Griffin School: Blizzarding Fire

     

Gear: Griffin armor and weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 35 + 25 Places of Power
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Igni
• Runestones: Veles, Perun
• Potions: Maribor Forest, Blizzard, Petri’s Philter, Tawny Owl
• Decoctions: Cockatrice, Ekhidna

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Summary:

One day Witcher from the School of Griffin was studying his Alchemy books and came across some old sketches of two peculiar potions which he had never used before:

Superior Blizzard -potion
“Effect: Improves reflexes. When 3 Adrenaline Points are available, actions don’t deplete Stamina.”

Superior Maribor Forest -potion
“Effect: Accelerates the generation of Adrenaline Points. Grants 1 Adrenaline Point on consumption.”

The Witcher was stunned and began to think all the possibilities if he combined those special effects. His teacher always said that alchemy could someday be the key to bolster their signs to new heights. The time had come to test his theory – He brewed the potions and went to the battle. He drank 3 of those Maribor Forest potions and was filled with adrenaline. Then he consumed the Blizzard potion – everything went black. Few moments later, he came to. Everyone in the room was burned to crisp. He knew, that one of the most overpowered combination was made that day and wrote it down and shared it with his colleagues, so that everyone could use it. The legend was born.

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How it works:

• Max out your adrenaline as soon as possible
  • Use Maribor Forest to gain easy adrenaline
    • Spam them to get 1 adrenaline point per consumed Maribor Forest -potion
    • Just one helps to gain adrenaline with sword blows
  • Resolve allows you to make few mistakes without losing adrenaline
    • Essential for keeping adrenaline maxed out
  • Adrenaline Burst helps to gain adrenaline while using your preferred signs before reaching maximum adrenaline and activating Blizzard
• When adrenaline is maxed out, use Superior Blizzard which allows you to cast your signs as much as you like without losing stamina
  • Eternal Igni is inarguably the best damage dealer you can wish for as a sign user
  • Melt Armor weakens your enemies for sword damage
• Use Petri’s Philter to guarantee Igni to cause burning, Aard to knockdown and so on
• Refreshment allows to use other potions than Swallow for healing
• Synergy buffs your mutagens so that you get higher sign intensity and vitality (use 2 blue mutagens even you have resolve in one tree)
• Delayed Recovery is for prolonged battles, when you want your unbeatable combination of Blizzard and Igni to last whole battle
• Use your blade oils to either buff sword damage or add bulkiness
  • Fixative makes blade oils to never wear off
  • Poisoned Blades is offensive option
  • Protective Coating is defensive option
• Mix up your active skills depending on situation
  • Defensive/Offensive blade oil skill?
  • Aard/Quen/Axii skill intead of Igni?

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NG+ suggestions:

• Use your skill points on sign tree to take advantage of Blizzard
  • Aard if you prefer knockdowns
  • Get Igni Sign Intensity skill maxed
  • Yrden and Quen for more defensive route
  • Axii for mind controlling abilities
• For more sword damage, focus on alchemy tree which already has investments
  • Hunter Instinct and Killing Spree are great skills!
• Invest on your potions skills
  • Side Effects can make use of your potions brutal very quickly
• Get some bomb skills if you feel like it!

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Pros and Cons:

+ Eternal, powerful Igni is insanely handy
+ Very versatile
+ Compared to other build focusing on Igni damage, deals passable sword damage

– Sword damage can be lackluster
– Gaining adrenaline can be a pain, which is essential for Blizzard

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Bear School: Overpowering Blizzard

        

Equipment:

Gear: Ursine armor and weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 31 + 25 Places of Power = 56 sp.
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Igni, Quen
• Runestones: Perun, Stribog
• Potions: Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Maribor Forest
• Decoctions: Katakan, Succubus

 

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Summary:

One day Witcher from the School of Bear was studying his Alchemy books and came across some old sketches of one peculiar potion which he had never used before:

Superior Blizzard Potion
“Effect: Improves reflexes. When 3 Adrenaline Points are available, actions don’t deplete Stamina.”

The Witcher was stunned and began to think all the possibilities. He had envied his colleagues from Cat School using their Whirl and those from Griffin School spamming their signs like Igni. He couldn’t use those skills effectively because he lacked good stamina regeneration. But now with this potion… He brewed it and went to the battle. He knew that gaining adrenaline was his speciality and getting it to the max was really easy. He drank the Blizzard potion – everything went black. Few moments later, he came to. Everyone in the room was dead. He knew, that the most overpowered combination was made that day and wrote it down and shared it with his colleagues, so that everyone could use it. The legend was born.

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How it works:

• Gain adrenaline to get it maxed out
  • Maribor Forest and Ursine gear makes gaining adrenaline child’s play
  • Each consumed Superior Maribor Forest grants one instant adrenaline point – use one or spam all of them to get adrenaline maxed out easily!
  • This boosts your attack power and allows to reach Blizzards utmost potential
• When adrenaline is maxed – drink Blizzard potion!
  • Enemies are slowed down, but most importantly your actions like Whirl and casting signs won’t deplete stamina!
  • Allows to use Whirl nonstop!
  • Allows to cast signs like Igni and Quen nonstop!
  • Disgustingly powerful combination is born…
• Heal with Refreshment using Blizzard/Thunderbolt/Maribor Forest
• Eternal Whirl with Deadly Precision is extremely lethal
  • 6% chance to kill opponent instantly
  • Stribog runestones make your enemies to at least stagger and enables you to continue attacking without interruption
• Eternal Igni makes opponents weak to fire extremely easy to deal with
  • Just cast it and wait for the opponent to die
  • Focus gives added 30% to sign intensity when adrenaline is maxed out
  • Glyphs are important to make sign intensity higher – choose between Igni and Quen!

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NG+ suggestions:

Focus on alchemy tree to get Delayed Recovery. That combined with this build makes Geralt maybe a bit overpowered, but who cares?

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Pros and Cons:

+ If power is everything you care for, this is totally a build for you!
+ Unbeatably the best combination of high level combat, signs and alchemy
+ There is no enemy which resists both Whirl and Firestream

– Makes battles a bit too easy at times
– Every battle starts with you trying to gain adrenaline, which leaves you vulnerable
– Without Superior Blizzard this build is kind of useless

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Youtube:
Wozzmatic Gaming posted a video taking inspiration of this build – check it out!

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Cat School: Glamdring

    

Note: I counted this as sign build even though in active skill photo I have Acquired Tolerance equipped. That’s because that’s the only skill from alchemy tree and I’d recommend to have Greater Blue mutagen there even it doesn’t link with the skill – that sign intensity boost is really needed.

Gear: Feline armor and Wolven (or Feline/Griffin) weapons
Min. level requirement:
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Aard, Quen
• Runestones: Veles, Perun
• Potions: Tawny Owl, Maribor Forest, Petri’s Philter, Swallow
• Decoctions: Ancient Leshen, Ekhidna, Katakan

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Summary:

This build takes quite different route compared with Witchers from the School of Cats normally taking. Using the fast stamina regeneration from Feline gear and adrenaline gain to cast signs is something rarely seen combined together – could it work? See it for yourself and be surprised!

PS. Name is a reference to Lord of the Rings 😉

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How it works:

• Fast attacks is the main damage dealer in this build
  • Lacks raw power, but damage output is passable
• Aard is the main sign of this build
  • Provides Knockdowns for easy/free kills
  • Aard Sweep is great for crowd control
• Quen is the main way of healing while staying offensive
  • Active Shield is astounding on Death March difficulty
  • Quen Discharge lets you deal damage while healing/defending
• Replace your active skills according to situation!!
  • There is 1 slot always free to change and additional option to replace Aard Sweep when dealing with only one opponent
  • Acquired Tolerance allows to use potions and decoctions more effectively (extremely handy)
  • Firestream is great for crowd control and against enemies weak to fire
  • Axii provides conversation options and option to Puppet enemies
• Wolven swords provide best buffs considering how build works
  • Before reaching Kaer Morhen, use Griffin or Feline swords
• Feline gears fast stamina regeneration and Rage Management using adrenaline to cast signs allows signs to be quite spammable
• Use potions to make this build more efficient!
  • Tawny Owl or/and Maribor Forest helps sign casting
  • Superior Petri’s Philter guarantees sign effects (knockdown)
• If you have Acquired Tolerance as active skill, consider using decoctions!
  • Boost signs with Ancient Leshen, heal with Ekhidna or improve critical hit chance with Katakan!

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Pros and Cons:

+ Able to use both swords and signs efficiently
+ Feline gear combined with Aard allows very offensive playstyle
+ Acquired Tolerance allows to use potions efficiently
+ Good options to replace active skills makes build quite versatile in that department

– Struggles a bit against opponents resisting Aard knockdowns
– Lacks raw power

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Cat School: Guerilla

    

Gear: Feline armor and weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 35 + 25 Places of Power = 60 skill points
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Quen
• Runestones: Devana, Perun, Stribog
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Blizzard, Tawny Owl, Golden Oriole
• Decoctions: Cockatrice, Katakan, Succubus

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Summary:

“Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants — use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.” -Wikipedia

With that in mind, this build was designed to be agile alchemy build. Using bombs to start of a fight with a bang and moving in to deal quick damage with fast attacks which are boosted by your alchemy skills – that’s what this build is all about!

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How it works:

• Bombs are the main focus of this build
  • Efficiency allows to carry that many bombs that they should be enough for even a long battle
  • Cluster Bombs decimate large groups of enemies – just beware to not get caught in the blast yourself!
  • Pyrotechnics and Steady Aim are optional skills
    • Pyrotechnics helps with weaker enemies, but that damage is unnoticeable against bosses for example
    • Steady Aim helps with first shot, but usually just casting auto-aimed bombs during battle is recommended
    • One active slot is a selection between these and Poisoned Blades – select the one best for each battle!
  • Golden Oriole allows to move in and attack with swords even after you have cast a bomb which is normally poisonous to Geralt (Devil’s Puffball and Dragon’s Dream)
  • Northern Wind boosts damage for first hit you land on opponent
• Fast attacks is your main damage dealer beside casting bombs
  • Feline gear and Cat School Techniques boosts damage
  • Use of potions, decoctions and blade oils add damage output
  • Last skill you should invest in this build is Hunter Instinct
    • Buffs critical hit damage to monstrous heights!
• Refreshment allows the use of other potions in quick slots than Swallow
  • Boost your sword damage and recovery time with these
• Decoctions provides needed boost for sword damage output
  • Katakan for critical hit chance and Succubus for attack power
• Blade Oils are essential to heighten damage output without further investments to combat tree
  • They won’t wear off because of Fixative (should always use)
  • Poisoned Blades skill is optional buff to damage
• Synergy makes this build bulky even with Feline gear

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Pros and Cons:

+ Versatility is the key
+ Explosions are extremely satisfying
+ Feeling when using knowledge when combining bombs to swordplay and potions is really satisfying

– May lack raw power
– Bombs are quite ineffective against some enemies (those who resist the damage and those who can close the gap very quickly)

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Bear School: Wild at Heart

    

Gear: Ursine armor and weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 35 + 25 Places of Power = 60 skill points
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Quen
• Runestones: Stribog, Chernobog, Svarog
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Maribor Forest, Tawny Owl
• Decoctions: Archgriffin, Cockatrice, Ekimmara, Katakan, Succubus

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Summary:

This build is a variation of another build posted on this site. Wild at Heart dwells deeper into alchemy tree giving the build more versatility and provides some niche elements when comparing to more combat focused build!

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How it works:

• Rend is your main damage dealer and you aim to maximize the damage
  • Gear + Skills + Maribor Forest to gain adrenaline faster
  • Decoctions and Thunderbolt makes the damage output disgustingly high (especially Archgriffin)
  • Tawny Owl is used for recovering stamina to use Rend again
• Rend is slow, so don’t avoid using fast attacks when against large mobs of agile enemies!
  • Muscle Memory buffs damage to make those fights easier
• Blade oils won’t wear off because of Fixative, which can give additional 50% damage with superior oils
• Refreshment allows to use other potions than Swallow in quick slots
• Synergy buffs attack power, which essentially complements the lost power when combat skills were switched to alchemy skills
• Rage Management allows you to cast Quen anytime you want!
  • You gain insane amounts of adrenaline so there’s nearly no reason to not cast Quen after it breaks
  • If you cast Quen with adrenaline, you spare stamina required for usage of Rend! Adrenaline is just there to make Rend stronger, so don’t spare those points but use them!
• Higher vitality makes this build bulkier than the combat oriented one

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Pros and Cons:

+ Even the toughest enemies will fall after couple successful Rend hits
+ Blade Oils and Synergy adds more power which was lost when focusing on alchemy
+ Muscle Memory investment helps with agile enemies

– Struggles a bit with agile and large groups of enemies
– Fast attacks still aren’t that strong even after the investment

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Griffin School: Brewing Magic

    

Gear: Griffin/Wolven armor and weapons
Min. level requirement:
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Igni, Yrden, Quen
• Runestones: Veles, Stribog
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Tawny Owl, Petri’s Philter
• Decoctions: Ancient Leshen, Cockatrice, Ekhidna, Succubus

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Summary:

One fortunate day the Witchers from the School of Griffin began to think how they could improve themselves to be more versatile. They had best teachings for Witcher signs, but they always stood behind other Schools when comparing their sword and alchemy skills. Then they found it – after brewing some high quality alchemy they finally could improve their fighting style so that they could rely on their swords much more than in the past!

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How it works:

• Igni is your main sign to use and main damage dealer
  • Melt Armor helps with your sword damage
  • Firestream is great for crowd control and burning your opponent
• Select your secondary signs to compliment your playstyle
  • You can get 2 first skills for both and sign intensity skill for other which you prefer
  • Offensive route: Aard and Axii
    • Use Aard for crowd control and knockdowns
    • Use Axii to Puppet and stun opponents
  • Defensive route: Yrden and Quen
    • Slowdown your opponent and boost your damage output with alternate Yrden
    • Quen provides healing and negating damage
• Blade Oils allow greater sword damage and protection
  • Poisoning provides added boost to your sword damage output, which is extremely handy
  • Protective Coating boosts your resistance
  • Fixative makes sure oils won’t wear off before battle ends
• Refreshment allows you to have other potions than Swallow in quick slots
  • Recommended potions provides everything you need to make both sword and sign damage powerful
  • Acts as a main way of healing
    • Defensive route allows to use Active Shield in the side of Refreshment healing, making this build quite tanky
• Synergy buffs sign intensity and vitality to reasonable levels
• Choose between Griffin or Wolven gear
  • Griffin provides greater sign intensity
  • Wolven gear provides greater sword damage

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Pros and Cons:

+ Alchemy provides such boosts that sword damage becomes usable without combat tree investments
+ Defensive capabilities are extremely high for Griffin School
+ Versatily keeps things from not getting repetitive
+ Allows to use Griffin gear while completing game until Wolven gear is available

– Lacks raw power of specialized build

Cat School: Odd Cat

    

Gear: Feline armor and Ursine/Feline weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 34 + 25 Places of Power = 59 skill points
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Quen
• Runestones: Devana, Perun, Stribog
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Maribor Forest, Blizzard, Tawny Owl
• Decoctions: Katakan, Archgriffin, Succubus

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Summary:

When looking just the active skills, one may mistake this for another standard Alchemy Tank -build with Ursine gear. The build would work well with Ursine too, but this Odd Cat from the school of Cats shows that you needn’t be slow and sturdy to land heavy blows!

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How it works:

• Rend is the main damage dealer
  • Cat School Techniques gives additional 100% critical damage boost when landing a critical hit with Rend
  • Feline gears faster stamina regeneration in contrast to Ursine allows to spam Rend in quicker succession!
  • Use Rend especially against slower and sturdier opponents or when facing just single enemy
• Fast attacks work as secondary damage dealer and helps to deal with larger groups of enemies or against agile enemies
  • Skill investments boosts damage output and makes fast attacks usable
• Heighten the chance of critical hits as much as possible to increase damage output
  • Use Katakan decoction for boss battles
  • Choose between Feline and Ursine blades
    • Feline swords with higher critical hit chance
    • Ursine swords with higher critical hit damage
• Blade Oils buff your damage output – remember to prepare for battle!
  • Fixative makes sure oils won’t wear off before the battle ends
  • Switch active skill between Poisoned Blades and Protective Coating as you see is better for battle
• Refreshment allows to use other potions instead of Swallow for healing
  • Geralts main way of healing with this build
• Synergy buffs your mutagens so that you have higher attack power and more vitality
  • Vitality buff makes even the Witcher from the School of Cat somewhat sturdy
• Use standard Quen-Slash-Retreat -tactic

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Pros and Cons:

+ Extremely versatile with fast and strong attacks combined with alchemy
+ Damage output is surprisingly high
+ More agile and versatile than the nearly same build with Ursine gear
+ Alchemy investments lets Geralt act like a real Witcher when preparing for battle

– Signs are nearly unusable
– Feline gear doesn’t provide as high damage resistance as Ursine gear

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Cat School: Swordmaster

    

Gear: Feline armor and Ursine weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 31 + 25 Places of Power = 56 skill points
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Quen
• Runestones: Devana, Perun, Stribog
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Maribor Forest, Blizzard, Swallow
• Decoctions: Katakan, Archgriffin, Succubus

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Summary:

Build making Geralt true swordmaster! Really straightforward build enabling to use both fast and strong attacks with great results while using a bit of alchemy to heal from your little mistakes!

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How it works:

• Combine fast and strong attacks according to enemy type
  • Fast attacks against agile enemies and groups
  • Strong attacks against slower and single opponents
• Use your massive adrenaline gain to use Whirl or boost Rend damage
  • Whirl destroys nearby enemies if you are surrounded
  • Rend deals massive damage with single blow
• Feline armor provides naturally fast stamina regeneration
  • Notable with Rend which is usually used in tandem with Ursine gear and slow stamina regeneration
  • Allows to use Quen-Slash-Retreat -tactic (Investment to Rage Management is optional)
• Boosting critical hit damage is essential for smoother battles
  • Katakan decoction and Thunderbolt to boost critical hit occurence
  • Archgriffin decoction to boost Rend damage
  • Ursine swords and Cat School Techniques gives massive boost to critical hit damage
• Deadly Precision gives helpful chance of instantly killing an opponent
• Alchemy investments provides this build greater efficiency
  • Refreshment is the main way of healing and allows you to have other potions than Swallow in quick selection slots
  • Allows you to have at least one decoction active for battles without hindering potion usage

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Pros and Cons:

+ More versatile than a build focusing on just fast or strong attacks
+ Simple but efficient
+ Rend and Whirl in the same build is awesome!

– Hack and Slash gameplay can get boring
– Signs are nearly unusable

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Griffin School: Sign of All Trades

      

Gear: Griffin armor and weapons
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen, Axii
• Runestones: Veles, Stribog
• Potions: Tawny Owl, Petri’s Philter, Swallow
• Decoctions: Ancient Leshen, Ekhidna

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Summary:

Getting bored of specialized sign build? Struggling with opponents resisting your chosen fully upgraded sign? Look no further! This build lets you combine your active sign skills so that you’ll always face the enemy with signs they’re weak against! Jack of all trades kind of build maybe hasn’t the raw power of specialized sign build, but is whole lot more versatile!

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How it works:

• Choose your active skills when preparing for battle!
  • Every highly beneficial alternate sign and intensity skill is available to combine accordingly
  • Quen skills and Griffin School Techniques are always essential
• Remember to read Bestiary and have knowledge of enemy weaknesses
  • Aard
    • Against enemies vulnerable to knockdown
    • Aard Sweep against large groups of enemies
  • Igni
    • Firestream against enemies which can get burned
    • Your most potent damaging sign
  • Yrden
    • Makes agile enemies slower and easier to deal with
    • Magic Trap when wanting to block projectiles and buff damage output of swords
    • Essential against Specters
  • Quen
    • Active Shield is your main way of healing
    • Discharge deals damage while healing and defending
  • Axii
    • Become a puppeteer and set your enemies against each other!
    • Domination works as crowd control
    • Chance to slay opponent instantly
    • Additional conversation options help a lot
• Recommended skills against human opponents are Igni, Aard and Axii
• Choose your potions and decoctions with care as you have limited toxicity limit!
  • Prefer battling during night as Superior Tawny Owl won’t wear off
  • Superior Petri’s Philter guarantees secondary effects of your signs
  • Decoctions are very risky, but may give you needed edge for tough battles

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Pros and Cons:

+ The most versatile sign build in existence
+ Always able to use enemy sign weakness to your advantage
+ If battle preparations are made with care, you’ll have no trouble facing anyone!

– Limited use of alchemy
– Wrongly predicted battle preparations can make battles extremely tough

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Bear School: Bomber of Blaviken

    

Gear: Ursine armor and weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 23 + 25 Places of Power = 48 skill points*
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Quen
• Runestones: Dazhbog, Devana, Stribog
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Maribor Forest, Blizzard
• Decoctions: Katakan, Cockatrice, Ekimmara, Succubus

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Summary:

When the butcher gets his hands on bombs, you know things are going down… This build entirely focused on alchemy makes Geralt act like a heavy artillery or tank! Watch your enemies blow away and enjoy what wonders your alchemy knowledge can achieve!

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How it works:

• Bombs are your main way of dealing damage
  • Efficiency allows you to carry enough bombs to blow up entire village if you wish to
  • Cluster Bombs blasts away large area and all enemies in it
  • Note: You will have plenty of skill points before you reach the end of the game. You can choose to upgrade Steady Aim and Pyrotechnics with additional skill points, but I haven’t found much use for them so they aren’t included.
• Blade Oils buffs sword damage up to 50%
  • Poisoned Blades allows you to poison your enemy for extra damage, especially with Superior oils this happens all the time
  • Protective Coating reduces the enemy damage as long as you have prepared accordingly
  • Geralt won’t need to worry for oils to wear of thanks to Fixative
• Potions are spammable and that’s even recommended!
  • With Side Effects you always activate another potions effect – extremely handy ability!
  • Refreshment allows you to have some other potion than Swallow in you quick slot
  • Delayed Recovery makes long battles child’s play. After few minutes into fight when Geralt has consumed his decoctions and potions (with added side effects), you’ll have eternal buffs for the remaining of battle!
• Ursine gear provides enough adrenaline gain to use signs whenever needed, especially Quen
  • You need adrenaline just for Rage Management, so Quen becomes extremely spammable

*Note: If you hoard all the Places of Power this build is finished extremely early in the game. Even so that all active slots aren’t open and you have many more skill points to spare. With this build searching every PoP isn’t really needed. You can freely choose to invest your skill points as you see best!

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Pros and Cons:

+ Geralt becomes near impossible to kill
+ Your alchemy skills are non-matched and make you feel like a scholar
+ Explosions are really satisfying

– Battles can take too long for some people – stall tactics essentially
– Requires a lot of time to gather every recipe
– Struggles at the beginning of the game

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