i’ve never bothered to build any defences on my kin/sonic defender other than the S/L res shield from the mastery and do fine. people chase numbers too much - correct positioning is much more effective
i’ve made a thermal/sonic to try it out a while ago, some thoughts;
- the ally +absorb power from sorcery is great at low levels when slotted. very fun on a posi TF to give the team tank much more alpha soakage
- assault rather than maneuvers, combines nicely with forge for almost +70% DMG
- personally i like a well slotted veng with two def IOs, the “it’s going to be okay now bois” power
- screech is a great sonic power, the -res debuff lasts for a very long time, something like 15 seconds
- slot the chance for -res in melt armor
- i prefer soul mastery on a defender, power boost can be helpful when you need a big beefy heal session, or want to have a ridiculous veng
- combat jumping will help you be a lot more dynamic than hover in my opinion. i’m an SJ/CJ guy for life