Vindictus: Titles and Special Potions

[This is part of my Vindictus tutorials.]

To be the best you can be, you must hunt titles. I didn't realize that for a long time, thinking that like in Mabinogi - only stats of your active title are given to you. Nope, ALL the stat boosts of EVERY title you earn applies immediately regardless if you are "wearing" any title or not. Press "c" to open your character tab and then you can click the "titles" button to see what you already have. The ones that you have learned about but not yet earned are grey, but clicking on them will reveal what you need to do to earn it. Be sure to check with Aislinn at the general store for the equipment set quests too as those also give titles.

Speaking of stores Ernmass at Colhen inn sells some neat stuff for AP, the handiest I think being the Merc Heal potions. Unlike regular potions that have a drink animation and are less effective when moving, these heal the full amount immediately. Alas the other two handy potions I've only seen from Level Up gift bags - the Lion Roar potion which basically nukes all spawned minion enemies and the Dead Run potion which doubles your movement speed for 30 seconds. These also have no drink animation and activate immediately. The Dead Run is pretty handy to out walk attacks that are otherwise difficult to avoid.

Easily out walked Shadow Shaman Ingkara's explosive tracking spells.

As a bonus tip for Crossgun Kai players, you can shortcut your way through Ainle by placing grenades at the wrong side of locked gates and detonating them. The explosion radius is large enough to trigger the switch saving you a little time and usually an encounter or two.

Vindictus: Lessons from Vampires

[This is part of my Vindictus tutorials.]

Once you've managed to get past the two "tutorial" zones and finally find yourself in the perpetually burning town of Ainle (I wonder if the last "e" is silent) you will finally be facing your first fast moving -normal- opponents, the vampires. Yes, I think they run slightly faster than the kobold axe-zerkers you previously met in Hoarfrost Hollow but they still shouldn't pose much a problem.

Two of the boss vampires though have useful mechanics to get used to right away. The first is "The Knight" who is the boss of the mission "Being from the Other World". Sure he has a sword, but in my experience (as a Kai) he certainly enjoys casting fireball with his other hand. This orb tracks you and explodes on impact. Lots of the later bosses have a similar mechanic with the tracking orb, so it's good to practice against him here. The two important points of this are:

Don't dodge too early (or too late, duh), and avoid sloped ground as it will screw up your timing since the orb will explode sooner.

Likewise the second boss I want to talk about is "The Blood Lord" who likes to vanish into a cloud of bats and suddenly appear on top of someone. Again, this move is used with slight graphical difference but pretty much same effect by a few bosses later on.

Just look at those claws.

The lesson to learn here is simply to RUN when the bad guy vanishes, preferably away from your allies, and prepare to dodge if he does choose to pick on you. As a Kai who is constantly shooting from a distance this is really the only move you have to worry about from this otherwise slow and easily readable fellow.