Sonic/?? or FF/??

I have done Darks, Kins, Storms, Traps, and have done Rad, to death for the Primary. And I have done Electric, Ice, Dark, Psy and AR for Secondaries.

Now for something completly different.

Sonic or FF?

Then what to pair with them.

I was thinking Rad assault as I have not done that or Dual Pistols but I am torn. What works well with them better?

And Sonic imo is better than ff because it buffs and debuffs rather than just buffing. You can cap your own sm/lethal or close to it and have decent res to others between tough and whatever epic shield you take. If you like to get into melee rad is great because of irradiate and the dark epic pool opens up nice damage from soul drain.

Are you going for a "add to an already OK team" build or a "make a bad team go smoothly" build?

I really like my Sonic/sonic, and I really like my FF/* which I have on most of the servers I play. I like the forcefields defenders because they bring a lot to the table in the form of the one thing they do better than others, soft cap defense.

I was on a team that recruited my FF/sonic because they were getting roughed up a bit by Malta missions. With the bubbles, the missions became steamroll missions. I am not saying it was my skill, any other FF defender or controller would improve the team as much. We had some nemesis missions after the malta, and they were as easy, too.

One thing I noticed in your list of defenders that was missing is cold. A Cold/* defender has the benefits of FF type defense shields, some storm, and some good single target debuffs, too. You might be interested in that.

FF will turn around 99% of the problem teams in the game, but it's very one-dimensional [as mentioned]- the team will have capped defense, and that's almost everything you offer.

Sonic is unlikely to turn around a problem team. What it does offer is "half the incoming damage" to pretty much every team (no problems with overlapping) and considerable offensive benefits.

Either way you've got a pretty relaxed lifestyle, as long as you refresh the bubbles every 3, 3.5 minutes.

I strongly recommend /sonic to go with whatever you choose.

While I have never played a FF past low levels, I have played Sonic and I would go for that one.

Not only does sonic halve incoming damage but placing Disruption Field on an ally will severely weaken any baddie's resistance around that toon.

Cold is also a friggin awesome set. However if we are talking strictly Sonic or FF, I would choose Sonic.

I've got one of each and they both shine in different situations.

Sonic
Sonic won't prevent people from faceplanting, it just gives them more time to react.

That being said, the two resistance buffs are better on players who already have some resistance to damage or high hit points like tanks, scrappers and brutes.

You primary debuff, disruption field, needs a host that's comfortable in melee range: tanks, brutes, scrappers and stalkers.

Force Field
Getting hit less is beneficial to all, but better for those who draw a lot of aggro but can't take as many hits as their melee counterparts--controllers and blasters.

Furthermore, FF has the ability to mitigate damage by removing NPCs ability to land melee attacks. This again is more beneficial for ranged based ATs.

The absence of a resistance typed debuff means that the rest of your team will have to make up some damage potential; likely in the form of a blaster.

General Outlook
Both sets are nice, but I believe Sonic has a slight advantage in the form of providing more the opportunity to form a more versatile team. But why limit your choices to those two when both cold and (not yet ported to defender) thermal are so much better?

Cold is different but I couldn't bring myself to say better when there is that huge Mez hole that cold doesn't cover like sonic and forcefield dispersion bubbles do.

I have both a 50 FF/Archery Defender and a 50 Archery/Sonic Corruptor.

Because of the toggle, buff, then blast, pick a blast set you enjoy.

FF provides 95% protection, including Psi and End Drain, and no offensive buffs.
Sonic proivdes around 60% protection, with Psi and End drain holes (except Liquefy), but increases team damage by 30 to 60%.

Both sets leave you as the most vulnerbale member of the team. Force Field provides you with the means to protect yourself when you do draw aggro off a Freak Tank, through Force Bolt ot PFF. Sonic doesn't. So I'd recommend a secondary to go with Sonic that allows you to protect yourself, which really rules out Rad Blast. (Plus, you get good -Def debuffs in Liquefy for when you do want it.)

Sonic Blast is probably the best secodnary for either, because its the best Defender blast set full stop. It worked really well for me with Force Fields by providing some good offensive buffs. For Sonic Resonance, I went Energy Blast, which allowed me to keep the bad guys away. I was very happy with both pairings and took them to 50.

Yep, Sonic/Dark is way better than Sonic/Energy for self protection, especially if you take Torrent. You've got the KB and hefty -To Hit and a self heal. That's a really cool combination in fact...

It would also provide really good layered defence to your team through the -To Hit debuffs, upping your team protection value to more like 80% at a guess.

Well I decided on a FF/Sonic.

I will play that to 30 or so and see. It looks like I will have all my major shields and attacks by then, and I would have run some TF's too, so I should have a good feel for it before IO slotting.

Then I might have some IO placement advice to be looking for.

FF is one of my favourite buffing sets. It gives the team great protection from all attacks and also offers protection to holds, stuns and immobalizes. Even better now that sleeps doesn't detoggle dispersion bubble. With IO sets its easy to soft cap ranged defence making you almost as tough as your allies. Repulsion bomb is also an amazing opener and never gets the credit it deserves. Force bubble makes the set great for herding, especially with PFF. Power Build Up allows you to "super shield" 3 people, or alternatively use it to boost your damage for a powerful AoE strike.

On top of all that, once you have buffed everyone on a team, you have 4 minutes to focus on your secondary. Which means even though FF doesn't bring any debuffs, a FF defender can concentrate on their own personal damage.

True FF does not bring any debuffs to the table, and that is its one weakness. However with the amount of protection it brings, I think its fair to give that role to one of the other 7 members of the team

Great, potent set and a real blast to play.

Afraid I have no knowledge of Sonic

I agree entirely with what PeaceMoon says. To augment that, I used to think psy blast was the superior pairing with FF since you got a sleep, a stun, and nice -recharge debuff, and it's still good for that. There are just some foes that are entirely resistant to psy blast .

Now I go with sonic blast on my FF defenders for the AoE sleep, the nice single target stun, and the -resistance debuff. Sonic blast debuff stacks and assists on teams, especially with howl on short recharge.

I like both sets and certainly appreciate them on any team, but I lean toward FF/*. Not being hit is huge. A debuff or mezz effect that doesn't hit doesn't do anything. A debuff or mezz effect that hits for less damage still has the debuff or mezz effect.

A softcapped Scrapper or Tanker won't really notice the addition of a FF/* Defender, but everyone else will. If you find yourself on a team full of those, switch toons and have fun.

OK I went FF/Sonic and am really liking it so far.

Now I need some build advice.

I am not taking the knockback or repel/knockdown bubbles.

What would good IO slotting be for a FF/Sonic?

Maybe trying to softcap but I still want to do dmg too.

I have shriek, sceam, howl, and shout as attacks now.

I will be going into leadership next for Manuvers and Tactics and later Veng.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Crank up your personal ranged and AOE defense to be nearly as good as the rest of the team.

I've tried a number of other things and none of them worked out for me nearly as well as that.

Vengeance would be, in my experience, a wasted power choice.

Don't underestimate your blasters