Travel powers, are they needed?
By
Battlebabe,
Posted on: 2009-05-15 14:34 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
Shadow Fane uses 2 slotted hurdle with combat jumping and is easily faster than a capped flyer. Most travel-powerless builds I've seen have similar workarounds.
Infatum on Virtueverse
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Shadow Fane uses 2 slotted hurdle with combat jumping and is easily faster than a capped flyer. Most travel-powerless builds I've seen have similar workarounds.
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Please don't misread my comment here as I genuinely would like to know and I do not profess to be an expert here. I was under the impression the combat jumping and hurdle would only mildly increase your jumping height and distance. I have never taken hurdle and CJ together so I don't know. Help me understand. Thanks.
Jet pack from Mayhem/Safeguard missions or purchased
Jump pack from Mayhem/safeguard missions
Jet pack as mission reward (Villains only, infinitely renewable from Ouroboros)
Mission Teleporter from Valkyrie Pack
SG teleporters with Base Teleporter Vet Reward or Day Job reward
Wentworth Teleporter, purchased or Day Job
Pocket D Teleporter and zone shortcuts
Midnight Club zone shortcuts
Vanguard zone shortcuts
Pocket D Jump pack caps flight speed for 30 sec on any flight power
+Run from Swift from the commonly taken Fitness Tree
+Run from Quickness or Mental training (SR or VEAT)
+Run from Siphon Speed (Kin set)
+run from Commuter Day Job
+Run from Speed Boost from Friendly Kinetics guy
+Jump from Inertial reduction from Kinetics set or friendly Kin
All these add up to a travel power being less required.
I tend to use the safeguard/mayhem packs on characters where I am exploring the power sets. The Pocket D jump pack caps the flight speed of the jetpack, making it "good enough" for my purposes.
www.paragonwiki.com is a great source of information for this game.
New or returning to the game? Want advice from experienced players who want to help YOU?
The Mentor Project: Part of the New Player Council.
I have exactly one character (well, one half - one build has SJ, another doesn't) without a travel power. Without, I can move around somewhat quickly - but I find it a bit irksome. I do, however, still have my jet pack for getting over obstacles.
Needed, no, convenient as heck, yes.
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Shadow Fane uses 2 slotted hurdle with combat jumping and is easily faster than a capped flyer. Most travel-powerless builds I've seen have similar workarounds.
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Please don't misread my comment here as I genuinely would like to know and I do not profess to be an expert here. I was under the impression the combat jumping and hurdle would only mildly increase your jumping height and distance. I have never taken hurdle and CJ together so I don't know. Help me understand. Thanks.
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Combat Jumping increases your jump height by 200% and jump speed by 1%.
Hurdle increases jump height by 166.8% and jump speed by 124.5%.
Together they give you a jump speed of 38.2 mph and height of 20.9 ft.
1 slotted Flight (without Swift) gives a flight speed of 42.9 mph.
I get pretty tired of people who have no travel power at all, and no attempt at travel faster than sprint on higher level characters. They always expect others to tp them around or to wait for them before the mission starts. I feel no obligation to wait for them if nobody has tp, since they made the choice to not have any travel power at all.
Actually, I have a couple characters without travel powers and I never expect people to wait around. On the other hand, both have swift, hurdle and sprint slotted, so neither is a huge drag on team speed if they do decide to wait, and as a totally useless side-effect I'm actually faster than most of my team-mates on mission maps. I keep in mind I am slower on overland maps than most of my team-mates, so I don't sell or train while on teams, and am rarely the last one to the door. For task forces or other occasions that are going to involve a lot of long-distance jogging, I still have both zero G and raptor packs.
You should never wait for people unless you don't have enough people to handle the start of the mission. They don't gain anything from you waiting while you lose something having to wait.
As for no travel powers, Raptor Pack + Hurdle has decent speed. There's also a lot of people who live in AE, which means they only travel inside missions and between AE and the trainer (and possibly wentworths).
That said, I'd never go without Super Speed, even if I only traveled inside missions. It increases my XP/inf/whatever per minute more than any other power. This is true mostly because I don't farm in any way, shape or form.
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You should never wait for people unless you don't have enough people to handle the start of the mission. They don't gain anything from you waiting while you lose something having to wait.
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If you wait, they gain mission XP they would miss out on if you start without them. Sometimes this is a fair amount. Its divided by the number of people present in the mission, and is the reason why its a common courtesy to wait for people who have longer loading times.
of course, I still agree that it is up to each person to ensure they can get to mission doors in a timely fashion, and other than the wait for fliers (flap your arms faster, dangit!), I can see not hanging around for those who rely too much on someone else TPing them.
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I have noticed a lot of builds people have posted here that don't have a travel power. I have always been a fan of the travel powers offered and feel that they help you quite a bit and are fun. Obviously some people don't feel they need them. I understand the need to squeeze in many powers into a tight build.
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I have level 50 characters with no travel power on Pinnacle, Liberty and Virtue. I also have characters ranging from 14 to 40 on those servers, all with no travel powers.
I don't skip travel powers because my builds are tight, or because there are other powers I want. I skip travel powers because I... love bouncing around with Hurdle and Combat Jumping, and because I've been doing it for so long that I know exactly how to maximize my movement without relying on travel powers.
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The jet packs are slow. Using ouroboros helps but is not going to get you door to door.
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Temporary travel powers and "teleportals" are only part of what makes a successful travel power-less character.
Know your zone connections. Know where the trains/ferries are, which zones they connect, where to find direct zone connections and which ones they connect with.
Know your routes. Learn the layouts of the zones and locate the best ways to reach various points as early as possible.
Be prompt. Don't stand around waiting for someone to tell you that everyone's ready to enter the mission, start moving to the appropriate location as soon as you know which zone it's in. This, by the way, is, in my experience, much more applicable to players with travel powers than those of us without. I can't count how many times I've had to put up with lazy Super Speeders puttering around at the market, or TP beggars (who sometimes have two or three travel powers... don't ask me, i just play here) whining because they don't want to make their own way to the mission door.
If possible, supplement your movement speed with IO set bonuses and temporary powers like Movement Increase or the Commuter/Frequent Commuter day job. Little bonuses add up, and the closer you are to capped Fly speed, the less justification anyone has to complain about your speed.
Learn the art and science of war wall sliding. It's very simple, just nudge up against a war wall when you're jumping with CJ toggled on and you shoot right across and up it like it's Teflon coated.
Don't overslot for jump height if you're using Hurdle + CJ. That'll slow you down, your speed comes from long, shallow leaps, not big high jumps.
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How do you NOT feel like you are gimped without a travel power.
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I've been playing characters without travel powers since I5. Before jet packs. Before IO set bonuses. Before day jobs. Before Pocket D/Ouroboros, and with absolutely no SG base beacons/teleporters to use. And I've never felt "gimped". More often than not, I'm one of the first three or four to get to a mission door. When someone tries to TP me, it's almost always when I'm just a few hops away and it would actually take me longer to stop and click "Yes" than it would to just take those last few hops.
The slowest character I have without a travel power moves at ~52 mph. The fastest I've achieved to date was a short time when I was moving at 66.64 mph (that's about 8 mph faster than capped Fly). There are no obstacles I can't clear or go around quickly and no zones I can't navigate just as easily as anyone with travel powers (this includes zones like Grandville or Terra Volta). And the primary component of my travel capability, Hurdle, is always on and costs zero endurance to maintain, so I never have to worry about running out of endurance because I forgot to toggle my travel power off or being suppressed to base movement speed because I attacked with my travel power toggled on.
Lack of travel powers isn't "gimp", any more than using Fly is "gimp".
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Shadow Fane uses 2 slotted hurdle with combat jumping and is easily faster than a capped flyer.
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I doubt that. I've got a character which will have (when i finish leveling her) 52% +Jump Speed/Height from stacked IO set bonuses and the Frequent Commuter day job, and even with Hurdle three-slotted with level 50 IOs, I can't break 58 mph. I don't see anyone breaking the Flight speed cap with two-slotted Hurdle, unless they have the The Fool buff or are using the Zero-G pack.
QR
Xalaqia's big list missed Lightning Reflexes, a Quickness clone from Electric Armor.
I have a couple travel power-less toons. Combining powers of Xalaqia's list is key. On a TF, I can often get to the mission on a no travel toon first, just by knowing which porter to use first, and maybe using a temp power, like a jet pack.
Some of my toons get a travel power at 14, others at 49, some never. But I always make sure they can get around as quickly as necessary.
@Roderick
Travel powers really aren't needed but they are nice. I have two toons at 50 that don't have a travel power. The biggest reason is because I just can't fit one in the build. It may take them slightly longer to reach the mission than the rest but odds are they'll survive the longest.
Elec/Cold Troller AV/Pylon/GM/TF/SF Soloing Antics
everytime...he gets me everytime.... DAMN U BOOMIE
-- _Ilr_
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I have travel powers on all of my characters. I don't always pick one up right at 14, though--sometimes I putz around with the jump pack from the bank mission until 20 or so.
Most of my builds need slots more than powers, so I can't see myself investing slots in hurdle/swift/combat jumping when I can just get super jump, drop 1 SO in it and move along as fast as I could ever want.
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Jet pack as mission reward (Villains only, infinitely renewable from Ouroboros)
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OMG! You can get the Goldbricker jet pack reward again and again via flashback?
I doubt I'll spec a travel power on my non-PVP oriented red-side characters ever again.
My fly travel power has 3 SO fly enhancements and the icon reports I fly at 104 mph. I don't know where some of the lower fly speeds are coming from but I fly pretty fast.
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My fly travel power has 3 SO fly enhancements and the icon reports I fly at 104 mph. I don't know where some of the lower fly speeds are coming from but I fly pretty fast.
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Flight speed is capped at 58.6 mph.
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Jet pack as mission reward (Villains only, infinitely renewable from Ouroboros)
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OMG! You can get the Goldbricker jet pack reward again and again via flashback?
I doubt I'll spec a travel power on my non-PVP oriented red-side characters ever again.
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Not 100% sure, but I think it's the Sky Raider one (from Lt Chalmer's mission with Ballista-1) that you can get repeatedly. I don't think the Goldbricker one can be accessed via Flashback.
Of course I may have that backwards.
I have a few characters without travel powers. Like someone else said, if I'm heading to the mission as soon as it's posted it's very rare for me to be the last one there despite being the only one without a travel power. I never ask for TP though I'll take one if it's offered, but my characters with travel powers will too so I don't see that as a valid complaint against me either.
I made one character with no travel powers way back, a non-powereed MA/SR scrapper, and did feel a little bit gimped, deliberately.
I didn't mind solo, it really doesnt take that long to cross zones and I'd often beat up a few guys on the way to a mission.
It also felt great when I hopped onto an alt who could fly or run at superspeed.
On teams, I found I wasn't usually the last to the door. Someone would need to go and sell, or level up, or see a contact or whatever. In exceptional conditions (eg crossing Indepenedence Port and no teleports available) I'd pull out the jump pack.
I usually found people with Recall Friend are only too happy to use it, just like any other power. When I get the chance to teleport a teammate on my Recallers I feel special. 
Occasionally I'd get a teammate who wouldn't shut up about me not having a travel power by the 30's. (Despite the fact I hadnt held them up). I'd reply in character - just like Batman would if the rest of the JLA started to hassle him about not being able to fly or run at superspeed.
These days half my characters are travel-power free because I dual-box. The other half have Group Fly, Kinetics or Recall Friend for ferrying their partners around. Just for fun.
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I have noticed a lot of builds people have posted here that don't have a travel power. I have always been a fan of the travel powers offered and feel that they help you quite a bit and are fun. Obviously some people don't feel they need them. I understand the need to squeeze in many powers into a tight build. The jet packs are slow. Using ouroboros helps but is not going to get you door to door. How do you NOT feel like you are gimped without a travel power.
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The answer to your question is something only the player of a particular character can answer. I made at least one character that took swift, hurdle, and CJ, and basically did runs and hops to get from mission to mission. I basically played this guy like an extreme athlete who liked to hop from rooftop to rooftop w/o the aid of SJ/fly/etc.
It was fun for me, but only because it went w/ that character's concept. For the most part, though, it's just easier to take a bona fide travel power.
One thing you can never win an argument about is fun; if someone finds playing sans travel power fun, then let them be. Those players who are around for a while seem to have the best knowledge about getting around various zones...
I am a Blaster hearted player. Most of my toons fly (with exception of my PVP builds) I love the travel powers and the vet reward that allows you to take the travel power without the pre-cursor is brilliant. I was actually hoping that they give thought to removing Whirlwind from superspeed and replacing it with a Supersonic flight! Even if it was just a 2-3 min click instead of a toggle. I know alot of Flyers that would jump at the opportunity to create a Sonic Boom and warp across skyway or elsewhere lol 
I usually do without, and only take travel powers for the other abilities in the pool. Hasten, Hover (for defense and ghetto -kb), Combat Jumping, and Acrobatics are all handy powers, and if I've got an extra power pick, may as well grab the travel power as well.
That being said, I'm power stingy. With stamina being a requirement for all my characters unless they have something a lot better, I need every power I can squeeze out after 3 are eaten just for functionality. Swift + Hurdle + Spring makes a decent way to get around, especially with the plethora of temp powers out there.
Also, memorizing every way to get from A to B on every redside map helps.
I have noticed a lot of builds people have posted here that don't have a travel power. I have always been a fan of the travel powers offered and feel that they help you quite a bit and are fun. Obviously some people don't feel they need them. I understand the need to squeeze in many powers into a tight build. The jet packs are slow. Using ouroboros helps but is not going to get you door to door. How do you NOT feel like you are gimped without a travel power.