Is Sonic good for Blasters?

[drgantz]

Is Sonic Blaster worth playing? I've googled and found many posts about Sonic Defender, but almost nothing about Sonic Blaster. I will only PVE. I don't do PVP. I will mostly group. Might do some solo, but mostly grouping. The toon will be musically themed, so will add Leadership Pool powers to be bardlike.

[DarknessEternal]

Sonic is an amazing set if you’re mostly grouping.

[Allotrion]

I’m currently leveling a Sonic/Dark tribute character from a book called Curse of the Mistwraith. I’m enjoying it. I’ve remade him several times as a defender and corruptor with the same set of powers and i didn’t end up enjoying either one of those. But the blaster stuck. He’s now 43’ish and I’m ready to IO him. 
 

Please note this is my first blaster since way early in Live, my first 50 was fire/nrg blapper. This plays very different. More ranged. Quite a few skippable powers. No real “defensive” powers in the secondary like energy. Some utility powers that are debatable; I’d rather just pew pew pew rather than take the time to use them. 
 

Overall, not bad. I do feel like I’m contributing to teams which is all I ask of a role play toon. 
 

Try it out. 

[Frostweaver]

Sonic is good with a large number of secondaries, but excels with strong blapper builds. Mostly cause it's -res gives the blappers enormous damage potential.

My sonic/time is kinda sick with the -regen from time and -res from sonic. Dreadful wail followed by end of time: brutal.

[drgantz]

Thank you for all of your replies.

I made him as a defender which is meant to be a bardlike character.  I wish that he could carry a musical instrument, but he can't.

I noticed that he has been shelved for a long time.  I just didn't like playing him.

I figured that I would enjoy him more as a blaster, but didn't want him to be weak.

[Radiaria]

14 minutes ago, drgantz said:

Thank you for all of your replies.

I made him as a defender which is meant to be a bardlike character.  I wish that he could carry a musical instrument, but he can't.

I noticed that he has been shelved for a long time.  I just didn't like playing him.

I figured that I would enjoy him more as a blaster, but didn't want him to be weak.

Good decision. I think Sonics on a defender is a really wise choice! 

[atletikus]

On 10/18/2019 at 1:51 AM, drgantz said:

Thank you for all of your replies.

I made him as a defender which is meant to be a bardlike character.  I wish that he could carry a musical instrument, but he can't.

I noticed that he has been shelved for a long time.  I just didn't like playing him.

I figured that I would enjoy him more as a blaster, but didn't want him to be weak.

To be honest, I rank Sonic as the worst Blaster primary. Weak in teams except as a force multiplier due to secondary -res effect for smaller teams/hard targets mostly. You rarely ever see Blasters with the set, so plus point for uniqueness I guess. That said, it's a very strong soloist (albeit not particularly fast unless paired with a good melee secondary set and don't play with large spawns) so you can take that act on the road and be successful. Just mind the limitations, most Blasters will outclass you badly on regular teams. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by atletikus

[Shred Monkey]

I always liked the idea of a Sonic/___  blapper.  Using siren's song to sleep a group, then going through them with single target melee attacks and -res attacks (and probably air superiority for perma-knockdown until I get IO'd out defenses).   I think sleep seems more reliable then -end from electric or some other 'pseudo control' options.  

 

On live I leveled a concept like this into the 20s, but never really get into it.  This concept is probably better solo then on teams.  

[Procellus]

On 10/17/2019 at 6:51 PM, drgantz said:

 I wish that he could carry a musical instrument, but he can't.

 

/em dance10

[FUBARczar]

Actually Sonic can be great fun.  I have a sonic/bio/psychic Sentinel that is really fun to play with an in-your-face (blapper) play-style,  I can easily imagine playing a Sonic/Mental/Soul blapper using stacking stuns from Dreadful Wail, Psionic Shockwave and Oppressive Gloom.  You could also play similarly using the Psychic or Radiation Blast sets.  

[Fusilier]

I recently recreated a Sonic/Electric blaster and have gotten it up to the mid teens (early 40's on live). From my experiences, Sonic/ leans to more of a debuff/CC centric mindset then raw damage (Even AR/DEV can out damage it with a couple AE combos). What it lacks, it makes up with it's potential (debuffing and Siren's Song).

 

I choose Electric as it's the more CC focused secondary with more options and use the powers together is a reactionary manner. Typically I would Siren's Song as an opening on a group and follow through (on the most perceived dangerous NPC)  with Screech to stun the first target and then Electric Fence to hold it in place and finally finishing up with Shriek and Scream (shout if the NPC had a lot of health left.) While those powers recharging, use Charged Brawl and Havoc Punch another, rinse and repeat powers as necessary. Pop Power Sink if low on endurance; use Shocking Grasp on target's that closed fast, but need to be controlled quickly. Thunder Strike, Howl (and even Shock wave in groups in certain situations for additional -res) and Lightning Field were more situational depending on the current circumstances.

[oedipus_tex]

In addition to the blasts, Sonic features a cone with 100% chance for knockback (convertible to knockdown with the right IOs), a very fast recharging Mag 3 AoE Sleep (that lasts over 35 seconds without any slotting at all), and a nuke that is also a Mag 3 Stun, so IMO there is a lot to offer a Blaster. 

[Omega-202]

On 10/22/2019 at 9:19 AM, Shred Monkey said:

I always liked the idea of a Sonic/___  blapper.  Using siren's song to sleep a group, then going through them with single target melee attacks and -res attacks (and probably air superiority for perma-knockdown until I get IO'd out defenses).   I think sleep seems more reliable then -end from electric or some other 'pseudo control' options.  

 

On live I leveled a concept like this into the 20s, but never really get into it.  This concept is probably better solo then on teams.  

I had a lvl 50 Sonic/Energy on live that played exactly like this.  I haven't remade him on HC, which should be telling enough.

 

It's an interesting and decently effective setup for what it does, but good god is it slow.  Siren's song the group, pick out anyone that was missed / the boss and hit them with a combo of Screech/Bonesmasher/Total Focus to lock them down, then pick the group apart 1 by 1.  Totally safe, but also a snails pace way to play.

 

In groups, Siren's Song is essentially useless and your bread and butter AoE's in Howl and Shockwave have terribly long animations.  

 

Although, he was a lot of fun in zone PVP, pre revamp.  In RV, he could shoot off a Screech from ridiculous range to drop any squishies and then close in and hit them with Scream, Shout, Bonesmasher and a TF as they woke up.  For melee types that would eat the Screech, he would hit them with Snowstorm and make their live's miserable kiting them around and just pop Hibernate if things looked bad.  

 

To the OPs question: Sonic isn't bad on a Blaster, it's just not optimal.  I still need to get to revisiting it on a Defender, especially if I can proc it out to help with the damage.  

[Jeneki]

When teaming, Shockwave gets pretty ridiculous once you slot it with KBtoKD and the +recharge proc.

[Call Me Awesome]

Sonic's great... as a Defender set.  It's big bonus is the -res debuff it has and Defenders get MUCH more benefit from it than any other AT.  It's out of the box damage is a little lower than the front runners and a Blaster doesn't get as much good out of the -res debuff.

 

I find that teaming with one of my /Sonic defenders that the team's kill speed goes WAY up; hitting the group with Howl causes the team's damage to go up by 20%, on a single hard target I can more than double team damage with stacked debuffs.  It's my favorite Defender/Corruptor set but I'd grab something else on a Blaster.

[Frosticus]

Sonic for blasters might leave you wanting a bit more in teams. It is a pretty slow set animation wise both aoe and st.

With how fast some teams move you might feel like you are struggling to contribute much. 

It's best st attack (scream) is also a dot, which ticks fast, but still often leads to you launching an extra attack due  to uncertainty of the kill. 

Fantastic nuke tho. 

[oedipus_tex]

I've got a Defender at 50 with Sonic Attack and it's bit complicated.

 

On teams, yes, he does debuff a lot.  But, the base damage on Sonic Attack itself is not great, and the set doesn't have a lot of proc options. Defenders don't have great base attack numbers and also generally don't have strong secondary attacks to pick up from the secondary. They are also not guaranteed a Sustain power anywhere near the strength Blasters get. So soloing with that character, even as a Sonic/Cold with even more resist debuff, is slow compared to a Blaster.

 

I feel like Sonic Attack on a Blaster is in a pretty good place, based on all that. I feel like it would clear solo content faster than a Defender but contribute less total debuff to teams.  

 

The only kind of annoying thing about Sonic on a Blaster is there no obvious -Defense power to put a -Resist proc. Since that proc doesn't vary in strength across ATs, not being able to slot it, like Beam Rifle can, makes me think Beam Rifle may be the better choice if you are a min maxer. (Incidentally, this ability to proc out Beam Rifle contributes to it nudging out Sonic Attack on Defenders as well. in my eyes.)

[atletikus]

I rank Sonic as the by far worst Blast set for Blasters. Better on Defenders with their high secondary effect modifier becoming a formidable force multiplier on teams. 

 

On 11/27/2019 at 9:27 PM, Jeneki said:

When teaming, Shockwave gets pretty ridiculous once you slot it with KBtoKD and the +recharge proc.

So ridiculous in fact, that a pool power like Wall of Force is arguably significantly better for that proc (much larger AoE + slightly slower recharge).  So ridiculous that just about every other AoE which can be similarly slotted are far superior (and some of them don't even have to waste KBtoKD slotting). Compare it to my Dark Blaster's Umbral Torrent which effectively has 2.5x the range (incl. +range from snipe) and 3x the damage all the while being cast in 1/2 of the time. AND debuff ToHit at the same time. Now that's truly ridiculous, making Shockwave sad in comparison.  
 

 

 

[Jeneki]

4 hours ago, atletikus said:

*raaaaage*

lol calm down.  The adult-kids are talking about fun things to do with sonic blast.

 

Also I didn't state Sonic is better than anything you listed, so no reason to go crazy.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Jeneki

[Jeneki]

Some other oldschool sillines involve Sirens Song (the AoE sleep).

 

One solo strategy was to sleep a group, pick a dude an Screech em, then blap into submission.  Repeat soloing mezzed dudes, reapply as needed.

 

Or the Sonic/Devices "alarm clock", where you sleep a group, lay a time bomb, and then Dreadful Wail right as the bomb goes off.

 

Friendly reminder: Nowhere did I claim these are better than other options.  I am simply reminiscing on some fun uses from the old days of City of Heroes.

[atletikus]

50 minutes ago, Jeneki said:

lol calm down.  The adult-kids are talking about fun things to do with sonic blast.

 

Also I didn't state Sonic is better than anything you listed, so no reason to go crazy.

You're projecting. I'm perfectly calm whereas you get triggered by even the hint of disagreement. You said Shockwave was *ridiculous* with that specific IO-slotting, something that implies it's comparably strong. When it's patently not. I simply made a rational comparison to sprinkle a little dosage of calm levelheadedness into your rose-colored zomglol reminiscence.

[Jeneki]

2 minutes ago, atletikus said:

*ridiculous*

ri·dic·u·lous

/rəˈdikyələs/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

 

1. deserving or inviting derision or mockery; absurd.

   "when you realize how ridiculous these scenarios are, you will have to laugh"

 

Well looks like you got me there.  Please reply again, and be sure to be more ridiculous this time.

 

[atletikus]

Oookay. You seem to have got a firm grasp of the ridiculous, but let it go before your mom catches you in the act 🙂

Happy holidays and jingle bells and all that jizz ^^

[ZorkNemesis]

Sonic's an oddball set on a Blaster and isn't terribly strong at putting damage down range like other sets.  It makes up for a lower amount of damage by offering a fair bit of crowd control in the forms of AoE KB, AoE Sleep, and AoE Stun on the T9 Nuke.  The -Res is useful, but more effective when used by a Defender or Corrupter (Blaster gets -13% per attack, while Corrupter has -15% and Defender gets a whopping -20%).  It's good for melee builds since it just further boosts your powerful melee attacks in your secondary, and the crowd control helps with soloing.  One of my favorite older builds was Sonic/Mental where Siren's Song lets you set up Drain Psyche without too much risk and Psychic Scream gives you another much needed ranged AoE.  It's a little less effective since Mental has less in the way of melee attacks, but solid utility none the less.

 

Right now i'm running Sonic/Ninja as a bit of a challenge build.  The combo is strange for sure but provides a decent variety of damage with toxic and lethal attacks.  /Ninja seems to have other issues that bog it down however, lots of powers just don't seem well implemented, but that's not Sonic's fault.

[Coyote]

I like Sonic more on a Defender, especially Dark/Sonic to play as a combination of a Controller/Blaster. However, it does have its uses with some Blaster builds:

 

1: The set is cone-based, so you can add Mental to get a 3rd cone, and maybe Force of Will, and play constant knockdowns with permanent Force Feedback activation on larger spawns. You can get 3 damage procs in Shockwave and FoW to help with the damage, and while it doesn't do up-front damage, it does solid sustained AoE damage from the teens up to the 40s or so. It drops off in the 40s as more Recharge becomes available and you start looking for AoE attacks with higher DPA rather than DPS.

 

2: The -Res and Defiance boost from opening up with the Sonic attacks leads to devastating melee attacks as a follow up.

 

3: If you're looking to play a Blaster but generally prefer controlling-type characters, Sonic offers a combination of good damage (overall, though not for a Blaster) combined with good control for a Blaster. Pair it with one of the secondaries that has an AoE control and with Dreadful Wail you can have both two AoE controls, an AoE Sleep, and some single-target mezzing also. Lower damage than Blasters and lower control than Dominators, but more AoE damage than Dominators and more control than most Blasters.

 

I've run several builds for Sonic, and it doesn't look all that bad. It does look great on a Defender who fills in the attack cycle with some Hold powers (Dark/Sonic, with Abyssal Gaze and Dominate slotted with procs ends up with both Holds hitting for over 400 damage after the debuffing), which is why I would suggest running it as a Defender. Also, on a Defender, Siren's Song has more use, as it allows you to sleep everyone and set up non-damaging debuffs on the area while they're sleeping.