The Witcher - Talents - Igni

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Igni is probably the most overpowered sign and unless you are deliberately trying not to win with cheapshots, you should develop it quickly and take almost all the upgrades.

• Fill it out to level 4 but leave the fireball power-up at Apprentice level.
• Burning Blade is only for Group Steel level 4, so if you don't use that frequently, you can skip this and save 1 Silver Talent.
• Since one shot of Igni is worth several rounds of combat, instead of developing up to six combat styles, just develop Igni (especially with the Added Efficiency upgrade).

There are various quirks to Igni that you should plan around:

• The fireball version is stupid. When you have clear line of sight, it generally works fine. Anything other than clear line of sight can result in what appears to be a hit, but is actually just the fireball sizzling out harmlessly. Or it could crash into a collision box you were not expecting and be blocked. Or the opponent could actually be out of range or in an inaccessible area, and after draining the Endurance cost you just get a "spell failed" notice. Do not rely on it hitting anything.
• Leave this at Apprentice unless you have somehow mastered the art of throwing fireballs reliably.
• The fireball version charges up so slowly, and flies so slowly, that you really need a static target to have any chance of hitting. Fortunately, even at Apprentice level, you might be able to launch it further than a creature's sight range. If you can manage this, they might not move toward you, so you can just blast them again and again.
• Igni forces the enemy to retreat back a few steps no matter how much or how little they are affected. This gives you immediate relief from behind surrounded. Because of its very wide arc, this is better and safer than powering up Aard to hit a wide area.
• Damage and Incineration works on percentages. If you use it on the Kikimore Queen, you might see damage in the 400+ range. For this reason it is very powerful. It also has strong base damage so that in the late game you can sweep aside Drowners with a single cast.
• The standard fire wave attack can go through barriers you'd normally blast aside with Aard. You can therefore just leave the barrier alone and instead first safely fry any enemies behind the barrier.
• With three special effects, you have an excellent chance of triggering at least one on each target, making the standard Igni fire wave extremely powerful at scattering masses of enemies. While they run in Fear or stand helpless in Pain, they are typically also burning to death from Incineration. Prioritize getting more status effects over getting damage.
• If you are tight on Gold Talents, you could just leave Igni at level 4, which has nearly a 360 degree arc already.