Focused Feedback: Sonic Manipulation

[Nemu]

8 hours ago, Draeth Darkstar said:

Echo Chamber: My initial impression holds up - I'd definitely like it to be more damaging in trade for the range, I'm in melee anyway.

Think about LGTF, having a ranged hold is a good thing, and you can use ranged holds in melee too. A little less damage is a fair trade off for that bit of versatility.

8 hours ago, Draeth Darkstar said:

Strident Echo: Holy cow, this power has the most annoying sound effect in the game. Please, do not keep it. Otherwise it feels great to use.

Get enough recharge on this so that it recharges fast enough into your attack rotation and then tell me if you feel the DOT takes too long. The DOT takes effect over 5 seconds and you can get the power to recharge well under 5.

[Tuft]

I would love to simply have the option to hide the FX on Sound Barrier.

[Draeth Darkstar]

On 10/28/2020 at 6:38 AM, Nemu said:

Think about LGTF, having a ranged hold is a good thing, and you can use ranged holds in melee too. A little less damage is a fair trade off for that bit of versatility.

I can see why this matters to some folks, it just doesn't fit my playstyle. Especially on team content, I'm not worrying about using my blaster CC for much of anything except keeping a stray mob from clobbering my face off. Controllers and Dominators can handle the big picture stuff.

 

I'd rather be able to do my job better - and that's to clobber the mobs back. As it stands right now, the only attack in Sonic that's strong enough to earn a spot in an attack chain regardless of primary is Earsplitter. Even Strident Echo is on the low end of DPA for some primaries as the second best attack in the set. I'd much rather get another really good attack power than have a little extra utility.

 

On 10/28/2020 at 6:38 AM, Nemu said:

Get enough recharge on this so that it recharges fast enough into your attack rotation and then tell me if you feel the DOT takes too long. The DOT takes effect over 5 seconds and you can get the power to recharge well under 5.

 

You're 100% right on this. 5 seconds is too long for a non-stacking DoT on a power with an 11 second base recharge.

[BrandX]

1 hour ago, Draeth Darkstar said:

I can see why this matters to some folks, it just doesn't fit my playstyle. Especially on team content, I'm not worrying about using my blaster CC for much of anything except keeping a stray mob from clobbering my face off. Controllers and Dominators can handle the big picture stuff.

 

 

 

Well, LGTF is team content and those teams don't always come with Trollers/Doms.  It's why I like getting a hold into my Scrapper builds.  

[Draeth Darkstar]

3 hours ago, BrandX said:

Well, LGTF is team content and those teams don't always come with Trollers/Doms.  It's why I like getting a hold into my Scrapper builds.  

Sounds like a flawed team comp 🙂

 

I 100% stand by my opinion that Sonic needs better single target damage output, regardless of where the tweaks come from. As a set with only one AoE, it can't also have bad single target output and still remain competitive, especially as a set that is almost melee ranged and has a weak sustain power.

[Puma]

3 hours ago, Draeth Darkstar said:

Sounds like a flawed team comp 🙂

 

I 100% stand by my opinion that Sonic needs better single target damage output, regardless of where the tweaks come from. As a set with only one AoE, it can't also have bad single target output and still remain competitive, especially as a set that is almost melee ranged and has a weak sustain power.

It's a schizophrenic set. It wants you in melee, but gives you very little in the way of melee survivability compared to other sets (weak sustain, the one crowd control power knocks them AWAY from you). I think it WANTS to use the migraine mechanic as its survival tool, but its so unreliable and unnoticeable that it doesn't work, and its one crowd control power is...not a good one, especially for a melee set.   
 
They really need to move the KB from Sound Cannon and put it in the -res power, then make it an Ice Patch clone that does -res.  Call it "Vibration Field: You create a field of sonic waves on the ground around you that so powerful that the vibrations lower the resistance of enemies nearby and have a strong chance to knock them of balance briefly." Make the KD ticks 1.5 slower than those of ice patch in exchange for the -res component.  Its just enough to lower some of the incoming melee damage you receive.  

  

Bam.  Then you have a set that still does the sonic -res schtick, adds some survivability to the melee nature of the set, and your main crowd control power doesn't knock foes even farther away when you're trying to fight melee. 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by Puma

[Bopper]

7 hours ago, Puma said:

the one crowd control power knocks them AWAY from you). I think it WANTS to use the migraine mechanic as its survival tool, but its so unreliable and unnoticeable

You might be thinking of experiences from playtesting an early Beta version, not what currently is on the HC Beta server. The Knockback was removed from Sound Cannon and is now a Knockdown. Also, Sound Booster's buff to your chance to Hold effects was increased making the migraine mechanic (or is it SoundBoost mechanic?) much more reliable. Sound Booster also now buffs your chance to knockdown in Sound Cannon, which is nice for targets that are protected from the Disorient effect. Overall, the mitigation in Sonic Manipulation is far improved from early versions of the set.

Edited October 30, 2020 by Bopper

[Puma]

1 hour ago, Bopper said:

You might be thinking of experiences from playtesting an early Beta version, not what currently is on the HC Beta server. The Knockback was removed from Sound Cannon and is now a Knockdown. Also, Sound Booster's buff to your chance to Hold effects was increased making the migraine mechanic (or is it SoundBoost mechanic?) much more reliable. Sound Booster also now buffs your chance to knockdown in Sound Cannon, which is nice for targets that are protected the Disorient effect. Overall, the mitigation in Sonic Manipulation is far improved from early versions of the set.

That's entirely the case.  Honestly, I was so unpleased with everything I was testing in early Beta I haven't even been logging in to the server lately.  Everything new felt off and lackluster, and everything that is being changed felt like a nerf (except some of the QoL changes).  It really has turned me off.  I'm not interested in feeling less super than I did before in the game.  I get it's a different design philosophy, but it has kept me from playing here.  I'll give it another shot early next week.   

[drbuzzard]

Ok, built up a Dark/Sonic blaster last night and gave it a spin.

 

I will admit I wasn't as thorough as I might have been as I skipped Strident Echo, Echo Chamber, and Sound Cannon. However I just followed my normal approach to making a build as I would were it live and then give that optimized build a run through some simple enough content.

 

My approach was to load up on attacks, skip mezzes, and go for a resistance build based on Sound Barrier. I added tough from the fighting pool, and Charged armor from the EPPs.

 

Only after I had things together did I notice that Sound Barrier only does smashing resistance, not lethal and smashing resistance. I found that to be rather odd, and perhaps the only place I've see that other than increase density from kinetics. After I tossed in a defense buff to avoid mezzes, my smashing was capped while energy and lethal were pretty high. I had alpha slot set up with resilient radial to optimize the resistance (and absorb).

 

I did a test run in Cimerora. I started by clearing the city walls for a few rounds. This proved to be easy enough. The absorb shield coupled with the resistance was enough to make the wall parties of romans into no real threat. I suppose if I just stood there, I might have died, but as it was I had plenty of time to kill them all off, even with dark not being one of the strongest blaster sets (and I wasn't catering to its strength with a defensive build).

 

I went on to try out some of the repeatable cimeroran missions on +0x8. This went well enough if I was careful and didn't aggro more than one spawn at a time. If I got two on me, I would die consistently.

 

So impressions of the powers:

Sonic Thrust: Dayum, that thing really flings a target. I was pitching surgeons off the city walls for distance and humor.

Sound Booster: I only really used it as build up, so didn't notice other properties.

Deafening Wave: Good area on the PBAOE, damage was OK. I would generally lay it down after blackstar in case the t9 missed. I suppose I should have upped the target levels to see how stacking the two on tough targets went. It would be a nice follow up to the t9 PBAOE nukes when fighting +4s. As I was solo, I didn't really want to do +4s.

 

Sound Barrier: I was a bit dubious on this looking at the raw stats, but the absorb shield proved to be pretty damned good since it cycled so fast. Couple it with a decent resistance build, and you get a reasonably durable blaster. Of course I had no endurance issues. I had it slotted with 2 each of 50+3 resistance, heal/absorb and EndMod.

 

Disruption Aura: I'm really just not a blapper at heart (All of my played blasters are range only builds), so this really only helped much when going in for Blackstar and Deafening Wave. Those who do blap will get more mileage out of this. Of course I'm not one to complain about adding 14% damage to my nuke.

 

Earsplitter: This hits like a mac truck. This would be a power that would tempt me to blap a bit. I didn't really notice the hold effect since targets weren't around long enough to see if they were held or not.

 

Overall Impression: Most of my blasters are /dev since as mentioned, I dislike blapping. For a ranged only blaster, this wouldn't really be a good choice, though for a blapper, it has some nice tools though it does lack a depth of melee attacks to make a chain. Granted I skipped three of the powers, but that was based on reading the stats. Neither Strident Echo nor Echo Chamber do good DPAS (damage per activation second), so I wouldn't take them under any circumstances on live (ok, maybe Echo Chamber on an Ice blaster to help stack up the holds). If your goal is to make a good blapping build, you need attacks with solid DPAS or you lose damage going into melee where it's dangerous. The single target attacks of dark blast, which are not even close to kings of DPAS in blasters were better than most of the single target attacks in this secondary (except earsplitter). Then you have sound cannon. A stun/cone knockback could be an OK 'oh shit' button, but it is counter productive to everything else the set is doing. If I'm taking this set to blap, and debuff resistance, blasting them away from me and making them stumble around is exactly what I don't want. I get the impression that you don't want another hold on Sound Cannon, but disorient is a bad idea there, and it probably would be better as a PBAOE. At least then you can throw in a KB>KD and keep them in one place for a little bit.

 

[Steam_InGen]

Sad to see zero changes to the set in page 2, lots of good feedback in the thread, and no balancing or improvement came to the set? Looking to be dead set on arrival. I'd imagine some peeps will try it out, then shelf it not being their thing.  Just the post above me has a lot of good feeedback.

[MindOverMatter]

Feedback here has been sparse, but I wanted to share some preliminary thoughts from testing and reflection on Sonic Manipulation that may spur some additional testing and encourage folks taking another look.

 

First up, some thoughts on what I feel defines the set:

• a mechanic that provides the potential to stack holds,
• a slightly weaker Build-Up that also boosts Mez strength,
• an AoE toggle -Res that supports being in or just outside of melee damage (more on this in a moment),
• and a T1 (Sonic Thrust) that marries the KB strength of Power Thrust with the Repel certainty of Ki Push. 

Otherwise, the set is energy/smashing and has some standard cone and pbaoe action that on the surface aren't particularly striking and reflects a rounded mix of incentives to be in melee blapping or at least melee adjacent with a T1 design to send a target effectively out of that radius rather soundly. Because puns. This provides some clear value for those used to mixing in some blapping and moving in and out of melee range regularly. For everyone else though, the set may encourage a particular playstyle to maximize some of those defining features. 

 

Here's where I would encourage some differentiated thinking for the ranged-only Blaster folks: hover-blasting with Disruption Aura. 

1. Hover-blasting is a common, reliable way to obtain some safety whilst unloading with standard ranged attacks *and* obtaining positioning to better leverage cones
2. Hover-blasting with Disruption Aura means that now your love of your ranged attack rotation is amplified by 14% more damage 
3. You are providing debuffs for the team and can manage your proximity to a hard target while remaining somewhat safe from melee and PBAoes
4. If you Auto Sonic Thrust, you can forcefully smack down any enemies that have the audacity to jump towards you whilst you unload your ranged arsenal.

 

If you love being at range, try it. Build for ranged defense and hover-blast. Share what you've experienced.

 

I'm not saying that is sufficient identity for Sonic Manipulation, however it does offer something for those who prefer not to Blap. Yes, there is also mez-boosting/hold-stacking potential that exists in this set. However, unreliable controls for a Blaster may prove more of a nice-to-have than a consistent draw to the set. 

Edited November 3, 2020 by MindOverMatter
For clarity

[capricorpse]

How we feeling about adapting this into a Sonic Assault set for dominators??  the way this matches gravity control's FX animation would be *chef's kiss*

[csr]

On 11/2/2020 at 11:31 PM, MindOverMatter said:

Here's where I would encourage some differentiated thinking for the ranged-only Blaster folks: hover-blasting with Disruption Aura.

1. Hover-blasting with Disruption Aura means that now your love of your ranged attack rotation is amplified by 14% more damage 
2. You are providing debuffs for the team and can manage your proximity to a hard target while remaining somewhat safe from melee and PBAoes

Doesn't vertical distance still count double on "spheres" such as Disruption Aura?

[carroto]

3 hours ago, csr said:

Doesn't vertical distance still count double on "spheres" such as Disruption Aura?

First I've heard of this.  You mean that spheres have half reach vertically?  More of an ellipse, then.

 

Edit: Now that I think of it, this would fit if all these sorts of powers had the same shape as Dispersion Bubble.  You can clearly see the difference in height there.

Edited November 5, 2020 by carroto

[carroto]

8 hours ago, capricorpse said:

How we feeling about adapting this into a Sonic Assault set for dominators??

Not sure how that would work.  My guess is that having stackable holds in the secondary would be seen as too much.  I realize that Doms get stuns in /Energy, but they don't have any fast-recharging stuns in a primary they can stack on them.  Then again they did get Seismic Smash, so maybe I'm wrong.

 

This Blaster secondary is not calling to me, but a mix of this and Sonic Blast for Doms could be interesting.  Probably still wouldn't be great though.  Sonic Blast isn't great for any AT that doesn't have high debuff numbers, which I believe applies to Doms.  So it would be a mix of a low-tier primary with a (by all appearances so far) middling secondary.

[csr]

21 minutes ago, carroto said:

First I've heard of this.  You mean that spheres have half reach vertically?  More of an ellipse, then.

 

Edit: Now that I think of it, this would fit if all these sorts of powers had the same shape as Dispersion Bubble.  You can clearly see the difference in height there.

I believe they do.  I tried testing it, but it's quite hard to tell.  You can certainly hover out of melee range and still affect the target, but not by much.  The problem is that they start running about if you're out of melee range and run out of range of the debuff.  It worked OK, but not great.

[capricorpse]

57 minutes ago, carroto said:

Not sure how that would work.  My guess is that having stackable holds in the secondary would be seen as too much.  I realize that Doms get stuns in /Energy, but they don't have any fast-recharging stuns in a primary they can stack on them.  Then again they did get Seismic Smash, so maybe I'm wrong.

 

This Blaster secondary is not calling to me, but a mix of this and Sonic Blast for Doms could be interesting.  Probably still wouldn't be great though.  Sonic Blast isn't great for any AT that doesn't have high debuff numbers, which I believe applies to Doms.  So it would be a mix of a low-tier primary with a (by all appearances so far) middling secondary.

It could just use the classic -res effect, grab the melee attacks from this and the ranged attacks from sonic blast, balance em to match the other sets.   i don't think it'd need the extra migraine dynamics the same way a blaster set might.

[Jimmy]

Build 3 - November 7th, 2020

 

New Blaster Secondary: Sonic Manipulation

Sonic Manipulation lets you control sonic forces to manipulate your foes, inflict damage and protect yourself.

 

Powers

•  T1: Sonic Thrust (Melee, Minor DMG(Smash/Energy), Foe Knockback)
  • A focused attack of intense sonic power that violently sends a nearby foe flying. Deals minimal damage, but can be very effective. Recharge: Fast
•  T2: Strident Echo (Melee, Moderate DMG(Smashing/Energy), chance for Hold)
  • Strident Echo deals minor damage over time. It has a low chance of causing a migraine, leaving the target shaking in pain and helpless. Recharge: Slow
  •  DoT has been accelerated to deliver its damage in 2.1s instead of 5.1s
•  T3: Echo Chamber (Ranged, Minor DMG(Energy), Foe Hold)
  • Encases the target in a field of sonic waves, dealing energy damage and holding them in place. Recharge: Slow
•  T4: Sound Booster (Self +DMG, +To Hit, +Special)
  • Greatly boosts your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases chance to hit. Moderately increases the duration of mez effects. Moderately increases the chance for Sound Manipulation powers to induce migraines. Recharge: Long
•  T5: Deafening Wave (Melee (AoE), High DMG(Sonic/Energy), chance for Hold)
  • You create a large field of sonic waves, causing damage to all foes around you. It has a moderate chance of causing migraines, leaving them shaking in pain and helpless. Recharge: Slow
•  T6: Sound Barrier (Toggle: Self +Absorb, +Recovery, +Res(Smashing, Energy, Sleep))
  • Creates a barrier around the caster which reduces incoming energy and smashing damage, provides protection against sleep effects and grants an absorption shield. Recovery is also increased. Recharge: Moderate
•  T7: Disruption Aura (Toggle: Foe -Res)
  • You emit a constant wave of sonic energy around yourself, weakening the Damage Resistance of all nearby foes. Recharge: Moderate
•  T8: Sound Cannon (Ranged (Cone), Foe Stun, Knockback)
  • You generate a powerful sonic wave that will knock back and disorient foes in front of you for a short time. Recharge: Long
•  T9: Earsplitter (Melee, Heavy DMG(Smashing/Energy), chance for Hold)
  • You generate an earsplitting sound wave right in the face of your foe, inflicting great damage. It has a good chance of causing a migraine, leaving them shaking in pain and helpless. Recharge: Slow

[zenblack]

The original costume selection for Sound Barrier says "Show Floaters" which doesn't show floaters, the 2nd option that says "Show Floaters" does so it might want to be renamed "Original" like the other powers

[zenblack]

Feedback (Warning: Long post ahead)

 

•  T1: Sonic Thrust (Melee, Minor DMG(Smash/Energy), Foe Knockback)
  • A focused attack of intense sonic power that violently sends a nearby foe flying. Deals minimal damage, but can be very effective. Recharge: Fast
    
    This attack is a fine T1. It has the benefit of not being an immobilize so it's already doing well but the fun/PVP factor of kicking people around or out of range is a fine version of CC. The range is so close that it is mostly a novelty when doing PVE because most LT/Bosses are going to get into melee range and at least get 1 good attack off before you can target and boot them. It would be nice if this had a bit more range for that reason.
     
•  T2: Strident Echo (Melee, Moderate DMG(Smashing/Energy), chance for Hold)
  • Strident Echo deals minor damage over time. It has a low chance of causing a migraine, leaving the target shaking in pain and helpless. Recharge: Slow
  •  DoT has been accelerated to deliver its damage in 2.1s instead of 5.1s
    
    With the change to the damage to be more rapid this became much more attractive. A standard Blapping T2 but with hold procs (psi) is okay, but from a PVE angle it isn't great since Psi tends to have extra resistance on most of the enemy faction later in the game. The migraine mechanic on this particular power is very poor. It almost never fires, even with Sound Booster and so it feels very tacked on and secondarily the base migrane time of hold is so short and on this power, the mag so low that it seems like you are paying for something that has no value from a player perspective. More on this at the summary.
     
•  T3: Echo Chamber (Ranged, Minor DMG(Energy), Foe Hold)
  • Encases the target in a field of sonic waves, dealing energy damage and holding them in place. Recharge: Slow
    
    The only ranged power that this set offers and a decent hold. It also has a nice effect with the hold so it's unique in that way. As a hold power there is no reason you are not going to take this with it's recharge/proccability, it also has no migraine associated it, so thumbs up.
     
•  T4: Sound Booster (Self +DMG, +To Hit, +Special)
  • Greatly boosts your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases chance to hit. Moderately increases the duration of mez effects. Moderately increases the chance for Sound Manipulation powers to induce migraines. Recharge: Long
    
    This is a very decent build up due to it's damage modifier. As far as it's secondary application of "increasing your CC" it doesn't do a good job of it at all with the exception of Sound Cannon.
     
•  T5: Deafening Wave (Melee (AoE), High DMG(Sonic/Energy), chance for Hold)
  • You create a large field of sonic waves, causing damage to all foes around you. It has a moderate chance of causing migraines, leaving them shaking in pain and helpless. Recharge: Slow
    
    Your short range AOE. With 10 targets max it is a little difficult in lower than high notoriety settings due to most things not being clumped up. It has decent damage akin to Spine Burst but it doesn't do well with most procs. The migraine mechanic for this is under performing by a high degree. Even when using Sound Booster on a group of 10 you are lucky to get 1 hold with very rarely a 2nd and since you have to consider your slotting carefully you can't increase that very low duration stun with our current enhancements. This is a good showpiece to the set where it has a thematic component, but it just doesn't work well or provide you with moments where you feel that sonic is much different than any other blapper heavy set. This may be bugged, have too low Mag holds, or is just in a bad RNG spot to be effective.
     
•  T6: Sound Barrier (Toggle: Self +Absorb, +Recovery, +Res(Smashing, Energy, Sleep))
  • Creates a barrier around the caster which reduces incoming energy and smashing damage, provides protection against sleep effects and grants an absorption shield. Recovery is also increased. Recharge: Moderate
    
    Oh boy, here we go. As a sustain this power is under-performing. The components that are an issue (with decent slotting) are +10.52 lethal/energy resistance, and the absorb 8 abs/2sec, Max shield 50.4-58.4. The endurance is fine and on par with the rest of the Blaster sustains. The keystone or player learned mechanics of the game are that Sonic deals with resistance. Whether it's improving or removing them, that is an expectation when something says "Sonic". The resistance that this gives is very weak and confusing. Not just the 1/2 of the physical resistance, the very low value overall of the resistances, but that it's only offering resistance to 2 categories. From a player perspective this is getting the short end of the stick. Tack on top of it the EXTREMELY low value of the absorb, the fact that to even get that low value you are spending at least 2 Enhancement slots, and the feeling that again, you are getting the short end of the stick (even poor Plant that was GUTTED of it's absorb looks at Sonic and feels like a sad panda). There may be a mathematical breakdown that makes all of this very sensible but from a game perspective it has a lot of negative features including how the player feels when playing this character and how it feels it is thematically represented. I will provide some suggestions with reasoning to try to explain this.
     
•  T7: Disruption Aura (Toggle: Foe -Res)
  • You emit a constant wave of sonic energy around yourself, weakening the Damage Resistance of all nearby foes. Recharge: Moderate
    
    This is a short range -14% aoe resist. I feel the 15" radius is too small. With how this set has gone full BLAPPER only build it would go a long way if the -res that you do get can be applied to more PBAOE enemies instead of the very underwhelming version it has currently.
     
•  T8: Sound Cannon (Ranged (Cone), Foe Stun, Knockback)
  • You generate a powerful sonic wave that will knock back and disorient foes in front of you for a short time. Recharge: Long
    
    So here we have the Control power of the set. It is the only one that actually seems to benefit from Sound Boost. For me, the range of the cone is too short. It doesn't scream "CANNON", it quietly says "Please come close so I might actually hit 10 of you" and the cone makes it difficult tactically and it's use as an "Oh shit" button is marginalized by needing Sound Booster to be effective. The second issue I have (for having a 2 power combo CC) is that both the CC components are very low mag or duration. Before I unslotted this for my final build because it was just too much baggage to keep I had the 5 set of Absolute Amazement (-proc) and 1 KD+5 and even then the KD was weak and the Stun had wildly variable effect duration (from 5 sec to 15 sec). Some number crunching improvements is all this needs to make it a good CC power.
     
•  T9: Earsplitter (Melee, Heavy DMG(Smashing/Energy), chance for Hold)
• You generate an earsplitting sound wave right in the face of your foe, inflicting great damage. It has a good chance of causing a migraine, leaving them shaking in pain and helpless. Recharge: Slow
  
  Kind of hard not to like a heavy hitting melee smash that has a number of good procs. My main nit-picks here are the animation itself is a bit of a let down. I was hoping/expecting something really flashy as I blow up (er arrest) people's brains. The migraine effect on this seemed largely superfluous since it was mostly unused either because the damage took care of whoever it was aimed at or the mag was too low to affect the guy who could survive it.

Conclusion: My conclusion is this is a decent enough set with some problem powers. I think it focuses a little to heavily on the blapping (3 melee attacks, 1 pbaoe, 1 short cone, 1 ranged, 1 small aura) so that it is definitely pigeon-holed with just one way to play it. There isn't a lot of flexibility in creating a different style but that could also be said of other sets. The set itself has very little identity, outside of colored squiggled lines when it attacks there is not really a sense of what makes it special/unique. The migraine mechanic needs to be fine tuned and a look at creating an identity within the set. I also feel that there is enough room in terms of where it stands as a power metric that there can be additions that won't push it ahead of the top sets.

 

Suggestions: These are not all feasible or to my knowledge possible within CoH, but I kept getting ideas that I jotted down while playtesting this.

 

Have Sound Booster give +Perception/Immune to Blind, similar to sonar

 

Have power(s) use their resistance against them (some sort of formula that the higher their smashing/lethal resist they are taking bonus damage) (this might be better for Kinetic Melee)

 

-Recharge or Confuse added to certain powers to simulate the effect of getting blasted with sound

 

Sound Resonance crossovers: Sound Barrier having the same resistance +10.52 added to certain thematic categories Sonic Dispersion does all but Psi, and Sonic Barrier includes Toxic so there are precedents to having a little wider spread. Sonic Barrier there also provides +20 resistance to some statuses

 

Echo mechanic that does a secondary lesser portion of damage at or nearby enemy. Echo mechanic that provides an Echo to your own location, providing you a defense boost or some other effect as your enemy is hitting your Echo, not yourself.

 

Have Sound attacks pass "through" certain resistances (not damaging them) and instead just ignoring a portion of said resistance.

 

That's it. I hope the Dev's get something they can use from this and I encourage people to play the set and get their feedback out there.

 

Edit: Sound Booster can be counted more valuable if you take a Primary that as affected by the Booster. I still think that the boosting within the set needs work, I think this is a great complement if the Blaster power of CC of Primaries that have that option.

Edited November 13, 2020 by zenblack
Primary is important

[Keen]

13 hours ago, zenblack said:

It also has a nice effect with the hold so it's unique in that way.

It's the same effect as Sonic Cage, which bothers me. Probably not enough to be a bother to most people though. But I'll agree it's a nice effect.

[ForeverLaxx]

8 hours ago, Keen said:

It's the same effect as Sonic Cage, which bothers me. Probably not enough to be a bother to most people though. But I'll agree it's a nice effect.

This bothers me a bit as well. I know people say it has a big "untouchable" floater when you use it, but my experience using Detention Field (yes, I use it) says no one will stop attacking it anyway. DF even has a wholly unique bubble particle that, as far as I know, isn't shared with anything and people still hammer away at what's locked inside.

 

Using the same graphic of Sonic Cage for this set's Hold effect is going to sow confusion from the few who are actually paying attention and should probably warrant some kind of tweak to either Cage or this power.

[Recovery8]

Has anyone tried to make an Ice/Sonic yet? I'm having difficulty figuring out how to slot this set at all.

[zenblack]

Take any Ice?Sonic could be very nice. The booster would make some holds even more annoyingly strong.

[Jimmy]

As the patch is nearing completion, we are no longer seeking feedback on this topic.

 

The latest patch notes can be found in the Beta Patch Notes forum.

 

If you encounter any bugs during this last phase of testing, please report them in the Beta Bug Reports forum.

 

Once the patch is live, feel free to post feedback in the Suggestions & Feedback forum. and bug reports in the Bug Reports forum.

 

Thank you!