P.S The console fanboy crack was just a joke. No one is as delusional as those freaks.
"The bird of Hermes is my name. Eating my wings to make me tame." -The Ripley Scroll
Check out my Deviant Art: http://darkauthor81.deviantart.com/
Hi there! Thanks for the guide. I'm a huge fan of Earth and Storm. Though I must admit, I haven't tried them together. So take what I say with that in mind 
My main reaction is: no VG and no QS?
With all that Storm gives you I can understand certain other powers that would be must haves to a /Sonic might be considered disposable to /Storm. Nevertheless, Volcanic Gasses is one of the best AoE holds in the game AND it sets up containment. It's great to be able to Earthquake one mob while you VG another. You can save your team time and time again by controlling two spawns at once. VG lets you do that in a very orderly way.
Quicksand is a fantastic defense debuff, sure.. but it's a wonderful slow that keeps enemies in Earthquake and Freezing Rain without stopping the knockdown, which is what Stone Cages does. I understand taking Snow Storm OR Quicksand... but in that case I'm taking Quicksand because it has the added defense debuff AND it's NOT anchored to an enemy who might be slaughtered before the rest of the mob, freeing them of the slow.
Agree with you about Salt Crystals. It sure looks cool, doesn't it?
Anyway, hope that helps. Thanks for giving two of my favorite sets some love!!
[ QUOTE ]
Hi there! Thanks for the guide. I'm a huge fan of Earth and Storm. Though I must admit, I haven't tried them together. So take what I say with that in mind
My main reaction is: no VG and no QS?
With all that Storm gives you I can understand certain other powers that would be must haves to a /Sonic might be considered disposable to /Storm. Nevertheless, Volcanic Gasses is one of the best AoE holds in the game AND it sets up containment. It's great to be able to Earthquake one mob while you VG another. You can save your team time and time again by controlling two spawns at once. VG lets you do that in a very orderly way.
Quicksand is a fantastic defense debuff, sure.. but it's a wonderful slow that keeps enemies in Earthquake and Freezing Rain without stopping the knockdown, which is what Stone Cages does. I understand taking Snow Storm OR Quicksand... but in that case I'm taking Quicksand because it has the added defense debuff AND it's NOT anchored to an enemy who might be slaughtered before the rest of the mob, freeing them of the slow.
Agree with you about Salt Crystals. It sure looks cool, doesn't it?
Anyway, hope that helps. Thanks for giving two of my favorite sets some love!!
[/ QUOTE ]
Snowstorm is better than quick sand, in my opinion. Sand only slows movement while snow storm slows power recharge as well. With earthquake and freezing rain going, nothing's going very far anyway.
As for volcanic gases. It is a great move but I just don't have room for it and I already have 3 aoe stuns. If you don't go for Stone Mastery as your epic I'd suggest picking up Volcanic.
"The bird of Hermes is my name. Eating my wings to make me tame." -The Ripley Scroll
Check out my Deviant Art: http://darkauthor81.deviantart.com/
That is a great bonus to snow storm... the recharge slow. And I have been able to do the corner hide Snow Storm cast.. where I start with an eye-line to the enemy running towards a corner and hit it, so by the time it casts I'm behind a corner. It usually works. Though Quicksand I can simply toss out from behind a corner and not care about slowing recharge, since they can't see me to attack anyway. Still, I can understand making a case for either.
As far as Volcanic Gas goes, you're advocating three stuns INSTEAD of VG. Now, with VG and Fossilize you can handle a boss. VG is a mag 3 hold and can be cast while you're behind a corner.
Stalagmites is a great power, and I don't recommend losing it in favor of VG. It too is mag 3 and you can cast it from range.
Thunderclap, however, is only mag 2. As you pointed out, you can stack it with Stalagmites. The thing is, it's PB. So you have to run in and cast it. The great thing about Earth is all the powers are ranged. Sure the Stalagmites + TC combo works... but you have to run around a bit.
Fissure I look at as a damage power. It CAN do stun, but only with a 50% chance on those that it hits (and at mag 2).
I, personally, would take VG at 26 and do without TC or Fissure... or maybe even O2 boost.
Isn't this game great? So many workable combinations.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hi there! Thanks for the guide. I'm a huge fan of Earth and Storm. Though I must admit, I haven't tried them together. So take what I say with that in mind
My main reaction is: no VG and no QS?
With all that Storm gives you I can understand certain other powers that would be must haves to a /Sonic might be considered disposable to /Storm. Nevertheless, Volcanic Gasses is one of the best AoE holds in the game AND it sets up containment. It's great to be able to Earthquake one mob while you VG another. You can save your team time and time again by controlling two spawns at once. VG lets you do that in a very orderly way.
Quicksand is a fantastic defense debuff, sure.. but it's a wonderful slow that keeps enemies in Earthquake and Freezing Rain without stopping the knockdown, which is what Stone Cages does. I understand taking Snow Storm OR Quicksand... but in that case I'm taking Quicksand because it has the added defense debuff AND it's NOT anchored to an enemy who might be slaughtered before the rest of the mob, freeing them of the slow.
Agree with you about Salt Crystals. It sure looks cool, doesn't it?
Anyway, hope that helps. Thanks for giving two of my favorite sets some love!!
[/ QUOTE ]
Snowstorm is better than quick sand, in my opinion. Sand only slows movement while snow storm slows power recharge as well. With earthquake and freezing rain going, nothing's going very far anyway.
As for volcanic gases. It is a great move but I just don't have room for it and I already have 3 aoe stuns. If you don't go for Stone Mastery as your epic I'd suggest picking up Volcanic.
[/ QUOTE ]My Invuln/SS Tanker will gladly tell you that the QS patch used by Earth Thorn Casters has one nasty defense debuff factor to it...
Oh, my Earth/Storm controller can atest to that too, makes all those purple Tsoo easier to hit on teams. As for no VG, I have to say this, you're screwing yourself without VG. Volcanic Gasses is a Pseudo-pet, the hold lasts as long as most aoe holds, but the lovely part is that it pulses, making it last for a very, very long time. With enough recharge bonuses, you can get two VGs out at once I surmise.
Global - @Proton Sentinel
Jack Devon Crab Spider VEAT; Virtue
Mordigen Earth/Storm on Liberty and Virtue
Technological Terror Bots/FF; Liberty.
50s: Zul Vakirol Thugs/Poison; Virtue. Kiyujin Katana/SR
QR:
VG is actually 6 psudo-pets (IIRC) and I would never make an earthie without it. Hold > stun
Though yes, I completely agree with the Stalag + Thunderclap combo. I love it. Works great for knocking out those hurricanes on KHTF.
Hurl bolder? Bah. Had it, hated it. my Earth/Storm/Earth is not built for damage, it's built for max control. VG is a must, Hurl boulder is a waste of time. I also opted for Quicksand over Snowstorm. Mostly because I did not want a toggle with how much End trouble I had early on. Also, I prefer the def debuff over the recharge slow.
Nice guide.
My only contradictions are:
VG>Almost every other power between the two sets. IMO this is the BEST AoE hold in the game.
QS>Snow Storm. I'm not a fan of end heavy toggles that need an anchor. Plus the -def on QS is INSANE.
Besides these two things everything else is nice. Not too sure about O2 boost but whatever floats your boat...*shrug*
[url="http://data.jsonline.com/sports/favre/"]Need some Favre info?[/url]
[url="http://www.packersnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage"]Some news maybe?[/url]
[url="http://www.packers.com/"]Packers stuff.[/url]
[ QUOTE ]
QR:
VG is actually 6 psudo-pets (IIRC) and I would never make an earthie without it. Hold > stun
Though yes, I completely agree with the Stalag + Thunderclap combo. I love it. Works great for knocking out those hurricanes on KHTF.
Hurl bolder? Bah. Had it, hated it. my Earth/Storm/Earth is not built for damage, it's built for max control. VG is a must, Hurl boulder is a waste of time. I also opted for Quicksand over Snowstorm. Mostly because I did not want a toggle with how much End trouble I had early on. Also, I prefer the def debuff over the recharge slow.
[/ QUOTE ]
I may opt for VG over bolder. Depends on if I'm craving some damage at that point. I'm finding, at lvl 35 now, that teams are rolling so fast I barely have time to throw my mezzes and debuffs out before the fights over unless the enemies are +3 or +4. So I may go for pure control since bolder is one of those attacks with a stupid long animation.
[ QUOTE ]
Fissure I look at as a damage power. It CAN do stun, but only with a 50% chance on those that it hits (and at mag 2).
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually Mid's says it has a 50% chance for a mag 2 stun and another 50% chance for a mag 1. As for jumping into the fray for thunderclap, I've never had a problem with it and I think I've died maybe 3 times so far total and none of them were from jumping in for thunderclap. The only thing about thunderclap is the long animation time.
"The bird of Hermes is my name. Eating my wings to make me tame." -The Ripley Scroll
Check out my Deviant Art: http://darkauthor81.deviantart.com/
Decided to post this because this is my favorite controller combo. I have a 50 (which I went with fire epic) and I have a second one that just hit 35 (which I'll go with earth epic)
>2JG%)-+%2K2TM$?5)1:`#3`)#`U,CB0O&^.:|
KU1AX|
First of all you might be asking "Midboss, you sexy dynamo, why earth/storm??" If not you should be. Earth/Storm is the best crowd control power combo in the game and gains that crown very early to boot. Forget Stalagmites (until later) what you want is the Earthquake + Freezing Rain 1 2 punch. Both have a good chance of knocking enemies down. Together and some enemies may never be on their feet long enough to attack. This includes bosses. On top of that Earthquake debuffs accuracy while freezing rain debuffs resistance and they BOTH debuff defense making your mez aoes hit much more reliably. Throw in stalagmites and snow storm and you're all the control your team could ever ask for in early levels.
And it only gets better later on when you add Thunderclap to the mix. Yes yes I know what you're thinking "*snrk* Thunderclap?? No one takes that piece of monkey dung. You're a noob!"
Take that little thought, ball it up, and throw it in the trash can. Yes, Thunderclap is questionable at best with most builds. But for earth/storm it's a must. Why? Stalagmites is a mag 3 stun which makes it affect Lts and minions but not bosses. Thunderclap is a mag 2 stun which makes it only affect minions. But put them together and you have mag 5 aoe stun which is enough to nail bosses.
So what do we have so far? Enemies are bouncing up and down, their defense is floored, their accuracy is lowered, they're slowed, and now they're getting hit by mag 5 aoe stuns.
Hurricane is a great power though I very rarely use it for normal fights. What I do use it for is AV fights since it doesn't push AVs around so they just stand in it while it floors their accuracy. Combine that with the -acc of earthquake and they aren't hitting anything.
Now many people take the mass immobilizer power early on just for the sake of throwing some, any, damage into the mix. This is a mistake. The earth mass immob stops knockdown so all of a sudden your earthquake and freezing rain aren't bouncing your enemies and every enemy now will ignore the fire/fire blaster and focus on killing YOU because immob aoes draw stupid amounts of aggro.
The mass immob IS usefull later on when you've got both stun powers and have a chance to survive using it. With this power you can launching Tornado and Lightening Storm allowing them to damage without throwing your enemies all over the place.
Speaking of Tornado, this is yet another must have for AV fights since AVs are immune to knockback this pet just sits on them for several hundred points of damage over time.
Good but not necessary powers.
O2 Boost: Hey, people are going to get hit no matter how awesome you are. This also cures stun, adds resistance to endurance drain, and increases perception for when you're team gets blinded.... I honestly don't see why anyone who teams would skip this power.
Steamy Mist: Adds defense, adds resistances, gives stealth, has a wide area of effect.....
OK so maybe these powers are better than good. They're fantastic. But not 100% necessary.
Quick Sand: With all the knockdown and the slow of freezing right and snow storm the only thing this has going for it is that it's another -defense hit to your enemies which you really don't need since you already have plenty of -defense.
Salt Crystals: Mass sleep attack... some may claim to like sleep attacks. I think they're more delusional than console fanboys. With your own aoes you'll wake up your enemies, forget the aoes of you allies.
Volcanic Gasses: ... This is a great power. But I don't have room for it and I already have plenty of stun aoe. I may swap thunderclap for this after seeing how well Fissure works since thunder requires you to be in melee range and has a long animation at which point I'll turn on hurricane and leave it on since I wont be jumping into melee for thunderclap.
Drawbacks of the Earth/Storm.... No damage until late 30s. Which means you NEED to team at all times. Until you get lightening storm, tornado, and earth pet you're almost completely devoid of damage. But at the same time you make any team rock so it's not THAT big of a problem.
Epics: Any epic would do well with this build... Most go with fire because... well after 30+ levels of having no damage you kinda want to do some killing. Psi adds damage and mez protection. Primal has Conserve power (thunderstorm and maz immob eat a lot of endurance) and Power Boost to make those stuns last extra long.
But which one would I suggest? Earth epic. Shield is defense based adding to your -acc powers and it has a self heal making you one safe little controller. But really what's so great about this? Fissure! A mag 2 aoe stun power. That's right. A third aoe stun. Between the three of them you can keep entire spawns (including bosses) permanently stunned.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.4006
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- UbrkCons-Dam%:50(A), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold:50(3), UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg:50(5), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg:50(7), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg:50(9)
Level 1: Gale -- FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(A)
Level 2: O2 Boost -- Dct'dW-Heal:50(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(5)
Level 4: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(7), RechRdx-I:50(9)
Level 8: Swift -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 10: Steamy Mist -- RedFtn-Def:50(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(11), TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(11), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(23), EndRdx-I:50(23)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Amaze-ToHitDeb%:50(A), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun:50(13), Amaze-Stun/Rchg:50(13), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(15), Amaze-Acc/Rchg:50(15), Acc-I:50(37)
Level 14: Health -- Heal-I:50(A)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(17), EndRdx-I:50(17), LdyGrey-%Dam:50(25), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(25)
Level 18: Earthquake -- RechRdx-I:50(A), ToHitDeb-I:50(19), DampS-ToHitDeb/Rchg:50(19), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(34), LdyGrey-%Dam:50(37), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg:50(43)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:50(A), EndMod-I:50(21), P'Shift-End%:50(21)
Level 22: Hover -- DefBuff-I:50(A)
Level 24: Fly -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 26: Hurricane -- ToHitDeb-I:50(A), ToHitDeb-I:50(27), EndRdx-I:50(27), EndRdx-I:50(29), FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(33)
Level 28: Thunder Clap -- Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:50(29), Rope-Acc/Stun:50(34), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:50(37), Rope-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(48)
Level 30: Stone Cages -- GravAnch-Hold%:50(A), Posi-Dam%:50(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Posi-Dmg/Rng:50(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39)
Level 32: Animate Stone -- SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg:50(A), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg:50(33), S'bndAl-Dmg:50(33)
Level 35: Tornado -- Dmg-I:50(A), Dmg-I:50(36), RechRdx-I:50(36), EndRdx-I:50(36), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(43), LdyGrey-%Dam:50(50)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Apoc-Dam%:50(A), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(40), Apoc-Acc/Rchg:50(40), ExStrk-Dam%:20(40)
Level 41: Fissure -- Amaze-Stun:50(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(42), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg:50(42), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg:50(43), FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(45)
Level 44: Hurl Boulder -- Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(45), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(46), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(46), FrcFbk-Rechg%:50(46)
Level 47: Rock Armor -- RedFtn-Def:50(A), RedFtn-EndRdx:50(48), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(48)
Level 49: Earth's Embrace -- Dct'dW-Rchg:50(A), Dct'dW-Heal:50(50), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1407;683;912;|
|>-JEDUEO$E$4QR\42EG*4NQ>=EI;
|[3S7J-S!1J_')#^`7<8O?`,]R:4U\=$+_O[EG_N><VW-GLO<ON83H7A`F[VJ]V&X75I|
|NZT6K6ZVK+FBU6M;*P"2'"1]&^0<D46T:MOPK]9;BX5ZDH>:/9:A3R>XU&4]?TJF]=K|
|ZDM53>4_HTCUX0B^5U5W7'1[9IFZ&J[[>1%7:O6#!_=K^OWM+96TNJ:T1G)[&IE+*ZK|
|A6RQ;:BMS@3L;P'^'IB$O'H6L6X6(BW,5PB6#&%PC3!TF 7`7[932$^(9A8HF&1$]LVG|
|;1!6V")8-0@ET@`UB("(P%(7Q6&6.-4FA0<80PPH&F^QCBU&H#$L[ARQV-U5V.!@*82|
|S!X!9=6#BYA=6Y33MU;3$V".Y-1I80GZ(L&_0=EGV'XQ3:@:5'3LC#N_-*<*>
|@O`+YZ`W2?[^M@WLL)X2[X(^^*<E3C@\4)?/_<U^\-D/R;Q@@QV,(S*(8X&Z8D30N,R|
|-,XS4J'$I-SK)'>=DN"]SC#"?'05L$]+^_13FMY,EQ!Y1(@_)J0>$E`#\E\+W*`*P8]|
|4+WC`^$"(O"?,O2-@W9`\Z]!O;O^-<9YJ5,$0E66C`7H2D^#YQ7C3"1Y<F@=7@ZQ9F3|
|6;IM#<,F.)<%QAI!@=2OX!+^*\S)J_2D\63C%.,D[PL:P0%GE.WR$K*;.2;V@SBZ\9^|
|X2EEXQ7#,[Z"5F*/%.%7]B4A\'O[2\P+,O)+.<HE.8/*)WEP[`<?ISP@TML_A/)60X_|
|/V&B2.#(\U_7)U>_COV:`_0Z2@[E)LHME-LH=U"**"64,DKO\V&VYS1NZ`S*691S*,_|
|19,,/U(GB0AE&<:-X4+PH?I0QE"F4?93>'PXY_+H`|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre><hr />
"The bird of Hermes is my name. Eating my wings to make me tame." -The Ripley Scroll
Check out my Deviant Art: http://darkauthor81.deviantart.com/