Questions about the Flight pool

[Story Archer]

This question is being asked by a habitual Blaster but would probably apply to any ranged player. 

 

I much prefer Flight as my travel power and my playstyle generally has me at range so that I can keep an eye on the whole battlefield. It follows then that Hover is an attractive option for me and that my builds tend to focus strongly on a high Ranged & AoE defense. This has led me to a few questions:

 

Is there any value in looking at the 'other' Flight powers? Assuming that I don't have a good melee mez attack, is Air Superiority a worthwhile option, in case I get a pesky flyer up in my grill? I usually have a few open slots in the build and I'm trying to decide how best to use them.

 

What about Evasive Maneuvers? If I'd like to stay in 'Hover mode', does the increased fly speed and control help make that feasible? As it is right now I'm either too slow to keep up with the group or all over the place if I try to hover everywhere. Also, I read somewhere that Combat Jumping gives you more control when Hovering/Flying - is that true?

 

Finally, if you could only pick two of the three, which would they be, assuming a defensive build with moderately high Global Recharge (60-75ish%): Combat Jumping, Hover or Hasten?

 

TIA

[Luminara]

17 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

Assuming that I don't have a good melee mez attack, is Air Superiority a worthwhile option, in case I get a pesky flyer up in my grill?

 

Yes.  Although the the damage will be lower than almost all of your secondary set melee attacks, the KU and -Fly aren't random chances, so it's an effective soft control and "clear my airspace!" attack.

 

19 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

What about Evasive Maneuvers? If I'd like to stay in 'Hover mode', does the increased fly speed and control help make that feasible?

 

Evasive Maneuvers increases your flight speed even when you're only using Hover.

 

20 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

Also, I read somewhere that Combat Jumping gives you more control when Hovering/Flying - is that true?

 

Both Evasive Maneuvers and Combat Jumping do that.

[Story Archer]

2 minutes ago, Luminara said:

Evasive Maneuvers increases your flight speed even when you're only using Hover.

So even when Evasive Maneuvers is toggled off?

[Go0gleplex]

More info here:  

 

[Luminara]

2 minutes ago, Story Archer said:

So even when Evasive Maneuvers is toggled off?

 

Toggle powers have to be toggled on to have any effect.  "even when you're only using Hover" meant when you don't have Fly/Mystic Flight/jet packs/whatever else active.

[Snarky]

6 hours ago, Story Archer said:

This question is being asked by a habitual Blaster but would probably apply to any ranged player. 

 

I much prefer Flight as my travel power and my playstyle generally has me at range so that I can keep an eye on the whole battlefield. It follows then that Hover is an attractive option for me and that my builds tend to focus strongly on a high Ranged & AoE defense. This has led me to a few questions:

 

Is there any value in looking at the 'other' Flight powers? Assuming that I don't have a good melee mez attack, is Air Superiority a worthwhile option, in case I get a pesky flyer up in my grill? I usually have a few open slots in the build and I'm trying to decide how best to use them.

 

What about Evasive Maneuvers? If I'd like to stay in 'Hover mode', does the increased fly speed and control help make that feasible? As it is right now I'm either too slow to keep up with the group or all over the place if I try to hover everywhere. Also, I read somewhere that Combat Jumping gives you more control when Hovering/Flying - is that true?

 

Finally, if you could only pick two of the three, which would they be, assuming a defensive build with moderately high Global Recharge (60-75ish%): Combat Jumping, Hover or Hasten?

 

TIA

i use fly everywhere on everyone.  F hover   get your end bar stabilized and use fly   gl

[Doomguide2005]

My current favored Empath on HC and first GM character on Live currently uses Fly, Evasive Maneuvers and Air Superiority.  She also used AS way back when Invincible was the hardest setting to solo Cimeroran repeatables.  The knock is a very important part of how she could take down 2 bosses.  Cosmic Burst while closing on boss 1 switch to boss 2 with Air Superiority while Oppressive Gloom stuns boss 1.  Cosmic Burst boss 2 while they're down/getting up.  AS on boss 1.  Keep up that general pattern stacking the stun CB with the KU of AS to keep both busy (or the most dangerous two targets) interspersed with Irradiate to chew up staggering (OG) minions.  The 2 Auras plus Eye of Magus made her very tough when first engaging or when they managed to attack back.  Couldn't handle large mobs back then solo but defense was only via Eye and inspires as this was pre-IO.  Uses many of the same strategy to survive these days. 

 

Late Edit:  I've also taken to loading up on Stun Grenades and Plasmatic Taser from f2p.  Especially the first is very sweet for taking all the minions out asap and let's me get into the mob for Oppressive Gloom to keep them stunned while I use Soul Drain, Irradiate and Atomic Blast on the spawn.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Doomguide2005
Late addition edit 13 days post original.

[ZekeStenzland]

So according to City of Data, it looks like there are 2 different effects that affect flight responsiveness -- MovementControl and MovementFriction.

Power	MovementControl	MovementFriction
Fly	2	2
Hover	25	25
Evasive Maneuvers	15	15
Combat Jumping	10	0.2

 

I think MovementFriction must have to do with how responsive the power is. Like, if you release the Forward button, how quickly you come to a stop. With just Fly on, you tend to drift quite a bit. If you have Fly and (Hover or Evasive Maneuvers), you come to a stop almost immediately as soon as you stop pushing a movement button. Hover and Evasive Maneuvers feel about the same to me in this regard. Having Fly and Combat Jumping on at the same time, I haven't noticed any difference with Fly movement at all.  

 

Combat Jumping is great for proc mules and globals, because it costs almost no endurance. But it's not really much of a travel power, IMHO.

 

I'll generally take Fly and Hover if I want Fly as a travel power, and especially if I want to Hover a lot.

 

I typically only take Evasive Maneuvers when flight is central to character concept, and I need another LotG mule, and either I already have Stealth, or can't afford to pick Stealth up for other reasons. Stealth is usually more effective for keeping me alive than Evasive Maneuvers, in my experience.

[Onlyasandwich]

On 10/9/2023 at 5:10 PM, Story Archer said:

If I'd like to stay in 'Hover mode', does the increased fly speed and control help make that feasible?

 

I love grabbing Evasive for extra hover speed when I have room both in power picks and end consumption. The lotg mule is a nice bonus. It makes a very noticeable difference, and allows Hover to be fully combat viable even without speed slotting. I'm okay with Hover even without Evasive, and enjoy the precision, but Evasive is a great improvement.

 

It's also really nice to have extra control and speed layered with regular Fly as well. I use a speed on demand keybind to swap between fly/hover, and keep Evasive on the vast majority of the time unless starving for end.

 

The Knockback resistance is nothing to sneeze at either, and almost doubles the effective mag protection for any -KB IOs you have. I usually take Combat Jumping as well, so the immob protection isn't as big a deal, but nice for pool flexibility if you aren't grabbing it.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Onlyasandwich