The Mighty Storm defender I7 guide: Semprini

TheMightyStorm · 02-16-2006 01:53 AM

The Mighty Storm's Storm Healer guide;
for the Person who wants to play the Healer AT, using the storm powerset, which itself, has a heal. Making it and you a healer.

Don't take drugs, and stay out of deep end of the medicine pool.

Chapter 1: Blue shield, red snow.

Like the Iceberg, The Mighty Storm defender's vast bulk is concealed beneath the surface. No, I don't mean we're fat. Let me start over. Like the Iceberg, The Mighty Storm defender can carve channels through solid rock, rupture the hulls of great ships, and dispose, once and for all, with Leonardo DeCaprio's career--such that he only gets uninteresting 1 dimensional roles thereafter (opinion). Except that, whereas a glacier, which I suppose is different than an iceberg, takes many millions of years to plow through a mountain, and can only lie in menacing wait for a large cruise liner to ram into it, The Mighty Storm defender can accomplish the leveling of whole planetary collections in a matter of hours, and is quite capable of chasing down the entire Carnivale Cruise fleet, and simultaneously wrecking up to 3000 2nd honeymoons.

As rivulets of blood squeezed from the veins of undesireables, the evil, the opportunistic, and the present-at-time-of-rampage (small children), collect in streams, and creeks of decaying serum, wending their way gently through the city streets, toppling refrigerator boxes, and flooding dumpsters, where the homeless desperately try to catch a few nightmare-filled hours of shuteye between Tsoo muggings and Outcast shakedowns, before a Clockwork Knight turns their resting place into about 32.4 gears (figure is for typical municipal general waste container, recycling containers can produce 48.1 gears, or 14 sprockets, or 12 oscillators, or 3 knights, or .8 of a duke, or .5 of a duke, 1 knight, and 3 gears, but typically is used for 8 sprockets, .5 of a knight, and 12 gears--Tesla knights require 12% *more* material, whereas assembler dukes require only 90% as much material as a typical duke. For comparison purposes, Babbage is 20 princes, 2 knights, and a gear, or 3 clockwork kings, - the brains + 10 princes, 1 duke, an oscillator, and 3 gears, or 1 psychic babbage; hold the psy), you will often feel moved to favor the city with a hellacious grin, and an even more hellacious laugh, to indicate your nearly psychotic disassociation from reality and society at large.

But enough of that!

The Mighty Storm defender is one of the more offensive defender ATs. As I present it here, it will be extremely offensive. No doubt some of you are already offended. This will only get worse as time goes by, so get a drink. I recommend something girly. Like Everclear, maple syrup, and apple cider.

My playstyle involves either soloing, working with few/couple blasters/defenders, or taking the lead in a team. I am capable of assisting a tank who is a focal point, as *you* will be if you use even an *ounce* of your brain--I swear to god, if you go out there and give us a bad name by screwing up the grouping of the bad guys, I will *follow* you and I will make fun of your costume until you cry. So don't assume you *can't* do anything. You can do anything. If someone asks you if you can tank Tyrant, say yes. A team wipe is an acceptible stepping stone to self-confidence. In fact, I prefer it.

Chapter 2: Toolbox.

The Storm powers fall in roughly 3 categorization systms, 1 of which has 3 categories, and 2 of which have 4 categories.

The first categorization system has to do with complaints/compliments, and breaks down roughly in the following way:

People don't want you to use it, then see how it works and like it: Freezing rain, Lightning storm.
People are leary of it, but will not complain as long as you don't screw up: Gale, Hurricane
People think this is what you do, and will be confused if you don't do it: 02 boost, steamy mist, thunderclap, snow storm
People won't know what it is half the time, and while they may tolerate it, they will never love it--considered chronically 'team unfriendly', despite its huge value in a team environment: Tornado

The second categorization system has to do with the typical priority of the powers in the selection process of other Storm defenders. ZealotOnAStick likes Gale more than I portray here, Some people love Steamy mist more than I portray here, but across my experience in game, and listening to attitudes on the boards, this is my approxiamation of peoples' priorities.

Must haves: O2 boost or gale (forced), freezing rain, snow storm.
Mighty Storm Defender's delight: Hurricane, Lightning storm
Cuddily: Tornado, O2 boost (if you took gale), Steamy Mist
Toys: Gale (if you took O2 Boost), Thunderclap

The third categorization system is for The Mighty Storm defender, as conceived of in the womb of God's will.

Requirements: O2 boost, Freezing rain, Snow storm, Tornado, Lightning storm, Hurricane
Nice to haves: Steamy Mist, Gale
Only necessary in one specific sub-build--the diso-queen: Thunderclap

The point and purpose of the powers is roughly as follows.

O2 boost and steamy mist protect the team more than they protect you. The stealth component of steamy mist (which, conveniently, extends about as far as the perimeter of mist--for teammate coverage--and is good for about the radius of the mist, meaning, as long as something is outside the mist and has a typical vision range, it won't see you. Rikti drones, and snipers, obviously, having longer vision range, and this rule of thumb doesn't hold true for them. Perception adjustments also complicate this). O2 boost is more of a disorient-preventing buff than it is a heal, though I've used it to heal. Steamy mist I tend to leave running for personal stealth, and then I stay a couple steps behind the dumbest teammembers, to help prevent them from causing unintended aggro. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't, but you've got to try.

Hurricane, Snow Storm, Tornado, and Freezing rain (and tclap if you're a diso queen--I handle that in a later chapter) are mitigation tools. You use Hurricane to 'touch' mobs, leaving them massively acc debuffed for several seconds (usually long enough to pop over to another group, blast once, and come back, or make a lightning storm, or a freezing rain--you have to be vigilant and mobile to keep the badguys debuffed). Snow storm has -recharge, and also sends the mob you anchor into evasion mode (he wants to separate himself from his teammates--however with the slowing effect, he typically just plods around for alittle bit and gives up--sometimes other factors in the AI make it ignore evasion mode. I don't know what these factors are, and neither does the guy who wrote the AI)--this reduces incoming damage. Tornado is fairly reliable as a skirmisher which uses knockback, disorient, and an ability to produce evasion behavior to prevent mobs from focusing on attacking you. Freezing rain acts as mitigation in that it causes evasion and knockdown. You'll notice that alot of your mitigation comes from evasion behavior (or seems like it). This is similar to the 'old' fear, which just made badguys run away, though it has the benefit of ending faster, and being limited in scope to the things that cause it, rather than a persistent effect that keeps a mob running until it's far far away.

Hurricane, snow storm, freezing rain, and gale are your mob position tools, which is helpful for a) getting people off cliffs, around corners and such to give yourself a breather b) boxing badguys in for aoe usage c) assisting other playesr by pushing additional badguys into their static effects. Snow storm and freezing rain are part of the process because the 'push' in hurricane has been dramatically reduced. There was a time when an even-level mob couldn't reach you if he tried running into your hurricane. Now this is not the case. Against higher level mobs it's even less noticeable--until they stand still. Snow storm helps slow footspeed, increasing the relative effect of your 'push', and freezing rain causes additional knockback which effectively makes the mob stand still, so you can push them more effectively--it also has a slow component.

Tornado, Hurricane, Lightning Storm, and Freezing rain are your offensive tools. Tornado, Lstorm, and FR all do damage (or help you do more damage through -def and -rez), so their offensive role is understandable. I place Hurricane here because of the posture you must adopt while using it. Open a slot in your mind where you put the concept of 'walking up to someone and debuffing them with hurricane', and make it a button that you put in an invisible slot on your action bar--it has instant recharge. Now, when it's time to fight, press this button first. Thereafter, be sure that you press this button between pressing other buttons on your action bar, so that your enemy stays debuffed. You should really alternate it. One blast, then hurricane debuff. One lstorm, then hurricane debuff. Freezing rain, hurricane debuff. By maintaining this large acc penalty on your enemies, you can deal with purple bosses, red lieutenants, and their orange minions all at once. There aren't any spoons.

Chapter 3: Exercise your inner child

The dream of flight, once beyond mankind's reach, was achieved in this game, but that was before suppression. Now it is the dream of 'hover'.

In order to get your storm on at maximum meteorologency, you must have mobility. My 'total mobility solution' (TMS), is hover, 3 slotted for speed, flight, 6 slotted, half for speed and half for endurance, teleport foe, to move the snow storm anchor, and teleport, to move the hurricane anchor. This is 2 power pools, 4 powers, and 7 to 11 slots, depending on how much you favor the teleport powers with slotting (I am a fan of 3 slotting teleport for range, for the sake of speeding between Crey's Folley and Founder's Falls). I take Flight because hurricane alone does not suppress it, and it's useful for the initial debuffing, or moving to debuff newly aggroed mobs.

Then there is the fitness pool. I would never consider playing a storm defender without 3 slotted stamina. I consider it 'no fun'. If you enjoy it... well.. you're *INSANE* and will find a comprable mate to breed true into the next generation so that my *grandchildren* can have the same boring arguments with the decendents of your madness through their wireless cybernetic web-crawling implants. No doubt their Encephalon chips will short-out (fuzzy dark elves in Shadowrun 4tehwin!--also kid stealth legs--and retractable cyber-horns--oh man and those tatoos that could move and glow! That is *hot*). I also select hurdle, rather than swift, since, with hurdle, you have higher lateral speed while jumping than you do while running with swift. By making short bunny-hops, you will achieve a faster ground speed than when using swift. Also, sprint stacks equally well with swift *or* hurdle, so you don't miss out on that synergy (this, btw, is due to the fact that they upgraded sprint in I2 to have a +jump capability, in order to compensate for the slower lateral speed whilst jumping, compared to running speed--knowledge is power, don't do drugs). I take health, rather than both movement powers, because the health regen is helpful, but mostly because it has some sleep resistence.

Then there is the discretionary pool. You're already weighted down with movement options, so, luckily, we don't need superspeed or something weird here. I used to swear by hasten, for the potential it had to push your recharge as far as it could go, and cause freezing rain overlap as well as additional lstorm and tornado summonings. However, now that ED limits recharge to 3 slots, hasten does not hold the undeniable charm it once did. For one thing, Since I can't fully slot Lstorm for damage, half of it is recharge anyway. And for another, hasten can't be 'perma' which, despite only a short down time, makes it situational. Between these changes and the glowing hands, and the endurance 'crash', I am not sure about it. Of course, EngSoc told prolesector that the recharge on hasten has actually *decreased*, but those who work in the polit bureau... you know what? 1984 is passe. There, I said it.

Moving right along, all I've said of substance here is that the 4th pool is no longer hasten. Now it can be anything. One of those anythings is the presence pool. Taunt tends to convince AI with mixed melee/ranged posture to close to melee range, which is advantageous for hurricane, and usually means you don't have to chase them as much. Provoke can be a powerful tool to hold interest in your hurricane, and also to draw the enemy across a patch of freezing rain--making them evade (thereby attacking less), slow, fall down, debuff, and generally explode. The fear at the upper end of the pool is also a useful tool for dealing with strays or multiple groups--it helps compensate for the time-intensive process of debuffing with hurricane, and is a nice compliment to any immobilizes you may have. It's not as useful in the disorient-queen build.

Another anything is the fighting pool, if you really want to invest in tough and weave for extra survivability. There are worse things to do with your time, though you'll have to start sacrificing blasts and storm powers to squeeze them in. Not to mention the slotting.

The other choice that sometimes occurs is the medicine pool, for the rescuscitate, since that will make you more team friendly, and the self-heal has disorient resistence associated with it (making it sort of an o2 boost self). I've also taken the stealth pool for phaseshift in the past--just for fun, really. Whirlwind is useful in the tornado fiend build, or in general to allow you to continue moving whilst activating powers (indescribably useful for the hurricane debuffing procesS). The lowest hanging fruit, however, is taking hasten (anyway), combat jumping (for added air control while hopping), or simply leave it blank and use the power choices for blasts.

Chapter 4: Technique

Technique has already been discussed, largely, so I don't want to repeat myself too much, but I ought to introduce you to the screaming obvious. These are all things which anybody could figure out, but which it sometimes help to hear, so that when you're mind is numbed from hours of dealing with War-wolves, you can say 'oh hey, that's right, I can do *this*'.

KISS:

Snow storm on the guy in the back or off to the side, then freezing rain.
This is the typical opener in a team since it's available early, and doesn't disrupt the typical playstyle of CoH. You pick the guy on the fringes because he's most likely to escape the aoe-death, and continue acting as anchor for a while, and because the Snow storm radius is very large (especially for a toggle) and the *radius* can easily encompass the width of Freezing rain.

Steamy mist and hurricane on, run into some bad guys (or teleport behind them), circle them once to bunch them up.
Steamy mist will keep you stealthed so that the badguys don't react to you until you touch them with the debuff. They will then do their alpha (usually debuffed so most of it misses), which makes them stand still for a couple seconds, helping you to gather them up into a tighter knot for whatever happens next.

Two bosses in a group--summon a tornado near one, and then focus on the other OR ranged badguys stay at range while you deal with their melee friends--summon a tornado to disrupt the ranged badguys without having to chase them yourself
Tornados are best used as skirmishers. Expecting them to attack just one thing is usually a tenuous proposition. Also they typically don't kill something on their own. This is largely due to their target-switching mentality. Luckily, bosses, who don't disorient as easily as minions, tend to irritate a tornado more, so it will stick with them longer. In this way you can sort of postpone a ruling on the issue of Storm defender V. Jackabraxusasses (That would be a great CoT mage name, wouldn't it?), until you've dealt with your cumberbun (I have no idea).

In a team, pull, then make a lightning storm to knockback melee enemies who advance on the squishies, then teleport or move with hurricane off behind the badguys, and use hurricane, gale, and another lstorm (if it returns in time) to prevent retreat.
This is sort of your team-friendly way to use your positioning skills and offensive powers to protect the weak and uphold the murderer. I do this alot especially when teaming with illusion controllers or anything blastery.

KICS:

Using hurricane, debuff all the spawns in the hallway, then withdraw around a corner. If outdoors, continue debuff/disruption process until enough mobs are 'following' you, then back off and attack, swooping in and around to continue debuff as necessary. Use Freezing Rain, snow storm, and tornado to keep mobs disrupted and distracted.
This is how I spend alot of my time. First you have to create an environment in which it is practical to utilize your mobility to keep all your target debuffed. Second, you have to not be afraid of the idea of pulling multiple spawns. You can often deal with 4 even-con or 3+2 spawns at a time, without need of inspirations. Third, you don't necessarily have to 'herd', but if you can get some mobs to catch in a corner, and then revisit 1 or 2 clumps of other mobs with your hurricane to maintain the debuff, that gives you more time to make lstorms and blast.

Pull using tornado, and immediately fly away--usually out of sight. Use Lstorm and freezing rain, gale and tornado, as they approach to play 'whack a mole' with them until none of them get up and come back.
Tornado irritates badguys, but it can't be attacked. They know it's your fault, and they don't like you. Let them get annoyed and come after you (this can be annoying if it's a bunch of long-ranged rifle weilding guys). You're drawing them away into an emptied area by flying away, and you're controlling how many deal with you at a time by blowing them away or blasting them. This can be combined wih the style above.

There's more, obviously, depending on your blast set, and circumstances. Don't restrict yourself to these tactics. Also don't apply them verbatim each time. It's not a set of rules, they're more like guidelines, pirates code, etc etc. The germans say 'un so weiter'. Which I like.

Chapter lost count: Blasting

Stupid TMS Axioms that nobody agrees with me on.
-Never take the 2nd blast.
-Always get a snipe
-Never take Aim
-Take all the aoe you can, even if people don't like the power

I never take the 2nd blast because it forces better endurance saving habits, and because when you're higher level you shouldn't have time to blast twice. If you do, you can just use an aoe and choke on the wastefulness of it. Just choke.

I always get a snipe because, combined with steamy mist (or any form of stealth), you can easily peel one mob from a group, as long as you have something to hide behind, and the mob you shot can't retaliate from where he's standing.

I never take Aim because my personal experience with it suggest to me that it's bugged-that it takes one attack to set the accuracy correctly--wasting time on a very short term buff--or that it wraps accuracy somehow, giving you occasionally miniscule benefits. It's possible that using Aim resets your streak-breaker somehow. Regardless I don't trust it. Many people trust it and love it and think I am insane. If they're right, my joy will know no bounds. Though the devs are now making Aim affect castable effects, I think you'd still find it unworthy. Even if it weren't for my conspiracy theory, you barely have enough time during Aim's duration to make an lstorm, and aiming for a freezing rain is largely pointless. Buildup would allow FR to do reasonable damage, but Aim's damage bonus is not enough on it's own. You're better off using damage inspirations if you intend to make use of FR's damage. One might also infer, by the way, that an inspiration will now cascade to a pet when cast. That is far more significant than Aim. But regardless, I am highly superstitious, and until I see the streak breaker stop acting whacky (I do maintain aim on a corruptor to check on its status occasionally--because I'm that anal retentive), I'll endorse it. I'll even offer some sort of morally questionable service free of charge if you'll take. But until that day, you'll have to dream while you peel a carrot.

if insps don't cascade, I will be hjorkyed off. Hjorkynk!

You have good single target damage, and a great aoe debuff in your storm powers. You need to supplement that with the ability to hurt several badguys at a time. Rad and dark are excellent choices. Psy and energy are middling. Electricity is a little short on the aoe, unless you count the nuke. Most people don't. Sonic has decent cones, and archery ends with rain-of-arrows. A rain. Largely a choice of blast set comes down to preference. However experience has shown me that rad and def lead the pack on damage to groups, with sonic just behind them. If anyone can refute this, please do so.

The hairy fingertips version of each blast set:

Rad:
cosmic burst, irradiate, neutron bomb, and the snipe (which sounds like proton torpedoes). Electron haze if you can fit it.

Dark:
snipe, tenebrous tentacles, nightfall, life drain. Torrent if you can fit it.

Psy:
snipe, psychic scream, TK blast, psy tornado. Will dom if you can fit it.

Ele:
snipe, ball lightning, tesla cage, Voltaic sentinel. Thunderous blast if you can fit it.

Eng:
snipe, energy torrent, power burst, explosive blast. Nova if you have room.

Sonic: (personal experience from a corruptor, so consider this more speculative)
Howl, Shout, Screech, dreadful wail. Shockwave if you can fit it.

Archery: (pure speculation--never leveled one)
snipe, fistful of arrows, explosive arrow, Rain of arrows. Flaming arrow if you can fit it.
USMC_Sniper said:
[ QUOTE ]
Blazing Arrow 2 Slotted has roguhly same range and with 2 Acc, 2 Damage, 2 Range its better than Ranged Shot and does more damage than a 2 Dam Ranged Shot.

[/ QUOTE ]

Chapter of the Ultramarines: Unsuccessful in dating Sisters of Battle; "It's not you, it's me. I don't have a Betcher's Gland."

Which is to say... Epic power pools.

Those who've made it to level 40 know that the game gets great when you have a ton of powers to play with, and, in what is a creepy Twilight Zoneesque kind of 'oh no, not my glasses!' moment, the content gets *less* great. Well never you mind. Console yourself by soloing AVs and then bragging in the Scrapper forum.

The defender sets break down in the following way. If you can't decide which to get, get power.

Power is the only 100% guaranteed-to-please epic set available to defenders. This set contains 3 powers which are useful-anytime/anywhere in precisely the same way that vigilance is not.

Conserve power is right there at the bottom, dangling like a ripe pair of cherries, waiting for you to massage their skins off with your, only slightly, rough tongue--and then allow their juice to run down your chin. If that's graphic, it's only because when The Mighty Storm defender gets conserve power, it starts to get rediculous. Especially in the recharge-focused build that I advocate. Careful only that you don't spend too much time laying down the storm components, and forsake the debuffing. Debuff is *life*.

Then there's buildup, which I hear blasters say is ok (irony!--also goes well with sniper and rye).

I will compare the shields separately in a moment.

Total focus is a toy power for The Mighty Storm defender. It's very powerful, sure, but it's anathema to your entire routine. For starters, you usually shouldn't be in hth for that long, for another its single target, and for third it has a relatively cumbersome activation time which a) does not produce a storm cloud and b) is time that you can never ever ever get back. Ever. Consider the granules of sand cascading gently and singly from the upper portion of a delicate hourglass which is held in the ivory grip of Death himself (paleontologists can tell by Death's pelvis what his gender is). In that light, is it really worth it? Shouldn't that time be spent making rain so that maize might grow from the fertile entrails of your foes? Of course it is.

Dark!
Only way to become a D4. Too bad you picked a set that [expletive deleted] [gratuitous hyperbole]'s dark (playful humor).

I take the dark epic as part of the diso Queen build, and I'd experimented with it on a storm/rad (for the angry cloudlike-look).

The problem with dark is that you need 3 powers worth of it, since, if you don't take soul drain, what the hell was the point of picking the pool in the first place? Soul drain provides a substantial damage bonus if used in the midst of enemies, which lasts long enough to weild some storm defender powers. Delightfully, with the I7 updates coming soon, where things like rains, storm clouds, and tornados gain the boon of buffs that are on *you*, it may become the de facto method of pumping a Storm defender's damage in the late game. It might have the potential to put freezing rain's damage back in the realm of the useful again. It's just a thought--we'll have to see.

Regardless, it's a good power, but The Modern Mighty Storm defender approach doesn't rely on the formula of action involving a power like soul drain. I've used it in the past, and it's fun, but it forces you to play like a different kind of defender for a few seconds, since typically you are managing a kind of distributed situation, and not personally attempting to catch all the birds with a single jagged shard of granite, so to speak (nobody speaks this way).

Dark consumption is fine, it's about as useful as conserve power if it works correctly, and about as useful as a husband on gameday if it doesn't.

The oppressive gloom aura is panic-inducing (for the user) because of the hitpoint drain, but isn't really that bad. It's more or less a requirement for the diso queen build.

Dominate is a single target hold. It does what you expect. Recharge reasonable, range is ok.

Mass hypnosis is, ironically, very useful for The Mighty Storm defender who's getting used to their role (at level 50? Sure, there's still stuff to learn). It allows you to deal with an unintended extra pull while debuffing, or to simple be certain that your intended pull-victim is isolated from his/her comrades. It's feasible to make this sleep recharge fast enough to reapply before it expires, and have enough duration or accuracy to guarantee you get everybody.

I giggled when I first saw telekinesis, but since then I've tried it on a controller, and come back to try it on a defender, and in both cases, while the *method* is highly useful, it has no synergy with storm, which is *already* endurance intensive, and *already* has ways to push a large group back. In fact, you virtually never wish to just make 'everybody go that way'. I used this for a while to torment herding tanks, but eventually gave up.

Finally there's electricity.

now electricity has a crappy immobilize and a hth attack which suffers the same drawbacks as total focus--though you don't have to eat the entire [censored] sandwich to get at it. It allegedly does splash damage 'like shadow maul'--this according to Camma, and she seems fairly trustworthy (suspicious covert glance). The immobilize is -knockback. If you intend to use tornado to kill single targets, I hope you drink heavily, and I suggest you try the electric epic ppool. The final power is endurance recovery similar to the dark power. I review it similarly.

The Armors:
Power: smash/lethal
Dark: smash/lethal/neg eng
Psy: smash/lethal/psy
Electric: smash/lethal/energy

for comparison
Steamy mist: cold/energy/fire/confuse

So, power is the crappiest, but is in a great epic pool.
Dark is great if you intend to fight circle of thorns in your late career. God help you if you do. Otherwise equivalent to power, since the only things that use dark are a couple praetorians, and council vamps.
Elec can help you max your energy resist which is a substantial portion of the damage you take from the likes of crey, rikti, praes, and damn near anything else. It can be a useful advantage.
Finally there's psy. Psy is used by all the most irritating enemies, and you don't have any base resists to it. At first, resisting psy sounds great. Except it doesn't resist the secondary effects that often come with it, and you don't have enough resist in just the shield to really deal with the heavy psy attacks that come at you. You're a storm defender, not a scrapper. You don't have the hitpoints to take advantage of just 22.5% damag mitigation. If you beef it up to 45%.. well that's substantial. But that weighed against nigh invulnerability to energy? Hard to say.

What it means is that, of the sets, Dark is required for a certain specialized build. Power is solid and you probably can't go wrong. Psy sounds good, and might appeal to someone who wants to play at a slower pace, or heavily in team environments.

The only set that you might take all 4 powers in is dark, but again, try that if you like the flavor, not because you think it's the thing to do.

Above all, if you're short on powers from the storm set, try to fill those out instead of sacrificing for Epic slots.

Chapter Superbowl XL: Diso-Queens and Tornado Fiends

The Diso Queen is a build relying on disorient as much as possible. You take thunderclap, and darkblast so you can get dark pit. Then you also take the epic dark pool for the aoe disorient there. You slot tornado half for recharge and half for disorient, and make the most of the staggering. Specifically, in the late levels, I use steamy mist and Oppressive gloom to air-drop in the middle of potential victimes, thunderclap, dark pit, then I use the epic dark power Soul Drain to enhance my damage, drop freezing rain, and use my aoe blasts (usually the final tier blast blackstar). This overwrought tactic was for my own amusement and I can't say, even after using it for a while, that it was substantially better than simply taking advantage of my storm powers with the disorient as sideline-curiosity of sorts. I considered using psy blast instead at one point, but I never leveled a psy up to the epic pool range in order to fully realize the tactic that way. This build tended to leave hurricane off alot.

The Tornado fiend is amuse-ment laden. It's not necessarily a good build. The theory is to maximize tornado, [step two missing], and then profit. Hasten and max recharge in tornado. Then take whirlwind with max end redux, and psy-tornado with recharge redux as well. The benefits of this routine were in whirlwind's ability to keep you 'unlocked' so you could move around, and reliance on tornados and psy tornado to educate me in making the most of these pets and aoes. I don't think I would have started utilizing tornado usefully if it hadn't been for the effort in this arbitrary build.

Chapter 7, as it turns out (I went back and counted): Slotting

This is short and sweet as I don't see the point in 'if you want this then do this' nonsense. That's for you to decide. I'm recommending a certain slotting. My only equivocation will be a couple alterations for pvp vs pve. Furthermore the below will be ideal slotting for storm powers only. You will need to budget slots out of storm powers and into other powers or visa versa to accomodate your own playstyle and emphasis.

Gale: 2 acc, 1 recharge
O2 boost: 1 recharge
snow storm: 3 slows, 3 end redux
steamy mist: 3 resistence, 3 end redux
Freezing rain: 3 recharge redux, 3 end redux (3 recharge, 3 def debuff in pvp)
Hurricane: 3 acc debuff, 3 end redux (3 acc debuff, 2 knockback, 1 end redux in pvp)
Thunderclap: 2 disorient, 1 acc (3 recharge and 3 acc in pvp)
Tornado: 3 recharge, 3 damage (3 recharge, 3 knockback for pvp)
Lstorm: 3 recharge, 3 damage

Note, I'm not the end all and be all of pvpers. So don't assume I'm claming specialized expertise. But I've played pvp as a stormy, and I preferred more knockback slotting, since the effects are typically brief, the def debuff for dealing with pff turtling MMs or super-reflex stalkers. The thunderclap is designed for reapplication, since all mezzes are virtually useless while someone has inspirations, but unstoppable without them. Keeping tclap on a quick timer helps to deplete insps and take advantage of vulnerability. It's mainly for toggle-dropping.

Chapter 8: Admissions of weakness

I used to think this Powerset was the only game in town. I couldn't play anything else for more than a few hours before getting chills and the shakes (vanilla mint chip). Between ED, Suppression, changes to pushback and AI behavior, Suppression, and the pvp alterations to Hurricane, the global def nerf, and stealth suppression, not to mention suppression, it's a set that has frustrated and saddened me. However, even given all these changes (changes like Suppression), I find few types of heroes worth playing, and my villain career feels like I've lost an old friend (no storm for villains).

As a storm defender, you are the concept of the tanker that most of us envisioned if/when we were ever attracted to that AT. You are a powerful monster in close combat, who can crash through the enemy's ranks, causing chaos, and mopping up while enemy is off balance. You can take on dozens of enemies, as long as you use your assets to keep them off-balance (Tops with skin: pattern 5). Yet, rather than being a huge green guy without shoes, or some kind of orange candy with a blue diaper, you're an elegant and nimble weilder of nature's wrath. The satisfying collusion between outcome and visual theme make this the best set in the game as far as I'm concerned. I don't *care* if the green-fart rad squad can do more actual debuffing and buffing. I don't *care* that an inv tank can herd Protazoa in a bikini. Fire tanks are for people who like fire.

...

I leave you wiht one final thought.

the Epic Electric pool has no cone-attack in it. Electricity with the convenience of a cone would be wonderful. But it isn't. It's not.

Thanks to all those people out there that made this guide possible. Quason for telling me to stop whining when I threatened to quit over suppression. MrQuizzles for contradicting me in this way that seems like a reflex, but is nevertheless charming. Gammaraystorm because apparently he *also* wants the damn customizable powers feature so he can have green storm clouds (man that would be HOT). ZealotOnAStick for being inscrutable. I can't scrute him anyway. Avonlea for saying something nice that one time. Lady Mage for her Avatar. Altaholic monkey for her elusiveness.

Additional thanks to all the empaths out there who, despite all the prejudice and persecution they suffer from misunderstandings and sexual predators, maintain, not only a sense of humor, but also the good health of a *lot* of stupid players who should be debt capped by now.

Please place suggestions in a place.

HotButteredSoul · 02-16-2006 08:36 AM

Glad my main power choice has the most eloquent and witty clan member. Great guide!

Garent · 02-16-2006 01:06 PM

[ QUOTE ]
It allegedly does splash damage 'like shadow maul'--this according to Camma, and she seems fairly trustworthy (suspicious covert glance).

[/ QUOTE ]
I speak from most tragic first hand experience when I say that the electric melee attack is horrible. There are two parts to the attack, the single target damage and the splash damage. The thing you're targeting gets hit by both the single target attack and the splash damage, and the only way you'll hit more than your target with the splash damage is if someone is dry humping the target. Both the single target damage and the splash damage are very subpar. My close range blast power from energy does slightly less damage than this, has a much faster animation, recharges much faster, and costs much less endurance. The splash damage is about 40 points at level 50, making it absolutely NOTHING like shadow maul.
I wish I had never taken this power, and am sad that so far there are nothing but good things in I7 making it likely that I won't be seeing another free respecification any time soon. Please add this information to your guide so that others may avoid the terrible mistake that I have made in putting slots into this shih tzu of a power.
One more thing, this guide has made my love for you stronger than ever and has made me consider rethinking my concept build. It's just too bad that it would never work between us.

Pitho · 02-16-2006 03:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It allegedly does splash damage 'like shadow maul'--this according to Camma, and she seems fairly trustworthy (suspicious covert glance).

[/ QUOTE ]
I speak from most tragic first hand experience when I say that the electric melee attack is horrible. There are two parts to the attack, the single target damage and the splash damage. The thing you're targeting gets hit by both the single target attack and the splash damage, and the only way you'll hit more than your target with the splash damage is if someone is dry humping the target. Both the single target damage and the splash damage are very subpar. My close range blast power from energy does slightly less damage than this, has a much faster animation, recharges much faster, and costs much less endurance. The splash damage is about 40 points at level 50, making it absolutely NOTHING like shadow maul.
I wish I had never taken this power, and am sad that so far there are nothing but good things in I7 making it likely that I won't be seeing another free respecification any time soon. Please add this information to your guide so that others may avoid the terrible mistake that I have made in putting slots into this shih tzu of a power.
One more thing, this guide has made my love for you stronger than ever and has made me consider rethinking my concept build. It's just too bad that it would never work between us.

[/ QUOTE ]

I will add that I'm considering wasting an entire respec just to replace thunderstrike with the electric immob, mainly because keeping an AV or something immobilized is often VERY VERY useful and the minor end drain from it would be nice in keeping certain mezzing bosses (I hate you KoA bosses) at 0 after they've stupidly wasted the rest of their end trying to take out fluffy.

Thunderstrike, on the other hand, has turned out to be a long recharge, high endurance, single target positioning tool. If they don't run to the other side of me by the time it finishes animating, in which case they end up farther from where I want them to be.

Electric's end drain to self skill, on the other hand, I've heard has a MUCH shorter recharge than dark consumption. That would be nice.

The armor's graphic annoyed me at first, but I've gotten used to it.

This is the opinion of a dark defender.

Culex's resistance guide

Pasiphae · 02-16-2006 11:30 PM

This would be a lot more useful to me without so much "humour", but I thank you for the guide.

TheMightyStorm · 02-17-2006 01:55 AM

well you're actually not allowed to play a storm defender without the 'humour'. Vitreous 'humour'.

Scientist · 02-21-2006 09:31 AM

Very nice guide, TMS, especially since it includes tactics, which are one of the hardest parts for a new storm player to get. I was originally not too impressed with my storm/dark defender compared to my rad/rad, but after playing the latter to 50 and going back to my storm I was much more successful because I'd learned how to use Line oF Sight and soft controls effectively, and that made the difference.

I went the hasten/superspeed (+ eventually Teleport, planned just in time for Terra Volta) travel powers route. Since, like Fly, superspeed is not suppressed by just using Hurricane, its really handy for running around and "touch debuffing" as TMS describes. Its a great in mission travel power for most layouts (we hates Oranbega, we do). Unlike during my 50 levels as a rad/rad defender, I can actually *force a -acc debuff on those stupid ranged attackers!* It will also give me full inviso when I pick up Steamy Mist, which with the recall friend/teleport will be nice for missions where I want to get myself or the team past baddies to reach an objective. Much of my play time is in short segments (~1 hour) so we can't always fight to objectives.

Just to expand on the /Dark secondary, which I also have, the Tentacles is very nice for those times when you want to debuff with hurricane but *don't* particularly want to do pushback/knockback, such as fighting on catwalks, or when you have tanks or AoE users on the team who need everyone clumped up. Its even useful for yourself if you want to keep everyone in the Snowstorm.

A couple of notes on protecting yourself from mezzing, since this is usually a major worry of defenders. Rad/* defence, while extremely powerful, shuts off almost instantly if you are mezzed (Choking Cloud and Lingering Radiation may buy you a few seconds), because its all toggles. Storm/dark has a few more options. The Tentacles is a click, and the -Acc debuff on it gives it some lasting "defense". Using Freezing Rain in most fights is also good for this, while foes are running out of it and bouncing, they aren't shooting at you, giving you a bit of recovery time. And the Hurricane debuff also persists for a bit, in addition to the fact that you can force it on foes by swooping/superspeeding over to them. So overall I think Storm (and especially Storm/Dark) has a definite edge there, providing its played very actively. You can't just stand there like a scrapper or tanker and not get mezzed, you'll have to work at it. The Diso Queen build TMS mentions, of course, has even more "mezz defense" since it can neuter things like sappers and voids very fast.

Mephe · 02-21-2006 10:48 AM

Best guide ever.

Bots/Traps Guide for I19.5
RO Network

Olmec_Guardian · 02-21-2006 01:09 PM

you so clazy.

SR ftw.. woot.

HotButteredSoul · 02-21-2006 01:44 PM

[ QUOTE ]
This would be a lot more useful to me without so much "humour", but I thank you for the guide.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cry for the people living in the colorless world.

Quickening · 03-03-2006 11:36 PM

I must say that this guide inspired me to create a storm defender, and I'm loving it already. Thanks for sharing your experience and wit!

Ignatz · 03-04-2006 06:22 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I must say that this guide inspired me to create a storm defender, and I'm loving it already. Thanks for sharing your experience and wit!

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a level 20(at least) of every defender AT primary but Storm....and this extremely amusing, imformative guide has me wanting to make yet another alt(You @*##&%@!). Can't wait to see and feel what you've already experienced!

Morgy · 03-25-2006 07:10 PM

Wow. I just wanted to say that this is far and a way the best guide I have ever read. And it's on a very complicated subject too. Good Job.

Most guides just give you justifications for taking/skipping/slotting various powers and assume you know how to play the game.

You told me how to actually play these powers, and that information is invaluable.

This guide is so good that it makes me actually want to make you proud with my own storm defender.

Natures_Fury · 04-05-2006 09:32 PM

I just read your guide and I enjoyed it. My main is a Lvl 50 Storm Defender, and I was just curious about what the guide was about. I would like to add my favorite tactic to this thread. (Please forgive the randomness of my sentences, I'm sick and I can't seem to put 2 phrases together)

My character is Storm/Elec/Elec.

I have the elec armor on and may (or may not) have steamy mist up observing a mob. I run up to them and jump in the middle of the group and release 'Thunderclap' to disorient most of them. Followed immediatly by 'Lightning Storm.' I then move to the densest group and hit 'Power Sink.' (This is what made me take the elec epics besides my character concept. Since this is an End heavy power set, I figured any help is great help!) I then leap back out, full of end, put up my hurricane and mop up.

This is very fun, and I have stunned people that haven't seen a Storm Defender in action before.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.....

Encharger · 04-08-2006 02:51 PM

All the words burn my eyes.

Bittovan_Odduck · 05-02-2006 09:47 AM

Thank you, that was excellent reading! And some of the play tips weren't bad either! (kidding - humor always appreciated though)

I am actually in Storm from the Controller, Ice/Storm side of things. Only level 33 so far but looking ahead, and wondering at the comparison of Tornado vs. Psychic Tornado.

Since one of your builds mentions both, can you give me a bit of an idea as to the relative merits?

I take it Tornado does more ticks of damage, but has a smaller AoE around itself? Does Psionic Tornado behave the same or just sit where you put it?

My main idea would be to drop Ice Slick, hopefully get Jack into battle, drop FR, slap down Frostbite to keep them all in range (now that the alpha is done, aggro on Jack and debuffing started), and then whack them with one (or possibly both) Tornado.

Then I would stand in the middle of them all with Arctic Air on and remonstrate with them SEVERELY for the poor life decisions they have made. I think there is a Fear effect triggered when I wag my finger like that.

So for that kind of purpose, would Tornado or Psionic Tornado be more all-around useful (I want to deal damage and maybe disorient, not heave things all over creation).

Hope you can help with some practical advice, and if not, thank you so much for the excellent guide!

Starzen Eyce - Victory

Too many alts to list
Every server but Pinnacle
Black Belt in Altoholism, Master of Indeterminancy
(although how it got in nancy I've no idea...)

TheMightyStorm · 05-12-2006 05:52 PM

Tornado build is a silly build. Psy tornado and tornado are two very different powers. Psy tornado is just Psy's targeted aoe. Tornado is a pet designed to cause chaos.

If you have a -knockback aoe hold/immobilize as a controller, then tornado can be a great dot. But you're talking about a controller. You don't get ot pick psy blast so psy tornado isn't part of your routine. Unless it's an EPP pick for you or something. I don't know... I don't really do that whole quote 'controller thing' unquote. Semi quote. period. Ellipses.

But regardless, one's aoe damage adn the other is a berserker pet. So you do whatever you want to do. If you're trying to contain, then a berserker pet probably isn't going to help.

GammaRayStorm · 05-16-2006 12:28 PM

Had to poke my head in after seeing this wonderful guide. Great work as always TMS, showing the masses how much they're missing out by playing any of the "lesser" classes (IE all of them). Keep up the great work TMS!

And yes. Radioactive Green Storm Clouds of Doom.

GREEN

STORM

CLOUDS

Is that too much to ask for?

Semprini indeed

Mirth_Worldmage · 05-19-2006 05:05 PM

This is easily the most fun I've ever had reading a guide.

If you don't mind I'd like some advice on my latest outbreak of altitis. The diso-queen idea sounds like loads of fun, so I figured I'd give her a shot. Here's how I'm plotting her ascent to power. Any suggestions would be muchly appreciated.

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Storm Summoning
Secondary Powers - Support : Dark Blast

01 : Dark Blast acc(01) dam(3) dam(3) dam(7)
01 : O2 Boost hel(01)
02 : Snow Storm endred(02) endred(11) slw(15) slw(17)
04 : Moonbeam acc(04) dam(5) dam(5) dam(7)
06 : Hover fltspd(06) fltspd(43) fltspd(45)
08 : Freezing Rain recred(08) recred(9) endred(9) endred(11) recred(23) endred(23)
10 : Hurdle jmp(10)
12 : Hurricane endred(12) endred(13) thtdbf(13) thtdbf(15) endred(31) thtdbf(31)
14 : Fly endred(14) endred(43) endred(43) fltspd(48)
16 : Steamy Mist endred(16) endred(17) endred(19) damres(19) damres(31) damres(37)
18 : Health hel(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21)
22 : Thunder Clap acc(22) acc(25) disdur(27)
24 : Dark Pit acc(24) acc(25) disdur(27)
26 : Tenebrous Tentacles acc(26) immdur(29)
28 : Night Fall acc(28) dam(29) dam(36) dam(36)
30 : Tornado recred(30) recred(33) recred(34) dam(34) dam(36) dam(37)
32 : Lightning Storm recred(32) recred(33) dam(33) dam(34) dam(37) recred(40)
35 : Life Drain acc(35) dam(39) hel(39)
38 : Blackstar acc(38) dam(39) dam(40) dam(40)
41 : Oppressive Gloom acc(41) endred(42) endred(42) endred(42) acc(46)
44 : Dark Consumption acc(44) acc(45) endrec(45) endrec(46) endrec(46)
47 : Dark Embrace damres(47) damres(48) damres(48)
49 : Soul Drain acc(49) thtbuf(50) thtbuf(50) thtbuf(50)

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

01 : Brawl acc(01)
01 : Sprint runspd(01)
02 : Rest recred(02)

Chaotix_0 · 05-28-2006 09:52 PM

Maximize tornado, [step 2 missing] , step 3: profit. Brilliant, god bless you, an allusion to a south park episode, the underpants gnomes will get you for sure. Theres a lot of diverse humor in your guide, I don't get every single little joke, but I get that one. May the eternal might of Molar, Eternian Dentist, smile on you forever. I'd tell you how great your guide is, but that would just waste words telling you what you already knew-wait damnit I'm wasting words right now... ack stop me!

Night_Fusion · 05-28-2006 11:15 PM

Nice guide! Don't have a Storm defender.. I'm one of those evil controller types who borrowed your power sets..

Ice/Storm has great synergy. And Frostbite makes groups not hate Tornado. Ice slick, then Hurricane the mobs onto it works very nice also.

Again though, nice guide. Really obscure humor references though

TheMightyStorm · 08-22-2006 05:02 AM

sorry I'm not patrolling the forums here anymore on any kind of regular basis. I just noticed your build. My only nit is, if you're really going diso queen, then take those damage slots out of tornado and put them in thunderclap as recred and diso length.

Anoiktos · 10-12-2006 11:47 AM

Reading through storm guides to best complement my fire/ controller, I really have to say that this is easily the most enjoyable-to-read guide I've ever seen. I laughed at least three times, learned far more than almost any other guide could teach, and thought of several synergies with my 'troller powers.

Thank you.

Stele · 10-17-2006 04:41 PM

Very good guide. Entertaining and informative. I was thinking about a storm/psy the other day just for fun, and now I've got something to build on.

Quick comment on APPs. Power Sink != Dark Consumption. DC can miss, while PS is an auto-hit. So PS >>>> DC. Not sure how endurance heavy my build is going to be. But I'm leaning towards Power Sink or Conserve Power for the pools.

Kitteh · 10-18-2006 08:37 AM

For those who wish to verify the info in their hero planner(s) then detail on Storm can be found on this page.

Repeat Offenders

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