Completed the game, nearly 100%. Based on my experience with the previous 2 games, I started on “Blood and Broken Bones” difficulty. By the time I was around level 10 I decided the game was too easy and bumped it up to the hardest difficulty. I failed a couple of minor sidequests that I missed: one at the beginning and one involving Triss. Not a big deal. I completed everything there was to do in the base game, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions, except for a lot of the ? in Skellige; there were way too many of them that required a boat to reach (most of which were boring smuggler caches) and I did not feel like doing it.
Spent my first ability points on Survival Instinct (small health boost) and Sun and Stars (for the passive hp regen in daylight). I kept those equipped for the entire game. I also got Strong Back (for those times I had too much loot) and Delusion rank 3 for those dialogue mind control choices. After that I went into the combat tree to improve fast attack. I eventually got every fast attack ability though I never actually used Whirl because I forgot how to use it after the tutorial and could not find that message again. I got Strength Training and Sunder Armor for heavy attacks but did not use them much. What I really wanted from the combat tree, and which I got as soon as possible, was Undying and that prevented quite a few deaths. Sometimes I even abused it for free healing. I also got Razor Focus just for a boost to survival from Undying and because I needed more points to unlock the highest tier abilties. Early on I got Arrow Deflection, though as the game went on I found this less useful.
In the magic tree I focused on Axii by getting Puppet and intensity boost. For most of the game I left all 3 Axii abilities equipped. I used Melt Armor at the beginning of tough fights for much of the base game, though by the expansions I stopped bothering; too lazy to keep unequipping Delusion. By late game I kept Quen Intensity equipped. I spent points in all of the earlier Quen abilities but never used them at all. Spent 0 points in the alchemy tree.
My basic ability set up was:
Survial, Sun and Stars, Quen Intensity (swapped with Strong Back as needed) with a greater green mutagen
Muscle Memory, Precise Blows, Undying with a greater red mutagen
Delusion, Puppet, Axii Intensity with a greater blue mutagen
Crippling Strikes, Strength Training, Razor focus with a greater red mutagen
Deadly Counter for the special Blood and Wine new mutagen system with Sunder Armor in the only ability slot I unlocked for that.
I finished the game at level 52.
At the very beginning I made a basic witcher chest armor and viper silver sword though for the majority of the game I used whatever stuff I found. Early on I was hoarding weapons with plans on using each until low durability and then selling them. This worked a little for silver swords but there were way too many steel weapons for this to be viable. I settled on keeping a small number of silver swords to use them up as long as their stats were decent; keeping one best sword for hard fights and one backup for mundane fights. I used mostly maces and axes for the early to mid game for their high dps and did not switch to exclusively swords until late game. In general, I found bleeding, burning and poison to be extremely useful in combat and valued that over raw damage. I generally chose armor based on resistance to monster damage and overall defense. There were only 2 times I purchased armor; a set of sweet chest armor when I first came to Skellige, and the boots I kept until the end of the game.
Shortly after starting Blood and Wine I did some crafting and runes for high quality equipment and this is my ending set up:
Silver sword: Grandmaster Feline with 3 burning runes. I got Aerondight while finishing up a few things after the final boss.
Steel sword: A level 46 squire’s sword. I used Iris from Hearts of Stone before finding that and found its special attack useful against humans for knocking them down for instakills.
Crossbow: The one I got from the knights tournament.
Chest: Viper armor with 3 elemental resistance runes.
Legs: Viper armor with 3 elemental resistance runes.
Hands: Level 31 Nilfgaardian Guardsman gauntlets, never bothered to rune.
Feet: Level 39 Alder Folk Boots, never bothered to rune.
I carefully considered all of the grandmaster witcher sets after putting in the effort to collect every diagram but settled on the gear above. I felt there was too much effort in making those sets and liked the balance of physical and elemental defense on the Viper. I also did not see enough of a benefit from upgrading the gloves and boots I already had. I used a dismember trophy.
I made extensive use of blade oils throughout the game. I did used bombs, potions and decoctions much less extensively. Bombs I mostly saved for blowing up nests though I found them more useful in Blood and Wine against the invisible vampires and highly dangerous shalemars. My most often used potions were thunderbolt for extra offense, golden oriole for poison immunity and swallow for healing, but it was shameful how little I actually used them. I did rely on eating food in combat a lot. I liked the succubus decoction the most though there were several that I regularly used; most were never used at all. My play style centered around using precisely timed fast attacks when enemies were vulnerable. Usually I would let them act first and play defensively, using dodging and Quen to avoid damage and strike when the time was right though I had to use all of the tools available on occasion to deal with certain enemies. I liked using Axii to mind control enemies into fighting each other, especially humans. I alternated between story and side activities mostly depending on level. I generally went to settlements to collect quests and then did them in order of recommended level while making detours to ?s that were nearby.
I struggled with gwent a little bit at first and lowered the difficulty for it to Easy since I did not sign up to this game to play cards. I used the Northern Realms and liked playing spies first and forfeiting the first turn. I used the siegemaster leader. I romance both Yen and Triss (and every other women who wanted some, heh) because I felt that is what Geralt would do and I honestly could not choose between them. I got happy endings all around for the entire game and expansions.
This game is one of the best I have ever played. The story, dialogue and cinematography alone make it a masterpiece. I was enthralled and emotionally invested in everything that happened, and was moved to tears several times. The combat is among the best I have experienced; it is highly skill based, rewarding situational awareness, proper timing and preparation while having enough safety nets to prevent death from a few slip ups. I loved almost every moment of this game and it is probably the best game I have ever played (not quite my favourite though).
The game did have a few flaws. My inventory bugged out by making the icons for equipped items disappear, though I figured out how to fix it by dumping my massive hoard of food and drink into the stash. The worst part of the game was the movement; having to turn towards the direction instead of sidestepping, having momentum, sliding or stumbling around at times, and the horse controls. Honestly, it felt like Geralt was drunk the entire time, running into things and people (it was a little funny how often people would complain about me running into them) and being unable to move tiny distances precisely. Combat movement was good except for the lack of jumping; there were times when I got stuck between enemies and little things like tables and chairs. I found the progression system of spending points on abilities that then have to be slotted into limited slots to be inferior to the previous games. There were a few other minor things that I did not like but they were very minor.
I would mod in the following to better suite my taste:
-No switching equipment during combat, including all weapons, potions, bombs, and applying oils
-No using food/drink during combat
-No using broken weapons and armor
-Basic crossbow bolts use money with each shot
-Less loot (especially no taking from civilized areas), fewer relic quality loot, more gold sinks (should have to spend money regularly for repairs, replenishing tools and food)
-More damage from crossbow
