Today we’ll look at a powerful Witcher 3 build that uses the Whirl ability to quickly decimate enemies, whether individually or in groups. This build is designed for Death March difficulty, and will therefore work just as well on lower difficulties, too.
To fully replicate the build, you’ll need to be fairly late in the game and own the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine DLCs. However, you can work toward completing the build over the course of a playthrough and still get pretty good results along the way. This build is also perfect for New Game Plus, where you can use it to its full potential from the start of a new playthrough.
Now we’ll look at how this build works and how you can make it for yourself.
Table of Contents:
- How to use this Witcher 3 Whirl Build
- Armour and Weapons
- Skills and Perks
- Mutation
- Potions
- Gameplay Video
How to use this Witcher 3 Whirl Build
This Witcher 3 Whirl Build focuses on high attack power and critical damage, using a mix of red and green perks. We’ll use alchemical decoctions to maximise the build’s potential, incorporating the Euphoria mutation (we’ll explain that more later in the guide).
We’re using the Feline Armour to increase our combat prowess, but we are not using the Feline Swords. For your Silver Sword, the best option is 
Aerondight, a special magical sword that becomes more powerful as you level up.
We’re using three Decoctions to enhance the build’s capability, and you should generally keep them active whenever you are in combat. These decoctions are 
Water Hag Decoction, 
Ekimmara Decoction and 
Wyvern Decoction. We’ll explain those more later.
You can also make use of Blade Oils to improve Geralt’s prowess against a particular type of enemy.
In combat, we primarily use Whirl to unleash a devastating flurry of sword attacks in a 360-degree radius around Geralt. Maintaining the attack requires Stamina and Adrenaline.
Due to the way this build is set up, this means that Geralt can maintain the Whirl attack as long as we keep hitting enemies, but if you keep whirling without hitting anything, then you can quickly drain all of your stamina and adrenaline, so it takes a little bit of practice to time it correctly.
You can see how the build works in action in the Gameplay section.
Armour and Weapons for the Witcher 3 Whirl Build
For our Witcher 3 Whirl Build, we’re using the Feline Armour. This is a light armour set of Witcher gear which you need to find the diagrams for and craft, and it can be upgraded as you level up. To unlock the full benefits of the Feline Armour (where you get additional set bonuses for wearing a certain number of pieces of the set), it needs to be upgraded to at least Mastercrafted tier. However, these set bonuses are not really important for this build. We’re more interested in the Attack Power each piece of armour grants.
To learn how to obtain Feline Armour, check out our Feline Armour Guide.
For the Silver Sword, you should use Aerondight. This is a unique sword that requires the Blood and Wine DLC. To obtain the sword, you need to complete the quest called “There Can Only Be One”, which you should be able to obtain by checking Notice Boards around Toussaint. Earlier in the game, just use the best silver sword you have available.
Finally, the Steel Sword is not hugely important. You can use a sword from the Feline set to match your armour, or any other Steel Sword you find that has a high damage value and 3 Rune Slots.
Weapon and Armour Upgrades
Here are the recommended upgrades for your gear:
You can find the Runewright in the far northeast of the Novigrad and Oxenfurt region, near the Upper Mill Signpost, east of Brunwich village.
Skills and Perks for the Witcher 3 Whirl Build
To start, we’ve slotted three Greater Red Mutagens and one Greater Green Mutagen into our Mutagen slots. You could instead use four Greater Red Mutagens to maximise melee damage, but we have more than enough, and this way we make better use of the synergy bonus.
You can obtain these Mutagens by defeating powerful monsters or by combining three lower-quality Mutagens in the Alchemy menu.
For our Perks, we’ve slotted the following skills, all upgraded to the maximum tier possible:
- Muscle Memory
- Strength Training
- Resolve
- Precise Blows
- Whirl
- Razor Focus
- Deadly Precision
- Cat School Techniques
- Metabolic Control
- Heightened Tolerance
- Acquired Tolerance
- Tissue Transmutation
- Synergy
- Protective Coating
Remember to slot the Perks next to a mutagen of the same colour where possible, for an extra bonus to your Attack Power and Vitality.
We need 37 Skill Points to unlock and fully upgrade all of these skills. If you need more skill points, you can get more by levelling up or by interacting with a newly discovered Place of Power for the first time.
If you don’t have enough Skill Points, or you’ve unlocked only one of the extra Perk slots and need to ditch a perk for now, I recommend dropping Protective Coating, as it’s by far the least important of the listed Perks.
If you are Low Level:
If you are still early in your adventure, you won’t be able to unlock everything yet.
Prioritise Muscle Memory and Strength Training at the start of the game, then Precise Blows and Resolve. After fully upgrading these, you can unlock Whirl. Unlock Cat School Techniques at around the same time as you craft the first tier of Feline Armour. Add Razor Focus and Deadly Precision.
After unlocking all the red skills mentioned, get Metabolic Control and then start unlocking the recommended green (alchemy) skills.
Mutation for the Witcher 3 Whirl Build
For this Witcher 3 Whirl Build, we’re using the Euphoria Mutation. This is probably the most overpowered mutation in the game, giving us a flat percentage damage boost to all of our sword and sign attacks based on our Toxicity level.
This synergises well with our build since we purchased quite a few green Perks to increase our Toxicity limit. The best way to maintain a high toxicity level for a long time is to consume several Decoctions, since the toxicity from these doesn’t decay until the potion duration expires.
Euphoria is the second mutation on the Green line, so in total you’ll need 6 spare skill points and 6 spare Greater Green Mutagens to access it. To unlock the Mutation system in The Witcher 3, you need to complete the quest called Turn and Face the Strange, which is part of the Blood and Wine DLC.
Potions for the Witcher 3 Whirl Build
For this Witcher 3 Whirl Build, we generally want to keep our Toxicity level high to make use of the Euphoria mutation. Therefore, we’ve selected three decoctions that we almost always keep active. These are:
Keeping these decoctions active at all times gives us a big damage boost thanks to the Euphoria mutation, plus extra damage bonuses from the potions themselves and passive healing whenever we dish out damage to enemies.
You can also add other potions, such as 
Superior Swallow for healing, 
Superior Thunderbolt for a bigger temporary damage boost, or 
Superior Tawny Owl for increased stamina regeneration. Be careful not to push your Toxicity too high, though, or you will take damage over time until the extra toxicity decays. Don’t stress too much about upgrading to the Superior potions; while they are worth making when you can, the basic and enhanced versions are still decent.
Whirl Build Gameplay Video
Here is a gameplay video of the Witcher 3 Whirl Build. You can see the build’s overpowered damage potential against a variety of targets, as well as how you can passively heal during combat thanks to the Decoctions used in this build.
