Is Sonic Resonance underappreciated?

[Hitback]

To be honest, I haven't rolled one yet, but I'm doing some research trying to decide on my next MM and I feel like Sonic is being slept on. 

 

Looking at the numbers, Sonic and the pet +res IOs are enough to give your pets 75% res to all damage types except Psionic. And after the upcoming nerfs, it will be the only secondary easily capable of -45% res debuff. 

 

I think it pairs great with robotics, even if they are defense-based. Sonic has no heals, no -regen and no psionic res, and robots can provide all three. 

Edited February 3, 2024 by Hitback

[Lunar Ronin]

Sonic Resonance is great.  It's just very endurance hungry, and doesn't have a heal as you've noticed.  But if your primary has a heal, or you don't mind working Aid Other into your build, and you can deal with the endurance, it's very solid.

[Psyonico]

I don't have experience with Sonic as an MM, but I do have it on a defender.  Yes, the set is underappreciated.  The next patch also gives a nice little boost to Liquefy, which IMO is exactly what the set needed to perform well, so we'll see how it goes.

 

I do agree that Bots could be a good choice as you pointed out.

[kelika2]

Sonic is ok but it requires a semi-big bank account or some serious dedication and/or thought.

 

The global pet based IOs are a huge must.  10+10+10(15 catalyst)% resists are huge for both Thermal and Sonics.  Making your pets tough is a huge bonus.  Also picking the primary to stack resistances helps.

 

the -resist toggle needs a melee type pet or finding out what pets do not need to be at a range.  Examples:

Mercs:  The Spec Ops DO NOT need to be at a range.  Their AoEs are Target AoEs (fireball, explosive blast, etc).  Meanwhile your Commando is very Cone based (fire/ice breath and so on) making your commando a bad Disruption Field target

Bots:  Your prot bots also do not have cone attacks, making them OK to send into melee for disrupt field.  also an added bonus:  the prot bots drones summon their seeker drones on themelves.  and in melee it makes it so they have a better chance to hit more targets

rest of the sets have a nice dedicated melee pet to do the job

 

eh..

 

Demons and Beasts get the most benefit from Sonic reso due to inherent resist stacking, sonic bubbles and IO buffs.  Necro sounds nice but smash/neg/psi/toxic damage enemy groups are rare.  Pets have a 90% resist cap.

 

With all that said, try Robot/Trick arrow.  Not only does Flash Arrow 'add' to bots Defenses you also get Oil Slick arrow later to really feel the power of stacking DoTs.  And glue arrow helps keep things in your assbots fire patches and your fire patch.

[Radeon]

I am wondering if i am the only one having Robo/Sonic running? 

 

Is there any decent build i can take inspiration from? 

 

Pools i have is Flight, Leadership, Fighting and Energy Mastery. 

 

Target is to walk on the line between being sturdy and packing a punch, i don't need to solo end content, am playing in teams most of the time, but want to be tough enough to not be eradicated by the sudden surprise mob 🙂

 

[Maelwys]

Unfortunately /Sonic is bottom of the pile for MM secondaries, just above Poison (which is worse in terms of survivability but probably has better damage output).
When soloing Bots/Sonic will be tricky to micromanage as the bulk of /Sonic's added damage comes from the ally-anchored -res aura; and Bots are "prefer ranged" so you'll need to anchor it on the AssBot and manually GOTO command them into melee range before they fire off their Swarm Missiles. Epic AoE immobilises will be your friend.

If you mostly team then it gets a bit better - Teams tend to be Defense softcapped but not Resistance Hardcapped; so your buffs are usually welcome... and having a melee teammate with a Taunt aura to anchor Disruption Field onto will alleviate a lot of your micromanagement issues. Most of the other powers in Sonic are pretty hands-off - just Bubble up once every four minutes, slot Liquefy for Recharge and -Tohit; and use Sonic Siphon on Bosses/EBs/AVs. So you'll have time to blast a bit with Procbombed Photon Grenade and maybe even an Epic attack or two (Thunderstrike from Mu Mastery is fantastic there; and you'll likely want to take Charged Armor and Electrifying fences anyway).

Note that taking the +Def Pet Aura IOs and Maneuvers and slotting Protector Bots for +Def can get your henchmen most of the way to the Defense Softcap; and Incarnates (Barrier Destiny/Support Hybrid/Talons Radial Lore) can get you the rest of the way even when soloing.



 

[Maelwys]

I had a quick dig and can't find any recent Robot/Sonic builds.

Icesphere's dropbox has a Thugs/Sonic that doesn't too bad at a quick glance.

The closest in my own stable would be Robots/Thermal and Robots/Kin.
zMastermind - Robotics - Thermal.mbd (note that this one was last poked at prior to the Bonfire nerfs)
The Bots/Kin I've discussed at length and most recent build(s) are here.

 

[evetsleep]

5 hours ago, Maelwys said:

Unfortunately /Sonic is bottom of the pile for MM secondaries, just above Poison (which is worse in terms of survivability but probably has better damage output).
When soloing Bots/Sonic will be tricky to micromanage as the bulk of /Sonic's added damage comes from the ally-anchored -res aura; and Bots are "prefer ranged" so you'll need to anchor it on the AssBot and manually GOTO command them into melee range before they fire off their Swarm Missiles. Epic AoE immobilises will be your friend.

If you mostly team then it gets a bit better - Teams tend to be Defense softcapped but not Resistance Hardcapped; so your buffs are usually welcome... and having a melee teammate with a Taunt aura to anchor Disruption Field onto will alleviate a lot of your micromanagement issues. Most of the other powers in Sonic are pretty hands-off - just Bubble up once every four minutes, slot Liquefy for Recharge and -Tohit; and use Sonic Siphon on Bosses/EBs/AVs. So you'll have time to blast a bit with Procbombed Photon Grenade and maybe even an Epic attack or two (Thunderstrike from Mu Mastery is fantastic there; and you'll likely want to take Charged Armor and Electrifying fences anyway).

Note that taking the +Def Pet Aura IOs and Maneuvers and slotting Protector Bots for +Def can get your henchmen most of the way to the Defense Softcap; and Incarnates (Barrier Destiny/Support Hybrid/Talons Radial Lore) can get you the rest of the way even when soloing.

 

 

I have a bots/sonic that I take off the shelf every now and then.  It's not horrible, but the issues you point out are in line with my experience.  The buff to Liquify helps and the layering of defense + resistance is always a good strategy.  The addition of the healing drone really expanded the survivability of non-healing builds that don't have a secondary that has one built in.

 

I have driven pretty much every MM combo at this point and I find poison the absolute bottom with sonic right above it as well.  Sonic isn't as frustrating as poison, it just doesn't perform nearly as well as others and I find it's repel one of the most annoying sounds in the entire game with large spawns. 

[Xandyr]

I had pretty good luck with Ninja/Sonic. I've got a Thugs/Sonic, but parked it around level 40.

[evetsleep]

21 hours ago, Xandyr said:

I had pretty good luck with Ninja/Sonic. I've got a Thugs/Sonic, but parked it around level 40.

 

I think what saves Ninjas here is they can all self-heal.  I have a thugs/sonic too, but even with great resistances, because they cannot heal themselves they're subject to folding in a long fight.  Aid other can only go so far.

[Hedgefund]

My Necro/Sonic is one of my highest performing MMs (30 all told, T4d etc).  Their resists range from low 80s to capped, that's all of the different resistances.

[evetsleep]

On 2/1/2025 at 4:23 PM, Hedgefund said:

My Necro/Sonic is one of my highest performing MMs (30 all told, T4d etc).  Their resists range from low 80s to capped, that's all of the different resistances.

 

You've reminded me about my necro/sonic MM that I had not played in ages and you're right.  I took her for a spin this morning to refresh my memory.  When it comes to combinations which mesh well with Sonic I think necro is a fine choice.  The resists along with the individual pet heals (which is part of what makes ninja's nice these days) means they can independently take care of themselves.  I need to take my demon\sonic for an update spin to see how it performs, but the new necro does quite well once some basic slotting happens.

I think what helps here is the updated necro and the new Liquify combines for some really nice play patterns.  I suppose the thing that makes sonic tolerable if you have pets that can heal themselves.  The melee aspect of necro means you can easily take advantage of Disruption Field, which is nice.  Nice call out there...I did enjoy this combo.

[Maelwys]

My main issue with /Sonic used to be that /Thermal exists.
Now it's that /Marine exists.

• Sonic ends up granting ~41% res to S/L/F/C/E/N/T (providing your pets stay within Sonic Dispersion range) plus -22.5% AoE res debuffage in Disruption field and another -22.5% Single Target res debuff in Sonic Siphon. It also has Liquefy (AoE -ToHit debuff patch that can't be perma'd)
• Thermal gives ~46.7% res to F, ~23.5% res to S/L/E/N and ~11.7% to C (from both bubbles) plus -22.5% AoE res debuffage from Melt Armor.  But it also has PBAoE and targeted healing;  ST +30% Damage and ToHit from Forge (which can typically be kept up on 4-6 allies simultaneously) and a -500% ST Regeneration debuff in Heat Exhaustion.
• Marine gives ~14.7% res to L/C/E/N/T/P and ~29.4% to F/S (from Toroidal Bubble) and +8.7% Defense to everything (from Barrier Reef) plus -11.25% AoE res debuffage (and substantial AoE damage) in Whitecap. As well as another -22.5% Single Target res (and MaxHP) debuff in Brine. But it also has Cone AoE healing, AoE +Damage from Tide Pool, Damage Procs from Shifting Tides... plus capped MaxHP and substantial AoE +Recovery and +Regeneration and +Range from Power of the Depths.

At first glance the damage mitigation which the above sets can grant mastermind henchmen might look reasonably balanced between Sonic and Thermal (although /Marine is in a league of its own!) because the first has more +res; and the second has less +res but regular healing... once you factor in the +35% res from the Aura IOs; a /Sonic will be giving their pets ~76% to the main resistances; a /Thermal ~58.5% (~81.7% vs F!); and a /Marine ~47.9% (~64.4% vs F/S!). Plus another 5% (minimum!) from Barrier Destiny.

However most henchmen also have inherent resistances that apply on top of this. Mercs for example will get ~41% to S/L (with ED-capped Equip but before Serum); Necro gets a whopping ~42.3% to S/C/N/P/T (again with an ED-capped Equip) and even Bots gets +39.1% to L/C/P. Demons (with their inherent resistances plus 'Ember Shield') can get completely silly. So much of the +res from Sonic (and even some from Thermal) can become "wasted" as your henchmen end up well beyond the 90% hardcap.

Liquefy getting a faster recharge cycle has taken some of the edge off Sonic's poor performance... but the set still needs some love. There is a lot of micromanaging required for a /Sonic MM to get similar levels of performance to a "cruise control mode" /Thermal; particularly for Primaries with "Prefer Ranged" Pets.

Nothing comes anywhere close to /Marine though. Not even a powerboosted+clarion'ed /Time... 🤦‍♂️

I do however agree that out of the various available MM /Sonic combos, either Necro/Sonic or Bots/Sonic are probably going to be the best performing (the -ToHit and +Def will largely cancel out until you start fighting high level/ranked targets... but Necro will end up more offensive with better ST damage output and require much less micromanagement to leverage Disruption Field; whereas Bots will end up more defensive with a bit more AoE damage plus on-demand -Regen for soloing AVs)
 

Edited February 3 by Maelwys

[Tubalcain]

My issue with Sonic is that it's flat out inferior to Force Fields. The gulf between them has only widened now that Force Fields have -res debuffs now too.

 

First of all, the raw numbers. 25% Resistance is NOT equal to 25% defense. At all. Enemies only have a 50% chance to hit you. So, with 25% defense, you've cut their damage in half. While 25% resistance cut their damage 25%. Defense also protects you from Mezzes because they have to hit to affect you. So, out of the gate, sets that give Defense buffs are WAY ahead. Then you can easily get them to soft cap defense (45%) which makes most enemies miss 19 times out of 20. Meanwhile, you'll never get Resistance high enough to match that.

 

Resistance reliant sets patch all this with Healing powers. Which Sonic does not have.

 

Thermal, Force Field, and Ice just blow Sonic out of the water in every way. It doesn't do anything better than they do. It doesn't even come close.

 

 

Edited Saturday at 09:42 AM by Tubalcain

[Auroxis]

There are indeed some underrated aspects in Sonic Resonance. Disruption Field having no setup involved, Liquefy's new recharge times and proccability (i like the -res and +hold procs in it), and just plain having CC protection.

 

Sonic is a bit low on sustain. But grabbing cardiac for endurance, and rebirth along with a team friendly spirit ward for healing helps address those issues.

Controller (Symphony Control - Sonic Resonance) v2.mbd

Edited Saturday at 11:20 AM by Auroxis