mocks: I started my second playthrough on hard (first playthrough was on normal) and had never used the Axii sign on my last playthrough. I was surprised to see that even with none of my signs leveled up, that Axii works 100% of the time. Only problem is that Geralt is vulnerable for about 3 seconds when hes taking control of an enemy, though it can easily be remedied by first using Quen and gaining some distance.

At the siege of La Valette castle I used Axii on one of those heavily armored knights with the giant two handed broad swords and let him reign terror on the enemies while I picked off the lesser enemies. Really satisfying. If Axii is already this useful at the beginning, then I hope leveling it up will reduce the time needed to control an enemy or make the mind control last longer. There might be better crowd control signs but Axii is such an entertaining sign to use tactics wise.

mocks: I understand that I'm only at the prologue, but I noticed that Axii only fails when I get hit more than twice (with Quen) or if I'm too far. If I'm too far Geralt basically does a "knocked back" animation. Did you guys try using Axii within reasonable range? Even then it still isn't 100%?

Maerd: My problem with signs in the game in general that without casting quen on hard is almost impossible to survive but if you cast quen then you cannot cast other signs because your vigor doesn't regenerate. Therefore, all signs except quen are used rarely, usually in one on one situations (i.e. yrden to trap and backstab). I even played a complete "mage" on hard and ended up using a sword all the time because I couldn't afford to spend vigor on other spells.