Grav/Sonic, idle musings.

[Sovera]

I duo with a friend. Sometimes we duo TFs, sometimes we duo arcs, most of the time we just play in teams. While she is a bit more eclectic than I am I've nudged her to try Tankers and we usually go around duoing both with the AT. Fire Armor ensures we don't know what people talk about low Tanker damage.

 

But since I'm getting a bit bored with it all I look at what other things I could play with the duo. Of course that the simplest thing is playing something that does damage like a Blaster. But it's done to death. Second thing would be boost survival and damage, so anything Kin, but again, done and done.

 

Which is how I was looking at Grav/Sonic but pondering if there really is a point in trying it instead of just continuing to burn things down as we are.

 

Namely we have been in a binge of doing Praetorean arcs which can be quite hard with us flashback locked at level 15 and all those debuffs flying around. Once in a while we die from all the -defense being thrown around and us at level 15, though 90% of the time we burn the content.

 

 

I pondered a Grav/Sonic.

 

- By level 20 I could spackle over the low resistances she has due to the extreme exemplaring with all three Sonic shields. Defense would be better than resist though, but I'm not appealed by Cold or FF.

- I could help with damage with two -res sources. The toggle on her would do -22% and Sonic Siphon another -22%. This is a very early combo and more potent -because- low level since even level mobs suffer from the debuffing.

- Early Sorcery would let me Spirit Ward her, -and- Enflame. I'm not sure how good this would be in practice because the changes are new.

- Not a click intensive combo other than Sonic Siphon so more time to actually do damage. This is nice.

 

The downsides is that I wouldn't bring any AoE other than Enflame, and I'm sure Enflame is more of a DoT aura than an actual AoE attack. We are currently duoing at 0x8 since we are chockful of AoEs even at flashback level 15. I don't think I'd really make as much of a contribution compared to Build-up, Frost, Burn.

 

Thematically (ignoring the name of the set) Sonic visually pairs well with Grav with the energy like shields and effects.

 

 

Electric Affinity could be interesting as well. Very early speed boost like with Energizing Circuit (although just ofr 5 seconds), a heal with Rejuvenating, and a low level damage buff with Empowering Circuit. Just 30% so a bit less than both -res from /Sonic, but one of those -res would be ST while the damage buff means her AoEs would hit everyone.

 

Pretty click intensive though, and visually not as good.

[Psyonico]

Sonic is an under-appreciated set, and I fully support anyone who thinks about rolling one.  The only problem with Gravity is that you don't get Wormhole until 26, meaning  you exemplar without it in Praetoria.

[Hew]

2 hours ago, Psyonico said:

Sonic is an under-appreciated set, and I fully support anyone who thinks about rolling one.  The only problem with Gravity is that you don't get Wormhole until 26, meaning  you exemplar without it in Praetoria.

Cough cough, fold space.

 

Fold space + wormhole + singularity == massive control!

[Sovera]

I've already done a Grav/Kin in the past, and like most things Controller I did one TF at 50 and my struggling interest waned. Grav has no AoE and despite being the most 'blaster-ish' set it's still Controller damage so whittling things down one by one even on triple damage procs and no slotted recharge.

 

 I did a mock-up with an old build and ended with 45% defense to S/L/E, but also 0.15% positive EPS 😄 Way too many toggles...

 

Not gonna lie though, Grav/Sonic looked really pretty in the whole energy theme critter (ignoring the name of the secondary and just looking at the visual effects), but I dunno if I can stomach whittling mobs again. I did want to try Singy's changes though, and Enflame, Spirit Ward, plus Sonic Disruption, plus shield only once in a while, does leave my hands free.

 

Grav is the one set that has no need for Arcane Bolt. It already has two 'blasts' and they can take FF procs.

 

 

There's also Storm. I've never actually played a Stormie. I'm tempted by Defender to get all the good powers early because otherwise whoop, 35 and 38.

 

I could do a Plant but it's like playing with cheat codes; fun at first but then dull. Whee, lets confuse a whole spawn before it even is agroed, then keep them confused until they die. And it recharges so fast it can be repeated at every spawn. What is 240 seconds recharge?

 

Also started a Ninja/Elec since Elec seems nice to keep ninjas alive, and they kick butt. MMs always worked well in the whole 'let pets run rampant doing 'passive' damage while we focus on buffs and debuffs', and that seemed like I remember through Posi 1 and 2. Demon/Elec might be smarter.

 

Tested Enflame and Spirit Ward. A toggle that needs reapplying seems like the worst of both worlds. It's neither a once-every-two-minutes cast/cost nor a -toggle-and-forget-about-it. Enflame is just basically another damage aura on the tank but that's fine.

 

 

[Hew]

How did you slot enflame, max damage? It ticks a LOT, and fast. It certainly pumps out more aoe damage on singy than anything else i have.

[Sovera]

4 hours ago, Hew said:

How did you slot enflame, max damage? It ticks a LOT, and fast. It certainly pumps out more aoe damage on singy than anything else i have.

 

I was just level 21 when I stopped on the MM. I'm so leery on the Controller that I haven't started other than creating it with backstory and costume (most important parts we might agree 😄 ). I'm planning on just slotting Enflame with a full Artillery Bombardment..

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Sovera

[Hew]

So, it definitely does less damage on a troller, given their lower damage mods. But it is still pretty efficient. I tied it to /dark, and tar pit makes up for the damage numbers solo, along with fluffy.

 

I think my preference might be the dom,  hard to say. Both work highly efficiently. /dark keeps singy alive at times when the agro is overwhelming though.

[Sovera]

5 minutes ago, Hew said:

So, it definitely does less damage on a troller, given their lower damage mods. But it is still pretty efficient. I tied it to /dark, and tar pit makes up for the damage numbers solo, along with fluffy.

 

I think my preference might be the dom,  hard to say. Both work highly efficiently. /dark keeps singy alive at times when the agro is overwhelming though.

 

I do feel some of the deficiency in the damage might be allayed with /Sonic's -res stacking, including increasing Enflame's damage. Is Singy better damage now it does Impact as well? I don't remember if I had made my Grav before or after this bug fix.

[Hew]

3 hours ago, Sovera said:

 

I do feel some of the deficiency in the damage might be allayed with /Sonic's -res stacking, including increasing Enflame's damage. Is Singy better damage now it does Impact as well? I don't remember if I had made my Grav before or after this bug fix.

Yes indeed! Singy pops impacts all the time. Very nice to see!