My man's been teasing an updated alchemy guide and then releases an entire encyclopedia! This is going to be a great video to return to for years to come!
Couldn't have worded it better myself. I can honestly say I probably know more about the gameplay mechanics than 80% of the people that post on TH-cam or other platforms. But people like Phoenix make me look stupid. After doing the drowner farm to get to L100 in the mission, through space and time with Avallac'h. During the gas part with the place of power. I realised I can use Ekidna decoction to regenerate life if I ran out of breath. Credit probably goes to both Phoenix and Cool Hand Luke for that exposure.
Thank you for the shout out! Hugo keeps decoctions for quite some time, but they disappeared after I finished B&W storyline. Also amazing video, watched it all and its very informative. Cant wait for future builds!
Hey Konrad I have a question about this as well. Have you ever seen if you have all the decoctions after the last mission and then were to sell the undesirable ones to Hugo then would they essentially not dissappear now because there's no main quests to motivate them disappearing? And also let's say you sold all the excess trophies to him whenever and then beat the last mission in B&W, do those trophies finally leave his inventory too?. I basically would just make a separate save where I kept the full inventory to play with euphoria if I want too but after tasting metamorphosis with no compromises at level 48 and im still only up yo la cage en fou.....im finding it really hard to say no to this metamorphosis build its just so enjoyable seeing 16+ broken effects than 5 at a time from euphoria. My bad that was so long I've been standing at hugo for two days now unable to move lmfao the ocd is too much lmfao
Cheers for clearing some things up. You are my go to guy for helps with the different builds. Just done my Death March play through. Tough at first but from mid game onwards I found my rhythm. Clearing things up in Blood and Wine now. New game plus incoming too!
I just went through your tutorial for about the 4th time in 6 months, and I finally understood it and made it work for me! WOW! I just ran through Velen from the Refugees Camp through the Cost of Wrecks up to the wooded area south of Isolated Shack, and all the “?”s along the way. After each encounter I would check my toxicity and top off if needed with a potion then run to the next encounter . What a blast!!! Never came close to dying and the blizzard effect was pure visual gold. Afterward I meditated then went back to collect all the booty! Thank you for all your hard work! ( I’m on Ng+, Death march, all slots open, lvl 66)
Only watching xLetalis and Demon Phoenix Witcher content. Your earlier game build videos got me started and I've switched to a Fast Metabolism build now since seeing the 4.0 changes. Thanks for all that you do for those on the Path!
Would recommend adding Neon Knight to complete the TW3 trinity :v honestly, these guys kinda ruined the rest of the Witcher 3-part of YT for me as there is just no real reason to watch it lol
Amazing video, congratulations! So helpful, I'm coming back to Witcher 3 after 4 years and this guide just covers everything about the big changes after the next-gen update, specially because you also show the synergy problems live! Honestly, I already liked a lot of your videos from 5/6 years ago when I played this game in 2020 and the content just got better, thank you!
An easy way to check whether not it is time to chug another pot to keep the timers frozen is by using Euphoria; Drink all your potions, check at what percentage of the Euphoria bonus your Blizzard runs out, then remember to keep that bonus above it. A bit easier than manually checking toxicity all the time.
Yes! Excellent. I've been waiting for this one. Can't wait to dive right in. As a very new player (very first playthrough, having a blast!) I've actually figured out quite an important thing on my own, with a huge amount of help from all of your videos. The reason why Delayed Recovery doesn't work with two decoctions is because, unless I use Manticore gear, I can't make Potion toxicity reach that 55% of the max toxicity number, let alone go over. Without a single piece of Manticore gear, my current max toxicity is 213 with Acquired Tolerance and Metabolic Control, so 55% of 213 would be 117. Using two decoctions would be 100 toxicity, leaving only 113 free toxicity points to use for potions, which would obviously not even trigger delayed recovery. Looking forward to learning more with our Witcher Professor! xD
Thank you for doing this. I have been wanting to experiment the exact same way as you but just don't have the time. Loved finding this video so someone could just explain it all to me. Can you do more videos explaining non-alchemy skills?
@pendzel chuuuj Sunder Amrour is mostly effective on humans. Not a lot of monsters have armour on. Only wild hunt dogs come to mind. My bad. I mixed Sunder armour with armour piercing. Sunder Armour helps lower enemy defensive resistance with strong attacks. It won't help as much if you are a fast attack user mostly.
@@DPhoenix237 I have a lot of hours on this game but I still get confused about how they all synergize and also how adrenaline points synergize with everything.
@AD If you have trouble understanding adrenaline points. Think of it as a glorified stamina and attack buff. A lot of the stuff in the combat tree helps build adrenaline points and some of the other branches, but not as much. It can be used for a variety of stuff . Personally, I use it to increase my strong attack on a powerful rend, but it all depends on your play style. If you find it difficult to use adrenaline points . Use the general skill rage management, which allows you to use adrenaline points for signs if stamina is low. I see it as a glorified attack and stamina boost.
Bruh I usually never like a video, but the info in this one video is GOLDEN. Thank you, outta my three previous play throughs I never dived into the alchemy tree but now on my new game plus I got a couple skills from it. 👍🤙
Awesome video. I'd wish you went further into additive and multiplicative bonuses. Do you know if Water Hag decoction bonus is additive or multiplicative and how it affects signs damage or other damaging skills like Piercing Cold or poison/bleed/burn damage over time? Are there any other decoctions or skills that can increase the damage made by signs rather than add some flat sign intensity?
I did some testing with max acquired tolerance, metabolic control, and the manticore gear, and have found out (highly doubt I discovered) that it's possible to imbibe 2 decoctions, and I believe 6(?) superior potions and have 30 or so seconds of active delayed recovery. This is possible if one of the 2 decoctions is the basilisk decoction because of its lowered toxicity offset of 40. I think this is cool, but I wish max acquired tolerance was designed to have 2 or 3 decoctions active, and some superior potions to keep delayed recovery active for a significant amount of time.
I do it early in the video so that's weird. There's no point using 2 decoctions in that scenario though. Troll decoction only gives good healing outside of battle; in battle you're just taking more damage unnecessarily for no benefit. Might as well just use the one decoction and take no damage as you're at 50%.
Been waiting for this. I've a few follow up questions while your video plays in the background for a sec lol. On your Metamorphosis build, which involved abusing Blizzard uptime. Seems that the Blizzard effect runs out if you talk to someone or fast travel. Also Maribor works properly the 1st time i start the sequence alongwith the combat perk which instantly gives you 2 adrenaline points. But after that the next battle you start, i no longer seem to gain the point from Maribor even if i reconsume one during battle after the combat perk is triggered. Sorry if this is a bit confusing lol.
Yes Blizzard goes off after cutscenes or talking to people. You can just reuse it, fortunately, and it'll start working. Superior Maribor only grants an Adrenaline point if you use it whilst it is not already active, so that's why earn you go into combat and it's already in effect it won't grant the Adrenaline point then.
@Tejendra Chettri No worries. It makes sense though because otherwise you'd just use it twice after Razor Focus and have 3 points ever single battle without doing anything 😄
Hey man - appreciate you putting together such solid and reliable info - would you do something similar for other game mechanics? How does sign intensity scale per sign, how does bleeding vs. poison vs. crippling strikes work, etc.?
Glad you like the video! I'll have to think about other videos to do. I have quite a few ideas and only so much time to allocate between content creation and irl responsibilities 😄
@@DPhoenix237 Hah, fair enough. Then maybe I'll just take advantage of you being responsive - has any testing been done to figure out how Next Gen Wolven GM set and natural bleed vs. crippling strikes works? IE, do they stack, could I get up to 6%*3 (traditional bleeding) +6%*1 (crippling) per target? Cuz then that can really start to be fun!
Awesome video, thank you! I've noticed with Delayed Recovery, it seems like some of my potions wear off despite my toxicity never dropping below 55%. Is there a limit on how many can be active? I only notice it when I really start chugging all of them - if only 6 are active they tend to work correctly, but when I do more I'll notice occasionally one of them just disappears.
I haven't had time to properly test this yet. I swear there was something funny prepatch with stuff like this where you could only have a certain number of buffs displayed on the quick-select wheel but I'm not sure if thet applies or not. It's part of the reason why I rarely bother with the Corvo Bianco buffs from resting, or with Whetstone/bench buffs.
Ajajajjjj!!! Haven’t watched yet but already save it on my playlist. Pretty sure it will be more important than builds videos. Do you recommend also which decoctions to be dropped with metamorphosis? I dropped already a few, but still got ~10, so too much….
I hope you find it interesting 🙂 There are a few decoctions that are really good, but quite a few are just situational. I'd say Ekimmara, Arachas and Ancient Leshen are my favourites and I'd definitely keep them. In my Metamorphosis video I kept Relievers (for Wraiths), Katakan (10% critical hit chance) and Chort decoction. Chort I kept because I like it vs Detlaff; it used to have a weird interaction where it saved you from the bats attack a lot of the time. I'm not sure if it still does. You could swap Relievers, Chort or Katakan for something else if you prefer. There are some other good ones like Ekhidna, Troll, Wraith, Succubus and Doppler.
Thank you! I watched it and its very well explained and presented. Really nicely done- ppl will use it for builds base. 👍 about the decoctions I’ve already dropped some like water hag etc. the once you proposed for swapping have to check. Never got a Doppler - just couldn’t kill that guy… 😢. About the succubus the description is also not clear.. attack power grows in fight until reaching maximum threshold while it is not said what is the threshold…. Despite CDPR made a great game they have this too short or not clear description of skills and bottles… well I guess we can’t have it all..
@@wojciechpastuszczyn7989 yeah I know what you mean about the descriptions. Succubus increases attack 1% every 2 seconds during battle, capping out at 30% max.
I hope there isn't a quiz after this....I cant tell you how much I enjoy doing math when playing a game..NOT-.LOL. I really appreciate you explaining this-I just need an aspirin before playing now. This is great info, I have started a new playthrough using your 4 year old videos, and just need to wait till I get here or I will go nuts.
I play on patch 4.04. Anyone knows why I don't get health when I ate something with this skill (gourmet? gives you 20 minutes health regeneration from food) when I meditate or fast travel? Is that a bug? It's silly meditation is clearning my food buff but won't give me health from it. I should have full health everytime I eat something and meditate in my opinion. I play on 3/4 difficulty level which don't give me health regen from simply existing when I meditate. I was looking for a mod to repair that but didn't find any.
Nah, it's never worked like that. If you want heal instantly, might as well use a White Raffard (or even Swallow; that doesn'ttake long) potion before meditating. That'll cost you one hard alcohol instead.
After selling decoctions to Hugo, with amount of time needed to dissapear from its stock - those decoctions are consider destroyed? because if RED's patch this to choose from known ones and not from inventory we're screwd
Yes, they eventually dissappear entirely from Hugo's inventory. That's why I'd advocate for people to keep the rarer decoctions if they're not 100% sure that they'll be able to recreate them. For example, if you've already created the Succubus and Doppler decoctions, maybe don't sell those if you're not sure.
Delayed recovery is deadly of all. One thing i cant undertand though. Whenever i use swallow potion first on delayed recovery, swallow wears off. İ must consume it again and it doesnt wear off. Do you know why?
No, that should not happen. It doesn't happen for me, and the skill is bugged (other than when using Blizzard). If you get your potion toxicity over 55% whilst Swallow is still active, it'll stay active with DR. EDIT: 'Should not happen'. Swallow should stay active.
Finally someone said it about Water Hag decoction. I was frustrated by the builds that included as well. This is the best and most factually correct guide on Next Gen patch. Althought -- you have left one fact out: prolongation still has a use case and it is actually huge -- it's the only thing that can influence white raffard's decoction duration, turning you invincible. And prolongation was actually buffed from 0.5 seconds to 1 second.
And it actually makes water hag decoction work, as well as making wyvern decoction actually effective. By the way: wyvern decoction has no damage cap, so prolongation can make you turn into both an immovable object and an unstoppable force
Did they revert that? Have you tested it? They removed the Prolongation + White Raffard invincibility aggggeessssss ago and I don't recall seeing it in the patch notes for 4.0.
I'm curious if they ever patched the Blizzard potion slowing time outside of combat. I love the metamorphosis build, but dont want the entire game slowed by 40%. Anyone have any ideas?
Honestly feels like chemistry class. So toxicity offset is for decoctions and toxicity level is for potions? Why is there two different toxicity measurements for them?
Hey Adrian, I am in Toussaint. What are the top 6 decoctions I should never ever drop for triggering with metamorphosis? I feel troll is redundant because of superior swallow synergizing with delayed recovery.
I know this comment is old, but this is (imo) the optimal setup for Metamorphosis + Delayed Recovery. Troll Decoction gives you passive regen + HP for every kill, Ekimmara restores some HP every time you do damage with your sword, and Ekhidna restores HP any time you cast a (standard mode) sign, or use an attack that consumes stamina (Rend, Whirl, or Archgriffin Decoction strong attacks). If you want the strongest possible Metamorphosis build, I would run these 3 plus whatever supports your playstyle. Tissue Transmutation (3) has amazing synergy with Metamorphosis, because every active decoction increases your Vitality by 900, which basically means as long as you have all 5-6 decoctions active, you effectively have a 4500-5400 Vitality buff that stacks with Full Moon. Combined with Protective Coating (3) and Undying (3), you are probably going to have more trouble dying than staying alive, and that is before considering that you can pretty easily have every potion active at the same time with Delayed Recovery.
@@hiondubs Ekhidna decoction is useless with metamorphosis build since at 3 adrenaline points with superior blizzard, your signs and attacks don't consume stamina, you will NOT be benefitting from the healding the decoction provides.
Yay! You mentioned the roach glitch!! I noticed when blizzard is active and I use Rend with full stamina and adrenaline points, it consumes adrenaline. Anyone else having the same issue.
I think Rend is different. When you use it normally, it uses up stamina first, and then after you've held it for a while it starts to use up Adrenaline to do even more damage. So if you use it with Blizzard active, it uses the stamina portion first (no stamina cost) but then starts using the Adrenaline once it reaches the latter part of the animation. It makes sense to me because the last part of the Rend isn't a an action that uses stamina...it's an action that uses up Adrenaline.
"if you've watch the whole video and stayed with me that's incredible"... I was like damn bruh I've watch the whole hour already?!?!?! (Marvel training mode + YT combo is too stronk)
You do lose health when your toxicity is over 50%. That's covered in the video. You have to offset the damage by using either the Troll decoction, Ekimmara decoction or Swallow with Delayed Recovery and things like that.
They didn't. They only kept the +10 bonuses if it was a Manticore piece of gear that was crafted before patch 4.0, which is why I didn't mention it. It's not relevant unless you have an old save so you can't recommend it to people post-patch.
@@DPhoenix237 nope, I tested it on a new save, which then used to start NG+ and my armor and trousers had +10 instead of +5. It only works with non-legendary set and only on NG+. Legendary set on NG+ gives +5 as well as normal set on normal save also +5.
@An Peace You can see each piece has +5 in my build Euphoria video. th-cam.com/video/yWlpXUco0jw/w-d-xo.html Which version are you on? Do you have any mods installed? In 4.0 it's 5 for each piece in both a regular playthrough and NG+. EDIT: Did the regular versions have +5 before you started NG+ and then changed to +10 in NG+?
@@DPhoenix237 yep the regular ver changed to +10 in NG+. I had no mods on that playthrough and I started B&W only for a quick lvl 35 dive into NG+ and thats when I realised that my regular manticore armor and pants had +10 instead of +5. Perhaps it’s different for PS version or for starting NG+ after a B&W only NG.
HARD disagree. Alchemy is still incredibly powerful; in my current DM playthrouh that I'm uploading each day, I got DR at level 6 and have been decimating everything.
It depends on the situation and build usually I'd say Succubus as it's more consistent. Wyvern isn't great imho because you're relying on avoiding ALL hits and damage. In short fights they should be over before it really matters, and in long fights you're likely to take at least one hit.
It's decent, one of the useable ones. It adds 1%.damage every 2 seconds during an encounter IIRC, so tops out at 30% damage boost after a minute. Decent for long fights.
I like Witcher 3 but I wish there were more cinematic scenes instead of so many moments where u gotta just sit there and listen to the nps’s talk & talk & talk.
While I agree that the doubled Decoction talent is generally weak, it does have a use with the Decoction that gives you 50 max life on kill. I like to use it to give me way more time to stack my max health up to ridiculous levels.
Yeah a guy called Adrien loves that one too. Iirc the bonus lasts when you fast travel but ends if you meditate or Delayed Recovery runs out (if it's triggered by Metamorphosis) so it seems a little clunky to me, but it can definitely be strong. I supposed you'd use it as the manual decoction if using DR + AT.
@@DPhoenix237 You're right! I haven't played it yet. I played the main story many years ago and I still have to play the DLC's. I started a NG on Death's March this time and had to see some toxicity related stuff, thanks for the video!
I find it hard to be hit when blizzard is active. I’m playing with 80% tox and using water hag. Slightly more upkeep, but the damage bonus is worth it to me.
Metamorphosis, delayed recovery build. With cat school, heighten tolerance, tissue transmutation. Muscle memory or strength training depending on fighting style. Might switch it to magic trap instead. Once you get the 3 adrenaline points you can recast quen as needed, but everything is slowed, so it’s hard to be hit.
@@DPhoenix237 back home now, at work tomorrow so drove back after getting the chuck to bed and he'll come back with grandma and grandpa! Gonna training mode to this vid lmao
My poor poor alchemt build that didnt take toxicity damage... look how tgey massacred my boy. But its cool to have to think of an other build, it was time to change
I gotta say, level 100 builds seem kind of pointless since the game is essentially finished by the time you reach 100. Kind of a bummer that CDPR didn't add a NG++ with one of these friggin updates/patches. Oh well, love this game nonetheless!
NG++ would jus be wayyyyyy too easy though tbf, and you can complete most builds really early in a normal NG+ playthrough anyway. You can have the core build virtually finished as soon as you get to Toussaint in most cases, by as early as the late 20s for most builds.
Timestamps for each section:
0:00 Intro
1:45 Basics Decoctions vs Potions + Toxicity
3:40 Toxicty Damage and Thresholds
5:16 Potion toxicity
7:15 Mutations Overview
9:40 Max possible toxicity
12:18 Key Toxicity Benchmarks
14:24 Delayed Recovery (DR) Mechanics
19:18 Delayed Recovery Maths/Calcs
21:19 Using DR + 1 Decoction
23:13 DR + Metamorphosis decoctions
25:24 Limiting the Decoctions for Metamorphosis
27:33 Fast Metabolism
29:57 Skill Switching in Patch 4.0
32:20 Why Water Hag/Invigoration are less effective
36:32 Protective Coating & other useful alchemy skills
38:43 Synergy
39:59 Fixative + Oils
41:31 Hunter Instinct works!
42:15 Killing Spree and/or Battle Frenzy
45:10 Superior Maribor + White Honey = 3 Adrenaline points
46:50 Metabolism Boosts
49:56 Side Effects kinda sucks
51:38 Adaptation....also sucks
54:14 Hugo Overview + Selling Decoctions
So I’m playing ps4 and why does none of my screens match yours cause your on computer? You character screen is amazing mine is vanilla
@ajholdren This is PS4 Pro too. You don't get the slots in the middle of the screen until the Blood and Wine mutations quest.
@@DPhoenix237 your awesome yep need to get dlc and keep up good work
My man's been teasing an updated alchemy guide and then releases an entire encyclopedia! This is going to be a great video to return to for years to come!
Thanks man, that's the intention! I know it's really long but I put the chapters in so that people can skip to the part(s) they need.
Couldn't have worded it better myself. I can honestly say I probably know more about the gameplay mechanics than 80% of the people that post on TH-cam or other platforms. But people like Phoenix make me look stupid.
After doing the drowner farm to get to L100 in the mission, through space and time with Avallac'h. During the gas part with the place of power. I realised I can use Ekidna decoction to regenerate life if I ran out of breath. Credit probably goes to both Phoenix and Cool Hand Luke for that exposure.
Thank you for your services to community👍
Thank YOU for the support and likes and all that stuff 👍
Thank you for the shout out! Hugo keeps decoctions for quite some time, but they disappeared after I finished B&W storyline. Also amazing video, watched it all and its very informative. Cant wait for future builds!
I had to go through soooooo many comments to find it 😁
Hey Konrad I have a question about this as well. Have you ever seen if you have all the decoctions after the last mission and then were to sell the undesirable ones to Hugo then would they essentially not dissappear now because there's no main quests to motivate them disappearing? And also let's say you sold all the excess trophies to him whenever and then beat the last mission in B&W, do those trophies finally leave his inventory too?. I basically would just make a separate save where I kept the full inventory to play with euphoria if I want too but after tasting metamorphosis with no compromises at level 48 and im still only up yo la cage en fou.....im finding it really hard to say no to this metamorphosis build its just so enjoyable seeing 16+ broken effects than 5 at a time from euphoria.
My bad that was so long I've been standing at hugo for two days now unable to move lmfao the ocd is too much lmfao
Cheers for clearing some things up. You are my go to guy for helps with the different builds. Just done my Death March play through. Tough at first but from mid game onwards I found my rhythm. Clearing things up in Blood and Wine now. New game plus incoming too!
Well done! Death March is tricky for the first few levels but then gets much easier, sadly.
I just went through your tutorial for about the 4th time in 6 months, and I finally understood it and made it work for me! WOW! I just ran through Velen from the Refugees Camp through the Cost of Wrecks up to the wooded area south of Isolated Shack, and all the “?”s along the way. After each encounter I would check my toxicity and top off if needed with a potion then run to the next encounter . What a blast!!! Never came close to dying and the blizzard effect was pure visual gold. Afterward I meditated then went back to collect all the booty! Thank you for all your hard work! ( I’m on Ng+, Death march, all slots open, lvl 66)
Only watching xLetalis and Demon Phoenix Witcher content. Your earlier game build videos got me started and I've switched to a Fast Metabolism build now since seeing the 4.0 changes. Thanks for all that you do for those on the Path!
Glad you like content man, thanks for the support! 🙏
Would recommend adding Neon Knight to complete the TW3 trinity :v honestly, these guys kinda ruined the rest of the Witcher 3-part of YT for me as there is just no real reason to watch it lol
I watched many youtuber, nobody got your kind of knowledge on this game.
Instant fan and instant sub...
Thank you
Amazing video, congratulations! So helpful, I'm coming back to Witcher 3 after 4 years and this guide just covers everything about the big changes after the next-gen update, specially because you also show the synergy problems live! Honestly, I already liked a lot of your videos from 5/6 years ago when I played this game in 2020 and the content just got better, thank you!
This is more important than my uni paper tomorrow
😆
DISCLAIMER: We at the Phoenix237 channel do not condone punting on your uni education to learn about Alchemy
i sold my decoctions to hugo and kept on playing. by some time later those where gone from his inventory. when i went to get them for a new game plus.
this is very helpful for a newbie like me in TW3 thanks!
Glad you think so, thanks man.
Very nice video 👍. They nerfed the Heightened Tolerance too much imo. Even 90% would have been helpful.
An easy way to check whether not it is time to chug another pot to keep the timers frozen is by using Euphoria; Drink all your potions, check at what percentage of the Euphoria bonus your Blizzard runs out, then remember to keep that bonus above it. A bit easier than manually checking toxicity all the time.
Good tip, good tip.
Yes! Excellent. I've been waiting for this one. Can't wait to dive right in.
As a very new player (very first playthrough, having a blast!) I've actually figured out quite an important thing on my own, with a huge amount of help from all of your videos.
The reason why Delayed Recovery doesn't work with two decoctions is because, unless I use Manticore gear, I can't make Potion toxicity reach that 55% of the max toxicity number, let alone go over.
Without a single piece of Manticore gear, my current max toxicity is 213 with Acquired Tolerance and Metabolic Control, so 55% of 213 would be 117.
Using two decoctions would be 100 toxicity, leaving only 113 free toxicity points to use for potions, which would obviously not even trigger delayed recovery.
Looking forward to learning more with our Witcher Professor! xD
Good job figuring it out! Hope you're enjoying the game, and my content 🙂
I've been playing your metamorphosis build today and I've been very pleased with it.
Yeah, it's my favourite build, and it think it's the strongest one.
1hour? damn thats huge. Thanks for sharing the knowledge!
Thanks for the updated information. I've only been playing Wild Hunt for a few months but I've almost finished my NG+
Thank you for doing this. I have been wanting to experiment the exact same way as you but just don't have the time. Loved finding this video so someone could just explain it all to me. Can you do more videos explaining non-alchemy skills?
I may do. I feel like people misunderstand Alchemy mechanics a lot more than the other trees; the other ones are a bit simpler.
@Mechanic Mitch oh yes, some sunder armor testing would be dope to see honestly, I've been wondering about that one for a while now
@pendzel chuuuj Sunder Amrour is mostly effective on humans. Not a lot of monsters have armour on. Only wild hunt dogs come to mind.
My bad. I mixed Sunder armour with armour piercing.
Sunder Armour helps lower enemy defensive resistance with strong attacks. It won't help as much if you are a fast attack user mostly.
@@DPhoenix237 I have a lot of hours on this game but I still get confused about how they all synergize and also how adrenaline points synergize with everything.
@AD If you have trouble understanding adrenaline points. Think of it as a glorified stamina and attack buff.
A lot of the stuff in the combat tree helps build adrenaline points and some of the other branches, but not as much. It can be used for a variety of stuff . Personally, I use it to increase my strong attack on a powerful rend, but it all depends on your play style.
If you find it difficult to use adrenaline points . Use the general skill rage management, which allows you to use adrenaline points for signs if stamina is low.
I see it as a glorified attack and stamina boost.
Bruh I usually never like a video, but the info in this one video is GOLDEN. Thank you, outta my three previous play throughs I never dived into the alchemy tree but now on my new game plus I got a couple skills from it. 👍🤙
Thank you Bam Bam, much appreciated. I'm glad you're exploring alchemy; it's probably the strongest tree of skills, although they're all powerful now.
Really detailed and clear explanation. Thanks, man!
Glad you found it useful!
I WAS WAITING FOR THIS VIDEO OF YOURS SINCE YOU ANNOUNCED YOU WERE PLANNING TO MAKE IT, HYPED AF
Hope it lives up to the hype 😁
@@DPhoenix237 oh yes it does :3
Thanks, Heisenberg
I am the one who Decocts!
Awesome video. I'd wish you went further into additive and multiplicative bonuses. Do you know if Water Hag decoction bonus is additive or multiplicative and how it affects signs damage or other damaging skills like Piercing Cold or poison/bleed/burn damage over time? Are there any other decoctions or skills that can increase the damage made by signs rather than add some flat sign intensity?
Thanks I’m a old gamers and was struggling on death match. This helped me a lot. Thanks.
Glad to hear it!
Thank you for this video!
You're welcome. Hope you find it interesting and useful.
Just found your channel, new sub cheers mate! Thanks very much for this great breakdown - best I've seen thus far👍
Thanks, hope you enjoy the content!
after selling decotions to hugo is he will keep it forever? or it has time limit?
@@faisalrezhaRakhman It has a time limit, but I've no idea what it is. One day the just....weren't there!
I did some testing with max acquired tolerance, metabolic control, and the manticore gear, and have found out (highly doubt I discovered) that it's possible to imbibe 2 decoctions, and I believe 6(?) superior potions and have 30 or so seconds of active delayed recovery. This is possible if one of the 2 decoctions is the basilisk decoction because of its lowered toxicity offset of 40. I think this is cool, but I wish max acquired tolerance was designed to have 2 or 3 decoctions active, and some superior potions to keep delayed recovery active for a significant amount of time.
you have done enough. thanks you 🙏🏼
You can use 2 Decoctions at 100 base level toxicity and not take damage as long as you use Troll Decoction as one of them, if I'm not mistaken.
I do it early in the video so that's weird. There's no point using 2 decoctions in that scenario though. Troll decoction only gives good healing outside of battle; in battle you're just taking more damage unnecessarily for no benefit.
Might as well just use the one decoction and take no damage as you're at 50%.
Really really good and helpful plus ive really enjoyed the video. But i get that you didn't make any bomb mechanics guide after this?
So, with Metamorphosis can you have 9 total decoctions running (4 base and 5 proc'd)?
Been waiting for this. I've a few follow up questions while your video plays in the background for a sec lol.
On your Metamorphosis build, which involved abusing Blizzard uptime. Seems that the Blizzard effect runs out if you talk to someone or fast travel.
Also Maribor works properly the 1st time i start the sequence alongwith the combat perk which instantly gives you 2 adrenaline points. But after that the next battle you start, i no longer seem to gain the point from Maribor even if i reconsume one during battle after the combat perk is triggered.
Sorry if this is a bit confusing lol.
Yes Blizzard goes off after cutscenes or talking to people. You can just reuse it, fortunately, and it'll start working.
Superior Maribor only grants an Adrenaline point if you use it whilst it is not already active, so that's why earn you go into combat and it's already in effect it won't grant the Adrenaline point then.
@@DPhoenix237 ahh okay that makes sense about Maribor. It's not a deal breaker but still kinda annoying. Thanks for the reply!
@Tejendra Chettri No worries. It makes sense though because otherwise you'd just use it twice after Razor Focus and have 3 points ever single battle without doing anything 😄
My goodness thank you Brother
You're welcome.
Just fantastic!!
Very informative ☝️
Hey man - appreciate you putting together such solid and reliable info - would you do something similar for other game mechanics? How does sign intensity scale per sign, how does bleeding vs. poison vs. crippling strikes work, etc.?
Glad you like the video! I'll have to think about other videos to do. I have quite a few ideas and only so much time to allocate between content creation and irl responsibilities 😄
@@DPhoenix237 Hah, fair enough. Then maybe I'll just take advantage of you being responsive - has any testing been done to figure out how Next Gen Wolven GM set and natural bleed vs. crippling strikes works? IE, do they stack, could I get up to 6%*3 (traditional bleeding) +6%*1 (crippling) per target? Cuz then that can really start to be fun!
Awesome video, thank you! I've noticed with Delayed Recovery, it seems like some of my potions wear off despite my toxicity never dropping below 55%. Is there a limit on how many can be active? I only notice it when I really start chugging all of them - if only 6 are active they tend to work correctly, but when I do more I'll notice occasionally one of them just disappears.
I haven't had time to properly test this yet. I swear there was something funny prepatch with stuff like this where you could only have a certain number of buffs displayed on the quick-select wheel but I'm not sure if thet applies or not.
It's part of the reason why I rarely bother with the Corvo Bianco buffs from resting, or with Whetstone/bench buffs.
Btw, after some time, the things in Hugos inventory indeed do disappear, so be careful
Ajajajjjj!!! Haven’t watched yet but already save it on my playlist. Pretty sure it will be more important than builds videos. Do you recommend also which decoctions to be dropped with metamorphosis? I dropped already a few, but still got ~10, so too much….
I hope you find it interesting 🙂
There are a few decoctions that are really good, but quite a few are just situational.
I'd say Ekimmara, Arachas and Ancient Leshen are my favourites and I'd definitely keep them. In my Metamorphosis video I kept Relievers (for Wraiths), Katakan (10% critical hit chance) and Chort decoction. Chort I kept because I like it vs Detlaff; it used to have a weird interaction where it saved you from the bats attack a lot of the time. I'm not sure if it still does.
You could swap Relievers, Chort or Katakan for something else if you prefer. There are some other good ones like Ekhidna, Troll, Wraith, Succubus and Doppler.
Thank you! I watched it and its very well explained and presented. Really nicely done- ppl will use it for builds base. 👍 about the decoctions I’ve already dropped some like water hag etc. the once you proposed for swapping have to check. Never got a Doppler - just couldn’t kill that guy… 😢. About the succubus the description is also not clear.. attack power grows in fight until reaching maximum threshold while it is not said what is the threshold…. Despite CDPR made a great game they have this too short or not clear description of skills and bottles… well I guess we can’t have it all..
@@wojciechpastuszczyn7989 yeah I know what you mean about the descriptions. Succubus increases attack 1% every 2 seconds during battle, capping out at 30% max.
I hope there isn't a quiz after this....I cant tell you how much I enjoy doing math when playing a game..NOT-.LOL. I really appreciate you explaining this-I just need an aspirin before playing now. This is great info, I have started a new playthrough using your 4 year old videos, and just need to wait till I get here or I will go nuts.
Looool no quiz Zion, you're good 👍
So shortly said you cannot have a toxicity close to the max of 100 or more percent which means you cannot have the ridiculous 15k points of hp?
I play on patch 4.04. Anyone knows why I don't get health when I ate something with this skill (gourmet? gives you 20 minutes health regeneration from food) when I meditate or fast travel? Is that a bug?
It's silly meditation is clearning my food buff but won't give me health from it. I should have full health everytime I eat something and meditate in my opinion.
I play on 3/4 difficulty level which don't give me health regen from simply existing when I meditate.
I was looking for a mod to repair that but didn't find any.
Nah, it's never worked like that. If you want heal instantly, might as well use a White Raffard (or even Swallow; that doesn'ttake long) potion before meditating. That'll cost you one hard alcohol instead.
After selling decoctions to Hugo, with amount of time needed to dissapear from its stock - those decoctions are consider destroyed? because if RED's patch this to choose from known ones and not from inventory we're screwd
Yes, they eventually dissappear entirely from Hugo's inventory. That's why I'd advocate for people to keep the rarer decoctions if they're not 100% sure that they'll be able to recreate them. For example, if you've already created the Succubus and Doppler decoctions, maybe don't sell those if you're not sure.
Delayed recovery is deadly of all. One thing i cant undertand though. Whenever i use swallow potion first on delayed recovery, swallow wears off. İ must consume it again and it doesnt wear off. Do you know why?
No, that should not happen. It doesn't happen for me, and the skill is bugged (other than when using Blizzard). If you get your potion toxicity over 55% whilst Swallow is still active, it'll stay active with DR.
EDIT: 'Should not happen'. Swallow should stay active.
Great analysis!
Tho ive played W3 4times incl B&W and HoS i have learn few new things. Thank You so much for sharing so indeep knowledge❤
You're most welcome! I'm glad you're finding the content informative.
@DPhoenix237 as my father use to say "it's always good to listen starter and more knowledgeable people" :) thank You again
Finally someone said it about Water Hag decoction. I was frustrated by the builds that included as well.
This is the best and most factually correct guide on Next Gen patch.
Althought -- you have left one fact out: prolongation still has a use case and it is actually huge -- it's the only thing that can influence white raffard's decoction duration, turning you invincible. And prolongation was actually buffed from 0.5 seconds to 1 second.
And it actually makes water hag decoction work, as well as making wyvern decoction actually effective. By the way: wyvern decoction has no damage cap, so prolongation can make you turn into both an immovable object and an unstoppable force
Did they revert that? Have you tested it? They removed the Prolongation + White Raffard invincibility aggggeessssss ago and I don't recall seeing it in the patch notes for 4.0.
@@DPhoenix237 I think they removed White Raffard + Delayed Recovery. I can still do Prolongation + White Raffard. Try it out
Is Metabolism Boosts still bugged, or has it been fixed?
@@mht2315 Still bugged AFAIK.
I'm curious if they ever patched the Blizzard potion slowing time outside of combat. I love the metamorphosis build, but dont want the entire game slowed by 40%. Anyone have any ideas?
It's only when riding Roach, but yeah it's annoying tbf.
Honestly feels like chemistry class. So toxicity offset is for decoctions and toxicity level is for potions? Why is there two different toxicity measurements for them?
Hey Adrian, I am in Toussaint. What are the top 6 decoctions I should never ever drop for triggering with metamorphosis? I feel troll is redundant because of superior swallow synergizing with delayed recovery.
I know this comment is old, but this is (imo) the optimal setup for Metamorphosis + Delayed Recovery.
Troll Decoction gives you passive regen + HP for every kill, Ekimmara restores some HP every time you do damage with your sword, and Ekhidna restores HP any time you cast a (standard mode) sign, or use an attack that consumes stamina (Rend, Whirl, or Archgriffin Decoction strong attacks). If you want the strongest possible Metamorphosis build, I would run these 3 plus whatever supports your playstyle.
Tissue Transmutation (3) has amazing synergy with Metamorphosis, because every active decoction increases your Vitality by 900, which basically means as long as you have all 5-6 decoctions active, you effectively have a 4500-5400 Vitality buff that stacks with Full Moon. Combined with Protective Coating (3) and Undying (3), you are probably going to have more trouble dying than staying alive, and that is before considering that you can pretty easily have every potion active at the same time with Delayed Recovery.
@@hiondubs Ekhidna decoction is useless with metamorphosis build since at 3 adrenaline points with superior blizzard, your signs and attacks don't consume stamina, you will NOT be benefitting from the healding the decoction provides.
Yay! You mentioned the roach glitch!! I noticed when blizzard is active and I use Rend with full stamina and adrenaline points, it consumes adrenaline. Anyone else having the same issue.
I think Rend is different. When you use it normally, it uses up stamina first, and then after you've held it for a while it starts to use up Adrenaline to do even more damage.
So if you use it with Blizzard active, it uses the stamina portion first (no stamina cost) but then starts using the Adrenaline once it reaches the latter part of the animation. It makes sense to me because the last part of the Rend isn't a an action that uses stamina...it's an action that uses up Adrenaline.
That makes sense. I hadn’t noticed before. I’ll make sure to release Rend early. Whirl builds that adrenaline point fairly quick anyway.
"if you've watch the whole video and stayed with me that's incredible"... I was like damn bruh I've watch the whole hour already?!?!?! (Marvel training mode + YT combo is too stronk)
You da real MVP.
Is this a bug that only Superior blizzard runs out after cutscenes.....all other potions stay active with delayed recovery!?
Yeah. You can just re-use Blizzard when thst happens.
İ got the manticore after 4th decoction im loosing vitality rapidly. Could you tell me what am i doing wrong brother?
You do lose health when your toxicity is over 50%. That's covered in the video. You have to offset the damage by using either the Troll decoction, Ekimmara decoction or Swallow with Delayed Recovery and things like that.
@@DPhoenix237 i figured out so many things thanx to you brother 🙌🤘
Normal Manticore Armor and Trousers actually give 10 toxicity in NG+ lol. So they nerfed the Legendary version but forgot about the normal one XD
I need to check this out now lol
They didn't. They only kept the +10 bonuses if it was a Manticore piece of gear that was crafted before patch 4.0, which is why I didn't mention it. It's not relevant unless you have an old save so you can't recommend it to people post-patch.
@@DPhoenix237 nope, I tested it on a new save, which then used to start NG+ and my armor and trousers had +10 instead of +5. It only works with non-legendary set and only on NG+. Legendary set on NG+ gives +5 as well as normal set on normal save also +5.
@An Peace You can see each piece has +5 in my build Euphoria video. th-cam.com/video/yWlpXUco0jw/w-d-xo.html
Which version are you on? Do you have any mods installed? In 4.0 it's 5 for each piece in both a regular playthrough and NG+. EDIT: Did the regular versions have +5 before you started NG+ and then changed to +10 in NG+?
@@DPhoenix237 yep the regular ver changed to +10 in NG+. I had no mods on that playthrough and I started B&W only for a quick lvl 35 dive into NG+ and thats when I realised that my regular manticore armor and pants had +10 instead of +5. Perhaps it’s different for PS version or for starting NG+ after a B&W only NG.
I use to be able to run 4 decoctions and a potion or two. Not I can barely use 3 decoctions. Can’t play alchemy anymore
HARD disagree. Alchemy is still incredibly powerful; in my current DM playthrouh that I'm uploading each day, I got DR at level 6 and have been decimating everything.
Idk you may be right. Just have to learn the new alchemy I guess
This blew my mind 🤯 single most impactful video I've seen! Opens up so many possibilities! Well done sir 🎩chapeau !
Which is better succubus or wyvern decoction
It depends on the situation and build usually I'd say Succubus as it's more consistent. Wyvern isn't great imho because you're relying on avoiding ALL hits and damage. In short fights they should be over before it really matters, and in long fights you're likely to take at least one hit.
I'm gonna kill salma in ng+, what u think of the succubus decoction?
It's decent, one of the useable ones. It adds 1%.damage every 2 seconds during an encounter IIRC, so tops out at 30% damage boost after a minute. Decent for long fights.
So Euphoria is based on your actual active toxicity and not your maximum possible toxicity, right?
Yep, that's correct 👍
I like Witcher 3 but I wish there were more cinematic scenes instead of so many moments where u gotta just sit there and listen to the nps’s talk & talk & talk.
While I agree that the doubled Decoction talent is generally weak, it does have a use with the Decoction that gives you 50 max life on kill. I like to use it to give me way more time to stack my max health up to ridiculous levels.
Yeah a guy called Adrien loves that one too. Iirc the bonus lasts when you fast travel but ends if you meditate or Delayed Recovery runs out (if it's triggered by Metamorphosis) so it seems a little clunky to me, but it can definitely be strong. I supposed you'd use it as the manual decoction if using DR + AT.
My menu looks different, why does yours look like that?
Do you mean you're missing the skill slots in the middle? They're from Blood and Wine's mutation system.
@@DPhoenix237 You're right! I haven't played it yet. I played the main story many years ago and I still have to play the DLC's. I started a NG on Death's March this time and had to see some toxicity related stuff, thanks for the video!
I got a new drinking game! Take a shot every time this guy says 'toxicity'
@@emrullahenes2663 Your liver wouldn't be able to handle the....oh, sh*t...
I find it hard to be hit when blizzard is active. I’m playing with 80% tox and using water hag. Slightly more upkeep, but the damage bonus is worth it to me.
With which alchemy setup, though?
Metamorphosis, delayed recovery build. With cat school, heighten tolerance, tissue transmutation. Muscle memory or strength training depending on fighting style. Might switch it to magic trap instead. Once you get the 3 adrenaline points you can recast quen as needed, but everything is slowed, so it’s hard to be hit.
Drop everything for a Phoenix video.
🙇♂️
Hoooo booiiiiiiiii mechaaaaaaaniiiccccssssss yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh
🤣🤣🤣 I legit feel like you'd enjoy this kind of thing haha. Get back to your holiday!
@@DPhoenix237 back home now, at work tomorrow so drove back after getting the chuck to bed and he'll come back with grandma and grandpa! Gonna training mode to this vid lmao
@SpartanThrone Wicked, hope you had a good time.
Legend
Thank you 😊
Holy bloom bro jesus
😂 I'm going to take this as a good reaction?
PS5 or ps4?
This was Ps4, but they're all the same.
My poor poor alchemt build that didnt take toxicity damage... look how tgey massacred my boy. But its cool to have to think of an other build, it was time to change
Lol, clearly you've not watchers my Metamorphosis 4.0 build video...
@@DPhoenix237 no, but i will check it out ;)
I gotta say, level 100 builds seem kind of pointless since the game is essentially finished by the time you reach 100. Kind of a bummer that CDPR didn't add a NG++ with one of these friggin updates/patches. Oh well, love this game nonetheless!
NG++ would jus be wayyyyyy too easy though tbf, and you can complete most builds really early in a normal NG+ playthrough anyway. You can have the core build virtually finished as soon as you get to Toussaint in most cases, by as early as the late 20s for most builds.
This is a whole college lecture for the witcher 3 lol
Kinda ended up that way, huh? Haha.
@Phoenix237 It's incredibly well sourced and presented. So by virtue of that, it's already better than most of my uni lectures
@OnStrike69 😁 Thanks man, appreciate the kind words and the support.
Helloo
One hour to get the last fifty percent of understanding of your builds... DEAL!
edited from ten percent to fifty, so many maths I didn't understand
Ha, didn't understand before the video....or still didn't understand AFTER the video? Hopefully the video explained what I meant!
5 x5 = 20 "basic maths" lmao
Lol where's that bit?