Guide to Travel Powers in Champions Online (Part 1)

One of the biggest gripes about City of Heroes was the fact that you had to slog through 14 levels before you got a travel power. In Champions Online, you receive your first travel power at level 5 - as soon as you finish the tutorial. You also get a second one at level 35, which can be picked up for fun or to supplement the one you already have. It is very nice that you do not have to sacrifice a power slot to get a second travel power.

I resisted the temptation to provide ratings for the powers, or to rank them. So much of this is personal preference that you really need to test them out in the PowerHouse for yourself.

The most basic of super hero travel powers, this gives you the standard ability to fly. Speed is decent but not great. What makes flight so handy is the fact that you can hover (to fight foes on the ground or other hovering foes) and that you have total vertical movement control. Standard flight has the highest maneuverability of all flight type powers (tied with fire flight) which is also nice.

This is a very good, all purpose travel power. It does not have any distracting visual effects, decent speed, can get you anywhere, and provides access to any location in the game.

Other than ranking it up for speed, flight has no special advantage options.

This provides a little bit of superspeed and a little bit of superjump, and adds some nifty backflip animations as well. It has a very low energy cost, which makes it additionally attractive. The fancy animations are a major reason some people take this power. The funky run animation is a reason some people avoid it.

Advantage of Note: Versatility

This is a very interesting advantage. Whenever you are attacked in combat, this adds a speed buff to you. This makes acrobatics one of the better in combat travel powers. Combine with rank 2, some consider Acrobatics one of the best travel powers in the game.

The ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Not quite, but close. This has a very super feel to it, but there are some problems. If you land somewhere lower than where you took off, you can take serious fall damage. This is a pretty major problem. Also, there is not currently an auto-jump option like there was in City of Heroes, and you cannot even hold down the space bar to keep jumping. This makes using superjump as your primary travel power a bit of a pain.

Advantage of Note: Rebounding Resilience

This advantage makes it harder for holds to land on you. This is pretty nice since there is virtually zero status protection Champions Online (something that desperately needs to be addressed).

NOTE: Readers, if you know of a way to turn this on auto, please post in the comments.

This is one of the more popular powers due to its versatile utility and incredibly cool implementation. When you active teleport, your screen goes black and white and you become a ball of energy basically. You can then move in any direction, including vertical. It lasts for about 6-10 seconds, which means you have to continually re-activate it. The constant re-activation is the drawback to this power.

Additional ranks add to the duration you are in the other "dimension."

Like the Flash, this lets you run at incredible speed. Unfortunately, you cannot run on water or run up walls, so there are major downsides to this travel power. Without a second travel power to supplement this, getting around can be a bit of a pain.

Advantage of Note: Impact

This provides a damage bonus that scales with your speed. This sounds neat at first, but since combat lowers your speed pretty quickly the potential excitement from this is minimized.

This power functions similar to flight, and is very cool looking, but the lack of maneuverability is brutal. It looks more like an ice surfboard than Ice Man's "slide" type power, which disappoints quite a few people. It takes practice to steer this power, as you have significant drift and momentum while trying to turn. While not in motion, you "sink" as well which means no hovering.

It has no special advantages. You can rank it up for more speed.

Part 1 and Part 2 of the Travel power guide each have two pages, for a total of 4. Don't miss out on any of the travel power analysis.

Continue on to: Travel Power Guide in Champions Online (Part 2)

If you want to add comments, we recommend you put them in part 2 so they are all in one place.