Storm works very well with grav, but some of the powers take practise to use effectively.
Rad. It's a great soloing set with healing, debuffs and AM to help with Endurance issues in your teens and teams will love you.
Plus later you'll have extra control via Choking cloud & EM Pulse.
Storm isn't fabulous for soloing. No self-heal. No Endurance recovery power. And the Accuracy debuffs of Hurricane aren't as easy to keep up as RI.
grav/storm works really well together but I'd clas it as an advanced powerset combination. You have to be really careful with aggro but played well, you are the master of positioning enemies exactly where you want them to be 
required powers for this are hurricane, gale, wormhole, and the aoe immobilise power crushing field.
Illusion/Rad or Fire/Kin seems to be the most played set atm, Grav/Storm would be to team required IMO, but all controllers seem to be, before 32
Storm has the best synergy with Grav
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I agree with all the comments that Storm has the best synergy with Grav
But the character is going to be mostly soloing according to the OP and storm isn't great for that at all unless you also get the medicine pool for heals. Pre stamina soloing will be pretty difficult too, your End will keep crashing.
I'd say go grav/kin. I think for one they match thematically the best and kin is just a great set. It will make for a fun, fast paced character without worrying about anchors. It's also good solo if you can learn to love melee for the great self heal and self +end powers. You will also be popular in teams, in fact if you took no other powers, just say you have speed boost and you'll be fighting off invites with a stick 
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year's bitter loving must remain
~Edna St. Vincent Millay
As others have said, Grav is not the easiest set for soloing because your damage is really not great (Illusion is much easier because of PA, and Mind or Fire because of the damage). If you do want to solo, /rad helps a lot, and /kin is also an obvious choice because of the endurance recovery and Fulcrum which allows you to do lots of damage once you get your Epics.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Choose /kin, it's the only way to go.
Go with concept and fogret the rest. Nearly any combination will work. Although storm probably requires the most technical skill imho.
Personally my grav troller is /sonic. Mainly cos i like unusual builds. Two points on this combo: Sonic siphon is a good way to overcome the heavily resisted smash/lethal damage of propel. Sonic dispersion gives res vs holds.
My point is not to sell Grav/Sonic, but go with concept. Ive yet to see an unworkable combination with controllers, and infact unworkable combinations are pretty rare in any AT. Play what feels good.
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My point is not to sell Grav/Sonic, but go with concept.
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Nothing wrong with grav/sonic really... but probably not the best if you plan to solo a lot.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
You think? I find soloing with my Grav/Sonic spectacularly easy at level 28: 3 mobs
Hold #1
Lift, sonic siphon, propel on #2 (he flies away)
Hold #3
Another lift / immob on #2, finishes him off
Hold #1
Get to work on #3 (held throughout)
Get to work on #1 (held throughout)
THe only time im ever really attacked is by #3 whilst hold is recharging, or if I miss (and with 2 SO accuracy thats rather rare). COnsidering I have Sonic dispersion am Hardly held myself, and Ive got wormhole, dimension shift, and group hold for emergencies. Plus, never get into melee...
Hardly a problem soloing at all...
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You think? I find soloing with my Grav/Sonic spectacularly easy at level 28
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Not saying it's not possible, just saying it would probably be easier with /rad or /kin. Lots of great /sonic powers which need team-mates, that's all 
.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Go for whatever suits you best or appears fun for you. Make a few trial controllers with an assortment of secondaries, level them up a bit, and see how you get on. Just because the set works together well, does not necessarily mean it works for you (Some may require more practice as a controller, or might just plain bore you)
As said earlier, illusion/fire control is usually decent for soloing. Avoid Empathy & Force Field secondaries however for a more solo friendly build - but I think Rad is great for soloing personally.
@Under Control
Horses for courses. My major issue with /kin and /rad is that, although they certainly buff your damage up (although sonic siphon is pretty good for that too), there is no mez protection. Getting mezzed can be the one ouchy time of a soloing 'troller, as hit points are so low. Id guess /kin and /rad would be faster kills but higher risk?
Storm's a pritty fun secondary, kinetics can be alright if u can actually get it to hit anything at the lower lv's, Rads a good one especially since its goning to be in hight demand for RV.
Thanks all for some helpful advice there.
Since making my OP I have had a bit more thought about the concept of this character and I think Storm is going to be the best fit for the character.
Ironically however, with the concept I have in mind, Grav may not be my primary choice after all and I may have to go with illusion.
Any opinons on the viability of Illusion/Storm as a combo? 
Well i have a lvl 38 illusion/storm (as per my sig) and i find it works just fine. Took a couple of respecs to get it honed down just as i like it but i think it's a very interesting combination. It may not be a damage king like /kin but /storm is the most controlling secondary and really fills in the gaps where illusion is lacking.
Endurance is a bit of an issue and needs to be heavily slotted for but gets better with slots of course. In some ways you have a great synergy i.e. freezing rain, snow storm and phantom army, and in others not so much, i.e. phantasm knocking mobs out of rain.
I definately find it fun though and it is a VERY potent combination in PvP if thats at all your thang.
Edit: Teamed with a really terrific grav/storm troller last night, really made a difference to the team and used the difficult storm powers like a pro. Thing with storm is it's very potent, but also very easy to use extremely badly. I felt the need to highly praise this troller as theres few things you notice faster than a BAD stormy
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year's bitter loving must remain
~Edna St. Vincent Millay
Illusion / Storm is great, end-game its all about siccing things with pets & placables
Illusion is a much stronger soloer than Grav.
I still think Rad is better for soloing though
Go Trick arrow! Grav/Trick arrow is cool and different, Trick arrow is jack of all trades but it will give you some nice soft control!
Use your group hold/immobilze> the group -res arrow> oil slick arrow>fireball= Mob Ownage!
Trick arrow ftw!.
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Horses for courses. My major issue with /kin and /rad is that, although they certainly buff your damage up (although sonic siphon is pretty good for that too), there is no mez protection. Getting mezzed can be the one ouchy time of a soloing 'troller, as hit points are so low. Id guess /kin and /rad would be faster kills but higher risk?
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I still think /rad is the safest set with all the debuffs and the fact that you have a heal (which can't miss). I wouldn't choose sonic mainly because of the mez protection of Sonic Dispersion (I still get mezzed sometimes). If you're really worried about it, go for Acrobatics and/or carry BFs. And although Sonic Siphon is a nice debuff, Enervating Field is a much better one. I agree with Everclear, if you want something different and uber-controllery, why not try TA?
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Other advantage of sonic secondary - sonic cage - why deal with three enemies when you can deal with two?
Same goes for FF of course, but these powers can basically mean you are never hit.
It all depends whether you want to play high damage low safety or low damage high safety, or I suppose a balance in between.
Sonic cage is indeed a nice power, and quite helpful for soloing in the lower levels (as well as being possibly THE most annoying power in PvP), but I found that it's very hard to use effectively in teams. Also, Gravity has Dimension Shift which is a group phase power, so you probably don't need both.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Hi all,
I am looking to make my first controler character as soon as I7 comes on line and I get the full range of cossie choices. I am looking to have gravity as my primary power choice but... not sure about my secondary.
Any advice on what works well with Gravity. I am aiming for PVE use and something that can be used mainly for solo work although I do team occasionally.
Over to the experts....