Travel Powers & You: A Beginner's Guide
By
BuffyASummers,
Posted on: 2006-04-18 11:13 in Player Guides
just my 2 inf from a pvp perspective.
hi, i'm a long time super jump user, and really, i would recommend a second so slot for sj. it really does give you a large boost to speed and vertical movement. i've seen round the boards it caps at 2 but i'm really not sure. the extra distance/jump/speed comes in really handy if you plan to hang round in pvp zones much. regarding fly, i have mine slotted 3 flight so's and 2 end reduction. it goes along way if running multiple toggles during a long flight or during motivated aerial combat. 
Kittens give Morbo gas.
Fly does not have an accuracy penalty. It was removed when they added suppression. You might want to mention that if you have Fly, Super Speed or Super Jump enabled and attack, they will be suppressed to the speed of Hover, Sprint or Combat Jump and then revert back to full capability when you discontinue your attack after a few seconds.
Basic Scrapper Info in Issue 7 (draft)
Basic Tanker Info in Issue 7 (draft)
The Harsh Reality of PVP
Speed: Most take Super Speed because of Hasten not the other way around. Flurry is arguably the worst power pool attack in the game (see Jump Kick). Whirlwind was one of the worst powers in the game, then it was great, now it sucks again. Super Speed is decent for what it does... move fast on the ground. You can be debuffed to a crawl as if you don't even have the power on.
Ratings: Flurry *, Hasten *****, Super Speed **, Whirlwind *
Super Jump: Because of the status protection offered in Combat Jumping and Acrobatics, this is the preferred set for squishies that prefer to be in melee (Kins, Blappers, Human Form Khelds). Jump debuffs are almost binary... they either work or they don't. Jump Kick is the biggest piece of trash in the game and I cringe everytime I see it used.
Combat Jumping + Hurdle + Swift = suppressionless movement and is very popular in PvP.
Ratings: Jump Kick *, Combat Jumping ****, Super Jump ***, Acrobatics ****
Flight: Easiest to use, slowest, endurance intensive. You can point your character in the direction you want to go, hit autorun (default bind is the R key), go afk, and come back with your character where you wanted them to go. There seem to be more -fly debuffs than there are for every other travel power combined. Air Superiority is the best power pool attack in the game. Hover isn't all that useful. Group Fly is really only useful at Hami raids and on Masterminds.
Rating: Hover *, Air Superiority ****, Fly **, Group Fly *
Teleport: Hardest to use. As the OP stated, it's best to make a bind. Not as endurance intensive as it once was, but isn't cheap. Teleport Foe is very popular in PvP (for obivous reasons). Recall friend is nice for after team wipes, helping taxi lowbies, and stealthing missions. Teleport in the hands of a capable PvPer can bypass things like Hurricane and Force Bubble. Team teleport is really only decent with Masterminds
Rating: Recall Friend **, Teleport Foe ****, Teleport **, Team Teleport *
Currently roleplaying, badgehunting, and laughing at the PvPers of CoX. lol, PvP.
Truedusk - Human Rogue
Here's my first attempt at a guide. I'm a casual player with a few characters into the 20's and 30's -- this guide is aimed at new players who are looking at what travel powers to take. I rarely do PvP so I can't speak to the benefits/detriments and I am no Min/Max kind of guy, so look elsewhere for that sort of input...
I'm also a positive kind of guy, so I hope to just give some input about the powers' nature rather than telling you what's best.
What are Travel Powers?
Each character gets 4 'Pool' powers to add to their Primary/Secondary. These include things like 'Fitness', 'Leadership', etc., but they also include the 4 'Travel' pools:
- Speed
- Flight
- Leaping
- Teleportation
Should I take a Travel Power
Short Answer = Yes. You can take your true travel power at Level 14 if you so desire. If your power choices work out so that you want to delay it a little (until 16 or 18), that seems to be fine, but unless you only solo AND you don't mind taking a long time to get anywhere, you should look into picking up a travel power.
Nothing speeds up your leveling progress like a travel power. Reducing the monotonous travel between missions is a big life improvement. Any teams you're on will be glad for it.
What Travel Power to Take
First and foremost, I'm big on taking character concept travel powers. None of the powers are bad (if used the right way). If you want your Tanker to fly through the skies with the greatest of ease, do it. Ignore all nay-sayers. They all work and they're all useful in their own way.
In this some vein, I have seen some characters with multiple travel pools chosen. I've never done it (I have problems taking all the Primary/Secondary powers I want), but if it fits some concept in your mind, go ahead.
What to consider (besides concept) are the introductory powers (available as of Level 6) as well as the ultimate power (available at Level 20). I'll take a look at each 'pool'.
Speed
Your travel power is Super Speed. You run... really fast. Sparks fly from your feet. On a straight-away, you're hard to beat. The only issue here is some sort of vertical movement. I haven't seen all the maps, but from what I hear, there are some maps that you will have some troubles on. Without vertical movement, you're stuck running around obstacles. I have never added any Enhancement slots I dont really think you need them
To me, the BIG benefit here is that one of the intro powers for Speed is 'Hasten'. Speeds up all of your recharge times (by 70%?). If you're going to take Hasten anyhow, Super Speed already has its requirements met. That leaves an extra power slot for something else.
'Flurry', the other intro power, is ok if you want a melee attack. It's ok damage with a long animation time. I just don't know why you would take that over Hasten.
'Whirlwind' is the ultimate power. It's a toggle power that causes Knockback. I've only seen it in action a couple times -- it's ok but seems a little pointless.
Flight
I dont know if any other travel power seems more like a superhero than Fly. It was the first one I tried and I still love soaring above the streets. Forget obstacles just about anywhere is accessible to you.
The downside of Fly is that it is the slowest of the travel powers. Its not horrible, but unenhanced, youre not moving real fast. I tend to drop an early additional flight enhancement in the power (and another when I hit Single-Origins). With 3 SOs in the power, its pretty fast and the fact that you can fly over anything makes for quick, direct trips.
Both of the introductory powers are good. Hover is a really slow Fly, but without any accuracy penalties (and a small defense bonus). I have never mastered it, but many people fight while Hovering, which gives you a nice third dimension to manage combat. Air Superiority is the other intro power. Decent damage that can knock down a flying target. It can function as another attack in an attack chain and is worth slotting.
The ultimate power is Group Fly. Eh. I think there are occasional circumstances it comes in handy, but by the time you can take this endurance-hog power (level 20), most people have their own way of getting around. (Masterminds come to mind flying your pets around, but I dont know if its really worth it).
Leaping
Super Jump! Take huge leaps crossing expanses of territory. You get vertical, but youre faster than a Flyer. The only issue you may encounter is that you DO have to come down intermittenly, so you have to be careful to not land in the middle of a bunch of +5 bad guys who wont be happy about you crashing their get-together. Paying attention, you can actually maneuver fairly well and should be able to avoid unfriendlies. I havent actually added any enhancement slots to Super Jump since it seems fairly fast to me.
Like Flight, Leaping offers an attack (Jump Kick) and a small defensive power (Combat Jumping) as introductory powers. Jump Kick takes a little while to go through its full animation, but it can work as an additional attack. Combat Jumping only offers a small defensive bonus, but it does a couple other things as well. It adds height to your normal jump and it gives you a little immobilization resistance. Its a toggle-power, but the endurance cost is minimal.
The Level 20 power is Acrobatics and this may be the best ultimate power in the Travel pools. It offers you Knockback and Hold resistance, as well as slick little animations while its running.
Teleportation
Of all the travel powers, I think Teleport gets the most bad press. The fact that it costs a lot of Endurance seems to be the main issue, but I think maneuverability comes into play a bit too. I initially tried Range enhancements in Teleport and what I found that I was still having to stop mid-trip to replenish my endurance (especially pre-Stamina). What I have ended up doing instead is adding 2 Endurance Reduction enhancements. The range is good enough and if youre spending less endurance on each port, trips become less stop and go. Racing teammates, I can regularly beat Flyers and Leapers, and occasionally can beat Speedsters if they encounter enough obstacles to make them take a non-direct route.
My recommendation is to bind Teleport to a key on your keyboard. Since you have to target where youre going with the mouse, you dont want to have to click on the Teleport button, then click on target and repeat use both hands! There are more fancy binds out there (if you look), so find what will work for you.
Both intro powers for Teleportation are useful in their own ways. Recall Friend is a classic team power. Tankers who make the long Hollows run can bring their friends along. Defenders can bring their dead friends into safe areas for rezzes, etc. If you solo, this is obviously useless. Teleport Foe can be used to pull bad guys to a spot next to you. It seems to cause some area aggro (which will pull the whole group), but used carefully, it can help you whittle down a big group.
As with Team Fly, Team Teleport seems to have some circumstantial usefulness, but I wouldnt really look at it as an ultimate goal.
Conclusions
As I said, I think you should use whatever travel power that makes sense for you concept and character-wise. To me, the fun is in having a character youre happy with, not one that fits someone elses concept of how things work. Teleporting Scrappers, Flying Tanks, Leaping Masterminds if it works for you, do it.
Hope that helps.