Each of the clans in Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 has four skills for you to unlock. Using these abilities will allow you to gain the upper hand in combat or allow you to access areas more easily.
For instance, the Shadow Step ability will allow you to teleport behind enemies, or the Unseen Aura ability will allow you to disappear from sight. Of course, the question always remains as to which of these skills are the best to have equipped.
Let’s break down the best skills in Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2, so you know what skills to use while roaming the streets of Seattle.
10 Unseen Aura
Invisibility
Unseen Aura is the most expensive skill that the Banu Kaqim get, but it is useful both in and out of combat. For starters, it can save your life in a pinch, since turning invisible will hide you from everyone’s sight.
One use of this skill when you are about to kick the bucket and reach final death will allow you to run over to a corner to take a break, recoup, and then bite someone for that extra health and blood.
Outside of combat, you can use this ability to escape Masquerade violations. If you get caught using your abilities, simply use Unseen Aura to evade the cops and quickly reduce your awareness. The main things holding this ability back are that you can still be heard, so moving fast is out of the question, and the cost is very high.
Along with all of this, Unseen Aura makes the mission to break into the police station absurdly easy.
9 Glimpse of Oblivion
Experience Fear
Glimpse of Oblivion is an ability given to you by the Lasombra, and it allows you to strike fear into the heart of someone within your vicinity. While this is useful in combat, allowing you to make foes fearful enough to run away from their allies, I have found it more useful outside of combat.
In combat, you can use it to deal with larger enemies and brutes easily, but outside, you can use it to farm Melancholic Blood from Resonance Events. When speaking to an NPC, you will typically get a prompt that allows you to use Glimpse of Oblivion, striking fear into them, allowing you to harvest Melancholic Blood.
The best part is that the skill doesn’t need to be equipped to use it on NPCs you speak to.
8 Mass Manipulation/Terminal Decree
Mass Suicide
Rather than focus on a single skill for this entry, I would rather focus on two skills that are both given to you by the Ventrue Clan: Mass Manipulation and Terminal Decree. Alone, both skills are okay, but together, they are a fantastic combination that shouldn’t be ignored.
The key is to use Mass Manipulation on a group of enemies around you. This will make them stop in their tracks and be under your control. Next, use Terminal Decree. This will make all the enemies kill themselves, taking out multiple foes easily.
Unfortunately, this ability only works with large groups, and that is a little difficult to do thanks to the nature of the game’s combat. It just isn’t worth using this combo on one or two foes.
7 Lightning Strike
Flurry of Blows
The first skill in the Brujah Clan skill tree is Lightning Strike, and it basically allows you to use the monk’s Flurry of Blows ability from D&D. When you use this ability, time slows down, and enemies around you get marked.
Numerous marks will appear on the foes near you, and aiming at them will prioritize them, increasing the number of marks. After a short time, you will unleash an onslaught of punches, heavily damaging any foe you have marked.
This skill is especially good against brutes, allowing you to basically take them down with a single use, making it one of the best combat skills.
6 Arms of Ahriman
Hold Them in Place
Another Lasombra skill, Arms of Ahriman allows you to trap enemies in shadows. This unique ability traps enemies caught in a line, allowing you to attack them more easily, feed on them, and more.
The best thing about this skill is that it has a cheaper cost, allowing you to use it more often during combat. It is also useful outside of combat, as it can be used to hold NPCs who run away from you, preventing them from getting away.
I mostly use this skill for combat purposes, but the versatility of it is nice, especially when many of the skills are solely combat-focused.
5 Blurred Momentum
Don’t Get Hit
Speaking of combat, one of the best defensive skills in the game is Blurred Momentum. Given to you by the Toreador Clan, this skill allows you to avoid taking damage by boosting your reflexes.
When you activate this skill, you basically move so quickly that enemies can’t hit you, allowing you to easily take down foes with little worry. This is especially useful in later game fights when you have to deal with enemies of multiple types, such as Hunters and Thin-Bloods.
Again, the downside to this skill is the cost, but that can be mitigated by passive abilities. While you are learning Toreador skills from Patience, make sure to collect crosses for her.
4 Bladed Hand
Wolverine Claws
If you have ever wanted to be able to cut off the heads of your enemies in one fell swoop, look no further than the Bladed Hand ability given to you by the Banu Haqim Clan. This ability turns your arms into more deadly weapons than they already are by morphing them into knives momentarily.
This skill has a low cost and allows you to jump forward with a slashing movement, instantly beheading foes in front of you. I have been able to use this skill to knock out three enemies at one time.
Considering the skill’s low cost, there aren’t many abilities better than it.
3 Cauldron of Blood/Blood Curse
Things Are Heating Up
The Cauldron of Blood ability that you get from the Tremere Clan is pretty great. The same can be said about the Blood Curse ability. Blood Curse causes an enemy to explode, while Cauldron of Blood makes enemies scream in pain from their boiling blood.
These skills are good individually, but together, they make one of the best skill combinations in the game, allowing you to take out multiple foes easily. First, use Cauldron of Blood to make an enemy scream in pain, as this will alert nearby enemies, causing them to come running to the enemy’s aid.
Once the enemy is surrounded by their allies, use the Blood Curse ability to make them instantly explode, taking out all the enemies in the process. It is far more effective than other area skills since it actively makes enemies gather.
2 Blood Salvo
Blood Daggers
The final ability of the Tremere Clan’s skill tree is called Blood Salvo, and it allows you to summon multiple blood daggers and launch them at your enemies. By far, this is one of my favorite skills in the game thanks to its absurd strength and silent nature.
For starters, if you are trying to stay stealthy, this skill can be used from the shadows to quickly take out enemies without them being heard. If you are already in combat, you can use this skill to rapidly defeat smaller foes since they are often one-shot. Larger foes typically take two or three, but they still go down easily.
Again, the downside of this skill is the cost, but that is mitigated by the Tremere’s passive ability, making you able to use this skill more often.
1 Shadow Step
Disappear/Reappear
The best skill in Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 is Shadow Step, and I highly recommend you choose it. When it comes to the relocation skills, they are all decent, but Shadow Step is broken.
Shadow Step allows you to teleport behind an enemy. You can then choose to feed or attack them with a stealth move. Choosing to feed will often allow you to kill weaker enemies, granting you back one pip of the skill’s cost.
If you are playing with the Toreador or Tremere passive, you can pretty much instantly get this skill back, allowing you to spam it against your foes, taking them out from the shadows before they even know what is happening.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
