1841

Well, there are hints about how to beat the Beast in every gaming forum since the game was released in 2007, so it’s not that weird. XD XD
Basically, the Beast is the point where for first time people have problems with the difficulty in the game.

1842

I don’t think I’ve even made it that far. I took the ferry from Veluca’s docks and went along the path and got killed by those stupid plants in short order. BTW, do I ever get to go back to that one village (right after the fortress opening bit)?-- I left a cave unexplored there.

1843

I didn’t have an issue with the beast as a combat specialist.

1844

CDProjekt really screwed up that fight. For me it was the hardest battle in the game by far, probably because you’re new to the controls and your character is weak. My first time through I beat it by extreme luck. The second time through I cheesed and hid behind some buildings where it couldn’t get to me, but I could spam it with ranged attacks. Even on the hardest difficulty every other boss fight took me a single try and usually with ease.

1845

I’ve fought the Beast battle once on the original release and once on the enhanced edition, and I still don’t see what was so hard about it. It’s certainly the hardest fight in the game up to that point, but it didn’t seem unreasonably so.

1846

I got crushed by the Beast on my first go through, and basically had to go online to get wise on strategies to defeat it. It was significantly harder than the other encounters up to that point, the first one where you really need to rely on potions. I think the worst thing for me was being crippled by the Beast’s pain effect - if that hit me, it and his minions would kill me before I got control of my toon again.

Now I am on my second play through and played the encounter again last night, this time on Hard. Being prepared and understanding the mechanics of the Witcher’s combat, it was easier for me this time and only required two attempts (the first was due to not realizing that the crowd scene just prior wipes all your potion effects, didn’t realize I didn’t have Swallow active until it was too late).

Can’t believe it took me so long to find the Witcher - remarkable RPG, both in play and game mechanics, as well as the story.

1847

Were you using spectral oil?

1848

Playing through this again to now that I’m all hyped for the next one. What a great game. I only made it to the start of chapter 3 my first run through, think I’m nearly done with 4 now. It’s pretty easy with all combat, Igni and Aard.

1849

So much better than NWN2 and its expansions. Though I petered out in chapter 3, I plan on another run (die, Beast, die!). The combat is a bit strange, but I thought the game world was really quite stunning, the gambling game addictive, the leveling nicely handled and the story intriguing.

1850

Not the first time. I don’t think I’d really put the potion system together fully yet. I just fought the thing and won. My life was down a ways but I certainly didn’t have a “Whoa, that was close” feeling about it. Sounds like he didn’t hit me with the pain effect in either instance, so maybe I just got very lucky twice.

1851

I’m playing this again on Hard. My first go-around was on Normal mode where I shelved the game at the beginning of Chapter 3 after hearing that the Enhanced Edition was going to come out, and then a Director’s Cut.

It’s quite a different experience. Any inclination that one should horde the massive amounts of herbs you find needs to be thrown out the window. Toxicity is so detrimental to your combat ability after 2-3 potions (which is about 50%-75% toxicity) that opponents start dodging/parrying many of your first combo attempts. At this difficulty, the secondary substances of Rubedo/Albedo/Nigredo are absolutely necessary and add a layer of strategic gameplay due to thinking about what kind of special ingredient you want on your potions, and you need to have a good stack of several types of potions to win.

I’ve settled on Swallow/Albedo (regens vitality, causes further imbibed potions to be less toxic), Tawny/Rubedo (regens endurance, regens vitality on top of the Swallow I already have), and either Wolf/Nigredo (+%critical, +%damage) or Cat/Nigredo if I’m going underground (Darkvision, +%damage).

That’s 3 potions, and that would be more than enough in Normal for almost any encounter. Except this is Hard, so some cases, for instance the two Salamander bases in Chapter III (swamp and sewers) that have like 10-15 fucking dudes at once with a mage thrown in for shits and giggles, required me to pop a Blizzard for bullet-time-swashbuckling mode and then go to town, and I STILL had to use a instant-health potion after putting up the damage absorb shield (which is a lot more useful than it first seems to be). Even with Albedo running through my veins, the instant-health potion nearly killed me (a whopping 80% toxicity).

Oils are also great. The oil that causes pain to bleeding victims, plus the Harvall sword found in the swamps in Chapter II (better than meteorite), or diamond dust… all necessary for many encounters.

And holy shit I don’t even want to talk about Coccacidia (the nearly unavoidable boss plant echinopsae that CDProjekt puts right into your face in Swamp Chapter II). I had to go all out on that son of a bitch without having properly invested in Patinado (strong silver style that does +%damage to incinerated foes) OR into Igni itself.

Luckily I thought ahead, since this is hard mode, and pumped up many of the silver combat styles in preparation for the stupid amounts of drowners and drowned dead in the Swamps. Chapter II does throw some tough humanoid situations at you, though nothing as tough as when you walk into the Salamander hideout near the end of Chapter II.

I’m pretty excited to get to bomb making soon and test out the explosive dust bomb that you ignite with Igni. That sounds like a blast.

The combat/alchemy on Hard mode and the refined aspects of the EE/DC have easily put this onto my top favorite RPG evar. Can’t wait for Witcher 2, though I’m going to miss this timed combo system.

1852

I’m surprised you have to go that in-depth on potion use. I thought my playthrough on hard was easier than the one on normal. Granted, I had game knowledge for the second run, but the only trouble I ever had was the burning dog in Chapter 1 and a couple retries on the super plant monster. I still love the game though.

1853

I’m overstating the difficulty somewhat. It sorta ramps up at the beginning of each chapter and then gets toned down after I go on slaughtering sprees after imbibing potions, grabbing 500 XP a pop from some monsters and getting powerful enough for the second half of the chapter to be a bit easier (though still requiring some tactical expertise).

The Bloodzueger island is fun. Round them up by kiting them, incinerate them all down to about 10% health, and then mind control one, who then dies, and then they start popping one after the other with friendly fire acid explosions. Kinda funny, even though I get no experience for it.

There’s a mod that apparently changes combat to be more realistic, whatever that means, and tweaks weapons and AI for a harder experience. I may try it after I finish the game.

Making Albedo-based Swallow potions still seems necessary though, a high toxicity kinda ruins shit if you have to pop an instant-heal.

Wyverns got a lot easier after taking the Knockdown resistance talent. I think Agni is still somewhat overpowered in this game, as you can trivialize nearly any solo powerful enemy by getting a lucky stun/knockdown with it for an instakill.

There’s no way I could have handled that Salamander camp without potions, or the Assassins in the sewer hideout who get pretty pissed off when you steal from that chest. I suppose I could have done it the super-annoying way and pissed off a couple at a time using some kind cheesy WoW/aggro/mob pull tactics, but fuck that, seriously. The combat really shines any time you have to use a group fighting style.

1854

Has anyone tried Full Combat Rebalance mod? I am finishing my book reading (250 page of Lady of the Lake) and plan to get my second playthrough going after that, wondering if I should go with vanilla on hard or FCR…
It sounds interesting, especially the “combat is like in the books” part - killing someone with one or two blows instead of 10…

1855

That’s the mod I was referencing. I plan on trying it on a fresh playthrough.

Although I suppose if it allows an easy way to uninstall, there would be no harm in starting up a new game and testing it out.

1856

Bah I just watched its trailer and it made me want to play it immediately : )
Geralt is such a badass.

edit - also this look very interesting.

1857

Looks like there’s a mod-specific “override” folder, so no original files actually get modified with mods, so uninstalling is simply removing all the files in that folder leaving the vanilla game intact.

I remember playing with a first-person mod my first time through, but without showing his arms and sword swings it was kinda stupid.

1858

http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=26356.0

There’s a comprehensive list of mods. I think I may try the texture pack, but it seems to be more of a “sharpen filter” effort. They don’t have screenshots for comparison.

One thing I WILL use right now is the better ingredient colors mod, which changes that tiny ineffectual colored square on an ingredient into a horizontal bar that better shows what types of secondary ingredients you have. This would be helpful when I’m comparing what I need to sell and keep to free up ingredient inventory space.

1859

Oh man, I wish I’d had that ingredient colors mod when I originally played the game. Great fix.

1860

As I promised myself in the “This time I’ll finish it” thread, I just restarted playing The Witcher. I never went too far in it. and, last time I played, the Enhanced Edition was only an announced project.

So I patched to 1.4 then 1.5. And it seemed to work OK. But I was wondering. If the subtitles differ quite a bit from what is being said, is that a sign that I have the enhanced voice pack correctly installed? It’s quite disconcerting.

Wendelius