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Crush is a key component in your ST damage attack chain
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My what now? ST?
Propel flashy but over-rated: Hehe, good to see it rated at all! Back in old'n days it did less damage per second than brawl, and not by just a little bit.
Lift can also be enhanced with knockback which should throw the enemies higher if there's room. Probably a good thing to do at higher levels (35+) when it's damage starts to look pretty sad.
Snowstorm is very good but, as you say, very hungry. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your anchor. Keep BOTH eyes on if it's a teleporter. Enemies with this debuff on them can agro other spawns and they are going to start off hating your puny little controller.
Crushing Field + Burn/Ignite patch..... mmm so tasty!
Steamy Mist is awfully good but I hear ya on endurance. Hurricane + Steamy Mist + Snowstorm really isn't going to happen for long, even with Stamina. Still, I think I would trade Crush for it. The stealth is quite handy and the resist is very handy against certain enemy types. I would get it and then use it as the situation warrents. (Particularly on outdoor maps with few corners.) And remember, Steamy protects everyone near you, not just yourself.
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You definitely need this (Stamina) to run a Grav/Storm controller, Needs 3 endurance mod slots
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BBBBZZZZZTTT!! Well, OK, you do need it for the vast majority of your career. However, thanks to three recharge enhancers in my Hibernate power, my level 50 is doing just fine without the whole fitness set. And, to tell the truth, she usually only needs to get endurance back against AVs and monsters, or if the team gets some surprise adds.
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The other nerf, which I believe is a bug, is that when you hold or immobilize a mob and then nudge him with hurricane he will be repelled 20-30 ft past the outside of the effect of the hurricane. Before they played with this power, it would only repel the mob to the outside of the effect.
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YOW! Yeah, that sounds like a bug. Does Hurricane still repel the wrong way if you hit an enemy that has been held by somebody else?
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Wormhole is a fantastic power and is the power that defines gravity.
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Ahhh, another statement to warm my hart. Just a couple of years ago it was "totally useless" and when they made it AoE it was "even worse".
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Unlike Stalagmites and flash fires, you cannot cast this while having line of sight, if you do you will take a full alpha before I goes off.
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Range enhancers can beef that 60ft up quite a bit. Long range attackers can still get shots off at you but most will try running at you. I actually put a Range SO in first for this power, then get into the accuracy/recharge, then maybe toss another range in at high levels.
Where did O2 Boost go!? That's one heck of a heal, particularly at low levels when you can't do much controlling yet. It doesn't heal a ton of damage but it does heal a pretty good amount and you get to do it at range to anyone you like without any silly to-hit rolls (which is a big factor at low levels). It even tosses in a lot of status protections.
I've found Tornado to be handy in some situations. It's great against AVs and Monsters where it just sits on them and ticks off damage. It's also a nice finishing power when you've pulled the worst teeth a spawn has and you're just cleaning up. (Also, if you can get three or four storm defenders/controllers together.... oh my, it's like fighting inside one of those old air-pop popcorn machines!)
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This is my build after hours and hours on test, about 8 respecs and leveling myself from 1 to the mid 40's twice.
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What you have here is the best build for YOUR playstyle. For some folks out there, though, it's going to be rather so-so simply because they aren't playing quite the way you are. Heck, even if they do play exactly like you, it still may not work out as well because of somebody they play with!
ST is Single target.
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Lift can also be enhanced with knockback which should throw the enemies higher if there's room. Probably a good thing to do at higher levels (35+) when it's damage starts to look pretty sad.
Snowstorm is very good but, as you say, very hungry. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your anchor. Keep BOTH eyes on if it's a teleporter. Enemies with this debuff on them can agro other spawns and they are going to start off hating your puny little controller.
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I would not ever put any knockback in lift, recharge maybe, endurance reduction maybe, but never knockback.
Don't pick mobs that TP for your anchor, nor ones that are slow resistent. Problem solved.
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Still, I think I would trade Crush for it. The stealth is quite handy and the resist is very handy against certain enemy types. I would get it and then use it as the situation warrents. (Particularly on outdoor maps with few corners.) And remember, Steamy protects everyone near you, not just yourself
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Not me, to be honest, I find passive defense kind of boring, I like to click buttons, not run toggles.
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BBBBZZZZZTTT!! Well, OK, you do need it for the vast majority of your career. However, thanks to three recharge enhancers in my Hibernate power, my level 50 is doing just fine without the whole fitness set. And, to tell the truth, she usually only needs to get endurance back against AVs and monsters, or if the team gets some surprise adds.
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If you are going to use the cornering technique, then you cannot be activating hibernate in the middle of it. This is a playstyle issue.
The following attack chain is what I use to open up. If you add up the endurance costs, you will see why I need stamina. Lead with Sing(20.8), Wormhole(15.6), Crushing Field(Slotted 9.39) , Freezing rain(18.2), Crushing field(9.39), Ligthning Storm(31.2). Giving us just over 100 endurance used in about 12 seconds. For my playstyle (Agressive), I need Stamina.
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YOW! Yeah, that sounds like a bug. Does Hurricane still repel the wrong way if you hit an enemy that has been held by somebody else?
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You haven't played your Grav/Storm for a while have you. That bug was fixed and replaced with some different ones around the time of the nerfs.
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Range enhancers can beef that 60ft up quite a bit. Long range attackers can still get shots off at you but most will try running at you. I actually put a Range SO in first for this power, then get into the accuracy/recharge, then maybe toss another range in at high levels.
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I use Sing and GDF to mitigate alpha's while I am in LoS. I prefer hitting, and making sure Wormhole is ready for the next spawn. Comes down to playstyle, again.
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What you have here is the best build for YOUR playstyle. For some folks out there, though, it's going to be rather so-so simply because they aren't playing quite the way you are. Heck, even if they do play exactly like you, it still may not work out as well because of somebody they play with!
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Yes, this build is spec'd out to maximize the strategies also included in this guide, I may not have said that explicitly.
Thank you for the scrutiny, I appreaciate the feedback, and will make note of any misunderstandings, so that I can include it in a revised version.
Oh and yes, the team integration thing is a bit of an issue, as it is with all stroms. Wormhole is another power that scares and suprises people. I have found that if you let them know what you are going to do, they can adapt, and generally you get a pretty good effect.
Not to sound like I don't care about my teammates, and their opinions, because I do, but, nobody can really stop me from doing what I do. In CoH, the person with the wildest powers tends to be able to dictate what happens. If I run up, through Sing out wormhole to a corner, immobilize them, etc etc, There is very little anyone in the team can do to stop it. I have found that provided it works out to a LARGE extent, then everyone is happy to follow that strategy.
Communication and knowing when and where you can do it (to make sure it works), will alliviate 95% of problems that are teammate related.
It can also be nice when you have someone that is screwing things up in the group, as I can take control assuming I am in the situation that my techniques work in.
Lastly, yea, outdoor maps are not the best for my character. Of course, I tanked a + 1 Psychic Clockwork King AV the other day in a group of 3, so it just proves, that there are other things I can do besides corner. Group comprised me, Grav/Storm, a Grav/FF and an Emp/something. Adrenaline boosted lightning storm is something to behold.
Nice guide but you may want to rethink skipping Steamy Mist & Tornado. Tornado drops on AOE Held mobs or even immobilized mobs can be very useful for both damage & disorientation.
Steamy Mist is purely worth it for the resist/defense bonuses. Stealth doesn't hurt either.
Good job though! 
Bunch of 50s and a horse with no name...
Global: @Grynder
I don't like steamy mist. I am sorry, but I don't. It does very little for me. When I am doing my thing, I only get a very small dribble of damage, and when things go wrong I usually get annilated, so passive defense has never really seemed like much use. Also the endurance is not sustainable, although since I IO'd up, my endurance problems have mostly been eleviated.
Tornado, Over the past few month I have warmed towards tornado some. I am now having some success in keeping a spawn cornered and apply tornado to them. You need a big cornerfor this though and you need to make sure you spawn the tornado well outside of the corner, and then it is sort of a balancing act to keep them all cornered, works ok. Tornado is in my build now, and I do like it. So that is a place where I have changed my mind on a power.
This guide has been replaced with the link in my sig.
Grav/Storm - The Ultimate Mob postioning Hero
So you decided or are interested in rolling a Grav/Storm Controller. First I would like to say congratulations. Grav/Storm is an extremely versatile power set combination, allowing you to combine practically everything the game has to offer. Grav/Storm's greatest asset is that it allows you to make great use of the one of the most powerful, and largely un-resisted effects in this game, knockback/down. Grav/Storm is one of the only power sets that will allow you to use this knockback as defense, and at the same time keep the mobs it a tight cluster consistently. This ability, in my opinion, is the reason someone rolls a Grav/Storm.
While playing the Grav/Storm you will probably find out that it has 2 successful playing styles, one passive, and the other very aggressive.
The first style is to use the cornering maneuver, which I will go into more detail later. Grav/Storm provides a very unique playing style. It is high risk/high reward; it is on the edge of your seat, heart pounding out of your chest kind of action. When possible, I use the cornering maneuver, and is what made me fall in love with my Grav/Strom Troller.
The second is to play a support role, and despite what you may or may not have heard, Gravity/Storm can easily take a back seat and still make significant contributions to the team. Some of the abilities include mob positioning, debuffing, slowing, providing a pocket tank, panic buttons, and of course large amounts of AoE hard and soft control.
The trick lies in deciding which way you will be more of an asset to the team.
I tend to use the cornering technique when my group is working hard to kill all the mobs, or people are getting hurt during the fights, or perhaps if the packs are getting scattered by some means. The other criteria is that the mobs we are fighting are not more than +3 relative to me.
Soloing with a Grav/Storm starts out slow and safe, during the mid levels it becomes even safer, and even slower, but at the end game you become crazily safe and can kill at a pretty decent speed.
Grav/Storm does not realize it's potential until level 38, so be warned, it is a long path, but one that I feel is well worth it, as it is truly awesome once you get there.
Grav/Storm will never kill as fast as some of the major FoTM's involving Kin, but I believe it to be one of the most well rounded, versatile, unique, and for me it is just simply the most fun.
Once you get a taste of manipulating not only the environment of the battlefield, but also being able to dictate where that battle will take place, it becomes hard to live without it.
Gravity/Storm has it strength's and it has it's weaknesses. Aside from having it's specialty of mob positioning, it is sort of hampered my being a jack of all trades and master of none. Gravity/Storm does not have the best control among controllers, and it does not have the best damage either. What it does have is equal proportions of both, and the ability to combine almost all of it's powers together to produce some pretty awesome effects.
Anyway, I am on a personal crusade to try and help educate people into perhaps learning to play the game in a whole new way, one that encourages everyone to take all the knock back powers available. As I mentioned earlier, with a Grav/Storm, knock back becomes defense with no lose to the effectiveness of AoE powers.
Gravity Storm is a very tight build. It is a tight build not so much because you need too many things, but rather because I really can't see any useless powers in either set. The problem is trying to chose, especially when you get down to the last 2-3.
Build Breakdown
Level 1
Crush, Gale
I take crush right off, as it does more damage over time than does Gravity Distortion(GD). Despite the lower BI, it's recharge is quicker and it keeps a mob immobilized for a longer duration, which allows me to sets up containment quickly, and keep containment even through a miss. This serves as the power I use to set up containment on whatever I am trying to kill at that exact moment. I slot Crush with 2 Acc's and 3 damage. Crush is a key component in your ST damage attack chain, and will be a staple of everything you do right through to level 50.
Level 2
Gravity Distortion
Your main ST hold, and probably your most important power, you will be slotting this to 6 almost immediately. I slot it with 2 Acc's, 3 hold's, and 1 recharge. I have found this to be as endurance efficient as it gets, it also allows you to hold a mob and turn your attention elsewhere for the maximum amount of time possible.
Level 4
Lift
Pretty self explanatory, soft control, and decent ST damage. The Assets of this power are that it has -Fly, it has the fastest animation of any power in either set, it does decent damage, and it provides a decent period of soft control. I slot this with 2 Acc's and 3 damage. Again, it is part of your main damage attack chain, and should be maximized for damage.
Level 6
Propel
A flashy power, but one that I feel is over-rated. It is still part of my build as it does do considerable damage. If you plan on soloing at all, then you will need Propel, epecially at low levels. In large groups, the long activation time of propel, make it pretty unusable. If you plan on only playing this toon in groups, then you could get away with dropping this attack.
Slotting is 2 Acc's and 3 damage.
Level 8
Snow Storm
Snow storm is an excellent toggle slow, with a large degree of slowing and affects a large area. It is one of the main powers that reduces scatter. For solo only builds this becomes less and less important and could probably be dropped when you hit 38. Note that it is fairly endurance heavy. Recommended slotting is 3 slows and 2 end reduc's.
Level 10
Crushing Field
It is a pretty straight forward power. It is used to set up AoE containment and to reduce scatter. Keeping everything immobilized is an extremely important component to the way I play my Grav/Storm. Unfortunately, to achieve this is very endurance intensive. This power will be referred to throughout the guide in conjunction with the other powers. It is very important that you hit with this power, as anything it misses has a good chance of getting away from you. Although it is not flashy, it is the one power that ties the whole thing together. Recommended slotting is 3 Acc, 2 endurance reduc's, and 1 immob duration
Level 12/14
It doesn't really matter what you pick for a travel power but here are some thoughts on each choice.
Leaping
Acrobatics would be a great advantage to the Grav/Storm controller. 90% of the time when things go wrong, it is because you get knocked back at a really inopportune time. If you want Super Jump, I recommend making a spot for this as well, but if you do, you will also need to put 3 endurance reduction slots as well.
Flight
This is what I have taken, simply because flight is my preferred travel power. I took Hover as a prerequisite and use it for knock back protection when needed.
Teleport.
Recall friend is useful for repositioning Sing. I can't stand teleport as a travel power, but if I could, I would take Recall friend and Teleport. If you take this, I would recommend fitting Steamy Mist into your build since then you can stealth in and TP sing into agro range, which is an effective opening move while soloing or in a group that doesn't have many good opening moves.
Speed
If you can live with SS as a travel power, you could open up a slot later in the build by taking hasten and SS.
Level 16
Freezing Rain
Freezing Rain is one of the best powers in the whole game, it provides about 50% mitigation through knockdown, a 30% Defense debuff, a 30% -Res debuff ,and a 40% slow. It only has one drawback, it scatters. Luckily, the Grav/Storm controller has 2 methods to controlling the scatter in Crushing field and Snow storm. For slotting, I recommend 3 Recharge Reduc's slotted immediately as a minimum, and then add a mix of defense debuffs and endurance reducers, depending on what your build allows.
Level 18
Swift or Hurdle
Just a means to get stamina, whatever you like, it has no bearing. I like swift, as I like my general run speed to be faster in missions and such. It helps me get to where I want to be faster. No additional slotting.
Level 20
Health
Not much to say, but no additional slotting needed.
Level 22
Stamina
You definitely need this to run a Grav/Storm controller, Needs 3 endurance mod slots.
Level 24
Hurricane
This power is the next major component that allows you to dominate large spawns. It has a 30% To-hit debuff as well as a 1 second pulsing repel. It also has a semi-regular knock back component. This power used to be totally dominant all on it's own. But right before I7, it was hit hard by the nerf bad, assumedly in the name of PvP. It used to pulse repel 10 times a second, but it was nerfed back to 1 per second. This one per second pulse has made it harder to control, and sculpt packs of mobs.
The schedule for the To-hit debuff enhancements was also scaled back from 33% to 20%, which also had a significant effect.
The end result is that mobs will easily run into your hurricane and get into melee range, Once in melee range they will now hit you much more often. Especially versus +3 and above.
The other nerf, which I believe is a bug, is that when you hold or immobilize a mob and then nudge him with hurricane he will be repelled 20-30 ft past the outside of the effect of the hurricane. Before they played with this power, it would only repel the mob to the outside of the effect. I hope the devs fix this sometime soon, as it makes controlling the mobs more difficult. Luckily the effects of this bug are only minor for the Grav controller, because generally you will be using hurricane to drive packs into walls and corners, and in these cases, the distance of the pushback is predetermined by the backstop.
Slotting for Hurricane is 3 To-hit debuff enhancements and if you have the spare slot then one endurance reduction.
Level 26
Wormhole.
Wormhole is a fantastic power and is the power that defines gravity. No other set has this ability, and combined with your other powers will make you unstoppable. This is Gravity's AoE disorient. It is mag 3, with an 18 second durationwhich is comparable to Flashfires or Stalagmites from the other controller sets. . The difference comes in that, besides being an AoE disorient, it is also an AoE foe teleport.
It contains 2 different ranges, a casting range and an exit point range. The casting range is 60ft, the same as propel, and I am not sure what the exit range is, but it is far. Unlike Stalagmites and flash fires, you cannot cast this while having line of sight, if you do you will take a full alpha before I goes off.
It is very important to hit with wormhole, as anything you miss will be split from the pack that get tp'd. Dividing the spawns in half is very counterproductive. Therefore my slotting is 3 Acc and 3 Recharge.
Level 28
Hasten
Hasten is a power that improves the recharge of all your powers by 70%. It is a great asset to all your mid to long recharging powers, most notably to get Sing and GDF up and ready again for the next spawn. It has also been noted to transfer onto your summoned entities, which is the main reason this has been included in my build. It does not seem to effect Sing, but it will haste your Lightning Storm's attack rate. Slotting is 3 recharge reductions.
Level 30
Gravity Distortion field.
Due to the short duration, and massive recharge, this is no longer a staple of the set. Use it as a panic button, or you can lead off with it. Leading off with it is good, because then you can avoid the alpha associated with Wormhole. When available, this is your best opening move. It is also good for building quick mag on boss's.
Level 32
Singularity
He is your personal body guard. He will save your life more times than you will even realize. He is always trailing behind you, and he really does have your back. He will also cover your escape when needed. Sing Spams 3 attacks. GD, Crush and Lift. He tends to attack the closest target to himself, however, he does have some higher level thought going on in there, as he does switch targets a lot, which is good as it helps you avoid taking agro.
Sing is very durable and makes a great pocket tank, I utilize him regularly to take alpha's for me and therefore slot him with recharge.
My recommended slotting for this build and to maximize your ability to lead off is 1 Acc, 3 recharge, and the last 2, either damage, or hold, or both.
Level 35
Level 35 is my nemesis, over my time playing I can never decide what to put here. The main contenders are 02 boost and Thunderclap.
Thunderclap
Thunderclap is a Mag 2 disorient. This means it will only disorient minions. It will not disorient Lieutenants or bosses, that do not have prior mag built up on them. It's base duration is listed [censored] 18 seconds and it has quite a large area of effect. Slightly larger than Hurricane. One of the great things about this power is that it has a 45 second recharge, so it can be up every fight, without any additional recharge slotting. My recommended slotting is 2 Acc's and 3 Disorient durations.
O2 boost
O2 boost is a reasonable sized ST heal which includes 30 seconds of status protection for the recipient for stuns and sleeps. It is very useful for duoing, or in all squishy groups. It's recharge is pretty quick and I don't recommend slotting it for recharge. 3 heal enhancements is plenty, and some may want to leave it un-slotted and just use the status protection.
Level 38
Lightning storm
Here is the AoE damage you have been looking for, for the last 38 levels. It is awesome. As mentioned near the beginning of this guide, knock back becomes defense for the grav controller, and in this case, Lightning Storm provides a ton of it. It strikes appx once every 3 seconds for 30 seconds, although this can be hastened and SB'd. According to stats, it already has a 40% Acc enhancement. The equivalent of slightly more than one SO of acc.
With it fully slotted with recharge, and with hasten active, it is possible to have 2 of them going at the same time for a short amount of time.
Recommended slotting is 3 damage 3 recharge.
Epic Powers
I consider the epic powers to be icing. Not really going to go into any detail here. I will be taking Ice for thematic reasons. I will be taking Hibernate, the armor and Ice Storm.
Strategy Discussion
The early levels and the ST attack chains.
GD, Crush, Lift and Propel are the heart of the Grav/Storm controller, providing both damage and control at the same time. I highly recommend taking all 4 ST powers and following the above slotting recommendations.
Always Crush or Gravity Distortion (GD) everything before you use any of you ST attacks. It is really a waste of endurance to hit anything with either Lift or Propel without getting the containment bonus.
Control your knock backs. Crush + Propel/Lift will knock back/up, GD + Propel, will not. Pay attention to what is needed in each situation. You are a Grav/Storm; you are the ultimate mob positioning hero. You should observe this even with your ST Powers.
While grouping, you will find Propel to be sort of annoying. With the long animation time you will be hitting dead targets a lot. In small groups that need damage, I use propel, but in a 4+ man group, I don't even bother. In groups, my ST attack chain consist of GD, Crush and Lift only.
The following is the way I found that the early Grav/Storm powers synergize together the best. I feel with operating like this provides maximum mitigation, while still providing adequate damage.
Grouping Control Attack chain
Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift
Select target C, GD
Select target B or D, Crush + lift
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.
I rarely activate Propel in large groups for the reason described above.
Soloing attack Chain
Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target C, GD
Select target D, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.
Bosses require 2 applications to hold, so in those situations, A & C should be the boss, both solo, and in a group. It should also be noted that Crush is a Magnitude 4 immobilize, meaning you can immobilize a boss in one shot. Keep this in mind when developing your own strategies.
Lift vs. Crush.
Over and Over and Over, I keep hearing that everyone either takes Crush or Lift. I really couldn't imagine removing either. If someone told me I had to get rid of one of my attacks, the decision would be between Lift and Propel, and I already know that Propel would be the one to go. Having said that, there is no way I would drop any of the 4 main ST powers.
Despite Propel being a fun power, it is more situational. Lift is a useful tool at all times. Lift has a quick animation, does reasonable damage, and provides a fairly decent period of soft control on a single target. Propel, is similar, except the animation time is so long that whatever you were trying to control, has already done what it wanted to do by the time it hits it.
I also hear people justify not taking lift because "Grav/Storm has enough control". Lift is very useful in groups when you take agro, and has saved my life from countless boss's. When you have a + 3 boss, that is capable of 1 shotting you, charging down, you will be happy to see him go flying up in the air and land on his head.
In these situations, I use GD + Lift + GD. This is an exception to the always get containment rule. The reason being if a mob is charging you, and you immobilize it, it will automatically attack. If you lift him, there is a good chance that when he gets up, he will continue his pursuit, and by that time hopefully GD has popped again. This way you avoid taking any damage. In later levels, some bosses can leave a red mark that lasts for days, even with their ranged attacks so it is best to try and avoid them. Lift helps with this quite a bit.
If a person was to skip propel, I would recommend making sure you get a recharge reduction into Lift and Crush. But again I stress, I would never drop ANY of the Gravity ST stuff.
After building up your ST damage chain, you then start to receive your AoE control tools, freezing rain being paramount on the list. Freezing Rain is one of the many reasons that you picked gravity over Ice, Earth and Fire. Crushing field does not have -kb, so you can feel free to immobilize on top of freezing rain, and you still receive all of the knockdown goodness, while producing no scatter. When using Freezing rain, you always want to combine it with Snow Storm and/or crushing field. In groups, the way I have found to be most effective is to lead with snow storm, cast freezing rain, then follow with Crushing field. Leading with snow storm makes sure that Freezing rain does not scatter the pack of mobs. You will be surprised how fast they will scatter at times, even with the supposed slow attached to freezing rain. From what I have seen there must be some kind of pulsing effect with the slow, as sometimes the effects of the slow are not seen at all.
As a Grav/Storm you are not always the best opener in the game, so leave that to someone that can avoid alpha's better than you can. Later in life, the only missing piece to the puzzle will be missing will be the opening move, unless you can get out of LoS within wormhole range. You will get a couple of techniques, and I will come to those later. Unfortunately, the opening powers that you do receive have long recharge timers and do not allow you to open on every pack, which is a hindrance when you are soloing, or when you are playing with someone else that does not lead off well. The other problem you will face is when the spawns are dispersed to an extent that your AoE control powers will not hit them all. Herding is not something that Grav/Storm does with ease. It is possible, but it won't work out for you every time. Many times you will end up just scattering the mobs even worse then they were. But again due to the versatility of the Grav/Storm you can just go into full chaos mode, and come out alive 90% of the time.
While soloing at these levels Freezing Rain will be your main opening move. Keep in mind that when you cast it, you will take a half alpha. After that, try and hold and kill the mobs that make it out of the area of effect first. Leave the rest flopping around, and deal with them last.
The next major tool you will receive is Hurricane. The most noticeable mistake that many people make with this power is that they scatter everything all over the place with it. YOU MUST NOT RUN THROUGH THE SPAWN WITH THIS ACTIVE. If you are standing beside a tank with this on, you are in the wrong place. Hurricane is best used while skirting the battle, you just want to nudge things with it to get the debuff, or too push something into a debuff zone, or push an anchor into another pack. If you see a boss on his own, away from the pack, immobilize him, and then ram him into a wall, and drive him until he stops. Corners are always your friend.
At times, you will see an opening where you can drive the whole spawn into a corner, and I say go for it, but figure out the direction of the push and be aware of which directions all the mobs around you are going to go. In a small room, running into the center of the room with hurricane on, and pushing the mobs to all 4 corners of the room is not really productive. It is preferable to enter the room with it off, stand in the corner, and activate it. This will drive them all into the opposite corner. Packing them, instead of scattering. I enter most fights, with hurricane off, and then turn it on when the need arises. Also, I usually position myself first, then turn it on, this helps you line to line up the precision push.
While soloing, once freezing rain runs out, ram your targets and drive them into a wall or corner. Hold a different mob each time it pops, then immob and ST attack an unheld target. You will be surprised with SO's how many you can get held at once.
The next significant power you will receive is the single biggest reason to pair Grav and Storm together. Of course I speak of Wormhole. Wormholes biggest contribution to this build is that it allows the cornering maneuver, again, which will be discussed later, once all the components have been discussed..
Ok, but as everything, wormhole is not without it's drawbacks. You will take a FULL ALPHA if you lead off with this while having LoS. During the animation all affected mobs are made aware of your presence, and they all get a free shot at you before they are affected.
In groups, let people know what you are doing. Get blasters to call out their nukes. Some people get upset when they unleash one of their powers, and just before it goes off, you throw the entire pack across the room.
Next you will receive Gravity distortion field, which I mainly use just to avoid alpha's with, so that I can Wormhole with no collateral damage. Between this and Recasting singularity into agro range, you get 2 opening moves, that depending on your kill rate, sometimes is enough to open every group. There are many times in groups, that between, being able to get out of LoS with wormhole, Singularity and GDF, I can provide scatterless openings on every fight.
Select corner to wormhole into, keep in mind that with larger the mob, or with larger numbers of mobs, you will require a larger length of wall measured from the apex of the corner in both directions. Next position yourself the best you can, to avoid line of sight with as many of the mobs as possible. If this is not possible, there are some techniques to get a wormhole away while in line of sight, and I will get to those after a explain the maneuver. Next, while having hurricane active, wormhole the mobs low on the side wall near the apex of the corner. It is best to do this at an acute angle, sometimes if you wormhole at 90% you do not get the knock back, I have found that with acute angles, the mobs are more likely to release. Next cast crushing Field and Immobilize them, then run in with hurricane and slowly nudge them deep into the corner.
When your hurricane is touching both side walls, stop! Next, cast Freezing Rain and then crushing field again, just to catch any of the mobs you may have missed with the first crushing field. You will likely hit all of them with the second crushing field because the preceding Freezing rain has substantially debuffed their defense. It is for this reason that I recommend 3 Acc in both crushing field and in Wormhole. Crushing field and wormhole are the only 2 powers that you will be casting consistently on un-debuffed mobs, and is the reason I slot them with 3 acc each.
Once you have them immobilized, trapped in the corner, being knocked down, with -def, -res, and -acc all applied, cast Hasten (if it's not on auto like mine), and then follow with Lightning storm. You can now just sit back and watch the show, while adjusting a little one way or the other to make sure nothing gets blasted away from you.
This maneuver stops working when fighting +4's, assuming no stacked tactics. At this level differential, you start to miss too many of the baddies and end up splitting the pack in half. This is not always beneficial. Make sure you try to maximize your accuracy with wormhole. It is the reason I put 3 Acc enhancements into it.
Using this sort of maneuver, disorient duration is not really a factor. Between Freezing rain, Hurricane, and lightning storm, once the mobs are trapped in the corner, I can't tell if they are disoriented or not as they are continually flopping around like fish pretty much for the duration of the fight.
In some groups, especially ones that are steamrolling, and are killing everything nearly instantaneously, there is obviously no reason to perform this maneuver. In fact, this works best in smaller sized groups. 4-5 people. Where you often don't have the AoE damage to wipe everything out in the blink of an Eye.
Another technique I have been working on perfecting while soloing is pet pulling/herding. What I have found is that if I throw sing in the middle of a room and then run away, sing will agro and then follow me. The spawn will obviously follow. I then set up around 1 corner, while being in sight of a good place to pull of the cornering technique. I have found that as the mobs come around the corner, they will generally take a ranged shot at sing. As they collect at the corner, run towards them and toward the outside wall. Then wormhole them into the corner, or on some maps you can just drive them with hurricane active down the wall and into the corner.
This is still a work in progress, I am still having some issues, but I think most of my problems can be overcome. Try it out yourself, as herding entire rooms and killing all at once is much faster than killing 2-3 at a time. It is also more exciting.
Here is a series of screen shots from a battle series where I used a pet pull. it also shows the normal type of cornering that I do with my Grav/Storm.
Sample of Corner pull with Grav/Storm
When looking for a duoing partner for a Grav/Storm the most effective skills are the ability to herd, and the ability to do strong AoE damage. For this reason the best 2 are either a Fire/Fire tank or a kheld with dwarf form. Both operate similarly in their roles in the duo.
The strategy generally goes that the Tank/kheld herds, and the troller corners the spawn. Then the Kheld/Tank unleash all the AoE damage possible while the troller pounds away with the ST attack chain on the boss's. It is extremely quick, effective and almost no risk.
Unused Powers
Dimension Shift
Not a very popular power, but not without it's uses. I am not going to go into too much detail as Arinara has already explained it sufficiently, and I can add little more as I have never used it.
Steamy Mist
AoE Stealth and 21 % resist in Fire, Cold and energy. This is a good power, but unfortunately, I can not support the endurance cost. If I am running, Hurricane and Snow storm, Plus using my AoE control powers, I run out of endurance far too quickly. Also the stealth becomes really unreliable somewhere in your 30's.
Tornado
Tornado is just too wild for a Grav troller. Without any consistent AoE -kb power it will scatter everything all over the place. Fire, Ice and Earth can all make great use of it's damage, but the Grav troller cannot.
Here is a copy of my build, which I consider perfect now. You will not be led wrong if you use this. This is my build after hours and hours on test, about 8 respecs and leveling myself from 1 to the mid 40's twice.
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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Marginalman
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
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01) --> Crush==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(21)Dmg(21)Dmg(25)
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) --> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(2)Acc(3)Hold(5)Hold(7)Hold(9)Rechg(11)
04) --> Lift==> Acc(4)Acc(5)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)Dmg(19)
06) --> Propel==> Acc(6)Acc(7)Dmg(13)Dmg(15)Dmg(19)
08) --> Snow Storm==> Slow(8)Slow(9)Slow(36)EndRdx(36)
10) --> Crushing Field==> Acc(10)Acc(11)Acc(37)EndRdx(37)EndRdx(42)Immob(43)
12) --> Hover==> Fly(12)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14)
16) --> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(16)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)
18) --> Swift==> Run(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22)EndMod(23)EndMod(23)
24) --> Hurricane==> TH_DeBuf(24)TH_DeBuf(25)TH_DeBuf(27)EndRdx(50)
26) --> Wormhole==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Acc(29)Rechg(29)Rechg(31)Rechg(31)
28) --> Hasten==> Rechg(28)Rechg(34)Rechg(36)
30) --> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(30)Acc(31)Rechg(37)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)Hold(43)
32) --> Singularity==> Acc(32)Rechg(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(33)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)
35) --> Thunder Clap==> Acc(35)Acc(40)DisDur(43)DisDur(45)DisDur(46)Rechg(46)
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Acc(38)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
41) --> Hibernate==> Rechg(41)
44) --> Frozen Armor==> DefBuf(44)DefBuf(45)DefBuf(45)EndRdx(46)
47) --> Ice Storm==> Acc(47)Acc(48)Dmg(48)Dmg(48)Dmg(50)Rechg(50)
49) --> Recall Friend==> IntRdx(49)
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01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
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Everyday is not a good one for the Grav/Storm, some days you are a god, other days well, it just doesn't always work out. Mezzers, stunners, things that won't fall down (Nemesis jaegers), Council Missile launchers, can all ruin a Grav/Storms day.
There is no in between for the Grav/Storm you need to either hang back and play a support role, or take charge and impose your will on the unwilling, only death lies between.
Play safe and have fun!