Meta’s Verse: City of Heroes Water Blast
By Meticulous Meta, OnRPG Paragon Reporter
If there is one powerset people have been asking for since the beginning of time it is Water. Anything to do with water really. The good folks at Paragon Studios said all along though that they wouldn’t do it, not until they had the technology to do it right. The water effects are similar to shooting water from a hose, more of a spray with splashing than something really fancy like a flowing river. Despite this though the powerset looks amazing!
The Powers
The powers in this set are pretty normal for what you would expect from a blaster primary. Though I would say this is more flashy than most. It is more along the lines of Dual Pistols in terms of flashiness. Now not all of the powers originate from the hands. For instance Hydro Blast’s second power starts with a swirling motion. This motion was said to be made so it looked as though you were drawing water from the air. The audience of the live stream where Water Blast was the focus said the power looked like you were throwing water balloons, just without the balloons. The targeted AoE power is a burst of water erupting from the ground and splashing the target area. The two powers that are really big graphically are Whirlpool and Geyser; they are just huge and flashy and look like what they are. As with all the new powers that have come out recently this one has a special mechanic. This one is called Tidal Power and is used to boost the strength of Water Jet, Water Spout and Geyser.
Themes
Every time a new powerset comes out there are a few powerset combinations that just stand out as the obvious pairings. With Water Blast for Blasters it’s Ice Manipulation. With Defenders it is Cold Domination and Storm Summoning. The day Water Blast goes live you are going to see a million characters with these combinations running around. But the beautiful thing about City of Heroes is that you’ll also see a lot of everything else too. Water will get paired with Traps because everyone loves to play Traps. Water and Time Manipulation look very similar and is currently the favorite for players to use to pretend they actually have water powers. But then you might just see some Water Blast/Mental Manipulation characters running around who are controlling the water with the power of their minds! And if you’re on Virtue you might see me running around on my magicbot in a Praetorian Clockwork body using Water Blast and either Force Field or possibly Pain Domination. I still haven’t decided. The possibilities are nearly endless.
The popularity of this set is especially obvious on the forums where the beta feedback thread has nearly 40 pages worth of discussion. Some of which though turned into water puns, but with the City of Heroes players that is really to be expected. I think I would have actually been disappointed if I didn’t see it.
What do you need to know before Water Blast comes out? Well first and foremost it will be purchasable on the Paragon Market. Also something to keep in mind is that Paragon Studios has promised to give warning so you can make sure you have enough points saved up to buy it when the time comes. Sadly that means we know it won’t come this week. And that is the only way to get access to it. There will be a million and a half people playing this set on day one. You will be one of them because you can’t wait, I can’t wait, and we don’t have to. The new changes to blasters will apply to Water Blast, just not right away.
And lastly there may be more than just a few people with older computers who may end up crying the first week Water Blast is live. This set is very graphics heavy and if your computer has a minor heart attack over Earth Control I can only imagine what it will be like when people get their hands on Water Blast. Though that has suddenly inspired me to make a Water Blast and Earth Control static team called Something Muddy.
Water Blast looks amazing, sounds amazing and I think it’s safe to say is amazing. It may also be the most anticipated powerset of all time. Though maybe that’s just in my circles. Honey Badger said that it may be possible that we will see more water based sets in the future. Anything is possible and I’m holding out hope for a water based melee set. Or even a water based control set. I’m going to be waiting for it for a long time though if it does ever happen. That is because Paragon Studios has a ton of powersets lined up for us. Three that we know of for sure. And a few more that are…lets say, unconfirmed.