[Seefer]

Since reaching Act V I have to say the gameplay has become totally anal in terms of difficulty and having to reload save games over and over again.

Also, I'm finding that combat when using Blizzard is extremely dodgy and it often seems that the combat round is completely out of sync with what's going on on the screen. Many times I'm trying to cast a sign but nothing happens even though I have plenty of Endurance left. I'm also finding that even at a distance I'm being hit by the Koschay and watching my health plummet like a Courtesans underwear (and no it's not the Bleed effect doing damage to me).

Can anyone give a good tactic on killing this ****** Koschay monster as it's completely ruining what has been well-balanced combat. This Koschay scrap is an utter chore....not a chalenge - I usually can;t abide cheat codes but never have a wished for a cheat code more so than now  >:(

[MisterV]

Are you playing on hard? I'm on Normal, and so far I have yet to see a real challenge since the swamp plant in Act II. What level are you, also, did you upgrade real useful damage-dealing stuff like the Igni sign?

Someone here suggested the Willow potion for use during the combat with Koschey, against knockdown.

(also, when do you fight it? it's jsut that I'd like to come prepared...is it when you get word from the king to go to the Old Manor?)

EDIT: since romeo_longsword hasn't answered yet, I'll take the opportunity to point you to his video guide ;)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lTMSjqtt5ZE

[przodownikpracy]

I beat this monster quite quick. I used oil witch make bleeding. I also drank potion to get resistance of knockdown, pain and bleeding and life regeneration. With Kościej I was fighting by strong style - silver sword.

[Seefer]

I'm not playing on hard, I'm on normal. I'm level 33. I dealt with a few quests in this area before going to the Manor (Striga etc). Not bothered with the cousins thing yet though.

I've got the armor from Kakstein but that seems to do jack shit against this Koschay. I also have plenty of potions but you obviously can't use too many or your toxicity goes thru roof and when that bar gets full, you die. I can take about 3 potions before my tox is 3/4 full.

II have the Aerondight silver sword and use Argentia to coat it and increase damage and use the strong style.

The main problem I have is the damned bleed and pain effect from the Koschay. I can hit the Koschay for one Strong flurish but I rarely get a chance to get to the second chain or further  becuase it always blocks or parries, even in Blizzard mode. It then does that Bleed attack and I watch my health drop like a stone and because I took some potions for resist knockdown and blizzard I have about 1 or two more potion gulps to use Kiss to stop bleeding before my tox bar maxes out and I die.

Also, I even went outside to a place of power and have the ritual of life in effect, all to no avail because as soon as I start to bleed and/or stand there like an idiot, strunned by pain, my health drops to zero in about 10 seconds from full as the bleed and attacks from Koschay rip em to shreds :)

Also, why the hell does the heath bar of certain monsters nevr show up. It would be encouraging to see that I'm actually doing some god damn damage to this sucker.

This encouinter is totally anal as far as I'm concerned and I'm gradually finding things are turning into a  complete chore rather than a chalenge. Wouldn't be so bad without that daned toxicity restriction messing things up :(

I'll check out the video guide link and welcome any more suggestions :)

Thanks

[przodownikpracy]

There is a litlle method on toxicity. You can drink some of potions witch have long duration . Somewhere before Kosciej you should find bonfire where you meditating only an hour and then the toxicity level drops and the potions still function. Then you drink another...
Use potion for getting resistance of bleeding and so on...

[Nighteye]

Try a willow potion with albedo secondary, it should help.

[DarthMael]

Well, I didn't have any problems with Koschay... I aarded it and used quick silver style while it was trying to stand up, then again aarded and so on.

[Kerplotz]

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Well, I didn't have any problems with Koschay... I aarded it and used quick silver style while it was trying to stand up, then again aarded and so on.

Darth, there's nothing more irritating than someone saying they have a problem, and someone else replys saying, "Well, I didn't... whether you intended to sound arrogant or not. I see too much of it and I get tired of it. Help is simply saying, "this technique worked for me. Give it a try". In my opinion, anybody who needs to start off by saying, "it wasn't hard for me" should just keep their mouth shut. I'm sick of elitist gamers.

I barely got past the Koschey on easy for the same reasons mentioned. I'm not looking forward to it on normal.

[Nighteye]

There is a potion that doubles your vitality - it should help a lot on the harder difficulty levels.

[MercuryRain]

Beat it to death with Stong Silver. I use Albedo as the secondary for all my potions except Swallow (Nigredo) you might want to try that.

Use Aard to knock him down and to give yourself some breathing room.

[DarthMael]

Quote

Quote

Well, I didn't have any problems with Koschay... I aarded it and used quick silver style while it was trying to stand up, then again aarded and so on.

Darth, there's nothing more irritating than someone saying they have a problem, and someone else replys saying, "Well, I didn't... whether you intended to sound arrogant or not. I see too much of it and I get tired of it. Help is simply saying, "this technique worked for me. Give it a try". In my opinion, anybody who needs to start off by saying, "it wasn't hard for me" should just keep their mouth shut. I'm sick of elitist gamers.
I barely got past the Koschey on easy for the same reasons mentioned. I'm not looking forward to it on normal.

Well, sorry if I've offended somebody, because I certainly didn't mean to. And no need for you to get so nervous about that - I wasn't being arrogant or something, my "Well, I didn't have any problems with Koschay" was just a simple statement - a piece of info, and the continuation of the phrase was an explanation of WHY I think I didn't have problems, the technique I used. I was playing on middle, for you to know. I've never been a person who likes acting superior to others, and I'll never be. So I hope this little misunderstanding has been cleared and I'm no longer on your blacklist.  :)
And, by the way, Aard really works well against Koschay.

[ceridwen_1]

I took the swallow and the tawny owl potion to get my aard back quickly. Tried it with quick and strong silver style (already played the game twice) - both will do. And I think it is called quen (the orb you can call to protect yourself) .- that helped the second time too.

I had aard skills maxed and the orb to the point of good protection and damage reflecting. So that did it pretty well the second time. I ran in there with the protection sign and kept hitting the koschay with the aard and my sword (naturally ;) ). He definetly went down quicker the second time I did the game.

[Kerplotz]

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I had aard skills maxed and the orb to the point of good protection and damage reflecting. So that did it pretty well the second time. I ran in there with the protection sign and kept hitting the koschay with the aard and my sword (naturally ;) ). He definetly went down quicker the second time I did the game.

That sounds like a good combo to try. The continuous stream of damage is what's hard to cope with. It's usually dishing out way more damage than I can mitigate.

[Kerplotz]

[quote author=Darth'Mael link=topic=5688.msg180589#msg180589 date=1195654116]
[quote]

Well, sorry if I've offended somebody, because I certainly didn't mean to. And no need for you to get so nervous about that - I wasn't being arrogant or something, my "Well, I didn't have any problems with Koschay" was just a simple statement - a piece of info, and the continuation of the phrase was an explanation of WHY I think I didn't have problems, the technique I used. I was playing on middle, for you to know. I've never been a person who likes acting superior to others, and I'll never be. So I hope this little misunderstanding has been cleared and I'm no longer on your blacklist.  :)

[/quote]

I should apologize. I actually understood that from you, so I may have come off heavy handed. I was just reacting to an accumulation of reading "it's not hard" related responses to things.

But people need to understand 2 things: 1) What's fine in conversation when you can see and hear someone doesn't necessarily come off the same way on the printed page. Writing shouldn't be considered spoken conversation, though granting for chat boards it typically is. 2) Most important, people need to remember that what's easy for you, isn't necessarily easy for someone else, for whatever reason. And that's anything, not just gaming. I've been guilty of that myself. I think it's kind of normal when you're practiced at something, you just assume other people doing it too are at least as good as you and you're kind of surprised when they're not. It's never comforable to be on the receiving end of "you can't do that?" even when meant good naturedly. For gaming in particular, I've seen too many newer players who might have otherwise enjoyed a game leave because of hearing that from other players.  [/sermon]

We're cool. You're good to have on the boards.  ;D

[DarthMael]

Glad that it's all settled  :) Keep playing and have fun!

[kalniel]

It's a challenging, but very rewarding fight. My toxicity was right at the limit by the end of it and I only just scraped through on normal.

I should have used Willow - there was a big 'doh' moment when I realised I had a potion of it in my inv! As it was I took Swallow before the fight, already had Cat, and then just used White Raffords when needed. I have a very strong and efficient Igni skill tree so I ended up having to use that a lot. As you saw, you can only get a few hits in before being crippled with pain or similar. Skills that reduce these effects would help.

You could also try the 'buzz' skill where you are immune to pain if drunk! That was very handy against the Beast in chp 1. Don't forget to dodge/tumble away to recover your stance as well.

[Kerplotz]

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could also try the 'buzz' skill where you are immune to pain if drunk! That was very handy against the Beast in chp 1. Don't forget to dodge/tumble away to recover your stance as well.

That's another good idea of an non utilized skill (for me). Drunken Master Geralt. lol.

[sd1612]

I got this thing on my first try, here's how: (not trying to sound arrogant  :P)
I had the shield spell on lvl 5 (100% damage resist) and took a Tawny Oil potion and a Willow. I started the fight with the shield on, then used my level 5 Igni on it several times until I had a quarter of my endurance left, and cast the shield spell.
I waited until my endurance was back, and repeated it...over...and over (took about 3 minutes I think)

[Filmiles]

Here's the way I did it after attempting to just use brute force and some potions. Get behind the Column/Pillar in the middle of the room and keep bashing it with the Igni (fire) sign.

[Malygris]

yep ran around and around the columns hitting with fire and attacking when my health caught back up