BUILD FOR VERSION 1.08

INSTALLATION:
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Replace patch.bundle in witcher3/content/patch0/bundles/
Replace xml.bundle in witcher3/content/content0/bundles/

I recommend making backups of the original file to save yourself heartache later but DO NOT PUT IT IN THE SAME DIRECTORY, the search algorithm has been changed and somehow backup files are getting priority so put it somewhere else.

**note there is a Light Weight version without the majority of these changes, it has only removed the -40% damage from lower leveled monsters and increased the scaling factor for damage by 20/level (+25/level for heavy attacks).
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First I should thank Polymorpher for his modding tutorial on this very site, without him this mod would not exist.

Also props to Ucross Hardcore combat and Lautreamont  Better Combat for their combat mods.  Some of my design choices are clearly inspired by things in their mods, hopefully no one feels I'm ripping them off!

The design goal for this mod is to improve the balance of end-game without changing the early game overly much, which I consider to be well balanced.
The biggest changes are increased scaling values (almost doubled) so that as opponents level they are noticeably stronger.  I have only tested this through the levels I had saves for, so let me know if you find a spot where it's super-busted.  I welcome any comments on balance though I make no promises to make changes at your whim ;)

99% of the changes will apply to a save in progress.  There is one exception that I get into at the bottom under the "SPECIAL" section at the end.


GENERAL

-Removed Geralt's scaling.  No more free damage/intensity/vitality from leveling.  (There's a tiny bit left in for fisticuffs but it's not very noticeable with swords drawn)
-Large increases to monster/human leveling bonuses. (20->40/45 damage/lvl) 
-Also increased resistance scaling to 2%/level.  (for example a lv15 critter will have 30% resistances to most status effects).
- under-level opponents no longer have a damage reduction.
-Removal of large bonuses to redskull monsters.  They still get some slight buffs, mostly to resistances, but I want my next playthrough to be hud-free so I can't have invincible killing-machines running wild and non-detectable.
-Red and Blue Mutagens now provide 2/4/6 from 5/7/10.  (They still double from skill color bonus, so a maxed red/blue mutagen is +24%)
-Grindstones last 45min and boost 15%
-Food/drink much slower and barely at all in combat.  The best food and drink items now last 4 hours game time (960 seconds)
-Crit chance decoction from 5% -> 15%





SIGNS

Doubled the intensity bonus from all tier 3 sign skills.

Aard:
-Aard4 damage has been increased to 120dmg/rank (does not scale with intensity).
*If I can figure out how to remove killing downed opponents I might do that instead and return knockdown to it's original state. 

Igni:
-Burning duration 3->1, but burn damage increased slightly.
-melt armor from 0.6% / cast to 15% [I might be confused on this one, but vanilla seemed to only adjust 0.6% armor per cast, making this useless.  If anyone uses this let me know if it's noticeable now.]
**Pyromania has been tested and apparently does not do anything other than change the APPARENT burning value in the character screen.  You CAN in fact boost burn chance past 100% but ignore pyromania.

Yrden:
-Duration reduced to 6sec base (scales with intensity). 
-Shock damage from Yrden2 has been fixed/increased. 
-Base charges on Yrden2 = 2. Maximizes at 6 charges. Base duration 5sec.

Quen:
-Duration reduced to 5sec.
-Base value 200->400.  So that maybe you can block two small hits in that 5sec window with sufficient intensity.
-Ult now returns between 10-50% of previous value.  Unfortunately the heal amount and shield value are linked, otherwise I'd have made this a non-healing but strong shield.



SWORDSMANSHIP

Generally I thought swords were MOSTLY balanced and only really broken by the insane mutagen bonuses. 


-whirl stamina_cost_reduction 10%->8% per rank.
-Adrenaline now gives +15% damage per point to help make it worth keeping vs spending.
-Lightning reflex 15->21% slowdown.
-buffed Undying a bit.  Heal is strongly reliant on the amount of adrenaline (about 30% per adrenaline point) and now has an 85sec cooldown.


ALCHEMY

-natural toxicity recovery cut to 1/3, poison damage doubled.
-Refreshment 25%->20%
-Protective coating 25%->20%
-Aquired Tolerance from 1tox/recipe -> 0.8tox/recipe. 


PERKS

-Survival Instinct 500->800
-Cat armor now properly applies crit bonus [BUG FIX] but fast attack damage 20%->10%
-Griffin school techniques did not work as advertised, now it's 20% intensity and 1 stam/sec when maximized.
-Adrenaline Burst 5% -> 15%
-Metabolism Control 30tox -> 60tox
-Focus (which was originally named a much cooler "Blood into Fire") boosted to 20% intensity per adrenaline point.
-Sun and stars night effect from 1s/s -> 4 stam/sec.



SPECIAL NOTICE

I made some changes to skill tiers to make things more convenient and logical.  These changes will be implemented if you start a new game. 


Blue Branch
-All the tier three sign skills are now available after spending 5 points in the sign branch.  In vanilla these skills were useless by the time they unlocked.  Now I can see them having some value. Trying to boost knockdown chance during early levels, for example.
-What was formally tier 2, now require 10 points in the branch.  I wasn't completely sure about this decision but I think this makes more sense ultimately, and 10 points isn't an incredible burden since these are arguably the best skills in the branch.
-The final tier is now unlocked at 18 from 24 except for pyromaniac which is available immediately for similar reasons to T3.

Red Branch
-This tier is not as messy, I just changed them from 0/8/15/30 to 0/8/16/24.  The reason being that I found it annoying how getting any 3/3 skill would botch my build and force me to waste points in skills I didn't want.  Now it takes one 5/5 and one 3/3 to unlock each tier.

Green Branch
-This one is almost identical to the new red setup except that I unlocked Adaptation off the bat because it sucks so bad it should be t0.  Soooo tempting to put Heightened Tolerance in it's place but I didn't.