AWRocketman

The only thing I think the set really needs is a real tier 9 power. Force Bubble is counter productive and somewhat redundant. Not to mention that it just doesn't stack up against other tier 9s.

- Fluffy
- Fulcrum
- EMP (Pulse and Arrow)
- Heat Sink
- Adrenalin Boost
- Liquefy
- Lightning Storm

Then the crown jewel - Force Bubble

Gack.

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Meleers can handle the aggro that they attract and survive it, that's what they're BUILT for. Blasters, Defenders and Controllers are not built as tough by default unless someone pumps into them and builds for self defense/toughness.

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But then an FF'er with slotted Dispersion Bubble, bubbles and Maneuvers can come very close to capping positional defense making it not as important to keep squishies clear of melee mobs.

Force Bubble has its uses, but you can keep teammates safe in other ways so is redundant in that regard.

I have it on my Elec/MM and I love it. It gives that extra bit of defense to let me survive untill all my attacks get off. The proc damage doesn't hurt either.

I have an AR/EM in the mid 40s and it is really fun to play.

Notes:

- You are perfectly fine on your power choices so far. No need to change. As a matter of fact, they mimic my power choices exactly.

- As someone else mentioned, Boost Range is your best friend. Lining up with Full Auto from way back and having the cone hit the entire mob is just too much fun. Add in Flame Thrower and Buckshot to taste.

- You will primarily be fighting at range. For that reason I did everything I could to get my ranged defense up there. I did it with 6-slotting my two ST attacks with Thunderstrikes, taking BOTH Hover and Combat Jumping and slotting them with Blessing of the Zephyr and taking both Flight and Super Jump and doing the same. This makes a BIG difference in survivability.

- I am not a fan of M30. It spreads the mobs out too much. Though if you are far enough back then it doesn't matter with cones. Still, I skip it. The knockback is too much of a pain. At least with Buckshot, you have control because it is directional rather than radial.

A couple nights ago I played a mission that, by far, was the most fun I've ever had in an MMORPG.

Setting the stage:

My duo partner and I were level 49. I am a pretty IO'd out Claws/Regen scrapper and he is a Plant/TA controller. For the most part, the last 10 levels have been a cake walk and, to tell the truth, somewhat boring due to the fact that there wasn't enough challenge.

That all changed the other night when we found a mission called the Mosh Pit. The description sounded interesting, that it was a tough freak mission and the mission objective was to survive. Dreck was the AV. We had one filler for the mission so it was set for three.

So we go in and the first group we see is about 20 Freak (actually a custom group that was identical to Freaks) Champion Slicers. I'm like... "I have a bad feeling about this." But we jump in anyway and start the attack. It's going "ok" when the ambush comes in. Now the two of us are up against close to 30 Freak Lts and things get tough. I hit IH to survive for a few seconds then my buddy goes down. I'm still hanging on, but eventually I go down too. I rez myself then hit MoG and start out again. Since I have the aggro, my buddy rezzes and we finish off the first spawn. Whew!

The rest of the mission contains a mixture of spawns (all Lts)with about half being just like that one. Since we expect the ambush now we manage to make it through with a minimal of deaths and fight the AV.

This was one of the most challenging and fun missions I've ever played so yesterday I log back in to play it with another character and... it's gone!

I can only assume that it was taken down as the equivalent of a boss farm, but it certainly wasn't that. This mission represented a challenge that we were unable to get anywhere else. It represented a fun factor that I hadn't experienced before.

Now this mission, and I assume any others like it, will be banned as inappropriate farms? What's the purpose of the MA if not to provide fun and challenge unattainable elsewhere in the game?

I'm very disappointed and hope that future missions won't be banned simply because they are different.

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This will not affect my playstyle in the slightest. I hit the button, the cloud appears, bad guys go flying. It works like this now, it will work like this after I14.

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This.

One thing that is interesting that I'm trying on my SS/ELA is putting one Force Feedback chance for +rech in each Haymaker, Punch, KO Blow, Footstomp and Hand Clap. It procs fairly often with the AoEs, which means the AoEs are coming back quicker which means there's more chance for a proc. Fun stuff.

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Anyone wish to update the Corrupter's Guides?

Ex

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Just uploaded my Updated Ice/Kinetics Guide

Patron Powers

The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a Patron Power pool is to get one with a hold in it to stack with Freeze Ray. Since they all have one it doesn't really matter which one you take. Well, not really, but close.
<ul type="square">
Leviathan Mastery:
The defensive power is Shark Skin which gives you resistance against smashing, lethal and cold. Not bad. The hold is standard. The first power, School of Sharks is a cone immobilize that does damage and requires that you and the target be near the ground. A pain if you take Hover, as I like to do. Additionally, it has the same annoyingly semi-long animation that Frost Breath does. I've honestly never taken this pool so can't comment beyond that.

Mace Mastery:
This is actually one of my top choices for an Ice/Kin. The tier 1 power, Web Envelope, is a single target immobilize that also slows recharge and is -fly. I like this because you can stack it with all your other -rech powers or spread them around to a few targets if you have one floored already. Web Cocoon, your hold, is likewise -rech. The shield is defense based rather than resistance based and gives you defense against Smashing, Lethal and Energy as well as resistance to toxic damage. All in all, I prefer defense on the a kineticist to resistance. Additionally, as I mention in the power sections above, you will likely be slotting Thunderstrikes in your three blasts and those have, you guessed it, energy defense as part of the set. This means that you can get up to just under 30% defense against energy attacks and that is quite impressive.

Mu Mastery:
This set has the bonus of having an additional endurance gainer/drainer in Power Sink. I've heard that if you fire off your nuke and immediately queue up this power then it will go off before your endurance drains from the nuke. I have not tested this, however. Do you need an additional endurance recovery power? I don't think so which is why I haven't taken this. The shield is resistance against Smashing, Lethal and Energy damage.

Soul Mastery:
The power that makes this set interesting is Soul Drain. It gives you additional damage and accuracy for each foe in range. However, the effect lasts for only 30 seconds and has a long recharge. Still, this gives you yet another +Dmg power in addition to Fulcrum Shift, which is interesting, but maybe overkill. The shield is resistance based and helps against Smashing, Lethal, Negative Energy and Toxic.[/list]

Power Pools:
There are a few power pools that I feel are important to the success of the build: Super Speed, Flight and Fitness.
<ul type="square">
Super Speed:
Super Speed is necessary for only one power: Hasten. With Enhancement Diversification, Hasten went from an must-have power on almost every build to one that is optional because it can no longer be made perma. Enter Kinetics. With stacked Siphon Speeds and some IO sets with +recharge you can get it permanent again. What a difference when this power is on!

Flight:
Flight? How can flight be important? There are a couple answers to that. The first is Air Superiority. This is, in my opinion, the best pool attack in the game. It has a fast activation time, does moderate damage, and knocks down enemies, making them unable to fly for a bit. Damage is its secondary function, what it's really good for is knocking down your enemies. As such I usually only slot it with two accuracies. It recharges fast enough that you can just about permanently keep an enemy on his butt. I've actually knocked down Monsters using this with my defender. The knockdown is very reliable and occurs on probably 80% or more of the hits on even mobs with no defense against such. This provides a significant amount of defense and early on provides your only solo boss killing ability. My favorite tactic in PvE with Air Superiority is to queue the attack, run by the mob while "speeded." By the time the attack fires, I'm out of melee range so can immediately followup with one or two ranged powers, speed away. Lather, rinse, repeat. This way you don't have to guage the melee distance or put yourself in much danger of receiving melee attacks. The second power in the flight pool that is nice is Hover. While on, Hover provides knockback protection (you just circle around in the air) and when you get Siphon Speed with Hover you get some pretty quick flight and great combat maneuverability. You can also potentially forego Hover and simply use Fly all the time for combat once you have Transference to keep your endurance bar up.

Fitness:
The Fitness pool goes without saying. Until you get Transference you suck endurance fast and Stamina is the only way you'll have fun prior to hitting level 35. Some people will respec out of Fitness powers after getting Transference. I find that even with Stamina and some IO sets with +recovery I will run out of endurance on a missed Transference or two while soloing. I recommend playing with this on the test server to determine if you need to keep Stamina or not. If you decide to respec out of Fitness then you can open up access to another power pool or to take some of the powers you skipped in your primary or secondary power sets. It is very nice not to have Stamina and be able to take those powers. It is up to you as to whether you can do without it.

Leaping:
Why take this if you've got IR for movement and Hover for knockback? This pool is viable enough for a Kineticist that I based a PvE build on it and is the most viable for PvP. Why? The main reason to go this route is to pick up Acrobatics. It is better than Hover at protection because, in addition to knockback protection, it also grants some mez resistance and isn't affected by those prevalent -fly powers. A second reason is Combat Jumping. I REALLY like Combat Jumping. Why? You will be literally zipping around combat with Siphon Speed and you will inevitably need to jump while "speeded." With no mid-air control you can end up falling off walls, in the middle of other mobs, etc. Combat Jumping allows you to mitigate those unwanted control aspects associated with a super speed that you can't turn off. So in effect you can trade Hover or Flight for Combat Jumping, IR for Super Jump and then just need to find one slot for Acrobatics. You could potentially do this without giving up Stamina. This is not a bad way to go PvE and probably the best way to go PvP.

Fighting:
Tough and Weave can provide some level of defense, but then you also have to take Boxing, which I feel is somewhat of a throw away power since you already have plenty of attacks. I'm not sure the minimal level of defense provided by Tough and Weave is enough to warrant taking three powers.

Leadership:
This is not a bad way to go with a host of good powers. Tactics and Maneuvers are probably the two to take here, I never really thought that the unenhanceable 10% damage boost that Assault provides was worth it. Tactics helps see stealthy characters and the extra accuracy boost synergizes well with all the kinetics powers that have to hit to work. The only thing to consider with this set is that if you're dropping the Fitness line and picking up these fairly expensive toggles, you may start to have endurance issues.

Concealment:
The one power that is nice in this is Stealth. Combine that with one of the +Stealth IOs in a movement set and you're invisible. This can help mitigate aggro against you and thus damage.

Manipulation/Presence:
Believe it or not, this can potentially be of benefit. Intimidate and Invoke Panic, both being fear effects, will help your defense. The only thing is that you have to take a throw away power in Challenge or Provoke to get these. I've never gone this route myself, but hear it can be interesting. The thing to consider is that the Pool Power fear effects are relatively low magnitude so multiple applications will be necessary to fear bosses.

Teleportation
I don't see this synergizing well with Kinetics. You've already got a plethora of movement powers and Teleportation provides little other benefit.[/list]
Builds - Or - So Many Powers, So Few Slots

There are a few different routes you can go with as far as travel powers, optional powers and patron pools are concerned, but after a lot of playing around with respecs, different powers, etc., I've found that the travel-power-less Ice/Kin gives you the most options. With this build, you can forego taking a travel power and its pre-requisite at 14 and instead use a combination of Siphon Speed, IR and temporary travel powers to get around. This allows you to take both Ice Storm and Bitter Ice Blast as soon as they are available at 12 and 18 instead of in the mid-20s and that makes a big difference, especially when you use the Tempered Readiness IO set that gives you +recovery. This can give you an additional 3% recovery bonus by level 19 and that actually does help. You can use a combination of Siphon Speed and the three temporary travel powers you get from Mayhem missions and story arcs to get you through to getting IR (if you use the temporary powers sparingly).

Below are the power choices and the levels to take them where they make the most sense to me.

1) Transfusion
1) Ice Bolt or Ice Blast
2) Ice Blast or Ice Bolt (whichever you didn't choose at level 1)
4) Your first real choice to make - Frost Breath, Siphon Power or, if you can manage it effectively, Repel.
6) Swift (to get the extra Hover speed)
8) Freeze Ray
10) Siphon Power
12) Ice Storm
14) Health
16) Hasten
18) Bitter Ice Blast
20) Stamina or Speed Boost
22) Speed Boost or Stamina (whichever you didn't choose at level 20)
24) Hover
26) Aim
28) Inertial Reduction
30) Your second real choice to make - one of the powers you didn't take at level 4, Bitter Ice Blast or Air Superiority.
32) Blizzard
35) Transference
38) Fulcrum Shift
41) Patron Power Defense Power
44) Patron Power Hold
47) Whatever you want
49) Whatever you want


Conclusion:

Ice/Kin is a wonderfully fun combo to play. It is super-fast, can spam out attacks like nobody's business and keeps your teammates happy as clams with Speed Boost, Siphon Power, Transference and Fulcrum Shift. The primary and secondary carry good synergies with each other and those synergies help make this kinetics character more survivable than most, while at the same time allowing it to dish out massive amounts of damage. This character type is not for all players, however. It takes some getting used to, some skill in moving around combat at high speed and patience to deal with the relatively high number of deaths that inevitably happen. It is highly versatile and takes a creative player to use it to its maximum effectiveness. If you are someone who likes to get into combat and keep launching a few attacks, then this is not for you. If you are someone who is always thinking on their feet, coming up with new and different ways to overcome hurdles, then a Kineticist may be just what you're looking for.

Thanks to Major_Rosha, Micro, AmpolirosFury, sardan, SuperAnt and karaza for their input to the guide.

Secondary Powerset: Kinetics

As mentioned above Kinetics is one of the most fun sets to play, but has limited traditional defense and that can make it frustrating. It can dramatically speed up a group with Speed Boost and has the distinctions of being:<ul type="square">[*]One of the few powersets that can keep Hasten close to perma.[*]The only powerset that has unsurpressable travel powers. [*]The only powerset that has built in travel powers, reducing/eliminating the need for traditional travel powers.[*]The only powerset that has an endurance "heal" for other players. A lot of other powers boost recovery or "heals" your own (e.g. Combustion, Dark Consumption), but only Transference "heals" both yours and your teammates. This is a big deal for supporting ATs firing off powers that drain all their endurance and suppress recovery for a while. This also means that Blizzard becomes less of a situational power.


More Key Elements of the Set:

Get Up Close and Personal
Some of your powers target off of enemy mobs (Tranfusion, Transference) which means you need to be close to them to get the affect. Additionally, other powers center on you (Siphon Power, Fulcrum Shift) and benefit team members near you so to help melee types you need to be in the thick of things too. You will be up close and personal with the enemy, plan on it.

Education is Key
Kineticists are not the most common characters out there and the powerset is different than most traditional sets. Additionally, some powers (Transference and Transfusion) can be tricky to fire off effectively in some cases and have some quirks associated with them. I always ask team members if they have worked with a kineticist before and if not I fire off some binds that explain things.

Brutes are Your Friend
Really any melee type is. They are right in the middle of where you are firing off Transference and Transfusion and when they have Speed Boost on them, they can run from fight to fight, keeping Fury up and not worrying about endurance.

Blasting vs. "Creative Kineticizing"
If you're playing on a decent sized team, you will likely be firing off more Kinetics powers than blasts. The Kineticist has to be creative in their combat thinking and be able to adapt to a lot of different situations. Do you blast the boss or debuff him with Siphon Speed/Power? Do you heal that enduranceless Brute, throw in Transference or drop in Blizzard? Keep those Speed Boosts up, toss in Increase Density on that held teammate, zip up and throw an Air Superiority on the boss to knock him on his butt. Every battle will present you with a host of options and it's up to you to choose the right combo.

Travel Powers
You can easily get by without choosing a formal travel power by using Siphon Speed (and temporary travel powers) and later Inertial Reduction to get around. Before IR, don't expect to be traveling as fast on Siphon Speed as your teammates. Misses happen and sometimes you just can't find an appropriate mob to siphon from. This is where the temporary travel powers are key (jet packs and the like). Inertial Reduction works fine as a travel power, but doesn't come until level 28. If you can last until then using only Siphon Speed and the temporaries, then you're ahead of the game. You can also get a travel power relatively early on and respec out later. Why would you take IR instead of a travel power? Isn't a travel power a power? Can't you just take a travel power at 14 and be done with it? The big difference is that IR and Siphon Speed are not suppressed when you attack. IR also can be applied to your group, meaning that all of you have unsurpressed travel. IR was novel pre-PvP, but can give your team a very nice advantage in PvP. Siphon Speed is a great power except that it has to hit an enemy to get the benefit. This really sucks if you miss. However, it works on flight as well as foot travel. This means you can take two powers (Siphon Speed and Hover) and while you have Siphon Speed active you have unsuppressable super speed and flight - flight at hover endurance cost and control! I LOVE using Siphon Speed-enhanced hover as my combat movement. It adds to your defense both from the power (Hover adds defense) and from the fact that you can stay just above melee range (but still in Transfusion/Transference range).

Here is an answer to a question that someone posted about unsuppressable travel powers:

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Can someone explain how Inertial Reduction works? I don't understand the part about it being "unsuppressed while attacking".

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First, let's review Super Jump, the closest related travel power and its toggled brother and sister, Super Speed and Fly.


Super Jump, like Fly and Super Speed, is a toggle movement power. This means you either have it on and it's drawing endurance, or it's off and it doesn't work. Early on in the PvP development cycle, the Devs realized that PvP fights would simply degrade into "joust fests" where players went zipping by with their travel powers on, getting in the odd hit here or there. That is certainly not what they intended for PvP. So what they did was institute "suppression." What this does is effectively deactivate your travel power for a few seconds after you attack something.

Now let's talk Inertial Reduction, and while we're at it, Siphon Speed. Both of these are movement powers, but not "travel" powers in the truest sense of the term. Inertial Reduction is a click power instead of a toggle like other travel powers, meaning when you "click" the icon it executes for its duration of 3 minutes. Siphon Speed is an attack that has to hit. Once either of these is fired off (and hits for Siphon Speed) you cannot turn it off until its duration expires. What's nice about this is that because it can't be turned off, it doesn't get affected by suppression either. This means you can zip around at full speed (or jump), firing off attacks at will while your opponents are stuck for a few seconds after they attack you.

I used to fly online flight sims a lot and taught a number of online classes on combat tactics in flight sims. There is a saying in air combat, "speed is life." That saying holds true here too. Kinetics gives you a type of speed that no other powerset can match.


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The Powers - Kinetics:

Transfusion
The power you must take and luckily a very good one. It is arguably the best AoE heal in the game. It fires quickly and targets an enemy. Upon a hit it will heal any allies near the target (including you) and slightly reduce the enemy's endurance and ability to regenerate health. Sound good? The problem is that it has some quirks. The following is an excerpt from the bind I use to educate my team when I play kinetics:

- I'm not a healer, but I _can_ heal.
- My heals target off of an enemy.
- I have to hit the enemy to get the heal. Misses are possible and when I miss we won't get healed.
- If the enemy moves, gets killed or knocked back out of range during the animation then we won't get healed.
- If YOU move, get killed or knocked back out of range during the animation then you won't get healed.
- If I get killed during the animation then you won't get healed - keep me alive
- If you need a heal and run away, you will probably be running outside the healing radius and thus probably won't get healed (see above).

The -regen this provides helps in AV/Hero fights. By spamming it on the AV/Hero you help slow their massive regen and that makes the fight go more quickly (in addition to healing your teammates in melee range of the target). The base accuracy is higher than other powers at 90%, which is nice when you really need a heal to hit. And you will... often.
When to Take: You have to take it at level 1
How Often Used: Based on toughness of baddies
Standard Slotting: 2 accuracies and as many heals as you can spare. Some people advocare recharges instead of heals because you will get it back faster and thus fire it off more. I don't like this approach because you use more endurance and have to spend the time firing off more powers. I'd rather throw it out less, attack more and get the same relative amount of healing.
IO Slotting: Unfortunately since this needs accuracies so you can't really slot a Doctored Wounds set for the +rech. Heal sets do not have accuracy components and it takes 5 out of the DW set to get recharge. Limiting accuracy to one IO is borderline. I use two base accuracy IOs and I like working in a couple Numinas Convalescence to get the +12% regen bonus, if you can afford them.

Siphon Power:
This is an interesting power. When you hit an enemy, it debuffs their damage by 20% and buffs you and any allies near you by 20%. Early on, the damage buff to you is quite noticeable. Later on, when you get IOs/SOs in damage slotted up, it becomes less so, but still good. It is an excellent damage mitigator when fighting lone bosses, but doesn't help much against larger groups. You can routinely stack 2-3 if you're diligent. One of the negative issues of this power _can be_ the relatively high endurance cost (10) for what you get. If you're on a team of eight (and maybe more with MMs!) then 10 endurance is a bargain for what you get in the way of increased damage for your team. If you're solo, it's not. Pre-stamina the 10 endurance hurts and I find that when I solo I simply can't afford the endurance to fire this power off on a regular basis. By the time you get Stamina, this power starts to lose some of its relative strength as damage SOs overshadow its buffing ability. Additionally, the activation time is slightly high at about 2 seconds. Not horrid, but slow by kinetics standards. It is a very good pulling power as it does not seem to draw as much aggro as an attack would. This will likely be the power you take at level four. Your choice at that point is between this and Frost Breath. If you tend to team at all then take this. If you are strictly a solo character then you may want to consider Frost Breath. I primarily solo and still took this. Pre-stamina I couldn't work it in to many battles because the endurance cost didn't justify it. Later I use it more, especially when there is a single mob left, held helpless by Freeze Ray. I just use him as a battery for Transfusion, Transference, Siphon Power and Siphon Speed before killing him off
When to Take: Level 4
How Often Used: Most battles, sometimes multiple times per battle
Standard Slotting: Don't put too many slots in this. It doesn't need it. 1-2 acc, possibly a few recharges if you really want to concentrate on it, I don't.
IO Slotting I've got a single Accuracy IO in it.

Repel:
Some people swear by this, others hate it. It is a field that surrounds you that sends enemies flying. Each enemy costs endurance. For most kinetics powers, where you want to be up close and personal, this is counter productive. Where it can come into play is in PvP for keeping enemy melee types off of you. Personnally, I don't like it, but then I've never tried it in PvP either. I did make a Kin/Energy Defender once called the Blue Bowler who siphoned speed and ran down streets with Repel on, throwing enemies all over the place. The novelty wore off quickly.

Since I don't have any real practical experience with this power, I asked Major_Rosha, who responded to my first draft of the guide, to do a write up:

[ QUOTE ]
Some people swear by this, others hate it. It is a field that surrounds you that sends enemies flying. Each enemy costs endurance. If you are going to solo, I find this power greatly adds to my survivability. The radius on it isn't such that you have trouble remaining in range of your Transference/Transference, just that you won't be able to stand right next to the mob when you do it. With practice, it gets easier. The wonderful thing about this power ... it works very well with Siphon Speed! If you drop a patch and you have mobs running out of it, zip around and knock them back into it easy. It also keeps other mobs from getting multiple melee attacks on you if you are busy concentrating on some other mob. Using walls or other geometry, you can keep mobs pinned down by just moving into range to knock them up again if they start getting back up before you have finished them. Given the Ice component of this guide, I think it could complement it pretty nicely. With a Siphon Speed buff on, target your mob, queue up BIB and rush the mob. Stop right at it and hit BFR to queue it up. Right as you stop, 2 things should happen. The BIB you had queued will fire, and the mob will be sent flying back due to repel ... and since you hit BFR while the mob was in range, it will fire off as the mob begins getting up.
When to Take: Later in a build when you can dedicate 3 slots to add Endurance Reduction SOs. If you take it early, it is still useful as an emergency power.
Slotting: 3 End Redux SO's make it pretty manageable and easy to maintain, even when repelling multiple mobs. However, you need to watch your End if you are repelling a mob trapped against geometry!
Repel in action, http://www.captrosha.com/repel2.wmv


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IO Slotting: I haven't used this power post-I11 and may respec into it just to play around. Of note is the effectiveness of the Kinetic Crash IO set from which four of the set give you knockback protection, five gives you +6% regen and six gives you +7.5% recharge. The only thing is that every enhancement in the set has a knockback component. Slotting even four of them will send most mobs a significant distance so I don't know how realistic slotting six would be.

Siphon Speed:
One of my favorite powers. It used to only debuff speed (dramatically) and as such it was a novelty. Now it also slows enemy recharge and boosts your own by 20% (or 16%). Given enough applicable targets, you can routinely stack three of these when Hasten is on. Because of this, you can come close perma-Hasten much more easily (and less expensively) via IOs to dramatically improve your recharge rate. It will significantly boost your movement speed (foot and flying) and is not suppressable, which is excellent. Of note, however, is that once you siphon someone's speed, you can't turn it off. It takes some practice to keep your character under control while you zip around.
When to Take: As soon as it's available at level 10.
How Often Used: Multiple Times per Battle
Standard Slotting: Missing with this sucks - at least 2 acc, 3 recharge. Per AmpolirosFury, slotting a slow will increase your speed as well as the slow.
IO Slotting: Same as standard, but with base IOs instead of SOs. This power only takes slow sets, but you really don't need to slow it for slow. If you can spare an extra slot, you can slot it with two accuracy related Tempered Readiness to get the recovery bonus, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

Increase Density:
This power provides an 18% increase to smashing/energy damage resistance and gives knockback protection to teammates. It also provides some mez protection, will free a teammate that is mezzed when applied and will slow down the target (usually a negative). If you take this, take it only for the sleep/hold/disorient release properties or to help a Brute survive an alpha strike. The duration is far too short to apply it proactively (1 min) in normal situations. I don't like the power in PvE, but it has a nice component in PvP and that is resistance to Teleport Foe. The problem is that you can't hit yourself with it and once the enemy TP'er figures out what you're doing, guess who the next target will be
When to Take: If you take Stamina (and you want to take Stamina) you probably won't have any space until the early 20s at least - I usually skip this since many teammates will have some sort of mez protection by the time I'm ready to take it.
How Often Used: Too often
Standard and IO Slotting: Initial slot only, resistance.

Speed Boost:
One of the set's defining powers. It boosts the recharge rate, speed and endurance recovery of your teammates - one at a time. It has only a 2 minute duration which means you have to be diligent about keeping it applied which can be tough on large teams.This is the power that allows your team to jump from fight to fight without having to rest. It turns them into killing machines as their heavy hitting powers come back super quickly and endurance never runs out (er almost never). Even if you primarily solo, you MUST take this power. Be very careful, however, in how you apply this to Brutes. Once they experience the wonder that is Speed Boost they may go Deliverance on you. Banjo music and Brutes with a full fury bar, it isn't very pretty.

Now for a touchy subject... there are five letters that can really set some kineticists (and potentially other team members) off... SB Plz!

A lot of people don't like it when someone continually asks for SB when it drops. They see it as disrespectful, telling them how to play, etc. I'm not one of those people. As a matter of fact, I actually APPRECIATE when someone respectfully asks for it. Here's why:

- Your team is significantly more effective when SB is applied to everyone
- It is a daunting task in a fast running team (and most of your teams will be fast running teams) to keep SB up on everyone.
- I will sometimes get tunnel vision helping with a fight and won't notice when SB drops.

Since the team is more effective with it running and since anyone can miss it when it drops, I like it when someone reminds me... it helps keep the load off of me since I don't need to continually scan the overcrowded icon display of the team to see when it drops.

Whether you agree with this or not isn't going to dramatically affect you. What I do recommend is that you VERY CLEARLY STATE to the team what you want them to do when it drops. Either say, "Please don't ask for SB, I will keep it up on you as I am able." - OR - "When SB drops, don't bother to even type the 'Plz!' just type 'SB' and I'll get it up on you."

When to Take: Level 22 after Stamina or level 20 if you team a lot, are generous and can hold of on Stamina until 22.
How Often Used: All the time when teamed
Standard Slotting: It is great right out of the box, but End Mods are nice adds. I tend to keep it to the initial slot with an endurance recovery in it. I once got into a nice discussion with someone on the boards who insisted that Speed Boost needs additional Endurance Mods or it would cause recipients to run out of endurance too quickly due to their increased attack rate and actually be a detriment. I went through a fairly exhaustive proof to show that it is indeed NOT the case.
IO Slotting: You can either slot this or not. If not, then a single End Mod IO will work fine. If you slot it then you do have a nice IO set in Efficacy Adapter that gives every bonus, but the kitchen sink if you fill it with six of them. I wouldn't recommend this, because you will likely be "slot challenged," but it is an option.

Inertial Reduction:
A clickable travel power. You click it and you and your teammates close to you get an unsupressable Super Jump equivalent for three minutes. Some people don't like to use this as a travel power because when three minutes are up you fall like a rock and need to refire. I don't have a problem with it, especially because it isn't supressed on an attack and isn't a continuous endurance drain. I like to take a travel power prior to this power being available then respec out of it when IR comes along - provided I don't go the route of taking leaping/acrobatics - see below.
When to Take: Depends on your build. If you use it for a travel power, you can take it at level 28 and respec out of whatever travel power you took at 14.
How Often Used: As your travel power, used between most missions.
Standard and IO Slotting: 1 jump.

Transference:
A game changing power, Transference sucks endurance out of a target and gives it to any ally near the target (like Transfusion does for health). It carries the same quirks associated Transfusion so see the text associated with it above. In fights against Elite Bosses that last a while, you can use a combination of this and Transfusion to sap the boss's endurance. Get this power at 35 and love it.
When to Take: Level 35
How Often Used: Almost every fight
Standard Slotting: 2 accuracies are key, a combination of endurance recoveries and recharges to fill out six slots. I go with two of each.
IO Slotting: Eficacy Adapter is a nice add here because of the great set bonuses it gives. Alternately you can load up on the three Acc/EndMod/Rech from the sets that have them then throw in an acc/rech from one of those sets. That gives you a very nice combo of enhancement numbers for only four slots.

Fulcrum Shift:
Another game changing power and basically a Siphon Power for your target and each enemy around him. This means that if you fire this off against a group of 8 mobs you can have the equivalent of 8 siphon powers on you and anyone near you/the mobs. I'm not exactly sure of the mechanics involved, but basically you get one icon that is slightly better than the standard. Regardless, this dramatically increases both yours and nearby team members' damage. The ability to get your entire team close to the damage cap is a very nice thing. This power works best when both you and the allies who want its benefits are close to the mob. I usually let the Brute(s) run in to get aggro then I follow in and fire off FS. Be sure to tell your ranged friends to follow you in to get the benefit.
When to Take: Level 38
How Often Used: Almost every fight. It might not be up for each depending on how quickly you move from group to group.
Standard and IO Slotting: 2 accuracies and as many recharges as you can get into it.


Kinetics Summary:

Kinetics is an incredibly fun and fast powerset to play (at least after you get Stamina) and has the capability to take your team to new heights. The problem is that you need defense to keep it fun. Ice provides defense and a whole host of other synergistic pairings with Kinetics. The fast activating powers, holds, rains, etc. all combine with IO bonuses to make this one of the most viable Kinetics combos to play. [/list]

Ice Blast/Kinetics Corrupter Guide - The Search for Synergy - Release 2

This is the second release of my previous Ice/Kinetics guide - The Search for Synergy. With the advent of Invention Origin enhancements (IOs) this archtype combo has reaped some huge benefits that dramatically affect gameplay. To fully experience the use of IOs throughout the development of this type of character, I re-rolled an Ice/Kin and brought him up from level 1, getting IOs as it made sense along the way. The character is currently level 39 and, while I had intended to take him to 50 before writing the guide, I believe I've gotten enough experience through 39 to write a knowledgeable update to my guide. Also, I've taken references to PvP out of the guide. I haven't PvP'd with this character so don't want to comment on it.

The purpose of this guide is to help the reader understand what makes a survivable kineticist. Kinetics is fun. Kinetics is fast. Kinetics is a total blast to play. Kinetics, however, comes with a price and that price is defense. To build a viable kineticist you need to find a complimentary powerset that helps you survive. This guide is as much or more about Kinetics, the "secondary" powerset and finding a good defensive-oriented compliment to it as it is about the primary, Ice Blast.

NOTE: While this guide has been written for the Ice/Kin corrupter, everything in it applies to the Kin/Ice defender as well, with the exception that defenders get a little more ummph out of their kinetics powers.


My Early Experience with Kinetics

My first serious character in CoH was a Kin/Rad defender. What an absolute blast! Super fast attacks, zipping around with Siphon Speed, sucking the endurance out of bosses so all they can do it meekly paw at you. This was, by far, the most fun I've had in the game... until I hit about level 30. It was that time that I found myself dieing... a lot, primarily to mezzes and the like. I tried respeccing into Tough and Weave (pre-nerf). It helped a little, but not much. I added Acrobatics. It helped a little, but not much. The key problem is that Kinetics has virtually no true defense and of the powers it does have that provide defense as a secondary effect (siphon power, siphon speed, fulcrum shift), all but fulcrum shift are single target and none provide an overwhelming amount of damage mitigation. So the end result is that when you get up to the higher levels, the amount of burst damage you tend to receive overwhelms your ability to mitigate it. You die. On top of that, you have little to no status protection available to you. Status effects (sleep, disorient, holds, etc.) are extremely dangerous to you.

So you've got this incredibly fun set in Kinetics that becomes less and less viable as you get into the higher levels and the more cool powers. How do you overcome this? You have to get some defense using a combination of primary set powers and pool powers. Before we talk more about defense and survivability, let's talk about some basic principles of kineticists in general:
<ul type="square">
Speed is What You're All About
Everyone says that kineticists are fast, and they're right. They've got these great powers that help both themselves (Siphon Speed) and teammates (Speed Boost) move around and attack much more quickly. Most importantly, Kinetics dramatically helps you get Hasten close to perma. So not only do the powers themselves speed things up, but they make the only other +rchg power in the game (Hasten) capable of being on nearly all the time, which speeds everything up as well. With Hasten up and a few recharge enhancements, you can easily stack 2-3 Siphon Speeds if you even moderately think about it. Each application gives you a 20% recharge bonus. Add two or three to Hasten and you've got powers coming back seriously fast. I'll be talking about this later in the guide, but if you haven't figured it out yet you want to take Hasten.

Quick Attacks are Key
Because you are recharging so fast with Hasten and Siphon Speeds running, you can get more attacks off. Simple, right? What's not so simple is figuring in animation times. As a kineticist, because your powers recharge so much more quickly, your damage rate starts to become more defined by animation times than by recharge times. While you are firing off an Bitter Freeze Ray, for example, with its four second animation time, you've got other attack powers fully recharged waiting in your power bar ready to be used and that's not efficient. I find that anything with higher than a 1.5 second animation is annoying and greater than 2-2.5 seconds is detrimental. It simply slows you down too much.

You Chow Down on Endurance
With Hasten and Siphon Speeds running and all these attacks being spammed out, you eat a TON of endurance. Add to this the low activation times of the Ice Blast powers and other kinetics powers - which means you can throw more powers out there - and you will most likely end up being the premier non-toggle endurance eater in the game... not a great distinction! You've got to take extreme steps pre-stamina to manage your endurance and post stamina you still need management or help until you get Transference. Luckily IO sets help with this.

Defense? What's Defense?
I mentioned this above and mention it again here for emphasis. The Kinetics powerset has very limited damage mitigation ability. It simply is not as survivable as other secondaries. Again, the primary purpose of this guide is to help you survive and find ways of getting some level of defense. Like the endurance issues, IO sets help you with this. [/list]
The Power Sets:

So you want to play a kineticist, you've heard how you need defense, and you know you need to pick a primary powerset that offers some level of damage mitigation. How do the primaries rate defensively as sets that synergize with kinetics?
<ul type="square">Sonic:
Good: With a cone sleep and single target disorient, you get some nice control, which helps your defense. Additionally, the -res component of its blasts synergizes nicely with the damage raising components of the kinetics set.
Bad: Secondary effect (-res) is offensive in nature so doesn't help defense.

Dark:
Good: Secondary effect of powers is -acc which is a nice defensive boost. Ranged AoE Disorient (minions only) and Cone Immobilization.
Bad: Not a heavy hitting set as far as damage is concerned, no tier 3 blast and attacks are a bit slow for a kineticist.

Rad:
Good: Rad secondary effect is -def which helps your kinetics powers hit.
Bad: Only "defensive" power is Cosmic Burst which disorients - a nice power, but only one.

Fire:
Good: Rain power provides some defense.
Bad: No defensive secondary abilities.

Energy:
Good: Does knockback as a secondary effect which is a nice defense as you keep enemies on the ground.
Bad: Does knockback as a secondary effect which doesn't always synergize well with kinetics.

Assault Rifle:
Good: Limited, some knockback, disorient and "rain"
Bad: Knockback = bad for kinetics and relatively slow animations. When the tier 1 and tier 2 blasts from all the sets had their times normalized, Assault Rifle seems to have gotten the shaft, being the only blasting set affected by redraw.

Electric:
Good: A hold and endurance drain can provide some defensive boosts
Bad: No tier 3 power.


So that leaves us with Ice Blast...[/list]
Primary Powerset: Ice Blast

Ice Blast is a unique blasting set. It differs from most other sets in a number of ways:<ul type="square">[*]Secondary Effect (-recharge, -spd)[*]No Sniping Power [*]Fast Activation Times[*]Damage Type[*]It has Holds[*]Two "Rain" Powers That Also Slow


Secondary Effect:
Ice's secondary effect is to slow both the movement and attack speed of your opponent(s). Obviously if your opponents are sending fewer attacks then you are taking less damage. This is nice when you don't have much defense.


No Sniping Power:
Ice has no sniping power. While many consider this a bad thing, I believe it helps. Remember that speed thing and how animation times affect it? Sniping powers have looooonnnnggg animation times. This doesn't mesh well with Kinetics and you won't want to use it in the middle of combat because of this. This leaves using it as a first attack or a shoot/run power. I'd rather have attacks I'm using all the time. Sniping powers have their uses, but I've never liked them and since there isn't one in the Ice set, it means you've got an extra power available. This is good.


Activation Times:
With the exception of Bitter Ice Blast (BIB) and to some extent Frost Breath, the powers in the set activate quickly, which is good for kineticists.


Damage:
On paper, Ice is on par with many other sets (A/R, Dark, Energy and Sonic). Cold damage, however, is one of the least resisted damage sets in the game. So while other sets may advertise similar damage, in reality Ice will beat most out in a fair number of fights. As mentioned above, fast activating powers synergize very well with Kinetics. Ice, combines good activation times with high damage, a very nice combo for a kineticist.


Holds:
Holds, me likee. Ice has two of them. Remember that whole defense discussion earlier on? Holds mean less targets attacking you which means less incoming damage which means greater survivability. Now everything isn't peas and gravy with this. The second hold, Bitter Freeze Ray (BFR) has a long animation time and neither is really viable out of the box. They both need hold durations to be effective and, unlike their controller counterparts, they don't get an accuracy bonus so plan on devoting a lot of slots to these. Freeze Ray both animates (1 second) and recharges fairly quickly and has a 9.54 second base duration which, after slotting and recharge boosts, allows you to stack it quickly on bosses. Compare that with the only other set to get a hold pre-patron powers (Electric) that has a 2.17 second animation time and an 8 second duration.


Slowing "Rain" Powers:
Ice has two of them, Ice Storm and Blizzard. Why are these good with kinetics? These powers make mobs run. When mobs are running they aren't attacking. This translates into increased survivability and survivability = good. It's not that mobs will forget about attacking while within this power, but they will attack less. If you throw some slow enhancements in and toss a Siphon Speed on top of it, your enemy isn't going anywhere fast.

So after reading the above, I hope you agree that Ice is arguably the best pairing with /Kin.


Key Strategies:

Before we get into each power, I wanted to write about key strategies with Ice/Kin and IO sets.

Key Strategy - +recovery IO Sets:
You will be taking your three primary ice blasts; Ice Bolt, Ice Blast and Bitter Ice Blast. After level 27 you can start slotting some good IO sets in them. Pre-Transference in each I went with two Tempered Readiness out of the Slow sets (Acc/Slow and Acc/Dam/Slow). These inexpensive IOs get you some nice damage and accuracy in addition to the set bonus of +1.5% recovery. I also went with four Thunderstrikes in each. I like the Thunderstrike set because it gives the best price/performance of all the ranged damage sets (though the price and availability is starting to catch up with the likes of Devastation). Four of them in a power get you +2% recovery, +2.5% energy defense and +7% Accuracy. Put four in each of your three blasts and you get +6% recovery, +7.5% energy defense and +21% accuracy. Throw in another 4.5% recovery from the slow sets and you've got a +10.5% recovery bonus from those three powers. I also slotted Temepered Readiness into Ice Storm along with two of the lower priced Positron's Blast. That gives you another 4% recovery for a total of +14.5% in the early 20s. That's nice!. This is the first key strategy: slotting +recovery IO sets into sets that can take them. Don't put them into Siphon Speed, however. The sets don't mesh well with it.

Key Strategy - Devastation Chance to Hold IOs:
After Transference I kept the Thunderstrikes, but traded out the Tempered Readiness for two Devastations, including the chance to hold proc. I also put a chance to hold into Freeze Ray. Each of these procs gives you a 20% chance of holding an opponent for 5 seconds. This means that in the first 5 seconds of a fight, if you shoot off Freeze ray followed by your three blasts, you have roughly a 60% chance (assuming all attacks hit) of holding a boss before you shoot off your second recharged Freeze Ray. Additionally, you get lots of free holds going around against minions and LTs during any given fight and this reduces the number of incoming attacks. On top of the hold chance, the set bonuses give you a total of +40% regeneration. The only down side to this strategy is that the chance to hold IOs can get quite expensive. Be ready to wait a while for one to come up and be ready to pay a pretty penny for them. They are worth it, though.

Key Strategy - Your "Free Power" Levels:
I believe that prior to level 41 and patron powers there are only two levels at which you actually have a choice of powers to take that won't dramatically affect your build. What I mean by this is that I believe the following powers are all critical: Your three primary blasts, Ice Storm, Blizzard, Freeze Ray, Hasten, Two Movement Powers, Siphon Speed, Stamina, Aim, Transference, Fulcrum Shift and Transfusion (which you have to take anyway). All this means that through level 38 you only have two additional powers you can take! One of these choices has to be made at level 4 and your only choices there are Repel, Siphon Power or Frost Breath. The second level you actually have a choice at is level 30. You could actually do this earlier, but then you'd be pushing a critical power out in favor of a non-critical power. I've played around with Frost Breath, Air Superiority, Bitter Freeze Ray, Increase Density and Acrobatics there. Personally, I like Air Superiority the best. It allows me to knock down troublesome mobs that get close. BFR and Frost Breath root you too long (which can kill you), Increase Density is too tough to keep up and I ended up using Hover for knockback protection (I use Hover and Inertial Reduction as my two Movement Powers). If you don't take Hover as one of your movement powers then Acrobatics in this spot is recommended.


The Powers - Ice Blast:

Ice Bolt:
The lower damage of the two first powers and one of your staples. It is a single target blast that recharges fairly quickly (4 seconds base), has a quick animation and does decent damage. Take it and slot it up. You will end up using this power more often to finish mobs off with your Scourge. Corrupters benefit from lower damage powers more in that they get to use the maximum sourge damage more often than higher damage powers. This will be, without a doubt, your most used power. It is a cold/smashing damage combo.
When to Take: Early, either level 1 or level 2.
How Often Used: Multiple Times per Fight
Standard Slotting: 1 or 2 Accuracies, 3 damage.
IO Slotting (Early Levels): As mentioned above, as soon as you can, get a Tempered Readiness Acc/Damage/Slow and Acc/Slow into this power. Fill in the rest of the slots with as many lower level ranged damage IO sets in appropriate categories as it makes sense to do. I like Salvo with its Acc/Dam/End/Range and Volley Fire where two get you +4% regen. None of these IO sets (including Tempered Readiness) will break the bank to produce.
IO Slotting (Later Levels): Again, as mentioned above, I like two Tempered Readiness (Acc/Slow and Acc/Dam/Slow) and four Thunderstrikes pre-Transference, replacing the Slow IOs with Devastations, including the chance to hold proc, post-Transference.


Ice Blast:
The second of your single target blasts and another of the staples. It is basically a double-"ish" version of Ice Bolt. Slightly less than double damage and double endurance cost and exactly double recharge time. It does have a very similar (~1 sec) activation time. It is a cold/smashing damage combo.
When to Take: Same as Ice Bolt, either level 1 or level 2.
How Often Used: Multiple Times per Fight
Standard Slotting: 1 or 2 Accuracies, 3 damage.
IO Slotting: Same as Ice Bolt


Frost Breath:
Your first AoE (Cone) attack and one I recommend you skip. There is a lot of discussion about whether to take this or not. Some other builds may be able fit this in, I could never get it into a kinetics build, but have put it in others and use it often (Tar Patch - Ice Storm - position yourself - Frost Breath). It isn't a bad attack, doing decent damage, having a moderate activation (a little long for a kineticist at 2.7 seconds) and a +20% accuracy bonus. Basically it comes down to this; at level four you have the choice between this and Siphon Power. Are you going to team at all? If the answer is yes than the slot is better spent on Siphon Power. If you are strictly a solo character then there can be an argument for taking this power.
When to Take: Either at level 4 or level 30.
How Often Used: Once or Twice per Fight
Standard Slotting: 1 or 2 Accuracies, 3 damage, 1 range.
IO Slotting: The nice thing about taking this power is that it gives you another place early on to put two Tempered Readiness for an extra 1.5% recovery and at least a couple Positron's Blast for another 2.5%.


Aim:
If you're going to do a lot of PvP then this is a must-have for a kineticist. You are going to rely on a lot of things hitting and nothing is worse than going up against a defensive oriented character and whiffing on something like Siphon Speed. Aim helps solve that by providing a big boost to accuracy (+100%) and a moderate boost to damage (+62.5%) for about 10 seconds. In PvE it is nice to make sure that Siphon Speed hits, or before shooting off Ice Storm for the extra damage.
When to Take: Leave it for into the 20s.
How Often Used: Less than once per fight
Standard Slotting: If you have slots to spare, recharge reductions are good. If you're going to PvP then some To-Hit Buffs are handy for fighting highly defensive characters.
IO Slotting: If you can spare the slots then Adjusted Targetting is very nice here. Two get you a 2% damage boost, four a 9% accuracy bonus, five a 5% recharge bonus and six a 7.5% mez resistance. Not a bad set at all. The alternative (Gaussian's) isn't bad, but not as nice, IMO.


Freeze Ray:
Your first hold. Not a bad thing to have, but its duration is pitifully short out of the box at about 9 seconds against even cons. Its recharge time, at 10 seconds unaided by Hasten or Siphon Speed, is not bad, but since it is longer than its base hold duration, you can't perma-hold anything or hold bosses at all until you get hold duration enhancements in it and/or have Hasten and Siphon Speed running. I find that it really isn't worth firing off much until you slot it with a couple Hold Durations (DO level at least). Unlike its controller/dominator counterparts, it does not get an accuracy bonus or do significant damage and it also has a slightly shorter range than most other powers. Sound like I don't like the power? Quite the contrary. This power is a cornerstone of your build and THE power that gives you the most defense. It has a very low endurance cost and activation time (1 sec) and recharges fairly quickly (about 5-6 seconds with Siphon Speed and Hasten up). This, combined with the hold procs in your blasts, means you are locking down a lot of enemies. This is a must-take power.
When to Take: Available at level 8, I took it early because most of the alternatives available could wait. Just don't plan on using it too much until you get DOs.
How Often Used: Multiple times per fight
Standard Slotting: 3 hold durations and at least 2 accuracies are a must. A recharge is nice as a sixth slot.
IO Slotting: As soon as you can, get hold IO sets into this. You need as much recharge, hold and accuracy as you can get and the IO sets maximize this. I mix and match from the IO sets as cost and availability dictate. The set bonuses from the hold sets aren't worth much anyway. As soon as you can afford a Devastaton chance to hold IO, pop it in so have a chance to hold a boss on the first shot.

Ice Storm:
Your first "rain" power, Ice Storm drops a large area DoT (Damage Over Time), slows any enemies inside and forces mobs to flee. This is a nice thing for a Kineticist in PvE because while they're running they're not attacking! The slow is nice too, especially when you throw a Siphon Speed on top of it. Some people use this as a damage power, but kineticists should use some slots for control/fear/defense. It gets buffed by Aim, Siphon Power and Fulcrum Shift which makes it nasty.
When to Take: If you don't go with a travel power, instead relying on temporary powers, Inertial Reduction and Siphon Speed, you can get this at 12.
How Often Used: Once per fight with large numbers of mobs - not use against smaller groups
Standard Slotting: 3 slows then a combination of recharge and accuracy if you can spare the slots. It should be noted that this power does not get an accuracy bonus and individual ticks can miss. If you're fighting high defense opponents, accuracies will be needed.
IO Slotting: Tempered Readiness is key early on for the slow and recovery bonus. Work in Positron's Blast as you can afford both the infamy and slots. Later you may consider just going with Posi's for the recharge bonus.

Bitter Ice Blast:
"Ohhhh, do you know how much that stings?!" High damage (close to 1.5 x Ice Blast), short activation (1 sec), moderately quick recharge (12 sec). This is one of the best of short range, high damage blaster attacks out there. It does more damage and has a shorter activation (by far) than any of them except Blaze (Fire) and also debuffs speed, recharge and accuracy! This is short range, but since you're up close and personal anyway, it doesn't matter.
When to Take: As soon as you can at/after 18.
How Often Used: Multiple Times per Fight
Standard Slotting: 1 or 2 Accuracies, 3 damage.
IO Slotting: Same as Ice Bolt, though the transition to the Devastation Chance to Hold proc is optional since it isn't getting fired off as much as the other blasts.

Bitter Freeze Ray:
As a second ice hold Bitter Freeze Ray (BFR) gives the ability to hold a boss by applying the 1-2 punch of BFR then FR. Unfortunately, it has a price. The activation time is slow to a kineticist (recently upgraded from 4 seconds to 2.5 seconds, but still long) so using it in the middle of combat could see the kineticist face planted before it activates. Many people skip this power altogether. It does have it's uses, however. One is to use it as an opening shot. If you throw a range enhancement in it you can toss it in out of range of the return strike then toss your Freeze Ray when he gets into range to hold him. This can be your level 30 power.
When to Take: Level 30
How Often Used: Only in boss fights
Standard Slotting: Like Freeze Ray, you need hold durations (3), and an accuracy or two. A range enhancer can be nice too.
IO Slotting: Similar to Freeze Ray, but without the need for recharge since you will only be using it to open a fight. Range enhancements work well too.

Blizzard:
Your second "rain" power and the apex power of the set. The difference with this one is that it also knocks down and debuffs accuracy which is more defense for the Kineticist. You're in heaven when you get this, right? Well it also drains you of all your endurance. Most other blaster-type apex powers are nukes (i.e. instant) meaning that if you're drained of endurance, it might not be so bad because all your enemies are likely dead. With Blizzard they are still alive and some that started on the periphery can possibly get out of the area and come back to kill you! Sound like a raw deal? Well for a kineticist it isn't quite so bad. Once you get Transference, you can throw blizzard (end drops to zero), pop a blue inspiration (endurance), fire off Transference to get endurance and be back in the game quickly. Not to mention if you precede/follow this with an Ice Storm then not much is getting out of the AoE.
When to Take: Level 32
How Often Used: Rarely. Only on big groups or as an "Oh $&amp;^%" power
Standard Slotting: 3 damages, 2 recharges and an accuracy.
IO Slotting: Posi's all the way.

Ice Blast Summary: Synergies with Kinetics
As mentioned above, Kinetics works well with fast activating powers and Ice is the fastest blast set out there. With Kinetics needing defense, Ice provides it in a number of ways. Ice has -rchg and -spd as a secondary effect which means less attacks coming back at you. The holds take enemies out of the fight for a time so mitigate damage somewhat. The rains have fear effects that get mobs running instead of shooting. All in all, a pretty good pairing for a Kinetics character.[/list]

[ QUOTE ]
Execellent guide!

I teamed with you last night, and you directed me to your guide. While I think I'm going to stick with my rad/kin corruptor, the /kin portion really helped me out!

[/ QUOTE ]

A lot of the concepts throughout this guide apply to many other sets. With Rad the keys are sticking to the fast attacks (I don't like Electron Haze and its 4 sec activation) and picking up an attack like Air Superiority to help your "defense" out a little.

[ QUOTE ]
I have a level 40 Ice/kin and agree with everything you posted . . except I'm not sold on IR for PvP.

Sure the unsuppressible aspect is nice, but I find that it frequently runs out just when you need is most -- sending you straight down and having to be grounded for the 2 second animation. If you are trying to run away to buy some time, you end up buying a burial plot instead.

But overall a great guide. Easy to read and lots of good information.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the comments. I'm not 100% sold on IR either, but it is viable provided you know when to get out of dodge to refire.

When I have it, I try to find a "quiet moment" to refire it soon after it recharges. Since you'll have some +rchg in the form of enhancement, Siphon Speed and/or Hasten the recharge timer acts as a good "you're close to running out" alarm.

With that said, it carries the same basic issue in PvP that it has when used as a travel power. It works great when you think about it, but do you really want to think about it?

The Ice/Kinetics Corrupter Guide - The Search for Synergy

Ice Blast/Kinetics Corrupter Guide - Looking for Synergy

This guide is being built to support the following, undeniable premise:

Kinetics is fun. Kinetics is fast. Kinetics is a total blast to play. Kinetics, however, comes with a price and that price is survivability. To build a viable kineticist you need to find a complimentary powerset that helps you survive. This guide is as much or more about Kinetics, the "secondary" powerset and finding a good defensive-oriented compliment to it as it is about the primary, Ice Blast.

My Early Experience with Kinetics

My first serious character in CoH was a Kin/Rad defender (Hijacker - who is now a Rad/Kin corrupter). What an absolute blast! Super fast attacks, zipping around with Siphon Speed, sucking the endurance out of bosses so all they can do it meekly paw at you. This was, by far, the most fun I've had in the game... until I hit about level 30. It was that time that I found myself dieing... a lot, primarily to mezzes and the like. I tried respeccing into Tough and Weave (pre-nerf). It helped a little, but not much. I added Acrobatics. It helped a little, but not much. The key problem is that Kinetics has virtually no true defense and of the powers it does have that provide defense as a secondary effect (siphon power, siphon speed, fulcrum shift), all but fulcrum shift are single target and none provide an overwhelming amount of damage mitigation. So the end result is that when you get up to the higher levels, the amount of burst damage you tend to receive overwhelms your ability to mitigate it. You die.

So you've got this incredibly fun set in Kinetics that becomes less and less viable as you get into the higher levels and the more cool powers. How do you overcome this? You have to get some defense using a combination of primary set powers and pool powers. Before we talk more about defense and survivability, let's talk about some basic principles of kineticists in general:
<ul type="square">
Speed is What You're All About
Everyone says that kineticists are fast, and they're right. They've got these great powers that help both themselves (Siphon Speed) and teammates (Speed Boost) move around and attack much more quickly. Most importantly, Kinetics is the only way that characters can make Hasten close to perma. So not only do the powers themselves speed things up, but they make the only other +rchg power in the game (Hasten) capable of being on nearly all the time, which speeds everything up as well. With Hasten up and a few recharge enhancements, you can easily stack 2-3 Siphon Speeds if you even moderately think about it. Pre-ED, I had four recharges slotted and could easily get three stacked with four stacked for a short while. For defenders, each one boosts your recharge by 20%. I haven't tested to see if the secondary stature reduces that to the expected 16%, but I think it's likely. Add that to Hasten and you've got powers coming back seriously fast. I'll be talking about this later in the guide, but if you haven't figured it out yet you want to take Hasten.

Quick Attacks are Key
Because you are recharging so fast with Hasten and Siphon Speeds running, you can get more attacks off. Simple, right? What's not so simple is figuring in animation times. As a kineticist, because your powers recharge so much more quickly, your damage rate starts to become more defined by animation times than by recharge times. While you are firing off an Bitter Freeze Ray, for example, with its four second animation time, you've got other attack powers fully recharged waiting in your power bar ready to be used and that's not efficient. I find that anything with higher than a 1.5 second animation is annoying and greater than 2-2.5 seconds is detrimental. It simply slows you down too much.

You Chow Down on Endurance
With Hasten and Siphon Speeds running and all these attacks being spammed out, you eat a TON of endurance. Add to this the low activation times of the Ice Blast attacks and other kinetics powers - which means you can throw more powers out there - and you will most likely end up being the premier non-toggle endurance eater in the game... not a great distinction!

Defense? What's Defense?
I mentioned this above and mention it again here for emphasis. The Kinetics powerset has very limited damage mitigation ability. It simply is not as survivable as other secondaries.[/list]
The Power Sets:

So you want to play a kineticist, you've heard how you need defense, and you know you need to pick a primary powerset that offers some level of damage mitigation. How do the primaries rate defensively as sets that synergize with kinetics?
<ul type="square">Sonic:
Good: With a cone sleep and single target disorient, you get some nice control, which helps your defense.
Bad: Secondary effect (-res) is offensive in nature so doesn't help defense.

Dark:
Good: Secondary effect of powers is -acc which is a nice defensive boost. Ranged AoE Disorient (minions only) and Cone Immobilization.
Bad: Not a heavy hitting set as far as damage is concerned and attacks are a bit slow for a kineticist.

Rad:
Good: Rad secondary effect is -def which helps your kinetics powers hit.
Bad: Only "defensive" power is Cosmic Burst which disorients - a nice power, but only one.

Fire:
Good: Rain power provides some defense.
Bad: No defensive secondary abilities.

Energy:
Good: Does knockback as a secondary effect which is a nice defense as you keep enemies on the ground.
Bad: Does knockback as a secondary effect which doesn't always synergize well with kinetics.

Assault Rifle:
Good: Limited, some knockback and "rain."
Bad: Knockback = bad for kinetics and relatively slow animations.

So that leaves us with Ice Blast...[/list]
Primary Powerset: Ice Blast

Ice Blast is a unique blasting set. It differs from most other sets in a number of ways:<ul type="square">[*]Secondary Effect (-recharge, -spd)[*]No Sniping Power [*]Fast Activation Times[*]Damage Type[*]It has Holds[*]Two "Rain" Powers that Also Slow


Secondary Effect:
Ice's secondary effect is to slow both the movement and attack speed of your opponent(s). Obviously if your opponents are sending fewer attacks then you are taking less damage. This is nice when you don't have much defense.


No Sniping Power:
Ice has no sniping power. While many consider this a bad thing, I believe it helps. Remember that speed thing and how animation times affect it? Sniping powers have looooonnnnggg animation times. This doesn't mesh well with Kinetics and you won't want to use it in the middle of combat because of this. This leaves using it as a first attack or a shoot/run power. I'd rather have attacks I'm using all the time. Sniping can be of use in PvP, but not as much so in PvE. I've never liked sniper powers and since there isn't one in the Ice set, it means you've got an extra power available. This is good.


Activation Times:
Ice powers have, on average, some of the fastest activation times of any blasting set. Most other sets have at least one of their first two powers take 1.5 to 2 seconds, while both of Ice's take right around one second.

The list below shows each power set's first two powers and their activation times.
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Set First Power Second Power Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|A/R Burst: 2.2 sec Slug: 1.9 sec |
|Dark Dark Blast: 1.0 sec Gloom: 1.1 sec+ Gloom is DoT and takes time |
| in addition to activation |
|Energy Power Bolt: 2.0 sec Power Burst: 1.7 sec |
|Fire Flares: 2.2 sec Fire Blast: 1.2 sec Lower damage than other sets |
|Ice Ice Bolt: 1.2 sec Ice Blast: 1.0 sec |
|Radiation Neut Bolt: 1.0 sec X-Ray Beam: 1.7 sec Lower damage than other sets |
|Sonic Shriek: 1.3 sec Scream: 1.7 sec |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
</pre><hr />
The only set that "on paper" is the equal in activation time is Dark. However, having played the dark set extensively, the DoT nature of Gloom is a detriment and seems to take longer to get the entire attack off than the activation time indicates - the published activation time is for the first Gloom skull to shoot out, not for the attack to finish its sequence. Sonic and radiation are close seconds, but radiation is a very low damage set.

Damage:
On paper, Ice is on par with many other sets (A/R, Dark, Energy and Sonic). Cold damage, however, is one of the least resisted damage sets in the game. So while other sets may advertise similar damage, in reality Ice will beat most out in a fair number of fights. As mentioned above, fast activating powers synergize very well with Kinetics. Ice, combines good activation times with high damage, a very nice combo for a kineticist.


Holds:
Holds, me likee. Ice has two of them. Remember that whole defense discussion earlier on? Holds mean less targets attacking you which means less incoming damage which means greater survivability. Now everything isn't peas and gravy with this. The second hold, Bitter Freeze Ray (BFR) has a long animation time and neither is really viable out of the box. They both need hold durations to be effective and, unlike their controller counterparts, they don't get an accuracy bonus so plan on devoting a lot of slots to these.


Slowing "Rain" Powers:
Ice has two of them, Ice Storm and Blizzard. Why are these good with kinetics? These powers make mobs run. When mobs are running they aren't attacking. This translates into increased survivability and survivability = good. It's not that mobs will forget about attacking while within this power, but they will attack less. If you throw some slow enhancements in and toss a Siphon Speed on top of it, your enemy (PvP or PvE) isn't going anywhere fast.


The Powers:

Ice Bolt:
The lower damage of the two first powers and one of your staples. It is a single target blast that recharges fairly quickly (4 seconds base), has a quick animation and does decent damage. Take it and slot it up. You will end up using this power more often to finish mobs off with your Scourge. Corrupters benefit from lower damage powers more in that they get to use the maximum sourge damage more often than higher damage powers. This will be, without a doubt, your most used power. It is a cold/smashing damage combo.
When to Take: Early, either level 1 or level 2.
Slotting: 1 or 2 Accuracies, 3 damage.


Ice Blast:
The second of your single target blasts and another of the staples. It is basically a double-"ish" version of Ice Bolt. Slightly less than double damage and double endurance cost and exactly double recharge time. It does have a very similar (1 sec) activation time. It is a cold/smashing damage combo.
When to Take: Same as Ice Bolt, either level 1 or level 2.
Slotting: 1 or 2 Accuracies, 3 damage.


Frost Breath:
Your first AoE (Cone) attack and one you will likely skip. There is a lot of discussion about whether to take this or not. Some other builds may be able fit this in, I could never get it into a kinetics build, but have put it in others and use it often (Tar Patch - Ice Storm - position yourself - Frost Breath). It isn't a bad attack, doing decent damage, having a moderate activation (a little long for a kineticist at 2.7 seconds) and a +20% accuracy bonus. Basically it comes down to this; at level four you have the choice between this and Siphon Power. Are you going to team at all? If the answer is yes than the slot is better spent on Siphon Power. If you are strictly a solo character then there can be an argument for taking this power.
When to Take: I could never fit this in early and by the time I could fit it in, I had better choices. If you take it, do so at level 4 in place of Siphon Power.
Slotting: If you take it, it's similar to other attacks in that it needs 1-2 accuracies and 3 damage. You definitely want to add a range enhancement to get a bigger/longer cone and make lining up easier as you speed around.


Aim:
If you're going to do a lot of PvP then this is a must-have for a kineticist. You are going to rely on a lot of things hitting and nothing is worse than going up against a defensive oriented character and whiffing on something like Siphon Speed. Aim helps solve that by providing a big boost to accuracy (+100%) and a moderate boost to damage (+62.5%) for about 10 seconds. If you're not going to do much PvP then you may want to skip this power. I use the philosophy in PvE that I can get close to the same effect by getting an extra couple attacks off instead.
When to Take: Leave it for into the 20s (for PvP). There are too many critical powers to take before then and you're not going to be super-effective at PvP until you get SOs anyway.
Slotting: If you have slots to spare, recharge reductions are good. If you're going to PvP then some To-Hit Buffs are handy for fighting highly defensive characters.


Freeze Ray:
Your first hold. Not a bad thing to have, but its duration is pitifully short out of the box at about 8 seconds against even cons. Its recharge time, at 10 seconds unaided by Hasten or Siphon Speed, is not bad, but since it is longer than its base hold duration, you can't perma-hold anything or hold bosses at all until you get hold duration enhancements in it and/or have Hasten and Siphon Speed running. I find that it really isn't worth firing off much until you slot it with a couple Hold Durations (DO's at least). Unlike its controller/dominator counterparts, it does not get an accuracy bonus or do significant damage and it also has a slightly shorter range than most other powers. The good news is that it has a very low endurance cost and activation time (1 sec) and recharges fairly quickly (10 seconds).
When to Take: Available at level 8, I took it early because most of the alternatives available could wait. Just don't plan on using it too much until you get DOs.
Slotting: 3 hold durations and at least 1 accuracy is a must. Depending on how much you use this power, an additional accuracy and a recharge reduction can do some good.


Ice Storm:
Your first "rain" power, Ice Storm drops a large area DoT (Damage Over Time), slows any enemies inside and forces mobs to flee. This is a nice thing for a Kineticist in PvE because while they're running they're not attacking! The slow is nice for PvP or PvE, especially when you throw a Siphon Speed on top of it. Some people use this as a damage power, but kineticists should use it for control/fear/defense. When I7 hits, this power will take advantage of buffs like Aim, Siphon Power, Fulcrum Shift, applicable inspirations, etc.
When to Take: As soon as feasible to provide some "defense." Unfortunately I have a hard time working this in before the late 20s.
Slotting: 3 slows then a combination of recharge and accuracy if you can spare the slots. It should be noted that this power does not get an accuracy bonus and individual ticks can miss. If you're fighting high defense opponents, accuracies will be needed.


Bitter Ice Blast:
"Ohhhh, do you know how much that stings?!" High damage (close to 1.5 x Ice Blast), short activation (1 sec), moderately quick recharge (12 sec). This is one of the best of short range, high damage blaster attacks out there. It does more damage and has a shorter activation (by far) than any of them except Blaze (Fire) and also debuffs speed, recharge and accuracy! This is short range, but since you're up close and personal anyway, it doesn't matter.
When to Take: As soon as you can - it's available at level 18, but Fitness powers and Speed Boost may get in the way of taking it that early. I usually get it in the early 20s.
Slotting: 1-2 accuracy, 3 damage, 1-2 recharge.


Bitter Freeze Ray:
This is the one power that can be soooo good and soooo bad all at the same time. As a second ice hold it gives the ability to hold a boss by applying the 1-2 punch of BFR then FR. Unfortunately, it has a price. The activation time is painfully slow to a kineticist at nearly 4 seconds so using it in the middle of combat could see the kineticist face planted before it activates. Many people skip this power altogether. It does have it's uses, however. One is to use it as an opening shot. If you throw a range enhancement in it you can toss it in out of range of the return strike then toss your Freeze Ray when he gets into range to hold him. In PvP this has limited use due to its activation time. What good is holding a super-speeder, for example, if by the time it activates he's hundreds of yards away where you may or may not be able to follow up with big attacks?
When to Take: If/when you have room and will have the slots to make it effective.
Slotting: Like Freeze Ray, you need hold durations (3), and an accuracy or two. A range enhancer can be nice too.


Blizzard:
Your second "rain" power and the apex power of the set. The difference with this one is that it also debuffs accuracy which is more defense for the Kineticist. You're in heaven when you get this, right? Well it also drains you of all your endurance. Most other blaster-type apex powers are nukes (i.e. instant) meaning that if you're drained of endurance, it might not be so bad because all your enemies are likely dead. With Blizzard they are still alive and some that started on the periphery can possibly get out of the area and come back to kill you! Sound like a raw deal? Well for a kineticist it isn't quite so bad. Once you get Transference, you can pop a blue inspiration (endurance), fire off Transference to get endurance and be back in the game quickly. Not to mention if you precede this with an Ice Storm then not much is getting out of the AoE. The kicker on this power, and another reason why Ice/Kin is going to be even better soon, is that in the upcoming Issue 7, rumor has it that Siphon Power, Fulcrum Shift, damage inspirations, etc. will affect "rain" type powers. Good guys say Ouch!
When to Take: Level 32
Slotting: 3 damages, 2 recharges and an accuracy.


Ice Blast Summary: Synergies with Kinetics
As mentioned above, Kinetics works well with fast activating powers and Ice is the fastest blast set out there. With Kinetics needing defense, Ice provides it in a number of ways. Ice has -rchg and -spd as a secondary effect which means less attacks coming back at you. The holds take enemies out of the fight for a time so mitigate damage somewhat. The rains have fear effects that get mobs running instead of shooting. All in all, a pretty good pairing for a Kinetics secondary.[/list]
Secondary Powerset: Kinetics

As mentioned above Kinetics is one of the most fun sets to play, but has limited traditional defense and that can make it frustrating. It can dramatically speed up a group with Speed Boost and has the distinctions of being:<ul type="square">[*]The only powerset that can keep Hasten close to perma.[*]The only powerset that has unsurpressable travel powers - key in PvP. [*]The only powerset that has built in travel powers, reducing/eliminating the need for traditional travel powers.[*]The only powerset that has an endurance "heal" for other players. A lot of other powers boost recovery or "heals" your own (e.g. Combustion, Dark Consumption), but only Transference "heals" both yours and your teammates. This is a big deal for supporting ATs firing off powers that drain all their endurance and suppress recovery for a while. This also means that Blizzard becomes less of a situational power and more of an "every fight" power.


More Key Elements of the Set:

Get Up Close and Personal
Some of your powers target off of enemy mobs (Tranfusion, Transference) which means you need to be close to them to get the affect. Additionally, other powers center on you (Siphon Power, Fulcrum Shift) and benefit team members near you so to help melee types you need to be in the thick of things too. You will be up close and personal with the enemy, plan on it.

Education is Key
Kineticists are not the most common characters out there and the powerset is different than most traditional sets. Additionally, some powers (Transference and Transfusion) can be tricky to fire off effectively in some cases and have some quirks associated with them. I always ask team members if they have worked with a kineticist before and if not I fire off some binds that explain things.

Brutes are Your Friend
Really any melee type is. They are right in the middle of where you are firing off Transference and Transfusion and when they have Speed Boost on them, they can run from fight to fight, keeping Fury up and not worrying about endurance.

Blasting vs. "Creative Kineticizing"
If you're playing on a decent sized team, you will likely be firing off more Kinetics powers than blasts. The Kineticist has to be creative in their combat thinking and be able to adapt to a lot of different situations. Do you blast the boss or debuff him with Siphon Speed/Power? Do you heal that enduranceless Brute, throw in Transference or drop in Blizzard? Keep those Speed Boosts up, toss in Increase Density on that held teammate, zip up and throw an Air Superiority on the boss to knock him on his butt. Every battle will present you with a host of options and it's up to you to choose the right combo.

Travel Powers
You can possibly get by without choosing a formal travel power by using Siphon Speed and later Inertial Reduction to get around. Before IR, don't expect to be traveling as fast on Siphon Speed as your teammates. Misses happen and sometimes you just can't find an appropriate mob to siphon from. Inertial Reduction works fine as a travel power, but doesn't come until level 28. If you can last until then using only Siphon Speed, then you're ahead of the game. This can be tough to pull off, however. You can also get a travel power relatively early on and respec out later. Why would you take IR instead of a travel power? Isn't a travel power a power? Can't you just take a travel power at 14 and be done with it? The big difference is that IR and Siphon Speed are not suppressed when you attack, which is HUGE in PvP. IR also can be applied to your group, meaning that all of you have unsurpressed travel. IR was novel pre-PvP, but can give your team a very nice advantage in PvP. Siphon Speed is a great power except that it has to hit an enemy to get the benefit. This really sucks if you miss. However, it works on flight as well as foot travel. This means you can take two powers (Siphon Speed and Hover) and while you have Siphon Speed active you have unsuppressable super speed and flight - flight at hover endurance cost and control!

Here is an answer to a question that someone posted about unsuppressable travel powers:

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Can someone explain how Inertial Reduction works? I don't understand the part about it being "unsuppressed while attacking".

[/ QUOTE ]


First, let's review Super Jump, the closest related travel power and its toggled brother and sister, Super Speed and Fly.


Super Jump, like Fly and Super Speed, is a toggle movement power. This means you either have it on and it's drawing endurance, or it's off and it doesn't work. Early on in the PvP development cycle, the Devs realized that PvP fights would simply degrade into "joust fests" where players went zipping by with their travel powers on, getting in the odd hit here or there. That is certainly not what they intended for PvP. So what they did was institute "suppression." What this does is effectively deactivate your travel power for a few seconds after you attack something.

Now let's talk Inertial Reduction, and while we're at it, Siphon Speed. Both of these are movement powers, but not "travel" powers in the truest sense of the term. Inertial Reduction is a click power instead of a toggle like other travel powers, meaning when you "click" the icon it executes for its duration of 3 minutes. Siphon Speed is an attack that has to hit. Once either of these is fired off (and hits for Siphon Speed) you cannot turn it off until its duration expires. What's nice about this is that because it can't be turned off, it doesn't get affected by suppression either. This means you can zip around at full speed (or jump), firing off attacks at will while your opponents are stuck for a few seconds after they attack you.

I used to fly online flight sims a lot and taught a number of online classes on combat tactics in flight sims. There is a saying in air combat, "speed is life." That saying holds true here too. Kinetics gives you a type of speed that no other powerset can match.


[/ QUOTE ]



The Powers:

Transfusion
The power you must take and luckily a very good one. It is arguably the best AoE heals in the game. It fires quickly and targets an enemy. Upon a hit it will heal any allies near the target (including you) and slightly reduce the enemy's endurance and ability to recover it. Sound good? The problem is that it has some quirks. The following is an excerpt from the bind I use to educate my team when I play kinetics:

- I'm not a healer, but I _can_ heal.
- My heals target off of an enemy.
- I have to hit the enemy to get the heal. Misses are possible and when I miss we won't get healed.
- If the enemy moves, gets killed or knocked back out of range during the animation then we won't get healed.
- If YOU move, get killed or knocked back out of range during the animation then you won't get healed.
- If I get killed during the animation then you won't get healed - keep me alive
- If you need a heal and run away, you will probably be running outside the healing radius and thus probably won't get healed (see above).

Something that may just be my perception is that while the base accuracy is documented at even (+0%), it seems like this attack hits more often than that. I seem to think that my Ice/Dark corrupter's heal misses more often than Transference. Or perhaps I just curse it more because it has such a long activation and so I notice misses more.
When to Take: You have to take it at level 1
Slotting: 2 accuracies and as many heals as you can spare. Some people advocare recharges instead of heals because you will get it back faster and thus fire it off more. I don't like this approach because you use more endurance and have to spend the time firing off more powers. I'd rather throw it out less, attack more and get the same relative amount of healing.

Siphon Power:
This is an interesting power. When you hit an enemy, it debuffs their damage by 20% and buffs you and any allies near you by 20%. Early on, the damage buff to you is quite noticeable. Later on, when you get SOs in damage slotted up, it becomes less so, but still good. It is an excellent damage mitigator when fighting lone bosses, but doesn't help much against larger groups. You can routinely stack 2-3 if you're diligent. One of the negative issues of this power _can be_ the relatively high endurance cost (10) for what you get. If you're on a team of eight then 10 endurance is a bargain for what you get in the way of increased damage for your team. If you're solo, it's not. Pre-stamina the 10 endurance hurts and I find that when I solo I simply can't afford the endurance to fire this power off on a regular basis. By the time you get Stamina, this power starts to lose some of its relative strength as damage SOs overshadow its buffing ability. Additionally, the activation time is slightly high at about 2 seconds. Not horrid, but slow by kinetics standards. It is a very good pulling power as it does not seem to draw as much aggro as an attack would. This will likely be the power you take at level four. Your choice at that point is between this and Frost Breath. If you tend to team at all then take this. If you are strictly a solo character then you may want to consider Frost Breath.
When to Take: Level 4
Slotting: Don't put too many slots in this. It doesn't need it. 1-2 acc, possibly a few recharges if you really want to concentrate on it, I don't.

Repel:
Some people swear by this, others hate it. It is a field that surrounds you that sends enemies flying. Each enemy costs endurance. For most kinetics powers, where you want to be up close and personal, this is counter productive. Where it can come into play is in PvP for keeping enemy melee types off of you. Personnally, I don't like it, but then I've never tried it in PvP either. I did make a Kin/Energy Defender once called the Blue Bowler who siphoned speed and ran down streets with Repel on, throwing enemies all over the place. The novelty wore off quickly.

Since I don't have any real practical experience with this power, I asked Major_Rosha, who responded to my first draft of the guide, to do a write up:

[ QUOTE ]
Some people swear by this, others hate it. It is a field that surrounds you that sends enemies flying. Each enemy costs endurance. If you are going to solo, I find this power greatly adds to my survivability. The radius on it isn't such that you have trouble remaining in range of your Transference/Transference, just that you won't be able to stand right next to the mob when you do it. With practice, it gets easier. The wonderful thing about this power ... it works very well with Siphon Speed! If you drop a patch and you have mobs running out of it, zip around and knock them back into it easy. It also keeps other mobs from getting multiple melee attacks on you if you are busy concentrating on some other mob. Using walls or other geometry, you can keep mobs pinned down by just moving into range to knock them up again if they start getting back up before you have finished them. Given the Ice component of this guide, I think it could complement it pretty nicely. With a Siphon Speed buff on, target your mob, queue up BIB and rush the mob. Stop right at it and hit BFR to queue it up. Right as you stop, 2 things should happen. The BIB you had queued will fire, and the mob will be sent flying back due to repel ... and since you hit BFR while the mob was in range, it will fire off as the mob begins getting up.
When to Take: Later in a build when you can dedicate 3 slots to add Endurance Reduction SOs. If you take it early, it is still useful as an emergency power.
Slotting: 3 End Redux SO's make it pretty manageable and easy to maintain, even when repelling multiple mobs. However, you need to watch your End if you are repelling a mob trapped against geometry!
Repel in action, http://www.captrosha.com/repel2.wmv


[/ QUOTE ]


Siphon Speed:
One of my favorite powers. It used to only debuff speed (dramatically) and as such it was a novelty. Now it also slows enemy recharge and boosts your own by 20% (or 16%). Given enough applicable targets, you can routinely stack three of these when Hasten is on. Because of this, you can come close to keeping Hasten perma and dramatically improve your recharge rate. It will significantly boost your movement speed (foot and flying) and is not suppressable, which is excellent in PvP. Of note, however, is that once you siphon someone's speed, you can't turn it off. It takes some practice to keep your character under control while you zip around.
When to Take: As soon as it's available at level 10.
Slotting: Missing with this sucks - at least 2 acc, 3 recharge. Per AmpolirosFury, slotting a slow will increase your speed as well as the slow.

Increase Density:
This power provides an increase to smashing/energy damage resistance and gives knockback protection to teammates. It also provides some mez protection, will free a teammate that is mezzed when applied and will slow down the target (usually a negative). If you take this, take it only for the sleep/hold/disorient release properties, the duration is far too short to apply it proactively (1 min). I don't like the power in PvE, but it has a nice component in PvP and that is resistance to Teleport Foe. The problem is that you can't hit yourself with it and once the enemy TP'er figures out what you're doing, guess who the next target will be
When to Take: If you take Stamina (and you want to take Stamina) you probably won't have any space until the early 20s at least - I usually skip this since many teammates will have some sort of mez protection by the time I'm ready to take it.
Slotting: Initial slot only, you pick it.

Speed Boost:
One of the set's defining powers. It boosts the recharge rate, speed and endurance recovery of your teammates - one at a time. It has only a 2 minute duration which means you have to be diligent about keeping it applied which can be tough on large teams.This is the power that allows your team to jump from fight to fight without having to rest. It turns them into killing machines as their heavy hitting powers come back super quickly and endurance never runs out (er almost never). Even if you primarily solo, you MUST take this power. In PvP it will change the course of a night where more than a couple villains are involved. Be very careful, however, in how you apply this to Brutes. Once they experience the wonder that is Speed Boost they may go Deliverance on you. Banjo music and Brutes with a full fury bar, it isn't very pretty.
When to Take: Level 22 after Stamina or level 20 if you team a lot, are generous and can hold of on Stamina until 22.
Slotting: It is great right out of the box, but endurance recoveries are nice adds. I tend to keep it to the initial slot with an endurance recovery in it.

Inertial Reduction:
A clickable travel power. You click it and you and your teammates close to you get an unsupressable Super Jump equivalent for three minutes. Some people don't like to use this as a travel power because when three minutes are up you fall like a rock and need to refire. I don't have a problem with it, especially because it isn't supressed on an attack and isn't a continuous endurance drain. I like to take a travel power prior to this power being available then respec out of it when IR comes along - provided I don't go the route of taking leaping/acrobatics - see below.
When to Take: Depends on your build. If you use it for a travel power, you can take it at level 28 and respec out of whatever travel power you took at 14.
Slotting: 1 recharge or jump.

Transference:
A game changing power, Transference sucks endurance out of a target and gives it to anyone near the target (like Transfusion does for health). It carries the same quirks associated Transfusion so see the text associated with it above. In fights against Elite Bosses that last a while, you can use a combination of this and Transfusion to sap the boss's endurance. Get this power at 35 and love it.
When to Take: Level 35
Slotting: 2 accuracies are key, a combination of endurance recoveries and recharges to fill out six slots. I go with two of each.

Fulcrum Shift:
Another game changing power and basically a Siphon Power for your target and each enemy around him. The ability to get your entire team close to the damage cap is a very nice thing.
When to Take: Level 38
Slotting: 2 accuracies and as many recharges as you can get into it.


Kinetics Summary:

Kinetics is an incredibly fun and fast powerset to play (at least after you get Stamina) and has the capability to take your team to new heights. The problem is that you need defense to keep it fun. Ice provides defense and a whole host of other synergistic pairings with Kinetics. The fast activating powers, holds, rains, etc. all combine to make this one of the most viable Kinetics combos to play. [/list]Power Pools:
There are a few power pools that I feel are important to the success of the build: Super Speed, Flight and Fitness.
<ul type="square">
Super Speed:
Super Speed is necessary for only one power: Hasten. With Enhancement Diversification, Hasten went from an must-have power on almost every build to one that is optional because it can no longer be made perma. Enter Kinetics. With stacked Siphon Speeds you can get it pretty darn close to permanent again, still not 100%, but good enough that it really makes sense to have this power. What a difference when this power is on!

Flight:
Flight? How can flight be important? There are a couple answers to that. The first is Air Superiority. This is, in my opinion, the best pool attack in the game. It has a fast activation time, does moderate damage, and knocks down enemies, making them unable to fly for a bit. Damage is its secondary function, what it's really good for is knocking down your enemies. As such I usually only slot it with two accuracies. It recharges fast enough that you can just about permanently keep an enemy on his butt. I've actually knocked down Monsters using this with my defender. The knockdown is very reliable and occurs on probably 80% or more of the hits on even mobs with no defense against such. This provides a significant amount of defense and early on provides your only solo boss killing ability. I also LOVE this power in PvP. Picture this: an enemy blaster is flying around nailing people from on high. You take off and fly toward him. He has fly slotted with flight speeds so isn't too worried and starts to take off. You fire off a siphon speed which speeds you up. You get up next to him, nail him with Air Superiority which knocks him to the ground so your Brute friend can put down his banjo and wail on him. My favorite tactic in PvE with Air Superiority is to queue the attack, run by the mob while "speeded." By the time the attack fires, I'm out of melee range so can immediately followup with one or two ranged powers, speed away. Lather, rinse, repeat. This way you don't have to guage the melee distance or put yourself in much danger of receiving melee attacks. The second power in the flight pool that is nice is Hover. While on, Hover provides knockback protection (you just circle around in the air) and when you get Siphon Speed with Hover you get some pretty quick flight. You can also potentially forego Hover and simply use Fly all the time for combat once you have Transference to keep your endurance bar up. The negative to this is controllability in cramped quarters. Many people don't like Fly as a travel power in PvP because of the preponderance of -fly powers and thus a big vulnerability to a squishy using it. However, Kineticists have those nifty built-in powers so if you do get hit by a -fly and you have Siphon Speed going, you can still zip out of harm's way. Just remember to keep Siphon Speed up or you'll die in a hurry.

Fitness:
The Fitness pool goes without saying. Until you get Transference you suck endurance fast and Stamina is the only way you'll have fun prior to hitting level 35. Some people will respec out of Fitness powers after getting Transference. I find that even with Stamina I will run out of endurance on a missed Transference or two. I recommend playing with this on the test server to determine if you need to keep Stamina or not. If you decide to respec out of Fitness then you can open up access to another power pool or to take some of the powers you skipped in your primary or secondary power sets. It is very nice not to have Stamina and be able to take those powers. It is up to you as to whether you can do without it.

Leaping:
Why take this if you've got IR for movement and Hover for knockback? This pool is viable enough for a Kineticist that I based a PvE build on it and is the most viable for PvP. Why? The main reason to go this route is to pick up Acrobatics. It is better than Hover at protection because, in addition to knockback protection, it also grants some mez resistance and isn't affected by those prevalent -fly powers. A second reason is Combat Jumping. I REALLY like Combat Jumping. Why? You will be literally zipping around combat with Siphon Speed and you will inevitably need to jump while "speeded." With no mid-air control you can end up falling off walls, in the middle of other mobs, etc. Combat Jumping allows you to mitigate those unwanted control aspects associated with a super speed that you can't turn off. So in effect you can trade Hover or Flight for Combat Jumping, IR for Super Jump and then just need to find one slot for Acrobatics. You could potentially do this without giving up Stamina. This is not a bad way to go PvE and probably the best way to go PvP.

Fighting:
Tough and Weave can provide some level of defense, but then you also have to take Boxing, which I feel is somewhat of a throw away power since you already have plenty of attacks. I'm not sure the minimal level of defense provided by Tough and Weave is enough to warrant taking three powers.

Leadership:
This is not a bad way to go with a host of good powers. Tactics and Maneuvers are probably the two to take here, I never really thought that the unenhanceable 10% damage boost that Assault provides was worth it. Tactics helps see stealthy characters and the extra accuracy boost synergizes well with all the kinetics powers that have to hit to work. The only thing to consider with this set is that if you're dropping the Fitness line and picking up these fairly expensive toggles, you may start to have endurance issues.

Concealment:
Take it or leave it. I leave it.

Manipulation/Presence:
Believe it or not, this can potentially be of benefit. Intimidate and Invoke Panic, both being fear effects, will help your defense. The only thing is that you have to take a throw away power in Challenge or Provoke to get these. I've never gone this route myself, but hear it can be interesting. The thing to consider is that the Pool Power fear effects are relatively low magnitude so multiple applications will be necessary to fear bosses.

Teleportation
I don't see this synergizing well with Kinetics. You've already got a plethora of movement powers and Teleportation provides little other benefit.[/list]
Builds - Or - So Many Powers, So Few Slots

I've got a few builds presented based on different design philosophies and indicate the pros and cons of each.<ul type="square">[*]The Flying Ice/Kin[*]The Non-Travel Power Ice/Kin (post-respec)[*]The Leaping Ice/Kin


The Flying Ice/Kin

This is a fun build for PvE due to Flight and slotted Hover. It does well in PvP because of the Flight/Siphon Speed/Air Superiority which allows you to take out hovering snipers and Siphon Speed gives you a backup movement power if you get hit with a -fly power.

Good:[*]Flight, Hover, Air Superiority and Siphon Speed combine to make you master of the air in PvP. [*]Air Superiority early on helps you deal with bosses in PvE. [*]Knockback protection from Hover.

Bad:[*]Because your primary movement powers (Hover and Stamina) require slotting to be effective, you lose a few important slots elsewhere.[*]No Acrobatics means no hold protection and also means you need to be hovering for knockback protection. This isn't a problem for a lot of PvP because you are outside for much of it, but isn't as viable in a lot of confined PvE missions (i.e. caves).[*]Lots of -fly powers in PvP mean that you need to be diligent about keeping Siphon Speed up or you'll be in trouble.

Slotting Options/Notes:[*]Most people slot Flight with flight speeds. You don't need them with a Kineticist because you can Siphon Speed to hit the flight speed cap. Personal preference, but I would rather use the slots elsewhere.[*]You could consider moving Hover up a few spots and respeccing out of flight into Super Speed. You will get vertical movement with the Hover/Siphon Speed combo and would save a few slots on Flight.[*]There are a few places you can pull slots from to add to other powers including: [*]Siphon Speed: Dropping a recharge or two from this is something a lot of people do. I like to maximize recharge so like three recharges in it.[*]If you use Flight strictly as a travel power and never plan on using it in PvP combat then you probably don't even need the extra End reducers in it. If you PvP then you need the End Redux.[*]Transference doesn't necessarily need all the slots I've got in it. If you really need a slot or two you can pull out an EndMod and/or a Rechg. [*]Depending on how often you use Freeze Ray, you could consider dropping a hold and/or accuracy.[*]If you want to concentrate on PvP then you should consider dropping Ice Storm and Blizzard from the build. Instead, you can add such powers as Combat Jumping (for Immobilize protection), Increase Density (to help your teammates against TP Foe) or Repel. Take some of the slots gained and drop them into extra recharges and To-Hit Buffs for Aim or endurance reductions in your ice attacks if you think you need the extra E.


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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder -
(http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name: IceKinFlight
Level: 41
Archetype: Corruptor
Primary: Ice Blast
Secondary: Kinetics
---------------------------------------------
01) --&gt; Ice Bolt==&gt; Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(11) Dmg(23)
01) --&gt; Transfusion==&gt; Acc(1) Acc(7) Heal(23) Heal(40) Heal(40)
02) --&gt; Ice Blast==&gt; Acc(2) Acc(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(19) Dmg(31)
04) --&gt; Siphon Power==&gt; Acc(4)
06) --&gt; Air Superiority==&gt; Acc(6) Acc(7)
08) --&gt; Freeze Ray==&gt; Acc(8) Hold(9) Hold(9) Hold(27) Acc(37)
10) --&gt; Siphon Speed==&gt; Acc(10) Acc(11) Rechg(13) Rechg(15) Rechg(17)
12) --&gt; Hasten==&gt; Rechg(12) Rechg(13) Rechg(15)
14) --&gt; Fly==&gt; EndRdx(14) EndRdx(17) EndRdx(19)
16) --&gt; Hurdle==&gt; Jump(16)
18) --&gt; Health==&gt; Heal(18)
20) --&gt; Stamina==&gt; EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --&gt; Speed Boost==&gt; EndMod(22)
24) --&gt; Bitter Ice Blast==&gt; Acc(24) Acc(25) Dmg(25) Dmg(27) Dmg(29)
26) --&gt; Aim==&gt; Rechg(26)
28) --&gt; Ice Storm==&gt; Slow(28) Slow(29) Slow(31)
30) --&gt; Hover==&gt; Fly(30) Fly(31) Fly(34)
32) --&gt; Blizzard==&gt; Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
35) --&gt; Transference==&gt; Acc(35) Acc(36) EndMod(36) EndMod(36) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
38) --&gt; Fulcrum Shift==&gt; Acc(38) Acc(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40)
---------------------------------------------
01) --&gt; Sprint==&gt; Empty(1)
01) --&gt; Brawl==&gt; Empty(1)
01) --&gt; Scourge==&gt; Empty(1)
02) --&gt; Rest==&gt; Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------


The Leaping Ice/Kin

This is a decent all around build. It uses the leaping pool to get Acrobatics for knockback and hold protection, Combat Jumping for Immobilization resistance and drops flight.

Good:[*]Combat Jumping + Hurdle = great combat mobility + a little extra defense. [*]You get a few extra slots over the Flying version.

Bad:[*]No flight powers and I really like having Air Superiority.

Slotting Options/Notes:[*]See notes above for slotting options. [*]If you want to concentrate on PvP then you should consider dropping Ice Storm and Blizzard from the build. Instead, you can add such powers as Air Superiority, Hover, Increase Density (to help your teammates against TP Foe) or Repel. Take some of the slots gained and drop them into extra recharges and To-Hit Buffs for Aim.



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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder -
(http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: IceKinJump
Level: 41
Archetype: Corruptor
Primary: Ice Blast
Secondary: Kinetics
---------------------------------------------
01) --&gt; Ice Bolt==&gt; Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(7) Dmg(19)
01) --&gt; Transfusion==&gt; Acc(1) Acc(17) Heal(17) Heal(23) Heal(25)
02) --&gt; Ice Blast==&gt; Acc(2) Acc(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(7) Dmg(23)
04) --&gt; Siphon Power==&gt; Acc(4)
06) --&gt; Combat Jumping==&gt; Jump(6)
08) --&gt; Freeze Ray==&gt; Acc(8) Hold(9) Hold(9) Hold(19) Acc(25)
10) --&gt; Siphon Speed==&gt; Acc(10) Acc(11) Rechg(11) Rechg(13) Rechg(15)
12) --&gt; Hasten==&gt; Rechg(12) Rechg(13) Rechg(15)
14) --&gt; Super Jump==&gt; Jump(14)
16) --&gt; Hurdle==&gt; Jump(16)
18) --&gt; Health==&gt; Heal(18)
20) --&gt; Stamina==&gt; EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --&gt; Speed Boost==&gt; EndMod(22)
24) --&gt; Acrobatics==&gt; EndRdx(24)
26) --&gt; Bitter Ice Blast==&gt; Acc(26) Acc(27) Dmg(27) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) Rechg(31)
28) --&gt; Aim==&gt; Rechg(28) Rechg(37)
30) --&gt; Ice Storm==&gt; Slow(30) Slow(31) Slow(31) Rechg(34) Rechg(40)
32) --&gt; Blizzard==&gt; Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
35) --&gt; Transference==&gt; Acc(35) Acc(36) EndMod(36) EndMod(36) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
38) --&gt; Fulcrum Shift==&gt; Acc(38) Acc(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40)
---------------------------------------------
01) --&gt; Sprint==&gt; Empty(1)
01) --&gt; Brawl==&gt; Empty(1)
01) --&gt; Scourge==&gt; Empty(1)
02) --&gt; Rest==&gt; Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------



The No-Travel-Power Ice/Kin

I would not necessarily recommend this build as a ground up character, but rather a build you want to respec into due to the fact that you probably don't want to slog through 28 levels to get an automatic travel power. It carries most of the benefits of both the other builds and combines them into one.

Good:[*]Combat Jumping + Hurdle = great "indoor" combat mobility + a little extra defense. [*]You get extra slots over both the other versions.[*]You get "Flight" with Hover and Siphon Speed.[*]Unsupressable Super Jump is pretty cool as is jumping and hovering at the apex of the jump to stay out of trouble in PvP.

Bad:[*]No Acrobatics means you need to need to have Hover on to get knockback protection.[*]If you exemp below level 28 you will be relying on Siphon Speed/Hover for travel.

Slotting Options/Notes:[*]See notes above for slotting options.[*]Combat Jumping is truly a "nice to have" and primarily useful for indoor missions, though the immobilization resistance can come in handy in too. You can consider swapping this out for another power.

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder -
(http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name: IceKinNoTravel
Level: 41
Archetype: Corruptor
Primary: Ice Blast
Secondary: Kinetics
---------------------------------------------
01) --&gt; Ice Bolt==&gt; Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(7) Dmg(27)
01) --&gt; Transfusion==&gt; Acc(1) Acc(23) Heal(25) Heal(27) Heal(29)
02) --&gt; Ice Blast==&gt; Acc(2) Acc(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(7) Dmg(29)
04) --&gt; Siphon Power==&gt; Acc(4)
06) --&gt; Hover==&gt; Fly(6) Fly(17) Fly(17)
08) --&gt; Freeze Ray==&gt; Acc(8) Hold(9) Hold(9) Hold(37) Acc(40)
10) --&gt; Siphon Speed==&gt; Acc(10) Acc(11) Rechg(11) Rechg(15) Rechg(15)
12) --&gt; Hasten==&gt; Rechg(12) Rechg(13) Rechg(13)
14) --&gt; Hurdle==&gt; Jump(14)
16) --&gt; Health==&gt; Heal(16)
18) --&gt; Bitter Ice Blast==&gt; Acc(18) Acc(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(23) Dmg(25) Rechg(31)
20) --&gt; Stamina==&gt; EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --&gt; Speed Boost==&gt; EndMod(22)
24) --&gt; Aim==&gt; Rechg(24) Rechg(40)
26) --&gt; Combat Jumping==&gt; Jump(26)
28) --&gt; Inertial Reduction==&gt; Jump(28)
30) --&gt; Ice Storm==&gt; Slow(30) Slow(31) Slow(31) Rechg(34)
32) --&gt; Blizzard==&gt; Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
35) --&gt; Transference==&gt; Acc(35) Acc(36) EndMod(36) EndMod(36) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
38) --&gt; Fulcrum Shift==&gt; Acc(38) Acc(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40)
---------------------------------------------
01) --&gt; Sprint==&gt; Empty(1)
01) --&gt; Brawl==&gt; Empty(1)
01) --&gt; Scourge==&gt; Empty(1)
02) --&gt; Rest==&gt; Empty(2)
--------------------------------------------- [/list]
Conclusion:

Ice/Kin is a wonderfully fun combo to play. It is super-fast, can spam out attacks like nobody's business and keeps your teammates happy as clams with Speed Boost, Siphon Power, Transference and Fulcrum Shift. The primary and secondary carry good synergies with each other and those synergies help make this kinetics character more survivable than most, while at the same time allowing it to dish out massive amounts of damage. This character type is not for all players, however. It takes some getting used to, some skill in moving around combat at high speed and patience to deal with the relatively high number of deaths that inevitably happen. It is highly versatile and takes a creative player to use it to its maximum effectiveness. If you are someone who likes to get into combat and keep launching a few attacks, then this is not for you. If you are someone who is always thinking on their feet, coming up with new and different ways to overcome hurdles, then a Kineticist may be just what you're looking for.

Thanks to Major_Rosha, Micro, AmpolirosFury, sardan, SuperAnt and karaza for their input to the guide.

[ QUOTE ]
Two highest level ladders one a HOdown and one a NO HO zone, where is the problem with this? Is this not win win?

[/ QUOTE ]

I am the epitome of a casual player and I can safely say that I will likely never see an HO in one of my enhancement slots. Heck, I may never see level 45+! However, I am interested in PvP and would like to compete on a level playing field when I get into the arena. Even when a 45+ with HOs is exemp'd down, he/she has an advantage due to the multi-bump aspect of HOs.

The suggestion of a non-HO ladder/arena is a great idea. It lets casual gamers such as myself go in and compete PvP on a level field.

If you're a power gamer and have the time/mentality to devote to farming HOs, more power to you. Do it, be happy, compete in the "HO" arena. If you're a casual gamer that doesn't want to farm then do it, be happy and compete in the "non-HO" arena.

It seems like it would be fairly simple to code a gate for HOs and set up a second arena.