Hey Im new to the game and just unlocked being able to choose a path sword alchemy or magic. I hear magic is really powerful but to me I dont like how you switch between spells so doubt Ill go very far into the tree. However I have a question, why sometimes do I get skill points and at another level I get a talent point. And what is this talk of unlocking mutagens? Do I need to max a tree to get the slots or what? Thanks any build advice would be cool too I was thinking some kind of combo between swords and alchemy. Also is the heliotrope spell you unlock cool at all?

A lot depends on what difficulty you are playing at. If on hard I suggest getting quen asap and getting both levels for it. That lets you take a few hits before any damage. Also, 2 points in alchemy to get +100% bombs does great for killing mobs in chapter 1. Finally, 1 or 2 talents in feet work for rolling farther away helps at the start. Once you hit level 18-20 it really doesn't matter much as the game gets prtetty easy no matter what you play.

games that don't let you get EVERYTHING kind of annoy me, but i learned to deal with it in witcher 1. and if anything like witcher 1, you are too powerful as it is towards the end.

as above said dont' worry too much about what to do, just do what you LIKE, but there are a few things to get quick

1. backstab reduction. its in the swordsman tree, reduces damage from behind to normal.
the ones that he mentioned are good

basically think of something that would help ALL AROUND and was hurting you early. Like getting hit in the back doing 200% damage. Or if you want to roll further away, personally i'm fine with the roll distance.

Ya for sure Ill try it out a bit and just see where I go. But any clarifications on mutagen slots and on the difference between attribute points and talent points since sometimes I get one or the other. Thanks for the replies

No idea what you mean by attribute points vs talent points. You get 1 skill point per level. That's it.

The skills with mutagen slots are later in the trees. Once you put a skill point into a skill with a mutagen slot you will see a tiny empty circle on the border of the larger skill circle. Clicking on the skill will open a mutagen placement interface.

I would advise you to spend the skill points depending on your style of gaming. For example, if you usually roll and try to eliminate as many enemies as you can with your sword and you are doing it well that way, I would advise you to specialize in Swordfighting. Otherwise, if you prefer to use Signs, you should specialize in this -the most important signs to improve would be, for me, Quen and Igni, because the first allows you to reflect the damage you receive towards your enemies, and the second one because if you improve it you can make enemies burn and lose a lot of health points-. I don't recommend you to specialize in Alchemy, although if you have some skill points left after specializing in Swordfighting/Magic you should invest a couple of points in skills allowing you to improve the effects of potions. Provided you use potions very often, that is.

Another hint: if you play on Hard or Insane make sure you improve your equipment as much as possible -steel and silver swords, and armor-. If you don't do it, the last fights will be reeeally tough -personally, I found the last monster boss really hard because I fought against him with a silver sword from Chapter 2, far worst that the ones I should have obtained in Chapter 3. On the other hand, I got a really good Steel sword, a Elven sword of 40-42 points of damage and I could deal with human enemies in the last chapter as usual-.

If you want a preview of what the skills do as well as which skill has mutagen slots, Wikia has a page here: http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/The_Witcher_2_skills

You get 1 Talent everytime you level up, there is no attribute points (unlike in TW1)