Difference between revisions of "Travel Powers"

Revision as of 03:41, 10 June 2009

Overview

Travel Powers are any powers that modify a character's movement to such a degree that he can travel large distances quickly. There are four Power Pools powers designed primarily for the purpose of personal movement. Other powers provide smaller or temporary travel benefits, or grant them to entire teams.

• The base speed of many Travel Powers scales with level.
• Travel Powers are subject to Suppression.
• Fly, Super Jump and Super Speed are subject to "hard caps", which means there is a threshold past which nothing will increase the speed at which you travel. TopDoc's Movement Guide on the official boards goes into the mathematics.

The following table lists the four main Travel Powers and their comparative speeds in MPH, first at Level 14 when they become available, then at Level 50, and finally at Level 50 with 3 Single-Origin Enhancements.

NOTE: Blasters with Energy Manipulation may be able to achieve as much as 312 MPH with Teleport by using Boost Range and Range Enhancements.

NOTE: With Super Jumping and Super Speeding, some of the enhancements listed above are wasted due to the hard caps.

Travel

The following is a listing of “formal” Travel Powers. They are all subject to Suppression unless noted otherwise.

Fly

Toggle. Self +Fly

Fly is simple to use, safe, and highly maneuverable, but expensive in Endurance and relatively slow.

Group Fly

Toggle. PBAoE Team +Fly -Acc

Group Fly is slower than Fly, but just as maneuverable. Teammates and Pets in the 'gaseous nebula' it creates will be granted flight. Allies remain flying for 10 seconds after leaving the nebula. Group Fly does not suffer Suppression; however, it applies a severe ToHit penalty.

Super Jump

Toggle. Self +Jump

Super Jump is simple to use, fast, fairly maneuverable, fairly safe, and cheap. Its biggest drawback is the danger of accidentally jumping into a crowd of enemies.

Super Speed

Toggle. Self +Speed

Super Speed is simple to use, cheap, fast, and safe, but is very much restricted by terrain since it offers no way to gain altitude. However, when coupled with Super Jump, or even Combat Jumping, (If you are willing to risk taking the extra power needed for Super Jump) Super Speed is Very fast and you can jump Great distances. On the upside, Super Speed grants minor stealth versus computer-controlled enemies.

Teleport

Ranged (Location), Self Teleport

Teleport is complex to use, very expensive, and dangerous. On the other hand, it is potentially the fastest of all Travel Powers, it is the least affected by debuffs and Status Effects, and it doesn't suffer Suppression.

Activating Teleport gives the player a targeting reticule similar to targeted AoE and Pet Summon powers. Each time the player teleports, he is given a four-second grace period at his new location where he can't fall (but also can't move, except by teleporting again). This grace period exists because the sudden change in location can cause a computer to pause for a few seconds while it redraws the screen. If the character began falling immediately, he would be at the mercy of the ground and any unseen enemies below him while his player waited for the drawing to finish.

Some powers, however, do affect this grace period. Firstly, the Tanker and Brute powers Granite Armor and Rooted (from Stone Armor) will cause the player to start falling immediately (presumably because of the heavy nature of the player). Secondly, characters with Fly, either as a travel power, Mayhem Mission reward or temporary power, can also start moving as soon as their screen is refreshed. And finally, characters with Super Jump, again available as Mayhem mission reward or temporary power, can Super Jump from the point teleported to if the leap is performed immediately.

A common bind for Teleport is /bind LSHIFT+LBUTTON "pow_exec_name Teleport". This combines activating the power and placing the reticule into a single step, activated by shift-left-clicking a location.

Team Teleport

Ranged (Location), Team Teleport

Team Teleport behaves just like Teleport, but with less range. Any teammate within range will teleport with the character to the same spot. This can be disorienting to teammates if they are not expecting it. Use with prudence.

Movement

None of these powers are subject to Suppression.

Sprint

Toggle Self +Speed
Sprint is an inherent power that slightly boosts run speed.

Swift

Auto Self +Speed +Fly
Swift increases run speed comparable to Sprint and slightly boosts flight speed.

Hurdle

Auto Self +Jump
Hurdle increases jump height, as well as forward momentum while jumping. Hurdle stacked with Combat Jumping provides impressive transportation speed.

Hover

Toggle Self +Fly +Defense
Initially, Hover is frustrating, as the character is nearly stationary while it is active. Hover's base flight speed is somewhere around 3 MPH. Even slotted with three SO Flight Enhancements, its speed is no better than an unenhanced Sprint. By itself, Hover is more a tool for staying outside enemies' melee range and protection from Knockback than a Travel Power. However, when combined with significant flight speed-boosting powers like Siphon Speed and Accelerate Metabolism, it can be a viable combat movement power.

Combat Jumping

Toggle Self +Jump +Defense +Resist: Immobilize
Combat Jumping uses minimal Endurance and improves combat movement dramatically.

Siphon Speed

Ranged Click Self +Speed +Fly +Recharge FOE -Speed -Fly -Recharge
One application of Siphon Speed will grant a character Super Speed-like ground mobility. Siphon Speed also boosts flight speed and can easily cap Fly.
Siphon Speed requires a hostile target and a successful attack against it in order to be used.

Speed Boost

Ranged Click Ally +Speed +Recharge +Endurance recovery.
Speed Boost is one of the most coveted and most hated buffs. Speed Boost grants Super Speed-like movement, which can make placement and control of a character difficult for a player who isn't used to such speeds, or who receives them without warning. However, like Siphon Speed, the +Speed bonus is not affected by Suppression and can allow swift movement from one foe to the next. Very dangerous when Brutes and Scrappers get into scrapperlock, as they can rocket across an entire room to attack, gaining aggro along the way.

Inertial Reduction

Click PBAoE Ally +Jump
Inertial Reduction effectively gives the character and those around him Super Jump for 60 seconds.

Accelerate Metabolism

Click PBAoE Ally +Damage, +Recharge, +Recovery, +Speed, +Fly
Accelerate Metabolism's speed boost is similar to Swift and Sprint speeds, yet this is still a noticeable increase to movement. With a base recharge of 7 minutes and a duration of only 2, it is not possible for a single character to stack multiple applications without serious extra +Recharge boosts from other characters. However, three or more separate characters with AM can give everyone Super Speed-velocity running and boost Hover to the speed of Fly.

Quickness and Lightning Reflexes

Scrappers, Stalkers, and Brutes with the Super Reflexes powerset can take Quickness. Brutes and Stalkers with Electric Armor can take a similar power, Lightning Reflexes. Both powers boost run and flight speeds (among other things) about the same as Swift does. Combined with Swift and Sprint, they can eliminate the need for ground movement travel powers.

Stealth

Stealth from the Concealment Power Pool, as well as several other powers that grant stealth, have a -Speed component to them.

Suppression

Travel Power Suppression was implemented by the Developers to combat a tactic known as jousting, which involves queuing an attack against a distant enemy and then traveling quickly past it. Due to various delays, the attack will not begin until the attacker is well past the target, potentially leaving him out of range of counterattacks.

To reduce jousting, activating most powers (particularly, those that affect hostile targets) triggers Suppression for 4 seconds. While Suppression is in effect, all speed bonuses from Super Speed disappear, as do all jumping speed and height bonuses from Super Jump. A Flying character remains flying, but his flight speed is reduced to approximately the same as Hover's base speed. Enhancements in the suppressed powers do not reduce Suppression's penalties. Movement speed buffs from other powers remain in effect.