/Storm

Hi everybody,

if you were to roll a /storm controller, would there be pitfalls in choosing either gravity control or electric control?

I'll pair up with a friend of mine who is going to play a dominator. One of us will probably be gravity control, the other one electric control. (I don't know which secondary he'll choose.) Unfortunately, I can't make up my mind which of the two sets I want to use.

I guess "protecting" your targets from knockback so that Tornado can hit them more often is a good thing, but AFAIK the holds from both sets include knockback protection.

Do you have any advice I should keep in mind when deciding which set to use?

Thanks,
10joy

I'm sure someone has made it work but in my limited testing on the test server Elec/Storm drove me crazy. Electric is a set that really benefits from tightly clumped enemies and Storm tends to undo that.

On the other hand point for point it is still probably better than Gravity.

Not that I would ever tell someone not to play a combo. It's workable, but has some setbacks. Sometimes setbacks make builds more fun tho, or the character can do weird things that arent obvious at first.

Of those two I'd definitely go with Grav/Storm. There's a lot more synergy between Grav and Storm than Elec and Storm.

There's no such thing as a bad Storm combo, in my opinion. Storm is a difficult set. Learning when not to use certain Storm powers is as important as learning when to use them. A good Stormie can wind up improving the grouping of enemies rather than ruining it. What powerset to pair Storm with depends on a lot of things, one of which is how confident you are with Storm's tricky powers: Gale, Hurricane, and Tornado.

Gravity Control works well if you know how to use these three, and intend to use them frequently. Its immobilization powers leave you free to use knockdown and knockback, and Wormhole gives you yet another positioning power. Plus, the stuns of Wormhole and Thunder Clap stack.

Electric Control works well if you want to play a more traditional controlling style with Storm. Its immobilization negates KB/KD, making Tornado and Hurricane less chaotic. In theory the end drain of Lightning Storm stacks with Electric Control, but in practice the damage of LS still probably outstrips its end drain.

The slows of Snow Storm, heal of O2 Boost, defense and resistance debuffs of Freezing Rain, and damage of Lightning Storm are all quite useful for any primary, without causing significant scatter. Storm Summoning complements pretty much any primary. Personally, I'd recommend making both Grav/Storm and Elec/Storm. If you're new to Storm Summoning, start with Elec, and go light on Gale, Hurricane, and Tornado until you learn how to use them precisely. The other, easier-to-use powers will get you far in the meantime.

Sorry, Tex, but I disagree with your negativity on Grav/Storm. I took one up to 50, mostly solo. I had tried various secondaries with Gravity and just didn't like the primary until I made my Grav/Storm. Gravity is severely lacking in AoE control, especially in low levels where it only has an AoE Immob. But add in Freezing Rain with Crushing Field, and it becomes effective AoE control. Then add Hurricane around the outside, pushing foes into the Rain debuff field, and then pick them off with GD-Crush-Propel. That attack chain is slow but hits hard with Containment.

The only major downside of the combo is the fact that no -knockback in the AoE Immob makes Tornado into a machine of Chaos . . . but that doesn't really matter solo when your attack chain is single target.

One of the most fun aspects of Grav/Storm is the Corner/Room of Doom -- First target a small group of foes. Then set up a Lightning Storm and Tornado in a corner or room with only one entrance. Get Singy in there, too. Then Wormhole the group in, hit them with Freezing Rain and the AoE Immob and block the door with Hurricane. The pick off foes with your GD-Crush-Propel attack chain. It takes a while, but I found it to be a fun strategy.

Grav/Storm is quite good at handling EBs and some AVs solo without a maxed out build, thank to Singularity's durability. Of all the control sets, I feel that Singy makes more of a difference to Grav than any other sets' pets. Singy is simply great.