Help me understand Gathering Storm and Primalist

Primalist
1

I like the fantasy of playing a dual wielding viking type character that blasts in and has a bunch of lightning themed attacks. So I tried going Shaman with a Focus on Gathering Storm. The idea is simple - acquire many Storm Stacks, and try to scale Storm Bolt via Attunement.

Well, I’m Level 47 at the moment and both my damage and survivability suck.
I’ve specced into Fury Leap (to cast more Storm Bolts and get around), Gathering Storm, Storm Totem (to buff melee lightning damage) and Warcry (to stun enemies and stack attack speed). I also wield a mace and an axe (Dual Wielding Node on Gathering Storm + Dual Wielding is cool).

So far, results just have been pretty disappointing. My damage is lackluster, the Storm Bolts feel rather unreliable (they often stop attacking even when I still have storm stacks?), the survivability is pretty bad (this is my second character, I’m trying campaign skip via the dungeons this time around while building up defences) and also feel like I completely misunderstand the identity of a Primalist. Am I automatically supposed to go Beastmaster to support my offensive dual wielding playstyle in order to build tankyness? Is a Shaman more supposed to be a sole spellcaster or Totem guy? Also how do the Melee Weapons even influence the Hit DPS?

Would love some opinions and/or clarifications on some game mechanics!
Thanks for your replies, Travellers!

2

Shaman are in need of some love. Unless you go full totems (with or without Spriggan Form), almost everything a Shaman can do the other 2 can do better. And in terms of survivability they’re the weaker of the 3, unless you go Spriggan Form all the time.

So yes, if you want to go melee Gathering Storm you’d be better off with one of the other two masteries.
Although I don’t know how feasible it is as main DPS. For the most part Gathering Storm is used simply as a buff/scale to storm bolts and it’s not even in the skill bar.

3

You need to try the new stormbreaker mace.

While you still will be squishy cause shaman offers poor defenses… you can do some fun stuff.

it gives you a storm stack no matter what skill you use. but this means if you use gathering storm, you get 2 at once. The key is making sure you generate near 50 stacks.

Gathering storm is a ramping build, so the more stacks you get the better, storm stacks are expended at a 2% reduced frequency per stack of gathering storm. unlike say “increased frequency rate” which would consume bolts at 100% would be 2x rate. double frequency.

What gathering storm does is actually reduce the total consume time per stack. so at 25 stacks you consume 2 stacks a second or 2 bolts a second, but at 40 stacks, its 80% reduced, meaning its now consuming 5 stacks a second or 5 bolts a second. and at 45 stacks its 10 bolts per second as its 90% reduced frequency or 0.1 second frequency.

So the faster you can get to 40-45 stacks and stay there, the more insane the bolt storm is.

I didnt really have a struggle with damage, the issue is in needing to ramp, and in defenses.

For clear id suggest rather then using gathering storm, use tempest strike specced to have 0 tempests, and consuming a bolt on hit. with stormbreaker this makes it so everytime you hit an enemy with tempest strike, you generate a stack, which tempest strike then quickly consumes. you dont ramp this way, but it means you essentially get bolts = attack speed.

Gathering storm will be your single target where you ramp up to 45~ stacks so you are doing insane bolts per second on a boss.

That is the other issue gathering storm suffers from honestly, your bolts target random nearby enemies, so even if you are blasting 2-3 bolts a second, its only hitting 2-3 enemies a second. where as for single target it shreds.

Strombreaker is however 2 handed, so you would need to give up on dual wield, but thats probably for the best, as DW makes you extra turbo squish

1 Like
4

Yes, that’s the main problem with storm bolts for me… That’s the reason I always prefer using a spell casting Earthquake with storm bolts… It solves all the problems and I feel like a beast casting Earthquake proccing all those bolts.

5

Thanks everyone for commenting!

I tried respeccing a bit and am currently doing the following:

  • I went Beastmaster in order to gain access to Frenzy Totem (easy Attack Speed) as well as plenty of melee related buffs for both offensive and defensive capabilities, while still spending lots of passive points on the Shaman Tree for the Lightning related damage nodes
  • Dropped Gathering Storm for Tempest Strike while focusing on the Lightning capabilities of it
  • Minimized my companion usage (despite using Beastmaster…) and only have a single scorpion follow me. It’s… okay and does a somewhat okay job at shocking I guess.
  • Stopped Dual Wielding to equip Storm Breaker Unique Two Handed Mace (found I already owned it with a 1LP version :D)
  • Equipped Urzil’s Pride - I like the idea that it boosts mana regen per uncapped Lightning Res, while Tempest Strike has a very similar effect on it’s Skill Tree. Gotta see if I keep wearing it into endgame, once I get some LP on it.

Overall, my damage feels WAY better. The combination of Attack Speed Buffs really get my Tempest Strike deal a respectable amount of damage. Survivability is better due to Beastmaster passives, but still needs some working. First I’ll focus on finishing up the campaign, let’s see if my character keeps this ball rolling!