Do you want to make an informed decision on what Travel power to take? Want to know how fast various movement powers are? What's the cap? How many SOs does it take to reach the cap? HOs? What about movement buffs and debuffs? Are there tricks to moving faster? Well, it's all here.
Executive Summary
Teleport can be faster than 150 MPH; nothing beats it.
Super Speed at level 50 is capped at 92.50 MPH with 2 SOs or HOs.
Super Jumping at level 50 is capped at 78 MPH with 3 SOs or HOs.
Flying at level 50 is capped at 58.63 MPH with 4 SOs or 5 HOs.
Running, Jumping, and Flying all have a base unenhancable speed of 21 feet/second.
Movement powers add a bonus to the base 21 f/s speed; Enhancements only affect the bonus.
The best movement power is Kheldian Bright and Dark Nova flight.
Microfilament HOs give a +30% enhancement bonus, white SOs give +33.3%.
New Microfilament HOs give a +20% Enhancement bonus.
With new HOs, it takes 3 to cap Super Speed, 4 for Super Jumping, and you can't cap Fly.
Introduction
This guide lists everything I know and could figure out about how movement works in City of Heroes. It includes VERY accurate movement speeds, and a little discussion about the Power Pools with travel powers. All of the movement speeds are in feet/seconds (f/s). To convert to miles/hour (mph), multiply by 0.6818, though I've done that in most places. All Enhancements are assumed to be even level unless otherwise specified.
For this guide, I make a distinction between Movement powers and Travel powers. Movement powers are powers that affect movement. Travel powers are the powers that characters normally use to travel long distances. All of the Travel powers are available at level 14 in Power Pools, and include Fly, Super Jump, Super Speed, and Teleport. However, there are a number of Movement powers that can function as Travel powers, as youll see below. There are also several references to conventional travel powers. This means all of the Travel powers except Teleport, because it is
unconventional! J
Ill start by discussing things common to the 3 conventional modes of movement, running, jumping, and flying. This includes things like slotting, enhancements, base speed, and increasing powers by level. Then I'll go through the 4 modes of travel, including all the stats I know. After that, Ill discuss power pool choices associated with movement, Kheldians, and other considerations.
SECTION 1: Conventional Movement Powers
Enhancements and Slotting are similar across all conventional movement powers. For the most part, it is useless to slot movement powers other than the 4 big Travel powers. There are some significant exceptions to this noted below. Training Enhancements provide an 8.3% bonus, Dual Origins give 16.6%, and Single Origins give 33.3%. There are Enhancements for Running Speed, Jumping, and Flight Speed. Green Enhancements increase by 5% of the % bonus per level above you, while yellow ones decrease by 10% of the % bonus per level below you. That means a SO that is 1 level above you (SO+1) has a bonus of 33.3 * 1.05 = 34.965%. A SO+3 has a bonus of 33.3 * 1.15 = 38.295%. A yellow SO-3 has a bonus of 33.3 * 0.7 = 23.31%. Read some Enhancement Guides if this doesn't make sense.
There is also a Microfilament Hamidon Origin (HO) Enhancement that adds 30% to Running, Jumping, and Flight Speed, and provides 50% Endurance Reduction. Note that the HO provides LESS than an SO bonus to movement. Read that again. I've seen several posts on the boards by people who have tested it indicating the exact same thing. Remember, a SO+3 provide a 38.295% bonus. But at level 50, you can cap Super Speed and Super Jump with the same number of slots using either SOs or HOs, so you might as well use HOs for the Endurance Reduction. It takes 5 slots to cap Fly using only HOs at level 50, but you can still cap it with only 4 slots using 2 SOs and 2 HOs.
However, HOs are being "rebalanced" on the Test Server right now. The Microfilament HO is now a 20% Enhancement to movement powers. That makes it slightly better than a green DO, and worse than a very yellow SO. DO NOT slot these in any power unless you need the Endurance Reduction. It takes 3 of these new HOs to cap Super Speed, and 4 to cap Super Jump. You can't cap Fly even with 6 new HOs, but you can with 5 HOs and 1 SO. Note that the HOs listed in the Executive Summary and the tables below are the current 30% HOs.
All conventional movement modes have a base speed of 21 f/s. Movement powers add a bonus to that, and enhancements on those powers increase only the bonus. Read those last two sentences again, they're important and very few people seem to know them. I generally divide the tables below up into 2 parts. The first table lists the base movement speed (21 f/s) plus all of the base bonuses for the powers (starting with a + to make it obvious they are bonuses). The second table has some sample total speeds that include the base speed.
Conventional movement modes have a cap that you cannot exceed. Super Speed has the highest cap, and supposedly this is a hard limit due to the design of the game. The Super Jump cap is lower, and the Flying cap is lower still. It is usually worth it to slot your Travel powers to reach the cap, but don't add too many slots or they may be wasted.
Some movement powers increase their bonus as you increase in level, including the big three conventional Travel powers. The caps increase in level as well. For example, if you have two Running SOs in Super Speed at level 22, you'll be a moderate amount over the cap for level 22. As long as you keep 2 SOs in Super Speed, you'll be capped at every level up to 50. The cap for Flight increases a bit faster, so you can cap it at level 22 with 3 very green SOs, but it takes 4 from level 32 and up.
Let's put this all together and see how to calculate these things. How fast do you run at level 22 when you have Super Speed with a brand new level 25 SO (SO+2), and Sprint slotted with END Reduction? And while we're at it, what's the cap? See the formulas and numbers in the Running section below.
Movement Power Bonus = (Base Bonus) * (1 + Enhancements)
Super Speed Bonus = (52.15 + LVL * 0.427) * (1 + .38295)
Super Speed Bonus = 85.11
Total Running Speed = 21 (base) + 85.11 (Super Speed) + 10.5 (Sprint)
Total Running Speed = 116.61 feet/second
Running Speed Cap = 93.67 + LVL * 0.84
Running Speed Cap = 112.15 feet/second
As you can see, you'll be above the speed cap with only a single SO, as long as you use Sprint as well. At 41, Sprint and a SO+3 aren't quite enough to keep you at the cap.
SECTION 2: Running
All starting characters can run, and for a little more Endurance they can Sprint. This is the first form of movement characters get, and boy does it seem slow. In truth, its very fast! Base running speed is a bit over 14 mph, which means just over a 4 minute mile. With Sprint, youre running over 20 MPH, so you can run a mile in under 3 minutes! But for Super Heroes, it really is slow.
The key advantage to running is that it has the highest cap of any conventional movement mode. You can run 92.5 MPH at level 50 just by taking Super Speed and adding one slot. The key disadvantage is that it has no Z-axis movement, which means you can't scale vertical walls or otherwise go anywhere you couldnt walk or run. Jumping follows the normal laws of physics in CoH, so you can make very long long jumps and cross moderately wide chasms if you're careful. But you'll have problems in Skyway and Boomtown, big problems in Faultline and Terra Volta, and don't bother going to the Shadow Shard.
There are 5 different Prestige Powers which characters can get which are just variants of Sprint. People who purchased the City of Heroes pre-order before it was released get one of Prestige Power Quick, Dash, Fast, or ?, depending on which store they purchased the pre-order from. People who purchased the Collectors Edition DVD set or the Hero Gear Kit get Prestige Power Slide. As far as I know, these are exactly the same as Sprint, except for a different visual effect. Dash and Slide definitely have the same speed, but I don't have the others to test. These powers are mutually exclusive, so you can only have 1 of them on at a time.
All of the different running powers stack. For example, you get your base run speed, and you can add Sprint, Swift, and Super Speed. You can get multiple Speed Boosts, and they stack as long as different people cast them. Ditto for Accelerate Metabolism. Super Speed is the only running power that is suppressed when you attack, so you can have high speed running in combat if you can get running bonuses other than Super Speed.
At the low end, there are several Powers that affect Run speed. Swift from the Fitness Power Pool is the most common, but Accelerate Metabolism from Radiation Defenders and Speed Boost from Kinetics Defenders are also handy. Don't overlook these powers, as they are handy and available before the real Travel powers at 14. I founded an all-Radiation SG, and a group of 8 level 2 Rad Defenders could run around with Sprint and 8 stacked perma-Accelerate Metabolism at a speed of about 82 f/s. That's fairly close to the Flight speed cap and base Super Speed at level 2! Stacked this way, Accelerate Metabolism and Speed Boost are fully functional Travel powers.
Super Reflexes Scrappers can get Quickness at level 20 and Elude at 38. Quickness is an auto power that does several things, and the Run speed bonus is exactly the same as Swift (kind of slow). But Elude is supposed to provide a nice Run Speed bonus. Unfortunately, I don't have any data on Elude.
There are some powers that slow you down while active. Stealth from the Concealment Power Pool slows you, as does Kinetics Defender's Increase Gravity and Stone Tanker's Granite Armor. Stealth slows down your base running speed by 35%, but seems to have a reduced effect if you have Sprint on. It appears to be a negative Run Speed buff, rather than a Slow. A negative run speed buff reduces your speed by a fixed amount, while a Slow reduces your total run speed by a percentage. I need to look into this some more.
The fastest Running power is Super Speed from the Speed Power Pool. With only 2 slots with Run Speed SOs, you can reach the Run Speed cap. In fact you can cap it at level 15 with 3 DOs. With Super Speed slotted this way, you dont need Swift, Sprint, or any other Running power. In fact youll still be capped while Super Speeding with Stealth on. This is really the only Running power worth slotting, and 1 slot will let you reach the cap. Check your Endurance usage, you may want to add an additional 1 or 2 slots for Endurance Reduction.
It takes a while for the server to spawn mobs in reaction to people approaching spawn points. Mobs may spawn on top of Super Speeders. Since Super Speed can be dangerous, the devs gave it a bonus to Stealth to avoid such problems. This is only half Invisibility though. If you get close enough to mobs and stay there, they will agro. Many people take another half invisibility power to stack and give them full invisibility (see Concealment in Section 6 below).
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Movement power Speed MPH % of Run
Base Running 21 f/s 14.32 mph
Sprint and variants +10.5 f/s +7.16 mph +50%
Swift +5.20 + LVL * 0.043
Swift at level 6 +5.46 f/s +3.72 mph +26%
Swift at level 50 +7.35 f/s +5.01 mph +35%
Accelerate Metabolism +6.3 f/s +4.30 mph +30%
Speed Boost +? +? +?
Siphon Speed +? +? +?
Quickness +5.20 + LVL * 0.043 (same as Swift)
Elude +? +? +?
Stealth -7.35 -5.01 mph -35%
Increase Density -? -? -?
Granite Armor -? -? -?
Super Speed +52.15 + LVL * 0.427
Super Speed Cap 93.67 + LVL * 0.84</pre><hr />
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Powers Total f/s MPH
Base running 21.00 14.32
Sprinting 31.50 21.48
Super Speed at 14 79.13 53.95
Super Speed at 50 94.50 64.43
with 1 HO 116.55 79.46
with 1 SO 118.98 81.12
with 2 of either 135.67 92.50 CAPPED
</pre><hr />
SECTION 3: Jumping
When Running isnt enough, theres always Jumping. You wont go as fast as capped Super Speed, but you can come close. Some people think the vertical movement more than makes up for the slower speed. Super Jump isnt enough to let you get around the Shadow Shard, but its usually enough to let you get around the zones in Paragon City without a problem.
Well, actually, there is one problem. Super Jump has no Stealth. You're in the air most of the time, but you can VERY easily drop down right in the middle of some bad guys. As long as you keep moving, you'll probably be OK. They may shoot you and damage you a bit. They may even hit you with a status effect, causing you to drop to the ground a short distance away. But hopefully you can get up and Super Jump away before they catch up and finish you. Super Jump is often avoided by non-invisible squishies for this reason.
How high can you jump? Everyone can jump 11.27 feet high, with a little running start. That's pretty heroic for a high jump, even though it doesn't look very impressive when you're doing it. A standing high jump is barely less, at 11.19 feet. Is jumping faster than running? Nope, they are exactly the same (21 f/s) at the base speed. Powers that increase your running speed also increase your jumping speed, but by less. For example, running with Sprint is 31.5 f/s, but jumping with Sprint is 29.82 f/s.
By the way, getting numbers for these powers was TERRIBLE! I recorded my movement in demo files and parsed them (see the last section for details), and the numbers were all over the place. The numbers for Running and Flying are probably accurate to within 0.1%. I think these numbers are accurate to 2%. But jumping is NOT a simple form of movement. You can't just take the numbers provided below and apply Enhancements and figure out your jumping speed or height. For whatever reason, it just doesn't work that way. Height is often rounded to a number ending in .43, but otherwise it appears to follow normal Enhancement rules. Speed can vary a lot, with small or huge jumps as you add SOs. It can even go backwards. See below for Hurdle. Try as I might, I could not figure out the logic behind this.
There are two early Jumping powers, Combat Jumping and Hurdle. Combat Jumping is almost solely a height bonus. Running and jumping with Combat Jumping appears to increase your ground speed by a very small amount, less than 1 f/s even when 6 slotted with SOs. But it does increase your jumping height significantly. Hurdle however increases your ground speed significantly and your height only slightly less than Combat Jumping. In fact Hurdle appears to provide half the jumping bonus that Super Jumping does, though without the height. Hurdle can be used as a travel power! It takes a lot of slots, but it can beat the Fly cap. At level 50, Hurdle with 5 SOs goes about 89 f/s, and you jump about 29 feet high. Add that 6th SO, and you drop down to 80 f/s but increase height to 32 feet. If you Sprint, you only drop down to 83 f/s. Apparently there's a sweet spot due to being right at a specific height or Enhancement value that will let you go about 60 MPH with Hurdle.
The main Jumping travel power is Super Jumping. It is mutually exclusive with Combat Jumping; if you turn one on, the other will turn off. However, both will stack with Hurdle. It takes 3 SOs or HOs to reach the Jumping cap of 114.4 f/s, or 78 MPH. I haven't tested to see if the Super Jumping cap increases based on level.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Power Speed (f/s) MPH Height
Base Jumping 21.00 14.32 11.27
Sprint +8.82 +6.01
Hurdle +19.54 + LVL * 0.094 +6.00
Combat Jumping +0.25 +0.17 +8.00
Super Jump +40.87 + LVL * 0.228 +112
Jumping cap 114.4 78.00</pre><hr />
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Power Total f/s MPH Height
Super Jump at 50 73.21 49.91 123.43
with 1 SO 90.72 61.85 160.43
with 2 SOs 108.21 73.78 206.28
with 3 SOs 114.4 78.00 217.43 CAPPED</pre><hr />
SECTION 4: Flying
Flying is the stereotypical Super Hero travel power. The first character I made got Fly at level 14, and I really enjoyed flying around Paragon City after spending my first 13 levels sprinting. You just go up high, point yourself in the right direction, and you can take a snack or bio break. But thats because Flying is kind of slow. In fact its the absolute slowest travel power, and can be exceeded by other non-Travel movement powers. It used to have an Accuracy Debuff too, but that went away when the devs implemented Suppression on Travel powers.
Flying is pretty safe. As long as you're somewhat above the mobs, they won't agro and shoot at you. Granted there are mobs on top of buildings that you may accidentally get too close to, but that's the worse you have to worry about till level 30. At level 30 and above, in the higher level zones, there may be snipers. They sit alone on rooftops and shoot at heroes they see, and they have a LONG agro range that lets them see through invisibility. They aren't instant death unless you're way in over your head, but you better take evasive maneuvers if you get hit.
Fly costs a fair amount of Endurance. With just Fly, you will slowly lose Endurance. This can easily be offset by Endurance Reduction Enhancements or Stamina, and usually needs to be. If you accidentally leave one or more expensive toggles on while flying, you may come back from your break to find yourself running on the ground, low on HP and END. Thats if youre lucky.
Despite the disadvantages, I hear that Fly is the most popular Travel power.
How fast do you fly? All flight powers start with the 21 f/s base speed. Your flight bonus from Fly increases as you go up in level a little bit at a time. Unenhanced, your total flight speed at level 14 is 42.12 f/s, and at 50 is 49.68 f/s. It increases linearly from 14 all the way to 50, but not by a whole lot. Flight speed also has a cap that is level dependant.
Group Fly is similar to Fly, but slower still. In fact the Group Fly bonus is exactly half that of Fly. Also, it is almost exactly Sprinting speed at level 20. You can use it to carry only your teammates, and they have to stay somewhat close to you.
Hover is the first Flight movement power, but last here because it's kind of backwards. In fact, compared to the other Flight powers, it's really messed up. It does not increase in speed as you level. It's a negative Flight bonus. And Enhancements affect your base speed. (You don't want them to increase the negative Flight bonus after all.)
Checking the formula, unenhanced Hover always goes 4.2 f/s, but every SO adds about 7 f/s. My Controller has Hover 6 slotted for speed, and goes about 46 f/s which is nearly base Fly speed. It gives great maneuverability in combat or missions, doesn't get suppressed, and doesn't cost much END. On top of that, it gives a little Defense bonus. Other than the slotting required, it's a great movement power. It's a very slow Travel power, but it's great with Super Speed. Run fast where you can, and use Hover on the few spots you can't.
There are "speed on demand" keybinds that will let you switch between Fly and Hover automatically. These activate Fly while you are moving, and Hover when you stop. You get high speed and high END cost while moving, but you get Defense and low end cost when you stop to attack.
All of the Flight powers are mutually exclusive. If you activate one, it will turn off any others you have on.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Power Speed (f/s) MPH
Base Flying 21.00 14.32
Accelerate Metabolism +6.30 +4.30
Speed Boost +? +?
Siphon Speed +? +?
Hover -16.80 -11.45
Fly +18.18 + LVL * 0.21 +12.40 + LVL * 0.143
Fly Cap 54.5 + LVL * 0.63
Group Fly +9.09 + LVL * 0.105 +6.20 + LVL * 0.072</pre><hr />
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Power Total f/s MPH
Hover 4.20 2.86
with 1 SO 11.19 7.63
with 2 SOs 18.19 12.40
with 3 SOs 25.18 17.17
with 4 SOs 32.17 21.93
with 5 SOs 39.17 27.61
with 6 SOs 46.16 31.47
Fly at 14 42.12 28.72
Fly at 50 49.68 33.87
with 1 SO 59.23 40.38
with 2 SOs 68.78 46.89
with 3 SOs 78.33 53.41
with 4 SOs 86.00 58.63 CAPPED!
Group Fly at 50 35.34 24.09
with 1 SO 40.12 27.35
with 2 SOs 44.89 30.61
with 3 SOs 49.67 33.87
with 4 SOs 54.44 37.12
with 5 SOs 59.22 40.38
with 6 SOs 63.99 43.63</pre><hr />
SECTION 5: Teleport
Teleport Self is not a conventional Travel power, since you dont actually travel from point A to point B. You disappear from point A and reappear at point B, without traveling through the space in between. It is the fastest travel power, but it is also the most expensive END wise at 15 Endurance per hop (about 3 seconds). Without Stamina or some Endurance Reduction Enhancements, you will not be able to make it across even a medium sized zone. If you're not careful, you may run out of Endurance and fall into the middle of some bad guys. Ten hops in 30 seconds can take you from 100 to 0 Endurance, and that's only 0.57 miles. Teleport is the most difficult movement power, requiring constant attention and decent reflexes.
Teleport would be very hard without the Hover effect. After you teleport, you get a free Hover for about 2 seconds. This is supposed to let you retarget and teleport again. After 2 seconds, the Hover wears off, and you start falling. Most people who teleport tend to go up first to avoid mobs on the ground, and falling can mean both falling damage and landing in the middle of a group of bad guys. People with laggy connections tend to fall a lot. Some people take Hover and leave it on, just to avoid falling. Completely invisible characters and melee types with good defenses are less worried about this. Note that if you have any Flight power active, you can move during the 2 second Hover though at a slower rate than normal. If you do not have an active Flight power, you cannot move during the free 2 second Hover.
Teleporting is dangerous when you stop as well. You may not be able to see mobs at your final destination while teleporting. For example, if youre Teleporting to a mission door in a Hazard Zone, you may end up close to the door but in the middle of a Hazard Zone sized spawn of bad guys. It's always best to land on a perch nearby and check your destination.
The last bad thing Ill say about Teleport is that it is terrible inside missions. It is far easier to use every other movement power to maneuver inside missions.
Combat teleporting is generally not done. Some people use it to teleport into the middle of a group in order to open combat with a PBAoE attack (like a Blaster's Big Nuke), while other people use it to teleport out of combat if things are going badly. But not many people use it in the middle of combat, to move from mob to mob, or to chase mobs. However, Teleport does have two advantages over every other form of movement in combat. It lets you move while Immobilized, and is completely unaffected by Slow. Tsoo with Caltrops have you moving in slow motion? Just teleport behind them and give them a surprise.
Teleport takes about 2.8 seconds to activate and has no Recharge time. However, you have to actually target the location you want to teleport to at every hop, so you may average 3 seconds or so after practice. Each hop is 300 feet unenhanced, so the unenhanced base speed is around 100 f/s (about 68 mph). That's pretty good at level 14, and it's only a little under the Super Speed cap at that level.
There are keybinds to make teleportation easier. Some people like advanced keybinds that alter graphics settings to make it easier to target your destination. The following simple keybind lets you hold down the left SHIFT key and teleport by left clicking the mouse on the target location at each hop.
/bind lshift+lbutton "powexec_name Teleport"
There are only 2 restrictions on your destination. You have to be able to target where you want to go, and you have to be able to appear above your target. The first means you cant for example teleport through a closed door unless you can somehow see the room on the other side. You can carefully position your camera to see around and teleport through corners, or anything else you want. There are some restricted areas with invisible walls, like behind counters in stores, where you cannot target. You cannot target air unless it is at your maximum range, so you cant use Teleport to go just 150 feet in mid-air. For the second restriction, you cannot appear above the ceiling, so teleport will not let you target the ceiling in a room, or the bottom of things.
The in-game graphics for Teleport will show a quick flash indicating the direction you are teleporting, and observant people in the Arena will use that to track you. In PvE, you can use it to track where those annoying Tsoo Sorcerers or Sky Raider Porters went.
Teleport range can be increased using Range Enhancements, just like attack powers. Note that Range Enhancements have a 5/10/20% increase for Training, Dual Origin, and Single Origin Enhancements. A Teleport with 6 Range Increases will let you Teleport 220 yards at a time, for a speed of about 220 f/s (150 mph). That's 1.6 times faster than level 50 capped Super Speed.
You'll notice I didn't mention HOs above. The current Centriole HO adds +50% Damage and +30% Range. Only the Range is useful for Teleport, and it will let you teleport further. But the new Centriole HO is only +20% range, so it is worse than a green SO. Do not put HOs in teleport.
Slotting Teleport can be a balancing act. Slotting it with Endurance Reduction will let you teleport more times before running out of Endurance, but slotting it with Range means you go faster and you don't need to teleport as many times as you would otherwise. Remember that Endurance Reduction has diminishing returns, so each slot does less and less. That said, you should probably slot 1 or 2 Endurance Reduction Enhancements before even considering adding Range Enhancements. You only need to slot it for range if you really like missions or traveling in the Shadow Shard zones, as you'll be teleporting long distances. However if you have a big team that regularly plays together, it is well worth it to have one person with 6 slotted Teleport and Recall Friend to move the entire team around at high speed.
For really long distances, or at low levels before Stamina and spare slots for Endurance Reductions SOs, you can always rest or just teleport more slowly. To rest, just find a convenient place where mobs don't spawn (building ledge, tree canopy, or open water). If you go more slowly by waiting to TP till after you start falling, you gain back a couple extra END points per hop. Accelerate Metabolism, Speed Boost, and Recovery Aura can also make a big difference, so make friends with Defenders and Controllers.
When you have Stamina 6 slotted, you can Teleport as far as you want without any End Reduction SOs in Teleport, as long as you do it very slowly. Teleporting as fast as possible, you'll run out of END in about a minute. With Stamina and 1 END Reduction SO in Teleport, you can teleport for several minutes as fast as possible. With Stamina and 2 END Reduction SOs, you should slowly gain END. In general, I recommend using the initial free slot for Endurance Reduction, and that's it. Add a couple slots if you really want to go faster, or add 6 if you're the team carrier.
You can also get the Team Teleport power at level 20 in the Teleportation Power Pool. It has a base range of 222.22 feet, rather than the 300 feet range of Teleport Self. It costs 20 Endurance, rather than the 15 Endurance of Teleport Self. Contrary to the original description, the Endurance cost does not increase based on the number of people. It does teleport you and all team members and buffable pets within 30 feet. For example, it will teleport Phantasms, but not Phantom Army or the Phantasm's Phantom Decoy. You end up in a small cluster at your destination, and everyone gets the hover effect for 2 seconds. You better teleport fast or everyone without Fly or Hover will fall, and there's a good chance you'll get split up if some Fly and some don't. Group Fly is a good partner power for this.
Do I recommend Team Teleport? Never. I've been playing since Beta, a lot, and I've never played in a team where anyone used this. Ever. Teleport and Recall Friend have always been sufficient for me. I'm sure there are some cases where it would be nice. But I'm just as sure it isn't worth a power slot.
SECTION 6: Power Pools
Concealment
What does Concealment have to do with movement? Lots! Getting around unseen is often more important than getting around fast. Ask anyone under level 10 with a mission in Perez Park. Stealth is a toggle, and its a power many people pick to accomplish this. Unfortunately, its only about half effective in making you invisible. Bad guys will still attack you if you get too close. In missions, there are many mobs that you just can't avoid. It also slows you down a fair amount, making it harder to run away from the bad guys who do see you. However, Super Speed is also a half effective invisibility. Together, you are fully invisible to most mobs. Only Sniper class mobs can see you, and you dont run into them till around level 30+. Many people rely on Stealth + Super Speed for complete invisibility from level 14 on. Theres a gap between levels 6 and 14 where youre only half invisible, and that can be a pain. You get around some of these problems by taking Grant Invisibility rather than Stealth. This is a click power that turns a teammate (not you) completely invisible, and does not reduce their movement. It provides a little Defense like Stealth. If you regularly team, especially with the same people, you are better off taking Grant Invisibility. The Defense bonus can stack when cast by multiple people. It provides complete invisibility from level 6 on, making any movement or travel power very safe. And it doesnt slow you down. The only significant drawback is you need to recast it every 2 minutes.
Fitness
Many people consider Stamina to be a requirement for almost every build at the high end of the game. To get Stamina, you have to take at least 2 of Swift, Hurdle, and Health. Swift and Hurdle were discussed above, under Running and Leaping respectively. Health supposedly got more powerful in Update 4. In most cases, youre better off taking Hurdle and Health, and skipping Swift. Hurdle is better than Swift for movement and travel before you get a real Travel Power. Granted Swift stacks with Super Speed, its useless once Super Speed has 2 Run Speed SOs. Bouncing around may be very hard in combat, but Combat Jumping makes things much easier. If you really need faster ground movement in combat, and dont want to jump or spend Endurance on Sprint, then I guess Swift is the way to go.
Flight
We already went over 3 of the powers in this Power Pool above. The only other one is Air Superiority, and it's actually worth something. It does Knockdown and has a Fly debuff. Melee types have little need for Hover, as Hover is just too slow for melee combat. For them, Air Superiority opens up the pool for Fly and gives them an attack with pretty decent side effects. Even squishies can use this. Sure Hover will keep you out of range of most melee, but Air Superiority will help you keep even flying mobs out of melee range.
Some Controllers may want Air Superiority rather than Hover as well. Locked down mobs don't melee, so Controllers don't need Hover to keep out of range. Air Superiority opens up the Flight pool for Fly later, just as easily as Hover does. And Air Superiority is another attack, which many Controllers with fast activating attacks could use to fill out their attack chain.
Leaping
Jump Kick is a melee attack with OK damage and a long animation time. Most melee characters have better attacks, and most non-melee characters dont want a melee attack. I can't think of a reason for anyone to take this power over Combat Jumping.
Most people that go with this pool take Combat Jumping, Super Jump, and Acrobatics, as theyre a fairly nice set to have. Combat Jumping and Super Jump were covered above. Acrobatics provides Knockback and Hold protection. All together, this pool provides a versatile Travel power and status protection appropriate for soloing squishies. The status protection can easily be overwhelmed in medium and large teams without sufficient agro control, but its still nice to have.
Speed
Many people consider Hasten to be a requirement for almost every build at the medium and high end of the game. It is a click power with a 70% Recharge Reduction bonus. That's slightly better than having 2 Recharge Reduction SOs in every power. It lasts for 2 minutes, and can be made permanent with 6 SO Recharge Reduction Enhancements. Characters with a large number of attacks can just cycle through them at normal speed, but characters with few attacks need something like this to maintain a constant attack chain. It helps with long recharge powers like big nukes, AoE Holds, and Pets. It even gives you a little Defense on the side. It is not a movement power at all. But given that so many people take it, it makes Super Speed just a little easier to take.
What about the other powers in the Power Pool? Flurry is a lot like Jump Kick (see above). It's mostly useless. Whirlwind is a toggle PBAoE knock-up power with a very high Endurance cost thats situational.
Teleport
Teleport Self is the fastest movement power, but I hear it's the least common. Thats surprising, given how useful the level 6 powers in the Teleport Power Pool are. Recall Friend can be used to teleport a teammate from long range to you. Its great for getting SKs to dangerous places, or moving characters without a Travel power. You cant Recall all the way across particularly big zones, like Independence Port or the Shadow Shard, but the range is still pretty long. Its great for characters with a Rez to Recall fallen friends out of combat. Great for getting fallen teammates from the Hospital back to the mission, or from the mission start to the team several floors up. Combined with a teammate with Grant Invisibility, it can get a low level team to any mission in Perez Park or elsewhere very safely. Controllers can sometimes use it to recall pets after taking an elevator. It is the absolute fastest way to get from one place to another, but the fact that it only moves teammates to you means it isn't really a movement power. Defenders and Controllers often open up the Teleport pool with this power, but it's great for any AT.
What about Teleport Foe? The agro you generate using it has changed a lot, but its fairly reasonable now. You can use it at fairly long range to pull Minions or Lieutenants, or you can use it to pull an entire group if you want by targeting a boss. Great for rooms where the groups are packed close together. Its handy in the arena to get your enemy where you want, like on top of a minefield or near your pets. Tanks can use it to pull mobs off the squishies at long range, or to intentionally agro groups at long range (again by targeting a boss). Melee ATs can use it to grab runners. Granted it isnt great, its still worth having on certain characters. Blasters, Scrappers, and Tankers often open up the Teleport pool with this power, but it's nice for any AT.
SECTION 7: Kheldians
Why include Kheldians in a guide on Movement? Because they get a LOT of their own movement powers! Kheldians dont need to take Travel Power Pools to get around; in fact they cant take some. But you probably will find a LOT of Kheldians with Hasten from the Speed Power Pool.
Peacebringers get Energy Flight (Fly) as an inherent power at level 1, Combat Flight (Hover) inherent at 10, and can pick up Group Energy Flight (Group Fly) at 16 from their Luminous Aura secondary power set. These are exactly the same as the Flight Power Pool powers except for the special effects. Peacebringers cannot take any powers from the Teleport Power Pool.
Warshades get Shadow Step (Teleport) inherent at level 1, Shadow Recall (Recall Friend) inherent at level 10, and can pick up Starless Step (Teleport Foe) at level 8 from their Umbral Blast primary power set. These are exactly the same as the Teleport Power Pool powers. Warshades do not get Team Teleport, which is pretty lame anyway. Warshades cannot take any powers from the Flight Power Pool.
At level 6, all Kheldians can pick Bright Nova or Dark Nova (depending on their AT), which lets them shapeshift into a squid form with a built-in Epic Fly travel power. Why is it Epic? One power pick gives you Fly plus 4 very nice attacks, and turns you into an uber flying weapons platform. It doesn't really cost any Endurance. The Nova form has a small toggle cost which is approximately offset by an Endurance Recovery bonus. The Fly starts with an inherent +50% Flight Speed bonus, so it can be capped with 2 SO+3 Fly Enhancements. Novas do not have their Fly suppressed after attacking. This makes them VERY fast and maneuverable in combat. For all of these reasons, I consider this the best movement power in the game.
At level 20, all Kheldians can pick White Dwarf or Black Dwarf (again depending on AT), which lets them shapeshift into a big hulking lobster form. In this form they get one of the inherent powers White Dwarf Step or Black Dwarf Step, both Teleport equivalent powers. With the high Damage Resistance and status protection available in this form, it gives Kheldians access to the absolute fastest Travel power with some protection to offset the negatives. All Dwarfs also have a Jump bonus, though it isnt very big. They can jump 7.00 feet higher than humans, and if they jump while running they get an extra 0.20 f/s.
While shape-shifted, Kheldians can only activate a small number of form-specific powers. They can benefit from click powers cast on them, like Accelerate Metabolism, but cannot activate movement powers like Super Speed or Super Jump. This isnt a big problems for Novas, but it means Dwarves are SLOW unless they teleport. Dwarves run at the base speed of 21 f/s; they cant even Sprint.
Finally, all Kheldians get a combined Phase Shift, Stealth, and movement power toggle. Like all Phase Shift powers these days, they both have a long recharge time (60 seconds). The movement part of the power appears to activate immediately, like normal movement powers, but the Stealth and Phase Shift probably take longer.
Peacebringers get Quantum Flight, which includes Fly, and it has a ridiculously high Endurance cost. I hear you can gain Endurance with it active if you have Stamina fully slotted plus 4 slots in the power with Endurance Reduction Enhancements. The power does not accept Flight Speed Increase Enhancements because it is already max Flight speed.
Warshades have Nebulous Form, which includes about a half Super Jump bonus (I haven't tested it carefully). It has a more reasonable Endurance cost at only 3.2 EPS. A single Endurance Reduction SO with 6 slotted Stamina will let you recover Endurance, or 3 slots of Endurance Reduction without Stamina.
SECTION 8: Other concerns
Suppression
Suppression is a new feature common to Super Speed, Super Jump, and Fly. If you attack while using one of these powers, the power is suppressed for 4 seconds. You are reduced to a lower speed, perhaps because you intentionally slowed down to attack.
How can you avoid Suppression? Dont use one of the above powers and attack of course! Most people with Super Jumping also have Combat Jumping, and they use Combat Jumping for combat (obviously). Granted Combat Jumping doesnt help you move any faster in combat, it does give you a little defense. Also, not many people would want to use Super Jump in combat. The same somewhat applies to Fly and Hover. Fly is too END expensive to use in combat, while Hover gives some Defense. In fact some people are discovering the joy of 6 slotted Hover, and dont even bother with Fly. Suppression mainly hurts Super Speeders, who rely on it for jousting or kiting. You cant avoid it by temporarily turning off your travel power. But you can avoid it by not using attacks. Heals, pets, and even debuffs are not attacks.
So what do Super Speeders do when they want to move fast in combat and attack? Get Hurdle, hopefully with Combat Jumping. See the stats in the Jumping section. Together they give fast high jumping for almost no END. You can look like Yoda, bouncing all around in combat. But let me post a BIG disclaimer. Ive never done this, and it is likely very difficult to manage.
Boost Range
Blaster with the Energy Secondary can get this power at level 35. It has a duration of 30 seconds and a recharge time of 60, so it can be made permanent rather easily. It grants a +75% (?) bonus to Range, which means it can help Teleport. Given that normal Range Enhancements add +20%, this is a pretty nice boost.
Power Boost / Buildup
Power Boost is available to Blasters with the Energy Manipulation Secondary and all Controllers with the Primal Forces Epic pool. The Defender version Power Buildup in the Power Mastery Epic power pool may do the same. The Controller version lasts 15 seconds, and has a recharge of 2 minutes, so you cant make it anywhere near permanent. It grants a +100% Enhancement style bonus to Running and Flying powers. It does not affect Jumping powers at all. By the time you get this power, you should already have your movement power(s) of choice capped (if you care), so ignore using this for movement.
Ultimate Speed
The fastest character possible is a Blaster with the Energy Secondary. The required powers include Boost Range (slotted to be permanent), Teleport (6 slotted with Damage/Range HOs), and possibly Conserve Power (to pay for Teleport). If you ever want to do the Shadow Shard TFs, find a character like this and make sure they have Recall Friend. This character can go around 240 MPH. Note that with new HOs being equal to SOs, you're better off with Range SOs. The same Blaster with 6 Range SO+3s would go about 210 MPH.
How did I get these numbers???
I used demo files. If you type "/demorecord <name>" and later "/demostop", the CoH client will create a demo file in the client_demos subdirectory off your main install directory. These are plain text files containing information about almost everything visible in the game during the demorecord period. I assume the Devs used them to create demos that could be played for publicity. These files include timestamps for everything to the millisecond, and locations in feet to many decimal places. I wrote a script to read through the demo file and report how far my character had moved every few seconds. As long as I'm moving in a straight line, I can get very accurate speed measurements. Flying is easy; I just need some open air. Testing showed that swimming speed was equal to running speed on land, so my running and jumping tests were done in large bodies of water. For jumping I had to make another script that reported height and speed for each bounce, otherwise different vertical positions at the start and stop of a reporting period would throw the results off.
Movement speed is not perfectly clean. I regularly saw cases where I would slow down and then speed up a bit. These were likely due to network lag. But there were plenty of other cases where the numbers were off more than I expected. Jumping is incomprehensible. I still haven't completely figured out the logic behind the jumping speed. Those numbers have a large variation, and do not follow the usual Enhancement progression values very closely.
