Building a new Stormie...

...and I'm really trying to focus on the Storm powers' damage. I currently have a storm/energy defender that I really love (tornado and lightning storm make me giggle every time they zot and fling something against a wall), but I was wondering if the damage on a corrupter would be that much greater given the 20% dmg boost (I mostly plan on duoing with a MM). Do you all think Scourge might be significant enough over time to out-damage a Defender given that damage buff? I'm pretty sure scourge affects Thunderstorm, but does it affect Tornado as well, or am I wrong on both accounts?

Frankly I just like the Storm set, I'm not so worried about attack sets...Electric has good concept synergy but I don't know if I can stomach the few real attacks in the set or the mediocre electricity sounds. Still, the potential to regain end is hard to ignore completely when you're summoning storms and 'nadoes. Fire seems like the most obvious choice for primary because of the high damage set, but it's not my favorite and I'd rather go with pistols for attacks even though I'm having a hard time coming up with any sort of hero concept for pistols/storm. Ice blast irks me even more than fire, I just can't get into that set.

So, to recap: I want good damage from storm. Ignoring the potential defense bonuses from the Defender set, *does* it make more sense to try a corrupter for damage rather than duoing as a defender, or will it not work out the way I expect?

Please note I'm cross-pollinating this in the corrupter thread for more eyeballs and PoV's. Thanks for your replies!

For personal damage I'd recommend the Corruptor. Your debuff numbers are lower but the increased base damage + Scourge is substantial. The Corruptor will be dishing more damage on average, even with the addition of a damage buff while solo/on small teams for the Defender.

Have you considered Sonic Blast? The -res stacks fantastically with the -res in Freezing Rain and will boost everyone's damage even more. They recently added hand blast animations for the set, too. It's easy to see the Sonic as wind blasts, which goes well with Storm conceptually.

Back in the day, I soloed AVs with my Storm/Sonic Defender. I haven't tried since the change to pet recharge but either way it's still a very powerful combo.

If you're mostly duoing, you'll be getting a decent sized damage buff as a defender. Just something to consider.

As to concept, really only ice and elec seem like good, obvious choices. That said, if you get creative, most can work. I've got a Mythic nature spirit type storm/archery that I quite like. No immediate ideas spring to mind about how to get storm/2gun to work, but I'm sure it's possible.

From a game play perspective I think I might be tempted to try Storm/Dark, Storm/AR, or Strom/2gun if a defender, and fire/storm if you go the corrupter route.

Just looking at damage output, a corruptor storm/energy would be pretty similar to a defender storm/energy. The defender has a stronger freezing rain and more damaging lightning storm to help lessen the gap. However, if you pair storm summoning with a set that is really good at taking advantage of scourge (fire or ice) then the corruptor will do amazing things.

What MM are you duoing with, the various sets have different strengths/weaknesses.

And just to make the choice harder, I suggest a /storm mastermind. Pets never complain about knockback.

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments! Lemme dive in here.

I hadn't considered Sonic. I never had because I didn't like the animation, but after playing around with the creator, I'm going to try a few levels of that. Seems like a great set that's not as...odd as it was before!

After playing around a bit last night, it seemed that the Lightning damage was greater than the others. I could one and two-hit minions, whereas with pistols I needed a few brawls in there to even the score. But the aoe damage of pistols is still something that seems decent.

Friend is playing Demon Summoning. I pondered the MM route and I haven't entirely ruled it out. I used to love MMs, but apparently my love of blasting has only increased, rather than decreased. We'll see what happens.

What I did notice was that there wasn't much of a buff on Defenders' attacks while I was goofing around yesterday. The Defender did exactly as much damage as the corruptor in my tests. Is Desperation (or whatever the Defender ability is called) something thta doesn't work in Praetoria, or do you have to be a certain level?

Thanks again everybody, more input is definitely appreciated.

Ah HAH, that explains a couple of things. Thanks very much for that info!

My .02 influence: the tohit debuff on hurricane is stronger on a defender. That's a good good thing. Storm can bring a lot to a demon's mastermind. O2 can protect from endurance drain. I am a fan of using the hurricane to herd foes into teammate's AoE. Steamy mist has very nice resistance values for fire, cold, and energy (i.e. praetorian clockwork, CoT and Rikti) to stack with your teammate's demon's resistance aura.