The Witcher - Talents - Dexterity

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Summary
Free (2 Bronze) - Flaying, Werewolf's Wrath
Skip (1 Bronze) - Fistfight
Skip (1 Silver) - Feint
Low Priority (1 Bronze) - Deflect Arrows
Low Priority (1 Silver) - Resistance to Blinding, Limit Incineration
Low Priority (2 Gold) - Vigilance, Precision

Dexterity is more important than Strength as the Attack bonuses help you use the "wrong" style -- e.g., Strong style on a creature that is normally hit better with Fast style. With a decent attack rating, you can start using Strong styles on all creatures and thereby take advantage of the higher damage from Strong styles and thereby save Silver Talents by focussing on one or two styles only.

Bronze Talents

Flaying
Free in the Prologue.

Predator
Free in Chapter 3. Significant roleplay choice required, but there is only a minor change in the story line. To get the required component for the Werewolf's Wrath potion no matter what, you could use The Healer Who Sells Werewolf's Wrath mod, which lets you buy the fur component in Chapter 4.

Deflect Arrows
Tough to use but since it stops 100% damage, you really want to get this at some point; but the situations where you really need this hardly ever occurs, so this is very low priority. If you just need something to protect you while you close on the enemy or maneuver around/toward them, then using Quen is more reliable (but costs Endurance). If there is only one archer, close with it quickly to make them back up (and they can't shoot while doing so) or engage them in melee. If you need respite, go for cover or run out of range.
You need to face the correct direction for this talent to work. Standing still also appears to help.
Overall you really don't want to rely on this or even use this as you have very limited options for attacking at long range. Igni and Yrden both let you attack at range, but you need to power-up the signs, and you cannot deflect arrows while doing so.

Repel
Aim for this after increasing your crowd-control and battlefield-control Signs. Passive parry helps you when you are in melee, and prolonged exposure to enemy melee is not recommended. And if you are avoiding prolonged melee, you might as well first develop Talents that help you avoid prolonged melee.

If you get this, get Position in the Strength talent tree to stack your parry percentage.

Fistfight
Fist Fighting is disgustingly easy if you know the trick (we talk about it in Gameplay Basics). This just lets you deal a bit more damage and end the fight a bit faster. If you are really in trouble in fist fighting, just use a Swallow potion.

Silver Talents

Resistance to Blinding
Like other Resistance talents, this is low priority as general avoidance techniques are better than hoping for chancy resistance to activate. By the time you face non-boss enemies that can Blind you in Chapter 4, you should already have a good grasp of tactics and tactical options to not have to rely on this.

Agility
Similar priority to Repel. Dodge allows you to avoid all damage in a blow, so you will eventually want this.

Limit Incineration
Like other Resistance talents, this is low priority, but at some point you will probably want to get it, as a second layer of protection against Incineration. Incineration works on a percentage of Vitality, so it's just as bad as Bleeding. However, you do not have a quick-fix potion for Incineration as you do for Bleeding.

Finesse
Pain is powerful, but it's use is really in leaving the opponent alone and doing something else, rather than following up immediately, since an attack on an opponent in Pain cancels the Pain effect.
As a matter of principle you will probably want to get this talent to stack your chance of inflicting Pain, but priority is low.

Feint
An interesting talent, since -- theoretically -- you can hit all types of creatures with all types of attacks. That is, you can use Group attacks on single targets, or Strong attacks on agile creatures that you normally need Fast attacks to hit. The difference is in your chance of hitting. What Feint helps you do is land effects on targets you can't normally affect -- like Bleeding from Strong attacks on nimble targets, or Pain from Fast attacks on slower targets.
We recommend staying out of melee so this has very low priority, and in any case your chances of hitting something are anywhere from very good to automatic IF you use the right fighting style so this could be classed as not important. In the worst case, use a temporary Rune.

Incineration Resistance
Like other Resistance talents, this is low priority as general avoidance techniques are better than hoping for chancy resistance to activate.

Gold Talents

Vigilance
This really appears too late in the game to be useful since by the time you get any Gold Talents (level 30), you should have developed good techniques for handling many enemies, and in any case being in melee is the inferior choice for handling combat. You will probably still want to get this talent at some point just out of the principle of avoiding hits, but priority is very low.

Precision
Huge bonus to getting Critical Hits, but with only Group styles. Very low priority since it only affects Group styles whereas Sign-based crowd control are under no such limitations and can deal a lot more damage and special effects. Also, you will probably also have Trip and Knockdown, and once a target is on the ground, you cannot hurt them with Group style (or any style) except to kill them with a Finishing Move.

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