DLC

Griffin School: Maximum Intensity

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General Skills: Griffin School Techniques, Adrenaline Burst

Equipment:

Gear: Griffin armor and weapons (DLC: Ofieri w/Balance)
Min. level requirement:
Level 48 + 50 Places of Power = 98 skill points (NG+)
Recommended:

  • Glyphs: Igni
    • Glyphwords: Eruption, Beguilement, Possession (Balance w/Ofieri)
  • Runestones: Veles
    • Runewords: Replenishment
  • Potions: Petri’s Philter, Tawny Owl, Swallow
  • Decoctions: Ancient Leshen, Ekhidna, Ekimmara

Summary:

This build is “The Vesemir of Griffin School”. Old and skillful character, who has mastered every sign and has learnt how to maximize his power with the help of alchemy. This is the final form of the sign builds – it can’t really get much better than this!

This build combines the features of every Sign Build meant for the first playthrough.

How it works:

  • Normally sign build would need to focus on one sign and maximize its power
    • This build offers variety by making every sign as powerful as ever!
  • The main factors of this build are the 3 skills that you should never take off…
    • Acquired Tolerance lets you use potions and decoctions
    • Synergy buffs sign intensity to insane levels (over 300%)
    • Griffin School Techniques offers both intensity and stamina boost
  • The last 9 skill slots are free to manipulate the way you wish
    • For maximum stamina regeneration, activate 5/5 skills instead of 3/3 skills
    • Igni
      • Has insane damage and is your main damage dealer
      • Also offers greater sword damage by weakening enemy armor
      • Equip the armor with Eruption while using Igni as the main sign
    • Yrden
      • Makes dodging child’s play and offers needed damage buff
      • The bane of Specters existence
      • Equip the armor with Beguilement for some craziness
    • Axii
      • Control your enemies and let them work for you
      • Equip armor with Possession to make Axii as terrifying as possible
    •  Quen
      • Your safety net and the main way of healing besides of Swallow
      • Quen Discharge offers damage output even while defending
    • Aard
      • Easy knockdowns and crowd control, nothing special here
  • The importance of your armor changes the way this build works!
    • For Griffin armor
      • Eruption when having Igni as the main sign
      • Beguilement when having Yrden as the main sign
      • Possession when having Axii as the main sign
    • For Ofieri armor
      • Balance to make this light armor to work with Griffin School Techniques
  • Activate both Ekimmara and Ekhidna decoction at the same time to having no worries about keeping you healthy
  • ALTERNATIVE:
    • If you want to have more use of your swords, enchant them with Replenishment and equip Adrenaline Burst skill. This makes quite an interesting combination while sacrificing little bit of sign intensity!

Pros and cons:

+Extremely powerful
+Versatile

-Enchanting is expensive
-Lacks sword damage

Viper School: Black Mamba

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General Skills: Griffin School Techniques, Focus

Equipment:

Gear: Viper gear
Min. level requirement: Level 33 +25 Places of Power = 58 skill points
Recommended:

  • Glyphs: Aard
  • Runestones: Veles, Morana
    • Runewords: Preservation, Replenishment
  • Potions: Thunderbolt, Petri’s Philter, Tawny Owl, Maribor Forest
  • Decoctions: Katakan, Ekimmara, Ekhidna

Summary:

Little is known of the Viper Schools teachings. We know that they are trained assassins and use poisons in their fighting style. Also it’s possible to deduce from some clues found in the game, that they’re trained to use short blades (unlike other Witcher schools) and their favored sign in combat is Aard.

These facts in mind, I created this “Apprentice of Letho” character build! He got his assassin codename “Black Mamba” because of his extremely fast fighting style – circling around fast attacks, poisoned blades and Aard knockdowns.

How it works:

  • The foundation of this build is to take advantage of preparing right blade oils for battle
    • Poisoned Blades in tandem with Venomous Viper swords innate poison ability almost guarantees that the enemy gets poisoned
    • Protective Coating adds needed buff to damage resistance, as long as the right blade oil is equipped
  • Aard is your main combat sign to use
    • Crowd control and knockdowns for easy assassination style kills
    • Griffin School Techniques, Focus, Aard glyphs and potions buff the sign intensity to reasonable state
  • Feel free to mix your active sign skills depending on the situation you’re going to face!
    • Ignis’ Firestream may be handy with certain enemies
    • Active Shield offers healing, although this is not preferred because it lacks offense which Black Mamba craves
    • Delusion and Puppet makes your Axii sign extremely handy when dealing with human opponents – a small of roleplaying element as you set your enemies to slay your assassination target perhaps?
  • Refreshment keeps you healthy while Acquired Tolerance has allowed the usage of potions and decoctions
    • Boost your sword damage and sign intensity to slay your target quicker!
  • Muscle Memory and Precise Blows makes fast attacks deal reasonable damage
  • Resolve is mainly used to keep adrenaline at full for Focus
    • If opportunity arises, combine maxed adrenaline with Blizzard potion!

Pros and Cons:

+ Interesting build focusing on poison damage
+ Fun combination of combat, sign and alchemy skills
+ True assassin build

– Lacks damage output when comparing to other builds
– Some enemies can give hard time (elementals)