I have a level 50 sonic/sonic defender and a level 43 grav/sonic. With IOs i find i can solo on heroic with my defender and not worry about endurance. On the controller i haven't really sorted his final build and he's very slow to solo. I don't have an optimised build as i went for powers i liked the look of. With the defender i can take on groups of 3 safely with bosses best left till they are on their own. I use sonic cage to remove enemies till i'm ready to deal with them. You might find yourself turning toggles on and off alot to save endurance. In teams both are useful, i'd go for the defender though as i find it more fun when i can defeat the odd straggling enemy. I do PvP too so my build is for that, single target damage, psi mastery and 2 travel powers. Sonic defenders have more debuffs if you go sonic for primary and secondary.
Ok guess I'll go Sonic/Sonic
Thanks for the feedback
Defenders have higher numbers too, the +resistance and -resistance is greater.
thePhilosopher Martial Arts/Regen/Fire Scrapper
theRegulator Empathy/Energy/Soul Defender
Total Inertia Ice Blast/Kinetics/Psy Corruptor
Total Inferno Ice Blast/Thermal/Leviathan Corruptor
What about Dark/Sonic? I recently rolled one and I am having tons of fun. Good soloing also.
My Sonic/Elec is actually quite fun. I initially rolled him in order to have capped S/L resists and near-capped energy resists by taking the Elec epic pool. The [Power Sink + Short Circuit] combo is always fun too.
He had problems doing decent damage when soloing (I took Volt. Sentinel and made it perma to get some extra DPS when I was levelling him) but he's very useful to play on teams. Currently (level 50 and fully IO'ed) he can't solo things quickly, though he can keep bosses perma-end-drained and unable to fight back indefinately...
I'd say Sonic/Sonic is probably the best balance between Offense and Teamworthiness. Your -resist debuffs help you just as much they help as your team. I'd seriously look into Liquefy though... it's one of the most skippable powers in the set, and one that I didn't respec into until very recently (and even then, it's at level 44) but it's saved my team's bacon several times.
Sonics are fairly passive buffers, even if you take Aid Other the survivability you offer a team is fairly constant. Liquefy can really let you turn things around when the brown stuff hits the air conditioning. It only lasts for 30 seconds, but that's often enough time for a tanker to be able get things back under control again. Fire it at the feet of a besieged teammate(s) and they'll take nearly no damage for 30secs regardless of what's beating on them, or fire it at the feet of a foe with high defence and you'll suddenly start hitting them easily... it's -35.7% Defense and -35.7% ToHit base, plus some -recharge and knockdown, the -tohit once slotted will easily floor most things' accuracy in PvE and it combines very well with Power Build Up. I have it slotted with 3x Enzyme EndRed/-Tohit/-Def HOs and 3x level 50 Recharge IOs, it's up every 140 secs. I've found it particularly valuable when an INV tanker's Unstoppable is about to wear off or when fighting a tough AV.
Quick example using Liquefy versus tough AVs (Level 54 Patrons in the States TF):
- Buffs have a 0.48 modifier versus +4 AVs.
- Liquefy is -35.7% Def/Tohit base, 57.8% Slotted (will completely floor acc on up to +2s)
- Power Build Up adds 149% Base for 12.5 secs = 113.675% total (with above slotting)
Versus +4 AVs, it's therefore applying:
>>> 0.48 * 57.8 = 27.744% Debuff (Without Power Build Up)
>>> 0.48 * 113.675 = 54.564% Debuff (With Power Build Up)
So the first few hits are totally negated (11-12 secs of PBU, will easily absorb an Alpha or allow recovery from an Unstoppable crash) and for the remainder of Liquefy's duration incoming damage will be more than halved.
I actually think the fire and forgetness of Sonics is good on a controller.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
I wasnt sure what board to ask this in but since the sonic defence is mainly a defender powerset I thought it best to go here
Now I like to be an asset to a team which is why I have a lv45 Empath/Energy defender as my main but with everyone fully self-buffed I find I'm not used very much apart from sticking fortitude on tanks/scrappers and AB on the nova'ing blasters. I have been interested in making a ton the Sonic tree for a while now but I need some advice.
My problem is choosing a suitable powerset to compliment it. At lv40+ I found my other defender can no longer solo even heroic non-AV missions so I would like an offensive set that can still hold its own not just in damage but holds or debuffs too
This brings me to my other dilemma. Is it better to use a controller for that extra damage and control or is the defense penalty and increased endurance costs to the shields too great to make it feasible for teams?
To summarise I want to provide the best I can to a team but still be capable of soloing when none are available
Sorsy if this has been asked before and thanks for any advice