Storm Call

was messing with this with spell echo on a casting speed build... hit an acceleration shrine and got a constant detonation for about 20 seconds then my mana pot ran out lol, at 336% casting speed before the accel shrine for reference but yeah, echo can push this to some stupidity if you stack casting speed, if i can find another shrine ill try to make a vid of it for demonstration

wonder what the actual casting speed increase on the accel shrine is since it doesn't display in your stats so i know how much more casting speed i need to stack to pull an orbital laser build.

My opinion on Storm call.
I switched back to flame blast because storm call was very weak in comparison. Arc users were doing lots of damage with only a 3 link. I was struggling to do any damage. I'd like to see the move get buffed to a 1 second delay instead of 1.5 seconds. Even if you cast 9 casts anyone in your party will have killed the mob before your attacks detonate.(such a waste of damage) Possibly the minimum damage done is to low as well. Sometimes my volley of calls didnt do much damage at all other times they would do lots. Couldn't count on the skill to do its job.

The skill is fun to use because it looks cool but it is not efficient at all. The move should not even have a cool down and the storm calls should explode in real time as fast as you can cast them.

Was better than ball lighting... That move was straight up garbage.

I'm experienced and have good builds for storm call but this delay part of the skill makes this gem useless in party play.

Not Recommended for first character or new members of the game.

Storm call could absolutely use a little love. I made a CoC storm call build and it does fine. But for the gear investment cost it should be doing much better performance wise. Even if the buff was just to change the delay from 1.5 to 1 it would be so better. It's too clunky in my opinion as it is now and especially when self casting. With the recent buff to arc I feel like storm call was just left in the dust. It's okay I suppose if you don't care all that much about clear speeds and play solo. But trying to play it with a party you just feel like you aren't doing anything because almost everything is dead by the time you get a single volley in. I love storm call, I still have a ton of fun playing my character that is a storm call build but yea it needs some love in order for it to really compete.

reduced duration, use it?
i prefer increasing the duration so i can stack the lightning bolts for more noticable damage, however this is solo play. i could very well just spread my bolts out or fight on the edge of the party group, which can happen often in maze-like or wider areas.

damage is a little low but thats the random of lightning.

Reduced duration is a great gem to use with it, but you basically need it to be effective in any group setting. Even with solo play, if you're waiting too long in-between bursts you leave your self vulnerable and with the leech changes its so lack luster. I mean how many people do you see using it? How many really good end game builds are out there that use storm call as the main skill? Not many I assure you. And the builds that do reach end game content aren't nearly as good as many others out there.

The build I made for example, I can do end game content, but the gear investment to make it even effective is very high. I could have put the same gear investment into an arc build and it would be so much better than storm call. GGG really needs to give it something, either up the minimum damage it does so its less spiky or reduce the initial delay. I for one hope that they just up the damage because with a reduced duration gem you can mitigate the delay by a lot and still leave some of the burst damage intact. They could even increase the crit chance that the quality version of the gem gives or make it so that quality goes to reducing the delay even further so that you could possibly swap out a reduced duration gem for some other type of actual damage modifying gem. Even with the introduction of the echo support gem its still a very clunky and slow game play, especially when you self cast. You may not notice it too much when you play solo but if you ever play with a party, wether is be a full party or just 1 other person you constantly feel like you're moving slow and your effective damage compared to someone else is basically half.

The meta of the game has evolved into high damage and high attack speed. Storm call at the moment reflects neither of these traits. Im not saying it needs to be buffed to hell like arc was, but it does need some love in both categories. And I really really hope they give it some, I love my storm call build, but I'd really like my cost in gear investment to correlate better with my gameplay.

I've got to agree with the rest: Storm Call is lacking. I was immediately attracted to it from a design standpoint-- it's a cool AOE burst spell that makes a big sizzly blast and did respectable damage. However, in actual gameplay, it's a bit disappointing! The mana costs are extreme, for one. I can spam arc and spark all day with my Clarity running, but I'm constantly running low on mana with Storm Call. To add insult to injury, my completely un-supported arc skill still seems considerably more reliable than Storm Call, which is making me wish that I'd just gone for an Arc build...

The delay of Storm Callis also very tricky to work with. Even after increasing its area of effect through support gems and passives, plus a fair deal of cast speed to place more out there before the delay ends, actually getting enough coverage and damage to ensure that I hit and kill those wily sprinters (which is pretty much everybody past Act 1) is more luck than skill.

The damage range I'm not griping too much about. Lightning has higher potential damage than fire and cold, but also more random variation. Fair enough, that's fine, nature of the beast. Get lucky and hit big, or don't. But with Storm Call, more than any other spell, it bites you much harder! The long delay and high mana costs of the supported ability makes it so that you could spam most of the screen with storm markers, blow all your mana, and still not even kill all the white mobs.

If I had to suggest any quality of life changes for Storm Call users, it would be this:

Either remove the delay between casts so that each blast comes down immediately, or change the spell to a channeled ability. As a channeled ability, you could keep placing storm markers for as long as you are actively casting (up to a maximum, if it's necessary), and then all bolts would begin to hammer down as soon as you stopped channeling. This would open up a lot more utility in how the skill is used, by allowing you to either really bulk up your coverage and damage output in one large burst, or to send out shorter bursts to help contend with those fast mobs. Hopefully make for a few less headaches and grumbles!

If the spell is changed as I suggested, then I feel the current damage values and mana costs are basically okay. If Storm Call is to remain in its current state from a gameplay perspective, though, with the long delay between casting the spell and seeing it hit, then the mana costs ought to be lower, and there ought to be more consistent damage output, because otherwise it just isn't a very rewarding ability.

And those are my two cents!

I made a storm caller once. I used storm call + spell echo + lightning penetration + increased critical damage + life leech - that is, until I realized that the character would be far more powerful by simply using ball lightning instead.

I think the bottom line on this skill is this:

1: The delay absolutely needs to be removed.

My reasoning: The introduction of spell echo changed the delay mechanic from being questionable to simply detrimental.

With the introduction of spell echo, it is quite trivial to get up to 235% increased cast speed. That means that you would cast 3.5 times in a period that you would normally only cast once. With this much cast speed, storm call's cast time would go from 0.5 seconds to a little bit less than 0.15 seconds. That is less than half the minimal duration of a shock. In other words, with this much cast speed, if any storm call shocks - even for the most minimal duration - the next two storm calls would take advantage of it (if there were no delay).

The speed that storm calls fall at currently after the duration has finished is 0.08 seconds per storm call. In other words, a maximum of 3 storm calls fall within the minimal shock duration of the previous one with the current delay mechanic.

Just because of the massive amount of cast speed we now have access to with Spell Echo, we would barely be at any disadvantage in terms of taking advantage of extremely short shocks if there were no "delay, followed by all bolts falling in quick succession" mechanic.

In addition, the delay mechanic is extremely annoying. Many of your storm calls will end up missing because monsters simply move out of the area of effect before they go off. It also ensures that you spend at least 1.5 seconds to kill even the weakest, lowest HP monsters - which is extremely frustrating.

The delay barely helps the skill to shockstack monsters any more, due to the extreme amounts of cast speed players now have access to with spell echo. It simply hurts the skill, making it less effective and more frustrating to use.


2: The area of effect needs to be buffed.

Currently, storm call does less damage than arc per hit, and also hits fewer targets. When considered without passive/gear investment, arc hits 6 targets at level 20 of the gem - even chaining to targets very far from the main 'group' that the arc is targeted at. How does storm call compare? You would be lucky to hit 3 targets with storm call's pitiful base area of effect. Storm call needs some form of buff to its area of effect.

Please fix this skill. It wouldn't even be necessary to buff the damage to get people to use it - just remove this awful delay and give the skill %increased area of effect as it levels, similar to rain of arrows.

There is such a thing as reduced duration support.
On other hand, i enjoy boosting its duration and i always grab increased aoe passives reguardless of build, makes soso cast speed and a lot of coverage or massive collection spike damage. Even on a more fragile character.

Storm Call is a great secondary dmg skill to back up your main skill, especially on single targets and tight clusters (as is Vaal SC). Pretty much mandatory to link with Lightning Pen., and works well with Spell Echo, Increased Crit Dmg, Conc. Effect, Added Lightning or Chaos, etc. I doubt it was meant as a primary damage skill to base a build around, but is situational when spells like Arc/Ball Lightning/Spark are best used for packs, not one or two mobs/bosses.

Yeah once Flameblast came out it pretty much made Storm Call useless.

A single stack proliferated flameblast will wipe an entire screen of mobs while a person will still be casting storm call and waiting for a fraction of the damage.

Reduced Duration, Spell Echo, Fast Casting, not worth it. You want this spell to hit as hard as possible when it goes off, those abilities listed just make it way weaker.

I think the biggest problem right now with the ability is that youre waiting for damage but not getting rewarded in any way when the skill goes off.

Currently have it linked like this on a 5L Volls (technical 6L)

Storm Call > Increased Critical Damage > Increased Critical Strike Chance > Lightning Penetration > Life Leech (Not high enough yet cause im leveling to get things like Doryanis Belt).

If i had a 6L i would probably do...

Storm Call > Increased Critical Damage > Increased Critical Strike Chace > Lightning Penetration > Concentrated Effect/Increased AOE (Right now im doing a Max AOE version for fun) > Power Charge on Critical/Increased Duration/Reduced Duration (Depending on how i felt like playing and if i wasnt using Volls).

I feel like Cast Speed/Echo is Irrelevant for Storm Call generally, you want it to hit as hard as possible, with Cast Speed and Echo you get lots of smaller Storm Calls out, after trying them they didnt feel or seem as good as what im currently running.

Also when you cast it fast, it desync. Not sure if anyone else has mentioned it but the skill desyncs from the effect after casting it fast multiple times.