Storm Chasing: how are you building so far?

[Crysis]

19 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Thanks for this. Storm/Dark sounds fun. Theory wise, how do you think Storm/Time 

 

 

 

Should be solid.  TJ begs to get you into melee range so you might want to focus on Melee DEF softcap.  Farsight helps there as does the -TOHIT from TJ.  You have plenty of patron pool choices, although I’d still likely look at /Dark epic for Soul Drain.

[WindDemon21]

3 hours ago, Crysis said:

 

 

 

Should be solid.  TJ begs to get you into melee range so you might want to focus on Melee DEF softcap.  Farsight helps there as does the -TOHIT from TJ.  You have plenty of patron pool choices, although I’d still likely look at /Dark epic for Soul Drain.

You also don't need TJ at all with powerboosted farsight and a good build either, especially with storm. It's a great combo, honestly i'd probably say the best to pair with storm, and thematically it make sense if you think about all the storms around any type of time travel mechanic.

[WindDemon21]

Ugh I swear if chain misses an entire mob again cause it misses the first target, or misses most of it cause it misses the second etc, it wouldn't be as bad if it ACTUALLY had better recharge, end, and damage stats, but it literally has WORSE than any other ranged aoe power's stats it's SO DUMB. Seriously devs just make it a regular ranged aoe...

[WindDemon21]

Seriously for how it works, and it's use, if they don't make it a standard ranged aoe, and keep it's chain/damage nature, they it REALLY should have like a .5s cast time, like 10 second recharge, and cost like 8 end, cause for it's current damage and how it works where it can completely miss a mob (or starts chaining in one direction completely missing a whole half of the mob even though they were literally like 2ft from the target I attacked as I just witnessed), this is a HUGE issue and one of the main reasons why storm is so subpar on aoe.

 

Edit: Like it would be SO dumb for them to ignore how poor storm cell works too, but they can NOT justify how terrible chain lightning is, this needs fixed asap.

Edited May 6, 2023 by WindDemon21

[WindDemon21]

I also remembered my dream i had, that i LITERALLY thought was changed on beta and then changed back, cause cloudburst didn't have that dumb whirly-water animation, it had the same animation as chain lightning, the quick one handed flick, and the cloud would instantly appear over the enemies head, it was awesome, but GOD is it's current "get to the target" slow, and that animation sucks.

 

Also, for it to literally not have ANY secondary effect too unless there is storm cell is also total BS, same with gust, they should still have an effect that should just be stronger in storm cell, not nothing at all. God how did the devs f* up this set so badly ugh.

Edited May 7, 2023 by WindDemon21

[Frosticus]

19 hours ago, WindDemon21 said:

Ugh I swear if chain misses an entire mob again cause it misses the first target, or misses most of it cause it misses the second etc, it wouldn't be as bad if it ACTUALLY had better recharge, end, and damage stats, but it literally has WORSE than any other ranged aoe power's stats it's SO DUMB. Seriously devs just make it a regular ranged aoe...

I'm not a fan of how chain powers are currently implemented, of which chain lightning is one of the more egregious offenders due to it being a taoe that "most" people will want to take for "reliable" aoe damage.

 

That said I like the chain idea of it. I'd have made it a 5 target aoe that chains out from each of them. I'd have used flags so that while it can potentially chain back onto a target a couple times it would do so for greatly reduced damage on each subsequent jump that hits the same target repeatedly.

 

In effect you'd have a whole spawn "crackling" with lightning jumps for a few seconds as it bounces around from the original 5 targets initially hit.

 

That would have made it a more reliable aoe damage source, way cooler, and still promoted the chain mechanic* and further enforced the dot damage aspect of the set.

*I'd also do this for envenom/weaken from poison, albeit with a slower spread rate because you ain't getting 16 targets into an 8ft aoe lol. 

 

Must be a reason these chain powers start as single target though. Maybe they can't set flags quickly enough to prevent issues, so each jump needs a specific delay?

[WindDemon21]

19 hours ago, Frosticus said:

I'm not a fan of how chain powers are currently implemented, of which chain lightning is one of the more egregious offenders due to it being a taoe that "most" people will want to take for "reliable" aoe damage.

 

That said I like the chain idea of it. I'd have made it a 5 target aoe that chains out from each of them. I'd have used flags so that while it can potentially chain back onto a target a couple times it would do so for greatly reduced damage on each subsequent jump that hits the same target repeatedly.

 

In effect you'd have a whole spawn "crackling" with lightning jumps for a few seconds as it bounces around from the original 5 targets initially hit.

 

That would have made it a more reliable aoe damage source, way cooler, and still promoted the chain mechanic* and further enforced the dot damage aspect of the set.

*I'd also do this for envenom/weaken from poison, albeit with a slower spread rate because you ain't getting 16 targets into an 8ft aoe lol. 

 

Must be a reason these chain powers start as single target though. Maybe they can't set flags quickly enough to prevent issues, so each jump needs a specific delay?

Right, like thematically the chain makes at least enough sense. But the BIG issue, is that this should be taken into account, ESPECIALLY with the chains doing LESS and LESS damage per target hit, averaging only about 60% of what a normal ranged aoe would do. This is the main problem with chain, while it's base nature IS an issue how it works, also making procs pointless, but it SHOULD have WAY better stats than a standard aoe, but instead it literally has worse, damage, end cost, and recharge, are all worse than any other ranged aoe, which on TOP of it's chain issue and non-procability, makes it bad in just literally every regard.

 

What they NEEDED to do, before this even went live, was account for this, and the power should have a much lower end cost and recharge time so that you can spam it more (which also makes sense for proccing the cell/c5 procs). IE it's recharge should have been like 8-10 seconds, 8 end cost, and damage should have stayed the same. On top of this, like all other chains too, it should take ranged damage sets, not ranged aoe, like literally any other chain power does.

 

But even more so, the power should really just be a regular ranged aoe attack that would guarantee hit all targets in the area for the same damage, and would actually let procs work in the power too. The animation can still be the same, but just direct outward from the main target, exactly like refractor beam on sentinels does, and it would still look exactly right.

 

(and regarding poison, no, that whole set in general just needs the TA treatment, including just a simple increase of the aoe radius for envenom/weaken, and make the larger debuff be the aoe, not the smaller one, that has been super dumb since forever. Neurotoxic breath also really need to be a big area ranged aoe debuff, not a dumb cone which you can't even use in melee anyway which the set bascially needs you to be for poison trap and venemous gas, it also needs it's duration increased personally, but if they'd at least fix it to be the taoe, and GRAVELY cut down it's cast time to one second (same with envenom/weaken), then that would help, as well as allowing it to actually/finally take hold sets as well and probably re-proc like a targetted location choking cloud really, but this is all another thread)

[WindDemon21]

Likewise for category 5 for how little it actually does on it's own it should also have a much lower end cost, and should have a shorter recharge too really.

[WindDemon21]

There is SO much potential in this set but the devs cut it off by it's balls on almost every power, and fixing those/these things we mentioned still woudln't OP the set, it would just let it actually work properly.

 

Cell every time i see it keeps bugging me too, especiallty when using the powers and not being able to use gust really cause the proc chances are lower, the powers should all definitely have 100% chance to proc (even if that meant the lockouts stayed) It at least would mean regardless you could use your other non-storm powers in between cell/c5 procings, I think the 5 second lockout on c5 also feels like way too long, especially for a nuke, and that should be cut down to maybe 2.5-3 seconds, even if the damage on the strikes was lowered a little.

 

So all in all to fix the set:

 

1: No question needing fixed: Fix chain lighting, make it a standard ranged aoe, or it's stats need shaved gravely, down to like 8s rech and 8end cost with the same damage, and take ranged sets instead of ranged aoe sets.

 

2: Fix storm cell, make all powers 100% chance to proc, even keeping the lockout this is probably the biggest thing outside of still boosting it's base acc more. Even also, if the lockout would be removed this would make more sense so you know attacks aren't being wasted to proc it, especially the lower ones. Regarding the lockout, it should still be lower at like 2 seconds, I think one of them is, and the other is 4s lockout? But should be lower, if not removed completely since this also means it's limited more by the cast times on the powers anyway, but also means you can still get good effect out of the power when you're needing to use your other set's powers in between. The power itself should also have a much lower, close to nothing end cost since it doesn't really do anything on it's own, like 2-5 end max, and it's cast time should be lowered to 1s.

 

It seems like the power should also come with some -fly as well, if not in the main area of effect which might seem a bit much, but at least on the procs at least high winds if not both procs.

 

These are the biggest issues with storm blast currently and should no question be fixed.

 

3. Fix cloudburst. It still takes so long to cast and actually even get to the target ,but then it's still slower DOT even when it gets to the target, it's HORRIBLE, and extra annoying cause you still basically need it to try and proc cell and c5, it just feels awful. It's also terrible in that it has ZERO secondary effect on it's own without storm cell. No other pri/sec attacks in the game deal with this having zero effect on their own. IT should be the same effect of it in storm cell, just lower like 75% if not in storm cell. Cast summon should be the same as chain lightning or something similar, and the cloud should instantly appear over the targets head. DoT is still fine if these things are fixed, though I think it'd also make sense for the power to do knockdown as well cause they're slipping from the rain like freezing rain.

 

4. Category 5, knock back should be lower but i won't fight that, but the lockouts should be much shorter even if the damage on each strike is lower, like 2.5-3s not 5s for the lockout. It should also move at the same rate of storm cell.

 

5. Jet stream, there should be 2 radii for this power to help with the issues on the repel, especially when it's hitting targets PAST the storm cell and actually pushing they AWAY from it. So there would be the cone for the damage which would have the flag for KD if they're in storm cell, then another overlapping cone for the repel, which would have a shorter distance of like 25ft so it wouldn't repel enemies past the cell.

 

6. Gust and hailstones are pretty much fine, as is direct strike. I think the only thing i'd fix between the three is normalizing gust to 1s cast time instead of 1.17 so it's in line with the other blast tier 1s, and maybe give it another effect like minor -speed rather than just the -fly which is most of the time useless.

 

Edit, forgot to add intensify, that should be a longer duration buff, given that all attacks should do 100% proc chances for cell and c5, that would be removed, and it's damage boost can even be lower, but should be longer duration so that it actually works with cell and c5 too. Something similar to a low damage rage, like 15% to hit, 20% damage, 120s rech, 60s duration.

Edited May 8, 2023 by WindDemon21

[Sovera]

On 5/7/2023 at 12:26 AM, WindDemon21 said:

Ugh I swear if chain misses an entire mob again cause it misses the first target, or misses most of it cause it misses the second etc, it wouldn't be as bad if it ACTUALLY had better recharge, end, and damage stats, but it literally has WORSE than any other ranged aoe power's stats it's SO DUMB. Seriously devs just make it a regular ranged aoe...

 

The power needs Ion's coding. No one pops Ion and goes 'shit, it missed that first target'.

[WindDemon21]

26 minutes ago, Sovera said:

 

The power needs Ion's coding. No one pops Ion and goes 'shit, it missed that first target'.

That also denotes, which it REALLY should, due to ion having a much larger jump chain distance too, 15ft is not good enough.

[Crysis]

1 hour ago, WindDemon21 said:

That also denotes, which it REALLY should, due to ion having a much larger jump chain distance too, 15ft is not good enough.

 

Look I’m all for fixing this mess, but I think handing all of a T4 Incarnate’s Judgement power stats to Chain is a bit overkill.

 

That said, this is a meme/theme set only.  Nothing wrong with that really, but players should be forewarned that the set is a first release and maybe only release.  You get what you get.  Don’t overinvest in the set as it’s not going to give you much in the way of returns.

[WindDemon21]

17 hours ago, Crysis said:

 

Look I’m all for fixing this mess, but I think handing all of a T4 Incarnate’s Judgement power stats to Chain is a bit overkill.

 

That said, this is a meme/theme set only.  Nothing wrong with that really, but players should be forewarned that the set is a first release and maybe only release.  You get what you get.  Don’t overinvest in the set as it’s not going to give you much in the way of returns.

I never said it should have all of its stats be the same as judgement, I was only referring to it's jump distance on that line you quoted. It DOES HEAVILY need other adjustments too though as I've mentioned how its beyond the bottom of the barrel for damage, rech, end, etc.

[Black_Assassin]

Having spent some time with my storm² the other night and actually firing off powers to check what they were doing...holy balls chain lightning is poopoo. I have mine slotted with a set of Posi blast and a extra damage proc (i was trigger happy on my respec and put 6 slots in) and it just does no damage. I was on a citadel, and hitting a bobby basic council spawn with the chain doing like 40 damage or something ridiculously low. 

I then joined a lvl 50 doing a classic Dreck map. Here I got to the point that I mentioned to the team that I felt completely useless outside of my ability to drop freezing rain and -res proc'd 'nado to help the team kill faster. Otherwise my shit just didn't come online till the spawn was wiped apart from the Tank Smashers. 

 

We got to the final Dreck fight and he was looking mighty juicy. 3 spawns of stuff to just set up and wipe out. Then an AV sized sack of HP to finally sink my teeth into! Unfortunately I faceplanted as 1 tank isn't enough to manage 3 spawns of aggro and ended up sitting out at least 50% of the fight until someone barrier rezzed me. 

 

I think this toon might just be relegated to a for fun only and have a lowered budget. Unless the devs throw some love our way and give us the storm calling that we all know this set should achieve. 

 

Also I defo more into the lightning and zapping people side more than the wind and clouds side. Or at least as the animations are at the moment. Especially because Cat5 and the wind summons it produces feels like more than enough wind based stuff.

 

[Sovera]

This sort of talk would probably be best over either the Suggestion forums or the Gold Standard discord and then beep Booper instead of railing lost in the Corruptor forums

 

But you guys do need to not see things in a vacuum. Chain Lightning may suck (well, there is no 'may' involved) but the set has Storm Cell and Cat 5 helping with the AoE damage. Tests like Trapdoor or whatever comparing performance have more weight instead of directly comparing powers.

 

 

My own change for Chain Lightning: Windball (like fireball, geddit?), same coding as fireball, but animation is a mini Hurricane (smaller radius, fast swirling FX expanding from point of impact and then shrinking back to nothingness). Damage a bit lower than fireball since its secondary effect would be an implosion effect stolen from Axe Cyclone helping mobs stay inside the two ground effects we put down.

[Bionic_Flea]

1 hour ago, Sovera said:

My own change for Chain Lightning: Windball

 

I love the suggestion but would call it Dust Devil!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_devil

[WindDemon21]

2 hours ago, Sovera said:

This sort of talk would probably be best over either the Suggestion forums or the Gold Standard discord and then beep Booper instead of railing lost in the Corruptor forums

 

But you guys do need to not see things in a vacuum. Chain Lightning may suck (well, there is no 'may' involved) but the set has Storm Cell and Cat 5 helping with the AoE damage. Tests like Trapdoor or whatever comparing performance have more weight instead of directly comparing powers.

 

 

My own change for Chain Lightning: Windball (like fireball, geddit?), same coding as fireball, but animation is a mini Hurricane (smaller radius, fast swirling FX expanding from point of impact and then shrinking back to nothingness). Damage a bit lower than fireball since its secondary effect would be an implosion effect stolen from Axe Cyclone helping mobs stay inside the two ground effects we put down.

We, or at least I am not regarding it though. Given the issues with cell proccing, jet stream without cell etc. The issues on itself are already there just simply due to the chain nature, but it's another issue that is persistent, very noticeably on end cost, but with the way it interacts too.

 

While fine with the chain issue and un-procability, it's still a chain, which all others also get less end/rech stats than their aoe counterparts, and ESPECIALLY looking at the set as a whole, it should be a power that with the way it works, should have a shorter end/rech time so it's being used more spam-like for the cell and c5 proccing's. Using "the set as a whole" this is one of the main issues WITH the set that we're describing, especially without cell, but even with it and c5.

[Sovera]

5 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

We, or at least I am not regarding it though. Given the issues with cell proccing, jet stream without cell etc. The issues on itself are already there just simply due to the chain nature, but it's another issue that is persistent, very noticeably on end cost, but with the way it interacts too.

 

While fine with the chain issue and un-procability, it's still a chain, which all others also get less end/rech stats than their aoe counterparts, and ESPECIALLY looking at the set as a whole, it should be a power that with the way it works, should have a shorter end/rech time so it's being used more spam-like for the cell and c5 proccing's. Using "the set as a whole" this is one of the main issues WITH the set that we're describing, especially without cell, but even with it and c5.

 

You're preaching to the choir, Windy, I'm not the one in need of convincing (Windball/Dust Devil, lezzzz gooo!). But I'm saying the devs always look at a set in it's globality and not in a per power basis.

[WindDemon21]

1 minute ago, Sovera said:

 

You're preaching to the choir, Windy, I'm not the one in need of convincing (Windball/Dust Devil, lezzzz gooo!). But I'm saying the devs always look at a set in it's globality and not in a per power basis.

ah yeah lol, and i mean, i'd like windball/DD too, but maybe drop cloudburst for it? If chain would get fixed to the lower end/rech, it would work like a proper chain where you could kinda use it as a single target attack too so we could get rid of cloudburst lol.

 

But fixing chain's end/rech stats, and making the attacks proc 100% rate for cell/c5 i think would fix most of the problems (thus also fixing where the lockout could knowingly let you use other non-storm powers in between storm attacks without losing that cell/c5 proccing tax) and lowering the end cost on cell/c5 since they don't do as much on their own cast. I think the lockouts would be fine enough if the attacks procced properly, and wouldn't feel as cornered in to having to take cloudburst for proccing then too.

[Sovera]

1 minute ago, WindDemon21 said:

ah yeah lol, and i mean, i'd like windball/DD too, but maybe drop cloudburst for it? If chain would get fixed to the lower end/rech, it would work like a proper chain where you could kinda use it as a single target attack too so we could get rid of cloudburst lol.

 

But fixing chain's end/rech stats, and making the attacks proc 100% rate for cell/c5 i think would fix most of the problems (thus also fixing where the lockout could knowingly let you use other non-storm powers in between storm attacks without losing that cell/c5 proccing tax) and lowering the end cost on cell/c5 since they don't do as much on their own cast. I think the lockouts would be fine enough if the attacks procced properly, and wouldn't feel as cornered in to having to take cloudburst for proccing then too.

 

Cloudburst is good damage though. You say 'instead of Cloudburst' as if we were rich in ST attacks, but without Cloudburst we would be using the T1.

[WindDemon21]

2 minutes ago, Sovera said:

 

Cloudburst is good damage though. You say 'instead of Cloudburst' as if we were rich in ST attacks, but without Cloudburst we would be using the T1.

No I mean fixing chain's end/rech, but still keeping it to work as a chain which validates the much lower end/rech/damage stats versus a regular aoe, would let you use chain in it's place as a ST attack, it would be a little less damage than cloud to a ST but that would be the tradeoff. Cloud is decent damage but it's HORRIBLE with that animation, a big part the time it takes the cloud to reach the target, and then it still takes a few seconds for the DOT to hit. It also has zero special effect without storm cell, so like when there is only a boss or two left and cell dropped off, it's not worth casting cell for just them, but then it also has ZERO secondary effect to help it out either. It's just a terrible power.

[Zep]

On 4/27/2023 at 7:58 AM, Player-1 said:

 

Your powers will get Storm Cell bonuses as long as they target enemies that are inside of a Storm Cell. However, only your Storm Cell will proc High Wind and Lightning from your Powers.

Question(s) please:

1) Do the Storm Cell Bonuses stack for multiple Cells?

2) Does this apply to Cat 5 as well, stacking or non stacking bonuses but no procs?

[Doomguide2005]

12 hours ago, Zep said:

Question(s) please:

1) Do the Storm Cell Bonuses stack for multiple Cells?

2) Does this apply to Cat 5 as well, stacking or non stacking bonuses but no procs?

I think at least part of your question was answered on page 1 of this thread.

[Zep]

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

I think at least part of your question was answered on page 1 of this thread.

You would be so kind as to say where?

[Doomguide2005]

17 minutes ago, Zep said:

You would be so kind as to say where?

Unless I'm misunderstanding the question(s) Player-1, the Developer, answers at least part of your post.  Also CoD lists it as stacking both from the caster as well as in general near as I can tell.