Power Pool Spotlight – Teleport: BAMF! My Endurance is Gone!

Power Pool Spotlight
Teleport: BAMF! My Endurance is Gone!

It is true. There is a Pool Power I have avoided. The mention of the topic in the official forums is almost flamebait these days. It’s a movement power. True. It’s the fastest one out there. Also true. It goes BAMF! Untrue… that would lead to a lawsuit. Woops! Already done… I am, of course, talking about…

TELEPORT

Teleport, that form of travel that eliminates the need for moving a muscle… except for that cool pose you do before blinking out or bringing someone in. Here’s how the numbers break down by power:
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Usually I dive right into the powers themselves at this point. But I think there is a common theme with all the Teleport powers. You do not need to slot ANY teleport power unless you’re an Invulnerable scrapper/tanker (with the possible exception of TP Foe as described below). Now you might be scratching your head saying, “huh?”

Your slots can be better used elsewhere if you’re building a character for the purpose of being a hero (i.e. beating up bad guys). Teleport is a movement power. The only ones who are required to teleport during combat to increase their effectiveness are the Invulnerable builds using Unyielding Stance (something that is changing with publish 3 to make Teleport unnecessary).

The crux of the matter is this: Is it really so important for you to teleport 10 extra feet or save a little extra endurance while moving from mission to mission? Is it going to cause your character to die if they have to wait in one spot for some endurance to regenerate? Not really. But it will end your combat if you run out of endurance in a mission. Slot your powers that you need in a fight, don’t bother slotting Teleport powers unless you intend to use them in combat. One power you really want to avoid using in a fight is…

RECALL FRIEND

Ah, the old ambulance to the rescue. Or is it taxi? Some people even use this power as tanker artillery. Stand behind some crates, have Brick McMuscle power up all his toggles and launch him into the center of the crowd. Usually, though, this power is reserved for getting the slowbies (slowbie: (n) 1. a character having no travel power 2. a character with only fly) to the mission or pulling corpses out of a fight gone wrong. Which one of us heroes hasn’t stood in the front of a cave complex while Doctor Tomorrow zaps corpses from a Circle of Thorns slaughter to our feet?

Recall Friend is one of the best ways to get yourself invited to group as a lowbie. Slotting? No. Why bother. The fight’s already gone sour by the time you use it. And a good way to turn a fight sour is with…

TELEPORT FOE

Teleport Foe is should be renamed Draw Aggro. TP Foe works thusly: Will work up to +8 minions, will work up to even conning lieutenants, and will work up to -4 conning bosses. The power states that there is a chance to miss. In my experience, the power should read that there is a chance to hit… a very small chance.

Personally, I’ve been playing since game release and never seen this power work with my own eyes. I’ve seen it miss and aggro ten baddies at a pop and I’ve seen it hit and aggro ten baddies at a pop. In each case, we never get to “thin the herd.” We just get to take one out for free and then weather the storm.

A few friends who swear by this power have let me in on their little secret. They say to slot heavily with accuracy… and never, ever try to TP a boss. Range enhancements also work well for pulling the target out of aggro range for the rest of the group, which, second parties assure me, is the key to avoiding the bad guy avalanche. If you do happen to take Teleport Foe, make sure you can make a quick getaway if things go wrong. One way to do that is with…

TELEPORT

And we come to the battle at hand. The forums are littered with strategies and methods and processes (and flames) galore concerning Teleport, good ‘ole TP. Do you slot it? If so, with what? Is this the fastest power?

Lets put it this way. If you six slot TP with nothing but range enhancements, the math works out to about 225 MPH with proper binds/timing. Whine about endurance all you want, TP is the fastest mode of transportation.

And I say, “DON’T SLOT IT!”

What good does it do you to get to a fight before anyone else? Why rush off to a battle with your fully slotted teleport and then try to use one of your unslotted powers on a bad guy? The whole purpose of planning your hero before training him up is so you don’t accidentally misplace precious slots. Who has the extra ones to put in TP?

Why a hero would rush across Talos in the blink of an eye with six-slotted TP to smite someone with a two-slotted damage power is beyond my comprehension (unless you’re role-playing an impatient hero).

If you choose to be a Teleporter, make sure you get Stamina later in your career. You will need it. TP is an endurance hog. The only thing that I can think of that drains your endurance faster is Whirlwind on a Perez Park gang.

If you MUST slot TP, I would suggest range enhancements. In later levels you are going to want Stamina no matter who you are. No sense in six-slotting Stamina and then throwing endurance reductions in TP.

BIND NOTE: Bind Teleport… do it. Do it now. Just start up the game, type /bind f “powexec_name teleport” and hit enter. Or: /bind lshift+lbutton “powexec_name Teleport” is another popular method. This will produce a point and click TP for you. It will save you from falling and from searching through your tray at the speed of light trying to get out of a herd of purples. Now if you DO happen to be in a herd of purples and you need to get yourself and your team out, what is better than…

GROUP TELEPORT

I’ll tell you what is better than Group Teleport… a fruitcake. At least you can return the fruitcake. Ba dum bum.

Group Teleport is good for getting a swamped group unswamped, temporarily. You can’t really go very far, everyone has to be in range, and you can’t do it too many times because it’s such a pig on your endurance. The worst is when you TP out and realize you left poor, forlorn Captain Carrot to his own devices because he was sitting outside your range. Bummer…

People who take Group Teleport will defend its uses. Then they will re-spec out of the power and not talk about it anymore. GT is the unwanted kid on the playground. Hang out with him and all the cool kids will wonder what the heck you’re doing.

FINAL ANALYSIS

Recall Friend: GG
Teleport For: Ambivalent
Teleport: GGG
Group Teleport: Maaatt Daaamon
G = Good or “Glowerific”

Teleport has no powers with the coveted Glow Girl rating of uberfantasticoolio.

That’s the view from 5’2″.

-Glow Girl

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