I'm afraid you either have to neglect your secondary (madness, why pick it to ignore it) or embrace it. I'd say it's OK to drop speed boost, it's not a mandatory pick for a kin controller, and with it being so late it's not unexpected not to have it. Problem with anything to do with Kin is there's always something to do, a buff or debuff needs doing somewhere. if you're looking for a 'sit back and take it easy' set, pick FF, not Kin!
Defiant 50's
Many and varied!
@Miss Chief
It depends on what *you* want from the set. Personally, with my kin defender I spend a lot of time fighting - what the heck is Fulcrum Shift for if not to use it, right? I have as many of my secondary attack powers as I do primary kin powers, and I probably spend more time using the attacks as well. So I take a slightly more backseat approach to the buffing - for example, I use ID as a reactionary power to free people from mezzes (if you want to spend all your time as a buff bot, just get ID and try to keep an 8 man team buffed with it all the time... Go on, I dare you! 
).
If you don't want to keep people SB'ed all the time, you don't have to drop the power, just don't start keeping people SB'ed and they won't expect it, they'll just be more grateful when they do get it occasionally. I tend not to use it at all in 8-man teams unless there's trouble, and then I use it to help people's end, not their speed.
Thats the problem with the /kin set though, it makes everything go so fast, it can be hard to keep up yourself! Its all worth it for FS though 
You don't like SB'ing people? Don't play a kin then, or at least don't team with it.
With my illusion/kinetics controller I spent a lot of my time on teams focussing on the kinetics side of things. I'd throw out my pets and then spend most of the rest of the time concentrating on my kinetics powers, using my hold and deceive to control the occasional extra tough enemy (Spectral Wounds got a lot of use too of course, and my ancillary pool attacks too once I got that high - gotta make use of the damage boost from Fulcrum). I never encountered the "give me speed boost!" phenomenon though - my controller was the character I teamed most with (I usually solo) and I encountered maybe two people who ever wanted to be kept perma-speed boosted. On most teams I joined I'd ask if anyone wanted speed boost and usually no one would ask for it. I could easily have respecced out of Speed Boost and it wouldn't have impacted my contribution to most teams.
Defiant 50�s: Generalissimo, Righteous Bob, Splortch, Brutus Cayuga
Union 50's: Chimera Obscura, Diet Anthracite, Grim Proctologist, Puny Little Minion, Raging Bitumen
In Soviet Russia, mission farm you!
Use SB when you want to, not when you feel the team needs it, you don't have to give SB out even if you have it, you're the one who chooses to use it or not.
Basicly, stopping being so nice when you play, if you don't feel like SBing the team, then don't. I may sound harsh there, if so, I apologise.
As long as you're happy playing fire/kin this way, then thats all you need. If you aren't happy, whats the point in playing it?
Might want to add somthing to your description about your playstyle too. 
It's hard work trying to keep on top of speed boostage when in an 8 man team. I find a kinetics works best in a smaller team (4-6 is optimal for me). Failing that, team up with a kin/* defender and they can be your buffbot! 
But yeah, if you don't want to constantly be buffing everyone else, you don't have to, your holds immobilises etc. are good ways to subsidise damage taking which then leaves you open to flurry/air sup/boxing your way through them all!
Kinetics can be a real pain to play. On the other hand it can be very rewarding.
Firstly you have one of the strongest but least flexible AoE heals. Trying to target it to a specific person is hard and requires luck. This means you are not a healer. Don't try to be one. I tend to just use it as a blanket heal around the tank or if I am injured. If you want to save a specific teammate you are probably better off using your primary.
Speed Boost is a pain to keep on everyone. As a defender I only rarely use it in combat and have a macro set up that says something like "Gather for Speed Boosting please wait" so I can get the team to stand still when I want to rebuff them. People do this for empaths with their Recovery Aura and Rads with Accelerate Metabolism so they will probably do it for you. If they aren't in range during that period, don't speed boost them. As a controller you should pay less attention to the speed boosts than I do. If they refuse to wait, don't boost them. If they complain tell them that if they want speed boost they have to let you give it to them.
Whilst in combat I spam Siphon Power, Siphon Speed, Transference, Fulcrum Shift, Short Circuit, Lightning Bolt and Tesla Cage. The kinetics stuff rules most of my combat attack chain. I suspect as a controller you have some better powers to spam than me. Kinetics is your secondary, don't let it rule your life.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
One point I haven't seen made yet. You're fire/kin. At some point, you're going to turn into a defender anyway, as the flaming monkeys of death turn up, drop some acid and start doing the flaming monkey dance of flamery death, while you struggle to keep them speed boosted and healed...
Synaesthetix:if your mum wasn't already dead I would go kill her for bringing
you into the world
"Gather for Speedboost"? Well, this would result in something I most definitely hate when I am on with one of my kinetics: a pause.
If you want to speedboost fast, so that it is possible to do some non-kinetic things in a fight, you just have to use keybinds.
I have my numpad (numbers 1 to 8) bound to targeting the teammate associated with that number and speedboosting him in one go, so even in big teams all I have to do is to press numpad 1 to numpad 8 and everything is fine (so I can do other stuff). If teammates are spread too far, the fights are probably mostly over (like everyone is running back to the entrance with a hostage or searching for the last mob in a kill-all-mission) or something is going very, very wrong. You can also most comfortably re-speedbost during a longish fight. Always remember: kinetics is for the fast.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
Hmm...
Well after reading this thread I think I'll simply use speedboost for "big fights", like when you're staring down that AV or something and people are standing still anyhow, or if people start getting in trouble. Or whenever I just plain feel like it.
Kinetics is my secondary as a few people have said, and my primary goal for this character was for her to be a squishy meleeist that could potentially hold her own with other melee oriented characters. (to a degree)
Also I'm going to stop pretending I'm a healer. I can be but only for people who come to melee to get healed, too often by the time I locate a blaster or something with a mob near them it'll just fall down by the time I hit transfusion. It's useless, and I don't have room for the medicine pool.
So doing that basically puts me back at where I was, which was a comfortable midline between being a support char and a front line char, and that suits me fine.
[ QUOTE ]
Also I'm going to stop pretending I'm a healer. I can be but only for people who come to melee to get healed, too often by the time I locate a blaster or something with a mob near them it'll just fall down by the time I hit transfusion. It's useless, and I don't have room for the medicine pool.
[/ QUOTE ]
Tip: target the blaster on the team list and heal off their target. If they're not targetting the enemy that's killing them in melee that's their own fault and if they're being defeated at range there's nothing you could have done anyway
Defiant 50�s: Generalissimo, Righteous Bob, Splortch, Brutus Cayuga
Union 50's: Chimera Obscura, Diet Anthracite, Grim Proctologist, Puny Little Minion, Raging Bitumen
In Soviet Russia, mission farm you!
When I read your view of kinetic powers I seriously have to ask myself if kinetic was a good choice for your secondary. Kinetic is mediocre at best when you don´t use it in a way that defines your toon.
There are many secondary powersets that work well when they are treated as secondary, but kinetics is a religion.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
Kinetics doesn't really have to be defined as a religion, if you want a character that's built totally for soloing then you can skip Speed Boost and Increase Density.
Though I don't know why you'd want to!
Really though, I've found in teams that there are people who don't like receiving speed boosts. It's their choice, they'd rather have a slower character.
EVERYONE loves fulcrum shift though, so just keep on top of your buffs as best you can but don't let it detract too much from being a controller. Your heals and stuff are secondary to doing what a controller does best, that is - stopping your team from taking any damage in the first place by using your mez's.
I love my ill/kin, try a few respecs on the test server and go with a build you really find a joy to play, remember that any build needs to be fun for you. People may suggest powers and stuff otherwise but what it boils down to is that you need to create a character you really enjoy playing. Go forth, experiment and see what you can come up with!
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remember that any build needs to be fun for you. People may suggest powers and stuff otherwise but what it boils down to is that you need to create a character you really enjoy playing. Go forth, experiment and see what you can come up with!
[/ QUOTE ]
AMEN!!!
Defiant 50's
Many and varied!
@Miss Chief
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When I read your view of kinetic powers I seriously have to ask myself if kinetic was a good choice for your secondary. Kinetic is mediocre at best when you don´t use it in a way that defines your toon.
There are many secondary powersets that work well when they are treated as secondary, but kinetics is a religion.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'll be using fulcrum shift to define my character's damage, doesn't that count?
Basically the long and the short of it is that I need Fulcrum Shift to be able to make this weird-o-build work! And to a lesser degree siphon speed. So it really was a good choice of secondary as far as that goes; as without it my build would never really be even half decent.
Since I am in a generous mood... yeah, I will let that count.
It just makes my heart bleed when I see something that powerful as speed boost unused... It´s a little bit like denying the rest of the team that small glimpse of the insane speed you are able to reach with hasten and multiple stacked syphon speeds.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
As Visionist, Illusion/Kinetics Controller, the best power is Phantom Army, which can't be buffed by Speedboost, so I spent most of my time with my main wondering what the fuss was about. I mean, I am too busy cycling through my Phantom army, Fulcrum shift for team members, Psionic Tornado, Siphon Speed, Heal, trasnfusion(phew) to worry about people saying "SB please!".
On the otherhand, my new character is nearly lvl 31 (fire/kin) and I have found I have spent much more time Speedboosting members, this may change when my Imps come along and I Speedboost them instead . Heard it is good.
Visionist LVL 50 Ill/kin
Adventurist Lvl 50 BS/Sr Scrapper
Destructionist lvl 48 elm/dark armor Scrapper
63 month Veteran
It's been said before but it helps if you can accept kinetics as a secondary. Nobody forces you to speedboost everyone but it really doesn't take that long. I try to keep everyone on the team speed boosted, yet I'll always make sure I open up with my primary. That said, being a kinetic keeps you busy, which is the best part of the set (imho).
i dont seem to have that problem when playing my grav/kin yes im kept busy all the time but i find SBing the whole team easy i'd norm SB just before we enter n when where all grouped at the door when inside mish for double SB, then after that we'd go into a fight id use my AoE holds FS holds etc n just before the last few mobs are dropping ill top up SB again its a bit of a pain granted im kept busy all the time but thats what i want from a game i like to feel involved/important WANTED 
i rarely dont have SB perma for my team mates unless im talking team runs off a lil to fast n spread out which does make for lost time in fighting but if that does arise those certain ppl can wait as long as i have main toons SB'ed for end reasons or stoney then im ok with that the ones ive missed ill top up after ive FS AoE held etc then start with the same old routine.
it would be nice to see SB last a lil longer i dont think it takes long to boost even a full team only reason that buffing a full team takes a while if you use ID too why im thinking of respecing it out it doesnt last long and it means the team misses out on my vauluble trolling time.
as for healing thats not your job if teamw anted a healer they would of invited one i use mine mainly for healing myself same with transference too everyone has SB for there end i have transference for mine grav a bit end heavy and i use 3 of the leadership power so a bit end heavy all round,but all in all the way i play see me using all my atts well most gravs AoE immo doesnt get used much n lift i think it is gets used rarely but still there just incase godo thing about grav to me i feel a few of there powers arent needed in most 8 man teams
anyways hope that helps thats just me and how i play each to there own and all that, but to be honest its prob the most fun troller ive tryed so far and im gonna hate when these last 10 lvl comes to an end so much im gonna re-role another /kin prob ice as thats the only one ive not tryed i would try a def kin but i think the extra holds pets make up for having to wait a few extra lvls. anyway hope uve had half as much fun as i have with mine cos i have a crack everytime i use him GL with him/her
I have ice/kin and I usually just sb the tank and keep him/her that way - I don't then go on to use it on anybody unless they ask - some people hate sb makes maps harder to navigate and they run into mobs others (blasters with hover) love it. but apart from the tank (helps everyone if he/she is in the battle first) I only sb on request and don't watch to see if it has warn off - if someone goes afk and the team waits I will sb everyone to pass the time
hmmmm a few things that worry me abt ur question
fire/kin - but hit things with power pools? ignore primary set? but... but... fire does great damage.
I only hav 2 /kins, one ill/kin, one fire/kin. And both play very differently. for my ill troller - pre-32; PA and holds/deceive were very impt. post 32 pet and PA does most of the work post; and speed time buffing peeps with the whole multitude of powers.
I usually try and keep SB on whole team. SB recharges fast and lasts quite some time. There is occasional overlaps when it is missing, but here - thems the breaks What I hate is the "SB pls" repeatedly - usually this is followed by a private tell saying "if u continue doing that; you will NOT get any SB at all" - usually sorts it, or I get kicked lol.
Fire/kin is a completely different kettle of fish. very damage orientated. Mines is only L24 - so not at its full potential yet. with hot feet, flash fire and fire cages - wooo hooo. dont fidn as much time to buff with this toon. Seen peeps tank with this build as well - pop a few purples, the lock em down and burn them up.
whenever i join a team - 1st question I fire off is "who does NOT want SB" Of course there are kins w/o SB - but dont see the point really. Its a good power, even if its to boost ur own pets eg monkeys. But best to let team know wot kind of troller u are going to be from the start as to avoid arguments.
Never felt like a kin def with any of my kin trollers - cos control, damage etc is always a big part of the troller set as well.
Hey ho - to each his own. tbh - any team that invites a kin troller; will 90% of the time expect to be buffed i think. As long as u explain to team how u play - i dont think it will be a prob.
Now, I don't play the most standard controller, I play a fire/kin who hits things with powerpool attacks. So I neglect my primary for more scrappy matters, still I think this applies to most /kin controllers.
Now, I didn't sign up to be a buffer and healer. I didn't roll a defender, because I don't like playing defenders. But in big groups, I find myself spending most of the fights speedboosting people, siphoning speed to keep up, siphoning power to boost my own damage and others, and popping transfusion to keep people healed.
The problem comes in that I feel like I'm playing a kinetics defender. I rarely hit things, hell I rarely even get to use what little control I have in bigger teams!
I'm really not sure. I'm sorely tempted to just respec out speed boost because people refuse to wait for it before a fight, and by the time I've done that people are in the yellow and I spend most of the rest of the fighting buffing and trying to heal people.
It's worse because trying to heal people seems to be getting me in debt when it's not meleeists.
I dunno. It's annoying me. I didn't sign up to play a kinetics defender, but it feels like that's what I do 90% of the time. How do others with the /kin set deal with this? I just wanted fulcrum shift really! ;_;