Recommended Posts

personality of a bitch? 

 

 

does that turn you on? personality of a bitch? then i understand...

 

I know its a game, but Yen never bothered to look for Geralt when he lost his memory...always reads his mind without asking...and is totally cold towards him.  While Triss, even tho she used his loss of memory to her advantage, cares and does things for him that includes harm to herself.

I wish they fix the Nameless quest soon, been stuck on it for days now..

 

Didnt have a problem with that one.  Problem I have is a treasure hunt quest I cannot complete in White Orchard.  Says I need to read something to continue but I have nothing to read.  So I cannot complete that.  And the Cave of Dreams quest it says I failed when all my objectives are green and I never got a failed message.  So not sure what the heck is up with that.

Didnt have a problem with that one.  Problem I have is a treasure hunt quest I cannot complete in White Orchard.  Says I need to read something to continue but I have nothing to read.  So I cannot complete that.  And the Cave of Dreams quest it says I failed when all my objectives are green and I never got a failed message.  So not sure what the heck is up with that.

 

I do have the same problem!!! It's an early quest, I got the so called note from a couple of bandits near a bridge.. Couldnt complete it yet. The Nameless quest is all green too but is not being completed here and when I select it, it only shows it's name below the map, no objectives at all.

 

The Cave of Dreams I did a couple of days ago, as far as I remember it went smooth, I will confirm later for you.

 

Playing on PC here.

I do have the same problem!!! It's an early quest, I got the so called note from a couple of bandits near a bridge.. Couldnt complete it yet. The Nameless quest is all green too but is not being completed here and when I select it, it only shows it's name below the map, no objectives at all.

 

The Cave of Dreams I did a couple of days ago, as far as I remember it went smooth, I will confirm later for you.

 

Playing on PC here.

 

Did some reading on cave of dreams....

 

Dont read on if you dont want spoilers....

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/292030/discussions/0/613958868366664336/

Found a nice little loot bug.  Tried in on a few chests so far.  If you find a chest with crowns, take the crowns only...then exit the loot window, take a few steps back, and then go back to the chest,   As long as you dont empty all the loot from the chest, crowns will respawn.  You get like 6 at a time but how quickly they respawn, can add up quick

Found a nice little loot bug.  Tried in on a few chests so far.  If you find a chest with crowns, take the crowns only...then exit the loot window, take a few steps back, and then go back to the chest,   As long as you dont empty all the loot from the chest, crowns will respawn.  You get like 6 at a time but how quickly they respawn, can add up quick

 

Ehhh. It's not that hard to get money if you explore enough stuff. There isn't even enough stuff to spend money on in the game to where you need a lot. I've got 20k right now and nothing to do with it and I buy all the crafting/alchemy plans I come across.

 

I guess if you're just starting out you might need a bit extra then go for it.

Ehhh. It's not that hard to get money if you explore enough stuff. There isn't even enough stuff to spend money on in the game to where you need a lot. I've got 20k right now and nothing to do with it and I buy all the crafting/alchemy plans I come across.

 

I guess if you're just starting out you might need a bit extra then go for it.

 

I dont know if it is all chest.  May be handy for some at the start.

i accidentally finished the game at level 35.   cannot even remember how i got to that level since it took me forever to go from 25 to 27.   i guess story missions give you a ton of credit.

 

i love that there is a potion to reassign the points to other skills. i can finally test out some stuff i would never otherwise level with.   

 

but i have no interesting quests left.  just the 2 witcher contracts way below my level, and secondary quests like guenn and races, which i have 0 interest with..    

well and treasure hunts.  though i fail to see the point as i am super rich.

 

 

ps.  took me 34 hours according to the character screen,   but i think the real time spend playing has to be way more, since in the beginning i dies a lot,

and must have spent 30 to 60 minutes on at least a few missions, contentiously trying again and again, since i kept dying in the last moment.

 

 

 

 

have to say i LOVED it.   i really liked witcher 2, but this one is just amazing.   

i clocked 70+ hours in DA:I when i was sick and stuck at home, but this one not only tops it,

it is standing on other level all together, and i think it will sent the 3rd person open world benchmark for years to come

(i highly doubt i will have as much fun story wise in Fallout 4....  really really doubt it)

 

 

 

 

It may be difficult to find, but it's not impossible. And CD Projekt Red doesn't shy away from it, either. Last week, the developer announced two paid downloadable add-ons for The Witcher 3. To quantify their size, the developer said they amount to more than 30 hours of play time.

 

so about 10 hours of play time coming before the year end. (edit: the second add on is coming next year. grrr....)   though i know i will have to get them.

I'm glad you enjoyed the game, jimmy. (Y)

 

And I'm also glad that it took you less than 40 hours to complete it. That bodes well for me, because I don't have a lot of time to play games lately. I can play in 2 to 3 hour spurts every now and then, but never consistently. So a 40 hour play through means it's feasible for me to actually see the end of the game. lol  :rofl:  :pinch:

I'm glad you enjoyed the game, jimmy. (Y)

 

And I'm also glad that it took you less than 40 hours to complete it. That bodes well for me, because I don't have a lot of time to play games lately. I can play in 2 to 3 hour spurts every now and then, but never consistently. So a 40 hour play through means it's feasible for me to actually see the end of the game. lol  :rofl:  :pinch:

 

just in case, very mild spoilers ahead, nothing serious...:

skip the alchemy all together. and focus all your skills on your choice of sword attacks and defense,

and basic signs, like shield and blast and mind bending (axii should be level 3 as soon as you can get it, as it helps a lot with a lot of early quests, to get the points, without fighting)

 

use mutagens on a whole bunch of attack skills, so at the end your attacks will be super high % level upgrade.

 

makes the game go a lot smoother.    alchemy is really time consuming, as you have to prepare and search for ingredients.    lots of points in sword make you much stronger then you normally are, and some trophies (wont tell you which, but you will know when you get it) give you a good change to slay the enemies.

 

i loved loved loved the story.   but not enough to replay it, like i did in witcher 2, which i did in anticipation for 3.      so, since they way, witcher 4 might happen but will not feature garold.... so there will be no reason to replay.

 

i cheated and seen the other endings on youtube, after i got mine, so there is no surprises left for me ....

 

 

 

have fun.    and don't be afraid to change difficulty if you are stuck.   i mean i did not and wasted an hour on a mission, to prove myself i can (mission 5 levels higher then mine)

then i realized i should just stick to the level i am comfortable at (3rd one, but if i get stuck in a hard fight, i will lower it to medium, temporarily, just for this fight, to keep moving)

 

anyway, if you play good, do some side quests, you will be over level, so story quests should be easy enough for you to not to need to do that.

 

also, buy the horse saddle upgrades, so you can loot all enemies and sell their stuff, without worry that you cannot run...

just in case, very mild spoilers ahead, nothing serious...:

skip the alchemy all together. and focus all your skills on your choice of sword attacks and defense,

and basic signs, like shield and blast and mind bending (axii should be level 3 as soon as you can get it, as it helps a lot with a lot of early quests, to get the points, without fighting)

 

use mutagens on a whole bunch of attack skills, so at the end your attacks will be super high % level upgrade.

 

makes the game go a lot smoother.    alchemy is really time consuming, as you have to prepare and search for ingredients.    lots of points in sword make you much stronger then you normally are, and some trophies (wont tell you which, but you will know when you get it) give you a good change to slay the enemies.

 

i loved loved loved the story.   but not enough to replay it, like i did in witcher 2, which i did in anticipation for 3.      so, since they way, witcher 4 might happen but will not feature garold.... so there will be no reason to replay.

 

i cheated and seen the other endings on youtube, after i got mine, so there is no surprises left for me ....

 

 

 

have fun.    and don't be afraid to change difficulty if you are stuck.   i mean i did not and wasted an hour on a mission, to prove myself i can (mission 5 levels higher then mine)

then i realized i should just stick to the level i am comfortable at (3rd one, but if i get stuck in a hard fight, i will lower it to medium, temporarily, just for this fight, to keep moving)

 

anyway, if you play good, do some side quests, you will be over level, so story quests should be easy enough for you to not to need to do that.

 

also, buy the horse saddle upgrades, so you can loot all enemies and sell their stuff, without worry that you cannot run...

Thanks for the tips.

 

I heard similar views on the Alchemy tree prior to starting, so I have avoided that one from the get-go. I did look at it, but it definitely seemed underwhelming compared to the others.

 

I decided to focus on Signs first, but I didn't bother upgrading Axii when I probably should have. I've already run into a few quests with dialogue options that were grayed out, because my Axii wasn't high enough. And I loved doing those types of dialogue options in Mass Effect. I really should have done that one first. Being able to Jedi mind trick enemies into fighting each other probably would be really helpful. Does that effect last very long? Is it not even worth it or does it only last for a few seconds and not worth the points?

 

---

 

Has anyone gotten the Dendrologist trophy? (get all abilities in one tree) Does that mean you have to buy every skill on one page or does it mean buy every skill in one column? (i.e. buy every Quen skill or every Igni skill)

 

In general, since there are only 12 ability slots, should that be the number of abilities I should shoot for end-game progression? It seems like the 12 slot limit and the Dendrologist trophiy are kind of at odds with each other if you really do have to buy all skills on a single page...not to mention any other skills on other pages you want. So I'm not happy about having to "waste" points on extra skills for a trophy and not even be able to use them due to the 12 slot limit.

 

Being able to Jedi mind trick enemies into fighting each other probably would be really helpful. Does that effect last very long? Is it not even worth it or does it only last for a few seconds and not worth the points?

 

 

Has anyone gotten the Dendrologist trophy? (get all abilities in one tree) Does that mean you have to buy every skill on one page or does it mean buy every skill in one column? (i.e. buy every Quen skill or every Igni skill)

 

In general, since there are only 12 ability slots, should that be the number of abilities I should shoot for end-game progression? It seems like the 12 slot limit and the Dendrologist trophiy are kind of at odds with each other if you really do have to buy all skills on a single page...not to mention any other skills on other pages you want. So I'm not happy about having to "waste" points on extra skills for a trophy and not even be able to use them due to the 12 slot limit.

 

in signs:

i only really upgraded the first 2 axii and first 2 quen upgraded to max (12 points)

quen is an absolute must, for larger enemies, that you just cannot block.

axii is amazing against groups of humans.  i did not find it as effective against many of the monsters, but with humans, it is fantastic.  cast it, roll behind the guy, and fast attack. boom.  dead guy, even if he has a shield.

 

 

most of my points are in fast attack.... maxed out first 3 (spinning the sword is very cool, expecially if you got a trophy with a chance to dismember... you are just slicing through the crowds)

fleet footed (defense) and undying (battle trance)

 

///  annoying thing in the game.  every time i kill a monster that gives me a trophy to carry,

this new trophy is automatically selected instead of my previous one.  

really annoying, since i got that trophy with a chance to dismember and i would have liked to just keep it always selected,

as it makes fighting look super cool - limbs flying all over the place ////

 

 

never used a strong attack, since i think it is for people who try to stick with heavy armor and move less.  i prefer to be all over the place, rolling and spinning :) so it did not make sense upgrading both at all.

as i mentioned, you can always buy a respec potion later, in some alchemy shops, so you can always correct the mistakes ;)   i have not played around with it, but i might max out all of axii and yerden just to test them.

 

as for gaming trophys (achievements), i have no idea, i never look at them...  they are of 0 interest to me.   never seen the point in them.

oooh yeah, I've been meaning to ask about trophies. I have the griffin and noonwraith trophies. I have the noonwraith one equipped because it's the only one I have that gives a tangible bonus. (5% extra experience for human and non-human enemies) Does the Griffin trophy's dismemberment provide any benefit other than the cosmetic visuals? Like does the dismembering an enemy give you any buffs or make fights easier in any way?

 

Is the +5% experience from the Noonwraith trophy even worth it? I think you only get 1 or 2 experience per kill, if that. So are you only getting like .05 or .1 extra experience or something?

oooh yeah, I've been meaning to ask about trophies. I have the griffin and noonwraith trophies. I have the noonwraith one equipped because it's the only one I have that gives a tangible bonus. (5% extra experience for human and non-human enemies) Does the Griffin trophy's dismemberment provide any benefit other than the cosmetic visuals? Like does the dismembering an enemy give you any buffs or make fights easier in any way?

 

 

to be honest i am not sure, since i started using it when i had a very powerful sword.   but my initial impression was that dismemberment is basically an instant kill against humans.

and with my trophy, i got 10% chance to kill an enemy with one hit.

 

not sure if it worked on all monsters, but it works on drowners for sure. 

 

some people say it is just a visual effect, but i don't think so.  sometimes when i fought humans, i would require a few hits, and sometimes, i would dismember them at full health and they instantly die.

not 100% certain though, since my weapon has other % effects that could also matter.

 

 

still, i love it, even if it is just a visual.

Hmm, maybe I'll switch to the Griffin head instead and see how I like it. I can't really tell if the +5% experience from the Noonwraith trophy is worth it or not.

 

meh, if you do side quests, you are likely to be over level by the end of the game anyway.   why bother with extra 5%.

i accidentally finished the game at level 35.   cannot even remember how i got to that level since it took me forever to go from 25 to 27.   i guess story missions give you a ton of credit.

 

i love that there is a potion to reassign the points to other skills. i can finally test out some stuff i would never otherwise level with.   

 

but i have no interesting quests left.  just the 2 witcher contracts way below my level, and secondary quests like guenn and races, which i have 0 interest with..    

well and treasure hunts.  though i fail to see the point as i am super rich.

 

 

ps.  took me 34 hours according to the character screen,   but i think the real time spend playing has to be way more, since in the beginning i dies a lot,

and must have spent 30 to 60 minutes on at least a few missions, contentiously trying again and again, since i kept dying in the last moment.

 

 

 

 

have to say i LOVED it.   i really liked witcher 2, but this one is just amazing.   

i clocked 70+ hours in DA:I when i was sick and stuck at home, but this one not only tops it,

it is standing on other level all together, and i think it will sent the 3rd person open world benchmark for years to come

(i highly doubt i will have as much fun story wise in Fallout 4....  really really doubt it)

 

 

 

 

so about 10 hours of play time coming before the year end. (edit: the second add on is coming next year. grrr....)   though i know i will have to get them.

 

Only 34 hours? I was at 60+ before I moved on to Skellige.  :wacko:

 

I'm playing on death march though, don't know if that makes much of a difference.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Who is paying for this 30x scale-up? Its sounds expensive.
    • Millions of users to benefit from Windows 11's new performance boost on Adobe Photoshop by Sayan Sen Despite the advent of AI-generated imagery, Adobe's Photoshop remains one of the most popular tools on this planet. Adobe does not have a publicly reported total user count but it's probably not wrong to assume there are millions. As of 2025, Adobe Creative Cloud has had approximately 41 million paid subscribers, many of whom likely use Photoshop. In addition, more than 166,000 companies worldwide are apparently also using the app. These figures are according to a very recent report by SQ Magazine. Out of them, it is fair to assume that many are probably running Windows. As such, there is good news for these users as Microsoft has announced Photoshop is getting a big 20% performance boost on x86-64 (AMD64) systems and a 13% bump-up on Arm devices. This is definitely great news for them as many have complained about the slow performance and general sluggishness of Photoshop on Windows 11 ever since the advent of the latter back in 2021. If you are wondering how Microsoft managed to do this, the answer lies in a combination of compiler-level optimizations and a technology called Sample Profile Guided Optimization (SPGO). According to Microsoft, Adobe worked closely with the company’s Visual C++ team and adopted the latest MSVC toolchain enhancements together with SPGO to squeeze more performance out of Photoshop’s CPU-bound workloads. Unlike traditional Profile Guided Optimization (PGO), which requires developers to create special instrumented builds and run lengthy training workloads, SPGO gathers performance data directly from optimized release binaries. This means Adobe could collect real-world usage information which gives a major advantage to this technique, as companies could leverage data collected from actual customer workloads rather than only relying on synthetic benchmark runs. In theory, this should allow optimizations to better reflect how users interact with software in the real world. Thanks to this, there are improvements to code layout, function inlining, hot-and-cold code separation, and other low-level tweaks that help processors execute instructions more efficiently. Essentially the compiler is better able to identify “hot” code paths, those which are most frequently executed, and optimize them accordingly.
    • "The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months¨ I'd prefer to see the lowest price in over a year
    • Glad these prices are starting to come down, but that is still crazy. I bought the 2TB 9100 Pro (slightly more expensive version with PCIe 5.0) last year for $240.
    • The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months by Sayan Sen Yesterday, we covered a really good deal wherein you can get a 4TB TeamGroup T-FORCE G50 NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD for a low price of just $400 with a special discount coupon. That's just $100 per TB, making it a very good offer during these hard times. The deal is still live, so you can check it out in its dedicated article here if you do not want to miss out. Meanwhile, if you don't have that kind of budget but still wish to buy an SSD for a good price, the 2TB variant of the TeamGroup SSD at $280 its lowest price in over three months. Meanwhile, those seeking 2TB but faster performance can check out Samsung's 990 PRO, which has hit the lowest price also in the last quarter or so, as it's on sale for $370 (purchase links under the specs table down below). Thus, you want a faster drive, get the 990 Pro, or you want more capacity, grab the TeamGroup 4TB linked in the first para. The 990 PRO is a PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD and still one of the fastest drives available today for under $500. Speaking of fast, sequential reads and writes are rated at 7450 MB/s and 6900 MB/s, respectively. The random throughputs for reads and writes are 1400K IOPS and 1550K IOPS, respectively. The 990 PRO is based on Samsung's 7th Gen V-NAND flash, and it too is TLC. It packs 2 gigs of LPDDR4 DRAM cache, which helps the random performance. The endurance rating for this is 1200 TBW (terabytes written), which should be sufficient for most users. The Samsung 990 PRO is compatible with the PlayStation 5, but if you are going to use the 990 PRO on a PC, check out the Samsung Magician app that lets you track your drive's health, update its firmware, customize various settings, and more. The tech specs are given below: Specification TeamGroup T-FORCE G50 2TB Samsung 990 PRO 2TB Interface PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 2.0 Form Factor M.2 2280 M.2 2280 Controller InnoGrit Controller Samsung In-house Controller NAND Flash 3D TLC 3D TLC DRAM Cache None (HMB supported) 2GB LPDDR4 Sequential Read (Max) 5,000 MB/s 7,450 MB/s Sequential Write (Max) 4,500 MB/s 6,900 MB/s Random Read (4K) Up to 600,000 IOPS Up to 1,400,000 IOPS Random Write (4K) Up to 700,000 IOPS Up to 1,550,000 IOPS TBW (Endurance) 1,300 TBW 1,200 TBW MTBF 3,000,000 hours 1,500,000 hours Operating Temperature 0°C to 70°C 0°C to 70°C Storage Temperature -40°C to 85°C -40°C to 85°C Shock Resistance 1,500G / 0.5ms 1,500G / 0.5ms Heatsink Patented Graphene Heat Spreader No Get them at the links below: Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB (MZ-V9P2T0B/AM): $369.99 (Sold and Shipped by Amazon US) TEAMGROUP T-Force G50 2TB SSD (TM8FFE002T0C129): $279.99 (Sold by TeamGroup, Shipped by Amazon US) Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      suprememobiles48 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Prasann earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Prasann earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      519
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      174
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      90
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      81
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      70
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!