Vampire: The Masquerade holds many video games, comics, and ttrpg materials that make it accessible to all kinds of people with their preferred gaming style. You play as a vampire, struggling to survive while your own humanity fades. You suffer the pangs of hunger and thirst for human blood which can lead to dire consequences if you refuse to deal with it. Explore, hide away and experience a personal and political horror story.
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For the sake of reviews and the popularity of battle royal games, I wanted to share Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt. Battle against other vampires and human forces in Prague either solo, duos or with a team of 3. There are clans, each with their own archetypes and abilities that differentiate them from the others, and I will be ranking from my own experience.
- Enforcer
Starting with the Ventrue clan, also known as the Clan of Kings, the Enforcer archetype has pretty useful abilities but ultimately in regards to solo fights is less likely to be able to escape.
Flesh of Marble (Clan Power): Members of the Ventrue clan can harden their skin for a brief duration, fully invulnerable until you take an offensive action. The main issue with this ability is that it could help with not taking any sort of damage and healing, but the thing about Bloodhunt is teams are going to chase you down. Though it is helpful in the moment, it is better to have an ability that loses your trail.
Subjugating Presence (Passive Power): Nearby enemies have their movement speed slowed along with an alert when an enemy steps into their presence. This passive ability is great when in a chase, as well as forcing a 1v1. The downside is that this can lead to ending up with a handful of vampires in one spot, especially with the sense feature you increase your chances of ending up in a chase where you need to run.
Unyielding Charge (Archetype Power): Rush forward dealing moderate damage and silencing enemies for a brief duration. Silenced enemies cannot use vampiric powers while affected. Again, forcing the fight into the area and a way to give the upperhand. Overall this archetype and clan is dedicated to forcing combat to stay in one area. Which means in the long run of needing to escape, it really isn’t the best to work with.
- Vandal
Brujahs, the angry and passionate clan of unruly rebels and roughnecks. I know I am going to get mixed reviews on this take, but in my own experience the Vandal is not the worst but it is certainly not the best.
Soaring Leap (Clan Power): Perform a powerful jump forward. It’s great to jump across buildings, but that’s about as far as this goes. Just jump around, nothing else.
Adrenaline Rush (Passive Power): Gain moderate damage resistance when in close vicinity of enemies. This ability is nice but when it comes down to it, a player isn’t going to let that stop them from doing everything they can to stop you. And with some of these other archetypes, they can keep you far away and unable to see if need be.
Earth Shock (Archetype Power): Leap forward and crash upon the ground, dealing damage and hurling enemies upward. This one is fun, but needs to work with soaring leap most of the time to even work or give that extra movement boost. The ability would be more helpful if it led to a temporary stun instead of just launching them into the air (no fall damage in game).
- Scholar
Tremere are the masters of Blood Sorcery. The scholar themself is the latest addition to Bloodhunt, but there are a few things that make it a bit more difficult to use.
Levitation (Clan Power): Lift into the air, gaining the ability to fly around. Drains levitation resource when in use. This was cool when I first tried it out, but man does it make you a big target. You move at a slow pace as well, which makes it easier for people to shoot up at you.
Vital Knowledge (Passive Power): You briefly reveal enemies you deal damage to for you and your allies. I have no other comments here besides that this perk is useful. It gives you a few extra seconds of visual on the enemy and one of the 2 powers that make this archetype not last on the list.
Blood Lance (Archetype Power): Fire a blood lance that pierce through matter, dealing damage and heals wounds. Nice, but you need to have a good aim for this to work efficiently. Not saying I don’t have good aim, but sometimes in the heat of combat it’s hard to hit. At the same time I feel that against an enemy, it should deal more damage given that it takes a bit of time to wind up when you could just aim and fire your gun and make the same damage amount in less time.
- Siren
Toreador, talent and beauty who seduce and entice their prey. The siren has cool archetype power, but everything else has its downfall that ranks this around the middle of the list.
Projection Dash (Clan Power): Send out a projection of yourself, which you can dash to. A useful escape to get the high ground, but it gives your enemy a heads up of where you are going. That and you can shoot while you dash, so more chances to be knocked.
Kindred Charm (Passive Power): Nearby civilians are charmed, temporarily making them act friendly towards you and your team. Easy solution, just go to a civilian by themself. The worst that comes from getting caught by other civilians is being wanted which reveals you on the map for everyone. Again, easy solution, find a civilian by themself.
Blinding Beauty (Archetype Power): Slowly erupt into pure beauty, blinding and damaging all nearby enemies. This is useful since it has a pretty wide range of effect, and you don’t need to be staring at your target for them to blind. Get yourself out of a group fight easily.
- Brute
The other half of the Brujahs, given that we have talked about this clan power before I will only mention the passive and archetype.
True Grit (Passive Power): The Brute replenishes up to half of their health while not taking damage. I personally love this passive, it’s very easy to win a fight when you can regain some hp in the middle of it. However, that limits you to not take damage, meaning you better have cover.
Shockwave Punch (Archetype Power): Unleash a shockwave capable of deflecting bullets. This is basically a walking force field, combined with true grit, you are sure to come out on top in fights. That is why this archetype surpasses the Vandal.
- Warden
Another member of the venture clan, once again I will now only mention the archetype and passive since we have discussed the clan powers with the enforcer.
Resilience (Passive Power): When the warden feeds on mortals or commits diablerie, the blood restores both health and armor. This ability saves you so much time from looting or needing to find a police van for armor. It quite literally also handles 2 birds with 1 stone in regards to regaining health and shields.
Shackles (Archetype Power): Puts a leash on your enemies, anchoring them to one place. If they stray too far, their shackles break and inflict damage. Keep your enemy in one spot or they take damage, this is a good power to have, especially when preventing your target from running away or even running away from them.
- Prowler
The Nosferatu, spymasters of the undead and masters of the underground. This clan has a way of sneaking around and escaping when fights get out of hand.
Vanish (Clan Power): Become invisible and move rapidly for a brief period. This is the best way to lose your trail or even sneak behind your enemy. This makes it very easy to maneuver around a fight and come out on top.
Sense the Beast (Passive Power): Severely wounded enemies leave a trail that reveals their latest movements. This is practically the ability from the Scholar but slightly better, a trail straight to the target, makes it a lot harder for them to get away.
Scouting Famulus (Archetype Power): Send bats to scout an area, temporarily revealing enemies through walls. Makes it safer moving around corners or watching out for other hidden players, and giving that extra intel before attacking.
- Muse
Another member of the Toreador, once again I will be mentioning the passive and archetype power since we covered the clan power.
Final Act (Passive Power): Instantly refresh your cooldowns and enable the use of powers when downed. This is insanely good when you are playing in duos or trios, even when you are down you can teleport through projection dash or heal your teammates while they continue to fight.
Rejuvenating Voice (Archetype Power): Enter a restorative state that heals you and nearby allies while channeled. Taking damage or using the power while channeling interrupts the healing state. Stay out of view and keep healing, and you have successfully made an unstoppable force.
- Saboteur
Finally at the top archetype coming from the Nosferatu. This is the type that I have had the most success and fun playing.
Unseen Passage (Passive Power): Turn semi-invisible when crouching. This proves to be very powerful, especially when the map itself is in the night and the chances of players double checking for a moving shape is highly unlikely. Stand post with a sniper and enjoy not being found.
Sewer Bomb(Archetype Power): Throw a bomb that explodes and releases toxic gas when approached by enemies. The amount of times I have trapped enemies in buildings, escaped from fights and won games using the sewer bomb is too many times to keep track of. It’s useful and makes it harder for your enemy to see and deals damage to them while in it.
