Sonic Repulsion .... anyone?

So, talking with a friend... I tend to take, and use, powers (and effects) generally not highly *praised.* I use knockback. I use cages and intangibilities. Maybe not every group, or even every play session with those powers, but I find them situationally useful.

And then there's Sonic Repulsion, which even I don't take.

So, what I'm wondering, is... does *anyone* take and actually use this power? And how? Now, by use I do mean use *usefully* (IE, not "I put it on brutes I don't like.") And actually use (not set-mule for Kinetic Crash's KB protection.) Because I really have a hard time finding a use for this.

Now, if it were centered on *me,* I could definitely find uses for it. But sticking it on an ally... not so much. Even pets, thanks to their AI, I can't see it being useful for.

Anyone?

(Yes, this is idle curiosity more than anything.)

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I don't take it because if I want to save a squishy I use Grenade Launcher which can hit up to 16 targets at a fixed endurance cost, compared to sonic repulsion, and does damage too.

I've played Sonic Resonance several times and never used Sonic Repulsion. Never even considered taking it. I too like odd powers, and I have used Repulsion Field in Force Fields very effectively.

Was this question prompted by the fact it got an update in I21 - so that its now useable on any League-mate instead of just team-mates?

I tried to take this power once. The game didn't know what to do, and just auto-leveled me to 50. True story!

I rather love its animation so I do like to take sonic repulsion. If you have one of the vet power pets like blue wisp or dark light fairy the little pets that give you buffs you can place sonic repulsion on it.

It becomes your own version of singularity that doesnt attack and you can safely stay in it if you are a ranged attacker. It''ll turn into a pretty little planet if you add the hula hoops of doom and colour it right lol.

You can also place it on a team memeber that you see is playing at range and they are actively trying to avoid gtting into melee or when the enemies try to approach them after they get to much aggro. You'll save them enegry from moving so much, just ask them if theyd like the repulsion. Oh or you can ask them to keep the enemies in place or a corner like playing tennis when you dont have a group wide immobilize on your team, fun for them! lol.

I've got every /Sonic power including Sonic Repulsion. I've got three uses for it.

1. To help squishies in a bind because the aggro magnets picked up too much. It doesn't always work, as the radius is too small and often (Mostly ITFs) the squishy can still be one shot.

2. To help less sturdy melee characters (seriously). If a scrapper, or Blapper keeps dying I'll start collecting blues and give them the ball. I'll say "I've got plenty of blues, use the corners, and you practically have Elude tell me if I should drop it."

3. I'll give it to characters in Pocket D with Disruption Field, and they get to be a Disco ball.

If the endurance cost is a lot lower, I may consider it and even that is a stretch.

That's the same thing with the pbaoe knockback in Force Field. The endurance cost is just way too high for the effect.

I consider it only useful for saving a power slot..

And I, like the OP, love to take weird powers and find a use for them, or make them work, somehow...

I had this power for a very, very long time.

Rarely I'd momentarily, for the endurance was costly, use it on a team mate to get mobs away from them. Not enough times to warrant taking it.

The best use came down to using it on a PPP pet expecially when solo. A ranged pet. I'd stand next to them and benefit from mobs trying to melee me but fail. Teamed with a ranged friend who can stay side by side with you, the benefit can exist too.

Some mobs especially Vanguard, high level can pretty much be a pain in the backside to some team mixes but if you knock them about the room you neuter them.

When fitness pool became inherent I finally could make a concept out of my Sonic/Sonic that I actually liked, but it meant removing the Sonic Repulsion as the need for it was rather limited. If I had one more power choice I'd consider it.

I've always thought Sonic could do with a buff and from some internet researching and the lack of need for this power I came up with the conclusion that this power could also do -Dam and be conceptually correct. -Dam versus an AV would be sweeter and make the +fight duration to team and -fight duration to enemy that Sonics give that much better.

Except for -Res, Sonic doesn't have much to offer teams when it comes to Psionic enemies so again the KB can be useful, but I have never been in that situation. I have been in similar circumstances and trying to teach someone to knockback mobs methodically with it is like teaching a monkey algebra, complete waste of time.

I have an Assault Rifle / Sonic Resonance Corruptor. Most of the time I don't use Repulsion Field at all, but it's easy on enhancement slots and I have no plans to respec out of it. It's conditional but not useless.

Sometimes there's just someone on the team who needs all the help he can get to stay alive... like the free player with the new Fire Blaster. There are also some characters that just really don't want to be in melee combat, like the Kheldian who only seems to play in Nova form. For these people, it's a very useful buff.

When soloing against melee types I do cast it on my Power Drone Pet and stand behind it. It can be killed by AoE attacks, but it has no crazy AI to deal with.

Sonic Repulsion's endurance cost is insane--1.04 base plus additional endurance cost for each enemy knocked back. I'm not even sure what pre-Incarnate build could possibly keep it, Sonic Dispersion, and Disruption Field running at the same time and still continue to blast. I have a lot of trouble with just the latter 2. The base endurance cost from running all 3 toggles is 2.6 end/second.

The only good use I ever saw it put to was on the STF. It went on a scrapper that was attacking the towers. It did an OK job of keeping the repairmen away from the tower. It would have been better if the radius was even 5 feet larger but I still can't recommend a power that has so few situations that it is actually a good idea to use instead of a bad idea to use.