I think Sonic's an excellent choice for a team support set. It really shines in bigger teams, which is fair enough because it's quite poor solo.
Healing is useful. You'll often resistance cap any Scrappers and Tankers on your team, so they're looking at a very slow bleed of damage. I havent tried using an interruptable heal on a Sonic Defender taking a back seat though. It could help you to build up some AoE defence so you can get in and heal without taking splash damage. Luckily, Aegis is there for you. 
I'd look into getting Short Circuit at least, if not Ball Lightning. If you're running on teams it should be safe enough to use some AoE once the aggro's controlled, and you'd have the added bonus of end drain to further aid your team if you go with Short Circuit and maybe even Power Drain later on. If you skip Short Circuit, you're really skipping the main reason to take Electric Blast.
Voltaic Sentinel is a bit weak. Its not bad DPE and DPA and so on, but tends to spread its damage around and never really defeat anything.
And no, I dont think you're being too Defendery. Good team support can be worth its weight in gold.
As long as you do have some blasts, and you use them, while still keeping up your buffing duties then you're probably okay. If you're focused on teaming, though, I would at least try to fit in Ball Lightning. AoEs are going to be much more helpful in a team situation. I skipped the Snipe on my Emp/Elec, and much prefer having the ranged AoE. Short Circuit is nice if you don't mind getting into melee, too.
Aid Other and Aid Self are going to be preference. They're not bad to have, but you certainly don't need them. Power Sink is an amazing End Recovery tool, especially with the End heavy Sonic Resonance along with Leadership. Volty is hotly debated, but I like having him to pump out a bit more DPS.
Hmm, are you level 50 yet? At level 50 defenders should be able to have the best of both worlds. It sounds like you're doing fine though. There's definitely nothing wrong with picking up aid other and aid self. I'm of the opinion that everyone can use a little bit of healing as long as it's not overkill. You should try to get ball lightning and voltaic sentinel if you can. Ball lightning will be your most damaging power on teams, and voltaic sentinel does a lot of damage over its lifetime even though it doesn't seem like it.
Also, nice avatar.
Hmm, all right. I'll leave little sparky in place and see what might be better shuffled around for AoEs.
Thank you for the compliment on my avatar.
Quote:
I think the main problem against all-support Defenders is that they stop doing useful things on teams. The stereotypical all-Empath, no-blasts Defender uses all their buffs, has Healing Aura on auto, and waits for people to get hurt to use Heal Other/Absorb Pain/Rez. They'll have leadership toggles running, perhaps all three. The problem is the "waiting" part and the "HA on auto" part.|
Originally Posted by Scientist_16
Am I too defendery? Not defendery enough? Doin it wrong? Does Volt. Sentinel just suck?
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Healing a person at or near full health is useless. Standing around waiting for people to get hurt is similarly useless. If that character was on a team where people were in constant need of the healing, I don't think anyone would be complaining about how the character was played. That is a very rare situation to be in, however. The average team doesn't need anything close to that, so an Empathy Defender that uses the buffs and then blasts will be much more effective.
The point I'm trying to get at is this: what are you doing during fights? As long as you are clicking powers often, you're likely fine. If you find yourself waiting for something to do, you should probably consider a change in tactics.
I agree with all the advice above, but I personally hate VS. More than anything else, I hate having to resummon the thing all the time. It just drives me crazy.
Anyway, as is often said when these questions arise, Defenders have mostly just one powerset devoted to support. If pure support is what you want to do, be a Controller, so that you have 2 powersets worth of powers from which to choose.
Then again, it is a game, and I hate when people tell others how they should play. Nevermind; forget everything I said. Play however is fun for you.
Bye, everybody!
*Champion*
As far as my experience with Electric Blast go (A level 50 Dark/Elec, 35 Traps/Elec, 30 TA/Elec), I can happily go with the T1, 2, 3, 4, 8. Aim and Tesla are up to personally choice, but I get plenty of happiness out of my attack chain with just T1-4. 2 AoEs and 2 STs and I'm happy. Plus, I always love dots because they make me think I'm dealing more damage than I actually am. Granted, there is a downside to dots, but that's always my feeling.
As far as my experience with Sonic Res goes (Got a 50 Archery/Sonic Corr and a 27 Sonic/Psi), it seems to be buff with the two ally buffs and maintain my -res toggle and big bubble. Liquefy when it's up and other that go about blasting.
50s: Bla- Arch/Mental Cont- Mind/FF, Earth/Cold, Ill/Therm, Earth/Rad Dominator- Plant/Psi, Elec/Earth Corr- Fire/Storm, Arch/Sonic, Rad/Kin, Beam/Sonic, Psi/Time Stalker- Elec/SR Def- Storm/Dark, Emp/Psi, Dark/Elec, FF/Arch, TA/Ice, TA/Elec, Kin/AR, Cold/DP, Traps/Psi Scrap- Fire/Shield Tanker- Dark/Mace, Ice/Kin Brute- Claws/WP, SS/Energy, BS/Elec
So, I've been playing a Sonic/Elec defender lately, and I've just hit level 41 with her. I picked the power combination in an attempt to play a character that was difficult to solo to promote me teaming more, and at that she's succeeded admirably. The current build she has gives her most of sonic (Did not take sonic repulsion or sonic cage) and both Assault and Tactics from the leadership pool. I didn't take either Ball Lightning or Short Circuit, and didn't take Thunderous Blast (I'm toggle-heavy and the crash is too painful.)
My question is twofold. Have I shot myself in the foot and given into the 'defenders are healorz' mentality by focusing on team buffs to the point where my blasts are anemic? I do have both ST blasts, aim, and the snipe, but I mostly find myself firing Sonic Siphons and locking down lts with Tesla Cage more than I blast for damage.
Alternatively, I've been considering dropping the voltaic sentinel and Power Sink in favor of Aid Other and Aid Self. The sentinel's been kind of meh for me, and I think that some healing might go well with all the +res I can throw out.
Am I too defendery? Not defendery enough? Doin it wrong? Does Volt. Sentinel just suck?
Just fishing for opinions here.