Ill/Sonic pve

Howdy, i'm new to trollin, and rolled an ill/sonic. Seems a late blooming set, but likin deceive so far. Sonic the shields seem good just not as good as bubbles maybe.

Guess just asking for advice on playin it, and what powers to skip and which ones are must haves, or just any advice from some experienced ill/sonics out there would be great.

Thanks.

You must have all three pets, all of the shields, the -res toggle and liquefy. I would also strongly reccomend taking Flash, group invis, sonic cage and sonic repulsion.

Sonic repulsion can be placed on your phantasm to make him sturdier. Sonic cage properly slotted can put AV's out of the fight. Suffice to say it will take anything smaller with the same slotting.

Greater Invis can be a useful power but it's a must have.

This combo is very complementary. Sonic buffs all of your pets, even the ones that cannot be buffed and adds some hard and soft control options to supplement Illusions lack of control.

I have mine to 34 now and find that I only die when I tab out to watch a show and forget to tab back in for a couple of minutes...on an AV fight.

This isn't a bubbler, but bubbles don't sync up with illusions as well. They are also far more popular so you will get bonus points for having a very powerful secondary and get groups from just Disruption field alone. That one power is the SB of this set and will get you all the action you want.

Well, from illusion, the powers you might be able to skip are one or both of the two invisibilities and maybe flash. Everything else is very good, and the invis powers and even flash have their uses - they're just not as important.

From sonic, the powers I'd consider to be skippable are sonic cage and sonic repulsion. The three res powers are of course a cornerstone of the set, and you want both -res debuffs as well. Clarity is very nice if you ever team, and liquefy is a decent all-round debuff. Repulsion is imo near-useless solo (PA is invincible and phant should be plenty tough enough with your bubbles) and extremely situational at best on a team, not to mention the very high end cost. Sonic cage is actually useful in select situations, and if I had room for one more power in my build, it'd be that, but it's just situational enough that it's skippable in my book if you need the power slots.

Solo, I would advise taking fly as your travel power just so that you can pick up air superiority. This one attack will make your soloing career *far* smoother - illusion lacks the ST immob many controllers use to fill in their ST damage, so air sup is a godsend. Aside from that, I would focus on leveraging deceive - learn what foes are the most dangerous or have the most annoying abilities, and turn them on their friends. Bonus points if you can convince an enemy to buff you or debuff the rest of his spawn - tsoo sorcerers, for example, make hilarious converts. Also, when soloing you can place disruption field on your phantom army, thus giving you a way to use this power even though you don't have a melee pet.

On teams, your focus will be much more on support than damage. Place your disruption field on the most aggressive meleer, bubble up everyone, be ready to free squishies from mez, use PA and spectral terror to take alphas and control spawns, and use your single target controls to neutralize the most annoying individual enemies. Your attacks will take a back seat here.

Awesome guys good notes.

I was wondering about liquefy's usefulness. I have a bubbler def and i've found its cage is decent at best. My big plan was to use it on nictus healer but never got it to work, as i've seen from threads here lately that it wasn't just me.

Flash seems really good, but you have to be in melee for it, but I guess once I get pets it won't matter to much to rush in and use it once they piss everyone off.

I'm already loving deceive. Good call on the tsoo sorcerers too. Does it work on FF generators in turning their buff to you instead of the enemies?

I think my biggest challenge will be taking Muon's last point of advise, and focusing on support instead of damage. I mainly scrapper, and it will be tough gettin used to not popin the orange numbers, but I think I can do it after some focus.

Disruption field does seem really good as it has mez protection I believe, or at least some hold or slow, i forget, don't have it yet.

One question is spectral wounds. Seems good early on, and maybe something to do while the pets are recharging. Sounds like its a winner. Nessesary or icing on the cake? Seems a straight damage attack in a troller set is unique, only other one I can think of off hand is propel, and I think you have to take it for its animation alone.

Is this for teaming or soloing?

If it is mainly for teaming I would recommend the following powers from Sonic...

All three shields, Clarity, Liquefy, Sonic Disruption, and (if you feel you would use it on AVs) Sonic Cage.

If it is mainly for Soloing, I would skip Clarity and instead take Sonic Repulsion.

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I was wondering about liquefy's usefulness. I have a bubbler def and i've found its cage is decent at best. My big plan was to use it on nictus healer but never got it to work, as i've seen from threads here lately that it wasn't just me.

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I am not sure if you meant to say "Sonic Cage," rather than Liquefy or if you are wondering about both powers.

I myself have never tried Sonic Cage on the Nictus Healer, but I believe if FF's Cage doesn't affect it, Sonic's wouldn't either. That being said, Cage does definitely come in handy on AV fights.

As for Liquefy, the hold is very minor, the damage is very low, and the knockdown is very minor all on a LONG recharge. That being said, the -tohit debuff and the -defense debuff are amazing. Slot it 3 Rch 3 -tohit OR 3 Rch 3 -defense. I wouldn't recommend a mix of the debuffs.

Yeah i was talking about both in the same sentence and made it sound a bit weird.

If the debuffs are good then liquify is sold.

Sonic cage im still not sold on. I'm guessin you use it on the AV while the mobs around it are cleared?

All team, i hate solo'n

Pretty sure you can't use them on nictus healers, but you can use them on towers and Recluse in the STF.

The main thing I use the FF one for is for accidentally large pulls in AV packs like pulling the Freedom Phalanx or Recluse's crew.

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Sonic repulsion can be placed on your phantasm to make him sturdier.

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I have a level 50 Illusion/Sonic and I don't know how I never thought of this. I don't know that my current build has room for Sonic Repulsion, or how well I could handle the endurance cost, but it seems like a useful trick.

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Is this for teaming or soloing?

If it is mainly for teaming I would recommend the following powers from Sonic...

All three shields, Clarity, Liquefy, Sonic Disruption, and (if you feel you would use it on AVs) Sonic Cage.

If it is mainly for Soloing, I would skip Clarity and instead take Sonic Repulsion.

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We have dual builds.

Use them. One for teaming, one for soloing. Dropping the ally shields (but not the debuff!) can ease a build for days when you're soloing.

(Ill/Sonic I've been slowly working on for quite some time. Not posting the builds because I'm not particularly happy with them right at the moment -t hey need to mature more.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

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Sonic repulsion can be placed on your phantasm to make him sturdier.

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I have a level 50 Illusion/Sonic and I don't know how I never thought of this. I don't know that my current build has room for Sonic Repulsion, or how well I could handle the endurance cost, but it seems like a useful trick.

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Its about the ONLY real synergy between the combo.

IMO ill/sonic is about one of the only controllers i would never suggest. The knockback of phant hurts the use of sonic disruption too much, as it does for liquefy. And there are no real synergies between the combo outside of an actual use for sonic repulsion, which isnt really much of a use overall.

ILL/FF is more common for a good reason. Allowing you to choose your knockback with repulsion field and your movements, the defense from group invis and superior invis stack, and the knockback from phant won't be affecting anything.

Likewise with ill/thermal, which is a close but much better combo than ill/sonic IMO, having the damage being buffed on to the players, and not locationally debuffing not interfereing with the phants knockback. (melt armor is a one time clickthat is used before the phant would use his energy torrent)

I am skeptical of your criticism of the combination. Illusion/Sonic seems perfectly fine to me. Sonic shields are useful for Phantasm, even before Sonic Repulsion. Sonic debuffs are quite useful for effectively buffing the damage output of the otherwise unbuffable Phantom Army. Sonic Cage could be used to fill in for Illusion's lack of direct control.

And I haven't had any trouble with Phantasm's Knockback. Especially for keeping things in Liquefy... though honestly, by the time I got to Liquefy, I was a bit confused as to why I'd need it.

And sonic also has a single target res debuff which fire has, and sonic has the aoe one, which seems cooler than the rad one target wise. The target might wonder off or die, but put the sonic one on the tank or scrap, and its always running without having to re-apply.

Yeah, bubs might make more sense I guess, but i have a bub/arrow def and wanted something totally different, which is why i didn't roll a ill/kin as i have a kin/psy.

I'm enjoyin the toon a lot more than i thought i would. I've tried trollers in the past, and haven't made it past 14. Guess I had a few more scrappers to roll before i'd lose some scrapper lock...although I still find myself running toward an enemy to hold them for some reason.

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I am skeptical of your criticism of the combination. Illusion/Sonic seems perfectly fine to me. Sonic shields are useful for Phantasm, even before Sonic Repulsion. Sonic debuffs are quite useful for effectively buffing the damage output of the otherwise unbuffable Phantom Army. Sonic Cage could be used to fill in for Illusion's lack of direct control.

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As would thermal shields or bubbles. And the -resist with phantom army is about the only one i see. And sonic cage eww. AV battles only, nothing to consider overtaking a primary control.

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And sonic also has a single target res debuff which fire has, and sonic has the aoe one, which seems cooler than the rad one target wise. The target might wonder off or die, but put the sonic one on the tank or scrap, and its always running without having to re-apply.

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That is more to the fact of the use of sonic. With nothing to do really about the synergy of the ill/sonic combo.

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Yeah, bubs might make more sense I guess, but i have a bub/arrow def and wanted something totally different, which is why i didn't roll a ill/kin as i have a kin/psy.

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Ill/thermal

Yeah I can see ill/therm as well by that point. Guess I still want to roll a emp def one day and therm is pretty close. Seems like sonic bebuffs more than therm and sonic seemed more unique than emp or therm to me.

I'm 32 now and haven't tried out my new shiny pet, so I'd say there will be another ill in my future

One thing I have noticed with just Ill, is that it seems spectral terror and deceive don't mesh well. The confused dude seems to end up sittin there shaking more than he is attackin his buddies, so I'm wonderin if deceive more useful for the low levels, and looses a lot of its utility later on.

That can be said of any two control powers -- Blind isn't as useful with Spectral Terror, either. Nor is Flash. Controls have a very binary nature; either something is controlled, or it isn't. The only exception is Containment-setting/using powers and stacked controls, but (except for Blind and Flash) Illusion doesn't have much of either.

Yeah guess that is very true also, good point yeti.

Seems like one could have just the pets and holds to stack on bosses and be fine without deceive, especially since spectral terror is perma outta the box, and deceive has to be stacked to work on bosses anyway.

Well, Blind has to be stacked for bosses too... I would keep Deceive if I were you. First of all, if Spectral Terror isn't covering the area of a fight, or if you start a new fight before it recharges again, alternating Blind and Deceive will help you get lockdown faster than just Blind alone. Second, some targets have high Hold protection but not high Deceive protection. Third, Deceive lasts far longer than Blind. Fourth, Deceive can be hilarious. There's nothing quite like confusing a Council lieutenant, only to see him kick his own minions in the head and one-shot them. (Don't think of it like you've lost some XP... think of it like you've gained a free show!)

I realize blind has to be stacked for bosses, but flash will do that, were as deceive also has to be stacked, but has nothing else to stack it with.

Think I'll keep it just for the cool factor u described, as its fun to confuse the big hitters and have them kill each other, even tho ppl on ae teams tell you not to.

Illusion/Sonic never solo's you have a 5 man team all of the time

In all honesty - I rarely play mine any more unless we hit a really tough mission - then I log him on.

My Illusion/Sonic has died, ONCE.

You have shields. You can turn your entire TEAM into Fire tanks and you add 4 extra blasters to the team. You have a nuke that doesn't drain your end away.

If there is an I win button in CoH its Ill/Sonic.

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Illusion/Sonic never solo's you have a 5 man team all of the time

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... after level 32. And with enough recharge to keep PA up.

It is, however, painful and ugly *getting* there.

See my Guides and Tutorials

I love my Illusion/Sonic Resonance controller more than any of my other trillion alts. Illusion and Sonic don't have a lot of synergy, it's true. But they don't need a lot of synergy.

Illusion has portable tanks, good damage (for a controller primary), single-target hard control, AoE soft control and hard control, invisibility, and the almighty Confuse. Sonic has +res, -res, Liquify which does several things at once, and anti-mez. Illusion isn't a terribly interactive set in a group (drop your pets, Confuse things and mop up) and neither is Sonic (throw rings on everyone, debuff the worst enemy's resistance and mop up) which means that you have ample time to employ both your primary and secondary without either stepping on the toes of the other.

If anything, the synergy in Illusion/Sonic lies in the fact that Illusion prevents the team from taking damage at all (via control and pets) and sonic lowers the amount of damage they take when they do get hit and increases the damage they deal. Why would any combo need more synergy than that? The single complaint I have with Ill/Sonic is that I don't have nearly enough power slots to take ALL the cool toys, and my pool power options are limited because little in the pool powers is as good as what I get from my primary and secondary.