Frosticus

On the other hand, from the get go of this feedback thread it was bombarded by a group of players proclaiming that it was a done deal and everything was resolved in the closed beta. That group obviously didn't test Storm Cell/Cat5 in much depth as the issues, weaknesses and bugs present in the power are prominent enough that a few castings of it indicated to me that it needs much deeper analysis. I've got a lot on the burner IRL right now, so I haven't even looked at Cat 5, but I'm hopeful that everything present and being looked at in Storm Cell gets transferred over where applicable.

Feedback on newest version of Storm Cell Range - still too short. Compared to other battle precursors that don't cause aggro like Flash Arrow and Surveillance, it could benefit from 80ft. I'm dangerously close to mobs when I cast this. I guess I could cast it a bit in front of the spawn and it would move over them into the middle? I'm just so used to casting aoes into the middle of spawns to maximize coverage. Animation time - I'd prefer a bit quicker, but given that a handful of zaps makes it a solid DPA power it's total damage to animation can be very very good. End Cost - manageable, but def hurts in the lower levels when you are just getting powerful enough to move at a decent pace with under slotted attacks and toggles. Post uniques and accolades it is barely noticeable (for me), similar to a hasten crash. Back when Voltaic Sentinel was a click (still is for doms) it cost well over 20 end, so in that regard it is pretty good at 15.2 end. Base Accuracy Boost - not looking a gift horse in the mouth. 1.1x helps a bit in low levels when you start turning up to +1, but you still need 80% acc to hit +3s and 120% acc (after ED) to hit +4s. So +4 is still a major weakness for so many storm blast users* I'm leaning toward storm/time corruptor as it can get storm cell to perform well in most any situation. Combat log is hit and miss for reporting high winds activation. I can see the tohit debuff refreshing as it is generally easy to keep it applied if you keep attacking, but often not seeing a tohit roll in the log. If you like damage procs then ice minstrel and impeded swiftness seem to provide the best results. They showed up quite a bit more than superior malice of the corruptor, which I think makes sense given how the power works. You of course need to ensure High Winds hits, so 3 acc/dam HO's, 2 slow procs and a +5 range is what I've been testing lately. I'd add intuition radial as well.

I think you've just taken the lid off of a long persistent issue in the game that normally doesn't matter. Sure if I slot an accurate tohit debuff set into my Umbral Beast it gimps the accuracy on 3 out of 5 of it's powers Similar for carrion creepers if I slot an immobilization set. Or someone slotting accurate healing in their Lich. but in the actual game it is probably very rare for players to experience such unintentional gimping of their powers. Storm Cell, you gimp a major aspect of the power if you choose invention sets. It doesn't matter what set you choose it gimps the other half of the power. I don't know the solution, maybe similar to as suggested: add low probability/value chance of damage, end drain, and knock to High Winds add low probability/value chance of slow and tohit debuff to lightning auras Then it wouldn't matter what set you pick it would enhance the applicable aspect of both powers. I hesitate though because that might make Storm Cell pretty deliciously damage procy if it ends up rolling something like positron chance for energy on lightning attacks and high winds. Alternately, make high winds unenhanceable, but autohit.

Ya, this aspect of the game is super confusing, but usually goes unnoticed because it rarely matters. Slotting Ice Minstrel will not transfer any of those enhancement values to the Lightning Attacks even though the game's enhancement page will probably tell you otherwise. It is a "slow" set and the lightning attacks don't have a slow component, so it is disregarded. @Wavicle is providing an easy solution. High Winds should do minor aoe damage and it would resolve most cases of this issue for people. But if someone did choose to slot Ice Minstrel, or Synapse they'd be shooting themselves in the foot unknowingly. Storm Cell should also accept Accurate Tohit debuff Sets

Ya no, for sure. The bug I was reporting is a display issue in that the game tells you it is enhancing things that is actually isn't. As you say, it persists across other powers in the game like MM's, some troller pets and powers like carrion creepers. I'd argue that the issue is more prevalent in Storm Cell. It is a problem though as you can see in this thread where people are recommending to slot posi blast in the set, but that fails to enhance one of the main attributes of storm cell despite the ingame menu suggesting otherwise. If you want Storm Cell to work properly/well it needs generic IO's or HO's I actually didn't see the bug you saw, as my Posi Blast set seemed to improve both acc and damage of the lightning auras from storm cell as supported in the screen shot with Focused Lightning hitting for ~80 damage (base ~40 vs a pylon w/ 20% res)

Apologies, can't see to screen shot my enhancement screen so enjoy phone photo haha. Posi Ranged AoE damage set 6 slotted in storm cell shows 1.48x acc in High Winds But as you can see from the combat log it is rolling High Winds at base acc of 75% which is equivalent of unenhanced vs even con.

Interesting. I barely saw any lightning vs silver mantis when she went defensive and the ones that fired of course missed. It may have just been a bad run on the actual proc chances of the attacks though. I'll try to retest that aspect.

Bug: Storm Cell - inaccurate enhancement values shown on detailed power screen Slotting a ranged aoe damage set into storm cell shows that it is buffing high winds when you open up the detailed powers on the enhancement screen. In actuality it is NOT enhancing high winds, they are essentially unslotted in contradiction to the screen tip. Example: full posi blast set shows 1.48x acc on all 3 lightning attacks and high winds. In game testing shows High Winds is operating at base acc of 1.0x

Yes. Storm cell sits idle until you attack an enemy. Each attack has a proc chance tagged to it to cause high winds and another to cause lightning. If for instance your gust triggers the lightning proc then storm cell will activate one of the lightning attacks that it has and will hit based on the accuracy of storm cell. So in the end Storm Cell is at best 90.25% chance of hitting because it is dependent upon you succeeding with your attack first* *95% x 95% As with many psuedopets with unrelated attacks you have to be extra careful slotting. Damage set IO's do not enhance unrelated aspects. So a set of Posi in storm cell will give the lightning attacks 48% acc enhancement, but the high winds debuff is essentially unenhanced. I'm leaning toward 3 acc/dam HO's because then the Acc applies to both the lightning damage and the high wind debuff. That leaves me 3 more slots to play with on the power.

Used before - It buffs it. Used after it does nothing to affect Cat 5's performance. Storm cell and cat 5 probably have the lower damage cap normally associated with psuedopets, but I haven't confirmed that myself. edit: Booper has indicated they follow AT modifiers so: Defender Cat 5 lightning at fulcrum damage cap should hit for - 31.15*4 = 124.6 Corruptor Cat 5 lightning at fulcrum damage cap should hit for - 41.7*5 = 208.5 It is a bit confusing, but your personal attacks (gust, hailstones etc) don't govern the damage that the lightning strikes do even though they appear to trigger them. Basically they instruct cat 5/storm cell to use its attacks which are governed by whatever enhancement values/buffs you have in those powers.

Ya I did miss a few other sources of persistent tohit buffing, but I hate to be the bearer of bad news - only overgrowth, farsight, world of pain, and empowering circuit are going to work from a solo perspective. Souldrain (blaster and dark mastery corr/def) is somewhat of an option, but likely won't let you use storm cell from range/undetected as it doesn't last that long. Souldrain could work decently for cat 5 though! Targeting drone buff will drop after 0.5 seconds Focused Acc will drop after 0.5 seconds Tactics will drop after 2 seconds Etc. Defense debuffers are generally fine, except when it matters most because those enemies are basically immune to debuffs.

ya, maybe. But as we know -def has minimal impact on foes that resist def debuffs such as AV's, so not a kin problem at all. Across the 4 AT's with access to storm blast none of the secondaries offer meaningful long duration tohit buffing other than time (farsight) and nature (overgrowth). Bio Armor and Invuln armor buff tohit, but they fade off of storm cell after 1 second. Try it out. It is certainly working as designed, but whether working as intended is a different matter.

As of right now it is questionable if casting storm cell/cat 5 is worthwhile against high defense foes. I just fought silver mantis at lvl 34 (Provost Marchand arc). When she goes defensive I have to hit her with my attacks, which is already challenging and then Storm Cell needs to hit her with its attack, which it struggles with to no avail. 2 lvl 35 Acc IO's slotted in storm cell. Over the whole portion of that fight I barely got any lightning procs to fire outside of intensify's up time and I don't think a single one landed. I dunno, def debuffs don't really work well in those situations because they resist them so much and it is really hard to get meaningful tohit buff on to storm cell/ cat 5. Maybe this is just a limitation of the set, but it is the first time I've felt bummed out playing my storm/kin corruptor.

One potential drawback of cat 5 (and storm cell) is the opportunity cost required to get them to do their damage. An ice corruptor can drop blizzard and then do other things like heal/buff/debuff/run away/use epic attacks etc. But a storm corruptor is required to keep attacking (with storm attacks) if they want those powers to perform well. I believe this was taken in to consideration and is why they can do so much extra damage over their duration if maximized. One of the main advantages of the patch based psuedo pets is the ability to use them effective out of line of sight. Ex. Dropping blizzard from around a corner. This can be important because the aggro that the dot damamge+debuff aoe powers can pull on to a squishy can be difficult to survive compared to the insta kill of something like atomic blast. Cat 5 and storm cell do not afford the player that advantage though because you have to actively pull aggro on to yourself to get them to perform. I'm not sure this was taken in to consideration tbh. I'm not suggesting these characteristics need fixing, just that they exist for this set and are hopefully taken in to account.

Storm Cell: Tempest debuff is auto hit - that's the minor tohit and speed/rech debuff High Winds rolls a tohit and accepts accuracy - that's the more prominent debuff, has base acc = 1.0 Lightning Aura(s) roll a tohit and accept accuracy - base acc = 1.0 I haven't tracked High Winds, but the Lightning aura(s) definitely have issues hitting higher level enemies without significant outside intervention from either def debuffs and/or long lasting tohit buffs cast before Storm Cell. There is no way to slot Storm Cell so that it hits +4's with much consistency for most storm blast combos across all 4 AT's no matter how expensive of an IO build or which incarnates you choose. edit: this is a bit of an exaggeration: 6 lvl 50+5 Acc IO's + Nerve Core Boost puts you at 94% tohit chance vs +4s. If you go higher in the Nerve branch it applies a level shift, so no longer +4s. I also haven't tested but I suspect that slotting ranged aoe damage sets means that High Winds do not get that enhancement buff (ie the acc slotting). But again, I haven't really looked at that part of the power in depth yet, so I could be off in lala land.

Storm/kin/psy Corruptor It is a corruptor set and a pretty good one at that. Kin because fulcrum can buff storm cell for most of its duration if cast before Psy because mass hyp helps set up easy fulcrums and helps compensate for the within aggro range of casting storm cell without any stealth. Dominate (proc'd) fills in the mostly dot single target chain. I think there are better pairings potentially, but it is pretty good.

PSA on storm cell slotting: I'm sure the player base understands psuedopet attacks reasonably well when it comes to powers like shield charge, but long duration psuedopets aren't common enough that I believe most players really get how they operate, or how they operate doesn't really matter because other mechanics in the set mask their shortcomings. You need 98% (after ED) acc slotting IN storm cell if you want the lightning attacks to hit +3's at capped rate. +4's (if you fight them) present a real hurdle for the power. Why? -Psuedopets do not iherent the players global acc (ie set bonuses), or get buffed by tactics/kismet. When buffs expire on you they expire on the psuedopet as well (ie intensify's +tohit). But I don't slot acc in Freezing rain! -it only needs to catch a target with a single tick to work it's magic and it checks every 0.2 sec But my Rain of Fire only has 1 acc slotted and it does fine! -It is a short duration (15 sec) psuedopet that most people pop aim prior to using. The 10 sec buff of aim masks the shortcomming. Plus it spams its attack every 0.2 sec, so even when it misses a bunch most people don't notice. But my Lightning storm from storm summon wrecks! - yes it does! it has 1.4x base acc and storm has freezing rain to drop defenses. But my carrion creepers seem to do more damage if my buddy fulcurm shifts them once they are out killing stuff! - yes carrion creepers summon targetable entities that attack enemies (or you if you get confused). Because they are targetable they can be buffed from player powers like tactics Storm cell is unique in that it is a very long duration psuedopet. The many self buffing sets (blasters, sents, many def and corrs) will potentially see storm cell fall a bit short on performance. Debuffing sets don't have such issues. I'm also guessing no one has tested this power in hardmode content extensively as it will be a wiff-fest without specific powers present.

Short term damage buffs don't work well with Cat 5 or storm cell. When the buff expires on you it expires on those psuedopets as well. Unfortunately, buffs put on you after casting storm cell/cat 5 do not transfer over. Essentially if you use intensify then storm cell you'd get maybe 3 blasts off with higher proc chance and boosted damage, which then cause storm cell to potentially fire off boosted lightning. If you storm cell then intensify you'd get 4-5 blasts off with higher proc chance and boosted damage, which do not cause storm cell to potentially fire off boosted lightning. Your attacks "tease" storm cell into casting its powers. It's powers are governed by the enhancement values you have slotted into storm cell and the buffs you manage to pass on to the power at the time it uses said attack. Long story short you want long duration damage buffs applied prior to casting storm cell. Things like fulcrum shift (45sec) or perhaps best - overgrowth (60 sec and boosts tohit chance of storm cell)* *I'll do a follow up post on why slotting acc into storm cell is paramount. The way the power works isn't entirely unique, but it is the first time the player base will likely have to consider the shortcomings of psuedopet based attacks.

It does, but damage buffs need to be active prior to casting storm cell to benefit the lightning aura power's damage for the duration of said damage buff. You'd likely want to use intensify after storm cell to maximize proc chances on your attacks, but you'd ideally want something like fulcrum shift on you prior to casting it as those damage procs can really add up.

That's all well and good. And if people want to cite that aspect from the closed beta each time it gets brought up that is fine. "Just recast it" is fine too, but the people saying that is a high pre-blast tax aren't wrong either. It costs 15 end, requires you to be very close to the spawn and takes close to 2.5 seconds, every fight that you recast it for because the movement aspect is not intended to be reliable... Likening it to the "rain powers" is not a great comparison imo. Rain attacks (rain of fire/ice storm) aren't hugely popular, but the sets they come from are very powerful even without them, they also recharge faster so they are up every spawn. And Rain debuffs (freezing rain/sleet) blow storm cell out of the water because they benefit the entire team tremendously and recharge way faster, which the common theme is having them up every spawn. Finally while leveling it actually isn't up every spawn solo unless you set it at about x5 spawns (for me at least in the 20-30s on my storm/kin), but that can be very challenging for a leveling squishy. Teams while leveling it either is or isn't, just depends how the team runs. It is a cool set and satisfactorily powerful, but I really think the handwaving away of the concerns over storm cell are not helpful. The sentiment of the set is pretty clear - players will strive to blast while under storm cell because everything about the set encourages that behavior. . Either the devs embrace that and facilitate it, or they don't. As of now it: costs considerable endurance, has a very short range, animates on the slow side, and recharges a bit slow for a frequent recast. It's fine, but it could also be improved a bit for better QoL.

Has anyone put much time into testing how damage procs work in Storm Cell? I've tried it slotted with: Bombardment - aoe damage Explosive strike - knockback Ice Minstrel - slow I believe it is checking the procs when storm cell casts the various lightning aura powers for the AoE and knockback procs 25ft aoe 1-4 targets depending I believe it is checking the slow procs when storm cell casts windspeed. 25ft aoe, 16 targets, checks every 10 seconds and whenever one of your attacks triggers additional windspeed. As the power casts windspeed without any further interaction this means it can draw immediate aggro if one of the slow procs lands I didn't test extensively, but I did see Ice Minstrel trigger a decent amount. I saw enough bombardment that I will consider aoe damage procs and I rarely saw explosive strike (dunno why). Slotting the slow damage procs is definitely worth considering if you don't care about giving up the non-aggro ability of storm cell.

I think it is the same speed as creepers. But you could argue all day that creepers make sense to move fairly slow as they are tunneling through the ground, they creep along (as the name suggests) and are fairly passive until they feed upon a defeated foe. Storm cell's implementation and behavior doesn't make a ton of sense, but the set is still fun and feels powerful in spite of those characteristics. They should add something to the description indicating that storm cell can travel like a light breeze... :)

I think the cast time on storm cell is too long and the range is too short. 1.17 sec and 80ft is going to play a lot better for a power that many users will try to have up on nearly every spawn. The pre-blast tax + backloaded dot damage is extremely underwhelming on any quick moving team. Compared to a previously underwhelming set, a Psy blaster can get out psy nado and psi darts in nearly the same time as you put down storm cell. And then psi wail deletes the spawn before you've even finished casting category 5. So ya, a psy blaster gets out 370 base aoe damage before the first tick of category 5 starts. It is fine to be more solo/slow team focused, but storm blast is currently double punished on teams. I mostly solo, so not a huge issue for me personally.

I've played around with this set a lot more now. I think this set shines brightest on corruptors and sentinels (aside from the laughably short range of storm cell). Corruptors are backloaded damage dealers and the way this set ramps up as the fight goes on + scourge, causes the damage to crescendo in a very satisfying manner. I think I'll play a storm/kinetics/psy Sentinels are hardy enough to not really care that they can't delete half the spawn in the alpha and the synergy between storm cell + category 5 (on the way faster sentinel recharge) is really fun. I tried a storm/em blaster (for boost range as I find storm cells base range too short unless I proceed very cautiously). It wasn't clicking for me because blasters sort of need to be able to kill off part of the spawn immediately and/or have a lot more utility (ie sonic blast, dark blast, or water blast) if they are going to kill slowly. That said, I hope it is very popular because crashless blaster nukes are one of the most detrimental changes made to this game. Cat 5 not deleting entire spawns in the blink of an eye will be great for everyone else wanting to have fun on the team. The set isn't perfect - cloud burst needs more impact. Chain lightning animation leaves a lot to be desired and storm cell could be tweaked to be improved slightly (but unlikely to find a way that satisfies the majority). Aside from that it is fun, visually impressive and extremely thematic.

Personally I like that it can move. Some fights are entirely static kill zones, but some aren't. The movement gives a bit more versatility and helps in some scenarios such as an ambush rounding the corner. However, I want to be more in control of when it moves. People liken this power to carrion creepers, but I see them as fundamentally different in that I unleash the creepers (which fits visually and given how the power functions relative to enemies and enemy defeats), whereas I summon and command the storm cell (which fits visually and how the power interacts based on my actions). I don't expect everyone to see it that way of course. The base rech/duration seems fine to me. It is an attrition set and as such will feel as useful as other attrition sets when playing with front loaded damage dealers.