what is the use case of tornado

[arcanist]

I wonder what is the character that is effective user of tornado.
The way I see it is that the caster need to be close to the target in order to make use of this spell. But the idea of getting close to Cerebov or Antheus is making my little TeWz to cover in fear. May be Naga in FDA with Vehumet support?
Thus the question - what build would be the best to utilize this spell.

[Bart]

The best build to utilize tornado is a build that avoids using it unless necessary.

(and do not even try killing cerebov or antaeus with tornado unless your point is to prove it is possible)

[arcanist]

The best build to utilize tornado is a build that avoids using it unless necessary.

So what you want to say that there is no effective build that would use tornado as a main source of killing staff (like ice/fire storms)?

[damiac]

The best build to utilize tornado is a build that avoids using it unless necessary.

(and do not even try killing cerebov or antaeus with tornado unless your point is to prove it is possible)

That's not a build, nor is it an answer. My OgBe avoids casting tornado unless necessary (It's never necessary, just like everything else in the game)

I believe a better answer would be a HEAE of Veh, that seems like one of the more popular backgrounds to play as a hybrid air elementalist, and you'll be tough enough to get in enemies faces, while still having good aptitudes for spells. It's still true that you're not going to be spamming tornados to kill popcorn, but that's true of any powerful spell.

[savageorange]

It's still true that you're not going to be spamming tornados to kill popcorn,

Except in zigs. It's pretty decent for killing stuff + playing keep-away in zigs, popcorn or not. Otherwise, yeah -- much less utility than you'd think.

[XuaXua]

You are supposed to go To Tomb 3, randomly teleport, then cast it.

[Bart]

I will state it then more explicitly, for picky people in particular!

Tornado is 9th level spell, therefore causing a lot of hunger and difficult to cast. Tornado is loud. Tornado doesn't work in corridors. Tornado takes time to kill.

These disadvantages make it a situational spell. You can force the dungeon to create "situations" for you, but you will have to adjust a lot. That's what you get for having mass destruction spell requiring one skill only. That said, not only good defenses, but also some offensive support is highly recommended.

I advise to use tornado as second or third option (not use it unless necessary) because it is very easy to put yourself into stressful situation when low on mana and having to deal with constantly incoming enemies. If you apply that rule, many characters might become successful tornado casters.

To give now full answer to your question, I would advise following species for "tornado-semi-oriented" gameplay :
- DE and HE for easy Air Magic levels and great power thanks to their intelligence. DE have less HPs and worse defenses, but mitigate that with more power and sooner access to utility spells.
- Tengu thanks to great apt and decent defenses.
- Naga and kobold are decent choices thanks to great HP in first case and great EV in second case. Their apts allow them to train Air magic relatively easily.

Backgrounds:
- Any with decent intelligence will do except earth elementalist.

Suggested supportive (offensive) skills:
- Staves if training evocations, otherwise any decent, not too heavy weapon will do.
- Evocations for staff of air / evocables.
- conjurations for orb of destruction / chain lightning / lightning
- conjurations / ice for ice cloud and glaciate (or just get rid of tornado and do ice elementalist!)
- necromancy, but only if you plan to invest heavily and learn necronomicon spells.

[Lasty]

The use case of Tornado is on any character that can cast it and wants to continuously do AOE damage over time while doing other things (like casting different damage spells). The appeal is that Tornado does significant, irresistable damage to a large number of surrounding monsters over the full time it is active for only 9 mana, while allowing you to do whatever you normally do to deal damage at the same time.

[Bart]

Except normally you don't stand between numerous enemies and don't have to worry about all of them being able to hit you at the same time. Also, normally you fight in places where you can retreat to cleared area. Besides... yes, quite good summary.

[Sandman25]

I liked Tornado in Hell and in fight vs TRJ. It was very good for ranged character (HEAE with longbows) and Ice Storm NaVM of Chei (Ice Strom was blocked by adjacent monsters and Tornado destroyed them easily, but typical game is over long before you have two level 9 spells online even with Chei).

[rchandra]

I particularly like it for killing Hell Sentinels. Even a small room (2x2, 2x3, etc) is fine.

[KoboldLord]

The use case of Tornado is that it is a good idea to use Tornado whenever you see monsters and want them to die. Tornado has an exceptional ratio of mp used to dead monsters, and the slight drawback of pulling those monsters into melee doesn't matter as much since they certainly won't be in melee very long. As long as you don't completely dump your defenses, you should probably be fine. If you're willing to spend a ring slot on wizardry or worship Vehumet, you can cast Tornado in anything up to fire/ice/pearl dragon armour before the end of a 3-Rune game, and there's nothing in even a 15-Rune game that fire dragon armour isn't good enough to handle.

[duvessa]

tornado doesnt pull monsters into melee unless there are walls in weird places

[KoboldLord]

tornado doesnt pull monsters into melee unless there are walls in weird places

It generally doesn't push them away, either, and they're generally going to use their turns to move towards the center of the tornado because that's where you are. So you do end up with a pile of corpses surrounding you, most of which may be at or near melee range if the starting monsters were beefy enough to survive that long. Well, assuming the monsters are the type that leave corpses. This can be mildly inconvenient if your defenses are bad enough, but not usually.

[adozu]

i once had a draconian conjurer which turned black and specialized in air magic: it killed every pan lord by spamming orb of destruction from inside a tornado, nevermind haters saying it's not safe.

i guess draconians are sort of naturally tanky tho.

[and into]

You could have spammed a different spell that isn't rendered terrible by tornado, though.

[diviton]

The only time I used Tornado was on a DEWz and I used it in conjunction with Firestorm. Firestorm is obviously the spell I used to pound dangerous things, but whenever I found myself to close to something, Tornado was great at relocating them for further Firestorm pounding. I killed Cerebov doing this as Tornado was even powerful enough to move his heavy ass a little.

Unfortunately, besides that, my experience with it is nonexistent.

[arcanist]

@diviton If something is close to me i normally cast disjunction...
@adozu is not OOD moved by tornado? At least wiki article assumes that

[dck]

If something is close to me I normally cast fist.
Also OOD is normally affected by tornado.

[arcanist]

Ice Storm NaVM of Chei (Ice Strom was blocked by adjacent monsters and Tornado destroyed them easily).

I think this is a brilliat idea. I will try it on my next NaWz

[diviton]

@diviton If something is close to me i normally cast disjunction...
@adozu is not OOD moved by tornado? At least wiki article assumes that

That doesn't seem nearly as fun.

[Sandman25]

Ice Storm NaVM of Chei (Ice Strom was blocked by adjacent monsters and Tornado destroyed them easily).

I think this is a brilliat idea. I will try it on my next NaWz

Do it in 0.13. Trunk has no Ice Storm.