWantsMore]

Here ya go mate, Insane difficulty:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=542869380

[Rizilliant]

No, I know its been done.. It will never happen for me, or 99% of people who play.. I just dont enjoy mechanics like these.. He ignores 2/3 of My Yrdens, his Igni are hitting me WELL out of range of where it cast, and his Aard animation is instantaneous, making it VERY difficult to get aside... I think every time Ive ever beaten him, it felt more luck, than skill... Thats not something I call fun..

Edit:Just went in and watched myself get killed from an igno, 3 times its blast radius.. WELL out of its range.. It exploded off screen, and STILL hit me.. Im dead in 2 or 3 hits as well.. With the Full dark armor equipped.. Its also not letting me lock onto him for some reason, not that it matters a whole lot..

[Rizilliant]

Dude.. It takes me 5 hits, to do the dmg you do in ONE... And thats with full vigor! You dont seem to lose any dmg with loss of Vigor.. I dont get it.. Ive evebn modded mine to get 2 points per level, and have filled the Magic tree , and STILL he ignores some of my signs.. With an intensity of 120%

[Rizilliant]

Im watching myself play this.. And IM taking dmg from hitting Letho!? Wtf is this? Using your method, stunning him with Aard, slashing several times, Aard again, havent been hit, but am taking dmg... Even Anathema isnt enought o go past it, and Im fully buffed...By the time I have no vigor, its not even worth attacking, as theres almost no dmg to begin with...

Edit: I have now done this fight 13 times.. I cant get him down to even 50% health.. If I back away from him, he keeps Quen up, and he is walking through my Yrden like its not there.. I cant take 2 hits.. I have 4 places of power buffs, Tawny Owl, Sparrow, and Petris Filter on Ultimatum Im using Brown Oil, or Falkas blood... On my Blashphemers armor I have 15 armor some extra Vitality, resistances.. a single sword blow from him takes 2/3 of my hp, and almost always leaves me bleeding... Im using stenchbombs, Samum, grapeshot, Dragons Dream, throwing knives, basically every available bomb.. Many of his sword blows I can avoid, but the spells just have too much of a blast radius.. Ive even had a few of his insta-Aard hit me when they shouldnt.. Im honestly out of ideas... Im at that point where i may break something...

[Dusk of Oolacile]

What? You can just spam light attack and he's stunlocked throughout the whole fight. It doesn't even have a difficulty, only time it takes.

[Rizilliant]

Originally posted by Dusk of Oolacile:

What? You can just spam light attack and he's stunlocked throughout the whole fight. It doesn't even have a difficulty, only time it takes.

Nah... After 4-5 light attacks, he blocks, which gives him an oppening to attack.. Which is when you Aard (I only have 3 Vigor)..Or, you just use Aard at the 4th or 5th attack before he can block.. but you will eventually run out of Vigor.. And with each point of missing Vigor, your sword strikes do less damage... By the time I get through all my Vigors, usually 1 or 2 regen within that time, I MIGHT have him down to 75% hp... I dont understand how the guy in the video did SO much dmg.. ONE of his attacks, were equal to FIVE of mine!

Again Im not new to this (my first time going straight magic tree though).. I have beaten the game several times.. (Though Steam does not seem to show my achievement progress twice ive done it on Hard, and once on Xbox360).. He does seem to be doing an extraordinary amount of damage to me though, I must say.. Perhaps because I have double the amount of talent points as an unmodded game? Idk..

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by Rizilliant:

Im at that point where i may break something...

Before you do so: Take a cold drink, and try it again, Rizilliant. It's a riddle - as most bossfights in TW1/2/3, and if you know the solution it's much easier.

The key to a short fight is Yrden (out of the box is sufficient). Letho has strong ranged attacks, so stay in melee. He owns the better Quen: So keep him from casting it.

Geralt should be aggressive, not defensive. As soon as you get control after the cutscene, let Geralt cast Aard (Letho can't cast Quen!). Geralt rolls immediately to his side and casts Yrden. If Letho doesn't tumble into the trap reload.

If Letho is caught by Yrden don't let him go anymore. Three or four hard hits, then cast Yrden again, trap him, repeat.

As soon as Geralt says: "You should have surrendered as you could" the fight is over - but not the dialogue. Then (Letho has about 45 % of his LPs) Geralt should get into safety. Two dialogue lines later the cutscene appears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1z-RAPuYMc

[CrackeR]

Like Uncle Vezimere(sp) says" you can't practice by yourself, who will correct your mistakes"
Plenty of strategies that work, get out of your rut and change-up

[Rizilliant]

Okay, I went to work.. Yrden was only stunning him 1/3 times he walked over it... With and without his Quen up, he may, or may not get stunned.. Usually not..(Frsuerating, since Im mainly in the Magic tree)

After watching multiple videos, Ive come to the conclusion that something ive modded is making dmg taken, and given worsened.. Not to mention, Lethos animation speed.. Soemthing is off.. Watching the speed at which he swings his sword, or casts Aard in videos, compared to what Im experiencing is noticeably different!

The dmg that Im doing, is literally 1/5 of what EVERY video Ive seen is doing.. Most people hit him 10 times.. Maybe a bomb.. Ive hit him as many as 30times, and hevent gotten him below 50%..

Im only using Zero Weight (which I dont think is doing it) Better Texture Environment (also dont think its it), and the likely suspect, Two Talents per Level... Im wondering if my being lvl 11 (or 12?) and having 22 or 24 talents in the trees is telling the enemies to fight against a lvl 22-24 Geralt?! I just dont know what else to think... A single sword blow leaves me with 30% hp, and if it bleeds or poisons, that leaves me with a sliver of Hp.. I have FOUR Places of Power buffs, Tawny Owl, Petris Philter, and Swallow potions.. Im in full Blasphemers gear, and weapons, and am using either Falka's Blood (10%sword dmg) or Brown Oil (30%Bleed)...

I know its difficult to believe, without seeing it.. But the behaviors im witnessing, are not at all reflecting what I view on these videos uploaded from others.. I watched a 360 version where Lethos sword blow actually had telegraph! Until just now, I thought when you attacked him with Quen up, that it was SUPPOSED to make that 'Tink' sound, as if it were blocked by a sword.. This guys video showed Lethos quen behaving similar to my own.. When I hit him with his Quen up, even from behind, Im reeled back, as if Letho sword blocked...

Im good with 'Hard'.. I revel in it.. This is something altogether different.. I still have the save, but after more than 25tries, I gave up, and installed a god mode cheat... This was completely ruining my joy of one of my alltime favorite games... I HATE cheating.. But, I took the lesser of two evils.. Quit, or enjoy the story..

Im replaying the entire trilogy from scratch, to get a completely different path, where I sided with Scoia'Tael throughout.. Nexttime will be a Neutral play through!

[max.strauss]

@ Rizilliant

So we can resume, Rizilliant: Not the Letho fight, but your thread is absolute trash, right?

Originally posted by Ranger:

Letho is one of the hardest fights in the game, but he is entirely beatable even on insane.

Insane is only equivalent to "hard"; the real difficulty is instant death.

Originally posted by Ranger:

Even fighting him without any cheese tactics

What do you mean with "cheese tactics", Ranger?

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by Ranger:

It means a tactic that is cheap or requires little skill to pull off despite significant benefit. Stun locking enemies to death for example or chain trapping them.

As mentioned above, most of the boss fights in TW1/2/3 follow the same pattern: On the first sight they seem to be very hard, maybe almost impossible. But they are constructed as a kind of riddle: Which combat techniques, which signs, oils, bombs ... fit best on the way to success.

So the Yrden solution is intelligent and in a high degree effective. The characteristic "cheese" is out of place.

Solutions with endless rolling around on the other hand are considered as brainless, simple-minded, helpless and ineffective. The player has absolutely no clue. I think you will agree in this point. You will think of another excellent solution. So, please, Ranger, make a video for us: High difficulty level (dark preferred), no tactics using Yrden or Aard. I want to learn from you. But I have a special wish: It shouldn't take much longer than 30 seconds.

[Rizilliant]

Originally posted by Ranger:

Originally posted by max.strauss:

What do you mean with "cheese tactics", Ranger?

It's a slang term. It means a tactic that is cheap or requires little skill to pull off despite significant benefit. Stun locking enemies to death for example or chain trapping them. So, that's what I meant by the Yrden strategy. It's not hard to pull off and is an easy way to beat Letho. It's not that these strategies are cheating or that they are invalid, but they are considered cheap.

So, I was just making the point that even not using these strategies you can beat Letho. You can beat him without ever putting him in a disabled state.

I wouldnt pay this person any mind whatsoever... Clearly has nothing better to do, and has brought nothing to the discussion..

All the prescribed methods of beating Letho, tend to lean in the cheese direction.. Stunlocking him, or brainlessly tossing bombs... Its a poorly designed fights, built around unpolished combat mechanics.. Oddly enough, Witcher 2 has my favorite combat of the trilogy... Art style too as a matter of fact..

That said, I did try a fresh install, but didnt realize it would keep all mods in place upon reinstalling.. So I have to go through, and manually locate each file.. Im past it now.. Sadly, had to resort to flat out cheating(Which cost me my "Summer Solstice" Ability)

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by Ranger:

I'm a bit puzzled by your reaction.

Me too, Ranger.

Originally posted by Ranger:

I didn't intend to insult you personally by calling a strategy cheesy, but you seem to be taking this personally.

Yes, indeed. Surprise? If I would say your opinions are cheesy then I think you will not be pleased. These are your opinions, this is my video: So we are concerned personally. It's not only important, what you broadcast, often it's more important, how the message is received - if you want to communicate successfully.

Paul Watzlawick is a revealing light in communication theory in my opinion (but I'm not the only one). You can find his five axioms on a single page here:

http://www.wanterfall.com/Communication-Watzlawick%27s-Axioms.htm

Originally posted by Ranger:

I've always thought quite well of you.

I share this appreciation implicitly. In my eyes you are one of the few remaining long-stay residents (as Ceejay et al.) who are interested in the game, the forum and helpful assistance - surrounded by a sea of cave trolls with destructive tendencies.

Originally posted by Ranger:

You don't seriously believe that this is the way CDPR intended this fight to go, do you?

Yes, indeed, I think so. I believe that CDP-R wanted to create hard bossfights - and they are really hard as long as you couldn't crack the puzzle. And this may be a more or less long way if you don't use any guides, forums, videos etc. The way is the goal (and frequently the goal is in the way, fufufufu....)

Originally posted by Ranger:

I truly doubt that it can be done in 30 seconds on Hard/Dark, but perhaps someone will show how to do so.

Yes, I think so too. But this means: Any redundant second in this fight is a second too much. Letho is superior in many respects, but he is clumsy and he has cut school when the topic "Yrden" was dealt. A weaker fighter should accentuate his strengths and neutralize the strengths of his opponents - yes, this is an intelligent strategy.

I'll try a résumé: You and me shouldn't struggle as long as we have the same purposes in the majority of cases. If you say the next time that you have a better solution or that you interpret the intention of the devs otherwise instead of using the pejorative appraisement "Cheese" then I have nothing to complain - and we can discuss it without negative feelings. Cheers!

[Rizilliant]

The problem with "cracking the puzzle" is that many oof the weapons at your disposal are not reliable...[ Yrden for example.. Youll waste many of these, as Letho will prance right through them, shielded or no! Theres a horrible delay from when you select an action, and the game carries it out.. Opening an attack sequence, MAY use a gap closer, or youll sit there swinging at the air, several feet out of range..

The other two most suggested methods are indeed, extremely "cheesy".. Stun locking him, with Aard, and spamming light, heavy, light attacks... Or staying away, and playing Bomberman.. At that point in the game, you have 4 talent points available (outside training tree).. I For it to be a carefully crafted puzzle, we would need precision mechanics, and we really dont.. Ive always praised this game to the limit.. But this fight really does shine light on the poor mechanics.. Theres a delay in many of the actions you initiate (weapon swings, magic, dodge roll, etc.) Theres no way to lock onto the boss , so those playing with a controller must juggle their left thumb between CONSTANTLY keeping camera focuses on letho in all that rolling around, using signs, attacking...

Everytime Ive beaten Letho, it felt like utter luck... Never did it feel like I accomplished ANYTHING.. Just extreme rage... You can see many other sharing this problem all over the internet, btw... To call it a good is silly, when so many show polarizing opinions to the extreme!

[Azord]

This fight is SO stupid. There's no limit to how many times he can cast quen. I just went through a fight where he cast quen 6 times in a row, with no opening in between. He walks through most of my Yrden traps, none of by attacks do any damage, andI don't know what people are talking about when they say you can get 3-4 hits in. I can get 2 lights in before he blocks.