Is Ninja Run killing Travel Powers?

I don't think so. Not all my toons use Ninja Run. It just doesn't fit their concept.

Butterfly-Girl, my Dark/Sonic Defender, just isn't a ninja run type of guy, so it's off the tray.

Brand-X, my DB/WP, is very much the acrobatic flip style hero. She also has hover/fly as it fits with her concept (now if I could get rid of that waiting stance >.> The run is great, but the standing still stance...but eh, I can click it off then).

Ninja Run, I find just works for those style of heroes who aren't really Hulk style jumpers, which is exactly what Super Jump is.

Ninja Run is the roof top to roof top style travel. Now only if we had an area that gave more easy to hit building to building action

I'm using Ninja Run + Hurdle on pretty much every character now, aside from ones that need an extra travel power for concept/functionality purposes.

NR + Hurdle is faster jumping than NR + Swift + Sprint is running, btw.

Killing Travel Powers? Nah.

Diminishing them? Maybe a bit.

I have upwards of 35 active heros. All... but 3 currently have "real" travel powers. Of them 3, 2, only 2 of my active roster plan on using NR full time. And they happen to be "ninja". (well, ones kind of more a vauge assain type, maybe not a ninja per say but close.)

The other one will get a real travel power, superspeed, but much MUCH later in her life. (like lvl 49) Shes training it to slot a Blessing of the Zepher set to get her ranged defence over 40% (Fire/Shields)

So 2 out of 35 using NR. It's second lest use travel power. Only teleport is used less... with only ONE hero being trained to use it. :/ Never really like TP all that much, but frankly, now that we have NR and in mission travel is much faster now, and hunting around town missions are much easier... i may start using TP as a viable option again.. since i'll have NR as a backup. hmm.

So at the end of the day, no, it's not IMO "killing" real TP's. Just providing a good alternive.

And for people who simple skip TPs for the sake of more combat powers... where the heck are you finding all the slots to make all them powers useful??? I mean.. man. I run out of slots for my powers way faster then i run out of powers i want to take... that's half the reason i take TP's and Fitness... to get powers that are effective with little to no slotting required so i have more slots left over for my other powers....

The necessity of taking a travel power early had already been greatly diminished by the temp travel rewards from safeguard missions. Before those, I remember feeling I HAD to take my travel at 14 just to cut all the downtime of getting from mission to mission. As others have already stated, many other factors have made it much easier to get around. With the temps, I found myself waiting on a travel till 30 on most builds, and even till 41/44 on others as I became very good at rationing my temps.

Now with NR, I haven't even bothered taking a travel on any of my new toons. Hell, I've even respecced out of my travel on a few vet toons. If I ever do take a travel again, it will be for concept reasons only. I see that many people have stated that they take them because they find them fun. That's very valid, but I find my fun in powers that I can actively use against mobs/for teammates. The thrill of using SJ or Flight the first time is exhilarating, but after 5 years, I just want to maximize other aspects of my characters.

Helix

I used to have Swift+Sprint as my "travel" powers on pretty much all my toons. Now that's been switched over to Hurdle+Ninja Run as my baseline "travel" powers on all my toons. Single slotted Hurdle+Ninja Run is pretty darn close to the horizontal movement speed cap on Flight anyway, which is not bad for almost no investment of any kind on your way to Stamina.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

To the OP:

3 slotted hurdle + ninja run (depending on slotted SO's/IO's/etc) can actually get FASTER than capped fly speed at lvl 50....something to think about. True...you do lose some vert...but if you still have the raptor pack/zero-g pack (mainly the former since ZG would detoggle NR)...there ya go. Heck...even the GvE Jump pack will get you where you wanna go.

My craziest toon is my elec/elec stalker...73 mph running and 74 mph jumping. Granted...3 slotted swift, hurdle, sprint, and lightning reflexes to manage that...but personally can live with that. Most probably couldn't. Even if i kicked all those down to just 2 slots per...i'm pretty sure i'd still be topping 60 (if not +) mph in all speeds. Slowest? Only if you don't show it any kind of love.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe ::looks at RaikenX's signature:: Something funny.

That isn't the case for me. At best, they allow me to move the travel power further up in the build so that I can take "better" powers instead earlier. Most of my characters get Combat Jumping + Hurdle anyways and I often have a spare power slot (either due to lack of enhancement slots or uninteresting powers) to pick Super Jump at some point.

You can have my super speed when you pry it from my cold dead hands. Ordinarily I'm more of a min-maxer than a concept builder, but not having a travel power just doesn't feel right.

Also the NR animation makes me gag a little on most characters.

I don't quite know what to think.

Without having access to the ninja run power, I've played a travel-power-less build to 40, and frankly, I felt slow and somehow incomplete when teamed, and when solo, I was sometimes deterred from traveling to stores or just stopping off to check the market, because who wants to go all that way on foot? When switching over to my characters with travel powers, I immediately felt a small difference. Admittedly this may be psychological; as a slow player with many alts, over the years I've come to associate "level 14 and a travel power" with the start of a character's transformation into a true super.

I've thought about buying the pack and putting Ninja Run on some of my characters. In some cases, it makes no sense at all character-wise. For example, Easter Island, the volcanic stone tanker, currently teleports -- how did you think the statues got where they now are? -- and would look silly. Great Goblin, the nasty little spines/dark armor Scrapper, could in theory use NR, but he has to keep Combat Jumping running anyway for Immobilize protection, and at that point it only costs one power pick and no extra slots to get Super Jump. The Last Minoan, minotaur with axe and shield, already has the fighting pool, the speed pool, the leaping pool, the fitness pool, two complete attack chains (single-target and AoE), and is soft-capped on defenses. He won't get much out of an ancillary unless he takes the third-tier power (like Fireball) but that would involve dropping THREE of his current powers, more than just dropping the travel power for Ninja Run. Some other builds are like that; there's nothing really compelling to take in place of the travel power...Caltrops? A self-res?

My truly travel-power-less build would probably be improved by NR and will take it if I decide to spring for the pack. But WWII pilot Airacobra will never give up flight (I can just hear the team chat now..."Your name is Airacobra and you don't fly?") so that's another build where NR is moot.

Some of my builds are jealous of NR's flip animation, but certainly not all of them...some are too dignified or too immobile.

I guess that's what the Devs were shooting for -- a power that's helpful for some builds and desirable for some concepts, but not desirable enough to replace travel powers on all builds either from a game-mechanical or roleplaying perspective. So I guess they hit a pretty good balance point.

OP:

Super Speed and Super Jump still work on all of my characters that have them. Maybe you should send a Bug Report if Ninja Run is affecting your travel powers. You might get Bug Hunter!



EDIT: Full Disclosure: I have a level 50 /Ninjitsu Stalker that uses only Ninja Run for travel. I could've easily fit in SS or SJ, but it fit the concept. With all of the shortcuts we have now, crossing zones doesn't require a regular travel that much.

Click for Hot Sun Splitter Action

Not to knock the players who enjoy Ninja Run or the developers who worked on it, but quite frankly the aesthetics of Ninja Run creep me out.

In motion, it's City of Samurai Jack. At rest, it's City of Quasimodo. I'll be sticking with Power Pool travel powers, sprints, and jetpacks, thank you very much.
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I think if anything ninja run has given a bit more concept room. Before, for the practical reasons of getting around, I needed to break away from my character's supposed abilities at times. "He's a highly trained warrior, with great combat training that can...jump over half the map? Run at breakneck speeds? Afford the technology of jetboots/jetpacks/teleportation units?"

Yes, the stance can look odd if left on. Yes, it's technically not within human bounds. But it works well for the "I'm really fit, and running as fast as I can" thing. Heck, it works for more than just natural stuff. Many characters have abilities that include fire/ice/stone/etc. that are totally unnatural, yet have nothing in them that includes superspeed/flying/superleaping/teleporting. As such, it makes sense for them to get around by simply running as fast as they can, jumping over what's in their way.

In answer to the title question, Not for me...

I'm "old school" - I use travel powers on virtually all my toons. The only
characters I have without proper travel powers from the pool, are: Kheldians,
since they come self-propelled out of the box.


Cheers,
4

PS> Not owning any booster packs at all is also a contributing factor for me...

With a fully-stocked base (and the base teleporter), how quick and easy it is to get to 25, Pocket D Pass, whatever it is that gives Mission Teleporter, and the myriad of very accessible temporary travel powers (and the bonus trickery of using the Jump Pack with a flying power), I find it hard to justify it if my build is at all tight. I also tend to look at it in the way of "Sprint+Swift+NR makes me run at 45 mph in-game...SS can double that. Whoop-dee-doo."

That said, I've gotten 60 months a little while ago and though I haven't modified any of my existing builds to accommodate it, I might end up sticking Fly or Teleport in now that it wouldn't waste a prerequisite slot to do so. I'm not all that big a fan of SJ or SS because they require a lot of attention without that much return for said attention. Fly just requires 'r' and pointing in the right direction, and Teleport with the ease-of-use binds is simple and fast enough that I don't get annoyed by the relatively higher degree of attention it requires.

I don't think NR is killing travel powers. I have NR on all toons, but the only ones I would consider dropping a travel pool altogether on would be my /SR scrappers.

NR is fun and very nice to have at the lower levels, but I'll keep Fly/SJ/SS/TP 99% of the time.

Until the day that Ninja Run and Prestige powers can be slotted with zephyr's and winter gift (aka never), travel powers will always be useful for something.

Ninja Run is merely one choice among others. Choice and customization is good. Leave it at that.

Anecdotal "feelings" and even evidence from something that is a new shiny should not concern you much. Otherwise I would have yelled "everyone is Dual Blades!" after that powerset hit.

I'm sure lots of people were saying it. It's been months though, I figured the Ninja Run doomsaying would be done.

Ninja Run is epic for one reason. Target someone who has Walk activated and turn on Follow. This is what I do for fun.

But really, I've got one character who doesn't have a travel power, my Crab Spider. He uses Ninja Run regularly (even though it's hilarious with the Crab Pack, it still looks... fitting). I have plans to do this with at least 2 more characters. Then I have my Stalker who has TP, but I often resort to NR because he looks cool doing it.

Granted, I do have the characters that look really weird using NR. NR, to me, is meant to ease the pain of not having a travel power before Lv. 14 (or whenever you fit one into your build).

Wild Streak - Lv. 50(+3) Beast Mastery/Sonic Resonance Mastermind, Amnesty - Lv. 50 Staff Fighting/Dark Armor Stalker

Also NR+Slide is awesome, Though So Are SJ+Slide and SS+Slide