Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #45: Travel Powers and speeding tickets.

[SeraphimKensai]

Welcome back folks for another weekly discussion. This week we shift into gear and open up a discussion regarding all the various travel powers in the game.

 

Do you still take a travel power given the availability of temps? What travel powers are your favorite to use? Least favorite? Does zone design limit you from fully embracing a particular travel power? Do you view certain travel powers more useful for particular game content? Does the availability of certain powers within a travel pool affect your choice of travel power (ie. Hasten, Rune of Power, etc.)? Do you think there are reasonable enhancement choices for travel powers? What do you think about group based travel powers? If you could design a new travel power from the ground up, what would you make?

 

As always thanks.

Edited September 12, 2023 by SeraphimKensai

[Vic Raiden]

My eldest two toons, a villainous Electric/Energy Dominator and a heroic Fire/Fire Sentinel, have taken up Sorcery and Flight, respectively.

I just gotta say I love flying around and taking advantage of how vertical some places can be.

But, I have a slight problem with the teleport sub-power that comes with Mystic Flight: its range feels abysmal to me, making that power situational at best. It's good for getting out of melee range, but not so much for travelling.

[KC4800]

On newest projects I have been going with infiltration, for invisibility and foot speed, and taking hover and flight for long distances. (Hover just mules  +Rech) Some of my older toons have Sorcery.  I agree the TP extra power, and the Foot stomp one for the jump, I have little use for so I remove it from the power tray.

[High_Beam]

Most of the time its Flight.  Straight Flight with Hover, especially with my Blasters.  Magic themed characters or ones that I am leveraging Rune of Protection on go Sorcery because Flight.  I have a handful of Super Jumpers.  I have a few with teleport but not as a travel power.  Interestingly enough I have one with that speed run deal from Experimental Pool.  Seems so fast, faster than Super Speed which I also have zero characters possessing.

 

Part of the deal is that with flight I get other utility taking hover for hover blasting as well as a LotG Mule (also maybe a Karma KB).  Sorcery gives me the bonus rune option if I also take enflame or bolt.  Ironically I take Hasten all the time.

[liveevil2000]

I use whatever fits the toon best. I would say most have flight or jump with speed coming in after those two. I've used the other travel pools but again, to fit concept.

 

A travel powerset which would be cool would be swinging perhaps.

Include a single targeted hold or immobilize of some kind.

Maybe a zipline for a quick ascent up the side of a building or across to the next building.

Using that same feel to zip around, a combat zip, picture almost like a combat teleport.

or if you want to go really crazy a drag attack, ala Mortal Kombat Scorpion "Get Over Here!" attack with a disorient kicker.

Something that would give you that Daredevil/Spiderman/Batman feel.

[rolandgrey]

I take travel powers based on the character concept.

 

The temps, day job and PTW powers go on characters I rate as my "normal people."  These are the guys and girls who are weapons specialists or gadgeteers, with Rocket Board usually going to the inventors.  There are also a couple magician types who use the flying carpet because it's so imperious.

 

Mystic Flight goes on most of my other magician characters.  It's some handy versatility.  I'm not really keen on its teleport as a boost, but it can be useful and you can always lay off the teleport and recover End while still flying.

 

Flight will often go on my power-armored or android types or others who have powers where they could conceivably fly without the use of magic (such as winged characters or some of my psychics).

 

Leap goes on my powerful characters.  I've also got a couple characters for whom I want to build toward using Acrobatics.

 

Mighty Leap is used on characters who have psychic abilities.  I don't really like how this set really pigeonholed itself like this, but I have found use for it.

 

Speed winds up being the odd one out.  I only have a few characters for whom I have super speed as a concept.

 

Experimentation's Speed of Sound goes on even fewer characters, but I do have a couple who can make use of the other powers in the set, so I use it then.

 

For both versions of super speed, I will usually supplement them with Beast Run, Athletic Run or Ninja Run for some verticality.  Had an interesting moment in a TF where I was playing a Vampire:TM inspired character (a remake of one of my first RPG characters, in fact) running both Speed and Ninja Run and wound up bouncing off a pair of walls to get to a rooftop.  You can get some really neat effects if you understand the game's physics.

 

Finally, Teleport...  I RARELY use this power.  I do have use for its set, but the teleport itself I have found to be too expensive in endurance and too limited in range.  Frankly, I find Fold Space much more handy, especially with a character who can lay landmines.  Spend a couple minutes putting down a minefield, Fold Space, watch everybody in the area die.  Now THAT'S handy!

 

EDIT:  I forgot about the Stealth power, Infiltration.  This is basically a power pool version of Athletic Running or Ninja Leap.  I think I've got ONE character using this.  It's okay.

 

I almost never enhance travel powers.  They never get more slots, so they'll only get the most basic enhancements (Flight: Flight Speed.  Leap: Jump Height.  Speed: Run Speed.  Teleport: Endurance Reduction).  Sometimes, I might slap a Stealth Proc into Combat Jumping or Hover, or I might put slots on Hover to further boost a characters Defense on a Defense build.  Big MIGHT.  I think I've only done this on one character.  I get that there are some people who enhance their travel powers, but I don't see the point.  The set bonuses you can get are available in plenty of other sets. 

 

Group-based Travel Powers tend to be more of a hassle.  Most players don't want to be dragged along on a Team Flight and I don't think I've ever seen anybody use Team Teleport.  If anything, they've gotten more use out of Summon Teammates (player rushes to target location, finds safe spot, zaps whole team to spot).  I've rarely seen Roboticists using Team Flight to see that rare "Flying Robots" animation.  They probably have Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries playing in their heads all of the two times they do it.

 

If I could make a travel power?  Hm.  I would probably introduce some vehicular travel powers.  A Speed putting us in a car or on a motorcycle, a Flight putting us in a Sky Skiff or Chaser...  The advantage of using a vehicle?  You don't get attacked while using the power.  The Disadvantage?  You can't attack and they can't be used in Instanced Maps, they can only be used in Overworld Maps.  Is this likely?  Certainly not.  I don't think the game's coding allows for it.  An alternative?  Same vehicles, but now the other powers in the pool add armor and weapons.  This might be a little more possible.  Might.

Edited September 12, 2023 by rolandgrey
Added Infiltration

[Uun]

The majority of my characters take Super Jump/Mighty Leap or Fly/Mystic Flight. I don't add slots to these and will put a -kb or slow resist in the base slot (occasionally a speed/endred). I've got a couple that use Infiltration, but this needs 2-3 slots to be effective and you still need a jet pack to get over many obstacles. I've got one character that uses Teleport, which also gets 2-3 slots. I never take Super Speed/Speed of Sound.

[Go0gleplex]

Flight or Super Jump myself...they're just the most useful, especially to reach some of the exploration badge locations or get the heck outta dodge ASAP.  Speed I enjoy if I'm not worried about badges...but it's not my first choice. Never used teleport as it really hasn't had much appeal to me.  Rarely ever add any slots to my travel powers, and then only for the endurance hog ones. 

[tidge]

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/44242-still-take-a-travel-power/

 

[Black Zot]

There is FAR too much required vertical movement in this game for me to even consider making a toon without Super Jump or Fly, preferably Fly.  Temp powers just don't cut it.

 

And it's not like the travel powers are the only useful things in their respective pools, either.  Hover and Combat Jump are cheap and easy boosts towards softcap.

[lemming]

Lately I've been taking teleport more often.  The added hang time made it a much better power, and it's fast even though with overshooting targets I've had to learn to aim for blocks to bounce to my destination at time.  And Echo: Dark Astoria is still the most annoying zone for teleport.

The other great thing with teleport is "stealthing" past mobs that see thru stealth.  Trickier indoors though.

Teleport Target & Fold Space are very useful powers from the pool.

 

Mystic Flight is something I take for concept and while the teleport is short, it works for getting past mobs I don't want to deal with.

 

Flight is my favorite for feeling super.   And useful for most purposes.

 

Super Leap is another fun one I don't use nearly as much as I did on live.  Though I'll still use it for crossing zones playing the street is lava.

 

Kinetics: I almost never take an travel pool since it's got plenty built in. 

 

Super Speed:  I can hardly ever get the hang of it.  (Yea, even though I don't have much of an issue with kinetics version...)

 

Probably about 20% of my characters just rely on temp powers at least pre-respec at 50.

[UltraAlt]

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

This week we shift into gear and open up a discussion regarding all the various travel powers in the game.

 

There was a thread about this recently.

 

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you still take a travel power given the availability of temps?

 

It depends on character conception.

And then, if that character conception warrants a travel power, it is taken related to when another power doesn't appear to need to be picked first.

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

What travel powers are your favorite to use?

 

For ease of/most useful, I would have to say flight. Normal or mystic it makes no difference to me other than character conception.

 

For the "fun", I like super jump (without the double jump, even though I tend to use it). There is something fun to me about jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Not so much for the platforming of it, but for the crouching on rooftops looking for crime aspect of it.

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Least favorite?

 

Teleport.

It is just so cumbersome and reaction speed intensive.

When it comes to teleporting, I like the way mystic flight handles it best - the hover/flight is built in. It works in the same way that the Speed of Sound/Jaunt is superior to super speed in that you are able to go vertical over obstacles using Jaunt.

 

2nd lease favorite:

Superspeed.

As indicated, vertically is an issue. You can't run up walls or up the sides of buildings. Want to go up? You're going to have to get another travel power.

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Does zone design limit you from fully embracing a particular travel power?

 

Back before the Sunset and before the Shadow Shard Day Job flight pack, I had to respec a character out of Leaping into Flight because of the Shadow Shard.

In this case, I had to rationalize it with the character conception that traveling through the Shadow Shard was an out-of-body experience and not the physical realm in which they had leveled through the rest of the content.

 

When City of Villains was released, it intentionally had a large amount of verticality added to the City design. I can't remember if I had to respec any characters for it (didn't play the villain side that much but had one level 50.) but I think I did have to respec that level 50 due to the map designs on the villain side.

And, again, had to go from Leaping to Flight.

Not so far outside of character conception in this case I guess. The character had come from a Champions RPG (now-called table top) game that I had been in years ago. That character only had hover when they turned desolid/phased/discorporal originally (they didn't have leaping in the RPG - phasing wasn't built to last long and it would take forever for hover to get you anywhere. Leaping seemed to make more sense character-wise to the other travel options and the necessity for some level of speedy travel when on teams), but, later as they leveled up, they stole a skeleton of pterodactyl from a museum, used their power to grow a plant-based-musculature system, endowed it with a minimal plant-based AI akin to its own, and used it as a mode of flight-based transport.

 

Also, as indicated in my prior response, super speed has the limitation that you can't run up walls, the sides of buildings, or anything that is too vertical, and you also have a high probability of running off things that are narrow. This would make this a non-pick for the villains side for me and a low pick option in general.

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you view certain travel powers more useful for particular game content?

 

Flight, in general, is the most useful travel power.

Some content really makes flight a necessity. It is simply too difficult to use any other travel power. Temp flight simply won't cut it. The Shadow Shard Day Job Flight pack is combat-flight "fix", but that isn't always within character conception. This means, when a characters without flight stumbles into one of these situations on at team, my character really can't do much to participate in that part of the content as it tends to be multiple characters are flying around and bypassing mobs that my character would have to fight through to get to where they are going easily by flying.

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Does the availability of certain powers within a travel pool affect your choice of travel power (ie. Hasten, Rune of Power, etc.)?

 

No.

I get travel powers and other powers out of other travel pools based on character conception. Sometimes that will mean getting multiple powerpools.

 

Sometimes, I will get the Speed pool just for flurry and/or hasten.

Sometimes, I will get the Teleport pool just for the teleport target (most often with the Character conception related to getting other characters to a mission vs teleporting enemies)

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Do you think there are reasonable enhancement choices for travel powers?

 

Sure.

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

What do you think about group based travel powers?

 

Group fly.

I can see why a solo mastermind world find it useful. Other than that....

 

 

 

Teleport>Team Teleport

Why? Why is that even a thing?!

Obviously, it should have been the Team Transport Power or a multi-zone "recall friend".

I haven't seen any use for Team Teleport other than to prank other team members.

 

 

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

If you could design a new travel power from the ground up, what would you make?

 

Clinging, swinging, swimming and burrowing seem to be main supertravel powers missing from the game.

These powers really don't have any good way of being implemented into THE CITY.

 

Clinging apparently can't be implemented because of the way surfaces are designed in THE CITY. (works in many cases in DCUO, but there are still surfaces that you can get "tangled up" on that the game engine simply can't tell which way you are trying to go because of the interaction with the surface)

 

Swinging. yeah. I think you have to design a game around swinging vs add it to a existing game. (Some of the Spider-man games for instance)

 

Swimming would work best if you could be below the surface of the water which can't be done in THE CITY without major changes to the game. (DCUO kind of worked around this with Atlantis by making the whole zone underwater and turning flight into swimming, but, yeah, just a work around)

 

Burrowing would need to be below the surface of the ground which would also take major changes to the game including what could be burrowed through and what could not be. (I know that the Champions Online took a stab at this, but it didn't look like it really covered it well)

 

*** and off topic ***

 

I really like the P2W form change travel powers: Coyote and panther.

I wish there were more of these.

There are a couple other animal forms already existing in the game that could use the same animations.

I would also like to see some bird-shaped ones for flight ... possibly large insect or butterfly/moth forms as well.

I wouldn't use them/don't use them all the time. I just use them based on character conception.

 

 

Edited September 12, 2023 by UltraAlt
off topic segment at the bottom of the post

[Yomo Kimyata]

Every new character I make goes to P2W and gets athletic run and buys a 5000inf jetpack.  In addition to Sprint, I am perfectly happy just running with that through the game.  Sometimes I go back and pull up a character I made back in 2019 with Super Leap, which has always been my favorite of the "original: travel powers, and sigh with nostalgia.

 

The vast majority of my characters have Combat Jumping and that is a great always on power to keep all the defense procs running.  If I feel theme calls for flight, then I can use Hover the same way, but I'm less likely to keep Hover on all the time.

 

The new power pools (Experimentation, Force of Will, Sorcery), however, were game changing.  Thanks to the power of Adrenal Booster/Corrosive Vial, Unleash Potential, and Rune of Protection, I see no need to not take whatever travel power is a pre-req and slot it with the Winter's Gift Slow resist proc.  

 

Infiltration is good (and misdirection is GREAT!), but I generally don't like Stealth as a power pick and Grant Invisibility feels like a wasted power.

 

[Biff Pow]

I think the secondary powers should crossover if you take both travel powers. Ex: Afterburner with Mystic Flight, Double Jump with Mighty Leap.

[lemming]

3 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Teleport.

It is just so cumbersome and reaction speed intensive.

When it comes to teleporting, I like the way mystic flight handles it best - the hover/flight is built in. It works in the same way that the Speed of Sound/Jaunt is superior to super speed in that you are able to go vertical over obstacles using Jaunt.

Have you tried teleport since they increased the hang time?  It's so much longer (15 seconds?) than before.   I used to have the same complaint.

[Sakura Tenshi]

I just want to say: if Hasten wasn't a thing, I'd almost want to suggest that Travel pools were something you picked as part of creation and automatically unlocked as you leveled.

[tidge]

51 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Infiltration is good (and misdirection is GREAT!), but I generally don't like Stealth as a power pick and Grant Invisibility feels like a wasted power.

[tidge]

I may or may not have written out my thoughts about the specialized pool powers (avec travel) on Homecoming... But I am quite impressed with each of them.

 

Sorcery: Mystic Flight is a perfectly suitable flying power... importantly it allows teleportation (err... Translocation) in situations when I've really needed it. There isn't a stinker power in the pool, although not every AT leverages each power the same. If this set has a drawback, it is the lack of "minimal" effects on all the powers. Often the set fits my builds' need perfectly, but the animations often do not.

 

Force of Will: I actually prefer Mighty Leap (and Takeoff) to Super Jump... Super Jump is somewhat gimped IMO because it is barely (in my play) superior to the jump Pack P2W power. If I want any of the other powers in this pool, I never flinch about taking Mighty Leap as a travel power.

 

Experimentation: With Jaunt a part of Speed of Sound, this is a great set for melee characters. The only power in this pool I haven't tried to make work is Toxic Dart... and that's because I haven't been able to think of a build where I'd want that power before (or instead of) any of the other powers in the pool. I'm mentally ok with it, it's just that it is so dull compared to Arcane Bolt or Project Will... maybe if it had an immobilize (or -Regen) effect I'd feel tempted to take it? Otherwise it just feels like an inferior attack (for most AT).

 

For the classic travel pools: The only one I haven't taken (and respeced out of) for travel since the revamps is Teleportation. In earlier times (especially at the end of Live, and the early days of public Homecoming) I went deep into it to get the ability to transport across zones. This is now available for every player, more-or-less as early as they want it, without investing in that pool. I appreciate the players who take the powers early enough to help teams move between missions and across zones/maps. I love Combat Teleport, I just haven't taken any other powers from the pool. Personally, I think that Fold Space is over-rated... I can almost see the reasons to take it, but if I'm already taking Combat Teleport to unlock Fold Space... and I have to slot Accuracy to hit the targets... I kinda feel like I should maybe just teleport myself instead. Mileage varies obviously. Eventually I will come up with a build that wants to do exactly this.

[UltraAlt]

10 hours ago, lemming said:

Have you tried teleport since they increased the hang time?  It's so much longer (15 seconds?) than before.   I used to have the same complaint.

 

Did they lengthen the hang time on Homecoming?

[FupDup]

I usually end up using Flight the most because of the sheer versatility and control it offers. Having several LOTG mule powers doesn't hurt. Second most used is Super Speed because wheeeeeeeee, and Super Jump is third because it just doesn't fit a lot of my toons' themes but I don't dislike it. I used Infiltration once for theme and it was kinda slow but I don't totally hate it. 

 

Teleport is the only one that I outright avoid because I tried it once on a Fire/Shield Scrapper and my endurance bar was begging for mercy while going across large zones. I could maybe consider it again if paired with an armor set that came with high recovery by default, but not with an already thirsty set like Shield. No other travel power requires endurance slotting for basic functionality (the others can just mule a Winter's Gift proc and call it a day), and with the extra attention needed to operate it, I just feel like the juice isn't worth the squeeze. I'd rather take Mystic Flight or Speed of Sound as a compromise. 

Edited September 13, 2023 by FupDup

[lemming]

7 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Did they lengthen the hang time on Homecoming?

Yes.  When they revamped the travel powers the hangtime was greatly increased to 15 seconds.   End use is still an issue if you don't drop an end reduction in, but I tend to four slot Warp into it which has a global end reduction in it.   Crossing the Shadow Shard is easy enough.  (I'll have to check how many ports that is)

 

On Fold Space:

Works well as a taunt even when it doesn't port groups to you from different mobs.  It does sometimes line up the mobs in a conga line instead of a group around you, but then it's a good time to shift and use a cone.

[Greycat]

I pretty much always take a travel power. Rarely put it off - if nothing else, it's a "ok, don't really need to slot this, so extra slots early for some power."

About the only power I skip is superspeed - thanks to early game annoyance with it and Terra Volta and the lack of vertical travel... even with the current "extra" tacked on. (Same goes with experimentation... speed of sound. The extra effect is actually extra annoying. I'll only take it if the character *really* calls for it.)

 

As far as availability of other powers... rarely does that influence me. I'll take those pools *despite* the travel power sometimes -   primarily for combat teleport and/or fold space (Teleport Target is always useful.)  (And since it was mentioned, I rarely take hasten. Maybe as a 49 "I have nothing else I need" pick.)

 

Group powers... I've said before, and somehow this seems to just get any number of panties in a twist, that we should have Null in coop zones. MSRs and Hami raids fill quickly, at least on Everlasting, and leaving to hit Pocket D to turn off Group Fly if you've forgotten to may mean you don't get back *in* the zone for a while, if at all. But I don't generally mind group travel powers, otherwise... other than Incandescence.

[RCU7115]

All my toons take Ninja Run, Infiltration, Fly or Mystic Flight depending on concept.

I only 1 slot the travel powers with the fly/end enhancements, I forget the names atm. Infiltration might get 2 slots depending if I need a spot for the shield wall or reactive enhancements.

 I always have sprint & ninja run always on as I feel I have more control than using combat jumping.

 Sprint always gets the run/end enhancement slotted.

[A Cat]

I often take a travel power, unless the concept makes me not take one (which I will grit my teeth and run everywhere slowly with athletic run + sprint or the hoverboard). I think the travel powers are just fun. My favorite is super speed and running through the city fast AF. I really find TP clunky, but I love all the other things on the power pool, especially a macro'd combat TP (*teleports behind you* nothing personal, kid). Flight is pretty cool, especially with the speed increase in HC. But I mainly play melee so I don't use it often. 

[Snarky]

Fly is almost always my choice.  On the few toons i do not choose fly i take mystic fly.  On the very rare toon i do not take one of those.  It is extremely rare I might take superjump for concept or teleport.  Then inevitably wish i had fly