Sonic Resonance needs love too!
By
Auroxis,
Posted on: 2011-12-17 08:06 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
My Sonic/Sonic doesn't take the "bad" powers, and is by far my most game breaking Defender. I two-man speedrun ITFs with my friends' toons and we compete and see what pair can get the fastest time, but due to the nature of the buffs it proves and the MASSIVE resists it strips away, I can pair with any AT and still crush the TF. Current record is with a Fire/Dark corr, whose excellent build was just as much of a factor in our ridiculous sub 40 minute time.
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I have a lot of experience playing Sonic, and my only complaints are Liquefy's long recharge and how Sonic Siphon works.
When I use Sonic Siphon on an AV, I have to remember to apply it every 30 seconds, but what happens is that I use it once every 20-40 seconds because, well, I don't like counting the seconds after I cast it. I'd like it if the power became an enemy toggle which gives you +recovery(because sonic doesn't need another end hungry toggle), and inflicted -resistance on an opponent.
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I'd rather they make the power better* instead of changing it to a different effect. Improving its use as a cage power (granting total -regen when an enemy is caged) and giving it more usage would do wonders for the power. An idea that I like about the single target cages, is to make it a buff when ally targetted. |
Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
Sonic Cage - It could be replaced with an immobilize, or have enemy regen stop when put in the cage. As of right now, I think it is underrated, but it needs updating given other Defender/Controller/Corruptor sets have multiple debuffs being utilized now.
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*Read as: ...improve the game engine to allow for the creation of a better power...
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My replies are in orange. It's not toooooo bad of a set though. Apparently the powers team has a year's worth of work in their laps as it is. The main problem with repulsion is I nearly always put it on a blaster type who finds hilarity in shooting mobs everywhere, crushing my entire end bar, instead of using it as only a defensive tool. I love that idea of making it a disorient - but the end cost needs to come down or something.
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Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
Anyways, here are some of my ideas to improve sonic resonance:
Sonic Cage - It could be replaced with an immobilize, or have enemy regen stop when put in the cage. As of right now, I think it is underrated, but it needs updating given other Defender/Controller/Corruptor sets have multiple debuffs being utilized now. Nope - Arbiter Hawk was just saying how Detention Field is going to stay as-is simply because cage powers are great for PVP. I am sure this will stay the same for the same reason. (yeah I know, lolpvp, and I agree) Sonic Repulsion - The end cost is too high, and its utility isn't ideal honestly. I recommend being able to use it on the caster himself. An alternative is a new power that creates a sonic wave of energy that can disorient. Love this idea - like a reverse OG - only mag 2 with a lowered end cost perhaps? Liquefy - Lower recharge on this power, and I think it is good to go. Agreed 100%. I just wonder if doing this with the Repulsion change would be OP though. Liquefy can floor acc as it is on top of the kd. Overall, Sonic Resonance doesn't need a complete overhaul, but some of its powers do need updating for the current game. |
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Repeating a suggestion from before:
- Sonic siphon is a single target hit-checking, nonstacking debuff with a slow recharge and no mitigation
- Sonic shields give no protection at all to the effects of the attacks that they shield from.
- Sonic disruption costs as much as radiation's enervating field, which also supplies a -25% damage debuff. Disruption does half, and needs a buddy in melee range.
- Clarity, which shields people's minds, only protects from mez.
- liquefy needs to either last longer, or recharge faster. It seems balanced by the bevy of effect that it carries, even if many of those effects are minor. *coughholdcough*
At present, sonic is the least reliable shielding set. It can only soften damage, and in most cases makes the 'protected' allies still take full debuffs. This in contrast to defense sets that give 100% debuff resistance to attacks that miss. No other shielding set has such a complete lack of mitigation versus psy damage: all other sets offer safety either through overlapping defense tags, more abundant mitigating soft control and debuffs, or healing. Sonic has almost little to slow/avert/soften damage on the giving end, and no way to recover from it once it lands. This stands in stark contrast to forcefields, with its nigh invulnerability and ample KB disruption, thermal and its healing, and cold and its slows/weakening debuffs.
Sonic seems to put all its eggs in the 'mitigate by making tougher, and make things die fast enough to do less damage' basket, and does not do that well. In common practice it offers similar debuffs/shields to other sets with no extra layers of protection. It does less, and what it does, it isn't that much better at, if at all. I love the set, but while on my other shielders, my team mates don't need rest between battles, inspirations, or controls to stay healthy. My sonic character's team does. The shields, fully slotted, aren't strong enough to keep things in the green during constant incoming full damage, the debuffs are too limited to make things die before doing good chunks of damage.
Suggestions:
- Add -damage debuff to sonic siphon, so that it protects from its target as well as weakening it. It still should have its hit check/non-stacking flag.
- Add -defense resistance to sonic barrier, a common lethal debuff, and -rech/-speed/-end/-tohit resistance to sonic haven, as those are common ice/energy/neg. energy side effects. Add minor values of all the above debuff resistances to sonic dispersion, same reason.
- Add -25% damage debuff to disruption field, giving a damage mitigating effect to the ally you are asking to wade into a crowd.
- Clarity shields minds, it should shield from psy damage. There is no reason for a mental shield to still have weakness to mental damage, and sonic resonance does not need a psionic Achilles heel to pass on to those it protects.
- Liquefy should last longer, or recharge faster. It provides as much value as powers such as traps' poison trap, but on a far greater timer.
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I could see everything but the Disruption Field change - I think that could be a little OP, since you are already able to put 3 shields on that teammate to mitigate damage.|
Originally Posted by Seldom
Suggestions:
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100% yes to all of us saying for years that Liquefy needs a shorter timer. Just remove the damage if we need to sacrifice something. I seriously doubt anyone enhances the damage in Liquefy or even notices it on teams at all.
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I wouldn't call Sonic the least reliable shielding set, because that assumes the other teammates don't bring anything else to the team. The appeal of Sonic is that it is the most consistent as you know X amount of incoming damage you are capable of taking. |
Originally Posted by Seldom
Repeating a suggestion from before:
At present, sonic is the least reliable shielding set. It can only soften damage, and in most cases makes the 'protected' allies still take full debuffs. This in contrast to defense sets that give 100% debuff resistance to attacks that miss. No other shielding set has such a complete lack of mitigation versus psy damage: all other sets offer safety either through overlapping defense tags, more abundant mitigating soft control and debuffs, or healing. Sonic has almost little to slow/avert/soften damage on the giving end, and no way to recover from it once it lands. This stands in stark contrast to forcefields, with its nigh invulnerability and ample KB disruption, thermal and its healing, and cold and its slows/weakening debuffs. Sonic seems to put all its eggs in the 'mitigate by making tougher, and make things die fast enough to do less damage' basket, and does not do that well. In common practice it offers similar debuffs/shields to other sets with no extra layers of protection. It does less, and what it does, it isn't that much better at, if at all. I love the set, but while on my other shielders, my team mates don't need rest between battles, inspirations, or controls to stay healthy. My sonic character's team does. The shields, fully slotted, aren't strong enough to keep things in the green during constant incoming full damage, the debuffs are too limited to make things die before doing good chunks of damage. Suggestions:
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The RES shields on a defense or regen melee is a huge boost to how survivable an avatar can be. The RES shields combined with FF is very potent, etc.
Sonic's shields would be overpowered if it did more mitigation, especially paired with defense. This is why Sonic's shields currently are balanced around a team environment.
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Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
I wouldn't call Sonic the least reliable shielding set, because that assumes the other teammates don't bring anything else to the team. The appeal of Sonic is that it is the most consistent as you know X amount of incoming damage you are capable of taking.
The RES shields on a defense or regen melee is a huge boost to how survivable an avatar can be. The RES shields combined with FF is very potent, etc. Sonic's shields would be overpowered if it did more mitigation, especially paired with defense. This is why Sonic's shields current are balanced around a team environment. |
The only problem with this is Thermal Radiation exists.
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I don't know, the suggestion would do nothing to ranged enemies away from the ally anchor, and could only be used when teamed. It would lower enemy damage output only in direct confrontations.|
Originally Posted by JayboH
I could see everything but the Disruption Field change - I think that could be a little OP, since you are already able to put 3 shields on that teammate to mitigate damage.
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Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
I wouldn't call Sonic the least reliable shielding set, because that assumes the other teammates don't bring anything else to the team. The appeal of Sonic is that it is the most consistent as you know X amount of incoming damage you are capable of taking.
The RES shields on a defense or regen melee is a huge boost to how survivable an avatar can be. The RES shields combined with FF is very potent, etc. Sonic's shields would be overpowered if it did more mitigation, especially paired with defense. This is why Sonic's shields current are balanced around a team environment. |
Is sonic resonance good? Yes. Is it as good as other shielding sets? Unfortunately not, by virtue of layering mitigation. With each different layer you add in variety, you greatly increase utility and survival. Sonic resonance is just very focused on +/- resistance, but is not substantially better at those in most cases, nor able to back those up with disruptive debuffs/controls/etc, outside of liquefy (long recharge) and repulsion. (requires ally in range, drains endurance to nill with ease) The other shielding sets can do what sonic can pretty well, and more besides. Again, not a bad set, I've never had anything but appreciation when on a team with my sonic character. I can just tell quite well that if I played another of my buff/debuff sets, in many cases the team would be safer.
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...uh, well yeah, naturally, since that's the only way your change could be used anyway, if it happened or not, unless you are talking about using your pet as the anchor or something.
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Originally Posted by Seldom
I don't know, the suggestion would do nothing to ranged enemies away from the ally anchor, and could only be used when teamed. It would lower enemy damage output only in direct confrontations
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To nitpick a bit, Sonic Dispersion provides protection from Hold, Stun, and Immobilization to anyone within range. However I digress.|
Originally Posted by Seldom
Repeating a suggestion from before:
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Sonic Resonance was the first power I ever took in City of Heroes, and to this day it is still one of my favorites. I have had some good times. One of my favorite memories (a rather uncomfortable experience I had to work through) was when I was running a +4 ITF long before incarnate powers were released. I was having horrible connections problems, and we were at the end. I soon discovered that after I would D/C, my teammates who were surviving fine before would all die off when I left. We had to take the time to figure out what was causing the problem just so we could complete the TF.
Another, during one of the shadow shard TFs, there was another sonic on the team, and we both put our disruption field on the same scrapper. We had ourselves a fire-and-forget mobile mass resistance debuff that was always upfront and hitting every group, turning their resistances into warm butter.
That said, there were several things that irked me about the power set. I have respec the build probably a half-dozen times, just going through the several permutations and experiments with the powers, and I keep finding that a lot of the powers in the set just have little to no use in the PvE environment. For example:
Sonic Cage: This power had one good run that made me use it for awhile. While doing some +2 runs in a large team at low-mid levels, we would come across a group of enemies with a few boss mobs. I would announce that I am caging a boss, and then I would cage the boss while the team handled the rest of the group. Once the group was killed, the cage would lift off of the boss, and we would finish it off.
Sonic Cage loses it's usefulness shortly after that. The team I was playing with would either be too dumb to not attack the monster that is surrounded in the bright white/light blue glowing sphere and would get themselves killed as they wasted all their attacks on the boss, or the team would be good enough to kill off the enemies without caging. It was useful to hold off parts of a mob while I killed other enemies... until I got some mez powers from my secondary set, making cage useless.
Sonic Repulsion: I took this power once, and just left it after that. The only use I could find for this power that wasn't ridiculous was in the Terra Volta trial. Otherwise, I would use it on a blaster who would stay back so mobs that would find interest in the blaster would be repelled chasing it, only to discover that the entire CoH universe has figured ways around blasters getting swamped that don't involve a single power from a single powerset. From taunting, to blasters just staying back, to mobs dying faster than they can reach the blaster, to all sorts of mez, the world just didn't need an ally repulsion field.
Another use was added to this power later, though. If I ever decide to try it just for kicks, I can put the repulsion field on a (hopefully) cooperative person during the BAF prisoner phase.
After looking up other powers and finding that, yes, sonic is quite a bit weaker in many respects, I would like to see sonics buffed. If not the above to powers becoming much better, the other powers in the set becoming much better, too.
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I guess I didn't say it very well, what I meant was that even at 15' radius, in most situations the debuff would not hit everything, so its impact would be limited. As-is I don't see how a -dam is a big balance concern. Especially considering how other shielding sets *coughCOLDcough* layer shields with FAR more than just -resistance/-damage.
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Originally Posted by JayboH
...uh, well yeah, naturally, since that's the only way your change could be used anyway, if it happened or not, unless you are talking about using your pet as the anchor or something.
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I don't see how it would be balanced if you improve Sonic Resonance shielding and then pair it up with (lets say Time)another. That would be way over the top.|
Originally Posted by Seldom
I don't know, the suggestion would do nothing to ranged enemies away from the ally anchor, and could only be used when teamed. It would lower enemy damage output only in direct confrontations.
I agree that in a complimentary role, sonic resonance is quite powerful. But if it is balanced according for anything but what it and it alone can do as a powerset, then you start having issues with performance. As such what it can do for a defense based melee AT is as relevant as how much mitigation it can do with a control archetype locking things down, or with some other archetype healing shielded allies. I'm sorry, but what a team member is bringing is not reliable. Sonic resonance has to be looked at on its own. Is sonic resonance good? Yes. Is it as good as other shielding sets? Unfortunately not, by virtue of layering mitigation. With each different layer you add in variety, you greatly increase utility and survival. Sonic resonance is just very focused on +/- resistance, but is not substantially better at those in most cases, nor able to back those up with disruptive debuffs/controls/etc, outside of liquefy (long recharge) and repulsion. (requires ally in range, drains endurance to nill with ease) The other shielding sets can do what sonic can pretty well, and more besides. Again, not a bad set, I've never had anything but appreciation when on a team with my sonic character. I can just tell quite well that if I played another of my buff/debuff sets, in many cases the team would be safer. |
As for Thermal, it is not that good of a shielding set, so lets not oversell it. Thermal is more superior debuffing than Sonic Resonance, and the non root heal is money.
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Er..this gets into another topic entirely. But in reference to this specific example, like any other buff/debuff pairing is already? Yes, you really should balance a buff/debuff set without assuming it will pair with something else, because in manymany cases it just won't be. Heck, the other night my sonic/sonic was with a brute, no other pairs for it to be 'balanced for.' How do you balance radiation emission for when there is a team of all controllers/ defenders/ corruptors steamrolling task forces?|
Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
I don't see how it would be balanced if you improve Sonic Resonance shielding and then pair it up with (lets say Time)another.
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To be blunt, you don't. You balance for when it's radiation emission on its own. Same goes for sonic resonance. Let's stop thinking about it when stacked with a pairing because that's not a given. I listed the (perceived)weaknesses and possible solutions for them for sonic as a set, on its own. Feel free to point out flaws, bring up differing ideas, but saying a buff/debuff sets' performance is fine because it's great paired when paired with another certain kind of powers is not reasonable until such combos are mandatory.
The reason I say this gets into a different topic entirely is because it goes to how overpowered stacked buff/debuff sets are in almost any propensity in this game, which was something Castle brought up when looking at groups like repeat offenders and all radiation superteams. He concluded there needed to be some kind of diminishing returns calculation on all buff/debuffs, but he didn't want to have to stave off the pitchfork wielding players, so he left it alone. This actually gets to another set- trick arrow. During testing it was common to have a team of all (or almost all) trick archers, and the abilities were downgraded, adjusted in reference to some of the experiences from all trick archer player sessions. As it turned out, the set was weakened but then had more issues when it was alone as the team's lone buff/debuffer.
Mostly I just want sonic resonance to have some psionic resistance somewhere, considering it's a set whose mitigation is based all around resistance. At the very least have it in the aoe resistance toggle, kind of like how force field gets psionic defense in its aoe defense toggle.
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My Illusion/Sonic Controller plays fine, but I recognize that is a function of Illusion being superior and sonic being kind of meh. I really like sonic and it's fun to play, but truthfully in any team I feel like I'm only supporting so much with my secondary while my primary is hardcore rolling mobs. I agree that the debuffs of sonic need a bit of a boost. I never picked up the KB aura because I couldn't see that useful for much more than griefing. The cage is of questionable usefulness, but then so are all cage powers really. I'd have to concur that adding something to each of the debuffs would not overpower the set and bring it more in line with the heavy debuff sets, most of which give the same -res values and debuff a secondary attribute as well. Even if the change was only to increase the ammount of -res they did to make Sonic THE resistance set would make the set more desireable. I'm not certain how many people look at sonic and say, "Hey I want to play that over the other 3 sets that do the same only better" for much more than concept (like I did myself). I don't know that'd I'd make a change to any of the shields since they aren't terribad, especially in comparison to Thermal's shields (which gives the same base resistance according to Mids and both have a Psi hole with Thermal also having a Toxic hole that Sonic fills). Any tweaks to Liquefy would be cool, but it's not a hugely terrible power...though I'm probably not fit to judge since I always forget to use the damn thing with all the crap my primary is keeping me busy doing.
I agree that it needs some love. My suggestions:
1) Let Sonic Siphon do something more. A non-stacking, single target and no other effects power does not make this set the king of -Res that it should be.
2) Provide some Psi resistance, maybe in both Dispersion and Clarity? Having the hole in your buff set overlap with the hole in half the armor sets just sucks.
3) Turn Sonic Repulsion into a self-based repel field like Kinetics and Force Field get. This power feels like an experiment that just didn't work. Different is not always better. A self-repel field would provide some of the much needed self preservation this set lacks.
Regarding Detention Field, the developers need to stop adding in arbitrary immunity to caging when it would actually help. The power is useless in vanilla PvE, let it shine by caging the Healing Nictus in the ITF, properly caging Devouring Earth emanators and so on when someone does actually take it.
I don't really see the point in arguing against peoples ideas. If an idea is flawed a Dev would/should see it in a split second. Also in my experience Devs almost always do something slightly different or completely different to what people suggest. I think that's good and when its actually really good I know why they're getting paid to think up these things and I am not.
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I disagree with Castle and diminishing returns approach as it ruined PVP, which is why PVE is more enjoyable and no power set feels singled out. |
Originally Posted by Seldom
Er..this gets into another topic entirely. But in reference to this specific example, like any other buff/debuff pairing is already? Yes, you really should balance a buff/debuff set without assuming it will pair with something else, because in manymany cases it just won't be. Heck, the other night my sonic/sonic was with a brute, no other pairs for it to be 'balanced for.' How do you balance radiation emission for when there is a team of all controllers/ defenders/ corruptors steamrolling task forces?
To be blunt, you don't. You balance for when it's radiation emission on its own. Same goes for sonic resonance. Let's stop thinking about it when stacked with a pairing because that's not a given. I listed the (perceived)weaknesses and possible solutions for them for sonic as a set, on its own. Feel free to point out flaws, bring up differing ideas, but saying a buff/debuff sets' performance is fine because it's great paired when paired with another certain kind of powers is not reasonable until such combos are mandatory. The reason I say this gets into a different topic entirely is because it goes to how overpowered stacked buff/debuff sets are in almost any propensity in this game, which was something Castle brought up when looking at groups like repeat offenders and all radiation superteams. He concluded there needed to be some kind of diminishing returns calculation on all buff/debuffs, but he didn't want to have to stave off the pitchfork wielding players, so he left it alone. This actually gets to another set- trick arrow. During testing it was common to have a team of all (or almost all) trick archers, and the abilities were downgraded, adjusted in reference to some of the experiences from all trick archer player sessions. As it turned out, the set was weakened but then had more issues when it was alone as the team's lone buff/debuffer. |
What was the secondary of the brute? Did the Brute benefit from your presence yes or no?
Don't forget with IO set bonuses, resistance is harder to obtain than defense, so the argument Sonic Resonance is the worst shielding set doesn't hold up to well.
And finally, I have never played an MMORPG where an AT/class is balanced around in a vacuum as it must be balanced around what other AT/classes are present.Yes MMORPG's have become solo friendlier, but the core of balancing and end game focus is on teaming.
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| I don't really see the point in arguing against peoples ideas. If an idea is flawed a Dev would/should see it in a split second. Also in my experience Devs almost always do something slightly different or completely different to what people suggest. I think that's good and when its actually really good I know why they're getting paid to think up these things and I am not. |
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Now lets add time to rad or kin, would it be any more over the top. Whenever you add multiple force magnifiers you get way over the top. So when you want to balance like you say you also need to compare it to other combinations, and even with the suggestions I don't see sonic blowing rad or kin out of the water.|
Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
I don't see how it would be balanced if you improve Sonic Resonance shielding and then pair it up with (lets say Time)another. That would be way over the top.
As for Thermal, it is not that good of a shielding set, so lets not oversell it. Thermal is more superior debuffing than Sonic Resonance, and the non root heal is money. |
I must ask do you even play thermal? You do know it only has 2 debuffs with long recharges. Thermal is far from superior debuffing compared to sonic, it is a better balanced set. Now compare sonic to cold, then you will really see a superior debuffing set.
Dirges
In the tanker suggestions thread, it's been mentioned how rare +hp buffs are in play.
In Sonic Resonance, would suggest to add a modest hit point buff to both Sonic Barrier and Sonic Haven. This would be thematically appropriate, and give Sonics in general a 'unique thing' compared to colds and force's.
Say, ten percent, each? It would be a noticeable and useful boost.
^An idea I actually like, well done sir.
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I disagree. I think Sonic is a great complementary set because it does the things a lot of the more popular (well earlier at least) sets don't. I think the fact that time has the slows, the -tohit/-dmg, the big aoe heals, a small amount of +defense (at least compared to say ff or cold) complements perfectly with the vast +resist of sonic (particularly on a defender) the permable (it's a toggle) AoE -res and st -res for bosses. Two sets that give you pretty much everything, especially if they're both defenders with tactics. Whereas something like Rad would be stacked healing (which is sporadic and more difficult to coordinate than other types of mitigation imo), toggle debuffs that go down every mob, and buffs that cover the same ground, +dmg, +rech, -rech, -dmg, -regen. Kinetics would bring allies the damage cap, along with a recharge boost and an aoe heal with a twist; which slightly dumps on time's meagre +dmg making for wasted buffing, two sources of heals with only a smallish +def boost for mitigation (again, I think inferior to layers of defense/res combined with heals) Stacked recharge boosts might be nice for the team, but personally if I was playing a time alongside a Kin I would want to swap as I'd feel like all i was really bringing were some heals and meagre debuffs. Feel free to argue|
Originally Posted by Dirges
Now lets add time to rad or kin, would it be any more over the top. Whenever you add multiple force magnifiers you get way over the top. So when you want to balance like you say you also need to compare it to other combinations, and even with the suggestions I don't see sonic blowing rad or kin out of the water.
I must ask do you even play thermal? You do know it only has 2 debuffs with long recharges. Thermal is far from superior debuffing compared to sonic, it is a better balanced set. Now compare sonic to cold, then you will really see a superior debuffing set. |
Even more than just Time, I think Sonic goes perfectly with empathy for pure defense (those res boosts make a healer's job so much easier especially if everyone isn't perma Fortituded (which is fairly common in the end game but the game isn't balanced around IOs, plus good luck giving a whole league Fortitude all the time)), and Pain as well, stacking even more res boosts with those heals to make keeping the team alive all the easier, along with two sources of AoE -res.
Thermal for the stacked res boosts really aiding Thermal's meagre healing (comparative to Empathy or Pain Dom), and again stacked res debuffs to go with Heat Exhaustion and thermal's damage boosts. I'm pretty sure a thermal corr and a sonic defender can res cap squishies, or near enough (2 defenders definately would if they turtled), and considering how comparatively more common defense boosts are (maneuvers, colds, ff, SoA buffs, etc.) that's a kind of mitigation that's hard to copy without rolling Barriers, and if you threw in an FF defender you could soft cap the team on top of all that + resist and heals, try taking the team out now.
I think the one thing that Sonic complements best (in this way at least) is Kinetics, stacking the permanent, ally based resistance debuff of Sonic Disruption and layered mitigation of resistance boosts (and less than permanent -tohit from Liquefy) to go with Kinetics aoe heals (good for melee in the team if no one else) and ability to damage cap the team on its own. I mean the only way to do more damage with a power when you're at the damage cap is -resistance, and sonic delivers it in a way that is dynamic and goes with kinetics ability to speed through mobs at a rate a set like rad just couldn't keep up with. Add an emp or a pain to that trio and you have yourselves a pretty invulnerable team that deals a lot of damage with no end problems. I think that's pretty good.
I simply think that as a support multiplier Sonic is right at the top. I know thermal does more, but that doesn't mean better in every situation. In fact I would go as far as to say if I had only one buffer on my team i'd most likely want it to be a thermal (a good one anyway) as it's the set that has its fingers in the most pies if you ask me. Sonic is more the cream you put on top of said pies, to make everything sweeter.
Now, with thermal defenders i think that gap might be somewhat closed, with sonic starting to look less special. Perhaps a buff or two to make sure that Sonic remains good at what it has always remained good at. I would suggest something as simple as a minor increase to base resist values of the grantable shields so that Sonic pulls ahead of a thermal even on a team or league where they choose not to turtle, even if in the resistance value alone. Also maybe allow Sonic Siphon to stack once or twice, to let it close the gap with traps in single target -res (it doesn't have any -regen, but if that would make Sonic OP then I suppose that's fair)
Maybe Sonic could use a little boost, all I know is that detracting from the one thing Sonic does really well is a little harsh, at least the way I see things. Though in my opinion I would kind of like Sonic to keep its niche of resistance buffs and debuffs, like FF has it's +def and KB niche, as there are plenty of sets to choose if you want to do a bit of everything (Thermal as I've already gushed, Cold, Traps, Dark)
P.S. I play a Sonic Defender and if your Sonic is a Corr or Controller and you're thinking "hmm he seems to be overselling it", that'd probably why, for which I apologise.
P.P.S. Conclusion: I think that adding a sonic to a team will see a boost in both offense and defense, however I think that the boost to defense is greater than the boost to offense (when paired with something that can heal, or buff defense in some other way). Perhaps a straight boost to DF's -res value to help the set's offense boosting power keep up with its defense boosting? That's probably the main thing I'd do, and Thermal Defenders can keep their identical res shield numbers.
P.P.P.S. Adding a psi resist buff to clarity is something I'd definately get on board with, to echo another poster in that as a buff set it shares the same hole as a lot of armor sets.
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
Quote:
But that's kind of the point, isn't it? It works great when it has other buff/debuff sets on a team with it but when it's the only support set on a team it does one thing and it's one thing isn't terribly unique and it is matched by several other sets and some even surpass it. Sonic needs some tweaks to bring it in line with the other debuff/buff sets instead of just an ok set that can boost a team that has another support toon already on it.
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Originally Posted by Rooks
I disagree. I think Sonic is a great complementary set because it does the things a lot of the more popular (well earlier at least) sets don't....
...Sonic is more the cream you put on top of said pies, to make everything sweeter. |
Anyways, here are some of my ideas to improve sonic resonance:
Sonic Cage - It could be replaced with an immobilize, or have enemy regen stop when put in the cage. As of right now, I think it is underrated, but it needs updating given other Defender/Controller/Corruptor sets have multiple debuffs being utilized now.
Sonic Repulsion - The end cost is too high, and its utility isn't ideal honestly. I recommend being able to use it on the caster himself. An alternative is a new power that creates a sonic wave of energy that can disorient.
Liquefy - Lower recharge on this power, and I think it is good to go.
Overall, Sonic Resonance doesn't need a complete overhaul, but some of its powers do need updating for the current game.