Velen area a crazy mix of levels?
 

I’m playing the Complete Edition. Very difficult to range around because of the crazy mix of levels unlike the first area. Was it always like this or is it because I’m playing the version with expansions installed? Did they add high level content right in existing areas? I’ve run into some pretty crazy Uber bosses. I’m running away a lot!

It’s open world so you can run into enemies of all different levels. Your quests will have recommended levels if you just stay within those levels you won’t run into anything too high level.

Honestly though the combat in Witcher 3 is laughably easy. I was able to easily complete quest 10-15 level higher than my level. It takes a while because you don’t do much damage being that much lower level than the enemies but the enemies are so easy to dodge that you should be able to just chip away at them. I wouldn’t recommend taking on quests much higher though as I quickly found out that rewards will scale to your level.

For instance I completed a quest for a blacksmith that was level 25 or so when I was level 10. He said if I did the quest he’d reward me with an amazing sword. After completion I got a level 7 sword that was weaker than my weapon I had. For this reason I’d say only play quests in your level range and don’t do free form exploration as it not worth it imo. You’ll get all the quest just by following the normal progression of the game and any POI you’ll find by exploring like monster nests, liberating a village, etc. becomes repetitive and boring after the 150 hours or so to finish the game with dlc.

I’m not having problems playing the game. I’m just asking if the areas are more lethal to explore because of the expansions or if Velen was always set up this way. And yes i regularly kill things twice my level but at level 5 when I see a level 34 anything I RUN

There was when I played it but I also played it after all dlc was released. So I can’t comment on the state of the game before dlc.

It was always like that. You'll encounter some quests long before you're strong enough to complete them.

Ok good I just wanted to make sure I was playing the original “vision” of the game

Well I don't think you need to worry about that as long as you're not using any mods.

There is one mod I'd use if I was playing TW3 though. It's called "FCR3 - Immersion and Gameplay Tweaks", and it was created by one of TW3's developers.

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2788/?

This game is starting to astound me. The quality of the writing on some of these side quests is exceptional let alone the main quest. No spoilers but the side quests with Keira. Damn.

I don't even consider that one of the better quests. You have a lot to look forward to. :)


*Edit* Wait, are you referring to..

Writing is indeed superb - as is the presentation. Yes, Keira is a very….. interesting woman ;)

Naturally I

Wait until you're done with this quest
 

That’s the trouble with many RPG’s and dialog choices. Often left with too narrow a set of options or something totally absurd. Mass Effect does that in spades!

Indeed, which is exactly why I don't think that much of C&C as "roleplaying" - but TW3 is better than most in that area, I find.

It’s not without its faults and I’m on the fence whether a more structured hub & spoke model is superior for story continuity (Witcher 2) but this is pretty remarkable. Off quests it behaves almost like Guild Wars 2 with fun area discovery for farming. That gets old after a while and it’s a ticket for game imbalance but even at level 7 there were a few deaths in my level 5 main questing. That I’m happy about. I hope the world stays threatening. If I have to I’ll amp the difficulty in the long run

I highly recommend forgetting all the non-quest stuff - as it's neither rewarding in terms of progression nor exploration. Well, I certainly didn't think so. Except for a few cases of Witcher gear "hunts" - which were neat.

But pretty much every quest is interesting and worth doing in terms of the story.

That said, I personally experienced HEAVY dialogue fatigue after around 100 hours or so. I particularly despised the Novigrad Dandelion section of the game - which was just dreadfully dull throughout - apart from a neat singing sequence.

I guess it depends on personal preferences - but I really don't think TW3 is a good fit for the "OCD" approach of clearing everything. Way, way too much filler for that.

TW2 was much tighter and focused on delivering what it was really good at. For some odd reason, I also found combat better and with a tighter balance.

Again, though, that was on vanilla "hard". I have no idea what people are talking about when they say TW2 combat was easy on that setting. Certainly wasn't easy to me - and I'm pretty good at combat in RPGs.

TW3 on "Death March" becomes way too easy way too soon. You struggle a little in the beginning - because of the ridiculous damage mobs deal versus a pathetic amount of HP you have as a player. But once you get into the groove and use the right spells for the right encounter - it's very easy. Much easier than TW2 ever was on the higher settings.

IMO, obviously.

If you're concerned about difficulty, I'd recommend not going after the Witcher gear sets. I feel like they're overpowered, and they add nothing to the game other than making it easier.

Just working with drops and a few items from protected treasure. Every time I work towards crafting an item I find one better in a drop

The quest writing in Velen is spectacular. A high point of the game. Well the main quest is too at times.

Witcher 3 spoiled me. Now the writing in every RPG afterwards sucks

Very true especially when it comes to dialogue. :)

Elex in comparison, my God!!!!! OK, I'm less cold.

When it comes to continuing Elex Thrasher I'm finding myself coming up with excuses to avoid it. Witcher 1, 2 or 3 are just orders of magnitude superior. In every way.

But I do have a new complaint. I've started to avoid side content because I'm leveling too fast. But the damn main quest is giving me crazy XP. This is nuts and I can't stop rapid leveling. Is there a mod to disable XP accumulation or at least slow it down?

This one looks decent. https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/642/?

You can also activate level-scaling and see how well that works. (Should be somewhere in the options menu). I've never tried it myself because the option wasn't added until later.

Well the exploration is more rewarding in Elex so far, except for the Witcher gear, but otherwise I prefer Witcher 3.

Elex = Progression, loot and exploration.
Witcher 3 = Production values, music, story and atmosphere.

Pick your poison :)

The choice should be this:
Elex = gameplay horrible, hair horrible, everything else superb
The Witcher 3 = gameplay horrible, everything else superb
Random phone/console crap = superb (mushrooms autoaim) gameplay, everything else horrible

Me? I'd always pick Elex and TW3.

I decided to give this a try in Novigrad at a pretty aggressive .6 quest .3 creature. The XP coming through now has halted my fast leveling. I wish I had installed it back when I was level 10!