History VideoGame / CityOfHeroes

* CuckooNest: In the fourth episode of the "Who Will Die" story arc, Malaise tries to convince on Sister Psyche and the PlayerCharacter that they're really just schizophrenic's deluded into believing they have superpowers. That's the hero version of things, at least - villainous characters are instead helping Malaise to do it to Sister Psyche, down to getting a character as a psychologist in the hallucination and 'explaining' why she chose particular elements.

* AnAxeToGrind: The Battle Axe power set. An Undead Slaying Axe was also available as a temporary power and the similarly-named Ghost Slaying Axe as a Veteran power.

* AnIcePerson: Ice Melee, Ice Blast, Icy Assault, Ice Control, Ice Armor, Cold Domination... also the Cryonic Judgement Incarnate power.

* HundredPercentHeroismRating: If you're a Hero, just about everyone loves you and you can do no wrong.

*** Apparently common enough in alternate universes that one contact in Night Ward uses the acronym "L.M.O.E." casually in conversation: "Last Man on Earth."

* AlternateUniverse: Tons. There's a company dedicated to exploring them. Some notable examples...
** Praetoria: Formerly a standard MirrorUniverse where the good guys are bad, since [[RetCon retconned]] into something a little less black and white.
** Axis America: A world where Marcus Cole sided with Germany during World War II. Home of the Reichsman.

* {{Determinator}}: Many characters in-story, of course. The Willpower set is an example of just showing true grit while not technically being related to super powers.

** The players themselves. When word came out the game was being shut down for reasons never explained, they rallied above and beyond anything anyone was expecting. Heroes and villains alike congregated in Atlas Park, causing so much strain on the serves that it spawned ''33 instances'' of the location. The others eventually faed. But AP 33 remained in existence right up to the last moment of the game's existence, as the players held a vigil there as a sign of their unwillingness to forgive NC Soft and to state their desire for the game to continue. Also doubles as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for the playerbase.

* InnBetweenTheWorlds: The Pocket D, an interdimensional Night Club. No fighting is allowed there, and heroes and villains can mingle freely.

* ManaBurn & ManaDrain: Electricity attacks tended to do one or the other. In particular a Blaster, Corruptor or Defender with both Short Circuit and Power Sink could completely drain the Endurance of a group of enemies in a very short period of time.

* SequelEscalation: If you consider each level tier to be sequels to the previous one, you go from fighting street level thugs with minor powers to a SaveTheWorldClimax multiple times from threats that could [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} flay those earlier thugs alive just by looking at them.]]

* SwissCheeseSecurity

!!The powers the game offers to players provide examples of:

* AbnormalAmmo:
** A large part of [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]]' shtick is [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands the "Swap Ammo" power]], which gives you access to three toggles: [[KillItWithFire Incendiary]], [[KillItWithIce Cryo]], and [[UniversalPoison Chemical]] Ammunition. Every other power in the set will do 70% Lethal damage, with the remaining 30% depending on the ammo you have toggled on.
** On a less absurd scale, the '''Assault Rifle''' can fire '''shotgun''' ammunition like buckshot and slugs. One of its underbarrel options is a [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]].
* AnIcePerson: Ice Melee, Ice Blast, Icy Assault, Ice Control, Ice Armor, Cold Domination... also the Cryonic Judgement Incarnate power.
* AtomicSuperpower: Radiation Blast and Radiation Emission, which can also buff and heal your allies. Future issues were set to add Radiation Melee and Radiation Armor.
** The literal [[NukeEm "nuke" temporary power]] from the zone event in [[PlayerVersusPlayer Warburg]].
** The Tier 9 Radiation Blast power is Atomic Blast, in which the player literally sets off a nuclear bomb centered on themselves; any enemies left alive are even left choking on the atomic radiation (a hold) for a brief while.
* AwesomeButImpractical: The high level "nuke" powers for some. Extremely powerful blast, but leaves you unable to attack again for a goodly while. Issue 24 was going to remove the "crash" from such nukes at the cost of some of their power (but still leaving them vastly more powerful than most other attacks), making them practical at last.
** Similarly, some high level "armor" powers [[SuperMode drastically boosts one's defenses]] at the cost of [[HeroicRROD seriously draining the user]] after its effects wear off. Very potent, but also unnecessary in most circumstances, and downright dangerous if it ends up stopping in the middle of a fight.
* AnAxeToGrind: The Battle Axe power set. An Undead Slaying Axe was also available as a temporary power and the similarly-named Ghost Slaying Axe as a Veteran power.
* BackStab: Stalkers can land {{Critical Hit}}s with any attack, whether in or out of Hidden Status, but using their Assassin's Strike from Hidden status grants a massive critical hit far beyond any other crit in the game.
* BarrierWarrior: The Force Field power set, which focuses on applying protective shields to team members. It's also capable of detaining and pushing away enemies.
* BlowYouAway: Storm Summoning, especially the trademark powers of Gale and Hurricane. Moreover, an unfinished Wind Control Set can be found in the data files of the final version of the client.
* CastingAShadow: Dark Melee, Dark Blast, Dark Armor, Dark Miasma, Dark Control, Dark Assault, and Void Judgement.
* CombatTentacles: Dark Melee's Midnight Grasp, Dark Miasma's Tenebrous Tentacles, and half the powers in Plant Control.
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: Comes in two flavours - decreasing an enemy's Defense (therefore increasing the chance an attack will hit), and decreasing an enemy's Resistance (therefore increasing the damage an attack will deal).
** Sound based powers (Sonic Resonance, Sonic Blast) tend to debuff resistances.
* {{Determinator}}: The Willpower defense set. Created to represent comic book characters who don't have special defensive abilities; they can take massive amounts of damage because they have enough willpower to keep fighting. Ironically, it's commonly considered one of the strongest defense sets overall.
** The players themselves count for this. When word came out the game was being shut down for reasons never explained, they rallied above and beyond anything anyone was expecting. Heroes and villains alike congregated in Atlas Park, causing so much strain on the serves that it spawned ''33 instances'' of the location. The others eventually faded. But AP 33 remained in existence right up to the last moment of the game's existence, as the players held a vigil there as a sign of their unwillingness to forgive NC Soft and to state their desire for the game to continue. Also doubles as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for the player base.
* DifficultButAwesome: The knockback mechanic when used adroitly can be quite useful - enemies can't attack while flying through the air. This can serve as a means of damage mitigation, especially for control resistant critters. Additionally, there's nothing stopping players from pushing enemies ''towards'' other ones, to help them stay grouped together. However, when used without care, knockback can scatter mobs, forcing melee heroes to run around to chase them down.
* DishingOutDirt: Between Stone Melee, Stone Armor, Earth Control, and Earth Assault, and Earth Mastery, the game runs the gamut of uses of this trope.
* DropTheHammer: One of the possible looks of the War Mace power set is a big hammer. Also, Stone Mallet and Heavy Stone Mallet from [[DishingOutDirt Stone Melee]]. The Fusion Hammer in the Titan Weapons powerset as well.
* DualWielding: The Dual Blades and [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]] power sets.
* ElementalPowers: As expected for a game built around SuperHeroTropes, there are plenty.
* ElementalPunch: Almost every one on the list is in there somewhere. Fiery Melee doesn't use actual punches, however, but instead melee-range blasts and flaming swords.
* EnergyWeapon: The Beam Rifle powerset.
* EyeBeams: "X-Ray Beam" from Radiation Blast, "Ebon Eyes" from Umbral Blast, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Laser Beam Eyes]] from Body/Energy Mastery, and [[FacelessEye Rularuu Watchers]].
* FinishingMove: The [[DualWielding Dual Blades]] power set combo system utilizes these.
* FlashStep: [[ShieldBash "Shield Rush"]] from Shield Defense, "Lightning Rod" from [[ShockAndAwe Electrical Melee]], Burst of Speed from Martial Combat, and Spring Attack from the Leaping pool are all the rare "attack while stepping" variety. (The last two were to be added in Issue 24)
** Some roleplayers with the [[TeleportersAndTransporters Teleport]] power play it off as this.
* FlyingBrick: Characters with access to any protection-granting powers, alongside ones which suggest enhanced strength, and a flight power will become this.
** A Tanker/Brute with the Super Strength and Invulnerability power sets along with the Flight power pool easily fits this trope.
* FlyingFirepower: Any character with some ranged abilities along with a flight power becomes this.
** "Hoverblasters" - a [[GlassCannon Blaster]] who uses the defense-increasing power Hover rather than the faster Fly when in combat - play into this, allowing them to stay at range in combat, away from more damaging melee attacks.
* GatlingGood: Miniguns used by the Council, Crey, Nemesis, [[RedshirtArmy Longbow]] and... high level bank security.
* GoodOldFashionedFisticuffs: The Street Justice powerset, mixing this with a healthy dose of CombatPragmatist and, with attacks like Shin Breaker and Rib Cracker, a pinch of VideoGameCrueltyPotential.
* GottaGetYourHeadTogether: Standard pose for characters Held [[PsychicPowers psionically]].
* GreenThumb: Plant Control and Nature Affinity.
* GroinAttack: Appropriately sized characters can pull this off with the Kick power from the Fighting pool, and, rather intimidatingly, SuperStrength's [[MegatonPunch Knockout Blow]]. However, a status of special note belongs to Stalactites from Earth Control.
** Martial Arts has not one, but two groin-punches: The old animation for Cobra Strike, and for MA Stalkers, the alternate animation for their assassin-strike, "Fist of Annihilation."
** At least one War Mace attack does much the same- there's something disturbingly hilarious about a four-foot fairy bashing some hapless SuperSoldier six feet into the air with a hammer larger than her torso... straight to the junk.
** One of the powers in Street Justice is a quick, hard knee strike aimed for the enemy's ribcage, but due to height differences, often ends up either in the jaw or the groin.
* GunFu: The animations for the [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]] power set, which involve GunTwirling, rapid turning, posing, and bullets arcing in midair. Pretty clearly inspired by the ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' movie and ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}''.
** An alpha version of the powerset, shown off at a con, even had a chance that some DisturbedDoves would appear.
** Averted with the Malta Gunslinger enemy and the dual pistols used by Thugs Masterminds. The animations for those powersets are just "point and shoot" rather than the fancy twirling.
* GunsAkimbo: Part of the Thugs power set for Masterminds, also combined to great effect with AbnormalAmmo and a bit of ImprobableAimingSkills by [[DemonicSpider Malta]] [[TheGunslinger Gunslingers]]. With the ''Going Rogue'' expansion, also available as a primary set for Blasters and Corruptors, and a secondary for Defenders.
* GunKata: The Dual Pistols powerset, available to Blasters, Defenders, Corruptors and Thug Masterminds. You have to be VIP, have bought them at the Paragon Shop, or have bought Going Rogue in order to get them though.
* HandBlast: The Blast sets (used by Blasters, Defenders, and Corruptors) run on this, as well as the ranged attacks in Dominator Assault sets. If the power set doesn't involve a weapon, there's a good chance that the majority of its attacks are shot from the player's hands.
** Moreover, many attacks have alternate animations that let you shoot from your hands even if the original animation didn't do so, including Radiation Blast's EyeBeams, Fire Blast's [[BreathWeapon Fire Breath]], and most of the Psionic Blast powerset.
* HealingFactor:
** This is Regeneration power set's main gimmick, with most powers either boosting passive health regeneration (in some cases dramatically, like Instant Healing's ''800%'' boost to regeneration) or providing a powerful self-heal.
** To a lesser extent the Willpower power set, which has one power (Fast Healing) that highly boosts the base health regeneration of a character, and another power (Rise to the Challenge) that boosts your regeneration still more as the number of enemies around you increases.
** The Nature Affinity support powerset has this as one of their aspects. Many of its powers are focused around boosting the health of allies, either directly through healing, increasing the effect that healing powers have on them, or increasing their regeneration rates.
** The Empathy support set is capable of directly healing allies, but also has two powers that massively boost the regeneration of allies.
* HealingHands: Several buff/debuff power sets have one heal, and the Empathy set has several...[[BerserkButton but never assume it's the most important part of the set]].
* HealingWinds: The Storm Summoning powerset also has a basic healing power associated with it.
* HealItWithFire: The Thermal Radiation powerset provides a couple of abilities that involve soothing allies with warmth and cauterising wounds.
* {{Hellfire}}: Used by Demon Summoners and some of their pets. Functionally similar to fire, but oddly colored and with a toxic, resistance-reducing after-effect.
* HerdHittingAttack: There are literally two attack sets in the game without one, but primarily a Blaster specialty. Controllers and Dominators have a variation of this - rather than focusing on spreading damage across groups of enemies, they instead hit groups for debilitating status effects.
* ImprovisedGolems: Some characters (specifically, Controllers and Dominators) can summon pets made out of rock, magma, crystal, fire, ice, darkness, electricity or gravity. Said pets usually have no set duration but [[NoOntologicalInertia die if the owner does.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: The Titan Weapons powerset provides characters with an oversized weapon. Customisation can yield weapons with an improvised bent, such as:
** A railroad pike (a sign normally found at railroad crossings, with lights still attached)
** A steel beam with a block of concrete attached to the end of it
** A serrated piece of steel with knives sticking through it
* InASingleBound: With the [[RoofHopping Leaping]] power pool.
* InstantRunes: Mystic Fortune, [[http://tinyurl.com/VanguardSigil Vanguard Sigil]], the Demon Summoning power set, and the Sorcery pool power set.
* JugglingLoadedGuns: The [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]] powerset operates ''entirely'' on the RuleOfCool and not according to any realistic expectations of UsefulNotes/GunSafety. Of particular note is the animation for Piercing Rounds, in which your character, in true spirit of the trope name, ''throws both guns up into the air'' before catching them to "punch" the bullet forward.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Averted. The Katana power set is a slightly faster and less fatiguing clone of Broadsword, with lowered damage. Even the attacks are the same, just the names and animations are different. In fact, at launch, it was an exact clone down to the names and animations, but not the damage.
** Played very straight once you start quantifying numbers, though. The faster animations in Katana mean the set can put out a lot more damage than the slower Broadsword in the same amount of time. The only advantage Broadsword really has is being wielded with only one hand, permitting the player to pair it with [[GameBreaker Shield Defense]].
* KungFuSonicBoom: Every. Single. SuperStrength power.
** Every [[DishingOutDirt Stone Melee]] attack shakes the camera, as do many SuperStrength attacks.
* LightEmUp: Surprisingly rare, first only present in a NPC subgroup, the Legacy of Light of the Legacy Chain, then used by the three factions of the Carnival of Light, but still unavailable to players.
** Technically, Illusion Control describes itself as bending light to make illusions. It also uses bright flashes of light to blind enemies. Then there's Peacebringers...
** Depending on how you play it, Energy Blast can also fall into this category, if your superhero's backstory involves them being able to shape light of some variety into coherent projectile blasts.
* LimitBreak: Domination for Dominators; some NPC enemies also have special powers that trigger upon reaching a certain HP threshold.
* MakeMeWannaShout: Sonic Blast and Sonic Resonance.
* MakingASplash: Water Blast
* ManaDrain: Damn you, [[DemonicSpiders Malta Sappers]]!
** Most of the [[ShockAndAwe electrical]] powers do this to a limited extent, as well as some Kinetic powers.
** And Carnies.
** And Clockworks in the 1-20 game.
** And Mu magicians.
** And The Cabal.
** And numerous custom enemies....
** While a few other defense sets can provide some protection from this, Electric Armor is unique in being the only one with scaling resistance that approaches immunity near the end of the game.
** Preemptive Interface Incarnate powers let you add a chance to drain endurance with ''every single attack'' (ranging from a 25% chance at Tier 1, up to 75% at Tier 4 Radial)
* MasterOfIllusion: The domain of the Illusion Control powerset for Controllers, allowing them to summon enough pets to rival [[TheMinionMaster Masterminds]], create flashes of [[LightEmUp blinding light]], and dazzle the senses.
* MegatonPunch: Several attacks qualify, but none can match SuperStrength's "Knockout Blow," a powerful windup and uppercut which sends the target a dozen feet or so into the air. (Or, if the level difference is sufficient, halfway across the zone.) In addition, there's an entire category of enhancements that serve to increase the distance that enemies are knocked back or up.
* MeteorMove: Air Superiority from the Flight power pool is a Type A if used against a flying target.
* MidairBobbing: Flying characters will do this while staying still.
* MindControl: Had a bit of a WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway stigma (mostly because it lacked a pet as a tier 9 like all the other Controller sets), but had some awesome utility if you played it right. For instance, it was one of the few powersets in the game that, due to having non-"typed" attacks, could ignore many enemies special defenses, specifically, being able to attack each of the various Mitos that made up Hamidon (The mitos were such: Yellows could only be hit by melee attacks, Blues could only be hit by ranged attacks, and Greens could only be hit once they were sufficiently held... Mind Control powers ignored the first two restrictions and had 3 hold powers in its arsenal). Between that and having 5 different types of control at its disposal (sleep, hold, fear, confuse and repel), it was a very diverse and utility-driven set.
* MoreDakka: "Gun Drone" from Devices = Pet Flying Dakka. [[DemonicSpiders Malta Engineers]] get an even better version. Assault Rifle's mini-nuke, "Full Auto," and some [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]] powers like "Empty Clips" and "Hail of Bullets," also qualify.
** As do ranged Mastermind pets, particularly Robotics. You begin with a single robot with a laser that fires a simple three-round burst. By the time you finish out the set, you have six robots firing fully automatic heavy lasers, two different types of missile, seeker drones, dual plasma blasters, photon grenades, and a flamethrower.
* {{Multishot}}: The Fistful of Arrows power in Archery enables this, letting the user fire out multiple arrows in a spread in front of them.
* NinjaRun: From the [[SuperHeroOrigin Natural-Origin]] [[ExpansionPack Super-Booster pack]]. The power is actually called this.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Most pets die if their creator bites it. While it makes total sense for various elemental golems, zombies and summoned demons, it becomes dubious when applied to killer robots, automatic mortars, or thugs and mercenaries. (This does not apply to most enemies. For example, Killing a Master Illusionist wouldn't kill her Phantasm pet, and killing the Phantasm pet wouldn't kill its Decoy Phantasm pet)
* NotQuiteFlight: Temporary, buyable, and stealable jetpacks. In issue 13, they added more esoteric ridable objects like a [[HoverBoard Rocket Board]] and a FlyingCarpet, and Issue 24 was going to add the Void Skiff (a hovering energy disc).
* OilSlick: The "Trick Arrow" powerset includes an Oil Slick Arrow. The oil slick it creates can catch on fire.
* OneCurseLimit: Averted - different status effects have separate timers, and can be inflicted on enemies simultaneously.
* OneHitKill: The specialty of the Stalker, they even have a unique attack designed to do this if they pull it off while stealthed. At one point, the devs implemented a [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] feature that prevented a single attack from killing a player at full health (to address an issue with low-level players getting picked off just for trying to cross a [=PvP=] zone). This had the unintentional side-effect of nerfing Stalkers in [=PvP=] until the players figured out work-arounds involving adding [=DoT=] effects.
* ParryingBullets: Not explicitly shown or stated, but the [[CoolSword Broad Sword]] and [[KatanasAreJustBetter Katana]] sets have a power that grants defense against Lethal damage, which just happens to be the damage type dealt by ''guns''. The Broad Sword version was actually simply called Parry. Justified in that it's also the type of damage dealt by swords, and the power also gives defense against Melee, not just Lethal.
* PlayingWithFire: Fire Melee, Fire Blast, Fiery Assault, Fire Control, [[WreathedInFlames Fire Aura, Thermal Radiation]]. Also the Pyronic Judgement Incarnate power.
* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Once very prolific, many complaints from the players resulted in much of the knockback melee attacks being turned to knockdown/knockup. Still, there are still many examples: Energy Manipulation's Power Thrust, Luminous Blast's Radiant Strike, Battle Axe's Pendulum...
* RainOfArrows: Happens to be the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin name of the final power]] in the Archery set.
* RapidFireFisticuffs: Available both in SpeedEchoes and CastingAShadow flavor, with Flurry from Super Speed and Shadow Maul from Dark Melee.
* RealityWarping: Some Power Sets, such as [[GravityMaster Gravity Control]] and [[TimeMaster Time Manipulation]], have wide varieties of physics-bending options.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Pet-using characters, especially Masterminds, are disproportionally vulnerable to area effect attacks compared to player characters with no pets. To compensate for this, pets typically have higher-than-normal defense to [=AoE=] attacks, and take reduced or no damage from certain endgame area effect attacks that players need to actively avoid.
* ScreenShake: Side effect of various hard-hitting powers. The developers attempted to ramp it up for the SuperStrength power set, but dialed it back after players complained of motion sickness.
** Also whenever a Kheldian transforms.
* SelfDestructMechanism: Used in one of the taskforces, also powers available to some {{NPC}}s and ''players''.
* ShockwaveClap: Hand Clap from SuperStrength tosses enemies away from the user, stunning but dealing no damage. Electrical Melee and Electricity Manipulation have Lightning Clap, which is exactly the same power but with slightly different looks. A few other attacks are also performed by clapping one's hands together.
* ShockAndAwe: Electric Melee, and Electric Blast. Available to all [=ATs=] via the Mu Mastery power pool and the Ionic Judgement Incarnate power.
* ShockwaveStomp: The aptly named Foot Stomp from SuperStrength is one of the game's most potent non-nuke [=PBAoE=] attacks. Several other attacks also have the character driving their foot into the ground.
* ShovelStrike: Flat-on as a club for War Mace, edge-on for Battle Axe.
* [[SocketedEquipment Socketed Powers]]: The enhancement system, which allows you to add sockets ("slots") to powers as a character levels up, and provides upwards of eight different degrees of enhancements that lock into them.
* SpeedEchoes: Used in the SuperSpeed Flurry attack, as well as some high-end [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]] attacks.
** The original animation for Storm Kick (a Martial Arts attack) had these, but it was changed because [[CoolButInefficient they made the attack take longer, even when you miss]].
* SpinAttack: All melee weapon sets and most melee non-weapon sets (on non-Stalkers) have some variation on spinning around and attacking all foes in range, including using a sword made out of fire or ice.
** "Hail of Bullets" from [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]], a perfect example of a [[Film/TheLastStarfighter "Death Blossom" attack]].
* SquadControls: The game has this for the Mastermind class so they can control their pets. The player can set both the stance (aggressive, defensive, passive) and the specific command (follow, attack, go to, stay). Any damage the Mastermind takes is split among the Mastermind and any nearby pets that are in Defensive-Follow (specifically known as "Body Guard Mode"). With their full array of minions acting as bodyguards, a Mastermind can act as a surprisingly effective tank, especially if they are able to heal themselves and their minions to keep the effect going. The downside is that [=AoE=] attacks end up hitting the minions even harder (as they take normal damage, plus their share of the master's).
** Incarnate-level characters with Lore summons also get these controls. Masterminds with Lore summons could command both sets of pets with the same controls. Nothing quite like the feeling of pushing one button and having eight minions ZergRush a single enemy minion...
* StatusEffects:
** Controllers and Dominators focus on this, with both archetypes having a range of powers designed around inhibiting enemies. Other archetypes have their fair share of them as well. In general, these status effects are divided up between 'hard' and 'soft'.
** Hard controls are status effects which directly prevent enemies from attacking, such as Holds, Stuns, Confuses, Fears, and Sleeps.
** Soft controls are more unconventional, hindering enemies in different ways, such as Immobilizes, Slows, Knockbacks, Taunts, and Placates.
* StoneWall: Fittingly, Granite Armor from the [[DishingOutDirt Stone Armor]] power set turns the player nigh unkillable (with huge bonuses to both resistance and defense) and nigh harmless (with huge penalties to speed, jump height, damage, and recharge time). Of course, some players [[GameBreaker do everything to offset that...]]
** Tankers in general will be this by default, with their [[CompetitiveBalance defensive powers inherently higher]] than the same ones for other archetypes.
* StatusBuff: Many support powersets (found on Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors, and Masterminds) provide characters with ways of improving the stats of their allies, and occasionally themselves.
* TheStraightAndArrowPath: The Archery powerset (available for Blasters, Defenders, and Corruptors) allows your character to wield arrows as skillfully as any gun.
* SummonMagic: Masterminds have this as their entire Primary power set and intended playstyle, with their Demon Summoning and Thugs power sets taking it up to eleven (thanks to Hell on Earth and Gang War, respectively, which each summon a swarm of temporary pets, on top of the normal six pets every Mastermind gets).
** Most Controller and Dominator primaries have a capstone power that lets them summon pets.
** Several secondary sets for Controllers, Corruptors, and Masterminds (or Primary sets for Defenders) have pets or pet-like entities. For example, Storm Summoning is capable of conjuring up gusts of wind and lightning.
** Arachnos Soldiers have robotic pets (and Crab Spiders even more).
** Patron Power sets for all [=ATs=] but Masterminds have a summon as well.
** There are Temporary Powers which are usable by anyone (though wear out after 1-5 castings), which include zombies, snowmen, werewolves, a power-armored policeman (or power-armored criminal, depending on your alignment), giant robots, tiny robots, witches, cosmic horrors and a [[BeeAfraid jar of bees]].
** The Lore slot in the Incarnate powers lets any player summon controllable pets (using the same SquadControls as Mastermind pets) belonging to one of twenty of the game's villain groups. Each type of Lore ability can be built up through nine different subtypes across four levels of power; the different subtypes summoned different combinations of pets from that group. If you had made more than one Lore boost, you could swap them in and out of your Lore slot out of combat and with a 15-minute cooldown, which gives a dedicated player some additional flexibility for known future threats.
* SuperheroPackingHeat: Assault Rifle or [[GunsAkimbo Dual Pistols]] Blasters/Defenders/Corruptors/Masterminds.
* SuperReflexes: One of the Power Sets for Scrappers, Stalkers, and Brutes.
* SuperSpeed: A power pool available to anyone. It included a travel power (which vastly increased the player's running speed), an attack power (a barrage of super-speed punches), and several utility powers (reducing cooldowns on all your attacks, and spinning around like a whirlwind to knock foes off their feet)
* SuperStrength: Available as a primary or secondary set to [[MightyGlacier Tankers]] and [[LightningBruiser Brutes]].
* SwissArmyGun: The Assault Rifle power set. The gun shot bullets, slugs, shotgun shells, and grenades, and could even act as a flamethrower!
* SwordBeam: Focus and Shockwave from the Claws power set, Serpent's Reach from Staff Fighting.
* TarotMotifs: The "Fortune" power lets players draw a tarot card to buff another player. Only a few of the Major Arcana are represented, however, and none of the Minor Arcana.
* TrickArrow: One of the powersets available to Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors, and Masterminds. Blasters get a variation of this powerset, with some of the powers reworked, or replaced entirely. It's designed with debilitating the enemy in mind through multiple means, from trapping them in oil slicks, gluing them down, to putting them to sleep.
* VideoGameFlight: The Flight pool grants access to a completely unrestricted flight power simply called "Fly", plus a secondary combat-oriented "Hover" power which makes the character harder to hit but is much slower than Fly, and a power called "Afterburner" that drastically increases flight speed in exchange for not being able to attack while active. The Sorcery pool added in the final beta also contained a flight power called Mystic Flight that additionally allowed the player to teleport while it was active, and the as-yet-unreleased powerset Gadgetry is supposed to come with its own jetpack.
* VineTentacles: The Plant Control powerset, accessible to both Controllers and Dominators has many abilities utilising them.
* WhipItGood: The weapon of choice for Demon Summoning Masterminds. It's also literally made of fire.
* WolverineClaws: The Claws power set. This actually got [=NCSoft=] into some legal trouble with [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]].

* SturgeonsLaw: In full effect with the Mission Architect. Even with the search options, it is a huge chore to actually find missions with actual ''stories'' instead of being just a farm or meant to be [[NintendoHard a challenge]].
** And then, predictably, 90% of ''those'' are... not very good.
*** When it comes to the Mission Architect, Sturgeon was a wild-eyed optimist.

* BalefulPolymorph: The Mutant super booster's bonus power can give you a number of buffs that can increase your defenses, boost your regeneration, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments or turn you into a Rikti Monkey for 1 minute.]]

* [[WeirdScience Science]]: Characters that get their powers via scientific means. Super serums, [[ILoveNuclearPower radiation]], [[FreakLabAccident experiments gone wrong]], experiments gone ''right'', etc. Examples include Comicbook/SpiderMan, Marvel's Sandman and the Comicbook/FantasticFour. In universe example: Synapse of the Freedom Phalanx.

** Positron is a [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive]] ComicBook/IronMan, with a since-resolved ClingyCostume issue.

* ILoveNuclearPower: Radiation Blast and Radiation Emission, which can also buff and heal your allies. Future issues were set to add Radiation Melee and Radiation Armor.
** The literal [[NukeEm "nuke" temporary power]] from the zone event in [[PlayerVersusPlayer Warburg]].
** The Tier 9 Radiation Blast power is Atomic Blast, in which the player literally sets off a nuclear bomb centered on themselves; any enemies left alive are even left choking on the atomic radiation (a hold) for a brief while.

It was complemented and paralleled by a villainous counterpart, ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains''. Players of ''City of Villains'' assume the role of a freshly escaped super-powered convict who may fit into a prophecy about a "destined one" whom it is said will rise to threaten even the most powerful echelons of the Rogue Isles villain factions. The two games overlap in select areas, including [=PvP=] zones and a [[GoodGuyBar no-conflict nightclub]] in another dimension called "Pocket D". The two games, originally separate subscriptions, were eventually combined, allowing players who hadn't bought [=CoV=] to make villain characters, and vice-versa.

The game was also the first major MMO to include user created content, in the form of its Mission Architect system and player-created story arcs.

** An odd case of Meme-turned-extra: During the Closed Beta of ''City of Villains'', A player on the Beta feedback message boards had posted confusion as to why your character didn't jump from gang to gang, using the already established villain gangs set up in City of Heroes. It was pointed out to them that a lot of groups (Freakshow, Devouring Earth, etc.,) would be ''impossible'' to quit, and some posted a few comical stories about a made-up incompetent trying to quit each different gang in ''City of Heroes/Villains'' with comedic results. More people followed suit, and eventually the "quitter" was given the nickname "Jenkins", and it stuck. (Which is possibly a ''[[Machinima/LeeroyJenkinsVideo World of Warcraft]]'' reference, or an incredible coincidence.) Jenkins quickly became popular on the Beta boards as a sort of meme, rather than an actual extra. Later, the programmer behind the character Black Scorpion posted that he had just read the thread and found it to be hilarious. The very next update to the Beta had added "Jenkins", an Arachnos incompetent, to the opening tutorial wherein the villains PC has to save him in order to escape from prison.

* FaceHeelTurn: Heroicly aligned Vigilantes are a transitional alignment from Hero to Villain, which they can further by taking their own brand of law enforcement to the extremes.

* ItsPersonal: For many fans, the announcement of the shutdown of City Of Heroes left them extraordinarily pissed off at NC Soft. Many still haven't forgiven the company for it. For pretty much just about everyone who played the game the shutdown announcement was met by massive campaigns. First to keep the game alive, and then to keep it from being forgotten, and now there are campaigns whose goal is to attempt to resurrect it. And then there's [[BeyondTheImpossible Atlas Park 33]]... When the game was announced as closing, a massive meeting of heroes ''and'' villains converged on Atlas Park, straining the servers so much it had to create ''[[UpToEleven 33 instances of the location just to handle them all]]''. While the rest of the instances eventually closed out, the 33rd instance, known as Atlas Park 33 was kept in existence by an ongoing vigil that lasted [[NeverSayDie right up till the game's final moments.]]

** MadeOfDiamond: Some of the Tier 9 Armor Set powers skyrocket your defenses for about 2 minutes, at the cost of a nasty crash at the end of it. Moment of Glory takes this UpToEleven by combining two Tier 9 effects, but only for 15 seconds.

* SummonMagic: Masterminds have this as their entire Primary power set and intended playstyle, with their Demon Summoning and Thugs power sets taking it UpToEleven (thanks to Hell on Earth and Gang War, respectively, which each summon a swarm of temporary pets, on top of the normal six pets every Mastermind gets).

** Arachnos gives us the Tarantulas, some of whom are human Arachnos operatives grafted into arachnoid exoskeletons. They are also responsible for creating the Arachnoids, described in the UncannyValley entry under the YMMV tab. The Infected you meet in Mercy Island are Rogue Isles citizens being mutated by the waste runoff from the Arachnoid project being dumped into the sewer system. And they've attracted the interest of {{Mad Scientist}}s interested in using them as guinea pigs for experiments to further exacerbate their condition.[[invoked]]

** Mind Control and Illusion Control (which is usually the bailiwick of comic book villains like [[Franchise/SpiderMan Mysterio]] or [[ComicBook/{{Thor}} Loki]]) for heroic Controllers, also starting in Issue 0.

** Ironically [[AuthorsSavingThrow retconned]] as of the ''Going Rogue'' expansion. The official reaction to questions about this could be summed up as "wait, what? *looks* Oh, ewewewewewewewewewewewewewewwwww!"
*** Which suggests the current developers are woefully ignorant of their own setting's lore, the players (who've been joking about it for years) are perverts, or both.

** [[http://threepanelsoul.com/2007/08/13/on-corruption/ DID YOU JUST MAKE ME FLAMING??]]

* DamageOverTime: Controller and Dominator primaries work that way - most of their powers are focused on inflicting status effects to hinder opponents, with damage as a secondary priority. This is less of a concern for Dominators, who have a secondary powerset devoted to dealing damage.

* VineTentacles: The Venus mantraps of Catachan can physically grab onto creatures several feet away from them with their vines in order to drag them into their maws.

* NotQuiteFlight: Temporary, buyable, and stealable jetpacks. In issue 13, they added more esoteric ridable objects like a RocketBoard and a FlyingCarpet, and Issue 24 was going to add the Void Skiff (a hovering energy disc).

* [[HealingHands Defender]]: Primarily powers aiding [[StatusBuff (buff)]] allies or weakening (debuff) foes, backed up by medium-damage ranged attacks

* [[MindControl Controller]]: Primarily powers that [[StatusEffects hold, disorient or otherwise control]] opponents, backed up by buffs/debuffs

* ItsPersonal: For many fans, the announcement of the shutdown of City Of Heroes left them extraordinarily pissed off at NC Soft. Many still haven't forgiven the company for it. For pretty much [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters just about everyone who played the game]] the shutdown announcement was met by massive campaigns. First to keep the game alive, and then to keep it from being forgotten, and now there are campaigns whose goal is to attempt to resurrect it. And then there's [[BeyondTheImpossible Atlas Park 33]]... When the game was announced as closing, a massive meeting of heroes ''and'' villains converged on Atlas Park, straining the servers so much it had to create ''[[UpToEleven 33 instances of the location just to handle them all]]''. While the rest of the instances eventually closed out, the 33rd instance, known as Atlas Park 33 was kept in existence by an ongoing vigil that lasted [[NeverSayDie right up till the game's final moments.]]

* MindScrew: The villainous Television contact, which has you taking orders from [[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]], burning books and blaming it on videogames, and going ''into'' a gangster movie to defeat Nemesis troops, among other weirdness. It's never quite clear whether the television set is actually evil or whether your character is just delusional.

* [[[MindControl Controller]]: Primarily powers that [[StatusEffects hold, disorient or otherwise control]] opponents, backed up by buffs/debuffs