Archetype 11: The Puppet Master

(* Additional Abilities as 16 Slots are unlocked through Mutations)

(** These Abilities are optional, and were unlocked so Synergy Ability could be accessed)

Armor: New Moon Armor

Swords: Ursine Steel Sword, Ursine Silver Sword

Crossbow: Any

Bombs: Samum, Northern Wind

Potions: Maribor Forest, Tawny Owl, Thunderbolt

Decoctions: Ancient Leshen, Archgriffin, Katakan

Glyphs: Quen, Axii

Runestones: Chernobog, Perun, Veles

Glyphwords: Levity

Runewords: Preservation, Severance

Mutations: Deadly Counter (2 Research Points), Bloodbath (5 Research Points), Second Life (25 Research Points)

Should you attempt your adventure on the most difficult of settings (Death March!), and want to ensure your fights aren’t plagued by ineptitude, or a lack of abilities for any situation, while inflicting the most damage in the shortest possible time, this Archetype is a worthy choice. It primarily relies on your blades to inflict damage at close range, but has enough elements from other Ability Trees to augment your melee bloodletting. Early on, build up your Combat branch (Fast and Strong Attacks), and unlock both Whirl and Rend, before finally utilizing Sunder Armor along with Rend to cut through the largest of foes, providing your attack-timing is spot-on. Add potions and you begin to see the benefits of this build.

You want quick and highly-damaging attacks, so your Attack Power, and Criticals should be as impressive as possible based on the equipment you have foraged. At the highest levels, the Witcher school blades are good choices, but utilizing the Ursine swords has the edge, due to the Adrenaline Point gain. Until the Mastercrafted School gear is available, New Moon Armor is an excellent choice, though it is Medium weight and therefore you’re unable to utilize the Critical Damage bonuses from Cat School Techniques (General Branch)—that is, of course, until you unlock the Runewright’s Levity Glyphword, meaning all equipped armor is treated as Light Armor. This means you can wear whatever you like and get those Cat School Techniques bonuses!

Signs are tempered to favor Combat Branches, but two of the available Abilities are critically important to augment your swordplay. Exploding Shield is obviously to gain protection in case of overwhelming odds, and Puppet (essentially turning some foes into allies) is useful when needing to control crowds of enemies. For monstrous entities, it’s simply your swords against their attacks, so prepare poisoned blades accordingly, and ensure Synergy in the Alchemy branch is chosen, so your Mutagen slots grant you spectacular bonuses. Rage Management is key here too, giving you flexibility to cast Signs using Adrenaline rather than Stamina.

Other equipment is up to your preferences, including the crossbow you employ. Bombs are mainly situational, though it’s always a good idea to lob a Samum from time-to-time; higher quality Samums cause criticals, too.

Potions are taken to increase your Adrenaline (Maribor Forest), Attack Power (Thunderbolt), and provide Stamina (Tawny Owl), while the Acquired Tolerance Ability helps mitigate any Toxicity problems (and used optionally). Similarly, Decoctions should influence the damage you are inflicting, with Archgriffin (strong attacks consume Stamina for extra damage to your foe), Ancient Leshen (Signs cast increase Stamina regeneration), and Katakan (increases your critical hit chance) all augmenting your already-impressive combat strengths.

Glyphs are chosen to bolster defenses, though your use of Axii means this glyph is an option. Runestones are to your preference, though it’s great to increase your Adrenaline Points with Perun, or Attack Power with Chernobog.

As mentioned previously, your Glyphword choice is straightforward; Levity allows any armor you wear to be treated as Light (and thus, your Cat School Techniques bonuses are awarded). For Runewords, Preservation never causes your Armorer’s Table or Grindstone bonuses to expire, which is helpful for increasing your damage as much as possible. Once you start using Whirl and Rend, Severance (which increases the range of both attacks) is your key enchantment.

Finally, for Mutations, look for ones with a Combat component to them. In particular, you may find Bloodbath a superb help, as critical hits generate adrenaline. Deadly Counter allows you to counter human-sized foes that are wounded with a finisher, and all damage against monstrous foes is increased by a huge amount. Second Life is also optional, if you’re having problems staying alive on higher difficulty levels, though by the time you access Mutations, you should never have to worry about combat conditions favoring the enemy!