Possession—Cost 4
Merge with an animal at a high Mana cost. Use that animal as a vehicle for bypassing security, avoiding detection in general, and for certain other bonuses. For example, possessing a Wolfhound allows you to move very quickly.
This ability is useful for stealth players. If you use this expensive ability as a backbone for your stealth play, make sure to avoid other Mana-hungry abilities. Possession is costly, so your Mana Elixirs are already spoken for!
In combat, Possession lets you get out of a fight, reposition, and take out your host before anyone has much of a say in it. Possession is still more of a stealth ability, but this is how it can be used to save you from a fight that isn’t going well.
Chain Hosts
Cost 3
Leap from a possessed target directly into another target without leaving the body of the first victim. This helps to avoid detection during more complex, prolonged infiltrations.
Lasting Possession
Cost 1
Possessions last longer, making everything quite a bit easier. Due to its low cost, this bonus is a must-have for anyone who likes using Possession.
Corpse Possession
Cost 1
Hide inside corpses. Corpses are not mobile vehicles, so the spell is only good for hiding and watching the area around you.
Human Possession
Cost 4
By far the most useful bonus for this ability, Human Possession can get you into a wide range of locations. Use guards to get through security checkpoints, walk right by their allies, and get deep into enemy territory without wasting any time. You avoid a massive amount of conflict this way.
Blink—Cost 0
Blink is an amazing ability. Every character has some version of this, and it’s never worthless. Blink gets you into hard-to-reach places, helps you avoid being spotted when you’re out in the open, and helps you quickly move around the world.
Hold down the Ability button when Blink is selected. Watch for the icon that appears ahead; that shows you where you’re going to Blink. Aim carefully so that you get where you want to go. This lets you Blink down and avoid falling damage, Blink up to higher balconies, or Blink behind people. The uses are myriad.
Greater Blink
Cost 4
Extend the range of Blink. This is expensive, but you get so much out of Blink that it’s really worth taking for most players. Some combative players can skip this, because they’ll focus more on deadly abilities. But players who like to kill with assassination attacks can often clear an entire room with good Blinking. Because of that, even killers enjoy Greater Blink unless they’re intentionally getting into large Sword fights.
Redirective Blink
Cost 3
Time stops as long as you stand still while aiming your Blink spells. This is helpful when making more complex maneuvers, like Blinking during a fall or a fight, or when jumping, turning, and Blinking around a corner.
You can set up some amazing drop assassinations/takedowns with this ability.
Blink Assault
Cost 1
For players who aren’t afraid of kills, this is a wonderful bonus. Blink and automatically knock down alerted targets or assassinate unaware victims. The latter is ludicrously nice when combined with Shadow Kill—Blink, attack, and have a target go down into ash in almost no time. This allows you to get in, kill targets, and leave before anyone has a chance to turn around and see what you’re doing.
Bend Time—Cost 5
This versatile ability improves your survivability, lethality, and stealth. It’s a cornerstone of either stealth or combative builds, but you have to dedicate a huge number of points to it. As such, this requires a sacrifice. If you use Bend Time heavily, avoid other expensive purchases like Possession, because it takes way too long to get both of them off the ground. Using both is also rough on your Mana!
Use Bend Time during big fights to give yourself time to destroy your targets, reposition, and avoid incoming attacks and ranged fire. For stealth, Bend Time when your enemies aren’t looking and quickly cross through protected areas without being seen. Use a thrown object to get people looking one way, and then Bend Time and move in another direction to cross a large distance without anyone being the wiser.
Stop Time
Cost 6
Other people and objects don’t move at all during Bend Time. It’s possible to advance time within the spell, if you need people to continue moving; otherwise, the world around you is frozen unless you interact with it.
For combative players, this is an unnecessary luxury. You already gain a massive edge by slowing time, so the six Runes this bonus costs are often better spent elsewhere. Stop Time is a much greater benefit for stealth players because you don’t have to worry nearly as much about messing up while under the effect of Bend Time.
Lasting Bend Time
Cost 2
If you purchase Bend Time, get this bonus. Every use of Bend Time is expensive, and you must get the most out of it. Longer duration means you can avoid bigger areas, defeat larger groups of enemies, etc. There is no reason not to get this bonus.
Relativity
Cost 1
Your movement, relative to the slower or frozen people around you, is much faster. Like Lasting Bend Time, this is a must-have bonus for anyone who uses Bend Time.
Windblast—Cost 4
Use wind to deflect slower projectiles, shatter doors, and throw enemies around. This gives you time to recover in the middle of a big melee, and it also causes quite a bit of noise and distraction. Useful more often for heavy combative purposes, this is a good ability for people who like to fight larger battles out in the open. Once you upgrade Windblast with its bonuses, you gain an ability that is lethal, defensive, and knocks around targets in a moderate area of effect.
Greater Windblast
Cost 3
Windblast deals lethal damage against targets thrown into anything. Go around bends in a corridor so that pursuing enemies clump together near a wall, and then hit them with Windblast as they approach.
Shockwave
Cost 3
Windblast becomes a modest area-of-effect attack. If you become surrounded during a fight, this is one of the best ways to clear out opponents and buy yourself time to flee or at least kill a couple more enemies and regain the advantage.
Devouring Swarm—Cost 4
Devouring Swarm is a fun, thematic power. Call a swarm of Rats that attack your enemies (if any targets are present). The Rats are lethal to individuals or small groups, and they are also a massive distraction against those targets, who have to fight for their lives. If you have Possession, you are allowed to use summoned Rats as targets.
In general, Devouring Swarm is a fun combative ability. You usually get more oomph from other combative powers, but not all of them are as flashy.
Greater Swarm
Cost 2
Your swarm grows in size, making it more likely to kill multiple targets with a single use.
Rat Piper
Cost 2
Your swarm follows you, giving it a bit more utility by chaining between multiple small encounters.
Twin Swarms
Cost 3
If you want to throw an entire room into anarchy, this bonus makes Devouring Swarm much more effective. You get to choose two areas where the swarms appear, so they attack more people and cover more territory. This is best used in large rooms that have defenders in various positions that you can’t overwhelm quickly. Distract or kill two groups with your spell, and charge any other targets to kill them on your own while your Rat buddies do the rest of the work.