Reinman

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All pets are immune to recharge buffs and debuffs now. You can't affect their recharge rate in any way. This affects /Kins, /Rads, and /Storms the most.

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To cite a very specific effect, Lightning Storm no longer "inherits" Hasten if it is active when the LS comes out. In the past, the LS would fire more quickly, but no longer.

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Well that sucks, hastened lightning storms was the main AoE damage on my Grav/Storm's.

Oh and a hastened volcanic gases with procs used to kill spawns nearly by itself, no longer I guess.

So I have been out of game since I9 maybe 10.

I left a little while after Plant was made available to controllers.

Can you guys let me know what changes have been implemented to the control sets. DOn't worry about being complete, just thorw in anything that springs to mind.

Thx.

Most of what you say is true Local, and it is an extremely long road. Because Sing is also, by consideration a key part of Grav's AOE control. Letting him take the alpha, allows you to get your wormholes off seamlessly. And then you finally get your AoE damage at 38 which allows you to rip through the mobs.

Anyway, the challenges that you mention especially solo, are also part of the reasons I love to play my grav/storms.

Anyway, I am just about to get back into the game, and I will update my guide after I find out what has changed...

And actually instead of my own death being part of the learning curve, can you tell me what has changed with the powers over the last year?

Did someone say Grav/Storm

Been inactive for over a year, but I am sure Grav/Storms still kick hiney.

I have come back to CoH for some lol's and to shamelessly support and defend Grav/Storms again.

Defenders are just controllers that couldn't pass the test.

That's why defender primaries are only controller secondaries.

Woot!

Good Guide... well done.

I am earth/storm, but I can tell by the layout and even your playstyle that we think alike in our approach to the game..

Good bits of humor in there too.

I don't like steamy mist. I am sorry, but I don't. It does very little for me. When I am doing my thing, I only get a very small dribble of damage, and when things go wrong I usually get annilated, so passive defense has never really seemed like much use. Also the endurance is not sustainable, although since I IO'd up, my endurance problems have mostly been eleviated.

Tornado, Over the past few month I have warmed towards tornado some. I am now having some success in keeping a spawn cornered and apply tornado to them. You need a big cornerfor this though and you need to make sure you spawn the tornado well outside of the corner, and then it is sort of a balancing act to keep them all cornered, works ok. Tornado is in my build now, and I do like it. So that is a place where I have changed my mind on a power.

This guide has been replaced with the link in my sig.

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Ditch Thunderclap for quicksand. Stalagmites will be plenty for disorient. Stalagmites it best at 3 recharge 2 acc
Tornado is not necessary, unless you really like it.


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I totally totally disagree. I couldn't disagree more actually. Really really bad advice.

Yet another update as my play style, strategies, and guide all evolve.

Grav/Storm Strategy Guide V3.0

ST is Single target.

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Lift can also be enhanced with knockback which should throw the enemies higher if there's room. Probably a good thing to do at higher levels (35+) when it's damage starts to look pretty sad.

Snowstorm is very good but, as you say, very hungry. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your anchor. Keep BOTH eyes on if it's a teleporter. Enemies with this debuff on them can agro other spawns and they are going to start off hating your puny little controller.

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I would not ever put any knockback in lift, recharge maybe, endurance reduction maybe, but never knockback.

Don't pick mobs that TP for your anchor, nor ones that are slow resistent. Problem solved.

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Still, I think I would trade Crush for it. The stealth is quite handy and the resist is very handy against certain enemy types. I would get it and then use it as the situation warrents. (Particularly on outdoor maps with few corners.) And remember, Steamy protects everyone near you, not just yourself

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Not me, to be honest, I find passive defense kind of boring, I like to click buttons, not run toggles.

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BBBBZZZZZTTT!! Well, OK, you do need it for the vast majority of your career. However, thanks to three recharge enhancers in my Hibernate power, my level 50 is doing just fine without the whole fitness set. And, to tell the truth, she usually only needs to get endurance back against AVs and monsters, or if the team gets some surprise adds.

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If you are going to use the cornering technique, then you cannot be activating hibernate in the middle of it. This is a playstyle issue.

The following attack chain is what I use to open up. If you add up the endurance costs, you will see why I need stamina. Lead with Sing(20.8), Wormhole(15.6), Crushing Field(Slotted 9.39) , Freezing rain(18.2), Crushing field(9.39), Ligthning Storm(31.2). Giving us just over 100 endurance used in about 12 seconds. For my playstyle (Agressive), I need Stamina.

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YOW! Yeah, that sounds like a bug. Does Hurricane still repel the wrong way if you hit an enemy that has been held by somebody else?

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You haven't played your Grav/Storm for a while have you. That bug was fixed and replaced with some different ones around the time of the nerfs.

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Range enhancers can beef that 60ft up quite a bit. Long range attackers can still get shots off at you but most will try running at you. I actually put a Range SO in first for this power, then get into the accuracy/recharge, then maybe toss another range in at high levels.

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I use Sing and GDF to mitigate alpha's while I am in LoS. I prefer hitting, and making sure Wormhole is ready for the next spawn. Comes down to playstyle, again.

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What you have here is the best build for YOUR playstyle. For some folks out there, though, it's going to be rather so-so simply because they aren't playing quite the way you are. Heck, even if they do play exactly like you, it still may not work out as well because of somebody they play with!

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Yes, this build is spec'd out to maximize the strategies also included in this guide, I may not have said that explicitly.

Thank you for the scrutiny, I appreaciate the feedback, and will make note of any misunderstandings, so that I can include it in a revised version.

Oh and yes, the team integration thing is a bit of an issue, as it is with all stroms. Wormhole is another power that scares and suprises people. I have found that if you let them know what you are going to do, they can adapt, and generally you get a pretty good effect.

Not to sound like I don't care about my teammates, and their opinions, because I do, but, nobody can really stop me from doing what I do. In CoH, the person with the wildest powers tends to be able to dictate what happens. If I run up, through Sing out wormhole to a corner, immobilize them, etc etc, There is very little anyone in the team can do to stop it. I have found that provided it works out to a LARGE extent, then everyone is happy to follow that strategy.

Communication and knowing when and where you can do it (to make sure it works), will alliviate 95% of problems that are teammate related.

It can also be nice when you have someone that is screwing things up in the group, as I can take control assuming I am in the situation that my techniques work in.

Lastly, yea, outdoor maps are not the best for my character. Of course, I tanked a + 1 Psychic Clockwork King AV the other day in a group of 3, so it just proves, that there are other things I can do besides corner. Group comprised me, Grav/Storm, a Grav/FF and an Emp/something. Adrenaline boosted lightning storm is something to behold.

Update to Grav/Storm V2.0 after fixing some errors and adding a bit more data.

Grav/Storm - The Ultimate Mob postioning Hero

So you decided or are interested in rolling a Grav/Storm Controller. First I would like to say congratulations. Grav/Storm is an extremely versatile power set combination, allowing you to combine practically everything the game has to offer. Grav/Storm's greatest asset is that it allows you to make great use of the one of the most powerful, and largely un-resisted effects in this game, knockback/down. Grav/Storm is one of the only power sets that will allow you to use this knockback as defense, and at the same time keep the mobs it a tight cluster consistently. This ability, in my opinion, is the reason someone rolls a Grav/Storm.

While playing the Grav/Storm you will probably find out that it has 2 successful playing styles, one passive, and the other very aggressive.

The first style is to use the cornering maneuver, which I will go into more detail later. Grav/Storm provides a very unique playing style. It is high risk/high reward; it is on the edge of your seat, heart pounding out of your chest kind of action. When possible, I use the cornering maneuver, and is what made me fall in love with my Grav/Strom Troller.

The second is to play a support role, and despite what you may or may not have heard, Gravity/Storm can easily take a back seat and still make significant contributions to the team. Some of the abilities include mob positioning, debuffing, slowing, providing a pocket tank, panic buttons, and of course large amounts of AoE hard and soft control.

The trick lies in deciding which way you will be more of an asset to the team.

I tend to use the cornering technique when my group is working hard to kill all the mobs, or people are getting hurt during the fights, or perhaps if the packs are getting scattered by some means. The other criteria is that the mobs we are fighting are not more than +3 relative to me.

Soloing with a Grav/Storm starts out slow and safe, during the mid levels it becomes even safer, and even slower, but at the end game you become crazily safe and can kill at a pretty decent speed.

Grav/Storm does not realize it's potential until level 38, so be warned, it is a long path, but one that I feel is well worth it, as it is truly awesome once you get there.

Grav/Storm will never kill as fast as some of the major FoTM's involving Kin, but I believe it to be one of the most well rounded, versatile, unique, and for me it is just simply the most fun.

Once you get a taste of manipulating not only the environment of the battlefield, but also being able to dictate where that battle will take place, it becomes hard to live without it.

Gravity/Storm has it strength's and it has it's weaknesses. Aside from having it's specialty of mob positioning, it is sort of hampered my being a jack of all trades and master of none. Gravity/Storm does not have the best control among controllers, and it does not have the best damage either. What it does have is equal proportions of both, and the ability to combine almost all of it's powers together to produce some pretty awesome effects.

Anyway, I am on a personal crusade to try and help educate people into perhaps learning to play the game in a whole new way, one that encourages everyone to take all the knock back powers available. As I mentioned earlier, with a Grav/Storm, knock back becomes defense with no lose to the effectiveness of AoE powers.


Gravity Storm is a very tight build. It is a tight build not so much because you need too many things, but rather because I really can't see any useless powers in either set. The problem is trying to chose, especially when you get down to the last 2-3.

Build Breakdown

Level 1
Crush, Gale
I take crush right off, as it does more damage over time than does Gravity Distortion(GD). Despite the lower BI, it's recharge is quicker and it keeps a mob immobilized for a longer duration, which allows me to sets up containment quickly, and keep containment even through a miss. This serves as the power I use to set up containment on whatever I am trying to kill at that exact moment. I slot Crush with 2 Acc's and 3 damage. Crush is a key component in your ST damage attack chain, and will be a staple of everything you do right through to level 50.

Level 2
Gravity Distortion
Your main ST hold, and probably your most important power, you will be slotting this to 6 almost immediately. I slot it with 2 Acc's, 3 hold's, and 1 recharge. I have found this to be as endurance efficient as it gets, it also allows you to hold a mob and turn your attention elsewhere for the maximum amount of time possible.

Level 4
Lift
Pretty self explanatory, soft control, and decent ST damage. The Assets of this power are that it has -Fly, it has the fastest animation of any power in either set, it does decent damage, and it provides a decent period of soft control. I slot this with 2 Acc's and 3 damage. Again, it is part of your main damage attack chain, and should be maximized for damage.

Level 6
Propel
A flashy power, but one that I feel is over-rated. It is still part of my build as it does do considerable damage. If you plan on soloing at all, then you will need Propel, epecially at low levels. In large groups, the long activation time of propel, make it pretty unusable. If you plan on only playing this toon in groups, then you could get away with dropping this attack.
Slotting is 2 Acc's and 3 damage.

Level 8
Snow Storm
Snow storm is an excellent toggle slow, with a large degree of slowing and affects a large area. It is one of the main powers that reduces scatter. For solo only builds this becomes less and less important and could probably be dropped when you hit 38. Note that it is fairly endurance heavy. Recommended slotting is 3 slows and 2 end reduc's.

Level 10
Crushing Field
It is a pretty straight forward power. It is used to set up AoE containment and to reduce scatter. Keeping everything immobilized is an extremely important component to the way I play my Grav/Storm. Unfortunately, to achieve this is very endurance intensive. This power will be referred to throughout the guide in conjunction with the other powers. It is very important that you hit with this power, as anything it misses has a good chance of getting away from you. Although it is not flashy, it is the one power that ties the whole thing together. Recommended slotting is 3 Acc, 2 endurance reduc's, and 1 immob duration

Level 12/14

It doesn't really matter what you pick for a travel power but here are some thoughts on each choice.

Leaping
Acrobatics would be a great advantage to the Grav/Storm controller. 90% of the time when things go wrong, it is because you get knocked back at a really inopportune time. If you want Super Jump, I recommend making a spot for this as well, but if you do, you will also need to put 3 endurance reduction slots as well.

Flight
This is what I have taken, simply because flight is my preferred travel power. I took Hover as a prerequisite and use it for knock back protection when needed.

Teleport.
Recall friend is useful for repositioning Sing. I can't stand teleport as a travel power, but if I could, I would take Recall friend and Teleport. If you take this, I would recommend fitting Steamy Mist into your build since then you can stealth in and TP sing into agro range, which is an effective opening move while soloing or in a group that doesn't have many good opening moves.


Speed
If you can live with SS as a travel power, you could open up a slot later in the build by taking hasten and SS.

Level 16
Freezing Rain
Freezing Rain is one of the best powers in the whole game, it provides about 50% mitigation through knockdown, a 30% Defense debuff, a 30% -Res debuff ,and a 40% slow. It only has one drawback, it scatters. Luckily, the Grav/Storm controller has 2 methods to controlling the scatter in Crushing field and Snow storm. For slotting, I recommend 3 Recharge Reduc's slotted immediately as a minimum, and then add a mix of defense debuffs and endurance reducers, depending on what your build allows.

Level 18
Swift or Hurdle
Just a means to get stamina, whatever you like, it has no bearing. I like swift, as I like my general run speed to be faster in missions and such. It helps me get to where I want to be faster. No additional slotting.

Level 20
Health
Not much to say, but no additional slotting needed.

Level 22
Stamina
You definitely need this to run a Grav/Storm controller, Needs 3 endurance mod slots.

Level 24
Hurricane
This power is the next major component that allows you to dominate large spawns. It has a 30% To-hit debuff as well as a 1 second pulsing repel. It also has a semi-regular knock back component. This power used to be totally dominant all on it's own. But right before I7, it was hit hard by the nerf bad, assumedly in the name of PvP. It used to pulse repel 10 times a second, but it was nerfed back to 1 per second. This one per second pulse has made it harder to control, and sculpt packs of mobs.

The schedule for the To-hit debuff enhancements was also scaled back from 33% to 20%, which also had a significant effect.

The end result is that mobs will easily run into your hurricane and get into melee range, Once in melee range they will now hit you much more often. Especially versus +3 and above.

The other nerf, which I believe is a bug, is that when you hold or immobilize a mob and then nudge him with hurricane he will be repelled 20-30 ft past the outside of the effect of the hurricane. Before they played with this power, it would only repel the mob to the outside of the effect. I hope the devs fix this sometime soon, as it makes controlling the mobs more difficult. Luckily the effects of this bug are only minor for the Grav controller, because generally you will be using hurricane to drive packs into walls and corners, and in these cases, the distance of the pushback is predetermined by the backstop.

Slotting for Hurricane is 3 To-hit debuff enhancements and if you have the spare slot then one endurance reduction.

Level 26
Wormhole.
Wormhole is a fantastic power and is the power that defines gravity. No other set has this ability, and combined with your other powers will make you unstoppable. This is Gravity's AoE disorient. It is mag 3, with an 18 second durationwhich is comparable to Flashfires or Stalagmites from the other controller sets. . The difference comes in that, besides being an AoE disorient, it is also an AoE foe teleport.

It contains 2 different ranges, a casting range and an exit point range. The casting range is 60ft, the same as propel, and I am not sure what the exit range is, but it is far. Unlike Stalagmites and flash fires, you cannot cast this while having line of sight, if you do you will take a full alpha before I goes off.

It is very important to hit with wormhole, as anything you miss will be split from the pack that get tp'd. Dividing the spawns in half is very counterproductive. Therefore my slotting is 3 Acc and 3 Recharge.



Level 28
Hasten
Hasten is a power that improves the recharge of all your powers by 70%. It is a great asset to all your mid to long recharging powers, most notably to get Sing and GDF up and ready again for the next spawn. It has also been noted to transfer onto your summoned entities, which is the main reason this has been included in my build. It does not seem to effect Sing, but it will haste your Lightning Storm's attack rate. Slotting is 3 recharge reductions.


Level 30
Gravity Distortion field.
Due to the short duration, and massive recharge, this is no longer a staple of the set. Use it as a panic button, or you can lead off with it. Leading off with it is good, because then you can avoid the alpha associated with Wormhole. When available, this is your best opening move. It is also good for building quick mag on boss's.

Level 32
Singularity
He is your personal body guard. He will save your life more times than you will even realize. He is always trailing behind you, and he really does have your back. He will also cover your escape when needed. Sing Spams 3 attacks. GD, Crush and Lift. He tends to attack the closest target to himself, however, he does have some higher level thought going on in there, as he does switch targets a lot, which is good as it helps you avoid taking agro.
Sing is very durable and makes a great pocket tank, I utilize him regularly to take alpha's for me and therefore slot him with recharge.
My recommended slotting for this build and to maximize your ability to lead off is 1 Acc, 3 recharge, and the last 2, either damage, or hold, or both.



Level 35
Level 35 is my nemesis, over my time playing I can never decide what to put here. The main contenders are 02 boost and Thunderclap.

Thunderclap
Thunderclap is a Mag 2 disorient. This means it will only disorient minions. It will not disorient Lieutenants or bosses, that do not have prior mag built up on them. It's base duration is listed [censored] 18 seconds and it has quite a large area of effect. Slightly larger than Hurricane. One of the great things about this power is that it has a 45 second recharge, so it can be up every fight, without any additional recharge slotting. My recommended slotting is 2 Acc's and 3 Disorient durations.

O2 boost
O2 boost is a reasonable sized ST heal which includes 30 seconds of status protection for the recipient for stuns and sleeps. It is very useful for duoing, or in all squishy groups. It's recharge is pretty quick and I don't recommend slotting it for recharge. 3 heal enhancements is plenty, and some may want to leave it un-slotted and just use the status protection.

Level 38
Lightning storm
Here is the AoE damage you have been looking for, for the last 38 levels. It is awesome. As mentioned near the beginning of this guide, knock back becomes defense for the grav controller, and in this case, Lightning Storm provides a ton of it. It strikes appx once every 3 seconds for 30 seconds, although this can be hastened and SB'd. According to stats, it already has a 40% Acc enhancement. The equivalent of slightly more than one SO of acc.

With it fully slotted with recharge, and with hasten active, it is possible to have 2 of them going at the same time for a short amount of time.

Recommended slotting is 3 damage 3 recharge.

Epic Powers

I consider the epic powers to be icing. Not really going to go into any detail here. I will be taking Ice for thematic reasons. I will be taking Hibernate, the armor and Ice Storm.

Strategy Discussion

The early levels and the ST attack chains.

GD, Crush, Lift and Propel are the heart of the Grav/Storm controller, providing both damage and control at the same time. I highly recommend taking all 4 ST powers and following the above slotting recommendations.

Always Crush or Gravity Distortion (GD) everything before you use any of you ST attacks. It is really a waste of endurance to hit anything with either Lift or Propel without getting the containment bonus.

Control your knock backs. Crush + Propel/Lift will knock back/up, GD + Propel, will not. Pay attention to what is needed in each situation. You are a Grav/Storm; you are the ultimate mob positioning hero. You should observe this even with your ST Powers.

While grouping, you will find Propel to be sort of annoying. With the long animation time you will be hitting dead targets a lot. In small groups that need damage, I use propel, but in a 4+ man group, I don't even bother. In groups, my ST attack chain consist of GD, Crush and Lift only.

The following is the way I found that the early Grav/Storm powers synergize together the best. I feel with operating like this provides maximum mitigation, while still providing adequate damage.

Grouping Control Attack chain

Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift
Select target C, GD
Select target B or D, Crush + lift
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.

I rarely activate Propel in large groups for the reason described above.

Soloing attack Chain

Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target C, GD
Select target D, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.

Bosses require 2 applications to hold, so in those situations, A & C should be the boss, both solo, and in a group. It should also be noted that Crush is a Magnitude 4 immobilize, meaning you can immobilize a boss in one shot. Keep this in mind when developing your own strategies.

Lift vs. Crush.

Over and Over and Over, I keep hearing that everyone either takes Crush or Lift. I really couldn't imagine removing either. If someone told me I had to get rid of one of my attacks, the decision would be between Lift and Propel, and I already know that Propel would be the one to go. Having said that, there is no way I would drop any of the 4 main ST powers.

Despite Propel being a fun power, it is more situational. Lift is a useful tool at all times. Lift has a quick animation, does reasonable damage, and provides a fairly decent period of soft control on a single target. Propel, is similar, except the animation time is so long that whatever you were trying to control, has already done what it wanted to do by the time it hits it.

I also hear people justify not taking lift because "Grav/Storm has enough control". Lift is very useful in groups when you take agro, and has saved my life from countless boss's. When you have a + 3 boss, that is capable of 1 shotting you, charging down, you will be happy to see him go flying up in the air and land on his head.
In these situations, I use GD + Lift + GD. This is an exception to the always get containment rule. The reason being if a mob is charging you, and you immobilize it, it will automatically attack. If you lift him, there is a good chance that when he gets up, he will continue his pursuit, and by that time hopefully GD has popped again. This way you avoid taking any damage. In later levels, some bosses can leave a red mark that lasts for days, even with their ranged attacks so it is best to try and avoid them. Lift helps with this quite a bit.

If a person was to skip propel, I would recommend making sure you get a recharge reduction into Lift and Crush. But again I stress, I would never drop ANY of the Gravity ST stuff.

After building up your ST damage chain, you then start to receive your AoE control tools, freezing rain being paramount on the list. Freezing Rain is one of the many reasons that you picked gravity over Ice, Earth and Fire. Crushing field does not have -kb, so you can feel free to immobilize on top of freezing rain, and you still receive all of the knockdown goodness, while producing no scatter. When using Freezing rain, you always want to combine it with Snow Storm and/or crushing field. In groups, the way I have found to be most effective is to lead with snow storm, cast freezing rain, then follow with Crushing field. Leading with snow storm makes sure that Freezing rain does not scatter the pack of mobs. You will be surprised how fast they will scatter at times, even with the supposed slow attached to freezing rain. From what I have seen there must be some kind of pulsing effect with the slow, as sometimes the effects of the slow are not seen at all.

As a Grav/Storm you are not always the best opener in the game, so leave that to someone that can avoid alpha's better than you can. Later in life, the only missing piece to the puzzle will be missing will be the opening move, unless you can get out of LoS within wormhole range. You will get a couple of techniques, and I will come to those later. Unfortunately, the opening powers that you do receive have long recharge timers and do not allow you to open on every pack, which is a hindrance when you are soloing, or when you are playing with someone else that does not lead off well. The other problem you will face is when the spawns are dispersed to an extent that your AoE control powers will not hit them all. Herding is not something that Grav/Storm does with ease. It is possible, but it won't work out for you every time. Many times you will end up just scattering the mobs even worse then they were. But again due to the versatility of the Grav/Storm you can just go into full chaos mode, and come out alive 90% of the time.

While soloing at these levels Freezing Rain will be your main opening move. Keep in mind that when you cast it, you will take a half alpha. After that, try and hold and kill the mobs that make it out of the area of effect first. Leave the rest flopping around, and deal with them last.

The next major tool you will receive is Hurricane. The most noticeable mistake that many people make with this power is that they scatter everything all over the place with it. YOU MUST NOT RUN THROUGH THE SPAWN WITH THIS ACTIVE. If you are standing beside a tank with this on, you are in the wrong place. Hurricane is best used while skirting the battle, you just want to nudge things with it to get the debuff, or too push something into a debuff zone, or push an anchor into another pack. If you see a boss on his own, away from the pack, immobilize him, and then ram him into a wall, and drive him until he stops. Corners are always your friend.

At times, you will see an opening where you can drive the whole spawn into a corner, and I say go for it, but figure out the direction of the push and be aware of which directions all the mobs around you are going to go. In a small room, running into the center of the room with hurricane on, and pushing the mobs to all 4 corners of the room is not really productive. It is preferable to enter the room with it off, stand in the corner, and activate it. This will drive them all into the opposite corner. Packing them, instead of scattering. I enter most fights, with hurricane off, and then turn it on when the need arises. Also, I usually position myself first, then turn it on, this helps you line to line up the precision push.

While soloing, once freezing rain runs out, ram your targets and drive them into a wall or corner. Hold a different mob each time it pops, then immob and ST attack an unheld target. You will be surprised with SO's how many you can get held at once.

The next significant power you will receive is the single biggest reason to pair Grav and Storm together. Of course I speak of Wormhole. Wormholes biggest contribution to this build is that it allows the cornering maneuver, again, which will be discussed later, once all the components have been discussed..

Ok, but as everything, wormhole is not without it's drawbacks. You will take a FULL ALPHA if you lead off with this while having LoS. During the animation all affected mobs are made aware of your presence, and they all get a free shot at you before they are affected.

In groups, let people know what you are doing. Get blasters to call out their nukes. Some people get upset when they unleash one of their powers, and just before it goes off, you throw the entire pack across the room.

Next you will receive Gravity distortion field, which I mainly use just to avoid alpha's with, so that I can Wormhole with no collateral damage. Between this and Recasting singularity into agro range, you get 2 opening moves, that depending on your kill rate, sometimes is enough to open every group. There are many times in groups, that between, being able to get out of LoS with wormhole, Singularity and GDF, I can provide scatterless openings on every fight.


Select corner to wormhole into, keep in mind that with larger the mob, or with larger numbers of mobs, you will require a larger length of wall measured from the apex of the corner in both directions. Next position yourself the best you can, to avoid line of sight with as many of the mobs as possible. If this is not possible, there are some techniques to get a wormhole away while in line of sight, and I will get to those after a explain the maneuver. Next, while having hurricane active, wormhole the mobs low on the side wall near the apex of the corner. It is best to do this at an acute angle, sometimes if you wormhole at 90% you do not get the knock back, I have found that with acute angles, the mobs are more likely to release. Next cast crushing Field and Immobilize them, then run in with hurricane and slowly nudge them deep into the corner.

When your hurricane is touching both side walls, stop! Next, cast Freezing Rain and then crushing field again, just to catch any of the mobs you may have missed with the first crushing field. You will likely hit all of them with the second crushing field because the preceding Freezing rain has substantially debuffed their defense. It is for this reason that I recommend 3 Acc in both crushing field and in Wormhole. Crushing field and wormhole are the only 2 powers that you will be casting consistently on un-debuffed mobs, and is the reason I slot them with 3 acc each.

Once you have them immobilized, trapped in the corner, being knocked down, with -def, -res, and -acc all applied, cast Hasten (if it's not on auto like mine), and then follow with Lightning storm. You can now just sit back and watch the show, while adjusting a little one way or the other to make sure nothing gets blasted away from you.

This maneuver stops working when fighting +4's, assuming no stacked tactics. At this level differential, you start to miss too many of the baddies and end up splitting the pack in half. This is not always beneficial. Make sure you try to maximize your accuracy with wormhole. It is the reason I put 3 Acc enhancements into it.

Using this sort of maneuver, disorient duration is not really a factor. Between Freezing rain, Hurricane, and lightning storm, once the mobs are trapped in the corner, I can't tell if they are disoriented or not as they are continually flopping around like fish pretty much for the duration of the fight.

In some groups, especially ones that are steamrolling, and are killing everything nearly instantaneously, there is obviously no reason to perform this maneuver. In fact, this works best in smaller sized groups. 4-5 people. Where you often don't have the AoE damage to wipe everything out in the blink of an Eye.

Another technique I have been working on perfecting while soloing is pet pulling/herding. What I have found is that if I throw sing in the middle of a room and then run away, sing will agro and then follow me. The spawn will obviously follow. I then set up around 1 corner, while being in sight of a good place to pull of the cornering technique. I have found that as the mobs come around the corner, they will generally take a ranged shot at sing. As they collect at the corner, run towards them and toward the outside wall. Then wormhole them into the corner, or on some maps you can just drive them with hurricane active down the wall and into the corner.

This is still a work in progress, I am still having some issues, but I think most of my problems can be overcome. Try it out yourself, as herding entire rooms and killing all at once is much faster than killing 2-3 at a time. It is also more exciting.

Here is a series of screen shots from a battle series where I used a pet pull. it also shows the normal type of cornering that I do with my Grav/Storm.

Sample of Corner pull with Grav/Storm

When looking for a duoing partner for a Grav/Storm the most effective skills are the ability to herd, and the ability to do strong AoE damage. For this reason the best 2 are either a Fire/Fire tank or a kheld with dwarf form. Both operate similarly in their roles in the duo.

The strategy generally goes that the Tank/kheld herds, and the troller corners the spawn. Then the Kheld/Tank unleash all the AoE damage possible while the troller pounds away with the ST attack chain on the boss's. It is extremely quick, effective and almost no risk.


Unused Powers
Dimension Shift
Not a very popular power, but not without it's uses. I am not going to go into too much detail as Arinara has already explained it sufficiently, and I can add little more as I have never used it.

Steamy Mist
AoE Stealth and 21 % resist in Fire, Cold and energy. This is a good power, but unfortunately, I can not support the endurance cost. If I am running, Hurricane and Snow storm, Plus using my AoE control powers, I run out of endurance far too quickly. Also the stealth becomes really unreliable somewhere in your 30's.

Tornado

Tornado is just too wild for a Grav troller. Without any consistent AoE -kb power it will scatter everything all over the place. Fire, Ice and Earth can all make great use of it's damage, but the Grav troller cannot.

Here is a copy of my build, which I consider perfect now. You will not be led wrong if you use this. This is my build after hours and hours on test, about 8 respecs and leveling myself from 1 to the mid 40's twice.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Marginalman
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Crush==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(21)Dmg(21)Dmg(25)
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) --> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(2)Acc(3)Hold(5)Hold(7)Hold(9)Rechg(11)
04) --> Lift==> Acc(4)Acc(5)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)Dmg(19)
06) --> Propel==> Acc(6)Acc(7)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)Dmg(19)
08) --> Snow Storm==> Slow(8)Slow(9)Slow(36)EndRdx(36)
10) --> Crushing Field==> Acc(10)Acc(11)Acc(37)EndRdx(37)EndRdx(42)Immob(43)
12) --> Hover==> Fly(12)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14)
16) --> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(16)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)
18) --> Swift==> Run(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22)EndMod(23)EndMod(23)
24) --> Hurricane==> TH_DeBuf(24)TH_DeBuf(25)TH_DeBuf(27)EndRdx(50)
26) --> Wormhole==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Acc(29)Rechg(29)Rechg(31)Rechg(31)
28) --> Hasten==> Rechg(28)Rechg(34)Rechg(36)
30) --> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(30)Acc(31)Rechg(37)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)Hold(43)
32) --> Singularity==> Acc(32)Rechg(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(33)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)
35) --> Thunder Clap==> Acc(35)Acc(40)DisDur(43)DisDur(45)DisDur(46)Rechg(46)
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Acc(38)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
41) --> Hibernate==> Rechg(41)
44) --> Frozen Armor==> DefBuf(44)DefBuf(45)DefBuf(45)EndRdx(46)
47) --> Ice Storm==> Acc(47)Acc(48)Dmg(48)Dmg(48)Dmg(50)Rechg(50)
49) --> Recall Friend==> IntRdx(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------


Everyday is not a good one for the Grav/Storm, some days you are a god, other days well, it just doesn't always work out. Mezzers, stunners, things that won't fall down (Nemesis jaegers), Council Missile launchers, can all ruin a Grav/Storms day.


There is no in between for the Grav/Storm you need to either hang back and play a support role, or take charge and impose your will on the unwilling, only death lies between.

Play safe and have fun!

Everyone plays differently, I focus on not scattering and making my playstyle as team friendly as possible.

Grav/Storm can be quite intrusive.

Wormhole freaks a lot of people out. I have found that if I can show that I have wormholed and put us in a better position then we were, then it is accepted. If I scatter things, and revert to chaotic control, it is generally not appreciated.

So my build, and my strategies are what I have found to be best for meeting my goals of making a major contribution to my team.

At the same time, I have left mysef a build that is still one of the best soloing toons that I have, which is why Marginalman is my favorite toon that I have played.

Grav/Storm Guide V2.0 (I8)

Grav/Storm - The Ultimate Mob postioning Hero

So you decided or are interested in rolling a Grav/Storm Controller. First I would like to say congratulations. Grav/Storm is an extremely versatile power set combination, allowing you to combine practically everything the game has to offer. Grav/Storm's greatest asset is that it allows you to make great use of the one of the most powerful, and largely un-resisted effects in this game, knockback/down. Grav/Storm is one of the only power sets that will allow you to use this knockback as defense, and at the same time keep the mobs it a tight cluster consistently. This ability, in my opinion, is the reason someone rolls a Grav/Storm.

While playing the Grav/Storm you will probably find out that it has 2 successful playing styles, one passive, and the other very aggressive.

The first style is to use the cornering maneuver, which I will go into more detail later. Grav/Storm provides a very unique playing style. It is high risk/high reward; it is on the edge of your seat, heart pounding out of your chest kind of action. When possible, I use the cornering maneuver, and is what made me fall in love with my Grav/Strom Troller.

The second is to play a support role, and despite what you may or may not have heard, Gravity/Storm can easily take a back seat and still make significant contributions to the team. Some of the abilities include mob positioning, debuffing, slowing, providing a pocket tank, panic buttons, and of course large amounts of AoE hard and soft control.

The trick lies in deciding which way you will be more of an asset to the team.

I tend to use the cornering technique when my group is working hard to kill all the mobs, or people are getting hurt during the fights, or perhaps if the packs are getting scattered by some means. The other criteria is that the mobs we are fighting are not more than +3 relative to me.

Soloing with a Grav/Storm starts out slow and safe, during the mid levels it becomes even safer, and even slower, but at the end game you become crazily safe and can kill at a pretty decent speed.

Grav/Storm does not realize it's potential until level 38, so be warned, it is a long path, but one that I feel is well worth it, as it is truly awesome once you get there.

Grav/Storm will never kill as fast as some of the major FoTM's involving Kin, but I believe it to be one of the most well rounded, versatile, unique, and for me it is just simply the most fun.

Once you get a taste of manipulating not only the environment of the battlefield, but also being able to dictate where that battle will take place, it becomes hard to live without it.

Gravity/Storm has it strength's and it has it's weaknesses. Aside from having it's specialty of mob positioning, it is sort of hampered my being a jack of all trades and master of none. Gravity/Storm does not have the best control among controllers, and it does not have the best damage either. What it does have is equal proportions of both, and the ability to combine almost all of it's powers together to produce some pretty awesome effects.

Anyway, I am on a personal crusade to try and help educate people into perhaps learning to play the game in a whole new way, one that encourages everyone to take all the knock back powers available. As I mentioned earlier, with a Grav/Storm, knock back becomes defense with no lose to the effectiveness of AoE powers.


Gravity Storm is a very tight build. It is a tight build not so much because you need too many things, but rather because I really can't see any useless powers in either set. The problem is trying to chose, especially when you get down to the last 2-3.

Build Breakdown

Level 1
Crush, Gale
I take crush right off, as it does more damage over time than does Gravity Distortion(GD). Despite the lower BI, it's recharge is quicker and it keeps a mob immobilized for a longer duration, which allows me to sets up containment quickly, and keep containment even through a miss. This serves as the power I use to set up containment on whatever I am trying to kill at that exact moment. I slot Crush with 2 Acc's and 3 damage. Crush is a key component in your ST damage attack chain, and will be a staple of everything you do right through to level 50.

Level 2
Gravity Distortion
Your main ST hold, and probably your most important power, you will be slotting this to 6 almost immediately. I slot it with 2 Acc's, 3 hold's, and 1 recharge. I have found this to be as endurance efficient as it gets, it also allows you to hold a mob and turn your attention elsewhere for the maximum amount of time possible.

Level 4
Lift
Pretty self explanatory, soft control, and decent ST damage. The Assets of this power are that it has -Fly, it has the fastest animation of any power in either set, it does decent damage, and it provides a decent period of soft control. I slot this with 2 Acc's and 3 damage. Again, it is part of your main damage attack chain, and should be maximized for damage.

Level 6
Propel
A flashy power, but one that I feel is over-rated. It is still part of my build as it does do considerable damage, however it is most useful in small groups or when soloing. In large groups, the long activation time of propel, make it pretty unusable. If a person was to drop an attack out of this build, this is the attack I would drop. However, I recommend hanging onto it as it fills out your attack chain nicely. Slotting is 2 Acc's and 3 damage.

Level 8
Snow Storm
Snow storm is an excellent toggle slow, with a large degree of slowing and affects a large area. It is key for the Stormie to have in order to reduce scatter. It is a key power to the success of the Grav/Storm controller. Note that it is fairly endurance heavy. Recommended slotting is 3 slows and 2 end reduc's.

Level 10
Crushing Field
It is a pretty straight forward power. It is used to set up AoE containment and to reduce scatter. Keeping everything immobilized is an extremely important component to the way I play my Grav/Storm. Unfortunately, to achieve this is very endurance intensive. This power will be referred to throughout the guide in conjunction with the other powers. It is very important that you hit with this power, as anything it misses has a good chance of getting away from you. Although it not flashy, it is the one power that ties the whole thing together. Recommended slotting is 3 Acc, 2 endurance reduc's, and 1 immob duration

Level 12/14

It doesn't really matter what you pick for a travel power but here are some thoughts on each choice.

Leaping
Acrobatics would be a great advantage to the Grav/Storm controller. 90% of the time when things go wrong, it is because you get knocked back at a really inopportune time. If you want Super Jump, I recommend making a spot for this as well, but if you do, you will also need to put 3 endurance reduction slots as well.

Flight
This is what I have taken, simply because flight is my preferred travel power. I took Hover as a prerequisite and use it for knock back protection when needed.

Teleport.
Recall friend is useful for repositioning Sing. I can't stand teleport as a travel power, but if I could, I would take Recall friend and Teleport. If you take this, I would recommend fitting Steamy Mist into your build since then you can stealth in and TP sing into agro range, which is an effective opening move while soloing or in a group that doesn't have many good opening moves.


Speed
If you can live with SS as a travel power, you could open up a slot later in the build by taking hasten and SS.

Level 16
Freezing Rain
Freezing Rain is one of the best powers in the whole game, it provides about 50% mitigation, appx a 25% Defense debuff, and about a 25% -Res debuff. It only has one drawback, it scatters. Luckily, the Grav/Storm controller has 2 methods to controlling the scatter in Crushing field and Snow storm. For slotting, I recommend 3 Recharge Reduc's slotted immediately as a minimum, and then add a mix of defense debuffs and endurance reducers, depending on what your build allows.

Level 18
Swift or Hurdle
Just a means to get stamina, whatever you like, it has no bearing. I like swift, as I like my general run speed to be faster in missions and such. It helps me get to where I want to be faster. No additional slotting.

Level 20
Health
Not much to say, but no additional slotting needed.

Level 22
Stamina
You definitely need this to run a Grav/Storm controller, Needs 3 endurance mod slots.

Level 24
Hurricane
This power is the next major component that allows you to dominate large spawns. It has a substantial To-hit debuff as well as a 1 second pulsing repel. It also has a semi-regular knock back component. This power used to be totally dominant all on it's own. But right before I7, it was hit hard by the nerf bad, assumedly in the name of PvP. It used to pulse repel 10 times a second, but it was nerfed back to 1 per second. This one per second pulse has made it harder to control, and sculpt packs of mobs.

The schedule for the To-hit debuff enhancements was also scaled back from 33% to 20%, which also had a significant effect.

The end result is that mobs will easily run into your hurricane and get into melee range, Once in melee range they will now hit you much more often. Especially versus +3 and above.

The other nerf, which I believe is a bug, is that when you hold or immobilize a mob and then nudge him with hurricane he will be repelled 20-30 ft past the outside of the effect of the hurricane. Before they played with this power, it would only repel the mob to the outside of the effect. I hope the devs fix this sometime soon, as it makes controlling the mobs more difficult. Luckily the effects of this bug are only minor for the Grav controller, because generally you will be using hurricane to drive packs into walls and corners, and in these cases, the distance of the pushback is predetermined by the backstop.

Slotting for Hurricane is 3 To-hit debuff enhancements and if you have the spare slot then one endurance reduction.

Level 26
Wormhole.
Wormhole is a fantastic power and is the power that defines gravity. No other set has this ability, and combined with your other powers will make you unstoppable. This is Gravity's AoE disorient, and is comparable to Flashfires or Stalagmites from the other controller sets. The difference comes in that, besides being an AoE disorient, it is also an AoE foe teleport.

It contains 2 different ranges, a casting range and an exit point range. The casting range is 60ft, the same as propel, and I am not sure what the exit range is, but it is far. Unlike Stalagmites and flash fires, you cannot cast this while having line of sight, if you do you will take a full alpha before I goes off.

It is very important to hit with wormhole, as anything you miss will be split from the pack that get tp'd. Dividing the spawns in half is very counterproductive. Therefore my slotting is 3 Acc and 3 Recharge.



Level 28
Hasten
Hasten is a power that improves the recharge of all your powers by 70%. It is a great asset to all your mid to long recharging powers, most notably to get Sing and GDF up and ready again for the next spawn. It has also been noted to transfer onto your summoned entities, which is the main reason this has been included in my build. It does not seem to effect Sing, but it will haste your Lightning Storm's attack rate. Slotting is 3 recharge reductions.


Level 30
Gravity Distortion field.
Due to the short duration, and massive recharge, this is no longer a staple of the set. Use it as a panic button, or you can lead off with it. Leading off with it is good, because then you can avoid the alpha associated with Wormhole. When available, this is your best opening move. It is also good for building quick mag on boss's.

Level 32
Singularity
He is your personal body guard. He will save your life more times than you will even realize. He is always trailing behind you, and he really does have your back. He will also cover your escape when needed. Sing Spams 3 attacks. GD, Crush and Lift. He tends to attack the closest target to himself, however, he does have some higher level thought going on in there, as he does switch targets a lot, which is good as it helps you avoid taking agro.
Sing is very durable and makes a great pocket tank, I utilize him regularly to take alpha's for me and therefore slot him with recharge.
My recommended slotting for this build and to maximize your ability to lead off is 1 Acc, 3 recharge, and the last 2, either damage, or hold, or both.



Level 35
Level 35 is my nemesis, over my time playing I can never decide what to put here. The main contenders are 02 boost and Thunderclap.

Thunderclap
Thunderclap is a Mag 2 disorient. This means it will only disorient minions. It will not disorient Lieutenants or bosses, that do not have prior mag built up on them. It's base duration is 10 seconds and it has quite a large area of effect. Slightly larger than Hurricane. One of the great things about this power is that it has a 45 second recharge, so it can be up every fight, without any additional recharge slotting. My recommended slotting is 2 Acc's and 3 Disorient durations.

O2 boost
O2 boost is a reasonable sized ST heal which includes 30 seconds of status protection for the recipient for stuns and sleeps. It is very useful for duoing, or in all squishy groups. It's recharge is pretty quick and I don't recommend slotting it for recharge. 3 heal enhancements is plenty, and some may want to leave it un-slotted and just use the status protection.

Level 38
Lightning storm
Here is the AoE damage you have been looking for, for the last 38 levels. It is awesome. As mentioned near the beginning of this guide, knock back becomes defense for the grav controller, and in this case, Lightning Storm provides a ton of it. It strikes appx once every 3 seconds for 30 seconds, although this can be hastened and SB'd. According to stats, it already has the equivalent of 3 Acc enhancements. With it fully slotted with recharge, and with hasten active, it is possible to have 2 of them going at the same time for a short amount of time. Recommended slotting is 3 damage 3 recharge.

Epic Powers

I consider the epic powers to be icing. Not really going to go into any detail here. I will be taking Ice for thematic reasons. I will be taking Hibernate, the armor and Ice Storm.

Strategy Discussion

The early levels and the ST attack chains.

GD, Crush, Lift and Propel are the heart of the Grav/Storm controller, providing both damage and control at the same time.

Always Crush or Gravity Distortion (GD) everything before you use any of you ST attacks. It is really a waste of endurance to hit anything with either Lift or Propel without getting the containment bonus.

Control your knock backs. Crush + Propel/Lift will knock back/up, GD + Propel, will not. Pay attention to what is needed in each situation. You are a Grav/Storm; you are the ultimate mob positioning hero. You should observe this even with your ST Powers.

While grouping, you will find Propel to be sort of annoying. With the long animation time you will be hitting dead targets a lot. In small groups that need damage, I use propel, but in a 4+ man group, I don't even bother. In groups, my ST attack chain consist of GD, Crush and Lift only.

The following is the way I found that the early Grav/Storm powers synergize together the best. I feel with operating like this provides maximum mitigation, while still providing adequate damage.

Grouping Control Attack chain

Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift
Select target C, GD
Select target B or D, Crush + lift
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.

I rarely activate Propel in large groups for the reason described above.

Soloing attack Chain

Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target C, GD
Select target D, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.

Bosses require 2 applications to hold, so in those situations, A & C should be the boss, both solo, and in a group. It should also be noted that Crush is a Magnitude 4 immobilize, meaning you can immobilize a boss in one shot. Keep this in mind when developing your own strategies.

Lift vs. Crush.

Over and Over and Over, I keep hearing that everyone either takes Crush or Lift. I really couldn't imagine removing either. If someone told me I had to get rid of one of my attacks, the decision would be between Lift and Propel, and I already know that Propel would be the one to go. Despite Propel being a fun power, it is more situational. Lift is a useful tool at all times. Lift has a quick animation, does reasonable damage, and provides a fairly decent period of soft control on a single target. Propel, is similar, except the animation time is so long that whatever you were trying to control, has already done what it wanted to do by the time it hits it.

I also hear people justify not taking lift because "Grav/Storm has enough control". Lift is very useful in groups when you take agro, and has saved my life from countless boss's. When you have a + 3 boss, that is capable of 1 shotting you, charging down, you will be happy to see him go flying up in the air and land on his head.
In these situations, I use GD + Lift + GD. This is an exception to the always get containment rule. The reason being if a mob is charging you, and you immobilize it, it will automatically attack. If you lift him, there is a good chance that when he gets up, he will continue his pursuit, and by that time hopefully GD has popped again. This way you avoid taking any damage. In later levels, some bosses can leave a red mark that lasts for days, even with their ranged attacks so it is best to try and avoid them. Lift helps with this quite a bit.

If a person was to skip propel, I would recommend making sure you get a recharge reduction into Lift and Crush. Although, I encourage you to take all the Gravity ST stuff.

After building up your ST damage chain, your then start to receive your AoE control tools, freezing rain being paramount on the list. Freezing Rain is one of the many reasons that you picked gravity over Ice, Earth and Fire. Crushing field does not have -kb, so you can feel free to immobilize on top of freezing rain, and you still receive all of the knockdown goodness, while producing no scatter. When using Freezing rain, you always want to combine it with Snow Storm and/or crushing field. In groups, the way I have found to be most effective is to lead with snow storm, cast freezing rain, then follow with Crushing field. Leading with snow storm makes sure that Freezing rain does not scatter the pack of mobs. You will be surprised how fast they will scatter at times, even with the supposed slow attached to freezing rain. From what I have seen there must be some kind of pulsing effect with the slow, as sometimes the effects of the slow are not seen at all.

As a Grav/Storm you are not always the best opener in the game, so leave that to someone that can avoid alpha's better than you can. Later in life, the only missing piece to the puzzle will be missing will be the opening move, unless you can get out of LoS within wormhole range. You will get a couple of techniques, and I will come to those later. Unfortunately, the opening powers that you do receive have long recharge timers and do not allow you to open on every pack, which is a hindrance when you are soloing, or when you are playing with someone else that does not lead off well. The other problem you will face is when the spawns are dispersed to an extent that your AoE control powers will not hit them all. Herding is not something that Grav/Storm does with ease. It is possible, but it won't work out for you every time. Many times you will end up just scattering the mobs even worse then they were. But again due to the versatility of the Grav/Storm you can just go into full chaos mode, and come out alive 90% of the time.

The next major tool you will receive is Hurricane. The most noticeable mistake that many people make with this power is that they scatter everything all over the place with it. YOU MUST NOT RUN THROUGH THE SPAWN WITH THIS ACTIVE. If you are standing beside a tank with this on, you are in the wrong place. Hurricane is best used while skirting the battle, you just want to nudge things with it to get the debuff, or too push something into a debuff zone, or push an anchor into another pack. If you see a boss on his own, away from the pack, immobilize him, and then ram him into a wall, and drive him until he stops. Corners are always your friend.

At times, you will see an opening where you can drive the whole spawn into a corner, and I say go for it, but figure out the direction of the push and be aware of which directions all the mobs around you are going to go. In a small room, running into the center of the room with hurricane on, and pushing the mobs to all 4 corners of the room is not really productive. It is preferable to enter the room with it off, stand in the corner, and activate it. This will drive them all into the opposite corner. Packing them, instead of scattering. I enter most fights, with hurricane off, and then turn it on when the need arises. Also, I usually position myself first, then turn it on, this helps you line to line up the precision push.

While soloing, once freezing rain runs out, ram your targets and drive them into a wall or corner. Hold a different mob each time it pops, then immob and ST attack an unheld target. You will be surprised with SO's how many you can get held at once.

The next significant power you will receive is the single biggest reason to pair Grav and Storm together. Of course I speak of Wormhole. Wormholes biggest contribution to this build is that it allows the cornering maneuver, again, which will be discussed later, once all the components have been discussed..

Ok, but as everything, wormhole is not without it's drawbacks. You will take a FULL ALPHA if you lead off with this while having LoS. During the animation all affected mobs are made aware of your presence, and they all get a free shot at you before they are affected.

In groups, let people know what you are doing. Get blasters to call out their nukes. Some people get upset when they unleash one of their powers, and just before it goes off, you throw the entire pack across the room.

Next you will receive Gravity distortion field, which I mainly use just to avoid alpha's with, so that I can Wormhole with no collateral damage. Between this and Recasting singularity into agro range, you get 2 opening moves, that depending on your kill rate, sometimes is enough to open every group. There are many times in groups, that between, being able to get out of LoS with wormhole, Singularity and GDF, I can provide scatterless openings on every fight.


Select corner to wormhole into, keep in mind that with larger the mob, or with larger numbers of mobs, you will require a larger length of wall measured from the apex of the corner in both directions. Next position yourself the best you can, to avoid line of sight with as many of the mobs as possible. If this is not possible, there are some techniques to get a wormhole away while in line of sight, and I will get to those after a explain the maneuver. Next, while having hurricane active, wormhole the mobs low on the side wall near the apex of the corner. It is best to do this at an acute angle, sometimes if you wormhole at 90% you do not get the knock back, I have found that with acute angles, the mobs are more likely to release. Next cast crushing Field and Immobilize them, then run in with hurricane and slowly nudge them deep into the corner.

When your hurricane is touching both side walls, stop! Next, cast Freezing Rain and then crushing field again, just to catch any of the mobs you may have missed with the first crushing field. You will likely hit all of them with the second crushing field because the preceding Freezing rain has substantially debuffed their defense. It is for this reason that I recommend 3 Acc in both crushing field and in Wormhole. Crushing field and wormhole are the only 2 powers that you will be casting consistently on un-debuffed mobs, and is the reason I slot them with 3 acc each.

Once you have them immobilized, trapped in the corner, being knocked down, with -def, -res, and -acc all applied, cast Hasten (if it's not on auto like mine), and then follow with Lightning storm. You can now just sit back and watch the show, while adjusting a little one way or the other to make sure nothing gets blasted away from you.

This maneuver stops working when fighting +4's, assuming no stacked tactics. At this level differential, you start to miss too many of the baddies and end up splitting the pack in half. This is not always beneficial. As you take half the mobs out of the AoE area. Make sure you try to maximize your accuracy with wormhole. It is the reason I put 3 Acc enhancements into it.


Using this sort of maneuver, disorient duration is not really a factor. Between Freezing rain, Hurricane, and lightning storm, once the mobs are trapped in the corner, I can't tell if they are disoriented or not as they are continually flopping around like fish pretty much for the duration of the fight.

In some groups, especially ones that are steamrolling, and are killing everything nearly instantaneously, there is obviously no reason to perform this maneuver. In fact, this works best in smaller sized groups. 4-5 people. Where you often don't have the AoE damage to wipe everything out in the blink of an Eye.

Another technique I have been working on perfecting while soloing is pet pulling/herding. What I have found is that if I throw sing in the middle of a room and then run away, sing will agro and then follow me. The spawn will obviously follow. I then set up around 1 corner, while being in sight of a good place to pull of the cornering technique. I have found that as the mobs come around the corner, they will generally take a ranged shot at sing. As they collect at the corner, run towards them and toward the outside wall. Then wormhole them into the corner, or on some maps you can just drive them with hurricane active down the wall and into the corner.

This is still a work in progress, I am still having some issues, but I think most of my problems can be overcome. Try it out yourself, as herding entire rooms and killing all at once is much faster than killing 2-3 at a time. It is also more exciting.

Here is a series of screen shots from a battle series where I used a pet pull. it also shows the normal type of cornering that I do with my Grav/Storm.
Smaple of pet pull cornering technique.

When looking for a duoing partner for a Grav/Storm the most effective skills are the ability to herd, and the ability to do strong AoE damage. For this reason the best 2 are either a Fire/Fire tank or a kheld with dwarf form. Both operate similarly in their roles in the duo.

The strategy generally goes that the Tank/kheld herds, and the troller corners the spawn. Then the Kheld/Tank unleash all the AoE damage possible while the troller pounds away with the ST attack chain on the boss's. It is extremely quick, effective and almost no risk.


Unused Powers
Dimension Shift
Not a very popular power, but not without it's uses. I am not going to go into too much detail as Arinara has already explained it sufficiently, and I can add little more as I have never used it.

Steamy Mist
AoE Stealth and 21 % resist in Fire, Cold and energy. This is a good power, but unfortunately, I can not support the endurance cost. If I am running, Hurricane and Snow storm, Plus using my AoE control powers, I run out of endurance far too quickly. Also the stealth becomes really unreliable somewhere in your 30's.

Tornado

Tornado is just too wild for a Grav troller. Without any consistent AoE -kb power it will scatter everything all over the place. Fire, Ice and Earth can all make great use of it's damage, but the Grav troller cannot.

Here is a copy of my build, which I consider perfect now. You will not be led wrong if you use this. This is my build after hours and hours on test, about 8 respecs and leveling myself from 1 to the mid 40's twice.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Marginalman
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Crush==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(21)Dmg(21)Dmg(25)
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) --> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(2)Acc(3)Hold(5)Hold(7)Hold(9)Rechg(11)
04) --> Lift==> Acc(4)Acc(5)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)Dmg(19)
06) --> Propel==> Acc(6)Acc(7)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)Dmg(19)
08) --> Snow Storm==> Slow(8)Slow(9)Slow(36)EndRdx(36)EndRdx(46)
10) --> Crushing Field==> Acc(10)Acc(11)Acc(37)EndRdx(37)EndRdx(42)Immob(43)
12) --> Hover==> Fly(12)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14)
16) --> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(16)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)DefDeBuf(45)DefDeBuf(46)
18) --> Swift==> Run(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22)EndMod(23)EndMod(23)
24) --> Hurricane==> TH_DeBuf(24)TH_DeBuf(25)TH_DeBuf(27)EndRdx(50)
26) --> Wormhole==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Acc(29)Rechg(29)Rechg(31)Rechg(31)
28) --> Hasten==> Rechg(28)Rechg(34)Rechg(36)
30) --> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(30)Acc(31)Rechg(37)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)Hold(43)
32) --> Singularity==> Acc(32)Rechg(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(33)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)
35) --> O2 Boost==> Heal(35)Heal(40)Heal(43)
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Dmg(38)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Rechg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
41) --> Hibernate==> Rechg(41)
44) --> Frozen Armor==> DefBuf(44)DefBuf(45)DefBuf(45)EndRdx(46)
47) --> Ice Storm==> Acc(47)Acc(48)Dmg(48)Dmg(48)Dmg(50)Rechg(50)
49) --> Recall Friend==> IntRdx(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------



Everyday is not a good one for the Grav/Storm, some days you are a god, other days well, it just doesn't always work out. Mezzers, stunners, things that won't fall down (Nemesis jaegers), Council Missile launchers, can all ruin a Grav/Storms day.


There is no in between for the Grav/Storm you need to either hang back and play a support role, or take charge and impose your will on the unwilling, only death lies between.

Play safe and have fun!

[ QUOTE ]
Gravity/Storm Summoning
Possibly the second most powerful Controller Secondary, several of the powers in the Storm Summoning set actually work better with a Controller than they do with a Defender!
You get a PBAoE stealth for better movement around the battlefield, a Slow to stack with Crushing Field to reduce incoming damage, a Knockdown to reduce it further that also debuffs with -Def and -Res for more damage more often, a PBAoE Repel with -Acc and Repel which not only provides amazing melee defense, but also increases the amount of Locational Control available, a PBAoE Disorient that stacks well with Wormhole, a "pet" that deals good damage provided you use Gravity Distortion to keep it from throwing everything around, and another "pet" that deals good damage and acts as yet another melee defense.
No real defense against ranged attacks, though, and nothing that really helps Singularity too much.

This powerset has a lot of toggles that drain a lot of endurance. If you're not planning on taking Stamina, be ready to slot many Endurance Reduction enhancements in the toggles.
___________
Crushing field has one downfall-- it immobilizes but does not root. Tornado is hard for gravity users to control, since the -kb is on the holds not the immobilizes, which makes the AoE impossible to spam. This makes gravity, a set that is usually played quite orderly, into a chaotic control set when paired with Storm. That makes tornado into a situational chaotic control for grav instead of a damage/mez dealer, which it is for many other sets.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't really say that I agree with much of this.

I don't even take tornado. Nor do I normally run any toggles aside from hurricane.

Crushing Field not having a -kb is a benefit, not a downfall, it allows you to produce insane amounts of knockDOWN.

The strategies are far different from Fire/Storm.

Actually, I didn't even use Wormhole in the below link, I pet pulled them around the corner.

Does this look like chaos?

Read my guide.

Anyway, your effort is appreciated. I just hate to see misinformation, and you certainly missed the mark on this one.

[ QUOTE ]
Nice guide Rein. I have a 34 Grav/Storm myself.

I agree with what you said about choosing between Crush and Lift: Both are good. My current build has no Crush only because i wanted another power and respec'd out of it, but i will be choosing it again. I think anything that adds to yer control is a good thing, and yes, Lift is great control in the form of damage mitigation.

I was curoius about one thing. You start talking about specing into leaping for KB protection in your 2nd post and my question would be-Why no Hover? Hover is great KB protection. I mean, not the best, certainly not better than Acro( as I have used both) but why not take that instead of AS?? Unless of course you prefer controlling the universe from the ground.

Other than that, great guide, especially for people starting on this set.

-Mohlvie

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't hover, I need to be firmly planted on the ground. Someone else has suggested hover in another thread, I will be adding it to this guide soon.

I am going to leave this as a work in progress, and perhaps cover every power in both sets eventually. I have had a few suggestions, some of them I had heard of before and some that I had not. I am going to play around with my build a bit more and see if I can improve on it any.

I will update this probably in a few days.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Marginalman
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Crush==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) Dmg(23)
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) --> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(2) Acc(3) Hold(5) Hold(7) Hold(9) Rechg(11)
04) --> Lift==> Acc(4) Acc(5) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(19)
06) --> Propel==> Acc(6) Acc(7) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(21)
08) --> Snow Storm==> Slow(8) Slow(9)
10) --> Crushing Field==> Acc(10) Acc(11) EndRdx(36) EndRdx(36) Immob(36) Immob(46)
12) --> Air Superiority==> Acc(12)
14) --> Fly==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(16) Rechg(17) Rechg(17) DefDeBuf(37) DefDeBuf(40) DefDeBuf(43)
18) --> Hurdle==> Jump(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(25)
24) --> Hurricane==> TH_DeBuf(24) TH_DeBuf(25) TH_DeBuf(29)
26) --> Wormhole==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Acc(27) Rechg(29) Rechg(31) Rechg(31)
28) --> Hasten==> Rechg(28) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
30) --> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(30) Acc(31) Acc(34)
32) --> Singularity==> Dmg(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Hold(33) Hold(34) Hold(34)
35) --> O2 Boost==> Heal(35) Heal(43) Heal(50)
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Dmg(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
41) --> Ice Blast==> Acc(41) Acc(42) Dmg(42) Dmg(42) Dmg(43)
44) --> Frozen Armor==> DefBuf(44) DefBuf(45) DefBuf(45) EndRdx(45) EndRdx(46) EndRdx(46)
47) --> Ice Storm==> Acc(47) Acc(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(50) Rechg(50)
49) --> Hibernate==> Rechg(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------


This is my recommended build, with no respec.

Levels 1-15.

A bit slow, but you should easily be able to solo rugged.

Grouping:
In groups, you will have limited control. Propel, should be mainly used for self defense. If something comes to attack you crush + propel will get it off you and you will do good damage at the same time.

Hang back, Grav/Storm does not need to be in the thick of things, plus with hurricane you always want to be skirting the outside of the fight.

Always crush or Gravity distotion(GD) everything before you use any of you ST attacks.

Control your knockbacks, crush + propel will knockback, GD + propel, will not. Pay attention to what is needed in each situation. You are a Grav/Storm, you are the ultimate mob positioning hero. You should observe this even with your ST powers.

Over and Over and Over I keep hearing that everyone either takes Crush or Lift. For me, I think the decision should be between Lift and Propel, and to be honest, they are both my bread and butter moves, I couldn't imagine removing either.

Over the course of my heroes life, Lift has been more useful than Propel. In groups, Propel is nearly useless, with the long animation time my propel hits a dead target 90% of the time.
On the other hand, Lift has a quick animation, does reasonable damage, and provides a fairly decent period of soft control on a single target.

Lift - Quick, Damage, Control whats not to love. I also hear alot that grav/storm has enough control, and thus Lift is not needed. Lift has saved my life from countless boss's. When you take agro, and you have a +3 Crey Protector charging you, you will be happy to see him go flying up in the air and land on his head. Allowing you to reapply your hold, and/or ST Immob.

In combination, you will find that the Crush, Lift and Propel attack chain will be able to kill pretty much any single target and only take 1 hit at the beginning. Lift's (Ragdoll physics)soft control time is almost exactly as long as Propel's animation, surley as per design.

Control Attack chain (useful in groups)

Select target A, Hold,
Select target B, Crush + Lift
Select target C, Hold
Select target B, Crush + lift
Select target A or D, Hold
Etc Etc.

When Soloing, add in Propel at the end of lift. Boss's require 2 applications to hold, so in those situations, A & C should be the boss.

Levels 16-21

At level 16 you get Freezing rain, one of the best powers in the whole game. Only one drawback, it scatters. You always want to combine Freezing rain with Snow Storm and/or crushing field. In groups, there are a number of ways you can go about this. Lead with snow storm, and then cast freezing rain, then Crushing field. Leading with snow storm allows other people to get agro, before you throw the freezing rain and Crushing field out there. As a Grav/Storm you are not the best opener in the game, leave that to the Tank, or a Rad, or someone that can avoid alpha's better than you can. Later in life, the only missing piece to the puzzle will be the opening move, unless you can get out of LoS within wormhole range. Your will get a couple of techniques, and I will come to those later. Suffice it to say they are not every group type powers.

Solo, ...at these levels, you need to size up the group, you will be leading off with freezing rain and will take a 1/2 alpha when you cast it. Next get Snow storm on the most dangerous foe. Then start hammering away with your attack chain. At this level, going for small packs of high level foes yield the best experience. Packs of 3 containing a +1 leutenant, being my favorite. Don't be too afraid of the bosses either, Orange bosses will be easy enough to kill.

Levels 22-32

And so it begins...

22 - Hurricane, you need to be careful not to run through spawns with this on while on a team. You just want to knudge things with it to get the debuff, or too push something into a debuff zone, or push an anchor into another pack. If you see a boss on his own, away from the pack, immob him, and then ram him into a wall, and drive him until he stops. Corners are always your friend.

At times, you will see an opening where you can drive the whole spawn into a corner, and I say go for it, but figure out the direction of the push and be aware of which directions all the mobs around you are going to go. In a small room, running in with hurricane and pushing them to all 4 corners of the room is not really productive, when you could enter the romm with it off, stand in the corner, and activate it. This will drive them all into the opposite corner. Packing them, instead of scattering. I enter every fight, that i am not wormholing into a corner, with hurricane off, and then turn it on when the need arises. Also, I usually position myself first, then turn it on, this helps you line up the precision push.

Solo, once freezing rain runs out ram your targets and drive them into a wall or corner. Hold a different mob each time it pops, then immob and ST attack an unheld target. You will be surprised with SO's how many you can get held at once.

26-Wormhole.

This is the power that defines gravity. No other set has this ability, and combined with your other powers will make you unstoppable. You need to be careful though, you will take a FULL ALPHA if you lead off with this while having LoS.

Use it as a panic button, throwing your foes to maximum distance. Use it with the cornering technique. Use it when youy group has just agro'd an adjacent pack, then throw the "add" pack, ontop of the initial pack, to create a Mega Pack (tm). Use it to move small sub packs that are not in the debuff zone. There are too many, suffice it to say, there are a million ways to use this hugely enjoyable power.

In groups, let people know what you are doing. Get blasters to call out their nukes. Some people get upset when they unleash one of their powers, and just before it goes off, you throw the entire pack across the room.

The cornering technique as described above, goes as follows. You want to pick a corner to wormhole to, then stand so that your hurricane is well away from the apex of the corner. Wormhole the mobs into the corner, activate crushing field, and then run in with your hurricane and pack them all tight into the corner (you should stop when the hurricane graphic is just barely touching the apex of the corner, or you will get some baddies "sliding" out the sides.) , then cast freezing rain. From here it is ST damage time with the occasional Crushing field to keep them from running away. It is very good to duo with a blaster, as they can unleash all of their AoE fury on the pack with no worries of collateral damage.

28 – Gravity Distortion field.

Due to the short duration, and massive recharge, this is no longer a staple of the set. Use it as a panick button, or you can lead off with it. Leading off with it is good, because then you can avoid the alpha associated with Wormhole. This is your best opening move as reffered to earlier in this guide. Oh and it is also good for building quick mag on boss's.

32 – Sing

He is your personal body guard. He will save your life more times than you will even realize. He is always trailing behind you, and he really does have your back. He will also cover your escape when needed.

One of his best uses is that you can use him as your second opening move, which is one of his best attributes. Cast him right in front of a pack of foes, then wormhole the foes into a corner. Do not cast him in the middle of a pack of foes, or he will knock them all over the place. Like a khelds Nova, without the damage.

Level 33-40
35 - Tornado
Another panic button, and a boss killer. Do not use this regularly , it is ok when you have a single target. With a single boss spam GD and then cast Tornado once held, keep spamming GD afterward to keep knock back suppression active. The tornado will sit there on top of him and tick away, adding considerable damage. In groups this will scatter mobs everywhere, and people will not like you for it. this does not work with the cornering technique, it will get in behind the foes and blow them out of the corner, it really has limited use for a Grav troller. AV's and EB's are other good applications for this power.

Lightning storm – The final piece to the puzzle.

Here is the AoE damage you have been looking for, for the last 38 levels, and it is awesome. After you have a pack of mobs cornered and trapped with hurricane as described above. Cast this and it will rip your foes to shreds. The minions will be dead by the end of it, so just use your ST attack for the bosses and leuts.

One other thing I love about this power is it doesn't go quiet until all are dead. I feel like my little cloud is saying "Hey! there is still one over there, where are you all going?"

When cornering is not possible, set this up well outside of the debuff/AoE zone. It tends to hit the closest target, and quite often will knockback escaping targets back into the debuff/AoE zone.

Level 41-50
Epic powers

Fire - Contained Fireball… Need I say more. The game has now become too easy.

A popular choice is to start with the fire epic at 41, and then repec into Psi or Ice at 47.

General Comments

I didn't take steamy mist, but that is just personal preference, I have endurance issues as is.

Thunder clap, does not work that well with hurricane active, I didn't like the conflict and respec'd out of it.

Another option i have been toying around with is going for the leaping pool. More often than not, when things go bad for me it is because I get knockbacked, before I have the pack under control. Therefore, I am thinking more and more of going for Combat jumping, Super Jump and Acrobatics. Acrobatics to be added at Power slot 35 instead of O2 boost 3 slotted with end red.

My strategy most of the time is to wormhole entire packs into a corner, AoE immobilize them, pack them right into the corner with hurricane, and then let Lightning storm rip apart the minions while I unload Fireballs and my ST attack chain on the lieuts and boss's. This stops working around +4's, as you start to miss more than you hit, and then you end up dividing the packs which is counter productive.

I overslot my accuracy in both Wormhole, and Crushing field. I highly recommend at least 2 Acc's in each. You don't want to leave anyone behind, and it is annoying to have any of your victims escape being cornered. I do not slot wormhole for disorient, between Freezing rain, Hurricane, and lightning storm, once the mobs are trapped in the corner, I can't tell if they are disoriented or not as they are continually flopping around like fish, so I have found it unnecessary.

Everyday is not a good one for the Grav/Storm, somedays you are a god, other days well, it just doesn't always work out. Mezzers, stunners, things that won't fall down (Nemesis jaegers), Council Missile launchers, can all ruin a Grav/Storms day.

One thing, there is no in between for the Grav/Storm you need to either hang back and play a support role, or take charge and impose your will on the unwilling, only death lies between.

Play safe and have fun!

I am a bit new to tanking but my understanding of it, is that the tank attacks produce extra agro. Would you really want to remove the taunt, eliminating punchvoke, for 2% defense?

If my understanding of this is correct, then I will take gauntlet.

The problem with fiery embrace is that the timer is way too long to be viable every group. If we are to survive by killing the mobs more quickly, then we need something that is up for every fight. I am not suggesting that fiery embrace should be 100% damage bonus every 30 seconds.

I would suggest that perhaps it would be better to put it down to 50% every minute and 1/2. Three slotted it would be up every 45 seconds or so, and then we could use it for each fight. Just like all the other tanks use their extra defence/resistance every fight.