Firestorm vs Storm Call

Greetings!

So this is a discussion question. I've been leveling a lowbie templar carrying about both of these spells and I cannot decide which is the better long term.

Firestorm:
~Easier to cast while running
~More consistency
~More potential damage points increases support skill usefulness
~Low gains from % damage boosts due to low base value
~Strong against packs or spread out waves
~Decreased enemies decreased potential effectiveness

Storm Call
~Requires standing still to maximize casts
~Higher potential output
~Better gains from % damage boosts due to high base value
~Strong against packs or single target

One thing I am really not aware of is gear. I see a lot of gear that is focused towards fire and some cold boosting gear, but very little in the way of helping lightning.

Both skills suck to be honest, Storm call the lesser of the two. I have a lvl 72 storm caller, quit it because storm call is useless against any mobs with half decent AI or movement skills (Dominus, Piety, All Exiles), damage and clear speed were also sub par.

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HelExMachina wrote:

~Low gains from % damage boosts due to low base value

Quite weird logic here. If you get 100% damage boost, you have 100% damage boost, nothing to do with base values.

Keep in mind that firestorm has been heavily boosted recently. I recently compared it to fireball, and it was better for huge groups, but worst for small packs, or single enemies. Dunno how about storm call, which has 4% crit chance, which sux balls.

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evilcloud5 wrote:

Both skills suck to be honest, Storm call the lesser of the two. I have a lvl 72 storm caller, quit it because storm call is useless against any mobs with half decent AI or movement skills (Dominus, Piety, All Exiles), damage and clear speed were also sub par.

+1

Storm call's delayed period makes it better for more aggressive approach. If you stand in front of enemies and facetank the damage the enemies tend to standstill also. The delay actually works to your advantage if you attach life leech to it. Having a delay between casting and receiving the heal prevents overheal, the fact that all bolts hit almost instantly also makes the heal more bursty. Its more reliable than firstorm which can hit with 3 fire droplets or zero even if your aim is perfect. Most monsters have very predictable movment pathing and once you get a feel for their speed you can hit them well with stormcall. If you really suck at aiming with it get faster casting.

Firestorm is better for kiting because its bigger and less delayed. Against extremely fast enemies like vipers you may have to do the aggressive facetaking approach since they are harder to hit. Firestorm is also one of the few skills in the game that gains dps from 'increased duration'

Also if you get a lot %fire damage your molten shell is going to hit really hard.

Comparing the dps is difficult because the number of fire droplets that hit vary based on luck and the actual size of the enemies hitbox.

Storm Call lack of DPS imho

it suffers from GGG's tendency to consider Shock stack in the dps of lightning skillz... which give use insanaly good skillz like arc,nova,storm call, LW...

Firestorm could be better just by increasing its number of firebolts.. because now its not really a storm its more of sunny day with slight chances of fire damage

I've always loved Firestorm. Few skills are as powerful as firestorm linked with conc. effect in terms of boss-killing.

Granted, they're not that great when dealing with white mobs and such, but one can argue that characters should not be just about one skill. Having a variety of skills in your arsenal to deal with different situations results in a more satisfying and enjoyable gameplay experience.

I've never really used Storm Call, but it strikes me as dealing insane burst damage, much like flameblast, such that I would imagine it being dangerous to use from a self-cast point of view. I've seen someone in HC getting killed by reflect from storm call.

Storm Call is definitely more powerful in terms of raw dps. It does suffer from a smaller AOE radius, especially with concentrated effect.

To overcome this I use a decoy totem to gather all the mobs in one place.

Storm Call is also great for single target on bosses while Fire Storm is useless in those situations.

Storm call is a good AOE skill but when killing small packs I tend to use Arc instead.

The biggest issue for Storm call is it need to be self-cast and all self cast have the problems of standing still/elemental reflect etc.

btw. the delay could really work to your favor. I believe you will have better shock stack effect in you set multi spells and let them explode together.

I use both of them in my low-life witch. I use zombies as meat-shields, Storm Call on a totem and Firestorm as my main attack. So while the zombies facetank and stop the mobs from running around my totem shocks them and I do the damage.

I have found this to be really effective, especially against big rares or bosses, since their size makes most of the fireballs in firestorm hit and that makes the damage soar high(Concentrated effect helps a lot there). Storm Call also is the strongest per hit lightning spell (not counting discharge) and the way all casts go out at the same time means that its much easier to shock rares or even bosses, and there is the only time I really need it as normal mobs go down easy enough.