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Controller / Wind Control / Storm Summoning: Analysis and buildcrafting.
« on: June 11, 2021, 05:24:57 pm »
Wind Control, as a Rebirth exclusive (to the best of my knowledge), is difficult to find resources for. Since I can't rely on my prehistoric reference from the days of Live, I am working to understand and exploit Wind Control as best as I am able. I've never been the trailblazing sort; I have always preferred to leave more scientific and mathematically inclined minds to the crunching of numbers and optimization, then work from their discoveries. All of this being the case, what follows is my best understanding of Wind Control with Storm Summoning to back it up.
Wind Control is unique among the Control sets for having a stack mechanic in the form of Pressure. Pressure can build up to 5 stacks, and all powers in the set either consume all currently built stacks of Pressure or generate stacks. I have mixed feelings about this mechanic in actual play, but we'll discuss that after we've gone over what's going on with our individual powers.
Updraft: This is a fairly standard Lift power that causes immediate Knockup to one target and dealing damage on impact with the ground. It builds one stack of Pressure and deals respectable damage. It inflicts -Fly.
Downdraft: Standard single target Hold common to all Control sets. It builds one stack of Pressure and inflicts -Movement, -Recharge, and -Fly.
Breathless: Targeted Area of Effect immobilize. This is our first consumer, and each stack of Pressure increases damage. I suspect it has other effects from Pressure, but if not I wouldn't want to use my Pressure on this normally as the base damage is very low. Inflicts -Dmg, +EndCost, and possibly -Recharge.
Wind Shear: Point Blank Area of Effect toggle power with parallels to Hurricane. As a toggle this breaks the mold with regards to Pressure, and neither builds nor consumes. Inflicts -Speed, -Fly, -ToHit, and -Dmg. Most of these effects aren't particularly powerful taken alone, but they're all a helpful buffer in conjunction with other powers.
Thundergust: Target-agnostic Cone Knockdown. This is Gale but actually worth using! As a multiple target Pressure builder, this is our best way to quickly build 5 stacks to amp up something else. Inflicts -ToHit as well.
Microburst: Targeted Area of Effect Disorient. Our second consumer, this deals negligible damage while inflicting a variety of effects, most notably Stun. Also deals -Speed, -Fly, -Recharge, and -Def if used at 5 stacks. As with Breathless, Pressure also increases damage but the base is so low that I don't find it to be useful in that aspect.
Keening Winds: Targeted Area of Effect Confuse. This is our other great pressure builder but isn't necessarily what it looks like on the surface. While this is a Confuse power, it is also a recovery power! The more targets you hit, the more endurance you'll recover, making this an excellent survival tool.
Vacuum: Targeted Area of Effect Hold. Fairly typical TAoE Hold power found in most Control sets with all the same upsides and downsides generally present with those. This is our final consumer, with higher Pressure resulting in more damage and a lingering field. At 5 stacks of Pressure, the lingering hold field will supposedly last long enough to reapply the initial Hold a second time. Massive recharge time, but it has a different effect if used on our pet, the Vortex.
Vortex: Atypical control Pet. I'm not entirely sure what to make of Vortex, and part of this is my inability to really dig into what it's doing, how it's doing it, and what it's adding to my kit. Its description states that it adds to our Pressure with its own actions and that the higher our Pressure goes, the higher its chance to critically deal damage becomes. When Vacuum is cast on Vortex, it instead casts Clear Skies.
Clear Skies: A potent self buff whose duration relates to the amount of Pressure you consumed when you cast Vacuum. This grants 30 to 60 seconds of +Recovery, +ToHit, +Recharge, and +EnduranceReduction. Mids reports 25% on all four, but I haven't verified that. When Clear Skies expires you receive the Cloudy Skies status, which prevents a new application of Clear Skies until it wears off. This generally isn't going to matter since Vacuum has such a significant cast time regardless.
So, from what all of our abilities are doing, it's clear that Wind Control excels in a few areas: -ToHit, -Fly, and -Recharge are all extremely prevalent across the set and work to constantly debuff our foes outside of the actual control we are trying to apply. I expect that foes who resist these effects are going to shrug off these debuffs, but for most of our enemies this is a great form of mitigation.
From my perspective, it appears as though our opener is going to look something like this:
Thundergust (Knockdown and Pressure 5)
Microburst (Stun and Pressure 0)
Breathless (Immobilize to stop wandering from Microburst)
Filler (Updraft and Downdraft for damage and single target holds, functionally)
Since I've taken up Storm Summoning, there's some additional synergy to leverage in our diverse marketing package. Wind Shear and Hurricane both work as PBAoE debuffs and work beautifully together if you're able to deal with the Repel aspect of Hurricane, while Thunderclap adds additional Stun to stack with our Microburst. Since Microburst is our primary repeatable control for managing spawns, this takes the oft maligned and skipped Thunderclap and makes it into something worth taking! Being surrounded by enemies isn't such a big deal to us since we're using our two PBAoE toggles to debuff things, not to mention Steamy Mist granting us some stealth and mitigation as well! Finally, Storm Summoning gives us the ever wonderful Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Lightning Storm to shore up our lacking damage.
If this combination has taught me anything, it's that there's really nothing in the two sets that you really want to skip. I ended up not taking Snow Storm on account of being a Controller and having plenty of other control to handle things with, but even that would have its uses.
Has anyone had different experience with Wind Control specifically or this combination overall? I've attempted a build of sorts, but as I'm not well versed in IO build crafting, it is incomplete and takes into account my own preferences for the character. Note that the current version of Rebirth's StopGap Mids release has an error in its database that only allows Dominator ATO's regardless of the actual AT chosen, so you'll have to edit the database to fix that if you wish to properly apply Controller ATO's.
Wind Control is unique among the Control sets for having a stack mechanic in the form of Pressure. Pressure can build up to 5 stacks, and all powers in the set either consume all currently built stacks of Pressure or generate stacks. I have mixed feelings about this mechanic in actual play, but we'll discuss that after we've gone over what's going on with our individual powers.
Updraft: This is a fairly standard Lift power that causes immediate Knockup to one target and dealing damage on impact with the ground. It builds one stack of Pressure and deals respectable damage. It inflicts -Fly.
Downdraft: Standard single target Hold common to all Control sets. It builds one stack of Pressure and inflicts -Movement, -Recharge, and -Fly.
Breathless: Targeted Area of Effect immobilize. This is our first consumer, and each stack of Pressure increases damage. I suspect it has other effects from Pressure, but if not I wouldn't want to use my Pressure on this normally as the base damage is very low. Inflicts -Dmg, +EndCost, and possibly -Recharge.
Wind Shear: Point Blank Area of Effect toggle power with parallels to Hurricane. As a toggle this breaks the mold with regards to Pressure, and neither builds nor consumes. Inflicts -Speed, -Fly, -ToHit, and -Dmg. Most of these effects aren't particularly powerful taken alone, but they're all a helpful buffer in conjunction with other powers.
Thundergust: Target-agnostic Cone Knockdown. This is Gale but actually worth using! As a multiple target Pressure builder, this is our best way to quickly build 5 stacks to amp up something else. Inflicts -ToHit as well.
Microburst: Targeted Area of Effect Disorient. Our second consumer, this deals negligible damage while inflicting a variety of effects, most notably Stun. Also deals -Speed, -Fly, -Recharge, and -Def if used at 5 stacks. As with Breathless, Pressure also increases damage but the base is so low that I don't find it to be useful in that aspect.
Keening Winds: Targeted Area of Effect Confuse. This is our other great pressure builder but isn't necessarily what it looks like on the surface. While this is a Confuse power, it is also a recovery power! The more targets you hit, the more endurance you'll recover, making this an excellent survival tool.
Vacuum: Targeted Area of Effect Hold. Fairly typical TAoE Hold power found in most Control sets with all the same upsides and downsides generally present with those. This is our final consumer, with higher Pressure resulting in more damage and a lingering field. At 5 stacks of Pressure, the lingering hold field will supposedly last long enough to reapply the initial Hold a second time. Massive recharge time, but it has a different effect if used on our pet, the Vortex.
Vortex: Atypical control Pet. I'm not entirely sure what to make of Vortex, and part of this is my inability to really dig into what it's doing, how it's doing it, and what it's adding to my kit. Its description states that it adds to our Pressure with its own actions and that the higher our Pressure goes, the higher its chance to critically deal damage becomes. When Vacuum is cast on Vortex, it instead casts Clear Skies.
Clear Skies: A potent self buff whose duration relates to the amount of Pressure you consumed when you cast Vacuum. This grants 30 to 60 seconds of +Recovery, +ToHit, +Recharge, and +EnduranceReduction. Mids reports 25% on all four, but I haven't verified that. When Clear Skies expires you receive the Cloudy Skies status, which prevents a new application of Clear Skies until it wears off. This generally isn't going to matter since Vacuum has such a significant cast time regardless.
So, from what all of our abilities are doing, it's clear that Wind Control excels in a few areas: -ToHit, -Fly, and -Recharge are all extremely prevalent across the set and work to constantly debuff our foes outside of the actual control we are trying to apply. I expect that foes who resist these effects are going to shrug off these debuffs, but for most of our enemies this is a great form of mitigation.
From my perspective, it appears as though our opener is going to look something like this:
Thundergust (Knockdown and Pressure 5)
Microburst (Stun and Pressure 0)
Breathless (Immobilize to stop wandering from Microburst)
Filler (Updraft and Downdraft for damage and single target holds, functionally)
Since I've taken up Storm Summoning, there's some additional synergy to leverage in our diverse marketing package. Wind Shear and Hurricane both work as PBAoE debuffs and work beautifully together if you're able to deal with the Repel aspect of Hurricane, while Thunderclap adds additional Stun to stack with our Microburst. Since Microburst is our primary repeatable control for managing spawns, this takes the oft maligned and skipped Thunderclap and makes it into something worth taking! Being surrounded by enemies isn't such a big deal to us since we're using our two PBAoE toggles to debuff things, not to mention Steamy Mist granting us some stealth and mitigation as well! Finally, Storm Summoning gives us the ever wonderful Freezing Rain, Tornado, and Lightning Storm to shore up our lacking damage.
If this combination has taught me anything, it's that there's really nothing in the two sets that you really want to skip. I ended up not taking Snow Storm on account of being a Controller and having plenty of other control to handle things with, but even that would have its uses.
Has anyone had different experience with Wind Control specifically or this combination overall? I've attempted a build of sorts, but as I'm not well versed in IO build crafting, it is incomplete and takes into account my own preferences for the character. Note that the current version of Rebirth's StopGap Mids release has an error in its database that only allows Dominator ATO's regardless of the actual AT chosen, so you'll have to edit the database to fix that if you wish to properly apply Controller ATO's.
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