What do I choose between the Griffin, Ursine and Feline Armour?

[Lagrange]

I'm going to pick only one and upgrade it to the max.

What do I go for?

[♠ Radovid V. ♠]

Griffin school armour = for sign / magic build. Notice how much does it increases sign intensity (magic damage). Medium armour. 4 sets (5 if DLC). Only crafted.
Ursine school armour = tank build, great for increasing adrenaline and overall defense. Heavy armour. 4 sets (5 if DLC). Only crafted.
Feline school armour = melee damage build, sword fighting focused and stamina regeneration. Light armour. 4 sets (5 if DLC). Only crafted.
Wolf school armour =combo of all schools mentioned above, medium armour. 4 sets (5 if DLC). Crafted or looted. PS: You can find mastercrafted chest piece without crafting any previous version, by looting Kaer Morhen ruins arround fortress.
Viper school armour = increases resistence, reskinned starting armour. Medium armour. 1 set only. Only purchasable on auction, cannot be crafted.
Manticore school armour = endgame B&W DLC gear from Witcher 1 focused on alchemy, medium armour. 1 set only. Only crafted, expensive. PS: Only armour which changes visually upon reaching NG+

If you are like me and rather choose aesthetics over stats then here are some pictures of each armour fully upgraded:

Grandmaster Griffin school armour
https://images.app.goo.gl/NurVpVAECsCsnn488

Grandmaster Ursine school armour
https://images.app.goo.gl/1sqPssYdVYUt8iMB7

Grandmaster Feline school armour
https://images.app.goo.gl/32qbbkE26a5gMcdm8

Grandmaster Wolf school armour
https://images.app.goo.gl/YkHK7sJsbqbHovPo9

Viper school armour
https://images.app.goo.gl/1zRoErkc8yLeToRk9

Manticore school armour
https://images.app.goo.gl/Lz5zGsoSdRZNtSLK6

Legendary Manticore school armour NG+ variant (Raven armor from Witcher 1)
https://images.app.goo.gl/wg9aQsd31CW4ng4x5


→ All sets look great but my personal favorites (aesthetically) are Viper, Manticore NG, basic Ursine armour and Mastercrafted Feline armour.

[Frostbite]

Adrenaline is the red curved diagonal bar bottom left of your health bar, it has three stacks total, each divided into 10 points(10 points= 1 stack), each strong attack charges your adrenaline by 2-4 points, each fast attack 1-2 points(also there is this DLC skill which lets you increase your adrenaline points with defensive acts such as parrying, counter attack, dodge, roll etc). It depletes from full to empty slowly after you dont engage in combat for 10-15 seconds straight. Everytime you get hit(excluding poison, burning, bleeding) it depletes by 4-16 points. By default it increases your attack power by +%10 per stack, but there is a skill which changes this effect to +%8 critical hit chance per stack.

Stamina is horizontal yellow bar under your health bar, recharges itself with a rate according to if you are in combat or not(out of combat rate is faster, obviously). If i recall correctly, you can only increase recharge rate with a skill in the signs branch(you can also increase this with a certain potion, but its temporary), it is more than enough practically, but still limited, worth mentioning. Stamina depletes while you are running or jumping rapidly. It stops recharging for a very brief moment when you roll while in combat(also its very rare(450+ hours only encountered twice) but it also depletes mildly when you just press rmb and wait, at some point when it completely depletes, you are not going to be able to parry the next attack). Also stamina full recovery time = shared sign cooldown.

[Lagrange]

Originally posted by Frostbite:

Adrenaline is the red curved diagonal bar bottom left of your health bar, it has three stacks total, each divided into 10 points(10 points= 1 stack), each strong attack charges your adrenaline by 2-4 points, each fast attack 1-2 points(also there is this DLC skill which lets you increase your adrenaline points with defensive acts such as parrying, counter attack, dodge, roll etc). It depletes from full to empty slowly after you dont engage in combat for 10-15 seconds straight. Everytime you get hit(excluding poison, burning, bleeding) it depletes by 4-16 points. By default it increases your attack power by +%10 per stack, but there is a skill which changes this effect to +%8 critical hit chance per stack.

Stamina is horizontal yellow bar under your health bar, recharges itself with a rate according to if you are in combat or not(out of combat rate is faster, obviously). If i recall correctly, you can only increase recharge rate with a skill in the signs branch(you can also increase this with a certain potion, but its temporary), it is more than enough practically, but still limited, worth mentioning. Stamina depletes while you are running or jumping rapidly. It stops recharging for a very brief moment when you roll while in combat(also its very rare(450+ hours only encountered twice) but it also depletes mildly when you just press rmb and wait, at some point when it completely depletes, you are not going to be able to parry the next attack). Also stamina full recovery time = shared sign cooldown.

Thanks! This is a proper definition of Stamina and Adrenaline.

[♠ Radovid V. ♠]

Which one have you chosen Lagrange? 🙂

And btw I highly recommend HD Reworked project mod + Halks ultra. Not only it significantly improves visuals and graphics but makes the game even run better! (because of texture budget)
Link if you are interested: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1021/

PS: I've not tried the newest version yet but the old 5.1 is great. Make sure to correctly follow the Nvidia Control Panel guide for Halks Ultra if you decide to give it a try:
https://imgur.com/6yMv6yr

[Lagrange]

Originally posted by ♠ Radovid V. ♠:

Which one have you chosen Lagrange? 🙂

And btw I highly recommend HD Reworked project mod + Halks ultra. Not only it significantly improves visuals and graphics but makes the game even run better! (because of texture budget)
Link if you are interested: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1021/

PS: I've not tried the newest version yet but the old 5.1 is great. Make sure to correctly follow the Nvidia Control Panel guide for Halks Ultra if you decide to give it a try:
https://imgur.com/6yMv6yr

I'm going with Cat and switching to Manticore when I reach B&W.
Its the closest to my build of Sword-Alchemy till I reach the final DLC.


Haha, I wish man. My rig isn't tank enough to handle the base game at High let alone mods :P
I'll bookmark it though, thanks for the recommendation :)

[Frostbite]

Yeah, i just upgraded my Feline set to superior(played before with griffin, sign build), looks really great on Geralt.

[Big Moustache]

Mastercrafted wolf armor looks best. You can use dyes for more fashion choices.

[Lagrange]

Originally posted by Fragoos:

Mastercrafted wolf armor looks best. You can use dyes for more fashion choices.

Looks is secondary mate, stats are more important.

Can you use dye on other armours too?

[♠ Radovid V. ♠]

Originally posted by Lagrange:

Originally posted by Fragoos:

Mastercrafted wolf armor looks best. You can use dyes for more fashion choices.

Looks is secondary mate, stats are more important.

Can you use dye on other armours too?

You can dye any armor that has green background (Witcher gear quality)

[Kurosu]

The strongest set is by far the Cat School , which allows mad sword dps while also providing massive stamina regen due to being light armor.
However there are 2 major points that nobody has told you so far : the set bonuses only apply on the grandmaster versions ( final ones) and by that point you will have access to enchanting, which allows you to "transform" the armor type to any of the 3 that you like ( ursine set can act as light armor for example, or the cat set can count as medium or heavy armor).
So in fact if you want to only focus in one set you have to decide which set bonus you would like for the end game as well as decide what kind of armor suits you until you reach the heart of stone expansion ( where enchanting will become available). Your entire build will alsobe around the said set ( or the other way around actually) . I would recommend the cat school because you can never go wrong with a fast attack build. I do not suggest that you focus extremely on one set though you can probably manage 2-3. Beware that the grandmaster sets will cost A LOT.

[Lagrange]

Originally posted by Kurosu:

The strongest set is by far the Cat School , which allows mad sword dps while also providing massive stamina regen due to being light armor.
However there are 2 major points that nobody has told you so far : the set bonuses only apply on the grandmaster versions ( final ones) and by that point you will have access to enchanting, which allows you to "transform" the armor type to any of the 3 that you like ( ursine set can act as light armor for example, or the cat set can count as medium or heavy armor).
So in fact if you want to only focus in one set you have to decide which set bonus you would like for the end game as well as decide what kind of armor suits you until you reach the heart of stone expansion ( where enchanting will become available). Your entire build will alsobe around the said set ( or the other way around actually) . I would recommend the cat school because you can never go wrong with a fast attack build. I do not suggest that you focus extremely on one set though you can probably manage 2-3. Beware that the grandmaster sets will cost A LOT.

Oh yeah, I came across some Runestone master and gave his some jade. Need more money and information to avail his services.

So in that case, stamina boost can be as fast in an Ursine armour as seen in a Feline armour if I enchant the Ursine to be a "light armour", did I get that right?

[Kurosu]

Originally posted by Lagrange:

Originally posted by Kurosu:

The strongest set is by far the Cat School , which allows mad sword dps while also providing massive stamina regen due to being light armor.
However there are 2 major points that nobody has told you so far : the set bonuses only apply on the grandmaster versions ( final ones) and by that point you will have access to enchanting, which allows you to "transform" the armor type to any of the 3 that you like ( ursine set can act as light armor for example, or the cat set can count as medium or heavy armor).
So in fact if you want to only focus in one set you have to decide which set bonus you would like for the end game as well as decide what kind of armor suits you until you reach the heart of stone expansion ( where enchanting will become available). Your entire build will alsobe around the said set ( or the other way around actually) . I would recommend the cat school because you can never go wrong with a fast attack build. I do not suggest that you focus extremely on one set though you can probably manage 2-3. Beware that the grandmaster sets will cost A LOT.

Oh yeah, I came across some Runestone master and gave his some jade. Need more money and information to avail his services.

So in that case, stamina boost can be as fast in an Ursine armour as seen in a Feline armour if I enchant the Ursine to be a "light armour", did I get that right?

Precicely, and it will also benefit from the "cat school techniques" skill instead of the bear one