Both considered to be weak sets. Until some positive balancing takes place, I would only take for concept. Sonic probably stronger; a lot of high lvl enemies resist smash/lethal and reducing resistance effect of secondary is attractive (and more attractive for teams).
I like the look of the higher level powers, but sadly a rarely see a high level sonic user, as many give up.
In reality, Sonics is anything but a weak set. Not only does it do quite significant Smashing/Energy damage and the ability to stack -Res, but it also gets decent control abilities later on. There's no reason for any Sonic Blaster to 'give up', really.
Archery, however, is relatively poor, and suffers from the "Claws Effect" - quick, low-damage attacks just don't fare well in CoX.
Neither is particularly well-suited to AoE blasting, though. Sonics is moderately endurance-heavy; Archery seems endurance-light, but because of the low-damage it does you need to execute that many more attacks - which negates the lower endurance cost. In a choice between the two, I'd pick Sonics every time without hesitation; I just don't think either set does what you're looking for.
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
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I'd pick Sonics every time without hesitation; I just don't think either set does what you're looking for.
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Why isn't your Scrapper Spines then? 
World of Jackcraft.
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I'd pick Sonics every time without hesitation; I just don't think either set does what you're looking for.
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Why isn't your Scrapper Spines then?
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One of them is, though.
(I picked Claws/SR precisely for the challenge, as it goes.)
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
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Neither is particularly well-suited to AoE blasting, though.
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Sonics is full of aoes. (why i only have 3 sonic attacks!) Sirens song is an aoe sleep, there are 2 early aoes, 1 with good knockback.
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Sonics is moderately endurance-heavy; Archery seems endurance-light, but because of the low-damage it does you need to execute that many more attacks - which negates the lower endurance cost. In a choice between the two, I'd pick Sonics every time without hesitation; I just don't think either set does what you're looking for.
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I'd definitely go for sonics. The aoe res debuff is very handy in teams. The difference in damage a team can do once a couple of sonic aoe attacks hit is pretty good.
The lack of a snipe in the set is a bit of a pain, as is the lack of range. But that makes it perfectly suited to blapping. Go with /energy or /elec. Energy secondary for boost range and power boost ftw!!
We've got a level 35 ish Sonic/Energy blaster in our SG and I have to say I was quite impressed with the set for teaming, he seems to have build something that really works quite well with a pretty fair mix of primary and secondary powers.
Archery is just a poor set. It looks nice and everything, but on the very rare occasions I team with a high level archery blaster regardless of how well they may play the set I feel like I'm standing alongside someone who's using a defender secondary, the damage just doesn't cut it. And all you get in return for the lower damage is higher accuracy - you can slot for that on another set and get much better results all round.
In hindsight if I had considered blapping as a tactic when I started I would have had much more fun with Spurr my sonic/en.
Sonics lack of range is a bit annoying, but not much of a problem if you blapp.
It has some nice aoes shockwave is a great med/longrange knockback aoe with damage, and my used power.
Howl I dont rate at all, its a short/med range cone effect. I only use it if I have no other power available.
Sirens song, the aoe sleep is a must have. It makes so many dangerous situations that much easier 
(And you get to shour at other people for using aoes and breaking your sleep...just like trollers and defenders do )
Shout is a nasty shortrange single target power that can really hurt if it hits.
Shriek is a single target disorient that is great in pvp and pve..Its my main opening power in pvp or fighting dangerous bots.
Downsides:
I find that even with Tripple Acc SOs I cant hit the side of a barn, +1 bots need tactics and inspirations to be allmost certain of a hit and I usualy use amplify as well.
No Snipe power..How I miss it 
End cost, does seem to drain quickly but thats easily remadied.
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In teams I find that I have to hold off using the aoes as it draws mega-aggro (Tanks complain when there pet badguys leave them to eat the sonic blaster ).
But that is also a blessing in disguise at it does encourage a little more thought on target selection and attack (other wise I just pick a target and click all my powers till everything is dead).
hmm so yeah go sonic.
I don't find sonic that bad accuracy wise. I hit regularly enough with 2 so's. I have only taken the 3 single target blasts though and i'll take 'nova' at 32...i'll be taking pretty much all of the electric secondary.
Found i didn't like sirens song...great for solo but not in teams.
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Neither is particularly well-suited to AoE blasting, though.
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Sonics is full of aoes. (why i only have 3 sonic attacks!) Sirens song is an aoe sleep, there are 2 early aoes, 1 with good knockback.
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None of them are particularly damaging, with the exception of Howl which is a short-range cone. That doesn't, I submit, make Sonic an AoE damage set - Fire and AR are AoE damage sets - and I would find it somewhat remiss to recommend Sonic to someone who's looking for AoE damage.
@Synaesthetix
"Here, take some more bees with you. You may need them."
Union: FU//LoUD
"that Syn is that that" - Mothers Love
Not having played either since there first few days of launch can't comment on which is better. However recently a team-mate rolled a */archery defender, which was deleted soon after. The problem was that because the primary wasn't trick arrow every time they swapped from secondary to primary and back the bow kept having to be re-drawn which slowed everything down.
As you can't roll archery/trick arrow I'd assume an archery blaster suffers a similar problem.
Ive rolled out an Archey blaster. He's only 17 at the moment but indeed very fun to play. Archery doeesnt ONLY get an Acc boost, its recharge is stupidly quick and endurance cost seems very low. I've got elec secondary so i can blap effectively if needs be (already noticing the smashing and lethal resistant enemies). But it's a very nice set (shame about snipe being late at 18) and my build will be nearing completion when i get Stun Arrow so i can mez from distance then move in to blap range safely. I dont find the draw time a problem at all, i know a lot of AR blasters that seem to do ok with it, cant see how it's any different. With the very quick recharges you can have a whole chain of constant attacks from as low as level 6. Flaming Arrow and Explosive Arrow are nicely damaging and a welcome bit of fire damage to change from the Smashing - lethal.
I dont expect much from Rain of Arrows so won't be disappointed 
Hope that helps a little from stopping you people detering people away from Archery
Shnyet AWAY
I can see that being annoying on a Defender, especially given the great synchronisation between Ta and Achery but I love Blazing arrow and as Blaster set, it's no more of a problem than AR since unlike defending you tend to switch between attack chains and aren't intermixing blapping with ranged attacks wheras a defender I find is constanly pumping out debuff-attack-debuff-attack which is a redraw every second attack.
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Not having played either since there first few days of launch can't comment on which is better. However recently a team-mate rolled a */archery defender, which was deleted soon after. The problem was that because the primary wasn't trick arrow every time they swapped from secondary to primary and back the bow kept having to be re-drawn which slowed everything down.
As you can't roll archery/trick arrow I'd assume an archery blaster suffers a similar problem.
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As far as I've heard and read, the re-drawing should be purely visual. It has nothing to do with the actual activation time and execution of a power.
Would be great if someone can confirm this.
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Not having played either since there first few days of launch can't comment on which is better. However recently a team-mate rolled a */archery defender, which was deleted soon after. The problem was that because the primary wasn't trick arrow every time they swapped from secondary to primary and back the bow kept having to be re-drawn which slowed everything down.
As you can't roll archery/trick arrow I'd assume an archery blaster suffers a similar problem.
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As far as I've heard and read, the re-drawing should be purely visual. It has nothing to do with the actual activation time and execution of a power.
[/ QUOTE ]It increases the activation time, which is the reason all weapon sets receive 5% accuracy bonus as a compensation.
I cant decide wich one to take. I like teaming and aoe blasting HATE missing and long cooldowns. A build with your favourite secondary would be very welcome.