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Lunar15 · Mar 2, 2016

Haunted said:
ending spoilers:

CDPR once again managed to not fall into the tired and boring "good/best/bad ending" dichotomy of other, lesser games. The ending other games would call "bad" (where Gaunter O' Dimm fulfills the contract and takes Olgierd's soul) is just fantastic. Yes, in terms of content you do miss out on a cool area, two swords and a little riddle, but it's by far my preferred way to end the story because it fits so well with the tone of the game and this expansion. That's the kind of balance that sets this apart from other ending choices. Just like with the various ending variations in the main game, each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

That's the beauty of the writing for this specifc DLC. Each of the quests shows you a different aspect of Olgierd's life. His relationship with his family and brother, the cruel nature of the Von Everec family's debts to the Borsodi family, and the destruction of his marriage due to forces outside of his control. He turned to Master Mirror, and Mirror robbed him of his humanity.

There's no doubt that Olgierd did awful things, but he was robbed of a chance at redemption by O Dimm's trap. I think you can find that most things were out of Olgierd's control, meaning I wanted him to find redemption outside of O Dimm's curse, but you could simply determine olgierd himself deserved it by ever contacting O Dimm in the first place.

foxtrot3d · Mar 3, 2016

Lunar15 said:
That's the beauty of the writing for this specifc DLC. Each of the quests shows you a different aspect of Olgierd's life. His relationship with his family and brother, the cruel nature of the Von Everec family's debts to the Borsodi family, and the destruction of his marriage due to forces outside of his control. He turned to Master Mirror, and Mirror robbed him of his humanity.

There's no doubt that Olgierd did awful things, but he was robbed of a chance at redemption by O Dimm's trap. I think you can find that most things were out of Olgierd's control, meaning I wanted him to find redemption outside of O Dimm's curse, but you could simply determine olgierd himself deserved it by ever contacting O Dimm in the first place.

I think are are correct

that the beauty let's you judge for yourself Olgierd's actions. To me I felt that there was a pretty clear reason why Gaunter is nicknamed the Master of Mirror. I don't believe that Gaunter robbed Olgierd of his humanity but rather simply revealed to Olgierd and everyone else the true nature of Olgierd himself. Olgierd is an evil man whose true nature is revealed with every wish he demanded from Gaunter. After all, a good man would never contract with the devil.

Again, the way I came to view Gaunter was as a force of nature. He's the literal personification of Evil and yet despite this you don't see him going around spreading pestilence or committing genocide. While he isn't a complete benign non-actor since he seems to delight in spreading some mischief here and there like the spoon in the eye bloke, his true calling is to simply provide people with choices. For the literal personification of Evil on this Earth that seems a pretty low act of evil and malevolence. But, when you analyze it then it makes perfect sense as it is a slight commentary on the nature of Evil. It's not that evil is just some outside actor that swoops in and causes everything to go wrong, screwing over everyone's life. No, true evil is a choice that is inside all of us and is something we witness throughout the series.

Is the Bloody Baron an evil man for beating on his wife constantly? Or does his reasons for his actions excuse those acts done by him? No foreign entity caused the Baron to beat his wife, he chose to do so after certain events occurred outside of his control. Thus being "evil" is simply a choice we all make as a reaction to events, we may think ourselves righteous as we commit those evil acts but that does not hide the true nature of our actions. Gaunter through his contracts and the choices he presents seeks to hold a mirror up to his willing contractual partners, revealing their true nature which is often that of a "rotten heart." In this way "evil" reveals itself not through any direct action on Gaunter's part but through the wishes of his participants whose selfish and rotten wishes often destroy them and everyone else around them.

MadYarpen · Mar 16, 2016

I am currently playing HoS for the first time and I love it.

Even the fight with 1st boss was very good IMO.
I have mix of combat/alchemy build. Managed to defeat him in the 2nd try (hardest difficulty), had to use all my bombs, almost all potions. And be extra carefull,

Quen, dodge tongue, roll to the side and hit with sword. Then dodge away if possible, if not - quen again, and repeat.

But it was difficult. Ability sustaining effect of potions was super usefull, had swallow and towny owl active for couple of minutes which saved my ass.

Currently having fun during

the wedding

.

E: just remembered, there is one fight I hated. Quest is called rose in the red field or something like that (I'm playing in Polish, don't know what the translation is).

the last fight is in closed space, with a lot of enemies some of which cannot be blocked. The combat system is really not designed for that... it was frustrating for couple of times

SlickVic · Apr 27, 2016

Finally started this the other day. Been about 6 months since I finished the main game and felt the time was right to dive into this before the May onslaught on games as well as Blood and Wine coming out soon (hopefully).

For a DLC that's priced at $10, it already feels pretty meaty (

just got to the part where I'm assembling the heist crew after the auction

). I feel I'm used to getting maybe 3 hours out of $10 DLC these days, but the 10 hour promise CDP advertised for this seems like it will hold true for me. Quantity wouldn't mean much on its own, but from what I've played so far, the writing behind the quests feels every bit as good as the main game's.

I also like that this focuses on Oxenfurt and the surrounding area. Looking back at The Witcher 3, I feel like that eastern part of the map is where I spent the least amount of my time in the game, and I felt I never got to know Oxenfurt as well as Novigrad. So it's definitely appreciated to now have more quest lines taking place there. It's perhaps a bit unfortunate that Oxenfurt isn't a bit larger, but that's certainly not a dealbreaker.

MadYarpen said:
E: just remembered, there is one fight I hated. Quest is called rose in the red field or something like that (I'm playing in Polish, don't know what the translation is).

the last fight is in closed space, with a lot of enemies some of which cannot be blocked. The combat system is really not designed for that... it was frustrating for couple of times

Oh yeah, easily the most annoying fight I've run into so far in the game.

Wound up just running up the wooden platform the archers start from, taking a few swipes at the guards that came up, jumped down, rinse and repeat. Only way I could effectively crowd control in such a small space. For whatever reason even at Level 36 and leveling up my equipment, none of them went down particularly quickly and it's just too easy for them to overwhelm you. I didn't have any golden oriole so taking them to the poison clouds did little good for me. I guess I was supposed to have better bombs on me, but truthfully I hardly used those in the game otherwise so never really bothered upgrading them. Regardless, definitely felt a sigh of relief when that encounter was finally over.

Philippo · Apr 27, 2016

Just finished it.
Solid 9/10, with the main campaign being a 9 and the side stuff a 7.5.

Can't wait to play B&W during summer.

MadYarpen · Apr 27, 2016

SlickVic said:
Oh yeah, easily the most annoying fight I've run into so far in the game.

Wound up just running up the wooden platform the archers start from, taking a few swipes at the guards that came up, jumped down, rinse and repeat. Only way I could effectively crowd control in such a small space. For whatever reason even at Level 36 and leveling up my equipment, none of them went down particularly quickly and it's just too easy for them to overwhelm you. I didn't have any golden oriole so taking them to the poison clouds did little good for me. I guess I was supposed to have better bombs on me, but truthfully I hardly used those in the game otherwise so never really bothered upgrading them. Regardless, definitely felt a sigh of relief when that encounter was finally over.

Bombs can be tricky because they hurt Geralt as well. Yeah, it was annoying as fuck. But luckily other fights are great. Much better quality in this respect than in the main game IMO.

And they said 10 hours? Well it took me 20 I think. Easily. But I wasn't rushing it, I have some points of interest untouched so I had some things to do besides the quests themselves.

SlickVic · Apr 27, 2016

I think the official line may have been 'over 10 hours', I only remembered the 10 hour bit. I think it may end up taking me closer to 15-20 hours to finish it as well including some of the new side content, so it definitely feels like a proper expansion to me. Makes me extra excited for Blood and Wine since that's supposed to be the bigger of these 2 DLC's and has that new area.

MadYarpen · Apr 27, 2016

SlickVic said:
I think the official line may have been 'over 10 hours', I only remembered the 10 hour bit. I think it may end up taking me closer to 15-20 hours to finish it as well including some of the new side content, so it definitely feels like a proper expansion to me. Makes me extra excited for Blood and Wine since that's supposed to be the bigger of these 2 DLC's and has that new area.

Yeah, and this new area is supposed to be at least 75% of Novigrad/Velen as I understand. This is like a new game. Because if someone released an RPG with a world of the size of Novigrad/Velen nobody would complain it is small, right?

SlickVic · May 1, 2016

I just finished this up today. I think Scenes from a Marriage and Dead Man's Party may be my 2 favorite quest lines for the game along with the Bloody Baron from the main game.

If Blood Baron's story was of physical abuse in a relationship, Olgierd's is one of emotional abuse, and both stories hit pretty hard. I did like in my ending I was able to get him some form of freedom, but as it typical for this series, there is always loss, regret, and fallout from old choice that prevents any true happy ending.

On the other side of the spectrum, Dead Man's Party is just an incredibly fun story and 'Geralt' has some hilarious moments. I think I wound up liking Shani more here than I did Witcher 1, and I liked the new VA they got to do the voice.

Erimriv · May 1, 2016

Just purchased the game and season pass for 63 (XB1), dont know if it could be cheaper but im eagerly waiting to play it.

Flipyap · May 1, 2016

SlickVic said:
I just finished this up today. I think Scenes from a Marriage and Dead Man's Party may be my 2 favorite quest lines for the game along with the Bloody Baron from the main game.

If Blood Baron's story was of physical abuse in a relationship, Olgierd's is one of emotional abuse, and both stories hit pretty hard. I did like in my ending I was able to get him some form of freedom, but as it typical for this series, there is always loss, regret, and fallout from old choice that prevents any true happy ending.

Olgierd's story was that of

a well-intentioned fool magically transforming into a one-dimensional prick

, it's not comparable to the Bloody Baron's history of very real mistakes and character flaws.

SlickVic · May 1, 2016

Flipyap said:
Olgierd's story was that of

a well-intentioned fool magically transforming into a one-dimensional prick

, it's not comparable to the Bloody Baron's history of very real mistakes and character flaws.

I'm just talking about the comparisons of their respective story arcs in the game, not the characters themselves. I suppose this wasn't clear from my post as I should have just named the quests.

Regardless of what each character did specifically, the end result was that those close to them suffered just as much as they did. Both quest lines spend significant time giving us a look into what happened to their significant other. It's uncomfortable to see, but to me it also helps define the nuance of the writing of the game. We learn about these characters not just by their conversations with Geralt, but also by how other characters in the world viewed them as well. In my opinion, it's a very effective way to learn the nuances of these characters, as something more than 'this guy is just a jerk'.

SlickVic · May 1, 2016

double post

Dance Inferno · May 1, 2016

Erimriv said:
Just purchased the game and season pass for 63 (XB1), dont know if it could be cheaper but im eagerly waiting to play it.

You're in for a treat. Witcher 3 was my GOTY 2015, and Hearts of Stone was incredible. I have a feeling Blood and Wine will be on my GOTY 2016 list at a very high position, given how good all the content has been so far.

leng jai · May 1, 2016

Just replaying this now again after a few months. The first boss and make dude right after are ridiculously hard.

wazoo · May 1, 2016

Currently finishing the main quest of W3.

Amazing game, clocking at level 30, the last few levels were earned very fast.

What is funny is that after 100h of playtime I arrive at a level that should be Gerald normal level considering he has fought for years.

johnnydrama · May 5, 2016

I just finished the DLC and got the good ending. Easily the best DLC I've played, and a great addition to my favorite game this generation. I do have a couple of questions though. Which is the best armor in the DLC and where can I get it? Also where can I get better silver swords?

Sioen · May 14, 2016

Man the second part of the expansion reminds me why I don't like horror games, I get scared so easily.

Shahadan · May 14, 2016

I want a whole game of Geralt and Vlodimir.

Nordicus · May 14, 2016

Oh god no, as fun as that segment was, it showed Doug Cockle's lack of range

Sioen · May 14, 2016

Man fuck that olgierd guy after the second part, hope he rots in hell for what he did to his wife.

Ruthless_Barbarian · May 14, 2016

Sioen said:
Man fuck that olgierd guy after the second part, hope he rots in hell for what he did to his wife.

That's a choice you have to make.

lordfuzzybutt · May 14, 2016

Sioen said:
Man fuck that olgierd guy after the second part,

hope he rots in hell for what he did to his wife

.

Eh, I don't know. He started everything with his family in mind, he made choices.

The result, well, is damn tragic. But I feel for him rather than hate him.

endlessflood · May 14, 2016

lordfuzzybutt said:
Eh, I don't know. He started everything with his family in mind, he made choices.

The result, well, is damn tragic. But I feel for him rather than hate him.

I don't feel a lot of sympathy for him, but I

saved him anyway. He got lucky though, it was what happened to the guy in Oxenfurt Academy that convinced me to take on O'Dimm; if there'd been a way to defeat O'Dimm without saving Olgierd, I probably would've gone for that

heringer · May 14, 2016

Sioen said:
Man fuck that olgierd guy after the second part, hope he rots in hell for what he did to his wife.

His biggest mistake was the pact, though. After that,

it's all a result of the heart of stone he received. He even tried to break the pact before it was too late, but couldn't.

In the end, he was a man that loved his wife and made a desperate, stupid decision, which ruined everything.

I don't regret the choice of saving him, because now he can pursue redemption.

LonelyGreyWolf · May 14, 2016

^

Never mind what Olgierd did to his family. He's murdered countless innocent people. In my book, that's end of story right there.

Sioen · May 14, 2016

I saved him aswell after I found out he got a heart of stone.

MadYarpen · May 14, 2016

I saved him too. Because

fuck O'dim

.

E:

One thing I thought after finishing the expansion. It is a shame that we didn't see more of

O'dim's natural look.

Like you could see it in the end, after finding the right

mirror

. It was.. Disturbing. Very well made.

Adry9 · May 20, 2016

Started the expansion today and at level 35 I'm really struggling. I don't know if I just have to get used to the combat but the first boss felt really tough, and I'm saying this coming from Dark Souls 3.

Dineren · May 20, 2016

Adry9 said:
Started the expansion today and at level 35 I'm really struggling. I don't know if I just have to get used to the combat but the first boss felt really tough, and I'm saying this coming from Dark Souls 3.

I started it at I think 33 and it seemed like a pretty big difficulty jump to me. Once I started actually using my signs more effectively the game became a lot more manageable, I never really used them that much during the base game (aside from hitting everything with Igni as soon as it was available).

FoxnHurley · May 20, 2016

Adry9 said:
Started the expansion today and at level 35 I'm really struggling. I don't know if I just have to get used to the combat but the first boss felt really tough, and I'm saying this coming from Dark Souls 3.

What difficulty are you playing on? Igni with melt armor is the go-to sign for HOS. I'm not going to spoil the side quests for you, but the Axii sign comes in handy when completing them. It'll make life a lot easier, especially when fighting in close quarters. I'm sure you know this from the main game, but it's never a good idea to lock on to a specific target when fighting a group of enemies. The game has a more suited soft lock on which allows you to attack foes behind you by directing the thumb stick towards them.

Adry9 · May 20, 2016

FoxnHurley said:
What difficulty are you playing on? Igni with melt armor is the go-to sign for HOS. I'm not going to spoil the side quests for you, but the Axii sign comes in handy when completing them. It'll make life a lot easier, especially when fighting in close quarters. I'm sure you know this from the main game, but it's never a good idea to lock on to a specific target when fighting a group of enemies. The game has a more suited soft lock on which allows you to attack foes behind you by directing the thumb stick towards them.

I'm playing in the third one (there's 4 right?), forgot the name. I'll try that Igni upgrade.

FoxnHurley · May 21, 2016

Adry9 said:
I'm playing in the third one (there's 4 right?), forgot the name. I'll try that Igni upgrade.

Correct. You're on Blood and Broken Bones. Igni and Axii come in very handy when fighting the fallen knights. I used melt armor and ignored firestream because it's been nerfed and takes too long to cause burning damage. Those knights can make quick work out of you if you allow them to swarm Geralt. Go for the archers first, then focus on the shieldless foes because they can close in faster onto Geralt than the shielded ones.

Do you have weapons and armor equipped that increase your chances of landing a critical hit and its damage? That or increased sign intensity are pretty much necessities in order to do decent damage on higher difficulties.

If you're playing with a combat build, you want to get Geralt to strike behind your opponents for maximum DPS.

The bosses after the Toad are a lot more manageable, so the toughest is over...lol.

Nordicus · May 30, 2016

Doing a short revisit to this with an older save that was a B&BB difficulty tanky alchemist Geralt rather than Deathmarch glasscannon swordsman.

Tanky alchemist (on lower difficulty, mind you) can take 5+ times the damage, in cases of say level 30 Drowners with proper oil on he's essentially immortal with that resistance stacking, it's kinda crazy, but also that build only deals roughly half as much with my sword swings, so I get staggered a lot without my bombs flying.

I wanna know if someone can confirm this about the first boss: Is shooting bolts at its mouth in slowmo as he's opening it, a genuine weak point? I wanted to give all my different combat options another go, and whenever I shot an Exploding Bolt at its face while it had its mouth open, the bolt dealt way more damage and even burned the boss for a second or two. Maybe it's just coincidence because the explosion detonated the incoming poison projectiles midflight, but i was wondering if anyone else has tried it, with more bolt types?

Bah, nevermind, just random crits, essentially :/

HotHamBoy · Jul 12, 2016

I'm at a cross-roads. I'm halfway to level 35 and just started the Battle Preperations Quest (1st playthrough, Main Quest). I also dabbled a bit in the Hearts of Stone expansion and I'm at the part where I've been told to party with the bro and get the house. Haven't done any of the expansion secondary quests.

I already feel way over-leveled for the Main Quest line (currently says 28). Should I finish Hearts of Stone since I'm roughly on-level, or should I finish the Main Quest now and end up over-leveled for HoS?

Alpende · Jul 12, 2016

I thought HoS was for higher levels anyway. Plus, I'm not sure you'll get a lot of experience from the main quests since your 7 levels above the recommended level. You might not level up that fast while finishing the main quest.

JohnnyFootball · Jul 12, 2016

HotHamBoy said:
I'm at a cross-roads. I'm halfway to level 35 and just started the Battle Preperations Quest (1st playthrough, Main Quest). I also dabbled a bit in the Hearts of Stone expansion and I'm at the part where I've been told to party with the bro and get the house. Haven't done any of the expansion secondary quests.

I already feel way over-leveled for the Main Quest line (currently says 28). Should I finish Hearts of Stone since I'm roughly on-level, or should I finish the Main Quest now and end up over-leveled for HoS?

It's up to you. If you're worried about being overleveled you can always use enemy upscaling so that it doesn't get too easy.

MadYarpen · Jul 12, 2016

don't worry about over - levelling HoS, do the main game first. I was around 40 lvl and the expansion was challenging enough.

dantehemi · Aug 2, 2016

Just finished this today and I was very impressed. Kinda sad that it's over and I only have blood and wine left and then No more witcher. I'm thinking about clearing all my witcher contracts and treasure hunts and cleaning my map up of all the ? Before I install blood and wine, but I feel I may burn out before I finish all that lol

dantehemi · Aug 2, 2016

Just finished this today and I was very impressed. Kinda sad that it's over and I only have blood and wine left and then No more witcher. I'm thinking about clearing all my witcher contracts and treasure hunts and cleaning my map up of all the ? Before I install blood and wine, but I feel I may burn out before I finish all that lol

Alpende · Aug 2, 2016

If you think it's gonna burn you out, don't do it. Blood & Wine is amazing. I'd suggest to start it and enjoy it. Blood & Wine is too good to play burnt out

.

SomTervo · Aug 16, 2016

Can I just say: fuck that mage on the beach.

Any tips? Toughest fight in the game so far and I've played the entire thing on Death March.

Hope this necro is okay?

Diancecht · Aug 16, 2016

SomTervo said:
Can I just say: fuck that mage on the beach.

Any tips? Toughest fight in the game so far and I've played the entire thing on Death March.

Hope this necro is okay?

Oh boy, wait until you face the Caretaker. You are gonna eat your hat.

RandomSeed · Aug 16, 2016

SomTervo said:
Can I just say: fuck that mage on the beach.

Any tips? Toughest fight in the game so far and I've played the entire thing on Death March.

Hope this necro is okay?

Yeah, that mage is a jerk on DM difficulty.

Sword build) Quen shield, close the distance to get a few hits in, but don't swing too much to allow him to stun and counter you. Preemptive movement is key, since that fucker likes to throw out spells so fast that you don't really have time to react to them and successfully avoid them.

Sign build) Aard stun him, attack, and repeat. Tawny potion for higher stamina regen of course.

Another little tip is that you can drag the other enemies away from the mage to take them out, quicksave, equip armor, and decoction/potion before taking on the mage 1 on 1. I believe the (optional) quest will fail if you go TOO far, though.

MadYarpen · Aug 16, 2016

SomTervo said:
Can I just say: fuck that mage on the beach.

Any tips? Toughest fight in the game so far and I've played the entire thing on Death March.

Hope this necro is okay?

You can put your clothes on during the fight- helps only if you didn't notice of course

Coreda · Aug 16, 2016

MadYarpen said:
You can put your clothes on during the fight- helps only if you didn't notice of course

At the time I didn't realize this and fought as-is, thinking if I lost he'd get to keep my unique gear (which made the fight intense af).

Alpende · Aug 16, 2016

SomTervo said:
Can I just say: fuck that mage on the beach.

Any tips? Toughest fight in the game so far and I've played the entire thing on Death March.

Hope this necro is okay?

I just called for Roach and kept riding up and down the beach hitting that asshole.

SomTervo · Aug 16, 2016

Cheers for the tips mdears!

Came back from work and nailed it in three tries.

Must have just been way knackered at 2am :|

Ridiculous that you're carrying all your stuff and can put it back on...

RandomSeed · Aug 16, 2016

SomTervo said:
Ridiculous that you're carrying all your stuff and can put it back on...

Geralt learned in Witcher 2 while serving hard time that you can hide all manner of things in your anus, if you have to.

Walpurgis · Sep 2, 2016

endlessflood said:
I don't feel a lot of sympathy for him, but I

saved him anyway. He got lucky though, it was what happened to the guy in Oxenfurt Academy that convinced me to take on O'Dimm; if there'd been a way to defeat O'Dimm without saving Olgierd, I probably would've gone for that

Same. I think a lot of people are forgetting that what he did

to his brother

before O'dimm. He was always trash.

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