NG+: Final Stand

  
General Skills: Cat School Techniques, Griffin School Techniques, Bear School Techniques, Focus, Rage Management & Strong Back

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Equipment:

Gear: Legendary Ursine, Legendary Viper Gear or Undvik gear
Min. level requirement: Level 53 + 50 Places of Power = 103 skill points
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Igni
  • Glyphwords: Levity / Balance / Heft
• Runestones: –
  • Runewords: Severance (Invigoration / Prolongation)
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Tawny Owl, Petri’s Philter, Blizzard, Swallow, Maribor Forest
• Decoctions: Archgriffin, Ekhidna, Ekimmara

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Summary:

This is the build that I personally use for my NG+ playthrough. It has everything that I could ask for to keep the gaming experience interesting and variable. The best part is that I can change the build for three (3) different variants depending on the situation I’m going to face without the need of respec. This is possible because of two factors:

1. Doubled amount of skill points available on NG+ (Places of Power offer 25 skill points again + all level-up skill points)
2. Ability to have multiple armors with different Glyphwords in your inventory or stash

One big factor in NG+ is that you already know what is coming up, so you can always change your active skills, armor and potions accordingly. This lets you feel like a true Witcher!

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How it works:

This section is going to be a bit different from my standard structure. Because this build has three (3) different variants for active skills, this section is now divided in three.

1. Fast -variant / 2. Igni -variant / 3. Strong -variant
         

General information:

• There are 5 skills that always remain in every variant
  • Resolve & Razor Focus
    • Every variant relies on adrenaline points, so these two skills are the most important skills to have
  • Acquired Tolerance, Refreshment & Synergy
    • Acquired Tolerance allows the better usage of potions and decoctions
    • Refreshment is my favorite skill, allowing me to use different potions than Swallow in quick selection slots
    • Synergy just makes every build stronger and always worth one active skill slot
• Furthermore, there is always one of the Witcher School Technique -skills active
  • These skills offer so large buffs to damage/stats that they are impossible to pass by!
• Change your armor for every variant!
  • This requires quite a lot of crowns and crafting materials, but you should craft…
    • 2-3 Legendary Ursine armors, with Levity / Balance / (Heft) -glyphwords
    • 3 Legendary Viper armors, with Levity / Balance / Heft -glyphwords
  • Pros and Cons of…
    • Legendary Ursine gear gives greater adrenaline gain and higher damage resistance to monsters, but vulnerable to poison and lower stats…
    • Legendary Viper gear gives greater stats (especially for swords) and immunity to poison, but lacks in damage resistance and doesn’t offer adrenaline gain…
    • But even though both have weaknesses, they can be compensated with right potions and active skills!
  • Always use Nilfgaardian Guardsman Gauntlets instead of Witcher gear!
    • Adds +50% Critical hit damage bonus!!!
  • It should be totally clear, but just to be sure:
    • Use the armor w/ Levity when using Fast -variant
    • Use the armor w/ Balance when using Igni -variant
    • Use the armor w/ Heft when using Strong -variant
  • Sometimes I use Undvik armor when questing in Skellige just for aesthetics!
• Swords are generally the same, with little differences…
  • Viper swords have higher damage output and chance to poison
  • Ursine swords have lower damage output but gives great boost to adrenaline gain
• Final note: The builds can always be modified with the inactive skills if you find them useful for the situation you are in!
  • Delusion – for better conversation options (I have it nearly always equipped in quests including humans)
  • Deadly Precision – sometimes combined with Fast -variant
  • Strong Back -skill is one of best convenience skills to have while traveling! Replace of of your active skills with this if your inventory space is full and you just don’t feel like going to sell everything you have scavenged yet
  • Protective Coating makes you a real tank taking almost no damage at all
  • Fast Metabolism is sometimes used to stack many Decoctions before a fight to get that toxicity low enough to still use potions
  • Rage Management is sometimes used in Strong -variant if you really need to use Quen-Slash-Retreat -tactic
  • Exploding Shield, Poisoned Blades and Heightened Tolerance have rarely found use when using this build…

Fast -variant

• Used when dealing with large groups of enemies, or when the enemy is too agile to use strong attacks
• Whirl is the main damage dealer
  • Skills that buff damage output: Cat School Techniques, Killing Spree, Hunter Instinct and general fast attack skills
  • Use potions like Thunderbolt, Tawny Owl, Maribor Forest and Blizzard
  • The best decoction for this variant is Ekimmara decoction
• Always remember to use right Blade Oils, because they are crucial/easy buffs to damage!
  • Fixative is used for convenience reasons – I don’t like to pause the fight just to add more oil to my blade…

Igni -variant

• Used when facing enemies susceptible to burning, but mainly used just when wanting to mix things up and make some greater use of signs!
• Whirl and Rend is removed to get rid off the chance of losing adrenaline points
• Sign intensity is generally low but to compensate that use…
  • Griffin School Techniques and Focus
  • Potions like Petri’s Philter, Tawny Owl and Blizzard
  • The best decoction for this variant is Ekhidna decoction

Strong -variant

• Used when dealing with a boss-fight or when dealing with generally slow enemies
  • Note how Killing Spree is replaced with Sunder Armor, changing the focus from multiple enemies to single one
• Rend is your “one blow to kill them all”
  • Damage is buffed by every Strong attack skill, Hunter Instinct and Bear School Techniques
  • Further increase the damage with Thunderbolt and Maribor Forest
  • The best decoction for this variant is Archgriffin decoction
• Stong -variant has also the option to become a tank!
  • Bear School Tecniques and Full Moon -potion to increase vitality
  • Equip Protective Coating and combine it with Ursine/Undvik gear to heighten damage resistance to insane levels

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Pros and Cons:

+Variability at its highest level
+Every variant is usable
+Has nearly everything you can ask for (lacking some signs)

-Lack of signs
-Requires quite a bit of work to reach

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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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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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Wolf School: Rending Axii

    

Gear: Wolven armor and Ursine weapons
Min. level requirement: Level 32 + 25 Places of Power = 57 skill points
Recommended:

• Glyphs: Quen, Axii
• Runestones: Perun, Stribog, Veles
• Potions: Tawny Owl, Maribor Forest, Thunderbolt, White Honey
• Decoctions: Ancient Leshen, Archgriffin, Katakan

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Summary:

Break your opponents mind, set them agains each other and while they are unable to attack you slice them in half with your spammable Rend! This interesting build is ton of fun and helps those who struggle to land Rend successfully!

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How it works:

• Rend is your main damage dealer
  • Massive stamina regeneration allows you to spam Rend whenever you wish to
  • Axii helps to keep enemy still while you load Rend to max power
• Muscle Memory boosts fast attacks so fast blows aren’t as weak
  • Helps when dealing with a group of 3+ enemies
• Axii sets opponents against each other or keeps them standing still
  • Domination allows to stun or mind control 2 enemies simultaneously – great for crowd control!
  • Nothing is more fun to see your Puppet kill your enemies for you
  • Helps to land Rend successfully
  • Chance to instantly kill opponent is always handy
• Quen is your main way of healing and your protection if you mess up
• Ursine weapons provide more beneficial buffs than Wolven ones for Rend (mainly critical hit damage and adrenaline gain boost)
• You have only 100 toxicity, so choose your potions and decoctions well!
  • White Honey is your savior in long fights, resetting everything
  • Battle at night time so Superior Tawny Owl won’t wear off
  • Decoctions are really risky, but might give you essential edge against tougher enemies (Archgriffin makes Rend insane)

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Pros and Cons:

+ Extremely satisfying and versatile
+ Potential of Axii is as high as possible
+ Spammable Rend is powerful and feels great

– Struggles when opponent is unaffected by Axii
– Has hard time against large groups of enemies
– Limited alchemy usage can hinder your battles at times
– Wolven gear is available late in the game

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Wolf School: Whirling Signs

    

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

• Glyphs: Aard, Quen, (Igni)
• Runestones: Veles, Perun, Stribog
• Potions: Thunderbolt, Tawny Owl, Petri’s Philter, Swallow, White Honey
• Decoctions: Ancient Leshen, Ekhidna, Katakan

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Summary:

Whirl it up or knock it down! This build was created to take full advantage of Wolven gears attributes! Lovely mix of skills lets you feel like a real Witcher when both swords and signs are usable in tandem – works like a charm! The slogan for this build could be “Offense is your best defense”!

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How it works:

• Wolven Gear + Griffin School Techniques + Sign Skills
  • Faster stamina regeneration helps recovering from both Whirl and Sign usage
• Master of crowd control
  • Whirl kills everyone coming too close
  • Aard Sweep gives time to breath between assaults
• Use Aard to knockdown lighter opponents
  • Finish them before they get up for easy kills!
• Use Quen as often as possible
  • Protects you while using Whirl
  • Heals Geralt while he needs time to breathe
• Mix up possible active sign skills!
  • Use Delusion while doing quests including human interaction
  • Replace Aard Sweep with Firestream when dealing with single opponent or enemies weak to fire!
• Use White Honey to clear toxicity after battle if you still have potions left!

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Pros and Cons:

+ Mixing both sword and sign skills makes build very versatile and satisfying
+ Unique skill and gear combination prefers offensive playstyle
+ Quen heals you when toxicity is too high to use Swallow

– Potions aren’t as usable without alchemy investments
– Decoctions are really risky with only 100 maximum toxicity
– Wolven gear is obtainable very late in the game…

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