PosterChild

Sonic's general bane, much to my own displeasure, is Psionics. You offer, and get no protection from it. (My suggestion is currently to put some resist in Clarity...because it makes sense.)

That being said, I would really like to try and persuade you to a different secondary. Sonic is much more comfortable at range, where radiation, if you pick up Irradiate (which is way better than Electron Haze, Irradiate debuffs defense for like 37.5% I believe, where Haze is much less potent, where was I?) Right, Irradiate will make you melee centric.

Sonic is a great set to pair with a tank. It tops the tank off for common damages, and gives them a great -res aura around themselves to make them feel oh so much stonger!

Personally, I'd think about a more ranged secondary, maybe dark... for more -tohit to help the tank out even more.

That's just me I've got a sonic guide floating around on the forums, can take a look for it if you like.

Just because I thought about it, I'm rolling a grav/sonic today and working her up to 32 at least, just so i can nickname singularity Saturn. With those pretty rings.

I look forward to the pain

Resurrection! For the new forums!

Well, I've never tried the combo, but I have a plant/ and a /sonic seperately.

So, I can say that Sonic is very kind to slots, so you'll have a lot of slots to put in to plant, which is nice, because plant like slots. I'm not too sure about the AI on Plant's Pet, i skipped the pet personally, but if the pet goes in to melee range a lot, then Disruption field will give you a good boost.

if you're teaming a lot, get the ally shields, though, if not, your pet will make good use of them anyway.

Liquefy will help creepers hit more, so that'll be good, infact, I'd say you may even want to slot Liquefy with Def-debuff to enjoy this even more.

I've only seen one plant controller without Seeds of Confusion, so...I guess you can take your pick on whether you want that or not, but I wouldn't go without it.

Spirit tree plus res shields may make the Tree a bit more effective at healing damage, since less is being taken, that's a neat route to go.


I can't say I think this combo provides any real synergy or dis-synergy (I'm pretending that's a word) but, it may turn out to be fantastic!

Also, if it's really good, tell us here! maybe we'll all role one and it'll be a new awesome.

I would actually love to see this implemented.

A pick your pet type idea is pretty cool... I've always wanted my fire controller to not have imps. She needs Wispy.

Just an update to those who were curious about my dark/fire.

After a bit of slow trudging and getting distracted by alts...she's almost up to 28...I know...slow progress. I've got 1 -kb IO in Obsidian at the moment, and I'm looking in to getting 1 more probably, just because I've been encountering a lot of stacked kb on me.

Love the character, her concept, and her build thus far. Can't wait to mow some crowds down as I get better and better!

Pass one over Jebe!

One of everything!

I can't actually offer any advice sadly...but thats a build I can honestly save I've never seen! Congrats!

Thanks Weatherby! This seems like a solid build!

I may go for a model closer to that.

Local Man! you're totally right...I don't reall know what i was thinking. Ok, Consider the above build with TP Friend in place of Choking cloud :P Thanks!

I want a gravity controller. I'm thinking Gravity/Radiation, or, perhaps, if people convince me, Grav/FF.

I know, I wont be incredibly great for Posi or Synapse, buuuut from then on I hope to be feeling better about myself.

My build (from work with no slots allocated and stuff) for Grav/Rad will play out like this.

1:Lift
1:Radiant Aura
2:Gravity Distortion
4:Radiation Infection
6:Accelerate Metabolism
8:Crushing Field
10:Hurdle
12:Hasten
14:Super Speed
16:Health
18:Gravity Distortion Field
20:Stamina
22:Enervating Field
24:Crush
26:Wormhole
28:Choking Cloud
30:Mutation
32:Singularity
35:Fallout
38:EM Pulse

for Grav/FF, should I be convinced that it is in some way superior:

1:Crush
1:PFF
2:Gravity Distortion
4: Deflection Shield
6:Force Bolt
8:Crushing Field
10:Insulation Shield
12:Hover
14:Fly
16:Swift
18:Gravity Distortion Field
20:Health
22:Stamina
24: Dispersion Bubble
26:Wormhole
28: Detention Bubble...or whatever it's called.
30: Dimension Shift (I have an idea for using this in tandem with the phase bubble)
32:Singy
35:Repulsion Bomb
38:Force Bubble

which is better for my TF aspirations?? I'm assuming the rad

No! The Oil shall never be targetable in AV!

But seriously...yeah, I'm glad Ice works better now, I wouldnt use it on my TA chars unless they were trollers, because the power was simply infuriating.

I agree totally. I've lost that thing so many times.

Poster Child’s (Harmony Floe’s) guide to the world of Sonic Defending!
Why me? Well, to put it in short, easy to understand terms. I love Sonic. Every bit of it. It is the set that I decided I would play till I couldn’t play it anymore (that has yet to happen), and I would learn every little thing there was to learn about the powers, and what they had to offer me, and a team.

For as long as I’ve played CoH (I really do stick to blueside mostly), I’ve had a fascination with underplayed or rare sets. I played my stone/ice tank because I never saw one, I played my ice/sonic controller for the same reason, and my dark/elec because I’d never seen the combo. I enjoy feeling like a unique hero, rather than a run of the mill fire/kin, inv/ss, or emp/* (No offense to those builds, I just don’t enjoy running in to myself).
So let us begin! Rating will be in the form of little asterisks from 1 to 5, 1 is bad, 5 is grand. I’m also going to work up my build as a sonic/ice defender, so I’ll show my leveling build at the end, as well as list ratings for ice powers and such. It’s also worth noting that I won’t be covering IO slotting, because everyone takes a different strategy with that.

Sonic!

Sonic Siphon: **** (Team and Solo) though for solo, you pretty much have to take it, so *****)
Available: 1
Slotting: 1-2 accuracy
Use: I didn’t get this power till the 20s, because a heavy single target –res power isn’t that necessary until later on in the game. This power provides a wonderful -30% to enemy resistance, but, it is only single target, and therefore it’s best use is again EBs, AVs, Tough Bosses, or minions you want to kill ASAP (I’m looking at you Sappers). Solo Sonic Defenders, this power is for you, it’ll speed up your ability to kill immensely, and I’d say for a soloer, this is the level 1 pick…because you wouldn’t pick an ally buff for your first power…that’d be weird.

Sonic Shield: Team Player ***** Soloer *
Available: 1
Slotting: 3 resists 0-1 end redx
Use: Buffs allies for hefty resist values! At 20% base value, even before SOs/IOs it is a great buff to give your friends. That warm orange glow will keep them taking less damage to Smashing/Lethal/Toxic damage for its 4 minute duration. Though people will not notice it as actively keeping them alive, you’ll know, and you’ll feel better for it, I know I did.

Sonic Haven: Team Player ***** Soloer *
Available: 2
Slotting: 3 resists 0-1 end redx
Use: Your next shield buff, 20% base value to Energy/negative/fire/cold! More orange glow for your friends, and makes outcasts early on hit like kittens. Lasts for 4 minutes like Sonic Shield, and once again, people will not see how much it does for them.

Sonic Cage: Team Player *** Soloer ****
Availabe: 6
Slotting: 1-2 accuracy 1-2 recharge
Use: Takes one enemy entirely out of the fight. That’s right, entirely. This enemy cannot hit or be hit by anyone, anywhere. The Soloer can use this to take bosses out of a fight until they are ready for them, but a teamer must use this tactically. If your team’s battles are lasting under 30 seconds, this power will only annoy them, as they’ll stand around waiting for it to drop on the victim of the bubble, before they can hit them again. If battles are slow, use it on an outlying enemy, no one will notice at all, and you’ll be helping, once again, without anyone being aware of it.

Disruption Field: Team Player ***** Soloer * (for the solo controller with a pet? *****)
Available: 8
Slotting: 2-3 Endredx
Use: Put this toggle up on a scrapper or a tank and watch all the people around that melee character to suffer -30% resistance. Love this power. Love it hard. This makes enemies weep under an AoE onslaught. Be careful though, this power eats endurance alive. The base cost is 1.04 end/sec, which is no small amount. Even still, I wouldn’t put this off till after stamina, it’s just too good.

Dispersion Bubble: Team Player ***** Soloer *****
Available: 12
Slotting: 3 resist 0-1 end redx
Use: Your big protection bubble! Offers some status protection to holds, stuns, and immob. This provides a base 15% resist to all but psionics. Get this power. If you don’t get it, you aren’t a sonic defender, you’re…I don’t even know. This power does suffer, however, from leaving you vulnerable to sleep attacks. It is also worth noting, that even though I’m not going in to IO sets, this is great place for that Steadfast –kb IO.

Sonic Repulsion: Team Player ** Soloer *
Available: 18
Slotting: 1-2 endrdx
Use: Ok, this is the much maligned power of the sonic set, the ally targeted huge KB toggle. What? You might say. What indeed. This power qualifies as super situational. I’ve used it for a variety of reasons, saving a tank that’s in over their head, to saving a blaster that somehow drew a bunch of aggro. I tried using it as a “hurricane” type power to keep enemies in a corner and knocked down, but that caused some clipping issues as enemies flew everywhere and sometimes got stuck in walls, so I can’t say I recommend this power for that type of use. That being said, this power isn’t really too much use. I kept it, just for giggles, but I’ll probably be dropping it upon my next respec use. This is a toggle that charges you for each enemy it hits. If you can find a new use for it, let me know!

Clarity: Team Player ***** Soloer *
Available: 26
Slotting: Maybe put an endrdx in the base slot.
Use: Protects allies from mezz effects. Great for squishies on a team, but also great for providing some perception buffs to those fire tankers that lack their own.

Liquefy: Team Player *** Soloer ***
Available: 32
Slotting: 0-2 acc 0-3 recharge 0-3 defense debuffs 0-3 tohit debuffs
Use: Targetted AoE knockdown, hold, debuff. This power is good at the many things it does, save for the hold, which is unreliable at best, but what it does is strange for the sonic set. No –res in the power, and a –def and –tohit out of nowhere. Slot for one or the other, not both. I slot for the –tohit because by 32, people should have enough accuracy to hit reliably. Also, the accuracy only seems to apply to the damage portion of this power, the other effects seems to be autohit, so only put accuracy in the power if you’re looking for more AoE damage, but honestly, Liquefy just is not the place to look for that.

Ice Blast! (Solo v Team not really important in blasts…don’t nitpick me on this!)

Ice Bolt: You have to take this.
Available: You have to take this.
Slotting: 1-2 accuracy 1-3 damage
Use: Mediocre single target blast, you have to take it, so you might as well use it. It’s on par with everyone else’s first blast, and recently its effects got neutered for PvP(this applies across the board for ice power).

Ice Blast: ****
Available: 2
Slotting: 1-2 accuracy 1-3 damage 0-1 recharge 0-1 end reduction
Use: Better single target blast, quickly becomes a staple for an attack chain. Quick firing, fairly quick recharging. Decidedly bread and butter.

Frost Breath: **
Available: 4
Slotting: 1-2 acc 1-3 damage 0-1 endurance reduction 0-1 recharge
Use: Good cone, reliably hits 3-4 people, but ice is primarily ST focused, and as such, this power may see a little less use than one would hope. Since Ice gets 2 blaster level rain powers, it’s also hard to justify this AoE power. Though this has some use as a good slow as well, there are better powers out there, so my current build does not have this power.

Aim: (Personal taste)
Available: 10
Slotting: 3 Recharge
Use: You should know what it does. It’s a brief boost to accuracy (to-hit specifically) and damage. Good at what it does, but I don’t like it.

Freeze Ray: ****
Availabe: 16
Slotting: 1-2 accuracy 1-2 hold duration 1-2 recharge
Use: Capable of holding a troublesome foe almost immediately, bosses will take 2 applications. It recharges quick, and holds for a fair length of time. Good power. Take it, slot it, love it.

Ice Storm: ****
Available: 20
Slotting: 1-3 damage 1-3 recharge
Use: Ok, it’s a rain, and it causes some scatter. But it does BLASTER level damage. It’s great for those with a need for AoE, and it’s generally a good power to keep with you. Wears down on AVs well too, or any strong single foe who can’t seem to escape its area.

Bitter Ice Blast: *****
Available: 28
Slotting: 1-2 acc 2-3 damage 0-1 recharge 0-1 endrdx
Use: Super blasting ability! Love this power, love it hard. It does tremendous damage and slows your enemy to a crawl. This blast is a great starter, middler, or finisher to any foe around. It animates quickly, so you don’t pay any price (other than the time you aren’t using it!) to use this power.

Bitter Freeze Ray: */2
Available: 35
Slotting: Don’t. But if you do take it… similar to Freeze Ray.
Use: This can be used to…”quickly” hold a boss. The animation time of this power feels like it takes forever. It does better damage than freeze ray, but it doesn’t feel like it’s worth the trade for the horrendous activation.

Blizzard: *****
Available: 38
Slotting: 3 Damage 3 Recharge
Use: Blaster level Nuke. Fantastic. It drains all your end, which is a shame for your toggles, mostly your bubble and Disruption field. But it lays waste to foes all over. Good, good nuke, my personal favorite. Gels well when used with Liquefy, but since they are both on long clocks, don’t worry too much about waiting to set them up together.

As far as Ancillary Sets go, make your own choice…you know what you like better than I do! When I run defenders, I usually pick Psionic APP, for controllers, usually Ice. That’s just personal preference and a love for WoC and Frost Breath.

Hope this guide helps anyone in their quest to play Sonic! And maybe even Sonic/Ice like little old Harmony Floe!

Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Apologies for lack of color or any sort of neat looking stuffs. I have no idea how to do all that

Cold/Rad
Storm/Psy (Deleted due to tedium)
Storm/Arch
TA/Dark
TA/Sonic
Sonic/Ice
Sonic/Arch
Sonic/Psy
Dark/Elec
Kin/Psy
FF/NRG
FF/Dark (deleted)
Rad/Dark
Rad/Ice

I think I mentioned them all...never touched Emp

I'm getting real tired of this plant>mind stuff.

Mind can do things plant controllers only dream of.

Namely enemy placement, and total control.

Telekinesis makes enemies go where you want them to, even my defenders take it! This power is golden, not as a hold (which it is great for too, if you have a corner) but as a positional godsend. I can put enemies in to Freezing Rain slick, in a to glue arrow, into a burn patch, Oil slick burn patch. You name it. Can a plant troller do that?

Comparing SoC to MC is ridiculous. They don't come in to a controller's build even CLOSE to the same time. SoC is more appropriately compared to something like Mass hypnosis or Telekinesis for mind, and Flashfire etc for the other sets. (Ice Slick, Dimension Shift, Stalagmites...not really Group Invis). Mind has a tool for every situation. Plant has one tool for every situation...and if you find yourself facing Nemisis? Plant is beyond broken.