Talk:The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Guide to Combat/@comment-100.40.53.227-20150520052805/@comment-179.219.22.215-20150601004618

You have to unlock and equip the special melee attacks. You'll only get them later in the game as they require quite a few points in the combat tree. They are in the third line: Whirl and Rend if I recall correctly. Whirl has Geralt spin around swinging his sword overhead while you have stamina/adrenaline. Rend is a charge-up vertical overhead strike that deals massive damage and bypasses any defense (shields, blocking, etc).

I highly recommend Rend. Whirl is not very good, or I haven't figured how to use it best...