Guide to Power Pools

[EdgeOfDreams]

This guide is about the common Power Pools that are available to all characters of all archetypes starting at level 4. It will NOT cover the Ancillary Power Pools and Patron Power Pools (also known as Epic Pools), which are AT-specific and unlock at level 35.

Any and all feedback on content or formatting is welcome!

 

General Info

• Power Pools are common sets of powers available to all characters starting at level 4.
• Each pool has five different powers in it.
• Each character can take powers from up to four different pools.
• Each character can only take one Origin Pool (Sorcery, Experimentation, or Force of Will), but it does NOT need to match that character’s actual Origin.
• The first two powers in each pool are available at level 4.
• In some pools, the third power is a Travel Power, which is also available at level 4 with no prerequisites. In the rest of the pools, the third power unlocks at level 14 and requires you to have at least one other power in that pool already.
• The fourth power in each pool unlocks at level 14 and requires you to have at least two powers in that pool already.
• The fifth power in each pool unlocks at level 14 or 20 (depending on the pool) and requires you to have at least two powers in that pool already.
• The effectiveness of most of these powers varies according to AT. E.g. Defenders get the highest buff/debuff values, while Blasters get the highest damage values. The main exceptions are the travel powers, which are the same on all ATs.

 

A Note on Roleplaying and Personal Preferences

Power Pools can be an excellent way to flesh out a character for RP, since certain concepts just aren’t represented completely by the combinations of AT, Primary, and Secondary powers. Some powers may also just feel fun to use even if they aren’t optimal. However, roleplaying, character concepts, and what feels fun are intensely personal and subjective. So, in this guide, I will NOT be discussing how to use Power Pools in the context of RP or faithfully representing specific character concepts. This is a guide about mechanics and optimization. That said, I’m not trying to tell anyone how to play. If you want to take the Medicine pool for RP purposes, great! Have fun! Just realize that you may be making the game harder for yourself and your team compared to the alternatives.

 

TL;DR; if you just want the quick-and-dirty top recommendations for most builds

• Speed -> Hasten (optional Super Speed) (use all your best powers more often!)
• Fighting -> Boxing OR Kick, then Tough and Weave (ignore the attack, you’re here for the added survivability)
• Leaping -> Combat Jumping (optional Super Jump) OR Flight -> Hover (optional Fly, Evasive Maneuvers) (Combat maneuverability + Defense)
• Leadership -> Maneuvers and Tactics (Solid self-and-team buffs)

 

Overview/Ranking of Pools

 

Pool	Subtype	Tier	Best Powers	Comments
Flight	Travel	A	Hover, Flight, Evasive Maneuvers	The most convenient travel power with some other fun utility
Leaping	Travel	A	Combat Jumping, Super Jump	Excellent mobility tools, but the attacks are bad.
Speed	Travel	S	Hasten, Super Speed	Hasten alone makes this worth choosing. Super Speed is the fastest unslotted travel power.
Teleportation	Travel	A	Combat Teleport, Teleport, Fold Space	Lots of interesting utility, plus the fastest slotted travel power, but takes some effort (and possibly keybinds/macros) to use well.
Sorcery	Origin	A	Mystic Flight, Rune of Protection	Creative and useful powers, plus a 2-in-1 travel option
Experimentation	Origin	B	Speed of Sound, Corrosive Vial	A 2-in-1 travel power and one of the few decent pool attacks (Corrosive Vial), but otherwise weak
Force Of Will	Origin	C	Mighty Leap	Mostly weak powers. Mighty Leap is decent, but you could have had the Leaping pool instead.
Gadgetry	Origin	None	None	Was never finished by the devs, so it is not available.
Utility Belt	Origin	None	None	Was never finished by the devs, so it is not available.
Concealment	Other/Travel	B	Stealth	Good utility, a pseudo-travel power, and minor Defense powers, but outshined by other pools
Fighting	Other	S	Tough, Weave, Cross Punch	Two strong survival powers worth taking on almost all endgame builds, plus a potentially usable attack
Leadership	Other	S	Maneuvers, Tactics	Some excellent team buffs that are useful even when solo
Medicine	Other	D	None	Massively outclassed by Primary/Secondary support powers, in a game where healing is already weak compared to other forms of support.
Presence	Other	C	Invoke Panic, Unrelenting	Has some niche uses, but requires too many power picks to get to the good powers
Fitness	Inherent	S	Health, Stamina	So good, literally every character would take it. Eventually, the devs just gave up and made it free.

 

Individual Powers

For rating individual powers, I will use a color-coded scheme.

• Green for generally good powers
• Yellow for mediocre or situationally good powers
• Red for weak powers generally not worth taking

Travel Pools

• Flight
  • Hover - Useful, but slow. Provides a small amount of Defense, which means you can slot a Luck of the Gambler (LotG) +Recharge IO and stack it with other Defense powers. On a ranged character, you can hover above enemies to stay out of melee range, which keeps you significantly safer, especially if combined with Ranged and AoE Defense bonuses from IOs  Also, it provides pseudo-protection from knockback - any knockback effect that doesn’t also apply a -Fly debuff will just make you do a little flip in the air instead of falling down and needing to stand up again. Finally, having Hover active at the same time as another flying power (Fly, Mystic Flight, or a temp power jetpack) will reduce the floatyness/drifting while maintaining the full speed of the travel power. Pro tip: you can bind keys/buttons for ascending and descending, so you don’t have to look up/down to move up/down.
  • Air Superiority - Fun animation and the knockdown is cool, but the damage isn’t good enough to make it anything more than filler
  • Fly - Easiest travel power to use, since you get full 3D movement. While toggled on, you also get access to Afterburner, which temporarily boosts your fly speed above the normal cap. You can change your flight pose with commands: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Guide_to_Flight_Poses
  • Group Fly - Difficult to use in a team, because it depends on keeping everyone together within the 60 foot radius. The only practical use I see for this is on Masterminds if you want a way to help your pets traverse certain difficult zones or mission maps.
  • Evasive Maneuvers - For a small additional Endurance cost, this makes Hover and Fly even better. Whether you’re hovering or flying, it will increase your fly speed and your “flight control”, meaning you can be more precise with your movements and will drift less. It also protects you from -Fly, Immobilize, and Knockback effects at all times, and it provides some Defense when not in combat.
• Leaping
  • Jump Kick - Silly animation, weak damage, low chance of knockup, don’t bother.
  • Combat Jumping - One of the best pool powers overall. It costs almost no Endurance to use. The small amount of Defense is good for stacking with other powers and provides a slot for LotG and/or other Defense set globals. The small increase to jump speed and height is nice, but the real secret benefit is the amount of “air control” it gives you. With CJ on, you accelerate to maximum jumping speed much more quickly, and you can stop more quickly as well. That makes it much easier to reposition in combat by leaping over enemies, which is especially useful for melee ATs. CJ also makes Super Jump accelerate faster and be easier to control if you have both on at the same time, though it doesn’t increase the overall jump speed or jump height cap.
  • Super Jump - A middle-of-the-road travel power. Not the fastest or the easiest to use, but will get you everywhere you need to go. While active, you can also toggle on “Double Jump”, which temporarily removes the jump height cap and allows you to jump again without needing to touch the ground. With that on, you can hold the jump button to rise as far as you want, or tap it over and over as you move forward to basically fly.
  • Acrobatics - Protects you from Holds and Knockback. For characters without other mez protection, this can be a nice way to eliminate two of the most common kinds of CC you’ll encounter. However, thanks to IOs and Incarnates, we have other ways of accomplishing the same thing. So, it’s a trade-off to consider.
  • Spring Attack - This power is undeniably fun to use, so it’s a shame the damage is low (unless slotted full of procs) and the recharge time is excessively long (two minutes). It’s a location-targeted power that teleports you to the spot you choose, then hurts and knocks down everything around you. Try setting “powexeclocation target Spring Attack” to a keybind or macro to turn it into a one-click activation that goes directly to your current target. For an actually-worth-using version of this power, check out Shield Charge (from the Shield armor set) or Burst of Speed (from Blaster’s Martial Combat secondary), or combine Combat Teleport with the PBAoE power of your choice.
• Speed
  • Flurry - Low damage and a whopping 3-second animation time make this unusable.
  • Hasten - Take it, slot it, love it. Gives +70% Recharge to all your powers for 2 minutes, with a small Endurance loss at the end. Because it benefits from its own buff, you can theoretically get it to 100% uptime ("perma-hasten") with enough recharge bonuses from IOs. Even 80% uptime is extremely beneficial to almost any build, and is easily achievable. Why wouldn't you want to use your best powers more often? Pro tip: two level 50 Common Recharge IOs boosted to +5 is almost as good as having three non-boosted IOs, so you can save a slot to use elsewhere.
  • Super Speed - Extremely fast and has a built-in stealth effect. Combo with a Stealth IO in Sprint and you can sneak through almost anything (as long as you don’t attack). It lacks vertical movement, though, so you’ll want to pick up a temp power jetpack or something else to help you get over walls and out of ditches. However, it does have a “momentum” effect that allows you to jump very long distances horizontally. Also, while active, you get a power called "Speed Phase" which will temporarily make you untouchable and let you pass through NPCs, enemies, and other players. Nice for navigating crowded indoor maps.
  • Burnout - Instantly recharges all of your Primary and Secondary powers (but not pool, prestige, temporary, or incarnate powers). Sounds great on paper, until you notice that its own base cooldown time is 30 minutes. Even with tons of other recharge bonuses, you’re not getting to use this more than once every 9-10 minutes at best. That said, there are some fun meme-worthy uses of Burnout, particularly getting double Gang War (from the Thugs Mastermind powerset) or stacking multiple Tornados and Lightning Storms (from the Storm Summoning powerset)
  • Whirlwind - Hilarious animation on a nearly worthless power. When toggled on, your character spins around rapidly, knocking back any nearby foes. Whirlwind itself deals no damage, though you can still use other powers to attack while it is active. Weirdly, it costs you Endurance for each time it knocks back a foe, so against large packs or in small spaces, it can drain you of Endurance fairly quickly. Yes, it will protect you against melee enemies, but it scatters them all over the place, making it harder for you and your teammates to use AoE and melee attacks effectively. There are much better ways to stay safe, such as Hovering out of range.
• Teleportation
  • Teleport Target - An interesting dual-purpose utility power. Pulling an enemy to you is an option for breaking up large groups or certain other shenanigans. It does require an accuracy check, though, and higher rank enemies may resist it or be immune to it. Used on an ally, it can help get someone unstuck or bring them to the mission entrance or whatever. However, this is less needed now that prestige powers like Mission Transporter, Team Transporter, and Assemble The Team are widely available.
  • Combat Teleport - Ever wanted to be Nightcrawler? This is the power for you. Quick animation, moderate range (which can’t be buffed or enhanced), and small, brief To-Hit buff. I recommend setting up some custom keybinds/macros for this one. You can use the “powexeclocation” command to make one-press binds that teleport you forward, backward, directly to your target, or whatever. This forum thread https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6962-teleport-binds-you-should-use/ has some ideas.
  • Teleport - The most difficult travel power to actually use, but theoretically the fastest IF you slot it for Range and use it well. May need Endurance slotting as well for longer trips. It does have a brief hover effect after each use, so you don’t fall right away unless you try to start moving. Again, I recommend setting up some keybinds/macros for easier use.
  • Fold Space - Grabs all the nearby enemies and plops them down right around you. This is excellent for creating tight groupings for easy AoE. Just be ready for the aggro. Tankers and other high-survivability characters with good AoE love this power if they can afford the picks to get it.
  • Team Teleport - Picks up your whole team (if they’re close enough to you) and drops you all at the location you pick. Cool idea, but impractical to actually use. The only significant use I see for this is on some Mastermind builds to help your pets navigate difficult maps.

 

Specialized Pools / Origin Pools

• Sorcery - Magic origin pool 
  • Spirit Ward - A moderate absorb buff to a single ally. It applies a large absorb when first activated, then a small absorb every second that can stack up. It has a significant endurance cost to keep active, but it can help your team’s tank or a Controller/Dominator/Mastermind pet stay alive. A decent choice for support ATs, especially those that that lack a direct heal/absorb power.
  • Arcane Bolt - A ranged single-target Energy damage attack with a small chance for knockdown. The animation time is a little long, but the damage is decent. This sees use on some builds that don’t have enough ST attacks in their primary/secondary, especially solo Controllers.
  • Mystic Flight - A 2-in-1 travel power. It has the same speed as Fly, but also lets you use “Translocation” while active, which is a teleport power. Nice if you like Teleport but hate needing to gain altitude to use it or falling out of the sky. Also, it looks really cool.
  • Enflame - A complex AoE fire damage power. It’s actually a toggle which lasts for up to 60 seconds. You can target it at an enemy or ally. Pools of fire will periodically form at their feet and damage any enemies who stand in them. The damage is actually decent (especially from a high-damage AT) if you can keep things in the flaming puddles. Unfortunately, if targeted at an enemy, it will detoggle as soon as that enemy is defeated. Thus, Enflame works best when targeted at a player or a Controller/Dominator/Mastermind pet that stays in melee. Note that Enflame does not have a high enough proc chance to be worth slotting with damage procs.
  • Rune of Protection - A large Resistance and mez protection self-buff that lasts one minute on a three minute recharge time. You can even cast it while held, stunned, sleeping, or feared. Unfortunately, the recharge time cannot be reduced in any way. Squishy characters can get some good use out of this as a panic button and mez protection. There are also builds that rotate between Rune of Protection, Barrier or Clarion Destiny, and other such short-duration long-cooldown buffs to maintain high survivability most of the time.
• Experimentation - Science origin pool
  • Experimental Injection - Gives an ally a significant Regeneration, Recovery, and mez protection buff for one minute. Unfortunately, it has a base recharge time of 3 minutes. So, even with heavy recharge slotting, you can only keep this buff active on one ally at a time. Could be decent if playing as a duo, but on larger teams there are better things to do with your slots and time.
  • Toxic Dart - A single-target toxic DoT attack. The exotic damage type is cool, but it doesn’t do enough damage to be more than low-level filler.
  • Speed of Sound - This is Super Speed without the Stealth, momentum, and Phase Shift effects. The overall running speed is identical between the two powers. What this one gets instead is “Jaunt”, a self-teleport power. With that, you can get up and over walls or deal with other vertical obstacles. This is a viable alternative to Super Speed if you’re not taking the Speed pool for some reason or you like the Jaunt bonus power.
  • Corrosive Vial - A targeted AoE toxic DoT attack that works by creating a small puddle that damages anything that steps into it. One of the few power pool attacks that’s actually worth using, if you can afford the picks and slots. Because of the long recharge time (one minute base) and small area, it can have a very high chance to trigger any procs on the initial target. Additionally, because of the puddle effect, those procs have a second chance to go off if anything is still standing in the puddle about 10 seconds later. Thanks to the -Defense Debuff portion, it can even take an Achilles’ Heel Chance for -Resist proc.
  • Adrenal Booster - This is similar to powers like Power Build Up. It gives a moderate Damage, Recharge, and To-Hit buff, and boosts most mez and secondary effects for one minute. However, it has a whopping ten minute base recharge time. Even with heavy recharge slotting, you’d only have this active for one minute out of every 3-4 minutes. The uptime is just not good enough to justify the investment.
• Force of Will - Mutant origin pool
  • Weaken Resolve - A small single-target Defense, Resist, and To-Hit debuff. Lasts 15 seconds on a 30 second base recharge, so you can make the debuff perma.Even so, you probably have better things to do with that 2-second animation time. Since it has Defense debuff, you can slot it with an Achilles’ Heel -Resist proc. In theory, if no one else on your team is applying that proc (since it doesn’t stack), then a Defender keeping Weaken Resolve up on a hard target could substantially increase the team’s damage output. That’s a pretty niche scenario, though.
  • Project Will - A small ranged Psionic damage single-target attack with a chance for knockdown. The exotic damage type is nice, but the damage value is low and the animation is 2 seconds long. That leaves it mostly only worth using as a low-level filler attack.
  • Mighty Leap - An alternate version of Super Jump with the same jump speed and max height numbers. Instead of “Double Jump”, it comes with “Takeoff”. When activated, Takeoff knocks down enemies around you and increases your jump speed temporarily (30 seconds). With even just a single Jump enhancement slotted in Mighty Leap, Takeoff can take you past the normal jump speed cap, so it’s a very fast way to travel for short bursts.
  • Wall of Force - A wide cone attack that deals a small amount of Psionic and Smashing damage and knocks foes down. Long animation time (2.5 seconds) and doesn’t proc particularly well. Yet another pool attack that just isn’t worth it.
  • Unleash Potential - A large self-buff to Defense, Recovery, and Regeneration for one minute, on a 10 minute base recharge time. Would be great if it had better uptime or didn’t require so many other power picks to get. 
• Gadgetry - Tech origin pool. Not actually available in the game because it was never finished.
• Utility Belt - Natural origin pool. Likewise unfinished and unavailable.

 

Other Pools

• Concealment
  • Stealth - Doesn’t make you totally invisible, but it does help you take less aggro and sneak past mobs. Can be stacked with Super Speed’s bonus stealth and/or a Celerity Stealth IO in Sprint. Also gives a small Defense buff, which can be nice for slotting IOs like LotG and stacking with other Defense powers. Note that the buff is larger when out-of-combat, so make sure you check the in-combat numbers to see your real level of Defense.
  • Grant Invisibility - Good duration (two minutes) stealth and minor Defense buff for an ally. You can maintain this on the whole team if you’re willing to take the time. Be aware though that if the whole team is stealthed, you can have trouble with rescuing hostages, because they won’t see you. Might have some utility for niche situations, but if you want a team Defense buff, Maneuvers will usually do a better job.
  • Infiltration - A pseudo-travel power that also makes you stealthy (though not as stealthy as the actual Stealth power). Unslotted, the run and jump bonuses are slightly better than Beast/Ninja/Athletic Run. Fully slotted, it’s comparable to the unslotted values for Super Speed or Super Jump. So, it’s a significant trade-off of lower speed and/or more slot investment in exchange for being stealthy.
  • Misdirection - This is basically the same power as a Stalker’s Placate. The affected enemies will ignore you for several seconds unless you attack them. Misdirection actually affects more targets than Placate (10 instead of 5) and applies a minor -Resist debuff as well, but it is not auto-hit like Placate. Unfortunately, the recharge time is quite long (4 minutes base), so this is mostly just a panic button, rather than a consistently usable debuff tool.
  • Phase Shift - The ultimate panic button. You become totally untouchable for up to 30 seconds (though you can turn it off early if you want), giving you a chance to retreat to safety, eat some inspirations, etc. If this didn’t require two other power picks to get it, I think it would see more use.
• Fighting
  • Boxing - A low-damage attack with a chance to stun. Gets slightly better if you have Kick and/or Cross Punch, but still too weak to be anything more than a low-level filler attack on your way to getting Tough and Weave.
  • Kick - Very similar to Boxing, with slightly more damage and a chance to knockdown instead of stun. Gets slightly better if you have Boxing and/or Cross Punch. Again, nothing to write home about.
  • Tough - Adds a bunch of Resistance to Smashing and Lethal damage, the two most common damage types in the game. This is one of the best powers to increase the survivability of any character. Plus, you can use it to slot some great IOs, like the Steadfast and Gladiator’s Armor +3% Defense IOs. Just be aware of the Endurance cost. 
  • Weave - Adds a good bit of Defense to all damage types and positions. This is the other best power to increase the survivability of any character. Plus, you can use it to slot some great IOs, like LotG +Recharge, Shield Wall +5% Resist All, etc.
  • Cross Punch - A small melee cone with moderate damage. Gets slightly better if you have both Boxing and Kick. Because it does knockdown, you can use it to slot and proc a Force Feedback Chance for Recharge IO. This is one of the few pool power attacks worth using, both because of the proc and because it actually has better DPA (even when used against a single target) than some of the weaker attacks in certain primary/secondary sets, most notably Super Strength.
• Leadership
  • Maneuvers - A small Defense buff for your whole team. Even solo and on non-support ATs, it can be worth stacking with other Defense powers and to hold special Defense IOs like LotG.
  • Assault - A small Damage buff for your whole team. Maybe worth taking on a support AT, but isn't very noticeable when used by an offensive AT. However, if stacked from multiple players, it can add up to be significant. Note that it doesn't affect proc damage.
  • Tactics - A significant To-Hit  and Perception buff for your whole team. Having at least one player with this on your team makes taking on higher-level enemies much easier. It also helps against enemies groups like Arachnos who can blind you. If it's a choice between Assault or Tactics, choose Tactics. Can be a good place to slot the Gaussian's Chance for Build-Up IO, because the proc rolls its chance to trigger once per affected ally (though the effect still only applies to yourself).
  • Vengeance - This is a large buff to Defense, To-Hit, Damage and mez resistance for your whole team. The only downside is that it has to target a defeated player (not a pet). Remembering that you have this power and targeting the fallen player before they rez or go to the hospital can be difficult and annoying. If you take this, I recommend setting up a bind/macro that combines the targeting and the execution into one click. Some teams have intentionally abused this to take down difficult content more easily, especially back in the pre-incarnate days. It also makes for a decent LotG mule even if you aren’t going to actively use it.
  • Victory Rush - A significant Endurance Cost Discount and Recovery buff for your whole team, which lasts for 2 minutes and has a 5 minute recharge which cannot be reduced. Casting it on higher ranked targets gives more benefit, so I recommend making a bind/macro that targets a defeated boss and casts in one click. There are plenty of other ways to solve the blue bar blues, so this isn’t really worth investing in due to the low uptime.
• Medicine
  • Aid Other - A small single-target heal to an ally. Interruptible unless you have Field Medic. This is far too weak and slow of a heal, in a game where healing is already a weak strategy overall compared to other forms of support.
  • Injection - A tiny debuff to a single enemy, or a mez protection buff to a single ally. Simply too weak to be worth using compared to the powers any support AT gets.
  • Aid Self - A small self-heal with a 4-second animation time. If you are hit within the first 1 second of the animation, it gets interrupted. So, it’s almost impossible to use while you are in the thick of things taking hits.
  • Field Medic - Makes all your healing powers 25% stronger and makes you get 25% more health from any heals that hit you. It also makes Aid Other uninterruptible (whoop-de-doo) and makes Aid Self give some Endurance back (so what?). Could be usable on a support character, but with a 3 second animation time, one minute duration, and five minutes recharge time, the overall uptime on this power is lacking. Plus, you have to take two other bad powers to get it.
  • Resuscitate - Seven seconds cast time on a single-target rez, in a game where Awaken inspirations, prestige rez powers, and so on already exist. Not worth it.
• Presence
  • Pacify - A single-target version of a Stalker’s Placate power. If it hits, the targeted enemy will ignore you for a few seconds. Being single-target and having no additional effects like Placate and Misdirection, however, it really isn’t worth using for much of anything, except maybe getting aggro from a boss or AV off you in an emergency.
  • Provoke - A slightly weaker version of a Brute or Tanker’s Taunt power, without the autohit and -Range debuff features. Most ATs don’t want the aggro. Brutes and Tankers already have Taunt. So this mostly sees use on Masterminds doing “Tankermind” builds. You could also take this instead of Taunt on a Brute or Tanker if you’re working toward the later powers in this pool.
  • Intimidate - A single-target Mag 3 Fear effect. Strong enough to affect LTs, but not Bosses without stacking. Recharge is too long and duration is too low to effectively stack with itself, so if you want to affect Bosses you’ll need another Fear power from somewhere, such as Fear Incarnate from being a Vigilante. Would be more useful if Fear was a better mez effect in general.
  • Invoke Panic - This is just Intimidate, but PBAoE instead of ST. See comments above.
  • Unrelenting - A moderate Damage, Recharge, and Recovery buff for 30 seconds, combined with a huge heal-over-time. The heal is 2% of your max HP per second for 30 seconds. Slotted for Healing, that can become 4% per second, so it will heal you for 120% of your max HP total. This would be an amazing tool for characters lacking a self-heal if it didn’t require two weak power picks to get it and didn’t have such a long base recharge time (10 minutes).
• Fitness
  • Swift - Makes you run and fly slightly faster. Put in a single Run IO, or a Fly IO if you took the Flight pool.
  • Hurdle - Makes you jump slightly higher and faster. Drop a Jump IO in and forget about it.
  • Health - Increases your Regeneration slightly. Not worth slotting for Healing unless you're on an AT with high HP and/or stacking other sources of Regeneration. However, you do want to add some slots to it because of IOs from sets such as Numina's Convalescence, Miracle, Panacea, and Preventive Medicine. Those procs/globals can significantly help with your Endurance Recovery and provide some passive self-healing.
  • Stamina - THE reason everyone took this pool back before it was made inherent. This goes a long way to make your Endurance bar more manageable. Besides slotting it for Endurance Modification to improve your Recovery, you can also slot a Performance Shifter proc to randomly get some free Endurance from time to time. In fact, if you have limited slots, the proc is better than an End Mod SO.

 

FAQ

Do I need a travel power?

No, you don't, especially since we have the P2W vendor to provide Prestige and Temporary travel powers. Sprint + Beast/Ninja/Athletic run makes a "good enough" pseudo-travel power if you can't afford anything else. A temp power jet pack covers the cases where merely jumping won't cut it. Having a Supergroup base with portals and using oowers like Mission Transporter, Long Range Teleporter, and Team Transporter can also cut down massively on the need for a travel power. That said, most builds do have room for a travel power, and they can save you a good chunk of time here and there.

 

What is the best travel power?

That depends on what you mean by “best”. They’re all good in their own ways. When slotted for Range, Teleport is technically the fastest at getting from A to B, but it also takes the most effort to use. See the individual power descriptions above for more info on the various pros and cons.

 

Do Inherent abilities like Fury, Containment, Scourge, and Domination apply to Power Pool attacks?

Generally, yes. I am not aware of any exceptions, though I haven’t checked every attack.

 

Are pool power attacks worth using?

Generally, no. They tend to have long animation times, low damage, and weak secondary effects, making them weaker than the attacks in your Primary or Secondary. The main exceptions are…

• Cross Punch on a few sets like Super Strength where it technically beats out the DPA of their worst primary/secondary attacks.
• Corrosive Vial for sets that need the extra AoE and can afford the power picks to get it, especially if you slot it with damage procs.
• Arcane Bolt on a few sets that lack enough solid ranged ST attacks, particularly on Controllers.
• Enflame on a high-damage AT when teaming with a melee character, or on a Dominator, Controller, or Mastermind with a melee pet.

 

Can you make a build with only pool powers?

Sort of. Since Power Pools unlock at level 4, you still have to pick at least 3 powers from your Primary and Secondary. After that, sure, you can take nothing but pool powers, as long as you take at least one power from an Epic pool. Will this build be any good? Oh hell no. But the so-called “Pool Boy” build can be a fun challenge to stretch your creativity and play CoH in a different way. Just don’t expect to be very effective.

 

Do Epic/Ancillary/Patron pools count toward the limit of four power pools?

No, they are separate and additional. You can have four regular Power Pools and an Epic Pool on the same character.

Travel Power Speed Comparisons

All testing at level 50.

Run/Jump powers

Running/Jumping powers tested with one Run SO in Swift, one Jump SO in Hurdle, and Sprint active with no enhancements in it.

Power	Slotting	Run Speed	Jump Speed	Max Jump Height
Baseline	None	21.00	38.09	12.90
Sprint	None	35.32	38.09	13.30
Beast/Ninja/Athletic Run	None	55.36	57.69	41.10
Infiltration	None	57.37	59.66	43.88
Infiltration	One Run SO, one Jump SO	64.72	66.84	54.07
Infiltration	Two Run SOs, two Jump SOs	72.07	74.03	62.26
Infiltration	Three Run SOs, three Jump SOs	78.31	78.18 (capped)	72.92
Super Speed / Speed of Sound	None	85.43	38.09	13.30
Super Speed / Speed of Sound	One Run SO	102.13	38.09	13.30
Super Speed / Speed of Sound	Two Run SOs	118.84	38.09	13.30
Super Speed / Speed of Sound	Three Run SOs	120.24 (capped)	38.09	13.30
Super Jump / Mighty Leap	None	35.32	73.74	124.50
Super Jump / Mighty Leap	One Jump SO	35.32	85.62	161.56
Super Jump / Mighty Leap	Two Jump SOs	35.32	97.5	198.62
Super Jump / Mighty Leap	Three Jump SOs	35.32	101.8 (capped)	200 (capped)
Mighty Leap + Takeoff	None	35.32	106.36	124.50
Mighty Leap + Takeoff	One Jump SO	35.32	110.39 (capped)	161.56
Mighty Leap + Takeoff	Two Jump SOs	35.32	110.39 (capped)	198.62
Mighty Leap + Takeoff	Three Jump SOs	35.32	110.39 (capped)	200 (capped)

 

Flight powers

 Flying powers tested with one Fly SO in Swift. EM = Evasive Maneuvers

Power	Slotting	Without EM	With EM 1-slotted	With EM 3-slotted
Hover	None	27.34	41.02	48.25
Hover	One Fly SO	28.75	44.39	51.62
Hover	Two Fly SOs	32.11	47.75	54.98
Hover	Three Fly SOs	34.97	50.61	57.84
Fly / Mystic Flight	None	59.94	75.58	82.81
Fly / Mystic Flight	One Fly SO	71.46	87.10	87.95 (capped)
Fly / Mystic Flight	Two Fly SOs	82.98	87.95 (capped)	87.95 (capped)
Fly / Mystic Flight	Three Fly SOs	87.95 (capped)	87.95 (capped)	87.95 (capped)
Fly + Afterburner	None	77.86	99.09	102.27 (capped)
Fly + Afterburner	One Fly SO	87.97	102.27 (capped)	102.27 (capped)
Fly + Afterburner	Two Fly SOs	100.89	102.27 (capped)	102.27 (capped)
Fly + Afterburner	Three Fly SOs	102.27 (capped)	102.27 (capped)	102.27 (capped)

Edited April 9, 2023 by EdgeOfDreams

[OdinAZ]

  Firstly Super-Thank-You.  This is exactly what I needed. 

 

I have a corruptor that is going SS and Leadership.  Your ratings are in line with what I was thinking of taking.  Also this gives me some options for some of my other Alts.

[HyperSausage]

Great writup. Thanks!

[tidge]

Force of Will should probably be A-tier (if Hasten pool, ehem Superspeed is S-Tier). It has four solid powers, and many ATs can leverage it in crazy good ways.

 

Quote

• Force of Will - Mutant origin pool
  • Weaken Resolve - A small single-target Defense, Resist, and To-Hit debuff. Lasts 15 seconds on a 30 second base recharge, so you can make the debuff perma.Even so, you probably have better things to do with that 2-second animation time. Since it has Defense debuff, you can slot it with an Achilles’ Heel -Resist proc. In theory, if no one else on your team is applying that proc (since it doesn’t stack), then a Defender keeping Weaken Resolve up on a hard target could substantially increase the team’s damage output. That’s a pretty niche scenario, though.
  • Project Will - A small ranged Psionic damage single-target attack with a chance for knockdown. The exotic damage type is nice, but the damage value is low and the animation is 2 seconds long. That leaves it mostly only worth using as a low-level filler attack.
  • Mighty Leap - An alternate version of Super Jump with the same jump speed and max height numbers. Instead of “Double Jump”, it comes with “Takeoff”. When activated, Takeoff knocks down enemies around you and increases your jump speed temporarily (30 seconds). With even just a single Jump enhancement slotted in Mighty Leap, Takeoff can take you past the normal jump speed cap, so it’s a very fast way to travel for short bursts.
  • Wall of Force - A wide cone attack that deals a small amount of Psionic and Smashing damage and knocks foes down. Long animation time (2.5 seconds) and doesn’t proc particularly well. Yet another pool attack that just isn’t worth it.
  • Unleash Potential - A large self-buff to Defense, Recovery, and Regeneration for one minute, on a 10 minute base recharge time. Would be great if it had better uptime or didn’t require so many other power picks to get. 

 

Mighty Leap is awesome. It is one of the fastest travel powers once zone geometry is included in the gameplay experience.

 

Weaken Resolve is a good second pick for getting higher tier choices. It is a perfectly good one-slot wonder (Accuracy should be part of it) and it is NOT a niche scenario to apply Weaken Resolve's own debuff. This is a pretty good choice for Tankers who team.

 

Project Will is a weak attack. The animation time is painful!

 

Wall of Force is bonkers good. Slot it with accuracy, range and %damage (and/or another %-Resistance) and a character is knocking down and damaging enemies all over the room.

 

Unleash Potential is an ultra-handy power that can be 6-slotted with either Defense or Health sets... or franken-slotted as well.