page 3 [FOCUSED FEEDBACK] New Melee Set - Sonic Melee

[Championess]

Unfortunately my laptop is in the shop while all this exciting stuff dropped so I won't get to test this anytime soon but I'll give a bird's eye take on a little bit.

 

I'm most interested in the stalker/scrapper version which I trust people are giving it a good testing to find quirks.  The one thing I do agree with though is tying the attune gimmick to both first attacks. 

 

Conceptually it sounds neat if not a bit extra management.  After you get a few attacks in your chain those first 2 attacks get to be awful weak.  I'd only take and set mule the t2 attack and rarely use it in any attack chain, I could never imagine having the room to take and use both the t1 and t2 attack unless the later attacks are truly awful, which would be a whole other issue.  Depending how strong this attune thing is I'd find better functionality afforded the set if the t1 attack and a later attack were able to benefit from attune.

 

This is just a suggestion purely from a general build efficiency standpoint.

[Kaika]

Just got on and messed around a bit with the new attune and the VFX is a game changer feel wise. Makes the power feel far more impactful and translates it mentally into a toggle in my head way easier. I really like the VFX for it, just enough to not lose it in the mix of things, but not too big as to get mistaken for a AoE, and does not cover the head or legs to be mistaken as control. The extra range also makes it quite a bit harder to detoggle and makes it so you don't feel like you have to be glued to your target anymore, I don't think I would want it to extend any farther then this though. I still have to get into melee to make the DoT effective so it isn't a free lunch, but I no longer need to constantly keep my target in mind positioning wise, and they are far easier to keep track of. All and all a huge upgrade in the game feel department here, good work on this.

 

The only thing I could think to make it better would be if the VFX changed when the T1/2 were applied to it, but I know thats a bit of a ask and it's still very good the way it currently is.

Edited yesterday at 07:27 PM by Kaika

[WindDemon21]

On 11/10/2025 at 5:19 PM, The Curator said:

Deafening Wave - PBAoE Melee, DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe 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.

 

Please, please, PLEASE move deafening wave sooner. All main aoe powers should be available by at least 20, super annoying having any later than that for the main aoe.

[Kai Moon]

20 hours ago, Psi-bolt said:

One quick bug, Sandman Whisper opened up for my Tanker at level 18 during a respec.  It opened up before Sound Booster.  

Fixed in Build 3

Also happens outside respec. Tanker Sandman's Whisper is set to 18, but should be 24 (secondary tier 7 level).

Edited 10 hours ago by Kai Moon
fixed in build 3

[Kai Moon]

Fixed in build 3

 

Tanker Deafening Wave has a target cap of 10. It should probably be 16 because of Gauntlet.

Edited 10 hours ago by Kai Moon
fixed in build 3

[Kai Moon]

Hold Duration Enhancements and Sets in Attune

These don't seem to do anything, unless I'm missing something? Currently, the brute, stalker, and tanker versions of Attune accept hold enhancements and sets. The scrapper version doesn't. This shouldn't accept hold enhancements and sets if there's no hold duration to enhance.



 Sleep Duration Sets in Assassin's Whisper 

Currently accepts sleep enhancements but not sleep sets. Should probably accept both. Sandman's Whisper (brute, scrapper, tanker) accepts both.

Edited yesterday at 10:15 PM by Kai Moon

[Championess]

10 minutes ago, Kai Moon said:

Hold Duration Enhancements and Sets in Attune

These don't seem to do anything, unless I'm missing something? Currently, the brute, stalker, and tanker versions of Attune accept hold enhancements and sets. The scrapper version doesn't. This shouldn't accept hold enhancements and sets if there's no hold duration to enhance.



 Sleep Duration Sets in Assassin's Whisper 

Currently accepts sleep enhancements but not sleep sets. Should probably accept both. Sandman's Whisper (brute, scrapper, tanker) accepts both.

 

They just removed allowing sleep sets in AS this new build.  Likely something was too good between stalker ATOs, placate and sleep set procs (placate proc comes to mind).

[High_Beam]

New Build with attuned is night and day better.  No longer clunky.  visuals also a plus.  My complaint was never about the newness or the mechanic of how it works it was the de-toggling and the extra work that was required to make it flow with the attacks chain.  Now I flows.  Bravo.  Way better and still keeping the power new with the mechanism.

[OverkillEngine]

Just got done taking a Sonic/Inv Brute for a spin on test. No hard metrics measured, just did a mission at every 5th level using basic SO or IO's only.

Attune takes a little bit to get used to, but it does output some decent animation free DPS after the initial setup so long as you have both Strident Echo and Sonic Thrust. Feels wasteful to use it on anything less than an Lt, though at least it recharges fast if you use it to obliterate a minion at the start of a fight. Tentative thumbs up.

The only time the toggle nature of it made me upset was when I was doing content in the 10-15 bracket and was running into Lost Rectors that could chain mezz, which neuters offensive toggles if you don't have status protection yet, which I did not have access to until 16. Nor did I have a reliable way to lock them down with status effects. Those were some close fights even after eating inspirations like candy.

Sonic Clap was nicer than I expected. I know some people hate having mixed cones and PBOE's in melee sets, but this power has a pretty generous cone arc and range. It's right in the sweet spot, at most I had to take a short step back or to a side to easily hit nearly everything already in melee with me. You could port a pure smashing version of this to Super Strength and I'd be pretty happy, hint, hint.

Sound Booster is the usual Build Up analogue. Functional. No complaints.

I skipped Sandman's Whisper since my single target chain was adequate enough for my purposes at the time and a low mag single target standard sleep isn't exactly useful to me as anything it would affect out of the box I could already easily obliterate (minion/Lt), and I had nothing else in the set to stack it with. So I had no room for a power that was going to be docked on the total power budget due to a weak status component. Ah well, not every power in a set has to be a must-pick.

Speaking of status stacking, Deafening Wave and Earsplitter having matching (useful) status effects that could be boosted was appreciated.

Though one thing that annoyed me about Deafening Wave is when it hits multiple targets, the resulting sound effect is VERY similar to the sound of armor toggles dropping due to lack of endurance - please do not do that. It's a very disconcerting sound to hear when I am hip deep in a fight. Please consider some SFX polish here.

For doing regular content at least the set feels alright overall, has decent ST damage and enough AoE to whittle packs down at a decent rate especially with the -res secondary effect. It is however busy enough that I would probably only pair it with a hands-off secondary that doesn't require micro.

Edited 22 hours ago by OverkillEngine

[Kai Moon]

Fixed in build 3

 

Sandman's Whisper uses melee_pvpdamage modifier for pve damage

(brute base damage = tanker base damage in pvp, but brutes should do lower base damage in pve)

Edited 6 hours ago by Kai Moon
fixed in build 3

[smnolimits41]

Graphics for Sonic Thrust is no longer animating ??

[smnolimits41]

Strident Echo seems like its working

 

[UltraAlt]

On 11/10/2025 at 5:19 PM, The Curator said:

• Sonic Thrust - Melee, DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe -Res(Debuffs), Knockback/Repel

  • A focused attack of intense sonic power with high chance to violently knock a nearby foe off their feet. Deals minimal damage, but can be very effective. If used in conjunction with Attune, you will match your frequency with the target's resonance increasing Attunes damage over time.

  • This power's highlight icon indicates the last application of it's effects is about to expire or has expired.

• Strident Echo - Melee, DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe -Res(Debuffs), 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. If used in conjunction with Attune, you will match your frequency with the target's resonance increasing Attunes damage over time.
  • This power's highlight icon indicates the last application of it's effects is about to expire or has expired.
• Attune - Melee Toggle, DMG(Energy), +Special
  • A high-intensity sound wave that matches the resonant frequency of your target. This power does not inflict much damage but can be sustained for continued damage over time that will be boosted if you strike the target with Sonic Thrust or Strident Echo. Each of these attacks will further increase the strength of the damage over time.

 

I guess we need a call from the DEVs about how Attuned works because there seems to be some confusion.

 

Sonic Thrust and Stindent Echo text reads to me that "if used in conjunction with Attune".

"Conjunction" seems to imply while Attune is active.

 

Also the Attune text reads "This power does not inflict much damage but can be sustained for continued damage over time that will be boosted if you strike the target with Sonic Thrust or Strident Echo. Each of these attacks will further increase the strength of the damage over time."

That seems to imply that "sustained" means leaving the toggled on.

The "boost" is applied when Sonic Thrust or Strident Echo are used after Attune is "sustained"/toggled on a target; instead of a "boost" being applied to Sonic Thrust or Strident Echo if Attune is toggled on after their use.

And, if you use Sonic Thrust or Strident Echos, the DoT damage "will further increase". But it is unclear if stacking of this "increased strength" can be done by repeated use of Sonic Thrust and Strident Echo on an Attuned target.

 

[WindDemon21]

Can we please get the mechanic on attune to work with all the attacks so you're not forced to get the tier 1 to maximize on it's effect.

 

Also if you do get both the tier 1 and two, if you use sonic thrust after strident echo it's not getting the sound to fire off too.

 

I also don't get why sonic clap is only a 5 target cap, when frost is there with a 10 target cap yet sonic clap's cone is way bigger than frosts is, please correct this to 10 targets. Since the power is basically like halved hand clap with damage too, it seems like the knockdown on the power should be a LOT higher, like 100% like hand clap is, but at least much higher than it is now., lie 80% if not 100%.

 

I'm also REALLY REALLY REALLLLLYYYYYY not a fan of having to constantly put attune on a single target, its really clunky and annoying especially if you untoggle it by accident. I'd rather it just be a toggle on yourself and the damage only kicks in as a toggle on the enemy when you hit them with a sonic attack or even not a toggle but just extra damage proccing similar to brimstone armor, could even work on the aoes then too, but compared to what it is now even if it just remained single target i'd take that over it's current version any day. and again still, with the mechanic fixed so it works for all sonic ST attacks even if the damage still caps at 2 stacks, and not just the tier 1 and 2, i mean come on, we already learned the problems with this with sentinels.

 

I also feel like Sandman's Whisper should have a longer recharge time/damage scalar at 12 seconds maybe 10 since sonic thrust and strident echo are already on shorter recharges than most sets at 2.5s and 6s where most are 4/8s for those attacks especially with it at tier 7.

 

Also i Love the sound on strident echo, do wish the dot was just a little faster though. like 75% of it's current duration would be fine. It's cast time seems like it should be lower than it is closer to 1.3s also given the shorter recharge nature.

[Kai Moon]

On activation, the Sandman's Whisper icon changes from sonicmanipulation_whisper2.texture with a faint ring, to ..._whisper.texture with no ring. After it hasn't been activated in 15 seconds, it changes back to ..._whisper2.texture with a faint ring.

This could be confusing, since the power has the same effect - both a resist debuff and a sleep - no matter which icon is showing.

 

[robobl4de]

Attune needs a quick hotfix, after build 3, the endurance in game seems bugged. Think it is supposed to have a flat end cost instead of per second.
EDIT: Stalker, Tanker, Brute show the bugged endurance, the second screenshot is Scrapper and that one seems proper

Edited 9 hours ago by robobl4de

[Kai Moon]

13 minutes ago, robobl4de said:

Attune needs a quick hotfix, after build 3, the endurance in game seems bugged. Think it is supposed to have a flat end cost instead of per second.

Oh yikes. The brute, stalker, and tanker versions are still toggles instead of clicks. They're dealing a full 1 damage scale every 0.5 seconds, vaporizing a boss fast, but making a racket and running you out of endurance in the process.

Intended seems to be the scrapper version, which is 1 damage scale click attack, 4 second recharge, plus a lingering indefinite effect.

[boss]

Just a thought, but since this is a sound set, I think that this class would be interesting if the powers that included sound for this class did something special. Especially, the ones that other classes also have. For instance, I think taunt on every brute and tanker should be different for each class (which I bet would probably be difficult) or at least the taunt for brutes to make them stand out more and make the taunt more desirable. What if taunts for this power set had a chance to stun or confuse innately? Or gave u or your team in an area around you resistance dependent on number of enemies taunted?

[Psi-bolt]

Scrapper version does appear correct for Attune in the sense of it being a click, but Attune's availability is level 2 as if it were still a Tier 3 power.  Strident's is still available at level 1.

[Kai Moon]

Multiple powers are overreporting their damage and dps in detailed info. Maybe overcounting some conditional damage.

[Kaika]

2 hours ago, Kai Moon said:

Oh yikes. The brute, stalker, and tanker versions are still toggles instead of clicks. They're dealing a full 1 damage scale every 0.5 seconds, vaporizing a boss fast, but making a racket and running you out of endurance in the process.

Intended seems to be the scrapper version, which is 1 damage scale click attack, 4 second recharge, plus a lingering indefinite effect.

Came here to say the same thing, it's currently still a toggle and rapidly casting the initial attack, drains end super fast too.

For fun I ran a "one button" pylon test, though I did have to use the tester burnout to keep Geas up since the end drain was pretty wild

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Kaika

[Captain Powerhouse]

1 hour ago, Kai Moon said:

Multiple powers are overreporting their damage and dps in detailed info. Maybe overcounting some conditional damage.

This is an unfortunate limitation on how the game attempts to calculate power average damage. I hope to at some point see if we can add a flag or something so the game knows what to ignore on the averaging.

[WindDemon21]

Sonic Clap is also stating it's only a .65 mag knock, but WHEN the knock happens, it's routinely knocking back, not down. It also still feels really wrong that it's not a 100% knockback. The power is kinda weird cause it has a short recharge with long area, yet only hits 5 targets even though it's cone is larger than frosts which is 10, and still, for basiclaly being hand clap, just feels wrong for it to not be at least doing more kd than it should. Straight 100% kd rate would be kinda crazy with that recharge, but that rech doesn'tt make sense for the power either. The power feels more like it should have at least a 12s or 14s recharge not 8, maybe making up for it by having it be the 10 target cap instead of 5 and guaranteed knock or at least higher knock like 75% if not 100%.

 

Attune is better by being a standard click, but it still just feels out of place with that short recharge/low self-damage. It would make more sense if the power was the tier 1 with a 1s cast time and then move sonic thrust to a higher tier with a longer recharge/more damage/higher KD chance/longer animation. We also still REALLY need to get away from needing both sonic thrust and strident echo only to increase the attuned damage. It needs to be just any two ST powers used. Again, we learned from old sentinel opp how bad this is.

 

Likewise, we also NEED strident echo at tier 2 on tankers so you're not forced to take sonic thrust/attune and can take strident echo. Though this would be less of a concern with attune at tier 1 with a 1s cast time, but as is is just really off as it is currently and attune needs to still remain tier 3 in it's current form, or fixed to tier 1 with a 1s cast time so it flows better for actual use of the power itself versus using it only ever once per target.

 

Sound for sonic thrust seems fixed.

 

Sandman's whisper still seems statted way wrong for the set. It should have a longer recharge time/damage scalar at 12 seconds since sonic thrust and strident echo are already on shorter recharges than most sets at 2.5s and 6s where most are 4/8s for those attacks especially with it at tier 7. As it stands we already have 4 single target powers at 8 seconds or less, and 5 of 8s rech if you count sonic clap (which again also feels like it should have a longer rech/higher damage/kd chance/10target cap)

[High_Beam]

I see nothing in the build notes changing Attune from being a toggle to a click, it is supposed to be a toggle.  What am I missing here?

 

Now that Cost/ second.  Ouch!  And I am testing on a /Regen and a /Psionic Brute

 

FOLLOW UP:  Okay I totally get the cost for the face melting speed but it could come down maybe a smidge.

Edited 4 minutes ago by High_Beam
Added Character Testing Info

[WindDemon21]

Just now, High_Beam said:

I see nothing in the build notes changing Attune from being a toggle to a click, it is supposed to be a toggle.  What am I missing here?

 

Now that Cost/ second.  Ouch!

It's a click now if you go on test. It basically places a debuff/pseudopet on the target that does the dot and increases with sonic thrust/strident echo. Which is still terrible to have it locked to those powers only for obvious reasons. Not to mention it makes the set very awkward having to pick 5 single target attacks to maximize your ST damage. Then the rech/damage issue on the sleep attack, the cone wonkiness etc. The set is close but its just reallly funky as is atm. Strident echo still needs to be tier 2 on tankers as well. I'd still wish they'd fix it to be a toggle on you, that did some minor DOT that increased with any attack, even the aoes, obviously aoes would be a smaller damage increase than the single target, and still cap at two damage increases. Then it helps aoe, and is still not locked to just the tier 1/2 powers. But at the very least it should remain as tier 3 (unless the fix i mentioned above), and it should be be locked to just sonic thrust/strident echo.