Sonic Resonance?
I don't see a whole ton of people out there playing but I don't know if I've ever seen someone with that set.
Sonic Resonance
I see it on Controllers from time to time, but other than my own, never on defenders.
BIOSPARK :: DARKTHORN :: SKYGUARD :: WILDMAGE
HEATSINK :: FASTHAND :: POWERCELL :: RUNESTAFF
Sonic Resonance, Gravity Control, Mercenaries and Ice Blast are fairly uncommon. Personally, I don't see a lot of Electric Armor tankers, either. None of them are unheard-of or excessively weak, but they're not things you see everywhere.
Really, if you want to be unique, it's more about the combination than either powerset. Grav/Earth Dom, for instance, isn't common, since Grav tends to use distance to help deal with its lack of AoE control, while Earth is more of a melee assault set. But it's a great combo for knockup and knockdown, especially since the immob does solid damage and doesn't prevent KB. Look for angles and synergies between seemingly opposed powersets - they're almost always there.
Yeah, Sonic.
Its a poor solo-er, but a great (if unremarkable) team set. Almost every team benefits from having a Sonic on board, but they may not notice that you're the one making everything easier.
Its low maintenance, giving you plenty of time to blast away.
I agree probably Sonic Resonance and for good reason.
This makes my sonics sad. 
But yeah. I don't think I've run across a lot of sonics (and even fewer sonic/sonic.)
I wonder if part of it's from the old "it gives people headaches" graphics or rep.
Wanted: Origin centric story arcs.
If you've only played an AT once (one set combo) and "hate" it - don't give up. Roll a different combo. It may just be those sets not clicking for you.
Sonic Resonance is probably the least common support set for Defenders which is a pity because on a team it is an excellent set (unless the graphics give you eye problems anyway). In particular a lot of people use IOs to boost their defenses but few use them for resistance (since resistance set bonuses suck) so added resistance is useful to them (layered defenses FTW).
The second least common I would say is actually Trick Arrow. It's a moderately popular set but not one I see people actually playing a lot (including me, I have a TA/A but I rarely play him now that my Trapper is 50). I think the problem is that people who like debuffing Defenders tend to play Rad, Dark or Traps instead since they are, on the whole, more generically useful than Trick Arrow.
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That probably doesn't help but I think there are a few other factors. First off in terms of solo ability it's down near the bottom of the heap with Empathy and Force Field which means people who like to be able to solo reasonably well with their Defenders will skip it. Additionally it lacks the flashiness of those two sets so even people who want team focused defenders are liable to give it a pass
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Originally Posted by Stormbird
I wonder if part of it's from the old "it gives people headaches" graphics or rep.
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I see quite a few Trick Archers around. I think it does alright from the concept-draw of the set.
A lot of players like Hawkeye or Green Arrow and want to make someone a bit similar. And it appeals to the high fantasy fans as well as superhero fans.
Sonic Resonance has much less cool spokespersons in comics. Klaw? Banshee?
The devil-may-care roguish lady's men of their teams seems to beat the Irish corncob-pipe smoker and noseless one-handed South African villain 
Sonic. Hands down. I had a level 50 Sonic and deleted it. Sonic just plain sucks. It is basically a FF clone with resistance instead of defense. The worst part is that the main AoE -res power has to be attached to an ally making it totally USELESS solo. It should work like the Trick Arrow Disruption arrow as a Location AoE but it doesnt. Also Liquefy is a horrible tier 9 power. Its timer is far too long.
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
got a sonic/cold defender sitting around lvl 48....its just boring to play and horrible to solo...
the tier 9 power is only a joke
imo sonic is just a bad version of thermal...
BANG BANG!!!
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I have a Sonic/Sonic named Sound Judgement. Teams love him.
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Originally Posted by Stormbird
This makes my sonics sad.
But yeah. I don't think I've run across a lot of sonics (and even fewer sonic/sonic.)I wonder if part of it's from the old "it gives people headaches" graphics or rep. |
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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Everything that is not Empathy?
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Originally Posted by Elimination
Whats the least common primary powerset nowadays? Want to play something unique.
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Sooo.... all those Darks, Rads and Trappers I keep running into are a figment of my imagination? I see a lot more of those three sets than I do Empaths although Empathy probably does come in 4th.
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Originally Posted by BurningChick
Everything that is not Empathy?
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Vote goes to sonic as well. Idk why though...Sonic pwns!
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I don't see a lot of Darks as primaries; I see a lot of darks as secondaries for Corrs and MMs, however....
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Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
Sooo.... all those Darks, Rads and Trappers I keep running into are a figment of my imagination? I see a lot more of those three sets than I do Empaths although Empathy probably does come in 4th.
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Originally Posted by Airhammer
Sonic. Hands down. I had a level 50 Sonic and deleted it. Sonic just plain sucks. It is basically a FF clone with resistance instead of defense.
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There's no power in FF that debuffs defense on an enemy like Sonic Siphon.
There's no power in FF that debuffs defense in an AOE when attached to a teammate.
There's no fire-and-forget mez protection in FF.
There's no "attach to teammate" KB in FF.
There's no hold power in FF.
There's sonic cage, the two ally bubs and the large PBAOE bub. That's not "a FF clone with resist instead of defense." You might as well call Radiation an Empathy clone for as much as they have in common.
Wanted: Origin centric story arcs.
If you've only played an AT once (one set combo) and "hate" it - don't give up. Roll a different combo. It may just be those sets not clicking for you.
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Really? We have 5 TriDarks in our SG alone (mains). I did a pug Manti yesterday and there were 3 of us, it became rather boring as nothing could hit us...|
Originally Posted by FatElvis
I don't see a lot of Darks as primaries; I see a lot of darks as secondaries for Corrs and MMs, however....
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Awesome name. I called mine Baffle - you know, the bit on the back of a speaker that means you can hear them from more than three feet away.|
Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I have a Sonic/Sonic named Sound Judgement. Teams love him.
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She's a blast to play solo, thanks to all that -res, and turns teams into wrecking balls. Had one very fun three-man team with me, a Bots/FF MM, and a Mind/Empathy troller in Praetoria. For lowbies, we were steamrolling.
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Since I've started, I'd peg it at about 1/3 to 1/2 of defenders I've seen have been empaths, with rad a distant second. With everything else mostly just surprising me unless I'm on an RO team. The last defender I levelled to 50, a traps / dark a few months ago, would get comments like, "Wow, I never see trappers!" I only saw 2 others, on Freem -- and I generally pugged my way up.|
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
Sooo.... all those Darks, Rads and Trappers I keep running into are a figment of my imagination? I see a lot more of those three sets than I do Empaths although Empathy probably does come in 4th.
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FWIW, I mostly PuG, so that means I ususally come across new(ish) players who can most easily wrap their heads around healers.
I think the more interesting question is, "Which set would you like to see more of?"
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Sonic, Cold, TA, and (god willing) Force Field.
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Originally Posted by BurningChick
I think the more interesting question is, "Which set would you like to see more of?"
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My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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I PUG almost exclusively as well and my experiences differ a lot from yours. I see Empaths but they don't seem to be the majority of Defenders. I would say Rad is probably the most popular primary followed by Dark and then Empathy. Traps are a bit rarer (partly due to the relative newness of the set for Defenders) but I stills seem to see them quite a bit and definitely more than Sonic or TA.|
Originally Posted by BurningChick
Since I've started, I'd peg it at about 1/3 to 1/2 of defenders I've seen have been empaths, with rad a distant second. With everything else mostly just surprising me unless I'm on an RO team. The last defender I levelled to 50, a traps / dark a few months ago, would get comments like, "Wow, I never see trappers!" I only saw 2 others, on Freem -- and I generally pugged my way up.
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I do see Empaths a lot more on Rikti and Hamidon raids but I think that's because people specifically bring them out for those events (where they are very handy to have).
It might be a server thing, I exclusively play on Virtue.
A few years ago when I did a survey I got about an even distribution of the 8 primaries [at the time] and about 20% "healers." My favorite of those was "Dr. Empath" with the search field that said "Healer". I didn't check, they coulda been a Storm/Archer or something.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
I know it's not a perfect sample, but for these kind of questions, I always find the statistics page on City Info Tracker to be informative. Here's what they have currently for defenders:
1117 Empathy
599 Kinetics
585 Dark Miasma
555 Radiation Emission
299 Storm Summoning
287 Force Field
273 Trick Arrow
241 Cold Domination
210 Sonic Resonance
99 Traps
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Whats the least common primary powerset nowadays? Want to play something unique.