Earth/Storm: A question about tornado

Hello, I have a small question with regards to Tornado from the Storm powerset. How good is the damage on it, assuming 3 damage IO's, and that the power is used with conjunction with Stone Cages to negate the knockback? The numbers seem high according to Mid's, but the damage figures aren't clear on City of Data. I've never had the chance to see the Tornado in action either. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

Tornado is a power that does a tiny amount of damage - but it does this damage over and over again very quickly, so it adds up. At level 50, tornado ticks for 6.67 damage twice every second. Since it lasts 30s, that adds up to (6.67 * 60 * 1.95) = ~780 damage when slotted. That is quite a lot (by comparison, slotted contain'd frost breath from the ice epic is only ~167 damage), but it is done over a 30 second DoT. The nice thing about tornado, though, is that you cast it once and then it just does its thing for 30s. You can do more damage over time with other powers, but only at the cost of using up much more animation time and endurance casting them repeatedly.

One thing to note about tornado, however, is that even if you keep -KB on the foes to prevent them from scattering, tornado's AI will still switch targets frequently. Thus, if you have a pile of somewhat spread out immobilized foes, tornado will hit one for a few seconds, jump to another, then a third, etc. It'll do that 780 damage, but spread out over several targets. On the other hand, if you've jammed all your foes into one tight immobilized clump with hurricane, the 7 foot radius on tornado's damage means that, even though it's switching targets, they're all so close to each other that it's hitting *all* of them the entire time. Thus, instead of a total of 780 damage spread out over several targets, you'll do 700+ damage to the majority of the spawn. So, if you want to use tornado as a major AoE damage source, jam things together with hurricane. (Tornado also works well against single bosses/EBs/etc as long as you clear out the riff-raff so that it can't get ADD and take off after an inoffensive minion.)

Thank you very much Muon, this is exactly what I wanted to know.

Tornado isn't just for damage with -knockback, either. Sure, it is wonderful damage over time against an AV or GM with -knockback -- basically, it becomes */Storm's version of -Regen by doing enough damage to counteract the Regen. And it is nearly autohit because it has so many ticks of damage -- this makes it one of the best powers to take out a Paragon Protector who has just MOG'ed.

But it also has a stun that can stack with Stalagmites and Thunderclap. And its ability to throw foes all over the place makes it great as a "panic button" power. I often will pull out Tornado if I know the foe has a lot of mez powers, since the twister will protect me while I stare blankly. It is a great power that should only be used situationally.

Ah, yes, knew I forgot something. Tornado isn't just 'nearly autohit', it actually *IS* autohit. Thus, it is indeed wonderful to toss on that MoG'd PP, since his defense means absolutely nothing against it.

It also does make a wonderful panic button power. Indeed, a lot of people don't ever realise it has any use *besides* a panic button! But one extra property is the small-ish defense debuff. Since it's autohit, it makes a nice lever against foes that have some defense - it doesn't have enough of a debuff to really crack a defense godmode, but it can largely nullify a basic defense shield like some CoT mobs use. And a defense debuff means that it can carry an achilles' proc, further enhancing its usefulness against EBs/AVs.

This just came to mind: does the damage from Tornado profit from Containment?

Also to Local Man: I just hit lv 45 on my Ill/Rad. Your guide was a great help. I'm up to 190% recharge so far, with a planned i19 build of 220% (can't wait for i19 to come out!).

Edit: Nevermind on that question. I just remembered/realized that Tornado is a pet, and would not get Containment damage... Silly me.

That's pretty much what I was planning on doing:

Bunch stuff up with Hurricane, immob with Stone Cages, stun with thunderclap or stalag, throw down some rain for the resistance debuff and a bit of damage, then tornado and lightning storm. Finish off with single target attacks and have the pet join in the fun.

I made this toon for the "fun" factor of all the powers in the 2 powersets. Seems Earth and Storm are very visually interesting. I'm also hoping that it will still be somewhat efficient at killing things once everything is properly slotted up.

I'm planning on finishing up with the fire APP, for a character that has control over the elements of earth, air, water, electricity and fire.

So what are your thoughts on that combo so far Local? Worth the time and effort? Any particular advice to give?

Interesting: the classical 5 elements in terms of Greek philosophy are Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Aether... Aether could be explained through negative energy from the Vet attacks.

Whatever, just at work, bored, and rambling. :-)

Ella is level 40 on Guardian, and I also have an Earth/Storm named "Dirt Deevil" on Freedom who is level 44. ("Deevils" are a race of characters from Robert Lynn Aspirin's Myth Adventures books.) It is a really fun combo. It can solo, but I prefer to team -- Several times on Dirt, I have gotten comments that my PUG teammates have never seen Storm used as effecively. (I just think that there aren't all that many good Stormies on Freedom . . . :-)

I really like the ability to stack stuns with Stalagmites+Thunderclap. I really like the ability to stack knockdown with Earthquake and Freezing Rain. I get invisibility from Steamy Mist + Super Speed, and SS allows me to run around and "Herdicane" foes back onto my AoE controls. The SM+SS combo also allows me to lead Rocky into a group of foes to draw aggro. And Steamy Mist adds more resist to Rocky, a nice bonus. The only power I really wanted but had to skip was Snow Storm . . . and I'll get to add that back in as soon as I-19 hits.

It can solo, but it is still not fast -- my Grav/Storm is a better solo character. The Fire APP really helps there, however.

Interesting indeed. I figured that I wouldn't solo particularly quick with that combo, but that's fine really. My illusion/rad solos beautifully, and my idea was to have a "teaming" hero with the earth/storm. But it's not always easy to find a team, unfortunately...
But just for the visuals, I'd like to be able to level up that character if only to see the full complement of "nature" type powers unleashed.

All the pet and pseudo-pet powers have an accuracy listed even if they're auto-hit. Maybe they are required to have a value for that and it doesn't really matter what that value is?