Hurricane is a great power, but it is a very situation power. It is a Hammer, but you need the Anvil to make it effective. In other words, corners are what make Hurricane really shine. Packing Freakshow Tanks so tight into a corner, they have to stand on each others' shoulders- that is fun on a bun.
Hurricane makes a pretty good panic button, too, letting you disperse and debuff mobs long enough for a team to regroup.
Also, it is just plain HILARIOUS to go around KR and use Hurricane and Gale to swat CoT off rooftops. It's not going to level you up or anything, but damn if that ain't fun!
Stay Gold, Paragon. Stay Gold.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
Well...I've found there are 2 different schools of thought behind hurricane, and one uses it actively, the other uses it passively.
Active: running around and pushing mobs in to a corner so that can't escape, this use also usually involves toggling Hurricane on and off.
Passive: Turns it on, leaves it on, and hangs back keeping melee mobs away from the "squishies".
Also, yes, you can tank with it...by "herdicaning", but I have no experience with that, and I can't really offer anything to that particular idea...I'd rather have a tank, all I'll say.
So, that all being said, I love my chars with Hurricane, and I tend to lean "active" style. I find it is a great power, that either makes you a good stormy, or the reason storm has a terrible reputation.
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Hi, been playing a Mind/Storm for quite some time now. All the way up to 22 and finally have the hated Hurricane.
I spent a lot of time getting a handle on the KB from Gale and now plan to do the same thing with Hurricane. Seems to pretty straight forward to me. Keep the baddies pinned to the wall, hopefully a corner, and let the team do its thing.
Any suggestions, beyond 'DON'T USE HURICANE', would be very helpful.
Plus I can see being able to replace a Tank with this set. Am I simply deluding myself again like when I thought Elec/Elec Blasters would be fun?
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I use Hurricane very situationally. I may go full missions without turning it on, but I really like having it.
(a) It is a good "panic button" power, both for myself and to protect my teammates. If we overaggro, Hurricane knocks foes away, and does a huge ToHit Debuff to let the team get away.
(b) Hurricane makes an Immobilize almost into a hold, but it takes some work. Immobilize a group and then push them around or "kiss" them with Hurricane to debuff ToHit. That means they can't move and they can't hit you.
(c) Cul-de-sacs and corners. Anytime I see a cul-de-sac, I know it's fun time for the stormie. Pop on Hurricane, stand in the entrance, then throw out Lightning Storm, Tornado and anything else you get. Watch the baddies fly all over the place while getting defeated.
(d) Corner pull Debuff. Shoot a baddie and hide around a corner. Turn on Hurricane. As soon as the foes turn the corner, they are hit with the debuff and pushed away, making them sitting ducks for your team. This works very well on small teams doing hard missions.
Lots of other uses. It takes some practice to learn the radius of the repel compared to the radius of the debuff. But I can't see skipping Hurricane on my Stormies. I generally bind it to a key or mousebutton for easy on-off. For example, if you want to bind it to the "H" key, use
/bind h powexecname Hurricane
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One other complaint you might hear from teammates is that Hurricane can be hard on some video cards and can cause lag/low fps. Another good reason why it's not an "All The Time" power.
Stay Gold, Paragon. Stay Gold.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
Hurricane has a good -tohit. A good reason to leave it on all the time. Just know how to nudge things without pushing them all over the place and scattering them. And once you're practiced you'll be able to bunch stuff up with it nicely and the mele folk will actually like it rather than hate it.
I use Hurricane as a -to hit debuff tool first, positioning second. Definitely bind it to a handy key to toggle on/off as needed.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
You may also want to learn how to softly tag opponents with its edge, so that the foe gets just a slight repel without getting KB. The tag will trigger the -tohit without scattering them. Get to learn the radius of your hurricane.
More villain than hero these days
One thing that I've noticed with Hurricane (and with quite a few powers since then, but Hurricane first) is that while the enemy "melee preferred" AI is good at noticing when it doesn't have a path to you and switching to ranged attacks, it is very bad at determining whether the path to you is actually a good idea. Against things like Council Wolves, it seems a lot safer to be on the ground with a Hurricane going (so that they keep trying and failing to reach you) than in the air out of reach (so that they give up and start throwing rocks).
Probably not a new insight, but hey, it's what comes to mind. Also useful in AE now that melee-focused mobs get throwing knives to wreck you with.
I used Hover on my stormy so I could get an overhead view of the battlefield (nice for seeing the best place to place things) and so that Gale could be used for damage mitigation without scattering. One complaint that I have with Hurricane is that if you have even a little altitude, you can't see what's going on below you because you have this gray ring blanketing everything from sight. Now, that's actually fairly minor considering how powerful Hurricane is, but it's just one more thing to think about.
OOh this is all great info. Leads to a question though.
The Radius of the KB, Debuff and 'nudging' (which is so cool) is all different?
Enjoy your day please.
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Also, yes, you can tank with it...by "herdicaning", but I have no experience with that, and I can't really offer anything to that particular idea...I'd rather have a tank, all I'll say.
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It's actually quite hard to do this now (without immobs), after the repel on hurricane was reduced. Mobs then to run through the cane and get knocked out of corners. If you use slows (snow storm and freezing rain) and gale mobs down, you can still do it, but it will be messy.
It's easier to herd with a tank...given that the tank is study enough, and that the tank knows what he's doing.
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Oh...seems like it's been too long since I brought out my stormy, it's a shame they changed the repel value.
Hi, been playing a Mind/Storm for quite some time now. All the way up to 22 and finally have the hated Hurricane.
I spent a lot of time getting a handle on the KB from Gale and now plan to do the same thing with Hurricane. Seems to pretty straight forward to me. Keep the baddies pinned to the wall, hopefully a corner, and let the team do its thing.
Any suggestions, beyond 'DON'T USE HURICANE', would be very helpful.
Plus I can see being able to replace a Tank with this set. Am I simply deluding myself again like when I thought Elec/Elec Blasters would be fun?
Thanks in advance, Bashful Banshee.
Oh yeah, check out Arc# 11529 Behind the Painted Smile. A rising star has dissapeared and her producer would like to find out what has happened.
Enjoy your day please.