ZealotOnAStick

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I haven't had time to get on test, but I was wondering what people are reporting about the changes to hurricane. Anyone have any stories?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is as good a place to put this, as any:

I checked in a few Hurricane changes today that QA is going to look at. In Theory, these changes should mean that for PvE, Hurricane acts Exactly as it did before the previous change, while in PvP, it should act exactly as it does currently. Hopefully this change will get a green light from QA -- I've spent quite a bit of time on it over the last few days.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope very much to see this get "green lighted" and happen. I personally give a rat's [censored] about the PvP aspect of the game (yes, even as somsone with both CoV as well as CoH), and things like this that change something fundamental about a core power in a set I dearly love that remove FUN from it due to PvP concerns for PvE play just quite frankly piss me off.

Since we've still not gotten a definite answer on this, and as I've got like 4 copies of ET on the Training Room, and they'll have free respecs to play with, I'll take some time soonish and find out for sure and update the results here.

The next revision of this guide will be done sometime after Issue 3 is live and running stable.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sorry to spoil the fun, guys, but that date is certainly not THE day. It all depends upon the bugs we squash and so forth. He asked "When's Issue 3 coming out?" and I said "Heck, a week? It all depends on the bugs." There's no set schedule, though next Tuesday would be nice.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much what I figured.


Obviously, Thursday is The Day.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never did get the hang of Thursdays . . .

I know. A revision of this guide to reflect the changes of the Power 10, and either inclusion of contact enhancement sales, or a seperate guide for those, are in the works. I'm just very, very busy so when they'll be completed and posted is unknown.

Anyone know if Phase Shift shuts off Steamy Mist as well?

Contact sales of non-Power 10 DOs and SOs is still being worked on. Until it's finalized and correct, I'm not going to even consider how to revise the guide to reflect this. I am working on the Training Room with each patch there to provide feedback on that to help ensure that things happen right.

[ QUOTE ]
Hiya,

I was wondering about that comment on not being able to slot Storm Cloud with Range Enhancements?
Did you mean Storm Cloud no longer accepts Range Enh on the test server?
Because I'm pretty sure mine has a Range Enh SO on it.. and if I do have a range enhancement and issue#2 discontinues the use of Range Enh on me cloud, do you think that slot will be empty after I patch and the update goes live?


[/ QUOTE ]

Since I published the 1.1 update of the guide, they re-added the ability to enhance range on Lightning Storm. It's in my to-do list for a 1.2 update. I'm holding off on that for a bit, because I want to see if any of the powers have changed in behaviour with Issue 2 (primarily the changes to Tornado).

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"CROSS-VERSION BUG FIXES HARD. BIG UPDATES MAYBE GOOD"

-jg

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that you should write all your posts this way. Failing that, make Lord Recluse post that way. Failing that (evil always winning because good is dumb and all), make geko post that way. It'd save him some typos!

In that spirit, "HULK SPEAK GOOD! GEKO TYPOS BAD!!!!"

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, there are quite a few fairly humorous things that come across these boards. I get at least a couple of daily smiles from this community. There's an occasional audible chuckle from me.

But that above made me laugh so hard my throat shut down and I began to choke. It was an interesting accelerated sequence. Not minutes of laughing and stressing my muscles, but a brief, 15 second or so build up and then the clutch siezed and I almost rolled out of my chair.

[ QUOTE ]
So you need to be 27 OR 32 to get the mission from the high level stores?

[/ QUOTE ]

You need to be level 30 to get the mission for all the FF/Brickstown Contact-stores, and level 40 to get Ghost Falcon's mission.

This results in people being able to use enhancements sold by those stores before they can get the mission (Can use L30 SOs at 27).

Hopefully, changes to enhancements sold by contacts in Issue 2 will make this a non-issue.

Gah. Sounds like a boatload of additional work, Scrapulous. I'll consider it, but no promises.

Thanks BeKay. One more inconsistency . . . I guess she counts as a full Freedom Corps store, rather than the GC/AP field trainers.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Most characters in this level range will find Steel Canyon to be the most convenient for shopping.


[/ QUOTE ]
Just a heads up.
For ppl wanting to sell training enhancement, I often find the Freedom Corp npc in Skyway to be the fastest to get to.
She's in the park next to the station along with a trainer and Synapse!

[/ QUOTE ]

She'll pay less than the actual Freedom Corps stores, though. Not a LOT less, but less still (unless this has again recently changed).

[ QUOTE ]
Another anomaly is when you died and have been revived, your enhancement will not work for about 1~2 minutes.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is a BUG that sometimes occurs when characters are defeated. Zoning or relogging will usually fix this.

[ QUOTE ]
Awesome work as usual! The only enhancement-related info I can think of that's not there (unless I missed it) is stuff about what Hamidon drops. I've caught bits and pieces, but a full list (or at least what people have gotten so far) would be cool. Again, great work.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wanna go kill it a few times and collect that information for me?

I don't have the specifics on the Hydra Trial enhancements either.

Part 6: Appendices & Credits


Appendix 1: Revision History
1.0 - First posting

1.1 - Added initial changes for Through the Looking Glass Update, including Ghost Falcon & changes to Serafina. Additional information added on FF and Brickstown contact enhancement stock. Added section on Stacking. Revised selling section. Added information on combining different overlap DOs. Added link to CoH Map Patch site. Revised bulleted sections to hopefully render better in Mozilla-based browsers. Added appendices.

1.2 - Updates for change of image hosting, added information on Ghost Falcon mission, revised section on Penny Preston. Revised section on selling enhancements. Listed both names for recharge reduction/attack speed enhancements in Power 10 section.



Appendix 2: Notes

* Brickstown and Founder's Falls contacts offer DO enhancements (at levels that everyone is pretty much using all SOs) of the two overlap types that correspond with their specialty origin. They all seem to offer the same 6 enhancement types - Accuracy, Damage, Range, Endurance Reduction, Reload Reduction, and Damage Resistance (the old beta "Power 5" plus Damage Resistance).

Known contacts and their DO enhancement types:
<ul type="square">[*]Jenny Firkins, FF - Sci/Mut and Tech/Sci[*]Phillipa Meraux, FF - Tech/Nat and Nat/Magic[*]Neal Kendrick, Brickstown - Tech/Nat and Tech/Sci[/list]
I need the help of other players - next time you hit a higher level (30+) contact, check their store, and see if they sell DO or SO enhancements. If so, if you can take a few moments to note what specific enhancement types they sell, what origin(s), and the contact name and zone, and either respond to this thread or PM me, I'd be most appreciative. With your help the guide can be more accurate and helpful (credit will be given where due, of course).



Appendix 3: Credits and Thanks
Specific thanks to: Katspaws, Weap0nX, incandenza, Massive_Jotun, Mr_IronSamKidd, srmalloy, Stopman01, Meiyen,

Thanks to Curveball for his monumental guide to /bind, which inspired this guide.

Thanks to seretogis and no frills coh for hosting of the images of store locations.

Thanks to Sica Caeca for the original Paragon City Illustrated Shopping Guide for his efforts and screenshots.

Thanks to all the various folks during beta and release who compiled and posted the information used in crafting this guide.



Appendix 4: Reuse and Redistribution
If you find this guide to be of a lot of use and want to reprint it, turn it into a pdf file, a web page, include it in your web site, or whatever, feel free - so long as you credit me for the work put into this guide (Electric Tears, of Synergy on the Freedom Server), and post a link to the forum thread that this guide's original form is in. I'd prefer to be asked if it's ok to use this information elsewhere as a courtesy (and so I can see where it's getting around to), but it's not a requirement. Like I could stop you anyway.

Part 5: Enhancement Drop Info



Drop Levels
<ul type="square">[*] Generics that drop from level 1 to 19 mobs will be Villain Level, VL-1, or VL-2.[*] Generics that drop from level 20 to 29 mobs will be Villain Level, VL+1, or VL-1.[*] Generics that drop from level 30 to 40 mobs will be Villain Level, VL+1, or VL+2.[*] Dual Origins that drop from level 15 to 29 mobs will be Villain Level, VL-1, or VL-2.[*] Dual Origins that drop from level 30 to 40 mobs will be Villain Level, VL+1, or VL-1.[*] Single Origins will always be Villain Level, VL-1 or VL-2.[*] Task Force rewards, Trial rewards, and Archvillain Drops may not fit these critera.[/list]Known Drops by Villain Group
<ul type="square">[*] Training (Generic) Enhancements drop exclusively in levels 1 to 14.
[*] Level 15 to 19 Clockwork have a very rare chance of dropping a Gadget (Tech/Natural).[*] Level 15 to 19 Vahzilok have a very rare chance of dropping a Genetic Alteration (Mutant/Science).[*] Level 15 to 19 Tsoo have a very rare chance of dropping a Focusing Device (Mutant/Magic).[*] All other Level 15 to 19 villains have a very rare chance of dropping any Dual Origin Enhancement
[*] Level 20 to 24 Banished Pantheon occasionally drop a Relic (Magic/Natural).[*] Level 20 to 24 Freakshow occasionally drop a Gadget (Natural/Tech).[*] Level 20 to 24 Sky Raiders occasionally drop an Invention (Tech/Science).[*] Level 20 to 24 Tsoo occasionally drop a Focus (Mutant/Magic).[*] All other Level 20 to 24 occasionally drop any Dual Origin Enhancement.
[*] Level 25 to 29 5th Column occasionally drop a Focus (Mutant/Magic) and a very rare chance of dropping any Single Origin Enhancement.[*] Level 25 to 29 Devouring occasionally drop a Genetic Alteration (Science/Mutant) and a very rare chance of dropping any Single Origin Enhancement.[*] All other Level 25 to 29 are the same as 20 to 24, except for a very rare chance of dropping any Single Origin Enhancement.
[*] Level 30 to 34 Freakshow occasionally drop a Gadget (Tech/Natural) or a Cybernetic (Tech).[*] Level 30 to 40 5th Column occasionally drop a Genetic Alteration (Science/Mutant) or a Secondary Mutation (Mutant).[*] Level 30 to 40 Circle of Thorns occasionally drop a Relic (Natural/Magic) or a Dimensional Entity (Magic).[*] Level 30 to 40 Crey occasionally drop an Invention (Tech/Science) or a Technique (Natural).[*] Level 30 to 40 Devouring Earth occasionally drop a Focus (Mutant/Magic) or an Experiment (Science).[*] Level 30 to 40 Nemesis occasionally drop a Gadget (Tech/Natural) or a Cybernetic (Tech).[/list]Precise drop rates haven't been listed by the devs, but during beta, numbers listed on unformatted patch notes with the above information would seem to indicate that "very rare" is about 1 in 200 chance, "occasionally" ranges from about 1 in 40 chance to 1 in 5 chance, depending on level.

Part 4: High Level Store Mission Info



*** POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING! ***
Do NOT continue reading this post unless you want to know specific information, including tips on how to complete the missions, for the high level Store NPC missions. Some of the information in this post may "spoil" story elements of the game.

Any origin can take and complete the missions (and then use the store) for NPC Stores. You don't have to JUST do your own origin store. If you want to be able to buy from other stores - maybe to help out needy level 27s, or just for the story, or for the mission and bonus XP, whatever, you can.



Penny Preston, Mutant Store NPC
Penny Preston is a cute little mutant girl wearing a Statesman t-shirt, standing on a dock in Founder's Falls.

The Devouring Earth want Penny for some nefarious purposes. She asks you to simply go and kill all the Devouring Earth in some warehouse. The mission is very straightforward - it is a "Defeat All" type mission, and you simply must defeat all the Devouring Earth in the mission instance. If you solo, and don't have some way to resist sleep, stun, and hold effects, you'll probably want to load up on Discipline inspirations from one of your contacts. You'll want to take out the Fungoids and Herders first, and then handle the Bladegrass and Granite mobs after those are out of the way.

Mark IV, Technology Store NPC
Mark IV is an escaped cyborg created by Crey. They did a bit too good a job on him, and he's out and trying to help the heroes of Paragon City, and wants nothing to do with Crey now (rather amusing, as high level Crey mobs spawn with relative frequency yards away from Mark IV). Mark IV is getting nervous about Crey, as they're getting close to finding him, and he wants you to erase the records of his existence from their computers. He gives you a device which he wants you to go attach to one of their mainframes, and it'll do the rest.

Mark IV's mission takes place in the Tech Lab mission tileset, with a bunch of even-level Crey mobs around in various areas. They shouldn't present too much of a problem if you just want to fight your way through and find the glowy computer. However, there's a simpler and faster way to complete the mission (2 or 3 minutes) if you have some form of stealth (Steamy Mist, Stealth, Cloaking Device, Invis) or know someone who does. A stealthed person can simply run or fly around and past all the Crey mobs quickly, bypassing them without having to defeat a single mob to get to the computer and erase Mark IV's records from it.

Agent Six, Natural Store NPC
Agent Six has gotten wind of some sort of plot by Nemesis, and wants your help to get photos of the plans. She gives you a little digital spy camera, and tells you that Nemesis dislikes computers, so the records will probably be in a file cabinet somewhere.

The mission is a warehouse map filled with a bunch of Nemesis, no surprise there. You can either fight through them all, clicking on the various file cabinets (there are several) until you find the right one (usually in the room farthest in, of course) . . . or, you can stealth your way through the mission sneaking around just hitting the glowy file cabinets until you get the one with the plans. This mission, like Mark IV's, can be accomplished solely with stealth, and without defeating a single villain - if you want.

Once you get photos of the plans, Agent Six congratulates you for getting the information without disturbing them (so that Nemesis will go ahead with them and can be stopped cold), and you can take pride in knowing that you've thwarted a plot to assassinate Statesman!

Serafina, Magic Store NPC
Serafina is a former Genie, now stripped of much of her powers. Somehow the Circle of Thorns has gotten Serafina's bottle, and she'd like you to get it back for her.

Serafina's mission takes place in an Oranbega underground city/cave map. Mmmmm, Oranbega. Like all the missions, you can simply fight your way through if you wish. This mission can also -mostly- be accomplished by stealth. Depending on the mob spawns, there may be a couple of narrow spots where you simply can't sneak past the mobs (unless you're fully invisible) and you have to fight your way past those. Most of the mission can be snuck through with stealth however, if that is your desire. You're looking for glowy treasure chests - there will be a couple of decoys along with the one with Serafina's bottle.

Holsten Armitage, Science Store NPC
Holsten Armitage is from the future - 20 years in the future, where the Rikti have destroyed mankind. Or, he's crazy. Nutters. A loon. Dropped his beaker. At any rate, he tells you about a plot to kidnap and kill some politician (A Senator? I've spaced on the details of the name) . . . by the Rikti. He tells you it's happening right now, that they have him in the sewers, and to go and rescue him.

Holsten Armitage's mission is a typical "rescue the hostage" mission in the sewers. There are lots of Rikti in there, of a few different types. On a solo run of the mission, there were Infantry, Gunners, Guardians, Rikti Monkeys, and a Communications Officer. If you fight through the mission, try to make a point of taking out the Guardians first, else they'll toss those blasted force fields on the other Rikti. If you'd prefer to try to sneak your way through the mission with stealth, you can avoid most of them, but will have to fight at least the Communications Officer and the other Rikti very near the hostage at the end room.

Ghost Falcon, Epic Level All Origin Store NPC
Ghost Falcon's mission is a portal mission to a Paragon City that was overrun by the Rikti. The zone resembles Crey's Folly -- lots of industrial structures, pipes, and walkways -- and is crawling with Rikti. Not the massed packs of NPCs you see in the hazard zones, but a smoother distribution that means that you won't be able to sneak up and drop an AoE attack to waste a dozen targets at once. All the Rikti in the zone are level 40 (at least when this mission is taken at level 40 - they likely scale to the character's level).

This mission is another Stealth-solvable task. In that world, the Rikti succeeded with their invasion, and are now preparing to invade our world. Your objective is to go in and dismantle a field stabilizer device; with this destroyed, they won't be able to direct or open their portals. The field stabilizer looks like a computer console from the 'high-tech lab' indoor mission object set, and will be outside on the ground near one of the industrial buildings; if you can sneak past the Rikti, you can destroy the device without having to engage any of them.

Part 3: Store Locations &amp; Availability



Levels Sold/Availability
There are 5 level ranges of stores in the game. I'll call these Newbie, Low Level, Mid Level, High Level, and Epic Level.

Newbie stores are the Superpowered Field Trainer NPCs that can be found in Atlas Park and Galaxy City, off to the sides near Miss Liberty and Back Alley Brawler, one inside Freedom Corps Headquarters in Galaxy City, and two in the "origin hall" inside Paragon City Hall in Atlas Park. There is also a Freedom Corps Basic Trainer in Skyway City near Synapse and Mynx.

Additionally, your very first contact in either Atlas Park or Galaxy City will carry level 1 enhancements, which some people like to buy to "play the odds" for combining inexpensively with higher level training enhancements.

Low Level stores carry level 15 and 20 enhancements - all 28 Training enhancements, and Power 10 DOs. Low Level stores are Freedom Corps Basic Training, Cooke's Electronics, Image Inc., Orion Labs, Pandora's Box, and Subgenetics. Low Levels stores are located in Steel Canyon and Skyway City. Most characters in this level range will find Steel Canyon to be the most convenient for shopping.

Mid Level stores carry level 25 and 30 enhancements - all 28 Training and DO, and Power 10 SOs. Mid Level stores are Freedom Corps Special Forces, BioTechnix, Deimos Innovations, Exarch Industries, Future Dynamics, and Tabitha Fabish. Mid Level stores are located in Independence Port and Talos Island. Talos Island is by far the most conveient zone for shopping in this level range, with the exception of Science origin stuff (Deimos is practically across the street from the Tram in IP) and perhaps Mutant.

High Level stores carry level 30, 35, and 40 enhancements - all 28 DOs and SOs. The High Level stores are actually NPCs that are just standing around - in a courtyard, in a tunnel, on the street, whatever. They require you to complete a mission for them before you can buy their wares. To get their mission, you must be level 30. High Level Store NPCs are located in Founder's Falls (Mark IV, Agent Six, Penny Preston) and Brickstown (Serafina, Holsten Armitage).

Epic Level players have one store NPC, called Ghost Falcon. Ghost Falcon carries level 40, 45, and 50 SO enhancements for all 5 origins, with the possible exception his not seeming to stock L40 Magic SOs (unconfirmed, I couldn't seem to get any helpful 40+s when I tried to check this myself in game). Ghost Falcon also requires that you complete a mission for him before you can buy from him, like the High Level Store NPCs.

Your contacts also sell enhancements. At present in game, this isn't very useful, as they only offer Training enhancements until you read Founders Falls and Brickstown contacts, which offer DO enhancements for their origin of specialty*. They'll offer one specific level when you first meet them, and then as you progress on their relationship bar, they'll add more enhancements (I think just the Power 10, as well) 5 and then 10 levels higher. Enhancements from Contacts are probably only useful at very low levels.

Some of the Dual and Single Origin enhancement names can be somewhat confusing. To find out exactly what an enhancement effect for your origin type is named, I suggest consulting Warcry's Enhancement Compendium.

Store Locations

Low Level stores
<ul type="square">[*] Freedom Corps Basic Training - Generic (Steel Canyon and Skyway City )[*] Freedom Corp Basic Trainer - Generic (Skyway City )[*] Image Inc. - Natural (Steel Canyon and Skyway City )[*] Cooke's Electronics - Tech (Steel Canyon and Skyway City )[*] Orion Labs - Science (Steel Canyon and Skyway City )[*] Subgenetics - Mutant (Steel Canyon and Skyway City )[*] Pandora's Box - Magic (Steel Canyon and Skyway City )[/list]Mid Level stores
<ul type="square">[*] Freedom Corps Special Forces - Generic (Talos Island and Indepence Port )[*] Future Dynamics - Natural (Talos Island and Indepence Port )[*] Exarch Industries - Tech (Talos Island and Indepence Port )[*] Deimos Innovations - Science (Talos Island and Indepence Port )[*] BiotechniX - Mutant (Talos Island and Indepence Port )[*] Tabitha Fabish - Magic (Talos Island and Indepence Port )[/list]High Level Store NPCs
<ul type="square">[*] Agent Six - Natural (Founders' Falls)[*] Mark IV - Tech (Founders' Falls)[*] Holsten Armitage - Science (Brickstown)[*] Penny Preston - Mutant (Founders' Falls)[*] Serafina - Magic (Brickstown)[/list]Epic Level Store NPC
<ul type="square">[*] Ghost Falcon - All Origins (Peregrine Island) - Ghost Falcon is just a bit East-southeast of the Ferry boat that you enter Peregine Island from.[/list]
Another player has started something of note that can make finding stores much easier, a patch that replaces the in-game map image files with ones edited to show the enhancements stores and special NPCs. If this is of interest to you, check out CoH Map Patch @ Project Eva.

Part 2: Selling &amp; Origins



Selling Enhancements
Origin matters when selling enhancements. If you want to get the most influence for the enhancements you sell, you may need to visit multiple stores. Freedom Corps stores pay the most for Training Enhancements, and Origin oriented stores pay the most for enhancements of a type they deal in.

How much of a difference is this? If you sell a DO or SO enhancement at a non-optimal store, you'll get about 30% of its "Sale Price" value. If you sell at an optimal store, you'll get more - 50% or so. As an example, say you have a Science SO enhancement that can be bought at a store for 30,000 influence. Selling it at Orion Labs or Deimos Innovations (science-oriented stores) might get you 15,000 influence for it. Selling it at a non-science oriented store, you may only get 9,000 influence for it.

Training Enhancements seem to sell back with slightly better prices - around 59% or so at Freedom Corps stores, 47% at Field Trainers, and 35% at origin-oriented stores.

Stores may also pay more for enhancements that are a multiple of 5 - 15, 20, 25, 30, and so forth. This is presumed to simulate the greater "resale value" of an enhancement of the same level that is carried by stores. This used to be the case, but may have changed in the game fairly recently.

Origin-oriented stores will pay these better prices for both Single Origin enhancements of their origin type, and for any Dual Origin enhancements that have one of the origins as their type. Image Inc., and Future Dynamics, both Natural stores, will pay more for both Tech/Natural DOs and Natural/Magic DOs, as an example.

There is one exception to this: Ghost Falcon, who carries SOs of all 5 origins, seems to buy DO and SO enhancements back at the lowest prices for any origin.

A breakdown of store names by origin:

Science: Orion Labs, Deimos Innovations, Holsten Armitage. Science DO overlaps are Tech/Science and Science/Mutant.

Magict: Pandora's Box, Tabitha Fabish, Serafina. Magic DO overlaps are Mutant/Magic, and Natural/Magic.

Mutant: Subgenetics, Biotechnix, Penny Preston. Mutant DO overlaps are Mutant/Magic, and Science/Mutant.

Natural: Image Inc, Future Dynamics, Agent Six. Natural DO overlaps are Natural/Magic, and Tech/Natural.

Technology: Cooke's Electronics, Exarch Industries, Mark IV. Technology DO overlaps are Tech/Natural, and Science/Tech.

For very high level heroes, there's also Ghost Falcon, who handles SO enhancements for all 5 origins.

Preface

This guide is intended to place the answers to very commonly and frequently asked questions regarding enhancements, stores, availability, drops, and so forth in one hopefully easy to understand place. Almost all of this information is available (and probably duplicated) elsewhere in other posts on the CoH forums, but may not be as easy to find, or may be presented in a format that can be confusing.

At the time of writing, this guide is mostly accurate (I may goof up in a spot or two). If you find a discrepancy or inaccuracy, or have additional useful information, either PM me or respond to this thread. The information presented here is collected from various sources from the beta and release boards, as well as personal in-game investigation. I'm not citing sources for the information I'm borrowing for inclusion in this guide, because quite honestly I've lost track of the original posters for much of the information from the beta boards. Where possible, I've listed credits in the appendices - if you feel something you did that has made its way into this guide requires a nod, contact me and it'll probably be done.

I've split this guide into 5 sections, and 5 separate posts. The sections are:

Part 1: Basics - Enhancement Types, Combining, Stacking, &amp; the Power 10
Part 2: Selling &amp; Origins
Part 3: Store Locations
Part 4: High Level Store Mission Info
Part 5: Enhancement Drop Info
Part 6: Appendices &amp; Credits



Part 1: Basics - Enhancement Types, Combining, Stacking, &amp; the Power 10


Enhancement types:
There are 3 types of enhancements - Training (also referred to as Generic or TO), Dual Origin (DO) and Single Origin (SO). Well, technically, there's a 4th type, special enhancements that only drop from the Hamidon Trial, but as they're not available in stores, they won't be covered in this guide.

Training enhancements can be used by any origin. They offer a small boost (either 5% or roughly 8.33%) boost to an aspect of a power.

Dual Origin enhancements can be used by two origins (hence the name). As an example, Technology-usable DOs come in two flavors - Technology/Natural, and Technology/Science. DOs offer a moderate boost (either 10%, or roughly 16.7%) boost to an aspect of a power. This breaks down to, DOs are twice as good as TOs.

Single Origin enhancements can be used by only one origin (hence the name). SOs offer the best boost (either 20% or roughly 33.3%) possible to an aspect of a power. SOs are twice as good as DOs.

Here's a link to a handy Enhancement Chart that details which specific enhancements are which value (5/10/20 or 8/16/33).

Endurance Reduction Enhancements and Recharge Reduction enhancements reduce the cost of time of a power, rather than adding to its effects. On these type of enhancements, the bonus amount is added to 1 and then the endurance cost or recharge time of a power is divided by that number. The formula for that is: base / (1 + bonus) = new value. As an example, a power that takes 20 endurance to use and recharges in 20 seconds, if enhanced with 2 SO endurance reduction enhancements and 2 SO reload reduction enhancements (both even with your level) would work like this: 20 / 1.66 = 12.05. So, the power would then cost 12 endurance, and reload in 12 seconds. Interrupt Time Reduction enhancements -may- work the same way, I haven't seen a definite dev statement one way or the other.

The Devs themselves have made it clear - any currently usable SO is always better than a DO, and a DO is always better than a Training. More on that below.

Combining:
Enhancements of the same type and effect can be combined with one another to make a slightly stronger version of the enhancement. A combined enhancement will be listed as its level, with either 1 or 2 + signs after it. So, a level 10 enhancement that has been combined once, will be a 10+. That + means the enhancement functions as if it were 1 level higher, or a level 11. A 10++ would function as if it were a level 12. Enhancements can only be combined to end up with 2 +s. A 10++ is effectively a level 12, and cannot be combined to improve that, unless it's added to a level 12 or higher enhancement. A 10++ combined with a 12 will result in a 12+. This presumes that the combination succeeds - there is a chance that combinations will fail, and you'll just be left with the higher level enhancement in the slot. This chance of failure on combination increases with the difference in level between enhancements. You can also only combine enhancements if the result will not make the enhancement unusable to you.

With Dual Origins enhancements, you can combine different enhancements so long as they're usable by your character (as there are two kinds of DOs each origin can use, with different origin overlaps). If you're a Technology origin character, you could combine a Tech/Natural enhancement and a Tech/Science enhancement.

You can only use enhancements that are + or - 3 levels of your present level (including equal level). A level 10 can use enhancements levels 7 through 13. A level 10 will not be able to combine any level 13 enhancements (or 12+s, etc.). To combine an enhancement that is 3 levels above your current level, you need to level so it's only 2 levels above your level (and thus combinable).

Why combine enhancements? Enhancements provide the above listed boost values when they are equal to your level (white). Enhancements that are yellow (lower than your level) provide a slightly lesser boost with each level below your level. Enhancements that are green (higher than your level) provide a slightly greater boost with each level below your level.

The formula for determining exactly how much boost an enhancement at a specific level is as follows:

+3 = *1.15
+2 = *1.10
+1 = *1.05
0 = *1.00
-1 = *.90
-2 = *.80
-3 = *.70

So, say you're level 31. You have a level 29 SO, and a level 34 SO. The level 29 SO gives you a 26.6% boost, and the level 34 gives you a 38.3% boost. This works the same, whether that 34 is a plain 34, or a 32++.

Perhaps a better explanation, with a handy chart of boost amounts by level relative to your own, can be found in this thread by Katspaws.

Stacking:
"Stacking" enhancements refers to putting multiple enhancements of the same type in more than one slot on a power. Enhancement bonuses are additive - meaning that the more enhancements of the same type you have in a power, the more that aspect of that power is going to be enhanced. Sometimes people ask if stacking or combining is better; if you have the slots for it, stacking is almost always better.

Let's take the basic Ice Blaster power, Ice Bolt. Let's say that you have 3 slots in the power, and you add 2 more, for a total of five. Before, when you had 3 slots, you had a training endurance reduction enhancement, a training accuracy enhancement, and a training damage enhancement. Presuming they're even level enhancements, you'll get an 8.33% bonus to accuracy and damage, and your Ice Bolt will only cost you roughly 5.5 endurance to use, rather than the base cost of 6. Now, with the two new slots, you could put in something else like Range or Recharge Reduction, or you could put in more Damage or Accuracy. Most Blasters and Scrappers slot 1 accuracy, and then primarily damage (with occasionally endurance reduction or reload) on their primary attacks. Let's say you add 2 more damage slots to your now 5 slotted Ice Bolt - you'd have 3 damage enhancements, 1 accuracy, and 1 endurance reduction. That'd give you about a 25% bonus to your damage (8.33 * 3 = 24.99).

With DO and SO enhancements, stacking them adds up quickly, and can boost a power to being 3 times more powerful than it is unenhanced. As an example, 6 even-level SO damage enhancements would add 199.8% damage to an attack. With 6 SO +3 level damage enhancements, you can hit just shy of 330% total damage, before any debuffs, buffs, inspirations, or damage-enhancing skills such as Aim or Build Up are used!

Something to note when stacking, if you're a number cruncher or want to keep in the best shape as you can with your powers - the penalty for below-level enhancements is double the bonus for above-level enhancements. As an example, say you have 2 SO defense enhancements - at even level, they'd both provide 20% boost to a power's defense. Added together, that's 40%. Now, if you have one enhancement that's +1 level, and another that's -1 level, that is actually slightly worse than having 2 even level enhancements. The +1 level would provide 21% boost, and the -1 level would provide 18% boost, totaling 39% together. This is a small difference, but some people seem to care.

The "Power 10" Enhancements
The "Power 10" Enhancements are the set of the most commonly sold enhancements. The power 10 are:
<ul type="square">[*] Accuracy[*] Damage[*] Defense Buff[*] End Reduction[*] Healing[*] Hold Duration[*] Range Increase[*] Recharge Reduction/Increased Attack Speed[*] Damage Resist[*] Disorient Duration[/list]Power 10 Enhancements are sold in stores earlier in DO and SO forms than the other 18 enhancement types in the game. Power 10 DOs are available in stores beginning with level 15 forms (thus, usable at level 12). Power 10 SOs are available in stores beginning with level 25 forms (thus, usable at level 22). For non-Power 10 DO enhancements, you have to wait to purchase level 25 versions (usable at level 22, 10 levels later than the Power 10). Non-Power 10 SO enhancements are available in either level 30 or 35 versions, requiring you to wait until level 27, 30, or 32 to be able to buy and use them (depending on your Origin, and whether or not you have helpful higher level friends).

Isn't this unfair to folks who need the other 18 enhancements for their powers who have to wait 10 levels to enhance them equally? I think so, but that's a discussion for another thread.

[ QUOTE ]
Very nice post!!

It would be nice if You could find the time to extend it with a suggestion as to a seconday powerset.

[/ QUOTE ]

I specifically avoided including stuff on secondaries, or very much on slotting, in this guide, because I wanted to focus on one thing, the Storm Summoning powers. Each of the Secondaries can easily merit their own guide, and there's a ton of specific advice out there for combos and tricks of how so and so power from Y secondary can do something particulaly beneficial or cool with X primary.

As for slotting . . . that's something else that I don't like to advise upon in general, as slotting to an extent determines/reflects play style. There are different valid and effective playstyles, and I don't want to be viewed as espousing or shoving my particular choice of play style down others' throats. It really bugs me when I see someone (for example) say "6 slot hurricane, snow storm, and freezing rain, that's all you need to know." Why? How is that all someone needs to know? That sort of thing entirely discounts thinking for the future (if you plan to play the character up to the higher levels) where your enhancements provide twice the boost per slot, and where 6 slows in Snow Storm may be gross overkill.

PREFACE
There are fairly frequently questions about various Storm Summoning abilities and powers posted, and RainV, myself, and others are often answering the same questions or correcting the same misconceptions over and over. Being a Storm Summoning/Energy Blast Defender, who has been active on the boards, and participated in the beta test for almost two months (having had the opportunity to use and test EVERY power in the Storm Summoning set in beta), I thought I'd take a stab at writing up a guide describing the powers and their effects, with some extra tidbits thrown in.

This guide is inspired by innermoppet's Not in the Face: A guide to Invulnerability Powers. This isn't intended to be an ultimate, authoritative guide to the Storm Summoning powers and the Powerset, but rather a good reference for information about the powers to promote understanding of the powers and aid people in making informed decisions about their power choices and/or character plans. Different players will find and develop different uses and tactics for employing their powers, and different playstyles will find more use in certain powers and less in others; Your Mileage May Vary.

As less specific information has been published about many of the varied effects of Storm Summoning powers, hard numbers are lacking in many places. If you see something you believe erroneous, you have some additional or more specific information on a power, or you decide to go and test some specific aspect of a power and have new data to provide, please feel free to respond with that information. Once enough additional bits of info come to light, I'll update the guide to include the new information (and try to credit people where possible).

This guide is written from the viewpoint of a Defender - Controllers reading this guide may not find it as applicable or useful to them, though the information on the powers should still be pretty accurate.

OVERVIEW
Storm Summoning is a powerset that can be somewhat difficult to categorize. It does a little bit of many things, but it's not really the BEST at any specific thing (other than perhaps mob positioning). It has a bit of healing, some buffing, some debuffing, some crowd control, elements of damage mitigation. Most of its powers have multiple effects, and some of them can be subtle. Storm Summoning is prized by some of its players as being the most versatile and adaptable of the Defender powersets - a Jack of All Trades, Master of None sort of thing. Some of its powers are flashy, some are rather understated. Storm Summoning is famed for being very toggle-heavy, and depending upon playstyle, this can indeed be the case.

POWERS

Gale (Available at level 1): Gale is a cone effect attack that calls forth rushing winds towards a targeted opponent (also affecting other mobs within the cone). Gale, when it hits, deals a small amount of smashing damage to affected foes, and knocks them back a pretty considerable distance. The primary point of this power is the knockback. Gale can be useful for knocking foes away from you, away from allies/teammates, or for mob positioning (blowing stragglers back in towards a group, creating a more AoE convenient "clump", or blowing a mob or mobs back into an AoE radius).

It is commonly considered that the most important enhancements for Gale are Accuracy enhancements. According to the Hero Planner, Gale has an inherent -10% Accuracy penalty. Gale is a power that when you use it . . . you generally really want it to work, so Accuracy is prized. Other popular enhancements after Accuracy are Cone Range and Knockback Distance. The damage component to Gale is very minor - enhancing heavily for damage on Gale will give you unimpressive results.

Gale is a power that people tend to either love or hate. It's not universally useful. It takes practice and familiarity to use it to achieve consistent results - knowing what your cone range is, knowing the distance mobs will be knocked back, etc. Many melee characters (Tankers and Scrappers) or characters trying to set up for AoE attacks can very easily be annoyed by the Knockback from Gale. If you elect to take this power, THINK before using it. One of the quickest ways to give people a bad impression of the power, or of Storm Summoners in general, is by wantonly and randomly Galing mobs around.

O2 Boost (Available at level 1): O2 Boost is a single-target, targeted heal, with a side of buffs. The buff effect of O2 Boost is a high resistance to Sleep and Disorient effects that lasts for a while after being healed. O2 Boost is a LoS (Line of Sight) heal, that requires in-range targets to be "visible" to the Storm Summoner to heal them - if they're around a corner, or blocked by crates or stairs or so forth, you'll get a "Target Blocked" message and won't be able to heal someone thusly blocked. In that aspect, it is identical to Empathy's Heal Other. O2 Boost's single big drawback is that it's "ally-only" - meaning you cannot use the power to heal or buff yourself.

O2 Boost is perhaps one of the most often underestimated/undervalued Storm powers. It doesn't heal as much as an Empath Defender's Heal Other, though it has the same endurance cost. O2 Boost is however a very quick heal, and can be recast pretty rapidly - particularly if enhanced with a Reload Reduction enhancement or two. O2 Boost also has very valuable buffs in the form of resistance to Sleep and Disorient effects. Particularly as you level up in the 20s and then the 30s, more and more mobs will have stun and mez affects. O2 Boost doesn't protect against all of these, but it does help against many such mobs - all those who use Sleeps and Disorients (Tsoo Ink Men, Devouring Earth). Against certain villain types, the buff against those status effects may be more valuable than the actual healing the power provides.

Storm Defenders are faced with choosing between either Gale or O2 Boost at level 1. Gale may seem attractive early on, and can indeed be of help with the early levels and missions that are often tackled solo; however, Gale's continued usefulness may wane later on when you find yourself teaming more often - particularly if you regularly team with Tankers or Scrappers who don't want mobs blown around. O2 Boost may end up being more universally useful if you team a lot (and it's my opinion that a Storm Defender's true strength is in teams, even though a good Storm Summonder with most of the powers can solo very effectively, albeit perhaps slowly). If you're planning on nearly exclusively soloing, then skip O2 Boost, as you cannot use it on yourself. If you plan to team fairly regularly with your Defender, my advice is that O2 Boost is the better choice at level 1. Gale can be picked up later if you decide you need or want that versatility, and you can make friends and potential future team/SGmates with a touch of healing at low levels as well.

The Other Side: Tsoo Sorcerors use O2 Boost to heal other Tsoo in combat against players. They have a nasty habit of teleporting in and healing something you were just about to kill.

Snow Storm (Available at Level 2): Snow Storm has the distinction of being one of only two "pure" powers in the Storm Summoning powerset, in that it does ONE thing - slows mobs. Snow Storm is a Targeted AoE power, and is a Toggle. So long as you have endurance, and the mob is alive, the power can remain active (you can toggle it off when you wish, though). Snow Storm slows both mob movement speed, and attack rate. While the first is certainly useful - makes mobs who try to flee rather easier to catch and apprehend, keeps them from being able to easily/quickly move out of the radius of an AoE (such as Freezing Rain) - the second aspect, that of slowing mob attack rates, is a form of damage mitigation. Mobs that don't attack back as often or as quickly deal less damage to you and/or your teammates, and are thus safer to defeat.

The game has a minimum run speed of 10% of normal, and 25% of normal attack rate for both mobs and player characters. So, even a Snow Storm enhanced with 6 Slow enhancements won't reduce a mob to moving slower than that 10% or attacking less often than a quarter of its normal rate. Snow Storm is pretty good at what it does, and enhancing it that heavily (all 6 slots) with Slow is probably overkill even if the minimum speeds weren't a factor.

Snow Storm, being a toggle, has a relatively hefty 1.5 endurance cost per tick, so slotting it with an Endurance Reduction enhancement or two in addition to the obvious Slow enhancements will probably be a big help. An important factor in effective use of Snow Storm is in choice of which mob to "anchor" the Snow Storm on. There is no universal "best" mob type to anchor Snow Storm on, as different mob groups and different group tactics will call for different choices. A Storm Summoner will likely have to educate their teammates about Snow Storm, so that they don't consistently immediately kill off the mob that Snow Storm is centered on (thus ending the power, and leaving you with a bunch of angry mobs that are no longer slowed). The strongest piece of advice I can offer for Snow Storm users is to set up a bind (see Curveball's The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to /bind (1.1) to learn how to do this) announcing the target of your Snow Storm.

The Other Side: To see just how annoying and devastating Snow Storm can be, play with a Banished Pantheon Avalanche Shaman - they use Snow Storm, and are a good demonstration of how nasty this power is, particularly in slowing down your power recharges.

Steamy Mist (Available at level 6): Steamy Mist is a PBAoE Toggle power, which provides Stealth, Defense, and Resistance against Energy and Elemental damage. Hero Planner lists Steamy Mist's endurance cost as 1.5 per tick, so it's another power that you'll definitely want to slot an Endurance Reduction enhancement or two into. Steamy Mist has a penalty of reduced movement speed - it'll make you run or walk slower, and Steamy Mist used with Hover with no Flight Speed enhancements leaves you unable to move while both are active (Even a single training Flight Speed enhancement will allow hover movement with Steamy Mist up, and DO and SO Flight Speed enhancements improve this even more).

Steamy Mist is one of the most often underrated powers in the Storm Summoning set. Its effects are not just really noticeable at times. First, the Stealth aspect of the power - not only are you harder to see, and can approach MUCH more closely to mobs without aggroing them, but every player within the AoE of the Mist is also effected.

Next, the Defense buff - hard data due to a lack of Dev posts on the specifics of this power means we don't know exactly how much of a Defense bonus this power provides, but the best guesses so far is that it's probably 7.5%. This may not seem like much, especially when you consider that Defense enhancements are of the 5/10/20% variety (requiring 5 SO Defense enhancements to double this buff, to around 15% if the 7.5% is correct). Keep in mind that this defense bonus applies to everyone within the Steamy Mist AoE. Every attack that Steamy Mist's defense bonus causes to miss is 100% damage mitigation for that attack.

Finally, damage resistance to Elemental and Energy attacks. Again, this applies to everyone within the Steamy Mist AoE - yourself as well as your teammates, or any random heroes who happen to be nearby. Once again, we don't have hard data in the form of dev posts for how much this resistance is, but observation suggests it to be around 20% or so. This reduces damage from successful attacks that are Energy, Electrical, Fire, and Cold damage types. I'm unsure if Darkness fits into this (as Energy) or not, and haven't personally tested that.

I personally consider Steamy Mist to be one of the single most useful "anytime" powers in the set. I keep it up pretty much all the time, except when in a known safe area or when just traveling. The stealth is so useful that you can find yourself taking it for granted (and getting too close and aggroing things when it's not up), the resistance is often useful, and the defense is always welcome. I find it useful solo AND in groups. Think about it: what other single power from ANY primary or secondary set or power pool gives you stealth, defense, and resistance for everyone in your group?

Freezing Rain (Available at Level 8): Freezing Rain is the big universal debuff of the Storm set. It is a ranged, location AoE, reduces enemy defenses, reduces enemy resistances, and has minor slow and cold DoT effects - AND a good chance of foe knockdown. The first thing I feel important to stress about Freezing Rain is that it's NOT a damage dealing power. It does have token cold damage, but it's a small fraction of 1 point of damage per hit. Even heavily enhanced with SO damage enhancements, you're not going to get much utility out of Freezing Rain as a damage dealing power.

What Freezing Rain IS excellent for, is speeding up fights and making yourself and your teammates more effective/powerful. The defense debuff makes mobs much easier to hit (particularly when enhanced with Defense Debuff enhancements). The resistances debuff lowers mob resistance by around 25% on even level mob - that means they take around 33% more damage from attacks. Freezing Rain also has a small slow effect, making mobs both move slightly slower, and attack a little less often. Mobs under the AoE of Freezing Rain also have a chance of slipping and falling - leaving them incapable of ability uses or attacks until they get back up. When it works well, it can be quite comical to see a bunch of mobs slipping and falling on their backs, standing up, and falling back down again.

One of the more well known and popular Storm Defender tactics is the "1-2 Combo" of Snow Storm and Freezing Rain - hit mobs with Snow Storm, so they can't run away very well, then drop Freezing Rain on them, while they can't very easily or quickly run out of the AoE. This is a powerful and useful tactic, but Freezing Rain is by no means useless without Snow Storm. Even if mobs hit with Freezing Rain immediately bolt to move out of the AoE, they're still slowed for a brief time, they're still easier to hit, and they're still going to take more damage for a while. Freezing Rain is a great power for team use - work out timing so that your Freezing Rain hits just as or just after an opening attack (particularly DoTs, like Rain of Fire, Fire Breath, or Flamethrower) or Provoke is used by a teammate. With some practice to get the timing down, this can turn an opening volley against a group of mobs into a devastating attack, with more of them being hit, and all of them taking more damage - and that may be the entirety of the fight.

Freezing Rain can be enhanced a variety of ways. I'd suggest concentrating on Endurance Reduction, Defense Debuff, and Reload Reduction, with perhaps a slot for Slow. I've found it useful to be able to use Freezing Rain again during a battle that's NOT over quickly to make the pesky mobs that don't drop quickly or are hard to hit easier and quicker to take out. Freezing Rain's duration is 15 seconds (though the effect linger for a while), and the unenhanced recharge time is 60 seconds.

Hurricane (Available at Level 12): Hurricane, like most Storm powers, is another one with multiple effects. Hurricane is a PBAoE Toggle power. When activated, it creates a swirling vortex of wind centered around the Storm Summoner, who stands in the "eye" in the middle. Despite the graphic being a fairly flat "plane" - the Hurricane effects to extend somewhat above and below the plane. Hurricane is both an effective debuff, and is useful for crowd control/mob positioning. Hurricane is listed as having an endurance cost of 1 per tick in Hero Planner - though many people consider this a "cheap" toggle power, I'd still strongly advise an endurance reduction enhancement or two for it.

Hurricane is a Foe Repel - any mob that enters the AoE is constantly pushed against, forcing most mobs back out to the edge of the storm. This creates a virtual "melee-free safe zone" within the radius of the Hurricane. The most obvious use for this is to have other Defenders, Blasters, and Controllers stand near you, inside the 'cane, acting from relative safety from melee or short ranged attackers. Hurricane also randomly knocks back foes in, or on the edge of, the AoE. Some mobs occasionally can and do simply slowly force their way through the repelling effects of Hurricane, and CAN get in to reach someone inside the storm, or can run past to get on the other side of it (or are sometimes pushed to the side or behind and end up on a different side than they entered the storm's radius). Melee characters (Tankers and Scrappers) may need to be taught to fight mobs at the edge of the storm - so that they're not continually blown out of melee range, but so they stay debuffed, and have a hard time hitting the melee hero.

The other big benefit of Hurricane is its potent Debuff - mobs who attempt to enter Hurricane or even just "touched" by the edge of the storm have their Accuracy AND range significantly debuffed. Particularly if ToHit (Accuracy) Debuff enhancements are used, it's not uncommon at all for a Storm Defender to be able to stand still in the midst of their Hurricane, with several mobs dancing along the edge trying to hurt you and being unable to, because they either cannot reach you (or others inside the storm) or their attacks repeatedly miss.

Note that some melee mobs (particularly 5th Column werewolves) apparently have as part of their AI that if they simply can't reach you to hurt you, will flee and run away at top speed. Some advanced uses for Hurricane include "Herdicaning," "Juggling," and simply running around "touching" a bunch of mobs with Hurricane to debuff them then shutting the 'cane off to deal with the debuffed mobs when the repel isn't needed.

The Other Side: Tsoo Sorcerors and Banished Pantheon Storm Shamans both use Hurricane. Being hit with it and seeing your accuracy plummet and your range drop to "slightly outside melee" can instill a quick understanding and appreciation for the potential of this power.

Thunder Clap (Available at Level 18): Thunder Clap is the other "pure" power in the Storm set, meaning that it only does one thing. Thunder Clap is a PBAoE Disorient power. When activated, foes in a radius around the Storm Summoner may be disoriented - staggering around relatively defenseless and not attacking for a period of time. The AoE is a little bit larger than the AoE radius of Hurricane, but not by much (you can hit mobs on the edge or just outside of a Hurricane with Thunder Clap, but not much beyond that). Thunder Clap looks and sounds cool, with fairly impressive visual and sound effects.

Thunder Clap by itself will only affect Minions, and will NOT disorient Lts and Bosses - of any level. Only Controller Primary Disorients are allowed to AoE one-shot disorient Lts or Bosses. It CAN however be "stacked" with another disorient power, such as Flash Fires, Dark Pit, or Hand Clap to Disorient Lts and Bosses.

Suggested Enhancements for Thunder Clap are Accuracy and Disorient Duration. I haven't tested, and don't know of anyone who's tested, to see if its reload can be enhanced enough so that multiple Thunder Claps from the same character can be activated rapidly enough to stack.

The Other Side: Banished Pantheon Storm Shamans use Thunder Clap - but the same basic Disorienting frustration and pain is available from many mobs in the game, including Tsoo Ink Men.

Tornado (Available at Level 26): Tornado is advertised as a Targetted Location AoE, with Minor Smashing Damage, Foe Disorient, Knockback, and Fear. The idea of Tornado is that it creates a spinning funnel cloud (it's around 6 feet tall in game, is pretty transparent, and looks basically identical to the Super Speed Power Pool's Whirlwind - just without the spinning hero in the center) that tosses mobs up and away, disorients them, instills fear, deals minor damage, and chases your foes down to try to do all that again.

Tornado has long been widely regarded as the one truly near- or often-useless power in the Storm Summoning set. The number of people who've tried it and are disappointed with or hate it considerably outnumber those who seem to like it. The damage on the power is listed as "Minor" and is indeed very minor. It isn't exactly awe-inspiring to see a level 26 power toss a foe up and away, and seeing them take 5 points or so of smashing damage. One of the benefits of Tornado, is that it doesn't seem to care what class a villain it - it'll toss an Archvillain up and away as readily as it will an Underling (just probably not anywhere near as far).

Tornado used to be essentially targeted chaos. When used, it would toss 1 to a few mobs VERY far up and away, scare many others off, maybe disorient a couple . . . and then would randomly chase after one of them. Usually one of the ones that it scared, who took off running at top speed. As it chased mobs, it continued to attempt to scare any other mob it got near. Tornado was excellent for randomly and inadvertently aggroing other mobs that you didn't even know were there, in another portion of a mission map, or streets away in a city zone. Who, of course, home in and come running up to you, rather angry.

With recent patches, primarily the Through the Looking Glass update, Tornado is acting very strange. Sometimes it acts as it used to, and sometimes, it will just sit in place doing nothing, or very slow move as if to follow the hero, or sit where it's cast and keep juggling the villain it landed on up in the air repeatedly. Some people have been finding uses for it, despite its erratic and inconsistent behaviour. As there's been a lack of Dev comment on the power, we don't know if Tornado was intentionally changed, if it's bugged and broken, or what the case is.

My advice to most people is to not take Tornado. For those who do take it and persist in using it, if you find a consistent, reliable use for it - please, do post and let us know!

Lightning Storm (Available at Level 32): Lightning Storm is the final power in the set, and is one that is perhaps controversial for some people. Being the final power, many people expect it to be impressive and devastating. Like most Storm powers, Lightning Storm has multiple effects. Lightning Storm is a centered, ranged "fire and forget" or "pet" type power. It appears directly over your Storm Summoner when activated, and stays in that location, not moving, for its duration (60 seconds, with a 90 second unenhanced reload time). It randomly blasts mobs within its range with lightning (energy damage type) every 5 to 7 seconds. Most mobs that are blasted with lightning will be knocked down, though higher level mobs, Lts, and Bosses all of course have some level of resistance to the knockdown effect. If two or more mobs are very close together, the lightning and knockdown blast will strike them ALL. Blasts from Lightning Storm also drain some endurance from mobs.

Lightning Storm looks and sounds cool. It is a dark grey storm cloud with flashes of lightning within it, which lashes out with a flash with jagged bolts of lightning, making rumbling and thunderous noises all the while. Along with Thunder Clap, it's one of the more visually impressive powers in the set.

Lightning Storm can be enhanced to emphasize different aspects of the power - increasing its damage, increasing the endurance drain, reducing endurance cost, reload time, etc. Lightning Storm can be initially something of a let-down when you see its unenhanced damage. Remember, it's a "fire and forget" added damage power - you activate it, and it continues contributing damage to the fight while you're free to move around and use other powers. Adding additional damage slots to Lightning Storm can increase its damage output significantly. Tightly bunched mobs can be a joy to a high level Storm Summoner's eyes, as Lightning Storm can hit many mobs in close proximity of each other with a single strike. Pairing with a Controller who can AoE Hold or Immobilize many mobs at once can greatly aid this benefit of Lightning Storm.

THOUGHTS ON PLAYSTYLE AND BUILDS
The Storm Summoning set is very versatile, and can be shifted to emphasize a number of different roles and playstyles depending on how you slot and enhance your powers. While soloing as a Stormer is certainly possible . . . I believe that the real strength of a Storm Summoner comes into play in teams, and that is where many of our abilities really shine when used effectively.

One thing that may be a consideration for many Storm Summoners, especially if they like to run multiple toggles at once and still do other things, is that of endurance drain being a limiting factor. I've taken Stamina (and have it presently slotted with 5 SO Endurance Recovery enhancements) for my Defender, and find that, while it's not -necessary- it is a tremendous boon. It dramatically cuts back on endurance being a limitation, allows me to do more things at once and for a much longer time, and allows me to be more versatile and responsive in combat.

I hope some of you find this guide to be useful. Comments, suggestions, additions are all welcome. Just don't use this as a platform for launching a flame war or debating how you find such and such a power to be useless and something else is sooo much better. Do that in another thread, or take it up with me on PMs.

CHANGE HISTORY
1.0: Initial release.

1.1:<ul type="square">[*]Made various changes to grammar and spelling.
[*]Removed text bug note on O2 Boost, as it's been fixed in-game now.
[*]Added information on minimum attack rate on Snow Storm.
[*]Slightly revised Steamy Mist section.
[*]Made language regarding specific numbers on Freezing Rain a bit vague, since results on damage increase have varied for different characters.
[*]Revised some of the Tornado section.
[*]Removed mention of Range enhancements in Lightning Storm section, as it no longer takes those. Not sure when this change was made, it may have been between beta and release. Added a bit more to the Lightning Storm section.
[*]Added this Change History.[/list]

The new and improved Search Feature in the UBB.Threads 6.4 forum software used for the City of Heroes forums is very powerful, however if you're not familiar with how to use it properly, it may not yield the results you are looking for.

To Perform a Search:
<ul type="square"> [*] Go to the Search Page
[*] Select the Category, Forum or Forums that you would like to search from the left.
- Selecting a Category will search all forums in that category.
- Selecting one forum will search in just that forum
- Selecting multiple forums will search only withing those selected forums
[*] On the right, to search a keyword enter it into the box. You can click "Advanced Search Tips" for more help.
- Entering a single keyword will search for that word.

- Entering 2 or more words will search for each word, as if there were an OR operator. So entering peanut butter will search for posts containing peanut OR butter

- Entering 2 or more words WITH PLUS SIGNS will search with an AND operator. So entering +peanut +butter will search for posts that contain peanut AND butter but they do NOT have to be together.

- Entering 2 or more words IN QUOTE MARKS will search for the phrase. So entering "peanut butter" will search for posts that contain the PHRASE peanut butter and will not return the post if it contains only one of the words.

- Entering 2 or more words with A MINUS sign will exclude words from the search. So entering +peanut -butter will search for posts which have the word peanut in them and DO NOT have the word butter.

- You can mix and match search operators. For example, entering "peanut butter" -jelly would return posts containing the PHRASE peanut butter and NOT containing the word jelly.

- Entering "peanut butter" +jelly -dance would return posts containing the PHRASE peanut butter and containing the word jelly but NOT containing the word dance.
[*] Below that, you can choose whether you are searching the subject AND body of the posts, or just the subject.
[*] Under the Username search section, you can enter a username here. This can be done with or without keywords. So entering "peanut butter" +jelly + dance in the keywords and the username of navaho would return posts containing the PHRASE peanut butter AND the word jelly AND the word dance posted by the user navaho.
[*] Next select a date range. There's an option to search all posts, or search for posts newer or older than a certain criteria. Narrowing down the search time will increase the speed of the results.
[*] Next you can choose how many results per page you wish to view.
[*] As well as choose to view a profile of the body. If selected this will show you the first few words in the body of each post.
[*] When you are finished, click "Submit". [/list]

Ya know, the information is there, if you do look for it (though it may not be easy to find). This is a good summary that divides things up by origin. Lemme point out something I reposted from the beta boards weeks ago, though: My first post on this thread.