Power pools are powersets containing four or five related powers that may be selected instead of primary or secondary powers beginning at level 4.
Pool powers usually aren't as effective as their cousins in primary and secondary powersets. However, they can be used to cover a weakness in your power sets (Aid Self for an Electric Armor brute), provide support abilities to your team-mates (Assault for a defender), or have a surprising twist or contradiction on your archetype and power sets. This comes at a loss in raw power from dedication to your main powers; the choice is yours.
Limits and prerequisites[]
Each build can contain no more than four power pools. Ancillary power pools do not count against this limit. A character may have different power pools in different builds, and may change power pools during a respec.
| First power | Level 4 |
| Second power | Level 4 |
| Third power | Level 14, and at least one other power from this pool |
| Fourth power | Level 14, and at least two other powers from this pool |
| First power | Level 4 |
| Second power | Level 4 |
| Third (travel) power | Level 4 |
| Fourth power | Level 14, and at least two other powers from this pool |
| Fifth power | Level 14, and at least two other powers from this pool |
Travel powers[]
The travel powers come from the following pools: Experimentation, Flight, Force of Will, Gadgetry, Leaping, Sorcery, Speed, Teleportation, and Utility Belt. The travel-only ability is the third power out of these pools, so you can take it as early as level 4. Being without a travel power at higher levels could mean making your pick-up group team-mates wait. There are slightly more difficult alternatives to taking a travel power pool, particularly for those with Kinetics.
History[]
Issue 19: Alpha Strike deactivated the Fitness power pool, and introduced Inherent Fitness containing an identical set of powers.
Characters without the Fitness power pool, and new characters created after Issue 19, receive Inherent Fitness instead. Characters with the Fitness power pool must drop Fitness during their next respec, and will receive Inherent Fitness.
Issue 21: Convergence expanded the travel power pools to five powers, and reduced the requirements for most pool powers.
Prior to Issue 21, all power pools had four powers, the first and second powers from each pool required level 6, the third power from each pool required level 14 and one other power from the pool, and the fourth power from each pool required level 20 and two other powers from the pool.
See also[]
- Ancillary and patron power pools, available for most archetypes starting at level 35