Hey,

I'm kinda torn between two choices right now. Please don't berate me for this (I have no idea how you guys react to this kind of thing) but I recently decided to try the Act 2 Nekker farming tactic. On my first try, I looted the supposedly ultra-rare madness mutagen, although its stats were kinda lackluster (2 armor 10 vit or something like that), but I screwed up my encounter so the nekkers never appeared again. However, on subsequent re-tries I succeeded in getting them to respawn but have yet to find any madness mutagens.

Is the mutagen worth keeping over the thousands of orens in nekker parts that I will eventually collect?

Also, does the madness mutagen have a greater version? A quick google search yielded conflicting reports on its stats.

Thanks a lot!

I dunno, I guess if you stack a bunch, it might be worth it. I personally just stack the greater crit effect ones, and slam a wolf because i just enjoy seeing everything i hit on fire, spewing green, etc., lol.

And no there isnt a greater madness as far as I know, and im on my 3rd playthrough.

Madness mutagen also adds 1-2 damage, it basically is 3 normal (not greater) mutagens combined: strenght, power, vitality.

You'll see the 1-2 damage only once you actually use the madnes mut on your skills.

There is no Greater version of it, but if you take Impregnation (middle alchemy tree skill) it will double its values (with 2/2 points in the skill). Imho is not worth to take your skill if you don't plan to go along the alchemy tree anyway.

Is a good mutagen, not worth losing a lot of time on it tho, and unless you're playing on Insane you don't need that level of min-maxing. That said, money are not hard to come and a couple thousands more won't give you a gamebreaking advantage.

Choice up to you


Edit: also note that Impregnation talent will not retroactively modify your mutagen. Meaning that if you plan to take it, save your mutagen until you actually have Impregnation

I went with all Greater Critical effects as well. The rest of the mutagens just seemed useless. Honestly, from what you describe, it doesnt sound worth it......well, MAYBE if got impregnation before adding the mutagens.

I have a question for you, since I never tried the critical mutagen. Does critical effect occour if you don't have any item giving the base chance of that critical to happen?

As is, will you (for example) freeze enemies with crit mutagens alone even if you don't have any item with +freeze chance?
I ask because Finesse (skill giving +15% chance to all critical effects) does not seem to work, I actually never seen monsters freezing, incenerating or poisoned unless I had a weapon with that effect in my hands.

I went for all strength/greater strength/madness, got 179 armor at the end. Anyway:money is not really important, farm only if you need it.

You know, I can't really say for sure. I never noticed. I was plowing through enemies so fast I didn't keep track. lol

it only works on the crit affects you have on your sword, the one you are fighting with. so if your sword got freezing crit, that talent will add 15% more chance to it to prot. hope this explains it.

Exactly what I wanted to know, thank you boozee.

hi there,

how exactly does one screw up the nekker regen in act 2? i ask because i must have done just that, they're just not showing up anymore. i even tried meditating an entire day, or as close as i could manage, but only those harpies are showing up.

as an aside, the last time they spawned i got that madness mutation. is that the connection?

thanks :)

Probably does not have anything to do with you acquiring the madness mutagen.

I would say the nekker spawning is quest-related (location-wise) and once the quest is completed, so the spawning ends. At least that is my theory.

Not sure about that. I actually just incinerated 2 Nekkers in a big fight, with a Robust blue meteorite silver sword, with two moon runes, so only sign damage bonus on the sword, no base incineration.
But i do have a greater crit mutagen with lvl 2 impregnation and the pyromaniac ability.

I highly doubt it, on my 2nd place through on Roche's Path, I only started farming nekkers for parts after finishing every side quest and almost ending act 2. They still spawn fine.

Maybe you have the wrong location? Its the near the 2nd pond from the waterfall.

If you're still having trouble having them respawn, here's some helpful steps:
1. Just move away a bit from where they burrow up.
2. Save and reload
3. Meditate for 24hrs (must be after midnight)
4. Go back to the burrow location

And just repeat.

Fair enough. Seems like they respawn much slower when you are done with the side quest (or high level / or proceeded with the main quest) compared to when you are fresh from prologue where you easily get 5-6 running around.

Plus I don't think the ones in the cave behind the waterfall respawn after you are done with the (optional) main quest there.