Sounds like you people are min-max'ing.
I'll stick to my medium difficulty and wear the cool looking gear
Although, I got the full Griffin Witcher set. No idea how that impacts my survivability. I used a heavy metal breastplate and other random legendary gear before and especially the heavy torso armor had a huge impact and the damage I could soak but it actually had a noticable impact on my striking speed. I really liked that tbh - that there actually is a difference with impact. Especially counter-striking became noticably harder to do on projectiles.
Yes, I do have 2 points in arrow reflecting and I always try to leave one ranged guy as last survivor to reflect him to death for lolz
Entered my first big city yesterday: Oxenfurt. Hence why I crafted the Griffin gear - Journeyman Smith. Haven't found the weapon smith yet. Another thing I like - you actually have to discover shop in cities instead of just getting the full city plan by only entering. Love the thick atmospehere with the smalltalk between merchants, music band playing in the middle of the market square, the refugees in the harbour and so on. Really cool.
And I got myself a haircut... loose and shot with the biker mustache <3 I'm the best looking Witcher around
And I used the respec potion. I had my points put in wildly, not really knowing which combos are fun. Switched from nearly everything in Sword fighting to a combination of Sword (fast hits, dodging) and Axii on full galore for making enemies my allies during a fight which is hilarious to watch when suddenly a Nekker backstabs his own buddy and rips him the shreds due to my sign