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The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is a mature story-driven game that emphasizes action and character customization. Getting through battles demands sharp reflexes and the ability to quickly assess the dangers presented by a combat situation. That’s not to say better armor and equipment won’t help, but good stats won’t save you from bad decisions. This section outlines how to make good decisions while in combat and to maximize Geralt’s combat potential. At the very least, if something keeps killing you over and over again, reading this section should give you some ideas for how to better approach the battle.

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Some games are all about blocking attacks. This game is all about dodging. That’s not to say blocking is totally ineffective, but even on lower difficulties powerful attacks still do a bit of damage to you. Blocking also consumes vigor, and if you block too often, you may simply lose your ability to block. It’s best to start training yourself to dodge in dangerous situations. Once you’re really good at this, you can use dodging both to get out of dangerous situations and to put yourself in the best position for an attack.

If playing with a controller, you dodge in The Witcher 2 by moving the left stick in any direction while holding down the dodge button. If playing on a PC with mouse and keyboard controls, you can dodge forward by tapping the space bar and in any direction by tapping the appropriate movement key twice. You can’t change directions once you begin dodging in a particular direction. Geralt’s dodging animation is a compact roll that can get him far away from enemies in a very short time. Note that Geralt is not invincible while dodging, so if you dodge too late or roll by an attacking enemy, you can take damage. It is possible to use dodge rolls to interrupt attack animations, though. Once you’ve got some practice, you can roll in to hit an enemy, deal damage, then begin rolling back out before the animation has completed.

When dodging, you move exponentially faster than you do when walking or even when in an attacking animation. You can further improve Geralt’s ability to dodge by investing talents in the Feet Work ability as you level up, and this is highly recommended. With levels of Feet Work, Geralt’s dodge rolls move farther and he rolls faster. You move much faster than you do when running over a similar distance and can use constant dodge-rolling to rapidly cover ground while traveling. Once you’ve mastered the dodge roll, you can roll circles around groups of enemies while setting yourself up to attack from the best possible angle.