Focused Feedback: Storm Blast

[Zeraphia]

I'm going to give a review of the set and a comparison to other blast sets pretty soon before taking someone else's opinions and "running" with it. My initial impression towards this set is that it is niche, but good at what it's trying to be good at. 

[Bellicose]

I gave it another whirl with that Storm/Temporal Blaster. This time I decided to go with the Trapdoor mission. Same settings (+0/x8).  Same basic results.

Storm Cell -> Cat 5 -> Chain Lightning -> Hailstones -> Direct Strike -> Cloudburst. Intensify and Chronos as available.

I am NOT just dropping a "nuke" hoping that takes out the enemies.  I really don't see how I am doing anything other than using the set as intended. 

The damage was sufficient, but underwhelming. The safety I enjoyed is due to slotting and power pools.

As a solo toon, I was aware of the time consumed to set up the attack situation and the payoff was not impressive. 


So, next I tried it on a Defender. I went Storm/Storm.

Same basic set-up in terms of Incarnates and slotting. This time I was S/L/E/R capped and had a global recharge of 170+%. I used Gust instead of Cloudburst this time. You really only need the three ST attacks, and since I was skipping Gale and Snowstorm, I was kind of forced into Gust, Hailstones and O2 boost.

I made one mistake; and that was underestimating the Kb on Lightning Storm. I had a spare slot and should have put a SA Kb->Kd in there.

Storm Cell -> Cat 5 -> Chain Lightning -> Gust -> Hailstones -> Direct Strike with Lightning Storm and Freezing Rain thrown in. Intensify when available.

I tried to slot to control the chaos and keep everyone in the Storm Cell. I mostly succeeded. I considered respecing to include Snowstorm just to slow mobs escape better, but Storm/ is so end hungry, I can't imagine another toggle running. I used Clarion, but probably should have gone Ageless this time. I did crash once because I wasn't paying enough attention.

I was definitely killing more slowly than the Blaster as Storm Cell expired on me a few times before I cleared the Bosses. That's to be expected as this was a Defender. But some of those times, it was just down to the last couple of bosses and I didn't want to recast Storm Cell, so I just relied on the straight damage.

My take away from this second test is a little more clarity on the damage situation. Since this set is so heavily reliant on power interactions, without Storm Cell active it is quite weak. Even understanding what the set is trying to do, I would say a greater percentage of the damage needs to be front-loaded into the powers.

That being said, Storm/Storm was more "fun"; although, I'm not sure I'd want to team with the toon I just played. With all the chaos (i.e. Knockback and scattering the mobs), I think I would have just turned my teams AoE attacks into single target attacks. And that would have made me a bad teammate indeed. Maybe the slow effects and the knockDOWNs could be higher or triggered more frequently.

[Seed22]

2 hours ago, Zeraphia said:

I'm going to give a review of the set and a comparison to other blast sets pretty soon before taking someone else's opinions and "running" with it. My initial impression towards this set is that it is niche, but good at what it's trying to be good at. 

I never take the opinion of anyone here for sets, too subjective.

 

I do know, though, that I've gotta get some ranged def on my storm/rad if I'm hoping to solo AVs easier(solo'd Inferno with a halfway decent build)

[WindDemon21]

3 hours ago, kwsapphire said:

 

To each their own. There is literally no storm in the universe more violent than a Category 5 hurricane*, so the name totally works for me. It may be the Floridian in me, given that storms and hurricanes are more than just abstract concepts down here. 🙂

 

*Unless you count a tornado as "a storm" which I don't, and it appears most meteorologists agree. 

Well there are a crazy amount of storms more powerful that a cat 5 in the UNIVERSE lol

 

And yeah I'm not saying what it MEANS is bad, just that the actual NAME sounds weird for a power heh

[ScarySai]

 

Can't say I agree with claims the damage is weak, I'm sure a properly built cold corruptor could demolish this time, too. This is good for a corruptor.

Edited April 16, 2023 by ScarySai

[ScarySai]

18 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

One thing I noticed while playing is that sometimes things die VERY quickly and sometimes they don't. I really don't have a concrete explanation because I was paying attention to other things at the time. I'm chalking it up to the random nature of the procs and Scourge.

The set's got some RNG to it, but the good rolls get you results.

[Grimm2]

Ran a series of radios at +4/x8, with a very built-out Water/Bio Sentinel. All the bells and whistles, accolades, Musculature radial, 95% slow resist, debuff resist destiny. Council, carnies, Arachnos. There's a KB IO in Storm Cell, entertained the possibility of a FF+recharge in Hailstones, but I don't think I put it in. No epic powers. Avoided judgement powers.

 

I have had trouble making Sentinels that grab my attention, because all they have to do is blast, and a lot of blast sets are boring to me. Storm is not boring! It feels really fun to play, not necessarily the fastest or most DPS, but not too bad in those departments either. 

 

Once the storms are dropped, spamming attacks and watching the havoc is super awesome. I feel like a mini- controller with the knockdown the build was doing. With the endmod from Musculature Radial, and high recharge, bosses were losing endurance enough to affect their attacks. Harrassing a boss is a joy with these powers. There's also a lot of scatter, and cleanup from mobs with a sliver of health left. 

 

Arachnos and Carnies are tough as always, but the chaos worked to my advantage and I could chug through them pretty reliably. 

 

I'm thinking of rebuilding with electric fences instead of Gust, if I do ill update. It's a cool powerset that has a windup time to be at its best, and just because of that it won't upset the current top choices, I think. 

 

+1 to keeping Storm Cell as it is. Agreed that it's basically a neat rain power.

 

 

[MirrorDarkly]

 

As much as I love this set on the Sentinel, a Storm/Fire/Fire blaster may be my favorite thing ever. This was 8/+1, sets but no incarnate or temporary powers (two fights using Cat 5 and one without to see how it goes).  

 

Now I just need to figure out how to get enough defense to solo AVs....

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by MirrorDarkly

[Puma]

13 hours ago, ScarySai said:

 

Can't say I agree with claims the damage is weak, I'm sure a properly built cold corruptor could demolish this time, too. This is good for a corruptor.

I didn't analyze closely, but could  you tell us how much damage was coming from  your storm powers as opposed to your storm blast powers? 

 

 

[Heatstroke]

a few more tests.. 

 

1) MUCH improved Storm Cell graphics.. YES much better.. THANK YOU one thing I hope the devs keep in mind.. many of us started playing CoH almost 20 years ago.. you know what that means.. my EYES are 20 years old.. it helps when I can see what is happening..  I still wish Storm cell worked more like Carrion Creeper, but im getting the hang of casting it.. moving to the next mob.. 

 

Two things I would like to see.. the slow effect has to increase.. its TOO easy for mobs to run away with my storm cell.  Also its " follow " speed is too slow. That should be increased. 

 

2) Chain Lightning changes.. YES thank you much better 

 

3) Cloudburst animation.. much better.. 

 

4) The Snipe attack seems to be more blue in tint now.. I remember it being more yellow before. 

 

5) Some one else stated that Storm lightning attacks maybe should be coded to be a default yellowish white tint instead of the blue we see with most " non Mu based " eletrical attacks and I agree that it would help make the set look different and stand out

 

6) Hail and Gust still need more.. depth. Hail is too " see through " crystal style and really should be more like getting pelted with ice.. not diamonds. Gust needs more depth.. similar to the way Gale has depth for its power. 

 

 

[Laenan]

I ran some missions on a storm/storm corruptor at level 10 with basic SOs, level 30 with basic IOs, and level 50 with tons of set bonuses and IO sets to simulate a high end build. The set is fun to play, but storm cell just isn’t consistently.

 

The first two blasts are solid. I could see skipping one or the other on certain builds if power choices are scarce, but it was nice having both of them.

 

Jetstream was horribly unreliable. I don’t care for the repel effect on the power- I wish it was just knockback and then knockdown in the cell. I didn’t slot any of the Kb->Kd enhancements in the power, so I didn’t test if that helps. I dropped it in the 50 build because I had enough aoe and the inconsistency of KD vs repel wasn’t something I enjoyed.

 

Storm Cell was fine at 50 on a build with enough recharge that I could pretty much call a new one with each group I wanted to. At lower levels, or when I didn’t recast  the storm cell at higher levels, it made the set frustrating to play because I couldn’t get the storm in on the enemy mobs without putting myself in on the enemy mobs. I don’t know what the answer is here- I almost wish the power just worked more like freezing rain, where it doesn’t move, has the effect it has on that patch, and has a reasonable recharge time so you can have it up every or every other group depending on slotting. I don’t think this power’s recharge should be fixed- people willing to invest the influence and time to build it should have a slightly better performance and that’s probably okay. If this power needs to be left as is, maybe making the cell move faster or be more aggressive about moving itself onto enemies might be good. It would also be cool if other players’ storm cells would trigger your storm blast powers added effects, if they don’t already. (My testing was solo)

 

The other powers were fine- category 9 is a little slow to kick off but I actually like the build up it does, it gives the power something unique. 
 

The snipe animation’s really is top notch. I think, as others have suggested, a yellow-white bolt for the lightning powers here might be better to distinguish it from lightning blast a little more visually. 

Overall, the set is an 7/10 for me. Storm Cell is needlessly complex for what it is (a rain-like aoe slow), and I don’t love Jetstream. I feel like the power is okay solo, but on teams, where you don’t want to scatter the mobs across the map, KB might be better so that you could convert that KB to KD? I wouldn’t mind if one of the other blasts switched places with the aim power just to give another blast power a little sooner, due to getting Jetstream and storm cell back to back as powers that have some issues.

[Heatstroke]

8 hours ago, MirrorDarkly said:

 

As much as I love this set on the Sentinel, a Storm/Fire/Fire blaster may be my favorite thing ever. This was 8/+1, sets but no incarnate or temporary powers (two fights using Cat 5 and one without to see how it goes).  

 

Now I just need to figure out how to get enough defense to solo AVs....

 

 

 

 

Thank you.. I know what I'll be making next

[TygerDarkstorm]

2 hours ago, Heatstroke said:

a few more tests.. 

 

1) MUCH improved Storm Cell graphics.. YES much better.. THANK YOU one thing I hope the devs keep in mind.. many of us started playing CoH almost 20 years ago.. you know what that means.. my EYES are 20 years old.. it helps when I can see what is happening..  I still wish Storm cell worked more like Carrion Creeper, but im getting the hang of casting it.. moving to the next mob.. 

 

Two things I would like to see.. the slow effect has to increase.. its TOO easy for mobs to run away with my storm cell.  Also its " follow " speed is too slow. That should be increased. 

 

2) Chain Lightning changes.. YES thank you much better 

 

3) Cloudburst animation.. much better.. 

 

4) The Snipe attack seems to be more blue in tint now.. I remember it being more yellow before. 

 

5) Some one else stated that Storm lightning attacks maybe should be coded to be a default yellowish white tint instead of the blue we see with most " non Mu based " eletrical attacks and I agree that it would help make the set look different and stand out

 

6) Hail and Gust still need more.. depth. Hail is too " see through " crystal style and really should be more like getting pelted with ice.. not diamonds. Gust needs more depth.. similar to the way Gale has depth for its power. 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Laenan said:

I ran some missions on a storm/storm corruptor at level 10 with basic SOs, level 30 with basic IOs, and level 50 with tons of set bonuses and IO sets to simulate a high end build. The set is fun to play, but storm cell just isn’t consistently.

 

The first two blasts are solid. I could see skipping one or the other on certain builds if power choices are scarce, but it was nice having both of them.

 

Jetstream was horribly unreliable. I don’t care for the repel effect on the power- I wish it was just knockback and then knockdown in the cell. I didn’t slot any of the Kb->Kd enhancements in the power, so I didn’t test if that helps. I dropped it in the 50 build because I had enough aoe and the inconsistency of KD vs repel wasn’t something I enjoyed.

 

Storm Cell was fine at 50 on a build with enough recharge that I could pretty much call a new one with each group I wanted to. At lower levels, or when I didn’t recast  the storm cell at higher levels, it made the set frustrating to play because I couldn’t get the storm in on the enemy mobs without putting myself in on the enemy mobs. I don’t know what the answer is here- I almost wish the power just worked more like freezing rain, where it doesn’t move, has the effect it has on that patch, and has a reasonable recharge time so you can have it up every or every other group depending on slotting. I don’t think this power’s recharge should be fixed- people willing to invest the influence and time to build it should have a slightly better performance and that’s probably okay. If this power needs to be left as is, maybe making the cell move faster or be more aggressive about moving itself onto enemies might be good. It would also be cool if other players’ storm cells would trigger your storm blast powers added effects, if they don’t already. (My testing was solo)

 

The other powers were fine- category 9 is a little slow to kick off but I actually like the build up it does, it gives the power something unique. 
 

The snipe animation’s really is top notch. I think, as others have suggested, a yellow-white bolt for the lightning powers here might be better to distinguish it from lightning blast a little more visually. 

Overall, the set is an 7/10 for me. Storm Cell is needlessly complex for what it is (a rain-like aoe slow), and I don’t love Jetstream. I feel like the power is okay solo, but on teams, where you don’t want to scatter the mobs across the map, KB might be better so that you could convert that KB to KD? I wouldn’t mind if one of the other blasts switched places with the aim power just to give another blast power a little sooner, due to getting Jetstream and storm cell back to back as powers that have some issues.

I know I'm repeating myself here, but since folks don't seem to be reading the other posts in here: Storm Cell's "follow" mechanic was added only for flavor and is not considered a core function of the power. If you really need the power to move faster, you need to recast it.

 

I think once more people start playing the set with that in mind, they might find it more enjoyable. Also, while leveling, a recharge SO/IO or two are all that's needed to keep it perma so you can recast it wherever you need it, whenever you need it.

[Lazarillo]

34 minutes ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

Storm Cell's "follow" mechanic was added only for flavor and is not considered a core function of the power. I

Then it needs to be removed and balanced to account for this, because as-is, it's a detriment to the whole set.

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, Lazarillo said:

Then it needs to be removed and balanced to account for this, because as-is, it's a detriment to the whole set.

How is it a "detriment"?

If they removed the ability for it to move I don't think they would be buffing anything else to compensate. The movement is a bonus. It seems to be balanced like any rain power.

The set does NOT "require" Storm Cell to be up at every single moment to be effective. If it goes down for a short time it's not that big a deal, just like if Rain of Fire goes down for a bit it's not a big deal.

[Lazarillo]

9 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

The set does NOT "require" Storm Cell to be up at every single moment to be effective. If it goes down for a short time it's not that big a deal, just like if Rain of Fire goes down for a bit it's not a big deal.

I'm gonna compare it to Ice Storm mostly because Ice Blast is a little closer in terms of performance, but with that in mind, if Ice Storm goes down:

• Frost Breath still doesn't scatter mobs.
• Bitter/Freeze Ray still apply a hold.
• Single target hits still slow targets

This is the critical point.  Storm Blast operates at a handicap without Storm Cell.  If Storm Cell was just a damage power, fine.  But it's not, it's designed as the cornerstone of how every power in the set works.  And when a set is introduced with the concept of centering it around a specific mechanic, and that mechanic can't be used reliably, then that whole set is a failure.

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Lazarillo

[Glorious]

I ran a 1-life Aeon SF to test my shoddily built Storm Blast/FM blaster against a bunch of annoying bosses, EBs and AVs.

 

Final thoughts:

- Direct Strike is glorious!

- It's very fun once everything is set up properly and the procs start going off

- The lack of a proper nuke makes it hard(er) to play aggressively

- Will probably feel slow on most teams

- Looks like it might suit Corruptors better than Blasters

 

Spoiler

 

 

[ScarySai]

I would personally like it if combat flags could be utilized to have a freshly summoned c5/Storm Cell fire off an initial volley of procs if the caster is in combat at the time of summoning.

 

It would be a very minor, but nice way to help it feel impactful while you're setting things up.

[kwsapphire]

On 4/8/2023 at 2:39 PM, Luminara said:

But to address the point you were hoping to make, I have a few counterpoints.  One, on that Archery sentinel, Aim's cycle time is 25.91s, so it's going to be back up ~16s after it drops.  Losing a couple of seconds of Intensify on a similarly built character wouldn't bother me at all.  Two, Intensify increases the probability of interaction between Storm Cell and Category 5 (20% chance IncreaseStormStrength), and anyone with more than a few brain cells is going to be using both Storm Cell and Cat5 together once they're both available, so why not use Intensify first?  Three, Intensify's +Damage is 25%.  That piddling amount isn't enough to lose a femtosecond's sleep over.  The 50% +ToHit is absolutely meaningless because of the clamp, you're still going to go through the same miss/forced hit/miss/forced hit bullshit with or without it.  That only leaves the +Range and 20% chance IncreaseStormStrength to give it any value.  Storm Cell and Cat5 are the only powers which can really benefit from it fully, so why not use it before using those?

 

 

It's my understanding that the increase in chance to proc still requires you to use your blast powers to induce that proc. Therefore if you spend 2 sec each casting Storm Cell and Cat 5, that leaves you with 6 sec to cast a few blast attacks and actually get the benefit. Less if you also want to drop another patch, like Freezing Rain for example. So IMO it would be great if Intensify still worked if you hit it AFTER dropping your patches.

[Frosticus]

1 hour ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

 

I know I'm repeating myself here, but since folks don't seem to be reading the other posts in here: Storm Cell's "follow" mechanic was added only for flavor and is not considered a core function of the power. If you really need the power to move faster, you need to recast it.

 

I think once more people start playing the set with that in mind, they might find it more enjoyable. Also, while leveling, a recharge SO/IO or two are all that's needed to keep it perma so you can recast it wherever you need it, whenever you need it.

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.

 

[ScarySai]

2 minutes ago, kwsapphire said:

So IMO it would be great if Intensify still worked if you hit it AFTER dropping your patches.

It does work like that, the way the blasts are rigged has the power grant come from you, not the cell. So intensify works properly there.

[kwsapphire]

1 minute ago, ScarySai said:

It does work like that, the way the blasts are rigged has the power grant come from you, not the cell. So intensify works properly there.

 

Oh, that's fantastic! Thank you for confirming! I went back through the thread to see if I had missed something but I didn't see anyone say specifically that it does still work if you use it after you drop your patches. I am so relieved, thank you again! 😄 

[Wavicle]

It is a significant damage boosting mechanic. As such it requires investment to have it available all the time, just like any other similar mechanic in the game.

[Mark]

The animations are very nice, looking forward to the future of power sets. 👍

[Frosticus]

1 hour ago, kwsapphire said:

 

Oh, that's fantastic! Thank you for confirming! I went back through the thread to see if I had missed something but I didn't see anyone say specifically that it does still work if you use it after you drop your patches. I am so relieved, thank you again! 😄 

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.