Tanzier's Guide to an I6 Illusion/Storm Controller
By
Caesar_Augustus,
Posted on: 2006-02-17 15:16 in Player Guides
Great job explaining each choice Tanzier.
You mention dropping Spectral Wounds due to lack of damage in the late game. What power would you swap it for? I find with containment it makes a very good finishing blow... my chain is Blind>Fire Bolt>SW.
Thanks for a great guide, we certainly have had a shortage since ED.
This is one of the most depressing guides I have ever read. I understand that you may not like the sets, and I do recognise there is a lot of very helpful and well thought out advice in the power selections, but you could really try and be a bit less down if you're going to write a guide. Its just not helpful to have that presented in a guide. Trick Arrows/Archery Defenders are arguably one of the worst builds in the game, but I've seen a few guides around that try to show the virtues of the sets and how they can be used most effectively, not that they're terrible and don't mesh well.
[ QUOTE ]
Want to watch something intelligent? Watch Serenity.
[/ QUOTE ]
FIREFLY ROCKS!!!!
I would like to add that some power sets are not condusive to certain playstyles. Illusion/Storm really requires you to 'embrace the chaos'. If you or your regular teaming crew don't like that style, this set will be tough to play. The OP did put their thoughts and reasons for choice of powers and slotting which I always appreciate. IT is quite useful.
My take on the power set is very different though: I created my Ill/Storm to be a 'maximum pets' alt, and to surf the tumult.
Didn't take the party friendly group invisibility or steamy mist. I view Thunderclap and Hurricane as an either/or choice. They do not work so well together. I chose Hurricane and find that it is useful both as an offensive debuff, and as an 'eye of safety' for the fragile. Freezing Rain I consider the Best power in the storm set, and have it set to put the hammer down on high level defense. With Snowstorm, the baddies scatter r e a l l y
s l o w ....
I also have a six slotted Tornado, which I find to be very useful in any lockdown or corner situation. It is dangerous, as it will wander off and potientially drag in other mobs. But a boss locked in a corner by Hurricane, with a Tornado on him will resemble a demented superball.
I have to repeat though: If you don't want to be in chaos, don't pick Illusion/Storm. Matching your personal style to your Super will make for a much happier camper....
Rend this space....
Thakns, Fenris. I have to agree on the "embrace the chaos" aspect. This build pisses off scrappers and tanks, but if you're going with the concept, it can be very effective. I have yet to play it with a Kheldian, but I can see some interesting synergies there. Anyone got thoughts on that team combination... Ill/Storm + a couple of blasters, a defender, and a squid or two?
Thanks for guide Tanzier, I was gonna roll up this kind of troller but after reading your guide, I may consider a diff one. Thanks again.
I like the guide,
I have some disagreements but nothing too terrible.
This is or can be the chaos bringer and I played it as such definitely. It may sound strange but if your teams can get used to it there is a great deal of control in that chaos.
Also, consider how many seperate sources of damage pets/pseudo pets you can put out at once it really is staggering.
As to hurricane, a very handy way to deal with the scatter produced by many of the storm effects is to have superspeed up and basically just corral all the mobs that get to running, being tossed about like ragdolls. I found tanks, scrappers and aoe blasters loved me for this. I'ts a very handy solo tool. big bad boss. run into him, maybe he's knocked down maybe he's not but he's sure not hitting me much.
I've heard so much talk of thunder clap being bad for accuracy but I'm certain at one point it was an auto hit and then that can toned down but it was still at a very very high inherent accuracy.
I had the thing slotted with 1 acc SO for a very very long time and it never seemed to fail me much. It's also a super cool visual and sound effect. I've heard that it's get a very high toggle dropping effect if you're into that sort of thing.
tornado is very handy against AVs. it won't confuse them it may help you knock them down on occasion and it basically just sits on them. Generally, they try to get away from it but are so slowed (by my other powers) that they can't . I've used it to great effect, I think. AVs running away in ultra slo-mo generally aren't killing anyone.
Flash is to me almost worthless for crowd control. I kept it, but I only use it to get mag on bosses.
Lastly, I went with the psi epic armor giving me resistance of tolerable to excellent against everything but toxic i believe (when combined with steamy mists) and the mez protection clickie giving me long periods of relatively mez free life (nice when fighting carnies). Psi tornado is pretty bad but when you combine it with the real tornado and freezing rain I've knocked down AVs on semi-regular basis.
Better off though taking the crappy psi blast just because you can really use another single target blast (even if it's bad).
Here's how i look at my control options with this toon.
Decoys can occupy a whole group for the time that they're up if no one is shooting at the group.
tornado can completey frack up an entire group on it's own. with me only getting shot at occasionally by them.
hurricane can be used to knock down and move almost anyone i want almost anywhere i want. gust of wind helps with this a little.
the terror pet can soft lock almost an entire group on it's own.
freezing rain can cause an entire group to stop shooting at me for the most part while they slowly run out of it often falling. (this is my first choice of groups to destroy as they're taking extra damage).
The flash can lock down most of a large group bosses excepted.
my single target hold handling at least 1 of those.
thunderclap on the minions (especially in the high game where some of these minions are a real drag, like sappers) will take a lot of the wind out of an entire group (so to speak).
Then there's my phantasm and lightning storm diligently blasting the heck out of people.
It's crazy and the amount of soft control comes in handy as I can aggro many many extra groups if I'm not careful with so many mindlessy aggressive pets/pseudo pets out.
1 thing to note is the phantasm is a little too happy to sit at max range and plink people so i generally have to convince him to get closer to use his cone attack (recall friend is one way of doing this).
It's a strong build. I can't solo an even lvl AV by myself but I can certainly stand there with them for an awfully long time with little or no danger to my self.
You really do have to be able to manage the chaos though.
Cheers
Wow .. I never came back to look at the comments posted on the guide. Reading it now I do see it's a bit down on the combo.
I have played this character quite a bit since hitting 50 and have yet to respec, despite badly needing to. I stand by most of my comments really. It's a fun character to play, and a GREAT solo toon, and very good in PVP, but it's difficult to play, and very different from a more traditional controller. It's not for everyone - especially in teams. I just wanted to give people an honest opinion of what to expect. I have a couple characters in the 30s which I stopped playing after figuring out a few lousy things that I *wish* the guides I had read on them had been more forthcoming about. That's a lot of wasted time.
The only thing I would really change is my comments on Snow Storm. I have played with a bunch of builds on the test server, and snow storm is an extremely valuable power for an ill/storm. I would consider it a must-have.
The only thing I would especially NOT change is my description of Tornado. I know a lot of people love this power, and I have tried SO hard to agree with them .. but I just can't. I hate it ... probably more than any other power in the game. The only use for it at all that I have found is against AVs, because it does pretty good damage and doesn't knock them around. I can't bring myself to keep a power used that infrequently.
Spec wounds - I still find it very lackluster 40+. It's ok, but I like Power Blast a lot better. Like I said it's good for finishing off mobs that your pets have already damaged quite a bit. It's a 'keep it if you have room for it' thing for me. I don't mind having it, but if I didn't, I wouldn't really miss it.
I have a lvl 50 illu/storm troller... actuall it was my first 50. Anyway..... I have never respec'ed it for pvp and I would like to do so. Can anyone posted a sample pvp build especially for Sirens Call?
I plan on doing the respec this week but want to really investigate this a bit before I take the plunge.
Thanks,
I wanted to make this build but the way you voiced it here made me feel that it was going to be a waste of time.... thanks for misleading me
I made this guide a while ago and posted it on my SG forums, however recently some of us on Champion decided to get together and try and put out some more current information (ie post I6/ED).
So, after 300 hours and 50 levels as an Illusion Control/Storm Summoning controller, I thought I'd post my thoughts.
First, My Build:
---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://home.comcast.net/~SherkSilver/index.html)
---------------------------------------------
Name:
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Illusion Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Spectral Wounds==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) EndRdx(5) Rechg(7)
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) --> Blind==> Acc(2) Hold(7) Hold(9) Hold(9) Rechg(11) Rechg(11)
04) --> Deceive==> Acc(4) ConfDur(13) Rechg(13) Rechg(50)
06) --> Flash==> Acc(6) Acc(15) Hold(15) Hold(17) Rechg(17) Rechg(19)
08) --> Hover==> DefBuf(8)
10) --> Swift==> Run(10)
12) --> Group Invisibility==> Rechg(12) Rechg(19) Rechg(21)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)
18) --> Phantom Army==> Acc(18) Dmg(21) Dmg(23) Dmg(23) Rechg(25) Rechg(25)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(27) EndMod(27)
22) --> Hasten==> Rechg(22) Rechg(29) Rechg(29)
24) --> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(24) Rechg(31) Rechg(31) DefDeBuf(31) DefDeBuf(33) DefDeBuf(33)
26) --> Spectral Terror==> Acc(26) Fear(33) Fear(34) Fear(34)
28) --> Steamy Mist==> EndRdx(28) EndRdx(34) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(36)
30) --> Thunder Clap==> Acc(30) Acc(37) DisDur(37) DisDur(37) Rechg(39) Rechg(39)
32) --> Phantasm==> Acc(32) Acc(39) Dmg(40) Dmg(40) Dmg(40)
35) --> Hurricane==> EndRdx(35) TH_DeBuf(42) TH_DeBuf(42) TH_DeBuf(42)
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Rechg(38) Rechg(43) Rechg(43) Dmg(43) Dmg(45) Dmg(45)
41) --> Power Blast==> Acc(41) Dmg(45) Dmg(46) Dmg(46) EndRdx(46) Rechg(48)
44) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(44) Rechg(48) Rechg(48)
47) --> Power Boost==> Rechg(47) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
49) --> Super Speed==> Run(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------
Illusion Control
What I took: Everything except Superior Invisibility. To me, it is simply a choice between Group and Superior. I dont like toggles and Im a team oriented player so I went with the group buff.
Spectral Wounds:
Rating - 3/5
Available at: 1
Type: Single target, ranged Psychic attack. A percentage of the base damage will heal back after a few seconds.
I think this is a really good power until the 30s, a 'meh' power from 30-40 and very ineffective from 40-50. If you are looking for a good, solid attack, you are far better off getting something from an epic pool. I kept this power all the way through, but will drop it in a respec. The damage is very, very weak in the late game. Mostly good for finishing off mobs your pets decided to ignore.
Slotting - 1acc/3dam/1end/1rech
Blind:
Rating - 5/5
Available at: 1
Type - Single target hold, minor psy damage, VERY small AOE sleep.
Absolutely essential. The 'sleep' component may as well not even be there so don't depend on it.
Slotting - 1acc/3hold/2rech or 1acc/2hold/3rech. The second way will get bosses held quicker and is what I usually run. An Acc/Mez HO would be ideal here.
Deceive:
Rating - 5/5
Available at: 2
Type - Single Target Confuse
I love this power. It's extremely handy - especially when soloing. The best feature is that you can 'hold' a boss without aggroing anything, and he'll even fight for you to boot. It is not a 'use every fight' power, but it has high utility. Take out a nasty boss before the fight starts, deceive shield generators and DE eminators to have them effect you instead, deceive pets to attack their owners. It also makes a great emergency hold and can turn the tide of battle when you're overwhelmed. This is a must have power. The supposed XP loss is not even noticeable. The mob will sap 25% of a percentage of the mobs xp based on how much damage it did. So, a deceived mob could do 1000 damage to a mob, and you could do 1, and you'd still get 75% of the XP. If you each do half, the confused mob will get 25% of half, and you will get the rest of the XP. All in all, it speeds up fighting - especially solo, so the net is probably a gain in XP flow.
Slotting - 1acc/1confuse/2rech. The duration is pretty good to begin with. 2 recharge will let you get bosses quickly.
Flash:
Rating - 3/5
Available at: 6
Type - PBAOE Hold
Flash took a nasty hit in I5. ED didn't really affect it. The recharge is very long, and the duration is moderate. While I only gave it 3/5, I still consider it an essential power. Hasten helps dramatically with the recharge. It could be regailed to 'panic button', but I still use it basically whenever it's up. Having Thunderclap from Storm really helped me offset the nastiness of the long recharge of Flash. It has an accuracy penalty so it needs a double shot of acc.
Slotting - 2acc/2hold/2rech or 2acc/3hold/1rech. I generally prefer the second. Hasten helps quite a bit, and I'd rather have it last a bit longer than have it up more. Again, an Acc/Mez HO would help quite a lot here.
Superior Invisibility:
Rating - 4/5
Available at: 8
Type - Toggle, Self Invis
I have honestly not ever tried this power. There are 2 invisibilities in the set. I'm a team player, so I took Group Invis You could take both, but I didn't see the point.
Slotting - No idea. The end cost is high, so probably 2end. It's base defence is 6.25%, which isn't bad. Might be worth slotting for defence if you had some other defence powers to stack with it. The defence supresses when you attack though, so it probably isn't worth it.
Group Invisibility:
Rating - 4/5
Available at: 12
Type - Click, Self + PBAOE Team Invis
Lasts 2 minutes, recharges in 3. Most people love invis, except tanks. Can be permanent with 3rech. Defence is negligeable and supresses when you attack.
Slotting - 3 recharge
Phantom Army
Rating - 5/5
Available at: 18
Type - Summon Pet - Tank
Summons 3 humanoid Phantoms to fight with you. They are totally invincible, and have a taunt aura. Portable tanks with ranged and melee Ice, Fire, Electric and Super Strength attacks.. They last 60 seconds, and do very decent damage, even though some of it heals back. They are as much for control/tanking as for damage. Must have power, and should always be taken asap. Fills a bit of a control gap for Illusion. Have PA out on top of Phantasm will help your damage significantly.
Slotting - 1acc/2dam/3rech or 1acc/3dam/2rech. I go back and forth depending on team makeup (ie if there's no tank, more recharge). Hasten helps alot with recharge as well.
Spectral Terror
Rating - 5/5
Available at: 26
Type - Summon Pet - Fear.
Summons an invincible ghastly looking ghost that casts a cone or AOE fear. Seems to also have a small fear aura. Great control power, very effective and quick recharging. It lasts about 45 seconds and is easily up every fight and will recharge before it wears off. It's as good an AOE control as any, but as a warning you MAY wind up taking an alpha strike from it. Good news is after the alpha, they'll all be cowering. Important to note that feared mobs do NOT give you the double-damage containment bonus.
Slotting - 1acc, 3 fear. Sometimes I feel like this could use a second Acc. I don't know the accuracy is on it, but it seems to miss alot once you're up against +2s/3s.
Phantasm
Rating - 5/5
Available at: 32
Type - Summon Pet - Assault!
Summons a humanoid blaster to fight with you. The pet is permanent until you zone or it is killed. Looks like a fairly large 'Normal' male toon with invisibility cast on it. It flies, and uses Power Bolt (single) and Energy Torrent (AOE) from Energy Blast. It does decent damage and is fairly resilient. His attacks cause alot of knockback which can be kind annoying for both you and your teammates. My only complaint is that his attacks cycle kind of slow, which makes soloing a bit painful when Phantom Army is down.
Slotting - 2acc/3Dam. I ran 1acc/3dam for a long time but once up against +2s/3s in 40s on a regular basis, I felt an extra Acc helped.
What I think: This is a fun set to play but its different from the other controllers. Its really soft control. You cant lock down mobs like you can with, say, a fire controller. You can keep them busy with PA or fear them, but its not as solid. The tradeoff is more damage and some pretty cool visuals. While the set is fun with all the cool pets and knockback, if you want pure control, look elsewhere. Damage is not remotely what it once was. Soloing is possible but definitely not speedy probably about the same speed as a tanker. If you want to solo, you will definitely need spec wounds and an epic or other pool attack. Personally, Im after more control, and I would not play this set again.
Storm Summoning
Gale:
Rating - 3/5
Available at: 1
Type - Click, AOE Foe knockback
Gale is probably not something I'd take if I had a choice, but it does come in handy - especially at lower levels. If things get a bit hairy and nothing else is up, it can give your team a couple seconds to take a quick breath and recharge. There is also NO end to the fun of Galeing lower level mobs off of tall buildings as you're flying by .. =)
O2 Boost
Rating - 2/5
Available at: 2
Type - Heal Ally, Resist Sleep, Stun
I find this power very underwhelming. It's a weak heal that protects against Sleep and Stun. If it protected against holds or immob too, it might be worth it. If you want a heal, get it. I never took it, never had room for it, and never missed it.
Slotting - Unsure, but probably 1endred/3heal
Snow Storm:
Rating 4/5
Available at: 4
Type - Anchored Toggle - Mob -Speed -Recharge
This power is tricky. It's VERY handy at lower levels, not quite as much later on. I kept it until the late 20s or so and then respecced out of it. I'll be getting it back next time I respec. It would make a great combo with freezing rain to keep the mobs in the rain patch, plus the -recharge is a good damage mitigator.
Slotting - 1endred/2-3slow
Steamy Mist:
Rating - 4/5
Available at: 10
Type - Toggle, team stealth, Resist Fire, Cold, Energy (20%), Defense Melee, Ranged (2.8%).
Good power but one that should be delayed until some time in your 20s. The end cost is a bit high, and it's not very valuable until then. The resistance is definately noticeable. Slotted up you'll have more elemental and energy resistance than an Inv tank. Tanks will love you for this power. The defence is miniscule and not worth slotting for.
Slotting: 1-2 endred/3resist
Freezing Rain:
Rating - 3/5
Available at: 16
Type - Targetted AOE, Foe -recharge, -speed, -Defense, -Damage Resist, Chance of Knockdown.
I have a love/hate relationship with this power. It's an essential power and a VERY solid debuff. Slotted up you'll be able to hit +4s and +5s reliably. I give it a lower rating because it scatters mobs like crazy, and that really pisses people off. Snow Storm would help a bit here. It's not bad against +0s and +1s because it knocks them down pretty reliably. +2s is iffy, and +3s and up will not fall down and will scatter. Ironically, this makes the power the biggest pain in the butt when it's the most useful. This makes the tank's job a nightmare, have scrappers running all over ther place, and blasters wasting their AOEs. With 3 recharges it is up for every fight, and several times during long ones.
Slotting: 3rech/3DefDebuff, maybe 2rech/1slow/3DefDebuff
Hurricane
Rating - 3/5
Available at: 20
Type - Toggle, Foe Knockback, Repel, -acc and -range
This is also a very solid debuff, but it's a bit tricky to learn to use effecitvely, and I admittedly have not figured out the trick. With out the repel, it would be much better and easier. However, the -acc is pretty effective. I can herd a small room if I'm careful with line-of-sight etc. I'd say this is probably essential, but a bit situational. Very cool graphics too.
Thunderclap
Rating - 3/5
Available at: 28
Type: PBAOE disorient (mag 1)
This is a mag 1 disorient, which means it will only disorient minions. The ODD time it will catch a lieutenant, but not often. It does stack with other disorients, if someone else on the team has one. It has an accuracy penalty so it needs a double acc. Disoriented mobs will give you the double-damage containment bonus. I also have to say that between the graphic and the crashing sound, this is one of the most satisfying powers I've ever used. Even after hitting and and still being left with a bunch of lieutenants and bosses after me, I still feel like I've really given the mobs a good walloping... =)
Slotting: 2acc/2-3disorient/1-2recharge
Tornado
Rating 0/5
Available at: 35
Type: Summon Chaos ....
Summons a tornado at the targetted location. Does moderate damage and throws mobs everywhere. It has a mind of it's own and will chase mobs down, toss them, then chase them down again. This power is terrible. I had it for a while and dropped it like a dirty shirt. If you solo a LOT, I could maybe see a use for it. It does do decent damage, but the knock back is just too much. All it ever did was piss me and my team off and I eventually just stopped using it. I would never get this power again.
Slotting: Recharge and duration are the same (so it's perma), so I guess 3 damage. God help you if you slot it for knockback.
Lightning Storm
Rating - 5/5
Available at: 38
Type: Summon Lightning Storm, zaps mobs causing damage and knockback.
Summons a little lightning storm above your head and fires lightning bolts off randomly at mobs. This is an awesome power. It gives your damage output a good boost, plus keeps mobs on their butts. The bolt has a small AOE and it's common to get 2 or 3 mobs in one shot. The knock back isn't too extreme, so that's nice. I love this power. It is also one of the coolest visual effects in the game IMO. It's end cost is pretty high though. With some recharges and hasten you can usually keep one out all the time, or at least ready for every fight.
Slotting: 3dam/2rech/1endred
What I think: I give Storm Summoning a solid meh, when paired with Illusion.. Its very hard to play effectively and its not very team friendly in the extreme. Rain, although a fantastic debuff, scatters anything +2 or higher like crazy, because it cant knock them down (snow storm would help immensely with this). Thunder Clap is good (filling a bit of a control hole in Illusion), but makes them wander everywhere without at an AOE immob to go with it. Hurricane is a good debuff, but pushes mobs all over the place, making it hard to use well. Lightning Storm sends mobs flying all over the place usually right out of the freezing rain patch. By the time I got to my 40s I started feeling really sorry for my teams, and had been asked more than a few times to not use some of my powers. So all that said, it is still fun. It has arguably some of the coolest looking powers in the game, and lots of utility. I still get immense satisfaction everytime that loud crack from thunderclap goes off. It debuffs mobs, adds some control and good damage to any control set. With some immobilization abilities, this set would be awesome. I would play this set again with Grav, Fire or Ice only.
Pools:
Fitness - Swift, Health/Hurdle, Stamina
Stamina is very much a requirement for this build. Illusion isn't bad, but the Storm powers are nasty. Health is nice because you don't have a self-heal, so if you get pounded and run out of repites, your downtime is a bit less. I'd even think about slotting it. With 3 slotted Stamina, you will not have many end problems. Since we no longer have to summon a pet for 25 end every 2 minutes .. end use has gotten considerably better for controllers.
Speed:
Even though it's not perma anymore, Hasten drastically helps this build. Flash, Group Invis, Phantom Army, Spec Terror, Freezing Rain and Lightning Storm all benefit significantly from Hasten almost all of the time. I also personally think Fly+Super Speed is an awesome travel power combo. Hasten - 3 recharges. SS is fine with it's default.
Flight: (Insert travel power of choice here)
As noted above, I love Fly+SS. With that combo you don't need to slot Fly, since it's only really used for vertical.
I never bothered with any other pools. Could grab recall friend if you want some more team friendly powers, tp Foe if you're into PVP. Stealth is a waste with Invis/Steamy Mist. Presence doesn't help you out any. Medicine might be nice, but not necessary. With all the knockback and repel powers, mobs (or other players) don't get near you very often. Most of the time if I got into trouble, no amount of healing or shields would have saved me. Leadership would be a good fit, but I did that on my other controller and didn't want to go that route. They would cause some more end problems.
Epic Pools:
I went with Primal Forces. It fit thematically with this toon and it has such great utility. I took Power Blast, Conserve Power and Power Boost. You could take TI instead of Power Blast if you dont care about damage. I strongly recommend having ONE attack though, and this is WAY better than Spectral Wounds. Conserve Power is not essential but it does help in long fights. Power Boost just rules for controllers. I avoided Temporary Invuln, mostly because I dont like toggles, and as I've said before, most of the time if I got into enough trouble to die, a 20% base shield was not going to help me ..
Slotting:
Power Blast - 1acc/3dam/1endred/1rech
Conserve Power - 3rech
Power Boost - 3rech
Temporary Invulnerability - 1endred/3resist
If you're into PVP, Psionics is probably the way to go for the shield and mez protection.
Illusion/Storm as a combo.
Strategies in teams: Alternate Flash, Thunderclap and Spec Terror for control, throwing PA when its available. I usually toss Spec Terror every fight its available. The fear is good for when Flash or TC wears off and it recharges pretty quick on its own. Drop rain as available, hopefully not pissing the tank off too much. Damage is vastly increased with PA out. The times when you can get a Flash+Rain without scattering mobs will be very effective on a team especially when youre up against higher level mobs than some of your teammates are having trouble hitting. If you can get on a team with a controller that has an AOE immob, it will be sickly effective. Mobs will never attack and will just start dying when the team runs around the corner.
Solo Strategy: Soloing is mind-numbingly boring. It's not quick, but it's just way to easy with this build. You never get spawns of more than 3-4. Once you're up into your 30s, you don't even pay attention to minions. I'll just hit Freezing Rain, blind the Lt or Boss, then start blinding the minions just to get the containment damage bonus. It's easy to keep 3-4 mobs held at once. If you want to be really lazy, just hit thunderclap or flash and let your pets go to work. Having PA out will significantly boost your damage. If you really wanted to you could easily just walk from group to group in a mission, hit spec terror and let your pets whittle away. The holds are really only for Containment.
Overall, what do I think? I would never play this combo again, nor would I ever recommend it to someone. These sets just do not go together very well. Illusions lack of an AOE immobilize is a real weak point in the set, and only emphasizes the knockback and scattering effect of Phantasm and the Storm powers, creating a wake of chaos wherever you go. This is fun for a while, but it gets old quick. Illusion would be best paired with Radiation, Kinetics or Empathy. Storm would be best with Ice, Fire, Stone or Gravity, because they have group immob powers. Without that, its just too difficult to use the abilities of Storm to its full potential. Playing Silver was great fun, but the last few levels were out of sheer determination, not enjoyment. I dont see her ever getting much play time. If I needed a 50 for anything I would be FAR more likely to pull out my Fire/Empathy controller, whom I still enjoy playing immensely.