What can I say, go /ff 
Too many FF's in the world, barely any Sonics. Go sonic, show the world it's a viable choice.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
Go for Sonic if you want to play support and do some damage. I doesn't offer much protection, but it can boost your damage output a nice bit, by using debuffs.
Force Field will give you good protection in PVP and you can play it offensively by seperating enemy teams. It won't help your damage output much though, but you'll be damn annoying to fight.
I'd say both are viable toons, they just lend themselves to different playstyles. You'd be more unique as a Fire/Sonic as well 
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Many of the powersets are the same, tbh... The only real solo difference is going to be sonic siphon vs forecbolt (one will up your damage, the other will give you more pseudo control), and forcefield has a "oh s---" button in personal force field. I doubt you will need the repulsion effects of later forcefields as a solo controller (and they have hideous and costs), so not much in it. I suppose the final tier sonic power - liquefy, gives you an extra low mag hold.
Oh, and I suppose at level 32 you could you disruption field on one of your imps - that would increase your damage even more...
So I suppose if you are going for a max-out damage troller sonic has the edge (because of two -resistance debuffs)
You forget also that sonic effects are so loud and ear piercingly shrill that the enemy in PvP will freak as well as your allies
Fire/rad, fire/storm or fire/TA would be my choices.
/sonic isnt that hot on a controller. They get crap values compared to defenders on most powers.
A Paragon Defender
Sonic has clarity, which is very nice for PvP 
But ff has pff, which makes u safe unless against blappers, force bubble, really annoying for ur adversaries, the phase bubble, shiny when in a team for pvp, defensive buffs, anti mez bubble... if u want to look original, go sonic; if u want to be practical, go ff
Sonic also has phase power, ally rings, and PBAoE mez protection. I'd say sonic for team PvP, FF for solo.
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Sonic also has phase power, ally rings, and PBAoE mez protection. I'd say sonic for team PvP, FF for solo.
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Nah, the sonic set isn't worth it on a Controller. FF offers the same bonuses (PbAoE mez protection, single target phase) as well as some brilliant powers like Force Bubble and Repulsion Bomb. The values for /sonic are way too low, and Liquefy just doesn't compare to Force Bubble at all.
Yeah, they have clarity but if you're on a team you should have an empath with Clear Mind anyway.
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Sonic also has phase power, ally rings, and PBAoE mez protection. I'd say sonic for team PvP, FF for solo.
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Nah, the sonic set isn't worth it on a Controller. FF offers the same bonuses (PbAoE mez protection, single target phase) as well as some brilliant powers like Force Bubble and Repulsion Bomb. The values for /sonic are way too low, and Liquefy just doesn't compare to Force Bubble at all.
Yeah, they have clarity but if you're on a team you should have an empath with Clear Mind anyway.
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IM sorry I dont get this at all. /sonic valules decriment at exactly the same values as /force field for controllers, so this make no sense at all to me?
Have you actually tried a /sonic controller? When I solo in PvE There is a small but significant speed increase with /sonic vs /forcefield. This in on my grav troller who I rerolled at level 16 from grav/ff to grav/sonic. Bearing in mind with solo I have suficient lock-down to not need much defence, the extra resistance-debuff speeds me up.
And come level 32 I will have even more resistance debuff when using disruption field on my singularity.
Sorry, dont get it. If anyone else has personal experience of /sonic and /forcefield on the same set, please correct me.
The only thing i miss from /forcefield is pff, but I havent died once soloing my grav/sonic since level 22.
Oh, and you should have an empath on the team? what nonsense is that. Empaths, IMHO become progressively less useful on large teams and higher level teams. Past mid 30's about the only thing I DO want an empath for is clear mind. Id far rather have a sonic controller maxing out the tanks resistances, providing us all with AoE and toggle mez protection, and using sonic disruption around the tank so we all have a massive damage bonus.
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Sonic also has phase power, ally rings, and PBAoE mez protection. I'd say sonic for team PvP, FF for solo.
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Nah, the sonic set isn't worth it on a Controller. FF offers the same bonuses (PbAoE mez protection, single target phase) as well as some brilliant powers like Force Bubble and Repulsion Bomb. The values for /sonic are way too low, and Liquefy just doesn't compare to Force Bubble at all.
Yeah, they have clarity but if you're on a team you should have an empath with Clear Mind anyway.
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IM sorry I dont get this at all. /sonic valules decriment at exactly the same values as /force field for controllers, so this make no sense at all to me?
Have you actually tried a /sonic controller? When I solo in PvE There is a small but significant speed increase with /sonic vs /forcefield. This in on my grav troller who I rerolled at level 16 from grav/ff to grav/sonic. Bearing in mind with solo I have suficient lock-down to not need much defence, the extra resistance-debuff speeds me up.
And come level 32 I will have even more resistance debuff when using disruption field on my singularity.
Sorry, dont get it. If anyone else has personal experience of /sonic and /forcefield on the same set, please correct me.
The only thing i miss from /forcefield is pff, but I havent died once soloing my grav/sonic since level 22.
Oh, and you should have an empath on the team? what nonsense is that. Empaths, IMHO become progressively less useful on large teams and higher level teams. Past mid 30's about the only thing I DO want an empath for is clear mind. Id far rather have a sonic controller maxing out the tanks resistances, providing us all with AoE and toggle mez protection, and using sonic disruption around the tank so we all have a massive damage bonus.
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We're talking about PVP though. Different rules apply.
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Yeah, they have clarity but if you're on a team you should have an empath with Clear Mind anyway.
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I agree with Cognito, /sonic is a fine set for controllers as long as you're not wanting to solo too much. The figures are 80% of defender values, just like all other sets, so not that low. Scrappers will love you with Disruption Field and the shields offer some nice damage resistance (and mez protection for the PbAoE). The only thing I disagree with is that Disruption Field won't work very well with Singularity since it has an inherent repel, but on Fire Imps or any melee team-mates, it's great. Clarity activates about twice as fast as Clear Mind. I only just took Liquefy and haven't slotted it yet, so I'm not sure about that one, but otherwise I find it is a nice set for teaming in both PvE and PvP.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Ah yes = only lvl 28 at the moment, I had forgotten about Sing's repulsion...
Hmmm is it possible to wormhole ----> corner, get sing repelling and putting disruption field on then?
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Hmmm is it possible to wormhole ----> corner, get sing repelling and putting disruption field on then?
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Hmmm... must try that sometime... anyway I seem to be on a lot of scrappers gfriends lists nowadays, so I rarely solo.
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
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Ah yes = only lvl 28 at the moment, I had forgotten about Sing's repulsion...
Hmmm is it possible to wormhole ----> corner, get sing repelling and putting disruption field on then?
[/ QUOTE ]Haven't used disruption field, but wormhole to corner and sing to block them worked nicely with a grav dom I tried in RV event. Of course, you'll propably need recall friend if you're going to do that often, since sing has big recharge which means summoning it to correct location each time wont be possible.
All very interesting - could make disruption field monsterous in such a scenario of course.
BTW given sings very very high resistance - Stack this with sonic shields - what are we looking at? 90%?
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IM sorry I dont get this at all. /sonic valules decriment at exactly the same values as /force field for controllers, so this make no sense at all to me?
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Yes, this is true. However, we're discussing PvP here and /FF has many more useful powers than /sonic for a controller.
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Have you actually tried a /sonic controller?
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Nope, but I've played a sonic defender to 50.
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When I solo in PvE
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This topic isn't about PvE though, it's about PvP. As Mesmer already said, it's a different game altogether. Stuff that works in PvE won't work in PvP (and vice versa).
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Oh, and you should have an empath on the team? what nonsense is that. Empaths, IMHO become progressively less useful on large teams and higher level teams. Past mid 30's about the only thing I DO want an empath for is clear mind.
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Oh hay, you're talking about PvE again. In team PvP, an Empath is invaluable. I wouldn't ever enter a team arena fight without one.
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Id far rather have a sonic controller maxing out the tanks resistances
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Except that (with Granite as an exception) you won't do that as a /sonic controller.
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providing us all with AoE and toggle mez protection,
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FF can do this as well (and you're talking about PvE in a PvP topic again)
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and using sonic disruption around the tank so we all have a massive damage bonus.
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Except that, compared to a defender, it's actually not that massive.
/FF is just plain better than /Sonic for PvP. Things might be a little different for defender sets (since I really do love sonic resonance as a set) but for controllers /FF comes way out in front.
Forcefield handsdown is better than sonic on controllers in team PvP.
If you go for duals fire/sonic might be a better choice because of the -res debuffs, you will be dishing out a lot more damage.
I dont think you and I are going to agree on this at all... sorry 
As far as I can see, the relative lowering of /sonic from defender --> troller is exactly the same as /forcefield.
I take your points tho, I was discussing from a PvE perspective. I am far from a PvP expert. However. I would argue that a lot of these discussions are contextual - big team PvP? Small team PvP, dual PvP?
Context if the thing. How are 8 empath defenders going to have a chance vs 8 forcefield defenders for instance. Empaths might stitch up damage superquick, but when half of them are held by force field cages, and 8 snipes fire off at each one in turn (and are very hard to interrupt given the maxed out defence) things could look very much in the favour of the forcefielders... Just an example, but so much of PvP is contextual IMHO.
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I dont think you and I are going to agree on this at all... sorry
As far as I can see, the relative lowering of /sonic from defender --> troller is exactly the same as /forcefield.
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If you go by that reasoning, then there would be no difference between Sonic or FF. FF has Force Bubble though, which is just so much better than the lv 38 Sonic Power, it's not even funny. Force Bubble is just very very good in PVP, which gives Forcefield a big advantage. For example, I don't even have the single target buffs on my /FF controller. I would never ever roll a /Sonic troller and not get those buffs. That's how good Force Bubble is.
That's not to say that Sonic isn't good though. It's a different type of good. I wouldn't mind seeing Sonic buffed Fire Imps with the debuff toggle on them. That should be pretty decent damage. You'll be a lot more open to attack though. You have no self heal and no other way to protect yourself.
Point taken about the repel effect of some of the high level forcefielders. However, I would argue that this is less of an advantage for a 'troller than a defender. In PvP or PvE it is fairly easy to stay out of melee most of the time (although in PvP you will need to be mobile/evasive) with holds/immobs/slows etc.
And although liquefy is pretty rubbish, its not so rubbish when its cast on an area already plagues by an earthquake or ice slick.
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However, I would argue that this is less of an advantage for a 'troller than a defender. In PvP or PvE it is fairly easy to stay out of melee most of the time (although in PvP you will need to be mobile/evasive) with holds/immobs/slows etc.
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not really. A lot less people have repel resistance, compared to people who have mez protection. Anybody can get combat jumping and acrobatics to stop them from being immobbed and knocked down. Only 3-4 powersets in the entire game give resistance to repel.
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And although liquefy is pretty rubbish, its not so rubbish when its cast on an area already plagues by an earthquake or ice slick.
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Yeah, but why would you stack it on Earthquake? Both do exactly the same thing. At least you can almost perma Earthquake.
Yes yes.Icy is making a new pvp toon but this time on defiant. Anyway.I had fire/ff planned for some time cause I think it will be great after 32 and pre epic..its NOT support so not sure about taking the def bubbles for allies..forcebubble seems very excelent to keep enemies away from you and the mez and +def from despersion are awesome 2..and offcourse the forcebolt against those squishies:P
..but yesterday I realised that sonic has some great goodies for dueling...any hints or tips?^^