Quote:
Ah, Storm! Storm and Rad fight it out for my favorite secondary for Controllers . . . and I have a bunch of both Stormies and Rads.|
Originally Posted by ScottyPogo
I'm going to be leveling up a controller with a friend who's gonna be just starting the game. I already reserved the name for him (Mesocyclone), and I'm dead set on making storm summoning my secondary power pool. I initially picked Mind Control as my primary (fits the name of the character), but the more I read the guides, the tougher it gets to chose my primary power.
Here's the idea: Even though I don't roleplay any of my characters in any way, I still like to create them as though I would. Mesocyclone is a magic hero who summons nightmarish things. I figured mind control would be the easiest way to explain that, but with the customizable powers, I can pretty much go any route I want with that and explain it away. That being said, what's everyone's recommendation for a primary power pool? I will mostly be playing him in a group of at least two, but there may be times when I will have to solo. I'm assuming my friend will be making a scrapper, but that's uncertain. Any suggestions are appreciated. |
Let's see . . . I have Ice/Storm and Ill/Storm at 50, and Grav/Storm, Earth/Storm and Mind/Storm in the 40's. My Plant/Storm and Fire/Storms are fairly low level. I would be working on a Plant/Storm, but I already have Plant/Rad at 50 and Plant/Kin in the mid 40's. I'll list them in order of my favorites:
Illusion/Storm: The Debuffs in Freezing Rain make Phantom Army better. Illusion plays well at range, and Hurricane helps protect you from melee. You can skip both Invisibility powers in Illusion if you go with Steamy Mist + Super Speed, freeing up another spot for another Storm power. It is a vary fun combo, great for solo, very good for small teams, but can be too chaotic for big teams because Illusion does not have any -knockback. Expect foes to be flying all over the place if you use Tornado. I mostly use Tornado as a defensive power except against AVs and other tough foes. One of the most fun things to do with an Ill/Storm? Put yourself in a cul-de-sac full of foes, turn on Hurricane, and then pull out all of your pets -- Phantasm, PA, Lightning Storm, Tornado, and what the heck, even throw out Spooky (Spectral Terror) -- then stand there and watch the chaos. (I'm very fond of the Illusion set . . . I have Ill/Rad, Ill/Storm and Ill/TA at 50, with a second Ill/Rad in the 40's and some other Illusion lowbies.)
Earth/Storm: This is better as a team controller, with Earth's great ranged AoE controls. Plus the -knockback in Stone Cages and Fossilize allow you to use the powers with knockback without concern. The Damage in Storm makes up for the lack of damage in Earth . . . but only after level 38 or so. Before that, the damage is pitiful. Don't expect to solo before level 32. One nice control aspect -- you can stack the Mag 3 Stalagmites with the Mag 2 Thunderclap to stun bosses. I have been on teams where I got many complements -- some people have never seen these sets played together well, helping the team to kill much faster. Earth and Storm have a lot of overlap -- two AoE Slows, two knockdowns, two AoE stuns. Too many good powers that it is hard to decide what not to take. (I'm also fond of Earth, as I have an Earth/Rad at 50, and two Earth/Storms -- one at 43 and the other at 37.)
Plant/Storm: Good combo of damage and AoE control. You get a very powerful AoE control at level 8. The Storm powers provide good debuffing to buff your damage and protect you with knockback and -ToHit, but your Roots Immob has -Knockback to allow you to unleash Tornado.
Grav/Storm: I really didn't like the Grav set, until I paired it with Storm. Grav has a unique aspect -- the AoE Immob does not have knockback, which allows you to turn Freezing Rain into a knockdown field. That really helps you leveling up until you can get to the really fun powers in the set, Wormhole and Singularity. Grav also lets you stack the Mag 3 stun in Wormhole with Thunderclap's Mag 2 to get bosses. My Grav/Storm has been mostly a solo character, because many of the Grav powers work better if you can take your time to use them to the maximum benefit, and teams don't give you that option. I have teamed a few times, and usually have to limite a lot of the stuff I do. It is hard to get folks to understand when you are setting up a corner to wormhole foes into.
Ice/Storm: This was actually my first Stormie. I made mine into a mostly melee character. Let the tank run in to get aggro, then use Ice Slick from range to distract the foes, and run in behind the tank with the other melee foes. The key is Arctic Air, which provides a Slow+Confuse+Afraid. Add that to Freezing Rain, and the Tank and scrappers will be doing tons of damage and taking very little. You can make an Ice/Storm to be a ranged character, too, by using Shiver. Very little damage, however, so it is definitely a team character.
Fire/Storm: Mine is very low level. Friends of mine say it was one of their most fun characters, but it uses up Endurance like crazy -- better plan on lots and lots of Recovery and Endurance buffs. Fire is a melee set unless you skip Hot Feet, so expect to use Fire Cages to prefent Storm's knockback.
Mind/Storm: Both sets are good, but they don't really go together very well. Mind has no -knockback, and no pets to chase your foes when they get knocked back (unlike Illusion). Both sets are good enough that they make an effective character, but there isn't a lot of synergy.
On most of my Stormies, I like Steamy Mist + Super Speed -- they give me full invisibility, plus Super Speed is great battlefield maneuverability for running around with Hurricane to herd foes or getting in just the right position for Lightning Storm or even Gale.
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Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
I think all the primaries are fun, though each works a bit different with Storm. I have every possible Storm controller at level 50.
My favorite 2 are Earth/Storm and Illusion/Storm. I can never decide which of the two I like more. My Earth/Storm was my first level 50 ever. She is great. My Illusion/Storm was maybe my 5th level 50 ever. Both are awesome characters.
I'd recommend Illusion/Storm. It fits your idea of a set that summons nightmarish things. You'll be summoning a bunch of spectral horrors (Phantasm, Phantom Army, Spectral Terror) directly from your mind, not to mention tormenting and infecting others with your horrific visions (Confuse, Blind, Spectral Wounds, Flash). Then from the Storm side you'll be summoning Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Wind, Rain, Ice, Storms, Snow .... are they real or in the mind of the enemy? Either way, you'll be ruining their day. I think it fits perfectly with your concept.
Plus, Illusion/Storm is among the better combos for being able to solo well right from level 1. However, it makes a fine teaming character too, with a little effort.
As for the other storm combos, I love them all. You wouldn't really be going wrong with any of them. Illusion/Storm just seems like a perfect match for your concept.
Lewis
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I think Local Man gave a great overview of the various combinations. The only one I am going to disagree with is Mind/Storm, which I think has both great synergy and reach.
Mind Control is a strange set. It is petless, and features several "aggroless" powers that can be cast without losing invisibility. Unlike Illusion Control, Mind doesn't have an invisibility power built in--but it can combine Steamy Mists from the Storm set with Super Speed or a crafted enhancement to go invisible. This allows the Mind Controller to turn into what I like to call the "pre-tank." S/he is able to run slightly ahead of the rest of the team setting up the battle field so that by the time the team arrives all of the difficult enemies are out of the picture. The lack of pets means Mind Controllers are able to stay invisible far longer than Illusion Controllers normally would (dragging a Phantasm around will reveal you to enemies). If the team is running late, the Mind Controller can even sleep the group so that they don't kill each other before the team can show up and earn easy XP. The Mind/Storm Controller can even leave a Lightning Cloud behind to help out the team before racing off to the next group (as long as the cloud is far enough away that it won't aggro the next set of enemies).
Mind also benefits strongly from Freezing Rain, since it has no -knockback powers, and no patch powers of its own. The one power it doesn't particularly handle well is Tornado, which some characters can use as extra damage source. On a Mind Controller its more like a chaos source. Whether this matters depends on how often you team. Even on characters that can use -KB holds, I never, ever, use Tornado unless I'm fighting an AV because of the power's tendency to go rogue and chase down enemies I didnt expect it to.
I'm going to be leveling up a controller with a friend who's gonna be just starting the game. I already reserved the name for him (Mesocyclone), and I'm dead set on making storm summoning my secondary power pool. I initially picked Mind Control as my primary (fits the name of the character), but the more I read the guides, the tougher it gets to chose my primary power.
Here's the idea: Even though I don't roleplay any of my characters in any way, I still like to create them as though I would. Mesocyclone is a magic hero who summons nightmarish things. I figured mind control would be the easiest way to explain that, but with the customizable powers, I can pretty much go any route I want with that and explain it away.
That being said, what's everyone's recommendation for a primary power pool? I will mostly be playing him in a group of at least two, but there may be times when I will have to solo. I'm assuming my friend will be making a scrapper, but that's uncertain.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
--@Hallow Hal--