Grav/Storm - The Ultimate Mob postioning Hero
So you decided or are interested in rolling a Grav/Storm Controller. First I would like to say congratulations. Grav/Storm is an extremely versatile power set combination, allowing you to combine practically everything the game has to offer. Grav/Storm's greatest asset is that it allows you to make great use of the one of the most powerful, and largely un-resisted effects in this game, knockback/down. Grav/Storm is one of the only power sets that will allow you to use this knockback as defense, and at the same time keep the mobs it a tight cluster consistently. This ability, in my opinion, is the reason someone rolls a Grav/Storm.
While playing the Grav/Storm you will probably find out that it has 2 successful playing styles, one passive, and the other very aggressive.
The first style is to use the cornering maneuver, which I will go into more detail later. It is high risk/high reward; it is on the edge of your seat, heart pounding out of your chest kind of action. When possible, I use the cornering maneuver, and is what made me fall in love with my Grav/Strom Troller.
The second is to play a support role, and despite what you may or may not have heard, Gravity/Storm can easily take a back seat and still make significant contributions to the team. Some of the abilities include mob positioning, debuffing, slowing, providing a pocket tank, panic buttons, and of course large amounts of AoE hard and soft control. The trick lies in deciding which way you will be more of an asset to the team.
I tend to use the cornering technique when my group is working hard to kill all the mobs, or people are getting hurt during the fights, or perhaps if the packs are getting scattered by some means. The other criteria is that the mobs we are fighting are not more than +3 relative to me.
Soloing with a Grav/Storm starts out slow and safe, during the mid levels it becomes even safer, and even slower, but at the end game you become crazily safe and can kill at a pretty decent speed.
Grav/Storm does not realize it's potential until level 38, so be warned, it is a long path, but one that I feel is well worth it, as it is truly awesome once you get there.
Grav/Storm will never kill as fast as some of the major FoTM's involving Kin, but I believe it to be one of the most well rounded, versatile, unique, and for me it is just simply the most fun.
Once you get a taste of manipulating not only the environment of the battlefield, but also being able to dictate where that battle will take place, it becomes hard to live without it.
Gravity/Storm has it strength's and it has it's weaknesses. Aside from having it's specialty of mob positioning, it is sort of hampered my being a jack of all trades and master of none. Gravity/Storm does not have the best control among controllers, and it does not have the best damage either. What it does have is equal proportions of both, and the ability to combine almost all of it's powers together to produce some pretty awesome effects.
Anyway, I am on a personal crusade to try and help educate people into perhaps learning to play the game in a whole new way, one that encourages everyone to take all the knock back powers available. As I mentioned earlier, with a Grav/Storm, knock back becomes defense with no lose to the effectiveness of AoE powers.
Gravity Storm is a very tight build. Due to Grav/Storms verstility, there are many approaches and techniques possible. Unfortunately, it is impossible to fit them all into a single build as many of them are dependant on having 3-4 powers. These powers will be the last ones to be put in the build, and some hard choices will have to be made. This guide is a work in progress, as is my build, everytime I think I have it just how I want it, I discover a new way to combine my powers for good results, which drivs me down another path, dropping some powers, and picking up others.
Build Breakdown
Level 1
Crush, Gale
I take crush right off, as it does more damage over time than Gravity Distortion(GD), despite the lower BI. It's recharge is quicker and it keeps a mob immobilized for a longer duration, which allows me to sets up containment quickly, and keep containment even through a miss. This serves as the power I use to set up containment on whatever I am trying to kill at that exact moment. It is also a mag 4 immobilize, meaning that it will immobilize everything up to boss's in a single application. Crush is a key component in your ST damage attack chain, and should be slotted as such.
Slotting: 2 Acc, 3 Damage
Level 2
Gravity Distortion
Your main ST hold, you will be slotting this to 6 almost immediately. It is mag 3 and has a base accuracy of 1.2, much like all the other controller ST holds. GD has -kb and is one difference between it and the other controller holds.
Slotting: 2 Acc, 3 Hold, 1 Recharge
Level 4
Lift
Pretty self explanatory, soft control, and decent ST damage. The Assets of this power are that it has -Fly, it has the fastest animation of any power in either set, it does decent damage, and it provides a decent period of soft control. It is part of your main damage attack chain, and should be maximized for damage.
Slotting: 2 Acc, 3 Damage
Level 6
Hover
Not to much to say about Hover. In my 40's, I respecc'd into superspeed for stealth and I wanted the vertical movement. If you are looking for a late game respec then I would recommend the same. However, if you are actually level 6 then I recommend you take Propel as decribed below.
Slotting: 3 Fly Speed
Propel
A flashy power, but one that I feel is over-rated. I have finally respec'd out of this power. I dropped it mainly because of the animation time. In large groups you will be hitting a dead target most of the time. It is still good for boss's and AV's. But again, I have found that I have so many other things I could be doing, that the 3 second cast time has become unacceptable. Also with powers such as Tornado and Lightning storm, my single target damage is already quite formidible. This power is skippable all together if you are ONLY going to play in LARGE groups, however I recommend taking it and respeccing out of it once you find it has gone obselete.
Slotting: 2 Acc, 3 Damage
Level 8
Crushing Field
It is a pretty straight forward power. It is used to set up AoE containment and to reduce scatter. Keeping everything immobilized is an extremely important component to the way I play my Grav/Storm. Unfortunately, to achieve this is very endurance intensive. This power will be referred to throughout the guide in conjunction with the other powers. It is very important that you hit with this power, as anything it misses has a good chance of getting away from you. Although it is not flashy, it is the one power that ties the whole thing together. It is a mag 3 immobilize.
Slotting: 3 Acc, 3 End
Level 10
Hurdle
Not much to say, just a set up to stamina. I picked hurdle because I have SS as a travel power.
Level 12/14
It doesn't really matter what you pick for a travel power but here are some thoughts on each choice.
Leaping
Acrobatics would be a great advantage to the Grav/Storm controller. 90% of the time when things go wrong, it is because you get knocked back at a really inopportune time. If you want Super Jump, I recommend making a spot for acro as well, but if you do, you will also need to put 3 endurance reduction slots in it as well.
Flight
Flight does nothing functionally for this build, but it is one of the nicest Quality of life travel powers. I have alway enjoyed the autopilot effect.
Teleport
Recall friend is useful tool for repositioning Sing. I can't stand teleport as a travel power, but if I could, I would take Recall friend and Teleport. I have found some techniques that are built around TPing Singularity around. If you find you like these strategies, taking teleport as a travel power will save you a power slot later. I will describe these strategies later in the guide.
Speed
If you can live with SS as a travel power, you could open up a slot later in the build by taking hasten and SS. As hasten will end up in this build eventually anyway for the following reasons. This is what I have respecc'd into as I also wated the stealth provided from SS.
Hasten
Hasten is a power that improves the recharge of all your powers by 70%. It is a great asset to all your mid to long recharging powers, most notably to get Sing and GDF up and ready again for the next spawn. It has also been noted to transfer onto your summoned entities. It does not seem to effect Sing, but it will haste your Lightning Storm's attack rate.
Slotting: 3 Recharge
Level 16
Freezing Rain
Freezing Rain is one of the best powers in the whole game, it provides about 50% mitigation through knockdown, a 30% Defense debuff, a 30% -Res debuff ,and a 40% slow. It only has one drawback, it scatters. Luckily, the Grav/Storm controller has 2 methods to controlling the scatter in Crushing field and/or Snow storm( if taken).
Slotting: 3 Recharge
Level 18
Health
Not much to say here either, in fact if you wanted to take both swift and hurdle, that would be fine too. ultimately it is just a means to get Stamina.
Level 20
Stamina
You definitely need this to run a Grav/Storm controller, Needs 3 endurance mod slots.
Level 22
Hurricane
This power is the next major component that allows you to dominate large spawns. It has a 30% To-hit debuff as well as a 1 second pulsing repel. It also has a semi-regular knock back component. This power used to be totally dominant all on it's own. But right before I7, it was hit hard by the nerf bad, assumedly in the name of PvP. It used to pulse repel 10 times a second, but it was nerfed back to 1 per second. This one per second pulse has made it harder to control, and sculpt packs of mobs.
The schedule for the To-hit debuff enhancements was also scaled back from 33% to 20%, which also had a significant effect.
The end result is that mobs will easily run into your hurricane and get into melee range, Once in melee range they will now hit you much more often. Especially versus +3 and above.
The other nerf, which I believe is a bug, is that when you hold or immobilize a mob and then nudge him with hurricane he will be repelled 20-30 ft past the outside of the effect of the hurricane. Before they played with this power, it would only repel the mob to the outside of the effect. I hope the devs fix this sometime soon, as it makes controlling the mobs more difficult. Luckily the effects of this bug are only minor for the Grav controller, because generally you will be using hurricane to drive packs into walls and corners, and in these cases, the distance of the pushback is predetermined by the backstop. Hurricane is farily light on endurance, and can get way unslotted for end reduction, however if you have an extra slot, it won't hurt to through 1 in.
Slotting: 3 To-hit debuff
Level 24
Gravity Distortion field
Due to the short duration, and massive recharge, this is no longer a staple of the set in terms of long term control. However it is still very important to this build. This is your primary opening move. Leading off with it completley avoids the alpha associated with Wormhole. Just let your group now that the wormhole is following, as some people rush in as soon as you hold the mobs, only to have them relocated to somewhere else. The intent of this power in my build is simply to mitigate alphas, to that end I want it up as much as possible, and I want it to hold everthing long enough so that I can put a more permanent long time control powers onto the group of mobs.
Slotting : 3 Acc, 3 Recharge
Level 26
Wormhole
Wormhole is a fantastic power and it for me is the power that defines gravity. No other set has this ability, and combined with your other powers will make you unstoppable. This is Gravity's AoE disorient. It is mag 3, with an 18 second duration ,which is comparable to Flashfires or Stalagmites from the other controller sets. The difference comes in that, besides being an AoE disorient, it is also an AoE foe teleport.
It contains 2 different ranges, a casting range and an exit point range. The casting range is 60ft, the same as propel, and I am not sure what the exit range is, but it is far. Unlike Stalagmites and flash fires, you cannot cast this while having line of sight, if you do, you will take a full alpha before I goes off.
It is very important to hit with wormhole, as anything you miss will be split from the pack that get tp'd. Dividing the spawns in half is very counterproductive.
Slotting: 3 Acc, 3 Recharge
Level 28
Thunderclap
Thunderclap is a Mag 2 disorient. This means it will only disorient minions. It will not disorient Lieutenants or bosses that do not have prior mag built up on them. It's base duration is listed as 18 seconds and it has quite a large area of effect. The same radius as Hurricane. One of the great things about this power is that it has a 45 second recharge, so it can be up every fight, without any additional recharge slotting. If you do the math, you will see that this power alone can perma disorient minions, and while hasten is active, you can actually stack 2 thunderclaps and disorient boss's and lietenants for a very short period.
Slotting: 2 Acc, 3 Disorient, 1 recharge.
Level 30
Recall Friend
As stated earlier, there are some strategies that can be used with Recall friend and Singularity that are fairly effective, as I will descibe in the strategy section.
Level 32
Singularity
He is your personal body guard. He will save your life more times than you will even realize. He is always trailing behind you, and he really does have your back. He will also cover your escape when needed. Sing Spams 3 attacks. GD, Crush and Lift. He tends to attack the closest target to himself, however, he does have some higher level thought going on in there, as he does switch targets a lot, which is good as it helps you avoid taking agro.
Sing is very durable and makes a great pocket tank. Sing is your secondary opening move. I utilize him regularly to take alpha's for me and therefore slot him with recharge.
Slotting: 1 Acc, 3 recharge, 2 damage
Level 35
Tornado
Tornado for the most part is just too wild for a Grav troller. It is workable with medium sized pulls and the cornering technique, but you have to be careful and use good judgement on when to use it. Fire, Ice and Earth can all make great use of it's damage, but the Grav troller struggles to do so. One tip, if you do decide to use it while cornering is to spawn it well outside of the corner, that way, upon arrival at the corner it's first effect will be to throw them into the corner. If you spawn it in the corner, it is easy for some of the mobs to end up in front of it and then they go flying over your head and behind you. Where this really comes in handy, is that it does do considerable damage to an AV or a single target. With a single boss, you can hold him and keep -kb applied and let tornado tick away for full damage. Av's of course, already have -kb inherently. Tornado is not at the core of any of my strategies as a Grav/Storm, it is simply extra damage. The base accuracy for tornado is so high, that many people consider it autohit.
Slotting: 3 damage, 2 recharge
Level 38
Lightning storm
Here is the AoE damage you have been looking for, for the last 38 levels. It is awesome. As mentioned near the beginning of this guide, knock back becomes defense for the grav controller, and in this case, Lightning Storm provides a ton of it. It strikes appx once every 3 seconds for 30 seconds, although this can be hastened and SB'd. According to stats, it already has a 40% Acc enhancement. The equivalent of slightly more than one SO of acc.
With it fully slotted with recharge, and with hasten active, it is possible to have 2 of them going at the same time for a short amount of time.
Slotting, 3 damage 3 recharge.
Epic Powers
I consider the epic powers to be icing. I will be taking Ice. Ice fits in quite well, firstly Ice blast has a very quick animation time, and it has replaced propel in my ST attack chain. Secondly, hibernate is a great way for you to hide when things go wrong, or if you run out of endurance. Thirdly, Ice Storm is a very large Damage Aoe, which was actually buffed at the same time that all the other Epic AoE's were nerfed. I have not actually tried this yet, as both of my Grav/Storm trollers are not yet 47. One is 46 and the other is 43, on different servers.
Strategy Discussion
The early levels and the ST attack chains
GD, Crush, Lift and Propel are the heart of the Grav/Storm controller for the first 38 levels, providing both damage and control at the same time. I highly recommend taking all 4 ST powers and following the above slotting recommendations.
Always Crush or Gravity Distortion (GD) everything before you use any of you ST attacks. It is really a waste of endurance to hit anything with either Lift or Propel without getting the containment bonus.
Control your knock backs. Crush + Propel/Lift will knock back/up, GD + Propel, will not. Pay attention to what is needed in each situation. You are a Grav/Storm; you are the ultimate mob positioning hero. You should observe this even with your ST Powers.
While grouping, you will find Propel to be sort of annoying. With the long animation time you will be hitting dead targets a lot. In small groups that need damage, I use propel, but in a 4+ man group, I don't even bother. In large groups, my ST attack chain consist of GD, Crush and Lift only.
The following is the way I found that the early Grav/Storm powers synergize together the best. I feel with operating like this provides maximum mitigation, while still providing adequate damage.
Grouping Control Attack chain
Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift
Select target C, GD
Select target B or D, Crush + lift
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.
I rarely activate Propel in large groups for the reason described above, however while soloing it is a key power for damage production and gets added to my attack chain.
Soloing attack Chain
Select target A, GD,
Select target B, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target C, GD
Select target D, Crush + Lift + Propel (+ crush if still alive)
Select target A or E, GD
Etc.
Using Crush lift and propel you can keep and one mob unable to attack. I refer to this as juggling, which I think is more of a Tekken term, but it is applied the same way here.
Bosses require 2 applications to hold, so in those situations, A & C should be the boss, both solo, and in a group. It should also be noted that Crush is a Magnitude 4 immobilize, meaning you can immobilize a boss in one shot. Keep this in mind when developing your own strategies.
Lift vs. Crush
Over and Over and Over, I keep hearing that everyone either takes Crush or Lift. I really couldn't imagine removing either. If someone told me I had to get rid of one of my attacks, the decision would be between Lift and Propel, and I already know that Propel would be the one to go. Having said that, there is no way I would drop any of the 4 main ST powers pre-epics.
Despite Propel being a fun power, it is more situational. Lift is a useful tool at all times. Lift has a quick animation, does reasonable damage, and provides a fairly decent period of soft control on a single target. Propel, is similar, except the animation time is so long that whatever you were trying to control, has already done what it wanted to do by the time it hits it.
I also hear people justify not taking lift because "Grav/Storm has enough control". Lift is very useful in groups when you take agro, and has saved my life from countless boss's. When you have a + 3 boss, that is capable of 1 shotting you, charging down, you will be happy to see him go flying up in the air and land on his head.
In these situations, I use GD + Lift + GD. This is an exception to the always get containment rule. The reason being if a mob is charging you, and you immobilize it, it will automatically attack. If you lift him, there is a good chance that when he gets up, he will continue his pursuit, and by that time hopefully GD has popped again. This way you avoid taking any damage. In later levels, some bosses can leave a red mark that lasts for days, even with their ranged attacks so it is best to try and avoid them. Lift helps with this quite a bit.
After building up your ST damage chain, you then start to receive your AoE control tools, freezing rain being paramount on the list. Freezing Rain is one of the many reasons that you picked gravity over Ice, Earth and Fire. Crushing field does not have -kb, so you can feel free to immobilize on top of freezing rain, and you still receive all of the knockdown goodness, while producing no scatter. When using Freezing rain, you always want to combine it with crushing field, if you do not, you will be suprised at how fast a pack of mobs can scatter despite the slow in freezing rain.
While soloing at these levels Freezing Rain will be your main opening move. Keep in mind that when you cast it, you will take a half alpha. After that, try and hold and kill the mobs that make it out of the area of effect first. Leave the rest flopping around, and deal with them last.
The next major tool you will receive is Hurricane. The most noticeable mistake that many people make with this power is that they scatter everything all over the place with it. YOU MUST NOT RUN THROUGH THE SPAWN WITH THIS ACTIVE. If you are standing beside a tank with this on, you are in the wrong place. Hurricane is best used while skirting the battle, you just want to nudge things with it to get the debuff, or too push something into a debuff zone, or push an anchor into another pack.
At times, you will see an opening where you can drive the whole spawn into a corner, and I say go for it, but figure out the direction of the push and be aware of which directions all the mobs around you are going to go. In a small room, running into the center of the room with hurricane on, and pushing the mobs to all 4 corners of the room is not really productive. It is preferable to enter the room with it off, stand in the corner, and activate it. This will drive them all into the opposite corner. Packing them, instead of scattering. I enter most fights, with hurricane off, and then turn it on when the need arises. Also, I usually position myself first, then turn it on, this helps you line to line up the precision push.
Here is a simple rule that will help you while herdicanning. Always have the entire spawn on one side of you. Also, another helpful tips is to only be using about 60 degrees of the hurricane at any one time. This keeps everything that you are pushing all going in the same direction. Keep in mind that hurricane is a herding tool, it is not a scattering tool. This takes some practice, but it becomes very effective once you master it.
While soloing, once freezing rain runs out, ram your targets and drive them into a wall or corner. Hold a different mob each time it pops, then immob and ST attack an unheld target. You will be surprised with SO's how many you can get held at once.
Next you will receive Gravity distortion field, which I mainly use just to avoid alpha's with, so that I can Wormhole with no collateral damage. Between this and Recasting singularity into agro range, you get 2 opening moves, that depending on your kill rate, sometimes is enough to open every group. There are many times in groups, that between, being able to get out of LoS with wormhole, Singularity and GDF, I can provide scatterless openings on every fight.
The next significant power you will receive is the single biggest reason to pair Grav and Storm together. Of course I speak of Wormhole. Wormholes biggest contribution to this build is that it allows the cornering maneuver, again, which will be discussed later, once all the components have been discussed..
Ok, but as everything, wormhole is not without it's drawbacks. You will take a FULL ALPHA if you lead off with this while having LoS. During the animation all affected mobs are made aware of your presence, and they all get a free shot at you before they are affected.
In groups, let people know what you are doing. Get blasters to call out their nukes. Some people get upset when they unleash one of their powers, and just before it goes off, you throw the entire pack across the room.
The typical cornering manuever
Select corner to wormhole into, keep in mind that with a larger mob, or with larger numbers of mobs, you will require a larger length of wall measured from the apex of the corner in both directions. Maker sure hurricane is on. Next position yourself the best you can, to avoid line of sight with as many of the mobs as possible. If this is not possible, you can throw sing into agro range of the pack or you can cast gravity distortion field on the mob closest to the middle of the group. You can alterante these two as your two "In Line of sight" opening moves. Next, wormhole the mobs low on the side wall near the apex of the corner. It is best to do this at an acute angle, sometimes if you wormhole at 90% you do not get the knock back. I have found that with acute angles, the mobs are more likely to release. Next cast crushing Field and Immobilize them, then run in with hurricane and slowly nudge them deep into the corner.
When your hurricane is touching both side walls, stop! Next, cast Freezing Rain and then crushing field again, just to catch any of the mobs you may have missed with the first crushing field. You will likely hit all of them with the second crushing field because the preceding Freezing rain has substantially debuffed their defense. It is for this reason that I recommend 3 Acc in both crushing field, Gravity Distortion Field, Wormhole. Crushing field, GDF, and wormhole are the only powers that you will be casting consistently on un-debuffed mobs.
Once you have them immobilized, trapped in the corner, being knocked down, with -def, -res, and -acc all applied, cast Hasten (if it's not on auto like mine), and then follow with Lightning storm. You can now just sit back and watch the show, while adjusting a little one way or the other to make sure nothing gets blasted away from you.
This maneuver stops working when fighting +4's, assuming no stacked tactics. At this level differential, you start to miss too many of the baddies and end up splitting the pack in half. This is not always beneficial.
Using this sort of maneuver, disorient duration is not really a factor. Between Freezing rain, Hurricane, and lightning storm, once the mobs are trapped in the corner, I can't tell if they are disoriented or not as they are continually flopping around like fish pretty much for the duration of the fight.
In some groups, especially ones that are steamrolling, there is obviously no reason to perform this maneuver. In fact, this works best in smaller sized groups. 4-5 people. Where you often don't have the AoE damage to wipe everything out in the blink of an Eye.
The other problem is that sometimes a corner is not available. In these circumstances, I will just use a wall, and not use hurricane at all. Instead, I will run in and give them a thunderclap right after I cast Lightning storm. Since you loose some of your KB and all of your -Acc by not using hurricane, I have found it effective to disorient all the minions, and then try and pick out the boss's and liusts with my ST hold. One other thing to note is that if you cast Gravity Distortion field and then wormhole, when the mobs exit the wormhole, they will remain packed very very tightly, sometimes they actually appear to be only one mob.
Another technique I have been working on perfecting while soloing is pet pulling/herding. This is basically how I have found it to work.
Turn on Hurricane and Super Speed and make sure you have a healthy sing out. Run into room making sure to touch everyone around with hurricane, then run out of room and set up around a corner, just like a normal corner pull. One difference is that you want to be well around the corner. You need to have space for sing to be in front of you and have sing 20 ft or so from the apex of the corner. When you ran into the room, sing will have followed and will now be fighting the spawn by himself, depending on you distance away from him he may disengage and be heading to your location. Regardless, select him and recall friend him right in froont of you and as tight to the wall as possible. Then wait until you see the first mob pop around the corner. At this point you can start to move, as sing will engage the first mob, and will stay stationary. Move to the outside wall, still haveing a corner to WH into in sight. Watch until you get a nice big pile, on the corner and cast gravity distortion field on them all, or if it's not up, go straight to WH. After you wormhole them you can continue with your normal cornering techniques.
Here is a series of screen shots from a battle series where I used a pet pull. In this example, I just cast sing at the top of the ramp and ran around the corner, sing came and stopped right in front of me right where you see him in the pictures.
The pictures also show the normal type of cornering that I do with my Grav/Storm.
Grav/Storm Pet Pull Example
When looking for a duoing partner for a Grav/Storm the most effective skills are the ability to herd, and the ability to do strong AoE damage. For this reason the best 2 are either a Fire/Fire tank or a kheld with dwarf form. Both operate similarly in their roles in the duo.
The strategy generally goes that the Tank/kheld herds, and the troller corners the spawn. Then the Kheld/Tank unleash all the AoE damage possible while the troller pounds away with the ST attack chain on the boss's. It is extremely quick, effective and almost no risk.
Unused Powers
Snow Storm
I have mixed feeling about Snow Storm. On one hand it is a large area toggle slow with a decent amount of slowing power. I used this power a lot in my 30's, especially while soloing. I used it mainly as a means to reduce incoming damage to Singularity. However, at lower levels and especially at higher leves, it just doesn't fill any gaps. The mobs get so few opportuninties to attack me, that the recharge of their attacks becomes irrelevant. Think about when you get affected by the CoT with Earthquake, your problem at those times is not that you don't have a power recharged, the problem is that you can not stand up. This is the type of defense that a Grav/Storm provides, so generally, once a mob can stay standing, he will always have all of his attacks available to him, and the slowing is doing nothing. I have recently respecc'd ot of this as well. It is also very heavy on endurance, on a toon that can empty his blue completely in 10 seconds.
Dimension Shift
Not a very popular power, but not without it's uses. I am not going to go into too much detail as Arinara has already explained it sufficiently, and I can add little more as I have never used it.
Steamy Mist
AoE Stealth and 21 % resist in Fire, Cold and energy. This is a good power, but unfortunately, I can not support the endurance cost. If I am running, Hurricane, plus using my AoE control powers, I run out of endurance far too quickly. Also the stealth becomes really unreliable somewhere in your 30's.
This is my recommended build for anyone that is leveling up a Grav/Storm from level 1
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
Name: Marginalman From Levels 1-38
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
01) —> Crush==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(21) Dmg(21) Dmg(25)
01) —> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) —> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(2) Acc(3) Hold(5) Hold(7) Hold(9) Rechg(11)
04) —> Lift==> Acc(4) Acc(5) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(19)
06) —> Propel==> Acc(6) Acc(7) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(19)
08) —> Snow Storm==> Slow(8) Slow(9) Slow(36) EndRdx(36)
10) —> Crushing Field==> Acc(10) Acc(11) Acc(37) EndRdx(37) EndRdx(42) Immob(43)
12) —> Hover==> Fly(12)
14) —> Fly==> Fly(14)
16) —> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(16) Rechg(17) Rechg(17)
18) —> Swift==> Run(18)
20) —> Health==> Heal(20)
22) —> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(23)
24) —> Hurricane==> TH_DeBuf(24) TH_DeBuf(25) TH_DeBuf(27) EndRdx(50)
26) —> Wormhole==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Acc(29) Rechg(29) Rechg(31) Rechg(31)
28) —> Hasten==> Rechg(28) Rechg(34) Rechg(36)
30) —> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(30) Acc(31) Rechg(37) Rechg(42) Rechg(42) Hold(43)
32) —> Singularity==> Acc(32) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) Dmg(34) Dmg(34)
35) —> Thunder Clap==> Acc(35) Acc(40) DisDur(43) DisDur(45) DisDur(46) Rechg(46)
38) —> Lightning Storm==> Acc(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
41) —> Hibernate==> Rechg(41)
44) —> Frozen Armor==> DefBuf(44) DefBuf(45) DefBuf(45) EndRdx(46)
47) —> Ice Storm==> Dmg(47) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Rechg(48) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
49) —> Recall Friend==> IntRdx(49)
01) —> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) —> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) —> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) —> Rest==> Empty(2)
This is my recommended respec that could be done post level 38.
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
Name: Marginalman Ice
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
01) —> Crush==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(13) Dmg(23) Dmg(31)
01) —> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) —> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(2) Acc(3) Hold(5) Hold(7) Hold(7) Rechg(9)
04) —> Lift==> Acc(4) Acc(5) Dmg(11) Dmg(11) Dmg(13)
06) —> Hover==> Fly(6) Fly(19) Fly(19)
08) —> Crushing Field==> Acc(8) Acc(9) EndRdx(37) EndRdx(37) EndRdx(46)
10) —> Hurdle==> Jump(10)
12) —> Hasten==> Rechg(12) Rechg(15) Rechg(15)
14) —> Super Speed==> Run(14)
16) —> Freezing Rain==> Rechg(16) Rechg(17) Rechg(17)
18) —> Health==> Heal(18)
20) —> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) —> Hurricane==> TH_DeBuf(22) TH_DeBuf(23) TH_DeBuf(25)
24) —> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(24) Acc(25) Acc(31) Rechg(34) Rechg(36) Rechg(37)
26) —> Wormhole==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Acc(27) Rechg(29) Rechg(29) Rechg(31)
28) —> Thunder Clap==> Acc(28) Acc(40) DisDur(42) DisDur(42) DisDur(42) Rechg(43)
30) —> Recall Friend==> EndRdx(30)
32) —> Singularity==> Acc(32) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) Dmg(34) Dmg(34)
35) —> Tornado==> Dmg(35) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Rechg(45) Rechg(46)
38) —> Lightning Storm==> Acc(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
41) —> Ice Blast==> Acc(41) Acc(43) Dmg(43) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Rechg(46)
44) —> Hibernate==> Rechg(44) Rechg(50)
47) —> Ice Storm==> Dmg(47) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Rechg(48) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
49) —> Steamy Mist==> EndRdx(49)
01) —> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) —> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) —> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) —> Rest==> Empty(2)
Everyday is not a good one for the Grav/Storm, some days you are a god, other days well, it just doesn't always work out. Mezzers, stunners, things that won't fall down (Nemesis jaegers), Council Missile launchers, can all ruin a Grav/Storms day.
There is no in between for the Grav/Storm you need to either hang back and play a support role, or take charge and impose your will on the unwilling, only death lies between.
Play safe and have fun!
