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King Dork
Posts : 21
Join date : 2011-09-13
Age : 37
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 |  Subject: Luciferia's Blood Vamp Guide  Wed Sep 14, 2011 7:42 pm | |
|  This is a guide on the blood vampire tree, explaining how it works, what its role is in the game and how one can optimally build their vampire.
There are already a few other guides you could refer to (with first and foremost the general Vampire Guide by Vathaelia) that could be of use to blood vampires. A list of them is at the end of this guide.
Though I try to be as objective as possible, these still are my personal views - feel free to tell me if you think something is not right.
THE BLOOD TREE - FOCUS AND ROLE
The Blood tree is commonly referred to as the healing tree for vampires. However, while this is mostly correct, it is not exactly right.
It would be more correct to say that Blood is the HP tree of vampires - because they specialize in everything that has to do with HP, be it heals, HP regen/leech or HP debuffs. It's also heavily dependent on Dark elemental skills.
Out of all 3 trees of vampires - an already versatile class - one could say that Blood is the most versatile. While Inferno and Dark heavily concentrate on damage and debuffs, mostly disregarding the healing skills vampires have, Blood tries to balance between all different skills. However, the main focus is always healing and survivability.
Despite this, though, Blood's dps does not suffer as much as one could imagine. It certainly is far from Dark, and much more Inferno in terms of damage output, however the ability of vampires to have burst damage outbreaks with Vampire Form and Charmed Strike, and Blood's outstanding ability to self heal while still attacking, makes it so that Blood vampires can deal sufficient damage.
This mix of offensive ,defensive and support talents, together with the base abilities of vampires, makes it so that Blood vampires can effectively alternate between healer and damage dealer (and tank as well, under circumstances) when in a party, as well as being able to fill in almost any needed role whenever the need arises. The expression "Jack of all trades, master of none" immediately springs to mind - however, as one can adjust their skill rotation to suit specific needs, it's not like Blood vampires cannot be perfectly capable main-healers/tanks/DDs if they need to - they just can't fulfill many main roles at once, like for example tanking a tough boss and healing.
Of course, this diversity is not always there - certain talent and gear builds can heavily lean towards any of the above roles and/or make others not feasible.
Also, take notice that Blood vampires do not achieve their full potential until in much higher levels, so between levels 30 and 55 you might find yourself wondering if it was worth going down that tree.
SKILLS AND TALENTS[/SIZE]
Vampires generally have a big arsenal of skills in their disposal. Below, I will be commenting on each skill, its use, usefulness and Blood talents that affect it.
(NOTE: I have chosen to list the talents by skill rather than in the order they appear in the talent tree, because I believe it's pointless to discuss about their usefulness without directly linking them to the skills they affect and how these skills are used in the first place.
I have also not included detailed talent descriptions, because they can easily be found in the Talent Calculator*
Also, do not try compairing skills from the pictures, as most of them are of different levels and thus can easily mislead you)
*whenever they bring it back up.
RACIAL SKILLS
Blessing of the Kindred
A skill perfectly cut out for all vampires, increasing masteries and hp. It has no cost and a long duration. Always keep it up.
Vampiric Kiss
A big HP leech + a medium duration silence, extremely helpful in PVP and a nice emergency self-heal as well. Do not waste it unless it's the right time to use it - it has a very long cooldown.
CLASS SKILLS
Vampire
A long cooldown skill that triggers vampire form. Vampire form is a buff that lasts for a max of 20 seconds, cannot be cleansed by opponents, and substantially increases your attack, HP and movement speed, as well as unlocking the skill Charmed Strike, making it so that all random debuffs are inflicted with 100% success and regening hp for every enemy you kill close to your level.
Almost every vampire skill has a random chance of triggering vampire form (most skills have a 10% base chance, while Fire skills have a 5% base chance and racials and Charmed Strike have 0% chance) so you're better off keeping Vampire for when you'll really need an instant triggering of vampire form (usually thats either when you'll need a quick boost to escape or just before you go on a burst dps outbreak)
There are many Blood talents that have to do with Vampire Form:
Blood Demon: Increases the chance of the most widely used by Blood vampires skills to trigger vampire form. Not necessary early on, but by the time you reach lv55-60 maxing this talent will be an absolute must.
Blood Tie: Gives a big boost to healing power and hp regen when killing enemies under vampire form. A must for almost every Blood vampire.
Bloodpact: Hugely increases the crit heal chance of your 2 main heals under vampire form. This talent is probably the single most important talent in the Blood tree, so everyone should max it out.
Extended Bloodwork: If vampire form is triggered by a Blood specific (Blood Curse, Seed of Life) or mainly-Blood skill (Dark Contract, Vampire's Sigil etc) this talent will make it so that it will last longer, giving the Blood vamp more time to re-trigger Vampire Form without actually ever leaving it. It's a neat little talent, but there are probably better Blood talents out there.
Vampire's Sigil
The main attack skill for Blood vampires. It regens a % of the vampire's HP (note it just restores hp and doesn't leech it off the target) as well as having a chance of casting an HP debuff on the target. It's the skill that most of all gives Blood vampires their high survivability, and should be used as much as possible, especially when tanking.
The talents Blood Sign, Advanced Vampire's Sigil and Insignia Energy increase the hp regen, reduce the cooldown and increase its base damage respectively, and should all be ideally maxed asap. The talent Evil Blood increases the duration and aggravates the effects of Blood Curse, with its usefulness being highly debatable.
Vampire's Sigil works ideally if you've invested in a high hp gear build.
Dark Ripple
This attack skill sacrifices a small amount of hp (which gets added to the damage you deal) each time its cast, while having a chance to lower the accuracy of the opponent. It has a low cooldown and it deals Dark damage, making a good skill for Blood Vampires, who focus on the Dark element. Avoid it if possible when tanking strong monsters, and only use it if everything else is on cooldown, because it drains your hp and lowers your survivability. In casual damage dealing/ against easier opponents it doesn't really matter.
Evil Flame
As a Fire skill, this attack clashes with Blood's main element. However, it still is a powerful attack with a possibility to cast a nasty Damage Over Time effect on the opponent, that also reduces Fire resistance. Keep in mind it has 2s cast time instead of the usual 1s, so it might make you unable to react fast when being the healer in a party, which in turn can cost you a party member death.
Wrath Kill
A Dark attack skill that also leeches some hp off the opponent to heal you. It can aggravate any vampire curses already cast on the target, especially if Vampire Form is active. Preferably used in skill rotation after Vampire's Sigil, Dark Ripple and Evil Flame have already been cast, to capitalize on its curse aggravation effect.
The talents Bloody Evil Death and Improved Wrath Kill increase the leeching and reduce the cooldown of the skill respectively. The latter also introduces a moderate bleed added effect for when a target hit by Wrath Kill has Blood Curse cast on them. The talents' usefulness is not that important compared to others.
Hellfire Death
A Fire AoE attack. Despite having a long cast time, a short radius, a mediocre damage output and being of the wrong element, it still is the only spammable AoE a Blood Vampire has, and is quite useful when filling in the DPS roll in a party, or for when farming mobs. It can also cast Flame Curse - the same side effect as Evil Flame has - on any target it hits, which makes it all the more useful for the above purposes. Avoid using it when fighting a single enemy and when healing.
Shadow Scar
A Dark attack skill that drains a moderate amount of your hp (that gets added to your damage output) and hits twice. It can also inflict the same effect as Dark Ripple. A nice skill to throw in when filling the dps role and when you need some burst dps, but that's about it. It's also a very difficult skill to obtain (a random rare drop from the final boss of the lv65 instance Ancestral Catacombs). Avoid using it when tanking tough opponents or when healing.
Charmed Strike
A Dark attack skill that is only available while Vampire Form is active. The skill itself is not that much of a hard hit, however as you use it becomes stronger and stronger, while at the same time its cooldown increases (but still remains quite short). The end effect is a monstrous dps outbreak if you time all your skills correctly (a very nice skill rotation for maximizing dps is: VS->CS->CS->DR->CS->EF->CS->WK->VS->DR->CS). Beware that, if you do not use Charmed Strike fast enough, it will reset to base damage and cooldown. Charmed Strike should ideally be used every time it is available and you're not busy healing. Especially when tanking, Charmed Strike is absolutely necessary in order to keep the aggro, considering that the regular DPS of Blood vampires is medium-low. It is also an extremely useful charge move in PVP, that breaks through ensnares and makes it really hard for anyone to escape/kite you.
Charmed Strike majorly benefits of talents that increase the time you spend in Vampire Form, like Blood Demon and Extended Bloodwork.
There are 2 talents directly associated with this skill: Extended Charmed Strike, which increases the skill's range, and Bloody Evil Strike, which greatly increases the damage if the target is affected by Blood Curse, as well as healing you for a small amount for every strike performed. The usefulness of the first is debatable, but the latter is a must for those Blood vampires who want to focus a bit on their DPS/Tank aspects.
In case you do put points in Bloody Evil Strike, always remember, when Vampire Form is triggered, to cast Vampire's Sigil before Charmed Strike so that the latter gets the added damage bonus.
Unquenchable flames
Inflicts enemies over an area with Dark Curse. Not to be mistaken for the side effect of Dark Ripple which bears the same name, it is a very handy curse that serves as an ideal opener in any fight. After casting it and for some time, each time the target is hit by a vampire skill (note: any vampire skill, not only yours) a stack of a DoT curse will be put on the target. As more stucks are put on the target, the DoT drastically increases. It is really important that you, as a Blood vampire, use Unquenchable Flames as much as possible as an opener - the added DoT is an immense help for a class like Blood vampire that has low direct dps. It is also a nice way to still do some dps to a boss while healing, or in a PVP fight while kiting or while being disabled/stunned/silenced.
If there is an inferno vampire in your party, let them keep Unquenchable flames up, because chances are they have a talent that gives their debuff extra effects.
Feast
One of the most powerful skills in the game, Feast is a big radius AoE ensnare/DoT with added self HoT. Additionally, it removes the stealth of assassins. Once you get into the middle of some enemies, Feast can create real havoc. Especially in group PVP, a well-timed Feast can secure an easy victory, as enemies are frozen in place and ranged damage dealers in your team can kill them easily without worrying of getting ganked.
Feast also ensnares the caster for a smaller amount of time, but it's something you can break free of with Charmed Strike or Gale Wings.
Feast is also non-dispelable by enemy skills.
The talent Blood Feast increases the HP regen by a large amount and also gives a big defense boost, essentially making Feast able to be used as a shield. It is a neat little talent and a must for those who want to max the tank capability of their Blood vampire.
Gale Wings
Probably the coolest skill vampires have, that allows them to both kite/close distances with ease in PVP, and show off by reaching impossible places on various maps. Gale wings also negates ensnares and increases evasion for a short time.
The talent Batwing Shadow makes you immune to ensnare for a short time after Gale Wings is over - however, since vampires already have 2 ways to break free of ensnare, this talent is of little usefulness.
Dark Contract
The basic vampire heal, and also the vampire heal with the lowest cooldown. Not much more to say about it - it's just a regular heal, with a small amount of hp lost each time you cast it.
The talent Advanced Dark Contract increases the healing power of this skill and also reduces its cooldown. Maxing it out is absolutely essential if you want to be able to heal yourself and your party properly. Max it as soon as you get the chance.
Invigoration
This is a tricky skill. What it basically is is a Heal Over Time skill, with a small hp cost upon each casting, however there is a catch - actually, a few of them : the target who receives the effect heals for a small amount of hp up to 4 times, but only each time a skill of his/her lands on an enemy (in simple words, each time they hit a target, they receive 1 heal - in case they hit multiple targets with an AoE, they receive as many heals as the targets they hit, always up to 4 heals total). However, the effect only lasts for 8 seconds, which means that it's highly likely that they may not get all heals, especially against a stunning/disabling enemy. What's more, even with all heals, the total amount healed is really low, not to mention that, being a HoT skill, it has little to offer in case of an urgent need for healing. For all intends and purposes, it's just an emergency heal to toss out when everyone is dying and every other heal is in cooldown.
However, there is a third catch: the talent chain for Invigoration. There are 3 talents in this chain:
Blood Link: Increases the amount of HP sacrificed to cast the skill, but at the same time gives the healed person a major attack buff, that only lasts for as much as the skill effect is active though (which is 8s or 4 targets attacked, whichever comes first). Due to this extremely short duration, this talent is not really worth it (aside of course from the 1 point to unlock the rest of the chain, if you want to)
Bestow Life: This talent increases the hp of every person affected by Invigoration by a substantial amount for 20 seconds. Its usefulness is debatable, but it sure is the best talent in the Invigoration chain.
Fresh Blood: Increases the healing of invigoration by a small percentage - though it makes little difference, so this talent has little usefulness.
What all these talents do is actually turn Invigoration from a heal into a buff. Maxing everything out, and gearing strong on heal effect - which compliments HoT skills - can make this one of the best skills in the whole game, but the amount of talent points and gear bonuses required to do so will leave you lacking on other, much more important aspects...
Dark Bonds
A binding skill, immensly useful in PVP and moderately useful in PVE. It stuns a target for a moderately big amount of time, but also makes them immune to all damage and effects.
Use it when you see a lot of wrath orbs scattered around or when you really need a timeout to heal up. Very good for kiting/escaping as well.
In PVE, Dark Bonds have a larger duation and will allow you to pick up your herb/ore without actually having to waste time killing that annoying aggro mob which is after you.
Blood Rite
A fantastic hp/defense buff, that also majorly increases the effects of heals cast on you. It practically makes you nearly invincible for some seconds. Also, lets not forget how HP affects almost every skill you have. Especially casting a maxed out Feast after Blood Rite will probably keep you alive even if your opponent is a high dps class with full wrath.
Blood Rite->Vampire->Vampiric Kiss->Feast->Vampire's Sigil and then spamming Charmed Strike is a skill rotation that, if unobstructed and at the right time, few opponents will survive in PVP.
TREE-SPECIFIC SKILLS
Seed of Life
Your most powerful heal and the skill that puts Blood above the other vampire trees in terms of healing and survivability. It normally activates with a 5s delay (which makes it easier to not waste it's healing power on minimal hp losses, but at the same time is infuriating when the priest in your party keeps healing the same person you use Seed of Life on) but activates immediately if the health of the target reached less than 50% of max HP, so there's no worries of anyone dying because the heal didn't heal them on time.
The main skill gets upgraded 3 times, at levels (30,45 and 60) at the cost of 1 talent point each time.
The talent Force of Life greatly increases its base healing power and crit rate.
Both the skill and the talent linked to it should be maxed if you want to be able to heal a group properly.
Blood Curse
Not to be confused with the debuff inflicted by Vampire's Sigil, which bears the same name, Blood Curse is an AoE curse that puts everyone within a certain radius under congealed blood state for a limited time. Each time they are hit under that effect, their max hp drops by 4%, and effect stucks up to 5 times for a massive 20% hp debuff. Extremely useful as an opener in both PVP and PVE, especially against targets with high hp and against healers (do not bother using against low hp mobs - you'll just be wasting time and mana)(also, it is unclear if and how it works against bosses)
The main skill is a must, but spending 1 more point to upgrade it is highly unnecessary, as it just increases the Area it's cast upon.
The talent Stagnate is a really nice PVP talent for mass PVP and 1v1 against healers, as it reduces the effects of heals cast upon everyone affected by Blood Curse, but is absolutely useless in PVE, so it's overall usefulness is debatable.
Withered Space
An absolute must-have skill for those who want to walk the path of the healer, and very usefull for for everyone else as well, especially in PVP. Transforms you into a gargoyle allows you to heal others while healing yourself in the same time, which means that it's an invaluable skill for situation where urgent healing for both you and the team is needed. That, combined with the 50% hp buff and the huge AoE mastery debuff can make it deadly in mass PVP.
If you combine it with Blood Rite you've got an insane HP boost, which in turn makes Feast and Vampiric Kiss - which you can use while under the effect of Withered Space - extremely powerfull.
In group pvp, using gale wings to get among the enemy group and dropping Blood Rite -> Withered Space -> Feast leaves opponents ensnared, with massive bleeding and with all resistances severely reduced. If you do this at the right time with the right party, that can be an instant win right there...
OTHER TALENTS
Blood Knowledge: Reduces mana required to cast healing skills by a moderate amount. It sure is useful for a "leveling" build early on, but sooner or later you'll have to change it, as it adds nothing substantial to your abilities, and mana potions are cheap to buy at later levels.
Night Escape: Reduces aggro caused by heals by a substantial amount. It's a nice talent for those who devote themselves to the way of the healer, but it adds nothing substantial to your capabilities. It also limits your tanking abilities. All in all, Blood vampires should be able to easily handle stealing aggro (which will never happen if you have a good party anyway)
Hasted Healing: Decreases the cooldowns of Seed of Life and Invigoration by a lot. An absolute must for those who want to max out their healing ability.
Ritual Time: Increases the duration of Blood Rite by a moderate amount of time, and the healing amount of Seed of Life and Dark Contract by a small percentage of your max hp.
Blood Rite does not really need any duration increase in the first place (actually 15s is more than enough to take all you want from it) and the extra healing is low even with epically high max HP.
All in all, a talent of limited usefullness.
Surging Blood: Increases max MP by a set number, and HP by 2/4% plus a set number. Whether it's worth it or not is debatable, but it sure is a good talent to have in a Blood Vampire geared heavily for HP.
Blood Fever: While Blood Rite is active, gives added speed and mastery buffs to Dark Contract and invigoration, as well as added speed and mastery debuffs to Vampire's Sigil. It's useful in PVP, not so much in PVE, and it requires at least 1 point to be put into the not-so-good Ritual Time.
There are probably better talents, but it's still good to have in certain builds.
Blood Tie Extension: An absolute must-have talent that increases both the range and the healing power of healing skills. Extremely useful in all situations.
HYBRID BUILDS
Hybrid builds in Forsaken World are generally not recommended, because they always end up in missing some key talents from your main tree.
However, if you end up with a few talents to spare and no talent in the Blood tree that catches your eye, then how do you spend those points?
I would suggest avoiding inferno: the Dark element of the Blood tree and the Fire of Inferno clash, unless you've got enough money to work on both masteries (and even then it'd be better to spend them all in Dark mastery, or somewhere else)
This leaves us the Dark tree - which obviously has a matching mastery... And in the first row, there is a perfect talent: Demon of Darkness.
Think about it for a second: Maxing both Blood Demon and Demon of Darkness gives almost all your skills a 20% chance of triggering Vampire Form, and a whopping 30% in the case of Dark Contract... tempting, isn't it?
Also, 2 points on Advanced Dark Ripple can be useful (not more, because then you'll have the skill get out of cooldown faster than you'll be able to spam it, and that'd be a big waste of points).
Putting points in Force of Shadow is debatable, since it would increase the crit rate and not base damage, while at the same time turning dark ripple into an hp-hungry skill, kind of negating the high survivability of the blood tree...
Also, if you are interested to know my personal build:
STATS
There are many stats that one can choose to build up in their character (through base stats, added bonuses, gear identification gems and mastery training) but what stats are best suited for a blood vampire?
-HP: This is almost mandatory - once you decide to start gearing up seriously, there is absolutely no excuse for not having every gear having an hp added bonus and for not having 1 Bloodstone in every gear. There is a % of HP in almost every skill vampires have, adding damage and/or regen, or improving buffs/heals. Especially for Vampire Sigil, Feast and Vampiric Kiss, hp makes a big difference.
For the rest of the stats, it's up to each person's choice.
RECOMENDED
-Attack: Though expensive to pursue, an attack build can make a blood vampire a tough opponent. Heals and high dps is a combination that can be deadly if done right. It's the stat of choice for those who want to focus more on the DPS aspect of a blood vampire.
-Defense: It is the stat of choice for those who want to focus more on the tank aspect of a blood vampire. Coupled with the big hp regen of a blood vampire, it can make you almost invincible in PVE and can help in PVP, though it certainly is one of the least effective stats in PVP.
-Evasion: Generally stat of choice for those who want to focus on PVP rather than PVE. An evasion/hp blood vampire can be extremely hard to kill in PVP, because they are hard to hit and by the time you manage to land a second hit on them they will have probably already regened to full hp. However, evasion builds generally do not fare as well in pve.
-Elemental attack/mastery: Generally, El. mastery is preferred to El. attack because, as mastery is % based, small amounts of it usually increase damage more than much bigger numbers of elemental attack. However, always make a quick calculation before deciding what to choose, because sometimes the opposite might just be true.
Of course, always reject anything that is not dark mastery/attack, as fire mastery has barely any effect on a blood vampire's dps.
-Critical Chance/Damage: This is a build that you have to fully devote yourself -and also invest lot of money- into, if you want it to be effective. And that is because critical chance and damage do not make much difference until you start putting high level crit gems and start getting gear with crit bonuses and IDs. Blood vampire surely isn't the best class to make this build - since they do not really rely on DPS to win in PVP. Moreover, attack has a better effect than crit in PVE, but still a crit build done correctly can cause havoc in both 1v1 and group PVP - which is where the difficulty in this game lies anyway.
DEBATABLE:
-Accuracy: It's a nice stat to have against players with high evasion and/or accuracy debuffs... but that's about it. Against everyone else extra accuracy is mostly useless. And same for PVE.
-Heal Effect: It's a good stat for those who want to go the way of the healer all the way... but then again if they wanted that they'd probably be happier rolling a divine priest. Heal effect generally does more bad than good in everyone but Elf Divine priests. Of course, if you have a heavily talented Invigoration, then Heal effect might actually be for you.
NOT RECOMENDED:
-Critical Evasion/Defense: For all intents and purposes, regular evasion and defense do a similar job, but much better.
-Critical Heal Chance: Useless when one of the Blood heals has 55% crit chance, and crit heal on gears is 1-2% at most...
-MP: There is absolutely nothing MP can help a vampire do better... there are always cheap pots -which you'll always have to use no matter how much max mana you have- everywhere except in Arena, and in Arena there are mana fountains randomly spawning for the odd time you'll run out of MP
PETS
There are essentially 2 types of pets: the more tanky ones, with high hp and defense and moderate attack, and the dps ones, with high attack and moderate hp and defense. Though in the end they make little difference, unless you get their talents close to max...
So my advice is: pick the one from the pets close to your level that looks the best! A dps pet is probably more suitable for a tanky, low damage class like Blood vampire, but it doesn't really matter that much, since there are pet skills that can give you that DPS anyway.
As for pet skills... it's up to your personal preference. Just avoid support skills that heal, because that would be a waste of your own healing abilities (hp leech/siphon is still a nice choice for an offensive slot though)...
LINKS
Vampire Guide: http://fw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=208231
Class Guide: http://fw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=188881
Healing 101: http://fw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=72111
If you found this guide helpful, then give a thanks to Featalion as well, who encouraged me to write this***all credit goes to Luciferia*** | |
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