Netphenix5

Oh I am SO stealing this. Definitely sig-worthy !

I think that unless you could slot damage resist in your own attacks, it would upgrade to Mental Melee® by the time you "hit" level 3.

Thanks for the clarification - I had doubts, glad to see they were correct.

I'd say both are useful - however from my experience WHEN they'll be more useful differs.

-DEF is most useful in the early levels. Despite the "beginner's luck" mechanic, it's when you'll never be able to slot enough accuracy in all your powers to ensure consistent hits. This gets truer the bigger your team gets, and is especially prevalent in the early 20s levels when beginner's luck goes poof but you still can have slotting shortages. Between say, 10 and 30, -DEF is most desirable (though it remains useful all the time, of course). Once one hits SOs, above 30 IOs and 3-slots-gain levels though, not to mention global set bonuses, accuracy becomes less of an issue.

-RES is also useful at all levels, of course, but when it really shines is late in the game, when every other mission ends in an AV fight, GM hunting becomes a pastime instead of a challenge, and TFs are the prefered way of earning stuff. hitting an AV isn't that hard most of the time (there are exceptions of course) but even if you do hit, if your damage output doesn't beat its regeneration, you can wham it till kingdom come and never get anywhere. -RES can be (and often is, along with -REGEN) the deciding factor between getting stuck and getting the badge.

That's my 2¢, and I'm more than willing to hear counterarguments, but as far as I'm concerned, I think the secondary effect of Sonic is more profitable in the long term. Meanwhile Rad will be useful right away but less so as you go up in levels. Of course, that's only taking that aspect into consideration. Depending on playstyle and taste, the individual powers, their stats and heck, even their look can make more of a difference.

As far as Leadership goes... It depends what type of team you're on. When there's lot of ranged powers, they can bunch around you and gain the effect. If there's lots of melee, you'll have to go into the fray to help, and that's not a place you want to be. Personally, I've never found them that useful. People tend to wander too much, especially on fast teams, and often don't like having to stick close to one another.

Solo, they're a waste of endurance. Even at the ED cap, all three toggles together will eat close to one endurance a second, so unless you got mad recup, you'll be hard-pressed to chain your other powers (especially with other toggles running.) Even with Cardiac, they remain far too expensive for what they give. Assault solo is nice but hardly needed with out new inherent. Maneuvers is weaker than other def-enhancing pool powers solo, and far more expensive. Tactics is rarely that useful. Vengeance is, of course, useless solo. the slots needed to make them even barely worthwhile would be more useful elsewhere.

For me, I'd rather take Medecine if my Primary had no heal, or powers that help keep ME alive so I can keep the rest of the team alive. Hover, Combat Jump, Stealth, and such are a better use of my power picks. But that's just the way I play.

Wow, now that's a set combo you don't see everyday. Buff/Debuff FTW! Teams must love you. I'm not sure I'd be sold on Acid Arrow being you one and only source of damage until Oil slick though...

Drats, beat me to it. Yeah, LS does a very small AoE around its target, if they're bunched close. Hence my mention of a x8 spawn - you're pretty much guaranteed at least three hits per bolt. Some say it's splash damage (and so lower than what the actual target receives) but I'm not positive about it. As for tornado, I agree with you that it GENERALLY isn't a reliable AoE... Unless you're a /Storm Controller or teaming with a Controller/Dominator. With an AoE control that negates KB, you can lock a spawn in place and Tornado will behave far more interestingly on it. Still not perfect, but far better.

About Siren's song, sure it does low damage, but I get more use out of it and Shockwave as AoE chain fillers with a single slot than as set mules - especially since the slots that saves can go to strengthen powers I actually use with sets I find more useful. We all have our play style, and I personally loathe using powers as set mules unless it's, say, stealth for a LotG global - I'm always wishing for more slots in powers I actually activate. I agree that I'll never PVP that way, but since I'll never PVP period... To each his own. But the question wasn't if they were GOOD AoE (not even I am stupid enough to say I wouldn't trade them for Fireball in a second), only whether /Sonic had AoEs - and it does.

And yes, Shockwave, like most KB powers, should be used in conjunction with the landscape, which I mentioned - we do agree on that. But one thing you may not have considered, is that it could also let you fire of a Fulcrum "safe(ish)ly" while they are flat on their back - more reliably than Siren since if it hits, bosses will also go flying.

On teams, it's true that Kin is one of the most sought-after sets, followed most likely by Rad. They were designed as such, and do their job admirably. But for a solo defender, having back-up options (or a direct damage set like Storm) can be far more interesting. It all depends what role you wanna go for.

My pleasure.

I believe they were introduced at that time, yes (I wasn't playing then, I'm refering Darkity's guide) and apparently (still according to that worthy's guide) they suffered from some kind of bug that prevented Defenders from using them. They ARE a godsend for Dark Miasma though - Heck the "accurate" sets series may have been thought up specifically for DM.

All of this is correct, however you are considering those values in a vacuum. Admittedly Clouded senses isn't on its own as powerful as frankenslotting (hence my suggestion of using Siphon Insight which gives you better values) but it has four things going for it :

A) As I mentioned, its damage proc will have a chance to go off each time Fluffy uses a power with a -ToHit component. Which means EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Since your damage types as /Sonic are Smashing and Energy (both easily resisted) having a pet that has a (very) good chance of adding some negative energy to the mix is Good® - especially since it'll make his damage output far more noticeable than what he'd do with just Tenebrous Tentacles. Heck, on Chill of the Night, it'll get a chance to go off every 10 seconds on each target in the aura. Statistically, that makes it one of the most rentable proc slotting in the game.

B) Beside its values, Clouded Senses brings you nifty set bonuses :
2: reduces the duration of Status effects on you by 2.5%. (admittedly not a deal-breaker)
3: Increases maximum Endurance by 2.25%. (already better, since it also boost your recovery rate)
4: Improves the Recharge of all your powers by 6.25%. (now we're talking !)
5: Improves your Movement by 5%. (which, with inherent fitness and some plain IOs, may save you the trouble of taking a travel power)
6: Increases Ranged Defense by 3.75%. (pretty essential for a ranger D/S defender - it stacks with your -ToHit)
6: Increases Energy and Negative Energy Defense by 1.88%. (same)

Even if you go with 5 level 50 Siphon Insight plus the Clouded Senses Proc, you'll get :
2: Improves your Movement by 4%. (see above)
3: Grants 2% debt protection. (gneh)
4: Improves the Accuracy of all your powers by 9%. (ALL Your powers)
5: Increases Smashing and Lethal Defense by 3.75%. (Yay !)
5: Increases Melee Defense by 1.875%. (Yay !)
On top of the enhancements themselves.

C) Despite Fluffy being perma, he remains a killable pet, and sometimes he bites it before recharging. In AVs or Huge Mobs® fights, that can spell doom for the whole team. In those cases, the recharge and endurance discounts to re-summon it can save your collective bacon - the pesky little critter is expensive to summon.

D) The last point may not be of interest to you, but remember that if you exemplar too low, you lose the set bonuses. Clouded senses, topping at 30, lets you exemplar much lower than Siphon Insight without loosing your goodies.

Of course, whether all this is worth not reaching the ED cap on all aspects of Fluffy's powers is a matter of personal taste - I like it, you may not, and both are fine. But remember that between your -ToHit powers and those of Fluffy stacking, even if each isn't at the ED cap, you'll floor most mob's ToHit in no time flat.

Just one final note if you decide to use sets on Fluffy : the Siphon Insight proc, despite looking tempting, will NOT affect you. It will only benefit Fluffy, which looks to me far less interesting than what the Clouded Sense proc does.