City of Heroes: Movement Powers and PvP

The Frequency of Travel Powers in Player vs. Player (PVP) and Zone Player vs. Player (ZPVP) Combat

The following Travel Powers dominate CoX:

• Flight
• Concealment
• Leaping
• Speed
• Teleportation

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The campaign world of CoX revolves around these five powers because of the importance of reaching a task-based destination (usually called Player vs. Environment, or PvE) and all forms of PVP. The Concealment power pool is of special mention because, although it does not change your method of travel, it does increase your ability to reach the destination without being challenged.

In the CoX PVP and ZPVP (which will be now be broadly referenced as "PVP") environment, nearly every character (referred to as a "toon") has the Super Speed power; this can be observed directly by watching a PVP battle or going to a PVP zone. Often, Super Speed (also referred to as "SS) is used in combination with the Super Jump power, which creates an extremely fast, high-and-low reaching character.

Flying, or the Fly power, is surprisingly one of the lesser chosen powers in ZPVP. If taken, it will mostly be chosen with other existing travel powers. For example, even though a person wouldn't think jumping is needed when you fly, the Jumping power pool has the powers Combat Jump (which gives more maneuverability and some protection from immobilization effects) and Acrobatics (which gives limited protection from hold and knockback effect).

As well, a strong majority of the players use invisibility, or some variant of stealth, for their characters in PVP. One of the most predominant methods for avoiding the "Concealment" power pool, where Stealth and Invisibility reside, is to use a +Stealth "process". This process is something that can be bought and/or created through the CoX invention system, and will grant the user a degree of invisibility when activating the power linked to it. For most players, the linked power will be Super Speed.

Teleportation waxes and wanes dependent on the current mechanics surrounding it. The Issue 13 release has changed teleportation enough that it is less desired by characters and less seen on the battlefield.

The Leaping power set is probably of equal, if not more, prevalence than any other pool set. The basis of this belief is due its ability to operate (and provide functionality) simultaneously with all other travel powers, while having two very desirable powers that are heavily needed to survive, those being Combat Jump and Acrobatics, described above.

While it is a debatable point, it can be observed that the travel powers have led to the creation of the artificial response mechanic (ARM), namely "Travel Suppression" (TS) in PvP. Because of the relevance of movement to using techniques such as kiting, and escape, this sparks less of a debate.

The notion of suppressing travel only came through the observations of developers who saw players "strafe" and "kite" their attacks in one fluid motion, being unassailable due to the speed of the action. The result was to "force", through TS, an artificial mechanic that keeps the player in the confrontation as long as possible. (It should be noted that the timer for suppression is completely arbitrary; right now your ability to run or fly away is a few seconds, but they could easily raise it to one minute.)

A Description of Outcomes of PVP and ZPVP Due To Travel Powers in CoX

What has been observed is a constantly changing environment in all forms of PVP. Because of the prevalence of travel powers, some other powers have become less effective.

Melee attacks, as a whole, are less effective unless supported with super speed (and usually Super Jump). Without super speed, a ranged attacker will consistently have an advantage of dealing damage and getting away from a close range fighter. The advantage is with the ranged attack at this moment.

Invisibility, or Stealth, has the obvious advantage of determining the battlefield in ZPVP. CoX has one archetype (AT) completely developed as a stealth template (The "Stalker") and, coupled with Super Speed, he is easily capable of closing in on an opponent and striking, only to get away. Subjectively, it appears that is his sole purpose, but it should also be noted that the developers of CoX are currently using Travel Suppression as a mechanism to keep the Stalker "attackable", visible, and in the confrontation for a few more seconds at this time (however, there are other powers the stalker can use to be completely intangible to attack for example, Phase Shift, which makes you intangible, and Hibernate, which encases you in a block of ice, untouchable).

Teleportation has been more affected than any other travel power. One extremely common power in the Teleportation pool is "Teleport Foe". It has the ability to target an enemy at long range and bring them to your feet. At the post-I13 release, any foe who is teleported has a moment of intangibility which they can use to run off. As well, players that used to teleport out of combat, now find that their power does not function for a number of seconds after they are hit.

Flight may be underrated, but this may also be because there are so many powers in the past that removed the ability to stay aloft (some powers have a "-fly" effect in them). After I13, powers that immobilized or held characters became less effective because of their short durations, the fact that passive powers no longer toggled off when held, and that the hover power will normally keep you flying even when immobilized or held.

But one of the reasons flying is used fairly infrequently could be because a flier cannot catch up to a person running at super speed. Subsequently, since traveling at super speeds is extremely common in all forms of PVP, fliers lack the ability to chase characters running from battle. It should be noted that characters cannot fly at super speeds (The two do not work together).

As stated before, some attacks are less effective. At the same time, though, other attacks are nearly completely ineffective. For example, among one hero archetype, there is a power known as "Time Bomb", which resides in a secondary power set known as "Devices". The time bomb takes eight seconds to set and will go off after 15 seconds. The problem with this power is that it is easy to be killed in the eight second preparation and extremely unlikely that the bomb will even be near a battle when it actually explodes with its extreme damage. Needless to say, Time Bomb is not a PVP chosen power and the occasions where it has been chosen are rare.

The viability of choosing a power for PVP is, therefore, based not only on its damage. The animation time, or prep time, of the attack is extremely important. (It should be noted that NCsoft has lately been working with the powers to establish a link between the amount of damage done and the prep time.)

But what seems of most importance to choosing a power is how easily it can connect based on travel powers. Since their prevalence, all powers that require range to continuously work (such as the Radiation Infection power, which requires you to stay within 70 feet of your target) are often, but not completely, ignored. Maintaining a specific range is very difficult, and therefore more immediate powers that "Fire and Forget" are chosen.