Help with The Red Hand Arquebus

[AwakenOne2010]

The arquebus has two possible upgrade options Double Tap or Twin Slugs.

Double Tap - destroy lower level Vessel on second consecutive hit
Twin Slugs - Knockback Target within 4m on scoring hit

I am tempted to go for the Twin Slugs upgrade but not sure if this is the right choice as I do not know how effective is the Knockback effect. The Double Tap is too situational for my liking but could still be better if Knockback is ineffective.

So which one should I upgrade to and why?

[CHAO$$$]

I would not spend mats on either of those. Just dont get them. If you already have everything get double tap.

tl;dr random interrupt procs remove your ability to interrupt enemies consistently precisely when you need to. The knockback itself is horrible for your melee classes. It has 0 value for enemies who arent using melee.

Twin Slugs is a downgrade - makes the weapon worse because:
The knockback will screw your melees attacking the target - your melee will try to chase the knockbacked dude - take a disengagement attack and lose dps.
^best case scenario

worse:
Enemies in this game especially on higher difficulty tend to have "concentration". These enemies on higher difficulty tend to cast nasty abilities that need to be interrupted with precision.
Every talent in the game that adds "random interrupts" (the knockback here counts as CC effect and triggers concentration) is garbage because..

When you trigger a CC effect (interrupt/knockback) on an enemy without concentration who started the fight WITH concentration (pretty much ALL enemies that you want to interrupt for whatever reason) then they will get hit by the CC effect and instantly after that get new stacks of concentration (depending on the enemy multiple!).

So your useless random knockback just removed your ability to interrupt the enemy when you need to until you have successfully stripped all of his concentration stacks again.

[AwakenOne2010]

Oh I see. Thanks for your response. In that case, I am better of just focus on upgrade to lengendary quality and ignore the above two options. Thanks again. Took the headache out of me :-)

[Cheezeburger]

I personally like the knockback effect, it only works on targets withing 4 meters so it gives me the ability to create a pocket to stand in. With that though there are plenty of pierce immune vessels that I wanted to test if double tap will still kill or not if i make 2 consecutive 'immune' attacks.

[AwakenOne2010]

If Double Tap could outright kill lower level piercing immune vessels then it could be a very convenient option i.e. no need to switch weapon. Also, from CHAO$$$ information, it seems indeed the Twin Slugs is a downgrade due to the described negative side effect.

However, maybe Twin Slugs negative side effect only a problem for difficulty above Classic? I am playing on Classic difficulty and with nearly all my fights AI automated (customised AI). Working great so far.

[Cheezeburger]

I mean twin slugs only works on enemies within melee range anyway so i use it to position close enemies outside of 4m to trigger my sharpshooter's hit to crit conversion passive and then my tanks reposition to keep them at distance, i don't really run into a lot of issues with my tanks breaking engagement and I play on PotD

[AwakenOne2010]

I have Eder being very tanky and doing all the extra engagements. Everyone else range attackers. Aloth been programmed to seek out ally with the most enemies in melee range (most of the time this is Eder) and summon Tentacles next to the ally meeting this condition.

My main character is a Rogue (no sub class)/Ranger Ghost Heart. Twin Slugs is only in case I am being attacked by melee if I do upgrade to this option. Main character will summon Boar at start of every battle and re-summon when pet die. Maia, Xoti are also in my party.

Loving the Dragon Age Origin AI automated style of play. Wish they provided detailed cover of Customise AI behaviour mechanics. I have to guess, trial and error alot. Some are obvious but a lot are not obvious at all.

[Tyloric]

I actually really like the knock back effect. Like, a lot. Put it on my Cipher and it really helps with the harassment.

[Ghost]

+1 Twin Slugs all day