Grav/Storm - most chaotic?

Has anyone played Grav/Storm to 50?

I'm curious about how this combo would work. The immob doesn't prevent knockup, but does it turn knockback from tornado and thunderstorm into knockup or do they just fling mobs around? Is the ability to throw stuff into a corner and hurricane it as awesome as it sounds?

Actually, I would say that Illusion/Storm wins the "most Chaotic" controller because it has no powers that prevent knockback AND Phanty does a lot of his own knockback -- While Wormhole has knockback, you can direct and control the knockback. You have very limited control over Phantasm. Singy's knockback is more mangagable, as he mostly uses Lift unless foes run into his Repel field.

I have a Grav/Storm in the mid '40s. The only reason I haven't finished him up to 50 is that he is located on a server where my buddies rarely go, so I have soloed him most of the way. I used to be pretty critical of Gravity as a control set, but this toon has changed my tune. Now, my Grav/Storm is one of my favorite controllers to solo with.

The combo of Storm with Gravity is great, with the only downside being the fact that Tornado cannot be a damage powerhouse. The benefit of having no -Knockback in Crushing Field is that you can use CF+Freezing Rain as a control/debuff combo with the knockdown providing some nice benefits. The combo of Wormhole-CF-FR-Thunderclap can keep a group stunned and debuffed, making it easy to use an AoE damage power from the APP sets or pick foes off one by one with GD-Crush-Propel. I use Hurricane more on this controller than any other */Storm controller I have . . . I can pick one foe to attack with my single-target attacks, while Hurricane keeps them away from me and debuffs their ToHit so they can rarely hit me.

But I found it late-blooming. It started being fun at 26 with Wormhole, and Singularity added a huge amount -- it is my tank and aggro magnet that lets me handle EBs. It has been a fun character, and I need to finish him up one of these days.

I agree with Local Man. I have a Grav/Storm at level 50, and it is a LOT of fun. Storm and Rad are the sets that made me appreciate Gravity more, but really it was Storm that made it awesome.

As for most Chaotic, that'd definitely be Illusion/Storm.

Lewis

I already have an Ill/Rad, and honestly, the chaos level seems pretty minimal on the Ill/ side. PA mainly causes things to group up around itself, and I rarely notice Phant's knockback.

On the other hand, my wife's Grav/Energy dom ends up causing chaos with her singularity pretty frequently. Just running into melee results in the thing charging through packs and repelling stuff in several directions.

Based on what I've heard I think I'll go for it. I tried Fire/Storm and just about yawned myself to death, but Gravity has Propel and more ways to leverage Storm's chaotic nature.

Thanks all!

My 50 grav/storm is my main badger. There are many different and effective ways to play this combo, and they are all fun. You can cause all sorts of chaos, or put the baddies exactly where you want them and hold them there while you pound them into the ground.

Having played both Ill/Storm and Grav/Storm to 50, Ill/Storm is way more chaotic, due to the way the storm powers interact with the illusion powers. However, I'm not saying Grav/Storm is bad. On the contrary, it is great!

Enjoy!

Lewis

I have my Grav/Storm just starting. I have noticed that Grav is solid (Not so much for doms though it seems) but storm sometimes ticks off the melee bunch, even when Im using something like the hated gale to get enemies off of our blaster or glass cannons.

However Soloing is wonderfull. Although it looks more chaotic than illusion storm it's definately not. with the amount of propel you will use it looks like a junk yard after you are done.

Key thing I find is hover. Hover Hover Hover. You can then gale things or knock things down and hopefully line it up right so it's more of a knock down than a knock back.

But still, I have seen our knockbacks really change the face of the game.

My name sake and main toon is a Gravity/Storm controller and was my 2nd 50 in game.

He is great fun to play - he solo's at a nice steady pace and has lots of tricks up his sleeve for all situations. I rarely have any problems soloing except when I run into an EB without noticing

On teams I am a bit more restrained. The Crushing Field+Freazing Rain combo is gold. Wormhole takes a lot of practice - either hover and knock them into the floor, send them into a nearby wall or corner or sometimes you can judge the knockback distance in a tight corridor so they end up in the same place as they started.

When things do go a bit belly up then you can just unleash the chaos! The same when you are up against an EB/AV or something that is resistant to KB effects.

I can of view it like Storm from the X-Men, she holds in her powers most the time but when she loses then let destruction reign!

Ive gone through quite a few respecs to get his build 'just right' and I am in the process of IOing him out. The plan is the aim for a high recharge so powers like Lightning Storm, Tornado, Gravity Distortion Field, Freezing Rain are available more often.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger Quote: 16. Has Paragon Studios redefined "player" to require your mouse to subscribe separately from your keyboard? If your mouse has greater processing power than your gfx card, the answer is yes.

For pure chaos, try a Plant/Storm.

I tend to think of Earth/Storm with minimized caging as the most chaotic thing possible.. at least in terms of how it "feels." The combo is just so LOUD. And a few of the moves cause the screen to physically shake.

Illusion/Storm is definitely wild. A Bot/Storm Mastermind is probably sort of comparable although I guess they can still pick up cage powers in their APPs and have control over the pets themselves.

My first 50 was a Grav / Storm. It doesn't get much play time these days, but most of my IRL buddies moved on, so she doesn't have many with whom to play. She is definitely a blast, however. One of the funnest things that happened -- with her -- was a near party wipe on a PuG. By the time I was able to do anything, there were two of us left standing. I huricaned up, and started tossing chaos. The only other still up jumped in my hurricane with me, and we kept three +1 groups at bay, picking them off a little at a time, until the other team mates could rez themselves. It was much awesomeness. :-)

I also have a Bots / Storm MM, she is currently level 39. She is part of a group with IRL friends, and we only play about once every 2 weeks. But there is definite chaos with the Bots' knockback and hers. I just have to be careful 'cause I'm playing with a brute...

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Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex I tend to think of Earth/Storm with minimized caging as the most chaotic thing possible.. at least in terms of how it "feels." The combo is just so LOUD. And a few of the moves cause the screen to physically shake. Illusion/Storm is definitely wild. A Bot/Storm Mastermind is probably sort of comparable although I guess they can still pick up cage powers in their APPs and have control over the pets themselves.

Grav/Storm is great fun, and unrelentless chaos. I've never tried Illusion/Storm, but I find that Fire/Storm also has to be considered to be one of the more chaotic sets as well.

I read somewhere on this forum a great trick with LS. Jump and cast it at the apogee of your leap and it will blast things straight down into the ground. I wish I remembered who told me tht so I could give them creidt.

I actually think that Grav/Storm is one of the more controlled. The ablity to throw things into a corner a death and keep them there is just too much fun. I haven't played mine in probably a year, but should yank him out again.

My Grav/TA is also fun, but in a different (oily) kind of way.

I've played this to 20, and while I knew it was going to be a late bloomer, there are some powers in the set that just don't make sense to me.

For example, the Hold has a -knockback component. I loved doing Dominate -> Levitate -> Dominate on my Mind dom to get a hold on bosses before they could retaliate. Gravity can't do this, which makes me a sad panda. Tossing a hold also neutralizes Propel's 100% chance of knockback, which is the main reason I see to use it.

I like using the AOE Immobilize with Freezing Rain to create a knockdown field. It does seem to interrupt the 'fleeing' status so targets keep shooting at you at a normal rate, but as much as they fall down it's still pretty solid protection and they can't just make it to the edge and start hitting you normally again. IIRC the only other set that can do this is Elec/.

The 'extra' powers in Grav/ seem to be a bit of a drag, though. Lift, Propel, Dimension Shift and Wormhole don't compare well as a group to the 'extra' powers in most other control sets. Even Fire's anemic combination of Flashfire, Smoke, Bonfire and Hot Feet seems more effective; there's some damage there, and Smoke can complement the defense in steamy mist.

I'm sticking with it because I want to see what I can do with Wormhole + Hurricane. As I understand it, Wormhole always teleports any non-AV it hits. I plan to slot Hurricane up to 40% -tohit, wormhole things into a corner, and stand on them while they whiff at me and fall down. I hope I'll even be able to make good use of Tornado since the Hurricane will prevent any targets from being tossed out of the corner - particularly nasty stuff I can throw a hold at to negate the knockback.

My single target attack chain is GD-Crush-Propel. Propel hits HARD, especially with Containment. Since I mostly play my Grav/Storm solo, the long animation for Propel isn't so bad. Since I'm clobbering a single target, I actually prefer that he not go flying back.

Lift is dissappointing as a damage power, and I skipped it. But that is because I mainly play solo. If I was mostly a team controller, I'd probably go with Lift over Propel, mostly because Propel is the worst cause of "Necrosmacking" in the game -- a teammate will often kill my target before Propel finally hits.

The mechanics of the game call the fleeing aspect "afraid" -- to make it different than "fear" or "terrorize." Hot Feet and Arctic Air also use it. The Immob seems to mostly neutralize the "afraid," but the knockdown from Freezing Rain means that you don't miss it much.

Where Grav/Storm really gets fun is when you get Wormhole, and then even more with Singy, then Lightning Storm. I often use Hurricane to keep foes away from me while I clobber one of them -- the others can't touch me, especially if I'm around a corner. Wormholing a group into a corner, then using the AoE Immob, Freezing Rain, Thunderclap to stack or continue the stun, and then picking one to clobber while Lightning Storm and Singy work on the others -- that's fun. I generally don't need Hurricane for that unless the stun wears off.

The Grav/Storm combo has so many different ways you can use your tools. Sometimes I use Wormhole. Sometimes I use Steamy + Super Speed to drag Singy in to draw aggro. Sometimes I can show up and Hurricane to drop their ToHit and just clobber. And there is always the AoE Hold.