Storm Defender Discussion.

[Jaesin]

Any other storm summon defenders out there? Snagged this power set with dark blast as a secondary, it's got tons of damage prevention measures... I'm basically a controller :P

here's my hero planner text file. -- added short discriptions of the powers.

Edited: Switched rain and pit

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Buff/Debuff : Storm Summoning
Secondary Powers - Ranged : Dark Blast
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : O2 Boost - heal
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Blast - nuke
Slot[03] Level 2 : Gloom - nuke
Slot[04] Level 4 : Moonbeam - snipe
Slot[05] Level 6 : Snow Storm - toggle slow AE around target
Slot[06] Level 8 : Recall Friend - summon friend
Slot[07] Level 10 : Freezing Rain - targeted AE Slow/reduce defense/reduce damage resistance/knockdown
Slot[08] Level 12 : Hurricane - pbaoe toggle knockback and accuracy reducer
Slot[09] Level 14 : Teleport
-----I am here-----
Slot[10] Level 16 : Steamy Mist - pbaoe resist damage/stealth
Slot[11] Level 18 : Hover
Slot[12] Level 20 : Thunder Clap - targeted AE disorient
Slot[13] Level 22 : Gale - cone knockback
Slot[14] Level 24 : Tenebrous Tentacles - cone immbolize
Slot[15] Level 26 : Torrent - cone knockback
Slot[16] Level 28 : Tornado - targeted knockback, fear, chases enemy
Slot[17] Level 30 : Dark Pit - targeted AE disorient
Slot[18] Level 32 : Lightning Storm - Stormcloud, zaps anyone near me.
Slot[19] Level 35 : Life Drain - moderate damage, self heal
Slot[20] Level 38 : Blackstar - pbaoe extreme damage



Edit: level 12.

Holy crap, hurricane, I cannot say enough about this power. It takes relatively little endurance, and it's... incredible. Pin them in a corner, watch the AE guys go nuts while they can't do any damage to you. A MUST HAVE.

Edit: level 14.
teleport is fun, but dangerous, looks like hover is a must.

Edit: level 15.

I realized that having steamy mist earlier then later would be better then an area effect disorient.

edit: level 16.
Steamy mist purchased, more particle clouds going everywhere, don't regret it in the least, not much hits us now.

[Pratell]

Hey, tell me how this works for the first few levels, I've got a friend who'd like to try this but still wants to be a healer (i figure with the damage prevention and the O2 Boost it might work well).

[Jaesin]

o2 burst is fairly endurance intensive, but sidekicked to a level 30, in a group of 8, with another healer... we were able to hold up pretty well thanks to my slows and the ice controllers slows. I assume my heal will be much better by the time I get to that level.

Storm Defender is not meant to be a healer, by no means, but as a back up healer, I find it sufficent.

[Pratell]

Well I'll him so then, he said he wants to be a healer but I think he'd still rather do Storm Summoning (no idea why). Thanks for the input ;)

[Axterix]

If you have a good tank, they heal fine. The slows and steamy mist make up for the wimpier heals. Starts out a bit dicey (give lucks and respites to tank) but as the tank builds up his defensive powers, it gets better.

[Jaesin]

level 8 and 9 I was doing fine healing a fire tanker we had... did get real tricky when we had life mages and energy mages sploding all over us...


but, so far I'm doing fine, that was in a group of 6 btw with me as the only healer.

[Pratell]

Sounds good, thanks guys.

[Jaesin]

Ok, level 10, and I'm astonished at how *well* freezing rain works. ups my damage 35%, slows them, knocks them down, makes them run... throw a snowstorm on the center and they all turn, and stay there cause they're too slowed to run... they don't attack cause they're feared, and they're constantly falling on their bums. Long recharge, medium duration, however, damage resistance and defence down... it's WORTH IT ASAP!

[Thalish Bladespinner]

I play a storm def; was storm/dark in beta and storm/energy in release.

Get Hurricane asap. It allows you to function as a pseudo-tank, provides crowd control near any corner, and is the bastion/freezone for the other ranged type folks.

Here's my build so far...

Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : O2 Boost
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Power Bolt
Slot[03] Level 2 : Power Blast
Slot[04] Level 4 : Snow Storm
Slot[05] Level 6 : Hover
Slot[06] Level 8 : Freezing Rain
Slot[07] Level 10 : Energy Torrent
Slot[08] Level 12 : Hurricane
Slot[09] Level 14 : Fly
Slot[10] Level 16 : Sniper Blast
Slot[11] Level 18 : Swift
Slot[12] Level 20 : Steamy Mist
Slot[13] Level 22 : Health
Slot[14] Level 24 : Stamina

I highly recommend getting the health line for stamina too - eventually you will be running 2-3 toggles in any battle, Snowstorm, Hurricane, and Steamy Mist. Swift also offsets the slow-down effect that steamy mist hits you with when its up.

[Panamah]

I've got a mind controller with Storms as secondary. Nice to hear about the storm stuff. I was beginning to wonder if I'd made a bad combination.

[Pharroh]

I have a Magic Storm/Psychic Defender named Eryk on Liberty.

It is working out well. I am having no problem keeping people alive, in spite of only having one heal. This is probably due to the large array of defense buffs and damage debuffs that come with the Storm power set.

I see a lot of Storm Defenders, actually. I haven't really met anybody else who has Psychic as their second power set though. I am very happy with the amount of damage that I can do with Psychic.

As I understand O2 Boost is really the second-best single-target heal there is, after the Empathy one, so we're not *too* far behind in healing. Empathy does get group heals, regen, and a complete heal (which takes the Defender's HP, rather than Endurance, to cast).

I don't think I would be able to solo as effectively if I had chosen Empathy, also.

[Jaesin]

Hurricane is incredible... and possibly overpowered. However, I can't nuke nearly as much as I used to, I'm a much larger group player now though


The above poster is right, I actually put our tanker out of a job, tight hallways are your friend, I was simply pushing the enemies through into a huge ball. told the range attackers to stay near me and no one got hurt while the blasters AEed the crap out of them... was a blast!

[Jaesin]

get a storm defender in doors and it's absolutely wild. at level 13 I was locking down level 15 lost bosses by using hurricane to throw them into a corner and standing there... went through that entire mission with 4 defenders :P.

[Meddik]

As I understand O2 Boost is really the second-best single-target heal there is, after the Empathy one, so we're not *too* far behind in healing. Empathy does get group heals, regen, and a complete heal (which takes the Defender's HP, rather than Endurance, to cast).

I don't think I would be able to solo as effectively if I had chosen Empathy, also.


Agreed on the soloing part. :)

But the Empathy Absorb pain isn't a Complete heal. It just effectively works that way on anyone but a Tanker who is down to 1/3 health.

[Meddik]

Don't overlook Gale.

I know, you are thinking... Who needs that much knockback?

Since you are getting hover, try this out for size.

Hover directly over your tank, and the swarm of baddies. Cast Gale at one in the swarm.

It knocks them all down for the same amount of time they'd normally be knocked back, but they don't move anywhere. They all jsut lay down for several seconds.

Plus, you can use it in the normal way to get the badguys far away when the @#$% hits the fan, or to pile em up in the corner.

Great addition for Crowd Control.

[DizzyKid]

I don't use Gale often with my Fire/Storm Controller, but I find it really helpful for knocking mobs outside of my storm back into it. With AoE root, I don't really have to worry about overshooting the mobs already in the storm out of it. With Storm, Rain, and 6 slotted Smoke; it's as effective as keeping them on their backs if you can keep any LT's and/or Bosses held.

--DK--

[Jaesin]

I could really use a reliable knockback when I'm trying to position a boss in a corner...

working out how I can get gale early... think I can fit it in at 18. will rework the orignal post to reflect this.


Is it worth getting gale over thunderclap if your primary tactic is hurricane?

[Mythas]

speaking of thunderclap..Shaman in Dark Astoria use it, and i believe there is a bug attached to it. It turns off all my toggels, but it also gives an instant refresh to rain of fire *or any spell i just cast before the clap*. How do you report bugs ingame?

[Jaesin]

a few complaints...

I picked up steamy mist, look at all the stuff I throw off now.
Complaint 1 (http://www.geocities.com/sing4absolution/complaint.txt)

and if I ever wanted to play first person?... first person (http://www.geocities.com/sing4absolution/firstperson.txt)

[Jaesin]

...I'm starting to find this combination rather boring.

I throw on hurricane, I throw on steamy mist, throw out a snowstorm, drop a rain, and run around.

It's stupidly effective, and incredibly boring. Contemplating bringing it further, I'm going to go to at least 20.

[Dime]

What's really sick is a ice/storm controller. Pretty much slow the mobs down so much in recharge they only attack once the whole fight. It's mostly a toggle power set so make sure to get stamina at 20 if you do this.

[ShadowCross]

Hurricane - pbaoe toggle knockback and accuracy reducer

Oh how I hate to be on the receiving end of this power.. Storm Shamans anyone? *cringe*