First of all, build.
Many ppl make a very bad mistake which ruins storm completely.
Look, storm is not a caster, he's a damage dealer coupled with the ganker role.
What makes his ganks ones of the best in dota? Correct, his passive skill. What do you need during gank? To do as much slow and damage as possible. How can you do that? By placing remnants not to hit enemy but to trigger your passive. Therefore, you don't need to level it, because you'll only increase the amount of mana needed. Therefore with lvl1 remnant and lvl4 overload you'll deal way more damage than with lvl4 remnant and lvl2-3 overload. And noone will escape. That also allows you to level stats and have even more precious mana. Vortex is very situational, you need lvl1 at least before lvl6 anyway, having more than lvl2 before lvl11 is pointless, and it's up to you to decide when you're going to have lvl3-4. Therefore the build is something like this:
1332343++24+++242+++++111
Now items. BS is the only option, any other build is already inferior. Period. If you have rylai in team, don't bother with fast void since you now know that you don't need to waste mana on expensive remnants and it will be more than enough to kill any hero during ganks. Solo mid or not -- it's up to you, storm is totally ok on doublelanes coupled with other agressive characters like rhasta/panda/axe/lion/rylai etc -- you can make kills starting from lvl2. Anyway it's better to start making bs from point booster, then comes pers and then you finish with 2 other boosters. Int threads are a must since BoTs and phase are totally pointless and you also need attack speed since you're dd. 2 nulls are good even before BS if you're having a hard time. Next item after BS must be orchid, no stupid guinsoos. You need damage and attack speed over mana, int and regen. Orchid grants it too, but its main purpose is damaga, IAS and amplify. The game should be already over by then, but if it's not you're free to make anything at that point. Guinsoo/skadi/linken/heart are good choices. Cuirass/deso against troublesome tanks/dds.
This post was edited by Skraelos on Aug 18 2009 04:20am