Smoke & Mirrors: Guide to Illusion/Storm Summoning
By
4elements,
Posted on: 2007-02-27 14:36 in Player Guides
Great post Tal_N. Thanks for the info. Would you be willing to share your build? Thanks again.
This has to be, hands down, one of the best SET guides out there. period.
Extremely well thought out and written.
regards
joe
Taking It On the Chin I-16 Tanker Guide
Repeat Offenders
Best guide I have read. I have read a lot of them as well.
I am thinking of making an ill/storm for PvP end game. So I would also like to see you update your guide later on about power pools, EPP's & accolades as well.
There's not a vast amount of info to really give on powerpools since in general they don't influence gameplay that much except to give you added utility. The PvP basics guide in here should be enough for people to draw conclusions on what best suits them and how they want to play Illus/Storm in a PvP situation.
For starters Stamina isn't essential but does give you a bit of a boost in PvP by allowing you to actively run things like Hurricane and Snow Storm for long periods of time, obviously this can be helpful against melee ATs for starters. However playing without Stamina is very viable as but you need to think more about how to approach an opponent.
Travel power wise almost everything works well with Illus/Storm but my personal preference is Flight mainly because it allows you direct positioning of Lightning Storm so it has an elevated view over the area you want it to effect plus the ability to drop Spectral Terror and Phantom Army onto NPCs or players is also very handy.
For PvP downtime is always a pain since they added the 'feature' where if you respawn then you have low hp and end. This can really suck as it means standing around for anything up to 2-3 minutes while your health returns. For this reason I'd mainly say a PvP build needs to have Medicine as it makes the downtime much much shorter. Also the benefits of being able to heal yourself in the field speaks for itself.
One thing to consider is that Phase Shift is worth investing in should you intend to play the passive approach. Summoning all of your pets and then standing right next to someone with phase shift on and SI is enough to drive them insane unless they notice that it's saying 'unaffected' because they'll think they're missing. It can be hard to concentrate with that much happening around you and alot of ATs will die in the 30 second period where you're untouchable but your pets are plenty capable of killing the other player.
Great post, Tal_N. I was looking around the certain charachter build guides to see which one wasn't too FOTM (ice/nrg blasters), but could still be effective in PvP. I stumbled upon this and recently started rolling him and loving it. Great guide, allowed me to plan out my build, and gave me great tactics for both PvE and PvP!
(Ooooo, necropost)
Minor note about preferred factions:
CoT ghosts take extra damage from Psionic. And you can deceive the ghosts so their -tohit attacks/auras affect each other instead of you.
I'd actually put CoT on the "preferred faction" list. At least that's what my Ill/TA controller and Ice/Psi Dominator would say.
Great guide Tal_N. I just created my first controller and chose the Illusion/Storm power sets, now I know how powerful it really is. The slotting ideas are helpful, I think I'll try them out.
Thanks again for the great read.
This is one of the best guides...why isn't it under the guides list for controllers?
People sometimes tell me I'm both pessimistic and paranoid but I think that's just because all you optimists are out to get me.
[ QUOTE ]
This is one of the best guides...why isn't it under the guides list for controllers?
[/ QUOTE ]
/agreed. I got lucky and using the search function stumbled upon it.
Smoke and Mirrors? Where the hell have I heard THAT before? 
Troy Hickman - So proud to have contributed to and played in this wonderful CoH universe
Smoke and Mirrors. It's a term used to describe how stage magicians perform their tricks and illusions. Who would I need to contact to get it added to the controllers guide listings?
Tal_N, wow, very amazing guide, I just recently rolled up am ill/storm and found that I'm nearly following your guide already, but found a few tips I didn't think of, pve tips, slotting, how to use certain powers, etc. Thank you, awesome guide!
And I think you need to contact Zombie_Man, as I think he's the editor to the Guide to Guides.
MA Arcs - #67636, #92202
deviantart page
Slag Heap: Why you hurt Guardian!? Guardian no hurt you!
Under the tactics section of this guide there is mention of what I call 'the DoT of Doom'. This can be somewhat hard to explain and equally hard to master. So here is a video which shows the DoT of Doom is performed. In this case it's being used on two +2 Rikti Bosses at the same time. The larger the crowd the harder it is to pull off remember.
Tal_N
Count me in as a member of your fan club- excellent guide and now video demos!
I'm on the Ill/Storm bandwagon- enjoying the ride.
Out of curiousity- what power pools did you choose from?
Thank you for all your hard work!
MagicMD
Flight, Concealment and Speed. While concealment might seem like a waste I have found Phase Shift to be ideal considering it gives me the ability to fight while risk free, my temp Phase Shift powers are running out so PS is gonna be one of the final powers I take. Also Invis Other comes in handy for more regularly available stealthing of others like the Phantasm.
That DoT of Doom as well as the second method, PA, SS, then FR sounds awesome. I haven't had a chance to try either yet, but I'm slowly getting to the powers I need to try it. I'm at level 19 and thinking about how to try Doc Vahz solo, I was gonna try him as an AV, but noticing how much end hit I get with summoning PA and FR I think I'll try just as an EB, but I've already started to work in the PA, then FR tactic, and atm I use deceive, blind, and spec wounds to support. I don't have the other storm powers yet, working in on the power pools, speed, stamina and flight, and then I'll build up the secondaries. but using Pa and able to rest during the fight as well as resting after every other fight or so, due to how long some fights take are magical. It's wonderful to have both deceive to suddenly have a semi powerful or powerful ally to help out as well as aggro in the PA. I dunno how I'll fair against Doc Vahz yet but fighting all the other bosses I've had trouble with on other sets haven't caused problems, and I at least wanna try out the Doc knowing the only thing that's been an issue so far has been end. So far holds, confuse and PA have given me time enough to rest during fights to recover the end I need to keep going.
MA Arcs - #67636, #92202
deviantart page
Slag Heap: Why you hurt Guardian!? Guardian no hurt you!
Just a small heads up, since I have some time-off due over the holiday season I'm planning on an update for this guide. It'll have the corrections about how SI and GI function, showing that SI doesn't supress much like GI doesn't either in PvE as well as having a new chapter on IO sets and bonuses.
The powers section will also be updated to include what IO sets each power accepts. I should have it ready in time for the new year.
Oh! Cool guide!
Could definitely use this for my Illusion/Storm Controller!
Though when I first saw the thread I thought it was a guide to soloing 'Smoke & Mirrors' with a Illusion/Storm Contorller (which I tried to do). 
*bookmarks*
50s: Silent Spy - MA/Regen Scrapper | Tinkerhell - SS/Inv Brute | Extrasensory - Psi/Men Blaster | Ana Cruz - DP/PD Corruptor | Sara Thunderbird - Elec/Elec Scrapper | Pinstrike - Spines/SR Scrapper | Cold Feet - Cold/Cold Blaster
@Silent Spy, Champion Server
Great guide. Sample builds for PvE vs PvP would be awesome. Appreciate all the time and thought you put in.
I took the liberty of fixing some typos and whatnot. Please pardon the .doc formatting as well.
Thanks for providing this stellar guide! - Link
Just a heads up, I've finished a draft of the i11 update for this guide to include a section about IO, IO sets and Procs. Once I give it a few more passes and check a few facts I should be ready to release a new version of this by the end of February.
Slight delay in getting this done. Wife has been working overtime so I've been looking after the kids, thankfully shes off work for the next 2 weeks which should allow me to grab a couple hours to finish this new 1.5 version off.
One thing you might consider adding is a section on Bugs.
I have frequently had Tornado (especially) but also all of my other Knockback powers (Gale, Hurricane, Lightning Storm and Phantasm) get mobs stuck in walls and ceilings, often where my pets can't get at them.
Usually they'll get themselves out eventually, but not always, and it can be very irritating.
Perhaps it's not worth mentioning, but it was something that crossed my mind.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
Saddly I don't have MS Word or anything similar, plus I wrote alot of the guide during my lunchbreaks in work so notepad was the only option. I did have someone proof read it for me and nailed most of the issues but something always slips through.