Help me learn to play Storm

I have a DP/Storm Corruptor who has just hit level 41 and have finally come to accept the truth... I really suck at playing Storm. I do ok on teams and can solo ok at +0x1 but as soon as I try anything more difficult I end up faceplanting.

For some reason Storm as a set never really clicked with me. I have all of the Storm powers and I know what they do but I just can't seem to figure out how to actually use them. Freezing Rain and Lightning Cloud are fine for boosting damage but I seem to have a very hard time staying alive unless I drop the difficulty low enough that I can pretty much solo using just my primary.

So my question for the Storm Summoning aficionados out there is how do you do it? What tactics do you recommend using when soloing on a Stormy to stay alive and keep yourself safe?

I've got a Fire/Storm...lvl 40 now I think, and solo on -1x8. I've ended up in some ridiculous situations with incoming ambushes and had a crazy lot of fun surviving them....most of the time!

Tips...let me think.

I always run Hurricane when solo and that combined with my slotting for Ranged Defence means I'm pretty well protected. I'm up to 25ish Ranged Def at the moment and am still slotting IOs to build up more.

I tend to try to keep Lightning Storm(s) out, throw Tornado at adds if things get out of hand to distract them, Freezing Rain + Snow Storm to slow mobs and keep them in my AoEs....hell, I've even used Gale on occasion to delay mobs for a couple of seconds.

Now, I don't know how much of what I can do is how good Fire is at melting enemies vs how good Storm is at keeping them off me. I do know I shelved the DP/Kin I started at the same time as I preferred the Fire/Storm.

One other thing...with -1x8 I'm killing so many things I can eat Inspirations like candy and they keep on giving me more. So I'm often using a purple, few reds, etc which does really make a difference.

In my experience, against most enemy groups, just Snow Storm and Freezing Rain will keep you alive versus x2 or x3, and higher in certain environments. Corner enemies with Hurricane whenever possible, and if you're in an enclosed area where you can keep them in one room, drop Tornado to keep them on their toes. Or rather, on their butts. Solo storm benefits a lot from controlled chaos: An enemy that's on the ground or flying through the air isn't shooting at you.

I find that Storm's weakness, when soloing, is open spaces--if you're on an office map, you can ram everybody into a small room with Hurricane and keep them bouncing and flopping around on their butts until they die, but that's much harder to pull off in an outdoor map.

Storm is fun, and a lot of the play is proactive rather than reactive. It helps to make your chances. Like the previous poster said, you get a mentality to use opportunities to use small offices for example. This, to the point where I will run around a group OUTSIDE the office, run my stormy into the small office, this is where I block the door with hurricane after my debuffed friends arrive (remember they lose range and the ability to hit).

I started playing my first stormy on hero-side. Back in the early issues, outdoor debt was the same as indoors. Teams could not set the difficulty of missions, but outdoors you could challenge higher level mobs. That said, our SG, a group of all defenders would go to Boomtown for fun and profit. Even in an outdoor map like Boomtown, there is plenty of landscape to leverage gale and hurricane to greater effect.

For a general combination. I favor using gale the very first click. This will put your foes on their butt. Gale does NOT have a 'saving hit' check. The foes don't squeeze off a few attack before they flop. While they are picking themselves up ( I don't have delusions that gale hits 100% of the foes 100% of the time, but it eats a TON of alpha. ) drop the freezing rain. Freezing rain sets the table for all the damage attacks. Again while flopping comedy ensues, hit snow storm. The group should be at or near the slow cap. NOW! Blast, blast, blast! If you have the uber neuter tool for obnoxious targets, use freezing ray on the sapper, use screech on the mentalist!

Especially if solo, don't hold back, they get the kitchen sink. You are a storm, maximize the 'cane and the rain. Push those guys back in the rain. Push them to the snow anchor. Pile them in corners with 'cane and gale. Tornade is better is used more often than less. There is scatter, but if the targets are in a corner it's minimized. Tornado isn't just about the kb, it's a stunning tool, too.

I suggest the guide in my sig. Tornado and Lightning Storm are still in the works, but just about everything I have to say about Storm is there. The numbers will be slightly lower for corruptors, but regardless the strategy is basically the same.

If you don't have good ranged defense, the basic tactic is to find a good corner, put Snow Storm on one of the mobs, then duck around the corner. When they start piling up at the corner, but before they can attack you, hit them with Freezing Rain. Then hit them with your area attacks.

It's relatively easy to softcap Storm Defenders for Ranged defense; I haven't tried it, but I expect you can also do it with corruptors. Once you've got that, you can omit the corner pull: hit the mob with Freezing Rain and Snow Storm. Your ranged defense should protect you from most attacks.

Note, however, that some mobs (warwolves, for example), aren't affected much by slows, so you have to be careful. I find it useful to use Hurricane or hover in those cases.

Thank you all very much for the advice. I'll have to test it out and see how it goes.

Thanks again.

One thing to remember is that Storm is not like most other powersets in the game. You can't just mindlessly drop the same buffs in the same way every time. Each spawn, each map, each situation will be a little different and require different tactics each time. You've always gotta be thinking on your feet.

And remember on teams, storm is a scalpel not a sledgehammer. Use gale to push mobs into the wall, not down the hall. Get yourself into position, before you turn on hurricane, so that it blows the mobs into the corner, don't run it non-stop blowing mobs everywhere. Etc.

So many times, in situations where things are starting to unravel, I will hit the Tornado button, and realize again, "say, that's no panic button, that's the I WIN button!"