Rooks

I agree I'd love to see the sonic siphon change implemented, that'd be awesome (though the numbers or stackability may have to be scaled down to stop it being OP)

What about adding a small to moderate regen buff to sonic dispersion, to make up for the lack of any kind of heals? Might help out sonic when solo (or at least the sole buffer). I have a Pain MM and the +regen aura, though not dramatic by any means, makes a noticable difference when combined with the heals and meagre resist boost, which I think could apply very well to Sonic Resonance. This could perhaps up the survivability the set can give without turning +res numbers up too high or turning the set into thermal

I disagree. I think Sonic is a great complementary set because it does the things a lot of the more popular (well earlier at least) sets don't. I think the fact that time has the slows, the -tohit/-dmg, the big aoe heals, a small amount of +defense (at least compared to say ff or cold) complements perfectly with the vast +resist of sonic (particularly on a defender) the permable (it's a toggle) AoE -res and st -res for bosses. Two sets that give you pretty much everything, especially if they're both defenders with tactics. Whereas something like Rad would be stacked healing (which is sporadic and more difficult to coordinate than other types of mitigation imo), toggle debuffs that go down every mob, and buffs that cover the same ground, +dmg, +rech, -rech, -dmg, -regen. Kinetics would bring allies the damage cap, along with a recharge boost and an aoe heal with a twist; which slightly dumps on time's meagre +dmg making for wasted buffing, two sources of heals with only a smallish +def boost for mitigation (again, I think inferior to layers of defense/res combined with heals) Stacked recharge boosts might be nice for the team, but personally if I was playing a time alongside a Kin I would want to swap as I'd feel like all i was really bringing were some heals and meagre debuffs. Feel free to argue

Even more than just Time, I think Sonic goes perfectly with empathy for pure defense (those res boosts make a healer's job so much easier especially if everyone isn't perma Fortituded (which is fairly common in the end game but the game isn't balanced around IOs, plus good luck giving a whole league Fortitude all the time)), and Pain as well, stacking even more res boosts with those heals to make keeping the team alive all the easier, along with two sources of AoE -res.

Thermal for the stacked res boosts really aiding Thermal's meagre healing (comparative to Empathy or Pain Dom), and again stacked res debuffs to go with Heat Exhaustion and thermal's damage boosts. I'm pretty sure a thermal corr and a sonic defender can res cap squishies, or near enough (2 defenders definately would if they turtled), and considering how comparatively more common defense boosts are (maneuvers, colds, ff, SoA buffs, etc.) that's a kind of mitigation that's hard to copy without rolling Barriers, and if you threw in an FF defender you could soft cap the team on top of all that + resist and heals, try taking the team out now.

I think the one thing that Sonic complements best (in this way at least) is Kinetics, stacking the permanent, ally based resistance debuff of Sonic Disruption and layered mitigation of resistance boosts (and less than permanent -tohit from Liquefy) to go with Kinetics aoe heals (good for melee in the team if no one else) and ability to damage cap the team on its own. I mean the only way to do more damage with a power when you're at the damage cap is -resistance, and sonic delivers it in a way that is dynamic and goes with kinetics ability to speed through mobs at a rate a set like rad just couldn't keep up with. Add an emp or a pain to that trio and you have yourselves a pretty invulnerable team that deals a lot of damage with no end problems. I think that's pretty good.

I simply think that as a support multiplier Sonic is right at the top. I know thermal does more, but that doesn't mean better in every situation. In fact I would go as far as to say if I had only one buffer on my team i'd most likely want it to be a thermal (a good one anyway) as it's the set that has its fingers in the most pies if you ask me. Sonic is more the cream you put on top of said pies, to make everything sweeter.

Now, with thermal defenders i think that gap might be somewhat closed, with sonic starting to look less special. Perhaps a buff or two to make sure that Sonic remains good at what it has always remained good at. I would suggest something as simple as a minor increase to base resist values of the grantable shields so that Sonic pulls ahead of a thermal even on a team or league where they choose not to turtle, even if in the resistance value alone. Also maybe allow Sonic Siphon to stack once or twice, to let it close the gap with traps in single target -res (it doesn't have any -regen, but if that would make Sonic OP then I suppose that's fair)

Maybe Sonic could use a little boost, all I know is that detracting from the one thing Sonic does really well is a little harsh, at least the way I see things. Though in my opinion I would kind of like Sonic to keep its niche of resistance buffs and debuffs, like FF has it's +def and KB niche, as there are plenty of sets to choose if you want to do a bit of everything (Thermal as I've already gushed, Cold, Traps, Dark)

P.S. I play a Sonic Defender and if your Sonic is a Corr or Controller and you're thinking "hmm he seems to be overselling it", that'd probably why, for which I apologise.

P.P.S. Conclusion: I think that adding a sonic to a team will see a boost in both offense and defense, however I think that the boost to defense is greater than the boost to offense (when paired with something that can heal, or buff defense in some other way). Perhaps a straight boost to DF's -res value to help the set's offense boosting power keep up with its defense boosting? That's probably the main thing I'd do, and Thermal Defenders can keep their identical res shield numbers.

P.P.P.S. Adding a psi resist buff to clarity is something I'd definately get on board with, to echo another poster in that as a buff set it shares the same hole as a lot of armor sets.

Has any thought been given to what happens when you click AS just as you're about to rehide? This is a particular favourie tactic of mine on my stalkers to maximise damage output rather than scrapping, and i am a little sad that this awesome boost for stalkers will inadvertantly wreck my tactic, or at least lower my dps to below what it currently is by forcing me to wait an extra 2 seconds so I can AS from hidden. Don't get me wrong I'd love the option to scrap and dps hopefully will be a lot more competetive, but I'd rather not feel forced into scrapping, as I love that feeling of being on the edge trying to get as many hidden ASes in as short a time as possible (to the point where on my KM my attack chain is just AS/CS repeat, and I've never had so much fun using only 2 powers before). The DPS may not be the best but it feels so devastating to use, especially on AVs, who are taunted (so it's easier to pull off) and debuffed (so those orange numbers are MASSIVE). I'd hate a side effect of this buff to be a nerf to my favourite way of playing, as that's when I feel at my most stalkery; I have more than enough scrappy toons as it is lol.


TL;DR - I love waiting for hide and sticking it to whoever has it coming. This buff would nerf my tactic of starting to AS just before i rehide so i save a second or 2 of interrupt.

A suggestion might be to split AS into two powers, one which works like now and one which is purely for Assassin's Focus (probably name it that), if it's possible for 2 powers to share the same set of slots (or maybe even go crazy give it at level one with Assassination, though that'd be kinda lame cause you'd have no slots for it, unless one slot in AS = one auto slot put in Assassin's Focus (code probably does not exist for this))

A probably much more difficult, but simpler for the player, solution would be to calculate if by the time the attack would animate would the player have rehidden if it were to use the interruptable version, if no then use the uninterruptable AF buffed version. If yes it works as it does now, rehiding during the interrupt period and striking for full hidden damage.

Also I apologise for the rambling; I just got off a pretty heavy shift.

In my experience they don't, I have a level 50 (+1) ninja/ta and level 50 (+2) bots/pain and if you sic all your ninjas on a boss, they tear through them noticably faster than bots would, especially if you use the smoke bomb on a jounin (oni can't be trusted to just attack). So long as they survive anyway. But they do tear through bosses. Bots just AoE too much to compete in that area.

It was my understanding that was due to the fact Psy Scream is a big part of Psi Assault which was also being ported to Blasters (with a heavy Psy Shockwave nerf which subsequently went back to Domis), and if devs ported the set with watered down Psy Shock and no Psy Scream the set would have been a lot less appealing, to me at least as unlike Psi Blast it is a set known for its aoe. Though this did have an effect of polarising the sets I love /psy and think devs made the right decision in this respect. That said maybe it wouldn't hurt trying to slot a new aoe in the primary, or at least buffing Psinado.

Ninjas , because NINJAAAAAAAAAAS!!!

Can't wait to break out my sonic for some incarnate trials, with very rare i'm runnin 35% res boost from just the shields, which would be pretty handy if i spam it on the league.

I dunno if that does so much more damage since the SC nerf and buffs to FE and Burn, to the point where I'd venture the fire would do more damage, to make up for its relative smooshiness

and also recluse's chosen one system presumably works around prisoners who are locked in the zig at a particular time, and I don't think Paragon City is the kind of place where young offenders are put in with some of the worst criminal masterminds and supervillains in the world. Moreso Paragon Juvey kinda has a ring to it