Should I do Witcher 3 main story first or DLC?

As a passionate gamer and content creator focused on the Witcher franchise, I strongly recommend playing through The Witcher 3‘s massive main story campaign first before tackling the ace DLC expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Here‘s a deep dive analysis on why:

More Impactful Storytelling and Character Development

The Witcher 3‘s sprawling main quest establishes integral context for the events, characters, and worldbuilding that Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine build on top of. For example, Hearts of Stone‘s complex villain Gaunter O‘Dimm is introduced briefly during an early side quest in the base game – completing that first sets up the mystery behind his return.

Blood and Wine, meanwhile, brings back the vampire Regis from the Witcher novels, who Geralt reminisces with about past adventures the player missed out on if jumping straight into the DLC. There are dozens of links like this that enrollment richer playing the expansions after the main story.

In terms of raw gameplay length, The Witcher 3‘s critical path takes over 50 hours to complete. Investing that time to understand the central narrative and build relationships pays off tremendously when Hearts of Stone (10 hours) and Blood and Wine (20 hours) play even minor characters off the main game events and Geralt‘s emotional ties. It takes the combined experience to even greater heights.

Enhanced Gameplay Carryover and Power Progression

Over the course of The Witcher 3, players unlock new abilities, better gear, expanded crafting recipes, and additional mechanics that open up more tactical options during combat encounters. Starting either DLC with access to all these skill trees right away provides immediate advantages coming into the new challenges.

For example, across the base game Geralt can unlock 96 new abilities across three expansive skill trees. Blood and Wine in particular adds higher level enemies like the centipede-like Myriapods that can rapidly attack and regen health. Bringing amped up tools like the Whirl and Rend skills to the battle makes overcoming greater dangers more achievable.

Statistically, playing the main story first allows Geralt to grow exponentially more powerful by the DLCs as well. Here‘s a comparison of Max level/strength across content:

That‘s over double the health and nearly double the max stamina available completing Blood and Wine after first maxing out during the main quest!

Better Paced Difficulty Curve

The Witcher 3 already provides a strong challenge on standard difficulty, with peril coming from lethal humans and beasts alike in its early hours. Enemies and quests become progressively more difficult as Geralt rebounds across Velen, Novigrad, and Skellege unlocking new monster contracts and main story quests against deadly foes like the Wild Hunt.

By contrast, both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are tuned to be extremely challenging, with enemies attacking brutally even on lower difficulties. This stark jump in combat and quest complexity can be jarring, especially for less experienced players. Having the main game to level up gear/abilities and learn subtleties of combat allows an easier transition into the heightened danger.

For example, Hearts of Stone‘s Lord of Mirrors quest throws waves of lethal Ofiers at the player capable of killing Geralt very quickly. Having withstand late-game attacks from the Wild Hunt better prepares tactics and muscle memory to handle the onslaught. Similarly, Blood and Wine ratchets encounters up another notch, with even the very first combat tutorial pitting Geralt against multiple Higher Vampires at once.

Satisfying Post-Game Content

After following Geralt through over 50 hours of epic storytelling across two games worth of build up (The Witcher 2 prominently features Regis and the Wild Hunt), finally completing his quest to find Ciri and defeat Eredin delivers incredible narrative closure. Players have earned the right to relax and explore at their own pace afterwards.

This makes Blood and Wine especially perfectly catered as post-game content. The colorful Toussaint region provides a sunny contrast to the dreary, war-torn areas in the base game. Its whimsical knightly adventures and vibrant festivals create a fitting celebratory atmosphere after conquering the main questline.

Toussaint is also simply massive – the Blood and Wine expansion doubles the explorable area provided in base game + Hearts of Stone. With over 90 new quests sprinkled across the sprawling map, it feels like an entire second game, providing potentially another 40 hours of adventures to cap Geralt‘s legend off fittingly.

Flexibility for Alternate Playthroughs

Despite the above arguments for playing The Witcher 3‘s main story campaign through first to maximize enjoyment of the ace DLC expansions after, I understand some players just can‘t wait to experience more of Geralt‘s world. The great news is both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are completely standalone adventures.

Cutscenes at the start of Hearts of Stone set the stage nicely to explain its self-contained storyline centered on the mysterious Gaunter O‘Dimm. Blood and Wine transports Geralt to a new land with inhabitants and customs detached entirely from previous game events as well.

The higher difficulty levels catered to post-main game experiences can also freely be changed in the gameplay settings menu. For those jumping straight into the DLCs at lower levels, lowering the difficulty eases incoming damage output to offset reduced health/stamina while allowing time to level up naturally through these quality expansions as well.

At the end of the day, I believe playing Hearts of Stone concurrent with wrapping up loose ends in Novigrad Act III, then culminating with Blood and Wine after the final main story credits provides peak cohesion and satisfaction. But the flexible nature of this stellar content means you ultimately can‘t go wrong whichever order you choose to experience more of gaming‘s finest adventure!