Been playing on the hardest difficulty, so my own experience may vary with others.

Oils: I have a huge personal issue with this mechanic. Oil flask has unlimited usage? That's odd, and I'm not sure if it lasts for 20 hits or 20 swings, either way it seems like I have to apply the oil to the blade every 10 seconds and to do that you have to open the inventory during a fight which breaks the flow of combat. I contemplated this from a design decision point of view but it seems atrocious no matter which way I look at this mechanic. If it was a 5 minute duration it would actually be usable, but instead we have an unlimited oil flask that needs to be used every 10 seconds by opening the inventory during combat. I just don't even bother using this anymore even on the hardest difficulty due to the way this mechanic has been designed. It's just poor design.

Just to give you an example of how fast this oil runs out, on the hardest difficulty a single level 4 drowner takes around 6 or 7 hits to kill at level 4 geralt with a 130dps silver sword.

Potions: I dislike how you can only have up to 3 potions (swallow) in your inventory, but can be carrying 15 weapons. I mean if this is supposed to be so limited for the sake of being realistic, I find it to be annoying rather than immersive. If I have the alcohol I should be able to control how many potions I want to make when I meditate. It doesn't even make sense for the sake of balance either. In the hardest difficulty (not sure if that matters) it takes all 3 swallow potions to regenerate your health bar from low health at level 4. That's too ridiculous especially compared to food. They need a buff and they need to allow us to make more than 3 of them.

I mean I guess you could use the 3 potions you have, stop and rest every 1 hour but ?-_-? that's tedious for the sake of being tedious. I contemplated this decision from a game-balance point of view and I conclude that if food does not have this limitation in combat (you can carry a lot of it and consume it instantly during combat) then I'm not exactly sure why this is so extremely limited for the potions. I find it annoying.

Hopefully someone makes a mod for oils and potions because these current in-game designs are atrocious.

@OP Both points you made are false from what I've seen.
My oils all last about 5 minutes on normal difficulty and potions vary depending on what they are (the first damage boost one is only 20 seconds).
Perhaps the difficulty setting is what's causing your problems.
Try turning it down to normal and see if they last longer.

The difficulty of this game is mostly in about enemies being in a group or not, because the ai is working well, having them block while another attacks you, etc.
Even on normal, I avoid large groups of enemies until I'm their level or my guy gets killed.

Oils and potions auto refil by USING ALCOHOL. That's realistic, not free refills.


I am able to carry an unlimited number of oils and potion in my inventory, so long as I have the carry weight for it.
Again, perhaps it's because you chose the harder difficulty, of which that limitation is a part.

I'm in he hardest difficulty too.

About potions, they should also need adequate ingredients, not just alchool =/

It's (almost) OK to re-fill with alcohol, but not auto-refill and no potions limit. Also, I really don't like how they work. In the witcher series, you drink a potion and that lasts for long. 20 seconds for a thunder or swallow? Really? Geralt's a witcher, but I'm sure his body doesn't "erase" all that (yeah, I know he still has poison in his body, but doesn't make much sense). This potion system has become something like Dark Souls where you must have good timing for drinking fluids, and I'm not interested in playing that way.

You should probably read the books to understand why they worl the way they do. Your Dark Souls reference is not far off for the major encounters but that's actually a good thing because you have to rely on precision and PREPERATION in order to combat those foes. If you are not prepared for that kind of game than this game is just not for you. No shame in saying a game isn't your style.

the potion refilling is not casualisation.
It is there to show you that you don't have infinite potions like on other games, where you can just spam them.
Potions would be less rare if you could craft unlimited amounts.
It makes sense that geralt would mix new potions while he is resting, doesn't it?
But i also agree the potions should last longer.
In the books and previous games the potions last very long, and that makes sense, why change it?

But i totally hate the oil mechanic aswell.
The way that the game is now it would be best if the oil just stayed on indefinitly until you apply another one.
And there should be more quickslots for potions on pc, and a bar of sorts for oils.

If you think about how fast time in game is elapsing it is pretty close to on par with duration from the books. I agree that Oils probably could have been handled better with regard to application duration. Probably should be on a timer at the lower difficulty settings and leave it the way it is now on the harder settings.

Oil lasting infinitely on swords? Come on, there should be some wear at least. I think it would be great if oils lasted for about 100 or 200 hits (not swings) instead of 20. I think that statement is invalid, since the ingame time might pass faster, though that's just for the player to feel the time passing after all. 20 seconds are about 7 minutes of ingame time. I didn't read the books, so I have no idea how long potions lasted there...

I read the books and potions effects don't disappear after a couple of seconds. Witcher 2 is my kind of game, witcher 3 is my kind of game, dark souls is not my kind of game, I know how to use potions in witcher 3 but I don't like it. And that's not preparation. Setting abilities is preparation. Drinking a potion *before* a battle is preparation. Drinking a potion in battle that lasts seconds is precision.

From a gameplay perspective, yeah.

However if you oil/coat something in real life it usually only lasts for about one use aswell so maybe they wanted a realistic approach? xD

True, though going for maximum realism would result in massive lib loss and instant kills due scrambled or cut-off heads. And for sure you can't apply oil while fighting. ("Hey, werewolf, please wait a second! Need to apply some beast oli so i can kill you faster, ok?!")

At first I was also against how potions and oils work. But after discovering enhanced versions and putting some skill points into them I see this thing work - my enhanced thunderbolt lasts something about 2.5 minutes (as i remmember) and enhanced oil gives like 40 or more hits.

But what is driving me mad currently is that if i want to drink 3 potions I must at least go 3 times in the inventory screen to switch them to quick slots. It is aweful! Why can't i chug them away right there? Show me a little toxicity bar and it will be ok.

For me potions didn't seem to work properly!

I used a potion on my silver sword against a ghost enemy, but I could hardly do any damage.

After being defeat by the ghost I returned to that enemy and used again a potion (same one) and see there, I made much more damage and defeated the enemy with few slashes....

Anybody encountered the same "bug"??? Or is this a normal game mechanic?

Is it the Noonwraith quest? If so, the ghost cannot be harmed in its incorporeal form. You have to lure it inside a Yrden circle, and then you can do normal damage. Or use a special kind of bomb, which you likely don't have yet (Moondust, IIRC).