best AT for Sonic blast?

[FatherCronos]

I see a lot of hate for Sonic on the boards...mostly for the annoying sounds, but it seems like its not a popular choice.  I've always wanted to try it out, but never got one very far.

 

Is there a particular AT that works well with Sonic blast?  Or does it not matter?  I've heard a Kin/Sonic is beast...

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Gulbasaur]

Sonic blast is a reasonably fun set with a focus on -res as a secondary effect. There's also a cone sleep power, which is very useful solo. A bit of a downside of sonic is arguably that it's quite hard to add damage procs tp, meaning it can be hard to make your own and eke extra damage out of. I'd say the effects are also a bit divisive - you'll love it or hate it.

 

Kin/sonic on a defender is a very strong damage multiplier for teams. Sonic from the stacking resistance debuff and kinetics from the +DMG buffs, endurance management and recharge powers. The standard -res debuff is 20%. Kinetics is a good offensive all-rounder with a strong AoE heal and an endurance heal power as well as getting some major player powers earlier than corruptors.

 

Sonic/kin on a corruptor does more of the same, but the buffs and debuffs aren't as strong. The standard debuff is 17.3%. If you're in a fast-moving group with large enemy spawns and fulcrum shift firing off every time it's up, it may not make too much of a difference if you're constantly up against the damage, but you lose about 20% of the buff value of kinetics.

 

The defender vs corruptor thing can usually be summarised as "well, it depends". Strictly speaking, defenders are stronger on the buff/debuff side.

 

Blaster debuffs are a modest 13%, but obviously have a higher damage scale.

 

tldr: Play a blaster if you want to play a blaster. A defender is stronger support than a corruptor, but if you're hitting the damage cap then it doesn't make too much of a difference.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Gulbasaur

[CaptTastic]

Sentinel worth a mention as their version of screech is a high damage attack AND stun as opposed to just the latter. -Res from Sonic blasts also stack on -res from opportunity. 

[siolfir]

1 hour ago, Gulbasaur said:

The standard debuff is 17.3%.

15% for Corruptors, and Kinetics is one set that (IMO) works better on Corruptors as long as you still have Fulcrum Shift available because the stacked buff is common enough that it doesn't matter if it's +20% for Corruptors or +25% for Defenders, the team is likely going to hit the damage cap quickly either way, and since Corruptors have a higher damage cap than Defenders do they get more out of it themselves.

 

Sonic Blast in general (as opposed to the combination with Kinetics) is better on either Defenders (better team support/damage due to higher -res) or Blasters (better personal damage, "close enough" -res) than Corruptors, though. Sentinels only get -9.6% res per blast, so they're behind everyone else.

Edited April 13, 2021 by siolfir

[Gulbasaur]

7 minutes ago, siolfir said:

15% for Corruptors, and Kinetics is one set that (IMO) works better on Corruptors as long as you still have Fulcrum Shift available because the stacked buff is common enough that it doesn't matter if it's +20% for Corruptors or +25% for Defenders, the team is likely going to hit the damage cap quickly either way, and since Corruptors have a higher damage cap than Defenders do they get more out of it themselves.

Ah, sorry - I though I read it off mids but I also wasn't looking very hard (and mids isn't 100% true-to-game). Thanks. 

There's also the point that Defenders get FS much earlier than Corruptors, and it exemplars lower still. I think people overlook that. It really depends on what the goal of the build is - skip early levels and spend the whole time running Council radio missions or work your way up slowly with story arcs and task forces? 

 

Personally, I don't think they work that well together - kinetics favours being up close and personal (or at least mid-range) and sonic works best when you can stand back to use the cones. You're right about FS effectively making you hit the damage ceiling on either.  Dark or Rad (or even sonic) might be better support sets to pair with sonic blast than kinetics. Traps can do some pretty crazy things and poison is pretty sick (pardon the pun) in the right hands. 

[siolfir]

35 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

Personally, I don't think they work that well together - kinetics favours being up close and personal (or at least mid-range) and sonic works best when you can stand back to use the cones.

I agree, but Siren's Song helps to set up a good Fulcrum Shift when solo, and if you have Fulcrum Shift then you either already have Dreadful Wail (which is PBAoE) or it isn't that far off.

 

There are worse pairings, is all I'm saying (AR/Kin, for example).

[Myrmidon]

3 hours ago, Gulbasaur said:

Kin/sonic on a defender is a very strong damage multiplier for teams. Sonic from the stacking resistance debuff and kinetics from the +DMG buffs, endurance management and recharge powers. The standard -res debuff is 20%. Kinetics is a good offensive all-rounder with a strong AoE heal and an endurance heal power as well as getting some major player powers earlier than corruptors

This one is one of my two Defenders.

[Ironblade]

Well, my thinking was go big or go home.  So I made a sonic/sonic defender.  He's currently level 40 and I enjoy playing him on teams or solo.

[RobotLove]

5 hours ago, siolfir said:

Sentinels only get -9.6% res per blast, so they're behind everyone else.

 

Sentinel inherent provides an additional -5% res (and def) to every attack. They sit just below Corruptor at -14.6% when all is said and done. With opportunity's occasional -20%, it's fairly potent as far as Sent primaries go.

 

The main thing holding them back is they don't have anything in their secondaries to capitalize on the debuffs. It's all defensive clickies and toggles.

 

Def/Corr support sets can stack up debuffs to absurd degrees.

Blasters can make those already high damage melee attacks do obscene things.

 

Sent's just follow up with more of the same under-budgeted blasts.

Edited April 13, 2021 by RobotLove
Typo

[siolfir]

19 minutes ago, RobotLove said:

Sentinel inherent provides and additional -5% res (and def) to every attack. They sit just below Corruptor at -14.6% when all is said and done. With opportunity's occasional -20%, it's fairly potent as far as Sent primaries go.

 

A fair point when comparing between ATs as I was doing, but I was under the impression that this only occurred while Opportunity was active (from details here and here), in addition the -resistance would apply to all Sentinel blast sets, meaning that relative to the other options for Sentinels it's still only -9.6%.

[Rishidian]

I created a Sonic/Bubble Corruptor.  -> Shelved in the teens. 

--Couldn't do enough damage to make a short fight. 

--Couldn't take enough damage to survive.

 

Perhaps I chose the wrong combination.  

[Xenosone]

Sonic is solid. Put the movie set into the kb and its just a screamo concert.

Its a tossup betwren defender and blaster. Defender is going to make your team melt fools harder. Blaster means you might have to do some work but you can pair it with sonic manipulation and that is pretty darn good with either blapping or range plus the anti sleep shield with acrobatics. Id suggest more range to take advantage of your cones.

[Ankhammon]

1 hour ago, RobotLove said:

 

Sentinel inherent provides and additional -5% res (and def) to every attack. They sit just below Corruptor at -14.6% when all is said and done. With opportunity's occasional -20%, it's fairly potent as far as Sent primaries go.

 

The main thing holding them back is they don't have anything in their secondaries to capitalize on the debuffs. It's all defensive clickies and toggles.

 

Def/Corr support sets can stack up debuffs to absurd degrees.

Blasters can make those already high damage melee attacks do obscene things.

 

Sent's just follow up with more of the same under-budgeted blasts.

For Sentinels that's only partially correct. They do get Bio as a secondary that can offer some added damage and even range which is great for cones. 

[Chance Jackson]

if you're going to play Sonic blast definitely play it on a Defender I have been a big proponent of Time/Sonic since live

[Doomguide2005]

On 4/13/2021 at 1:14 PM, Ironblade said:

Well, my thinking was go big or go home.  So I made a sonic/sonic defender.  He's currently level 40 and I enjoy playing him on teams or solo.

     And even more -resist debuff in Resonance to bring even more team-wide pain.  Plus while everyone is running around with capped defenses you're adding Resist Shields which unless you're a Resist based armor is a good deal harder to beef up than defense.  Then we have Liquefy on a godawful long cool down timer but it has more proc choices than you could ever slot.  A couple HO's and some procs and you have just laid a nuke in patch form that can strongly debuff defense, to hit, recharge and kd.

 

     The idea of Liquefy on a spawn, then Fold Space more into the patch followed by Dreadful Wail and then a second wave of procs firing off ... .  Honestly no idea how exactly the procs work in Liquefy, (hey @Bopper) but the idea alone makes me want to try it.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Doomguide2005

[Bopper]

55 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Honestly no idea how exactly the procs work in Liquefy, (hey @Bopper) but the idea alone makes me want to try it.

Last I recall, not very good. Liquefy summons two pets: one that lasts 3s amd another that lasts 30s. The 3s pet takes the damage and hold procs, while the 30s pet takes the defense debuff amd tohit debuff procs. The 3s pet is mostly a waste as you only get one proc chance while the 30s will give you 3 proc chances. I believe both pets are 25 ft radius so a 3.5 ppm proc only has about 15.3% chance to proc per target.

[DreadShinobi]

Something not mentioned is that Sonic Blast is a very endurance light set. It works very well with sets that have no endurance management tools, like Thermal, Force Fields, Storm Summoning, and Poison. Never made FF/Sonic but it gets a nod because of how passive it is alongside a set that you want to be continually spamming your shrieks and screams.

 

Sonic/Therm was one of my favorites pre-shut down because it was a character that I never threw IOs into but always felt like I was relevant and effective playing with full IO groups on speed runs and master badge attempts even with just SOs. Very efficient.

 

On Homecoming I have remade my Sonic/Therm corr as a defender, and also made Storm/Sonic, Poison/Sonic, Kin/Sonic, and Sonic/Sonic. For Defenders, I consider it the premier choice, and the only other defender I play is a Poison/Fire, which is absolutely the most fun to play, followed by the Storm/Sonic. I will point out Storm/Sonic as probably the best of my Sonic Defender choices and sees the most play among them because it shreds hard targets absurdly quickly. The -res from sonic blasting buffs your tornado and lightning storm damage. Sonic Blasting puts no endurance strain on the more endurance heavy storm summoning. You get an additional -35% long duration resistance debuff from freezing rain. But most of all, it was Burnout that made this set shine, being able to double cast Freezing Rain/Tornado/Lightning Storm/Dreadful wail, which is where the AV/GM/Hamidon shredding really shines.

 

There is something about playing Sonic Blast that is a fun minigame in itself. I consider Sonic Blasting to have a higher skill cap than your average blast set because -res is only as effective as the amount of damage applied to the target before the debuff wears off, or you surpass the kill threshold. It is also a set that requires you to hit the target before your allies apply their damage, and requires some anticipation and awareness about what your nearby allies are going to do. If you choose to start sonic blasting away at that freakshow boss but your allies don't follow up when you were expecting them to, you can end up with alot of wasted time on your hands.

 

I will also make a mention about Shriek, being one of the best t1 power choices in the game, across any archetype or powerset, if you are going to be locked into your T1 power pick, which defenders are in the case of their blast sets, Shriek is absolutely top tier. The debuff only lasts 5 seconds, but the animation time is 1 second, and the projectile speed is very fast, meaning you are often able to hit your target and debuff their resistance before your nearby ally finishes casting their Knockout Blow, even if you started casting Shriek after they started casting Knockout Blow. If you are using Shriek effectively in standard mob clearing, the 5 second duration doesnt matter because your target will be dead in 5 seconds or within the kill threshold, and we already know sonic blasting is extremely strong in AV fights. In standard mob clearing, casting Shriek on the targeted boss of the spawn with correct anticipation of ally follow up damage, is very similar to a stalker's role in mob clearing with assassins strike. You Howl at the group, and then add a couple extra debuffs to the bosses, and everything melts.

 

Also none of my sonic blasting defenders use Sirens Song or Shockwave. Neither provides -res. I tried to like Shockwave once, and its just not worth taking time away from applying early/initial -res or cutting into your stacking potential. Also note Shockwave has 1/3rd the damage of Fire Breath, only 10 ft longer range, the same radius, and requires an extra slot to kb>kd. Shockwave isn't worth it and Sirens Song has even lower value IMO.

 

 

[oedipus_tex]

For Sonic you probably want a Defender or a Blaster.

 

On Defenders the debuff from the blasts is so strong that the Blast set is as good as or better than a Buff/Debuff primary. Because I like some self sufficiency, I particularly like it comboed with primaries that add damage, like Trick Arrow or Storm. TA I find particularly attractive because the Sonic -Resist cone combos with the -Damage in TA, using the same power that lights Oil Slick. 

 

On Blasters, Sonic is decent because Blasters get a secondary also devoted to damage, so the relative weak direct damage of the Sonic blasts is not as much of a loss. The same rule about -Resist also magnifying -Damage applies here, so it will magnify -Damage in sets like Ice Manipulation.

 

I don't have anything that specifically shows that Corruptors don't do as well with Sonic Attack other than a feeling. You could do worse than Sonic but also it just feels to me like a Defender does it better. 

 

 

BTW one of the Incarnate nukes is a PBAoE that does -Damage. Since Dreadful Wail is also PBAoE you can exploit the combination. Even AVs don't resist -Damage so this particular nuke is good to have in the arsenal of any character who does a lot of -Resist. It's especially wicked on Blasters who don't normally get a lot of survivability tools.