Super Powers

I talk about my real life a lot...why? Well just look to your right at the definition of Dualism. We can't escape the fact that our real lives have a direct impact on how we play the game and how we interact with everyone in it. So I had some ideas that came to me while having a small chat with my youngest son (7 years old, btw).

For years my wife and I have been attempting to devise the coolest and most powerful superpower that we would like to be endowed with. At first I made up something stupid (according to her), I would like to breathe anywhere. I justified it by saying that if we were locked in battle in outer space, invisibility or super strength or super speed or flying ability wouldn't do you so good because you would die from lack of oxygen.

I, on the other hand, would survive.

My answers have changed over the years, but I still hold fast to that power as a "side-power" only. Recently my kid has involved himself in these debates. Most recently I gave him a choice of 3 super powers, here they are in no particular order:

1) Power to control the minds of all non-human creatures
2) Power to control the minds of all HUMANS
3) Power to CREATE magic out of his thoughts

Yeah, the last one is cheating a bit, but when I told my wife about the list she gasped - "Ambitious for such a gentle person". And so I agreed, but I wasn't going to tell him to not wish for those, using your imagination as a child is a positive and constructive development tool.

When I play wow I am limited to the spells, powers, and abilities of the particular race/class combo that I have chosen for the moment. Warriors cannot shoot frostbolts out of their hands, no matter how much it would make them feel special. So if someone who played a warrior really wanted to shoot those frostbolts he/she would have to roll a mage (preferably not a Gnome, I would be afraid for their safety and for the rising cost of shoe makers as punting would become an epidemic).

But what if my Shaman or Warlock or Priest or whatever could do something completely and totally awesome that would make everyone within a thousand yards go "Holy crap, that was AWESOME!" Even if they were made speechless, that would be another desirable effect. I would even go for myself being impressed at my own supernatural powers. So, what would I want my Shaman to be able to do?

First, since shamans can bend the powers of the elements to their will, I would like to see myself with the ability to pull lava (magma inside the earth) up through the ground until the rocks or earth around my body became intesely hot, then I would take that lava and rocky earth and spin it around like a tornado then unleash it into a village of evil murlocs, all the while I was in control of the path of devastation that it took. Upon destroying the village and everything in it, I would call upon the forces of water to flood the village so that no living thing could ever spawn there again; this would save me and my posterity from a lifetime of unwanted murloc raids.

I'd also like to see my mage with a frozen lasso, like Indiana Jones. I would take the lasso and wrap it around every bad dude in the room, pull them all together so that I could freeze them in place. I'd take a step back to admire my handiwork, at which time my lasso would snap through the air faster than the speed of sound making a sound so terrifying that even you may wish to quit wow for fear of the possibility that I am no toon, but my toon is a manifestation of my true self, dangerous and lethal.

Everyone would stand there and look down at their bodies, only to see the top half of each of them slowly slide off their bottom halfs, death in their faces.

Or maybe my son had it right, to be able to control all beasts, demons, elementals, etc and call forth an army of all of them as I do single battle with the mighty dragons of Azeroth and Northrend. My army would swell and my enemies would cower. Their doom moments away as each beast that came to my side continued to split in two for 20 seconds, then to fight by my side for 2 minutes. Can you imagine how big my army would be?

I think that the kinds of powers, or better yet the manifestation of our powers could be a lot cooler than they are now. I also think that the ideas for various super powers that our toons could wield are limitless, but there just are not enough keybindings to accomodate them. Plus that would make for very complex rotations, don't you think?

Still, it would be better than only pushing 2 buttons.

I have not even scratched the limits of potential spells, powers or abilities. I wonder what your minds can create? Let's have a contest, let's see if we can spread the word around the community and try and come up with the coolest ability in the world. The only guideline is that it must be in harmony with the class, so basically no frostbolts for warriors, stuff like that.

And no "snap my fingers and the universe implodes" stuff either, that's just weak. It has to be a power that can be controlled, managed, manipulated by your character. It can be powerful, for sure, but let's also keep it realistic. For example, no "swing my sword and all of Ulduar dies before me". I want unique, fun, but in harmony with the World of Warcraft.

Feel free to comment on any that come to you off the top of your head. I'll give this experiment one week. So next Tuesday I'll review the suggestions and post the best ones. We can then vote for the best, the winner to receive acclaim and a year's supply of root beer.

Well, maybe not the root beer.