Boeroer

That is not correct. I beat SSS with several parties, all vastly different. I don't even use consumables. And I never had severe problems. The only thing that can be really annoying for first-time players is that trappy fight which transforms you into a bunch of creatures (Ironclad, Lagufaeth etc.). Here it does indeed matter who gets transformed into which creature. But you can change the order of your party members to accomodate. As I said: players are winning that DLC solo while doing the Ultimate Challenge - so you can't argue that those fights are impossible for a whole party (no matter the composition - since a party on PotD upscaled shouldn't consist out of trap builds in th first place). Maybe instead on blaming it solely on bad design you could consider that you're not adept enough (yet) for SSS on PotD upscaled?

I hope so. Because the current state doesn't make sense obviously.

****!

To be fair: OP chose Veteran, not PotD. One can't know that Veteran + upscaling might be harder (in some cases) than the higher difficulty setting without scaling. You'll only find out after trying. But still: keep an eye on your blood pressure! Whoha I posted in the wrong thread. Had two tabs open and the topics were kind of similar... should stop with those tabs...

Correct, I was talking about penetration only though (because that's what was specifically asked for). So what I basically meant was that Arcane Archer's penetration works just fine (like any Ranger's) besides the penetration of the damaging imbue effects. The imbue effects don't scale properly with Power Level. But projectile count will scale with the Minor Missile imbue. For example I just fired Imbue: Minor Missiles with a lvl-9 Shepherd and then with a lvl-20 Shepherd. Projectile count rose from 4 (3 is base) to 6. Didn't test duration lately but damage still doesn't seem to scale at all for Missiles, Fireball and Death Ring. The Imbue effects do not suffer from the usual dmg malus of jumps. Jumps (from Driving Flight etc.) make up for the non-scaling damage. The imbue effects get the same ACC from Arcane Archer's Arcana skill and the level bonus as the initial weapon shot gets. So for example my aforementioned lvl-9 Sheperd gets +24 ACC from level for both (shot + imbue effect). At lvl 20 both get +54 ACC. The imbue effects won't profit from stuff like Marksman and Rune Bolts (Spearcaster) and other stuff that's closely tied to weapon-only attack rolls. Shootist from Acina's Tricorn works (for everything as usual). PS: it seems that the pulsings of Binding Web and Pull of Eora suffer the -5 ACC penalty of Arcane Archer which he usually gets for non-elemental and non-imbue abilites. It seems that once the shot is released the effects are not flagged as imbue/elemental anymore. That's an odd oversight.

The icons look very nice nice. I personally would've chosen a more plain style for the passives* so that they match the existing ones (or redo all passive icons so that they all fit together because yours are nicer than the original ones, ha), but generally they all look very nice. I also like the overall vibe and the ideas you put into it. It seems you put a lot of work and thought into the mechanics of most abilites. So this mods looks impressive. For Deadfire the abilites are totally overpowered in most cases (if anything, Monk already is too strong). At least judging by description. I didn't test them in the game. But if that's fun for you (and others) why not? I mean having fun is the whole point, right? --- )* something like this (shameless self promotion incoming):

Whoo calm down! In the end you succeeded, right? Be proud of yourself! No need to risk a stroke now. Besides the general improvements that come with levels (higher ACC, defenses and so on and higher Power Level which scales all abilites) - some classes/multiclasses gain substancial abilites with a certain level. So sometimes one level up can mean a big difference in power gain because you get that one (or more) very good ability. Maybe those guys (lots of Steel Garrote Paladins, Priests of Woedica etc.) got some stuff through scaling which was making it substancially harder for you than a few levels might indicate. one point of armor alone can seriously scale up the difficulty because underpenetration is a severe disadvantage that is much worse than the numbers suggest (if you want to know more about that search for "double inversion" mechanics for maluses such as underpenetration, grazing etc.). For example if the Paladins got Exalted Endurance and Brand Enemy and the Woedican Priest got Devotions for the Faithful then all of a sudden the fight would be much, much harder just because of those abilities. Scaling can only be done with levels. So you could argue this special encounter is not balanced when it comes to scaling and most likely that's correct, but I don't think the scaling in general has a problem (may be it has - but I didn't read much about it since release). Encouter design was done on normal difficulty with no scaling. Due to the unhomogenous nature of classes and their ability progression there will be certain bumps and spikes. You can't expect the developer to then go and check every enounter in case scaling or difficulty settings make it a bit harder or easier than might be intended. With several difficulty settings and scaling (and god challenges) there are just too many combinations to check. I personally would rather pick PotD difficutly than playing Veteran + upscaling. It's more consistent because enemies get flat value increases (flat bonus to defenses, armor etc.) which won't surprise you. But that's just me...

Hm... you chose the highest possible difficulty and managed to win. So I don't really understand where the problem is. That is was more difficult than the main game on PotD upscaled? I found some fights in SSS challenging when I did them the first time, but usually they weren't hat difficult after that. Often players are not used to prolonged fights and tend to spend all their resources right away and carelessly which is a mistake in SSS. There are players who beat these fights solo on PotD upscaled or even in the Ultimate challenge.

I played a dual hammer Barbarian during an Ultimate attempt. It's fun and effective and you should go for it. Nice thing about hammers: there are good unique ones and you can get the first one quite early in Defiance Bay. Later you want to use Godansthunyr because its stunning enchantment is great with Carnage. I had high MIG, maxed CON and low DEX and got good sturdyness from healing effects like Veteran's Recovery, Savage Defiance and Shod-in-Faith boots. You could also try an unarmed brawler Barb: Novice's Suffering works very well with a strong Barb. Basically you need the highest MIG to make the most of it. Can elaborate if that sounds interesting. What I also like is a Barb with Tall Grass (pike). You could see it as a lance that dwarves may use to hunt dragons. It's a very good Barb weapon as well. Pros are the reach (you can place the center of Carnage optimally in order to hit the most enemies at once) and the overbearing effect on critical (Carnage) hits.

I guess you mean the PEN of his damaging imbue effects such as Minor Missiles, Fireball and Death Ring. Because everything else works just fine. This problem didn't get fixed. I don't know why. Maybe it was too complicated. However - you can use the Community Patch (see my signature) which makes it so that imbue effects scale their PEN with the Arcana skill. You can switch on/off several parts of the Community Patch in the mod manager menu.

Right. Also because they regain resources easily (wounds) and have Whispers of the Wind and Resonant Touch which are very powerful damage tools and especially Whispers of the Wind (which makes you invisible and can synergize with the Stalking Cloak which stuns enemies from invisibility) is extremely helpful. Still works. BDD doesn't prevent you from being damaged (attack resolution still applies and normal damage still gets rolled). It prevents you from dying by not letting you drop below 1 HP after getting damaged. Mechanically that's a difference. You will use the Brilliant inspiration first. This will ensure that you will regain spell uses every few seconds. The interval of regaining spell uses is shorter than the duration of Salvation of Time. Thus you will cast Salvation of Time (once all buffs are up) and you will prolong every benefical effect for 10 seconds, including Brilliant. You keep on casting SoT over and over again until you feel you have enough duration - you can do that for hours and end with hours of duration.

Cool. Erm I mean it's not cool that it doesn't work - but it's nice that you tested it.

Yes - Berath's challenge will kill party members and crew if they don't get revived in combat after 10 secs. The "Grog" pet will kill party members on k.o. - I ever tried if it also affects crew though.

Do1000c is only great if you combine it with Antipathetic Field in my opinion. Because every tick(!) of the beam (which is not echo but a shred spell unlike Ectypsychic Echo) procs Do1000c. But then it's really great. Only problem is that you need a second enemy somewhere behind the target to connect the beam to. Advantage of Do1000c over Disintegrate: Disintegrate can be really lame on eemies with very high RES. If you only graze (quite common againt fat bosses with high fortitude) and the RES is high the damage will be rather laughable. Do1000c can be prolonged endlessly with Antipathetic Field if enemies' reflex isn't too stellar (which it usually isn't with high-RES and high-HP bosses). Shred spells that only hit once like Mind Lance are a waste of focus for this I think. Mind Blades can work well if there are not too many enemies left and you can't place a Antipathetic Field well enough. I never tested if Recall Agony would proc Do1000c with every weapopn hit the enemy receives (since it adds additional shred damage then). I guess not, but maybe worth a try. Last time I tried Disintegrate or Soul Ignition it only triggers Do1000c with the initial hit roll, not the raw dmg ticks (no hit rolls). Anyway I think Driving Echoes and Shared Nightmare (works with all AoEs - weapons' AoEs included) are the best PL9 abilites of a cipher and I would prefer them over Do1000c.

If I'm not mistaken his shark bite does more base damage though. But I might be wrong. Immunities are great because you can tailor some powerful synergies aorund them. In case of Dexterity you could cast Binding Web or Tanglefoot and such and Tekehu would be free to roam in those AoEs - for example. SC Druids are indeed worse with Spiritshift in my opinion. Avenging Storm is great, but it's much better with AoE or multiprojectile weapons. Especially since there are some weapon enchantments that let you go totally bonkers with Avenging Storm. For example Hand Mortar has Blinding Smoke wich procs an AoE cone on crit (of every AoE crit roll the mortar does) which leads to an absurd amount of hit rolls. Those don't do damage but proc Avenging Storm. Add Fire in the Hole with Chain Shot for another two AoE jumps which all proc Avenging Storm. Watershaper's Focus has an AoE-Blast that jumps and triggers Avenging Storm - and those AoE hits can trigger Ondra's Wrath which also procs Avenging Storm. Kitchen Stove has 4 projectiles and can jump 3 times... and so on. If you have a Wizard with COmbusting Wounds those are all fantastic options and way better than a shifted druid who does single target strikes. So a SC Druid using Avenging Storm would be way better off using dual hand mortars + Deltro's Cage than using Spiritshift (tried it, Tekehu's devastating that way - a pure Fury even more so because of the higher PEN). So for me Avenging Storm isn't a big plus for a SC Druid while shifted. I mean it is a plus of course - but you still feel like you're picking the weaker route with shifting. Also the last tier of Wildstrike, the Wildstrike Frenzy (PL8) is not good enough. If it would have increased additive damage or an even higher lash in combination with the prolong-on-kill effect it might be able to counterbalance the loss of multiclass synergy a bit (together with Avenging Storm then) - but as is it's just too weak. SC druid is not doing impressive stuff during Spiritshift. Of course some of the PL8/PL9 spells of druids are awesome and the higher PL is great for any DoT spells. So SC druid can be totally worth it - just not with Spiritshift I'd say and especially not as a Shifter who can't make use of the awesome spells while shifted.

PoE had some other problems as well. For example if you sorted your inventory in a certain way (like let's say by value) it would not "keep" that sorting but would apply the sorting algorithm every time you opened the stash. With a lot of items in the stash (which is limitless on PC) you'd run into severe performance issues. In the earlier version also every summon you cast would find its way into the saved state of the game, never disappearing in memory. This got fixed at some point. Save game files wouldn't need to grow like crasy if players wouldn't expect to get back all the stuff they dropped/sold. But because players want to have the opportunity to place stuff into chests or sell stuff and be able to buy it again later for an unlimited amount of time the save game needs to take care for all those items you don't carry around anymore, too. It would help if the shop owner simply sold your stuff after some time (remove from shop) or random lootes would empty chests (that are not on your ship or in your stronghold). I don't know if tiling the maps would be so simple. PoE and Deadfire are 2.5 D games where 3D objects get placed on a handdrawn, 2D maps. Elevations and obstructions are mostly optical illusions. You can see that when you are trying to cast a spell like Iconic Projection up a staircase. So maybe it's difficult to split up such a map that's a rather wild but nice-looking conglomerate of 2D and 3D game objects. No idea though. Just a thought.

What do you mean?

Activate "auto-pause" and "end movement" on trap detection in the game options menu at any time.

Pierce the Bell: not worth it in my opinon if you have Arterial Strike and a ranged weapon with decent PEN. For 1 Guile AS will give you more dmg (5% multiplicative because of Power Level and raw DoT vs. 20% additive of PtB), less PEN (+2 vs. +5 of PtB), applies Hobbled for further Sneak Attacks and even Deathblows (vs. no affliction with PtB). Devastating Blow: basically the same. The mechanic usually leads to massive overkill when it's most potent (enemies' health is low) and doesn't do impressive damage when the enemy hasn't low health. Even on bosses I prefer Arterial Strike because the raw DoT on movement can be very useful here as well. With all my ranged builds both abilites could not outperform Crippling Strike which will compete for Guile. In my opinion you're nearly always better of with 2 * Crippling Strike instead of 1 Pierce the Bell or 1 Devastating Blow. So I wouldn't take any of them. Double cost (2 instead of 1 Guile) is just too expensive for what they do. Especially with Hand Mortar/Fire in the Hole I wouldn't use them. Arterial Strike's raw DoT on every enemy in an AoE is just too good. And AR doesn't matter there. Spiritshift: you get two weapons with decent base damage and a lash, yes. Lashes are multiplicative damage bonuses (unlike additive stuff like Sneak Attack etc.). Maybe more importantly maybe (but often overlooked): All forms get decent armor with 0 recovery: 8 base and scales with PL (+1) and every 5th char level (+1). This is very good for dps. Unlike other melee classes who want to wear armor you won't get slowed down - and attack speed is the most impactful variable for dps. Some forms have increased dps, others have higher AR. More specifically: Cat form gets fast claws (only 3 sec. recovery istead of 4). Its Cat Flurry ability boosts dps a lot. Boar gets raw DoT lash on top of elemental lashes (also multiplicative)and health regeneration. If you combine with other regenerative effects he can be quite tanky. Gets +1 engagement which helos with tanking. Bear gets +2 AR (that's pretty huge - better than plate armor without recovery malus). If combined with other AR buffs this can make the Bear very tanky. He also gets +1 engagement which helps with the tanking. He also has a frightening roar while shifted (prevents offensive ability use of enemies) Wolf runs faster (25%) - this can also help with dps since you won't waste much time running around. Since all items except weapon and armor stay active you can stack it with Boots of Speed and/or Long Stride etc. Also has Knock Down. Stag's Carnage is really bad. The +7 defenses are nice but nothing I would write home about. Storm Blight's jumping projectile doesn't stack with Driving Flight and has rel. low base dmg. Fury is interesting because of its passives. I think the Spiritshift form is too weak. So that's what you get when shifting. Actually when combining Spiritshift with either a dps class (e.g. Streetfighter) or a tanky class (e.g. Goldpact Knight) you can get pretty great results. Imagine a gilded Bear with huge AR (Paladin's passives + Gilded Enmity + Bear's fur), attacking with Wildstrike claws and Eternal Flames (+10% burning lash to all your following attacks, including spells) with no recovery penalty. This is sturdy yet does very decent melee damage AND can heal, buff, cast AoE dmage or CC etc. Flanked Cat Streetfighter with Cat Flurry + Wildstrike + Heating Up + Sneak Attacks hits incredibly fast and has high dps while it's not too squishy (can heal itself etc.).

As with party members, crew members don't die when they go down but only get knocked out.

Woha... Deadfire uses asset streaming (unlike PoE). It helped a lot on PC. No idea why the loading times in PS4 are that ridiculously long...

I'd have no problem with that. May be better for new console players to find a thread/list with post-last-patch builds.

Unlike PoE, item bonuses generally all stack (not only weapons). You can use an amulet with INT+2 and a Helmet with INT+2 and they would stack to +4 INT.

Yeah (I opened and maitained it) - but to be fair the builds there are not that new. Most of the non-day-one-builds still work perfectly fine though. But since the foum software update I shy away from editing that list. You can see that the formatting is a bit more complex. It was no big deal with the old forum which supported BBCode - but now that's not an option anymore and thus it's a nightmare to edit. There are a few new(ish) builds in the forum but I didn't put them in yet because of that reason. I fear I might brick the whole list and would have to reformat and type stuff again...

Ooops - I only assumed that versus evil had a forum and stuff (Paradox who did the console port of PoE, had that). Now checked and they seem to have not. Only way to contact them seems to be Twitter, Facebook and via eMail. Deafire's technical subforum is here (I saw you already posted there, just for other readers who might find this) : https://forums.obsidian.net/forum/130-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire-technical-support-spoiler-warning/