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Also you end up with so many talent points that you can use combinations you never could in a regular game.
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Oct 22, 2015 11:44
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Patch 1.11 is currently downloading on GOG for me, here's the changelogquote:PATCH 1.11 CHANGELOG ephex fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 13:45
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Tofu Injection posted:Where are the tax collector and gwent merchant? I ran into the tax collector while running through northwestern Oxenfurt pretty late in the game, but he may show up earlier -- I just never go to Oxenfurt. twistedmentat posted:So I'm finally playing this, but I'm really having trouble early in. I am only in the part after you first meet the Emperor and get sent to meet his spy to start looking for Ciri. For an open world game, I can't do anything because every enemy is so much more powerful than me, and combat is really fast and really punishing. I saw that you should only dodge, but I never know when to do it because mosnters always seem to overwhelm me and I cannot time the dodges well enough because monsters move so fast by the time you see the attack coming and I've moved my finger to the alt key, bam, i'm hit. This same thing happened to me in the beginning; basically don't bother grinding XP on enemies... ever. You'll get your main bulk of XP via the main story line quests. If you want to break out and do contracts and other stuff, it's probably safe to start doing so after level 10 or so. I almost shelved this game because I was level 3, and a level 4 drowner by the road kept destroying me. I killed it, did a whole bunch of secondary quests, and was still level 3. I was under the impression that XP came super slow and you beat the game at level 15 or something... nope! I was just doing it wrong. Basically, do main story quests for XP, do secondary quests purely for story arcs, do contracts for boss fights, and do treasure hunts for witcher gear sets. Just don't expect to level a whole lot outside of the main story quests. If you can manage to complete any quest below it's recommended level, I think you do get a nice little bonus, but it still doesn't really compare to the main story quests. By the time you get the quest to go to Skellige, you can pretty much do whatever you want as long as your level permits. The combat is kinda laggy... I think I was trying to play it as if it were a Souls game or something, so I had to adapt. For monsters, dodging (while holding parry 100% of the time anyway because you can) is effective. In most cases, you can dodge diagonally towards a monster as they wind up to attack, and counterattack with good timing. For humans, you can do the same thing, or you can parry-riposte if you want. Just hold parry 100% of the time as before, but cycle the button during their wind-up animation to counterattack. The timing is very generous. Just don't try to parry big rear end hammers or anything like that! Also play with your signs, since a lot of enemies are weak in one way or another to a particular sign. E.g. shield-carrying humans will drop their shield if you stun them with Axii, Noonwraiths are tanks unless you trap them with Yrden, and most furry things don't like when you light them on fire with Igni. enojy fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 13:56
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ephex posted:Patch 1.11 is currently downloading on GOG for me, here's the changelog Looks like they fixed the Skellige's Most Wanted quest.
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Oct 22, 2015 14:35
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Tax collector only shows up for some players, he's not for everyone. But for those who meet his requirements, just run around the Oxenfurt market, he hangs out there.
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Oct 22, 2015 14:41
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enojy posted:This same thing happened to me in the beginning; basically don't bother grinding XP on enemies... ever. You'll get your main bulk of XP via the main story line quests. If you want to break out and do contracts and other stuff, it's probably safe to start doing so after level 10 or so. I almost shelved this game because I was level 3, and a level 4 drowner by the road kept destroying me. I killed it, did a whole bunch of secondary quests, and was still level 3. I was under the impression that XP came super slow and you beat the game at level 15 or something... nope! I was just doing it wrong. I think one of my biggest criticisms of Witcher 3 would be how XP, leveling and quest rewards are handled. Gear upgrades and levelups do very little to noticeably increase Geralt's power. Geralt starts with all of his basic tools available, you're not going to find a powerful new spell or learn how to dual wield in some dungeon. The game wants you to wander around and (mostly) do whatever you want without feeling a need to grind XP or gear in order to progress. On one hand, that's great, because the best part of this game is the fantastic dialogue, writing, characters, and atmosphere/worldbuilding. On the other hand, there are never really any quest rewards, levelups, or gear that make you think "whoa! that's so cool I feel so much more powerful wearing these phat loots!" There's also the artificial level capping where enemies a certain number of levels above you are extra tough. So you're almost never going to get much in the way of "tangible" rewards for quests and if you play with that mindset the payoff is going to be really unsatisfying. Do quests because they sound cool and enjoy the storytelling.
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Oct 22, 2015 17:47
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What difficulty are you playing on that Geralt isn't tremendously more powerful at level 15-20 than he is at level 1?
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Oct 22, 2015 17:49
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I'm not sure what difficulty level you guys play on so it's hard to make comparisons. I can say that locations of fights and number vs you can change difficulty. Like most novigrad based 6 enemies vs you in a closet did feel difficult, but witcher contracts and sidequests level appropriate in velen have kept me above required levels until endgame, and by then the story missions kept pushing me further up. Very few things felt insurmountable, but then again I never did things like fight a leshen at level 8 like some people seem to. As long as you don't fight too many red skulls you'll be cool. Even then you can beat them, you just have a near 0 margin of error. Sidequests don't give significant experience, but doing them adds up. Don't expect beating that one fiend to level you up, but 4 witcher contracts will likely do it. IIRC sidequests you outlevel significantly give 1 XP on completion.
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Oct 22, 2015 17:56
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The Sharmat posted:What difficulty are you playing on that Geralt isn't tremendously more powerful at level 15-20 than he is at level 1? Sure, but that's tens of hours of gameplay and many many quests. Level ups and gear upgrades are tiny incremental increases in power and it's not much "payoff" for grinding XP to advance a level or materials to upgrade your gear. It's an itch the game doesn't really scratch for some players.
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Oct 22, 2015 17:58
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The ability points and improvements in combat are where I found there to be the most level growth.
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Oct 22, 2015 18:03
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SectumSempra posted:The ability points and improvements in combat are where I found there to be the most level growth. I don't think any of us are really disagreeing. My main point was if a player focuses on grinding level ups or crafting gear, they're probably going to be disappointed as you're not going to get massive leaps in power. Witcher 3 wants you to focus on the story and not the quest reward at the end.
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Oct 22, 2015 18:09
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Level 1 Geralt: I can take three potions before I go toxic. Those potions also give me fairly minimal effects. Level 15 Geralt: I can take two decoctions that last for several fights, have effects stronger than the short-acting potions I used to take, and I can take potions (stronger than before) in top of that. The difference with alchemy is night and day. Other skills also jump out like Whirl.
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Oct 22, 2015 18:50
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Ravenfood posted:Level 1 Geralt: I can take three potions before I go toxic. Those potions also give me fairly minimal effects. The difference between a level 14, 15, and 16 Geralt is negligible, though. That's my point. Most of the time leveling up or getting a gear upgrade is a tiny payoff and you should do quests for the storytelling and not expect much of a tangible reward. Unlocking ability slots and new Witcher set gear are more significant but hardly worth grinding toward specifically imo Pellisworth fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 18:57
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Palpek posted:There are more herbalists in the game world and they sell it - the one in White Orchard is garbage, it's basically the tutorial area in this game. You can do that contract later when you uncover more stuff and get the ingredient, there's nothing pushing you to do it right now and if the only herbalist you know is in White Orchard then you really, really should explore more of the game world anyway. I only have White Orchard and the area where the Bloody Baron is located available to me, though I'm higher level now so I should be able to survive the monsters and other enemies lurking around both areas. Something I'm loving about this game is how one you make a potion you have it. If you need more you just need to make sure you have booze on you and meditate. I never really bothered in potions outside of the healing ones and monster oils in 1 and 2 because it was just annoying to be constantly collecting materials for them and brewing them.
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Oct 22, 2015 19:51
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It does kind of suck when I want to meditate just to pass the time in the game world and don't want it to consume alcohol to refill all my stuff, especially if I've got many uses of the various things leftover. I can't count the times I've had 2/3 on both of my potion slot items and it used an alcohol to refill them when I really didn't need/want it to as well. It's not a very elegant solution but I do appreciate that they don't make you collect the materials for everything over and over.
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Oct 22, 2015 19:57
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I'm playing this on ps4. I have the 1.10 patch. Do I have all of the free dlc or do I still need to grab it somewhere? If so, where/how?
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Oct 22, 2015 20:01
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Aw poo poo, you can't play ng+ from a completed ng+ save. I wanted to play again as a God among men right with every potion, decoction, oil, bomb and master crafted gear. Thought it'd be really fun  Comte please make this happen, I will pay if necessary!
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Oct 22, 2015 20:31
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Saxophone posted:I'm playing this on ps4. I have the 1.10 patch. Do I have all of the free dlc or do I still need to grab it somewhere? If so, where/how? https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/home/main Login here and see what you have for Witcher 3.
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Oct 22, 2015 20:31
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Speaking of leveling and XP, my biggest problem with the Witcher 3 in retrospect is the skill tree. As in, I miss the old actual TREE. Personally, once I had the skills I wanted slotted and leveled (a mix of light/heavy sword and alchemy), I stopped even using skill points. At the end of HoS, I'm sitting on 10 skill points, whereas in Witcher 2 I'd still be improving something like signs or alchemy. I think I really just don't like the ability slotting system. The Witcher 2 tree system let me feel like I was always getting better, whereas now I level and I'm just "welp. I have all the skills I need!". I suppose one could treat the skills almost like equipment, slotting and unslotting based of whatever challenge arises, but I think I still prefer the overall passive-tree system. Both systems end with Geralt being stupidly overpowered, but the passive-tree felt more satisfying.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:03
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I was just running around looking for quests I've missed in Velen and stopped to read the noticeboards. And drat, some of those messages are so bleak and depressing, so kudos to whoever wrote them for making me feel stuff.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:06
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I loved following the adventures of Odrin in the notice boards.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:11
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That's a good patch. Is Master Topical still bugged though? Had a similar problem with a herbalist in Skellige, as in I saved him from bandits and couldn't talk to him no matter what I did.CJacobs posted:It does kind of suck when I want to meditate just to pass the time in the game world and don't want it to consume alcohol to refill all my stuff, especially if I've got many uses of the various things leftover. I can't count the times I've had 2/3 on both of my potion slot items and it used an alcohol to refill them when I really didn't need/want it to as well. It's not a very elegant solution but I do appreciate that they don't make you collect the materials for everything over and over. Alcohest and especially dwarven spirit are very common loot though so this was never a problem for me. Just finished Hearts of Stone (it was amazing) and I have about 150 bottles of Dwarven spirit on me. 
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Oct 22, 2015 22:14
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Yeah, dwarven spirits and alcohest are common loot from the generic crates/bags/shelves sitting around absolutely everywhere, so it's pretty much impossible to run out. And now that they weigh 0.0 there's no reason not to carry dozens around all the time. The real solution is to use potions all the time. Now that we have 4 consumable hotkeys (my single favorite change in any patch) I just mash swallow/thunderbolt/blizzard at the start of any nontrivial fight.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:19
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Oh wow, its so interesting to hear the other builds are good when I pretty much exclusively make use of signs and the one from the yellow tree that lets you cast spells for adrenaline points. I figured signs would be absolutely best.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:23
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Azazell0 posted:I was just running around looking for quests I've missed in Velen and stopped to read the noticeboards. And drat, some of those messages are so bleak and depressing, so kudos to whoever wrote them for making me feel stuff. That one guy that posted the notice saying he'd give away his dog to anyone that swore they wouldn't eat him 
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Oct 22, 2015 22:34
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My main offenders were - a mother used ground acorns to make pancakes for her children and they've been horribly ill for days since, and she was looking for someone to treat them (but she had nothing to offer as payment aside from a prayer) - a man was looking to get in debt to someone who would be willing to smuggle him and his family across the Pontar, simply to get out of Velen Top it off with the rear end in a top hat sergeant running things now at Crow's perch demanding all the peasants to give up a cow for him else they get flogged Of course there are some funny ones too, like the one in Novigrad where a guy wanted to let whoever kept pissing on his doorstep know that he's bought a crossbow now. TeaJay fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 22:50
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They were taking cows before the sergeant took over. And they're not for the garrison at Crow's Perch. It's part of their deal with Nilfgaard. The sergeant just made the punishment for not giving them up worse.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:59
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The adventures of Odrin are always a great read and they should make a comic about them. That guy's a loving superhero. 
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Oct 22, 2015 23:01
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SectumSempra posted:Oh wow, its so interesting to hear the other builds are good when I pretty much exclusively make use of signs and the one from the yellow tree that lets you cast spells for adrenaline points. I haven't finished Hearts of Stone but am almost done with an NG+ Death March game. Towards the end of a normal run and for the entirety of NG+ you have way more ability points than you do slots, so you have to be really picky about what you slot but can afford to go deep in several trees. Sword damage seems to scale the best as it's based on your weapon which you'll be upgrading fairly regularly, while sign and alchemy damage doesn't scale as well. The latter are still crucial for utility but I think most people who do NG+ on higher difficulties end up with some form of hybrid build. You definitely want the 1st-tier Alch ability that gives Toxicity threshhold based on recipes learned, that will allow you to run a couple decoctions at once with potions on top. Having Ekhidna and Archgriffin both active is pretty central to my build, for example, that's where I get most of my in-combat healing and heavy single target damage. Blade Oil improvements are really friggin good because they add poison (% health DoT) and reduce damage taken against the enemy type which is great. Then you have stronger mutagens and bomb upgrades, I haven't played much with bomb upgrades recently but apparently they don't scale great? I wouldn't go any deeper than second tier in Signs for the alt-signs. Pretty bad return on investment in the higher tiers, but I don't think I could live without alt-Yrden. It is amazing in almost all situations and particularly against wraiths and fliers. Take your pick of a couple alt-Signs. Swords scale the best in terms of raw damage, it seems. Pick heavy or light and focus on one or the other. Edit: my setup is with Wolf (medium) gear and the Griffin school ability for massive stamina regen. You get tons of stamina to cast Signs or use heavy attacks, and using stamina heals you via Ekhidna. It's not that Signs is bad I think you could do NG+ Death March with a full Signs build no problem. Everything is viable, it just seems like a hybrid build is the best bang for your buck when you are limited by slots and not so much ability points. Pellisworth fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 23:22
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Yeah, I wish there were more slots for abilities. Also, the Yrden alternate mode is awesome.
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Oct 22, 2015 23:41
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Haha I just noticed this little Easter Egg in the expansion, it's only visible for like a second: It's a David Shrigley illustration or at least traced after it: 
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Oct 23, 2015 00:32
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sheesh I patched to 1.10 got all the mods working, and then 1.11 comes out ... and half the mods that I was using don't work with that I love that they keep the patches up to date but wish the modders would do the same 
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Oct 23, 2015 00:59
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enojy posted:(while holding parry 100% of the time anyway because you can). Souls players always do this and it's agonizing to watch. You're crippling yourself. Gerald is so much more mobile than the monsters and parry is so bad. Stop holding down parry. Only ever riposte and dodge. Just leave the fight if you are getting overwhelmed. Gerald doesn't have a shield. Stop playing like you have a shield. Or use alt quen if you feel you must have a shield.
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Oct 23, 2015 06:19
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Arglebargle III posted:Souls players always do this and it's agonizing to watch. You're crippling yourself. Gerald is so much more mobile than the monsters and parry is so bad. Stop holding down parry. Only ever riposte and dodge. Just leave the fight if you are getting overwhelmed. Gerald doesn't have a shield. Stop playing like you have a shield. Or use alt quen if you feel you must have a shield. yea I don't think I used parry more than a handful of times. short dodge / roll is king for everything.
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Oct 23, 2015 06:35
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My rule was parry/riposte people, dodge small monsters, roll big monsters.
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Oct 23, 2015 06:42
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Sindai posted:My rule was parry/riposte people, dodge small monsters, roll big monsters. Yeah I did this too.
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Oct 23, 2015 06:52
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Pellisworth posted:Very good info I haven't found archgriffin decoction but I'm hearing good things. I'll have to pick it up. I find that in the igni tree alone, upgrading everything but the alternate sign is a pretty decent return, also yrden's tree entirely. Upgrading those trees can melt health bars. igni causes 100% burn along with lowering the enemies defense. I think in relation to armor reduction its up to 75% quote:Weakens enemy armor Rank 5 - Effect scales with intensity up to 75%. Stamina regeneration in combat +2.5/second. So they get weaken armor and bleed damage a bit, from a simple single cast. Yrden upgraded can have 2 wider traps thrown out, fully upgraded enemies who pass through take 50 damage a second. That combined with turret zaps alone is great, considering the trap cast before the circle leaves you with stamina left to cast quickly. I'm finding it to be loads of gravy damage all over, especially because you can usually get a free trap off before the fight starts if you approach slowly before the game goes into combat stamina. Aard's alt sign is proving to be the only other useful alt sign for me. it's wide area of effect and cheap cost knocks lower leveled crowds on their backs pretty quickly, so you can go and stab em. I have a good chunk of ability points to gain and have noticed some decoctions increase sign intensity, I'm already sitting just above 200% intensity with the penultimate griffin school gear, so it could be nasty. Think I'll go that route and then do hearts of stone.
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Oct 23, 2015 07:49
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I can't even imagine playing this whole gigantic game holding parry all the time in combat. Wouldn't enemy encounters be absolutely terrible because Geralt basically slows down to a crawl when parrying? Jesus. I can see this game being extremely boring this way unless you have a high tolerance for grind I guess.
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Oct 23, 2015 07:51
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:Tax collector only shows up for some players, he's not for everyone. But for those who meet his requirements, just run around the Oxenfurt market, he hangs out there. Are they going to fix the bug where you can't equip anything on roach and all of his equipment is missing (tho roach himself is still wearing the equips), and it only shows up when you open your stash chest? at some random point later, it bugs out again and you have to go back to your chest and open it up in order to change the equips. Also sometimes the chest bugs out and doesn't show anything is in there...
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Oct 23, 2015 08:04
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I love how the game is not afraid of giving you a clown suit. I just found some chest armor that is made up of white and blue diamonds. I look like I'm going to a Jays game. Something I miss from witcher 1 and 2 is Geralt walking around with the trophies on his belt rather than the saddle. I liked wondering around talking to people with the head of a Ghoul hanging from my belt.
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Oct 23, 2015 08:20
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