A close look at the Vanguard character classes

Today we’re going to take a close look at some of the playable character classes in Sigil Games‘ upcoming MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. These are the classes that you will choose from when you begin your adventures in Vanguard, so we suggest you pay close attention.

The first class that we’re going to take a look at is the Bard class. The Bard is a kind of travelling warrior minstrel with the ability to sing songs of power that can affect both friends and enemies alike.

The Bard character class also appears in quite a few other fantasy games, but Vanguard takes it one step further, allowing players to actually “compose” their very own song by stitching together different song components that can be unlocked throughout the game.

Here are the various component types, lifted from GameSpot:

Melody: The melody is a song’s backbone. In Vanguard, Bards get to choose one overall melody for their song. Other components are added to the melody in order to increase the song’s potency and add more effects.

Embellishments: These can add resistance buffs, debuffs and minor buffs. You can add up to five embellishments to your Bard song. An example of this is Illestine’s Harmony of Warmth, which protects allies from cold damage.

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Today we’re going to take a close look at some of the playable character classes in Sigil Games‘ upcoming MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. These are the classes that you will choose from when you begin your adventures in Vanguard, so we suggest you pay close attention.

The first class that we’re going to take a look at is the Bard class. The Bard is a kind of travelling warrior minstrel with the ability to sing songs of power that can affect both friends and enemies alike. 

The Bard character class also appears in quite a few other fantasy games, but Vanguard takes it one step further, allowing players to actually “compose” their very own song by stitching together different song components that can be unlocked throughout the game.

Here are the various component types, lifted from GameSpot:

Melody: The melody is a song’s backbone. In Vanguard, Bards get to choose one overall melody for their song. Other components are added to the melody in order to increase the song’s potency and add more effects.

Embellishments: These can add resistance buffs, debuffs and minor buffs. You can add up to five embellishments to your Bard song. An example of this is Illestine’s Harmony of Warmth, which protects allies from cold damage.

Lyrics: These are the words for your song. You get up to four lyric slots in each song, and each of these can provide a wide range of low-level spell effects such as slowing the enemy down and boosting running speed.

Chorus: This is a high-powered lyric, and as such, it delivers more of a bang. With a chorus in your song, you can do more
stuff than a basic lyric lets you, such as project a shield around your party.

Verse: Verses bestow a variety of high-powered effects to the target of a Bard’s song. These effects can range from the good, like regeneration, to the bad, such as getting snared. There are up to three verse slots in a song.

Bridge: Bridges are kind of like verses in the sense that they also provide miscellaneous effects. For instance, you can use Naman’s Ruinous Revolution to strip enemies of arcane or elemental resistance. Each song has up to two bridge slots.

Coda: Every song needs a powerful finale, and that’s where a coda comes in. Codas have pretty powerful effects, and an example of this is Mellarien’s Victorious Finale, which adds damage to all of your party’s attacks. Songs can have up to two coda slots.

Rests: The more powerful a component used in a song, the more energy it uses up. By inserting rests into a song, you can recharge the song’s power and keep the song going for longer periods of time.

Next up is the Blood Mage. Apart from being one of the cooler-sounding character classes we’ve seen in a while, Blood Mages also have the ability to back up their cool name with some equally cool abilities.

Like their name suggests, Blood Mages specialize in the use of blood magic, a powerful form of magic that can dish out extremely powerful damage spells as well as potent healing spells.

Blood Mages are mighty opponents when it comes to their control over the magical areas of a battlefield with their ability to heal single as well as multiple targets, but all their power often comes with a price. While Blood Mages are able to heal, their healing spells often come at the expense of their own lives. An example of this is Blood Gift, where you can use your blood to heal a teammate instantly.

With the ever-present danger of running out of blood in the middle of a battle, Blood Mages have developed quite a few tricks that let them use another’s blood for their own needs. One such ability is the Blood Union. Through the Blood Union, a Blood Mage can siphon off an enemy’s blood. The blood drawn from the enemy can then be used to create blood rituals, which lets the Blood Mage cast powerful spells such as shields and a host of offensive spells.

The Blood Union can also be used to transfer various energies. This gives a Blood Mage the ability to literally suck the life out of an enemy. An example of this ability is Entwining Vein, which lets the blood mage steal health from an enemy and transfer it to an ally. The ally heals for 50 percent of the damage done to the enemy, and this increases by 10 percent for every level of blood union that you have.

The Blood Mage also has the ability to turn fresh organs into symbiotic creatures that attach themselves to the blood mage and his or her allies. Getting the organ’s no problem with the steal mortality ability. Just get your opponent’s health down to less than 5 percent, use steal mortality, add some of your blood and that’s it. Grisly, yes, but extremely useful, especially the Attach Conducive Symbiont Ability which lets you attach a conducive symbiont on yourself and grants you the ability to use the conducive blood ability, letting you heal allies more effectively.

We now move on to the Cleric. This class is well-known for their spiritual focuses, and they are usually referred to as warrior-priests. Clerics have the ability to draw upon divine powers to cast powerful healing spells or equally powerful destructive spells.

In Vanguard, Clerics don’t pledge themselves to one specific god and can call upon the power of all of the gods in the Vanguard world. Instead, they can choose affinities which let clerics focus on a specific aspect of a god.

A cleric only has a limited number of affinities, and each affinity is tied to a specific god. Check out the list of available affinities below.

Affinity: Death
Deity: The Sisters
Ability: Increased damage to all megaspells

Affinity: Light/Purity
Deity: Fieros
Ability: Calls down a sunbeam, which wipes out undead opponents and blinds other opponents

Affinity: Life
Deity: Gloriann
Ability: Increased hit point buffs, increased potency for poison cures, and increased constitution buffs

Affinity: War
Deity: Ghaln
Ability: Power of Carnage, a major combat buff

Affinity: Travel
Deity: Finch
Ability: Immunity to roots and snares, while boosting potency of root spells. At higher levels, unlocks sojourn ability, which buffs levitation, water breathing, swimming speed, invisibility, and run speed

Disciples are the monks of the Vanguard world. They are fearsome melee fighters who focus on inward serenity and strength. With their mastery of melee combat, Disciples are able to chain attacks into a combo of sorts. An attack chain uses a set of attacks as openers and can reuse the set of attacks as bridges for different effects.

Disciples are also skilled enough to be able to deliver swift counterattacks to their opponents. Coupled with a skill like paralyzing touch, the Disciple can quickly turn an enemy attack into a chance for a sudden attack chain.

Focus bonds, meanwhile, are metaphysical bonds formed between the disciple and a target. If the target is hostile, a dissonant bond is formed. If the target is an ally, a harmonic bond is formed. The disciple can only form a few bonds at any one time, though they can be very useful. For instance, the touch of woe bond ties the disciple to an enemy. The enemy takes damage every time he or she tries to attack.

Lastly, Disciples also have the ability to heal themselves and their allies alike. An example of this is the breath of renewal ability, which heals a specific ally a small amount while also giving a small boost to nearby allies. Or, the discipline of harmony ability heals a specific ally for a small amount of health, but the ability becomes more effective after each successive use.

Finally, we have the Dread Knight. Like the name suggests, these fierce warriors are fearsome enough to inflict fear in any opponent. Think of them as the darker versions of the goody-two-shoes paladins.

With the dreadful countenance ability, they can turn those who stand before them into useless blubbering masses of flesh and bone. Couple that with the Dread Knight’s excellent melee combat abilities and you have a tank that not a lot of people can stand up to.

Apart from their natural combat skills, Dread Knights also have a few dirty tricks up their sleeves. One of these is the harrow ability, which can only be used if the dread knight is behind the target. Harrow lets the dread knight feed off the pain of an opponent, dealing damage and draining health at the same time.

Meanwhile, the ravaging darkness ability deals damage to an opponent over time and also drains the target’s endurance. The longer an opponent remains affected by ravaging darkness, the more likely the target will be affected by the dread knight’s dreadful countenance, which we touched on above. And the enthralling nexus ability lets the dread knight rescue an ally from attack by diverting all attackers to focus on the dread knight. Aw, how sweet of the scary mister Dread Knight.

Dread Knights aren’t just melee warriors, as the class also has the ability to cast powerful spells. These spells include shadow step, which lets the dread knight teleport behind an opponent–a useful ability for stabbing someone in the back. The symbol of wrath spell increases the dread knight’s damage, which is cumulative with the dreadful countenance ability. And vile howl causes opponents to flee in terror.

There you have it folks, an in-depth look at some of the character classes that are available in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Now, we suggest you choose wisely, because while these classes do have their plus points, they will also definitely have their weaknesses. When the time comes for you to choose which path you will walk in the world of Vanguard, make sure to choose one that will suit your needs as well as your playing style.

Via GameSpot