There seems to be a lot of power choices in Champions Online. This allows a lot of variety, but not necessarily the ability to become "godlike". For example: there are 18 "Energy Builder" and 13 "Travel" powers, but you'll only get one "Energy Builder" (at Lvl 5) and two "Travel" powers (one at 10th lvl and one at 36th) during your Hero's lifetime.
See the Basic power grid for a listing of every power in the game on one screen.
There are several different kinds of powers.There are actives and passives. Debuffs and buffs. And so on. The actives are divided into Tap, Toggle, Click and Maintain powers. Toggles stay on until it either runs out of targets/energy or you switch it off. Click activates exactly once. Maintain starts with a full bar and keeps going until the bar is drained. Taps start with an empty bar and can be charged up. The game lists the powers according to what they do (i.e., Ranged Attacks together, Buffs together, Melee Area Attacks together, and so forth.)
To help the pacing of character growth, all powers utilize a Tier System which makes it impossible to get the most devastating attack at level 5. The tiers are as follows:
Tier
Definition
Builder
Energy Building Power
Travel
Travel Power
Tier 0
No Prerequisites
Tier 1
1 Framework Power, or any 2 Arbitrary powers
Tier 2
3 Framework Power, or any 5 Arbitrary powers
Tier 3
5 Framework Power, or any 8 Arbitrary powers
Tier 4
10 Framework Powers and complete Vibora Bay
This type of system rewards sticking to a particular framework by giving you access to higher Tier powers quicker, but does not force you to do so.
The following chart shows you the approximate level at which you will gain new powers and a rough estimate of how quickly you can get to the next tier:
Lvl
Benefit
Tier Level
1
Energy Builder
Starter Power
Tier 1 Specialization Unlocked
2
Health Up
3
Energy Up
4
Equilibrium Up
5
Characteristic Focus
Power Point
Travel Power
Tier 1 Generalization Unlocked
6
Talent Point
7
Advantage Points
8
Power Point
Tier 2 Specialization Unlocked with same type Energy Builder
9
Talent Point
10
Advantage Points
11
Power Point
Tier 2 Specialization Unlocked differing Energy Builder
12
Talent Point
13
Characteristic Focus (final)
Bob
14
Power Point
Tier 2 Generalization Unlocked
Tier 3 Specialization with same type Energy Builder Unlocked
15
Talent Point
16
Advantage Points
17
Power Point
Tier 3 Specialization Unlocked with differing Energy Builder
18
Talent Point
19
Advantage Points
20
Power Point
21
Talent Point
22
Advantage Points
23
Power Point
Tier 3 Generalization Unlocked
24
Advantage Points
25
Advantage Points
26
Power Point
27
Advantage Points
28
Advantage Points
29
Power Point
Earliest possible Tier 4 unlock
30
Advantage Points
31
Advantage Points
32
Power Point
33
Advantage Points
34
Advantage Points
35
Travel Power
Power Point
36
Advantage Points
37
Advantage Points
38
Power Point
39
Advantage Points
40
Advantage Points
For those of you keeping score, this is how much "stuff" you get in your character's lifetime: