?/Storm

[hexperfected]

I have read a few of the topics floating around the boards, but am still finding it difficult to select a primary for my Storm Controller. I have literally no experience with controllers and am looking at plant, earth, and gravity in roughly that order. 

 

From experience which pairing gels best with Storm, and is most effective solo while still contributing to a group?

[Nightmarer]

Grav/Storm is awesome, so is Earth/Storm being Plant/Storm on the third spot. Grav helps solo because it is quite an offensive set plus you get one of the funniest powers in game that allows you throwing lamp posts, gargoyles and pool tables to enemies: Propel

 

[Without_Pause]

Soloing for Level 1? Earth will output lower damage. Grav will be fine. Plant will be the stronger of the three. In terms of group play? Any. Really. In the day and ago of teams which seem to blow through tons of content, any. I had a Earth/storm on live. I'm still not sure in the day and age of where I used common IOs how I maintained End at a decent enough level to tolerate it because Storm is an End bar destroyer if you want it to be. But, my freaking word, it is an absolute control beast. I had a team literally knowing whatever they tried to do I could maintain it, see the group splitting three ways. Earth/storm was the build I used as revenge in the 30 Fir Bolg mission in Croatoa. Now that IO sets exists and I have gotten used to doing builds, it is one of the only builds from Live I have been tempted to redo, The argument could be made it has too much control. In the day and age of steamrolling, I can concede seeing the point. Honestly, you could do +4/x8 teams with intentionally having fewer people join and be way more than fine. You will be an absolute control god while doing some damage due to procs. 

 

I have a Plant/storm at 50. I need to get it a build because there's just so little downside to the build as an overall Controller. Storm backed by a solid control/damage set just adds to it. Again, if you are soloing at Level 1, I would deem this to be the better pick. I leveled it using common IOs. I don't recommend that. At least do the typical Stamina/Health IO slotting. 

 

I had a Grav/ta in the 30s. Grav is fine as a Controller set. Wormhole is about the only thing special about it. As a hater of long animations, I find the ridiculously fun but far too damn long animation of Propel not worth taking. 

 

TL; DR. My head says Plant. My heart says Earth.

[hexperfected]

What are the main differences then between Plant and Earth? I recognize earth is loaded with the -def debuffs. Does plant really do that much more damage? Does it just proc better?

[Death2Tyrants]

All three are solid picks for different reasons. It all boils down to expectations.  IMO Out of the box on a spectrum of damage to control:

+ Damage+: Plant/Storm -- Grav/Strom -- Earth Storm : +Control+

 

Plant/Storm will play differently than most other Controller combos available. In terms of out of the box pure AoE destruction it sit high on the list. PROCs and IO sets just make it even more capable. One of my favorite combos available to Controllers. From a damage output standpoint it will spoil your experience with other Controller combos until you can afford IOed PROCed out builds. If you don't care about soloing at higher settings this is a non-factor.

 

Grav/Storm is a pair that will offer strong mob shaping abilities by allowing you to manipulate mob formations and locations. On fast moving teams you wont be able to flex these capabilities. /Storm helps fill in some of Grav/ control gaps which is a plus. Better out of the box ST damage with this combo. Fun combo for pulling out the tactical tricks and is magical in the hands of a very skilled user. Grav/Storm will feel weaker in some regards to control and will require a little bit more of skill to max out the full capability of the combo. The tradeoff you will have a better ST chain without dipping into Ancillary Pools. The pet can be positioned to cluster up mobs too and is essentially a pocket Controller and is fairly tough too.

 

Earth/Storm will be the strongest pairing from a pure control standpoint. With this pair you have lots of strong zone lockdown or deterrence options. /Storm complements Earth/ by boosting DPS a tad if you care about defeating enemies. If you want to deal with multiple mobs by disabling or degrading their ability to attack you and your team this is the way to go. You'll be able to deal with 3 or more mobs if you get overwhelmed. The Earth Pet is pretty tanky too and can off-tank temporarily in a pinch. IMO Earth/Storm is more true to a standard Controller experience.

 

For all three you'll have to deal with end management. Until you can afford recovery IOs, while leveling, an End Redux in key powers will help keep you in the blue; at min recommend one in your AoE Immob.

 

Since it is your first play through I recommend take most power unless you understand the power's effects well. Powers others dislike you may find utility in them  based on your play style. Otherwise all three have a few skip powers so you can work in pool powers to tailor your build to your liking. Earth/Storm is the only one you can pass on Hover since Stalagmites requires you to be on the ground other wise Hover is an asset when deploying Lightning Storm (or Gale if you take it). If you take the /Earth epic Fissure has the same grounded flag.

 

"Herdicaning" can be useful if done in a skillful manner. You can help cluster up mobs into your  or your teammates' effects. Takes some patience to use. Useful as a debuff to if you need to protect your line of squishies. Try it before you skip it if you haven't played /Storm; all three combos benefit from Hurricane's use.

 

Early on Gale is spamable and useful with a KB to KD IO. AoE Immbo and Hover can minimize scatter too but the IO makes a skipable power fairly useful in a standard rotation especially if you pick up the +FF PROC as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 07:52 PM by Death2Tyrants

[tidge]

Plant Control is a little OP because of Seeds of Confusion. Carrion Creepers can also be made very powerful. The latter is a serious "fire-and-forget" type power.

 

I want to add this: A Storm/Storm Defender offers very "Controller-like" play style that will get you all of the "storm" feels. Obviously it depends on slotting, but I accidentally took a level 30 Storm/Storm Defender into a level 30 radio mission solo at x8, and it had no trouble, but it was slow.

 

If you have never played Controllers, there are a few things to be aware of. Damage is quite mediocre. Pets don't really overcome this (they help), except at very small (i.e. default x1) content. Controllers can mitigate this by exploring how %damage can be used successfully in some of the primary/secondary powers. Controls themselves can be a mixed bag, because they are single-target or AoE, and enemy critters may have resistance and/or protection.

 

 

[Psyonico]

Earth is going to be the best from a control standpoint, simply because it has multiple strong AoE controls.

 

Plant is a close second in most content.  Seeds of Confusion is way overpowered against most enemies (note: Nemesis have inherent confuse protection). However, other than seeds your AoE control is a little lacking.  What makes up for this is Carrion Creepers, it's kind of control-y but also does decent damage.

 

I'm not going to comment on Gravity, as it just doesn't jive with me.  I like the looks of it, but I never really get into Gravity controllers.

[Without_Pause]

28 minutes ago, hexperfected said:

What are the main differences then between Plant and Earth? I recognize earth is loaded with the -def debuffs. Does plant really do that much more damage? Does it just proc better?

Seeds does damage via the AoE Confuse. Considering you can even proc it on top of that, and mobs can melt in short order. It has been regarded as Top 3 for damage for some time. Ill and Fire being the others. Something to think about, make a Earth/storm Controller and then a Plant Dom as Seeds can work on bosses with Domination running. You can essentially walk up to any mob and confuse it 'all' with a click.

[hexperfected]

38 minutes ago, tidge said:

Plant Control is a little OP because of Seeds of Confusion. Carrion Creepers can also be made very powerful. The latter is a serious "fire-and-forget" type power.

 

I want to add this: A Storm/Storm Defender offers very "Controller-like" play style that will get you all of the "storm" feels. Obviously it depends on slotting, but I accidentally took a level 30 Storm/Storm Defender into a level 30 radio mission solo at x8, and it had no trouble, but it was slow.

 

If you have never played Controllers, there are a few things to be aware of. Damage is quite mediocre. Pets don't really overcome this (they help), except at very small (i.e. default x1) content. Controllers can mitigate this by exploring how %damage can be used successfully in some of the primary/secondary powers. Controls themselves can be a mixed bag, because they are single-target or AoE, and enemy critters may have resistance and/or protection.

 

 

I did originally consider Storm/Storm, but I usually team with friends who like to just kinda. Smash through content? I had been led to believe that Storm Blast might not be the best for that just because of the mandatory setup with stormcell. How is it in your experience?

[tidge]

31 minutes ago, hexperfected said:

I did originally consider Storm/Storm, but I usually team with friends who like to just kinda. Smash through content? I had been led to believe that Storm Blast might not be the best for that just because of the mandatory setup with stormcell. How is it in your experience?

 

FWIW Storm Cell recharges kinda quick (I only have the Vigilant Assault set 2-slotted: Recharge/%Absorb and Damage/Recharge).

 

My teammates don't seem to care, and it doesn't really affect me. We casually/accidentally(?) got Valet on a +4 Market Crash, I don't know that any of us had Incarnates (I don't recall seeing any Lore pets). As a Defender, there isn't much of an onus to provide most of the damage... debuff and "control" is pretty good by itself. I think my slotting is just fine for damage and -resistance. The one compromise *I* make with my Storm/Storm (on teams) is that I try to limit how much Knockback I'll do. My usually teammates and I are all pretty chill about knockback, but I think it is reasonable to pay attention to what other players are doing.

 

For Blasters, I think Storm Blast gets knocked because it needs the Storm Cell to maximize DPS in ways that other Blaster primaries do not.

[Uun]

17 hours ago, hexperfected said:

I did originally consider Storm/Storm, but I usually team with friends who like to just kinda. Smash through content? I had been led to believe that Storm Blast might not be the best for that just because of the mandatory setup with stormcell. How is it in your experience?

I recently leveled a Storm/Storm corruptor and found it to be insanely fun. It benefits from Scourge due to all the DoT. While the setup with Storm Cell isn't an issue, the set performs best in longer fights because the debuffs and secondary effects build over time. 

[SeraphimKensai]

I have a lvl 50 plant/storm and a lvl 50 grav/storm.

 

Between the two of them the plant/storm is quite a bit more fun to play IMO because it's chaotic high damage fun. The Grav is significantly safer for hard lockdowns, but you lose the glory of Seeds.

 

The only real drawback I think a storm controller faces is endurance. With storm you want to maximize your recharge so you can maximize up times/stacks of carrion, freezing rain, tornado, lightning storms.

 

What I recommend doing is going leviathan as you can get water spout going as well, and get access to hibernate for a quick top off on endurance. Otherwise once you get Aegis, you should be set on End.

[tidge]

53 minutes ago, Uun said:

I recently leveled a Storm/Storm corruptor and found it to be insanely fun. It benefits from Scourge due to all the DoT. While the setup with Storm Cell isn't an issue, the set performs best in longer fights because the debuffs and secondary effects build over time. 

 

Agree. With a Storm/Storm character, the big addition to the weather arsenal is Category Five, which for non-Blasters will chew through x8 spawns relatively quickly (when it is available). The other powers aren't slouches, as they offer good powers for set-slotting and/or %procs. Don't sleep on slotting %-Resistance from the Annihilation set.

 

One piece of advice if you are considering leveraging %damage. Gale can take several %damage pieces, but it has a very low base Accuracy. I ended up slotting this with 2x Accuracy 50+5 IOs, and only two %damage pieces (%Lethal, %Fire) on my final build. I had experimented with boosting both Accuracy and Range on it, but I didn't need extra range because the storm powers work best if you draw enemies towards you. As I wrote above, I don't really sweat the Knockback in large spawns, and usually I have something to followup with if need to do so.

 

There is no real reason to take O2 Boost at level 1, so it is likely your build will have Gale in it at some point. I delayed O2 Boost until level 14 on my Storm/Storm, and have it slotted with just a single Heal IO.

 

If you opt for a Controller, I almost always skip the single-target Hold available at level 1. Single target Holds do offer some options for slotting, but my general attitude is that they are an inferior source of control/damage compared to what else you could do with the slots and power choice. If one of my builds has a T1/T2 single-target hold, it is usually because:

• I wanted a set bonus from a Fold enhancement set (4xBasilisk's Gaze, or 3xGaldiator's Net)
• I have a strategy to try to get stacking holds on some single-targets (combined with another Hold)
• There is no other option for damage for the character, so I might accuracy + %damage in a ST Hold.