A_S00

Thanks! Good to hear from the expert. I'm planning on using Trickster as the non-Ascendant half of the build, so I'll have easy access to Dazzling Lights. Isn't having a ranged secondary weapon going to be very risky in solo play? I'm imagining being stuck in longer, more drawn-out fights with single big enemies who survive the initial burst from stealth, where I'm forced to go toe-to-toe with them for a little while (so the Unfit for Melee trait and long reload times would be bad for me). Is kiting around with the Rogue escape skills and shooting from range out of invis is a better tactic for this?

I'm considering starting a PotD solo run using a build based on the Deep Leap. I have a bunch of mechanics questions and build advice to ask before I get started! Does the Deep Leap combo still work? I looked over the patch notes I could find and didn't see anything that looked like a nerf, but always best to check. Is the second bounce from Driving Flight absolutely required for the combo to work, or just nice-to-have? I'm wondering if I could play a Trickster/Ascendant variant using the initial flurry of hits to proc Ascended at the beginning of the fight, then clean up with Cipher spells. You get one bounce from the scepter itself, plus additional hits from Blast, the Rogue DoTs, and Ondra's Wrath. Is that enough? I imagine big, scary single targets will be the main sticking point (since the Deep Leap combo will cheese packs). My plan is to use a secondary melee setup for them (bolstered by Cipher buffs/debuffs if that's possible). What weapon setup should I use for this? One-handed style? Sword+shield? Is Aldris Blade my go-to endgame weapon for the heal-on-crit, or is there something else that's better? Since the whole point of the combo is to hit a bajillion times, I imagine on-hit effects are good, but most of those appear on weapons. I've found Ring of Clenched Muscle and Devil of Caroc Breastplate for additional on-hit benefits. Are there more that I'm missing? Are there any summons that are valid targets for ally-only Cipher spells that are easier to acquire than Concelhaut? Figurine summons don't work, sadly. Any other advice would also be welcome. Thanks!

Update: It's not the weapon swapping that's causing the issue, it's making full attacks with Eccea's. ----- Video Demonstration 1: Correct Behavior In this video, Ydwin (who is not yet affected by the bug) initiates combat at 0:13 by making a default attack with Eccea's, and rolls +1 projectile. Immediately opening her inventory (at 0:20), we can see that her weapons are not affected by any bonus projectile buff. At 0:31, she swaps weapon sets, but this doesn't do anything - the extra projectiles are already gone. At 0:39, she attacks with Kitchen Stove, which we can see in the combat log fires the correct number of projectiles (4). At 1:01, she casts Amplified Wave, which correctly hits each enemy only once. ----- Video Demonstration 2: Bugged Behavior In this video, Ydwin initiates combat at 0:19 by using Pierce the Bell, a full attack skill. She again rolls +1 projectile. Immediately opening her inventory (at 0:23), we can see that this time, both Eccea's and Kitchen Stove are affected by bonus projectiles. At 0:40, she casts Amplified Wave, which inflicts far too many hits (as shown by the damage numbers over the enemies' heads). After playing out the rest of the combat, I open up the "Wait" dialogue and wait for 26 hours. At no point does Ydwin swap weapons. After all of this (at 1:53), we can see that both Eccea's and Kitchen Stove are still affected by the bonus projectiles. ----- I was originally faked out by this video and this one into thinking that weapon swapping was the key. However, what really happened here is that in the first video (at 0:44) I made a basic attack, which appears to have cleared the bugged extra projectiles. However, making a basic attack does not fix the bug on my main character; apparently something can make the bug truly permanent. Perhaps saving and loading while the extra projectiles are active, or maybe area transitions? ----- Dropbox link for the save I was using to run these tests, in case anyone wants to reproduce/confirm.

I wonder if it's the weapon-swapping that's doing it. Idle speculation: The way the extra projectiles seem to be implemented is that when you shoot with Eccea's, a temporary buff gets placed on your character that increases the number of hits for all your attacks. This would explain why the extra projectiles apply to other weapons, and persist even when unequipping Eccea's, but appear to go away if you unequip one of the other weapons and then examine it, unequipped, in your inventory. The buff is supposed to only last long enough to give you extra projectiles with that shot. My guess is that the "extra hits" buff doesn't get removed properly if you've already swapped to a different weapon set that doesn't include Eccea's by the time it's supposed to expire. Since my character opens by shooting with Eccea's and then immediately swaps weapons every fight, this happens all the time for me. I'll try and do some more careful testing in the next day or two to confirm/deny.

Save didn't upload (too big?). Dropbox link

I'm using Eccea's Arcane Blaster on a Black Jacket/Ascendant, a character focused on frequently swapping weapons. This weapon has an ability called "Fractured Bullet," which says: This sounds like it should apply once, at the time of firing, only to shots with Eccea's itself. Instead, it appears to be applying permanently, not only to shots with Eccea's, but to all of my ranged weapon shots, and possibly even to my spells that don't shoot projectiles at all: Eccea's Arcane Blaster with 4 projectiles. This is "normal behavior," although the buff is applying permanently (which it shouldn't), and it should be extremely rare to get both the 15% +1 proj and the 5% +2 proj at the same time. Scordeo's Trophy with 4 projectiles. This is the other gun in the weapon set that has Eccea's. This shouldn't be getting bonus projectiles at all, let alone permanently. Kitchen Stove with 16 projectiles. This isn't even in the same weapon set as Eccea's. Single cast of Amplified Wave hitting a single enemy 8 times. I'm not positive this is the same bug (can't look at what's giving spells extra hits the same you can with projectile weapons), but given that it's the same character and the same save, and another instance of too-many-hits, I'm suspicious. Ydwin, also in my party in the same playthrough, who has never equipped Eccea's, only hits each enemy once with Amplified Wave (i.e., correct behavior). Just for fun: Video! Better video demonstrations: Correct behavior (default attack), Bugged behavior (full attack) These extra hits persist through rests, reloads, restarting the game, area transition, unequipping Eccea's, etc. If you unequip a different weapon, it goes back to reporting its normal number of projectiles, but then goes right back up when reequipped. As far as I can tell it's 100% permanent. Unfortunately, I didn't notice this was happening for quite a while (eventually I thought, "huh, is Amplified Wave really supposed to be this good?" and started digging), so my steps-to-reproduce aren't perfect. What I did was: Equip Eccea's along with several sets worth of other 1-handed ranged weapons. Frequently start every battle by using Penetrating Strike with Scordeo's and Eccea's, then immediately swapping to my next set of weapons to use Penetrating Strike a second time. Start casting Cipher spells as soon as I get the Ascended buff. Eventually notice that all my stuff was hitting too many times. However, I don't know for sure if all of this is necessary, or if this bug will turn up on any character using Eccea's. Pillars of Eternity v1.2.2.0033 -steam Windows 10 Home, Version 1803, OS Build 17134.165 ----- UPDATE: It's not weapon-swapping, it's full attacks. See my later post for details. Improved steps to reproduce: Initiate combat by making a full attack with Eccea's Arcane Blaster and having Fractured Bullet proc Don't make any basic attacks for the rest of the combat Congratulations, all of your ranged attacks and spells now hit way too many times

Like I mentioned, I've looked around Dunnage a bit, but it's possible I've missed him. He's not in the Beacon area where Furrante hangs out, or in the tavern in the western part of the city. Any other ideas about where he might hang out?

Alas! Thanks. You do get one second chance; if you say no during the initial shipboard encounter, he shows up again in Fort Deadlight when you go there and offers to join. I'm past that too, though. Guess I'll have to make do with two less unique guns on my Black Jacket.

I've completed Blow the Man Down without recruiting Serafen. Now I want to recruit him. Can I still do so? If so, where is he? I've looked around Fort Deadlight and Dunnage and haven't found him...does he just disappear if you don't recruit him before/during Blow the Man Down? Thanks!