Draggynn

you're braver than me, I wasn't even going to try to tackle that one

some minor quibbles though:
Technically it's not an exact port. Defenders use the Corruptor version of Sleet (since it's a pseudopet, AT modifiers aren't automatically transfered over) So although Corruptor Sleet and Freezing Rain are the same, Defender Freezing Rain is better than Defender Sleet. So Defender Freezing Rain has more slow, -recharge, and -res (although the same ammount of -def).

Any two of those will be sufficient to stun a boss without mez protection, but remember that if using anything besides standard ammo, suppressive fire becomes a hold, not a stun, and therefore will not stack with thunderclap or tornado.

Umm....do you actually play a stormy without stamina, Rigel? Even with vigilance, IO set bonuses(plus miracle/numina) and conserve power, I think I would have a hard time getting by without Stamina, and without vigilance when solo, I imagine a very painful life.

Although it may be doable for an experienced player, I would in no way recommend such a build to someone...even slotting HEAVILY for end reduction. Is it doable...yes. Pleasant...not in my experience.

However, I would be interested in hearing more about your experience with a staminaless storm build, and the thought process that lead to such a decision.

Your keyboard likely has a print screen button. (usually with a shift and over by the numpad). Normally this would put a copy of your screen on your clipboard to be pasted into another application, but in City of Heroes, it will save a screenshot to the screenshot folder in your CoH directory.

With a kin...yipes. It is relatively easy to do with powersets that at least give you a starting point:
Force Fields: Detention Field (10%->16% slotted)
Traps: Force Field Generator (10% -> 16% slotted)
Cold Domination: Arctic Fog (5% -> 8% slotted)
Dark Miasma: Shadow Fall (5% -> 8% slotted)
Storm Summoning: Steamy Mist (5% -> 8% slotted)

Without those though, getting the extra 8% usually requires some serious gimping of a character, but is certainly doable. After all blasters can soft cap to ranged, and you get more benefit from Maneuvers, Weave, Combat Jumping, etc. But kin also suffers from not having as many set options as some other defender sets.

Well, unless someone pre-ordered GR, they won't even have access to Dual Pistols yet. I for one won't be able to make a DP character until mid August since I opted for the Complete Collection, so I am unable to make any comments on the combination (even so, being a brand new powerset, there is just less experience out there using it). I could ramble on about Storm for quite a while (and do...see sig), but cannot comment on DP at all.

The nice thing about O2 boost is that you can use it while still cornering a mob, whereas you would need to run over to tag an enemy with hurricane and could cause some serious chaos with gale if you're not positioned correctly. O2 boost can be a great precision tool in these situations. Also, pay attention to the situation, depending on the play style of the squishies and the enemies that you are up against, it often isn't necessary to constantly spam O2 boost on them. Also be sure not to under estimate the benefits of providing end drain protection!

Basically true. There are detailed numbers in my guide, but for non AV (and their EB equivalent) enemies up to +3, this will floor slow.

A stealth IO will also grant you full invisibility and save you a power.

Well....not quite true. Since Freezing Rain is currently bugged, there is about a 65% chance that the debuff will end after 15 seconds if enemies are still in the rain when the rain ends. Thus a 30 second recharge won't get you perma FR debuff. (If working as described, 45 second recharge should be sufficient to perma this debuff).

I would recommend focusing on recharge for FR as well, but if you want to do damage with it, it is also viable to slot procs (again more detailed breakdown in the guide)

I have two builds on my storm. My main teaming build goes for high recharge and gets perma 2 Lightning storms with some overlap on a third, freezing rain with almost 15 seconds recharge so even if its bugged I can perma it and usually stack it for AVs. If necessary, O2 boost recharges fast enough that I can be quite an effective healer. On teams, I find that I rarely have trouble staying alive (I don't even take my epic shield) and so the more debuffing/buffing, and damage I can dish out, the better. Ranged defense would just be wasted. I find that my storm powers are usually sufficient to keep me alive on my own. However, if you find that you are face planting frequently, ranged defense might be worthwhile. (Also it tends to be cheaper than building for recharge).

My secondary build is a high defense build that I use for soloing AVs, but if I'm just soloing standard missions I tend to use my team build because it's more efficient (if not as safe).

Yup, I think Wassy did a great job of capturing his somewhat melancholy demeanor. Poor guy doesn't have any family to speak of, his father killed his mother and almost killed him. He feels sort of adrift in the world and pained by his past. I asked for an expression and facial features similar to those of Matt Dallas in Kyle XY (Kyle always seemed to be have great sadness to me) but with more chiseled face like Ryan Reynolds. I think Wassy did a GREAT job of delivering on that. (Oh and there were some other facial specifics too, like a more prominent nose, etc.)

Just to be clear, you are immobilizing the target and only have one target available? Tornado will jump from target to target, so the only way to get the full damage on the target is to have the target immobilized with a -KB power (so that tornado won't knock it back and need to go chasing it) and only have one target for Tornado or it will waste time running between targets.

Hey BFK,
Two things.
1) the above link is wrong. Go to www.paragonwiki.com or wiki.cohtitan.com (they both lead the same place). The Link above is outdated, and no longer updated (which is what the above link will actually tell you when you go there)

2) Although you are looking for a guide, this section is actually for the posting of player written guides to the game, and this question would actually be better suited in the "player questions" section. You can send a private message to Avatea, Modertator 08 (or TheOcho...not sure he's still using the Moderator 08 Moniker) or Moderator12 to ask them to move this thread to that section.

And welcome to the Game!

Gah....hopefully it was clear that's what was intended. It appears the not somehow did not make it in that last post.

Sorry, I realize I was unclear. In WoW you can draw massive aggro while only healing, so attacking just means that you can heal less before you pull the aggro. Yes, attacking can obviously create aggro, but you are not dealing with the same tight margins as in WoW.

While knockback doesn't technically have a duration, if you can stack knockbacks during a single server tick ~.132 seconds, the server will combine those knockbacks together essentially allowing them to stack.

On an MoSTF run your responsibility is going to be buffs, heals, (what a surprise) and on Ghost Widow spamming clear mind on the tank to stack 100 mag protection. It should require a remarkably different strategy than what you normally use. As long as you play smart, you shouldn't need a special build for an MoSTF. As with all emp builds, you will get the most mileage out of a high recharge build. If you wanted to be safe you could go for some ranged defense, but so long as you stay out of sight of the Thorn Tree you should be fine.

I would also comment that there are situations (STF runs for example) where the additional +to-hit from tactics can be essential. That is why I take the leadership pool. In order to have assault for that extra damage, and tactics for AVs with defense based god modes.

Really? That's unfortunate and sounds like a bug to me. This should enhance cold domination shields the same way it does forcefields.

Just to confirm, you have tested this with an ally looking at real numbers, as the numbers reported in the buff icons can lie.

What Adeon said, plus all AVs (and their scaled down EB versions) have 85% resistance to debuffs @lvl 50 (including defense debuffs). So if you're intending to fight AVs or their EB counterparts, your -to-hit is basically worthless. (this is resistance in addition to the purple patch.) More on AV resistance here

To explicitly answer your question about prolonging the boost indefinitely by reapplying the shield: this information is wrong. Reapplying the shield will replace the current shield with the new shield (with the exception of the stacking after a zone caveat). Thus, if you have a PBU shield on an ally and a minute into the duration cast a normal shield on the player, it will replace the PBU shield with the normal shield.

The claims that you can perma PBU the shield by refreshing, derive from the fact that the numbers on the buff icon (if you mouse over the shield icon under the health bars) don't always refresh to indicate that it is no longer a PBU shield, but if the player looks under real numbers screen, they will see that the shield has been replaced.

Sorry, it was not my intention to be curt in tone as you seemed to read. True, I guess I've just gotten so used to people requesting builds with no inf limit that I wasn't thinking about the possibility. However, although Blessing of the Zephyr is 240 merits, the Steadfast Protection (resistance power) and Karma (defense power) knock protection IOs are only 75 merits, which makes them relatively cheap (but of course that is relative as many players don't play a single character enough to even have that many merits to spend).

If looking for an intermediate build, I suppose there's potential, but for a high end build such slotting would be suboptimal, and a waste if the player was not going to use Gale.

Which costume part has he withheld from you?

Waste of slots in my opinion. You can get more KB protection from 1 slot in a travel power and equivalent recharge for 1 slot in a defensive power. If you are only using Gale as an IO mule, unless it's a very particular build, then there are better choices.

Praetorian Luminary is Night Star. Praetorian Numina is Dabolique.

There is also: Positron/Anti-Matter, Citadel/Siege, Sister Psyche/Mother Mayhem, Statesman/Tyrant/Reichsman, Ghost Widow, Scirocco, Ice Mistral, Aurora Borealis, Swan. And I may be missing some.

Although it is true that under normal circumstances most of the AVs won't go fleeing regularly (well, diabolique does, but Snow Storm won't help you there), a Stormy with enough recharge can easily generate enough afraid to cause an AV to consider fleeing (especially if other folks on the team are using powers that generate afraid). There are also other AI triggers like not hitting targets that can make AVs flee. I have often found myself very thankful to have a "get down here" power in those situations.

I agree that Snow Storm is not mainly a -fly power, but i think you underestimate the power of slows. The effectiveness of slows is entirely dependent on how long a fight lasts. If the team is taking down mobs very quickly, then -recharge will have little effect, if the fights are lasting longer then -recharge can become quite powerful.

Slows are also potent for wasting enemies time while they try to position themselves, and thus are moving very slowly. If an enemy is trying to run in to use his melee attack, it doesn't matter that it's recharge because he won't make it to you before you have time to kill him.