Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Along with all of our awesome content from this last weekend’s Champions Online PvP event, the staff at Ten Ton Hammer is proud to present our last little segment on the power sets in CO. Reuben “Sardu” Waters sat down with Bill Roper to discuss the Power Armor and Might power sets. There’s definitely some intriguing options in both of these sets, so make sure you check ‘em out!

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Ten Ton Hammer: We’re on to our last combination of power sets, which happens to be Might and Power Armor. Could you give us a brief overview on these powers?

Bill Roper: They’re certainly two diverse powers, but if you could draw a line between the two sets it would be that they’re both all about delivering the “big punch.”

The Might power set is built around the classic big brawler, melee combat super hero. They definitely have a lot of “big impact” hits. One of the cool things about the set is the ability to “knockdown” or “stun” your opponents while you’re punching. That’s kind of your biggest advantage with the power set.

Obviously people that pick the Might power set are going to be in the middle of melee, drawing aggro, and acting as a really functional tank sort of class. People that take the might power set will be focusing on strength and endurance; they want to do more damage and have more knockback with the abilities that have knockback potential.

It’s kind of a cool set, because when you’re actually using your powers – depending on which powers you’re using – you’re either knocking enemies down and stunning them in place or clearing enemies away from you with big knockback attacks.

Another cool feature of the Might power set – and you don’t necessarily have to do this – is the fact that strength is a major component of the set, and when you boost this stat it allows you to pick up bigger and bigger objects in the world and environment. It’s a nice added range component to the power set. You start by picking up mailboxes and benches and things like that, but then you start being able to pick up pieces of rubble and cars and even up to things like tanks and even larger objects in the world.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is that ability inherent to the Might power set? Or is that something that anyone with strength can do?

Roper: There’s actually a power in the Might set called “Hurl” which actually allows you to pick up and throw chunks of the ground. But it’s actually strength that allows you to pick up stuff in the world. The higher your strength, the larger the objects are that you can pick up.

Ten Ton Hammer: And what about Power Armor?

Roper: Power Armor is designed to have big impact attacks, but in a way that those are controlled through cool downs based on where the power is focused from. For example, when you get the first powers in the set, you have wrist blasters and eye beams. There’s a series of attacks in the power set that emanate from the hands, and then there’s a series of attacks that emanates from the eyes. Finally, there’s a series of attacks that emanates from the chest.

All of those attacks are on individual timers, so basically the mechanic there is to rotate those powers and when you’re using them. This makes it interesting, because you might have three different types of eyebeams that you’re using. It’s a bit more strategic way to play.

It’s all about Power Armor having that really big punch. There are also some really heavy Power Armor selections that make the set great for tanking. It also has its own tech shield, so that when you block there’s this digital projected shield look that comes up in front of your character.

Ten Ton Hammer: Last month on the official site you showcased “developer favorites” and you mentioned that Power Armor was your favorite because it plays differently than all the other sets. What type of differences set it apart?

Roper: The really big difference is obviously the mechanic we talked about earlier and the effects of those cool downs. I always feel like I’m making slightly more strategic decisions with Power Armor, especially when we typically have that fast-pace, action-style of combat that we use. It’s not like I’m going “boom, boom, boom” and I’ve used three different abilities. Instead I’m going through my powers and specifically picking them for their varying effects. They’re very situational, because my powers might all be on the same timer.

Plus I think Power Armor has some really neat effects animations, like when you’re firing your shoulder rockets and *schwing* a little rocket comes up that blasts out at your enemy. It’s got a lot of mechanical effects with it that happen when you’re using your various powers – like a gattling gun that pops up – and I really enjoy watching those.  

And who doesn’t like making a cool Power Armor guy? I want to have my big giant mecha looking dude to run around with. It’s pretty fun.