Storm Blast is terrible

[Uun]

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/45-suggestions-amp-feedback/

[Captain Fabulous]

2 hours ago, arcane said:

Only real problem with the set is Category Five taking way too long to do what nukes need to do. 
 

Its single target damage is fine/good. Its AoE damage would be fine/good if it didn’t have the new worst nuke in the game.

Cat 5 isn't a nuke.

[Glorificus]

So this Blast set lacks a nuke.

Which sets it apart from all the other Blast sets.

Something that people expecting to play a Blaster-type of set should be cognizant of for their builds.

 

Overall, the set could definitely use some tweaks and buffs.  Reducing the endurance costs and activation times of Storm Cell and making the lightning procs do way more damage would be a good start.  Cat5 and Chain Lightning are so bad that they're practically skippable, except for the fact that they can be good mules for set bonuses.  Travel time of Cloud Burst is almost as long as Psi Blast's... should be instantaneous like Hailstorm. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

1 hour ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Cat 5 isn't a nuke.

 

 

Just as well or your internet wouldn't ever work!

[biostem]

I got a storm/ninjitsu sentinel to 50 and well IO'd out.  It's a fun set, and can do good damage given the right setup and circumstances.  That being said, the added complexity of needing to get enemies into your storm cell or category five is just more work than the subsequent return.  I love lightning strike, and some of the other powers are quite fun, but compared to many of my other 50 sentinels, it's simply extra work for not enough of an extra reward...

[Captain Fabulous]

46 minutes ago, Glorificus said:

So this Blast set lacks a nuke.

Which sets it apart from all the other Blast sets.

Something that people expecting to play a Blaster-type of set should be cognizant of for their builds.

There are quite a few Blast sets that don't have nukes, including Archery, Assault Rifle, Dual Pistols, Ice, and Water.

[Captain Fabulous]

49 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

Just as well or your internet wouldn't ever work!

 

[momentarygrace]

2 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

 

 

 

 

[FupDup]

It's not terrible by any means. When the stars align, like during large clusterducks of enemies in a KMITF, it can kick more ass than any other blast set. Basically any time you have a continuously-refilling mob of baddies, particularly with some kind of taunt/mezz allies to keep them clustered, is when it shines the brightest. And Lightning Strike/Direct Strike has straight-up the best animation in the game. 

 

Unfortunately, the stars aren't gonna always align. That's when the set feels like it makes you jump through more hoops than it's worth. This is so far the only blast set where I felt obligated to take an immobile power from epic pools to try to keep baddies in place. On some enemies this works pretty well, but on others they just run/fly away immediately no matter how many times I stack the immob on them (5-slotted with a purple set). And the setup times can be a problem on some steamroller teams if you don't make sure to always run ahead of the pack. 

 

But all in all, it's not trash or terrible. It could use some polish but there are quite a few worse sets in the game that should come first (like badsword). 

Edited June 2, 2023 by FupDup

[Mjolnerd]

It's almost as if the whole point of having different powersets is for them to be good at different things.

 

What a strange design philosophy.

[biostem]

14 minutes ago, Mjolnerd said:

It's almost as if the whole point of having different powersets is for them to be good at different things.

 

What a strange design philosophy.

I wholeheartedly agree, but at the same time, an important question to consider is to what extent should powersets fall in line with the game's meta, where teams move quickly from group to group, and sets that require extensive setup ahead of time, underperform as a result.  I don't want to see all sets made homogenous, but I at least want to see things like setup time given a little more attention.

[Clave Dark 5]

9 hours ago, Nyghtmaire said:

The meta is boring. Rather, it’s a known quantity; building for it is rather straightforward (mainly because so many players have crunches the numbers, run the comparisons, collected the data, tested the hypothesis, etc. etc etc. and shared here and on Discord).
 

And really, it’s rare anyone needs to build that way. And it sure ain’t to run Council radios in PI. One tricked-out character renders the remainder of the team superfluous - that ain’t a storm/ thing, it’s a “clever use of building and game mechanics” thing.

Hear hear! 

 

Also, am I now going to have get used to "meta" being misused, like "impact", because people couldn't learn the proper use of "affect/effect" or something???

[Mjolnerd]

4 minutes ago, biostem said:

I wholeheartedly agree, but at the same time, an important question to consider is to what extent should powersets fall in line with the game's meta, where teams move quickly from group to group, and sets that require extensive setup ahead of time, underperform as a result.  I don't want to see all sets made homogenous, but I at least want to see things like setup time given a little more attention.

 

It's a consideration, absolutely, but the meta goes both ways. If slower-moving powersets like Storm Blast or Traps become more popular, that could shift the meta away from the current Zerg-rush, "no play, only kill" mentality.

[Captain Fabulous]

51 minutes ago, biostem said:

I wholeheartedly agree, but at the same time, an important question to consider is to what extent should powersets fall in line with the game's meta, where teams move quickly from group to group, and sets that require extensive setup ahead of time, underperform as a result.  I don't want to see all sets made homogenous, but I at least want to see things like setup time given a little more attention.

It also depends upon how much of the playerbase actually plays this way. We don't know the statistics but I bet the devs do. If it turns out that only 10% of active players are hardcore then it makes no sense to build sets around a niche meta. The live devs made a point of using SO builds as a balancing baseline because they knew that was what the majority of players had easy access to and used.

[biostem]

7 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

It also depends upon how much of the playerbase actually plays this way. We don't know the statistics but I bet the devs do. If it turns out that only 10% of active players are hardcore then it makes no sense to build sets around a niche meta. The live devs made a point of using SO builds as a balancing baseline because they knew that was what the majority of players had easy access to and used.

Well, it doesn't have to be super tied to the meta, but for instance, making it really really obvious where the borders are of your storm cell and which enemies are impacted, was asked for again and again. 

[Captain Fabulous]

1 minute ago, biostem said:

Well, it doesn't have to be super tied to the meta, but for instance, making it really really obvious where the borders are of your storm cell and which enemies are impacted, was asked for again and again. 

As much as I've tried to forget the shitshow that was the beta Storm Blast thread, IIRC the VFX was reworked to do just that. If you're finding it's still not noticeable enough I suggest using a brighter color, as that seems to make it pop more.

[biostem]

Just now, Captain Fabulous said:

As much as I've tried to forget the shitshow that was the beta Storm Blast thread, IIRC the VFX was reworked to do just that. If you're finding it's still not noticeable enough I suggest using a brighter color, as that seems to make it pop more.

Tried that, to no significant effect.  Still, I agree with your sentiment about the storm beta thread.  

[Lusiphur Malache]

My little storm/kin corrupter was struggling because I didn't know what I was doing much of the time and wasn't paying good attention.  Then I got direct strike and noticed that I could see my storm cell on the minimap.  That changed everything for me, still don't have a good grasp of how to slot anything, but that is par for the course with me.  I'm really liking storm blast mostly for how good it looks, not the damage it does.

[High_Beam]

Once you learn how to play it, it is actually quite fun and not underpowered.

[momentarygrace]

I'm fascinated by my new storm/storm alt. Since I haven't read any forum threads discussing Storm Blast, beta or otherwise, I was surprised and amazed that the storm cell is a sentient pet! More intelligent than some MM pets, imho *_*

 

[Parabola]

I've not played a huge amount of storm blast yet but so far my one disappointment has been that the slow in storm cell doesn't seem to amount to much. If it was better at keeping the enemy within itself it would improve the feel of the set no end imo.

[UltraAlt]

On 6/2/2023 at 12:21 AM, LynnD said:

I am lvl 50+

 

I don't know what it is like in the end-game.

I don't play the end-game.

 

In the actual game, storm blast seems to be OP.

[UltraAlt]

On 6/2/2023 at 3:58 PM, Glorificus said:

So this Blast set lacks a nuke.

Which sets it apart from all the other Blast sets.

 

You mean like, different from Blizzard (the nuke) in Ice Blast?

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Ice_Blast#Blizzard

 

Ice blast was one of the original blaster sets.

 

Cat 5 works pretty much the same way that Blizzard does.

 

[laudwic]

On 6/2/2023 at 8:33 PM, biostem said:

I wholeheartedly agree, but at the same time, an important question to consider is to what extent should powersets fall in line with the game's meta, where teams move quickly from group to group, and sets that require extensive setup ahead of time, underperform as a result.  I don't want to see all sets made homogenous, but I at least want to see things like setup time given a little more attention.

 

So you play a little differently, my Storm/Devices/Munitions Blaster has now hit 50, I was part of a lvl 50 pick up mission team last night.  I don't know the settings but the spawns were large and I'm guessing +2 or +3 (I don't have any incarnate level shifts.)  When the group was nearly done with one set, I would run to the next, hit them with Smoke Grenade and Storm Cell before dropping Catagory 5 in there.  At that point, my blaster took the alpha from the enemies (generally wasn't hit due to the to-hit debuffs) and quickly taking down other enemies as the rest of the team was running up.   At no point did I feel I wasn't contributing and, the times I ran ahead, I felt I was increasing our efficiency.

 

The stacking of to-hit debuffs from Smoke Grenade, Storm Cell, and even first tier Diamagnetic Interface Incarnate is great.  I have knockback to knockdown in Category Five (I don't bother with it in Jet Stream as Storm Cell does that for you a the Force Feedback Proc is great)  Watching bosses accuracy drop in real time using Surveillance is great.

 

My Trick Arrow/Storm Defender easily drops enemies chances to hit to below 10% with very little effort with Trick Arrow -> Storm Cell and blast away (or Category Five and blast away) I set up a channel in chat just to monitor the to-hit of attacks for the occasional laugh. 

 

The set is fine, even on fast paced teams. 

 

Also, if we alter everything based on a steamroller meta, the vast majority of Controllers, Dominators, and Defenders would generally need a total reworking.

 

[arcane]

On 6/2/2023 at 1:44 PM, Captain Fabulous said:

Cat 5 isn't a nuke.

Yes it is. 

 

55 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

Cat 5 works pretty much the same way that Blizzard does.

 

No it doesn’t.