Storm Summoning Questions

[High_Beam]

Hi, so I have started a Storm Summoning/Water Blast Defender and have spent a good part of the day reading peoples various posts and their links to some good external material.  So I have some general questions that I cannot seem to find a concrete answer on.  I am primarily focused on solo work with this character.

 

1. Are there powers or power synergies that don't work well when not on the ground?  I know Seismic has some restrictions like this.

 

2.  Airborne Storm - So when solo and airborne using Hover, does the KB of Hurricane become KD to ground-bound targets of normal type (Minion/Lieutenant) or just outright ineffective.  I have to assume I wont be able to herd and corner as well if at all but I cant really find any statement to that effect.

 

3.  Outside of the additional mobility aspect, should I even bother with Hover and instead use something like Combat Jumping for the minor defense and increased mobility?

 

4.  I am not Wind Wench

 

Thanks in advance

 

High Beam (Still Bitter Someone Else is Using Her Name)

Formerly of the Babes of War on Freedom Now on Excelsior

[Psylenz0511]

12 hours ago, High_Beam said:

Hi, so I have started a Storm Summoning/Water Blast Defender and have spent a good part of the day reading peoples various posts and their links to some good external material.  So I have some general questions that I cannot seem to find a concrete answer on.  I am primarily focused on solo work with this character.

 

1. Are there powers or power synergies that don't work well when not on the ground?  I know Seismic has some restrictions like this.

 

2.  Airborne Storm - So when solo and airborne using Hover, does the KB of Hurricane become KD to ground-bound targets of normal type (Minion/Lieutenant) or just outright ineffective.  I have to assume I wont be able to herd and corner as well if at all but I cant really find any statement to that effect.

 

3.  Outside of the additional mobility aspect, should I even bother with Hover and instead use something like Combat Jumping for the minor defense and increased mobility?

 

4.  I am not Wind Wench

 

Thanks in advance

 

High Beam (Still Bitter Someone Else is Using Her Name)

Formerly of the Babes of War on Freedom Now on Excelsior

 

I consider my storm/water my co-main along with my electric affinity/water defender. I really do like water blast.

 

I am focused mainly on grouping with my defenders as I consider defenders to be force multiplier for groups. Some of my COH friends may even refer to me as a task force wh#re. I will pug it up with anyone. I might complain  about it later, but I do stick it out.

 

Hurricane definitely works better for my stormies on the ground. My first stormer on live took the combat jump/Super Jump/Acrobat combo for the status resistances in combat jump and acrobatics. I find a lot of kb mitigation in hover on my current storm/water. I use hover primarily for placement of the lightning storm. I also enjoy the  flip effect of kb  on hover as opposed to the getting off the floor after being knocked down by high mag kb. So in short, I do hover, but very low to the ground for the most part.

 

Second, I am sure you are well aware of the repel and knockback separate effects of hurricane. The kb in hurricane is greatly altered from the  pre-enhancement diversification days. In short, NO, hurricane does not become knock down to targets when airborne over their positions. If you look at faraday cage on electric affinity, you can clearly see, it is a sphere. Hurricane depicted as a very flat planar circle around the defender is NOT spherical, (as is steamy mist) but it is not a true planar circle either. Somewhere between your waist where the planar hurricane is visible and your feet (or your head) the hurricane  does not affect targets. 

 

Third, I would definitely go hover over combat jumping, just for lightning storm placement. If you wanted the status protection in combat jump, you could get both, and the enddrain from running both is minimal, plus you get two LotG +recharge mules. Another consideration is the newly revamped teleport pool. Regular teleport gives you some moments after teleporting where you are UNTOUCHABLE. It might not seem like much, but you do get a small jump on the spawn by just teleporting in and hitting the debuffs. This technique actually works better on my rad/rad defenders, but I suggested it since you said you were mostly solo. The limits to your imagination are the four pool sets you can take on your character.

 

4. You are not Wind Wench,, whatever that means.

 

5. I cannot stress enough the wonder of the force feedback +recharge procs in your high chance of KB or KD water powers and storm powers. I would slot forcefeedback +recharge in gale, in your targeted AoE water burst and definitely in tornado. More recharge = more stormy goodness = more lightning storms, = moar tornado carnage. Tornado boosts your recharge every time you cast it, which works wonders on getting moar lightning storms, more chaos, MOAR STORM!!!

 

Good luck with your storm/water!

 

 

[High_Beam]

Wind Wench was the Stormy in the Babes of War.

[Onlyasandwich]

On 2/28/2022 at 3:40 PM, High_Beam said:

1. Are there powers or power synergies that don't work well when not on the ground?  I know Seismic has some restrictions like this.

You can freely cast any of your storm powers while flying, though as @Psylenz0511 notes if you're herding with hurricane this is a bit easier close to the ground. However, even this doesn't preclude flight, as you can just hover close to the ground in such situations. Thunderclap is pbaoe so perhaps not ideal if keeping distance, but honestly it's not an awesome power anyhow, and I skip it on all my stormies.

 

On 2/28/2022 at 3:40 PM, High_Beam said:

2.  Airborne Storm - So when solo and airborne using Hover, does the KB of Hurricane become KD to ground-bound targets of normal type (Minion/Lieutenant) or just outright ineffective.  I have to assume I wont be able to herd and corner as well if at all but I cant really find any statement to that effect.

As psy mentioned, going high does not change hurricane KB to KD. It does however allow you to basically change lightning storm knockback to knockdown, or knock in corner with good positioning. The KB effect of Hurricane is really very minor, and I wouldn't worry about it at all. You will get the occasional stray bounce out, but it happens with fairly low frequency, and you have other positioning powers to keep things managed in situations where you might actually use Hurricane. If you are on a team that doesn't need the tohit debuff, consider turning it off if controllers or tankers have positioning under control.

On 2/28/2022 at 3:40 PM, High_Beam said:

3.  Outside of the additional mobility aspect, should I even bother with Hover and instead use something like Combat Jumping for the minor defense and increased mobility?

100% hover is great on a stormy. Of course you can pick up CJ as well for the immob prot and extra cheap defense. You don't want to rely on Fly for in-combat maneuvering both because it's heavily suppressed and also for the end cost.

 

On 2/28/2022 at 3:40 PM, High_Beam said:

4.  I am not Wind Wench

I'm not convinced - this is exactly what a Wind Wench would say.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Onlyasandwich

[High_Beam]

14 hours ago, Onlyasandwich said:

100% hover is great on a stormy. Of course you can pick up CJ as well for the immob prot and extra cheap defense. You don't want to rely on Fly for in-combat maneuvering both because it's heavily suppressed and also for the end cost.

 

Years of Hover-Blasting on Freedom taught me that lesson.  Thank you for the information though it has helped.