Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2[1], the long-anticipated vampire action-RPG, has finally arrived. You awaken in Seattle with a pile of mysteries to solve, in a city on the verge of vampire war. Early on, you have to make an important choice: which clan you come from, and making this choice will change which abilities you have access to early in the game.
What’s the difference between clans?
Importantly, each clan serves as a class, giving you different passive and active abilities. Each clan has affinities with different types of powers, and unlocking new abilities for a specific clan unlocks more outfits as well.
While the clan you choose will determine which abilities you get first, you will have the opportunity to unlock abilities from other clans later in the story. However, your passive ability is determined by the clan you choose, and you will be locked out of the other passive abilities.
To unlock abilities from other clans, you must obtain specific currencies from Blood Resonance activities that appear randomly throughout the city. Once you’ve used that currency to unlock an ability from another clan, you will need to use skill points. The lower your affinity with that clan, the more skill points these abilities cost. You can increase your affinity by doing quests for the clan leaders.
Brujah
Mastery Rating: Normal
Clan Affinities: Celerity, Presence, and Potence
The Brujah specialize in hitting hard and hitting fast, putting an emphasis on winning fights head-on. This clan’s passive ability grants a temporary damage boost upon feeding, letting you deal additional damage. The abilities learned later in the Brujah tree give you more options in open combat, along with several ways to take out multiple enemies at once. If you’re looking to be in the thick of combat, Brujah is for you.
Tremere
Mastery Rating: Normal
Clan Affinities: Dominate and Blood Sorcery
The Tremere clan functions as the mage class in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, granting access to powerful, blood-based abilities. The passive ability is also a convenient one, causing enemies slain by feeding to dissolve away, reducing the risk of getting caught. Later in the tree, you gain access to power magic, like Blood Curse, which will cause an enemy to explode the next time they take damage, and Blood Salvo, which lets you conjure blood daggers that can be thrown with telekinesis.
Banu Haqim
Mastery Rating: Hard
Clan Affinities: Celerity, Blood Sorcery, Obfuscate
The Banu Haqim also have access to magic, but instead use it for swift and quiet killing, moving undetected through the night. The passive makes you silent for a short period after feeding, and later abilities further your ability to move through the night, killing undetected. The Mute ability allows you to silence an enemy, both their weapons and their screams, so you can take them off the board undetected, and the Split Second ability allows you to slow time down, so you can reposition in the blink of an eye.
Ventrue
Mastery Rating: Easy
Clan Affinities: Dominate and Presence
The Vantrue clan mixes manipulation with a more tank-focused approach to combat, absorbing hits and clouding your enemies’ minds. The passive ability provides high damage resistance upon feeding on an enemy, and the abilities in the tree allow you to indirectly take out humans and vampires. Terminal Decree forces a mortal enemy to take themselves out, while it forces vampires to disarm and stagger. Possession allows direct control of someone, who you can command to attack others.
Lasombra
Mastery Rating: Hard
Clan Affinities: Dominate, Potence, and Oblivion
The Lasombra use the shadows to their advantage, dipping in and out of shadows to take out their enemies, and strike fear into any onlookers. The passive ability, Shadow Cloak, sends you into shadow after feeding, making you more difficult to see. Shadow Step allows you to teleport via the shadows, and Glimpse of Oblivion causes enemies to become fearful, fleeing from you and their posts. Lasombra mixes darkness and fear, giving a classic vampire experience.
Toreador
Mastery Rating: Normal
Clan Affinities: Celerity and Presence
The Toreador relies on high speed and the power of being a sexy vampire to control enemies. The passive ability grants movement speed upon feeding. The Toreador clan revels in control via seduction, using abilities like Entrancing Kiss to Entrance an enemy to fight for you, and Beckon, which puts an enemy into a trance, compelling them to walk to your last known location. If your favorite thing about vampires is all of the smooching, the Toreador clan is for you.
So which clan is best?
Since you can unlock the majority of the abilities from other clans, it ultimately isn’t too impactful which clan you end up going with. The choice comes down to your preference for which passive ability you want when feeding on enemies, and which abilities you would prefer to have first.
We recommend the Tremere clan, based primarily on the passive ability of enemies disappearing after you feed on them. This significantly lowers your chances of breaking the Masquerade and exposing vampires to the world, and your chances of getting caught while in stealth. On top of that, Blood Curse, one of the earliest abilities the Tremere clan gets, is great in combat, especially against large groups. The ability sets up an enemy so that the next time they take damage, they explode. Not only can this take out large groups, but it does a ton of damage to bosses, too, making it handy to have right from the jump.
References
- ^ Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 (www.gamespot.com)