Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2: Best Starting Clans

by

Jump Links

  • Tremere

    • Best Ranged/Crowd Control
  • Brujah
    • Best Melee Attackers
  • Lasombra
    • Best Stealth

Once you’ve adjusted to being a newly awakened vampire in Seattle, Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 lets you pick which vampire clan you belong to.

As a long-time RPG gamer, I’ve learned that choices like these are never straightforward. Some groups or factions in the game are just way more powerful than others, so it’s not always a level playing field.

Each clan offers a unique playstyle with different strengths. Some excel at stealth and strategy, while others focus on powerful, destructive attacks.

Choosing your first clan in Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 can be tough. Here’s a breakdown to help you decide.

Tremere

Best Ranged/Crowd Control

The Tremere clan relies on blood magic, making its members exceptionally strong in Bloodlines 2. They achieve this through powerful abilities, notably the combination of Blood Cauldron and Cursed Blood.

Tremere vampires automatically gain two special abilities: Corrosive Blood and Potency of Blood. Corrosive Blood causes enemies you feed on to vanish, hiding them from others. Potency of Blood gives you an extra, random Blood Pip each time you successfully feed.

Blood Potency helps you regain your abilities quickly, letting you use them more frequently. This is particularly effective when paired with powerful skills like Shadow Step.

Tremere players excel at eliminating opponents from afar. A powerful strategy involves first using the ‘Cauldron of Blood’ to immobilize an enemy, then immediately following up with ‘Cursed Blood’ to make them explode, dealing damage to nearby foes.

Additionally, the Tremere have a particularly strong ranged attack called Blood Salvo, letting them throw blood daggers. It’s a really effective ability for quickly defeating enemies from afar.

Brujah

Best Melee Attackers

The Brujah clan is renowned for its physical power, and that translates well into Bloodlines 2 through a set of strong combat skills. They begin with two key passive abilities: Brutality and Spark of Rage.

The Brutality ability makes you stronger when you get kills. The Spark of Rage ability extends this benefit – you gain the strength boost not just from getting kills, but also simply by defeating enemies. This is a huge advantage, as consistently killing enemies will keep you permanently buffed.

Okay, so the Taunt ability feels a little weak, but everything else the Brujah get is all about destroying enemies right in front of you! Like, Charge is amazing – you can just plow through opponents, grab one and really do some serious damage. It’s super effective for close combat!

Lightning Strike is a great move for rapidly hitting enemies. Thundershock is a strong attack that’s especially useful when you’re facing multiple opponents. While Brujah excel in single combat, they can also effectively manage groups.

Lasombra

Best Stealth

If you prefer a sneaky playstyle, the Lasombra clan is a great choice, as they create particularly stealthy vampires. They have two key abilities – Shadow Cloak and Stygian Shroud – which make it harder for enemies to detect you while you’re feeding and protect you from harm during the process.

The Shadow Cloak passive and the Shadow Step ability work great together. Shadow Step lets you teleport behind enemies, allowing you to quickly and stealthily attack them.

Okay, so this ‘Glimpse of Oblivion’ ability is seriously cool. I can use it whether I’m fighting or just wandering around! When I’m in a fight, enemies will just run away, which is awesome. Outside of combat, NPCs scatter too – super helpful for getting people out of the way. Plus, my other abilities already help me stay hidden while I’m… you know, feeding. It all works together really well, especially during those blood resonance events. It makes things way easier.

If I could change one thing about the Lasombra clan, it would be their Enter Oblivion ability. Replacing it with the Unseen Aura ability from the Banu Haqim would make the Lasombra even better at stealth, letting them feed more easily in crowded areas.

The Banu Haqim are also good at stealth, but their special abilities aren’t quite as powerful or helpful as those of the Lasombra clan.

Read More

2025-10-21 22:17