Forgotten Wolven - Henry Cavill build - Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

This post will cover the best Forgotten Wolven armor build in Witcher 3. It is based on the Netflix series, where Geralt is acted by the famous Henry Cavill.

Forgotten Wolven - Henry Cavill build

The build mixes signs, combat, and alchemy. You could say it is similar to the Spellsword build. However, the main idea is to concentrate on using Yrden + Aard. Moreover, while the stamina is recharging Forgotten Wolven build can easily be effective in melee combat.

The big downside is that the 6-piece Forgotten Wolven set bonus only increases Aard's damage by 10%. Enemies also have to stand in Yrden, which makes combat a bit limited.

To empower it, we will also take some alchemy abilities. They will ensure we can maximize sign intensity and attack power bonuses with Euphoria. In addition, we can chug potions thanks to the Fast Metabolism perk.

This build took a while to figure out. I wanted it to follow the inspiration. However, it should also be formidable in combat and that is always difficult when mixing signs and combat. But it seems I manage it to work.

The Build is tested on New Game+ and Deathmarch difficulty.

Skills allocation

This section covers skills for the Henry Cavill build. Be sure to reset skills to be able to allocate skill points as suggested

Combat Skills

There are two approaches to combat - strong and fast attacks. Pick your preferred one.

Name	Description
Fleet Footed	Avoids damage throughout the whole dodging animation. This makes the combat easier as your invincibility frames increase
Razor Focus	A powerful perk, that grants one adrenaline point at the start of the combat. Moreover, increases adrenaline generation by 30% with swords.

Fast attacks

Name	Description
Muscle Memory	Increases fast attack damage by 30%
Precise Blows	increases critical hit chance by 12% and critical damage by 75% with fast attacks
Whirl	An alternative version of fast attack. Geralt spins the sword around 360 degrees hitting all the enemies. This consumes stamina and adrenaline.

Strong Attacks

Name	Description
Strength Training	Increases strong attack damage by 30%
Crushing Blows	Increases critical chance by 12% and critical damage by 75%
Rend	Unlocks an alternative version for the strong attack. By consuming stamina, you increase the damage and critical chance to deal a deadly blow. Great skill when fighting with one enemy or you have a long opening window.

As you can see I did not take Resolve. However, it is a good perk that could be taken instead of Fleet Footed.

Alchemy Skills

Name	Description
Acquired Tolerance	Increases toxicity by 0.5 for each unlocked alchemy recipe. This will allow drinking more potions and decoctions. Moreover, higher toxicity will improve bonuses from Euphoria mutation
Synergy	Improves the effectiveness of mutagens by 50%.
Fast Metabolism	This is an important ability for the Forgotten Wolven build. Because we will use multiple decoctions, we will be able to drink one potion at a time. Fast Metabolism makes you lose toxicity faster allowing you to drink potions faster
Killing Spree	While toxicity is above 0 each killed enemy will increase the critical chance by 30%. This skill is an excellent boost to DPS, especially when fighting at least two enemies.

Sign Skills

Name	Description
Far-Reaching Aard	Increases the reach of Aard by 3 yards. Makes hitting enemies easier
Sustained Glyphs	Increases Yrden sign duration by 10 seconds. Moreover, allows placing two areas.
Aard Sweep	Strike all opponents in a 360-degree radius. Perfect attack to take out enemies coming from behind or when being surrounded
Yrden Intensity OR Aard Intensity	Higher Yrden intensity will increase its damage with Supercharged Glyphs, slowdown effectiveness, and duration. Pick your preferred one. Higher Aard intensity will deal more damage with Shock Wave and have a higher knockdown chance.
Shock Wave	Aard Sign now deals damage which scales with level
Supercharged Glyphs	Enemies under influence of Yrden will continuously lose HP. The damage scales with Sign intensity and level, which makes it a very powerful upgrade.

General Skills

Name	Description
Griffin School Techniques OR Cat School Techniques	I would suggest picking one skill. Go with Griffin School techniques if you prefer using Signs and did not take Levity glyphword However, if you rely more on sword combat then go for Cat School Techniques. Just don't forget to use Levity glyphword on armor. Otherwise, you lose any bonuses. Forgotten Wolven armor is medium while you need light.

Mutations

Name	Description
Euphoria	I recommend this mutation for Henry Cavill's build. It works best with high toxicity and gives bonuses to both Sign intensity and attack power. This is the perfect choice when we want to mix these two stats

Detailed Skill Progression

This covers detailed progression for the build as many players will not be high level to have 50+ skill points. So follow the abilities as you progress for maximum effectiveness.

If you are below level 11, I suggest following early game build guides

Order	Skill	Description
1	Muscle Memory or Strength Training	Our goal is to reach the alternative versions of fast or strong attacks. We only take Resolve for progression. You can remove it later on for other abilities. The main progression paths: Fast attacks - Muscle Memory -> Precise Blows -> Whirl Strong Attacks - Strength Training -> Crushing Blows -> Rend
2	Resolve
3	Precise Blows or Crushing Blows
4	3 points in combat skills
5	Whirl or Rend
6	Far-Reaching Aard	Unlock the first sign skills to improve Aard and Yrden
7	Sustained Glyphs
8	1 sign skill point
9	Aard Sweep
10	Acquired Tolerance	This is a good time to obtain Acquired Tolerance as you should have accumulated some alchemy recipes by now
11	Razor Focus	Will allow starting combat with 1 adrenaline point for higher DPS
12	3 sign skill points	Select your preferred Sign Intensity ability - either Yrden or Aard. By getting Supercharged Glyphs Yrden will now deal damage
13	Yrden Intensity OR Aard Intensity
14	3 Sign skill points
15	Supercharged Glyphs
16	Griffin School Techniques OR Cat School Techniques	Get one that you prefer. Cat School Techniques if you use light armor or have Levity glyphword For medium armor and higher Sign usage go with Griffin School Techniques
17	Shock Wave	Aard now deals damage in addition to staggering and knocking back enemies

At this point, I recommend having all of the places of power collected. You will need a lot of skill points to progress through the build and unlock other skill slots fully.

Order	Skill	Description
18	Toxic Blood	Unlock the main mutation of the build
19	Euphoria
20	9 skills points in Alchemy tree	Unlock the main abilities of the alchemy tree. They will improve potion consumption and damage.
21	Fast Metabolism
22	2 mutations
23	Synergy
24	4 mutations
25	Killing Spree
26	4 mutations	Unlock the last combat ability recommended for the build
27	Fleet Footed

Tactics

In this section, I would like to share some tips on how to best play Combat build in Witcher 3

Using Yrden

This is a very powerful Sign if used correctly. The good thing is that Henry Cavill's build has high intensity and using this sign is very effective. It is beneficial both in melee and Aard usage. Yrden slows down enemies, making combat easier. Moreover, with Supercharged Glyphs, the sign will damage enemies over time.

As you can see, all of the enemies were standing in the Yrden field (this may not be obvious due to low quality). By using empowered Aard we stun them, and the finish of with sword attacks.

Build variations

The build has a wide array of variations that you could utilize according to your playstyle. For example, If you wish to improve Aard sign more, you could take out Fleet Footed and add Aard Intensity.

To improve Signs further, remove all Red mutagens and add blue ones. This is the easiest way to improve Sign intensity at the expense of close combat DPS.

Or you could go the other way around and place only red mutagens in the slots. Following that removing a few of Sign skills and including something like Resolve will greatly boost combat damage.

You could also add Metabolic Control to increase total toxicity. With it you could run 4 decoctions, ensuring fast HP regeneration with Ekimmara Decoction and Troll Decoction.

So there are numerous possibilities, don't be afraid to test them out. Forgotten Wolven armor is extremely flexible

Quen Sign

This is the main survivability action that you will use. Quen is very powerful because it guarantees that any single hit you take does not do any damage. Believe me, with this build, a single hit can be extremely deadly.

The good thing is that Quen does not require any Sign intensity investment for it to be effective. You should ALWAYS use Quen with Forgotten Wolven build in any combat encounter.

Equipment

Here is my suggested gear for the Forgotten Wolven build in Witcher 3

Weapons

Steel Swords

Item	Description
Grandmaster Forgotten Wolven steel sword	Take this sword for the full 6-piece Forgotten Wolven bonus. However, if you do not need the unique effect of a stronger Aard, then go for the options below.
Toussaint Knight's Steel Sword	This is the most powerful steel sword in the game. Iris may compare to it in terms of damage, however, this has no confusing mechanics and pure high-damage stats
Iris	This sword is the perfect combination if you plan to use Strong attacks. The charged up attack deals double damage making this a very powerful option
Viroledan Blade	Provides a +75% critical damage bonus. Unfortunately, armor piercing is not as useful.

Silver Swords

Item	Description
Grandmaster Forgotten Wolven silver sword	Take this sword for the full 6-piece Forgotten Wolven bonus. However, if you do not need the unique effect of a stronger Aard, then go for the options below.
Aerondight	This is the most powerful sword in the game. Each attack raises its charge, resulting in higher damage. However, it requires some grinding for it to be at peak effectiveness. Moreover, to add a rune or runeword to it you will need to add sockets at runewright
Gesheft	A mighty silver sword that gives a +100% Critical hit damage bonus and a +15% Critical hit chance. It is more powerful than Aerondight when it is not charged.

Weapon upgrades

Upgrade	Description
Severance	If you rely heavily on Rend or Whirl, this runeword is mandatory. It increases their reach, allowing to hit enemies before they attack you.
Replenishment	This runeword is quite a good combination for this build. After each sign use you will empower your sword for a unique effect. For example, using Aard, will apply wind effect, allowing to knock down an enemy
Greater Chernobog Runestone	The rune increases attack power. Use it to improve Geralt's combat effectiveness
Greater Veles Runestone	Increases Sign intensity, choose this to empower your signs

Armors

Item	Effects
Grandmaster Forgotten Wolven Armor	+20% Attack power +20% Adrenaline Point gain +18% Resistance to piercing damage +22% Resistance to slashing damage +30% Resistance to damage from monsters +30% Resistance to elemental damage
Grandmaster Forgotten Wolven gauntlets	+12% Aard Sign intensity +4% Resistance to piercing damage +6% Resistance to slashing damage +4% Resistance to damage from monsters +5% Resistance to elemental damage
Grandmaster Forgotten Wolven trousers	+12% Sign intensity +8% Resistance to slashing damage +10% Resistance to damage from monsters +25% Resistance to elemental damage
Grandmaster Forgotten Wolven boots	+12% Yrden Sign intensity +4% Resistance to piercing damage +4% Resistance to bludgeoning damage +6% Resistance to slashing damage +4% Resistance to damage from monsters

Armor upgrades

Upgrade	Description
Levity	If you take the Cat School Techniques perk, this glyphword is mandatory. It will make all of the armor pieces light, allowing to get the critical damage bonus
Deflection	This glyphword does not improve any type of damage. However, it makes the game easier against any type of bandit group where there might be archers. All of the arrows are deflected
Greater Glyph of Yrden	Increases Yrden sign intensity by 10%
Greater Glyph of Aard	Increases Aard sign intensity by 10%

I did not include the Depletion glyphword. Unfortunately, I did not find it effective as enemy stamina regenerates quite fast.

Potion

The build can only drink one potion at a time. You will not need to wait long for toxicity to fall due to Fast Metabolism. Here are my recommendations, on what potions are good to have on hand.

The good thing with the Forgotten Wolven build is that the 3-piece armor set bonus increases potion duration. This allows activating multiple potions easily.

Item	Effects
Superior Blizzard	This is a very powerful potion. It slows down time and makes combat easier. Moreover, once you have 3 adrenaline points actions do not consume any stamina. So you can cast Aard infinitely
Superior Thunderbolt	Increases attack power by 35%. Another special effect is that during stormy weather critical chance becomes 100% greatly improving sword combat DPS.
Superior Petri's Philter	This potion is good to have on hand. It increases Sign intensity by 25%. Moreover, Sign special effects are guaranteed (knockdown, burning, etc)
Superior Tawny Owl	Increases stamina regeneration. By consuming the potion you can cast signs faster and use Whirl/Rend more often
Superior White Raffard's Decoction	The last resort potion when you are close to dying. Use it to instantly restore HP and shortly become invulnerable
Superior Swallow	Slowly restores HP. Together with Troll Decoction you will be able to restore HP during combat.

Decoctions

With this Henry Cavill build you will be able to use 3 decoctions. Troll Decoction is mandatory and it ensures you have sufficient health regeneration to counteract intoxication. Otherwise choose, based on your preference

Have in mind our goal is to always have high toxicity to get the biggest bonus from Euphoria

Item	Effects
Troll Decoction	Ensures that Forgotten wolven build has enough HP regeneration to counteract intoxication
Ekimmara Decoction	This decoction is a perfect choice if you are getting hit often. You can then restore HP after each hit. It makes combat encounters easier and forgives mistakes
Katakan Decoction	Increases critical chance by 10%. A pure damage increase that is always active without any caveats
Wyvern Decoction	Increases attack power for each successful hit. With it, you can ramp up combat damage very fast. However, you lose everything if you get hit, so use Quen sign.
Ancient Leshen Decoction	Each Sign cast increases Stamina regeneration for the remainder of the fight. Take this one if you rely heavily on Signs

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the post on the best Forgotten Wolven build in Witcher 3. I covered all essential parts to be effective - skills progression, recommended gear, tactics, and general tips.

If you have any questions or suggestions leave a comment below