Battle with Detlaff - WTF?

[Crucesignati]

Somehow this game allowed me to progress all the way to the final battle with Detlaff while obviously being woefully unprepared and underpowered. I've read dozens of posts about timing the dodge when the bats shoot at you, but doesn't matter, I'll die seconds later some other way I couldn't see or defend against. Up to about 60 tries thus far. Either I totally suck or the game has allowed me to progress to this level with no way to beat it. Granted I'm new to this game, but after 3 weeks of playing I was loving it. Anyone run into this? Sucks you have no way to leave, gain more experience points, abilities, etc.. then return.

[Vellari]

What level are you then?

If you really can't manage it, reload an earlier save and go level up.

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by Crucesignati:

I've read dozens of posts about timing the dodge when the bats shoot at you, but doesn't matter, I'll die seconds later some other way I couldn't see or defend against.

You can hear when Geralt has to roll out of the line of fire. The bats gather at Dettlaff's position, and there will be a moment of silence, before they attack Geralt. Half a second before the silence Geralt should evade the attack.

Have a look at the video at 0:30: Do you see the stone at Geralt's position? Here you can see (and hear) the start of the bat attack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbA6exUv-pY

Good luck!

[Crucesignati]

Thanks Max !

[Crucesignati]

Originally posted by Vellari:

What level are you then?

If you really can't manage it, reload an earlier save and go level up.

I'm level 47, but realizing I probably didn't do enough supplementary stuff like side quests or alchemy. All the videos I'm watching Geralt has all sort of enhanced gear and potions I don't.

[Vellari]

Originally posted by Crucesignati:

Originally posted by Vellari:

What level are you then?

If you really can't manage it, reload an earlier save and go level up.

I'm level 47, but realizing I probably didn't do enough supplementary stuff like side quests or alchemy. All the videos I'm watching Geralt has all sort of enhanced gear and potions I don't.

Sound plausible. Level wise 47 should be ok, particularly with 2 mutation slots open which should be doable at that level.

And yes, definitely should pop a decoction or two, blade oils and potions...Makes a ton of difference particularly with higher difficulties.

[i-Jinx]

If you are having trouble timing your dodges against the bats, you can just nullify up to three of them with superior White Rafford's decoction. You get a three second margin of error, which is a lot bigger than the 0.5 second opportunity to dodge.

Dodging his "divebomb" also requires good timing, much easier IMO to use aard or igni to knock him off course. The tricky bit then, is to sprint to where he crashed and land some blows before he takes off again.

[Crucesignati]

Thanks for all the tips! Wound up going back to a previous save and leveling up to level 51, acquiring 4 Grandmaster Ursine Gear items, and making sure I had upgraded most used potions to Superior. Still took me about 10 tries to beat Detlaff - overall an incredible and rewarding challenge.

For what it's worth, I found that focusing on using AARD to knock Detlaff out of the air and pummel him made for a lot less bat attacks to dodge.

Overall , I've never been so impressed and consumed by a video game. I'm late to this series, but can't say enough good things about it. Witcher 3 is heroinware, divorceware haha...

Cheers!

[Smartik1]

This fight is ridiculous and has horrible design for retries.

- I don't want to listen to him and his whole speech and then watch a long, unskippable animation of him transforming every time.
- The bats are ridiculously OP with a horrible dodge window. Quen barrier with active Quen dome? The game pretends they don't exist, you take the full blow anyway. Every bat dive, you end up at like 5% hp left or instadie. You can't heal properly, window to attack nearly doesn't exist.

[Dark_Sirian]

What a great fight against Dettlaff! A worthy conclusion to the trilogy. Excellent work, Devs.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ZEgBAGqsQ0GZyFTkm5/giphy.gif

[max.strauss]

Originally posted by Dark_Sirian:

What a great fight against Dettlaff! A worthy conclusion to the trilogy. Excellent work, Devs.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ZEgBAGqsQ0GZyFTkm5/giphy.gif

You speak right from my soul, D_S. A memorable boss fight that underlines the outstanding qualities of the developers and remains in the memory for a long time.

What I particularly like here - but actually in all the larger boss fights in TW1/2/3 - is that there are King Ways that make life much easier for the player. So the devs try to encourage the player to think about the course of the battle and learn from mistakes.

The second phase of the combat in the Dettlaff fight, for example, becomes very clear when the player realizes that you can hear the start of the bat attacks: by the silence of the fluttering noise when they gather near Dettlaff to attack:

https://youtu.be/bx9xJ7rszGA

Then the spook is over quickly - as is the unnecessary, erroneous running around to avoid the bats.

By the way, here is the complete fight (DL: "Death March" with Enemy Upscaling ON).

https://youtu.be/o9drIlbKCXM

Well done, devs!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRm84SjFe8A

[jesswprater]

I`m at level 51 and am having a lot of trouble with this boss fight. I notice that everyone is using heavy armor. I've built my character with light armor. It looks like every one that is successful is using heavy armor. Do I stand a chance of being successful with light armor, or should I go back and obtain heavy armor.

[felixpoop]

Originally posted by jesswprater:

I`m at level 51 and am having a lot of trouble with this boss fight. I notice that everyone is using heavy armor. I've built my character with light armor. It looks like every one that is successful is using heavy armor. Do I stand a chance of being successful with light armor, or should I go back and obtain heavy armor.

Wolven is perfectly fine for it if you don't want heavy. But I would imagine any armor is fine so long as you adapt your tactics towards its strength.

[Illtempered]

Originally posted by Crucesignati:

Somehow this game allowed me to progress all the way to the final battle with Detlaff while obviously being woefully unprepared and underpowered. I've read dozens of posts about timing the dodge when the bats shoot at you, but doesn't matter, I'll die seconds later some other way I couldn't see or defend against. Up to about 60 tries thus far. Either I totally suck or the game has allowed me to progress to this level with no way to beat it. Granted I'm new to this game, but after 3 weeks of playing I was loving it. Anyone run into this? Sucks you have no way to leave, gain more experience points, abilities, etc.. then return.

I beat him on Deathmarch and had to fight him until I had the timing to consistently avoid that attack. Once I had that, I could start thinking about the others. I can't remember what level I was but I hadn't beat the Main Quest of the game yet. Not only that I did it with no lock-on, no HUD(although I turned it on a couple times to makes sure I was doing some damage) and in first-person. So...It's doable. It wasn't easy. I probably fought him at least thirty times, maybe more. It's been years.

There's always reloading saves though. In my current playthrough I refuse to even advance that quest, because I see no reason to subject Beauclair to that mess yet. I'm still collecting my Gwent deck.

[worm_master]

I nailed him at level 25, with nothing but Aard, he's not that difficult, his bat attack, is prob the hardest he has, that is a "lock on" that is, u wait an wait, till the rustling of the bats stops, that means he's locked on, an is about to let loose, b4 he do's simply roll to the side, if timed correctly, the bats miss u entirely.

You can dodge his bat attack, with ya eyes shut, if u listen, it's that distinctive.

[JMO]

Originally posted by Crucesignati:

Somehow this game allowed me to progress all the way to the final battle with Detlaff while obviously being woefully unprepared and underpowered. I've read dozens of posts about timing the dodge when the bats shoot at you, but doesn't matter, I'll die seconds later some other way I couldn't see or defend against. Up to about 60 tries thus far. Either I totally suck or the game has allowed me to progress to this level with no way to beat it. Granted I'm new to this game, but after 3 weeks of playing I was loving it. Anyone run into this? Sucks you have no way to leave, gain more experience points, abilities, etc.. then return.

I was getting crushed by him, even after watching videos until I realized that the default keyboard binding for dodge was just too hard for me to consistently hit. Once I moved it to be one of the extra buttons on my gaming mouse, right next to my thumb. it became automatic. I just dodged and dodged until I was good and ready to take a swing.

I found that having that RuneWright Rune (from Hearts of Stone) that competely depletes stamina when you hit them with Aard was quite helpful. Especially in the first round. Let him take his two swings (dodging each time), hit him with Aard, then get 2 or 3 good hits in. Then back up and repeat.

The 2nd round was oddly easy. Back up right away, let him swoop down on you, hit him with Aard, then roll over towards him where he lies on the ground (from being knocked down by your Aard) and take 3 or 4 swings. Then get ready for the Bats -- back away and get ready to dodge. Then do it again.

Last round was a bit tough for me because I have trouble making my attacks go where I want them to. But patience and a lot of dodging helps as well here.