Lock them down w/Stone Cages first, problem solved. Use EQ for another crowd, or just its rather significant debuffs.
Psi Tornado does Knockup, not KB. No reason anyone in a group should be annoyed by that.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
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Earth/Storm may be one of the strongest controllers in the game. You have arguably the best primary as far as control goes paired with a jack of all trades secondary with excellent damage dealing powers.|
Originally Posted by Realm
Years ago I made a magic based character, themed around a natural shaman type. Back them the best way to make that was Earth/Storm. I picked him back up to get him to 50 and noted how much things had changed, especially with Tornado and ThunderStorm.
Unfortunately, tornado and the epic Psionic tornado are very annoying in a group. Here's the question..... Am I right to think that Earth/storm doesn't bring much to a group? On paper he seems awesome, capping ranged defense, permanent-mez protection, almost immunity to melee, high resistance and great control. But looking at Cold , I get pretty much the same stuff (except Hurricane), but I would give shields and -regen. Thoughts? |
As dave_p suggested, the -kb in stone cages solves allof your chaos problems. Stalagmites + stone cages is as good as any AoE hold. Volcanic Gases may be the best standalone AoE hold in the game. Earthquake + the aoe slow is another pseudo AoE hold. You can potentially neuter 3 full spawns with those combinations. Your primary powers also provide -defense making it easier for you and your teammates to hit the bad guys upside their head. Hurricane provides a very hefty -toHit, making it harder for the bad guys to pound your head in.
Going back to the benefit of the -kb in stone cages, you can unleash Tornado and Lightning Storm without fear of knocking everyone to all four corners of the room. Just keep in mind that the -kb component expires before the immob component so you will have to reapply stone cages often. Once locked in the stone cages you can use hurricane to clump them nice and tight for some AoE carnage.
I haven't even mentioned Freezing Rain...do I really need to?
Oh, and Mr. Poo may be the best controller pet, outside of PA.
So yeah, earth/storm brings loads to a team.
My earth/storm is 47 at the moment and he's a force to be reckoned with.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
The most glaring issue with Earth/storm is damage and that's not really the point of the AT. It will take time, likely 32+, but you can solo with it and even with SOs mine does fairly well, so ultimately damage wise you hold your own. Team wise, I've made people reroll their Emps after playing with me. I had people figure out I can handle the basic stuff so they intentionally pushed the envelop to just see how much I could handle. It's a lot. KB is handled with the immobilization powers.
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Others have mentioned that Stone Cages has -Knockback. So does Stone Prison. You just have to know that the -knockback in Stone Cages lasts 12 seconds, and cannot be increased. The -Knockback in Stone Prison is 15 seconds (and cannot be increased).|
Originally Posted by Realm
Years ago I made a magic based character, themed around a natural shaman type. Back them the best way to make that was Earth/Storm. I picked him back up to get him to 50 and noted how much things had changed, especially with Tornado and ThunderStorm.
Unfortunately, tornado and the epic Psionic tornado are very annoying in a group. Here's the question..... Am I right to think that Earth/storm doesn't bring much to a group? On paper he seems awesome, capping ranged defense, permanent-mez protection, almost immunity to melee, high resistance and great control. But looking at Cold , I get pretty much the same stuff (except Hurricane), but I would give shields and -regen. Thoughts? |
Fossilize, the single target hold, also has 12 seconds of -Knockback.
However, note that the Repel in Hurricane will still push foes around even if they cannot be knocked back.
Personally, I love my Earth/Storm . . . just got one to 50, have another on another server at 46. I like it so much, I leveled two at the same time.
Cold is a great secondary but VERY late blooming. Now that my Ill/Cold is 50, he is a heck of a lot of fun . . . but getting there was a slog. Storm is a lot more fun leveling up and continues to be great at 50.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
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Why would anyone have issues dealing damage w/ */Storm? Why would controllers as an AT not be looking to do tons of damage? If you're talking early on, sure, but late game? Even my Earth/TA (my least damaging controller by far) does more than his share of AoE mayhem. Now end, that's going to be a serious hassle (until you pick up Cardiac!).
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Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
The most glaring issue with Earth/storm is damage and that's not really the point of the AT.
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An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
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Outside of Fire and Plant controllers, I don't see controllers doing tons of damage unless you have a much different standard. Even with /storm, Earth is rather low in terms of damage. It took me until epics before I felt like I was doing a rather respectable amount.
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Originally Posted by dave_p
Why would anyone have issues dealing damage w/ */Storm? Why would controllers as an AT not be looking to do tons of damage? If you're talking early on, sure, but late game? Even my Earth/TA (my least damaging controller by far) does more than his share of AoE mayhem. Now end, that's going to be a serious hassle (until you pick up Cardiac!).
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Uh, Illusion does pretty darn good damage. Not everything has to be AoE damage. Mind and Gravity can do some respectable single target damage, too.
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Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
Outside of Fire and Plant controllers, I don't see controllers doing tons of damage unless you have a much different standard. Even with /storm, Earth is rather low in terms of damage. It took me until epics before I felt like I was doing a rather respectable amount.
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LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
There is a set of circumstances where Ice Control can do a LOT of AoE damage. I'm not sure if it's up to Fire Control levels but it's extremely impressive. Someone recently posted that she is back in love with her Ice/Storm, and I believe it. I know this thread was on a different subject, so I don't want to break away from that; just responding to the comment about set damage. As for the technique for getting Ice Control's damage up, I'm not quite ready to post about it as I'm still looking into the technique, but I will say that Cardiac slotting has turned my Ice trollers around in a lot of ways and opened up slotting options that were previously heavily discouraged.
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Ill was the one that I paused on posting just because it does rather well in it's ST and AoEish damage. Anything else is too ST based for my taste to be called "tons of damage." Note, I wouldn't consider a MA/sr as really going a ton of damage either. A high amount, or even a respectable amount, but not really a ton.
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Originally Posted by Local_Man
Uh, Illusion does pretty darn good damage. Not everything has to be AoE damage. Mind and Gravity can do some respectable single target damage, too.
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Ah, you consider "tons of damage" to only mean "lots of AoE damage." To me, "tons of damage" means that you can kill stuff fairly quickly and doesn't have to necessarily mean "AoE damage." I would say that decent single target damage can be "respectable." I also feel that a controller's primary focus should be on Control . . . if a Grav/Storm can lock down a group and then take them out one-by-one with GD-Crush-Propel, that adds up to pretty "respectable damage."|
Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
Ill was the one that I paused on posting just because it does rather well in it's ST and AoEish damage. Anything else is too ST based for my taste to be called "tons of damage." Note, I wouldn't consider a MA/sr as really going a ton of damage either. A high amount, or even a respectable amount, but not really a ton.
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(I think my MA/SR kills stuff pretty quickly . . . He just gets his kicks one-on-one. It is kind of like most typical Martial Arts movies . . . the hero is surrounded by bad guys, but they patiently wait to take him on one at a time instead of ganging up on him. In a fairly short time, he has wiped out the entire group.)
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
Years ago I made a magic based character, themed around a natural shaman type. Back them the best way to make that was Earth/Storm. I picked him back up to get him to 50 and noted how much things had changed, especially with Tornado and ThunderStorm.
Unfortunately, tornado and the epic Psionic tornado are very annoying in a group. Here's the question.....
Am I right to think that Earth/storm doesn't bring much to a group?
On paper he seems awesome, capping ranged defense, permanent-mez protection, almost immunity to melee, high resistance and great control. But looking at Cold , I get pretty much the same stuff (except Hurricane), but I would give shields and -regen. Thoughts?