Yep title says it. This is actually my 2nd mastery guide (1st one was rogue (https://titanquestfans.net/index.php?topic=340.0)). But unlike rogue which I've played as melee, archer, throwing weapon, mage, and petmaster, I've only played storm as a mage. Well, i think storm is best played as a mage anyway. Like my rogue guide, i will include spoiler videos to show some of my old tricks. Active members of this forum have probably seen these videos. I will not rate the skills though because it's... just.... too... hard :)
Storm has 2 skills that i would recommend for every build with storm no matter the playstyle or stat distribution is: squall and spell breaker. I'm not saying it's a must but if you want your gaming to be easier, i highly suggest you get those two.
Storm Mastery at lvl32:
+96 int
+32 dex
+672 health
+480 energy
Squall and Obscured Visibility:
These 2 combined are just so good i consider squall the best skill in the game (biased :)) ).. Obviously very good against archers and throwing weapon users but it's also good against melee mobs because it reduces physical damage by percent. Not that you would want to tank just because you have squall but it's a good defensive skill. It's also a good offensive skill because it reduces enemy resistances by percent. Only by percent but can you imagine if the devs made it flat with the same value? It would be too OP. What makes squall better is it only has 5 seconds recharge. It's not too long by itself but if you play caster, you usually would want CDR items. The recharge time becomes 1 second with 80% CDR.
Spell Breaker and Spell Shock
The other great skill. But unlike squall where you basically cast it all the time, spell breaker is only situational. Spell breaker dispels enemy buffs, drains their mana, and provides skill disruption. You can also use this to dispel hostile debuffs on yourself like study prey and ensnare. Some bosses have high skill disruption protection and energy leech resist so you can't rely on this too much. Still it helps big time against baddies like Typhon, Dactyl, Fafnir, etc. Also, i once killed myself by hitting a monster with energy shield (another storm skill) with lethal strike. I forgot it has reflection. If you have storm, you can dispel their energy shield 1st before attacking. Skill disruption seems to last longer if you cast squall first before spell breaker. I have no real evidence other than just the feel by doing it countless times. But it's possible because skill disruption is displayed as a secondary resistance on the 2nd tab of your character page. Unlike squall where it's very good to max even in early game, you can get by with just 1pt each for the most part of the game. Late game though consider maxing this skill tree. Side note: In TQIT, spellbreaker can kill bosses with just the energy drain but that was a broken mechanic and has since been fixed by the devs. It's still a very good debuff skill though and it has saved me many times from being mobbed by beastmen (ensnare).
Dactyl can't attack with his wave like thingy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRRPQUncseY
Fafnir forced to attack melee
in case start time function didn’t work, the spellbreaker trick starts at 1:43
https://www.youtube.com/embed/MhA-wQtx35E?start=103&end=176
spellbreaker dispels Typhon's thorns
Typhon thorns gone with spellbreaker 00:14, 00:54, 01:15, 01:55, 02:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGUfOReAfC4
Ice Shard skill tree
Very good early game skill. You can clear normal with just this skill alone. If you plan to use this as your main skill all throughout the game including legendary, be sure to provide ample support. If you search for ice shard builds, the 2 most popular are probably druid and paladin. Druid is quite easy to understand because nature has briar ward and plague. Briar ward helps with survivability and energy cost while plague reduces enemy resistances. You can also have pets and of course HoO. But what about Paladin? It seems best for melee but why are there many ice shard builds on youtube? Well, i played an ice shard paladin in TQIT and here is the answer i came up with: Ice shard is not a hit and run skill. It does very little damage if you use it like that. If you want to deal good damage you have to spam it. But if you spam it, it makes your toon static making you vulnerable to attacks. In comes defense. Defense does not have many CCs but when it comes to tankiness, Defense is still the best defense. So it helps offensively by being good defensively. What about attribute points? You need str and also int. Armor handling helps with that. It's still gear dependent because you probably would want Persephone's Caress. If you don't want to invest too many on str, you can look for swords that have % cold and frostburn suffix like of rime or of ice. You're lucky if you find it with a Tyrant's prefix. Requirement reduction items can also help. There is a less popular Persephone's Caress ice shard build. It's a Thane wielding 2 Persephone's Caress. If you have ragnarok, Rune allows you to equip 2 Persephone's without investing on str. If you want a tankier mage, Svalinn is a good shield option. cough *menhir wall* cough. Ice shard is one of the most mana intensive skills in the game so consider getting energy cost reduction or high energy regen.
Note: if you have ragnarok, you will need at least one more damage type other than cold and frostburn.
Lightning Bolt and Chain Lighting
TQIT, you could actually beat legendary with this skill alone. But those CDR OP days are long gone now. With 80% CDR capping, you can't get this to anything lower than 2.4 seconds, meaning you have to pair it with another skill of about the same recharge time or lower. Some examples are distort reality from dream and thunder strike from rune. But you know what i love about this skill? You can cast it on the far end of your screen and it will hit enemies even if you only managed to hit the ground. This results in tricks like clearing the secret passage without opening the gates or using it against the act 3 demon bull and then running back to the bridge. What about the damage? It might suck in legendary if you don't give it any support. Reduce resistances first.
beat secret passage the chicken way
in case start time function didn't work, lightning bolt trick starts at 2:57
https://www.youtube.com/embed/MhA-wQtx35E?start=177
Thunder Ball and Concussive Blast
Not a fan of this skill. But that's because i don't play storm as a melee char. The targeting mechanic makes this hard to hit your target if you are a ranged/caster build. It might be easier if you bind this to RMB but the problem is there are lots of better skills to bind to RMB. If you're somehow tanky like a melee storm, this will be easier to use. I always play storm as a mage so i tend to always avoid this. heck if i can play a conqueror as a mage, i will play it as a mage (lulz).
Storm Nimbus, Heart of Frost and Static Charge
The base skill gives little damage to your weapons but the 2nd and 3rd synergies are often maxed for certain builds. Max heart of frost if you deal cold damage like ice shard or ternion cold staff. Max static charge if you deal lightning damage like lightning bolt or ternion lightning staff. In AE/R, static charge also boosts EBD so that means it also boosts skills like distort reality, distortion wave, and thunder strike. However, if you are a weapon user investing on int, it might be worth maxing the whole skill tree. Throwing Knife (rogue skill) is considered a weapon attack so storm nimbus tree also boosts throwing knife. (ahh my favorite :) how i miss this)
Freezing Blast
In AE/R, this skill lowers physical resist by 100%. But don't be fooled into thinking you deal more physical damage if you cast this first. This skill gives damage absorption to frozen enemies by 66% and damage absorption cannot be reduced and is computed last after resistances and armor. So even if you deal double damage, you still take away more than half of the total. This means this skill is still best used as a CC. As a mage, i tend to ignore this skill but i remember one time when playing multiplayer, i was saved by this skill by a party member. i was running away with my health very low but my pots still in cooldown. Buddy cast freezing blast on the monsters pursuing me and i was saved :)
The Almighty Wisp
One pet that is good on all 3 difficulties even if you leave it at only lvl 1. Even at lvl 1, this pet already has 99% chance to avoid projectiles and melee attacks. It will still die against AoE spells but for the most part of the game, it will stay alive. And even if it dies you can just resummon it. But what makes this pet so good is eye of the storm. It increases your elemental damage by 100% at 8/8 and 140% at 12/8. This is a must for storm spellcasters. It's also an aura so it also boosts your pets and allies if you play in multiplayer. That means if you equip elemental pet buffs like jewelry, it increases your pets' elemental attacks. As a mage player though i always favor mage jewelry like occult rings rather than pet buff jewelry (yeah I'm biased). This also provides lighting and cold resist.
Storm Surge
For me, this is a one-point wonder. I like it for the stun and yes it always procs because you will still get hit. One point won't hurt.
Energy Shield and Reflection
This has been changed in AE/R. In TQIT, the damage absorption is flat so the aura disappears when the absorption dissipates. But in AE/R, the absorption is percentile and the aura lasts 100 seconds. One thing to note is the buff is absorption. So it's still good even if you already have high lightning and cold resists. One side note: I always recommend getting high resists even if you already have damage absorption. Reflection is the better skill of the 2 imo. It reflects all types of damage, not just lightning and cold. Imo late game when you've already maxed your core skills, reflection is a good choice to sink your loose skill points. It's only percent chance to proc but when it procs, the damage returned is more than doubled. And as I've said before, you will still get hit. One trick here is you can cast it on your pets and allies too giving them thorns. But if you have many pets/allies, casting this every 100 seconds will be painful :/
Some storm builds i can recommend:
Prophet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc9ujfFpFKo
Tsunderer.. oh sorry i mean Thunderer. This class offers many possible playstyles
noogens’ thunderer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssRJKd3CBi4&t=32s
i haven't recorded a good video of my thunderer so I'll just use my naruto edition video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwthqqfxnxA
edit: now i have, thunderer spellcaster:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1huv6kNJ7us
Sorcerer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wV3mvWKepo
Druid
noogens’ druid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6-4-BhlqEM&t=192s
You can play storm as a spellcaster, weapon user or a mix of both. Weapon users has the potential to deal higher single target damage but spellcasters can deal better AoE damage and is easier to use when kiting in my experience. Many people still think spellcasters fall off in legendary. It does not if you know what you are doing. Monsters just get resistances in higher difficulties that's why they get tougher. If you have items that reduce resistances, it's easier to debuff if you're a weapon user. Spellcasters on the other hand can equip Aphrodite's Favor and not be bothered by the mind control. You can still reduce resistances of bosses and they won't get mind-controlled by Aphrodite's Favor. Consider equipping a boreas staff or similar resistance reduction items on secondary. I specialize on caster builds. If you want to play storm as a weird melee hybrid, other veterans in this forum can give better help. Ask @gasconron :) . If you want to play a ternion oracle, ask @Tauceti :) . Other veterans in this forum can probably also help. Those 2 names are just what came to my mind when i wrote hybrid melee and ternion build.
I think i somehow made a reference to every class except hunting and earth. Hunting, i haven't paired it with storm yet but i think this could be good as a ranged attacker. Monster lure is just so good with high CDR. You can take my word on this. And with high CDR, you can have permanent call of the hunt (65% or above). It's up to you if you're ready to play hybrid though. I think you can also play it as an ice sharder. Abuse monster lure, squall and study prey-flush out. Elementalist, the only experience i had with this class was back in TQIT and i only made it good when i was able to stack very high CDR (>90%). It's not possible in AE/R anymore. You can visit @Firebrand 's earth guide here (https://titanquestfans.net/index.php?topic=431.0) for more info on earth. @CrocMagnum is another earth nut that can probably help.
credits:
special thanks to noogens (JTN gaming) for Druid and Thunderer videos
gasconron, Tauceti, Firebrand and CrocMagnum because i used their names (without permission) and redirected other members to them for advice/tips
cast speed about 250 and above :)
but that won't be a problem with int gears
if you're just starting your druid, i suggest you start with storm and rush to the 3rd upgrade of ice shard.. max it then max the other 2.. that's what i do on my ice sharders back in TQIT.. now i just start accomplished hero.. something like this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GCyrcNV3frU
but that video was just to show ice shard is a good early game skill.. of course it would be better if you have legit items :)
I'll look into it more and the items tomorrow or some other day.. it's 1:00 am here right now :)