I Feel the Earth Move - A Guide to the Earth/Sonic
By
Antaean,
Posted on: 2006-11-13 13:36 in Player Guides
Earth Control Powers
The mother of AoE controlling. There have been many guides covering this set. What can I say? Heres another:
Containment
Available at Level: Inherent
Controllers are the masters at locking down and controlling their opponents. Few can escape their will. Controllers do extra damage to any target that is already Held, Immobilized, Slept, or Disoriented.
Okay, this power isnt specific to Earth. It is specific to controllers. Critical damage for anything that is locked down? Ill take it! Remember: if you lock something down, youll do double damage to it. Thats right, +100%. Know that you don't have to be the originator of the lockdown. If it's locked down, you'll get the containment bonus. Also notice that "fear" isn't listed as a condition for containment.
Sometimes the best things in life are free.
Fossilize
Available at Level: 1
Accuracy: 1.2
Range: 80
Endurance: 8.53
Recharge: 8
Damage Scale: 1.0 Smashing Damage (2.77778 BI)
Duration: 22 seconds (15 PvP)
Encases a single target within solid stone. The stone slowly crushes the victim, dealing Smashing damage. The Fossilized victim is held helpless and unable to defend himself.
The single target hold for Earth is a staple for all 50 levels of your journey. Consider this your desert island classic. You know
if you were trapped on a desert island with an Ogre and you could take only one earth power, what would it be? It would be this one. Note that Fossilize does not hold a target until it is on the ground. Why until? Because if you Fossilize a target and that target subsequently touches the ground before the Fossilize wears off, the hold will activate! How do you get those fliers on the ground? Stone Prison and Stone Cages will do just that for you. Which one you toss out first, your immobilize or fossilize, makes little difference on a flier.
Fossilize happens to be one of your best damage powers before you get your pet. If you decide to solo much, consider slotting damage instead of hold durations in this power pre-32. Then again, dont solo much.
Wait, thats not all! Not only will your victim will be locked in place, he will be resistant to knockback and, therefore, energy blast relocation and other knockback attacks. Even better: a 20% hit to your targets defense. Yep
that Ogre will soon have lots to talk about with Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Recommended Slotting: 2 acc, 2-3 hold durations, 1-2 recharge.
Soloist slotting: 1-2 acc, 3 damage, 1-2 recharge.
Stone Prison
Available at Level: 1
Accuracy: 1.2
Range: 80
Endurance: 7.8
Recharge: 4
Damage Scale: 5 * 0.2 ticks = 1.0 Smashing Damage over 9.2 seconds (2.77778 BI)
Duration: 28 seconds (18 PvP)
Immobilizes a single target within an earthy formation and deals some Smashing damage over time. Some more resilient foes may require multiple attacks to Immobilize. Stone Prison can also reduce a target's Defense.
The single target immobilize for Earth is considered optional to some. Why take it when you can take the AoE immob at level 2 and halt an entire group in its tracks? The logic makes sense. Think about it: what if you want to keep a pack of Vahz immobilized in Freezing Rain, or stuck next to a Mort suffering from Radiation Infection, or cooking in Burn? An AoE immobilize will suit you better than a single target version of that power. Right?
I hate to break it to you, but you dont have any of those powers! If you know youll be partnering with a Fiery Aura tank or Storm Summoning or Radiation Emission character, maybe then prioritize Stone Cages. However, you are a Sonic. You wont get Liquefy until level 38 or an AoE damage attack until 41. Sure Stone Cages pairs nicely with Stalagmites, but it can definitely wait until level 22 or so and you wont miss it.
You will miss Stone Prison. Having the ability to immobilize one villain without aggravating an entire spawn is a very useful talent. In addition, having a power that recharges every 4 seconds, uses little endurance, and can stack quickly to give you containment and immobilize magnitude makes for a very useful tool indeed, especially in those moments when youre forced to solo. This might happen to you: your entire team might leave your Positron TF 5 defeat all missions from the end and, at level 14, youll be forced to solo the rest. No Im not bitter
that much. If Fossilize is your hammer, Stone Prison is how you hold the nail. Take it early and love it.
Not only will it immobilize, it too has a -20% defense penalty to your victim. It nullifies knockback, but it will neuter knockdown too. Do not use it on top of things like Earthquake or Ice Slick unless your target is also held or soon-to-be held. Wait, theres more! It drops fliers, which makes it a very useful in combination with Fossilize.
Recommended Slotting: 2 accuracies. Durations arent needed with a 4 second recharge time.
Soloist slotting: 1-2 accuracies, 3 damage.
Stone Cages
Available at Level: 2
Accuracy: 0.9
Range: 80
Endurance: 15.6
Recharge: 8
Radius: 30 feet
Damage Scale: 3 * 0.1 = 0.3 Smashing Damage over 9.2 seconds (0.83333 BI)
Duration: 28 seconds (19 PvP)
Immobilizes a group of foes within earthy formations and deals some Smashing damage over time. Slower and less damaging than Stone Prison, but can capture multiple targets. Stone Cages can also reduce a target's Defense.
The AoE immobilize of Earth Control is a Stone Prison party! Everybody gets one. Really, I love the look and sound of this power. Clap your hands and BOOM, cages. Definitely turn up your sub-woofer when using this power. It will vibrate your ticklish parts.
Stone Cages is like yelling STAY to a room full of well-trained dogs. Why would you like this? Two reasons: Stalagmites and Liquefy. The former sends your victims staggering about. Wanderers have the unfortunate ability to wander into locations non-conducive for arresting. Stone Cages corrects this problem. Liquefy, after its short hold, sends enemies running. Stone Cages keeps them in Liquefy. Finally, Stone Cages psychologically prepares your enemies to enter the penal system. Talk about your Mind Control flair.
This power also provides knockback and knockdown resistance to your targets. This is very important. Do NOT toss this out on a mob doing a popcorn imitation on your Earthquake or your comrades Slick. Youll simply stabilize the bouncing bodies, allowing them to regain their balance and fire some unwanted substance at your face. This is bad. Use it with caution.
This power is a potential aggro magnet as well. Do not open with it. Remember those dogs? Imagine they all had guns and projectile energy barks
not good. Be sure the dogs are preoccupied or otherwise incapacitated before laying this on them.
Another issue: Cages ticks off almost 16 endurance points each time you use it and it recharges quickly. Liberal application will result in heavy breathing. I put this power off until after stamina. It was a big help.
A great use of this power is setting up containment on an entire spawn. For those twilight levels in your career when you may actually get AoE damage attacks, this is a lovely thing. And as with Stone Prison and Fossilize, Stone Cages drops 20% of the defense of each target it hits. Its a prelude to a massacre. Whether its your own or your enemy's massacre depends on how your use it.
Recommended Slotting: 2 accuracies, 1 endurance. Recharge and immobilize arent needed as the cages are still up when the power has recharged.
Quicksand
Available at Level: 6
Accuracy: Auto-hit
Range: 90
Endurance: 7.8
Recharge: 30
Radius: 25 feet
Duration: 45 seconds
You can cause the ground to liquefy like Quicksand at a targeted location. Any foes that pass through the Quicksand will become snared, their movement will be dramatically Slowed, and their Defense reduced. Foes trapped in the Quicksand cannot jump or Fly.
Oatmeal not only provides you with an excellent start to your day, its an excellent start to your attack chain when you have a corner to work with. Earth/Sonic is blessed with four location target powers, which means you can stand behind corners out of sight while delivering a welcoming breakfast to soon-to-be Brickstown inmates. Why do I love it?
Firstly, it has the longest range of any of your powers. If you dont have Stone Cages available, its a decent substitute for keeping enemies away from you and stuck in some other place theyd rather leave, like an Earthquake or Volcanic Gas eruption.
Secondly, it prevents flight and jumping. In other words, it sets up fossilized target practice; an activity that is fun for the whole family.
Thirdly, it drops the defense of all enemies in it by 25%. If you havent already, please take a moment to stop and say to yourself, this is excellent. Isnt it?
However, read the warning label on your oatmeal. It will generate aggro. Some enemies will not be significantly slowed, such as Minions of Igneous. Most, however, will.
Now for a small debate. Some suggest slotting quicksand with recharges. The argument is you can reach the slow cap by simply laying down multiple Quicksands. My experience is this works, since the slow effect stacks from the same caster. An aside: the defense reduction does not. However, there is a danger to this approach.
Imagine this: you join an 8-member team with a few toons that are +2 to you. They are running invincible missions, which means your enemies are as purple as Princes jacket a la 1984. You drop down a Quicksand at the first group you see, only youve slotted it with 3 recharges and zero slows. One of the bosses notices your oatmeal stains on his new Jordans and a moment later hes peeling your fillings out of his knuckles. Has Quicksand recharged yet? No. Do you care? No. This guy has run out of your first Quicksand and is cleaning his shoes on your forehead. What should you do about this? Hospital, then slot your Quicksand with three slows and try again. You will floor his speed. That boss will get off one ranged attack before you have him Fossilized.
Get this power. It is a primary ingredient in the Soup of Death.
Recommended Slotting: 3 slows. 0-3 recharges.
Salt Crystals
Available at Level: 8
Accuracy: 1
Range: Player Based
Endurance: 15.6
Recharge: 90
Radius: 30 feet
Duration: 19 seconds (14 PvP)
Attempts to encrust all nearby foes in a Pillar of Salt. The victims will remain encased within the salt for quite a while, but will automatically break free if attacked. Affected targets have reduced defense for a while, even if they break free.
A usually overlooked though interesting power. An AoE sleep that is player based and, therefore, requires some maneuvering. Many dismiss it. Who wants to run into a spawn of enemies, get smacked around, toss out a sleep should he be able to, and pray nobody breaks the spell and initiates another round of smackdown? Raise your hands. Yep.
Yet, it is effective to sleep a spawn before you arrest it. Unlike the other sleep powers in the game, this one drops enemy defense by 20%!! How lovely is that? Plus, this is one of the most biblical powers in the game. You jump into a group of enemies and scream, hey look! Its Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by brimstone and fire and everybody turns into a pillar of salt. Tell me that isnt cool? It just is. Its worth a bind key and its own toon concept: Bible Boy.
I love it in PvP. Someone bothering you? Sleep them. Then lay down the Soup of Death. I love it in PvE
an ambush from behind? Salt Crystal them. It looks cool too. Your enemies struggle with their arms pinned to their sides. Take a moment to gloat before finishing them off.
When teaming definitely educate before unleashing. Its very important your buddies understand what you are doing. Put yourself in that fire blasters place: hmmm.. the squishy is running right into that mob!!! Holy snikies!! Dont worry.. my fireball will save you!!! You dont want this to happen. Communicate.
That said, this is a power I personally went without. You cant have everything.
Some get Salt Crystals early, then respec it away at 24 once they have a couple of other AoEs in place and slotted(earthquake and stalagmites + stone cages). Try it and see what you think. Its definitely an optional choice.
Recommended Slotting: 2 accuracies is all you need if youre using it to set up attacks.
Add 1-3 durations if you plan to use it as an ambush nullifier.
Stalagmites
Available at Level: 12
Accuracy: 0.8
Range: 70
Endurance: 10.4
Recharge: 90
Radius: 25 feet
Damage Scale: 0.25 Lethal Damage (0.69444 BI)
Duration: 15 seconds (11 PvP)
You can cause Stalagmites to erupt all around an enemy, damaging all nearby foes. The Stalagmites deal minimal Lethal damage, and can Disorient all affected targets for a good while, as well as reduce their Defense. You must be on the ground to activate.
Nothing like stomping your foot to get attention. Only this foot stomp shoots mineral deposits out of the ground better than Zit Controls Pop Pimples power. The major bonus: the affected meanies dont get the opportunity to strike back before theyre disoriented. The magnitude wont stun bosses, but their friends sure wont know what hit them. On small enough teams where spawns lack bosses, Stalagmites allows you to initiate battles. Imagine: youve been teaming on a story arc for the last hour hour with a tank who told you about every slice of meat-lovers pizza shes chowed. Suddenly she types, brb-bio. Are you really going to wait? Unless shes one of those professional gamers who has her rig set up on her toilet, shes gone until Letterman is over. Stalagmites lets you take control of your own destiny and initiate so you dont have to wait.
Stalagmites + Stone Cages makes an excellent control combo. You want to keep wandering to a minimum if you can, and you can.
Take this power and use it. As your career progresses you will have two main uses for it: 1) the initiate combat power and 2) the disorient a mob for a bit power. If you find yourself using it mainly for 1), you should slot accordingly.
Recommended Slotting: 2 accuracies, 2 disorient durations, 2 recharge
If find you only use Stalagmites to initiate your other controls, try 2-3 accuracies 0-1 disorient, and 3 recharge.
Earthquake
Available at Level: 18
Accuracy: Auto-hit
Range: 60
Endurance: 10.4
Recharge: 90
Radius: 25 feet
Duration: 30 seconds
Generates a powerful, localized Earthquake. Most foes that pass through the location will fall down. The violent shaking also reduces their Accuracy and Defense.
There are people who dont like sunsets. There are those who dont like moms chicken soup, others who dont like reliable transportation, and some who dislike having Earthquake as one of their Earth Control powers. What do they have in common? I dont understand any of them.
Earthquake is a knockdown power. Its a targeted location power that snips 10% off your enemies defense and 10% off their ability to hit. It works on greens and blues and whites and yellows and oranges and reds and purples. Remember the team scenario where youre battling +4s? Stick an Earthquake under them and watch them bounce bounce baby. Only the Slicks and Circus Tent controls Trampoline power work as well.
For moments your opponents will be able to stand and move. Thats why you want to drop a Quicksand on top of your Earthquake. Its like peanut butter and jelly. Take this power at 18 and triple recharge it by 19. You have now come into your own as an Earth Controller. What could be better than Earthquake? Believe it or not, there might be something. Just wait until level 26.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge. If you want to add more, dont bother with defense. Quicksand will take care of that for you. Some like to slot an additional 3 to-hit debuffs to up the to-hit debuff to 15%. I, however, highly recommend the triple range option. Three range SOs boost your Earthquake reach to 90 feet! That gives you thirty more feet of range to find a corner to hide behind, and it matches the range of Quicksand.
Volcanic Gasses
Available at Level: 26
Accuracy: 1.4
Range: 60
Endurance: 18.2
Recharge: 240
Damage Scale: 0.01 Fire damage every 2 seconds (75% chance) (0.02777 BI)
Duration: 60 seconds
You can tap into the geothermal power of the Earth and focus it at a targeted location. Foes that pass near a thermal vent will take minor Fire damage and be overcome by the gasses, leaving them choking and helpless.
I love this power: a big gaseous blob. Wait for the tank to run in and gather aggro, then drop this baby under her and type, DANG woman!!! You gotta hold back on those meat-lover pizzas!! Its a laugh riot. Even those too mature for potty humor jokes snicker. Reading about it here may not sound that funny, sure. Go ahead and try it in game. I dare you.
Another location target power and this one is great. The gas pulses your enemies for damage and hold. The damage is minor, but the hold pulses every 6 seconds for a 7.45 second hold. The pulses are rather accurate, and if you slot the hold out theyll overlap. This power is arguably better than Earthquake, except that Earthquake has a faster recharge and is available earlier in your career.
It is also a main ingredient in the Death Soup recipe.
And, even though your enemies arent wrapped up in stone and earth, they are still considered to be contained once overcome by your gas. Take this at 26.
The downside? One of the few Earth Control powers that doesnt damage your foes defense. Not a problem
lay down some Quicksand.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge. Add 3 hold durations if you like.
Animate Stone
Available at Level: 32
Accuracy: 1
Range: 60
Endurance: 20.8
Recharge: 240
Duration: See below
Earth and stone coalesce to form an incredibly tough entity that can attack your foes. The Animated Stone is not alive and is immune to Psionic damage. It is also virtually immune to Sleep, Immobilize, Disorient, and Hold effects. The entity can be healed.
This power is considered optional by many. I would opine that the Earth/Sonic should have this power at least until she takes one or two epic damage powers and slot them out. Frankly, you should take and keep this power period. Considered the tank pet of the controller summons (imps are scrappers, phantasm is the blaster, singularity is the controller, and Jack is left so he has to play the defender) Poo as many people call her or Gretchen as I call her can take quite a beating. Look at her numbers:
<ul type="square">[*]40% resistance to smashing damage.[*]50% resistance to lethal damage[*]60% resistance to fire, cold, energy, and negative energy damage.[*]80% resistance to toxic damage.[*]100% resistance to psionic damage.[*]Virtually immune to sleep[*]Resistant to knockback and general being knocked around.[*]Virtually immune to immobilize, holds, and stuns.[*]Taunt effect from attacks.[*]Hurl boulder attack for a 3 smashing damage scale (8.33333 BI).[*]Stone fist attack for a 1.8 smashing damage scale (5.0 BI)[*]Stone mallet attack for a 3 smashing damage scale (8.33333 BI).[/list]Gretchens attacks are slow and she likes to hang out at range and toss boulders, sure. Also, her damage does not benefit from containment. But she can take a beating. Add to that her resistance to exotic damage and your ability to boost her resistance to common damage, and you have one tough pile of mud! At level 33 if you toss three damage enhancements in her your soloing speed will be utterly magnified.
And in those moments where a spawn of a few bosses with no corner nor tank in sight would turn your grapes into juice you now have the option of summoning Gretchen right in their midst to take the alpha while you lay down your controls. Those who use Gretchen for consistently taking alpha strikes slot recharges so shes available for respawn on a somewhat regular basis. Note that once spawned, Gretchen will stay with you until you dismiss her (right click on her and hit x), respawn a new Gretchen (the old one automatically dies to limit the caster to one pet), zone (elevators dont count), or she or you fall in battle. If you dont plan on using her much for alpha strikes, dont bother with recharges.
She can even act as an anchor for your Disruption Field when needed. Enemies prefer to attack Gretchen over her master, generally, so shes quite useful to have around. My only complaint: shell track dirt onto your rugs. Be careful where you take her.
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracy 3 damage.
- Alpha Gretchen: 0-1 accuracy 3 damage 2-3 recharge.
Seismic (aka Sonic) Resonance
Sonics, also known as ringers for the rings orbiting around them and those nearby, are widely misunderstood. Lets take care of that problem right here and now.
Seismic (aka Sonic) Siphon
Available at Level: 1
Accuracy: 1
Range: 80
Endurance: 8.53
Recharge: 16
Duration: 30 seconds
By setting up a constant vibration within the body of your foe, you weaken his Damage Resistance. Affected targets will take more damage from successful attacks.
A very good power, which is fortunate since this is a mandatory pick. Pretend you were about to get into a boxing match with a kangaroo in a football uniform. I would bet on the kangaroo, Im sorry to say, but lets also say that before that fight began, a little bit of fairy dust was handed to you that you could blow on the Gridiron Marsupial that would disintegrate her football pads. That is what Seismic Siphon will do for you. Specifically, it reduces a targets smashing, lethal, fire, cold, energy, negative energy, psionic and toxic resistance by 22.5% (for you defenders out there, yours does 30%)!!
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<ul type="square">[*]Damage buffs all boost a powers BASE damage. Take a power that does 10 points of base damage. A defenders siphon power would damage buff that power by 25%, resulting in a new and improved 12.5 point damage attack! Now imagine that power with 3 green damage SOs in it. To make things easy lets just say they provide a 100% damage increase. That would mean the power now does 20 points of damage. Lets let that defender siphon power again. How much will the attack do? If you said 22.5 points, you are correct! The reason is that damage buffs only buff the BASE damage, not the enhancement damage. Damage enhancements are not base damage. Neither are inspirations, Build-Up powers, or Aim powers.[*] Damage resistance debuffs boost the GROSS damage your attacks do. This makes them more effective, percentage per percentage point, than pure damage buffs like Siphon Power and Fulcrum Shift. Lets take that 10 point power again. Hit the enemy with a 22.5% resistance debuf and then attack and youll do, yes, 12.25 points of damage! However, imagine slotting your 10 point attack with three damage SOs, then attacking the enemy after a 22.5% resistance debuff. How much damage will you do? If you said 24.5 points of damage, you are correct! This may not seem like much, but it adds up. Deprive an enemy of 45% damage resistance and suddenly that 100 point scrapper attack is doing 145!!! Pretty cool. And get this: damage resistance debuffs have a separate cap from damage buffs. Thus, while your blaster friend is capping his damage with Aim, Build Up, and inspirations, you can help him do damage beyond the cap by dropping enemy damage resistances. Wow! Who likes it when their blaster buddy does 580% damage? Raise your hands! Yep.[/list]We now return to our normally scheduled programming
Seismic Siphon does not self stack from the same caster. Its not like Kinetics Siphon Power, which does. As you can imagine, if it did it would become way too powerful. Youll know its working if you see a little red shield on your victim. Poor sod.
Finally, in those rare situations where youll need to be the one to pull, this is the power to use. It wont lock the target down, itll get his attention, and it wont affect the surrounding meanies.
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracy.
Seismic (aka Sonic) Barrier
Available at Level: 2
Range: 80
Endurance: 7.8
Recharge: 2
Duration: 240 seconds
This shield dramatically reduces the damage an ally takes from Smashing, Lethal, and Toxic attacks for a limited time. You cannot stack multiple Sonic Barriers on the same target; however, the shield can be improved by another ally using the same power.
Boost your teammates resistances to smashing, lethal and.. get this.. sewage (toxic) by 15%. Drop three SOs in this and youll give them 23.4% resistance (for defenders the numbers are 20% base and 31.2% with 3 SOs). Pretty nice. Only drawback: you cant use it on yourself. You can use it on Gretchen, however. Though it doesn't self-stack on a teammate, it will stack with another sonic's barrier. Another bonus: it looks like youre screaming at your mates when you activate it. You want this power.
Recommended Slotting: 3 damage resistance, 0-1 endurance reducers.
Seismic (aka Sonic) Haven
Available at Level: 4
Range: 80
Endurance: 7.8
Recharge: 2
Duration: 240 seconds
This shield dramatically reduces the damage an ally takes from Fire, Cold, Energy, and Negative Energy attacks for a limited time. You cannot stack multiple Sonic Havens on the same target; however, the shield can be improved by another ally using the same power.
This boosts your teammates resistances to fire, cold, energy, and negative energy by 15%. Triple SOs will boost this to 23.4% (for defenders the numbers are 20% base and 31.2% with 3 SOs). Like Barrier, this power does not self stack. Notice, between Barrier and Haven, psionic damage isnt covered. Make sure your team knows this when they mess with monkeys or Mother Mayhem. Fortunately for Earth/Sonics, our pet laughs at psionic damage. Not even a Dark Armor scrapper can compare (btw, I love DA scrappers).
Like barrier, you cant use this on yourself. A shame. Get it anyway.
Recommended Slotting: 3 damage resistance, 0-1 endurance reducers.
Seismic (aka Sonic) Cage
Available at Level: 10
Accuracy: 1.4
Range: 80
Endurance: 12.48
Recharge: 60
Duration: 30 seconds (15 PvP)
Encases the target in an impenetrable field of sonic waves. The target cannot attack or be attacked.
If youre going to PvP, youll dig this. Nothing like caging some poor stalker like an obese mouse, mixing up a Soup of Death beneath him, and waiting for the cage to drop as your hero friends gather like hungry foxes to tear him apart. Its quite lovely. In PvE its nice to remove a meanie from a spawn by dropping this, but you wont find too much use for it once you get close to 20. From 10-18, it can help, however. My favorite use post 18: caging FF generators, DE eminators, or anything whose effects buff your enemies. The cage cuts off the buff!
This power basically puts an enemy in timeout. Most skip this power, as it generally irritates teammates who have a difficult time understanding that the floating word unaffected means stop attacking this target, Einstein. Its worth it to inform your partners-in-crime-fighting that an enemy wearing a translucent hula-hoop is one that cant be attacked at the moment.
Recommended Slotting: 1 acc, PvE
2-3 acc, 0-3 recharge PvP.
Disruption Field
Available at Level: 16
Range: 70
Endurance: 0.52/tick
Recharge: 8
Radius: 15 feet
Duration: toggle
You set up a constant wave of sonic energy around an ally, weakening the Damage Resistance of all nearby foes.
For some reason Enervating Field gets most of the press. Acid Arrow gets the rest. Disruption Field is arguably better than both and even Disease Controls Montezuma's Revenge power. However, Freezing Rain it is not. The specifics?
Disruption Field is anchored to a teammate (or your stoney). Any enemy found within range suffers a 22.5% (30% for you defenders) hit to smashing, lethal, fire, cold, energy, negative, psionic, and toxic damage resistance. Enervating Field and Acid Arrow could be called comparable debuffs, but they both lack the Disruption Field advantages:
<ul type="square">[*]It goes to the right spot without you having to direct it or re-activate it. Put it on a capable teammate, and hell run into the thick of the enemy while you worry about other things.[*]It doesnt go away. How many frustrated radiation controllers and defenders watch as their anchors get slaughtered? How many times does an archer shoot his arrow to make sure the acid is refreshed? Disruption Field stays on as long as you and your anchor are alive and in range of one-another without any button-mash overhead.[/list]Use this in conjunction with Seismic Siphon and youll be doing -45% damage resistance to your target. That is what I call, very nice.
Now the Surgeon General Warnings: Disruption Field generates aggro towards YOU, not your anchor. Its kinda like your anchor is your contract killer, but hes wearing a mask with your face on it. Thus, the affected enemies want to pay you a special visit. Oh no! Fortunately, Taunt and Gauntlet are stronger aggro magnets than Disruption Field. So place it on a tank or a dwarf. In a pinch you can use it on a scrapper, especially one with a PBAoE like Death Shroud or Quills
just stay out of sight until the scrap has the full attention of the enemy, or power it up once you have your controls down. Moreover, beware the herd-happy tanker. Some tanks believe the more they herd the better. The problem is, should he get too large a group he will fail to aggro everyone, and the leftovers will be coming for you. One more warning: remember to turn it off when your team is stealthing or traveling long distances. If the tank runs by some pile of enemies with her taunt aura down and speeds off, guess who those angry heathens will come swarming after? You.
Also, the power makes sound waves shoot out of your hands. Its friggin neato in a Speedo. Get it.
Recommended Slotting: 3 endurance reducers.
Seismic (aka Sonic) Dispersion
Available at Level: 20
Range: Player based
Endurance: 0.26/tick
Recharge: 15
Radius: 25 feet
Duration: toggle
You create a large field of sonic waves, protecting all allies inside. The Sonic Dispersion gives all allies within increased Resistance against all damage except Psionic. The Sonic Bubble also protects allies from Immobilization, Disorient, and Hold effects.
Ah yes
finally some defense for yourself. It provides you and all friends within 25 feet of you resistance to smashing, lethal, fire, cold, energy, negative, and toxic damage at a clip of 11.25% base, 17.55% with three damage resistance SOs (defenders have 15% base and 23.4% enhanced). Wait! Thats not all! It also provides resistance from holds, stun, and immobilize.
Take this power and love it. Nothing like mezz protection. And sure well take the damage resistance on top.
Between this and your seismic shields, you can boost your teammates resistances by over 40%! Squishy group hug!! Run this at all times. Be aware, this shield, like your other ones, does not protect against psionic damage.
Recommended Slotting: 3 damage resistance, 1-3 endurance reducers.
Seismic (aka Sonic) Repulsion
Available at Level: 28
Range: 70
Endurance: 0.52/tick + 2.5 per enemy repulsed
Recharge: 8
Radius: 10 feet
Duration: toggle
You create a powerful sonic resonance around an ally, repelling all foes nearby. You will lose endurance for each target repelled.
Know those nights when you want to get out and about, but you just dont have it in you to party all night? A movie theatre sounds a little stagnant but a club too much. What do you do? Well, you play CoX!!! Okay, before you got CoX what did you do? You went
BOWLING!
Drop this on a teammate and watch the enemies go flying. Its fun, its laugh-inducing, and you can make a buck video capturing the results and sending the tape to Americas Funniest Home Videos.
This power can nullify foes who arent knockback resistant. That frightening boss without knockback is now your comrades basketball. In PvP this potentially helps, but most of your enemies will have knockback protection. That empath who is buffing you and the new target of the villains can possibly bounce his way to safety. Then again, who in PvP doesnt have some knockback protection?
Its pretty fun but it can quickly leave you winded, especially if you are running the other two seismic toggles.
Frankly, I didnt take this power. But you definitely should try it on test just for fun.
Recommended Slotting: 3 endurance reducers, 0-3 knockback.
Clarity
Available at Level: 35
Range: 70
Endurance: 5.2
Recharge: 4
Duration: 90 seconds
By bouncing a carefully pitched sound wave off an ally's ear drum, you can free him from any Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Confusion, Fear, or Immobilize effects, and leave him resistant to such effects for a good while. Protection will improve with multiple applications.
I can see clearly now the rain is goooonnnneee. Sing along!!! Freedom from stun, sleep, immobilize, hold, confusion, and fear, plus a perception boost. In other words, its Clear Mind without the purple head. Take it, use it. For PvP in Warbug and beyond, your team will rub on your for it. There are those stalkers who know to look for the purple aura of Clear Mind, but dont know how to identify Clarity. Into range they will come, thinking they are stealthy, only to take a quick trip to the hospital. Do not worry, my seismic siblings
I will not tell them what it looks like. Ha!
Recommended Slotting: 1 recharge or 1 range or 1 endurance reducer.
Liquefy
Available at Level: 38
Accuracy: 1
Range: 60
Endurance: 23.4
Recharge: 300
Radius: 25 feet
Damage Scale: 0.45 Smashing + 0.45 Energy = 0.9 Total (2.5 BI)
Duration: 30 seconds
You unleash a barrage of sonic waves on the Earth itself, generating a powerful, localized earthquake. The impact of the sonic shockwave may Hold some foes and deal some minor damage. Most foes that pass through the location will fall down. The violent shaking
Doesnt this description sound like Earthquakes big mean brother? How I drooled, wringing my hands in anticipation waiting to get my hands on this power. Then I experienced it. What did it do? It knocked down some enemies, held some others, and before I knew it, they had all freed up and run out of the AoE, only to wave their armpits in my face. Very disappointing.
However, with a little work and education, I found out some interesting things and a nice use for Liquefy, the final ingredient in Death Soup. I will now let you in on the mystery that is Liquefy. The specifics:
When cast Liquefy tries to hit all within its range. If it hits, a 4-5 second hold ensues with smashing damage and energy damage. A knockdown component activates as well. Yep. It does those three things, none of them well. What it does do well is the following: it reduces recharge time on enemy powers by 20%, it drops enemy defense by 25%, and it drops enemy accuracy by 25%. Check it out: it does the cool stuff without a to-hit roll. Thats right
weak stuff needs the to-hit roll, cool stuff doesnt. Now were talking!
Imagine this: A pile of bosses. Drop Volcanic Gasses, then Liquefy, and their holds stack, freezing several bosses quickly! Yay Liquefy! Add Quicksand to the mix and you have the recipe for, you guessed it, Death Soup.
Now, imagine this: You take on a group, quickly Quicksanding and Earthquaking them into submission. However, another nearby spawn sees you and starts their attack
nothing that Stalagmites, Stones Cages, and a follow-up of Volcanic Gasses cant cure. Then, a moment later
an ambush. Oh no! Earthquake is recharging, Volcanic Gasses and Stalagmites are too, and you respecd out of Stone Crystals! Not to worry. Liquefy knocks down the ambush and holds some of them. Stone Cages locks them in place so they dont run away. Now you have an ambush of to-hit debuffed enemies that have nowhere to run. They shoot at you but very few hit. Good work!
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharges, 3 to-hit debuff. Sure you could slot defense debuff, but why bother when your primary is Earth Control?
The Power Pools
Everybody has an opinion about power pools. That makes them like
like
livers. Everybody has one. And doesnt everybody like liver? On my Earth/Sonic I found with a wide variety of yummy powers to take, I only had room for 5-6 pool powers in my build. You can make room for maybe 1-2 more if you really need to. Just ask yourself: do I really need to?
[u]Concealment[u]
Being able to stealth missions and sneak up on groups to Salt Crystal them are nice perks. I say, if it fits your concept and if youll be soloing lots, get a concealment power or two. During my career, these are perks I never really missed. Still, nobody will make fun of you if they see these in your build.
[u]Fighting[u]
If youre going to be soloing lots, go ahead and take an attack power. Boxing is a nice once since it recharges quickly. However, I prefer Flurry or Air Superiority. Dont waste a power selection on Tough or Weave. Leave those for the scrappers and tanks. My advice: avoid this set. I did and look at me today!
[u]Fitness[u]
I love Stamina. How you get to it, I dont care. I highly recommend you get there, however, and by level 20. If youre going to get Super Jjump or Super Speed as your travel power, try Hurdle. Flight, take Swift. Teleportation? Up to you. There are those who dont take stamina. They save three power slots, but they suffer more downtime, especially when using AoEs and toggles like Disruption Field. If youre traveling with friends who can boost your endurance for your entire career, consider skipping this pool. I highly recommend you take it.
[u]Flight[u]
Flight is one of the coolest travel powers, in my opinion. More than any other power I feel like a hero when I fly. Its a good for the Shadow Shard as well. Three slotted flight speed in Hover makes for a great combat knockdown protection combat-time power. The only drawback to floating in the air? You need to land to fire off Stalagmites. Air Superiority is a nice melee attack for the soloing Earth/Sonic. Some take it and respec out once they get Animate Stone. If you go for this pool, I wouldnt blame you.
[u]Leadership[u]
Assault will give your mates a little extra damage output. In PvP it provides resistance to taunt and placate. Tactics gives a bit of a to-hit boost, as well as a boost to perception, confusion, and fear. Vengeance is a fun boost when one of your teammates takes a dirt-nap. If you take it be sure to make a macro to make you scream You killed Kenny!!! You b*#)ard!! when you launch it. Overall, nice things to have. Definitely consider the former two for PvP builds. However, to-hit boosts arent so important with the amount of defense debuffage at your fingertips. The Assault damage boost is minimal past level 21. You wont miss this set if you avoid it like I did, at least in PvE. Nobody will complain if you take it, however.
[u]Leaping[u]
Immobilization protection, knockback and hold protection, and a fast travel power. I went with this set and loved it. Enjoy! Just remember to put an endurance reducer or two in Acrobatics.
[u]Medicine[u]
Leave this up to the empaths, rads, kins and darks. I did. Frankly, many defender and controller toons make an effort to grab a heal. Fine. Let them heal the team. The Earth/Sonic can worry about the things she was born to handle!
[u]Presence[u]
Its actually kind of fun to Provoke a spawn around a corner and into your Death Soup. Then again, a Seismic Siphon to the boss tends to do this just as well, but it does not open up the fear powers of this set. Fear powers are fun. Run away!! Run away!!! Then again, you have lots of control powers already that sport longer durations. For PvP, its nice to fear opponents. Note that fear does not generate containment. I voted no. If you want to be different and scary, do it.
[u]Speed[u]
Hasten is great for getting those long-to-recharge powers back. However, if you take the majority of your AoE controls, you wont be wanting for something to do. I didnt take Hasten and I led an exciting life. Flurry is a great pick for the soloing Earth/Sonic pre-32 (and even beyond). It does decent damage and will speed up your defeat all missions. Super Speed goes well with Salt Crystals. Hit your SS, select an enemy, tap F to follow, and activate Salt Crystals as soon as youre near him.
[u]Teleportation[u]
Good for PvP. I especially love the teleport foe into Death Soup tactic. Its really mean, frankly. It makes me smile. Another good travel power for the Shard.
Epic Powers
I wasnt able to find a thorough guide to Controller Epics. So, what the heck, I wrote my own.
For me, theme really decides what epic powers Im going to take. As far as what is most effective, it can depend on what youre up against. For you number crunchers out there, reference Colexs Enemy Resistances Damage and Mez, for a breakdown of what our enemies stand up to. As far as how epic powers fit with the Earth/Sonic controller, heres some information:
Fire Mastery
Not a bad choice. Tap into the soft magma center of the Earth and redirect some into your enemies eyeballs. You get some damage, a shield, and some endurance. The nice part is the damage, which has been sorely lacking your first 40 levels. Remember to contain your target before you toss out a Fire Ball or Blast. Its like auto-crits every time! And who likes to do critical hits? Yep.
Fire Ball
Available at Level: 41
Accuracy: 1
Range: 80
Endurance: 18.98
Recharge: 32
Radius: 15 feet
Damage Scale: 1.4 Fire Damage + three (80% chance) 0.1 Fire Damage ticks (3.9 + up to three 0.277777 BI)
Hurls an exploding Fireball that consumes a targeted foe, and all nearby enemies. Anyone in that explosion is burned and set ablaze.
This finally makes you a blastroller. If you take this pool, take this power. Cook dinner for your friends.
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracies, 3 damage, 1-2 recharge
Fire Blast
Available at Level: 41
Accuracy: 1
Range: 80
Endurance: 6.5
Recharge: 8
Damage Scale: 2.0 Fire Damage + four (80* chance) 0.1 Fire Damage ticks (5.555556 + up to four 0.277777 BI)
Sends a Blast of Fire at a targeted foe and sets the target on fire for a short period of time. Slower recharge rate than Flares, but more damage.
A very nice blast. Again, if you take this pool, take this power and let your inner pyro-child be free. Great for crème brulee.
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracies, 3 damage
Fire Shield
Available at Level: 44
Endurance: 0.16/tick
Recharge: 2
Duration: toggle
While this power is active, you get a good resistance to Lethal, Smashing and Fire damage. Fire Shield also provides minimal resistance to Cold damage. You must be level 44 and have Fire Blast or Fire Ball before selecting this power.
Its up to you if you want to take a shield. This one will give you 27.5% resistance to smashing and lethal damage, around 42.9% if you triple SO it. Factor in Seismic Dispersion and you have around 61% resistance to both. Nice. In addition you get 20% resistance to fire and 10% to cold. Slotted up those numbers are around 31% and 15.6%. Id take it, even though it makes you look like a 80 year old ladys birthday cake.
Recommended Slotting: 3 damage resistance, 0-1 endurance reducers
Consume
Available at Level: 47
Accuracy: 1
Range: Player Based AoE
Endurance: 0.65
Recharge: 360
Radius: 20 feet
Damage Scale: 0.4 Fire damage (1.11111 BI)
You can drain body heat from all nearby foes in order to replenish your own Endurance. The more foes affected, the more Endurance is gained. Foes suffer minimal Fire damage. You must be level 47 and have two other Fire Mastery Powers before selecting this power.
Isnt this one of the best power names? CONSUME
dun dun DUN!!! Anyway, its not a terribly useful power to the Earth/Sonic. First of all, we dont have too much in the way of endurance issues if we triple slot Stamina. Second of all, you have to run into melee range to use this power. Thats actually fine, considering most enemies are locked down when youre around. Still, a very optional power.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge, 1-2 accuracies.
Ice Mastery
Well, there could be ice on the Earth when it moves. There often is! Technically, an avalanche can be a large slide of snow instead of or in addition to rocks. So that global warming avalanche concept toon from Greenland could very well go this route. A little less damage than fire, but its better if you like the color blue. Lets investigate:
Hibernate
Available at Level: 41
Endurance: 0.16
Recharge: 240
Duration: 30 seconds, but can be toggled off before then.
When you activate this power, you encase yourself in a block of solid ice, making yourself invulnerable, though you are frozen solid and cannot act. While Hibernating within this block of ice, you heal damage and Recover Endurance at an incredible rate.
Fire this up and youll look like a frozen caveman in a costume. Strange its called hibernate. Animals hibernate in caves, not blocks of solid ice. This power should have been called Frozen Caveman! Anyway, you cant be knocked around, you cant be hit, you cant hit anything or buff anyone, and you get back your health and endurance. In other words, its a great big blue panic button: a big blue sonic cage that you shoot at yourself. Nice to have, but rarely used. Very optional pick. Your inner paleo-anthropologist will love it, though.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge
Ice Blast
Available at Level: 41
Accuracy: 1
Range: 80
Endurance: 10.66
Recharge: 8
Damage Scale: 0.8 Smashing Damage + 1.2 Cold Damage = 2.0 (5.5555556 BI)
Ice Blast hurls shards of ice at foes and Slows their attacks and movement for a time. Slower recharge than Ice Bolt, but more damage.
Gives a meanie frostbite and slows him down a bit. Not a bad power to get for a little damage dealing if you go the Ice route. Note that containment damage is all cold damage. In other words, hit a contained victim and youll do 0.8 smashing, 1.2 cold and then another 2.0 of cold damage for containment for a grand total of 4.0 damage. I can hear the toes hitting the operating room floor now.
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracies, 3 damage.
Frozen Armor
Available at Level: 44
Endurance: 0.16/tick
Recharge: 2
Duration: toggle
While this power is active, you coat yourself in rock hard Frozen Armor. The hardness of the Frozen Armor offers good defense to Smashing and Lethal attack as well as reduces Cold damage. Also, Fire attacks deal slightly less damage.
Fire up this armor and you get protection. Even better: you can jump into a giant glass of rum and coke and do a cocktail imitation. This armor provides you with 13.5% defense to smashing and lethal attacks, 21% if slotted out. Since Seismic Dispersion is a damage resistance shield, these dont stack. However, Frozen Armor provides another 30% resistance to cold and 10% resistance to fire. If you slot damage resistance you can boost these up to 47% and 15.6%, and they will stack with your big big rings.
Recommended Slotting: 3 defense, 0-3 defense resistance
Ice Storm
Available at Level: 47
Accuracy: 2
Range: 60
Endurance: 19.5
Recharge: 120
Radius: 25 feet
Damage Scale: Lots of little ticks totaling 2.3 Cold Damage (6.39 BI) per target
Duration: 15 seconds
Shred your foes with this Ice Storm. This power deals a lot of damage in a large area and can Slow all affected targets movement and attack speed.
This sends your enemies running, albeit slowly. Of course, after youve Earthquaked, Quicksanded, Volcanic Gassed, or maybe even Stone Caged them, that isnt a problem. Muahahaha.
Lots and lots and lots of little ticks of damage ensue. Take it. Use this power whenever you are feeling merciless. Containment does not boost Ice Storms power. A shame. Why? Its considered a summoned pet.
Recommended Slotting: 3 damage, 3 recharge.
Primal Forces Mastery
What a name! Say it in your best Austin Powers voice, primal forces mastery, baby, YEAH! Earth and sound
these are primal things. This choice really should fit into any concept, especially Rock Your World Woman. How useful is it? To me, not very. This is the one epic controller set without an AoE damage attack. If youre interested in staying the route of control over damage, this is the way to go. Read on:
Conserve Power
Available at Level: 41
Endurance: 97.5
Recharge: 600
Duration: 90 seconds
You can focus for a moment to Conserve your Endurance. After activating this power, you expend less Endurance on all other powers for a while.
This gives you a major discount to endurance costs of your powers for a minute and a half. This is a great thing, especially if youre a Spines/DA scrapper, a Broadsword/DA scrapper, an Ice/Energy blaster, and so on. You, however, are not. And if you read this guide and built your toon accordingly, you have minimal endurance issues. Definitely optional. On the other hand, if youve put together a build that relies on Seismic Repulsion, a very nice tool to have.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge
Power Blast
Available at Level: 41
Accuracy: 1
Range: 80
Endurance: 10.66
Recharge: 8
Damage Scale: 0.80 Smashing Damage + 1.2 Energy Damage = 2.0 (5.5555556 BI)
A much more powerful, yet slower version of Power Bolt. Power Blast sends a focused beam of energy at a foe that can knock him back.
Ka-POW! This is all the damage Primal Forces Mastery gives you, so you better take it. Note that containment damage on this power is all energy. In other words, if you hit a contained enemy with it, youll do 0.8 smashing damage, 1.2 energy damage, and then another 2.0 of energy containment damage. Thatll leave a mark!
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracies, 3 damage.
Temp Invulnerability
Available at Level: 44
Endurance: 0.16/tick
Recharge: 2
Duration: toggle
When you toggle on this power, you become highly resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage.
I like this armor. Makes you look angelic and pure. Otherwise, the other resistance armors are arguably preferable since they cover a wider range of damage types. It stacks with Seismic Dispersion and helps your survivability. It gives you 30% resistance to smashing and lethal damage, 47% if you slot it out and it stacks with Seismic Dispersion.
Recommended Slotting: 3 damage resistance, 0-1 endurance reducers.
Power Boost
Available at Level: 47
Endurance: 9.75
Recharge: 120
Duration: 15 seconds
Greatly boosts the secondary effects of your powers. Your powers effects like Disorients, Holds, Immobilizes, Heals, Defense Buffs, Endurance Drains, Knockbacks and more, are all improved.
A main reason people take Primal Forces Mastery and its a good one. All of those controls you have
well.. now they are even BETTER. Pop this, lock down three spawns, and read a book. Its that good. All your mezzes are more than doubled. Yummy. This is also the price you pay for not going another epic route: you dont get an AoE damage power. You get this instead. Its up to you
.
With the amount of control I already had, I found this power to be a bit redundant. Others swear by it. I, however, am not a big fan of Power Boost for the Earth/Sonic.
Another very important point: Power Boost does not affect damage resistance. Your lovely ringlet shields are not boosted by this power. So sorry. Your damage resistance debuffs? Not boosted by this power. So sorry. I checked duration and magnitude and neither were boosted by this power.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge
Psionic Mastery
Okay.. youre a creative lot. If you can figure out a concept that marries Earth, Sonic, and Psionic Id love to hear it
in another thread. It wasnt my concept, but if you can figure one out, this is a fine power set to get into. You get some good defense and two nice damage powers that do psi damage. Nice for PvP. Terrible if you hate pink.
Indomitable Will
Available at Level: 41
Endurance: 19.5
Recharge: 360
Duration: 90 seconds
Activating this power greatly boosts your resistance to Sleep, Disorient, Fear and Hold effects for 90 seconds. Indomitable Will also grants a high defense to Psionic based attacks.
A cute little defense power for yourself. With Seismic Dispersion youll be hard pressed to fall under the effects of any mezz. A big boost in PvP! PvE its not such a big deal. You get a pink aura and 22.5% defense to psionic attacks as well. Slotted out thats around 35% defense! Nice.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge, 3 defense
Mental Blast
Available at Level: 41
Accuracy: 1
Range: 100
Endurance: 6.5
Recharge: 8
Damage Scale: 2.0 Psionic Damage (5.5555556 BI)
This basic attack does moderate Psionic damage, and can slightly reduce a target's attack speed.
Long ranged and painful, this is one of my favorite blast attacks. In PvP most people dont have psionic protection
oh how they will rue this power. Add to this a 30% drop in recharge rates for your victim and you have a very nice attack.
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracies, 3 damage.
Mind Over Body
Available at Level: 44
Endurance: 0.16/tick
Recharge: 2
Duration: toggle
When you toggle on this power, you empower your Mind Over Body to become highly resistant to Smashing, Lethal and Psionic damage.
One of the most loved armors in the epic sets. This provides 27.5% damage resistance to smashing and lethal and 20% resistance to psionic damage. Finally! Psionic damage resistance!! Slot this out with SOs and youll have almost 43% and 31% respectively. Plus, your aura gets pinker and you might mistake yourself for cotton candy. The best effect: it will hypnotize you into playing CoH for another 17 hours straight. Turn it on and type /e yoga. You are now the Zen Master Earth Mover.
Recommended Slotting: 3 damage resistance, 0-1 endurance reducers.
Psionic Tornado
Available at Level: 47
Accuracy: 1
Range: 100
Endurance: 23.14
Recharge: 20
Radius: 20 feet
Damage: 5 * 0.35 Psionic Damage ticks = 1.75 (4.86 BI)
Unleashes a whirlwind of Psionic energy on a target, tossing nearby foes into the air. The Psionic Tornado damages foes and Slows their attack speed.
A beauty to behold
I always wondered what a tornado of psionic energy looked like. Then I got married and found out. This power definitely captures the essence of one. For a good trick, stone cage your targets and then drop this on them. Lots of psionic damage later theyll be crying pink tears of pain. If you dont lock your victim down, theyll go flying about from the knockup. Thats not necessarily a bad thing. Arguably the best epic AoE a controller can take as far as function is concerned.
Recommended Slotting: 1-2 accuracies, 3 damage, 0-2 recharge.
Stone Mastery
If you want to stick to the Earth theme, here you go. Stone Mastery is rather maligned in the controller forums. Does it deserve the poor press? In my opinion, no. There are at least two worthwhile selections, one crummy one, and one downright ugly one. Heres what the powers do:
Fissure
Available at Level: 41
Accuracy: 1
Range: 20
Endurance: 12.74
Recharge: 20
Radius: 15 feet
Damage Scale: 0.9 Smashing Damage (2.5 BI)
This powerful stomp can cause a seismic disturbance. This will crack the Earth itself and send a Fault towards a targeted foe. Affected targets take moderate damage and may be thrown in the air and possibly Disoriented.
Possible knockback and about half the targets get disoriented. Makes for a nice opening salvo: stalagmites -> stone cages -> fissure. You may actually disorient some bosses. It looks darn cool too, especially when your enemies fall over! Chance to disorient is a coin-flip. That said, its a very optional power, and its pathetic range isnt a strong point. Its worse than all the other epic AoEs, expect for primal forces, which doesnt have one.
Recommended Slotting: 2 accuracies, 3 damage, 0-1 disorient.
Hurl Boulder
Available at Level: 41
Accuracy: 1
Range: 40
Endurance: 11.7
Recharge: 10
Damage Scale: 3 Smashing Damage (8.9999993 BI)
You are able to tear up a chunk of ground beneath your feet and Hurl it at an enemy. This attack is close ranged, deals moderate damage, and can knock foes back.
This is the power that drops the jaws of the Stone Mastery nay sayers. Oh, stone is bad? youll coyly blurt. Then youll fossilize some poor minion as your disruption field anchor works nearby, spit out a seismic siphon, then pluck a rock out of the ground, and drop it on him for over 530 points of damage. Ive done 600 with other teammates debuffs and buffs active, and there are stories of 1000+ tosses in the forums. Just ask ValkyrieRising. Gretchen has this too, but because yours benefits from containment, its twice as good as hers. The downsides are the terribly long activation time (almost 4 seconds), the short range, and that the damage type is smashing. The upside is the fact that your little bitty controller is now chucking rocks and making Rikti Pancakes. Arguably the best single target epic power. Take it and love it.
Recommended Slotting: 2 accuracies, 3 damage, 1 recharge.
Rock Armor
Available at Level: 44
Endurance: 0.16/tick
Recharge: 4
Duration: toggle
Your skin becomes stone while this power is active. Stone Armor makes you highly resistant to Smashing and Lethal attacks. They are less likely to land and affect you.
This is some goofy looking armor. Theres no way around it no matter how you dress it. Youll fire this up and say, dang, Im funnier looking than Lord Recluse in a Miracle Bra. People will ask you what pig farm you just crawled out of. The really mean ones will say things like, oh
so you must be the fan that everyone talks about. Nevertheless, youll receive the benefits of 14.4% defense to smashing and lethal damage. With 3 SOs you can up this to almost 23%. Take it if you can stand the look. Most people cant. On the other hand, its good on Halloween as a tank costume.
Recommended Slotting: 3 defense, 0-1 endurance reducers.
Earths Embrace
Available at Level: 47
Endurance: 13
Recharge: 360
Duration: 120 seconds
You are so connected to the Earth, you can draw upon its power to add to your own health. Activating this power increases your maximum Hit Points, and grants you resistance to Toxic Damage.
All that work for Mamma Gaia has paid off and she loves you for it. For two minutes you get a heal, a few hundred extra health, and 20% resistance to toxic damage. Add to that a very cool activation graphic and youve got a power you definitely want. Just remember, with the 2 second cast time you want to pop this off when youre orange or healthier, not red. Its not a bad idea to start this before a difficult battle, simply for the extra hitpoint benefit.
Recommended Slotting: 3 recharge, 3 health
Dear HotButteredSoul,
Being such a rare species, I decided to start a support network for Earth/Sonics and the issues they face. Some have contacted me in need of dire help. Here are some of their letters. I hope they may help you along your journey as well:
Dear HotButteredSoul,
I have no idea what all this accuracy, defense, and to-hit mumbo jumbo is all about. I even graduated college and I still dont get it. You should explain things better you jerk!
Confused in Croatoa
Dear Confused,
Uh
honey? Is that you? Hmmmm.
You are not alone. 25% defense debuff
10% to-hit debuff
doobey doobey doo debuff. What does it all mean!?!? I have a great recommendation for you. Read Arcanavilles Arcana's Guide to Defense v1.4 - Updated for I7.
This will clear things up. In a nutshell: dropping an enemys defense boosts your ability to hit. Thus, Earth Control powers boost to hit %.
Good luck!
Dear HotButteredSoul,
If Earth powers drop defense, and defense lets you hit more often, why slot accuracies at all? Save those slots for something better! I like to use mine in brawl. ROTFLMAO!! Not really!
Tommy in Talos
Dear Tommy,
There are those Earth Controllers who, via liberal use of Quicksand, forego extensive accuracy slotting. As you pointed out, you can do this too. Youll find you hit quite often with 0-1 accuracies in your powers in PvE if you drop a quicksand first.
Should you do this?
Its up to you. I dont. I like to be as flexible as possible. You never know where the enemy is coming from. If you are relying on the availability and deployment of Quicksand to allow your other powers to hit
well.. in my book youre limiting your ability to handle the randomness that are large team missions. I prefer to have any attack slotted so that it will hit a +4 with a high degree of certainty without the Quicksand requirement. One thing Earth/Sonic does well is allow for slots. I highly recommend you consider putting two accuracies in any power that will take them, except for volcanic gasses and liquefy. One will do in single target powers, but two is always better. With one youll miss more often in PvP and against those purple people eaters. And who likes missing? Nobody.
My advice, whenever you want to try out a new idea, go to the test server and try it out. It helps quite a bit! Good luck.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
I dont trust you. So I went ahead and used Sonic Siphon on an enemy and recorded all the numbers. Guess what? I only got a 20.25% boost in damage. You said it would be 22.5% Youre a liar! How dare you!
Bummed in Brickstown
Dear Bummed,
Theres one thing I didnt mention in my guide. It can get rather complicated for some, so I didnt go into it. Frankly, it is covered in great detail in iakonas Power Data Standardization v2.0 (Issue 7). If you check that article you will discover a table called COMBAT MODIFIERS. Combat modifiers are adjustments to your powers based on the number of levels your enemy differs from you. Ever notice that you do more damage and longer holds against enemies that are lower level than you? Enemies that are higher level than you take less damage and are held for shorter times. This applies to damage resistance as well. An enemy one level above you applies a 0.9 combat modifier to your powers. That means, a 22.5% resistance debuff against an even level enemy becomes a 22.5% * 0.9 = 20.25% resistance debuff. From that alone I know you were fighting an enemy +1 to you. Just so you know, +2 has a 0.8 modifier, +3 a 0.65, and +4 is 0.48. Yep, against a +4 your Sonic Siphon will do a 10.8% damage resistance debuff instead of 22.5%. Check out the table in iokonas post for more information.
Good luck.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
For the life of me, I cannot find a team!! I use deodorant. Am I doing the wrong thing? Please help!
Alone in Astoria
Dear Alone,
First of all, get out of Dark Astoria. Nobody goes there anymore. Now, a team is more important to a well-fed and exercised Earth/Sonic than almost any other toon. Soloing, though necessary at times, is not the strength of this combo. Thus, it is important to polish some of your interpersonal skills to find and work on a team. You must also strive to be a good teammate. The basics of working within a team is covered nicely in PhiloticKnights The Combat Handbook v2.0.
To find a team, I recommend the following process.
<ul type="square">[*]Join an active super group. A polite player with a good character concept has an easy time finding super groups. Go to the SG NPC in Atlas to see how the SGs on your server are ranked. Then write emails to the ones that look good. Also, check the forums for your server for SGs and make contact. Its worth your while. Be sure to join your SGs chat channel.[*]Check your server forum for your server chat channel. Join it and add it as a tab on your interface.[*]When you find good teammates, /friend them. When you find exceptional teammates ask them if you can global friend them. If they say yes, do it.[*]When you login, set your team window to looking for
.[*]Check your sg, friends, and global friends lists. Advertise your availability on your server chat channel. See if you can get on a pre-existing team.[*]Pull up the team window and select a level range you fall into. Do a search. Notice there are bright and dimmed names. Bright names are names of people not yet on teams. If there are enough bright names, send tells and ask if theyd like to join you for a team. Soon youll have a team and youll be the leader! Now you can make them do your missions.[*]If there arent too many bright names, look for dim names. Since the dimmed names are already on formed teams, maybe you can join up! Send these people tells and ask Hi! Im a lvl XX controller lft. Do you have room for another? If they say no, say good luck bringing those criminals to justice! If you get an open spot, please consider me. Its the classy move and you will get invites this way.[/list]Good luck. With this advice Im sure youll make new friends and find enjoyable teams.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
I dont think my team appreciates me. They never talk to me. I stand in the corner and cry, and even then they wont approach and ask me how Im doing. If only somebody would smile in my general direction. Im not asking for much. I dont know if I can take the isolation anymore. What do I do!??
Lost in the Land of the Lost
Dear Triple-L,
This might be difficult to hear, but its good well-documented advice: instead of waiting for someone to perform an action you want them perform, do it yourself. In other words: dont wait for them to talk to you. Talk to them! Why? Letting your team know what is what is an important skill for the Earth/Sonic. Here are some messages I have /bindd to allow for ease of chatting:
<ul type="square">[*]The Earths vibrations call to me
. A $target is near.[*] Please wait a moment for your triple slotted Seismic Shields![*] $target may I use you as a Disruption Field anchor? It will reduce the damage resistance of every enemy youre near, which means we all do more damage. When you see red shields on them youll know its working.[*] Seismic Dispersion is up! Stay close for mezz and damage resistance protection.[*] I am going to Salt Crystal (sleep) that mob. Use only single target attacks on the ones I miss, please.[*] If you get mezzed, type your team number. For example: 2. I will Clarity you.[/list]Just these few will complete change your communication experiences with your team. If you want to make your own bind, just pick a key, say b, pick a message such as a warning message, and use the following command:
/bind b say Im picking up the vibrations of a $target. Beware.
Just make sure the key you select isnt already bound to something you need and use. Enjoy.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
Im getting carpal tunnel syndrome shielding my team. Im about two influence away from respec-ing out of those darn things forever! Also, my friends complain that it takes me too long to Clarity them when were in the middle of a crazy fight. Im going as fast as I can but my wrist hurts!! What else can I do? I hate this buff-bot deal. I havent yet, but Ive been having dreams where I log into City of Heroes and I roll a Spines-Regen scrapper. Please help!
Shieldless in Skyway
Dear Shieldless,
Putting shields on your teammates can be an annoying process. Now now.. I did it until level 50, so you can too. One thing youll learn from a /regen scrapper is that they will love you forever if you shield them. They will no longer fear alphas. To ease your clickfest use a bind or two. Fortunately for us, Storyteller published a set of binds on FF shields in The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to /bind.
I have altered them to meet the needs of a Sonic. The result? If you want to shield a teammate, simply press the number corresponding to his team number on your numpad. It usually works, though sometimes you have to hit the key a few times to get both shields on her. Try it out and see what you think.
Regarding Clarity and quickly firing clarity off on a mezzed mate: often, a teammate will type zzz or held if he is mezzed. Then you have to find the teammate, select him, and activate Clarity. Precious seconds go by. Instead do this: use my binds to bind lshift-numkey to Clarity a member of your team. Now tell your team to type their corresponding team numbers if they get mezzed. For instance, teammate #6 types 6 if she gets feared. As soon as you see 6, you hold down left shift and press 6 on your numpad. Boom, shes back in the game.
Want these binds? I have written a batch file to make them for you. Please check out my post Sonic Resonance Bind Generator v1.0 to get them. Good luck!
Dear HotButteredSoul,
I love this game. I love Earth. I love Sonic. I hate people. I only play at 3am when nobody else is on. Its a good thing too. I hate people. Why do MMORPGs have to let other people play them. I hate that. I hate that I even have to write you this letter. That is, assuming youre a person. I like mice. They make good companions. Anyway, Im going to solo my Earth/Sonic. I dont care what you say. Im soloing him. Will I die of old age before Im done or can I do this?
Hermit in the Hive
Dear Hermit,
Compared to other controllers, Earth/Sonic is the turtle of soloing. If you owned a VW van you already know the mindset to use. Youll get there, just dont worry about when. In spite of all my teaming, youll be happy to know I did solo my Earth/Sonic a fair amount, especially to run through contact missions to get to badges. Thats right.. not only can you solo an Earth/Sonic, I did it. Patience is a virtue. Then again, so is chastity. Hmmm.. maybe you shouldnt be listening to me at all.
Earth gets two damage powers worth mentioning: Fossilize and Stone prison. Both have 1.0 damage scale. Its not much but thats enough to let you solo. In a mission, when you run into that lieutenant and a minion, you simply:
<ul type="square">[*]1) Fossilize the leut[*]2) Stone Prison the minion[*]3) Fossilize the minion[*]4) Stone Prison the minion[*]5) Repeat steps 1-4 until minion is dead, then focus all attacks on leut[*]6) Sprinkle with Seismic Siphon as needed[/list]As you go up levels you can modify this chain. For instance, at 12 you can put Stalagmites as step 0, then do steps 1-6.
Since you are determined to solo Earth/Sonic instead of something saner like Grav/Rad, you might do well to slot damage in both Fossilize and Stone Prison. Another help: take a pool attack like Air Superiority or Flurry. If you can get a temp power or Veteran Reward that does damage, do it. Once you get 3 damage SOs in each of those three powers youll be able to take down an even level minion in just three hits. This chain: Prison->Fossilize->melee attack works wonders. You set up DoT and containment, then do burst damage with your next two attacks. Youre no scrapper, but it works.
That said, there is a light at the end of the tunnel: level 33. At that point you can have Animate Stone with three damage SOs. Changes everything. You can even respec out of that melee power if you want to. Of course at 41 you finally get damage powers as well. Once you build those up you can respec out of Animate Stone if youd like to. Good luck on your slow journey. I hope you like the smell of flowers.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
I have read your guide and it was long. You really need an editor. Even so, Im going to grow myself an Earth/Sonic. Her name will be Karmen Gaia. I just dont know what to do now. How did you build your Earth/Sonic? I need any guidance I can get.
-Karmen in Kings Row
Dear Karmen,
Builds are based on needs. The magic of this game is everyone can build something different that works. The differences depend on what you want. Do you want to PvP a lot? A little? Not at all? Will you fight purples often or limit yourself to easier prey? What is your concept? Will you team as much as possible or will there be a significant amount of soloing? What powers appeal to you? I made some specific decisions. First, I wanted to PvE mostly, but PvP whenver I wanted to. I wanted to be able to contribute against +4 opponents. I wanted to be a controller first and use my secondary secondarily, so I built out my primary first. I liked the idea of a jumping toon since I imagined her using the Terra Firma to catch and catapult her into the sky. I liked the Stone Mastery powers conceptually over the others. I wanted to build a toon that leveled without needing a respec. With that in mind, I picked up SherkSilvers Character Builder and built the following toon. It worked out great for me. I hope this helps:
---------------------------------------------
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Earth Control
Secondary: Sonic Resonance
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Fossilize==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Hold(5)Hold(5)Rechg(7)Rechg(7)
01) --> Sonic Siphon==> Acc(1)Acc(9)
02) --> Stone Prison==> Acc(2)Acc(3)
04) --> Sonic Barrier==> DmgRes(4)DmgRes(11)DmgRes(17)EndRdx(37)
06) --> Quicksand==> Slow(6)Slow(9)Slow(11)Rechg(37)Rechg(40)Rechg(43)
08) --> Combat Jumping==> Jump(8)
10) --> Hurdle==> Jump(10)
12) --> Stalagmites==> Acc(12)Acc(13)Rechg(13)Rechg(15)DisDur(15)DisDur(17)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)
18) --> Earthquake==> Rechg(18)Rechg(19)Rechg(19)Range(46)Range(46)Range(46)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)
22) --> Stone Cages==> Acc(22)Acc(23)EndRdx(23)
24) --> Sonic Dispersion==> EndRdx(24)DmgRes(25)DmgRes(25)DmgRes(31)EndRdx(34)EndRdx(34)
26) --> Volcanic Gasses==> Rechg(26)Rechg(27)Rechg(27)Hold(36)Hold(36)Hold(36)
28) --> Sonic Haven==> DmgRes(28)DmgRes(29)DmgRes(29)EndRdx(37)
30) --> Disruption Field==> EndRdx(30)EndRdx(31)EndRdx(31)
32) --> Animate Stone==> Acc(32)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Acc(34)
35) --> Clarity==> EndRdx(35)
38) --> Liquefy==> Rechg(38)Rechg(39)Rechg(39)TH_DeBuf(39)TH_DeBuf(40)TH_DeBuf(40)
41) --> Hurl Boulder==> Acc(41)Acc(42)Dmg(42)Dmg(42)Dmg(43)Rechg(43)
44) --> Rock Armor==> DefBuf(44)DefBuf(45)DefBuf(45)EndRdx(45)
47) --> Earth's Embrace==> Rechg(47)Rechg(48)Rechg(48)Heal(48)Heal(50)Heal(50)
49) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(49)EndRdx(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Jump(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
---------------------------------------------
Dear HotButteredSoul,
Last night I went into Sirens Call for some PvP. I went up against a corruptor named Hyper-Cricket who jumped all over the place. I tried to Fossilize and Stone Prison her, but nothing worked. She didnt even attack me at first.. she just kept jumping and laughing and jumping and laughing. I thought I was watching a how-to cheerleader video. That was until she disoriented me and sent me to the hospital. What happened?
Stunned in Sirens
Dear Stunned,
All I can say is, please see and sign this thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...Number=6514287 Its a bug. It definitely discourages PvP fiends from going the Earth Control route. Of course, if this gets fixed we might be back in business. That said, I find that toons EVENTUALLY stop jumping for a moment. And when they do, you strike. I still manage to have fun in PvP. I hope that you do too.
Good luck.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
Throughout your guide you make suggestions about using powers together. Can you give me any other tips on the strategy of the Earth/Sonic? I would love some guidance! And after all, you wrote a guide.
Foolish in Faultline
Dear Foolish,
Like builds, tactics really depend on the person executing them. The tactics Im comfortable with may not be the ones youre comfortable executing. Moreover, tactics change based on terrain, enemy abilities, team composition, and the number of mai-tais youve consumed. My basic suggestions:
<ul type="square">[*]Learn how to rotate Fossilize to hold 2-3 targets at a time.[*]Learn how to place your targeted powers, Earthquake, Quicksand, Volcanic Gasses, and Liquefy, into enemy locations while you are out of their line of sight. This is key.[*]If theres an active tank on the team, wait for him to get the aggro before you engage the enemy.[*]Use Earthquake and Quicksand together. You have the option of adding Volcanic Gasses or Liquefy to that mix.[*]Use Stalagmites and Stone Cages together. Add Volcanic Gasses or Liquefy to the mix.[*]Pick a target you want to Fossilize before you lay down your AoE controls. Once your AoEs go down, youll still have that target selected.[*]When you get a new power, practice with it! If its an attack power, practice on lower level victims. Get a feel for it. If youre not sure what to take, copy your character to the test server and try out some powers. Read CuppaJos How to get on the test server (and char copy tool) to learn how to do this.[*]Have fun![/list]Hope that helps.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
Dag nabbit! I read your guide and Ive had this BLOODY SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR TWO DAYS NOW. Hate you
so much
right now
-_-
Luminara in the Lumiverse
Dear Luminara,
Big apologies. You will be happy to know that this condition is easily fixed. Simply toss Isaac Hayes Hot Buttered Soul into your CD player and all will be rectified.
Dear HotButteredSoul,
Okay, I just hit level 10 with my Earth/Sonic. I cannot fathom that you actually dinged 50 with such a toon. This guide is simply one huge lie. May I meet you in person and ask you about this?
Polygrapher in Peregrine
Dear Polygrapher,
No. But you can check out my City Game Tracker page for my 50, Seismic. I also wrote a Ding 50 post which will be here until its erased by the forum Gods. Its the original I Feel the Earth Move post. Enjoy!
Dear HotButteredSoul,
Could your guide be any longer? How about putting a sock in it? Gimmie your address so I can come over and feed your keyboard to my anaconda. If Im in a good mood you WONT be next.
Annoyed in Atlas
Dear Annoyed,
End of Guide.
Anyone else, please feel free to write a Dear HotButteredSoul letter here. I will do my best to respond.
Happy CoXing!
HotButteredSoul,
I guess I have the honor of being the first to say "Impressive guide...thank you!" I've played an Earth/Kin and a Grav/Sonic (my Phasetroller), but I never seriously considered pairing the two (especially after the bad press that Liquify received). You've changed my mind, though not necessarily immediately. 
I have no nits to pick with your guide at all. Thanks for the laughs along the way as well! 
7+ year vet with too many alts to list...
HotButteredSoul...... My hats off to you, sir. Fantastic guide! Entertaining to read, informative, and just overall good stuff!
I plan on using this guide to create my Earth/Kin. You've converted me into an Earth control fan .
Always up for teaming with good players, so hit me up: @Deceivius and @Deceivius2
Dear HotButteredSoul,
I really enjoyed reading your guide! Have to say I agree wholeheartedly with your /Sonic side of things - I have the silly-tastic combination of Ice/Sonic myself, although I am already feeling pangs of jealousy as I think of the extra soup combinations you can come up with as Earth/. My Gazpacho seems rather lacking in comparison... *sobs*.
I would like to point out however, that you are underselling the Epic Shields!!! It seems you grabbed the numbers for them direct from the fantastic City of Data. While this is generally very sensible, you may not be aware that the 'Epic' section is currently inadvertently applying Blaster Modifiers to all powers (rather than the appropriate mods for the ATs that actually use them). Since blasters aren't as good as controllers at using melee Resistance and Defense powers, we actually get better numbers than City of Data has been leading you to believe.
Of course it isn't completely straight forward... although Blasters have 0.07 as a melee modifier for both DamRes and DefBuff, controllers are fussy and have a melee modifier of 0.1 for DamRes and 0.09 for DefBuff. When I put the numbers through the Reverso-blastmod-replaco-trollmod-o-tron, I get the following:
Fire Shield: 27.5% (Smash/Lethal Res) / 20% (Fire Res) / 10% (Cold Res)
Frozen Armor: 13.5% (Smash/Lethal Def) / 30% (Cold Res) / 10% (Fire Res)
Temp Invulnerability: 30% (Smash/Lethal Res)
Mind over Body: 27.5% (Smash/Lethal Res) / 20% (Psionic Res)
Indomitable Will: 22.5% (Psionic Def)
Rock Armor: 14.4% (Smash/Lethal Def)
Not that it makes much difference in the grand scheme of things, but just thought you might like to know.
Stay Hot and Buttered,
Toasty in Talos
Dear Feint_of_Heart and Deceivius,
Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Dear Toasty,
Ever have the spinich salad for your appetizer, spend a nice dinner with friends, go out on the town, then return home to find a big fat piece of green between your upper incisors? Okay, maybe you haven't, but I know of somebody who has. No no it wasn't me. It wasn't! Don't look at me like that. Ok fine it was. Jeez.
Anyway, I thought, "why didn't anybody say something!?"
Thank you for the corrections! I have added them into the guide as per your instructions. I also adjusted the toxic resistance number to Earth's Embrace.
I find that if you must serve Gazpacho cold, you have some good options:
<ul type="square">[*]Gazpacho in Your Face: Arctic Air + Ice Slick + Liquefy as needed.[*]Gazpacho to Go: Frostbite + Shiver, add Liquefy as needed.[*]Gazpacho in Bed (aka on Your Back): Ice Slick + Shiver, add Liquefy as needed.[/list]Oooops. This isn't an Ice Guide. But what the heck! Stand by your controller brethren, I always say.
Thanks!
As another fellow earth groupie (50 earth/emp and a 31 earth/storm - Earth is the only Primary in an AT I have ever repeated) - huge kudos as well on the earth section of your guide. (I don't have /sonic experience.)
I think you did a great job keeping it easy to read, being unbiased, and laying it out with synergies. I am usually fairly strong in my opinions on earth, and I agree with almost everything you suggested, down to slotting even...
The only areas I differ slightly -
QS - I am one of those people that slot recharge in QS - 2 slows, 2 recharges.....since QS self stacks, I have had great success layering 2+ on top of each other, although I am sure that means I hit the slow cap in there somewhere. The other reason I like recharge(s), is for large entry room maps with close mobs, and/or when the mud hits fan, I can make a huge overlapping area of QS's. Being able to make multiple QS zones means I can combine QS+quake for one area, QS+VG for another, and QS+Stalag for yet one more when some loonie or pet on the team goes Leroy in that train mish map with huge spawns all 20 feet apart.
Stone Prison - my builds are so tight I have to usually pick one or the other, and invariably go Stone cages for mass containment, and the tactical advantages you mention. Would be great to work both in - 'unfortunately' Earth only has one power I always recommend skipping (salt cystals)
so SP usually gets the drop. I can definately see reasons why in some builds it would be very beneficial though. So many shinies...sigh.
Epics - great great job on the epics. Like an above poster, I am a big fan of the armors, and find Fires and Psi's to be the best two. I am one of the people who definately is not in the Earth Epic camp, after playing it for 5 levels, and then testing 4/5, and switching to fire. (like you I can't make Psi work conceptually.)
Each of the controller epics, as described, has one unique power - I can't encourage people enough to look at them all, and decide which set best completes your concept and what you desire for your playstyle and build. Want fast DPS - hands down its fire (and major fun.) Need a self heal - earth's embrace. etc etc. Earth Epic is not the place to go, even though Val is gonna yell at me, for damage. Its one attack, Boulder, while having a high BI, is s/l (thus resisted) very short range, and very long animation, which means most times on a team someone (bad stoni!) is gonna kill steal you. Having 2 so-so powers, and a damage attack that needs some love, is the reason many people respec it out. That said, I'll take any of the Troller epics anyday over what Scrapper options are. 
Again, awesome job, one of the best I have seen in awhile - look forward to more!! (I am debating getting a Earth/empath mini guide out...)
Wolfie
Dear Wolfie,
Thank you for your kind words and, more importantly, thank you for your alternative perspective.
Quicksand with 2 slows and 2 recharges seems like a good compromise. I ended up with 3 and 3 eventually, but /sonic is very friendly when it comes to enhancement slots. Empathy and Storm are much hungrier secondaries.
Both Empathy and Storm, arguably, have worthwhile selections for all nine tiers. I would say there is only one or even no power in each secondary I might do without. In Sonic Resonance, however, I can make cases for leaving out two or three powers and never missing them. Sonic provides just that extra space Stone Prison needs to call it a must-have if, as an Earth Controller, that is your chosen secondary.
As a Storm the build is so tight I can see leaving it out. As an Empath I can see the same, though without a self buff and no enemy debuff there remains a strong case for an Earth/Empath to take Stone Prison for those situations where he finds himself alone without his Wolfpack.
Great observation about the epic sets each having a unique power and thanks for your perspective on the sets.
Really looking forward to your Earth/Empath mini-guide!
That is a very well written, and very informative guide. While not going for Sonic (taking Rad.), the Earth side of things was exactly what I was looking for. And very fun and pleasent to read too, I really enjoyed it.
A couple of questions, as I never played earth myself, and to be honest, passed the teens never grouped with one either, though this is more due to the fact that I don't do PuG's, and we just don't have an earth controller in our small SG.
- Volcanic Gasses: Not even a single Acc in there ? Is the base accuracy at 1.4 really that good ?
I am aware of all the -Def in the set, but I personally don't like to depend on that, esp. since AoE holds are something that need to hit 'now' (IMO). Quicksand may not be up, neither Earthquake at the time, and the situation may be desperate enough that the first tick of the gasses needs to land, or else...
- Fear effect: This question relates to AV fights only. Does laying down an Earthquake, and/or Quicksand cause the AV to run out of the area of effect ?
I do plan to slotting Earthquake with additional -Acc to stack with Radiation Infection, but that would be pointless if the AV tries to leave the area the second I drop it.
- I don't really have room for any of the Immobilizes, so how good is the -Speed effect of Quicksand (assuming 2* Slow, +1Lv-+2Lv Mobs) in relation with Stalagmites ?
Will they wander off to far, or stay reasonably close together after beeing disorientated ?
Dear Skydance,
Thank you for the compliments! To answer your questions:
1) Volcanic Gasses is a pulse hold. As you mentioned, it's very accurate right out of the box. One of those pulses is bound to hit. The only times I ever saw problems with it hitting were on the 2 or so teams where an sk wasn't available to me and enemies were +5 or so. It's that good. If you find yourself in those kinds of situations often (which, frankly, weren't so fun for me since my contributions became somewhat limited) go ahead and pop an accuracy or two instead of a hold. Otherwise, don't worry about it.
That said, I would not rely on the first tick of Volcanic Gasses. When you lay it down enemies generally get a shot off at you before they succumb to your hold. If you can't lead with Stalagmites, hide behind a corner, use your tank, and so on, be careful leading with VG.
2) An AV can run out of your Quicksand or Earthquake. That's a good reason for you to...
3) ... consider taking at least one of your immobilizes. They tend to work better against AVs than holds. Rad, like Storm and Empathy, can be a tight secondary since it has many good selections. For that reason I can see you skipping one, but not both of the immobilizes. Moreover, you're going to want to drop fliers. Stone Cages or Stone Prison are perfect for that.
If really don't want Stone Cages, Stalagmites no longer sends disoriented enemies on such wild trips as it used to. You can get away without your immobilize and just Quicksand. I did from level 6 until 22.
However, if you forgo Stone Cages then Stalagmites and Volcanic gasses, two powers with rather long recharge rates, will be your only ways to set up AoE containment until you hit EMP at 38. That's quite a run. Stone Cages, with its fast recharge, is excellent for setting up containment.
In the end, of course, it's all up to you. Good luck with your build!
Thanks for the reply.
1) Ok, I see if I can spare an Acc for VG, but it's great that I don't need to worry about it much. Good news.
2) You said 'can' run out, but will they make it priority...? For example, like with a Rain type power, or Caltrops... or will they stay assuming someone is in melee taking the aggro ? Sorry, I'd really like a clarification on this one.
3) I don't care much for containment, this character is going to be for a fixed Superteam with my SG, I don't intend on soloing ever with her, and we got the damage planned for. But I do take your points on AV's and immobilizes into consideration.
Thanks again.
Dear Skydance,
Sorry, I have a headcold. I missed your well-stated point. Volcanic Gasses and Quicksand will not scare an AV out of its radius. Each will, however, aggro him or her at you. However, if the AV is busy beating on your scrapper friend, he won't stop and run away just because you dropped either of these two powers down. Instead, he'll kill your scrapper buddy and then come after you.
This is, of course, based on my own AV battle experience with this toon. AVs have always been intent on slaughter, not running.
[ QUOTE ]
Dear Skydance,
Sorry, I have a headcold. I missed your well-stated point. Volcanic Gasses and Quicksand will not scare an AV out of its radius. Each will, however, aggro him or her at you. However, if the AV is busy beating on your scrapper friend, he won't stop and run away just because you dropped either of these two powers down. Instead, he'll kill your scrapper buddy and then come after you.
This is, of course, based on my own AV battle experience with this toon. AVs have always been intent on slaughter, not running.
[/ QUOTE ]
Excellent news, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to this matter
I started an earth/sonic not too long ago, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I like how the earth control powers add a lot of defense to a team actively, while the sonic adds resistance, meaning they will die slower almost always period, before and after battles. It means im getting a double whammy and only have to worry usually about one set during the middle of chaos (unless someone decides to aggro three spawns). Im only 15 right now, so all my best levels are pretty much ahead of me, but i find it great. Not to mention having a resistance bubble means that i myself will be lasting longer, especially against mobs that are purple and would be getting past a ff bubble field anyway.
Personally i love sonic cage. I tell teams beforehand i will be caging the bosses, or if no bosses, the strongest guy there. I have a bind that says who just got sonic caged and that they cant affect or be affected, so not as many problems if i play smart (though its darn funny to see someone slashing at a guy for like five minutes before they figure it out). With hasten and having this fully slotted or near it, i should be able to perma cage the toughies until the rest of the spawn is entirely wiped out, AND i can focus my st hold on, say, a pesky leui.
As for stoney, i cant even imagine that thing with sonic buffing on, and my sonic field near by, and 100% psy resist. And with SS, i can just run at the guys and jump over, and stoney takes the aggro, already sonic buffed and all, which means he's gonna be one mean son of a gun. Though im assuming his taunt isnt strong enough to protect me from taking aggro from disruption field?
Some questions, can EB's, AV's, or GM's be caged? if so, one could wipe out all the minions that are a pain in the butt to deal with around them to begin with, be smiling as a castrated AV gives u angry faces, and then before the cage drops, u drop ur death soup on them.
And i cant wait to get my +res app shield, or maybe power boost. Missing a tank? No problem. Between me app resist and my own resist up, and with stony and my controls, who needs a tank?
Anyway, the guide did seem to reflect what some trollers have said. Though if i find it necessary, i might go 3 disorient duration on stalagmites with 2 acc and 1 recharge, simply because i will have hasten, and that way the enemy is out for a nice little bit.
And how is the knockdown on liquify? i hear it isnt all that great, but if i was expecting it to decrease incoming damage like an ice slick, would i be disappointed?
Thanks for someone actually writing a guide, and i dont know why more people dont play it, i mean seriously, with sonic siphon and with stony with disruption field on, soloing couldnt be that horrible, at least u wont be dying often. heheh.
My Toons
Apocalypse86 50 Fire/energy blaster Triumph
Menace Mech (FKA Burning Gundam) 50 Bots/FF Mastermind Protector
Celestial Striker 43 Peacebringer Triumph
Mind Slice 35 Mind/King Controller Triumph
Obsidian Assassin 30 Night Widow Protector
Dear Apocalypse86,
Welcome to our exclusive club! Sonic Cage is fantastic in those teen levels. I'm delighted to hear you are using it responsibly. Kudos to you. Do not be surprised, however, if you find your dependence on it tapering off as the levels go by.
I'm very excited for you: 4 more levels until you have Earthquake triple slotted!
Now, to your questions:
1) Animate Stone's taunt is stronger than the aggro Disruption Field generates. When I DF'd my AS she generally kept aggro. Still, she lacks a taunt aura and uses AI, so an intelligent tank is a preferable anchor.
2) Sonic Cage drops a 7.45 untouchable on your target. Elite Bosses can be caged with a shot. GM's cannot. I have never dared try to Cage an AV since my teams would have had my head. I'll have to defer to the untouchable experts on that one. I'd be surprised if they could without stacking cages with another teammate.
3) Do you need a tank? Well, the answer to that question is, of course, no. I spent entire TF's without a tank and did just fine. Do I like traveling with a tank? Love it. Tanks take heat off, giving us more breathing room to operate.
4) If you expect Liquefy to be like a Slick power or Earthquake, you will be disappointed. Consider it a defense and to-hit debuff that can begin with a knockdown or short hold. (An aside: I forgot to mention in my guide that the defender version of Liquefy has stronger debuffs than the controller version: 35.7% for defense and to-hit debuff and 28% to recharge time).
You're welcome for the guide. Best of luck in your career as an Earth/Sonic. Make us all proud!
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Thanks for the reply.
1) Ok, I see if I can spare an Acc for VG, but it's great that I don't need to worry about it much. Good news.
2) You said 'can' run out, but will they make it priority...? For example, like with a Rain type power, or Caltrops... or will they stay assuming someone is in melee taking the aggro ? Sorry, I'd really like a clarification on this one.
3) I don't care much for containment, this character is going to be for a fixed Superteam with my SG, I don't intend on soloing ever with her, and we got the damage planned for. But I do take your points on AV's and immobilizes into consideration.
Thanks again.
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your discussion above is yet another good example of why I highly recommend 1-2 recharges in QS.....
Heh, I have never actually met another Earth-sonic and despaired of finding any guides or even lists of experiences you've had, or synergies that the sets possess.
A couple of important things to remember about Earth/Sonic:
The combination is capable of patching up a team that doesn't have a defender. or a Tanker. Or both.
Quicksand, if you have the room and a nice corner, is incredibly beautiful to use to set up a nice ambush. Set your QS on the corner itself, stand as far away from the spawn as you can and target the nearest mob, pop off siphon to get their attention and then run to the corner. They will come running and then slow as they hit the sand. Usually one mob will be in front, and when you see his head pop out from around the corner, hit stone cages. Instant corner herd, aggroed on you, easier to disarm an alpha by single-targeting for the basters or defenders, and only the one target that peeked her head out gets to take a potshot.
Earth/sonic also has some nice tricks that mature early, like in your early teens, maybe not for damage, but for control options I think it may be stronger than the majority of other synergies.
okay, well mind/ has more control, but no fun pet!
Anyway, thanks for writing the guide that will help me figure out what I may try to synergize at later levels. Well-written and hilarious.
Great guide HBS! Seismic rocks! THE UNB0UND rules!
Obviously, the epic portion of this guide now requires an update. As I am in the process of moving across the country (made it here, just need to get and unpack my stuff...) I have very little time at the moment. Stay tuned, however! The update will come.
I played with an earth sonic last night. it wasn't you
I was thinking of making an earth/sonic controller earlier today. Imagine my surprise when I came upon this awesome guide suited directly for that. :O
I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet II
A Guide for the Earth/Sonic Controller, v 1.0
An Introduction
Earth Control and Sonic Resonance: the Dodo Bird of Controllers. Last February I had never even seen such a creature in-game. I saw not a post on the controller forum nor heard even a rumor on the chat channels. In the nine months since then I have seen three in-game, one of them being my own. Even Enantiodromos, last May, listed Earth/Sonic as the rarest controller combination in his guide to Choosing the Controller thats Right for You.
Why? What kept this combo stuffed in the dark moldy dingy corner of the CoH basement?
There are those who point to the Sonic Resonance powers. Complaints about the graphics and sounds abound. Some relate stories of migraine headaches, projectile vomiting, and fits of rabid-like insanity after limited exposure to the set. Conversely, others claim neither knowledge nor understanding of any Sonic Power even after working alongside a Ringer for an entire task force. It sounds peculiar, yet people either vehemently react to or completely overlook Sonic. It is a strange beast, indeed.
Others blame Earth Control. The damage output lingers way below all other controller primaries, except for the Ice and Down-Pillow control sets. The fact that Ice deals cold damage places it above Earth, which offers mostly smashing with a splash of lethal and fire: the former two being the most commonly resisted damage types in the game. Some are turned off by the look of the set. Brown blobs on a computer screen have been noted to induce free association relationships with brown blobs that occur in real life. This rarely, if ever, is considered a good thing.
A new question very similar to our first question arises: why? Why would anyone ever be masochistic enough to play an Earth/Sonic controller?
As you will see, the Dodo may have been weird, but it had a beauty all its own.
The Rumble Down Under - Theme
There is great thematic synergy between Earth and Sonic. This may not matter to some, but they are not the true blue comic book fanatics we seek for our most valued teammates. What are comic books? They are stories! Illustrated, wonderful, sometimes campy, action packed tales are what they are. Shouldnt your MMORG comic book hero have a compelling story? Of course! Would you rather team with *\_ k00L-fUl_/* with the lime green and fuchsia random costume and a description that reads Loading data or Captain Marvelous in the inspiring threads and the compelling back-story? Earth and Sonic easily provides for concept. Consider:
The Earth constantly moves. Not just spins, though it does that too. The Earth itself shifts. Earth plates, erosion, avalanches, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions you get the idea. Sound waves also travel. Sound can move earth and earth movements make sounds. Both are measured in waves. How many interesting character concepts can you come up with now? A shaman of the Earth Spirit, a scientist who discovers the secret behind seismic waves and plate tectonics, a variant renegade Minion of Igneous, a mutant whose control over sound allows him to move earth, a seismic android built to prevent earthquakes who has run amok and is now vying to protect Paragon from anything it can your turn! There are many exciting possibilities. If you are going the route of the Earth/Sonic, I implore no, demand you take the short amount of time necessary to concoct a fine concept. Creatively challenged? Snowlilys Guide to Creating Role Playable Characters offers help to those in need. Need help with a name? Tyrantulas Naming For Noobs: A Guide To Originality! should help. I also recommend http://www.wikipedia.org for researching when generating a concept.
The Raw Power Primary Ability
Earth/Sonic is a control monster. The iron fisted general, the raging control-freak movie director, and the megalomaniac monarchy dictator all offer less control than this pairing. Earth Control sports six, yes 6 area of effect controls. That doesnt even count the pet, the tank known as Animate Stone, which is excellent for absorbing alphas. And if that isnt enough, THERES MORE!! Sonic offers the following: an AoE hold and debuff, an AoE knockback power and a foe capture power; all for the low low price of $15 per month. A well developed Earth/Sonic can easily handle all the controller needs of an eight-member team and find tidbits of time to type silly chat messages.
The Overlooked Influence Secondary Ability
Just like shaking ground unbalances those on it, the Earth/Sonic unbalances the battlefield. How? Its quite muahahaha sinister, really. Even though the Earth/Sonic does little damage, she increases her comrades damage potential while constricting their damage intake. Consider:
<ul type="square">[*]The obvious: the wide array of Earth Controls emasculates most enemy attacks. An enemy who isnt attacking is an enemy who isnt damaging you and yours.[*]Sonic shields provide damage resistance to all damage types save psionics up to around 40%, weakening the blows of those few enemies who manage to bypass controls.[*]The secondary effect of the majority of Earth Control powers is defense reduction. Sonics Liquefy does the same. Making your enemies easier to hit means everyone hits them more often. The more everyone hits, the more damage your team does.[*]Sonic Resonance provides two powers to reduce enemy damage resistance. Using them in tandem can provide your team with a boost of around 45% in gross damage output. And a team that does more damage is a.. er.. team that does more damage. Ahem.[*]Clarity allows you to keep your teammates from suffering the same fate as your enemies, keeping them bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to attack at will.[*]The brown blobs are great forms of communication. A common team tactic is to not attack the held criminal until the free ones are arrested. This isnt true in all cases best to take down bosses, sorcerers, and so on, even if theyre held. The tendency holds true. Your experienced teammates know this. They think, if that Tesla Knight is held he wont attack. So we better take down the free Clocks before they do too much damage. Earth Control, better than any other set except Ice and Elephant control, communicates which enemies are held. Sets like Gravity, Mind, Illusion, and to some extent fire lack the full visual exclamation point Earth declares when holding opponents. As a result, the attack free criminals first tactic is very successful when used with Earth.[/list]What does this all mean? It means make friends, mister, if youre going to play an Earth/Sonic. You will be at your best and most effective with a team. And your team, whether they know it or not, will adore you for it.
And Now For the Guide!
Sit back and enjoy. In the posts that follow I will give you my take on:
<ul type="square">[*]Earth Control in detail.[*]Sonic Resonance in detail.[*]Power Pools in overview.[*]The Controller Epic Powers in detail.[*]Personal Opinions About the Earth/Sonic Hero.[/list]Please forgive me if all the number calculations arent accurate to the exact tenth of a percentage. All numbers are courtesy of Red Tomaxs City of Data, except for Damage Scale numbers which are from my own work on Test Servers I8. For those of you unfamiliar with damage scales, please refer to iakonas Power Data Standardization/Brawl Index Replacement
I have included BI numbers for those unfamiliar with Damage Scale.