Brimstone Gale's Guide to Fire/Storm Controllers

Intro

Brimstone Gale is the 3rd character I created, is my main, and is still my favorite toon. I created her in the first week of CoH, way before the days of Wolves and Ninjas. However, I was lucky enough to hook up with a great group of people and rarely had to solo. I have grouped with many different controllers and while I have little direct experience with other primaries, I always pay attention to what other controllers are doing, what their strategies and what powers they use.

I have no first-hand experience with how other secondaries mesh with Fire Control, and little experience with other primary sets, but from my observations, Fire/Storm is one of the most fun and “flashy” powersets combinations, sharing the stage with Ice/Storm and Earth/Storm (is there any wonder that all three have Storm Summoning as secondary? ).
It is also one of the most flexible combinations, allowing for varied play styles – offensive, defensive, group or solo oriented, etc.

Warning: This is a really long guide, but when I wrote it I put in all the information that I would expect to see in a guide and so I don’t know how I could’ve made it shorter. Read it at your own risk.

Note About Controllers

Controllers can make or break a team. A good controller will make impossible fights seem doable and can often turn the tide of battle with a single power. That said, they are also a very fragile AT and until they get pets (which doesn’t happen for Mind controllers at all) are very slow soloers. Playing a controller requires thought and strategy, and much like defenders, controllers mustn’t be selfish – their first priority is the safety of the team, whether via control of mobs or via buffs/debuffs, damage and glory are secondary. Despite their frailty, controllers are required to do things that inevitably will draw much agro, whether it’s because they have to get close to mobs for PBAoE hold or because their debuffs are pissing off the mobs. This means that controllers have to be on their toes, and sometimes retreating from battle for few seconds to let the mobs cool down is the smart choice.

Fire Control

Note: Any damage is specified in Brawl Index (BI), which refers to a power’s damage relative to Brawl.

The Fire Control set, in terms of pure control falls somewhere in the middle, but what little it lacks in control it compensates with a great debuff (Smoke) and of course Fire Imps. It is also one of only two sets that offer a second way to “hold” the enemies, via a combination of immobilization and stun (the other being Earth control). It doesn’t however have any Sleep or Fear powers and offers only limited Slow and Knockback/down powers.

Ring of Fire [/color]
Type: Single Target, Ranged
Endurance: 11 pts
Recharge: 4 sec
Effect: Immobilize, MAG 3
Activation: 1 sec
Damage (BI): Fire 0.6111*5 (3.0555)
Accuracy: +20%
Range: 80 ft
Duration: 20 sec
Misc: Makes enemies immune to knockback/down/up powers for 10 seconds.

This power is largely considered useless, especially in the late game, cause what’s the point of stopping one mob if you can stop a whole group using Fire Cages. I never took it and never missed it. However, it deals more damage than Fire Cages (to a single mob) and one way to use it, is to take it and slot it for damage in the early game, and then once you got your AoE control powers, respect out of it completely.

Char
Type: Single Target, Ranged
Endurance: 12.5 pts
Recharge: 8 sec
Effect: Hold, MAG 3
Activation: 1 sec
Damage (BI): Fire 0.6111*5 (3.0555)
Accuracy: +20%
Range: 80 ft
Duration: 10 sec

This is one of your bread-and-butter powers, i.e. take it and six-slot it ASAP. It’s a fairly accurate hold which means that at least in the early game you could probably get by with only 1 accuracy enhancement, though eventually it’s a good idea to put a second one in. The standard slotting is 2 accuracy, 2 hold duration, 2 recharge reduction. If you have perma-hasten then you can drop the second recharge redux (that second recharge redux only speeds it up by 0.5 seconds). If you have Tactics well slotted (4-6 tohit buffs) then you could also drop one accuracy, together with perma-hasten allowing you to slot 4 holds in it.

Fire Cages
Type: Targeted AoE
Endurance: 22.5 pts
Recharge: 8 sec
Effect: Immobilize, MAG 3
Activation: 1 sec
Damage (BI): Fire 0.3056*3 (0.9168)
Accuracy: -10%
Range: 80 ft
Radius: 20 ft
Duration: 10 sec
Misc: Makes enemies immune to knockback/down/up powers for 10 seconds.

Personally I consider immobilizes to be poor-man’s control, but in case of fire control, Fire Cages is one half of a power combo that gives you a second hold. By using Flashfire in combination with Fire Cages you will have the mobs immobilized and stunned, which essentially has the same effect as a hold – true that it’s a slow and expensive hold but sometimes it’s either that or a team wipeout. It has a weak damage so slotting it for damage is not gonna give you a lot, and it has an accuracy penalty, which means that you need at least one accuracy enhancement to just even it out with a non-enhanced Ring of Fire. It is also fairly expensive, in fact, it’s as expensive as Cinders, while not as useful. Nonetheless, to use it as a part of Cages/Flashfire combo it will need to be slotted with two accuracy and two immobilization duration enhancement. It recharges fairly fast, and way faster than Flashfire so rest of the slots can be endurance reduction. Personally I didn’t bother too much with it because I try no to use the Cages/Flashfire combo, I only have one accuracy and one hold duration in it, and 2 end redux, which together with 2 end redux in Flashfire means that the combo is only slightly more expensive than Cinders, something like 26-27 end points.

Smoke
Type: Targeted AoE
Endurance: 11.5 pts
Recharge: 15 sec
Activation: 1 sec
Range: 80 ft
Radius: 20 ft
Duration: 30 sec
Misc: DeBuffs Accuracy and reduces aggro range.

This is a great debuff, it has a huge area and extremely accurate. It will reduce mobs’ aggro range, effectively acting as self/team stealth and in combination with Steamy Mist means that most mobs will not see you until you come within melee range. It also provides a nice debuff to mobs’ accuracy. If you have the slots to spare it’s probably best to six-slot it because there’s no such thing as too much debuff . However, it’s difficult to see the effectiveness of the debuff, at least for me it was (though the aggro range debuff is very noticeable), and I never had more than 4 slots in it, all debuff of course, no need for recharge redux since you usually don’t use it more than once, before the fight. Personally I love this power and if I could I’d six-slot it, but keep two things in mind: (1) If you take Super Speed then with Steamy Mist it’s full invisibility and you don’t need Smoke for that, though it’ll still help your teammates; (2) Hurricane provides much better accuracy debuff though it’s not as “easy” to apply as Smoke. So, you might be able to skip smoke completely, though I wouldn’t.

Hot Feet
Type: Toggle, PBAoE
Endurance: 1.5/sec
Recharge: 20 sec
Activation: 1 sec
Damage (BI): Fire 0.5556
Radius: 10 ft

Wow, talk about a useless endurance drain. As a controller you don’t want to stay close to mobs for long but to use this power that’s exactly what you have to do. It also has the distinct drawback of pissing off all the mobs around while not mitigating their damage in any way – sure they gonna move slower but their attacks are still going at normal rate so once they close in to melee range you’re dead meat. Having said that, it has a decent damage and much like Ring of Fire can be used in the early game to boost your already poor damage and make soloing a bit easier (with the intent of respec’ing it at higher levels). Problem with that as I see it, is that the early game is when you have the most endurance problems and using this power is going to make that even worse.

Flash Fire
Type: Targeted AoE
Endurance: 22.5 pts
Recharge: 45 sec
Effect: Disorient (Stun), MAG 3
Activation: 3 sec
Accuracy: -20%
Range: 70 ft
Radius: 15 ft
Duration: 10 sec

The second half of your Cages/Flashfire combo. Once again, accuracy penalty means you’ll need at least 2 acc enhancements, and it’s fairly expensive. By itself, while useful to prevent a team wipeout, generally not a good a control tool, because stunned mobs tend to spread out and create chaos, and that’s why you use Fire Cages. I slotted it with 2 acc, 2 end and 2 stun. In the early game, it might be better to replace one end and one stun with 2 recharge redux to make it come up more often.

Cinders
Type: PBAoE
Endurance: 22.5 pts
Recharge: 120 sec
Effect: Hold, MAG 3
Activation: 1 sec
Accuracy: -20%
Radius: 15 ft
Duration: 10 sec

This is your AoE hold and the primary control tool, treat it with care and love. Needless to say, six slots ASAP, in fact, even before Stamina. It’s fairly slow and even with perma-hasten and 2 recharge redux in it, sometimes you’re going to wish it’d come up sooner, without perma-hasten it almost becomes a situational power, not because there are few situations where you need, but because you don’t want to use it unless it’s absolutely necessary. It’s also fairly expensive but unfortunately you can’t afford to slot it with end redux. The standard slotting is 2 acc, 2 hold and 2 recharge redux, and even with perma-hasten and tactics you probably want to keep the 2 acc and 2 recharge redux.

Bonfire
Type: Targeted Location
Endurance: 19 pts
Recharge: 60 sec
Activation: 3 sec
Accuracy: +100%
Range: 70 ft
Radius: 15 ft
Duration: 30 sec
Misc: Very reliable knockback

This is a very fun, situational, power that works well with only its default slot. It’s got an extremely reliable knockback that always hits when you first use it (only things that resist it are monsters and AVs) and is slowly reduced over the existence of bonfire, i.e. as time passes mobs are knocked back less and less, though it never drops to zero and its effectiveness depends on the relative level of mobs. I had Bonfire throughout at least half of my career and it’s a great tool for blocking doorways or locking down mobs in small rooms. With perma-hasten and 1 recharge redux you can even lay down two Bonfires and play ping-pong with the mobs for some time. It also comes very handy during Task Forces and Trials. It is however, as mentioned, situational power, and in fact, in my late forties I found that I needed it less and less. If you are planning a late-game respec (i.e. in your late forties) then you could take this power for a spin in your 30s and see if you enjoy it and find it useful, and if not then respec out of it. (It’s hard to test this power on the Test Server because it is so situational.)

Fire Imps
Type: Targeted Location
Endurance: 37.5 pts
Recharge: 240 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Accuracy: +100%
Range: 60 ft
Duration: 240 sec

This is where all the pain and the frustration of the first 32 levels finally pays off. Fire Imps make you into a very efficient killing machine, especially after you slot them up. You still can’t compare with a scrapper or a blaster, but combined with your holds you’ll be mowing mobs left and right. There’s not really much to say other than that, unlike other pets Fire Imps are all about pure damage - they don’t have any control powers and they can’t tank very well because of relatively low HP. If you have perma-hasten then 1 recharge redux will be enough to have 2 groups at all times, which I find enough, some slot 2 recharge redux. Although they are pretty accurate, if you don’t have tactics you might also consider slotting 1 accuracy enhancement just to make sure they hit those +3 bosses. The rest of the slots are damage of course.

Storm Summoning

Storm is considered a very versatile and somewhat hard to master set, a kind of Jack of all Trades. This is actually a good thing for controllers (less so, in my opinion, for defenders) because it gives us flexibility in how to develop our character and most importantly makes the early levels more interesting. It has powers that buff, debuff, deal damage, and even provide a measure of control. Storm summoning has one of the best accuracy debuffs, a great defense debuff and a very nice team stealth/buff power. It is however somewhat heavy on endurance, it has 3 fairly expensive toggles and its 9th power costs almost half the endurance bar.

Couple of things on Slows
Snow Storm and Freezing Rain slowdown enemy movement and recharge speed. Slow enhancements only enhance the slowdown of movement, not recharge speed. The cap for movement is 10%, i.e. it’s impossible to immobilize mobs by slowing them down to 0. The cap for recharge slowdown is 25%.

Gale
Type: Ranged, Cone
Endurance: 11.5 pts
Recharge: 8 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Damage (BI): Smashing 0.2778
Accuracy: -10%
Range: 50 ft
Cone Angle: 90 deg

Gale is not a very popular power, and for the most part justly so. It has measly damage and with the accuracy penalty it’s not even very good at what it’s suppose to do – get mobs out of melee range. Since we have to take it though, my suggestion is to slot it with one accuracy. Having said that, Gale can come in handy in the early game. You can put couple of acc and a knockback enhancement to make sure that when you use it the mobs are blown away and it takes them a while to get back to melee range. Or you can slot it with damage to help you solo a bit, although its damage is so low that anything but SOs will not make a significant difference, and by the time you can put SOs into powers you should be considering respec’ing and dumping any slots you might have put into it.

O2 Boost
Type: Ally
Endurance: 15.5 pts
Recharge: 4 sec
Effect: Hold, MAG 3
Activation: 2 sec
Range: 80 ft
Duration: 60 sec (not 100% sure about this)
Misc: With Update 4 this power also provides resistance to endurance drain

If you’re a group oriented player then you should take this power early. While not a great heal it has a fast recharge, often providing the last-second heals that your teammate needed to survive and regroup, and it has the benefit of protecting from Stun, Sleep and, with I4 endurance drain. This comes especially handy against Tsoo and Lost, and of course after Update 4 might become very wanted when going against Malta If you’re more solo oriented you can wait with it, but you should get it eventually (remember the bit about controllers not being selfish? ), your teammates will appreciate it even if they don’t say so directly. Slotting strategy: 1 end redux cause it’s not cheap, and if you don’t have perma-hasten then 1 recharge redux will help, though not necessary, the rest heals.

Snow Storm
Type: Toggle, Targeted AoE
Endurance: 0.76/sec
Recharge: 10 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Range: 80 ft
Radius: 20-25 ft around the anchor (?)
Misc: The anchor of Snow Storm cannot fly

Great power in the early levels, still very useful in late game and works great with few, if any, additional slots. It slows down both movement speed and attack rate, however only movement speed is enhanceable. You should put at least 1 end redux in it because it’s fairly expensive, and in the early levels consider putting 2 until you have SOs and Stamina. However, it’s not the kind of toggle that runs all the time so you don’t have to worry about its cost too much. Its unenhanced movement slowdown is pretty good and since you can’t enhance attack rate slowdown, putting a slow enhancement is optional. I however did put one slow in it so it’s easier to keep mobs in Freezing Rain and because its fun to see them do the “Baywatch Run”, especially the Carnies. If you’re not going to PvP then you could possibly drop it in high levels (I didn’t take it until my forties) since you’ll be holding most mobs anyway, but it becomes much more useful in PvP.

Steamy Mist
Type: Toggle, PBAoE
Endurance: 0.76/sec
Recharge: 15 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Defense Buff: 7.5% to Melee and Ranged damage
Resistance: Not sure, maybe ~15%
Radius: Again don’t know the exact number but it seems to be smaller than radius of Tactics or Maneuvers.

I took this power early and couldn’t possibly imagine playing without it, however, delaying it till after you get Stamina might be a good idea because it’s a heavy toggle (then again I managed just fine with it in the early levels). Combined with Smoke, Steamy Mist means that you can come up to melee range of mobs before they notice you, and combined with Super Speed it means invisibility without taking Stealth. It does slow down movement but SS negates that. It also provides a defense and resistance bonus for you and your team making it even better. One way to slot it is 1 end redux and 5 defense, that will give you 15% defense, which is noticeable. You could also slot it with resistance but its resistance is limited to not-so-common damage types, while the defense works against any type of damage. Either way, I wouldn’t suggest slotting it “evenly” with both, either go full defense or full resistance. I also don’t think that there’s a point in slotting it unless you can six slot it. Personally, I just have 2 end redux in it because I run it all the time and have many other toggles, if I could I’d six-slot it and put defense but I don’t have slots to spare.

Freezing Rain
Type: Location AoE
Endurance: 21 pts
Recharge: 60 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Damage (BI): Cold ? (too small to worry about)
Accuracy: +100%
Range: 60 ft
Radius: 15-20 ft (?)
Duration: 30 sec
Defense Debuff: Not sure, maybe ~20%
Resistance Debuff: Not sure, maybe ~25%
Misc: Good chance for knockdown

This is a really great power that not only provides a much needed defense and resistance debuff but also provides some control over mobs by slowing them down and often hitting them with knockdown. Again, only the movement slowdown is enhanceable so don’t bother slotting it with slow enhancements. Resistance debuff can’t be enhanced, but defense debuff can and should be enhanced. It is possible to stack it with itself using perma-hasten and at least 3 recharge redux, but I feel that it’s too much of a hassle for a small payoff. Nevertheless, perma-hasten or not, 1 recharge redux and 1 end redux will make it available more often and much cheaper. Rest of the slots should be defense debuffs though I don’t think it needs to be six-slotted (if you can though then by all means do), 2, or even 1, defense debuff will do fine. It’s not worth slotting for damage.

Hurricane
Type: Toggle, PBAoE
Endurance: 0.94/sec
Recharge: 10 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Radius: 15 ft (?)
ToHit Debuff: ? (Singificant)
Misc: Pushes foes away from you, severely reduces their attack range, and has a small chance to knockback.

First a confession – I never had this power (haven’t even tested it) until recently, in light of PvP, I decided to try it out and was completely blown away by it. In my defense, I have such a toggle heavy build that even the thought of getting yet another toggle made me cower in the corner and cry like a little girl. Here’s why it’s great – it keeps most mobs out of melee range; it pushes them away giving you a way to position them where you want them (another form of control); most importantly, it slaughters their accuracy to a point where sometimes it’s not even necessary to hold them. It is however, very expensive and at least 1 end redux is a must, 2 is better. Unlike most Storm powers that only need few slots to be effective (at least in my opinion), this is one power where if you can you should six-slot it because every additional tohit debuff enhancement really makes a difference. On the other hand, even having only 2 tohit debuffs in it will still make it very effective. Depending on when you take it, you can even wait a bit before slotting it with tohit debuffs, simply because it’s pretty effective out of the box. After singing its praises, let me say this, as great as it is, once you can effectively hold large numbers of +2/3 mobs, it becomes an additional, but an optional, tool. In PvP however, it’s indispensable – turn it on and any tanker or scrapper will have a really hard time approaching you, let alone hitting you.

Thunder Clap
Type: PBAoE
Endurance: 15 pts
Recharge: 45 sec
Effect: Stun, MAG 3
Activation: 3 sec
Accuracy: -10%
Radius: 20 ft (?)
Duration: 10 sec
Misc: In Update 4 has a chance to knockdown toggles

This is very cool looking power but I haven’t found much use for it. It’s an AoE disorient with you at the center, and no damage. It has an accuracy penalty, which means that you’ll need to invest at least 2 acc in it to make it effective, and it doesn’t recharge fast enough to effectively stack to stun bosses. Its saving grace is that it’s fairly cheap and can be stacked with Flashfire. However, Flashfire is targeted (ranged) AoE while this is PBAoE, making it tricky to stack them because they are usually used in different circumstances, and it certainly negates any advantage that Flashfire gives by being ranged AoE. If you take it, like most status powers, its effect should be enhanced with at least 1, or 2 stun enhancements. It becomes more useful in PvP because it can knock out toggles, but I haven’t tried it, and seems to me that its long activation time, and distinct (i.e. very recognizable) animation, means that even if you knock out someone’s toggles they’ll already be far away from you.

Tornado
Type: Location AoE
Endurance: 30 pts
Recharge: 60 sec
Activation: 1 sec
Range: 60 ft
Duration: 30 sec
Misc: Knocksback, Slightly reduces Defense, causes Fear

I have absolutely no experience with this power but it doesn’t even sound good on paper and from what I read it apparently has problems with AI. Sometimes it chases foes, other times it just stands there only affecting them if they happen to come close. Over all, even if it works as intended, it just causes chaos and doesn’t help control the enemies, plus, it’s got a good chance of aggro’ing other groups of mobs in the vicinity. I can’t recommend this power but if you found a good use for it then by all means enlighten us all.

Lightning Storm
Type: Immobile “pet”
Endurance: 45 pts
Recharge: 90 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Damage (BI): Energy 4.0278 per each bolt (up to 10 bolts)
Accuracy: +100%
Range: 30 ft
Radius (of reach): Fairly big, 30-40 ft maybe
Duration: 60 sec
Misc: In Update 4 has a chance to knockdown toggles

This is a great power for Defenders to increase their damage output, and while technically speaking it does the same for controllers, in my opinion, its damage is too arbitrary to really be useful. It’s basically a stationary pet, with the advantage that it can be summoned in the air, that shoots up to 10 lightning bolts in a fairly large radius around itself, over the course of its life. It shoots a bolt every 6 or so seconds, but if there are no mobs in range the bolt will not shoot and it will be wasted. Every bolt does nice damage, drains a bit of endurance (though not nearly enough to bother even thinking about it, let alone slotting for it), and has a nice chance to knockdown enemies. A nice bonus of Lightning Storm is that if there are 2 or 3 mobs (sometimes even more) close together (and not necessarily stacked) then one bolt will hit them all (think conductivity ). Another good thing about it is that in PvP it has a chance to knockdown toggles and from what I saw it’s equivalent to Brawl, i.e. 30%-40%, which is too much for Brawl, but considering the limitations of Lightning Storm, I think is just right for it.
It recharges fairly fast for a 9th power (though not nearly as fast as some… yes, I’m looking at you Full-Auto! ), but it costs a whooping 45 endurance, so it’s really recommended to put at least one end redux in it. Despite the high accuracy it can miss, and considering that it only shoots 10, slow bolts, you want every single one of them to count, doubly so in PvP, so one accuracy is also recommended. Although, if you’re not going to touch PvP with a 10 foot pole then you’ll do fine without that extra accuracy. Of course, rest of the slots, damage.

Well, if you think we’re done, think again!

Power Pools

Fitness

Do I really need to talk about Stamina? Oh well…
Take it and slot it ASAP, it’s particularly important for controllers, and even more so for this combo because of the number of toggle powers. The first two powers in Fitness pool are up to you and don’t need slotting.

Just in case you were wondering: Inherit Endurance recovery is 1.67/sec.
Unslotted Stamina adds 0.42/sec, and fully slotted Stamina with even SOs, gives you 1.25/sec.

Flight

Good controllers need complete 3D movement, you need to be able to observe the battle from a tactical point of view, and it helps to avoid those heavy melee hitters. I really feel that any controller that doesn’t take flight is not giving 110%.

Hover
Type: Toggle
Endurance: 0.22/sec
Defense Buff: 5% (Melee, Ranged)
Misc: Protects from knockback

In addition to the defense buff, Hover actually protects you against knockback – you get the twirl-in-the-air animation but you can execute powers as usual. A note on Hover and Steamy Mist: with Mist on, if you don’t have at least one fly enhancement in Hover you will not be able to move. It’s fairly cheap, and its defense bonus is small, so I suggest just putting 1 fly in it and that’s it.

Air Superiority
Type: Single Target, Melee
Endurance: 7.5 pts
Recharge: 4 sec
Activation: 1.5 sec
Damage (BI): Smashing 2.7778
Misc: Knocks down fliers

AS is hands down the best power pool attack, it’s fast, it has nice damage and it knocks down fliers. I had it for half my career and really enjoyed it, and if I could afford it I’d take it even now. It’s a great power to have in early levels, especially if slotted for damage, it will greatly speed up your ability to arrest mobs. In fact, depending on your preferences you might take that instead of Hover as entry into Flight, though you eventually will need Hover.

Fly
Type: Toggle
Endurance: 2.03/sec
Self Accuracy Debuff (Singnificant)

Fly has an accuracy penalty, which usually means you don’t use it in combat, but it can be made to work (I’ll show how later). It’s the slowest travel power but also the safest – if you fly high enough you can safely visit Peregrine Island when you hit 14. It’s expensive so it needs at least 1 end redux, because it’s a travel power, 1 will probably be enough. It’s also recommended to put at least 1 fly enhancement in it. I had 2 for a long while and when I did a respec and removed one I really felt the difference and it bothered me how slow Fly became. If you can spare the slots, a 3rd fly enhancement will really make it nice, any more than that I don’t think is needed (its speed is capped with 4 fly enehancements).

Here’s a useful bind for Hover/Fly: /bind [some key] "powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Fly"
This allows you to switch between Hover and Fly with one key. If you have a mouse with a thumb button, bind this to it and your in-combat maneuvering will go through the roof – you’ll be able to position yourself quickly using Fly and execute powers in Hover “mode”, giving you the best of both worlds.

There is also a huge thread dedicated to Hover/Fly binds.


Group Fly
Type: Toggle
Endurance: 1.5/sec + ?/sec per each teammate affected by it
Self and Team Accuracy Debuff (Singnificant)

This is a fun and annoying power at the same time. Well, first of all it’s a huge end hog, if you’re carrying around the entire team, you’ll need a lot of end redux in it not to run out of endurance after several seconds. In Update 4 I believe its base endurance cost was slightly reduced but the per-teammate endurance cost was slightly raised. What makes it annoying is that it affects you for several seconds after you left the area of its influence, and if its owner chooses to, they can keep chasing you, never letting you leave its area, and that’s why it’s fun if you’re the owner of the power. Also, despite fly enhancements, the owner of Group Fly always moves faster than the rest of the team, making it easy to forget someone and drop them. For the longest time it was considered absolutely useless power, but recently, due to Hami raids and Shadow Shard zones, it became much more popular. Important to note, is that this power will affect Fire Imps and will allow them more easily reach places that they’d normally have trouble getting to.

Speed

This pool is needed for Hasten, rest of the powers are purely optional (well technically Hasten is also optional but you know what I mean).

Flurry
Type: Single Target, Melee
Endurance: 6.5 pts
Recharge: 3 sec
Activation: 3.5 sec
Damage (BI): Smashing 0.3975*8 (3.18)

It’s a nice attack with good damage but it takes too long to execute and as a controller you really don’t want to stay long in melee range.

Hasten
Type: Toggle
Endurance: 5pts for activation, 15 pts when it drops
Recharge: 368 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Duration: 120 sec

Having perma-hasten (i.e. 6 slotted) is highly recommended, though not necessary (until the first respec came I didn’t have Hasten, and I was fine). Not having perma-hasten certainly won’t gimp you (not having Stamina will. Take it! ), but having perma-hasten will make you ten times more effective - your holds will come up faster, and you’ll be herding many more fire monkeys, and who doesn’t love fire monkeys. By the way, it’s possible to have near-perma-hasten with 5 green +2/3 SOs (it’ll have about 6-8 seconds of downtime) but I tried to play with that and found it annoying – it’s either perma-hasten or no hasten at all for me.

Super Speed
Type: Toggle
Endurance: 0.54/sec
Misc: Stealth component (not present in PvP)

One of the fastest travel powers, it is maxed out with 2 speed SOs, but generally there’s no need to put slots in it. Because of its Stealth component, in combination with any partial Stealth power (like Steamy Mist) it will give you full invisibility. This power is not necessary for controllers and I only use it for travel. In my current build I picked it up at 49 though in reality of course, I took it earlier than that cause it was a bit annoying always being last to the mission. If you can live with that though, there’s no reason to take it earlier, or at all.

Whirlwind
You spin around at an amazing speed to create a Whirlwind around yourself. Any foes that enter this Whirlwind will be tossed into the air.
Type: Toggle
Endurance: 1.15/sec
Recharge: 20 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Misc: Knocksback

Don’t know much about this, never picked it up, and seen it in action only few times. It might be a fun power to pick and controllers with other secondaries might use it for self defense, but Stormies have Hurricane.

Leadership

The main attraction of Leadership pool is Tactics, but Manuevers is very nice too, and even Vengeance can come in handy once in a while.

Maneuvers
Type: Toggle, Self Buff
Endurance: 0.45/sec
Recharge: 15 sec
Activation: 4 sec
Radius: ? (A bit larger than Steamy Mist)
Defense Buff: 6.25% (12.5% with 5 even SOs), Ranged, Melee and AoE

This power provides a nice defense bonus to the whole team for a reasonable price. Every slot in it is worth more than slots in Steamy Mist, and I have it slotted with 1 end redux and 5 defense buffs.

Assault
Type: Toggle, Self Buff
Endurance: 0.45/sec
Recharge: 15 sec
Activation: 4 sec
Radius: ? (A bit larger than Steamy Mist)
Defense Buff: +10% damage
Misc: In Update 4 this buff is being increased by 50%, i.e. it’s going to be +15% (unless of course they mean 10%+50%, in which case sign me up! )

10% or 15%, the damage buff can’t be enhanced. I guess that given that we have Fire Imps it wouldn’t go completely wasted, but I still can’t justify taking it.

Tactics
Type: Toggle, Self Buff
Endurance: 0.45/sec
Recharge: 15 sec
Activation: 4 sec
Radius: ? (A bit larger than Steamy Mist)
Accuracy Buff: ? (Significant)

Works exactly like Maneuvers but provides an accuracy buff. I don’t know the numbers for the buff but if you want to be able to hold +3/4 and even +5 mobs, you need Tactics. Once I had Tactics slotted (1 end redux, 5 acc buffs) I rarely missed on red mobs (+3) or lower. It’s only when I go against purples do I start noticing misses, but even then they don’t become significant until the mobs are 5/6 levels above me. If you want to know true power forget Tankers or Scrappers – put 2 acc in Cinders, 5 tohit buffs in Tactics, turn on Steamy Mist and fly up to a large group of Riktis or Carnies or whatever, that are all red to you (with purple LTs and bosses), use Cinders, followed by Char on the boss. Watch as every single one of them chokes on the soot. At that point feel free to use your evil laugh, Mu ha ha ha!

Vengeance
Type: Team buff +ACC +DMG +DEF
Recharge: 300 sec
Radius: All teammates regardless of location
Duration: ?

This power can be activated when a teammate dies and it gives the rest of the team members significant buffs to accuracy, damage and defense, it’s like having Maneuvers, Tactics and Assault all at once just without the inconvenience of their combined endurance cost. Like Assault, its damage buff has been upgraded in Issue 4.

The above four Power Pools are, in my opinion, needed for optimal build, but if you choose to not take any of them (better not be Fitness! ) then you are free to choose any other power pools, and I will quickly go over them.

Medicine – Great pool if you’re a group oriented controller who enjoys helping his teammates.

Fighting – This pool provides extra protection though if you want it for Tough’s Smashing/Lethal resistance then you better just use an Ancillary Power Pool.

Concealment – Good pool for personal and group use. Phase Shift is also great for those “Oh Crap!” moments.

Leaping – Great travel power and provides Immobilization protection with Combat Jumping, and small Hold/Knockback protection with Acrobatics.

Teleportation – Very team friendly power pool because of Recall Friend. It has a nice, if a bit tricky to use, travel power, and a good power for pulling – Teleport Foe.

Presence – The least useful pool for Controllers, though in PvP, even after they fix Fear it will still be somewhat useful, but even for that, not worth spending a pool on.

Ok, we’re almost done.

Ancillary Power Pools

I will not talk in detail about all the APPs as this is a topic for a different thread. I will mostly concentrate on the defensive powers (i.e. shields) and will give some more details on Psionic Mastery since that’s what I took. Also, remember that while some of the pools provide attacks, our damage is low and doesn’t scale well, so even if it says “High DMG”, don’t expect to one-shot a blaster.

Stone Mastery

Hurl Boulder – Short ranged, single target attack with a chance to knockdown flying foes and nice damage.

Fissure – Short ranged, AoE attack with small damage, and a chance for knockback and disorient. Must be on ground (i.e. not Flying/Hovering) to activate it.

Rock Armor – This is a defense based shield.
Endurance: 0.25/sec
Gives 20% Defense to Smashing and Lethal damage.

Earth’s Embrace – Increases your maximum hit points and heals, and provides some Toxic resistance – think Dull Pain.

Fire Mastery

Fire Blast – Single target, moderate damage, ranged attack.

Fire Ball – Ranged, AoE attack with moderate damage.

Fire Shield – Provides resistance to Smashing/Lethal, Fire and Cold damage.
Endurance: 0.38/sec
Resistance: 20% Smashing/Lethal, 20% Fire, 10% Cold

Consume – Damages nearby foes (trivial damage) and sucks up their endurance. It’s enough to hit 3-4 foes to replenish the whole bar.

Ice Blast

Ice Blast – Single target, moderate damage, ranged attack that slightly slows down foes’ movement and attack rate.

Hibernate – Kind of like phase shift (immune to damage) with self immobilization and a huge boost to health recovery.

Frozen Armor – Mix of defensive and resistance based armor.
Endurance: 1.0/sec
Defense: 20% to Smashing/Lethal damage
Resistance: 20% Cold, 10% Fire

Ice Storm – Think Freezing Rain with much better damage, but no Defense/Resistance debuff, and no knockdown.

Next two APPs are the most popular with controllers for reasons that will become obvious shortly.

Primal Forces

Power Blast – Single target, moderate damage, ranged attack with a chance for knockback.

Conserver Power – Great power. While it’s active all your powers, including toggles, only cost half endurance. There’s no way to make it permanent, but it’s worth every slot.
Duration: 90 sec
Recharge: 600 sec
With perma-hasten and six +3 recharge SOs, you can reduce the downtime to 60 seconds.

Temp Invulnerability – Resistance based shield.
Endurance: 0.25/sec
Resistance: 20% to Smashing/Lethal damage

Power Boost – Great power for controllers since it enhances all status effects, as well as heals and endurance drain.
Endurance: 15
Recharge 60
Duration: 15
Since it’s the last power in the pool, you can only take it at 49, meaning no way to six slot it. With 4 +3 recharge SOs and perma-hasten you will have a downtime of 4 seconds.

Psionic Mastery

All attacks in Psionic Mastery have slightly longer range, and of course Psionic damage is rarely resisted.

Mental Blast – Single target, moderate damage, ranged attack. Like all Psionic attacks it reduces foes’ attack rate.

Indomitable Will – The Holy Grail of APP powers as far as I’m concerned. In addition to providing resistance to Hold, Disorient and Sleep, it give defense to Psionic damage – how ’bout that Invulnerability Tankers!
Endurance: 15 pts
Recharge: 320 sec
Activation: 2 sec
Duration: 90 sec
With perma-hasten you need 6 even recharge SOs, or 2 +2 SOs and 3 +3 SOs to make it permanent, only problem is you can’t set it on auto-cast.

Mind Over Body – Provides resistance to Smashing/Lethal and Psionic damage - how ’bout that Invulnerability Tankers!
Endurance: 0.5/sec
Resistance: 30% to Smashing/Lethal and Psionic damage.
With 5 SOs you can double it – how ‘bout that Inv… oh well, you know it.

Psionic Tornado – Moderate damage, ranged AoE attack (psionic damage), with a chance to knockup.


Well, this is it. I was going to post some strategies or level-up guides, but these things are better left up to you, and besides this is already a pretty long guide. I gave you the information and the benefit of my experience, what you do with it is up to you.

Finally, I just want to say that this guide wouldn’t be possible without all the great people who have spent hours testing powers, whether it’s to get Brawl Indices, or to calculate Stamina’s rate of endurance recovery, or something else. So to all those peeps I give a big shout out.

Wow great guide.... One suggestion, and if you don't consider it that's fine. Could you lay out what you took at each level, or what you would take now? Would be a really good, simple, and quick reference. Once again, great guide!

Major correction for Primal Forces/Power Boost (my total bad )

I said that Power Boost can only be taken at 49, which is of course totally not true, as it can be taken at 47 (blame it on 1AM). However, it is still difficult to make it perma. You basically need perma-hasten and 6 +3 SOs, and I really mean that all SOs must be +3, because that will bring down its recharge time to exactly 15 seconds. Then again, having one or two +2 SOs (for example) will only get a downtime of a tenth of a second, hardly noticable. (It's also not a power that really needs to be perma but nonetheless, if you wanted to know what it takes then here you go.)

@SirCordoza: I'm working on it.

I'm working on a fire/storm toon, and I've been reading every guide I can find about the two. I've done a first draft of the toon, I was hoping for comments and suggestions on it. I'll worry with what goes in the slots here in a few. My biggest problems are not so much what I want to take, but when to take it and how to slot it...again any commets are welcome

Archetype: Controller
Primary Powers - Ranged : Fire Control
Secondary Powers - Support : Storm Summoning

Level 01 : Gale
Empty ( 01 )

Level 01 : Char
Empty ( 01 )
Empty ( 3 )
Empty ( 3 )
Empty ( 9 )
Empty ( 15 )
Empty ( 29 )

Level 02 : Fire Cages
Empty ( 02 )
Empty ( 5 )
Empty ( 11 )
Empty ( 50 )

Level 04 : Snow Storm
Empty ( 04 )
Empty ( 5 )

Level 06 : Hasten
Empty ( 06 )
Empty ( 7 )
Empty ( 7 )
Empty ( 9 )
Empty ( 11 )
Empty ( 15 )

Level 08 : Hover

Level 10 : Swift
Empty ( 10 )

Level 12 : Flashfire
Empty ( 12 )
Empty ( 13 )
Empty ( 13 )
Empty ( 17 )
Empty ( 17 )
Empty ( 31 )

Level 14 : Fly

Level 16 : Freezing Rain
Empty ( 16 )
Empty ( 37 )
Empty ( 39 )
Empty ( 50 )

Level 18 : Cinders
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Empty ( 21 )
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Empty ( 25 )

Level 20 : Health
Empty ( 20 )

Level 22 : Stamina
Empty ( 22 )
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Empty ( 25 )
Empty ( 27 )
Empty ( 27 )

Level 24 : Hurricane
Empty ( 24 )
Empty ( 31 )
Empty ( 43 )
Empty ( 46 )
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Level 26 : Steamy Mist
Empty ( 26 )
Empty ( 29 )
Empty ( 34 )

Level 28 : Maneuvers
Empty ( 28 )
Empty ( 31 )
Empty ( 39 )
Empty ( 39 )
Empty ( 40 )
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Level 30 : Bonfire
Empty ( 30 )

Level 32 : Fire Imps
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Level 35 : Tactics
Empty ( 35 )
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Level 38 : Lightning Storm
Empty ( 38 )
Empty ( 40 )
Empty ( 42 )
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Level 41 : Conserve Power
Empty ( 41 )
Empty ( 42 )

Level 44 : Temp Invulnerability
Empty ( 44 )
Empty ( 45 )
Empty ( 45 )
Empty ( 45 )
Empty ( 46 )
Empty ( 46 )

Level 47 : Power Boost
Empty ( 47 )
Empty ( 48 )
Empty ( 48 )

-------------------------------------------

Level 01 : Brawl
Empty ( 01 )

Level 01 : Sprint
Empty ( 01 )

Level 02 : Rest
Empty ( 02 )

PS. thanks so much for the awsome guide you've done so far

This is great! What a lot of work, Brimstone--it's helping me a lot with my new fire/stormie, Lincoya (he's an Indian). I took combat jumping b/c of the concept and because it's the most fun, I think, with flight being so slow (I've heard), but your comments about how to use flight for battlefield tactics and group flight make a lot of sense. Would love to see a sample build from you--before/after respec (in your spare time, haha ).

Very nice guide!

My Fire.Storm is currently level 36, and I've taken quite a different approach. Here's where my findings differ:

Ring of Fire
I found in the late-game this can be quite handy for its knock resistance. Hitting something with this followed by a gale will often seperate out them from their buddies. And if you're into Tornado like I am, it can make a very fun combo. It's faster recharge and considerably lower end. usage than fire cages means you can give one target some real attention.

Cinders
This is my second controller, and I always planned six-slotting this as soon as I got it. But every time I level'd I always had somewhere more useful to put the slots. At level 36 this still just has its base slot of accuracy and I've not regretted it. My primary hold is flashfire/fire cages - mainly because of fire cages' knock resistance. This becomes my secondary hold, and when freezing rain is already falling I find it tends to be adequate for my needs with just the one base slot.

Tornado
Got it, love it. In PvE it's situational - but it has a whole plethora of status effects including a very nice defence debuff. I tend to ring-of-fire the target I want to give attention to followed by dropping tornado right on them. The tornado gets the idea pretty quick, and effectively removes that enemy from the fight. Bosses too.
In PvP it's just fun. Sends squishies flying, debuffs scrappers and tanks so you can hit them.
Slotted 1 end.redux, 1 recharge. Considering slotting def.debuff for PvP.

Beyond that, I can only agree with your summary of the various powers. I've made choices not to take O2 boost or snow storm, but I constantly find myself in situations where I wish I had.

All in all, Fire/Storm has a lot of nice powers. They're all effective.

Well, since there were some request I'm going to post my 2-stage (i.e. 1 respec) build, showing how I would do things now. Two notes: (1) This build looks good on paper but I don't know if it's actually gonna be fun. If you've played other controllers, you might be ok with the slow progressing, and won't need the pre-respec-damage-oriented build. (2) I'm glad I don't have to do this all over again because there are some hard choices in this build.

So, this is the pre-respec build. The idea is that you do the respec at 27, which will allow you to sell all your current enhancements and buy all fresh, 30 lvl DOs and SOs. Because of that the last power is of no real importance, it's just something to use for one level, and then you might or might not respec it out. You will see that I chose Cinders, this means less frequent holds and less end usage, and since the pre-respec build is less about holds, and is tight on end, I felt that that was a good choice. However, you can pick-up flashfire, which will cost you more endurance but you'll be able to apply "holds" more frequently. When I first did this build I put in Hot Feet, but its end use is so horrendous that pre-stamina using it is more likely to slow down your soloing more than it speeds it up. (After this I consider Hotfeet even more useless than I thought before )

01 : Gale acc(01) acc(13) conrng(13) kbkdis(19)
01 : Char acc(01) hlddur(3) dam(3)
02 : Ring of Fire acc(02) dam(5) dam(5) dam(9) dam(9)
04 : Snow Storm endred(04) slw(19)
06 : Air Superiority acc(06) dam(7) dam(7)
08 : Fire Cages acc(08) endred(11) dam(11) dam(15) dam(15)
10 : Hurdle jmp(10)
12 : Smoke thtdbf(12)
14 : Fly endred(14)
16 : Freezing Rain endred(16) recred(17) defdbf(17)
18 : Cinders acc(18) acc(21) recred(21) hlddur(23)
20 : Health hel(20)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(25) endrec(25) endrec(27) endrec(27)
24 : Hurricane endred(24)
26 : O2 Boost endred(26)

-------------------------------------------

This is the post-respec build. As I mentioned there are some hard choice to make here. I'll go over some choices of powers that I think could be modified depending on preferences and play-style. You could switch O2 and Snow Storm - question is, what helps more, the fact that mobs are slowed down or that you can heal your teammates. Smoke can be switched with Steamy Mist, though since you're getting SM using respec, you have Stamina and its end usage is not such a problem. Finally, you can delay Freezing Rain and take Maneuvers and Tactics earlier, which will allow you to slot them a bit more before Fire Imps, making the Imps more useful as soon as you have them.

01 : Gale acc(01)
01 : Char acc(01) acc(3) hlddur(3) hlddur(5) endred(7) recred(9)
02 : Fire Cages acc(02) endred(5) endred(7) immdur(11)
04 : O2 Boost endred(04) hel(9) hel(17) hel(48)
06 : Hover fltspd(06)
08 : Hurdle jmp(08)
10 : Steamy Mist endred(10) endred(11)
12 : Flashfire acc(12) acc(13) endred(13) endred(15) disdur(17)
14 : Fly endred(14) fltspd(15) fltspd(48)
16 : Health hel(16)
18 : Cinders acc(18) acc(19) hlddur(19) hlddur(23) recred(25) recred(31)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21) endrec(23) endrec(25) endrec(31)
22 : Hasten recred(22) recred(27) recred(27) recred(29) recred(29) recred(31)
24 : Hurricane endred(24) endred(39) thtdbf(39) thtdbf(40)
26 : Freezing Rain endred(26) defdbf(43)
28 : Maneuvers endred(28) defbuf(36) defbuf(37) defbuf(37) defbuf(37) defbuf(40)
30 : Tactics endred(30) thtbuf(34) thtbuf(34) thtbuf(36) thtbuf(39) thtbuf(42)
32 : Fire Imps recred(32) dam(33) dam(33) dam(33) dam(34) dam(36)
35 : Snow Storm endred(35) slw(40)
38 : Smoke thtdbf(38) thtdbf(43) thtdbf(43)
41 : Indomitable Will recred(41) recred(42) recred(42) recred(45) recred(45)
44 : Mind over Body endred(44) damres(45) damres(46) damres(46) damres(46) damres(48)
47 : Lightning Storm endred(47) acc(50) dam(50) dam(50)
49 : Super Speed runspd(49)

-------------------------------------------

Well, that's about it. I just want to add, that I think the post-respec build works as a regular build as well (i.e. no respecs), and if you're going to group a lot then you might spare yourself the hassle and just forget the pre-respec build.

@Slaphappy: It's a good build. The only thing I would do is delay Hasten till 22, since you're not going to get much use out of it until you can put SOs into it. That will allow you to shift all powers "down" and take stamina at 20.

@Kid_Gloves: I'm glad you found a tactic that works with Tornado, though to make it work you're using another power that I wouldn't want to take (RoF), so it's still not really an option for me.

Just a few questions for you and one thing to add. You don't slot Hasten till 27, so you might as well not take it till 26. This bumps up more usefull unslotted powers like Hurrican and Frezing rain.

Ok now questions. You don't take smoke till late (38) Is it really that helpfull late in the game. I found smoke very usefull early, but could not imadge that late in the game it would do much good. Do you use it alot, and if so what for? The visiblity part or the -acc?

O2 boost has it's perks but they don't last for long and the heal is so little I really never saw much use for it. Not having palyed with it at high lvls I just wonding how much you use it, and if it really makes much of a deferance?

here are my second thoughts on my build. Thanks again to Brimstone for all the time he put into this.

I tryed to focus this toon a little more on some hard hitting debuffs...this is slightly because I thinking of doing some PvP.

Last power Tornado is strickly for PvP, I can't see any real use for it normaly


01 : Gale acc(01)
01 : Char acc(01) acc(3) hlddur(3) hlddur(5) endred(7) recred(9)
02 : Fire Cages acc(02) endred(5) endred(7) immdur(11)
04 : Snow Storm endred(04) slw(9)
06 : Hover fltspd(06)
08 : Hurdle jmp(08)
10 : Steamy Mist endred(10) endred(11)
12 : Flashfire acc(12) acc(13) endred(13) endred(15) disdur(17) disdur(17)
14 : Fly fltspd(14) fltspd(15)
16 : Health hel(16)
18 : Cinders acc(18) acc(19) hlddur(19) hlddur(23) recred(25) recred(31)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21) endrec(23) endrec(25) endrec(31)
22 : Hurricane endred(22) endred(39) thtdbf(39) thtdbf(40) thtdbf(40) thtdbf(50)
24 : Freezing Rain endred(24) defdbf(43) defdbf(48) defdbf(50)
26 : Hasten recred(26) recred(27) recred(27) recred(29) recred(29) recred(31)
28 : Maneuvers endred(28) defbuf(36) defbuf(37) defbuf(37) defbuf(37) defbuf(40)
30 : Tactics endred(30) thtbuf(34) thtbuf(34) thtbuf(36) thtbuf(39) thtbuf(42)
32 : Fire Imps recred(32) dam(33) dam(33) dam(33) dam(34) dam(36)
35 : Bonfire endred(35)
38 : Lightning Storm endred(38) acc(43) dam(43) dam(48) dam(50)
41 : Indomitable Will recred(41) recred(42) recred(42) recred(45) recred(45)
44 : Mind over Body endred(44) damres(45) damres(46) damres(46) damres(46) damres(48)
47 : Smoke thtdbf(47)
49 : Tornado endred(49)

[ QUOTE ]
Just a few questions for you and one thing to add. You don't slot Hasten till 27, so you might as well not take it till 26. This bumps up more usefull unslotted powers like Hurrican and Frezing rain.

[/ QUOTE ]
Good point

[ QUOTE ]
Ok now questions. You don't take smoke till late (38) Is it really that helpfull late in the game. I found smoke very usefull early, but could not imadge that late in the game it would do much good. Do you use it alot, and if so what for? The visiblity part or the -acc?

[/ QUOTE ]
Originally I took smoke pertty early and been using it my entire career, including high levels - basically I'm in the habit of always smoking a mob before engaging even if they are the same level as me. As I mention in the guide, if smoke does help with -acc it's not something i was able to really notice much - it's not like taking one mob w/o smoke produces 10 hits on me, and then the next mob with smoke and suddenly I don't get hit at all - but I wouldn't disregard it (I wish somebody would do a test for how much smoke debuffs ). The -aggro is much more noticable and "useable", with it and steamy mist, you are guaranteed that the mobs never engage first (unless some1 in the team approaches within melee range, of course).

To be honest, I would've liked to put smoke much earlier but in an optimal build, there is no room for both smoke and steamy mist, early on, it's either one or the other, and I chose SM. However, this is why this is such a flexible combo, you don't have to have an optimal build to have an effective build. My original build was pretty much like the post-respec build (at least the part before lvl22) but with smoke instead of Flashfire, and I never felt like I was gimped, or missed the extra hold that Flashfire provides. In fact, because of Steamy Mist and Smoke I was always in the lead and I was determining the pace of combat - who we attack and when - because those who knew me, knew that they shouldn't attack until I smoke, and shouldn't go ahead of me so they stay under the cover of mist. (It was pretty damn cool )

[ QUOTE ]
O2 boost has it's perks but they don't last for long and the heal is so little I really never saw much use for it. Not having palyed with it at high lvls I just wonding how much you use it, and if it really makes much of a deferance?

[/ QUOTE ]
Naturally, it's used less in the high level game, and once again, you won't be gimping yourself if you don't take it. But I love it because I love helping teammates and always get a kick out of somebody thanking me for the heals. As far as "making much of a difference" - I distinctly remember several instances in the my 20s and 30s where I would spam heal a squishy, or in some cases even a scrapper, while they were running away to hide and would essentially prevent their red line from going into a flat line.

BTW, I really recommed putting an end-redux into Fly, even after Stamina. With all the toggles you'll be running, even using Fly for few seconds here and there to adjust your position, you'll be noticing its end drain. In fact, you probably should see that for yourself . Put 1 end redux and play for a week or so. Then replace the end redux with fly speed and see if you notice a slowdown in end recovery during combat.

great guide. you should also post one as /STORM with only the storm info in it.

**Bumpety Bump Bumped**

Many thanks to all of you for the excellent comments and questions. This has turned out to be a very successful thread, and the fire/storm I made based on the advice here has been a *lot* of fun. Thanks! Any more out there who wanna chip in or ask questions?

Do any of you Fire/Storm players have any experience with using teleport in the build? I have a lvl 26 and have already taken the Fitness, Speed, and Leadership pools. I use super-speed as my travel power, because it combines so well with Steamy Mist, and was thinking that Recall Friend would be really useful for managing Imps. Any thoughts?

Your gonna try to save one imp....for early team play, sure it's usefull, bu to TP one imp...kinda a waste if ya ask me, If you were gonna TP a phant, that differen't but one imp is hardly worth the trouble

[ QUOTE ]
Do any of you Fire/Storm players have any experience with using teleport in the build? I have a lvl 26 and have already taken the Fitness, Speed, and Leadership pools. I use super-speed as my travel power, because it combines so well with Steamy Mist, and was thinking that Recall Friend would be really useful for managing Imps. Any thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]
If you're thinking of TPing imps between floors inside missions then it will work but not all the time. I think sometimes the floors are so far away from each other that they're out of TP range.

If you're going to take the TP pool you might also want to consider TP Foe, it can come in handy in PvP. If you don't care about PvP at all and have a power slot to spare, having TP (self) would give you a bit more flexibility, and allow you to still move if you've been immobilized.

Do fire imps do just melee damage or do they have a long range attack? I know they don't hold like I been told jack frost does, but I don't want jack due to my character concept/design.

Imps do strictly melee damage. From what I noticed they have two attacks, one causes medium damage (relatively to Imps that is) followed by several ticks of minor damage, and the other attack just causes one high damage (though don't quote me on that ).

Wonderful guide, Brimestone. I've got a couple of concerns though, but first, a little background.

Lately I've been thinking about starting a controller, as it's the last AT I have no practical experience playing (highest is a 19 Mind/Emp). Every primary appeals to me in some ways, and turns me away in others. However, I think I've finally decided upon either fire/kin or fire/storm, and I'm leaning towards Storm. However, there are a few things I wanted to ask before I proceed.

The first concern is about the lack of endurance recovery, since I did notice many storm powers are on the expensive side. How did you deal with it? Was it a problem? I see you took Psi Mastery over Primal Forces, so I figured it may not be as bad as it seems.

The second concern was brought to me by a level 50 friend of mine who plays ill/rad, and he mentions that the lack of a self-heal is a problem because "controllers take little bits of damage that add up later on," to paraphrase him somewhat. Is this really a problem with Storm?

[ QUOTE ]

The first concern is about the lack of endurance recovery, since I did notice many storm powers are on the expensive side. How did you deal with it? Was it a problem? I see you took Psi Mastery over Primal Forces, so I figured it may not be as bad as it seems.

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The choice between psi mastery and primal forces was a difficult one. Ultimately I decided that status protection and psi resistance was more important to me, but only by a sliver. Endurance is definitely a problem, but by the time I needed to make the choice between the APPs, I was much more adept at managing my endurance, and as controllers we have a slight advantage here - we can hold the mobs and then drop one or two toggles, and not do anything for several seconds while the pets take care of the mobs, this gives enough time to recover plenty of end.

The other side of the argument is that as a controller, status effects are not a big problem because in 99% of the cases you'll be the one holding the mobs.

There's also the matter of PvP - if you want your character more potent in PvP combat then status resistance is probably the better way to go. While Conserve Power is a great thing to have in PvP, ultimately if you can't defeat someone using your default endurance consumption, you won't be able to defeat them using the boost from CP. There's also Power Boost, but my view on this is that for you, it's very important not to ever get held (i.e. IW), but for the enemy, even if you hold them just long enough to drop their toggles, it's very cripling, and while PB will add nice duration to your holds it's only a nice but not necessary bonus.

What I'm trying to get at here is that it's really a personal choice the good thing here is that you don't have to make a decision till lvl41 at which point you'll know much better what's more important to you - endurance or status protection, PvE or PvP, etc.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're going to take kinetics as secondary you'll in fact have half (no, quarter) the endurance problems than if you take storm - kinetics has only one toggle that most ppl don't even bother taking, and it has transference, some kinetics defenders/controllers don't even bother taking stamina because transference is that good. (Kinetics is one of the few power sets that gives you the freedom not to take Stamina and still be a productive member of the hero community ). Kinetics overall creates a more offensive controller build (FS anyone? ), whereas storm creates a superb controlling controller build.

Oh and last thing. Couple of changes in I4 that you might not be aware of (just to help you decide between the two secondaries) - O2 boost provides resistance to endurance drain, teams will love you when going against sappers and carnies. Siphon speed now also slows down attack rate of mobs, and speeds up your attack rate. From what I read the speed up is not very great (~15%) but stacking couple of them (apparently it can be stacked) will allow you to keep more imps for longer.

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The second concern was brought to me by a level 50 friend of mine who plays ill/rad, and he mentions that the lack of a self-heal is a problem because "controllers take little bits of damage that add up later on," to paraphrase him somewhat. Is this really a problem with Storm?

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I would phrase it a bit differently - lack of self heal is not a problem, but the ability to self heal is a great boon.
Basically my view on self heals is like my view on many things about controllers - if you're doing your job right you won't need them. Personally, I never found myself wanting a self-heal, pop couple of greens is all I ever needed, and basically, you just learn to live without it. Some builds have self heals, others don't, that's just how it is.

I do have to admit one thing though, in general, kinetics is the easier choice. It has a very potent area heal that will heal you, your pets, and your teammates. It has an endurance drain/replenish power that will not only fill up your and your teammates' endurance bars, but will also allow you to disable some mobs by sucking up their end. (more end means easier time running tactics, better tactics means less missing with transference, less missing means more end, rinse repeat ) It also has buffs that will speed up your pets and your teammates and give them resistance to holds. And of course it has FS that will allow you, if choose so, to slot up imps with several recharge reducers (the damage will come from FS), and get 3-4 groups of imps at all times. Just thinking of 3-4 groups of imps fully charged on FS makes me drool.

Storm on the other hand offers you great debuffs - tohit, defense, slow down, and for PvP has toggle dropping powers, Tornado and Lightning Storm. All those require more work and their effects are generally less noticable to others (though the powers themselves definitely stand out) - so you probably won't get as much instant gratification from using them, but you are definitely guaranteed to have more fun.

I've got a 31 Kinetics defender, so that's another reason I'm leaning towards Storm. That endurance cost worries me though. Even if I decide upon CP, I still have 43 levels before endurance ceases to be a problem. Additionally, it's 35 levels before Transference and 38 before Fulcrum Shift. Fire/Kin seems to be a really late-blooming set.

Storm is also interesting because of Freezing Rain. It's no Fulcrum Shift, but that resistance debuff sounds mighty nice. As you said, Storm would probably make me a better at controlling.

At the moment I don't plan on taking this character into the arena, since I've already got a blaster and scrapper I'd rather take--but I do hear /Storm is pretty powerful in there.

There's still the small matter of controllers "getting looked at." Needless to say, I'm a little concerned about the future of Fire. It's just something I need to consider, lest I be forced to live through Unstoppable again.

I've taken my fire/storm into the arena a lot - is my arena fighter of choice.

Here's a few things:

1. Tornado doesn't (to my knowledge) drop toggles. It does, however, drop defence and do unresistable, auto-hit damage. MoG-ers hate that (including Paragon Protectors, whose reaction to a tornado is to drop what they're doing and flee - with tornado in hot pursuit). Fully slotted tornado could be ideal for MoG, but I don't love tornado *that* much.

2. Steamy Mist + Smoke is a good escape combo. Because smoke is a non-agro power, it doesn't count as an 'attack' - so if its the last thing you do, its like activating invisibility. Great for breaking target lock and getting non-invisible-detecting people to curse your name.

3. Hurricane is amazing against scrappers and tanks - particularly early on when they don't have ranged attacks.

I strongly recommend taking a fire/storm into the arena and experimenting. I've found some nice tactics from that which carry back into the PvE game (e.g. tornado on MoG'd PPs) that I probably wouldn't have thought of with repeatedly smacking the same old predictable enemies.

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1. Tornado doesn't (to my knowledge) drop toggles.

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You're right, my bad. I meant to say Thunder Clap (not Tornado) drops toggles.

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3. Hurricane is amazing against scrappers and tanks - particularly early on when they don't have ranged attacks.

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So true. I was dueling a friend of mine, dark/regen scrapper, he hit MoG, I put on Hurricane and we hit a stalemate. Imagine that! A controller against a scrapper and it's a stalemate My imps couldn't do enough damage to him and FR's defense/resistance debuff wasn't enough, he on the other hand, was hitting nothing but air. (I do think I have an idea how to overcome his MoG but I need to test it )

In danger of turning this into a PvP discussion about fire/storm, I can suggest two things:

1. damage-slotted tornado. when you have next to no health and can't heal, its no fun.

2. snow storm (and freezing rain if they're not fleeing). The -recharge will destroy their perma-ness, meaning they have about a 5-10 second window where they have no MoG and it isn't recharged yet.

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2. snow storm (and freezing rain if they're not fleeing). The -recharge will destroy their perma-ness, meaning they have about a 5-10 second window where they have no MoG and it isn't recharged yet.

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OMG why did you mention this!?! This was suppose to be the "ace up our sleeve" and you've gone ahead and revealed our trade secret. Now I won't be able to convince any regen scrapper to duel me.