Witcher 3 Lock On Distance

One of the consistently frustrating things I have come across in the Witcher 3 is the really short lock on distance; you have to be very close to an enemy before you can lock on. This leads to a lot of frustration because archers can start picking you off from well beyond the lock on threshold and Geralt will not go into "combat mode" until you are within a certain range of an enemy or locked on and you cannot parry or dodge the arrows until you are in "combat mode".

Am I missing something or is just how it works? I feel like there should be a way to activate "combat mode" at any time so I can dodge/parry the arrows, but I do not know if that is possible. Does anyone else find this frustrating or know a way around it? Perhaps I missed a tutorial message?

WoW..... you'd think by now developers would have caught on to Dragons Dogma's combat mechanics but nope......

Hell you could even manually aim some of the Spells....

Yup, lock on distance seems short to me, too. You practically have to be within striking distance to get close enough to lock onto an opponent, which is really annoying. You can manually draw your sword at any distance, though, which will allow you to perform dodges and rolls. On a controller left and right on the D-Pad will draw your Steel and Silver swords, respectively.

-Byshop

@Byshop:

Are the swords Mechanically different ? Or do you just use one sword to kill this type of monster and the other sword to kill that type of monster ?

Steel is for non-magical/monster opponents (humans, animals, etc), while Silver is for all the supernatural monsters you fight.

-Byshop

@Byshop:

Breaks my heart. :(

Even by the third installment in the witcher series they still haven't got the hang of making a game with good gameplay.

@ariabed: It's not flawless, but it's an excellent game in spite of a few flaws.

-Byshop

@Byshop: i really wanted W3 to be good, no doubt the story is good and the side quest, and enviroments but a big thing for me is gameplay.

Would you say skyrims gameplay is better or not?

I don't see what the problem is. As soon as I see an enemy even if it's still far, the appropriate sword is already unsheathed and oiled, magical ability already chosen.

If it's human enemies, I'm already jumping/rolling in a zigzag pattern to minimize injuries from enemy archers, putting as many obstacles as I can to break their line of sight while I close in.

Archers are usually my first targets. The other types are slow enough to where I can keep enough distance so I can make adjustments to magic and oils/potions.

@StHapns247: Yes the frustration is there for me too, and when I come across a situation with plenty of archers I tend to rely heavily on Quen sign.