Melitele's Heart - Warning!

[Tieleader]

Just noticed something on this playthrough. If you took the talisman from Newboy at the beginning of the story be sure to sell it if you have no interest in fighting waves of wraiths to complete the quest to remove the curse. It subtracts 10% of your armor ! And since it's a "quest" item you can't sell it afterwards if you refuse the herbalists offer in Flotsom. Also being a "quest" item you can put it in storage either.10% may not sound like much , but every HP helps at the harder levels.

[stcaFylnO]

Why would someone not be interest in finishing the quest? The item will change and provide +1 Vitality Regneration from then on. Not to mention, the Wriaths drop XP and loot for Geralt, while also providing a bit of entertainment in the form of combat (or practice if the fight seems too hard).

[Tieleader]

Sounds good on paper , but I'm tired of being slaughtered every time on dark mode after every 30 secs.

[stcaFylnO]

Yikes. Are you prepping the area, using the multiple places of power, rollng to evade, luring them to the edge of their patrol-zones (not wading in and getting backstabbed), activating potions and oils?

What about farming to level up Geralt and gear, and all that? He could be level 13 or so with all the best gear, even a K or H armor with diamonds x3.

How about using Fire Bombs (traps too, if you can get them to proc), some CC like Yrden and or Axii in a pinch; the fire runes on a Moon blade imported from W1...?

When I first start the game, I hoard a ton of snares and other traps: Stack up to +/-20 snares in a single pile, which can even kill a Queen Endraga quite easily (or beat the heck out of her). I will set tons of traps before triggering a fight, if it is a bad one.

[Tieleader]

Tried all that. I'm no slouch at the game but can't do it. Never really went into the alchelmy tree at all so the traps and bombs are pretty useless. Potions, oils , POPs applied yes. The whole fight is me just dodging really, throwing the odd bombs and fireball occasionally, and the wraiths have to be destroyed in order to finish. Which is tough because they just keep respawning. Mind you this is all on Dark. What difficulty are playing at? To me soooo not worth the aggravation for a crappy +1 bonus.

[stcaFylnO]

I've just been playing on Normal, but I'm in Act 3 with something like 24 unspent points from leveling. I haven't really needed to use any of them on Normal.

When I first tried this quest, I couldn't even dent those Wraiths, so I did most of that prep and kept backing out so I could heal. By dancing back and forth across the limit of their zone, they sort of came at me, then away, then at me, and basically looked like idiots; but, it was taking fffooorrreeevvveeerrr. Finally though, I put 3 fire runes on the imported Moon Sword, Spectre Oil, and some potion that boosted sword damage by another +5%, all the other prep, and I ended up killing all of them in a few seconds.

[Tieleader]

Interesting. I haven't played on normal level for awhile. I guess the same logic would work on two levels harder. Have to try it next time. Too much of coward after the first and only attempt at Insane level.

[stcaFylnO]

Without using Gerlat's points, a few fights have been problematic, like that Draug, beign in a confied space with an elemental, 4 gargoyles in a small area, a few other ones too. Basically, if I have no where to dodge (using the invulnreable frames of the rolling animation), then I'm dead. But it has been awesome practice and a hell of a lot easier than Darksouls.

[Tieleader]

Personally I'm a big fan the arrd (spelling?) sign. That solves a lot of problems if its up to level two . Never played Darksouls so don't know.

[stcaFylnO]

Yeah, I loved the Aard in W1. In W2, meh, I do better with dropping a Yrden on the ground as a plan-B sort of deal and just using good technique. I just posted some info about the spells in another thread; I would spend all the points to mac something out, then reload and try a different build. Hang on, I'll try and find it.

[stcaFylnO]

Basically in W1, the proc rates for stun, ko, etc., were so high, it was like a cheat to use Aard... the whole game for me was Aard+Sword, or Ingii+StrongSword if enemy was resistant to Aard.

Aard+Sword in W2 has a huge problem. If fighting say 3 or more enemies in close quarters, the damn automatic kill movie screws me up. Still looking for that link about this, hang on a sec.

In W2, the proc rate on Yrden seems higher and it is safer, since so much stuff can one-shot my non-leveled Geralt. I just cast and fight near it, lure enemies into it, have one behind me if worried about flanker, etc.

[stcaFylnO]

Hmm, I was not able to link directly to the individual post, so I'll paste it in here. Basically, 4 gargoyles in small room can eat Geralt due to only 1 of them dieing in the kill-movie.

--------------See below-------------------

I noticed a few things about Signs, later into the game:

Stunlock+Kill results in the damn video sequence and gets Geralt in trouble:
I have been hoarding all my upgrade points from leveling, so I tried to make an Aard+Freeze (Winter's Shroud) type of Geralt (bonuses to sign damage and intensity). He could stun+sword kill the Gargoyles quite efficiently; however, the damned action-scene plays every time, then upon regaining player control, it is very disorienting and difficlut to figure out which way to dodge safely; quite often the safe direction is hard to predict and it is too late most of the time if the player waits until after re-gaining control. There is no control setting to turn off the damned scenes.

Quen on the barbie:
The "Summer's Crown" effect, with Geralt built heavily as a Quen master is awesome to watch. The fire leaps between enemies due to all the thorny vent damage; however, even Mr. ubber Quen had a lot of trouble fighting the Gargoyles (just fighting with no level points spent and the correct sword works much better). Even with tons of sign damage and intensity, Quen has to be re-applied after each hit anyway. In the end, I found it easier to win against 4 Gargoyles with Aard+Freeze (Winter's Shroud) or just no level-ups spent and using proper technique.

Yrden for the win:
Wow. Multiple Yrdens linked, along with a player using propper placement, mobility, and technique is incredible. For that matter, even having one basic Yrden saves my butt almost as much as dodging. Just one behind Geralt incase of a surprise flanker, or a field of them for CC... love it.

AoE works better than I expected with Igni and Aard, but compared to W1, it feels like a waste of time. It is quite challenging to lure even 3 Gargoyles into a strike, since the blast radius is relatively small. I don't know of any other way to increase the radius, other than boosting the intensity; as far as I could tell, damage only boosts damage, not radius.

This battle system needed to be fully developed, instead of rushed to the consumers.

[Tieleader]

Have you maxxed the two signs yet? Theres a big AOE with both those signs. Igni in particular because it catchs everything in the kill zone.
Never was a big fan of the quen sign although it does come it useful when fighting the dragon and that damned sneaky tail strike that will one shot you if unshielded.
As for cutting out the cinematic, I think I saw a mod that eliminates that but I'm hardly the last person to suggest that...
BTY, you do know that you can cast aard while still swinging a heavy swing and the sign goes off immediately afterwards, no pause, just like W1.
Make the first Letho fight a cakewalk after discovering that...
As for not leveling up early in the game, you may want to rethink that. The game is MUCH harder in the beginning stages compared to later quest 3 stuff because you're pretty loaderd for bear with all the good gear by the end. The final Letho fight is a joke by that point he can never touch you unless you badly mess up.
Have begun to appreciate the Yrden sign recently. Particularly when it can stun a Ubergolem.
Move behind and get some good solid backstabs in...

[stcaFylnO]

Dude, just reading that I got the impression you are all excited :D

Yes, maxed signs have been attempted. I keep maxing things, then reloading to try a different build instead. I keep making different swords and armor to buff specific builds.

I have 13 of every normal Mutagen, and am trying to farm Greaters now. So far I have one Greater Critical and 2 Madness to play with.

The AoE radius just seems so small compared to W1. The gargoyles alone are so wide bodied, that it is hard to get all 4 in a blast zone.

Yeah, I see people post how Quen is the end all be all, but I only like it to help prevent the one-shotting of Geralt, since I kept him so weak. Also, when screwing around near fire or those rune-traps. Also, it saved my butt vs. stuff like dragon breath, acid spew, etc.

Mod, would be nice, but I'm leary. Some guy is having problems with his W2 currently, after using mods. He even tried full re-install and it didn't resolve.

Ooooh, I didn't know that about Aard and the sword, I'll have to start practicing, thanks man.

I didn't really mean to play without leveling up Geralt. It started out I wanted to save points to experiment, but I couldn't find a particular build I liked. Then, I just never needed to use the points. The occasional use of Quen helped keep Geralt from getting one-shotted; sometimes, I press 6 & 8 to cast a Yrden and a Quen, but the whole game I found Yrden far more valuable than any other.

Just now, I finally got in some great tests with Heliotrope and Combat Acumen:
CA was neat, but sort of a waste vs. monsters, since it can only kill 1 of the Gargoyles.
Heliotrope rulz! It lasted forever! I killed the first with AC, the other 3 with Helio and it still had tons of time on the duration. That test was a dual proc of AC with Helio, it was funny as hell!

[Tieleader]

Agreed, the magic tree is far more interesting to me. Whats the point of building up the whole swordsman tree if you can only one-shot one opponent. Or am I missing something about group finishers? The signs can lay down WAY more damage over greater areas.
As for greater mutegans I only run across them rarely. Read that endregans are an excellent source for those. The Madness ones probably the best IMO.
Heliotrope takes a while to get but so worth it in the end, especially at level twos.

[stcaFylnO]

Well, when I max out sword stuff, Geralt is insane, since basically no enemies are resistant to his attacks. That is why I'm testing builds on the Gargoyles, they are animated stone, which is tough for a caster; I want to make sure the caster is viable in non-preferred scenarios.

He doesn't need much in sword skills to be ubber though. Like 1 point for a faster roll, 1 for decrease damage to him from backstabs, 1 point to hit multiple opponents when swinging... not much more is really necessary. I mean, unless it is just a play-style choice, why mess around with guard, parry, riposte, when battlefield mobility is superior? The rest is just coping with undesired pre-requisites, building synergy around the desired play style, or unlocking that CA adrenaline stuff.

Right now, I have this new build set up to unlock 8 mutagen slots. I would like to try 8 greater crits, 8 of the mads, 8 sword power, and maybe some combo of these. It is just taking so long to get the greater types.