Champions Online - Travel Power Guide - Swinging, Jet Boots, Rocket Jump, Tunneling
Don’t Miss Part 1 of the Travel Power Guide
Just in case you landed here first, make sure you did not miss Part 1 of the Champions Online Travel Power Guide.
Swinging
A much requested travel power from City of Heroes, this is certainly one of the more unique. It is a little bit like super jump, but is a bit more flexible and a requires a little more attention. You definitely look very cool when using it, but you have to constantly be reading to hit the space bar to extend your next “rope.” This power is great for concept, but many will find the need to “baby sit” it too much work.
Advantage of Note: Flippin'
This adds to your chance to doge. For characters that take the Lightning Reflexes passive, this might single handedly make Swinging a good choice.
Jet Boots
Jet boots are basically the flight power through technology. This power is supposedly faster than flight at the top end, but the difference is negligible. For the extra speed, you lose maneuverability, which is really not a good trade off. Something really needs to be done for this travel power, because right now the benefit is not worth the drawback. My suggestion is to just make it a flat out copy of flight and let people choose it for concept.
Rocket Jump
Rocket Jump is Super Jump through technology, similar to how Jet Boots related to flight. Unfortunately, the Rocket Boots provide no real benefit over Super Jump, and lack the option for the Rebounding Resilience advantage. As with Jet Boots, this travel power needs something added to it.
Tunneling
This is another very interesting travel power that has no analogue in City of Heroes. You dig a hole in the ground, dive into it, and then can move around rapidly safe from attack. There is no vertical movement, which makes it hard to get around. This is a particular problem because curbs and very small obstructions can block your travel. With a few tweaks to solve that, this could be a really great travel power. It is already great for concept.
Advantage of Note: Earthen Embrace
This advantage adds damage resistance to your character (up to 6 stacks) the longer you tunnel. When you exit the tunnel, the damage resistance persists for some time. This is nice for absorbing alpha strikes from groups of mobs. Some tanks really like this ability.
Fire Flight
Fire flight is identical to regular flight from a statistical and usefulness standpoint. It adds an additional shroud effect that can be custom colored to look like ice, energy, or anything aside from fire. The effect is somewhat significant, so test it out to make sure it doesn’t bother you. This has all the benefits of flight, and no additional disadvantages.
Fire flight looks cool and performs well. It has no special advantages, but higher ranks add to its speed.
Hover Disk
Hover disk is nearly identical to ice slide, and shares all of its significant negatives. If it fits your concept, it might be worth taking. Make sure you test it out heavily in the PowerHouse or you might end up very disappointed. This is basically a flight power that is slightly faster than flight, but with significantly worse maneuverability (though not as bad as ice slide). Turning is pretty inaccurate, but there is one advantage to hover disk over ice slide - you do not sink to the ground when you stop moving which means you actually CAN hover with this (thank goodness, considering the name of the power).
Earth Flight
This is another disk-like power similar to Hover Disk and Ice slide. It is more similar to hover disk, thankfully. The maneuverability is worth than flight, but not as bad as Ice Slide. Also, when you stop moving you do actually hover - you do not sink to the ground like Ice Slide. Depending on your concept, the look might suit you quite nicely or it might not. This is another travel power you definitely want to test before leaving the PowerHouse.
Conclusions
The travel powers in Champions Online are, for the most part, done very well and really make you feel super. You could probably categorize them like this:
Basic Flying - flight, fire flight, teleport
Flying with Bad Maneuverability - ice slide, hover disk, earth flight, jet boots
Ground Travel - super speed, acrobatics, tunneling
Jumping - Superjump, acrobatics, swinging
There is not really a best or a worst travel power. They are highly affected by your own personal preference and character concepts. Test them all out in the PowerHouse, and try different ones on different characters. You will probably enjoy most of them throughout your time in Champions Online.
Please share your opinions of the different travel powers in our comments here.
This post is part of the series: Champions Online Travel Power Guide
Travel powers tend to be some of the more iconic abilities of super heroes. This guide looks at the various travel powers in Champions Online.
