Quen OP

[qbit]

So I'm not very good at this game. It was always too hard for me on the default difficulty. So I lowered it to the lowest difficulty. Then I had to increase this back to story and sword before I left White Orchard. Got too easy.

Now I'm level 20 and have maxed out the first two Quen skills. The explosive Quen and the alternate sign Quen.

Holy smokes! I'm way too over powered now. I can just hold my Quen shield up and take hits until I'm healed. With little to no stamina consumed. Then when I'm ready to attack, I just release the Quen shield and everyone is knocked to the ground where I can finish them off in one hit. I mean the radius of this exploding shield when I release the alternate casting mode is huge. Couple that with the skills that increase sign intensity with adrenaline points and fill adrenaline points with sign usage. And I've got the one that lets you use adrenaline points in place of stamina for signs.

Is this why people say the combat is too easy? Back when I had issues at the beginning of the game, I had trouble on Just the Story mode. That Griffin frustrated me to the point I quit playing for a while. Didn't understand how people thought it was too easy. Now I'm kind of surprised that I'm looking at increasing difficulty again at level 20. And it's been too easy for a while now.

Also, along the same lines: I'm doing the side quests as they come up before proceeding with main story quests. I do them based on level starting with the lowest level quests. I'm trying to avoid having a backlog of low level side quests with small rewards. I just reached a point where I'm ready to proceed in main story to Skellige and I'm level 20 with probably 6 or 8 additional ability points acquired from those stones. Seems like every quest that's in my list is way under my current level. Will this change if I increase difficulty mid-game? I feel like I'm missing out on good rewards. I could do the higher level stuff, but I don't want to just skip low level side quests, as I don't want to miss any content.

[insolent1]

you don't have to use it if you feel its OP and you can respec your character at any time for a cost of 1k, so I would say its not an issue
I prefer cat school with fast sword attacks only and find the game can be a decent challenge, I only use signs some of the time

For quests its best to do do all side quests that are in and around your level before doing higher level quests, the only difference is xp and some of weapons and armour(witcher gear is almost always better) so its not important
The main quest gives ridiculous amounts of xp so side quests are not even really needed

If you really wanna try OP skills do the alchemy build, with the way potions and oils(no need for ingrediants) work in the game its very overpowered

[i-Jinx]

I think a lot of people find the game very difficult at first, when really, they are just unfamiliar with the controls and game mechanics. It will only get easier as time goes on. Bosses like Imlerith and Detlaff may kill you a few times, getting careless may kill you a few times, but it will mostly run on rails once you are comfortable with the way it plays.

On deathmarch difficulty, quen won't be as OP because some enemies will be able to break the shield in one hit, and take a chunk of vitality too. Is still pretty powerful though. So... Switch to deathmarch! You will still become too powerful for the game sooner or later, may as well enjoy the challenge while you can.

And don't worry about XP, hoover up the outlevelled quests just for fun. I think the "main" quests always give the same amount of XP regardless of your level, and that is plenty.

[HiSaZuL]

Quens value depends on a lot more then just talents. DM sign spec and you get one shot by anything that isn't a level 1 dog or trash bandit 20 levels below you. Switch spec to tanking... quen suddenly isn't that terrible.

On your second point both Valen and Skellige designed to be accesible to the player regardless of their level. You can skip doing Valen/Novigrad and head straight to Skellege and you will be fine. Since game thank god isn't just a scaled garbage like Bugthesda games it means there are enemies that are weak and areas that are too high level and areas that feature nothing but cannon fodder. If you explore you are bound to become strong enouhg to roll over just about everything(except guards... and soldiers... who are always 15 levels or so higher then you and do absurd amount of damage). Sooner or later enemies and quests will be too low level and will only get 1 or 2 expirience. Some things give fixed amount of XP but they are very few, think monster nests for instance.

Difficulty does nothing except increase damage taken by player, reduce damage done by player and on DM you get 20% less expirience. NOTHING else changes. There is an option to turn enemy scaling on. Should have never tained a game of this quality by it... but whiny little ♥♥♥♥♥ got trained really well by bugthesda. So yeah you can have crippled skinny dogs that can one shot the most renouned century old monster slayer. But that does not make things give you more expirience or better loot or anything else. It just makes it retarded.

[Gooberface]

once you've mastered quen use yrden or whatever. Keep it interesting for yourself

[hko]

No. Alchemy is OP.

[Mehfisto]

I started on normal and by level 20 I was playing on death march with enemy upscaling

I just REALLY wish they kept potions/alchemy like it was in w2. You could only drink potions/oils that lasted 15min BEFORE the combat, to prepare for it. There was one that very slightly helped with health regen and that was it for healing.

I think that potions and foods that make you massively regenerate health during a fight are just bad design in any game and they screw up balance/difficulty entirely

In fact death march is not actually hard in a meaningful way, it's just that you get instakilled. Because if you don't, you can just back off 2 seconds and recover all your health while waiting for quen to be up again

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by Mehfisto:

I started on normal and by level 20 I was playing on death march with enemy upscaling

I just REALLY wish they kept potions/alchemy like it was in w2. You could only drink potions/oils that lasted 15min BEFORE the combat, to prepare for it. There was one that very slightly helped with health regen and that was it for healing.

I think that potions and foods that make you massively regenerate health during a fight are just bad design in any game and they screw up balance/difficulty entirely

In fact death march is not actually hard in a meaningful way, it's just that you get instakilled. Because if you don't, you can just back off 2 seconds and recover all your health while waiting for quen to be up again

Witcher 1 did them way better. Downing potions in Witcher 2 was an extremely slow and tedious process, with the result being potions that lasted for like a minute.

[HiSaZuL]

Potions are fine. The whole system is fine. It's the lame difficulty that everyone and their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ neighbor demands that is the problem. Once you got that lame ass difficulty the whiny train will do what exactly? stop?... yeah right. You can make it as fun or as boring you want. You are not forced to do it one way or another. Not being able to drink a tiny vial mid combat doesn't offer anything except brain cells damage. Potions that you can keep on chuggin are limited in quantity. Think healing pots make it too easy... why the ♥♥♥♥ you drink them? Is there someone holding a gun to your head and forcing you to do it? Ever heard of self control? Or you know... setting your own rules and following them. Food so amazing... um... considering my current hp pool... I'm going to say your crazy. It takes good 5 minutes to get my entire bar to regen and thats with potions and food. I use quen for healing instead of shielding.

And as someone correctly pointed out. Alchemy tree is where the real cheese is at. Once you can down a few decoctions at the same time.... and get fragmentation bombs... jesus. I went to nifgardian central camp and had some fun vs infinitely respawning soldiers. My gear broke before my decoctions wore off.

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by HiSaZuL:

Potions are fine. The whole system is fine. It's the lame difficulty that everyone and their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ neighbor demands that is the problem. Once you got that lame ass difficulty the whiny train will do what exactly? stop?... yeah right. You can make it as fun or as boring you want. You are not forced to do it one way or another. Not being able to drink a tiny vial mid combat doesn't offer anything except brain cells damage. Potions that you can keep on chuggin are limited in quantity. Think healing pots make it too easy... why the ♥♥♥♥ you drink them? Is there someone holding a gun to your head and forcing you to do it? Ever heard of self control? Or you know... setting your own rules and following them. Food so amazing... um... considering my current hp pool... I'm going to say your crazy. It takes good 5 minutes to get my entire bar to regen and thats with potions and food. I use quen for healing instead of shielding.

And as someone correctly pointed out. Alchemy tree is where the real cheese is at. Once you can down a few decoctions at the same time.... and get fragmentation bombs... jesus. I went to nifgardian central camp and had some fun vs infinitely respawning soldiers. My gear broke before my decoctions wore off.

Why roll? That makes it easy. Why sidestep? That makes it easy. Why use swords? That makes it easy.

[Mehfisto]

Originally posted by HiSaZuL:

Potions are fine. The whole system is fine. It's the lame difficulty that everyone and their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ neighbor demands that is the problem. Once you got that lame ass difficulty the whiny train will do what exactly? stop?... yeah right. You can make it as fun or as boring you want. You are not forced to do it one way or another. Not being able to drink a tiny vial mid combat doesn't offer anything except brain cells damage. Potions that you can keep on chuggin are limited in quantity. Think healing pots make it too easy... why the ♥♥♥♥ you drink them? Is there someone holding a gun to your head and forcing you to do it? Ever heard of self control? Or you know... setting your own rules and following them. Food so amazing... um... considering my current hp pool... I'm going to say your crazy. It takes good 5 minutes to get my entire bar to regen and thats with potions and food. I use quen for healing instead of shielding.

And as someone correctly pointed out. Alchemy tree is where the real cheese is at. Once you can down a few decoctions at the same time.... and get fragmentation bombs... jesus. I went to nifgardian central camp and had some fun vs infinitely respawning soldiers. My gear broke before my decoctions wore off.

Those are all core mechanics, the point is not "take them out", the point is "replace them with better mechanics". For instance witcher 1-2 potions were imo much better, kept thing more interesting. Not just because it kept things more difficult, because difficulty can be adjusted in many ways, but it was more lore friendly (in the books witchers would drink their elixirs in preparation for a fight), more realistic (sure it's a game but stopping mid fight to eat a form of cheese that heals you 1/4 hp come on), and more interesting, because then the devs would have to balance things better.

Of course everyone is free to set the difficulty they want, I turned it up because it didn't feel like a challenge anymore. But when more difficult means that monstars will 1shot me because elseway i can heal up mid fight no problem and the only thing that makes fights hard is dodging everything untill you have enough stamina to put your shield back up that's just bad design.

<- I've been exagerating things here, I actually love the game very much and I also am enjoying the combat.

;tldr: But I do think some things about it could be better. Actually while w3 is more fluid and immersive, the previous game had overall better combat mechanics: Signs /stamina management, alchemy / potions and oils use, balance and a more interesting character / skill-tree developement

[[OCN]Skupples]

thread's been going for a while, but here's my opinion on the matter.

this is why the game has so many difficulty levels. I've had to bump up to one above story & sword as of level 18, however I didn't realize how the speccing worked until recently so once I respec I'll likely have to go up another bump...

specially once i find enough red ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mutagens... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ are rarer than a 22 year old virgin in miami.

[Mehfisto]

Originally posted by OCNSkupples:

thread's been going for a while, but here's my opinion on the matter.

this is why the game has so many difficulty levels. I've had to bump up to one above story & sword as of level 18, however I didn't realize how the speccing worked until recently so once I respec I'll likely have to go up another bump...

specially once i find enough red ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mutagens... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ are rarer than a 22 year old virgin in miami.

I'm level 20 and it seems i've started to find a bit more red mutagens lately.. Also I did too start on story and sword and went up to death march. I found that going from b&bb to death march is quite a bigger gap than from story&sword to b&broken bones. I found it a bit easy before and now is nicely engaging and i'm having more fun.

Remember you can also turn enemy upscaling on which helps if you do a lot of sidequests and like me you get to go on main quests a few levels higher than recommended

[[OCN]Skupples]

Originally posted by Mehfisto:

Originally posted by OCNSkupples:

thread's been going for a while, but here's my opinion on the matter.

this is why the game has so many difficulty levels. I've had to bump up to one above story & sword as of level 18, however I didn't realize how the speccing worked until recently so once I respec I'll likely have to go up another bump...

specially once i find enough red ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mutagens... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ are rarer than a 22 year old virgin in miami.

I'm level 20 and it seems i've started to find a bit more red mutagens lately.. Also I did too start on story and sword and went up to death march. I found that going from b&bb to death march is quite a bigger gap than from story&sword to b&broken bones. I found it a bit easy before and now is nicely engaging and i'm having more fun.

Remember you can also turn enemy upscaling on which helps if you do a lot of sidequests and like me you get to go on main quests a few levels higher than recommended

well hopefully i find a few more soon, as you can't farm them like all the guides say you can. Which I assume is due to the devs making changes to spawn rates & spawn triggers. Now I just run thru whale bone & The Crones real quick when I first log in, n that's it.

the option for upscaling mobs is legit as ♥♥♥♥.

[Spacey]

I think quen is OP too. When you boost sign intensity, use light armor or heavy or medium armor with levity, and Aerondight, damn, that combination is nuts. And ofc, boosted fast attacks.

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by Knife Party / Ezio ADF:

I think quen is OP too. When you boost sign intensity, use light armor or heavy or medium armor with levity, and Aerondight, damn, that combination is nuts. And ofc, boosted fast attacks.

Even at base level, quen is OP. It completely mitigates all damage from a single attack, which can be obscenely strong.