The Gangrel

[ceteradesunt]

All right, so recently I bought Bloodlines again and I've been playing through my first run as a Gangrel, I'm not particularly having any issues with my abilities per-say but I'm interested in hearing how people go about their build with this particular Kindred

At the moment I tend to rely on Fortitude (which is level four) and straight up melee or unarmed combat. I've leveled Protean up to three, if I'm not mistaken, and my Animalism is currently level two. I've heard such bad things about Protean, and from first-hand experience I can see that the range you have to work with is very scarce, but assuming War Form seems so appealing to me. I'm wondering whether it's worth leveling up, or would it be more advisable to level Animalism instead?

Taking into account my fighting style is more often than not completely close range

[GigaFallus9000]

i used to love to play gangrel ... animalism has quite the appeal ... however protean is completely useless: you get the warform yes, but your attacks are slow as fk. and your damage is barely raised ...
and animalism, i love that sht. however as the game advances it is rendered useless. none of the effects apply to supernaturals, it just hurts them for 30hp at best. also with the horrific cooldown you need alternative strategies anyway. fortitude is mediocre at best, if you dont sink points in dodge and stamina you will still get rekt instantly.
i know i made quite a pest of myself advocating guns here, but that is for a good reason ...
i just finished tremere, which is awesome with the bloodmagic. you can raise hell, but only amongst the living. sure early bosses were squashed by it too, but if blood boil (lvl 5 thaumaturgy) hits bosses for like 50 hp, while 3 aug bullets do the same, im asking myself whats the use wasting 4 bloodpoints versus 3 bullets?

[Touch of Oblivion]

I enjoyed playing a Gangrel quite a bit and relying on Fortitude, Dodge, and Stamina while using unarmed combat with Protean for most of the game, only using firearms if I felt like it for change of pace or for certain boss fights or other tough areas(Ming Xiao for instance). I didn't put anything into Animalism as while the powers sounded very fun, I knew they'd be worth next to nothing in late game when I barely fight humans anymore.

[ceteradesunt]

Originally posted by Obtenebris:

I enjoyed playing a Gangrel quite a bit and relying on Fortitude, Dodge, and Stamina while using unarmed combat with Protean for most of the game, only using firearms if I felt like it for change of pace or for certain boss fights or other tough areas(Ming Xiao for instance). I didn't put anything into Animalism as while the powers sounded very fun, I knew they'd be worth next to nothing in late game when I barely fight humans anymore.

Admittedly, I'm a sucker for Protean due to War Form and the general aesthetics surrounding gameplay while having that kinda powers under my belt. I try and stay as far away from guns as I can, but as you said sometimes they're pretty much a necessity

Originally posted by GigaFallus9000:

i used to love to play gangrel ... animalism has quite the appeal ... however protean is completely useless: you get the warform yes, but your attacks are slow as fk. and your damage is barely raised ...
and animalism, i love that sht. however as the game advances it is rendered useless. none of the effects apply to supernaturals, it just hurts them for 30hp at best. also with the horrific cooldown you need alternative strategies anyway. fortitude is mediocre at best, if you dont sink points in dodge and stamina you will still get rekt instantly.
i know i made quite a pest of myself advocating guns here, but that is for a good reason ...
i just finished tremere, which is awesome with the bloodmagic. you can raise hell, but only amongst the living. sure early bosses were squashed by it too, but if blood boil (lvl 5 thaumaturgy) hits bosses for like 50 hp, while 3 aug bullets do the same, im asking myself whats the use wasting 4 bloodpoints versus 3 bullets?

I actually started out as a Tremere, outside the realms of the game I love Thaumsturges and the lore surrounding Blood Magic, though for my first playthrough on the game I felt a little disappointed. Thaumaturgy has so many different branches, I wint ramble on about that either way, it seems that Animalism and Protean are redundant, I'm most likely going to strengthen my skills surrounding melee and unarmed combat. Thanks for the feedback, man!

[Second Batch]

Do Gangrel get a total of +10 to Str, Dex, and Stam when they frenzy?

[Gaan Cathal]

Originally posted by Second Batch:

Do Gangrel get a total of +10 to Str, Dex, and Stam when they frenzy?

Yes. Low-Humanity Gangrel playthroughs are...amusing.

[__-__-__]

I played a Fortitude\Protean Gangrel and wound up as an outright tank. I was able to hit for 50+ points of damage per attack and recieved so little damage I stopped bothering with stealth after a certain point. I maxed unarmed, ignored melee, ignored Animalism, maxed dodge and stamina, and still had enough left over for quite a bit of persuasion and ranged (for one specific fight, though I wound up not needing it) with a little bit in stealth, research and lockpicking.

[ceteradesunt]

Originally posted by Sesh:

I played a Fortitude\Protean Gangrel and wound up as an outright tank. I was able to hit for 50+ points of damage per attack and recieved so little damage I stopped bothering with stealth after a certain point. I maxed unarmed, ignored melee, ignored Animalism, maxed dodge and stamina, and still had enough left over for quite a bit of persuasion and ranged (for one specific fight, though I wound up not needing it) with a little bit in stealth, research and lockpicking.

I cosign to that. Fortitude seems greatly underestimated, although I haven't maxed it yet (I'm on level four), I can withstand and soak a heavy amount of damage from my ranged foes, and I'm having no trouble taking care of the foes that dabble with close quarter combat, such as the bigger monsters in the warrens. But again, I focus on the melee and unarmed spectrum, and it has never let me down once. I think it's a little late for me to start building my other Disciplines up now

[Kepi al-Duri]

Originally posted by Sesh:

I played a Fortitude\Protean Gangrel and wound up as an outright tank. I was able to hit for 50+ points of damage per attack and recieved so little damage I stopped bothering with stealth after a certain point. I maxed unarmed, ignored melee, ignored Animalism, maxed dodge and stamina, and still had enough left over for quite a bit of persuasion and ranged (for one specific fight, though I wound up not needing it) with a little bit in stealth, research and lockpicking.

This is exactly what I did and the only super challenging part for me was the asian chicks boss battle. That thing was wrecking me until I decided to go full face and chuggin blood instead of trying to be tactical. I even had points left over at the end of the game because I just didn't need them. I had a lot of fun playing it.

[RagnarokCzD]

Anyone else met that issue, that Gangrel never Frenzy when Protean 5 is used? :-/

[Wesp5]

Originally posted by RagnarokCzD:

Anyone else met that issue, that Gangrel never Frenzy when Protean 5 is used? :-/

Is that even possible? I mean they basically are the beast then...

[Shahadem]

Originally posted by GigaFallus9000:

i used to love to play gangrel ... animalism has quite the appeal ... however protean is completely useless: you get the warform yes, but your attacks are slow as fk. and your damage is barely raised ...
and animalism, i love that sht. however as the game advances it is rendered useless. none of the effects apply to supernaturals, it just hurts them for 30hp at best. also with the horrific cooldown you need alternative strategies anyway. fortitude is mediocre at best, if you dont sink points in dodge and stamina you will still get rekt instantly.
i know i made quite a pest of myself advocating guns here, but that is for a good reason ...
i just finished tremere, which is awesome with the bloodmagic. you can raise hell, but only amongst the living. sure early bosses were squashed by it too, but if blood boil (lvl 5 thaumaturgy) hits bosses for like 50 hp, while 3 aug bullets do the same, im asking myself whats the use wasting 4 bloodpoints versus 3 bullets?

That is the exact problem I had with Tremere. Their gimmick becomes useless so quickly. The fact that is costs blood points to use, and a ton of blood points at that is rubbing salt into the wound. All Tremere abilities were extremely poorly designed and implemented.

In fact I would say that is true for ALL of the abilities. They shouldn't cost blood points to use and shouldn't last for mere seconds. Blink and you'll miss it. I don't know what it is about game devs and making activated abilities last for only seconds but it needs to stop.