Using Your Powers

Using Your Powers

As you begin to plot your dastardly deeds against all who oppose you, or set a plan in motion to rid the streets of said dastardly deeds, you will need to familiarize yourself with your supreme powers.

Total conquest or total victory can only be achieved by complete mastery of your unique talents. When in battle, you can use the powers slotted in your Power Tray (as previously described). There's a wide array of effects that these powers will have on an enemy.

The following list contains some of the general characteristics that powers can have.

Note that there are unique powers that do not fall into these categories, and there are some that may combine effects from multiple categories (for example, a vampiric attack that damages your foes while healing you in return).

• Attack Powers: Deal damage to an enemy—this can be damage to a single target or area of effect (damaging all targets within a given area). Total damage of some powers can be dealt up front in a single shot or in damage over time (dealing a set amount of damage to an enemy for a specific or random duration of time).
• Defense Powers: Improve your survivability in battle by making it harder for enemies to land an attack on you or by reducing the damage done when an attack hits you. Powers that boost Defense make you that much more difficult to hit; powers that increase your Resistance will make you take less damage than normal.
• Mezzes & Taunts: Mezzes (short for Mesmerize) restrict your enemy's actions, whether it be preventing them from moving or by stopping all action with some form of stun effect. Some powers turn a foe against his comrades for a time. Taunts attempt to compel the enemy into attacking you, causing them to abandon their current targets. On the other hand, Stalkers receive an ability known as "Pacify." This is a "reverse taunt," which makes enemies stop attacking you.
• Buffs & Heals: Buffs improve the effectiveness of you or your allies in combat by raising certain traits, such as accuracy. Heals replenish Hit Points lost in battle.
• Debuffs: Debuffs make enemies less effective in combat; for example, reducing their damage resistance or the rate of their attacks or reducing the accuracy of their attacks and how much damage they can do.

Powers, Endurance, & Recharge

To activate a power, you must have the necessary Endurance in reserve as shown on your Endurance bar. Your Endurance constantly replenishes at a steady rate, but if you are aggressively using your powers, you may drain your Endurance bar faster than it can replenish, eventually depleting the entire bar.

When this happens, you can't perform actions and will receive a "Too Tired" alert above your head. At this point, all of your active Toggle Powers may deactivate, so be careful!

Most powers, including most attack powers, buffs, and debuffs, have a specific Endurance "cost" each time you use them.

Some powers are toggles that have an "on" and "off" state and constantly deplete your Endurance as long as they remain on or until your are out of Endurance.

Toggles will automatically shut off if your current Endurance amount can no longer support the cost of the power. Most toggles, however, drain Endurance slower than the natural replenishment rate. However, if multiple toggles are on at the same time, and you're using other powers as well, your Endurance bar quickly depletes.

There are some powers that you can gain that enhance your character's natural attributes. These powers are always "on" and have no endurance cost. These include powers that enhance the rates of your Hit Point regeneration and Endurance recovery; they are well worth getting because they can significantly boost your effectiveness in combat.

Any Power that doesn't fall into the Toggle or Always On category has a set "recharge time.". The amount of recharge time is dependent on the power and its enhancements.

Once a power is used, it cannot be reactivated until it has completely recharged. When a power is being recharged, its icon becomes small and dim in the Power Tray. When the icon returns to full size and brightens, you can use the power again (a message in the chat window will alert you when a power has been recharged). Some toggles also have a recharge time after they have been turned off.

Combat Options

Assist

When in a group, it is important to coordinate attacks to quickly take down your enemies. Assist allows you and your teammate to concentrate your attacks on the same target.

To Assist a teammate, simply target your ally instead of an enemy target; when you launch an attack, you automatically attack the same target that your assisted ally is fighting. Assist does not work when attacking other players. It only works when attacking non players in either PvE or PvP zones.

Auto-Attack

If there is a power that you want to repeatedly use as soon as it is recharged, set it to Auto-Attack. Hold down Control while left-clicking that power in the Power Tray; it should now be indicated with a green circle around the slot. You can have only one power set to Auto-Attack at a time.

Queued Powers

While you are executing one power, you can queue another to fire off next. This is usually done automatically when you rapidly fire off a sequence of attacks using different powers.

The first attack activates, and a red circle indicates the second attack, meaning it will be activated next.

You can also queue a power while it is still recharging; for example, if you want to use the same attack twice, you can first activate the attack after it is executed and in recharge, then press the button again to queue it so that when it is recharged, it will immediately activate again.

Note that you can only queue one power at a time—clicking a different power will queue that power.

Knockdown & Knockback

Some attack powers have additional effects other that damage when it hits, such as Knockdown and Knockback. Knockdown/Knockup causes an enemy to fly off his feet and fall flat to the ground where he was standing.

Knockback is similar, but it launches a foe backward from his current position. These effects have a specific chance of occurring, which the game calculates each time the attack hits. These effects will not do additional damage (unless, say, they take a long fall), but they are beneficial because they disrupt your enemies' attacks on you.

Click, Toggle, and Auto

Each power is categorized as either "Click" (click once to activate), "Toggle" (click once to turn it on, then again to turn it off), or "Auto" (always on and does not require any Endurance).

Remember that toggles continuously deplete your Endurance, so have them on only when you need them.