Review The first idiotic Bloodlines review

[Sol Invictus]

Dominate and Dementate are fucking worthless. They don't even work on vampires and headwalkers (they just deal 10-20 damage) the "mind control" spell that each of those skills contains isn't very useful because enemies instantly attack mind controlled characters right after you cast it. Using Suicide/Mass Suicide on anything other than humans is a waste of blood points. What's the point of doing 15 damage to 3 characters that have over 250 health for 3 blood points?

Celerity is bullet time. It is essentially godmode. Tremere have both Celerity AND Fortitude.

 

[Vault Dweller]

There are plenty of humans in the game to use Dominate/Dementate on. I used them on many vampires like the plague leader and that Tzimisce guy to bring their health down between the shots. It was extremely helpful during many "human rush" encounters like the ambush at Zhao place, Ash's escape from the hunters, etc.

 

[dojoteef]

Dominate and Dementate are fucking worthless. They don't even work on vampires and headwalkers (they just deal 10-20 damage) the "mind control" spell that each of those skills contains isn't very useful because enemies instantly attack mind controlled characters right after you cast it.

I'm sorry I completely disagree with you on this point. I've played as a Ventrue and a Malkavian; Dominiate and Dementation are amazingly powerful disciplines. I think they easily balance out what advantage you get from Celerity, since I've also played as a Brujah. As for the sewers, I was able to kill the huge monsters (the two types of enemies that aren't headwalkers) with Vision of Death. I don't think there is any one killer discipline. As VD pointed out, if you think Celerity is amazing, just look at Obfuscate. At full level you can run around and skip just about all combat, except for the places where you have to fight a person in order to open a door/advance the plot.

Using Suicide/Mass Suicide on anything other than humans is a waste of blood points. What's the point of doing 15 damage to 3 characters that have over 250 health for 3 blood points?

Think of this as requring strategy, you use the appropriate skill on the appropriate enemy. If a discipline doesn't work on someone, try something else. Otherwise people start complaining that combat is too easy. I swear developers get the shit end of the stick most of the time, because most gamers are fickle and thus too difficult to please.

 

[Spazmo]

[quote="Exitium"Celerity is bullet time. It is essentially godmode. Tremere have both Celerity AND Fortitude.[/quote]

Tremere have Auspex, Dominate and Thaumaturgy. Nobody gets Celerity and Fortitude, though the Brujah get Celerity and Potence, which is pretty good.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Woops. I was thinking about the Toreador. They have Celerity and something else that's pretty useful.

 

[Spazmo]

No, they really just have Celerity. Their other two disciplines are Presence and Auspex, which both kinda suck, though I guess Auspex would be okay for ranged combat since it increases that feat by way of perception.

 

[Old Scratch]

Presence is good for making people not quite as effective at kicking your ass, but that's about it.

 

[Volourn]

"Their other two disciplines are Presence and Auspex, which both kinda suck"

Liar.

 

[Spazmo]

Yup, propagating my black hearted abuses of truth throughout the internet. Is your Toreador ranged? In that case, yeah, maybe Auspex is worthwhile, but compared to Celerity, neither Auspex or Presence is really worth the investment in experience.

 

[Volourn]

"Is your Toreador ranged?"

Kinda. It also helps with investigation due to the perception increase.

Prescence is also useful as it weakens your enemies. Always a good thing. Celrity is not as useful for me as it probably should be due to the wonky controls as it is. With incrased speed I zoom right past my target. R00fles! Did help me get out of the warehouse though!

In conclusion, they are all useful. Due to my higher perception than you (due to using Auspex) I know this stuff and it explains why you don't.

Next.

 

[Spazmo]

Your enemies are already weak enough when you're ripping them a new one at the speed of light thanks to high level Celerity. It's not that Presence or Auspex are really bad, they're just not worth it next to Celerity, which is the ultimate discipline for melee characters.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Think of this as requring strategy, you use the appropriate skill on the appropriate enemy. If a discipline doesn't work on someone, try something else. Otherwise people start complaining that combat is too easy. I swear developers get the shit end of the stick most of the time, because most gamers are fickle and thus too difficult to please.

No, think of it as poorly done AI. How is one pitiful human going to know another pitiful human has been BERZERKED by my Malkavian? They shouldn't know, but they always do. They typically cut down the one pitiful human that's been BERZERKED before he gets a shot off. It's rather lame.

Celerity will work on everything as well. Domination and Demention only work on pitiful humans.

 

[Volourn]

Spazzy: No.

 

[Jinxed]

both domination and dementation 3rd level "spells" allow you to take out anything that's not short of a boss.(I forgot how it works on zombies) I don't think it's supposed to be like that, but it is. The aspects of ranged that change due to skill increase: Aiming time, damage, knock back and accurency. With 9-10 ranged you can take out anyone. The only things that managed to even get in striking distance where those scripted Sabbat that were supposed to do that.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Domination and Demention only work on pitiful humans.

Incorrect. It kills zombies, and, I guess, has a chance to kill other things too - I killed many flesh monsters of all kinds including the 3-torso ones from one hit (doesn't work every time though). It does deliver some damage to vampires, so it's useful when you are taking a break to reload your gun.

 

[Sol Invictus]

both domination and dementation 3rd level "spells" allow you to take out anything that's not short of a boss.(I forgot how it works on zombies) I don't think it's supposed to be like that, but it is. The aspects of ranged that change due to skill increase: Aiming time, damage, knock back and accurency. With 9-10 ranged you can take out anyone. The only things that managed to even get in striking distance where those scripted Sabbat that were supposed to do that.

Not really. It takes maybe 2-3 shots to kill a headwalker with the Magnum that does 40 or so damage per hit, right? The 3rd level spells for Dementation/Domination will do roughly 10-20 damage. I'd call that pretty worthless, especially when they use (2?) blood points and there is a cooldown timer of 4 seconds.

 

[mr. lamat]

i keep telling you ladies it's all about the gangrel. nightwisp and pestilence, plus fortitude work wonders with a ranged character, especially if you can break up larger packs.

 

[dojoteef]

Not really. It takes maybe 2-3 shots to kill a headwalker with the Magnum that does 40 or so damage per hit, right? The 3rd level spells for Dementation/Domination will do roughly 10-20 damage. I'd call that pretty worthless, especially when they use (2?) blood points and there is a cooldown timer of 4 seconds.

I don't know what you mean. The only enemies I haven't been able to insta-kill with Vision of Death are Vampires. Other than that, I've been able to kill everything else with it (sometimes it doesn't insta-kill, I think it might be associated with some sort of a roll).

 

[Mendoza]

Suicide got me past the Kuei Jin boss when melee (which I had a high skill in, with maxed fortitude) and firearms wouldn't. It's pretty useless against vampires, but then I'd expect to have to use more than one skill to complete the game.

Auspex actually has a couple of non obvious uses, like a small boost to hacking which can come in handy.

The headwalkers are ridiculously easy, regardless of your skills/disciplines. You can punch them as they leap at you and hurt them and take no damage and then charge them down. That was with a unarmed level of 2. As long as you don't let them surround you from all sides they shouldn't pose a problem.

 

[Jinxed]

I don't know what you mean. The only enemies I haven't been able to insta-kill with Vision of Death are Vampires. Other than that, I've been able to kill everything else with it (sometimes it doesn't insta-kill, I think it might be associated with some sort of a roll).

Same here. I dunno what was wrong with Exit's game, but I was able to kill them with both suicide and vision of death.

With one of these disciplines, I walked right through grout's mansion. Suicide, suicide, feed, suicide... Because all those female enemies are standing faced to the wall they don't notice anything.

Auspex actually has a couple of non obvious uses, like a small boost to hacking which can come in handy.

More specifically, wits which is also responsible for defence.

 

[Vault Dweller]

With one of these disciplines, I walked right through grout's mansion. Suicide, suicide, feed, suicide... Because all those female enemies are standing faced to the wall they don't notice anything.

Exactly

 

[Old Scratch]

When outnumbered by the head ghouls, I would just wait till one went to jump at me, and blast him out of the air with the Jagerspaz(?). Two shots and they're grilled. Usually if there were a few, some of the spread would hit them and knock the others back back too.

I used all my disciplines fairly equal with my Toreador though, depending on the situation. Finished the game with 3 in auspex, 3 in presence, and 4 in celerity.

So far, Gangrels seem to be the most combat ready. I've been shredding through everything that's come my way with ease. They have great targetting disciplines, the bonuses from protean make them devastating in unarmed combat, and they can shrug off bullets and other damage with the help of fortitude. Also since they're best used as unarmed fighters, there's no need to invest much in ranged or melee, freeing that experience up for other skills and disciplines. They are the power gamer clan.

 

[mr. lamat]

bah... a gangrel with high ranks in fortitude and animalism, skilled in ranged and stealth with a jaegerspaz is just fucking ruinious. even with a .38 you can still stomp on most of santa monica.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Theres nothing to feed on in the Warrens.

 

[Mendoza]

Well, not if your a Ventrue. Everyone else has plenty to eat, as long as they like the taste of rat. The warrens offer you two places where you can leave to go refuel, so even Ventrue shouldn't get too much of a headache.