Overview
Having troubles with the combat system in The Witcher 2? Can’t pass certain a boss or even a quest? I’ll explain the basics of the combat system so you’re able to defeat every single boss/monster in the game.Let me first clear some stuff out:WeaponsThere are 2 weapons, silver weapons and the normal kind of weapons (steel) and there is a huge difference between them.Silver weapons are used against monsters, and monsters only. Since they deal additional damage to monsters. Steel weapons are used against humans, and humans only. Since they deal their full damage to humans.If you’re going to try to fight humans with a silver sword, you will only deal minimum damage, and that’s probaly 2-5% of their HP each hit. While a steel sword can deal up to 100% HP (If you used the right rune)Also don’t forget to upgrade your weapon&armor when you need it. RunesYou can upgrade your weapons by adding runes into slots that are on the weapon, these runes have various effects, like % weapon damage increase, chance on knockdown and so on. I always use % damage increase no matter what. But this is my style of play since I’m not a huge fan of ‘chance on hit’ effects.BooksThere are some quests, which tells you you need to kill certain mobs, think of Trolls / Drowner and many more. All of these monsters require special tactics in order to kill them. You can’t just charge in and hope you kill them. NO. You must read BOOKS that’s right, time for some fine reading. Find a merchant that sells books and read through them. If you don’t want to read a book, just open up the book and skip through the pages, a TL;DR will appear in your monster information menu. Now let’s get to the main part, the fighting mechanicsFirst off, always use the right sort of weapon against your enemy (Steel or Silver) screwing this up will cause you to lose the fight.Make sure you always have 1 Vigor up, by talenting right you can regen much faster by having 1 Vigor up, just use when it’s needed.If you’re unable to hit a monster due to his speed, try to snare the monster with Yrden, this will root them in place and also allows you to do a backstab attack which causes 200% more damage than an ordinary hit from the front. You can also use Yrden to root any mob and deal a backstab hit. This all depends on your playstyle, try experimenting!Kite around to let Vigor regen up. There are no timed events so there is no reason to finish the fight as soon as possible.Pay close attention to your enemy, learn their combat animations and be ready to dodge every single attack. Getting surrounded means a certain death. Try to avoid this at any cost.Later on in the game, you will encounter more difficult npc’s that are equiped with either a 2hander or 1hander and a shield, Try to break their defence by using: A Dagger / Bomb / Trap / Aard or Yrden. You can try to just hit the npc but there is a slight chance of actually breaking their defence by just using your 2hander.Use the Quen sign the most of anything, Defensive playstyle wins in the Witcher 2. But if you dodge most attacks you won’t have to use Quen, rather use Aard or Igni. Only use Yrden on certain bosses.To sum it up:-Play defensive, dodge every single attack(if possible) and kite around to regen Vigor.