Monday 3 May 2004

Pic of the day: Hello, my name is Bill ... Utility Bill. (Actually my character The Utility from City of Heroes, the Champion server.)

CoH Utility hero

I've long had a sympathy for utility mages. The ones who don't cast flashy fireballs but conjure food and make your backpack weightless. In City of Heroes, food is not a problem. Neither food intake nor elimination are shown on-screen. After all, with the day only taking an hour or so, it should be obvious that some things are running in the background.

That said, I have been looking for the ideal multi-purpose supporting character. There are some pretty good one-trick ponies: Healers that can heal both a large group for a moderate amount and individual characters for a large amount, virtually at the same time, and raise the dead if all else fails. Controllers that can render large groups of enemies motionless, and sometimes add a group heal to their friends as well. And of course the tankers and blasters are pretty much pre-defined and doomed to do what they do best.

During my expeditions with teams in Perez Park, the level 7-14 hazard zone, I have noticed that there are some problems that come again and again. One is to get everyone safely to the mission waypoint, another and related to get everyone safely back afterwards. Generally how to avoid the high-level opponents when you are scouting for something more appropriate. And of course the usual never ending problem of healing and resurrection. These were the main things on my mind when I designed The Utility.

Another matter is that most power sets have powers that are variations on a theme, so they are kinda more of the same. This makes for a powerful hero toward the end of the game, but at the cost of flexibility. You need a large group to get all the specialists you need. However, I found two power sets that between them had an astounding range of different applications. Sadly the combination was only available to controllers. Think of Utility as a defender trapped in a controller's body ...

***

Primary power set Illusion. While this can indeed be used for crowd control, it also has a couple truly exceptional powers. It starts off with a single ranged attack power, Spectral Wounds. This attack does above average damage, but the effect fades over time, so you need to take down a single enemy quickly lest he recover fully. Armed with this power my character can solo effectively and also be a secondary damage dealer in a team.

However, you soon get access to another more spectacular power, Deceive. It lets you charm an enemy so he attacks his own instead of you. Even when he is left alone, he will not fight back until the illusion fades. This is an extremely useful power against Circle of Thorns, who have suicidal mages that will run up to your team and explode for a lot of damage. While charmed, they will not explode, and additionally will attack their own. Be aware that you get no credit for the damage a deceived villain has done, so your character growth will suffer if you use this outside of emergency situations.

A bit later, but still early in your career, you get Superior Invisibility. This is my character's defining power, as I see it. Invisible to any normal villain anywhere near your level (have not tested it with extreme level difference) you can safely explore every corner of a danger zone, and live to tell the tale. Even better, if you take the optional "pool" power of Teleport, you can beam up your friends to the exact spot without anybody getting into a fight on the way.

The next step up is Group Invisibility. While your friends are not as utterly wraith-like as you (superior invisibles are only visible as a faint aura to heroes, and not at all to villains), you can still avoid fights unless you are careless. Not really needed with the above combination, but fun.

That's pretty much it. You can also summon aura beings to fight along with you, but I'm not sure whether I want that. It's high level anyway, and I probably won't ever get to high level. Besides, there are so many other cool powers. For instance in my secondary power set, Kinetics.

***

The starting power in Kinetics is Transfusion, which is a radius heal. Unlike other radius heals, however, it is centered not on the caster but on the enemy. It converts some of the enemy's energy to healing radiation which flows out in a circle around him, healing the tankers and scrappers that depend on close combat to do their job. The nifty thing is that the healer can stand back in a less dangerous spot and spam this power ever 5-10 seconds (depending on your enhancements). Consider putting in a good accuracy enhancement or two, because this power is likely to be vitally important to your team. And yourself, if you play alone.

The next power, Siphon Power, draws some of an enemy's damage potential and transfers it to yourself and those around you. (This, for some obscure reason, is centered on the caster.) The enemy will do something like 20% less damage for the duration (and then you can re-cast it) and you will do something like 15% more damage. If you do this as a fight is about to begin, your team will fight noticeably better than they did without you, leading to good reputation and the ability to pick and choose combat teams.

Siphon Speed is not available until you're into the double-digit levels, but is in effect a transport power like super speed. Except it affects both running and flight. The downside is that you need a villain to activate this power, so you cannot use it to run with superspeed from a safe area. You first need to find some villain, who will incidentally be slowed drastically.

Later powers in this set lets you confer temporary superspeed to another player, or super jump ability. (Two different powers.) These can be activated without villains nearby, and are a good way to give newbie characters a taste of how the transport powers feel, so they can decide on which one to choose. It is less useful in the team, since by the time you get it almost everyone has picked a transport power already.

***

As mentioned above, I picked Recall Friend as my first "pool" (generic) power. In addition to being handy when moving a team about, it allows you to pick self teleport at level 14. Self teleport does not have the sheer range of other transport powers, but it is fast and flashy. You can even teleport up in the air, and will automatically hover there for a couple seconds so you can choose the next jump point (such as a roof top). I haven't tried this, as I have never taken a character to 14! It seems to be the least used travel power, but this is possibly because you don't see teleporters sailing through the air. They just appear and disappear...

If I continue to play this character, I also want two powers from the Medicine set: Aid Other (which heals a single ally for a moderate amount of power, you must stand fairly near and not be fighting, although he can be fighting) and Resuscitate. With teleport and resurrect, you can get fallen friends to a safe spot in the hazard zone and revive them without the need to go to the hospital. There are no hospitals in hazard zones, and usually a long run back to the zone gate. Experience shows that people who release to hospital have a high probability of leaving the team, compared to those raised almost immediately inside the zone.

Finally, I have one Leadership power, Maneuvers. This is a defensive power that adds to the armor of all team mates including yourself. Since both of my power sets use fairly moderate amount of endurance, I am the obvious candidate to run this power. If someone else on the team has Maneuvers, so much the better, for they stack.

Utility is the kind of character that is bound to be useful almost everywhere and make life easier, but never truly indispensable. And that's just the kind of guy I want to be.