Let me break it down for you in terms of quest choices and their impact. I've found that tackling the novigrad storyline in a specific way opens up way more interesting conversations and outcomes. First off, you'll want to jump into "get junior" and "count reuven's treasure" early on, since these quests really shape how characters like dijkstra and roche interact with you later. Good to know: if you're hoping to explore all the romance options, you'll need to be extra careful with the order of certain quests, especially when it comes to triss and yen's personal storylines.

When you're working through the main story in novigrad, make sure to knock out "carnal sins" and "the gangs of novigrad" before pushing too far ahead because these can actually fail if you wait too long. I've learned that tackling side quests that are at or below your level is usually the best approach, especially stuff like "reason of state" which can completely disappear if you progress the main story too far.

The real trick is weaving between main quests and side content particularly around "final preparations" and "blindingly obvious." just keep in mind that once you reach "bald mountain," you're basically starting a chain of no return points so make sure you've wrapped up any important side quests before then. Those companion quests in both novigrad and skellige are worth doing early since they give you more dialogue options and sometimes even change how the story plays out completely.