They modified the abilities with the next-gen update

[Pirelli913]

Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot before and after because I didn't think of it, but before the next gen update, if you upgraded abilities in the COMBAT tree, MOST of the abilities would be maxed at FIVE (5). Tier 1 you have access to immediately, but Tier 2 you'd need 10 points in Tier 1 to unlock and Tier 3 you'd need 20 points between Tiers 1 and 2 to unlock.

 

Tier 3 contains arguably the two greatest abilities in the game: Whirl (fast attack) and Rend (strong attack). However, with the update, instead of needing 20 points to unlock Tier 3, you only need 12 as just about every ability can now be maxed out at 3 (instead of the previous 5.

 

When I loaded up my end-game PC save (right before Blood & Wine), I had 20 points I could spend and when I loaded up my end-game PS4 save, I had 18 points I could spend.

[meecegoatsalot]

Huh good catch, wonder why they did that?

[archangeltw_]

left: the vanilla ver that never received an update

right: the next gen ver

[KingGuy420]

2 hours ago, meecegoatsalot said:

Huh good catch, wonder why they did that?

 

Because originally the idea was that you could have enough skills unlocked for multiple builds and swap between them whenever you want. But at the last minute they thought it might be overwhelming so they changed it. This brought it closer to that original idea.

 

There's literally hundreds of little changes like this. Like Grandmaster Witcher gear has it's 3/6 piece bonus, but when you started NG+, first upgrade, you lost that bonus. Not anymore. All Witcher gear on NG+ has the bonuses, not just GM.

 

Like I said, there are hundreds of these little changes. So many so that way less than half made it into the patch notes.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Witcher3/comments/zlg0x8/list_of_changes_in_the_nextgen_update_version_40/

 

There's a slightly more comprehensive list of what's been found so far.

Edited December 15, 2022 by KingGuy420

[TJ_Solo]

going to have to see how this works out for the builds I like running.

never been much of a fan of rebalancing in order to get people to use more powers in a single player game...well not even MMOs.

min/maxing always finds a way. some powers will be ignored in favor of others.

[KingGuy420]

33 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

going to have to see how this works out for the builds I like running.

never been much of a fan of rebalancing in order to get people to use more powers in a single player game...well not even MMOs.

min/maxing always finds a way. some powers will be ignored in favor of others.

 

They didn't really rebalance them, just lowered the amount of points needed to max them. Unless for some odd reason you preferred rank 4 to rank 5, then nothings changed. Maxed out is still maxed out.

 

I think the only skill they changed was Euphoria but that skill could get pretty crazy lol.

Edited December 15, 2022 by KingGuy420

[Siriodorione]

But did they also change the card designs? I no longer understand what the neutral cards are, they all have the banner, for example I remember Zoltan, Triss, Geralt, Yen they were neutral... now I don't understand how to make the deck for the trophy.

[A1GAM3R_PS]

It´s part of a pc mod that was itegrated in these next gen versions. I think it was one of the dev´s that made it actually

Edited December 15, 2022 by A1GAM3R_PS

[TJ_Solo]

4 hours ago, KingGuy420 said:

 

They didn't really rebalance them, just lowered the amount of points needed to max them. Unless for some odd reason you preferred rank 4 to rank 5, then nothings changed. Maxed out is still maxed out.

 

I think the only skill they changed was Euphoria but that skill could get pretty crazy lol.

 

I am reading the reddit post and the NexusMod page about the Full Combat ReBalance 3 mod. The mod itself does change ranks and the bonuses provide to make the current rank 3 basically be like the rank 5, fine. The ranking just just the 1st item on the character development section. There are 20+ other adjusts being made to powers, cooldowns, damage percents, etc.

Edited December 15, 2022 by TJ_Solo

[KingGuy420]

13 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

 

I am reading the reddit post and the NexusMod page about the Full Combat ReBalance 3 mod. The mod itself does change ranks and the bonuses provide to make the current rank 3 basically be like the rank 5, fine. The ranking just just the 1st item on the character development section. There are 20+ other adjusts being made to powers, cooldowns, damage percents, etc.

 

Yeah, I've read through the full list. Euphoria is the only one that seems like a straight nerf though, and seems like the only "build changing" change. 

 

Outside of that it just seems like a bunch of stuff being shifted around or buffed.

 

And they didn't use that mod one for one. They tuned it themselves, just used the mod as a base.

Edited December 15, 2022 by KingGuy420

[archangeltw_]

1 hour ago, Siriodorione said:

But did they also change the card designs? I no longer understand what the neutral cards are, they all have the banner, for example I remember Zoltan, Triss, Geralt, Yen they were neutral... now I don't understand how to make the deck for the trophy.

I don’t think anything regarding Gwent is changed. You just have to memorized which ones are neutral. Neutral cards appears in all decks. Or refer to the site: 

https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Gwent_neutral_cards

 

There’s a slider for gwent difficulty which won’t invalidate death march trophy. On the easiest difficulty, if you play Geralt and Ciri then your power is 30 in the first round, most opponent will be scared and give up that round immediately. Then you get the trophy for winning a round by playing neutral only. That trophy is easy and never bothers me.