To the person, who gave the Leshen near Novigrad its crow spam

[Cybernetic_Croc]

♥♥♥♥ you, dude. I hope you fall down the stairs. Wolves, teleporting and tree branches attacks are all cool attacks. Even those crows are neat idea and could be good. But in its current state it is pure cancer. You can't avoid them, can't block them and they deal ton of damage. And even when you manage to roll past them to try to attack and stop Leshen from controlling their swarm you find out that nope, it doesn't work! Spam just continues. So you are forced to either run around to minimise damage you will take or you better have your Quen leveled up. It is such a cool fight ruined by one, garbage mechanic. It should be at least possible to dispel this attack by damaging Leshen.

[worm_master]

Or so u think, you'd be wrong, Leshins r pretty easy, there's "tougher, u jus aint meet em yet

[Cybernetic_Croc]

Originally posted by worm_master:

Or so u think, you'd be wrong, Leshins r pretty easy, there's "tougher, u jus aint meet em yet

Leshen near Novigrad itself isn't very difficult. But that crow spam is simply stupid mechanic. You literally can't avoid it if you want to kill him. I don't remember other Leshens using it that way. Not even the ancient one from Skellige. Although it is my first playthrough since New Gen update, so maybe they gave him that cancerous attack too.

[insolent1]

There is one in HoS dlc that spams the crow attack, quen with its intensity increased worked well.

[worm_master]

Oh well not to "spoil" WAIT till u meet Detleff.... every-one TEARS their hair out over 1 move.... except me, I can defeat the move blindfolded..

[Cybernetic_Croc]

Originally posted by logAnmalONE:

Different monsters / enemies require different tactical strategy approaches therefore you can't use a 'one method fits all' approach. Always read the in-game Bestiary
information before you commit to a battle. The Leshen is vulnerable to fire and relic oil poison. Start with Igni, It's effective against the Leshen, wolves, and crows.
Also, pay close attention to how you're building your character skills, abilities, weapons, etc. at each level. A good character build matched with the best weapons per level makes a world of difference.

The problem is, that as I said, that attack is simply unavoidable, and keeps going forever, even when you get past it and stagger Leshen. It just doesn't feel fair, in contrast to all other of his attacks. You are froced to either run away and spam range attacks or spam Quen, which sucks. It should be more like Dettlaff's bat attack, Leshen gathering crow swarm and then launching it as single, wide wave. Not constant, returning spam.

[Cybernetic_Croc]

Originally posted by worm_master:

Oh well not to "spoil" WAIT till u meet Detleff.... every-one TEARS their hair out over 1 move.... except me, I can defeat the move blindfolded..

Dettlaff's bat wave was never an issue for me. It is very much fair attack, it has visible build-up and all you have to do is avoid that one single wave. The Leshen's attack on the other hand, is just constant stream of crows following you around and hovering around monster.

[꧁ logAnmalONE ꧂]

Originally posted by Cybernetic_Croc:

The problem is, that as I said, that attack is simply unavoidable, and keeps going forever, even when you get past it and stagger Leshen. It just doesn't feel fair, in contrast to all other of his attacks. You are froced to either run away and spam range attacks or spam Quen, which sucks. It should be more like Dettlaff's bat attack, Leshen gathering crow swarm and then launching it as single, wide wave. Not constant, returning spam.

I completed the contract named Lord of the Wood just now and it took me about 5 minutes to complete total. Fighting on foot is not the way to win this fight. I used Roach to run around the Leshen in elongated circles thus escaping the attacks of the crows, wolves, and Leshens root traps. As it appeared and disappears for a several seconds, I kept Roach running in the same pattern while striking down wolves and hitting Leshen with the sword until the Leshen was down to 10% health then I dismounted Roach and used Igni on the wolves and crows, and then finished off the Leshen using heavy sword hits. I'm playing on the hard difficulty.

[Cybernetic_Croc]

Originally posted by logAnmalONE:

Originally posted by Cybernetic_Croc:

The problem is, that as I said, that attack is simply unavoidable, and keeps going forever, even when you get past it and stagger Leshen. It just doesn't feel fair, in contrast to all other of his attacks. You are froced to either run away and spam range attacks or spam Quen, which sucks. It should be more like Dettlaff's bat attack, Leshen gathering crow swarm and then launching it as single, wide wave. Not constant, returning spam.

I completed the contract named Lord of the Wood just now and it took me about 5 minutes to complete total. Fighting on foot is not the way to win this fight. I used Roach to run around the Leshen in elongated circles thus escaping the attacks of the crows, wolves, and Leshens root traps. As it appeared and disappears for a several seconds, I kept Roach running in the same pattern while striking down wolves and hitting Leshen with the sword until the Leshen was down to 10% health then I dismounted Roach and used Igni on the wolves and crows, and then finished off the Leshen using heavy sword hits. I'm playing on the hard difficulty.

Interesting tactic. I have beaten him by just being super agressive to constantly stagger him, frying him 2 times with Dragon's Dream gas explosions and running away during crow spam duration. I still died like 3 times before that. I don't trust Roach to not throw me off the saddle to use her in fights lol.

[꧁ logAnmalONE ꧂]

Originally posted by Cybernetic_Croc:

Interesting tactic. I have beaten him by just being super agressive to constantly stagger him, frying him 2 times with Dragon's Dream gas explosions and running away during crow spam duration. I still died like 3 times before that. I don't trust Roach to not throw me off the saddle to use her in fights lol.

I equipped Roach with horse blinders with a 40 fear level and Enhanced Cavalry saddle w/ 65 stamina. The extra horse stamina helps by enabling me to zip in and out of range very fast. The crows and wolves still do damage so I used Swallow and Enhanced Thunderbolt to assist with health and damage thus making damage intermittent and not sustained. Try it out and see if it helps. The best part is hitting the leshen with the oiled blade and zooming out of its range since it also disappears and changes its location constantly. I can totally understand your opinion of the battle. It's one of those quests that demands trying and adjusting different strategies.