I personally did a slightly odd build and chose Reactive Armor. I slotted for defense (mostly AoE and ranged) and love it! Definitely not softcapped, but a lot more than nothing. I take him on LGTFs and he doesn't get slept, which means the mezz protect/added resistance from the big bubble stays up. Also fewer hits means my resistance buff goes further...
This not the optimal build for everyone by any means, but the resistance sets aren't very cohesive in their benefits AND the higher ones are damned expensive...
I have dual builds on my Sonic/Sonic. One is for STF's and runs Leadership toggles in addition to the Sonic Toggles. The other I tried to get as high on my resist as possible with Tough/APP resist toggle. Both builds benefited greatly from +recovery, +end. I'd recommend keeping it simple and going for that. I couldn't never really justify going for other set bonuses like recharge or defense for the price and the build.
*Edited for typo
@Quarktease
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Hm. That's also a possibility. I guess something else that would have helped if I had mentioned it was that I'm a Sonic/Dark Defender and most of my Dark Blast abilities are getting slotted for ToHit Debuffs, since while I technically could do some decent damage, I'm mostly aiming for damage mitigation. The reason I bring this up is that unless I fall asleep at the keyboard, everything around me should have ToHit Debuffs up.
Which is not to say that Defense is useless, of course, but it does sorta raise my "defense" in a way.
Thanks for the advice, though! I really have no idea of what to expect when I hit 50, so anything's more than what I got. 
My sonic/sonic defender stuck with common IOs in the resist powers.
Went with thunderstrikes in her ST ranged attacks for the ranged defence.
Sonic/ is pretty awesome with just SOs, and doesn't benefit hugely from set-IOs.
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@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
It's very possible to have a sonic defender with soft capped ranged/AoE defense and smashing/lethal resistance. With that kind of defense, you'll be right there with the scrappers and tanks, and you'll have all kinds of flexibility to blast, debuff or even tank to your heart's content.
See this thread for ideas on build. I put together a sonic/sonic build in that thread and the same ideas can be used for a sonic/dark.
Sonic defenders can build to do all sorts of things, although Sonic Resonance itself does not offer too many IO possibilities. My Sonic/Sonic has a general-purpose teaming build, with all of Sonic/ except for Repulsion and the Cage (been trying to see if I can drop something else to pick it up for STFs) along with the medicine and leadership pools up to rez/veng. His alternate build is for crazy-durable soloing; I dropped all the ally buffs to take Fighting for capped s/l res and around 35% ranged defense (with a stack of lucks to top off whenever it might be needed), Oppressive Gloom and Screech to instantly stun bosses, and a wicked attack chain (though I'd still like to get that Apoc proc for Shriek).
As for the actual sets in Sonic, I stick with three Titanium Coatings because they're cheap, the +HP is handy, and I have no endurance issues anyway. If I had way more toggles or a secondary that was more end-hungry, Impervium Armor is amazing if you can afford it. I would rarely even consider using Aegis unless I really needed the +def. Liquefy gets 3 Membranes for max slot efficiency over set bonuses, though Dark Watcher isn't a bad alternative, and nothing else in the set really even takes IOs.
Rule number six of an empathy defender is NEVER underestimate a blaster's ability to die. I don't care if he has CM, Fort, both RAs, bubbles (both FF and Sonic), and is fighting next to a Storm defender with hurricane on. If there is a way to die in that situation, the blaster will find it.
I use three Titanium Coatings - Resistance, Resistance/Endurance, and Resistance/Endurance/Recharge. At or about level 50, that'll give you the ED cap on resistance as well as a respectable amount of endurance reduction and recharge. Good 3-slot set bonuses (+HP is always nice - I'm a PvPer so it's vital and I end up using 3 Titanium Coatings in just about all my resist powers) and not too expensive.
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"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
I used Aegis extensively -four sets I think in the ally shields, Dispersion and Charged Armour.
Add in the Steadfast Unique IO, Thunderstrike in my Energy Blasts, two sets of Blessings of the Zephyr (because I'm loaded) and I ended up with around 30% Def vs Ranged and AoE without even using the Fighting pool.
+Recovery is very good to chase too, due to the end cost of Sonic Disperion and Disruption Field. Thunderstrike, plus wherever els you can squeek in a couple of set IOs for a Recovery bonus.
I'd say if you have room for five slots in the power(s), use Aegis, because that gives you 4.7% AoE defense. (Aegis: the Thunderstrike of AoE def.) Four slots available only, then Impervium. (I haven't checked recently, but usually Aegis is cheaper, sometimes by some large margin.)
Defense stacks particularly well with /dark, so I would aim for it on a sonic/dark. If you're firing Tentacles constantly (and Nightfall on top of that), then melee defense is most of the time irrelevant and you only need good ranged and AoE defense. Consider each layer of tohit debuffs adds more than 7% defense (vs. +2s), you can probably have a pretty constant additional 20% or so of defense. And you have a self-heal for the damage that leaks through.
Hey all,
Relatively new to CoH, but love it so far. My current main is a Sonic/Dark Defender that I pretty much exclusively use for teaming and TFs. That said, I wanted to see if I wasn't too off-base on something I thought up for slotting him once he reaches a respectable enough level.
It seems to me that the set bonuses for Aegis are mostly aimed towards tanks slotting Resistance powers, rather than for Defenders who (hopefully) won't be taking the brunt of the damage and therefore need less defense in their build. (Although it is entirely possible that I don't understand how damage/combat/a Defender's role in combat works at 50)
Therefore, is it a solid decision to opt out of Aegis and instead use level 40 Impervium Armor sets in my powers? It seems to me that I'd get more benefit from increased Recovery and Endurance than from increased defenses. I would be taking a hit to my powers' resistance ratings, not a huge amount and (since this is my first real toon) it would save me a lot of painful grinding.
Thanks in advance.
(tl;dr Is using Impervium Armor over Aegis viable a 50 for a primarily teaming Sonic/ Defender?)