The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Fire&Blood]

how the hell did you do that? :hmm:

I just hit level 34--maybe 35, and I'm on the last fight. I think I have more or less completed everything....everything (except all of the pointless smuggler cashes that litter the map of Skellige)

I did absolutely everything so far, including the "pointless" stuff, clearing all question marks. I found that a lot of these "fillers" open up additional side quests and expand others. I was curious about the choices I was making so I looked up on youtube what others have done and found that some side quests were cut short in youtube playthroughs. For example, one witcher contract I saw people finishing after killing the monster but there was a lot more to it in my playthrough, guessing because of earlier choices I made,

Spoiler

I ended up in prison and getting out was a quest of it's own

There were a lot of elusive side quests based on what I saw people completely miss out on. A few times I went to clear a random POI but in doing so I opened up a couple of other side quests. Kaer Trolden for example, people breeze through it in a matter of hours but there were a dozen mini quests that people were oblivious to. I'm playing on max difficulty, walk everywhere and always kill wildlife when I run into it.
Another example, from the launch trailer, the quest with "Is it 1358 yet?" vampire joke is actually in the game but one has to comb the Novigrad sewers to get it.

 

[KentState]

how the hell did you do that? :hmm:

I just hit level 34--maybe 35, and I'm on the last fight. I think I have more or less completed everything....everything (except all of the pointless smuggler cashes that litter the map of Skellige)

Same thing. I ended the game at level 36 and had a couple contracts left and a few side quests. Don't recall seeing a mob that high of a level either.

 

[Dahak]

I was wondering the same thing. I had finished the game myself yesterday at about lvl34, but did skip most of the ? in skellige, as I had assumed that most likley most would be spoils of war or smugglers cashes.

The odd thing about the ending I got, was pretty much the "Bad" ending, but what through me off was I was pretty sure that the decisions I was making would result in a better ending.

Also something that just hit me too was that the White Frost = Heat Death of the Universe, for those that don't know the Heat Death theory is that everything expands so much that even the space between atoms is so vast that there is not enough energy even inside atoms to allow stuff to happen

 

[zinfamous]

I did absolutely everything so far, including the "pointless" stuff, clearing all question marks. I found that a lot of these "fillers" open up additional side quests and expand others. I was curious about the choices I was making so I looked up on youtube what others have done and found that some side quests were cut short in youtube playthroughs. For example, one witcher contract I saw people finishing after killing the monster but there was a lot more to it in my playthrough, guessing because of earlier choices I made,

Spoiler

I ended up in prison and getting out was a quest of it's own

There were a lot of elusive side quests based on what I saw people completely miss out on. A few times I went to clear a random POI but in doing so I opened up a couple of other side quests. Kaer Trolden for example, people breeze through it in a matter of hours but there were a dozen mini quests that people were oblivious to. I'm playing on max difficulty, walk everywhere and always kill wildlife when I run into it.
Another example, from the launch trailer, the quest with "Is it 1358 yet?" vampire joke is actually in the game but one has to comb the Novigrad sewers to get it.

Believe me, it's not for lack of exploring: I'm right now at 200 hours in, on this one playthrough. I've picked up nearly every quest available, yes discovered that vampire and whatnot. I know that a few contracts were probably cut short because they opened themselves while I was exploring, and one or two even completed themselves before I started them--stumble on monster, kill it, go collect generic reward. Things like that.

Problem is, so many quests out there that it is very easy to outlevel them to the point where you will not be receiving any experience from completing them. There is a real glut of those in the level 9-20 range. I suppose that my issue is that many of those I discovered way too late, because I happened to level through quests well above my level. ....so you end up leveling inefficiently because you lose a lot of xp this way. That, and the xp bug that lasted for about 2 weeks. I think this cost me 2 levels at most, though. Not a big deal.

that being said....I feel that I must call shens....unless you followed a guide on every step to do every possible quest at the most perfect leveling time to maximize potential xp. ...you also don't get that much xp from random mobs. Also, pretty sure question marks and treasure hunts offer no xp at all levels.

....are you sure that you aren't dyslexic and you're actually at level 26? That sounds about right for Kaer Morhen questline.

 

[StinkyPinky]

LEvel 62 sounds impossible. I'm level 35 and quite near the end and I've cleared out 95% of the question marks. (like others, I cannot be bothered with the sea based skellige ones)

 

[cmdrdredd]

LEvel 62 sounds impossible. I'm level 35 and quite near the end and I've cleared out 95% of the question marks. (like others, I cannot be bothered with the sea based skellige ones)

Not impossible, but it requires doing literally everything in the game at the right time and fighting tons of random monsters for very little reward constantly to grind it out. I doubt highly someone isn't done with the game before they hit 40.

Me personally? I have two saves. One is a legit one with the ending I liked best and I'm saved right after you get back to the game after the ending. The other is a hacked game where I experimented with the console to give myself various items to see how they scale and leveled up so I had access to all the skills. My legit play through is below lv40 but I did not do everything, not by a long shot.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Absolutely loved the Monty Python bunny cameo :lol:

 

[Gryz]

Absolutely loved the Monty Python bunny cameo :lol:

In case anyone doesn't know this Monty Python sketch ....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U74s8nFE7No&t=43s

 

[cmdrdredd]

"Bring me the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch"

In case anyone doesn't know this Monty Python sketch ....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U74s8nFE7No&t=43s

Wrong link there? That's the life of brian.

This is the one you want
https://youtu.be/tgj3nZWtOfA?t=30s

 

[Fire&Blood]

My bad, I forgot about the mod I had installed for a while (1.05 broke it and I had to reinstall the game) but it included visual mods, a tweak to make the witcher sense remain active longer after right click and an xp fix. FWIW, I didn't know it was basically a cheat, I thought it was a genuine fix, I only added that because I saw people reporting problems with XP gains after early patches.

 

[Mem]

LEvel 62 sounds impossible. I'm level 35 and quite near the end and I've cleared out 95% of the question marks. (like others, I cannot be bothered with the sea based skellige ones)

I have cleared it all out virtually all the hidden treasure loot including ones in the sea ,done all the DLCs,Witcher contracts,main story finished,only have like Gwent game(bugged for me) final horse race(bugged as well) and the Skelliage fist fight left,at level 35,killing mobs gives you very low XP, and as you know even if you find a new quest contract probably be grey at my level any way.

So the game is more or less done for me,yes I found all the Witcher gear including Wolf armour/weapons as well.

I still go back in to see if I missed anything,btw the vampire one where he wakes up and asked for the year (as in the trailers etc)does not give you a lot of XP.

I did find one I missed at Kaar Morhen,the one about

Spoiler

the old troll in a cave where you find a note regarding the attack on Kaer Morhen in the first game

,again did not get a lot of XP at my level.


I can't wait for the expansions and also the next big patch since I may be able to finish some of those bugged ones I have.

I'm still impressed with general stability of this game on my 280x OC at most ultra settings,bugs well to be expected on something this size of game.

I'll probably play a bit tonight,see if I can find somethings I missed,good thing about this game is you can still play even after you've done all the main storyline etc...

 

[Mem]

My bad, I forgot about the mod I had installed for a while (1.05 broke it and I had to reinstall the game) but it included visual mods, a tweak to make the witcher sense remain active longer after right click and an xp fix. FWIW, I didn't know it was basically a cheat, I thought it was a genuine fix, I only added that because I saw people reporting problems with XP gains after early patches.

XP bug has been fixed,as to Witcher senses I just hold right mouse button down and it remains active until you release it,so it's any length of time.

Btw even at level 35 you are way overpowered anyway.

 

[Gryz]

Wrong link there? That's the life of brian.

I linked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U74s8nFE7No&t=43s intentionally. Not a mistake.

Keep your eyes open in Novigrad. Or rather, keep your ears open in Novigrad.

 

[XiandreX]

I am level 20 and already have 80+ hours invested. Still plenty of quests to do.
I have not even gone to Skellige yet.
Just made the Feline advanced set and I actually like the look.
The only bug that is frustrating is the Mutagen bug, where you lose the bonuses,
when fast travelling and having to remove and re-socket them.

Regardless of what level I end up at, this is one heck of a game.

 

[zinfamous]

My bad, I forgot about the mod I had installed for a while (1.05 broke it and I had to reinstall the game) but it included visual mods, a tweak to make the witcher sense remain active longer after right click and an xp fix. FWIW, I didn't know it was basically a cheat, I thought it was a genuine fix, I only added that because I saw people reporting problems with XP gains after early patches.

lolwow. whoever tried to "fix" the XP issue with that completely broke the game.
mobs give very little to no xp--considering how overleveled you must have been for so long, you should not have been getting any xp....I think the max level mob I have seen are town guards at level 40 or 44. the majority of quests will give you no xp, or 5xp at most.

Even on Max difficulty, I've found content mostly trivial by level 26. Whoever wrote that script and wanted to make an endless leveling system really has no concept of balance.

 

[Fire&Blood]

lolwow. whoever tried to "fix" the XP issue with that completely broke the game.
mobs give very little to no xp--considering how overleveled you must have been for so long, you should not have been getting any xp....I think the max level mob I have seen are town guards at level 40 or 44. the majority of quests will give you no xp, or 5xp at most.

Even on Max difficulty, I've found content mostly trivial by level 26. Whoever wrote that script and wanted to make an endless leveling system really has no concept of balance.

True. It didn't raise any alarms here since I saw people were upping the difficulty even without getting extra xp like I did. I remember getting 375 xp for a contract I saw some get 250 on youtube, I guess the mod creators boosted xp gain 50% and called it a day.

If I accidentally loot stuff with guards around, they all turn lv74 when they go after me. I can lure one away and kill him but it's really tough, Kayran from Witcher 2- tough. Tried two guards and couldn't pull it of, always die within a few minutes. I've lured them towards monsters and they 1shot every type of monster I drew them to. Yet if I don't steal and lure monsters towards the guards, guards die nearly instantly.

I am level 20 and already have 80+ hours invested. Still plenty of quests to do.
I have not even gone to Skellige yet.
Just made the Feline advanced set and I actually like the look.
The only bug that is frustrating is the Mutagen bug, where you lose the bonuses,
when fast travelling and having to remove and re-socket them.

Regardless of what level I end up at, this is one heck of a game.

Once you get there, the more you choose to get involved, the more you can steer political events in Skellige. There were a few bugged side quests for me in Skellige. To complete one of them, the fix was to save the game and then load that save to be able to talk to a character and complete the quest.

 

[Mem]

I've mastercrafted the full wolven set of armour and weapons,have to say I think the mastercraft wolven silver and steel swords are probably the best weapons in the game,very good stats.
Stats from the net.Btw weapons have three rune slots(stats show with empty slots below).

 

[cmdrdredd]

Assuming you can get to the required level, these are the highest damage weapons in the game right now. Lv68

 

[Mem]

Assuming you can get to the required level, these are the highest damage weapons in the game right now. Lv68

Level 68,well considering most people including myself finish at around level 35 with virtually all the game done it would take ages without cheating to get there,a pure grind fest.

I think being realistic the Wolven swords are still the best in the game.


Btw I read somewhere a few guys had those swords at level 10,I believe they scale with your level?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Level 68,well considering most people including myself finish at around level 35 with virtually all the game done it would take ages without cheating to get there,a pure grind fest.

I think being realistic the Wolven swords are still the best in the game.


Btw I read somewhere a few guys had those swords at level 10,I believe they scale with your level?

Yes all the armor and weapons you pick up will scale. I got these on my cheated save. I was adding stuff to my character to see how crazy powerful you could be. I went through the list of every sword in the game and these are the two most damaging in terms of pure output. Obviously you'll probably never hit the level to get here without doing what I did.

 

[zinfamous]

Yes all the armor and weapons you pick up will scale. I got these on my cheated save. I was adding stuff to my character to see how crazy powerful you could be. I went through the list of every sword in the game and these are the two most damaging in terms of pure output. Obviously you'll probably never hit the level to get here without doing what I did.

how do those offer more damage than the ones with inherent 80+ armor penetration and up to 75% crit damage?

I think burning and bleed are good in this game, but I always felt DoT was a bit too slow to out dps raw damage stats. I never test this stuff, anyway, and it always differs between how games handle it. I'm just not sure what the meta, if there is one in this game yet, and so which damage stats are universally considered the most effective.

 

[cmdrdredd]

how do those offer more damage than the ones with inherent 80+ armor penetration and up to 75% crit damage?

I think burning and bleed are good in this game, but I always felt DoT was a bit too slow to out dps raw damage stats. I never test this stuff, anyway, and it always differs between how games handle it. I'm just not sure what the meta, if there is one in this game yet, and so which damage stats are universally considered the most effective.

Look at the dps. The base damage of a weapon has more influence on the amount of damage you do in the game. You can check this easily by looking at the dps output of your character on the inventory screen. For example my dps with silver sword when using these is 3087 and steel sword dps is 2291. When I equip the Wolven swords it drops to 1868 for silver and 1317 for steel which is a huge difference. No amount of critical hit bonus will make up for the raw damage output missing from each strike.

 

[zinfamous]

Look at the dps. The base damage of a weapon has more influence on the amount of damage you do in the game. You can check this easily by looking at the dps output of your character on the inventory screen. For example my dps with silver sword when using these is 3087 and steel sword dps is 2291. When I equip the Wolven swords it drops to 1868 for silver and 1317 for steel which is a huge difference. No amount of critical hit bonus will make up for the raw damage output missing from each strike.

does the dps calculator take into effect those inherent bonuses, using your crit chance at that time?

I've never played a game where high crit was not more favorable than simple base damage.

I feel like it's something that needs testing, and not what the numbers in the say in the character panel. ...but I don't really care about doing that. I like to read others' tests.

 

[cmdrdredd]

does the dps calculator take into effect those inherent bonuses, using your crit chance at that time?

I've never played a game where high crit was not more favorable than simple base damage.

I feel like it's something that needs testing, and not what the numbers in the say in the character panel. ...but I don't really care about doing that. I like to read others' tests.

That isn't calculated at all in the numbers. Nor are runes. When you equip a 5% attack power rune the dps doesn't change. That's all calculated separately at the time of attack.

I can tell you this, with these swords my normal attacks are sometimes stronger than a crit with a mastercrafted Ursine sword which has +75% crit damage bonus. The base damage numbers simply out muscle the crit bonus.

Lets put it into numbers.

A Mastercrafted ursine silver sword has a base damage of 373-457 and a +75% crit damage bonus. If you get a 457 damage hit plus the crit you will be at 799.75damage just from the weapon. This isn't taking into account your abilities and your level and any other damage bonuses you have on other gear which are factored in separately. This is just the weapon itself. Now, the Tor Zireael at lv68 is 702-858. It has a higher damage potential and likely a higher average since it starts at 702. Lets say the ursine sword hits for 373 and tacks on a crit that brings it to 652.75 which is less than the lowest damage the Tor Zireael can do at that level. You can increase your odds of getting that one big hit with skills that increase the chance for a critical strike. Even then it's still just a chance and there's no real way to give big critical hit chance bonuses that I know of. SO base damage will always outshine critical hit damage bonuses provided the difference in base damage is enough.

The thing is though we are comparing a lv68 item with a lv30 item. Hardly fair. Now put a lv50 sword with +75% crit damage bonus and you'll see higher base numbers to calculate off of and it might be a different story. There's also other factors like your level, the enemy level, the enemies armor, your oils and buffs, debuffs on the enemy, armor piercing bonuses etc that determine the actual attack damage dealt to an enemy. It's not that easy to come up with a formula to figure out the damage and what would do more than another. There's probably some dice rolls going on that you can't influence as well.

 

[XiandreX]

True. It didn't raise any alarms here since I saw people were upping the difficulty even without getting extra xp like I did. I remember getting 375 xp for a contract I saw some get 250 on youtube, I guess the mod creators boosted xp gain 50% and called it a day.

If I accidentally loot stuff with guards around, they all turn lv74 when they go after me. I can lure one away and kill him but it's really tough, Kayran from Witcher 2- tough. Tried two guards and couldn't pull it of, always die within a few minutes. I've lured them towards monsters and they 1shot every type of monster I drew them to. Yet if I don't steal and lure monsters towards the guards, guards die nearly instantly.



Once you get there, the more you choose to get involved, the more you can steer political events in Skellige. There were a few bugged side quests for me in Skellige. To complete one of them, the fix was to save the game and then load that save to be able to talk to a character and complete the quest.

How much questing is there in Skellige? I assume I have a good amount still left to do questing wise right?