Is witcher gear useless?

[notmenotyou]

I may be wrong but witcher gear is the stuff you can craft with the diagrams you find on treasure hunts.

Everything I get is slightly worse or a lot worse than gear I find or can buy so I've never bothered crafting anything

[tonypa]

The % in damage reduction Witcher gear provides is much better then any armor number.

[jss1138]

Witcher gear is generally better than most of the other gear in the game, when matched for level.

[MrFrengLitch]

The main reason why Witcher gear is better than every other armors is because you can upgrade them. You can't upgrade any other armors.

Of course the level 1 sets are not that great compared to other armors. But levels 3 and 4 of those sets are much, much better than any other armors.

Pick the Witcher school you prefer and then upgrade it.

[tigerpoetry]

With a few exceptions witcher gear is better against monsters and elementals. I still find myself mixing it up with looted/crafted gear though.

Alder Folk boots for instance have better stats than master Ursine boots and they also have an extra socket. Nilfgardian guardsmen's (?) gauntlets also have stats comparable to master ursine and have the bonus extra socket.

I tend to stick to pure witcher gear only at the grandmaster stage.

I'm in Hearts of stone right now and wearing ursine armour and trousers with those two looted items. I use levity on the armour so I can cast signs faster and use the extra sockets on the gauntlets and boots to make up for the loss of armour sockets. It's working pretty well on death march.

I cart a set of Feline gear around with me for its much better stats against elemental damage.

I sort of wish that looted gear was better against monsters because some of it looks really good.

[notmenotyou]

200 hours in and I didn't even know you could upgrade them. But still, you guys are talking about armor, which I'll give a go, but what about swords? Can you upgrade them too?

[tonypa]

Yes you can upgrade the swords too.

Here is quick list for every level:
http://www.gosunoob.com/witcher-3/best-weapons/

i would say unlike Armor Witcher swords are not always best. They got some really good attributes but you can also find random swords that could be better depending on your level and fighting style.

[Lawless]

In B&W, you can skip (I think) directly to Grandmaster witcher gear. Maybe give them a go? They're fair good.

[WAR]

Originally posted by Law:

In B&W, you can skip (I think) directly to Grandmaster witcher gear. Maybe give them a go? They're fair good.

Only Grandmaster Wolven and Manticore, you need Mastercrafted set for the other.

[notmenotyou]

Originally posted by tonypa:

Yes you can upgrade the swords too.

Here is quick list for every level:
http://www.gosunoob.com/witcher-3/best-weapons/

i would say unlike Armor Witcher swords are not always best. They got some really good attributes but you can also find random swords that could be better depending on your level and fighting style.

Useful list, thanks

[tigerpoetry]

tonypa,

I agree wholeheartedly with your comment about swords.

I'll often equip Geralt with most or all of the witcher armour but the swords are noticeably different. Once I've got a certain silver blade in Blood and Wine, I think you all know I'm on about Aerondight but it's a spoiler for those new players to W3 , I never equip any other witcher silver sword. also, I prefer the massive armour piercing on steel swords that you just don't get from witcher gear ( the best you can do is 90 AP using all three slots on the weapon.

[tigerpoetry]

Definite spoiler here.

I've just remembered the big exception that I always make on armour, where I'd agree with the OP about armour being better if it's not witcher gear. Here we go with the spoiler again... Tesham Mutna armour and the one you get if you're prepared to suffer the unhappy ending from the Unseen Elder. Better or not may be debateable but I just love wearing the stuff!

[notmenotyou]

Im level 35 and just started with H&S. I got the feline armor but it feels like unless you can get grandmaster it's not thaat good.

[WAR]

Keep playing and pay attention you will find better witcher gear soon, "starter" witcher gear at mastercrafted rank need you level 34, HoS have a witcher gear set that need level 40, for Grandmaster you need B&W, go to Toussaint tho. Just wear what you like or with your build/style. Some Relict item are really powerful too, keep that in mind.

[jss1138]

Originally posted by MrFrenglish:

The main reason why Witcher gear is better than every other armors is because you can upgrade them.

That's part of it, but...a level 18 set of Griffin armour will be better than most any other armour set also at level 18.

[PDK]

The Cat set gives you a massive sword damage increase. The trade off is that it has slightly weaker resistances than the other sets. Each set is focused around a different style. The witcher sets are by far the best gear, swords included. Late, late, game a few relic swords become more powerful in terms of raw damage and critical hit and a few have nice niche abilites (which runes can usually do too) but for 95% of the game you want the set items if you are power gaming. I strongly suggest getting them all and testing to see which one SUITS you best... cheesey pun intended.

Another thing to consider is the extra experience gain from the set swords. I consider this to be one the the best stats on gear. Over 100 levels and 2 playthroughs it adds up.

The armor piercing stat is a bit misleading/ gimmicky to be honest. Most enemies have low or no armor at all. So a lot of the time it serves no purpose and then when it does it doesn't even do its full effect because the taget has way less armor than your armor pierce stat anyway. In practice 300 armor pierce rarely ever = 300 more damage. Strong attacks themselves ignore armor making the stat further useless. For power gaming, the set swords that go with your fighting style are a better choice.

If you are a role player, of course, go wild with whatever appeals to you.