@nickhead: the griffin, feline and ursine sets don't require the starting armor. They require that you craft the basic sets, the upgrade them up to three times. You probably have found something along the lines of "superior ursine armor" which requires the previous step in the upgrades

The 3 different schools of armor (Cat/Feline, Griffin, and Bear/Ursine) are all upgradeable several times and require the previous tier to make the next. You probably found one of the higher tier versions of the armor but don't yet have the lowest tier.

The lowest tier will just be called Ursine (gloves, boots, armor, etc). The second tier is enhanced (Ursine). Third tier is superior. And the fourth tier is mastercrafted.

Keep an eye out for treasure maps often held by blacksmiths and armorers. They will show you the exact locations of the armor and weapons or their upgrades. As I recall, all the ursine treasure maps are in Skellige.

A lot of people seem to not realize that dismantling ingredients and materials is the key to obtaining mats and items. A lot of stuff you're picking up is probably what you're looking for but it needs to be dismantled first for it to become the item you seek. Monster eyes for example, pick up any drowner, nekker, ghoul or rotfiend eyes and dismantle them. Voila, monster eyes.

@pilgore: What people have problem finding is specific items which are only droppable by specific monsters. Dismantling gets you only the generic stuff, so there is no actual way of obtaining nekker hearts, ekimmarah hides, troll livers,etc from breaking other materials

@cagliostro88: @zeik: thank you both! I was thinking that those sets of armor started from the kaer morhen - I'm glad they don't!

If anybody is still wondering where that Enhanced Hanged Man's venom recipe is, I just found it again in my new game in a Nekker cave just northwest of the Hanged Man's Tree. (Fitting.) It's in the same cave where you can find the Superior Ursine set.

The thing is, I'm almost certain it was not there the first time I played, so I can't guarantee it will be there 100% of the time.

@zeik: alchemy recipes in chest are randomized. I noticed because while testing the workarounds for the moon dust bug if found a recipe for it in a cave, when i went back i found instead a recipe for an oil

Hmm, are some of the recipes different in 1.05 now? Enhanced Hanged Man doesn't use an Ekimmara hide anymore.