Okay now this is just f***in' ridiculous. I play video games for like 15 years now, I always play on hard difficulties yet I can honestly say that some fights in Witcher 2 are really tough on hard.

But you know what, I believe you and here's how you can prove it. Here's a video I've just recorded from a fight I can't beat even though I've tried at least 20 times now:

Fight!

Show me how it's done in the steamrolling kind of way on hard difficulty! :D I've tried a lot of tactics, none of them were effective, I just die all the time. I've even tried to trap the guy with yrden but guess what: after you hit him a few times you get electrocuted and the gargoyles appear. I've buffed up my character, drank 3 potions, one that defends me againt the guy's attacks yet I fall again and again. Oh and I have a sword that gives you a 25% damage bonus against gargoyles yet I always fail this encounter. Aard works great against the gargoyles but have fun dodging the guy's attacks all the time in such a small room that is full of stuff that gets in your way.

Also just a fact: changing difficulty in the last part of the game has a minimal effect: your already buffed up your character on normal so that clearly affects hard mode.

Well, the operator IS the hardest fight in the game and it would be kind of a letdown if you could steamroll him. You don't even need to kill him as he is 100% optional. I suppose you went swordsmanship because you have 4 vigor? I guess that tree might be harder than the mage/alchemist path. I had about double the vigor at the point so it's a lot easier to spam spells. Also positioning: in the video you posted you wouldn't have died had you rolled once more to the right to keep the other gargoyle behind the one you were fighting.

FYI, that part of the game is actually a quest that came with the EE so it's possible many players who played at release missed it.

Anyway, I had trouble there as well and I played on Normal the entire game. When I came to that place I lowered to Easy just to see if it was possible but no, I ended up dying no matter what I did. I also tried Hard just for fun and I think I recall I ended up dying immediately.

Actually I remember getting my respec from the operator back in 2.0 when I first played the game so no, I don't think he was only added in EE.

Hmm. Maybe 2.0 was the first patch with EE or just the first patch with the Operator?

Am I the only person around here who legitimately enjoys the combat system?

Not saying it's perfect or anything, but I find it very enjoyable - even though I agree with the lopsided difficulty curve. It definitely goes from hard to easy as you level.

I can see why the amount of rolling and dependency on quen isn't exactly ideal, but they aren't big enough issues for me to hate the game - at all. I like the focus on positioning and striking when the time is right.

I'm currently playing dark mode and barely use any potions or oils, it's my third playthrough though. No big problems. Quen is very much a must, though.

I know that it's totally optional but that's exactly why saying "yeah steamrolled it on hard" is a stupid thing to say. And yes, my positioning was bad and that proves the point really: even though I have a very strong character, in some situations one tiny mistake, one badly timed attack can lead to instantly dying. That's not necesserily a bad thing but this part in particular is basically buggy, you get stuck in almost everything that is near the wall so you'll be afraid to go there and instead of doing the right dodge you just get yourself killed. :D

Anyway I've left the operator for a future playthrough and finished the game instead and well wow, the difficulty really went downhill to the end. The dragon was fairly easy and the last fight with Letho was a cakewalk, actually he couldn't even hit me. :D I don't really see it as a fault however, somehow it just felt right and perfectly set the tone for the ending. Also I think I deserved a very easy fight: in a huge open area for once after sucking all the way through. :D

I enjoyed it but at times it became frustrating, partially as later on in the game I noticed my performance started to drop as I entered larger out door areas where your view distance is much larger. Then again I also played on Normal, abused saving, used all resources as soon as I found it necessary and I think three times, specifically Letho, The Operator and the Dragon at the end I watched walkthroughs after trying them multiple times. Fun fact, the dragon at the end is ridiculously easy if you use Aard right which I noticed after failing him 10-15 times and I specialized in Aard too, I just assumed it wouldn't work and tried once or twice but I didn't notice the effect until later.

I'm planning on trying on Dark Mode as soon as this new combat mod is released but I'm not too sure I've the energy to continue now but I'll definitely replay it at least once before Witcher 3 is out.

Sometimes I start to think that this game was designed by idiots. I started a new game on DARK difficulty because some gamers stated it's actually easier and more rewarding than hard and it's actually true, the game is balanced and fair on dark difficulty.

The downside is that of course you get more serious wounds on dark difficulty and this starts being a problem at some of the parts where you are controlling a character different from Geralt. I've tried to beat the part with Seltkirk at least 15 times now and my opponents just cut me down. This really seems like a gamebreaker part on dark because well here are the proble4ms with it:

- Seltkirk does everything too slow
- He dies in 2-3 hits (and people in the game say he was invincible in his armor, WTF? :D)
- He can't dodge, only parry and riposte but of course that's almost impossible to do when you are fighting against 3 enemies.

The sign of designer idiocy comes from the third point really: how can you be so stupid as a game designer that you have secondary playable characters who can't dodge in a game where the whole fighting system is based on dodging? :D Who the hell does that? :DD

> find shit in your food
> order another one
> it does not have crap in it
> but you just can't bring yourself to eat anymore

... and that's why you don't tell people to retry the game with the "Enhanced Combat mod" or whaddayacallit

Sounds pretty idiotic to be honest.

I didn't like Morrowind'd leveling system and it was taking a lot of fun out of the game. I also didn't like how I was the god of the universe with all the extra quests and content mods I had installed. Then I installed GCD and liked the leveling system. I also tweaked the skill increase speeds so I was leveling a lot slower. Then I was god no longer and I played Morrowind for 200 hours.

So to me it is completely reasonable to try and fix what you don't like instead of abandoning it.

To be honest I've kept an eye out for that mod but so far it looks like nothing was improved significantly (instead of dodging you do weird, even more unrealistic **** in combat, wow, fantastic :D) nad new problems were introduced. I think it's better to stay with the original game at this point, at least we know the flaws and how to overcome them there.