Clarification on Liquefy Needed

I'm having a little bit of difficulty with Liquefy on my Sonic Defender, as I want to know how to use it well. I just got it, so it only has the default slot in it, but I also can't quite figure out durations, etc. from looking at CoD and Mid's.

How long do the -defense and -to hit debuffs last? Do they have to stay in the patch for those to last reliably? Is the chance for kd really as low as CoD lists it (3% chance?)? Also, what is the chance of the hold landing? How long does that last? How important is slotting accuracy in this power?

I fired it off just after I got it, and I'm not sure I used it well given my team setup. We had a Scrapper running in to get the alpha, and then we had a few Defenders and Blasters. The Red Caps we were fighting ran right through the patch and didn't seem to be debuffed much (seeing how much they were pegging my teammates, etc.). I couldn't see any of them getting knocked down or held, either. Is this power best used when the foes are going to stay in the patch? Or is it just as simple as needing to get more slotting in there?

I get the impression that it's a strong power, I just want to know how to use it. I realize it will get better upon slotting as well, but it's hard to get a feel for it when I can't read the numbers on it well.

... wow, I didn't even realize it summoned a pet. That's how new I am to it. Looks like, from Red Tomax, it's a 3% knockdown chance, 5 times a second. Also a serious -ToHit penalty, (and a -Defense penalty, for what that's worth) which is what I was planning on slotting up. And when they leave the patch, they leave the penalties.

A lot of people think it sucks. I haven't made up my mind yet.

I usually saved it for stationary bosses/EB's/AV's at the end of missions, or as a panic power if an extra group was pulled. Either way, it was for situations where the enemy were going to stay in the patch.

Its not a key power to the set, but not a bad power - it saved my bacon fighting Nostradamus as an EB for example. The recharge is a bit too long in my opinion, but its one of those abilities thats handy to have in your back pocket. I barely slotted it, a couple of Lockdowns for some acc and recharge was all i think.

And yeah, the 3% knockdown triggers repeatedly like Earthquake only weaker. The hold is very shortlived but breaks up an alpha, the knockdown is unreliable, but the main value is the To Hit debuff - if you can get the enemy to stay in the patch you take a whole lot less damage.

The tactic that I use with liquefy and other defender ToHit debuff powers (radiation infection, darkest night, dark servant) is to stand next or near the center of tohit debuff generation so that the melee types like red caps and warwolves received debuffing when they approach my position.

Though it has its faults (previously mentioned long timer) it is great to have situationally (again, as menioned above). I would never advise skipping it, especially since Sonic/ has several skippable powers.

If you want to know if it sucks, fight some Longbow, lvl 40+. Also, if you want to see Granite Armour go down fast with no psi involved, 2 Disruption Fields over a Liquefy means dead Stoner. Note: I'm not saying that always happens, but I've seen it enough.

Okay, good to know. Sounds like this will work better with a Tank or if I'm hovering over the enemies (which I have) and they're focused on me. Probably won't be too helpful on a mostly ranged team, like I had last time. I am going to get a set in there at some point... probably one of the accurate -to hit ones, as they have decent bonuses.

I don't know much about Radiation Infection (don't have any rad characters), but I do know how it helps out. Having been hit by RI (I believe) when facing Crey Scientists, I know how it can help out... I usually drop them first so they don't kill my chance to hit.

Liquefy seems to be the same way, so I can see the similarity, thanks... didn't really know that. I'll play with it, but knowing that they need to be in the patch and that there isn't a whole lot keeping them in there if they want to leave is good to know.

I'll mess with the slotting, but I'm most interested in dropping the to hit and getting some good bonuses. I think the hold and kb will be gravy on top of that, and the defense debuff is already crazy high, anyway.

Liquefy is a GREAT power! It should never be skipped.

But I do understand your confusion; it does so many things its a little hard to understand what the primary use of the power should be. Here's my opinion:

If you want it to be the 'oh, crap' button of the set, then you need to slot it for to-hit debuffs and recharge. With full slotting the to-hit debuff can reach around 60%. Nothing is going to hit your team through that.

I like the power so much that I have taken Hasten and 5 recharge set bonuses just to have it up as much as possible.

The power does have a downside though. Anything that doesnt get 'tanked' will come gunning for you after the 30 sec duration is over. If you are on a team with a tanker who just stands there and doesnt pick up any mob beyond his melee radius, or no tanker at all or a team that believes in the chaos offense approach (can be fun), you can expect anything that doesnt die in the 30 sec duration to be mad at you.

I'm bumping this because there appears to be disagreement about the hold duration of Liquefy. In Mids and on RedTomax, the hold is listed as lasting about 4-5 seconds. But on the Real Numbers info in game, the hold duration is listed as lasting about 30 seconds. I would LOVE it if the game info were correct, though I suspect it's not. I can't check it myself because my Dark/Sonic corruptor is only level 36.

Can anyone confirm the real duration? Any idea why the game info might be wrong (assuming it is)?

Red Tomax is correct by practice, the hold shows up as a somewhat rare animation (the enemy grasps their heads) it's kind of like when a carnie dies, and the hold is barely longer than that animation. (in fact it actually seems a little like the vomit animation hold as far as that's concerned).

As for the debuff, it's rather easy to expect all the mobs in the spawn to stay on the patch, especially since they're slowed and falling down. I use it whenever the tank isn't jumping in quickly enough and it's recharged, after you've slotted a tohit debuff enhancement you're pretty near soft capped to all the enemies in the area, and the -defense is incredible, everyone on your team hits with all of their alpha. In gameplay it looks like their res has been debuffed they drop so fast.

The knockdown effect seems to happen at about 1/2 the reliability of earthquake.

Back when I used to run my Sonic/Energy/Psi alot (don't run him anymore, even though he is 50. waiting to reroll as Sonic/Pistols defender. Concept over performance for me), I had liquefy slotted to recharge as quickly as possible without making a recharge build.

In those days, I used to roll with a crowd that was fairly godly. (don't run with them much anymore, second degree and starting my career). So in order to show them up, every so often I would run ahead of my team-mates and BAM! neuter the next spawn with Liquefy.

I always wanted to /e dance in the middle of liquefy waiting for my team-mates, just never had the where-withall.

Oh yeah, Liquefy=win. I'd also totally give up the defense debuff if they made the power recharge in 100s over 300s. maybe even the hold. give me the initial damage, knockdown and toHit debuff on a 100s timer and you have sold me.