DozingDragon

If your primary concern is experiencing an engaging story, I would recommend sticking to the main quest for SSS, and then doing FS. Many of the trickier fights in FS can be avoided, and I personally found the plot and atmosphere of FS to be superb. The last fight in FS might be a difficulty spike, so just pack some reflection gear and consumables before you play it.

As long as you do not intend to solo the mega bosses you will be fine. Plus, you can always retrain your abilities at any shop.

Yes, it increases the effect of the merge bonus.

Try sailing towards the Black Isles. I think that should trigger the event mentioned above.

I would not be terribly surprised if there were two more megabosses (a wilder, and a spirit) to round out the different categories of enemies.

It gives a once per rest ability that causes you to rapidly cast three spells. The ability should appear on your ability bar, in the same area where other item based abilities appear.

Crits also increase the duration of status effects by 25%, which can stack with the increased status effect duration from boosting Intellect with an inspiration. Infuse with Vital Essence and Merciless Graze can make for some pretty potent status effects.

What if focus generation temporarily stopped after using a cipher ability? That’s basically how chanters work, right?

"A Very Good Farmer" indeed. Some things are better off forgotten.

While not optimal, I think this could work if you stacked your defenses as high as possible, used a shield, and built around engagement. Basically, you could passively generate focus while engaging multiple opponents and hopefully negating incoming enemy attacks with your defenses and/or shield modal. Throw in Riposte and some items that grant a riposte-like effect (Champion’s Helm from SSS), and I could see this build being decent.

Thanks for the update!

Xoti will leave and attack you if you attack the Dawnstars in the Temple of Gaun. Also, you can definitely take down the megabosses with your proposed party.

Yes, here are a few things to help out with this battle. 1. Arcane Dampener and Arcane Cleanse will temporarily turn off an active sigil. So if you are not ready to handle one of the sigils, like the Tayn one, just shut it down. 2. Gouging Wound continues to affect the sigil even after the Globe of Invulnerability goes up. So hit a sigil with this, and then shut it down while it continues to get damaged. 3. A very fast way to take down a sigil is to cast Combusting Wounds and Minnoletta’s Missile Salvo. I started with focusing on eliminating the damaging sigils because my resting bonuses and gear helped counter the Ryngrim sigil. 4. Potions of Arcane Reflection can keep you alive, as well as the Wizard arcane reflection spells. I also stacked all the spell reflection gear I had on one character, Xoti, which gave her enough reflection to avoid having to use potions. 5. Auranic is vulnerable to interrupts, Thrust of Tattered Veils is a guaranteed hit, and the scroll version only takes two points in Arcana. After I removed her concentration, I could use Eder to interrupt her. 6. Like all the other megabosses, use your weapon modals that lower her defenses on a hit. Hopefully this helps!

IIRC, it only takes 2 arcana to use that scroll, maybe retrain one or two of your characters so you fire off a few at once.

Certain spells, abilities, or inspirations will generate concentration. I don't recall off the top of my head what abilities the Messenger uses to do so, but you just have to get its concentration to 0 and try to interrupt it from gaining more concentration after that point. Your current weapon will generally not affect your accuracy with scrolls, but items like gauntlets of accuracy should. Increasing your arcana skill should also boost the scroll's power level, which should make it easier to hit with. Concelhaut's Crushing Doom is a unique spell that is only found in the Ironclasped Grimoire, which can be looted off of Concelhaut. Just equip that grimoire on Aloth and you should good to go.

Do you have the latest patch installed? If so, are you aware that Veteran now increases enemy stats? That could be another reason why things are more challenging than before. Regardless, a very useful spell against the Messenger is Concelhaut's Crushing Doom. That might give you the edge you need to get through this battle. Another option to interrupt: scrolls of Thrust of Tattered Veils, as that spell hits automatically. The Crossbow and Arbalest modals also provide interrupts if that helps.

I started a thread about this in the support subforum, as I thought it was a bit odd as well.

Access to the quest has more to do with the player's relationships to the two characters who can provide it than it does to other things within the Halls. There's a bug with turning it in to Llengrath ( ), but we've addressed it and I believe it'll be part of the hotfix. I used Tayn’s scroll but I did not let him tamper with Llengrath’s books, which I turned in to Llengrath. After I used Tayn’s scroll, Llengrath would not speak with me and Tayn never discussed the godseed. Does it come down to using the respective scroll for each archmage and then resolving the Llengrath book quest in their favor?

While I am fairly certain this is not a bug, I think it is odd that the Crimson Plate Helm lacks an enchantment. It has a unique model, whereas the only other “matching” helmet for a suit of plate armor, the Blackened Plate Helm, has an enchantment. Perhaps a suitable enchantment could be added in a patch.

You can find some fungicide to kill it. I think doing so will affect the spore enemies in the restricted section, but I applied the fungicide after I took care of that area. It also caused a certain character to immediately attack me after I applied the fungicide.

I got all of the achievements just by playing the DLC and then visiting the Dark Cupboard to use the pet device.

You definitely have to equip Nemnok before a particular fight if you want to hear a special line.

That's odd, I also did not find any parts of the godseed or encounter a conversation between Tayn and Llengrath about it. Maybe there is a bug?

I mainly just equipped Concelhaut before entering certain conversations, as he tended to chime in more than when he was in the stash. I did not notice any new ambient barks.

I finished it last night, and it was my favorite DLC of the bunch. Plenty of new maps, and lots of enemy variety, with quite a few boss battles thrown in as well. There also appears to be plenty of reactivity and different outcomes. Be sure to bring Concelhaut along.