Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt has received a massive combat and power update, which is now live and ready for players to enjoy. This update focused on several categories, including Archetype powers, resonance progression, weapon reworks and balancing, matchmaking, and more. The purpose behind these changes was to not only bring bug fixes to the game but also improve new player match introductions, reworked archetype powers so they’re utilized more, and promote feeding, which was supposed to be a core mechanic of the game.
Details of the update were obtained from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt, and we’ve included everything you need to know below. Be sure to check out our Latest News section for more great content!
Combat and Power Update
Archetype Powers
These changes aim to help make archetype powers more viable, as players often rely on their guns rather than their powers. This will create more opportunities for strategic combat encounters and shift the game’s meta. Vandal, Brute, Siren, and Prowler have made the most prominent adjustments.
Vandal: Earth Shock
- The base damage has been increased and is multiplied the higher the point is that you drop from relative to the target to which you are applying the damage.
- This change allows for more potential damage to the power, primarily when you use a high-ground advantage and crash down on your enemies.
- The knock-up force has also been reduced, making the target’s window of helplessness slightly shorter than before.
Brute: Shockwave Punch
- The Shockwave punch’s knockback force is increased, making it easier to follow up with ranged weapons than before.
- But the power has had its damage increased to compensate, making it more potent when pushing people off high ground, which can be incredibly useful in the right situations.
Siren: Blinding Beauty
- The Archetype power will now also silence the affected opponent, but the duration of the effect is slightly shorter.
- Enemies may still use their powers as a reaction to your casting but find themselves in a worse spot if they decide to take the fight.
Prowler: Scouting Famulus
- Scouting Famulus now has the added effect of making enemies take more damage from all sources. This effect makes following up with ranged weapons (or even melee weapons) a good option.
- It also helps use this ability more in combat since it needs more utility when you already have your target in sight. Now it can help you get that extra burst damage if used with an ambush, for example.
- They have also adjusted the Archetype powers for the other Archetypes; however, these have only had their previous values buffed.
Enforcer: Unyielding Charge
- The damage output has been doubled.
Warden: Shackles
- The cast speed has been sped up.
Saboteur: Sewer Bomb
- The damage output has been increased.
Muse: Rejuvenating Voice
- The instant heal amount has been raised slightly, and it is now more difficult for other players to interrupt the channeling.
Resonance Progression
Feeding is a core mechanic in Bloodhunt. The players are supposed to use the feeding mechanic to heal and grow stronger throughout the match, but this mechanic is underutilized.
Therefore, they have removed the initial limit of being able to only obtain three resonances before diablerizing or feeding on Entity to gain additional slots, so you can now continue to progress to your maximum total of 12. On top of this, you will also receive a filled blood resonance slot at random by committing diablerie or feeding on Entity.
The path to increasing your resonances becomes more intuitive and less limited, and taking risks and spending time feeding and committing diablerie will feel much more rewarding.
The number of civilian NPCs in Prague has decreased to balance these changes. You must now look around more to find a specific resonant civilian.
Additionally, they have improved the visual representation of the resonances, partly to display the progression to maximum power more clearly and make the progression through the different resonances feel more rewarding and visually appealing.
Weapon Rework
In this update, they are overhauling certain aspects of our weapons, where each weapon will have the same max range and falloff regardless of rarity and class.
Classes:
- Shotguns (Pump Shotgun (except Legendary), Double Barrel, Dual Shotguns)
- Short-Range (Pistol, Dual Pistols, Silenced SMG, Tommy Gun)
- Mid-Range (Assault Rifle, Light Machine Gun, Minigun)
- Mid-to-Long-Range (Toggler, Burst Rifle)
- Long-Range (Revolver, Marksman Rifle, 9-barrel, Hunting Rifle)
- Very Long Range (Sniper Rifle)
For example, for Short-Range class weapons, this means that regardless of which of these weapons or rarity you pick, all will have the same max-range and damage falloff.
This also means that if you wish to hit a target at a long-range range, you will no longer be able to use a higher-rarity weapon designed to work at shorter ranges. Each class is specialized in its own range.
Artifact System, Safes, and Expeditus’ Boots
With this update, they have introduced a new Artifact system. Artifacts can be found at rotated locations across Prague.
- Safe locations will change for every match
- Safes can be opened without keys
- They will contain an artifact granting you specific abilities when picked up.
- You will be able to utilize one artifact at a time
The first artifact added with this update is the Expeditus’ Boots. They know some of you miss the opportunity to traverse more smoothly across Prague, which these will allow for. These boots allow you to double jump (without desync issues!).
Dual Shotguns
The Dual Shotguns are two dual-wielded sawed-off double-barrelled shotguns with a capacity of four rounds. Practically they land somewhere in the middle of the other two shotguns. If fired in quick succession, they will do devastating damage at short range, which allows you to take down or kill your opponent quickly. The Dual Shotgun combines both burst and consistent damage, which makes them ideal for close-quarters combat (as with other weapons, these come in assorted rarities)
Camarilla Cache Chests Rotation
The Camarilla Cache chests will rotate between locations in each match to reward exploration and add more dynamic factors to Prague. To discover these locations, you need to either keep an eye out for them or activate your Heightened Senses. Be mindful that they still will require a key to unlock.
Bot Changes
they continue to make various adjustments to the bot logic. In this one, they have made some changes that make bots more intelligent and well-dressed.
Customization
The bots’ vanity selections will now have different customizations; these will be random to make them less distinguishable from real players.
Better use of Powers
Bots are now more selective when using their powers and more often will utilize them when it makes more tactical sense. For example, a Ventrue might use their Flesh of Marble power as a defensive maneuver rather than using it immediately when spotting an opponent.
Less likely to use armor or blood bags during combat
In certain situations, in the past, the bots would decide to start feeding from a blood bag or wearing a new armor while in battle. The bots have collectively decided to stop doing this.
Less likely to run past the target when in combat
Bots will now be more aware of their target location and less eager to chase them to the point of sprinting past them.
Sniper Scope Reticle
They have changed the sniper scope reticle to one that looks much cooler, which should also help align the shots better!
Weapon Balancing
The Dual Crossbows nerf you all asked for is here! The fire rate has been lowered, and the area of effect drop-off damage has been increased (less damage farther away from the center). You will now need to adjust your aim and place each shot closer to the target to get the full damage potential from these.
They have slightly buffed the Hunting Rifle fire rate. This change should make it less punishing to miss a shot and more reliably apply the bleed effect. Hitting multiple shots in a row still has diminishing returns, and the damage from any previous bleeds is lost when you hit the same target in succession.
Lastly, the Gold Sniper Rifle can now reload faster to compensate for its limited magazine size. The rate of fire should now match the other sniper rarities.
Matchmaking and Networking Adjustments
Several changes have been made to the matchmaker to ensure that the player’s first experience in Bloodhunt is a learning experience, having time to practice against bots rather than immediately facing the absolute best players.
Furthermore, they wanted a more dynamic matchmaker that could adapt to the number of players so that it would be less strict when fewer players queue versus when there are many. This adaptive ability is already live now but might need further adjustments.
Additionally, they have implemented a change that prevents players from leaving the matchmaking queue when the matchmaker has found enough players to start a match. This will contribute towards maximizing the number of players in matches, help prevent starting with uneven numbers in TDM (Team Deathmatch) games, and help prevent groups with missing players.
Also, they have made several optimizations to improve the responsiveness and overall server performance. This is an ongoing process, and further investigations are underway. They plan for additional improvements to this aspect in future updates.
Bug Fixes and Additional Changes
- They sorted a rare issue where the player was unable to change Archetype in the Archetypes menu in Elysium
- They fixed an issue where the player sometimes would not enter a match after a match was found
- Golden rarity weapons can now spawn naturally in TDM
- Fixed an issue where the in-game medals would show a player name despite streamer mode being enabled
- Silence from Blinding Beauty will now interrupt the Katana’s Reflect ability
- Mastery challenges will now no longer appear in the Elysium HUD
- Resolved some issues with floating lamps in Prague
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