Witcher 3: The most important skills explained

There are many skills and abilities in The Witcher 3 that you can specialize in. Here you will find the most important of them.

Combat skills in The Witcher 3

The combat skills help you in sword fighting against bandits and monsters.

Rapid attack: Here you can increase the damage and precision of the rapid attack. Later, the fast attack can also trigger effects such as "bleeding" and hit several enemies in the area. You should especially skill the damage, as it has a lot of effect and costs little.
Strong attack: As before the fast attack, you can improve the strong attack here. This includes critical damage and reducing enemy damage resistance. Here, too, it is particularly worthwhile to increase the damage.
Defense: You can use it to ward off arrows and do more damage after a counterattack. In the beginning, however, it is not worth investing the valuable points in this area.
Master Shooter: This allows you to increase crossbow damage and slow down time while aiming. If you don't really use the crossbow often, it is not worth investing points here.
War Trance: Investing points here increases your adrenaline points in combat.
All combat skills are red and should therefore be combined with red mutagens to get a higher bonus.

In the drawing skills you can improve the characters Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen and Axii.

Aard: Increase the range and intensity for a better aard sign. However, this is rarely worth it, since Aard is rarely useful in combat.
Igni: If you skill Igni, you can fire a jet of fire. This is worthwhile, for example, against drowned people. You should only invest in points here late, as the points are too valuable at the beginning.
Yrden: Here you can invest points in the duration and intensity of Yrden. Since the sign only makes sense with a few monsters like appearances, you should remove the dots for other signs.
Quen: Quen is almost indispensable in combat. In the extended stages, for example, you can regenerate life when you are hit. It is definitely worth investing points here.
Axii: A upgraded Axii is particularly noticeable in dialog options. This saves you some fights or even hard cash.
You should combine drawing skills with blue mutagens.

Alchemy skills are useful when brewing potions and crafting bombs.

Potions skills reduce cooldown and increase effectiveness. This is only worthwhile if you really brew a lot of potions and play on a high level of difficulty.
The oil skills are only worthwhile if you use the oils frequently. The duration of action and the number of charges are also improved here.
The bombs slow down targeting time and increase damage.
Under Mutation you will primarily find upgrades for the mutagens.
The herbal sample reduces poisoning after drinking potions. So you can take more potions in a short time.
Overall, the alchemy skills only pay off later in the game. At the beginning, you should use the skill points to improve your attack and skill the characters.
You should combine the alchemy skills with green mutagens.

You can find practical combat tips for The Witcher 3 in another practical tip.