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• #26852
thanks for the tips! sounds great. I think I already have the GOTY edition so that's all good. What difficulty did you play it on out of interest? I feel like it's probably the kind of game that benefits from being hard but I'm not sure.
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• #26853
just normal for me.
starting out the enemies are quite tough. in that sense it's like elden ring that you need to level up a bit and get some decent kit before you feel confident going into most fights, it's easy to wander into an area that will fuck you up too as there's lots of roaming monsters but roach is like torrent in that he'll get you out of harms way most of the time. also like ER you can get overwhelmed easily if you get surrounded but the difference is the weapon system in witcher 3 gives you a bit more to work with early on to mitigate that and the bosses aren't as insane as the fromsoft nightmare fuel. but at the end of my first 150hr playthrough when i was feeling pretty godlike i wandered onto an unmarked island with a secret griffin like monster that just wrecked me immediately and that thing killed me about 30 times before I finally beat it so there are challenges.
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• #26854
Elden Ring? Completed it mate...
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• #26855
Nice. I finally beat the big boss at Haligtree today, and then did the 'kindling burning' (conscious of spoilers!). I'm guessing I'm on the last stretch now? Can't imagine a tougher fight than what I've just done...
Level 120, 60 hours.
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• #26856
Can't imagine a tougher fight than what I've just done.
Every day's a school day
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• #26857
i'd recommend trying to find a guide to make sure you get all the gwent cards in the early game and make not of the ones that get locked away by story choices and one time access dungeons as it's one of the best mini-games out there and you'll go mad knowing there's possibly some cards missing.
After winning the intro Gwent game and losing the next, I ignored Gwent entirely with the idea that it probably wasn't that important and I'd get around to it eventually. Also I'm not generally a huge fan of CCGs, with a few exceptions. Then I encountered a certain two-parallel-quests situation where winning at Gwent is essential to the story; I had to put normal play on hold while I ran around the map buying cards and playing games of Gwent till I learned how to win, even against opponents with better decks - and it turned out to be a really good CCG.
Stjepan is a cunt.
Even so, I stayed away from guides to Gwent or anything else that tried to tell me how to play the wider game or make game choices. Never read the books or played previous Witcher games and it was fun making choices that felt consistent with how the character seemed to me. I did once finish a quest only to see a whole bunch of other quests suddenly fail and become unavailable, but saved games let me go back and fix that. Since @zooeyzooey has read the books, I'd bet they'd be even more capable without looking at a guide.
What a cunt that Stjepan is.
finally lean heavily into the potions concoctions and oil crafting stuff with the skill tree skills to go with them
First time through, I would concentrate on just learning to use the basic skills for a few levels, then go look into what options might now be unlocking for me, go "Wow, I can combine this with that and it's a real game changer", then spend the next few levels just learning to play again with the new options... rinse and repeat. Like the point where I suddenly realised that if I dropped some points into Frenzy I would get slow-motion bits in fights as long as I was popping potions/decoctions and boy were fights fun after that. Two players could make different skill tree choices and almost be playing different games. Since you can only activate a subset of your skills at any one time, you can play reasonably different games at will even with the one build.
I don't think any individual part of the game is unique, but the combination is really well done. I do think the quality of the skill tree and character/play-style choices were unmatched at the time of release. And Stjepan is an asshole of unprecedented circumference.
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• #26858
Until these posts I didn't even think about Gwent. I've played quite a lot of ccgs and generally like them a lot until I very much don't all of a sudden so I'll be interested how Gwent plays. Will explore the different skill tree options too.
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• #26859
yeah, being as vague as possible I had to respec my whole build for the final big fight.
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• #26860
Is 585 quid a silly amount to spend on a ps5 right now? Hardly used disc version with original warranty
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• #26861
(on elden ring) I've been thinking about doing a respec, I've got quite a few larval tears, but not enough smithing stones to get lots of different weapons up to a high level, got enough somber to get 1 unique to +8 and not sure on normal weapons, but decision paralysis been stopping me from using the somber ones. Been doing quality morningstar (i like the bleed+strike on it) so far but wondering if my playstyle is more suited to a more dex build, I found I prefer quicker weapons to the great/colossal swords and stuff. I'm currently in Leyndell on the way to Morgott having done the other 4 runebearers that the guy at the roundtable hold tells you about.
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• #26862
No idea about the retailer, but this place reckons it's in stock new at 450
https://www.365-games.co.uk/PlayStation5-Disc-Drive -
• #26863
i actually wrote a rant about just this in my previous post but deleted it as i was being a grump.
coming out of the end of my first playthrough there is a definite issue with weapon smithing and smithing resource availability, the higher level smithing bells that allow you to buy stones come way too late in the game to be really useful and it has a major impact on the ability to actually make use of the wide range of weapons you get while you're actually playing.
one of the rewards from the final boss opens up a rune farm opportunity that nets about 40k every 20 seconds with a single weapon skill. so i'm going to upgrade everything in my chest to +24 / +9 and get my stats pretty high in faith/int before starting any new game plus just so I can play around a bit more with builds as I always felt restricted in the first playthrough to try anything risky.
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• #26864
Never played Witcher 3, but figured I'll try it. Just bought the GOTY edition.
49.8 GB!
But then... Steam says that's only 7m 30s to download :shrug I'll make a cup of tea.
Edit: It slowed down at 90%... of course it did.
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• #26865
Cracking game as all have eluded too. Just hoping that next gen update comes out before I finish Elden Ring! Not that it matters for PC I suppose!
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• #26866
it does feel like a bit of a shame and definitely skews me towards fomo / wanting to look stuff up online (which I am trying not to / prefer not to do in games) for getting more smithing stuff.
I guess it incentivises NG+ and going through with different playstyles and stuff but idk. I'm using absoloutely no casting atm and i'd like to experience that at some point too, but I've only just properly learned to use the playstyle I'm on.
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• #26867
Cracking game as all have eluded too
It's quite a popular escape from reality, yes.
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• #26868
I had to respec my whole build for the final big fight.
Out of curiosity why was that? (I've not got to that final fight yet, in the tornado area)
I started as a faith build with the winged scythe, but moved to the Moonveil when I found it. I really struggled with the two phases of the one armed lady, thinking I might try a Greatsword build, as I like the look of that one you get at the end of the witch's quest line.
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• #26869
Ah, so jealous - would love to do another Witcher 3 playthrough, but have promised not to get another console until the boy is a good bit older, maybe in time for Witcher 4 (this means I'm having good quality F2F playtime with him while he's in this golden period, so won't regret it).
Hang around White Orchard as long as you can getting levelled up. The game doesn't really kick off and get interesting until you meet the Bloody Baron, but good to be prepared. Definitely get into Gwent early, and buy every card you can find.
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• #26870
Sony are selling direct.
I got an email regarding registering my interest to buy one, might be worth having look there?
(I may have seen it on the PlayStation app, as I can't find the email anymore) -
• #26871
my build progression went something like this...
twinblade & great turtle shield & rotbreath incantation & basic spells & wolves summon was how i did my first exploring
twinblade & jellyfish shield & rotbreath incantation & basic spells & mimic tear +10 got me through about first 50-60% of game.
respecced to switch to rivers of blood/seppuku bleed build to try something new when i needed to increase how quickly i killed bosses as they got tougher as dont have skill to out manoeuvre them usually.
respecced again not long after to try out fingerprint shield build (fully upgraded it blocks 100% physical damage with no stamina loss and can attack from behind it with thrusting weapons) using certain accessories. used a bleed based rapier. got me through most of the final bosses.
final boss: let's just say my dmg resistance didnt really help here, he was resistant to all of my builds abilities and his mobility is probably highest in the game so getting within 2 feet of him to poke him was not an easy feat. went and got one of the bullshit boss swords, levelled some stats to equip & then fully upgraded it, swapped out armour, incantations and talismans completely and switched weapon arts around.
admittedly I was using mimic tear which is easy mode but i prefer it to co-op summoning but i think most i had to repeat a boss was about 20-25 times and usually a couple of goes was enough to get past most things.
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• #26872
Oh awesome. Don't have the PlayStation app but guess I should, thanks!
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• #26873
https://direct.playstation.com/en-gb/hardware/ps5
Seems to be a raffle type deal where you "win" the opportunity to had over fists full of cash
Edit: If you are keen to get one soon, then flippers might be the answer, if you are happy to wait, get on as many lists as you can.
Currys had a similar deal where you "won" the opportunity to buy one, I ended up with a code and passed it on to someone on here no idea if it came to fruition or not -
• #26874
Any interest in fully functional WiiU with the best of the best games included to get you (or your little one) going?
£45?
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• #26875
Oh sweet, I'm not in the UK but should probably see if local shops offer the same thing. I should be able to do the Sony raffle thing, I hope.
for witcher 3 I'd buy/install the DLC at the outset so the stuff is discoverable organically if you dont have the game of the year edition.
you possibly may not get such a big wow factor from it as original players as ER has some of the key things that made you go wow as well, whereas W3 was pretty unique when it was first out which made it feel much more ground breaking.
i'd recommend trying to find a guide to make sure you get all the gwent cards in the early game and make not of the ones that get locked away by story choices and one time access dungeons as it's one of the best mini-games out there and you'll go mad knowing there's possibly some cards missing.
and finally lean heavily into the potions concoctions and oil crafting stuff with the skill tree skills to go with them, I did a hack and slash for my first playthrough saving everything for "when I needed it" and it was fine but very repetitive, on my new game plus I switched to using all the correct oils and a combination of potions and skills that would turbo charge geralt but also put him at the edge of his corruption/poisoning or whatever its called and it was not only way more thematic he turns into the absolute killing machine he's billed as.