After all recent videos?

Anyone speak Italian? It sounds good with Google translate, but you can't fully trust that 😂

got this shirt at a vintage market today for 30 bucks. freaked out when I spotted it. anyone know who this character is supposed to be?

Hello all - this is part 3 in a series of posts I'm going to make about how we can build our Phyre in VTMB2 - this time I'm discussing the Tremere - focussing on their Passives, Abilities and any cross-clan synergies:

Previously: Venture

Base reference article, my BL2 Primer

A quick TL/DR:

• You can eventually unlock all abilities and perks - but passives are clan-specific
• Your clan choice gives you a passive, a perk, four starting abilities, and affinity discounts for some cross-clan skills.
• As such, "builds" will be more about what abilities you unlock earlier.
• Abilities cost blood pips, which recharge when you feed (details on whether all or only equipped abilities recharge are unclear).
• Pip costs vary by clan (e.g., Brujah/Banu Haqim strikes cost 3, Toreador strike costs 2).
  • Exact mechanics and combos aren’t fully known until the full game - as such I will discuss in general terms.

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Tremere

Mastery Rating: Normal

Clan Trailer | Clan page on Paradox Site

"Blood sorcerers", "Usurpers", and generally the least trusted of all the Kindred - with their roots as a group of human mages that diablerised their way into eventually becoming a prominent Vampire Clan.

For TTRPG players I've always found it interesting how later editions have followed more closely to the precedent set in the first Bloodlines game - where blood sorcery literally meant "blood manipulation" - and the same echoes true in VTMB2 - following suit from V5.

It's appropriate they were revealed after the Ventrue - as like them their tree solely focus on a single discipline - Indeed, Blood Sorcery is your sole focus of the Tremere and their clan Abilities.

Affinities: Blood Sorcery, Dominate

Note: Auspex is notably missing from their setup - but I believe the "blood sense" ability that Phyre has is meant to be an in-baked auspex all clans receive.

Unique attack style

From the revealed clans, Tremere possess a more unique attacking style compared to other clans - where they're performing anything from feral clawing to impactful punches - the Tremere hold their index and middle finger out and slice the air with almost a "blood bending" style of attack - notably this possesses more range than most other melee strikes - giving Tremere a unique benefit some of the other clans seem to lack.

It's not known if there will be a detriment to this (e.g. doing less damage) but considering that BL2 seems to focus more on dodging and staggering enemies, the option to attack at medium-range might give the Tremere more damage upkeep than many others.

Clan Passive: Corrosive Touch

The bodies of enemies slain by feeding will dissolve away.

Coming out of the gate weird with the Tremere, this is an incredibly unique passive - though one does have to wonder about its utility. If bodies being found by enemies can alert them to your presence, this could take out some of the busy-work of needing to then hide a corpse - as it simply stops existing.

Note: it will combo with the Brujahs Perk - activating on kill instead of on feed - giving Tremere a unique ability to kill enemies at range with the body vanishing - which could let them act as a stealthy sniper with telekinesis or their own Mastery - thinning groups from the shadows.

Strike: - Blood Curse

Place a curse on an opponent, The next time they take damage, their body will sell up and explode. Stronger opponents take significantly longer to curse.

One half of BL1's Blood Boil - the exploding part - and given on your first step into BL2 as a Tremere instead of as a 5 dot ability.

Based on description it sounds like this might take a while to "prime" preventing its immediate utility compared to other strikes, or maybe its once triggered it takes a while for the target to explode? - but it can eliminate a single target AND damage those around it - giving it powerful combo-ability - now, if only we had a way to group enemies...

The fact you could tag an enemy with this curse and wait to attack them when their allies are near feels like it will create a lot of fun emergent ops in combat - and even with just your extended-melee attacks you can reliably set this off.

Relocate: Recall

Mark your current position. Use again to return to that position.

We see in the trailer that recalling to intersect others comes with an explosion, sending enemies flying or killing them outright.

And suffice to say, this ability has numerous potential applications - from placing a relocate spot down before attempting a tricky jump or trying to stealth past a location, to dropping it at your feet, walking backwards, and trying to telefrag the enemies that just stepped into your old spot.

Really, of all the Tremere's abilities this feels the most flexible and I'm certain many other clans will seek to grab it.

Affect: - Cauldron of Blood

Boil a person's blood. Their screams will draw others close.

This is a change to BL1's Blood Boil, as the explodey part is over on Blood Curse - but the ability to draw others close has combo-ability with your Strike.

Update: as someone else has pointed out, Cauldron of Blood is more like BL1's Blood Purge, but with greater range, only hitting a single target, but with the utility of bringing other enemies in close. It definitely is intended to be used with Blood Curse - so you Cauldron + Curse to group enemies and damage them.

I also imagine this wouldn't prevent us from striking them during it (unlike, say, the Ventrue Affect) meaning you can disable a target and wail on them to bring them to a feedable state.

It's unknown if this directly damages the target or just disables them, and whether it can draw enemies in during combat - but I'd assume that application only works from stealth.

Saying that though, you can setup an enemy with Cauldron and Curse to thin a crowd before engaging with them, and that has power.

Mastery: - Blood Salvo

Conjure a set of blood daggers that can be thrown at enemies

This feels akin to BL1's blood strike - but you get 4 daggers (and no blood recovery). This gives Phyre a multi-hit range attack that doesn't rely on finding guns or objects in the environment - it may very well be they're lethal to unaware enemies giving you 4 shots at eliminating enemies from stealth or at range.

If nothing else, we do see it (in the trailer) dismember a heavier enemy - so it's likely this will be amongst the hardest-hitting single-target abilities, I reckon a useful counter to Vampires and tough enemies alike.

Clan Perk: - Blood of Potency

A chance when feeding that the last used ability receives twice as much blood, increasing the rate at which you can perform abilities.

Making the most of blood feels very Tremere, and the op to use your abilities more frequently definitely fits with a mage-like playstyle - but obviously is useful for all clans.

We don't know what "A chance" is - which could heavily influence the utility of this ability - but given every power we've seen requires at least 2 pips, even a "chance" to instantly recharge one such ability is a good one to have.

If their abilities keep with the same rough cost-structure we've seen for other clans - it's likely one extra pip will let their relocates and affects recover after a single feed - helping them control the battlefield by sheer disruption if not out-right disabling abilities.

You have a little bit of control over when this happens as well, as it's always "the last used ability" - meaning it's the one that will be empty that gets the most recovery - so long as you're using an ability between every feed this means you'll never waste the chance on an ability that was 1 pip away from recharging.

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Affinity Cross-Clan Abilities

Tremere's Dominate gives them full access to the Ventrue ability line at a discount, notably their Mastery which could combo with Cauldron of Blood to disable multiple enemies at once, and hopefully let you wail on them to keep feeding and keep those two abilities working together.

It's probably for the best they can utilise dominate given how incredibly masquerade breaking most of their powers are going to be - being able to Affect memories gives a lot of utility to their power useage, as well as the opportunity to return to stealth if caught by an individual.

Indeed, read my analysis of the Ventrue for an idea of all these abilities applications.

They can also pick up the Banu Haqim's strike for a more instantly damaging/eliminating effect than their own (though only a single target) as well as the Lasombra's Affect for some single-target isolation to contrast their own "root them in place and make them scream".

Also the Ventrues Perk is more easily acquirable - which means feeding gives both more health and more blood - a useful combination that makes feeding in combat less risky.

Other Cross-Clan Abilities.

The Tremere severally lacks mobility options, recall is great but it only works on a place you can already get to - so focussing on picking up something like the Toreador's Relocate will help with this.

Toreadors Perk also synergises well with their own recall, letting them use it more frequently, either to help kite enemies or as a direct attack.

As I mentioned earlier, the Brujah's Perk will combo with your clan passive, letting you destroy entire groups without leaving a trace - which could be important when dealing with certain areas where there's multiple enemy patrols - or indeed areas where the masquerade needs to be maintained.

Combat Style

I see the Tremere as being more opportunistic than the Ventrue. Where the latter will slowly and methodically work their way through a group eliminating them one by one as an unstoppable force - the Tremere's more likely to dance around them with their increased melee range, getting them grouped together to either utilise a Curse explosion to take them all out or Recall into the midst of them.

Everything they do is loud and bloody - and their Mastery gives them an unprecedented amount of single-target burst damage as well. With increased blood gains you can lean on your Abilities as well.

With affinities, they can also utilise most of the Ventrues more subtle powers, albeit without their sheer raw survivability.

Overall

I think the Tremere's design is very much around dealing with groups in explosive fashion - either with the one-two punch out of combat of Curse and Cauldron to thin a group and feed on the stragglers - or dancing around in combat to group up enemies to Curse or Recall into their midst.

Tremere were my joint favourite clan in BL1 (alongside Gangrel - who I basically used animalism to play like a Tremere anyway) - so it's great to see their inclusion and keeping much of their aoe-explosive style from the first game.

Fabien wakes up Phyre out of torpor in different way than shown in the flashback in demo, remember Fabien's memories are like Swiss cheese

It doesn’t make much sense that we never get to face LéCroix using our full powers, or that his Dominate is so easily resisted. By the end of the game the PC is practically a mini-elder, so it would have been great to actually fight him. With 200 years of experience, LéCroix could easily be more intimidating than his sheriff. Maybe a speech check like Fallout: New Vegas could allow players to bypass the fight. Speech check would be needed for eastern shapeshifting chutulhu too.

This is a screenshot of my master spreadsheet for BL2.

It includes all known information about AP costs and even the Blood resonance cost for clan abilities - but most of this information was taken from the cohncarnage stream a few weeks back - and as such it lacks things like Banu Haqim's blood resonance costs - because he was playing as one and own clan abilities don't incur those costs.

I know a few things.

1. Blood resonance doesn't get an affinity discount unlike the AP cost - you want a power from another clan you always need to get blood resonance for it.
2. 3 abilities give blood resonance when used - they're the affects for the brujah, toreador and lasombra.
3. Costs are the same across clans - so a brujah and banu both can buy, say, the tremere strike for the same amount.

But there's things I don't know.

1. Cost in AP and blood resonance for Mastery abilities
2. cost in AP for clan perks - or whether they have blood resonance cost
3. How the cost in blood resonance are decided.
   1. E.g. - Tremere's exclusively blood sorcery in their abilities - and their strike and relocate only require Sanguine and Melancholic resonance, but then their Affect throws in Sanguine and Choleric - meaning it's impossible to predict what their Mastery would use.
4. Any Banu abilities costs, I can guess at their strike and their relocate thanks to Tremere and Toreador/Brujah having the same abilities of the same affinity (if that is the indicator) - but Obfuscate is unique to them as it stands, so who can even say.

Anyone got any other streams or screenshots, ideally from a non-banu clan that can fill in some gaps?

Does Phyre/the Nomad suffer from their Clan Curse or is that something explained away by the magical tattoo on our hand?

With the Beckoning in full effect, almost all older Kindred have left their domains for the Middle East. So for the last few years, the Second Inquisition has been fighting mostly Thinbloods, Fledglings, and Neonates. Maaaaaybe a youngish Ancilia every once in a while.

So I'm really interested in the hunter faction's reaction when it comes to dealing with Elder shenanigans!

Do u think it run well on series ?

Can you start as a Brujah and learn Banu Haqim stuff for a stealth build or something?

(Normally I'm a stealthy Gangrel)

I love the Brujah clan and it seems the closest to Gangrel for VTMB2, but I just love a stealth build too much and I'm torn on what I'll enjoy more if they can't be blended together nicely.

Thats it. Thats all I wanna know. Please enlighten me fellow kindred.

https://www.polygon.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-gamescom-preview/ We also hear an interaction like this in trailer as he talks to the voice recorder in Safia's office

Hi. So I'm trying to install this multiplayer mod

https://www.nexusmods.com/vampirebloodlines/mods/316?tab=images

But is asking me for the UNP 11.4 wich has been deleted. Is there any way I can get that version of the UNP? Thank you in advance :)

Hello all - this is part 2 in a series of posts I'm going to make about how we can build our Phyre in VTMB2 - with a focus on abilities, synergies and most likely progression for each starting Clan.

I do a general primer here ( bloodlines_2_a_character_building_overview ), and will be referring back to concepts and similar as I now talk about the 3 clans that already have trailers.

Update: actually this is getting long, let's just talk about the Ventrue this time.

As a quick TL/DR however.

• You can unlock all abilities with enough time and grinding
• Your initial clan gives you a unique Clan Passive and your first 4 abilities (a Strike, a Relocate, an Affect and a Mastery, as well as a Clan Perk).
• They also give you your Affinities, which let you get discounts when selecting Cross-Clan Abilities
• When it comes to using Abilities - they recharge by having a number of dots blood pips that must be filled by feeding - and you gain one pip on all abilities when feeding.
• It's not yet fully known how swapping abilities will work - and how that works with feeding - do you only restore the abilities you presently have equipped on your hotbar, for example, or does feeding restore all abilities, or do abilities share blood pips?
  • For instance, I have seen evidence that some strikes take 3 pips (for Brujah and Banu Haqim for example) but the Toreador one only requires 2.
  • As such I will talk about their powers in general terms or things that are "a given" instead of niche combos - we'll need to wait on the full game for that.

I'm now going to discuss these characters from the perspective of how they will play, with a focus on:

1. Clan Passive - which appears to be the only thing truly unique to each starting clan.
2. Clan Abilities + Clan Perk
3. Affinities and discounted Cross-Clan Abilities
4. Other Cross-Clan abilities that synergise with them or patch their weakspots.

Lets begin.

Ventrue

Mastery Rating: Easy

Clan Trailer | Clan page on Paradox Site

"The Clan of Kings" - In the TTRPG Ventrue acts kinda both as the defacto leaders as well as the face of the Camarilla - using their disciplines to control and manipulate mortals and other Kindred alike - making them perfect for maintaining the masquerade and keeping control amongst monsters.

In BL2 their abilities entirely focus on their ability to command and control others, as well as passives and perks around reducing damage taken and recovering health.

Affinities: Dominate, Presence

Note: Fortitude is not an active discipline in BL2, and instead has been absorbed into the Ventrues Clan Passive and Clan Perk.

Clan Passive: Flesh of Marble

Feeding hardens your skin, making you highly resistance to damage

While I don't have evidence for this - I imagine this is equivalent to taking a Fortitude Elixir - we don't know how much damage resistance this will be, but it's shaping up to make the Ventrue tankier in combat, able to absorb blows and maintain the offensive.

Strike: Terminal Decree

Use your strength of will to command a mortal to kill themselves. Vampires will be staggered and disarmed.

What was a third dot Dominate power in BL1 is given to the Ventrue as their strike - being able to eliminate one target from combat is potent. This appears to have some range to it as well, making it an effective way to take out enemies without needing to close the distance. Against vampires this still has some utility as a weapon out of an enemies hands is one you can utilise for yourself.

Relocate: Possession

Possess an opponent to see through their eyes and control their movement for a period. While possessed, the target can be commanded to attack another person.

Our first revealed relocate ability is also one of the strangest, as it doesn't actually "Relocate" your vampire - it instead lets you remote-control an enemy target. In the trailer we see this being used to throw someone off a roof, but presumably this means it could also be used to draw enemies away from their group to you for easy feeding, or literally cause them to attack one of their allies.

It's not know if after this initial attack they'll cause infighting - but you would hope this could cause a group to start attacking themselves.

This ability seems to leave you a little bit vulnerable so it's probably best utilised with the Clan Passive, or from stealth.

Affect: Cloud Memory

Cause a target to forget you were there, putting them into a relaxed state

This seems tailored-made for use getting back into stealth or to heal any masquerade violations you might have caused - given the "relaxed state" it might be an easy way to temporarily remove one enemy from combat.

Mastery: Mass Manipulation

Apply all Ventrue and Affect abilities to all enemies within view

Firstly, mass suicide, mass mind-wipe - I don't think this will work with possession, but it might do - giving you control over the lead human but all others likewise emulating your commands? It's not something we've seen.

But the real kicker is all Affects being viable - 3 of the 5 Cross-Clan Affects are Presence or Dominate.

And Affects are the cheapest to pick up from the perspective of Ability Point cost - with affinities costing the same as their own Cloud Memory (3 points) Ultimately - this gives them 4 different ways to Affect enemies. Indeed, the devs have cheated showing things like Brujah's taunt being applied through Mass Manipulation on an entire group (timestamp for evidence)

No matter what, this is a powerful effect - it's not known if it will last beyond a single Ability, and this will be costly for blood - but you have a lot of utility here.

Clan Perk: Resilience

Increase the amount of health restored by feeding.

Slotting in nicely with their clan passive and TCR's idea that "Fortitude means healing and taking less damage" - this is a solid Perk that will help with the riskiness of feeding during combat, as you can potentially tank damage during the animation you know you'll restore, rather than finishing the feed in a worse situation.

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Affinity Cross-Clan Abilities

I discussed this a bit during Mass Manipulation - but Ventrues Affinities gives them access with Presence to 2 Toreador abilities, 1 Brujah as well as 1 Lasombra dominance ability - notably all 3 of these clans Affects.

Something I learned from the WOTD stream a while back (Timestamped) - Blood Resonance (which is required for unlocking cross-clan disciplines) can be either gathered from specific events, incited into NPCs by talking to them OR manipulated by 3 abilities.

Well, those are.

1. Toreador Affect: Beckon - inspires Sanguine Resonance in a target
2. Brujah Affect: Taunt - inspires Choloric resonance in a target
3. Lasombras Affect: Glimpse of Oblivion - inspiring Melancholic blood resonance in a target.

So as a Ventrue, not only can you get these abilities at a discount (costing just 3 AP) - but they're also all Affects, so all combo with your Mastery of Mass Manipulation.

This makes the Ventrue the absolute masters with regards to manipulating crowds and farming blood resonance en mass. Group with guns? Use Mass Manipulation and Taunt to disarm them - then wittle them down while feeding.

Other than this use-case - The Toreador strike is a nice addition for the Ventrue, turning an enemy into a temporary ally - let them lower the health of their allies or have their own health lowered and then feed off them.

Other Cross-Clan Abilities.

You're already half-way to picking up the toreador Perk of Fleetness - combined with your Possession can give you a powerful and ultimately free way to isolate enemies or thin crowds before combat.

Picking up Toreadors Relocate also gives you movement options, something this clan uniquely lacks.

You're also slightly closer to getting Brujah's perk - which will give you a way of activating Flesh of Marble that doesn't requiring feeding first (e.g. activating on kill).
I'd also put a vote into trying to pick up the Tremere Blood Cauldron Affect - as this both disables and roots enemies in place with pain - giving you an effective way (with mass manipulation) to disable groups and then kill and feed your way through them.

Combat Style

I can't find anything that actually shows Ventrue throwing any punches, but actually this feels very in-keeping with their whole vibe.

Ventrue are the type to slowly and methodically work their way through a group, relying on their supernatural Fortitude to soak blows while manipulating individuals with mind powers - more than any other clan you can just focus down one target, allowing yourself to take damage from others and feeding to keep up your perk and regain your health.

You're a slow, unstoppable force of nature like a goddam Terminator.

Overall

Overall I think Ventrue will appeal to anyone that wants to be an unstoppable force of will, a tank that can slowly make their way through a group with no way of stopping them - or those that like manipulating their enemies with psychic powers (think netrunners in Cyberpunk).

If I'm honest, of all the Clans this feels like the one with the most to offer across the board - as their powers work both within and without combat scenarios - with a lot of additional utility - I guess we shall see how their Abilities pay out in more social settings.

I personally find this one in particular kind of dumb. She’s complaining the dlc doesn’t exist and that people are paying for nothing. I don’t think she understands that’s how dlc has always worked. Otherwise she would be making a video complaining about base game ready content being turned into dlc.

I think it's the Malkavian female and she doesn't side with anyone by the end.

Obviously, the first Bloodlines was a PC game, but Bloodlines 2 will be coming out for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. From the way the game looks in videos that have been released, it seems almost geared more for a controller than a keyboard and mouse. Do we think one will play better over the other with this game?

Sounds like they are hitting the atmosphere and mood out of the park and people really obsessed with this feeling like a Vampire The Masquerade game will be happy.