Thoughts on Gale, yes Gale.

[Argentae]

I think I owe someone an apology on slotting of Gale, or another fast recharge AOE.  I dug back through my posts, but the activity stream doesn't go back far enough. 😞 I was focused on the effectiveness of an AOE attack chain with /Dark(?) and dissed slotting a fast recharge AOE power because of the much greater chance to proc of long rech powers. I apologize for not trying it personally first. And not thinking through the impact of KB -KD + FF +Rech. Spamming Gale does have the opportunity cost of NOT doing other AOE attacks, but it's really good at filling gaps in the chain, and at only 7.8 end it's cheaper to use than Cryo (ST hold)!

I frequently make a habit of specifically spending some time on the way up with powers that have a bad reputation, or are thought of as less than useful to see what can be done with creative slotting and procs. It's fun. 🙂

 

I tried dropping a KB -> KD and FF +Rech in Gale, because, well, why not? I added 4 damage procs because it was already dang useful, so again, why not?

 

Test spawns: +1/+2 X8 Warriors, no bosses in Talos between about 25th and 29th level.

Against a large spawn, even abysmally low proc rates happen fairly often. So, as a test on the way up with CrystalStorm (Ars/Storm) over the weekend (mid 20s leveling wise) I started slotting Gale with KB -> KD, FF + Rech, and 4 damage procs.

Cloaking Device and Combat jumping active.

I clump up the spawn first with a Snow Storm pull into Nitro patch while I bounce around the corner.
Tricannon is a great benefit here, as it follows and starts shooting close mobs while I'm setting the Snow Storm anchor, grabbing most of the near aggro.

Drop Freezing Rain in the center of the spawn after they are clumped, and then Smoke Cannister in the same spot. 
Everything is almost immediately confused and flopping. 

Step out from corner and hit the spawn with Gale. Almost always get a FF +100 rech buff. and while the damage procs rarely show up in floating damage numbers, one or more procs often enough to do pretty dang good damage for the 7.8 end cost. Pretty much the whole spawn fish flops too, which is both amusing and pretty effective mitigation while drastically reducing spawn spread esp with Snow Storm on. 
Flash Bang loaded up with Acc, Annihilation -Res, and 4 damage procs is next, followed with Tornado (KB -> KD) and Sleep Grenade. Then another Gale or three. 

 

I need to run the combat logs through a parser (Carnifax has one IIRC?), because it's hard to monitor for the FF +Rech buff while fighting, but manually scrolling back through the combat logs the procs are firing often enough to be dang useful. And the rech bonus of using Gale regularly with FF +Rech slotted is subjectively quite noticeable.
 

I'll try this evening with bosses on, but the clear speed is excellent before Tornado has any meaningful damage slotting, and without even having  Lightning Storm yet.

 

The -def in Freezing Rain is such a godsend for loading up procs in AOE powers at lower levels. 🙂

Controller CrystalStorm 30s (Arsenal Control - Storm Summoning).mbd

Edited May 20 by Argentae
Various typos and

[Argentae]

Forgot to add I was surprised to find Snow Storm can’t be slotted for range. 
I always slot it for endred, but have been doing a lot of pulls with Darkest Night recently and was thinking about how much better it is with some +range slotted.

 

Snow Storm + Freezing Rain pretty much  floors the mob’s recharge, which combined with Smoke Canister’s confuse and Tricannon’s tanking, is really quite effective mitigation so far. Will see how that translates to tougher spawns later on.

 

I do think  -Rech doesn’t get enough credit as a mitigation for builds that stack layers of mitigation. -Rech and KB are two things that /Storm does very well. 
 

/Storm is also extremely good at positioning control, which meshes well with Ars/ patches focus.

[tidge]

On 5/20/2024 at 11:26 AM, Argentae said:

Step out from corner and hit the spawn with Gale. Almost always get a FF +100 rech buff. and while the damage procs rarely show up in floating damage numbers, one or more procs often enough to do pretty dang good damage for the 7.8 end cost.

 

I'm going to do some experimentation with Gale (on a Defender). I want to say this: Gale has an inherently low Accuracy (0.9 base) which will be working against the %damage chances. I plan to slot the power with Accuracy,  The inherent recharge rate is quick, so %damage won't be great, but with the large number of targets it ought to wash out. I haven't settled on my build, but I suspect I'm probably just going to have a 50+5 Accuracy piece in it... possibly a boosted Accuracy/Range, but I am leery of the lowish base Accuracy against +N critters.

 

Sidebar: There is some evidence (based on code reviews) that beyond the %proc chances (based on radius, recharge time, etc) for a power, the %proc which can affect enemies require an additional ToHiT check based only on the accuracy of the power being used.... so personal global Accuracy or ToHit bonuses don't apply. I believe this is implemented to prevent AutoHit powers from guaranteeing damage (such as Taunts). %+Recharge almost certainly does not need a second ToHit check against individual critters, as it doesn't apply to them.

[roleki]

Don't slot Gale for damage.  Give it a FF+Rech and a KB:KD and spam the hell out of it.  

[arcane]

3 slotted Gale (Acc, KB->KD, FF) is a nice little power that I just don’t have room to slot anymore.
 

Most of my Storms now only take 5 powers (including O2 Boost muling Preventive Medicine but otherwise not in my tray).

 

After Mist/Rain/Nado/LS get slotted I just save everything else for my other powerset or pools.

 

Agree with others that damage or -res procs in Gale is a waste of slots.

Edited July 15 by arcane

[StrikerFox]

KB2KD for sure. Also slot Dsync Guidance/Microvillus Exposure. They will improve Gale's acc and range. Also 2 slot Positron's Blast (dam/range and acc/dam/end) and 2 slot Annihilation (acc/dam/end and -res proc) if the endurance bump is needed.

[tidge]

Circling back: I ended up slotting Gale with 2x Accuracy IO at 50+5, and two %proc pieces. I alternate between 2x %Damage or  %Damage + %-Resistance, I swap into the %-Resistance for my AoE when on teams.

 

Storm/Storm offers multiple AoE powers that can accept the %-Resistance from Annihilation and/or Achilles' Heel, so when teaming I like having those in multiple powers to extend the time of applied -Resistance as a force multiplier.

[Argentae]

On the way up, Gale with +Acc, KB -> KD, FF +rech, and 3 Dmg procs is surprisingly effective, esp till you get enough effective AOE attacks to fill a chain.

In the final build I tend to remove the Dmg procs as I need the slots elsewhere, and I have more than sufficient global +Acc to render slotting for it redundant, so it's 2 slotted: KB -> KD + FF +Rech and spam it as roleki mentioned. Knocking the entire spawn on their butt is quite useful as a quick fire mitigation and triggering the +100 Recharge from FF makes quite a noticeable difference. 

In any case, it's far from the throwaway power than many assume it is. 🙂