Fly speed

[Snarky]

I know fly is weird.  It has a max speed cap.  What is that max speed?  How does the Afterburner interact with that limit?  Does it take you to max?  Exceed max?  Is there an efficient way to increase flight speed for oeople using mystic flight?  (There are a lot of 2 oiece set bonuses offering +movement speed…)

[tidge]

9 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I know fly is weird.  It has a max speed cap.  What is that max speed?  How does the Afterburner interact with that limit?  Does it take you to max?  Exceed max?  Is there an efficient way to increase flight speed for oeople using mystic flight?  (There are a lot of 2 oiece set bonuses offering +movement speed…)

 

The Supergroup Base Flight Speed enhancement bonus is the easiest/most efficient way to boost flight speed, IMO.

[Ukase]

Oh, Snarky. So many opinions of Mystic Flight, and the Sorcery pool. Have you not forgotten the changes they made to sorcery pool about 4 years ago? Nobody should ever take sorcery pool as a travel power as a matter of solidarity. The people must let the tyrants that let us play for donations know that making it necessary for me to respec dozens of characters because of the change of Rune of Protection to Prune of Protection...wait...you didn't ask about that did you? Sorry. Got carried away. 

But let me try to be helpful, even though I consider fly to be woefully slow and cumbersome having to make a key bind to use the afterburner, (with standard fly, not Mystic Flight) and even that is too short of duration to be very useful in the shard. 

Flight Speed Cap since issue 18 is 58.63 mph. 

I know from discord that you would likely be familiar with a rev limiter - something in IC engines to limit rpms. Essentially, Afterburner is like taking the rev limiter out. With Afterburner, the misnomer speed cap of 58.63 is tossed out, and you have a new flight speed cap of 73mph. Now, technically, per the HC Wiki - it's very interesting. 

 

So, with Afterburner, technically, there is no cap. But - there is a limit, in that with diminishing returns, movement set bonuses, etc (all described above in the copied snip) that's essentially the cap with Afterburner. At least, that's my takeaway after reading it. Please read it yourself, because I'm obtuse and could have missed something. 

So, here's the link: Click here.

After reading it, it further justifies my choice of SS and TP (if I can fit the pool in) as a better choice. But, I hold a grudge and cannot ever take Sorcery pool, just as a matter of rebellion against "the man" who changed Rune to be unable to be recharged faster than the new default hour and a half recharge time (yeah, it's not 90 minutes, I know, lol) So take what I say with a very large grain of salt. 

Edited September 4 by Ukase
Typo (say, not saw, last sentence)

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

What is that max speed?

 

87.9 mph.  Jet packs are limited to the old cap (58.7 mph).

 

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

How does the Afterburner interact with that limit?

 

Increases current flight speed by 25% and raises the cap to 102.27 mph.

 

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

Does it take you to max?

 

If you slot a 50+5 IO in Fly and Swift, and use the Increase Flight Speed empowerment station buff, you'll hit ~101.7 mph with Afterburner.

 

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

Is there an efficient way to increase flight speed for oeople using mystic flight?

 

The answer depends on the context of the word "efficient".  If you mean "slot efficient", a 50+5 IO in Mystic Flight and one in Swift, plus the Increase Flight Speed empowerment station buff, will put you at ~86.3 mph, which is close enough to the cap to call it a day.  If you mean "I just want a blue number (combat attribs) without fucking around with slots and buffs and shit like that", slap a second IO in Mystic Flight and move on.

[Psyonico]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

Is there an efficient way to increase flight speed for oeople using mystic flight?  

 

@Luminara did a great job answering all your questions but left out 1 thing with this one.   The free "jump pack" or "steam pack" from START will also take you to the fly speed cap for its duration. 

[Glacier Peak]

5 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

 

@Luminara did a great job answering all your questions but left out 1 thing with this one.   The free "jump pack" or "steam pack" from START will also take you to the fly speed cap for its duration. 

Doesn't it share a cooldown with Afterburner?

[Snarky]

20 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Doesn't it share a cooldown with Afterburner?

no.  i used to use it a lot.  still do on a few robot themes.  it is an old ghetto "afterburner" but you have to get the right angle or you go up up up lol

[Scarlet Shocker]

2 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

The answer depends on the context of the word "efficient".  If you mean "slot efficient", a 50+5 IO in Mystic Flight and one in Swift, plus the Increase Flight Speed empowerment station buff, will put you at ~86.3 mph, which is close enough to the cap to call it a day.  If you mean "I just want a blue number (combat attribs) without fucking around with slots and buffs and shit like that", slap a second IO in Mystic Flight and move on.

 

does +5ing Swift IOs actually have a significant impact? Seems a waste of boosters

[Sovera]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

 

does +5ing Swift IOs actually have a significant impact? Seems a waste of boosters

 

About 1 mph. I tested most of these things. Not too sure about what Ukase is trying to say since the caps are visible if we open the combat attributes.

 

 

As is my flight speed is 84 mph with Evasive Maneuvers. With the Steam Pack it caps out at 87.9. With Afterburner this caps out at 102 without the need for the Steam pack. Without Evasive Maneuvers it goes down to 72 mph. With the Steam pack it once more caps out at 87.9. With Afterburner it caps out at 102 as well without the need for Evasive Maneuvers.

 

So Mystic Flight can be capped out with the Steam Pack as a poor man's Afterburner.

Edited September 4 by Sovera

[Mopery]

I just pop a single Micro into Mystic Flight, fast enough for me with Jump Pack. Not like I'm running an Olympic race for a medal or something...

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

does +5ing Swift IOs actually have a significant impact?

 

About 1/3 mph.  Not enormous, but sometimes 1/3 mph is the difference between "I can't.  I just can't." and "Okay, that feels right."  ~26.5 mph is my sweet spot for Run Speed, for example.  Even 1/3 mph less than that, I'm mashing that W key so hard that the keyboard files charges against me for assault and battery.

[Captain Fabulous]

+1 for the Jump/Steam Pack. Quick and easy way to significantly boost flight speed.

[Captain Fabulous]

2 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

About 1/3 mph.  Not enormous, but sometimes 1/3 mph is the difference between "I can't.  I just can't." and "Okay, that feels right."  ~26.5 mph is my sweet spot for Run Speed, for example.  Even 1/3 mph less than that, I'm mashing that W key so hard that the keyboard files charges against me for assault and battery.

Changing the FOV by even a small amount can make you feel like you're moving much faster than you are.

[Psyonico]

3 hours ago, Snarky said:

you have to get the right angle or you go up up up lol

Sounds like you're hitting the jump key,  which you don't actually need to do to get the fly speed bonus. 

[Snarky]

Just now, Psyonico said:

Sounds like you're hitting the jump key,  which you don't actually need to do to get the fly speed bonus. 

damned.  i never monitored the stat lol

[KC4800]

Just TP to the mission door. You'll be faster than any flight could obtain. Then you can /em wait while the others arrive.

[Snarky]

17 minutes ago, KC4800 said:

Just TP to the mission door. You'll be faster than any flight could obtain. Then you can /em wait while the others arrive.

i have both mission TP on all toons... the cooldowns...   i would take TP pool if it offered that power

[GM Crumpet]

Flies aren't that fast, I can usually slap one with a swatter. My dog thinks they are flying raisins and loves snapping them out of the air.

[Hedgefund]

I'm guessing (and it's just a guess) that KC is referring to Translocation.  Mystic Flight has become my "go-to" over the last year because of the combo fly + tp.  Fly when I want to hit the "r" button and refill my drink or use translocation if I'm active.  Unfortunately the universal sets don't increase the tp range (like with the teleport pool), but your global bonuses do. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

11 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

Flies aren't that fast, I can usually slap one with a swatter. My dog thinks they are flying raisins and loves snapping them out of the air.

 

you just wait til you get something tender caught in those flies mate. That'll make your eyes water! 

[Avernal]

Things like Power Boost/Power Build Up affect Flight speed/cap too if you want to rotate with Afterburner, something I use on a couple of /Energy Manip Blasters and Energy Mastery Corrs. 

[Ukase]

On 9/4/2025 at 11:07 AM, Sovera said:

Not too sure about what Ukase is trying to say since the caps are visible if we open the combat attributes.

 

I was just regurgitating what the HC wiki said. 

[macskull]

On 9/5/2025 at 1:23 PM, Ukase said:

I was just regurgitating what the HC wiki said. 

The wiki's information about travel powers and caps is several years out of date at this point, unfortunately.

[Ukase]

So, this is a necro post, but on topic, sort of. 

We have movement caps. Caps to speed, caps to fly..and caps to teleport distance and caps to jump height and distance. 

I'm not going to ask why. 

I'm playing a PB, trying to like the set. Trying to learn what it's good at (nothing yet) and what it's bad at (no real strengths, but seems weak like other ATs in endurance and accuracy - but that's probably more about the content I'm running and how I build than the AT itself. 

I wanted to avoid Super Speed with this character. But, if I did, I'd have to take conceal because I'd rather get missions completed than clear maps. The XP will come. You guys can flail away all you like, I want the merits. But where I'm at right now is flying, slowly. 

So, here's my questions for your folks that are smarter than me, or at least think you are. 

Why does afterburner, and the PB equivalent Quantam turn off after a short time? (My detailed info and City of Data do not show what the duration is, I'm guessing 20-30 seconds) 
And why are people with flight okay with this? 

These powers are, well, inefficient as designed. Would it not be better to just increase the fly speed cap to 150, 200 mph? Why so slow? Super speed is a toggle. You turn it on, you can go as fast as you can go. There is no additional button to increase your speed. Why does Fly or Cosmic Flight have to endure this additional power execution? 
And did I ask why it's so slow? Seems like a no brainer to raise the caps so people have a reason to pursue increases in movement speeds. 

I'm sure this has been discussed, but when I typed in "Fly speed cap", my results found this on the third page, and I wasn't going to sift through every page to find something relevant. 
 

And did I ask why the caps are so low in the first place? It wouldn't hurt bystanders by ramping up the speed caps to something noticeable like 150 mph or so. 

[lemming]

16 minutes ago, Ukase said:

And why are people with flight okay with this? 

Honestly, I'm not OK with this.   I'd prefer that owning Evasive Maneuver (despite the name) raised the cap on flight to Afterburner levels.

Afterburner would still be fine with non-EM characters, but those with EM could just fly that fast.

 

On the why of speed caps at the level they are, there is some upper limit that the engine can deal with.  (something rendering I think?)  Will have to get someone with more knowledge to weigh in.