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There’s a problem with Champions Online I think we all need to talk about… there’s too much freedom of choice.  I know, I should be lauding a game for that, but in Champions it can cause a bit of a panic attack in players who just don’t know where they should put their power selections or what stats to specialize in.  And when the game’s documentation fails you, you’re left to rely on your own senses and intuitions.  If you’re anything like me, that’s not always a good thing.  Luckily, with the help of my fellow players and colleagues I’ve discovered something marvelous in the way Cryptic designed its powers: Synergies.

Power synergies were designed by Cryptic as a way to entice players to get creative when picking their powers and when using them.  A synergy is when two or more powers work in way that augments each other.  Similarly, different power sets share the same driving stats as a way to intertwine the sets and make them compatible for diverse character builds.  Let’s take a look at a few specific sets that compliment each other, and a few powers that have synergy as well, to illustrate this part of the game.

STATISTICAL SYNERGIES

Supernatural beasties like this guy need to learn a bit about synergy. Each power set has stats that effect it the most.  For instance, the Might set would benefit obviously the most from Strength, while the Martial Arts sets benefit greatly from Dexterity, and Gadgets get the most from Intellect.  But something to think about is what secondary stats to select.  Each hero gets to pick two super-stats, and if you plan on dipping into multiple power sets, you’ll want to try and pick stats that are complimentary to one another.  For example…

Might and Supernatural

Might, as mentioned earlier, gets a good deal of benefit from Strength, and Supernatural has several powers that cause stuns and knockbacks and crushing damage.  Therefore both Might and Supernatural can benefit from picking Strength as a Super-Stat.  But what to pick for the secondary stat?  Both Might and Supernatural powers deal with a lot of up close and personal combat.  Therefore both would benefit from a high health pool and Constitution makes an easy recommendation for the secondary stat.

Martial Arts

Martial Arts is a power set that might get a lot of flack, but there is an undeniable amount of joy to be gained from kicking and punching the ever-living crap out of your enemies.  To do so most effectively, one should pay careful attention to what stats they focus on.  The obvious choice for Martial Arts would be Dexterity as it feeds into your damage and your critical hit chance.  To tag along with Dexterity, Ego makes an excellent second choice as it also feeds directly into critical hit damage percentage.  Therefore you’re raising both your chance to critically hit and the amount of damage each hit does. 

WHAT NOT TO DO WITH STATS

So by now you probably recognize what I mean by statistical synergies, and why it’s important to pick powers that are complimented by your statistical choices and vice versa.  But it’s also important to remember that “over-specialization”  is a bad idea in Champions Online.  You might have picked two fantastic super-stats to go along with your power selections, but that doesn’t mean you should only focus on these two.  They will wind up being the primary force behind your damage dealing capabilities and the strength of your powers, but don’t ignore your other stats!  If you focus on Dexterity and Ego as with our Martial Arts example above, you’ll do a great deal of damage, but you’ll have a lot of issues surviving most fights.  So be sure to pay attention to other stats too with gear, talents and otherwise.

POWER SYNERGIES

Ice powers are a perfect example of synergy. Power synergies are a bit different than statistical synergies.  As stated earlier, power synergies are when two or more powers and their effects play off of each other.  Let’s give some examples, as that’s always the easiest way to explain these things.

When playing with Ice powers, many powers in the set create the “Chill” effect on targets, which slows them down.  Then certain powers within the Ice set will do additional damage to chilled targets.  The same can be said of many Fire powers.  The Clinging Flames debuff places a DOT on enemies and certain skills will refresh that debuff or increase the damage it does.

There are also things to keep in mind with powers across different sets.  They may not have direct synergies like powers in one set, but certain powers in one set might work really well in tandem with others from another set.  For example Thunderclap in the Might set places a hold on most enemies around the hero.  Follow this up with Iron Lariat from the Supernatural tree which does a good deal of AoE damage, can cause a knockback when the power has an advantage applied to it, and can also interrupt enemies’ attacks.

WHAT NOT TO DO WITH POWERS

There’s really only one piece of advice I can give when picking your powers, aside from paying attention to how they interact with each other.  Keep this in your mind: don’t get over-zealous!  Each player is allowed to make eight characters right now per account.  That means you have ample opportunity to test different power sets and how they work with each other.  I would highly recommend avoiding dipping into too many sets.  Not because it’s “the wrong way to play” but because you’ll likely find yourself having a difficult time enjoying the game when you spend most of your time dead. Now get out there and start playing!