Storm (sniper rifle)

This article is about the Borderlands 2 sniper rifle. For other uses, see Storm.

Storm
"The thousand years of raindrops summoned by my song are my tears. The thunder that strikes the earth is my anger!"
Manufacturer:	Maliwan
Type:	Sniper Rifle
Rarity:	Pearlescent
Element:	Shock
Game:	Borderlands 2
Special Part(s): GD_Gladiolus_Weapons.sniper. Sniper_Maliwan_6_Storm GD_Gladiolus_Weapons.sniper. SR_Body_Maliwan_6_Storm GD_Gladiolus_Weapons.sniper. SR_Barrel_Maliwan_Storm GD_Gladiolus_Weapons.Manufacturer Materials.Mat_Maliwan_6_Storm

The Storm is a pearlescent sniper rifle manufactured by Maliwan. The Storm can be obtained randomly from any suitable loot source but has a higher chance to drop from legendary loot midgets and 010011110100110101000111010101110101010001001000.

Special Weapon Effects

Tut, Tut, it looks like rain. – Always shock. Decreased projectile damage, increased elemental effect damage, accuracy and capacity. On impact, five short lived electric orbs are created which shock any enemy in their vicinity until they dissipate.

Usage & Description

The Storm is a sniper rifle capable of dealing elemental damage to multiple enemies simultaneously at long range. When a shot fired from the Storm impacts an enemy or surface, five electric orbs are placed at random around the point of impact. These orbs deal constant electric damage to any targets within range for a short period. After each electric orb has expended itself it will detonate, doing 10% of the damage listed on the Storm's item card. As there are five electric orbs, this effectively replaces the normal +50% splash damage seen on standard Maliwan sniper rifles.

The Storm suffers from numerous faults in its design which make it sub-par as both a sniper rifle and a source of group damage. The largest problem with the Storm is that it lacks the +50% bonus splash damage normally found in Maliwan sniper rifles. This means that while bullets from other Maliwan sniper rifles deal 150% of the damage listed on the card for a non-critical hit and 450% damage on critical, a projectile from the Storm only deals the amount of damage on the card for a non-critical hit and 400% damage on critical. Combined with its already reduced base damage, this makes the Storm very poorly suited towards traditional sniping.

Another detriment to the Storm is the limited range of the electric orbs. The range on the electric orbs is very short, only shocking enemies within about one body length of the electric orb. This not only cuts down on the number of enemies which an electric orb is likely to hit, but the random distribution of the electric orbs means it is more likely than not that none of them will be able to reach the initial target or point of impact. Unfortunately, the range of the detonation of electric orbs is only minimally larger than their effective electrocution range. This makes placing shots with the Storm difficult, due to the unreliability of its group effect.

Due to the Storm's characteristics it is weak as both a sniping weapon and one for targeting tightly packed groups of enemies. This weapon is not designed to be a "one shot, one kill" sniper rifle, and can be easily surpassed by other powerful sniper rifles. However, if one can land a successful shot into a group, the high electric damage can take down multiple enemies' shields in one shot.

Notes

• Like with all shock weapons, Gaige has the capacity to put this weapon to a greater use with her Little Big Trouble skill tree.
• The Storm's effect can be triggered multiple times if the player hits multiple enemies with one shot, which can be achieved using Zer0's B0re skill, which can quickly tear through groups of shields, so this is best used in conjunction with a singularity grenade. 

Trivia

• The flavor text is a reference to A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. In which Christopher Robin says to Pooh "Tut, tut, looks like rain."

External links

• Where did the Storm's splash damage go? - A thread on the official Gearbox forums examining the Storm's mechanics in detail.