Sovera

..that's actually a good point. Despite the overwhelming general advice to slot Tornado with FF I went and tested this and FF only procs on the initial cast and then never again in several attempts. ... with all the advice to slot FF in Tornado had this image of it proccing FF a few times more while it lasted. There were very few hits from the damage proc but at least they were there. Tested Lightning Storm. Same deal. Procced once on casting and then it did not proc again despite several attempts. It also brings how underwhelming LS is when it is unable to kill a few grey mobs before its substantial 60 second duration expires 🙂 Alright, I'm at a loss here or perhaps missing something. So all the advice on slotting FF procs on Tornado/LS is just to get the proc once every 20 seconds or so?

In the vein of the previous build this one keeps the capped resistances to S/L/E while having softcapped Ranged defenses. Hasten is at 130 seconds which ought to be perma with all the FF procs flying around. It should have slightly worse ST than Ice (obvious with Ice being the biggo ST monster) though the double Water Jet every 15 seconds helps it a little bit. It gets a bit of healing from Dehydrate (it has a bit of a bad rep but I, for one, welcome the 20%-healing-every-3-seconds (or 30% if Steam Jet is having its refractory period) which frees the healing ATO to net me another 10% recharge), while having a bit better AoE with Water Burst added to the mix as well as Geyser recharging in 36 seconds instead of Blizzard's 50 (no FF procs included). Things I do not like is losing Victory Rush. Sigh, I rather liked the gameplay involved and helping myself and the team. But because it demands two power picks before I can take it, Tactics being of dubious utility, and having several must-have-first powers Victory Rush got pushed to 35... which at that point I might as well take Power Sink. Until Power sink and for emergencies Recovery Serum will be there (alas, Victory Rush, you will be missed). Steam Jet, Aqua Bolt, Dehydrate, Aqua Bolt has a small 0.7-ish second gap for Dehydrate but nothing I would lose sleep about. This is the regular build with the full Stormie arsenal. Looking at Lightning Storm's grotesque endurance demands, nuke level cooldown, and very low damage output useful only for niche situations where the fights last long enough for LS to tick away (a rarity outside of AVS, I believe we can agree?) I have another build for my own personal use that.... does not have LS *ducks!* ... personal choice. I feel that Steamy Mist, Freezing Rain and Tornado give the Storm experience and all three get to be used in a regular basis unlike LS who might sit unused as a team steam rolls (furthermore steamrolling with our help keeping things safe and taking an extra 35% damage from Freezing Rain). So this is the build without LS. Same thing in its basics, but Gale loses the FF proc (its only use comes from under Yin's TF where it fills the attack gap by adding some CC. It's that or twiddling my thumbs waiting for stuff to recharge) since Water Burst now carries it. Power Sink gets better slotted since now there are slots to spare for it. There is a slight bit of extra recharge which makes me think that the small gaps warrant one less use of Aqua Bolt as it is so weak. Water Jet, Dehydrate, Aqua Bolt is good enough despite the 0.6 gaps here and there.

When does this ever happen though? It's spreadsheet talk. This situation only happens when fighting an AV which is 1% of our game time. Doing a T1 damage worth every 4 seconds means it takes a godly amount of uptime to make up for the cast time and endurance cost. Something like 30 seconds? Anything less and just keep on pumping the ST rotation instead. Heck, fighting AVs usually TAKES 30 seconds. There is a reason why Stormies shine on Pylon tests and that's because they take 1-2 minutes worth of taking stacked LS attacks to the face (plus Pylon tests loving -res procs which are of dubious gain in regular playing). No, this feels a lot like old design where the fights took longer and players spent more time on a pack of mobs before moving to the next. Like other game designs it has become obsolete. Shifting meta and all that. Sacrilegious as it may be I am thinking that dumping Lightning Storm is the better choice (for me). It does not see enough use and is one of the reasons Stormies have a rep of eating through their endurance bar. It would free a power pick and five slots to spread around. Certainly it looks amazing, very gorgeous, very much a pleasure to watch it throw lightning around, but it needs one of those changes the other servers made where the LS became mobile and follows the caster. Freezing Rain, Steamy Mist and Tornado are enough of the emblematic Storm experience to still warrant rolling a Stormie. Tornado gets cast on cooldown and helps with damage while doing soft CC and being a monster FF proccer , Freezing Rain boosts damage -and- keeps a team safe, Steamy Mist boosts a team's defense -and- resistance. With all this said I'm going to try a Storm/Water next. It keeps the capped resistances and softcapped defenses, ST seems roughly the same with proccage, better AoE, bit of self healing. I lost Victory Rush which makes me a sad goat. I liked giving myself and the team endurance, but strictly speaking a Recovery Serums costs 10k per charge and without Lightning Storm my endurance ought to be fine.

Reached level 38 after a marathon of TFs. My thoughts so far: The good: - Really good at locking down packs for my team. It may not be a Controller but for all effects and purposes it does a Controller's job just fine via Freezing Rain + Ice Storm all the way since Posi 1. What is not flopping is -slowly- trying to run away because of the fear effect of the rains. And then Tornado comes into play. It is easy pickings. - Noticeable meltage effect from Freezing Rain. Sure, it only shaves a few seconds, but that -30% res couples well with the power also acting as CC. - Snappy and pretty decent ST damage with the procced out attacks. I'm taking chunks out of the enemies even if it's not Blaster damage. A leftover Tornado and Lightning Storm that was dropped at the start also helps with the ST once its down to the harder targets. - The endurance is well in place with all three uniques in Health and the two slots in Stamina. By the time Victory Rush is nearly recharged I am usually in need of it again depending on how many Lightning Storms I threw. I have Power Sink for those last moments before Victory Rush is back up. I have still two toggles to get that will add to the drain of my endurance but so far things are self contained. I may have popped one single Recovery Serum so far. The not so good: - The vaunted AoE damage of Stormies is eh. Aim + Gaussian, Freezing Rain, Ice Storm and Tornado does not even kill grey mobs. They will just slowly run off the kill zone and then scatter without even half their HP off. I found it faster to kill grey mobs with ST attacks while doing the hunts for Citadel and Manticore. Seriously though, being unable to kill grey mobs is a bit eh... - Tornado is a bit of a disappointment. It's just a dot ticking for 8 damage (at my current level) which is gently tickling a mob's HP instead of helping to kill it. Mids says it has a 20y radius but it is difficult to say with all the numbers on the screen. City of Data to the rescue. The fear effect is indeed 20y wide, but the 'attack' is 7y radius which seems like the behavior I have seen. - Lightning Storm is another so. The cooldown of a nuke but the gentle caress shaving 1/10th of a even level minion HP every 4 seconds. Does this hit in AoE or purely ST? Delved into City of Data again. It has a tiny 5y radius that can hit five mobs. It does CC with the KD and the fear but things die too fast to warrant using it. Perhaps once at max level and running at +4. But by the time Freezing Rain + Ice Storm + Tornado is down I might as well continue hitting with my ST attacks that hit triple as hard as a single Lightning Storm bolt. It truly is a power for long fights as such I find I rarely bother putting it down during leveling. The purple proc may be a waste there since I use BiB far more often. It's upside is a stupendous 100y range for its attack, so it can be put down somewhere and it will keep on ticking as long as there is LoS. Veredict: Still enjoying the build. It is definitely not a solo character because even being able to survive with maxed resists and ranged defense it's AoE capacity is very very low. That said it feels safe. The Defender ATO heal proc happens often, the mobs scattering gives us time to pick them off and we can reapply while standing in the kill zone so mobs running back to hit us return to reapplied rains and a waiting Lightning Storm. The final slotting (BU proc in Tornado, purple damage proc in Lightning Storm) may further help. Of course I haven't used Blizzard yet since I just reached 38 but having it only every 50 seconds (less with FF procs) means I can't really 'rely' on it. But overall between a Controller and this I find this more entertaining with a blend of helping the team but still able to blast enemies with the super fast attack animations (a big annoyance with the Gravity Controllers/Doms was how the damage did feel ok/good with Impact, but dem slow animations meant things died before my hits would land).

I can't argue with you there 😄 Even back when I was substantially younger and thrived on grinding it eventually felt heavy to rinse and repeat the same bland radio missions.

I started in Issue 7 and I don't recall street sweeping being anything but done for funsies. I don't even understand what you mean by 'radio missions helped but weren't enough'. Why weren't they enough? Back then they were the bread of leveling. I seldom touched TFs (no merits rewards) and leveled pretty much on radio missions. They gave XP from killing mobs and then another chunk from completion, and we could team up which greatly sped leveling since without IOs even tough characters like Brutes and Tankers needed the buffs and heals and there were no armored Blaster as there are now. I'm not saying people did not do it though.

Problem with street sweeping is the same as running arcs outside of Ouro: we outlevel things. Running arcs without Ouro has me sent against enemies +4 or grey mobs. Street sweeping I did a few times to get a level or two but sadly we start, even level mobs, defeat, defeat, level up, defeat, level up, grey or green mobs. Keep looking... grey mobs, grey mobs... Move to another zone. Purple mobs. 😛

Reshuffled things so how to travel fast in the game is not a blurb lost in the misc section since it is pretty important and deserved its own section. Also updated with some changes the new patches brought.

Alright, another iteration of the build. I took some ideas and (stubbornly) stuck to others. It is not that the advice was bad (it is not, when needing advice contact a pro, but once having the advice make an informed decision) but the build is tailored to my playstyle. As such I placed both procs on my first attacks (thanks, @Onlyasandwich!) so that they will be spammed even as low as Posi 1 (unlike another poster remarked I did not feel late blooming in the slightest. Making Controllers envious with how spawns can be locked with Freezing Rain + Ice Storm, spot healing baby tanks with O2, not having a third attack so using Gale as a filler which in turn makes everything recharge faster. And this without fancy IO slotting yet. So I intend to exemplar for fun and even use the character to duo with a friend for lowbie arcs). Freeze Ray takes recharge since it is available much earlier and needs it baked in for early exemplaring, while letting BiB go the proc route since it comes after Tornado anyway and then rely on that one constantly thumping FF procs to help bridge the gap this introduces. Hasten worsened a bit to 130 seconds but the FF proccing will bridge this, softcapped defense remains, capped resistances remains, early Leadership is still on. I'm liking it so much that after a Grav/Sonic and Grav/Psi attempt I have settled as Storm/Ice being the RP powerset 'main' of the character. Little Glow is a go!

Time to delve in and get more ideas! Just a few pointers though. No point in +3 damage procs, and it's probably by accident but +3 Preventive Medecine and LotG means their bonuses aren't available if exemplaring.

Hmm, changing the ATO to Ice Bolt makes it lose about 35 damage. It's maybe not as bad as all that since it was only a 29% chance for each proc of going off and Stormies have no self heal. Storm side of things ought to compensate for damage. I think it might be a good change. Good catch again, @Onlyasandwich.

Yes, I agree. Plus Gale is also good pre-level 26 when we lack another attack and don't have much recharge. Ice Bolt, Freeze Ray, Ice Bolt... gap... GALE TIME! I've been taking this character through both Posis and I'm loving it. The team is safe. Abusing Gale helps with recharge so even in the low levels I can do Freezing Rain + Ice Storm for every spawn. Mobs don't even fight back as they flop and the team descends on them 😄 There are a lot of good points here. Good catch on the double KD! I meant to put a damage proc there and missed my mark. Unfortunately we will have to agree to disagree on Hurricane. It absolutely is an amazing power, but I neither like it nor like having it used when I'm tanking. More power to those who manage it but even as it is things are locked flopping and being dead without the occupational hazards of maybe licking them a bit too much and push them out of the rains kill zone. Victory Rush I'm (personally) not having a problem with despite being my first time picking it. Check endurance. If it's half way down check if VR is up, look for a boss, use. I even use if I see others who have endurance bars at half. Perhaps I'll change my mind later as ennui and jadedness settles in but for now I'm feeling it makes a difference. A bit less so taking Leadership. Even with defender boosted numbers a mere 5% defense isn't going to sway things much, though I suppose it will stack with Steamy Mist's 7% to make a more noticeable number. I have stopped using -res procs in my builds after some testing with my Tankers and seeing how little influence they have in actual gameplay against +3. Though they still shave something like 5-7% (who is then multiplied by every team member) when facing AVs the whole thing about normal mobs dying too fast and the -res procs not stacking on top of being popular has made me abandon their use. Personal opinion though, I don't advocate others to do the same. I completely agree on Freezing Rain. Ice Bolt does so little damage I could six slot the ATO there to make use of the heal (plus it's my most spammed attack) and then on Freezing Rain replace it with another Artillary who will give me defense. I would have to scrounge a slot from somewhere but with the extra defense that should not be a problem. I'm not sure about proccing BiB too much. You are correct that Storm is a busy set, but at most there will be 10 seconds between Storm powers and that's two whole rotations in-between. Furthermore I don't see the point of churning more than one Tornado and one Lightning Storm per spawn. Once both rains are down, one Tornado, one Lightning Storm, then it's time to kill the hard targets before moving to the next spawn. Maybe in a solo situation, but in a team I think that things move at a fast enough clip and once all Storm powers are down it's ST time. It's only at AVs (but that's 1% of our game time) that I see churning Tornadoes and Storms non stop. And finally you are also correct about the defense. But, welp, what am I to get next? All attacks border ED, Hasten is down to 126 which I -could- push a bit more but seems gratuitous, attacks are procced out, recovery is maxed out. I might as well grab defense and resists because otherwise then what? Besides, softcapping defense and hardcapping resistance while having good numbers for the rest of the build was a nice tour de force, eh? Eh? 😄 You make good points all around so don't take me doing devil's advocate as rejecting your much higher experience with Defenders and Storm in particular

Version two between the advice and the posted builds. Highlights: - Procced with the exception of Bitter Ice Blast. This is because BiB is the linchpin and I would like minimal gaps. I'm already trusting FF in Tornado to shore up the gap Freeze Ray has when doing BiB, Ice Bolt, Freeze Ray, Ice Bolt (about 1.3 gap which is more than I consider tolerable, but I TRUST in the FF proc in Tornado (don't let me down, boy!)). - 75% resistances to S/L/E - (Near) 45% defense to range. - 126 second Hasten so easily perma at the first Tornado out. - I feel like it will have enough endurance between Victory Rush and Power Sink (with a sprinkling of Recovery Serum where needed) that frees Alpha and Destiny. I have no particular intention to use Clarion since it is a team build and I'm not wasting an Incarnate on what inspirations I can /ah and buy between missions can accomplish. Perhaps if intending to solo. This is not a leveling build but I can whip one up if someone has a need for it.

Sonic has (had?) a bug where using the alterna animations is slower than what it should be. I definitely would prefer Charged Armor to Tough, but then I want Weave as well. I will have to juggle things. But first to actually make it and give it a go since I am not feeling the Grav/Psi Dom, or the SoA, oo the Grav/Sonic Controller. Making alts is easy but sticking to them past 30 is not.

I only want Defender for a single reason: early access to Storm. It's why I didn't pick MM or Corruptor (Tornado at 26 instead of 35 plsboss). I also looked hard at skipping Gale but could not. It was Gale or Snow Storm, or Ice Blast. I have no desire or use for Snow Storm and I don't have the slots for Ice Blast so Gale it is, woo. There is no plan in using it other than in very early leveling where Tactics lets it hit reliably. I'd rather not have either but it is what it is. Ice Storm is my sole AoE until 26 (hard no on Frost Breath), so despite being meh it is, once again, what it is. I can either skip it and not have any AoE or take it and at least have -something-. Taking Ice is mostly the super fast animations, and Ice Storm coinciding with Freezing Rain which is nice, but being all ranged without PbAoE nukes isn't bad either. It's sparse on AoE but that's what Storm is strong in. I'm not sure what I could really take that would replace Ice. Sonic is super slow in animating and still bugged, I think, in that taking the animations that aren't shouting slows the animating? I confess I'm not sure about the intrincacies of Defender and Storm, but the advice is usually to pump as much recharge to throw as many Tornadoes and Lightning Storms. Proccing is nice, but heavy on the endurance, kills the smooth attack rotation, and neuters 20.5% off the build. Overall I have no idea which is better but it seems to run counter to Storm? I'm a Storm and Defender newbie though so willing to listen. I agree on the base buffs, but Victory Rush also helps the team which is why I take all the Leadership powers.

I have rarely done Defenders but I have wanted a Stormie for the longest time, so now is the time. Does any more veteran Defender Stormie see if I missed anything? Is my Tornado/Lightning Storm slotted correctly? I considered Sorcery but I keep going back to pick Hover since the inertia of regular flight annoys me. And then the combined Storm endurance problems does not seem like a good fit to add yet more toggles with Sorcery. Early Leadership up to and including Victory Rush to help myself and others during the Dark Times (tm) (AKA Synapse and Yin with the constant sapping). At 35 I alleviate the Stormie endurance woes with Power Sink. It leaves my defense at merely 30% ish but good enough to chuck a purple if there is trouble. Regardless I have no intentions to solo with it. Assuming I have an abundance of free time I should be able to machine gun Bitter Ice Blast, Ice Bolt, Freeze Ray, Ice Bolt. Repeat. As early as Posi 1 being able to drop Freezing Ray and Ice Storm at (nearly?) every spawn should also be of great help to the team.

I got the ping for this message as I was setting up the character 😄 I'm curious to see how it will go as well furthermore as I'm setting it up as a poor man's Blaster instead of a Controller. I didn't even pick the mass immobilize and only have the mass hold more as a mule than with real intentions of using it. I'm not sure how useful I will feel just plinking at things in single target, no AoE. My previous character was a Soldier of Arachnos also full team oriented. Both Leadership pools before 20, etc. It had decent AoE (could almost kill a +1 spawn by itself by popping Build-Up first) but the ST was super light. Still, doing large amounts of AoE damage quickly dropped the numbers of enemies. Plinking at mobs one by one isn't as fun to me (I like my Tankers who reach level 15-ish and are already at 0x8. Lots of enemies around me is the best). I believe I may have an easier time surviving (and no endurance woes) the way I'm going, but on the other hand with no AoE unlike you have mobs are going to survive longer. But I don't intend to solo with it so it's moot. As the powerpicks show it's very team oriented. I do have a free power pick, but unfortunately it means dropping Hover... I do have Mystical Flight to stay out of range in the air blasting away but Hover has no inertia and is easier to control where I go and stop where I want. Losing it for Teleport Target would hurt me. I believe I will try to rely on Wormhole instead though it may mess things a big for the tank if I'm grabbing the pack from under them to dump it somewhere else. But without something to control where Singy goes it's going to be a mess forcing it to move to the mobs instead of staying at the edge of the pack pew pewing and reeling them in.

Well, to be honest anything works in the low levels against +0 or +1. I'm predicting you're not even going x8? No reason not to work. Not saying this with a sneer or mocking, but to adjust expectations. But this is a combo I've been pondering today (which is why I'm over the Dom side of the forums). I tried Controller but got bored. Perhaps more damage will help. But, more importantly, Drain Psyche 😆 I'm thinking of ignoring the psi side of things and rely on Grav's blasting and Impact. By ignoring everything I can pick Spirit Ward, Mystic Flight and Enflame, then Maneuvers, Assault andTactics, all pre level 20. Of course this would be murder on the endurance but, Drain Psyche. At 22 I pick Hover so I can control hoverblasting better without the inertia, at 24 Victory Rush which lets me help my team with endurance at the levels it is needed most (Synapse would fall within Victory Rush's reach at 24 and it is chockful of endurance draining bots, as well as Yin who is also packed with endurance draining). No AoE other than Enflame until 38 and Psychick Shockwave though, and then Psionic Lance will be taken despite not being needed since I have a full rotation with just the Distortion, Lift and Propel, but it's by far the hardest hitting and will animate pretty fast.

Well, thank God we have you to teach us the correct way of doing things. I, for one, welcome out Nightmare Shaman overlord, may he rein over these forums for a thousand years.

Woosh. The answer Linea gave was in context. I said any tank will tank the game and even Scrappers can tank. Linea answered the way we currently are an Empath can do it. Someone asked about the Empath. Linea posted the build.

Claws and MA still neck to neck. One more offense oriented, the other more all rounder.

This isn't WoW. People won't refuse entry because you're not X. We are at a point where even a Scrapper can tank most things so you'll do fine if you pick something you enjoy. Personally, yes, dead things don't hurt back so I'm all for Fire Armor.

I do feel some of the deficiency in the damage might be allayed with /Sonic's -res stacking, including increasing Enflame's damage. Is Singy better damage now it does Impact as well? I don't remember if I had made my Grav before or after this bug fix.

I was just level 21 when I stopped on the MM. I'm so leery on the Controller that I haven't started other than creating it with backstory and costume (most important parts we might agree 😄 ). I'm planning on just slotting Enflame with a full Artillery Bombardment..

I've already done a Grav/Kin in the past, and like most things Controller I did one TF at 50 and my struggling interest waned. Grav has no AoE and despite being the most 'blaster-ish' set it's still Controller damage so whittling things down one by one even on triple damage procs and no slotted recharge. I did a mock-up with an old build and ended with 45% defense to S/L/E, but also 0.15% positive EPS 😄 Way too many toggles... Not gonna lie though, Grav/Sonic looked really pretty in the whole energy theme critter (ignoring the name of the secondary and just looking at the visual effects), but I dunno if I can stomach whittling mobs again. I did want to try Singy's changes though, and Enflame, Spirit Ward, plus Sonic Disruption, plus shield only once in a while, does leave my hands free. Grav is the one set that has no need for Arcane Bolt. It already has two 'blasts' and they can take FF procs. There's also Storm. I've never actually played a Stormie. I'm tempted by Defender to get all the good powers early because otherwise whoop, 35 and 38. I could do a Plant but it's like playing with cheat codes; fun at first but then dull. Whee, lets confuse a whole spawn before it even is agroed, then keep them confused until they die. And it recharges so fast it can be repeated at every spawn. What is 240 seconds recharge? Also started a Ninja/Elec since Elec seems nice to keep ninjas alive, and they kick butt. MMs always worked well in the whole 'let pets run rampant doing 'passive' damage while we focus on buffs and debuffs', and that seemed like I remember through Posi 1 and 2. Demon/Elec might be smarter. Tested Enflame and Spirit Ward. A toggle that needs reapplying seems like the worst of both worlds. It's neither a once-every-two-minutes cast/cost nor a -toggle-and-forget-about-it. Enflame is just basically another damage aura on the tank but that's fine.