bots dark or storm?

I recently got my bots/traps to 32 and i want to re-roll now with a secondary that can more effectively and easily keep targets debuffed, controlled, slowed/kb'd, from range without having to use 5 different powers in melee range. This has led me to choosing between /dark or /storm. Clearly, the debate is between Tar Patch and Freezing Rain. Freezing Rain has the added defense debuff, huge -res number, the ability to slot achille's heel, and slows, and KDs enemies. Coupled with snow storm, nothing is getting out of that massive burn patch.

Hands down Freezing Rain beats Tar Patch. As a whole, though, /Dark does seem very tempting for me. I have a mercs/dark MM and he's been at 50 for years. I'm familiar with all /dark has to offer, and that is why I am given pause over this choice. The to-hit debuffs in that set will make my bots all but invincible against normal foes. AoE heal for when they do take damage, and a rez/stun for my teammates. Can't leave out fluffy, either. A whole extra layer of debuff and control.

Primarily I'd like to hear from some bot/storm users about their experiences in the post-32 game.

I have a Bots/Storm and it is on of my best builds. I can take on 8 man spawns at +2/+3, and its no trouble. Quad pet procs, added to the def of the bubbles, mist, manu, makes them pretty unkillable. And once freezing rain goes down, and web nade, with a nice lightning storm in front of the mob, nothing lives beyond a few seconds.
I dont team with it much..since the kb can annoy me, not to mention, no one gets to kill anything..lol. I generally use it to solo avs, and its a build that can beat 99% of anything you come across.
I would recommend it over dark as a more...active secondary? Instead of slapping a debuff down and healing. Then again, bad points are you may get few team invites, if you admit your a bots/storm

I have always liked the */dark sets on villains. Especially the

They're both top tier secondaries for Bots.

/Storm comes down to how good you can leverage it.

/Dark is pretty hard to mess up.

On the flipside for that convenience, you get less damage and less positioning power with Dark. LS and Tornado can be great damage assets. Tornado can take the pet uniques. Difficult bosses and EBs are putty to ping ponging with Tornado + Hurricane.

Where I like Storm the most over even Dark (which may be my favorite overall debuff set) are on traditionally difficult mastermind enemies.......like Longbow. Storm gives you the ability to move your pets to one area and move in with knockback/repel/-tohit to neutralize those foes before those dreaded burn patches come out. I used to run banks for fun on invincible with my Ninja/Storm because the longbow ambushes were laughably easy after Hurricane and Gale.

Dark has a big area heal, Storm has a relatively weak single target heal (I hate O2 Boost on anything but a MM, but its fine for pets). Dark's heal means you have to be near your pets, bringing things like AOEs to them, Storm's can be used at a distance. With the protector bots healing, O2 Boost is plenty.

Dark has fearsome stare, Storm has Thunderclap. T-Clap is usually skipped by stormies, but works great for MM. It is only a mag 2 stun, but combined with Oppressive Gloom from the Patron Pool and you can stun entire groups.

It comes down to survivability vs more damage when deciding based on powers, but playstyle will truly dictate what you want. Some people hate storm, some people love it. I find it very poweful if you're willing to work with it, but it isn't a set to just sit back and kill time. Sometimes I just like Dark to run a few mishes with, knowing I won't have to do a whole lot.

Bots/storm is definitely a power house that's capable of taking on AVs solo. You get the full potential out of them when you are solo as you don't have to worry about the knockback that many teams won't like. Even in teams though you can hang back a bit and help cover any squishies with hurricane and such knocking back any mobs that come your way. With the debuffs and such though you have a ton of tools for survival and amped damage once you learn to harness the chaos.

Bumping this because I would like to hear more opinions. I'm debating between /storm and /dark as well.

I have lots of experience with /dark, not so much with /storm.

Take a walk on the windy side. Mastering the powers of the storm is very satisfying and make you feel very powerful.

*whispering* "No roll a Necro/Storm......"

Not sure of your particular playstyle, let me relate mine. My stormers are proactive, but I stay in defensive mode to start. I rarely pull unless I am herdicaning a big group. In the early stages I use gale, a LOT. I push them just to see them fall down and get up. Snow storm is an early hitter, too. It interrupts the embalmed abominations from self-destructing and the mortificators from rezzing.

Steamy mist comes at level 10. With it you get stealth to set up your attack, a smidge of defense for everyone in your AoE, and resistance to FIRE, COLD, Energy. Do you know any hellions, CoT, Lost, Council, or clockwork that use that trifecta? It's a big help. Slot for some endurance and resistances.

Now, here is my heretical advice, once the first attacks are absorbed by alpha strike. I use the bots in concert (all: attack my target) to drop the foes from hardest to easiest. Meanwhile my mastermind keeps folding them back, knocking them down with gale. The robots care not how often they chase a foe that is knocked down. Walls are your friend. In summary, 5 foes at half health are as dangerous as 5 foes at full health. Knock them out! One by one if necessary.

Finally, your protector bot at level 12 is very useful as a healer, and don't forget the extra bubble of defense happiness for you and the other level 1 bots. Also you don't need to prove how tough you are early if you are managing the content, you don't need to work with extra hard mission settings.

I prefer dark personally over storm. The heal on dark is aoe and debuffs the enemy. Darkest Night is actually a useful debuff toggle whereas Snow Storm is ok (the only time I ever feel like I make use out of it is in PvP). Tar Patch and Freezing Rain are both pretty similar. Tar Patch is better in the respect that it debuffs damage resistance better, lasts longer, and has a bigger radius. But Freezing Rain recharges faster and does damage. Dark has a hold ability, and an aoe rez (which helps on rikti raids).

Bots/dark is hands down the most survivable possible character in the game. Once you get fluffy slotted out, nothing will ever kill you unless you screw up really, really badly or go AFK for an extended period. Alternating Twilight Grasp and provoke with fluffy out means that something has to do somewhere around 10k dps to overcome your healing, or pound you with enough AoE to take down your bots between heals (a very, very short window)

Dark is only slightly more active than traps, you'll find once you get fluffy that you seldom bother with darkest night, because either you kill it too fast to matter or it can't kill you fast enough to justify wasting the endurance. I use darkest night when others have aggro, and don't bother when things are going after me.

Storm, by comparison, actually requires some thought. Its heal is piddly and weak, and so you rely on debuffs and knockdown. Storm actually has potentially the highest damage of any secondary combined with bots, if you take Mu and electric fences and six slot it you can loose tornados on bosses and they'll sit there getting slaughtered.

The weakness of storm is that its a late bloomer, and its comparitively weak on hard targets (in comparison to traps, poison, and dark at least). Its definitely a fun set to play, and its definitely different. /Traps allows you to steamroll, or to set up a gauntlet of pain, but the only thought required is "here's a corner, set stuff up here, piss off people, run to corner and hide till things go boom". Storm, by comparison, makes you think. Gale something the wrong way and you wipe yourself, but on the other hand you can use steamy mist to move slowly into position to gale an 8 player spawn into a wall, drop your slows, and watch the spawn literally melt in about four seconds. Its not so much about setting something up as it is just forethought and planning how you want each spawn to die. It gives you a very fun feeling of control over your encounters, bots/storm won't die unless you screw up, and you can get up, go back in, and fix what you did taking down even AVs with hardly a scratch.

I do also feel obligated to tell you that bots/storm will get you kicked from teams once in a while before the mission starts. They check you out and all that registers is "Knockback, knockback, knockback, and more knockback... /kick!" Bots/dark on the other hand will be welcomed with open arms, because everyone loves the darkies.