Ranged vs Melee

[agsst11]

From what I've read guns suck in the beginning but are strong (or almost required?) for end-game. If you need melee to start but ranged later, and the related attributes to support them, are there enough points or experience for points to put into both of them without short changing other attributes/abilities/disciplines?

[Vepar]

You don't need to put points into melee at all if you're going to level guns. In Santa monica, all combat can be avoided or aided through disciplines, or just with basic tools you get, it's easy so you don't need to upgrade a single combat point...

In downtown, level sneak to get past most of it, by that time, you should do the Venus quest (kinda required if you wanna have enough money for guns). Spare points into firearms.

Sneak will come in handy later, and by the time you're in holywood you should have a fairly strong usable firearms and sneak ability. Don't split your points into 2 combat modes.

If you have Auspex, level that, and be sure to level your disciplines too.

There's more than enouhh XP for you to be oveepowered by the end with any clan as long as you don't spread too thin. As in - don't level firearms, melee and brawl, choose just one. And if you have Obfuscate, don't level sneak.

[Bumbles_Bounce]

Spend 1 pt in Brawl at start to make feeding easier, you'll get a few more for free later on. I disagree on not leveling sneak if you have obfuscate. The Majority of Bosses will see through your obfuscate and all creatures in the Sewers can too, This is where Sneak comes in. Just a 1 point investment with freebies should be enough.

[Vepar]

Originally posted by Bumbles_Bounce:

Spend 1 pt in Brawl at start to make feeding easier, you'll get a few more for free later on. I disagree on not leveling sneak if you have obfuscate. The Majority of Bosses will see through your obfuscate and all creatures in the Sewers can too, This is where Sneak comes in. Just a 1 point investment with freebies should be enough.

Umm, no, that's why you level your other disciplines or combat skills, for when you can't use Obfuscate. Why would you waste points on a skill that does the same thing? Then skip Obfuscate and level sneak to 10.

[dwarfpcfan]

guns are fine as long as you spend the money. Put 3+ dots in firearms, buy the .44 magnum revolver as soon as you hit holywood, then just go with that and the two shotguns (especially the automatic shotgun end game), later get the flamethrower. Really easy combat honestly

[acornco]

if you use books, research occult, back track and exploit... theres plenty of points. you can even fill out your seduction, persuasion, defenses, ranged and melee... pretty much whatever you want.

for instance, you can pick up the last three points of melee for "free" between nines and the two books.

combat on the other hand; guns are good as long as you have money to throw at them. you don't have to worry about stats as much as having ammo. so you should mostly stick to using what ever guns your enemys are dropping. using hot keys, you can drop whatever plink damage you can while closing in for a melee kill.

but more often you will have to factor in the damage you take by engaging in melee combat... if your burning tons of blood having to heal, then melee may not be worth the savings to your ammo reserve.

[Vepar]

I find that, if i do the Venus quest early, i'm never short on cash.
Plus, like acornco, i also use whatever my enemies are using because that means free ammo for the level. Sometimes i also sell some guns that i know i'll find later (like uzis etc. that most enemies carry, i know i'll pick it up again), or some guns i don't use at all.

[dwarfpcfan]

If you're ever running out of bullets by the time you reach hollywood, you're doing it wrong, period. By the time you get there, you've done enough quests to have cash to max out bullets for at least 3 guns, keep the biggest one and just buy more in between quests. You should never run out of cash as the pay outs keep you loaded, especially with Venus giving you a regular cash flow from the club.

[Vepar]

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

If you're ever running out of bullets by the time you reach hollywood, you're doing it wrong, period. By the time you get there, you've done enough quests to have cash to max out bullets for at least 3 guns, keep the biggest one and just buy more in between quests. You should never run out of cash as the pay outs keep you loaded, especially with Venus giving you a regular cash flow from the club.

You can also kiss LaCroix behind all the time, and later with a bunch of persuasion points, he'll shower you with money. He doesn't need to know we hate him. ;)

[dwarfpcfan]

Originally posted by Vepar:

You can also kiss LaCroix behind all the time, and later with a bunch of persuasion points, he'll shower you with money. He doesn't need to know we hate him. ;)

you don't even need to kiss his ass, just invest in persuasion and don't choose dialogues to antagonize him or try to disobey, then you can just ask for money as a dialogue option will show along the lines of "I need to gear up to do that mission you gave me". I think persuasion 4+ is enough to always get the dialogue as long as you don't defy his orders.

[Vepar]

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

Originally posted by Vepar:

You can also kiss LaCroix behind all the time, and later with a bunch of persuasion points, he'll shower you with money. He doesn't need to know we hate him. ;)

you don't even need to kiss his ass, just invest in persuasion and don't choose dialogues to antagonize him or try to disobey, then you can just ask for money as a dialogue option will show along the lines of "I need to gear up to do that mission you gave me". I think persuasion 4+ is enough to always get the dialogue as long as you don't defy his orders.

Yeah, that's what i meant. Be nice to him and don't disobey him. There are no (or very few) dialogue options where you can actually kiss his ass. Most conversations with him are "you do this for me", followed by "exposition about the world and concepts" and "i don't have time, get out" at the end, lol.

There is one persuasion option that appears later if you never disobeyed him, done all the quests properly (no killing), and never antagonized him. You can double persuade him for extra cash, and he said something like "i can't have my best agent looking plebean" or something snobby like that.

But yeah, as far as money sources in the game go, Venus and LaCroix are the most consistent ones pretty much.

[acornco]

Originally posted by dwarfpcfan:

If you're ever running out of bullets by the time you reach hollywood, you're doing it wrong, period. By the time you get there, you've done enough quests to have cash to max out bullets for at least 3 guns, keep the biggest one and just buy more in between quests. You should never run out of cash as the pay outs keep you loaded, especially with Venus giving you a regular cash flow from the club.

rofl.... you buy alot o' bullets bro.....

[dwarfpcfan]

Originally posted by acornco:

rofl.... you buy alot o' bullets bro.....

I like to to spray things to death, sue me

[Scrubwave]

Melee is for trash mobs, guns/disciplines are for bosses and actual enemies.