How Hard is the Hardest Difficulty?

[Rebillion76]

Is it worth playing on the hardest? because i would like to for my first playthrough. i am experienced when it comes to difficult games like dark souls, but i am not sure how witcher 3 would compare or if it would be too difficult.

[Vellari]

Depends. Some say not that hard (me including), some can't manage even the easiest.

No where near Dark Souls difficult for sure, so if you can handle that go for Death March.

[Stormsong]

Death March here = "Hard Mode" in a game that usually has 1-3 more difficulties after hard mode labeled things like Nightmare, Extreme, Survivor, Brutal, etc.

It's not bad at all.

[Living Broscillograph]

Pretty easy. However, it requires to use every mechanic the game provides (oils, potions, signs, bombs, environment, rolls & dodges, heavy/fast attacks and so on).

[OoOoOoooOOoOoorgle]

It's another one of those games that would probably be impossible without dodge moves, but once you have a decent grasp of dodging you can also faceroll the whole thing.

If you still find it too easy on DM, make a rule for yourself not to use the quen (shield) sign except <15% hp or to clear damage over time. It's much more fun that way imo, you get to experiment more with the other signs and you can't just approach way over-leveled enemies nonchalantly because you're invincible unless you get hit twice in a row.

On a side note, I think it's funny that people still try to compare everything to dark souls for a difficulty gauge. In dark souls the more you die the easier the game becomes, because you just get fat on souls from reclaiming. DS game mechanics make them basically impossible to fail. Never struck me as particularly challenging lol.

[Thorba]

Was very easy if you use quen shield often, even at ng+ no problems at death march (and that without the use of oils or bombs:).
I must confess that without quen it would have been much harder.

[Rebillion76]

Alright thanks for the replies, Death March it is!

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by OoOoOoooOOoOoorgle:

It's another one of those games that would probably be impossible without dodge moves, but once you have a decent grasp of dodging you can also faceroll the whole thing.

If you still find it too easy on DM, make a rule for yourself not to use the quen (shield) sign except <15% hp or to clear damage over time. It's much more fun that way imo, you get to experiment more with the other signs and you can't just approach way over-leveled enemies nonchalantly because you're invincible unless you get hit twice in a row.

On a side note, I think it's funny that people still try to compare everything to dark souls for a difficulty gauge. In dark souls the more you die the easier the game becomes, because you just get fat on souls from reclaiming. DS game mechanics make them basically impossible to fail. Never struck me as particularly challenging lol.

Leveling in Souls games doesn't get you all that much, and it really only makes a meaningful difference after many, many levels.

[OoOoOoooOOoOoorgle]

Originally posted by Deadbubble:

Leveling in Souls games doesn't get you all that much, and it really only makes a meaningful difference after many, many levels.

I dunno, as I recall the number of hits to down enemies gets reduced pretty quickly if you do your build right (i.e. 100% offense, because playing defensively gets you killed). That translates to exponentially more suvivability as you see fewer and fewer attacks from the enemies. That said, I can't remember the last time I was playing a fresh start of a souls game so the efficiency of each level might just be from min-maxing.

[meep_meep]

It's much easier than Dark Souls. It's a similar combat system but stamina only applies to spells and some movements, not melee, which makes the combat much more manageable.

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by OoOoOoooOOoOoorgle:

Originally posted by Deadbubble:

Leveling in Souls games doesn't get you all that much, and it really only makes a meaningful difference after many, many levels.

I dunno, as I recall the number of hits to down enemies gets reduced pretty quickly if you do your build right (i.e. 100% offense, because playing defensively gets you killed). That translates to exponentially more suvivability as you see fewer and fewer attacks from the enemies. That said, I can't remember the last time I was playing a fresh start of a souls game so the efficiency of each level might just be from min-maxing.

Bloodborne is where playing offensively is the only way you play. You can play defensively just fine in Souls, and you get a far wider margin of error for doing so. Ditching shields and going pure offense is more of a high risk high reward type of deal.

And the damage up you get from increasing the relevant stats is very small. After leveling it some 10 times, you'll start noticing a tangible difference. But before that, its just numbers going up slightly, and not much else aside from that. And some weapons benefit from stats more than others.

Though it is true that reinforcing weapons is way, way better in Dark Souls than reinforcing armor. Thats somehting no one should do, ever. The amount of times you can reinforce is limited though, until reaching certain points in the game, and unless you're familiar with the upgrading systems and the game world, you're unlikely to reinforce weapons at a very rapid pace.

[namresaw33]

It's hard at first but becomes a cakewalk after a while. Bosses can still be hard though.

[Archmystic]

Originally posted by Rebillion76:

Is it worth playing on the hardest? because i would like to for my first playthrough. i am experienced when it comes to difficult games like dark souls, but i am not sure how witcher 3 would compare or if it would be too difficult.

You can always use mods to make it harder i think theres a few mods for combat on nexus

[K-ON!]

If u can beat normal difficulty in first playthrough, its easy to beat hardest in second playthrough. U know this games mechanics, and is lots of fun. Just remember dodge, and eat and drink. And S/L

[Pryban]

At level 10, you can get two-shot by level 7 enemies, so you need to pick your battles and use all the tools avaliable to you (like Living Broscillograph said)
The learning curve can be pretty steep at first, but once you get past it the game is not hard

[tonypa]

Difference between normal and hardest difficulty is not that big. Some random wolf pack can kill you in even easiest difficulty setting if you do not look out. I played through first on normal and then on hardest and died more on first playthrough because I had to learn how to play. Once you understand the combat and skills the extra difficulty is not a problem.