Your sign usage sounds fine, Timex. You might not want to bother with quen now that it’s been rebalanced. Igni can become effective, but it will always be a boring fireball. I’d rather swing a sword or use another sign. You might try setting traps with yrden to see how you like it. When I did my sword tree build, I used it to trap one enemy to keep groups manageable. Axii (mind control) and aard have similar benefits but work a bit differently.
BDGE
3042
I use Axii the most myself(mind control). Essentially taking two enemies out of the fight is a strong help. Even if I then focus on the other combatants, by the time the spell dissipates, both enemies are generally softened up for easier kills. Quen was the game-breaking spell in the original release(magic shield), but in EE it was nerfed so it sustains far fewer hits. I still make sure to activate it for close combat. Yrrden(trap) is also a go to spell for me. Enemies are essentially helpless and easy to get those critical back attacks for a quick kill.
The other two spells, well I have kited groups around and tossed fire over and over when things go awry, but I really don’t bother with them usually.
Boring fireball? My god, I don’t even know you people anymore.
Calm down! I’ve said before that I prefer the utility spells. It’s more fun to change the battlefield or give myself more time to swing the sword. For the most part, Igni just decreases hitpoints.
Timex
3045
Where? I have yet to find a storage chest.
Also, can anyone explain what exactly is so special about the witcher’s sword? So, it’s silver… and I guess it’s supposed to do more damage to monsters? Which monsters? Just anything that isn’t a humanoid? How much more damage are we talking?
In Flotsam, head to the inn. Talk to some folks, especially if they look like an innkeeper.
Razgon
3047
Silver does more damage to monsters than steel - And steel does more damage to humans than silver. Its that simple.
As I grow older, I have come to prefer unrealistic inventories. I played Witcher 2 with a modded weight limit. Same with Fallout NV.
Being honest, it’s the same but with less ‘filler’ travels between places A, B and C, where A is your current position, B is a trader(s) and C is your storage(s). And if the game have crafting like W2 and F:NV… well, then the amount of silly travels you can skip is even bigger.
Loot is no part of Witching!
Lake
3051
Storage chest locations
Chapter One - Basement of the inn
Chapter Two - outside the fort by the brothel or in your room in The Cauldron
Chapter Three - in the inn by the notice board
Use the silver sword on all monsters and supernatural creatures. I never looked in the combat log to see the damage difference between the two swords on the same target.
Timex
3052
My question was more about “how much more damage”?
I mean, suppose I have a silver sword doing 11-14 damage, but I have some badass steel shortsword that does 15-19 damage… Against some non-humanoid (elves and such are considered humanoids, and thus are more damaged by steel, right?) is the silver sword still better?
Also, does steel actually do more damage to humanoids, or is it just that silver doesn’t do extra damage to them? If I have a silver sword that has a higher base damage than my steel sword, should I just use it against everything?
I’m just trying to identify how much of an effect there is as a result of the silver/steel thing.
Stop thinking about it. Silver for monsters, steel for everyone else. You can try it out yourself–go fight a bunch of drowners or whatever with your steel sword and notice that the fight takes forever. It hurts them, but barely. Same thing for humans and silver.
IIRC (and I am not replaying the game atm), the penalty for misusing steel and silver swords is not subtle, it’s like you will be doing 10% of the listed damage if you hit a monster with a steel sword. So no matter how good your steel sword is, the worst silver sword will still be better against the monsters. And vice versa.
Something like that.
Reemul
3055
I’m playing at the moment and if you use a steel sword on a monster it says the damage you do is insignificant. Sure you can eventually kill them but maybe at 1/10th the speed and if there is more than 1 you are screwed.
Razgon
3056
Okay - try it like this
Silver - ALWAYS use against monsters
Steel: ALWAYS use against humans
Anything NOT human is a monster.
There will never be an instance where your steel sword gives more damage than your silver against monsters.
Timex
3057
Hrm… Ok, I guess I’ll have to try more.
But I’m playing on Dark, and I think I went into a fight against a ton of little Nekkers, and was accidentally using my steel sword, and I didn’t have much of a problem killing them I don’t think.
I just didn’t notice the huge damage difference that folks are talking about, but maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention, or maybe I actually was using the right blade purely by chance. But I was definitely killing monsters with my steel blade at some points.
Steel: ALWAYS use against humans
Ok, so silver is equally ineffective against humans. I would have figured a silver sword cutting into you would be just as harmful as any other metal cutting into you.
Anything NOT human is a monster.
Even other humanoid species like elves and dwarves? (I dunno if you ever fight dwarves, but certainly I’ve fought elves)
Man, the witcher public school system must be terrible these days. :)
My guess would be that dwarves and elves count as “people” even though in game terms they’re not strictly human, so yeah, use steel. Basically, if it can talk and looks sort of human, use steel.
If you go to bonuses section of main menu there should be this video
watch it.
