Welcome to the guide!

This guide is about Van Helsing: Final Cut's most played and most hated class - The Protector. A man at arms, skillfully wielding a sword or a handy axe, covered from head to feet in a steampunk-ish steel armor, deflecting mighty blows with his heavy shield. Or something like that anyway...



Protector is the most played class probably since the first game featured a melee/ranged hunter as the only playable class and because many people expect the melee hunter to be the "button masher" class which many people enjoy. And they are right. But he is also the most hated class, called "weakest", "useless" and other names, since many players who decided to pick the Protector have tasted death at almost every step.

This guide will teach you the ways of the warrior required to prevail in the game.

Before I start giving exact advice, I would like to point you to the style of play you should expect when taking up the Protector class.
As the only melee class in the game, you will be forced to stand face to face with hordes of enemy monsters using their claws, magic and occult powers to get rid of you. And believe me, there are really hordes of monsters in this game.

All other classes have some form of benefit such as ranged attacking, summoning, invisiblity, energy shields or skills enabling you to safely pick off enemies from a distance. With Protector, this is not the case - you will be hit with full amount of their hatred and only thing there is to do is to withstand it.

Now don't get me wrong, even without invisibility, ranged attacks or summoned creatures, Protector is a fine class and he can get through easily, but the way you play is different from the other classes, so keep that in mind.

Early game I recommend putting all points into Physical Ruggedness (red stat). It's extra Health AND extra Defense at the same time, so it's an easy choice. Doesn't matter if you choose to go elemental or physical damage, at first your skills won't have very high damage and the other stats give boosts only as percentages, which is why early on Physical Ruggedness shines.

However, if you decided to use some mana skill like Cleave, several points in Fortified Mind (blue stat) will help you a lot.

Around level 20 your points should start going into Melee Mastery (yellow stat) (if you want Strike, Flowing Combo, Cleave, Whirlwind) or Fortified Mind (if you want Stormstrike, Earthquake, Frozen Soil). When you reach the amount of points you invested into Physical Ruggedness at first, split your points 50-50, but always put enough points into Physical Ruggedness to keep a decent Defense. Your aim should be at least 50% damage reduction - you can mouseover your Defense to see the percentage.

For me, using Strike/Flowing Combo build, that was mostly half attribute points into red stat and half points into yellow stat, no points into blue stat.

Remember, you can always respec if you feel you put too many points where they don't belong.

Itemization will take priority over skill choices in Protector's case. As I previously said, Protector has no means of picking off enemies at range, summons to help him take the damage or anything similar that other classes have. He has to facetank all on his own.

Because of that, you need to survive through all of that, and just having high amounts of health won't be enough. You need solid Damage Reduction and lifestealing or HP regeneration.



The easiest way to get Damage Reduction is by maximizing Defense. Your red stat gives you Defense by default, your Armor and Shield have good amounts of Defense by default and there's a high chance that you will find an item with + Item Defense or +% Item Defense on it. Due to many skills and auras also improving their Defenses, Protectors have no trouble raising their Defense up to 1000 or higher as early as level 15, which gives over 60% damage reduction on it's own, before accounting for Resistances.

Defense comes from Boots, Gloves, Armor and Shield. Try to find items that have Essence Capacity and + Item Defense or +% Item Defense at once. If either of these stats is missing, Saffi can add it through Enchanting. Then from level 10 up, always insert the essence which increases +% Item Defense. These multipliers will combine, so a level 20 Armor with a good roll can provide over +400 Defense on a single item. At level 100, your items should provide +(1500-3000) Defense each.



HP per hit or Lifestealing means that hitting your enemies with attacks and skills that deal damage will give you some health back.
HP regeneration does not require hitting anything and gives you health every 1 second.

I prefer high amount of HP per hit, because HP regeneration is easy to come by from your skills. HP per hit from skills is limited to Strike mastery named Lifestealing, a 1% lifesteal from Thrilling Heroics aura, which is kinda weak early on, and Hunter's Rejuvenation aura, so most of your HP per hit should come from your items.

HP per hit can come naturally from weapon, rings, amulet and trophy, so if your items do not have it, you can enchant those (hi Saffi!) for extra HP per hit. Some Epic items can have HP regeneration or HP per hit on other pieces of equipment.
Alternatively you can insert essences into weapons for extra HP per hit and you can insert the same essences into accessories (trophy, helmet, amulet, rings, belt) to get HP regeneration. An easy guide to safe amounts of HP per hit is your level. Your HP per hit should always be (level*2), so at level 10 you want 20 HP per hit. At level 30 you want 60 HP per hit, and so on. With high enough HP per hit, basically, when in trouble, hit all your skills as fast as you can.



One of the reasons to use Strike (learned at lvl 1) instead of Flowing Combo (learned at lvl 20) is the Lifesteal mastery, which gives you extra 10 HP per hit. The HP per hit mechanic will only steal a % of the full value with some skills.

Let's say you have only +10 HP per hit, at the moment.

Flowing combo will only steal 1/3 of that (rounded down) on every attack, so each hit will steal 3+3+3 = you leech 9 HP back. In 2 seconds you can use Combo 2 times, hitting 6x and stealing 18 HP.
Strike skill with a 1.50 speed axe will steal full amount, that's 10 HP + 10 HP from extra from the Lifestealing mastery = 20 HP per hit. In 2 seconds you attack 3 times (1.5 attacks per second, therefore 3 attacks in 2 seconds), which is 20 + 20 + 20 = 60 HP stolen. That's triple healing compared to Flowing Combo.

Most area of effect skills like Whirlwind, Embracing Flames and others steal only small amounts, while most single target skills like Strike or Smashing Blow will steal full amount.



HP regen can be found as powerups on your skills. First available is the Lesser Shield Block powerup, which regenerates a small amount of HP for every hit you block, but only during the first 5 seconds of blocking. This is a one-point wonder for situations in narrow places, where you can block monster's path. When the enemies reach you, you press Block and start healing up instead of taking damage.
However during this time you can't deal damage back and the healed amount is very small, only 0.5% of max HP at power setting 1, it would take 200 hits to heal yourself to full HP. Plus I don't really like Blocking, so personally I didn't use this at all.

Next HP regen skill is Painlessness, which has the powerup to regenerate up to 5% of max HP every second while Painlessness lasts. This is the first really useful powerup, allowing you to easily replenish health by default. But it requires you to spend points into Blocking, which I personally don't use during levelling. Also be careful about it's longer cooldown.

Finally, the best HP regen skill is Battle Cry. You want to use Battle Cry all the time to boost your damage, so taking up the powerup to regen HP is an easy choice. Up to 6% max HP regen per second also works on allies, so it's even more awesome for multiplayer. The only bad thing about it is that you unlock it only at level 40.



When you have enough Defense and sustain, focus on improving your damage. Getting items with + X Ice Damage Bonus (or other damage types) is your best bet. At around level 40, prioritize Critical Hit % and Critical Damage %, because these stats can change your measly 100 damage slash into a 400 damage slash, or higher. And if the items don't deliver crit, getting more stat points (Melee Mastery/Focused Mind) is always a good idea.
The rule is: always prefer Defenses and HP per hit over damage stats - you need to survive before you can dish out damage.

The build I will describe is something you might call Offensive Protector. It was playtested through Fearless and it was fun to play.

Protector's main perk is the ability to Deflect (parry) incoming melee attacks and Block damage with his shield. Deflecting happens automatically by wearing a shield, while Block is a skill that needs to be used. Blocking reduces all incoming attacks to 0 and from level 40 you gain another Block skill that fills up your Block Pool (a small bar just above your health and mana). While this bar is filled, you gain neat bonus to your damage.

In this guide, we will not use Blocking. When you block, you obviously don't deal any damage back, and you cannot block area of effect attacks either. In other words, you will still be taking some damage and not giving any back, which is why I'm not a fan of Blocking and I won't be using Block skills during levelling. Also standing still with shield raised up is contradictory to our "button mashing" strategy ;-)



You start the game with a simple ability called Strike, a default attack with your weapon. You want to max out this skill.
- it deals 200% weapon damage at lvl 10
- it has a +10 HP per hit mastery that costs 1 skill point.
- costs no mana
- no reduced healing
Strike will take you through the early game up to level 20, but I found myself using it even at levels 30+ due to it's HP per hit.

Your secondary skill should be Embracing Flames, max it aswell. It's a fire and forget skill that creates a fiery circle around you and at lvl 10 it deals 100% weapon damage. The fire moves with your character, so you can get personal with the monsters at the same time.
- deals decent damage AND leeches health from everything you hit at the same time
- you can perform other attacks while Embracing Flames is active
- take Violet Flames powerup and use it maxed (+3s increased duration), giving you almost non-stop hot-ness

Third skill will be Ghastly Shape, put at least one skill point in here. Adding more points later is good, because it reduces cooldown and increases damage.
- deals decent damage in a line where you run through
- fast movement
- engage skill, it makes you run through enemies
- escape skill, for the same reason

Your gameplay is fairly simple now, you smash enemies with your sword/axe, keep popping Embracing Flames on cooldown for extra damage and AoE, use Ghastly Shape to reach ranged enemies and pick them off. With one point in Taunt, you can also boost your Defense before going in, but I didn't use it early on.

For Auras, I actually put only one point in there and instead I focused on my damage skills. Physical Resist gives much more benefits than Thriling Heroics due to your weapon damage being very low at the start. Second aura should be Bodybuilding, because Protector has the highest health of all the classes and the benefits stack with the points you put into Physical Ruggedness stat.

The skills are not set in stone.
I saw people using Storm Shield, but I don't like that because it has low damage and makes you stand still.
I also saw people using Cleave, which definitely works, but you need some mana and resistances management to compensate the mana cost and Defense loss with Cleave.
Earthquake deals damage in a line aswell, however it's mana cost is even higher than Cleave, and you probably won't be able to kill a group on Fearless with it before you run out of mana. If you want to use this, you'll need points in blue stat and mana regeneration from items.



Welcome, the button mashing starts now. By now you should have maxed Strike with Lifesteal mastery, at least 5 points in Embracing Flames and 5 points in Ghastly Shape.

Take Smite, which does exactly the same thing as Ghastly Shape, but it knocks enemies to the ground.
- use gives you some breating room
- great when you engage behind enemy lines to eliminate some ranged monsters.
- 3rd skill you can use on cooldown
One point is enough for starters.

Ice Blast is another one point wonder. At first level it deals 150% weapon damage in an area similar to your Embracing Flames.
- this skill is instant, no cast animation
- it freezes monsters for 1 second
- 4th skill you can use on cooldown
I highly recommend taking the Liquid Frost powerup, because it increases the freeze to 4/6/8 seconds and it even slows bosses to half speed, so even at power setting 1 it can disable a group of enemies or reduce damage from a boss. Also instant healing through your HP per hit.

Now you have to choose your main attack skill.
Most people use Whirlwind for some unknown reason, but that makes you really weak versus mana draining monsters.
Stormstrike is an improved version of Cleave without Defense penalty, which strikes extra foes with lightning and it's my second favorite, because it can paralyze monsters you hit. Ideal if you don't use any auto-powerups, but again, you have to solve the mana issues.
Frozen Soil can slow and freeze monsters, it has better damage, but its high mana cost and its cooldown make it only a support skill.

My choice was the Flowing Combo. It deals 3 hits during 1 second attack. This skill actually has a duration, so it will always perform attacks as if you used default Strike at the attack speed of 3.00 (4.00 with lvl10 mastery) regardless of your weapon (= slow weapons are good with this), which is also why it will probably show you the highest DPS of all the skill choices.
BUT there is a big downside with Flowing Combo - your attacks are no longer attacking your target. Flowing Combo's second and third attacks randomly hit enemies all around you, so with 3 monsters, it could look like this: A C B A C C A C A A B B ... After such an attack, there will most likely still be three monsters attacking you, each being at half HP. That is very ineffective and that is the first reason why your main attack skill should still be Strike if you decide for Flowing Combo. Second reason is the healing reduction mentioned earlier.


Auras

I recommend maxing out Fury as your third aura. While the damage bonus might seem weak, it's the best damage boost you can get apart from Battle Cry.
If you feel tanky enough, remove your points from Physical Resistance and put them into Thrilling Heroics for more damage.



So in combat, I rush forward with Smite to pickoff the ranged monsters first, but I attack them with Strike, while activating Embracing Flames and Ice Blast on cooldown.
I put my Flowing Combo on my other mouse button and I use it when there is only one or two monsters left around me - to finish them off. I also use Flowing Combo on bosses because it deals higher overall damage than Strike.

If there is a boss, champion or the ranged guys are champions, I use Embracing Flames and Ice Blast on cooldown and also Ghastly Shape and Smite on cooldown to run through them while dealing fire and ice damage. And this is the button mashing part - if you put enough points into Smite and Ghastly Shape, their cooldowns are low enough so you will always have a button to push between your standard attacks :) Later you will also be using Taunt, Battle Cry, possibly Grapple, Block or invulnerability.

Don't forget that using movement skills like Smite to run through enemies also replenishes your health, since the skills deal damage and therefore trigger HP per hit / lifesteal. A timely Smite can not only knockdown the enemies, preventing them from attacking but also save you from dying.

Here the fun starts. By now, you should have at least 5 points in Flowing Combo and Smite. Pick your main attack skill - Viper Strike or Smashing Blow. Their damage is very similar and they are both single target attacks.

Smashing Blow empowers your damage, making it a good choice when your difficulty is low (because monsters have less HP).
Viper Strike is more useful when your difficulty is high (monsters have high HP), because it will instantly kill a monster when its HP falls below a certain % amount. My recommendation - if you play up to Heroic, pick Smashing Blow. If you play Fearless, either one is good. If you play Inhuman Ordeal 1+, pick Viper Strike.

By all means pick Frozen Sphere, your 5th skill that can be used on cooldown.
- big area of effect
- slows enemies continously
- deals damage = steals HP


Other choices for main attack skill are:
Hurricane Assault - can be used to boost your Defense. I used this skill to get 93% damage reduction, but it's real usage shines in combination with Block, where you max out your damage pool, then start rotating and never stop. As long as you don't stop, you deal bonus damage from your block, which is awesome.
But since we don't use Block, we don't really want HA either. And as usual, mana dependant. Also you would need to respec points from Strike and Flowing Combo to this tree.
Flamestrike - This skill is actually very useful. It is an area of effect attack, the damage over time component is noticeable and unlike Frozen Soil, it has no cooldown. You'd be surprised how much it is better to damage multiple monsters at once instead of picking them off 1 by 1 with SB/VS. And it's elemental damage, which we already use a lot from Embracing Flames skill tree. The downside is that you lose the HP per hit that you gain from single-target skills, you might meet fire immune monsters and again, you need to respec from the Strike/FC tree. Also it has high mana cost...
Spike Strike - I'm not a fan of this skill. It feels underpowered. It was designed to be used with Shield Block, yet there is no real benefit from doing that. It has a bonus dmg to Champions and Bosses, yet SB or VS will deal more damage... -.-
Since we don't use Block, we won't be using this skill either.


After maxing out our damage skills, first put points into Battle Cry tree. The Chain skill is a prerequisite and can also be used to pull monsters together for easier killing, while Battle Cry with all the bonuses boosts your damage while also reducing the damage of your enemies. Cast it after you pull things with Chain before you start fighting to get the maximum benefit. Having some cooldown reduction % will help with the uptime.

When maxed, put the remaining points into Painlessness as your "oh sh!t" button and take the % healing powerup.

Your third Aura should be Aura of Vigilance, it provides the best bonus available from all the auras and it works on your allies in Multiplayer.


Here's a mid-level gameplay video from Foundry:

A little late addition to the guide.

Take perks that give bonus stat and skill points, then take cooldown reduction perks, then critical damage perks and damage at max rage perks. The perks actually have only a small impact on the game.

Katarina should be used as a buffbot, put her skillpoints into all the auras that boost your defense, damage, speed, etc.
She can be used in Ranged mode for some extra damage in the levelling phase, however as you advance into the Inhuman Ordeal difficulties, she dies too fast and you won't get the bonuses when she's disabled. Switching her to Ghost mode for permanent 10% damage reduction is the best option for the highest difficulty.

When you get to Set items and Godlikes and play on higher difficulty, switch from Smashing Blow to Viper Strike, since you already have the movement skills maxed and on Inhuman Ordeal 5 the monsters have so high HP that the instant kill on Viper Strike makes things much faster. If you don't intend to play higher difficulties, you can keep Smashing Blow, their base DPS is similar.

If you want to use Blocking to charge-up, I recommend firing off an AoE like Ice Blast or Whirlwind instead of your basic attack. If you don't want to charge-up, just keep mashing buttons for all your skills.

My endgame auras are
Fury - +10% Weapon damage for 6 seconds stacking up to 50%, and this buff refreshes with every kill you make.
Skin of Steel - 10% Damage Reduction. I'm using it due to the high amounts of damage at Inhuman Ordeal 5. The passive also fixes any mana issues you might have.
Thrilling Heroics - now with the good gear (read: godlikes) and 19000 health, the 10% Damage Reduction isn't really that impactful, which means we can switch into more damage, and the only way to do that is to use this aura.
Aura of Vigilance - +32% to Defense, +32% to All Resistances, +5% Movespeed, +25% Magic Find and all of that is applied to allies in multiplayer close to you.

Don't expect the damage output of a Bounty Hunter, but you can still kill Inhuman Ordeal 5 reasonably fast.

Here's the link to my current gear:

http://imgur.com/a/NQemg

Here's a little screenshot to show you how high you can get with your defenses:

http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=621919727

After that screenshot, Protector has taken some nerfs, mainly the Item Defense % essences were reduced from +158% to +138% maximum, but the 93% reduction shown on screen is still obtainable. And here's a random damage screenshot of Viper Strike that I took while testing out different skill setups:



Here's my badass looking Protector in endgame gear:

Today I had a session to check out how Protector works in terms of the most brutal settings.



With IO5 the damage bonuses become so insane that you actually have to avoid certain types of damage. Even at 80% Damage Reduction and 19000 HP, there are things that can kill you. These are:

Digiribulosa's rocket swarm - the tentacle mechanical thingy that drains all your mana when you kill it. Once in a blue moon, it will shoot five rockets to a specific location, where those rockets land on the ground and explode few seconds later. This explosion can kill you instantly.
Solution: Painlessness, run away.

Igor's explosion on death - the small flamethrower guys that make poison mines and move very slowly. The explosion deals over 44k damage to me.
Solution: Painlessness, run away.


Caravan
- Always cast Battle Cry with 6% HP Regen powerup near the escortees, the regeneration buff works on them too!
- Kill everything that is not critical immune or physical/fire immune (depending if you use physical skills or flamestrike), use Chain on the rest to pull them away from the escortees.
- Also use Chain if the escortees get stuck inbetween the monsters.
- Try to move ahead of the escortees, they won't wait for you until you kill a group of monsters, so start killing before your guys reach them.

Domovoy Rush
- Ignore giant type monsters, kill only the small ones. Use Smite and Ghastly Shape to move through monsters fast.


You should have no problems dealing with other scenarios.


Hope this guide helps you with your Protector, now go and liberate Borgovia!