Earth/Storm Knockdown

I am somewhat new to the game (a month or so) and have been playing an earth/storm controller (which I'm enjoying immensely). Once in a while on teams I've experienced someone complaining about the knockdown associated with Earthquake and Freezing Rain. I can understand having an issue with knockBACK but why would someone have a problem with knockDOWN? Am I missing something?

Maybe they feel sorry for them?

If its a meleer and they are herding maybe you are starting a bit too soon? Can't think why anyone wouldn't want kd unless its timed poorly.

Another possibility: a few enemy groups, such as Clockwork, are especially vulnerable to knockback effects, and on those enemies, knockdown can and does turn into knockback.

I think MentalMaden is probably right, it sounds like a herding tank complaining because you've stolen his glory. If you have a good tank, you can wait till he's got them grouped around him to throw them down. Without a tank, EQ + Freezing Rain from around a corner is one of the strongest openers in the game. It's going to depend on the situation as to when you want to use them. If the tank can't survive the alpha easily on his own, then you throw it earlier than if the tank can manage to group them up first without being hurt too badly. If there's no tank, then Stalagmites might be a better opener. The nice thing about Earth in general and Earth/Storm in particular is the large number of options for getting the ball rolling. It really lets you tailor your opener for the situation at hand to a much larger degree than most sets. It's just going to take some experimentation and experience to figure out what will work best for any given team.

What did they say in their complaint?

For the life of me, I can't even think of a time that my stone tank, even before movement bonuses would still not welcome these two powers.


EDIT - Is there any chance the mobs were green or blue to you? Knockdown can turn into knockback if the enemies con below you, just as some of the knockback powers with lower magnitude can turn into knockdown if the enemies are higher than your level.

I have a feeling you were simply running into someone who didn't know the difference between Knockdown and Knockback, and assumed that any time enemies were flopping onto their back they were in danger of being scattered.

I appreciate the responses, It may well have been just sloppy timing on my part. It was seldom that I'd ever heard any complaints so it may not have been worth mentioning, I was just wondering if I was missing something fundamental. It also bears mentioning that it was referred to as 'knockback' even when it was 'knockdown' (I realize they are really the same thing, the difference being in magnitude.)

If I remember correctly it was generally something like this:

Tank gets swarmed, FR over the mobbed tank, etc. etc.

team member 1: "Where's all the knockback coming from?"
team member 2: "Storm troller"
me: "I'm knocking them down not knocking them back."
team member 1: "Well we need to keep them grouped together"

...which left me more puzzled than ever. My first thought was that any knockback that WAS occurring was being attributed to FR/EQ mistakenly, or /storm is just associated with knockback because of tornado and LS (neither of which I have yet)

And to be honest I don't recall specifically who we were fighting at the time, so if they WERE some group that is sensitive to KB, it may well have been me causing it and I just didn't know it. Thanks again for the responses.

One thing I have noticed, though not often, is that when both Earthquake and Freezing Rain are in the same area at the same time, a few mobs will be bounced out of the area. I think this is because when both proc kd at the same time on the same mob, the magnitude goes over 1, making it into knockback. I can't think of another explanation that fits the circumstances.

Also one time I was invited to this team in AE doing large groups of kd resistant purple bosses, and the tanks were upset with my FR because the mobs were trying to get out of the radius, and causing them to become scattered. These were Fire Tanks, and my being the only one on the team at the time actually mitigating any damage at all, I was a little surprised. I tried it their way and they all died, so I went back to using it and got booted. Other than that I've never had anyone ask me not to use either power. EVER.