The Polish term that is translated as “witcher” in these games, wiedźmin , can also be translated as “hexer.” This gets at the core of what makes Geralt an unusual figure in his universe. He is one of that world’s few spell-slinging swordsmen, not quite warrior or mage. While Geralt doesn’t command the world-shaping power of a pure sorcerer, he can use his signs to dramatically alter the course of his battles.
That means you, the player, should become familiar with the basic signs and their combat roles. Geralt’s witcher signs give him an unusual range of abilities, and it may take you some time to get comfortable with them.
Aard
The sign of Aard is a single-target spell that emerges as a sphere of telekinetic force. Upon contact with a foe, it has a high chance of stunning and/or knocking it down. A stunned opponent may grow so dazed that you can finish the target off with a single attack. A knocked down opponent cannot attack you while getting back up, giving you a perfect opportunity for pouring on the damage. Knocked down opponents are also vulnerable to instant kills.
Aard is best used against enemies with strong defensive abilities that you’re fighting either solo or in small groups. It is particularly useful against mages, especially when leveled up. If fighting half a dozen enemies or more, Aard is less effective. Even if it connects with your target and has a strong effect, you tend to have a hard time getting through the crush of opponents to finish off your target.
If you invest talents in leveling up Aard, you gain the ability to shoot it farther and to intensify its stunning and knockdown properties. You can also slot range mutagens to make your Aard projectiles fly farther. Aard III is so powerful that it can make many enemies in the game dramatically easier to defeat, simply by setting them up for instant kills and long combos.
Yrden
Yrden is somewhat similar to Aard in terms of function, since its main effect is stunning enemies. In addition to the stun affect, Yrden affects an enemy’s movement and may hold your foe trapped in place for a few moments. What’s tricky about Yrden is how you use it against opponents. You must place it on the ground and lure enemies into it, then quickly dart back and begin pummeling the foe before the effect wears off.
There are a handful of powerful enemies in the game who are essentially vulnerable only to Yrden. How Yrden is best used depends on how much you’ve invested in it. You can buy skills as Geralt levels up that allow him to plant multiple Yrden sigils on the ground, essentially letting him build stunning walls. This can be a powerful method of crowd control, allowing Geralt to pick the stunned enemies off at his leisure.
The weakness of Yrden is that it must be carefully placed on the ground like a trap. If you put down an Yrden sigil and can’t lure an enemy onto it, the sigil is basically wasted. You can get around this by obtaining the skills necessary to put down multiple sigils, but you still need to be careful. The animation for placing a sigil is long and leaves you vulnerable to attack.
Igni
The sign of Igni launches a fireball at opponents. At its most basic level, Igni is simply a way to damage opponents from a distance. If you invest talents in enhancing Igni, then it does more damage and gains the ability to set opponents aflame. This is a critical effect called incineration that slowly deals extra damage over time.
In addition, human opponents who are incinerated jerk about in pain and become incapable of defending themselves. So in addition to inflicting ongoing damage, you can use the incineration as an opportunity to pour on extra damage with your own attack combos. You can also upgrade Igni to have a greater area of effect than a single target, which can incapacitate crowds of human foes.
Igni’s main weakness is that its usefulness is limited when battling monsters. While many types of monsters are vulnerable to incineration, this critical effect doesn’t disable a monster the way it disables a human. So while you can use Igni to grind out extra damage against a monster, you can’t use it to set up openings for your own attacks.
Quen
Quen begins as a purely defensive spell. You may be inclined to ignore it in favor of more attack-oriented powers like Aard and Igni, which in a typical action game would be more powerful. This game is very different, though. Quen is one of the most powerful signs in the game. In The Witcher 2 , the amount of damage enemies can do to you rapidly outscales how much damage you can soak up by blocking attacks or equipping more powerful armor.
This is where Quen comes in. Quen effectively acts as a protective barrier that absorbs attack damage. Quen lasts until the barrier has absorbed too much damage or until its timer ticks down. Each casting of Quen lasts for a certain amount of real time, a period of time you can extend by investing in the sign as you level up.
Quen won’t let you wade into the middle of a half dozen enemies, but you can combine Quen and dodge rolls to keep enemies from significantly damaging Geralt at all in combat. You can make Quen absorb more damage by leveling it up and can also invest in abilities that make Quen divert damage it absorbs into an energy attack that affects one or more of your enemies, chosen at random.
Axii
Axii is another sign you might not expect to be useful, given how similar abilities tend to work in action games. Axii gives you the ability to take control of one of your enemies. This sign is one of the most difficult to cast, requiring you to hold down the sign button until the spell completes. Once an enemy is under your control, it is surrounded by a white halo of light.
Once controlled, your former opponent turns on your other enemies and begins attacking them. While under the influence of Axii, this former opponent will not attack you for any reason. The spell wears out after a certain period of time, or if you attack the enemy yourself to break the spell. If you invest in Axii as Geralt levels up, you can control enemies for longer periods of time, control multiple enemies at once, and use skills to booster the strength of charmed foes for as long as they serve you.
In some games, abilities like this are available but are considered morally objectionable or outright evil. This is not the case in The Witcher 2 . Turning a foe who was out for your blood against his or her allies is not in any way a condemnable act. While Axii works equally well against most human and monster enemies, note that it is usually ineffective against elite enemies. You may also find you can only use it to control enemies of a certain type only so many times in a single battle.