It's fun to play with sometimes, to see if you can get the timing perfect and land one without getting smashed in the face first or wasting all your stamina by falling short and missing it. It's good if you want to nerf yourself to add some challenge for the hell of it. But really, it's not as good or as dependable as Quen sign plus regular strong and quick attacks with dodge and roll, where you can beat enemies without taking damage. If something is blocking your attacks too much, why waste time with Rend? Just Axii them and cut their head off. Axii > Rend.

I know, you need 30 pts. to get to tier 4 of combat, and after strong 1 & 2 and fast 1 & 2, plus razor focus, there's really nowhere else to put those points that will be useful, but man, Rend was really disappointing.

I like this game overall, but zomg, the talent trees are pretty embarrassingly bad.

It's interesting to hear a different perspective because my experience with rend was the complete opposite. I felt that once I got the timing down and could deliver a string of attacks every time, it provided Geralt with a major buff (to the point of being OP) whereby I could make short work out of almost any slow-moving enemy, regardless of their level. I actually deactivated it because I thought it was too powerful and I didn't want to be tempted to use it.

Whirl, on the other hand, was a disappointment for me, though there's a decent chance I've never used it correctly.

Bring on Blood and Wine!

Maybe I just suck at the timing. Half the time I either miss because the mob is out of range or they close and hit me in the face to interrupt it. But when it does land, it does a ton of damage, I admit.

I am playing with a heavy armor combat build, so my stamina regen sucks. I think my main complaint is that it makes it more difficult to keep Quen up. Not only does Rend use stamina. But it exposes you to being hit more if you time it wrong. And then your Quen is busted, and you don't have the stamina to refresh it. The skill just feels clunky to me, and it doesn't mesh well with someone who likes to keep Quen up as much as possible.

I'm going to respec tonight and ditch Rend. After trying to incorporate it into my attacks, I just finally quit bothering. Regular strong and fast attacks get the job done just as well without using stamina or requiring perfect timing and anticipation to land, and with less exposure to being hit. I'm going to take Resolve as a filler skill to get down to tier 4, and also pick up Rage Management, which should allow me to refresh Quen immediately when it gets busted. The build I'm going for...

Delusion 3/3
Exploding Shield 3/3
Bear School Techniques 1/1
Strength Training 5/5
Muscle Memory 5/5
Crushing Blows 5/5
Precise Blows 5/5
Razor Focus 5/5
Rage Management 1/1
Resolve 5/5
Sunder Armor 5/5
Deadly Precision 2/2

Actually, I decided to ditch the 2 sign skills and go with a full adrenaline combat build...

Strength Training 5/5
Muscle Memory 5/5
Crushing Blows 5/5
Precise Blows 5/5
Razor Focus 5/5
Bear School Techniques 1/1
Rage Management 1/1
Adrenaline Rush 1/1
Resolve 5/5
Sunder Armor 5/5
Deadly Precision 2/2
Flood of Anger 5/5