The Witcher 3

You can go back to White Orchard and do everything else. Nothing is stopping you.

Is there anything outside of the question marks? I've stumbled upon one secondary quest and some mooks to kill but the XP ain't flowing well.

Yeah, each question mark is either some set-piece or a monster nest or a question location or something. Idk if it would still be there now that you've left the area, but if you go back to where Geralt and Vesemir were camped you can find the crystal raven skull that Yennifer used.

IIRC some quests in White Orchids requires you to find the quest giver. Otherwise you get experience from finding some special areas and clearing them.

Also, there are some "places of powers" that grant you a single ability point to upgrade an ability.

GAAA! the new Skellige deck has me infuriated! I just can't win with it! I can't get through the first round of the Gwent tournament with it! I need my spy spam damnit!

It's tricky. Basically try to go with Cerys and load it with minimal weather cards, decoys and other non special heroes. The Leshen summoning card it has is awesome; Cerys summoning three shieldmaidens who buff each other is great.

And I'd remove all but one mushroom and have Ermion, so you can buff mid-range beserkers and front line ones.

I find I can trounce even Nilfgaard spy-heavy decks (Just reflect one spy back at them, hit them with some large scale spawns to make them waste those extra cards) It's only main weakness is scorch cards can hurt you a LOT.

Also, yeah, regretting those upgrades. When even Grand Master gear is just "meh" at the start. That said Aerondight socketed just OWNS. And my Toussaint sword from the fairy tale world is amazing with 250 armour piercing and 3 sockets - I set fire to most enemies just with the sword, plus the skill that ups your base sword damage (Mutation)

Still not sure which of those to go through, but so glad you get some extra slots to work with.

Now I'm just pondering whether to blitz through, unlock the Rune Crafter and forge some basic armour and then... well, sort out some sockets and words enough to have a bloody impact. Don't think I'll be swapping silver swords for a while - steel, maybe, when something truly devastating comes up. may take a pause to play Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Cat School grand master is quite good, as it gives a massive buff to criticals and that, and I was highly disappointed the former sword's quest didn't have any Monty Python gags in it about watery tarts distributing swords... as for the dream world and talking to Roach quests... what are those called? I don't think I have them and I do NOT want to miss them like I have with the "fuck off" vampire

The Talking Roach quest is called Equine Phantoms - it's north of a crossroads in the east of Toussaint, can't remember the name right now. The fairyland is the "save Syanna" path of the Main Quest.

NG+ everything hits like a truck. I can kill things stupidly quickly. but fragile as well. Tempted to go with that Toussaint heavy armour with the vitality buffs... but I lose all the bonuses to Damage and elemental resistance. Gah! Choices!

learn to dodge.

I do, pirouetting like a ballerina with too much caffeine in there. But I like some element of resilience as well. Plus not as good at countering things like wolves or monsters. Humans I can handle.

Ah well, I'll survive I'm sure. The White Orchard Griffin wasn't that hard - it is about managing the field a bit more effectively it would seem. Being dumped into the middle of combat after a cut-scene, that's annoying.

It's incredible how there are so many possible branches in the main quest line, each with it's own fully voiced dialogue.

I decided to let Triss be tortured by the Witch Hunters this playthrough and I was happy to discover that if you keep your poker face on and ask the right questions, you can totally find out where Dijkstra's treasure is.

I decided to save the Velen part of the main quest for last, and it was a cool moment when Geralt immediately recognized Uma and told the Baron he would be taking him.

How cool is it that Sarah will meet up with Johnny at the end of the game if you decide to chase her out of that house in Novigrad?

This game stitches together it's various quests incredibly well. Even after a year, I'm still impressed by the amount of variation.

Man, I hope upcoming open-world RPGs take a long, hard look at this game's structure. Every single quest, side-quest, treasure hunt and witcher contract has a (usually good) story to tell. There are no "radiant" quests to be found in this game. Nothing seems randomly generated and even the freaking fetch quests manage to weave an interesting narrative.

edited 20th Jun '16 12:49:21 PM by GutstheBerserker

What? I thought that was the "mean" option. I always let her stay in the house with the dreamer lady. They seem to get along great.

Yup, and she's arguably even happier now that she's found another Godling to hang out with. If I remember right, she even thanks you for getting her to leave.

It was such a nice and unexpected moment. I was under the impression at the time that I was making the typical "Evil" decision present in so many games and that this would just be a one-off decision that would never be mentionned again.

edited 20th Jun '16 12:55:33 PM by GutstheBerserker

I really wish they had given me the villa in the base game, before I had wasted all my money on now obsolete ruins and sold all my cool gear.

As a compulsive hoarder in games, terrified to get rid of things IN CASE A QUEST NEEDS THEM (After I junked the bronze sphere in Planescape once.... never making that mistake again)

A dwelling wouldn't make sense in the main game - closest is probs Dandelion's pub. (Side-note - a shame Priscilla doesn't hang around there post her quest, just getting a post game mention...)

Toussaint I'm beginning to miss - all that colour! Even the Asterix bank (Ahhh that Caesar cartoon...) I agree that the plot kinda deviated from the Errant Knight element a tad, and it'd have been nice to have an area of the villa where we could summon visitors or have more. But then again, the denouement is quite nice.

So, off to Velen again - tempted to try a different order to proceedings to see what changes. And i try to be nice to monsters. So much so I don't have that doppler or Succubi decoction. Weirdly, now I have all the alchemical things and oils, a lot of the game even in NG+ feels a little redundant. They should've done a level of potions for Grandmaster as well, only findable in NG+, to keep you wandering and harvesting.

I have SO MANY crafting and herb items, I'm tempted to bin them. If I can find a merchant who buys them who actually has enough cash.

MODS! (you are playing on PC, right?) one of the best increases merchants wallets and gives you a fair price for your goods (so no more trudging around the world trying to find the blacksmith who you haven't bankrupted)

Aha! I was wondering about Mods. Was VERY tempted by the extra skill slot one, but apparently they're hidden. So I'd probably lose track,

Money isn't that much of an issue, but I am sad that I will soon be using mix n match armour. Also, noticed that all the base game content is now level 50 so evidently scaled up with me. Interesting. I'm leveling ridiculously quickly as well though so will probably hit 70 quite soon. May do Ho S early to get the rune guy and some gear to help through the rest of the game.

also use the mod that removes weapon degeneration, it is soooooo fucking useful

So, I finished the main questline and got the Empress Ciri ending this time around. I'm impressed they created assets/textures for a wintery White Orchard that you will only see for about 30 minutes.

And this time, I played nice with Dijkstra when I went to retrieve Phillipa from him so I also managed to finish the "Kill Radovid" questline. My first playthrough, when confronting Dijkstra, I decided to "Shove him forcefully". I was shocked into fits of laughter when that translated to "Break his other leg". However, some additional conversations this playthrough made me like the guy more, so I decided not to be such a dick this time around.

In the end: Nilfgaard wins the war, Ciri is Empress and I'm with Yennefer.

Now to go through the dlc containt again and make some different decisions.

So I've been dumping more points into magic and finding it super handy. I was having a hard time with this one bandit camp, something like six dudes with big fuck off axes and three more on horseback that do their best to bum rush you.

My patented Quen and light attack mash strategy wasn't working out so well since this dicks learned how to use their block button. Finally after trying a few different things I cast axii and holy shit, it's a free fucking kill. Like they literally just stand there and let me decapitate them.

I'm wondering if I should rip out my 3 points in light attack and just move to a full magic build.

you want a good mix, Axii, Aard and Yrden signs have always worked for me, a few potion and oil skills to help with a health boost (I highly recommend the skill that slows down time for enemy counter attacks when you have any sort of toxicity) as well as a good few sword skills, I found the basic light and heavy attack damage and critical boosts to be extremely useful. oh and get the skill that gives you bonuses depending on your armour type, so useful

I'm doing a full blown mage run RIGHT NOW. As we speak. It is live.

It started bumpy (I'm on "hard") but eventually Igni and Quen broke the game again for me.

Basically, with Igni you can burn a whole group of bandits and make them panic long enough that you will get your stamina back from the first cast, and then you can burn them again. You hardly ever have to actually fight. Otherwise, you can also just circle a panicking enemy and hit him in his bitch back to hurt him bad.

The mage path seems to be very viable, but honestly a lot of the abilities are thrash. The only upside I've found to "Puppet" is that you can mind control a doe so that it fights on your side. That's right. A random doe. I've yet to find any application whatsoever for this knowledge, but there it is.

Melting armor is meh. I don't think I've EVER noticed an increase in damage output with it.

I LOVE extra duration on Yrden, it makes fighting Wraiths so much more bearable. It is a shame that the slow isn't THAT strong, but I've just started investing in intensity for that skill, so I'll see where that takes me.

So, that thief/tomb raider you find traces off when doing the Blood and Wine quest for the advanced mutations, does that ever pay off? I did the entire quest, she never came up. You keep finding evidence of her, I expected her to turn up

Also funny, I finish the tournament, go "Wow, the sword you get for wining is awesome, 150 armor piercing" and the kill a bandit, find a random "Ducal Guard's sword" with higher dps and 200 armor piercing.

What kind of nude portrait has the model wear ugly yellow panties? A crappy one, that's what.

If the person is wearing something then it's not a nude portrait!