Onlyasandwich

Definitely the way to go! Procced out it's a beast, and even out DPAs a lot of standard blaster aoes. 5 procs for 409 Damage on average and 1.16 second cast time is pretty outstanding. This leaves room for 1 Acc as well (or a handy Acc/end IO from Impeded Swiftness). The aoe control is just extra sauce, though I find it extremely useful. The proccability definitely puts it above electrified net arrow in my book, though I will often take both for the reasons you noted, @Uun.

Yeah - I really truly miss the old repel rate. It was such a disappointment when this nerf went through. I think it was for pvp reasons? I'm not sure.

A good build overall! However, Carrion Creeper slotting could use some work. They are very responsive to procs, but Targeted Aoe procs will provide significantly more return. From there, if you have room and want to add more procs, immob procs are a distant second. Slow procs do very little at all due to the behavior of the summon. Additionally, you will ideally want some native accuracy in Creepers, as they are not auto-hit when making their own attacks. You have sleet to help with this, but it's high level only and won't always be applied to all targets. Since you're not properly hitting softcap, you might consider ditching the halfway approach, and doubling down on damage throughout the build. Additionally, you may find it hard to sustain end with the fighting pool here. You might consider going sorcery for Rune instead. Even with regular injections for domination refills and sometimes consume, the timing will not always work out with only ~1 end per second in the positive. Your Global Recharge is high enough for perma hasten, which is handy, but not high enough for Perma-dom without Hasten. I would consider allowing some of these bonuses to drop in pursuit of more proc damage and better slow resist totals. You'll still have plenty of fudge room for perma-dom, and won't be thrown out of it by errant slows. One easy change is putting your celerity +stealth into Sprint, and dropping Winter unique into Super Speed. Here's my own Plant/fire/fire for reference (note my snipe is on quick form) in mids: Dominator - Plant Control - Fiery Assault mk2.mbd Not everything is 1:1 with the different epic of course, but the slotting focus may be useful as a reference!

I almost always take Hover on my fliers, as I appreciate the fine air control as well as unsuppressed speed, and don't like the end expenditure of running the full travel power. Fly+CJ is nowhere near as smooth. If not flying, CJ every time. Even on my fliers, I will very often take CJ as well for extra lotg mule and defense. This is my go-to on characters that are more end-hungry and can't support Fighting pool comfortably. More and more I just don't like dealing with the empty power picks, heavy end cost, and toggle management of Fighting pool.

Kin is pretty, but by far the most underperforming primary out there. You can get the job done if you love the theme, but MA is much more powerful.

I basically agree here, but Sonic siphon is just such a boring power. How many st debuffs out there just do one thing like this? I'd love some even small benefit that follows through on the "siphon" concept. Maybe a small, but pretty lengthy damage buff, or even an extra tiny aoe res boost.

I love this combo, and it's probably in my top 3 favorite characters period. My own is in the "rely on controls, maximize damage" camp. Supported by perma-dom, near slow immunity, and a healthy baseline resist, this works out really well! Seeds of Confusion is exactly as strong as you suspect. The main weakness here is severe overaggro scenarios - but what Dom really handles that easily every time? You can even manage there quite nicely if you are very aware and aggressive with your extra controls. This is where Vines does come in handy - it's your emergency "whoops, an extra spawn" button, and mules a great set to boot. Here is is for reference: Dominator - Plant Control - Fiery Assault mk2.mbd This build is made to play primarily at range, which /fiery is uniquely suited to. Incinerate is mostly a mule, but you can use it when exemping just fine. At range, you won't need flares for a complete ranged attack chain anyhow. Note the slotting for carrion creepers here. Due to the unique way its pet summon mechanic works, the procs here turn it into an absolute damage monster. It looks like @Meknomanceris already on the right track with slotting here for their build as well. : ) It's worth noting that Creepers do require accuracy to hit, and the only way to actually get that accuracy to them is with native power slotting, so you want some incorporated into the power itself. I very much dislike tough/weave on my doms in general, as the toggle management is annoying, and the endurance cost is hard to balance with the tools available. I tend to lean on Sorcery/Rune more often if I want extra resist support, as in this build. Sure you don't need the mez protection from Rune most of the time, but sometimes even that aspect is a problem solver (ie after a death/rez, missed dom cycle). It is more of a useful power spike in truly troublesome scenarios to pull you through. This combo doesn't need extra help in the moment to moment mob grind - it obliterates everything in its path. What it does benefit from are extra tools to solve surprises.

I did a fresh pass on my triple fire recently, with a more balanced version that is still very proccy/damage maximized, but with stronger ranged defense as well. Not softcap, but within easy range, and good resist support. Here it is for reference. Blaster (Fire Blast - Fire Manipulation).mbd As with the previous build @Nemu referenced in the linked thread, this is optimized for ease of use - no cones. Just pop in and start smashing big aoes. One thing Hot feet is pretty decent at is leveraging ranged defense in a somewhat melee oriented build. With this build, you hop into melee and everything starts running away slowly, maybe stopping to potshot you through ranged defense. They move just slowly enough that they are almost always fully dead by the time I finish the combo. Because of this, runners are largely a non issue, though blaze and blazing bolt will clean them up readily. Otherwise, Fire breath is indeed a great power! I wouldn't skip it on a more ranged focus character. Blaze and Char are both top tier blasts when properly slotted. I definitely wouldn't forego blaze on any build, however. On my own, I didn't have the spare slots to give Char the love it wants, and my ST chain is robust with Blaze, Blazing bolt, and Fire sword. Even Fireball is really strong ST. I do have consume but honestly very rarely need to pop it given the blaster sustain. I totally get why some folks may not dig on hot feet. It is pretty useless for a ranged playstyle, or a jousting focus when engaging melee. However, If you aren't taking it, /fire manip is a pretty mediocre secondary. You'd be much better off with something like /elec if you want in/out melee action, or /plant, ta, or maybe /time if you are trying to stay ranged. Style wins the day of course if you just want pretty blasty flames across the board!

Hello Controllers! @Darkir posted a damage oriented Dark/time a good while back, which served as inspiration for my original iteration of this character, which has been sitting at 50 for a long time gathering dust. With the new ability to save a power by skipping the secondary T1, and new perspectives otherwise, I thought I'd revisit this guy and bring him back to life. I'm very pleased with the results! A lot of this is of course on the strength of Farsight+PB = your accuracy and defense problems are sorted with no set bonuses needed. At that point, just build for perma Chrono shift and squeeze in procs where they make the most sense. This current version has a few strengths: Excellent ST damage, as both holds are proc bombed to the gills, and you have Arcane bolt to round it out. Near defense softcap to ranged (42.35 will do fine given the -tohit we're throwing around). I managed to fit 85% slow resist as well. This is huge QoL against certain opponents, and will mostly preserve your hasten/Chrono shift cycle even when debuffed. Rune is here to help you out of mez land or as a resist steroid when needed. Where it falls short: Aoe damage. I didn't pick an epic aoe. It's actually serviceable with the bombed HoD and Fearsome, along with a trickle from Living Shadows, but I'm not wiping +4 spawns in one rotation here outside of judgements. Resists? They're actually pretty okay, especially when rune is up. That last little bit of ranged softcap, I guess. I don't care enough to steal slots from more beneficial places though, given the above referenced abundance of -tohit. Even better - the -tohit will be in my alpha (Fearsome). Honestly I struggle to really identify a solid weakness, especially given the amount of proc damage jammed in here. End consumption is decent as well, with extra juice from cs and conserve power too. Anticipated playstyle: Open with Fearsome, Pop in for a HoD bomb, slowed response, back out for living shadows. Start burning big targets with my holds and arcane. Reapply these as up. If it's a tougher fight, keep Dfield up, summon haunts as well. Shadow field in reserve for emergencies. Mostly I'm just super happy with how this worked out and wanted to share! However, if you see any optimizations for further damage without sacrificing perma CS and my slow resist, I'd love to hear. Room for FFback in Arcane might be neat, but not all that impactful given total recharge I think. Controller (Darkness Control - Time Manipulation) mk2.mbd Visual: Update: Went ahead and respecced - wow! I take back the low aoe comment. I ran a +4X8 Asteroid farm and everything was absolutely melting. Granted, the pets don't last long in that heat, but that's okay. The ST chain is perfect! There's just enough gap in the chain to make Arcane a meaningful addition, especially with Arcane Power up. If I have containment and arcane power, I'm hitting three ~350 damage attacks back to back cycling. This wins my personal award for most improved character upon respec, at least for builds I actually approached thoughtfully in their first form.

Yeah. Same feelings on kin repel. I believe this is international to keep kd conversion from being too powerful in always on powers, but I think it goes too far.

Both!

Excellent results, and thank you for sharing, Striker! One lesson I bring from this beyond just cloud senses being superior - it's pretty powerful to save room for a proc in Soul Extraction. Even if you don't benefit from the full duration with all of these attacks, that is a substantial amount of damage.

For sure! That is the real fear here. Force Field can sort of get away with it, as when things are smooth, nobody's taking damage. With a resist only set though, it will add up eventually to needing a heal. Perhaps the resilience here is such that periodic resummons will work! I think I'm still going to try it, but would love to hear any special strategies that don't involve getting Aid other.

Plant is a great secondary for range focus. Its melee powers are not so amazing they can't be ignored, and it has a lot of great control to offer at range.

I do this with purple procs! It pleases me.

@Xandyr My strategy right off hand is a bit soft right now, and I suspect it won't be sufficient for a lot of content. The idea is basically have the Thugs engage with buffed resists, with both Sonic repulsion and Disruption anchored on the Bruiser. The main mitigation strategy beyond pure resist is knockdown from repulsion, bile spray, thugs, and the occasional boss hold from knockout blow when something nasty is in my face (I swapped Winter IO's to pull in the hold proc for one-shot boss holds). Gang War and Liquefy provide a more sure engagement when they are up, but can only be counted on collectively maybe half the time. Pretty dicey overall! Sonic Repulsion does not have a repel function - it's all KB. When you have a -KB IO slotted, it is just a static knockdown field, which should be pretty nice, though quite end expensive. If it works like other such toggles (whirlwind, kinetics repel), then the FFback also feeds me recharge pretty often from these KD hits.

Thank you for your review, and sharing your own build! The single slot for brawl provides fairly comparable 1-slot return on slow resist to the Winter's Gift IO itself (15 versus 20%). Honestly slow resist is probably a lot less important on a MM, and even less so on /Sonic specifically. It is a bit of a quality of life issue for me, however, and this build has a lot of flex slots, so I may as well keep it. Victory Rush is very powerful, especially when used on bosses. When used on a boss, it provides (enhanced) 117% recovery, and reduces end consumption by 30% across the board. Even at LT level it is ~59% and 15% respectively. The downside is the uptime, which though significant, can't be made perma, as the power isn't affected by recharge. It's also pretty fiddly to use as noted. I rely on Mids for a lot of my math, so am not 100% certain on pet hit chances here. However, between a minimum of 60% local accuracy, 9% tohit from Tactics, 10% tohit from Supremacy, and 5% total tohit from both Enforcers, it should be pretty solid. Both Thugs and enforcers will also benefit pretty often from their own buildup procs. 2 Cytos would indeed be a bit better! However, I'm trying to cut down a bit on the most expensive enhancements where possible, and the extra tohit provided from a Cyto is pretty negligible here versus the extra bit of endredux from a plain old IO.

A few things: Greater enhancement value - this is the reason to use them! For normal sets, the set bonus will no longer be available when exemping more than three levels below the value (ie a boosted level 50 IO would grant no set bonuses when at level 46 and lower. This is the trade off normally. There are some notable exceptions, which guide how I attune and boost. PVP sets and purples always act as attuned even when boosted. There is no reason not to boost them. I'll also boost set IOs sometimes when the set bonus is pretty unimportant, and the extra enhancement value would be useful. A common example is boosting the endmod in performance shifter when slotted in stamina. I'll benefit from greater endmod, and I don't care if I lose the 7.5% movement speed set bonus when exemping.

The whips in demons are super strong, especially procced out.

I've polished off my latest MM, having finished my Necro/EA just a few days ago. He's amazing! Certainly can't go wrong with either of these sets. Edit: Played with the build a bit. Thugs is of course a very strong primary as well, and I have yet to play it. However, I have a concept that works well with /Sonic, and I've been itching to try and make the set work, as its literally the only support set in the game I haven't played. I like the idea of playing it on a character that can actually benefit from Disruption Field when solo (Thank you Mr. Bruiser), so Thugs is a good fit. I don't see much of Sonic in the MM forums, however. It seems the key here is the lack of a heal, which even with the best defenses, is something we end up needing to lean on in the chaos of managing our minions at times. I'm also struck by the particularly difficult end management of this combo. Lots of toggles, all of them very expensive! Some of them very mediocre even with this expense. If you've played this combo, or /Sonic on a MM at all, I'd love to hear how it fared in solo high level work. Can it complete even a +4X8 Council mission without waiting for liquify with every spawn, or constantly resummoning? A few things I'd like to keep regardless: I want to try Sonic repulsion. It doesn't seem very good for the enormous end cost, but I'd like to see how it goes. Have you found it useful? Does FFback work in here like it does in kinetics/Repel? I believe it should from the way it flags in CoD. Leviathan powers are for theme. I am a fan of slow resist, and like to keep at least 80% as here. What I've gone for: Max my personal S/L resist and grab recharge where possible, incorporating all the MM procs. Max hit chance against +3's. Survival strategy is uh - hope the Thugs can take it in the jaw? Really, open with either Gang war or Liquefy if possible, though it won't be always given absurd cooldowns. Otherwise, use a combination of KD procs in Bile Spray (88% chance) and Sonic repulsion to keep tagbacks to a minimum. This seems a bit dicey, but maybe my shields will hold us through! Slotting and power questions: Is it silly to miss defense slotting for Enforcer? I can't even tell if it actually enhances the power. Speaking of enforcer, what do you think of my proc slotting here? I believe gaussian should hit quite often for them given they are buffing all their buddies with the tohit aura. I skipped Empty clips, despite being an avid MM attack getter. This thing is just plain old garbage as far as I can tell, and even a pretty bad FFback donkey when procced out. Do you like it? A few of my slots were sort of thrown in for extra endredux (maneuvers, tactics, some others that are sort of marginal). Do you see any areas where I would better reallocate? Endurance usage! Holy cow I'm not sure if it's really possible to balance this end usage when running all the toggles. I guess the answer is not to run them, but we'll see. Victory Rush is only ~40% up time, and fiddly to use, but pretty effective. Ideally I'd like Rebirth, but Ageless is seeming like the only answer for high levels. Mastermind (Thugs - Sonic Resonance) mk2.mbd Visual:

If you happen to be using Flight pool on a given build, Evasive Maneuvers is a good pick to save slots here, assuming you have any power flex or room to rejigger the build. Evasive provides Knockback resistance, which is normally only available on melee AT KB protection powers. This will cut the mag of any KB roughly in half before your protection kicks in, meaning that 8 mag protection is roughly equivalent to 16 mag instead (48% resist). As a bonus, it provides immob protection as well, which is handy if you don't use CJ on this character. You may know this already of course! It's an easy to miss aspect of this power, however.

The most compelling reason is aoe damage. Blasters do way more of it, even without the nuke. Also nuke! Some blasters just jump in and pretend their blasts area all melee. This works fine if built sturdily enough and with clever application of controls in your secondary, but can hit a wall against certain content. There is also the old art of "jousting," for which @Nemu has a great guide. This allows you to more safely employ melee. Don't underestimate the control power of the secondary though, especially aoe knockdowns. A cheat at high levels is to pick up bonfire with a kb to kd IO.

That's a bit of an uneven comparison, as these are buffs that carry with you, and can be made almost perma. That being said, it is an extremely potent power. Its power budget is invested in somewhat redundant effects though. As the only real proactive enemy affecting power in the set, the long timer is felt more substantially. -res here would help Sonic live up to its rep as King of that debuff. As is it's outshined by cold, and basically equal to any other set with a standard aoe -res.

@Spaghetti Betty I love the combo here, and your build is great. I too very much enjoy the "damn the defenses" playstyle on sets who have meaningful controls to fall back on. It may not be as ultimately survivable as a defense softcap build, but it can succeed, generally has much better damage through procs, and is just more fun when you wish to feel engaged. I am inspired to make one of these myself, and bashed together my take on it. Much of my slotting is informed by yours, with some meaningful differences: Double tentacle action. I like the idea of constantly layering the full boss level immob mag on the whole spawn so things stay in place. I didn't proc out Vines. It definitely creates a nice little bomb if you do! My conceit here is to use it as a consistent opener, so hold/recharge enhancement is pretty useful. Swapping Grav anchor proc here gives a mag increaser with full 90% proc rate even with the maxed recharge. I'd love to hear more about how useful you have found the power. Heal slotting in Life Drain. I didn't go proc heavy here, though it does respectable damage. I usually fully proc out LIfe Drain, but am interested to see how often this tool is useful. Not quite at slow resist cap, but close enough with 90%. I grabbed the juicy low-hanging ranged defense bonuses, though didn't go out of my way outside of these. The idea here is to establish a solid baseline to stack with the to-hit debuffs, allowing me to stabilize in battle once Vines wears off. I built for max to-hit without Aim or Toxins in the mix. It looks like you may be leaning on these. Nightfall and Vines especially are running short on hit chance against +3's. I really like the idea of using Strangler as a one-shot boss hold. Even Abyssal will be clamping down bosses with regularity when used right after the opener. Of course, this leads to another question - why not just make a Dom? Plant/Dark Dom is one of the most powerful combos of anything out there. The real reason is of course fun and theme, but I see a few advantages to the Blaster: Nuke! More damage potential with their superior ATO set (extra purple proc). Better endurance management through blaster sustain. With how busted Plant/ is, I do think the dom version of this would tie or even pull ahead in damage outside of nuking, and gains full mez protection with perma-dom. Worth considering if you're inspired to make another dom! Nevertheless, not every character is about the optimal combo. Sometimes it's about making something odd work really well, and this is just the treat! Here's my build for reference. Blaster (Dark Blast - Plant Manipulation) mk2.mbd Screenshot:

/Sonic will be quite capable on teams. For solo work, you'll have mez protection, which is nice. However, a huge swathe of your toolkit is useless solo. Of special note is your biggest -res debuff (Disruption Field), which can be nice on Controllers with a melee pet. No melee pet here. Theme is king if you really prefer it! It is not a very optimal pairing unless you are teaming most of the time.