I actually want to stop playing this clusterfuck. I've been playing on Dark since the beginning and I don't know how I made it as far as the troll quest.

Enemies always block, and with no penalty or limit, while blocking costs vigor points while still taking health away from you. If you want to break an enemy's guard you must use one of your magic skills, which costs vigor. Wow, great game design right there.

After the end of any animation, Geralt freezes just long enough to get himself killed where blocking or dodging could not be performed.

Since enemies also are capable of stunning you with basic attacks, you must stay the fuck away from them lest you get spammed to death and pathetically whittle away at them with magic and cheap tactics, constantly going in a neverending fucking circle jerk whilst rolling.

Needless to say this is not my idea of a good time and I'm fucking sick of it. I have tried lowering the difficulty all the way to normal, and while I have enough health to last longer, these same gigantic problems remain. I'm stuck with my low level shit with no way to dig my out, except straight through the shit, and I'm not content to do that.

Have a possibility occurred to you that it might not be a bad game design; that you just suck at it? It sounds like you just keep mashing the attack button, with no regards to your surroundings. Be clever, be mobile, dodge around, don't attack enemies who are using block (obviously), use dodge in favor of block yourself (blocking can be useful at times, but ... Yeah, it drains vigor. And yeah, enemies damage you trough it when your vigor is depleted - 'vigor' is more of 'stamina' or 'concentration', there's no mana pool in the world of Witcher.)

You don't have to break the block of your opponents, when they start blocking, jump away and time your attack correctly to catch them between their own attack animation - that way they can't block it. Just be sure to be behind them or ... Just somewhere where they can't hit you.

Use signs as little as possible and only when you are certain it will benefit you - quen is fantastic as it basically grants you temporary invulnerability (at the cost of vigor not regenerating while it lasts), and Yrden is pretty damn useful at splitting enemy forces up as just attacking a group head-on is often a suicide.

Just use your brain, don't try to mash buttons until enemy dies, and you'll be fine. I have finished the game on Dark and I find the combat system fantastic and satisfying, altho incredibly unrealistic.

What a predictable fanboy comment.

It is bad game design, for the expressed reasons, and no amount of irrational rationalization is going to change that. I'm fully aware of what success in the combat system entails, I expressed as much. It's called poke and roll, and I've had enough of it. When I asked for tips I meant console commands or leveling tips.

Look, first of all: Most people that I know of did like the combat - they either liked it, or they've at least found it working and serviceable. Most of stuff you are complaining about is either nonexistent (light attack animations you can break more or less at anytime, heavy attack animations not - that's so you have to think before using it) or they're blatantly you playing the game wrong (yes, when you are overpowered, you will die. Kinda like in ... you know ... Actual swordfight. You have to divide and conquer. Yes, attacking the opponent's sword won't lead anywhere, you need to find a hole in his defense.)

Needless to say that I have actually tried to help you and instead of, you know, 'thank you' you've grabbed the first sentence and started trolling, so... Yeah. So much for my help.

edit: Oooh now I get it, you don't like the combat and so it's bad design. Well that's ... Ok, I guess the fact that I have enjoyed it immensely doesn't mean squat because you didn't. Hm.

You said I "probably sucked" at the game because I dared find legitimate "holes" in CDRed's "perfect" game.

That you want to lie to yourself to preserve the game's precious honor is the fault of your closed and pathetic mind, no fault of my skill or strategic ability.

I said I'd been playing on Dark and got as far as the troll quest as well as other side quests in the forest. I obviously know how to play the game, the problem is I'm not content to play the game this way anymore. You haven't helped.

I'm sorry. You are correct. The game sucks. Its combat system sucks as well. Do yourself a favor and stop playing it, it's not worth your precious time.

You've yet to actually refute what I've said. Why don't you actually try to.

I've heard that enemies don't block at all on easy, so you might want to consider that if you can't get a feel for when they're about to block.

Many, many people were frustrated at the combat in the beginning. Once you get a feel for it, however, it actually ends up being surprisingly fair. It's important not to rely only on your sword, however, especially on the higher difficulties, because fighting like that forces you to roll around a ton and not have very much fun. Yeah, signs are okay, but bombs and traps are where it's at.

You know those snare traps lying around all over the forest? You can pick them up and lay down thirty or so in one spot, which will one-shot even several bosses. They're reusable, as well. Bombs are even more useful, especially the fire one (I forgot the name) and grapeshot. The fire one often incinerates your opponents, meaning they'll flail around defenseless and be unable to block. One of them can render an entire group helpless if you place it well enough, though it doesn't work on everyone. Grapeshot, on the other hand, is a good general purpose bomb that you can use to stagger just about anyone and get a few strong attacks in. It does a good bit of damage, as well. I'd recommend picking up a ton of snare traps and crafting a bunch of bombs, because they really make gameplay way less roll-y and tedious.

You have called me a 'fucking idiot' for trying to help you. That's where I draw the line. I very much hope no one else posts in this topic, as it is clear it's not help you were looking for, it's an argument. I'm really not going to indulge you on that front.

And you said I sucked at the game because you felt offended that I pointed out legitimate flaws in the gameplay. And it's not a bad game, I guess the developers wanted to force the player to utilize the other aspects of their arsenal, which was stupid in the way that they did it, but the game is fun if you take advantage of crafting and magic.

I edited out the "fucking idiot" part, but I guess you caught it beforehand. It's fair, but it's unbalanced fairness. Instead of making swordplay take such a backseat, they could have increased the amount of enemies, they could have given the enemies more health, or just something else other than making enemies so cheap. Their ability to block should be as flimsy as your own if not weaker, not limitless.

Yeah, it's kind of weird from a consistency standpoint that they can block until the end of time and yet the trained swordsman can only effectively block a few hits.

You might consider investing in the riposte skill, by the way. Not to give anything away, but in the second chapter/act/whatever you have to go through a smallish section where you can't roll or use signs/bombs and enemies do a lot of blocking. Riposte supposedly makes that section tolerable, and it can tend to be pretty cheap and rage-inducing if you're not prepared for it. Just an advance warning.

Just play it on Easy. If you're at the point where you're asking for console commands you might as well just do that.

I played on Easy my first time through and while Chapter 1 felt "just right" I proceeded to steamroll through everything afterward and lost that "I might die" exhilaration. There was little chance of dying.

Playing it again on Normal makes it a bit tough at the outset and then "just right" for the rest of the game. But then, I don't roll around much and I don't use bombs or traps much either. Just signs and swords. And plenty of alchemy.

So, it gets much easier, especially if you're able to craft all the great items available in Chapter 1.

Witcher 2 combat is difficult. You should really think about your actions, or it punishes you.

Go play Dark Souls and then return to the Witcher 2. I did, and afterwards at Dark difficulty I found the Witcher 2 to be a pretty easy game.

There are a lot of flaws with the combat the main one for me being the inability to move for one second after casting a sign. I cast ard on an enemy to stun him but I can't fucking move for one second and by the time I get to him the stun effect has wore off.

Great game but the combat is flawed.

Dark souls is actually easier than the witcher 2 because you have full control over your character, if you die it's your own fault. A lot of times if you die in the witcher 2 it comes down to the imperfect combat

Every time I attack and get stuck and killed was due to being staggered. Once I stopped spamming attacks in front of the monster I stopped having problems.

The only bad part of the combat system is that you can't control your attacks too much.