Pretty much the same as the main game: you don’t have much of a choice, as the game grants you this power at the beginning.

It’s still a dash. You move forward by up to 10 meters, very fast. Keep in mind that this not a teleportation. So if there’s an obstacle between you and your destination, you will hit it. If that’s a Wall of Light, you will die. But you will travel fast enough not to be detected, provided, of course, you are not visible at your starting point and destination.

What’s new ? This particular Blink stops time if you stop moving. Developers like to call it “redirective blink”, and that’s exactly what it is : say, if you’re falling, you can clunch your first, conure Blink, stop time, look around you, aim for a spot / ledge to grab, cast Blink and effectively stop your fall.

Level II upgrade: increases distance up to 15 meters. Worth the price.

Mana cost: low. Blink has no mana cost if you wait for it to recharge.

Uses: Pretty much the same as normal Blink. It’s quite obvious that this power is great for parkour purposes. You can find new ways a normal human can’t use. You canna go there, you can, wherever “there” is. Blink has a range, and that’s it. You can aim it wherever you wish. You can also use it to survive a lethal fall (especially with this one which stops time) by reaching solid ground sooner and preventing too high damage.

For stealth, you can move from cover to cover with less detection risk. Use the high ground to move undetected easier, or evaluate a zone. Move quickly behind and enemy to neutralize him immediately. You can also (with good reflexes) stop a detection from happening : if a NPC is about to spot you, just freeze time and move !

For assault, you can use it to rush enemies, quickly move behind them and backstab them. You can also blink between two adrenaline executions to reach a nearby enemy.
Blink is a great dodge if you’re fast enough – you can also freeze time but that’s less stylish, and style is very important !

It’s like a combination of Dark Vision and The Heart from the main game. So it’s immediately a kind of a must have, just to detect runes and bone charms. Just like Blink, you are gifted the first rank of this power.

The first rank allows you to see in the dark (which is kinda useless, but well) and see Runes and Bonecharms from a distance and through solid objects. Make sure to regularly pop this Void Gaze not to miss some.

Level II upgrade: allows you to see living beings, lines of sight, objects, mechanisms and any items of interest through walls. You can also see the range of any sound.

Mana cost: extremely low. Your mana will recharge before the effects of the power even wear off.

Uses: obviously the first rank is as useful as the heart is in the main game. As for the second rank, which matches Dark Vision, it’s actually very useful if you want to do the achievement that requires to finish Brigmore Witches with 10000 coin. It’s also good to see patterns in the enemies movement, if you want to play it more tactical.

Nothing new. Allows you to slow time for a few seconds. Systems and living beings will still react to your presence, only much slower.

Level II upgrade: completely stops time. Security systems, such as Wall of Lights, are “stopped” during the effect, and living creatures will not notice you.

Mana cost: very high. You might want to use a mana potion just after using the power.

Uses: this power is very versatile. I don’t need to tell you why it’s good, or why slowing / stopping time will help you whether you’re playing stealth or assault. Obviously it’s much more fun and reliable to completely stop time.

Keep in mind that you can walk through Walls of Light when time is stopped.

Allows you to summon one of your assassins. He will then attack any hostile in the vincity. This power is really cool – what could better make you feel like a master assassin? Their abilities depend on Daud’s other abilities and the level of Arcane Bond. Apparently you can set a priority target for the assassin if you aim at them while summoning.

Level II upgrade: summoned assassins attack faster and deal higher damage. Not really useful – if you want to upgrade your assassins, consider investing in Arcane Bond rather than this.

Mana cost: high.

Uses: very versatile power. You can use it to get some help in a fight, or to get away from it. You can also summon an assassin to take out an enemy without alerting others of your presence. If your assassin gets spotted, enemies will still be on high alert afterwards, but it won’t count you as spotted.
On the contrary, one kill from one of your assassins counts as one kill from you – and you can’t command them to be non-lethal, so this power is actually counterproductive if you’re playing non-lethal. Depending on your Arcane Bond level, this power can be combined with other skills.

Allows you to lift and pull towards you objects from a distance. You will instantly grab them very fast. This power is really good, though a little trickier to use than the other (just like Summon Assassin I guess)

Level II upgrade: allows you to pull living or unconscious / dead bodies. NOT stealthy on living beings.

Mana cost: variable. That’s the only power that does that in the first Dishonored. If you use Pull on an object, it will have a low mana cost (20%) ; if you use it on a body, that cost will be doubled.

Uses: for stealth, it has as many uses as there are objects you want to catch from a distance: whale oil, keys, money, runes, bonecharms… And keep in mind you won’t be spotted when you use this on objects.
You can also grab a body from a distance: it’s a bit quicker than blink / grab / blink back, as Pull will instantly grab the body for you.

Sadly though, there is absolutely no way to use Pull on a living guard without being detected. Then again, it does not really prevent you from being stealthy… (but you won’t get Ghost). You can kill or knock people unconscious while they are pulled towards you, or drop them from an important height, or pull them towards your Assassin…

In assault, this power is a little less useful, but it’s really great against Elite guards if you are tired of them blocking / dodging your every strike or shooting at you, as Pull will stagger them for a moment, allowing you to get the advantage. That applies for standard guards as well.

This power is shared with your Assassins if you have Arcane Bond rank II, and they tend to use it poorly, so you might not want to purchase Arcane Bond (or Pull) level II, depending on what you have already.

It’s actually less bad than in the original game… but it’s still really, really freaking bad.

The first rank gives you a little bit more health, the second improves health regeneration. It’s useless in stealth and won’t really save you in combat, because elixirs. Simple as that, and these don’t need runes.

It’s a little bit better in the DLCs because your Assassins benefit from it with Arcane bond, but meh.

Now we’re talking. I don’t really imagine a Dishonored game without this passive.

The first rank allows you to jump waaay higher. When you’re daud, it’s even higher than in the original game. It’s crazy good. This super-jump thing is really a must-have, if anything, because it will allow you to keep moving, to keep your pace, without waiting for your Blink to recharge: you’ll just jump and grab a corner while it does. It’s also nice in combat as you can jump to dodge strikes, then land behind an enemy, or drop assassinate him, or just land on his head and stagger him.

The sprint boost is more of a gadget, but as Daud is really slow, it’s still a nice thing to have.

One of the most oriented skill trees in the game. There are simply no stealth uses for that. It’s purely assault-oriented.

Killing / blocking strikes will build up adrenaline, and once your screen turns orange-like, you can release the adrenaline burst. With the first rank, you’ll trigger a finisher on an enemy. If you have the second rank, it will trigger two back-to-back slow-motion sword strikes. You can use a gadget or a power (typically, Blink, the wristbow or the pistol) between the two strikes. Style, y’know.

Really, really poor ability. Next to useless. Any person you kill without them seeing you fades to dust. Level II extends this to every victim, including those who spotted you.

Hell, let’s say you wanna cheese the game, leave few traces, avoid moving corpses to a hiding spot, whatever. Okay, first rank is worth it in that case. Don’t ever buy the second one, though. Because if you needed the second rank, that would mean you get spotted often, and leave a lot of bodies behind. But if you get spotted often, you don’t really care about body detections. So you don’t need the second rank.

Note that the disappearance of bodies will not prevent them from counting towards chaos. However it does reduce the amount of rats encountered later on. Still not really enough to make this passive useful in my opinion.

Most impactful skill tree of the DLCs. It can direct your skill choices (or it can not, if you don’t want to play with Assassins)

This allows your Assassins to share your powers, if and only if you have purchased them as well. The first rank is free and gives your Assassin access to Blink and Vitality (so, it gives access to Blink, haha).

The second rank is where things get really interesting. Your assassins gain access to Shadow Kill (meh), Pull (can be good or not) and… are not affected by Bend Time. Which, as you can guess, can be pretty funny to clean a zone (and leave no traces with Shadow kill even).

There’s some decision making here. You might want your Assassins to have pull – but you might not, because they tend to use it randomly. You might want them to leave no traces, or not. And you might want them to move when you stop time… or not! If you use Summon Assassin while time is stopped, the Assassin will spawn (and do his job) when Bend Time wears off… which can actually be good if you want to plan a synchronized two-front attack, if that makes any sense.

So, identify what you want to do, identify what you want to have, what you want your Assassins to have, and spend your runes wisely !