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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MwaO" data-source="post: 6927504" data-attributes="member: 12749">This is a Vampire Handbook. Normally, I'd leave the class for dead, but it keeps somehow coming up as an example of a weak class rather than a badly designed class, and that annoys me. So I'm going to over time do a guide.Vampires are a member of the Striker role, but in some ways just nominally so. They have an MBA that doesn't quite scale fast enough similar to most Essentials Strikers. They have lousy encounter attack powers, but crucially, they do have encounter attack powers. They have an unusual surge mechanic that allows them to soak damage up in a way that's just frightening in a normal game. Finally, they have a tendency to attract the wrong kind of player - the one who thinks they've joined a LARP, manages to creep out the rest of the table, and then gets everyone against them.An optimized Vampire has to do three things:Get the other players on board with them being at the table. If they're not comfortable, it is hard to take advantage of one of Vampire's strongest class feature - the ability to heal to full with one extra surge at the end of a combat. This enables some unusual combat tactics.Optimize their Vampire Slam - this power is going to get a lot of use, almost regardless of build. Take advantage of that.Multiclass effectively and do a power swap. The best Paragon Path choices allow for some real amplification of role. Make good choices.[h=2]This Handbook will use the following system for ratings:[/h] Red - Garbage, or completely overshadowed by another option. Purple - Situationally useful, but overall pretty meh. Black - OK. You could do worse than pick this. Blue - Good stuff. You probably want this. Sky Blue - You want this. Period. Gold - Why haven't you taken this yet? A defining choice for a build, or even the whole class.[h=2][/h]</blockquote>

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