Wind Control / Storm Summoning: Analysis and buildcrafting.

[EDekar]

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.

[spoiler]Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10
https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Aeolus: Level 49 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Wind Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Sorcery
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Downdraft -- HO:Perox(A), EssofCrr-Acc/Rchg(3), Lck-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5), Lck-%Hold(9), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(11)
Level 1: Gale -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Breathless -- SprOvrPrs-Rchg/Energy Font(A), Empty(3), Empty(7), Empty(11), Empty(15), Empty(40)
Level 4: O2 Boost -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Wind Shear -- DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(A), DarWtcDsp-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(17), DarWtcDsp-Rchg/EndRdx(19), DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb(21)
Level 8: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(A)
Level 10: Steamy Mist -- Ksm-ToHit+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(13), GldArm-End/Res(13)
Level 12: Thundergust -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Microburst -- Stp-Acc/Rchg(A), Stp-EndRdx/Stun(15), Stp-Acc/EndRdx(23), Stp-Stun/Rng(40), Stp-Acc/Stun/Rchg(40)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- PstBls-Acc/Dmg(A), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx(17), PstBls-Dmg/Rchg(19), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), PstBls-Dam%(33)
Level 18: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Keening Winds -- MlsIll-Acc/Rchg(A), MlsIll-EndRdx/Conf(23), MlsIll-Acc/EndRdx(27), MlsIll-Conf/Rng(34), MlsIll-Dam%(37)
Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 24: Hurricane -- DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(A), DarWtcDsp-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(25), DarWtcDsp-ToHitDeb(25), DarWtcDsp-Rchg/EndRdx(27)
Level 26: Vacuum -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Thunder Clap -- Stp-Acc/Rchg(A), Stp-Acc/Stun/Rchg(29), Stp-EndRdx/Stun(29), Stp-Acc/EndRdx(37), Stp-Stun/Rng(37)
Level 30: Tough -- TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), TtnCtn-ResDam(31), TtnCtn-EndRdx(31)
Level 32: Vortex -- EdcoftheM-Acc/Dmg(A), EdcoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx(33), EdcoftheM-Acc/EndRdx(33), EdcoftheM-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), EdcoftheM-Dmg(34)
Level 35: Tornado -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(36), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(36), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- MlsFur-Acc/Dmg(A), MlsFur-Dmg/EndRdx(39), MlsFur-Dmg/Rchg(39), MlsFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 41: Charged Armor -- TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(42), TtnCtn-ResDam(42), TtnCtn-EndRdx(42)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Ann-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Ann-ResDeb%(45)
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Prv-Absorb%(7), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(9)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(5)
Level 32: Clear Skies
------------


[/spoiler]

[Nod]

Excellent rundown of Wind Control.
Thank you for that!

[Donkyhotay]

A good writeup, a few things I want to add onto this. I've found that when dealing with mobs that microburst and breathless are your "bread and butter". Stun and immobilize together are equivalent to a hold and with some decent recharge reduction you can throw both those off once an encounter. Being able to use "an AoE hold" once per encounter is incredible. It makes vacuum completely obsolete as an attack though it's still worth getting (and slotting) in order to hit your pet with it to use it a buff.

I've found wind control very much shines when paired with "debuffing" secondaries such as trick arrow, storm summoning, darkness affinity and poison. I have a wind/trick arrow controller and love using flash arrow and thundergust as an opener which plunges enemies tohit down into the abyss, similar to the thundergust and hurricane combo EDekar mentioned.

[Danaid]

Thanks for the write-up. I've been interested in Wind Control but, like you said, there isn't a lot of information on it. It seems to have some interesting mechanics. I'm guessing it's a safe, but slow soloer?

[EDekar]

That would overall be my assumption, aye.  Storm Summoning adds notable damage, but it'll be a while before you can really get that aspect going.  It could be that I'm undervaluing the damage coming from Wind Control, but I suspect I could do better damage through a more traditional control set while leveraging procs.  That said, I'm absolutely not unhappy with Wind Control at all!  I just don't think I'd enjoy trying to solo with it.  That's what my Illusion / Dark Miasma is for!  Best solo Controller in the game once you've gotten the core together.  ^.^

[MuonNeutrino]

I can add a bit more detail on exactly what pressure does.

First, you can actually have 6 stacks of it, not 5. Stacks of pressure do nothing on their own, they exist only to modify the effects of other powers.

On Breathless, in addition to pressure increasing the (negligible) damage, the power has a stronger -dam effect when used with less than 2 stacks. It does inflict -recharge (but not -movement), but it only inflicts +endcost in PvP.

On microburst, it has the -def effect if you have 5 or 6 stacks of pressure. If you've got 6, the -def is slightly stronger than with 5.

Vacuum is complicated. The field lasts 8 seconds plus 2 seconds for each stack of pressure. The field ticks once per second, dealing its damage and applying a weak but long lasting stacking tohit debuff and slow (thus, the longer they are in the area, the more debuff they stack up). All targets in the field take a small amount of extra damage if you have 6 stacks of pressure. If you have at least 5 stacks of pressure (a total duration of at least 18 seconds), an autopower possessed by the field has enough time to tick a second time, applying a second copy of the hold effect. (Just from looking at this it also might be bugged to double-apply the hold on the initial cast for a mag 6 aoe hold, but I'd have to test that.)

Vortex is very complicated. This pet has several things it does. It flies and is immune to smashing, lethal, and psionic damage. It shares your pressure level, but unlike what its description might suggest it does not add or consume pressure itself. All of its powers have a 5% chance to critical for each stack of pressure. It has the following powers:

Blast of Debris: a moderate ST ranged attack with -fly and -jump.

Whirlwind: a permanent PBAoE aura autopower with a 20 foot radius that is simultaneously a damage aura and a 15% tohit debuff. This power doesn't slow targets but is otherwise IMO better than your own wind shear power.

Crash of Thunder: an 80 foot range, 25 foot radius TAoE with minor damage and an 80% chance for a mag 2 stun, with an accuracy bonus and a 10 second recharge - in other words a quite powerful minion level aoe stun with good stacking potential and a short recharge.

Hail of Debris: an 80 foot range 20 foot radius 'rain' style TAoE/DoT attack. The patch persists for 12 seconds, doing moderate DoT over the duration along with a significant slow, -fly, and a 20% resistance debuff - on just a 30 second recharge! This power is quite strong but has the limitation that the pet loses access to it if you have more than 3 stacks of pressure.

IMO vortex is better when you keep pressure dumped, I don't think the extra crit chance makes up for losing access to the powerful hail of debris. I suspect this actually might explain the otherwise pretty useless pressure dumping effects on breathless - IMO that power was probably made a consumer not for itself, but to give you an easily-available way to dump pressure to keep vortex going. It's gonna be hard to enhance this thing, though, given that you want accuracy, damage, stun, *and* -tohit ideally.

[Danaid]

Thank you for the in-depth explanation, Muon. I'll pay a lot more attention to my pressure stacks when I'm playing September now.

[EDekar]

Been a while, hasn't it?  I managed to finalize my build not too long ago, and while I'm not 100% happy with it, it's about the best I can feasibly manage within the concept of the character.  Psi Mastery is a bit of a letdown of an epic set, in large part due to the laughably short radius on World of Confusion.  For context, Wind Shear has a radius of 20'.  World of Confusion has a radius of 8', less than half that of Wind Shear, which is already a 'get into melee' power if you want to be effective with it.  World of Confusion will therefore largely be expected to be a set mule at best, unless it should one day ever see adjustments.

As a note on the totals, I always exclude Barrier Epiphany (and other defensive incarnate powers) from my Totals to get a better picture of how the build performs.

Code Select Expand

Hero Controller
Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21
──────────────────────────────
Primary Powerset: Wind Control
Secondary Powerset: Storm Summoning
Pool Powersets (#1): Flight (#2): Speed (#3): Leadership  (#4) Epic powerset: Psionic Mastery

──────────────────────────────

Powers taken:

Level 1: Downdraft
A:  (50)Nucleolus Exposure
3:  (50)Peroxisome Exposure
3:  Superior Overpowering Presence: Accuracy/Control Duration
9:  Superior Overpowering Presence: Endurance/RechargeTime
31: Superior Overpowering Presence: Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance
34: Superior Overpowering Presence: RechargeTime/Energy Font

Level 1: Gale
(Empty)

Level 2: Updraft
A:  (50)Nucleolus Exposure
5:  (50)Nucleolus Exposure

Level 4: Breathless
A:  Superior Will of the Controller: Accuracy/Control Duration
5:  Superior Will of the Controller: Recharge/Chance for Psionic Damage
15: Superior Will of the Controller: Endurance/Recharge
15: Superior Will of the Controller: Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance
46: Superior Will of the Controller: Accuracy/Control Duration/Endurance/Recharge

Level 6: Wind Shear
A:  (27)Dark Watcher's Despair: To Hit Debuff
7:  (27)Dark Watcher's Despair: To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
7:  (27)Dark Watcher's Despair: Recharge/Endurance
37: (27)Dark Watcher's Despair: To Hit Debuff/Endurance

Level 8: Thundergust
A:  (27)Cloud Senses: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
9:  (27)Cloud Senses: Accuracy/ToHitDebuff
21: (27)Cloud Senses: Accuracy/Recharge
37: (27)Cloud Senses: ToHit Debuff/Endurance/Recharge

Level 10: Steamy Mist
A:  (50)Cytoskeleton Exposure
11: (50)Cytoskeleton Exposure
11: (50)Ribosome Exposure
37: (50)Ribosome Exposure
46: (10)Kismet: Accuracy +6%
46: (25)Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

Level 12: Microburst
A:  Absolute Amazement: Stun/Recharge
13: Absolute Amazement: Accuracy/Stun/Recharge
13: Absolute Amazement: Accuracy/Recharge
21: Absolute Amazement: Endurance/Stun
43: Absolute Amazement: Chance for ToHit Debuff

Level 14: Fly
A:  Superior Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (25%)

Level 16: Freezing Rain
A:  (50)Microfilament Exposure
17: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
17: Superior Frozen Blast: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 18: Keening Winds
A:  (27)Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Recharge
19: (27)Malaise's Illusions: Endurance/Confused
19: (27)Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Endurance
40: (27)Malaise's Illusions: Confused/Range

Level 20: Hover
A:  (15)Freebird: +Stealth

Level 22: Aerobatics
A:  (27)Reactive Defenses: Defense
23: (27)Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance
23: (27)Reactive Defenses: Endurance/RechargeTime
25: (27)Reactive Defenses: Defense/RechargeTime
25: (27)Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime
40: (20)Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage

Level 24: Hasten
A:  (50)Invention: Recharge Reduction

Level 26: Vacuum
A:  (27)Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Hold
27: (27)Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Recharge
27: (27)Basilisk's Gaze: Recharge/Hold
31: (27)Basilisk's Gaze: Endurance/Recharge/Hold

Level 28: Thunder Clap
A:  (27)Stupefy: Accuracy/Recharge
29: (27)Stupefy: Endurance/Stun
29: (27)Stupefy: Accuracy/Endurance
31: (27)Stupefy: Stun/Range
43: (27)Stupefy: Accuracy/Stun/Recharge

Level 30: O2 Boost
A:  (50)Golgi Exposure

Level 32: Vortex
A:  (27)Call to Arms: Accuracy/Recharge
33: (27)Call to Arms: Accuracy/Damage
33: (27)Call to Arms: Damage/Endurance
33: (27)Call to Arms: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
34: (50)Enzyme Exposure
34: (10)Cloud Senses: Chance for Negative Energy Damage

Level 35: Tornado
A:  Overwhelming Force: Damage/Endurance/Recharge
36: Overwhelming Force: Endurance/Recharge
36: Overwhelming Force: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
36: Overwhelming Force: Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
40: (21)Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Negative Damage

Level 38: Lightning Storm
A:  Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage
39: Superior Winter's Bite: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
39: Superior Winter's Bite: Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime
39: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative)

Level 41: Indomitable Will
A:  (50)Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance
42: (50)Red Fortune: Defense/Recharge
42: (50)Red Fortune: Endurance/Recharge
42: (50)Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
43: (50)Red Fortune: Defense

Level 44: Mind Over Body
A:  (50)Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance
45: (50)Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
45: (50)Unbreakable Guard: Endurance/RechargeTime
45: (50)Unbreakable Guard: RechargeTime/Resistance

Level 47: World of Confusion
A:  (50)Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Recharge
48: (50)Malaise's Illusions: Endurance/Confused
48: (50)Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Endurance
48: (50)Malaise's Illusions: Confused/Range
50: (50)Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Confused/Recharge

Level 49: Maneuvers
A:  (50)Cytoskeleton Exposure
50: (50)Cytoskeleton Exposure
50: (25)Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed


──────────────────────────────

Inherents:

Level 1: Containment


Level 1: Brawl
(Empty)

Level 1: Sprint
(Empty)

Level 2: Rest
(Empty)

Level 2: Swift
A:  Invention: Flight Speed

Level 2: Hurdle
A:  Invention: Jumping

Level 2: Health
A:  (20)Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb
8:  (20)Miracle: +Recovery
16: (30)Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery

Level 2: Stamina
A:  (21)Performance Shifter: Chance for +End
12: (50)Performance Shifter: EndMod
22: (50)Invention: Endurance Modification

Level 22: Afterburner


Level 32: Clear Skies



──────────────────────────────
Incarnates:

Intuition Radial Paragon
Cryonic Core Final Judgement
Spectral Radial Flawless Interface
Storm Elemental Core Superior Ally
Assault Radial Embodiment
Barrier Core Epiphany