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Clan Highlight: Banu Haqim

BanuHaqim_TypeLogo.png

The Clan of the Hunt, Assassins, Children of Haqim, Saracens, Mediators, Lawmen
Cursed with a thirst for the Blood of other vampires, the Banu Haqim stalk the night as judges and lawbringers. To this end, most Banu Haqim adhere to a strict code of conduct - derived from law, faith, or personal ethics - sating their Hunger on those that breach these convictions.
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Playing a Banu Haqim in Bloodlines 2​

Banu Haqim takes the role of a strategic stalker, using shadows to their advantage. You are a predator on a hunt, and your discipline powers focus on stalking, assassination, and silently moving faster than your foes can track. These skills are great assets when stalking the city for prey.

Lou_BanuHaqim_Line.jpg


Abilities​

When you choose your clan, you will start out with a passive ability unique to each clan. You are then able to unlock abilities from the Ability Tree, starting with your chosen clan. Each ability requires spending Ability Points (AP) to unlock which are earned from completing missions, combat and exploration. At the peak of the Ability Tree, you can unlock the clan Perk, a reward to those dedicated enough to unlock all of the abilities for a clan, giving a permanent passive upgrade.

Silence of Death​

Clan Passive
All your actions become entirely silent for a period after feeding.​

Mute​

Silence an enemy/civilian. Any sounds they produce, from screams to gunfire, are completely undetectable to others.
Mute.jpg

Split Second​

Move so fast that time appears to stop around you.
SplitSecond.jpg

Bladed Hand​

Slash swiftly in front of you, beheading mortal opponents.
BladedHand.jpg

Unseen Aura​

Become temporarily invisible to enemies and civilians. Note: You can still be heard unless combined with Silence of Death.
UnseenAura.jpg

Prowl​

Clan Perk: Can remain crouched whilst sprinting.​

Customizing your playstyle​

There are many different ways to play your character in Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The clan Banu Haqim focus on a stalking based playstyle to take out your enemies one by one, and the clan abilities are built to empower that. As we want to make sure this is not a game where you are required to optimize your abilities to the extreme, we’ve focused on making the base playstyles easy and straightforward. But for the players who want their experience to be a bit deeper and more customizable, you will be able to do so. By visiting important vampires who are sworn to assist the Sheriff (you), you can unlock abilities from their clan by drinking a bit of their blood.

Abilities from other clans may cost more AP depending on how well they align with your clans Disciplines. The Banu Haqim Disciplines are Celerity (speed enhancing abilities), Blood Sorcery (the ability to control blood with your arcane knowledge) and Obfuscate (abilities to easily hide, move without being noticed, and cast illusions.). If a Banu Haqim wishes to unlock a Blood Sorcery ability from another clan, it would cost less AP to unlock than an ability for a Discipline Banu Haqim don’t have. Those who unlock all abilities from a clan and get the Clan Perk, are able to stack them and have the effects of them all, elevating your power.

The activated abilities and Clan Perk can be learned from the other clans, but the clan passive can not. Because of this, you combine the clan powers in hundreds of different ways, but a Banu Haqim playthrough will remain its own gameplay experience.

Ability_tree_Banu.jpg

Ability tree for Banu Haqim with all clan abilities and the clan perk are unlocked. An ability from the Tremere tree has been equipped instead of Split Second.
 
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Will stealth/invisibility be another solution to get around conflict, or just another means to engage conflict?
Would love to see more information about this game outside of conflict driven encounters
 
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More screenshot of the same warehouse, does the game take place in a warehouse or do you really have nothing else to show ?

That skill tree also looks kinda pathetic for a game that is, y'know, a bloody RPG.
 
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Orinsul said:
Will stealth/invisibility be another solution to get around conflict, or just another means to engage conflict?
Would love to see more information about this game outside of conflict driven encounters
Click to expand...

I agree. While this info is nice in itself, practically all of our reveals have centered around combat. It makes me bit worried about what does the gameplay emphasize.
 
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Orinsul said:
Will stealth/invisibility be another solution to get around conflict, or just another means to engage conflict?
Would love to see more information about this game outside of conflict driven encounters
Click to expand...
It will be useful for both! The disciplines we're showing are geared for combat so they combo powerfully but in some encounters you can use it to dodge your enemys completely. Once you've used it you'll have to recharge it with blood so a few stealthy feeds might be required after.

Depending on the encounter you could sneak past or it may be helpful to escape people after you because of a Masquerade breach.

As it mentions some discipline powers also have effects on civilians.
 
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Will you get more AP for completing missions in a non-combat way - to make up for the combat AP? Either through speech (long shot but) or stealth?

Also, "aromatically fresh from slaughter"? Seriously?
 
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Feeona said:
You are then able to unlock abilities from the Ability Tree, starting with your chosen clan. Each ability requires spending Ability Points (AP) to unlock which are earned from completing missions, combat and exploration. At the peak of the Ability Tree, you can unlock the clan Perk, a reward to those dedicated enough to unlock all of the abilities for a clan, giving a permanent passive upgrade.
Click to expand...
Okay, not to be like that but can we stop calling this an Ability Tree. A tree has branches. A trunk, and diverging paths, places you can not reach once you've started down one path.

R.jpg

Picture for reference. Notice how the branches moves out in different directions from the trunk forming alternative paths.

A tree is not 4 straight lines where you can occasionally change lane. That's a freeway.
OIP.jpg

Notice the parallel starting point, the linear, monodirectional way of travel and the potential for the occasional change of lanes.

Let's be honest and call things what they are. "The Ability 4-lane freeway".

That's all. Peace.
 
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Feeona said:
View attachment 1126927
Click to expand...
"Banu Haqim takes the role of a strategic stalker, using shadows to their advantage. You are a predator on a hunt, and your discipline powers focus on stalking, assassination, and silently moving faster than your foes can track."
Anyway ... here is picture of flashbang that is part of your "silent assassin abilities" that would burn your eye lids out.

Im confused.

//Edit:
One more question ...
AP ... why? Was there anything wrong with XP? :D
 
XP are the points you get from doing things, AP are the points that you spend to unlock abilities. Enough XP gets you AP.

Feeding gives you extra XP on top of completing missions and doing other things we mentioned in the diaries so you can gain abilities faster but it's not required to feed on everyone.
 
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