In the early game, I recommend bombs. You start with a bunch and they are easy to craft and can knock out an enemy or two before they get too close. Signs can help a bit, but you’re probably not going to have much power in them at this point.
It’s weird, I never used rebalance mod and I never had a problem with combat in TW2, on hard difficulty. Especially not in that protect Triss setpiece. Are you using Quen and rolling a lot ?
For a specific gameplay roadblock like this, I recommend watching a lets play video to make sure you’re not missing anything obvious. FWIW, there have been a ton of complaints about early combat encounters, but that isn’t one of them. Maybe most people have given up by then. :)
Also a small chance FCR makes that one part way too hard, I don’t know.
Yeah, I will actually RTFM I guess, as there is no in-game listing of keyboard controls I don’t think. I haven’t actually had any time to craft, as those options are never available as I’m (so far) always in some set-piece or another. But I’ll give it a shot, thanks!
Once you enter Flotsam the game opens up a bit more.
Is there a town called Jetsam?
JMR
3187
I made it to Vergen today and despite having no big concerns about combat in W2 I decided to try the combat balance mod and I noticed my Vigor is down to two boxes and the swordsmanship, alchemy, and magic paths are locked. Shit I guess this mod can’t be installed on a game already in progress? Double shit, I disabled the mod and the three branches are still locked and I’m still left with just two boxes of Vigor.
Edit: I had to uninstall it entirely and not just uncheck the boxes from the mod launcher. All is well now.
Yeah, it’s intended for new games only. (As are most such dramatic game rebalancings.) One reason I haven’t gotten around to trying it yet.
Daagar
3189
Such a rebalance mod appears to exist for Witcher 1 as well - is it as useful/critical/desired as the one for Witcher 2?
I found Witcher 1’s non-modded combat to be far easier to get to grips with and simultaneously more unique and interesting than Witcher 2’s, in part because it’s not direct control like in the subsequent games, but it’s not just a straight clickfest like a lot of mouse-driven RPGs. The existence of a rebalance mod suggests not everyone was happy with it, though.
Daagar
3191
From what I’ve read since, ‘Rise of the White Wolf’ might be okay for some visual changes, but otherwise most people seem to say just play Witcher 1 as-is and forget mods.
JMR
3192
I finished my first play through of W1 a couple of weeks ago and I had Rise of the White Wolf Enhanced Edition and the Item Stacking and Equipment Slots mod because it’s no fun getting bogged down with inventory management.
I eventually installed Book of All Knowledge because it got tedious tracking down particular books for herbs, monsters, and potions. I wish I would have installed it from the get go.
I didn’t touch the combat rebalanced mod as I was only interested in the story aspects and as such I kept combat at normal or down to easy depending upon the encounter.
I originally stalled out on The Witcher 2 because I found the combat really brutal and after I died a couple of times on the endrega queens in Chapter 1 I bailed and never ended up going back. But since I refuse to play the games out of order and I’d like to someday enjoy the third game the way everyone else is right now, it seemed like a good time to go back. This time with the Full Combat Rebalance mod. And on Easy, because I’d far rather breeze through the combat and see the story and worldbuilding and such than get stuck again. Besides, I’m pretty sure I was on Easy when I stalled out the first time. Well…turns out that with FCR and a Witcher 1 save, Easy is practically god mode. I have 22 armor and since it’s a straight subtract-armor-from-damage system it’s rare for me to even take damage at this point, and slapping a few runes into Aerondight and the Mahakaman Sigil Sword means I can chop through enemies with a couple of hits. So yeah. Maybe don’t go quite that far down if you want any challenge (I think the mod is supposed to be balanced around, I dunno, Hard or something). But I no longer have any reservations about being able to complete the game, even if I’m a little sad that there’s no real incentive to invest a lot of time in alchemy-related prep. The meticulousness and specificity of pre-battle planning was a great pleasure in the first game.
And man, what a game. It’s still gorgeous, there’s great writing and characterization all over the place (including people with full voiced conversations that don’t appear to have any role in the plot or questing), and it’s such a cool mix of cynical, brutalist politics and racial tensions and surprisingly nuanced monsters (and their source in eastern European mythology means even the ones that seem familiar to us Westerners are subtly different).
Edit: Huh. On rereading the list of changes in FCR, I’m noticing stuff that’s definitely in the game as I’ve been playing (having the training skill tree skills from the start, having core potion recipes and the silver sword schematic from the start, auto Quen sign when holding down parry) and stuff that definitely isn’t (there’s only supposed to be one level of skills but there’s still two, the names of item rarities were supposed to be changed from magical and epic but aren’t, I’m getting exp from monster kills and shouldn’t be, oil durations are still five minutes and are supposed to be an hour, etc). That’s…worrisome.
I made it through to Flotsam and now hope to proceed further, if I don’t get distracted. It is a nicely done game all in all, and holds up well I think.
I’m at the point I’m not sure if I like the game. Or rather if the little things that drive me nuts drive me over the line. I’m at the Kayran fight, which is still early. I’m having trouble getting through the fight, but that’s just a me issue.
- Overall, the day-to-day combat is fine, but I don’t generally like boss fights where I have a twitch mechanism.
- What’s really getting me is not being able to jump down a small bank.
- A lot of things are poorly-documented. I don’t mind having to look up a fight I’m having trouble with, but during the quest to create the mongoose potion I had to Google how to even use Alchemy. I also wish (or if there is one, I’m missing it) way to see the herbs on the mini-map.
Vesper
3196
You can’t see herbs on the mini map, but activating the medallion (Z) highlights all nearby ones. Alchemy was covered in the tutorial, wasn’t it?
As always when you think you’re the only one having a problem on the Internet, it’s guaranteed to be the most common problem people encounter. :)
For the rest of the stuff, you’ll have to play The Witcher 3!
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.
If Alchemy is covered in the tutorial, it didn’t stick.
What I meant by a me issue, is I need to figure out the fight and the mechanics.
Turning down the difficulty and/or restarting with FCR 2 will do a lot to eliminate combat roadblocks and it is certainly not the most compelling part of the game. (I think in the long run, at higher difficulties, FCR actually ups the difficulty but it’s not really designed for easy and I just blitz through everything.)
The kayran fight is more puzzly, though.
The Kayran boss fight is one you have to “memorize” each of the phases, to do it perfectly. It’s less about skill and more about knowing what to do at each phase.
