Storm Blast needs help, bad.

[lemming]

Another person who has played my storm blast mostly on teams.  Some were steamrollers, some not.  On my sentinel, I was able to get storm cell nearly on every group and cat5 wasn't far behind.   It's a fun set that does middle tier damage and tends to mess up the enemy quite a bit.

[wjrasmussen]

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I play Storm Blast to have fun blasting enemies with storm sowers. Not to be the fastest, or the bestest, or the most-damagest.

 

And yes, I've mostly played Storm Blast on teams.

 

We move as fast or as slow as we want and sometimes Storm Cell can't keep up and I just throw it out again, or not. I don't care if it takes me 1.87 seconds longer to defeat a group of enemies or not. For me, the purpose of playing this game is to have fun, not to engage is some kind of competitive event.

 

It's been a lot of fun. If your complaint is that it doesn't do as much damage as Fire Blast then maybe go play Fire Blast?

Playing to have fun, is that allowed.  But seriously, I love having fun and at 140 alts, I think am I not too serious about endgame.

[Zect]

On 6/8/2023 at 3:19 PM, DangerKitty said:

I didn't decide this quickly, nor easily. And I bent over backwards to study the mechanics, and look for ways to make it work well. And I don't dislike underdog or off-meta sets at all. Almost every set has ways to shine. And I like to find it. And I have like 10,000 hours in official/homecoming combined, know mids like the back of my hand, in many versions. Actually I have several versions of it installed because there's a few features which are nicer on  some of the older iterations (for certain uses). And I love my character, conceptually and visually.

 

Lots of whining, little substance. If you can point to specific problems, sure, but I see no substantiative arguments from you (or any of the people agreeing with you). It's a poor smith that blames their tools.

 

I personally think it's less that storm blast needs help, and more that other sets need nerfs (especially all the top-dps ones).

Edited June 17, 2023 by Zect

[Captain Fabulous]

I've said this before in other threads and it's worth repeating -- if a team is already steamrolling thru mobs you don't need to pull every trick out of your bag. If critters are dead before you can cast Storm Cell, then you don't need to be using it. It's not going to contribute in any meaningful way. So why wring your hands about it?

It's not all that dissimilar to debuff sets. If you're on a fast-moving team there's no need to drop every debuff you have. You put out the fastest/most effective one and move on. It doesn't mean sets like Trick Arrow are ineffective or broken. 

[DoctorDitko]

7 hours ago, Zect said:

I personally think it's less that storm blast needs help, and more that other sets need nerfs (especially all the top-dps ones).

 

Is that you, Jack?

[Seed22]

On 6/16/2023 at 8:11 PM, Zect said:

 

Lots of whining, little substance. If you can point to specific problems, sure, but I see no substantiative arguments from you (or any of the people agreeing with you). It's a poor smith that blames their tools.

 

I personally think it's less that storm blast needs help, and more that other sets need nerfs (especially all the top-dps ones).

Hoo boy. Wild take, not great either

Edited June 19, 2023 by Seed22

[Ice Ember]

The more I think about it, Storm Cell should be a toggle.  And the to hit debuff should be able to be enhanced.  Cat 5 still wont be a nuke like every other blast set. 

 

 

[Captain Fabulous]

On 6/20/2023 at 5:13 AM, Ice Ember said:

Cat 5 still wont be a nuke like every other blast set. 

 

Not all Blast sets have nukes.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Captain Fabulous

[honoroit]

On 6/20/2023 at 5:13 AM, Ice Ember said:

The more I think about it, Storm Cell should be a toggle.  And the to hit debuff should be able to be enhanced.  Cat 5 still wont be a nuke like every other blast set. 

 

 

would ut work if it was like 'faraday cage'?

[Ice Ember]

On 6/22/2023 at 12:52 AM, Captain Fabulous said:

 

Not all Blast sets have nukes.

 

Rain of Arrows and Full auto are more useful than Cat 5.

 

Blizzard is awesome. Except for not getting full use of BU/Aim for the full duration. Still much better than Cat 5.

[Ice Ember]

On 6/22/2023 at 4:42 AM, honoroit said:

would ut work if it was like 'faraday cage'?

The set up is irritating for the added damage.  On defenders and corruptors it is not a bad set because damage is secondary to the buff/debuff set.  When I am dropping Freezing Rain or Radiation Infection first, then the set up power to finally drop and attack,  the attack being meh is alright. 

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, Ice Ember said:

 

Rain of Arrows and Full auto are more useful than Cat 5.

 

Blizzard is awesome. Except for not getting full use of BU/Aim for the full duration. Still much better than Cat 5.

You're welcome to your opinion, even if it's wrong. Cat 5 is great.

[Bionic_Flea]

9 hours ago, Ice Ember said:

When I am dropping Freezing Rain or Radiation Infection first, then the set up power to finally drop and attack,  the attack being meh is alright. 

 

You might want to try dropping Storm Cell first.  It does not aggro at all (unless they see you, but that's you not the power).

[Ice Ember]

5 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

 

You might want to try dropping Storm Cell first.  It does not aggro at all (unless they see you, but that's you not the power).

solo, sure.  in a team... the real powers get used first.  I know storm cell doesnt aggro.  unless you drop a second one on the same group. 

[VashNKnives]

My blaster plays very well at +4x8. The only group that gives it trouble is the PPD Kheldians (specifically that one mission in DA)... but that is cascade failure.

 

Storm/Ninja

View This Build In MRB

Edited June 28, 2023 by VashNKnives

[Hjarki]

On 6/26/2023 at 10:54 PM, Ice Ember said:

Blizzard is awesome. Except for not getting full use of BU/Aim for the full duration. Still much better than Cat 5.

I believe the way it works is that the pseudopet copies your +damage modifiers when it is created and those +damage modifiers are retained for the life of the psuedopet. If it worked the way you suggest, then you could activate Blizzard and then Build Up/Aim after the Blizzard has started to provide a bonus to Blizzard damage.

[Ice Ember]

On 6/27/2023 at 10:11 PM, Hjarki said:

I believe the way it works is that the pseudopet copies your +damage modifiers when it is created and those +damage modifiers are retained for the life of the psuedopet. If it worked the way you suggest, then you could activate Blizzard and then Build Up/Aim after the Blizzard has started to provide a bonus to Blizzard damage.

you only get the bonus for the length of the bonus and you have to activate BU or Aim before the activation of Blizzard. 

[The Bagman]

Overall I like the feel of this set and enjoy playing it. I have two minor quibbles:

 

1. Cloudburst's slow cast time and slow time to get to the target are a bit of a pain. Most of the time the target is dead before it lands. Maybe reduce the cast animation time slightly and get rid of the travel time to get to the target. 

 

2 Storm Cell is ok, but is slow to follow so you end up recasting it again and again. If it followed you a bit more closely or worked like a pet it might be better.

 

That said I really enjoy the set...it's fun to play with and I found the AOE pretty devastating, though it takes a little while to "brew up", meaning that in larger teams it probably isn't great.

 

LOVE the look of Direct Strike 🙂

[kelika2]

I been trying it and not liking Storm Cell being so slow.  The group is already dead by the time it catches up or you cant AoE very much because of the Repel effect on Jet

Would be better if Direct Strike or Cloudburst summoned it to your targeted enemy.

[Captain Fabulous]

47 minutes ago, kelika2 said:

I been trying it and not liking Storm Cell being so slow.  The group is already dead by the time it catches up or you cant AoE very much because of the Repel effect on Jet

Would be better if Direct Strike or Cloudburst summoned it to your targeted enemy.

If groups are dying that quickly then you don't need Storm Cell active. You can also recast it, you don't have to wait for it to catch up with you.

[lemming]

15 hours ago, kelika2 said:

I been trying it and not liking Storm Cell being so slow.  The group is already dead by the time it catches up or you cant AoE very much because of the Repel effect on Jet

Would be better if Direct Strike or Cloudburst summoned it to your targeted enemy.

Note, Jet doesn't repel inside the Storm Cell

[Heatstroke]

I've been giving it a whirl. Got it to 50. Its not bad.. 

 

Things I would fix. Storm Cell needs to have More Slow, -Fly. It needs to do a better job of keeping people in the area. 

 

Chain Lightning should go away. It should be replaced by a Ball Lighting or Static Discharge type of power. Even Something like the effect of Lightning Rod as a target AoE would be a nice change. 

 

Cloudburst is meh..  takes too long to animate.. I would have loved something more like lightning storm. Or even a Pet like Voltaic Sentinel as a cloud that zaps people.. 

[kelika2]

11 hours ago, lemming said:

Note, Jet doesn't repel inside the Storm Cell

yup.

[pawstruck]

Storm Cell is an excellent mechanic that feels great to have up but isn't intuitive to use. If there was a solution to that, I wouldn't mind the objectively middling damage of the set, just for thematic/aesthetic reasons.

[Hjarki]

8 hours ago, pawstruck said:

Storm Cell is an excellent mechanic that feels great to have up but isn't intuitive to use. If there was a solution to that, I wouldn't mind the objectively middling damage of the set, just for thematic/aesthetic reasons.

When the set was being developed, I suggested the set would be far more fluid and 'fun' if Storm Cell were simply a large radius PBAoE toggle. I still hold that view - if you could just zip around, certain that everyone in your vicinity was in the Storm Cell, it would be a far more effective/enjoyable spec to play.