Storm/Stone? Bad or just unused?

[Speed Freak]

Went looking for an example Storm/Stone Sent and to my surprise found nothing. Is it bad, incompatible or just not played for some other reason? If anyone does have a build I'd appreciate looking at it. Thanks in advance.

[FupDup]

Storm is a weird set, almost like a blast version of Traps. By that I mean that it's a slow-moving, area-denial kind of set that works best when it has time to set up (protecting or attacking static positions) but can fall behind on fast moving teams. It has times when it shines but also times when it...doesn't. Another issue is that it's a bit "clicky" due to resummoning both Storm Cell and Cat 5 frequently. 

[Frosticus]

I have doubts that brimstone gives any bonus damage to storm cell or cat 5. Probably doesn't work on the chain jumps of chain lighting either. 

 

So that would be disappointing.

 

I have an elec/stone, if that ticks any of the boxes you are seeking and it works quite well. 

[Doc Spectre]

I have taken a Storm blast/Dark armour sent and a Storm blast/Martial blaster to fifty and I found I preferred playing the sentinel. 
 

I think storm blast is quite suited to being up ‘in the thick of it’. That is my impression anyway.

I don’t see why Storm/Stone would not work, should be sturdy enough to hang around the fringes of melee.

If you wanted some other suggestions I might consider SR, Electric armour or any other set that has a recharge enhancing passive for faster recharging zapping.

[Doc Spectre]

Now that I think about it I did take an Electric blast/Stone armour sentinel to 50 and that combo is very tanky and blasty.

The character theme was being made of magnetic rock.

 

If you want to do Storm/Stone I think you should go for it. Brimstone armour should buff Lightning Strike and your other single target attacks which is the stuff that really matters. The AoE attacks don’t have to have optimal damage to get the job done.

 

It’s sounds like you would be a rarity ‘a high-powered mutant of some kind, never considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die’ 😉

[Wimbochismo]

I've got a Storm/Energy and I vastly prefer Storm on Sent's. It's already mentioned a lot, but to break it down - Storm has setup time with Storm Cell (2.24s arcanacast) and/or Cat5 (2.64s arcanacast). Then there is the fishing for procs by utilizing mostly Storm powers. That turns into 5-6.5 seconds before your aoe truly comes online. Other Blast nukes hit in 2-3s. Ideally if possible you want to be out in front of a team so that you can start setting up. In terms of action economy and survivability, for those reason's I believe Storm is ideal on Sentinels. 

 

I don't mean to say it isn't great on Blaster/Def/Cor, there's just too many other things to dip into. A Blaster will probably be taking utility and higher dpa single target and aoe attacks from their secondary. This slightly detracts from Storm's need to be mostly using Storm powers to generate aoe. The support side for Def/Cor means you'll be buffing/debuffing/healing which will delay your aoe coming online by an additional 1.5-however many seconds. By that point if your team is high dps, most things will be dead.

 

The Armor power's also typically make you natively sturdy and enhance recharge and recovery which allows for even more proc slotting in attacks. For example, you can make a single target attack rotation from Hailstone - Lightning - Cloudburst. Hailstone is lower dpa than the others but it has an 8s recharge and can take 3 dmg procs to elevate it.

 

A couple things to note about Stone Armor, though. If you go for the typical 45 in every defense + perma Hasten, it has a fire/cold defense hole to work around. If you utilize Winter sets then it can be covered up, they just lack dmg procs and recharge bonuses. Even with the hole, the solid f/c resistance and high max hp should carry you with inspirations in a pinch.

[Speed Freak]

Thanks for your replies folks. Now that I know it's workeable I just have to figure out a build 😝

[VashNKnives]

It is one of my favorites at vet level 39 currently. I don't really feel the need to heavily add resists b/c of barrier core, but I could see wanting some more debuff resist and maybe a bit more defense to push it closer to the Inc soft cap for energy and S/L even with barrier. Remember you have tohit debuffs in Storm that help so hitting exactly the soft caps would be a bit overkill since you'll have layered protection and not be expected to tank for anything big. This build has done a master of hard mode TF and strolls through the +4x8 Peregrine and DA missions. The only thing I wish they would change is whatever triggers the Geode to de-toggle early. Here is my build if you want to use it as a start:

Spoiler

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Edited November 3 by VashNKnives

[Speed Freak]

1 hour ago, VashNKnives said:

Here is my build if you want to use it as a start

Thank you very much, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

[Sovera]

I had/leveled one and it blitzed through stuff. I found at higher level without dedicating incarnates (Ageless/Cardiac) to it that the endurance bar could not keep up. But I am not sure that I would take it over Bio (on numbers alone) as the damage boost of Brimstone comes from the proc which is almost assuredly not working with the pseudo-pets, where Offensive Adaption's raw 25% damage boost should (don't quote me though) even if not its damage proc itself.

 

Now, Stone is hardier than Stone if we just look at the defensive numbers, but, one thing not mentioned in this thread is that Storm makes a character pretty tanky as it has many debuffs and soft CCs. This means I could and did build the Sentinel to just 33% defense (on the Bio) and it was enough to breeze through as the Storm debuffs kept me safe and if things got heated then a single small inspiration would put it up to 45%.

 

The real pudding test was playing in a DA arc, Artemis Knives as enemies, as a fresh level 50 with no incarnates, and fighting them as true +4. And they were harmless even as true +4, even at 33% defense, without even having to use inspirations.

 

So with that said and Stone being hardier I think it will do just fine

[lemming]

Put me down to preferring Storm on Sentinels.    I have a Storm/Dark that just hovers in the midst of everything while stuff melts.  It's not the fastest, but it works.

[VashNKnives]

3 hours ago, Sovera said:

I had/leveled one and it blitzed through stuff. I found at higher level without dedicating incarnates (Ageless/Cardiac) to it that the endurance bar could not keep up.

This is definitely a thing and I believe in a previous build I tried tough/weave, but even leveraging geode as a recovery tool it was rough when I also wanted to run snowstorm.  Further, I really wanted more options for incarnates since you can swap those around. So... I dropped the fighting pool this time and I still rarely use geode or geas of the kind ones to get blue bar - Mu parties anyone?.... I am also too stubborn to drop snowstorm or admit that I have too many attacks🙂