Seriously considering dropping Pain for Sonic Boom. Am I stupid?

I'm level 36 with 8 points free. I'm not a DPS Engineer.

I have the usual skills, hate Leech and Wither, and don't want to invest on skills that don't factor into my playstyle. No extras, at least until skill flipping is done away with (which seems like it won't ever happen).

I have a point in Pain and a point in Force Shield. While I use the shield for the extra regen quite often, I find stuff to either be immune to Pain (bosses) or die too quickly to have an effect (everything else). Maybe I should drop Pain entirely?

6 in Empathy, 6 in Protection, 6 in Transference, 6 Decay, and 1 in Res rounds out the rest.

So what are people's opinions on Sonic Boom? We all know the cooldown is atrocious, but I know I'll be using it every chance I get. If I get it. It would be so much better if it could be used more often, like Transference.

Do you have points in transference? If not its critical.

You have 35 skill points at level 36. Use 13 of them for 6/6 empathy, 6/6 transference and 1 revive.

This leaves you with 22 skill points. If your running a support engineer I'd go with 6/6 protection. Now you hVe 16 skills points.

I don't reccomend using force shield as it goes away WAY to fast, but that's just my opinion. My reccomendation would be to put 1 in pain because it gives a stun to the mobs which is helpful. Now you have 11 skill points.

If you do not like wither or leech then you can go ahead and put 6/6 in sonic boom. Sonic boom does a good amount of damage in shipyard if you round the mobs up.

Now you have 5 skill points if I did my math right. The only useful skill left I see useful is decay. I'd recommend using your leftovers on that.

Hope I helped :)

Sorry, forgot I have Decay and Trans maxed already. I wasn't looking at my character when I wrote this.

Any other ideas?

I know that I'm in the minority here...but I love sonic boom. Yes, it does have a long cool down period, but to me that means you have to actually think about the right time to use it.

Just my opinion :)

for me, I dropped sonic boom after using it for a while. It wasn't providing enough punch at all. Could barely (if at all) notice any damage from using it on the current mob I was targeted on. I know it's AOE damage, but still, it's lacking for running in Shipyard XP or boss runs.

Much better results to go with a direct damage skill for where you're at in the game now than to tickle a few mobs around you for minimal damage.

Sonic boom isn't a very good skill, I however, have it maxed. Like you, I don't use Wither or Leech, because I find their damage too low and DOT isn't very good in shipyard on the easier levels, and the actual damage output of these skills isn't very good regardless. I use pain quite often and have it maxed. I use it on the cannon mobs because their knockback is SO ANNOYING (Artstar and I have a mutual hate for this knockback :p) The 3 second stun is very helpful, and can often (when combined with other classes stuns) kill these annoying enemies off without them hitting you. Sonic boom is good for causing small amounts of damage to the whole group, and even though the damage is minimal, area damage is still nice. I find engineers don't have the best skills and are often left with extra points after configuring to their play style. I personally dropped protection completely for a more damage based build (and find +60 armor to not be a big help at this point). I also put my extra 2 points at the end into revive (only lvl 35 on my eng) because the extra range and lowered mana cost help.

Max out your reviving skill. It's what we engies do best. :)

Sonic Boom's near useless because of its low damage output and eternal cooldown. 1 point in Pain is sufficient as the extra damage is also near useless even maxed. Use it for the stun. Protection is near useless due to it's mere +60 armor boost. Heck, I dropped it in Numa and did just fine keeping everyone alive even back then. Wither's crap. Mobs die too fast for it and bosses laugh at you for using it. I use 4 skill points in Force Field for the +2 Mana regen. Works great between fights and anytime you don't have aggro. I only use 1 point in Revive. Between Force Field's regen boost and the boat load of mana, the mana consumption decrease is rather trivial with added points. Not sure why Leech isn't getting any love here. It has saved me from many deaths during uber pulls and any other time I've gotten more attention than I deserve from masses of mobs. Also great if I'm the only one who needs heals. Saves the cooldowns on Empathy and Transference. Oh, and I maxed Decay. This makes a noticeable difference in party damage output on stubborn foes. I have some points left over. But I think I'm gonna wait to see what the last skill will be. As mentioned before, the skills I don't use just aren't impressive enough for me.


IGN: Psyonic

Hmm gonna rank Shield to 4 then.

What to do with the other 5 points though? Save em?

really no point to save them, if you have 2 plat to spare on a respec, might as well use in something for now.

And that something being? I honestly can't think of any skills I would particularly want as of now. As you can no doubt tell, since I've been considering the awfulness that is Sonic Boom. A good skill, wasted by a ferociously long cooldown.

Who's got more suggestions?

I think you'll be happy with the 4 points in Force Field. Properly used, your mana won't drop much even on MF. Respecs are cheap at 2 Plat per so I guess there's not much harm in choosing something... as long as it's not Suppression. Worst Engi skill in game IMO. And I still feel Sonic Boom's too weak and the CD's horrid. So I say maybe Protection or Wither for a little extra defense or damage.


IGN: Psyonic

I'm a little shocked at all the boom hating going on, lol (i used to be a hater, but not anymore). The only bad thing about it is the cool down IMO, and it is great for aggressive engis like myself. I know i'm a little late to this gathering, but since the thread is still high up on the list, i want to offer up my opinion. I've noticed when playing on my op, even with a com in the party, there are times when i need to use health stims. It's not the com's fault, the op does heavy single damage and is bound to draw aggro from a single enemy who takes time to kill. Using boom in mobs (assuming you are healing as well, which every engi should be doing and will also build up aggro, and using trans when available) will help keep any aggro the com doesn't get on you instead of the squishy op. ops appreciate not having to use tons of stims in a run.

you probably used those extra skill points already, but maybe this can be helpful to someone else.

I'd like to completely withdraw anything bad I said about wither and leech. Here is why:

I did a LOT of boss runs on my way from 35 to 36...definitely more than half of the 50k was from SY5 with hardly any xp elixirs for those runs. When combo elixired for xp runs, Sonic Boom was my transference end-skill. Knocked out whatever transference didn't kill. Made me a very good teammate to have cause of the elixir damage and instant hit AOE attacks. However, sonic boom is NOT very useful in SY5 because of all the healers and the cannon mobs/wand girls. Since the recharge time of sonic boom was so long, and my only AOE was transference, I stuck to my duty of support healing, and I took it upon myself to keep the cannon mobs occupied. The ops took out the healers quickly, the commandos controlled the spread of the crowd, and I healed. However, come boss time, once the mobs are down and it's a pig-pile on the MF, that's when I'd pump him with DOT skills.

Decay, wither, and leech, even though 2 of them are weak, slowly assisted in bringing down the boss. The only time I found these skills worth while was taking out the cannon mobs and the boss. Dropped sonic boom completely and put pain to 1 instead of 6. More interested in the stun for the cannon mobs than the splash damage, using someones previously mentioned point. Put 6 in leech and 4 (now at 5 once I ht 36) into wither.

Sonic boom helped a little for xp runs when I was soloing or in a small team, but in a team of 5, you really don't need it.


Funny how opinions change drastically from repeated use. Still find suppression useless though :p

If you are not level 36 yet, maxing sonic boom will help you blow through SY2 XP runs when combined with transference and the pain AOE. Just cast pain one one mob then auto target someone else and once it blows, cast transference and sonic boom. That should finish off the majority of mobs within range. I also agree with LeLouchX as I level my Op in Sloucho PUG runs, and with Kahlua about the DoT skills being useful in SY5 against the stronger mobs and the boss man. So, the point is put the points somewhere between sonic boom and wither/leech. Hope that helps.

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Originally Posted by Kahlua

However, sonic boom is NOT very useful in SY5 because of all the healers and the cannon mobs/wand girls. Since the recharge time of sonic boom was so long, and my only AOE was transference, I stuck to my duty of support healing, and I took it upon myself to keep the cannon mobs occupied.

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This depends on your definition of "useful" and how you play your engi. I originally trashed boom every chance i got in my build, but used at the right time its nothing short of amazing. I can run SY5 with four ops and nobody on a lix and clear the stage in record time. Like i said, i like to tank on my engi and anything that make the mob focus on me keeps my fellow ops happy, and for some reason newt gets some sick pleasure out of tanking.
Edit: i invite anyone to join me with their ops for some SY5 runs, i'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it!

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Originally Posted by Kahlua

Still find suppression useless though

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Suppression can also be very useful when used properly. I've done SY5 runs where another engi used it once or twice at the perfect time and on the right enemy, and that helps. However, it doesn't fit my play style.

hope you don't think i'm criticizing you, i agree with the rest of your post :-)

@Newt - The range of sonic boom is terrible; found that out the hard way after using it a lot. I find I don't even see misses half the time because the range seems to be 6 inches from my character. It's so bad that there was a lot of times I used it as almost a single target attack to try to kill the mobs that are known to drop vanities first :p

Nothing anyone can say with convince me suppression is useful lol. I've tried it on numa a while back, and only found it beneficial if I'm soloing/with a small team and I'm getting hit faster than I can heal. And even then, you've got commando AOE skills, Commando AOE weapons...your own AOE weapons. It's to the point where I'd rather max revive then put points in suppression.

well, i guess we are just gonna have to agree to disagree on this one kahlua, lol. the range on sonic boom is terrible, you are right about that (and i found that out the hard way as well), so there are 2 things about it i don't like then. if timed right, i hit about 90% of the mob with it tho. when i use it, all i see is purple (i think, i'm kinda colorblind) everywhere.

and lots of people share your opinion on suppression too. i won't spec it, but i have seen others use it effectively

Well I got five points free now. Should I dump it into Res? Sonic is definitely not happening as of now.

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Originally Posted by bronislav84

Well I got five points free now. Should I dump it into Res? Sonic is definitely not happening as of now.

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I don't see the point in dumping all those points in res tbh. you also said that you were not a dps engi, so the increased AoE you get from the res shouldn't be needed. You shouldn't be drawing too much aggro like i do using my build, so you should easily be able to get to any player that needs a rez. i believe at level 4, rez will give you a +2 buff as oppsed to +1 (for mana regen, damage, and armor), so that might be a good idea for you. otherwise, check my build (link in sig) for why i like and don't like each skill. your DOTs will tick on the initial hit, so maybe throw a point or two into leech (or wither, but leech first bc it will give you some health back too) with anything else left over you have. hope this helped a bit ;-)

I don't like Leech or Wither man. Until STS gives us more skill slots I see them both as a waste.

Either Res or Pain, and who maxes Pain anyway?

sorry, gotta stand by my last post..... rez past level 4 seems pointless. if you want, throw the rest into pain, but the AoE damage won't increase no matter how high you level it, just the initial damage will. Wither and leech will both give u an instant tick, if you have extra room in your slots, even if you don't like the idea of the DOTs, i'd pick leech bc you can snag yourself a little bit of health. the cool down on wither and leech are both so short that you will be able to use it more than once in each mob. this may not be true for pain, which has a slightly longer cool down. good luck

I have sonic boom maxed-out. Helps a lot while tanking. And if you think a damage skill cooldown is atrocious, I'd like to hear what you've got to say about operatives' health skill. :D

Good luck. :)

Stahp. WIth. Dis. Necro.

Use all skills to the maximum

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Originally Posted by LelouchX

sorry, gotta stand by my last post..... rez past level 4 seems pointless. if you want, throw the rest into pain, but the AoE damage won't increase no matter how high you level it, just the initial damage will. Wither and leech will both give u an instant tick, if you have extra room in your slots, even if you don't like the idea of the DOTs, i'd pick leech bc you can snag yourself a little bit of health. the cool down on wither and leech are both so short that you will be able to use it more than once in each mob. this may not be true for pain, which has a slightly longer cool down. good luck

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Actually pain has a bit shorter cooldown time than wither and leech...

Sonic boom is useless, only does little damage, pain can do dmg and stun ur enemys