Jump Kick, I like it?

Always heard about how terrible and un-takeable this move was over the months that I've been pestering the forums. It has the same "lol" stigma as Whirlwind. Too bad I didn't find out about WW until I raced through Cap with it on and got laughed at. Ever see the Bilnd Melon video for No rain? The bee girl? Yah that was me....

So naturally I avoided jump kick, having never seen what it looks like, what kind of damage it does, etc etc.

Rolling a new revamped version of my first toon ever, ninja mm. Got to level 8 and after about a half hour of pondering, took Jump Kick to see what the hate was all about. I heard all about the terrible animation time and the like, plus the fact that it doesn't even look like a jump kick apparently.

I think, if this move is terrible in all other AT aspects, it's a least good for tankerminding. I actually find this neglected little move not too bad when the boys are on BG mode and I run up on a mob, nail him into the air, and by the time he hits the ground he's covered in shuriken wounds and footprints XD. As far as the animation goes, yah it would look way cooler as a spin kick or something, but that would make it KB instead of KU, well, Jkick is kinda both as the mobs flies into the air but in a direction slightly. I like the springboard animation too, it's funky and lets me feel like I have another damage dealer on the team besides the pets, ME!

So between Jkick and Air Superiority, I'll have some decent mitigation going on, and I find that these two moves and Kick will make good replacements for the terrible Archery moves he gets stuck with. The end usage is better than the Archery moves, the damage is better too. not too sure about the numbers exactly, still hunting around on the net for a decent site that has the numbers to stare at besides mids. I'm planning on slotting some chance for disorient in one, and maybe slotting enough kinetic crash in one of them for the KB protection.

TL;DR: Scoff if you will, Jump Kick is useful. (to me)

Well Jump Kick used to be much worse than it is now. The activation time used to be much higher making it a long animation, low damage attack in addition to having an animation that many players found a bit ugly. And of course most would think that a jump kick would involve jumping of some sort, not flopping/somersaulting around on the ground. Now you can interrupt the last part of the animation, so it's not as absurdly long as it used to be. It's no longer a terrible power, just a somewhat ugly one.

I especially like the little tornado thingee that whirls around you when you get back on your feet lol. forgot to mention that earlier. It's cool now cause I have a melee alternative to the arrows, all with KB/KU. sweeeeeet.

I think a lot of the hate actually comes down to Air Superiority having a more reliable knockdown and -fly. Other than that, they are awfully similar.

The Kinetic Combat proc has the same chance to go off (20%). So if you put one of those in Brawl, it's better for what you're describing (damage mitigation). Course you could put it in Jump Kick, I suppose.

A lot of the problem with Jump Kick is what you give up for it. In a lot of circumstances, there's something better. For example, if you have AS and JK at level 8, that means you gave up at least Train Ninja, then also either Aimed Shot, Snap Shot, or Call Genjin AND your tier 2 and 3 secondary powers. I would take all of those over Jump Kick.

Then there's Combat Jumping, which is just a sweet power on all fronts that will lead you to SJ or Acrobatics just as well.


On the flip side, don't let em scoff at you too much for Whirlwind. I scoffed at a Mercenary MM for it once and then he showed me what he could do. He'd bunch entire mobs into a corner and keep 'em bouncing there while his henchman fired wildly into the mess. Not the best team strategy probably, but still... humbled me after having bad mouthed whirlwind.

I still don't think jump kick is a "good power" but it has a certain flavor that fits some characters. I have it on one of mine and I love it.

The people who are going to give you crap for certain power choices are mostly the min/max types who want to squeeze every last bit out of an attack chain. I'm not knocking people who game like this but I honestly don't get a feeling of accomplishment if I take down some virtual enemies. It is all just entertainment to me so I don't really care if I can do it in 5.3 seconds or if it takes a minute. It doesn't matter and the occasional deficiency is barely noticeable when you're rolling on a team. I'd much rather play a character that's fun for me and has some flair than to be able to solo an AV.

On that note, I have solo'd a few AVs with the help of shivs and inspirations and on a scrapper that has some deficient "character" power choices. A "bad" choice or two in a build isn't going to kill you or your team. Have fun.

Yeah, the more niche powers tend to be disliked a fair amount. I would agree with Gillia that there are a lot of other powers that tend to work better than Jump Kick. Air Superiority is a better melee attack, Combat Jumping adds a nice layering of defense, and Hasten gives a great recharge boost. Heck, Teleport Friend could be seen as better, depending on your needs.

Personally, I like the look of Jump Kick. Its animation is a little more niche, however, so it has to fit my character's concept, too, which isn't many of them. I remember a guy that had a great character concept that grabbed Jump Kick, too. "The Astonishing Mon-kay" was an appropriately small MA Scrapper that first showed me what Jump Kick looked like, and I got a kick out of it. Ummm, pun intended, I think.

[QUOTE=Gilia;2771104] So if you put one of those in Brawl, it's better for what you're describing[QUOTE]

Hey good call! thanks for the tip!

It will definitely be a tight build as I have /therm for the secondary and everything looks takeable. that leaves very few spots if I plan on taking patrons, which is still undecided. CJ is awesome and so is Acro, ahh decisions decisions....

I think one of the reasons jump kick is badmouthed is simply because combat jumping is so much better as a power of the same level in the same pool, where as with fly pool, hover isnt really much use once you have fly due to its speed.

Combat jumping offers defence, immob resist and jump height/speed which is easier to use than hover. Jump kick doesnt do much damage, has a knockup that isnt anything special and a bad animation. Its not that jump kick is completely useless though, as you said for masterminds its not too bad, but combat jumping is still better

No, you don't like Jump Kick. Nobody is allowed to like Jump Kick. To like Jump Kick is punishable by execution.

Jump Kick isn't the terrible power it used to be, it performs about where boxing and kick do. The problem is that Combat Jumping is typically a better choice, as your primary/secondary "usually" have a better variety of attacks that do better damage/have more useful effects. If you wanted Super Jump, it'd be a fairly simple choice to pick another attack you won't need, or the always useful combat jumping which offers a smidgen of defense, enhanced maneuverability, Immobilization Protection, another slot for LoTG 7.5% Global Recharge, at barely any endurance use per second.

If you *did* just want another attack, you're usually better picking Air Superiority for the more consistent damage mitigation it offers.

You'd pretty much have to have wanted Super Jump, but not combat jumping, and needed another attack in order to want to pick Jump Kick. Such a scenario simply doesn't happen too often.

It's not a bad attack in it's own right, but when you compare it to everything else you *could* have done, it becomes a somewhat poor decision.

Big fan of Jump Kick here. I find it fits in with acrobatic type characters perfectly (and goes with Martial Arts very well). And it's been buffed form it's original version I believe, so it suffers from a poor reputation that isn't 100% deserved. I wouldn't say the Knockup is any good as mitigation, though. I rarely see it even though I use JK regularly.

Of course, all pool attacks have to live under the shadow of Air Superiority (which is obviously overpowered with it's 2 100% secondary effects. My solution? Buff all pool attacks to match Air Superiority's usefulness).

I'm working on a super-speeder character that will have both Flurry and Whirlwind, too.

Sometimes players get too caught up in numbers and forget how to just have fun with the game.

WARNING: I bold names.

that's true, with a great toggle like CJ it puts down JK for sure. I'm a big fan of tankerminding with the ninjas so to do that I wanted some melee moves to use. Plus I'm pretty sure that those melee moves could do more damage then the raneged mm moves. I suppose if I slotted chance for hold from devastation in there it would suffice, but the melee moves feel more ninja-ish (guess I'm going for concept here). Still glad I went and tried JK for myself though. KRS-1 said it best, don't believe the hype =D

Talking about long animations. I used to be jumpkick, eviscerate, jumpkick,eviscerate..good times. I wanted an acrobatic character. I took acrobatics only to find out I wouldn't be backflipping etc everywhere

Jump Kick used to be a terrible power. Now it's equal to Air Superiority in every way, except that JK only has a chance to KD instead of AS's guarantee.

The only real problem with JK is that, generally, you'd take it to unlock Super Jump, and Combat Jumping is more universally helpful than JK is.

A couple years ago i had a ninja-themed ill/TA Controller that took Jump Kick. It suited the theme pretty well.

I took it for my MA/QR scrapper simply because it fit the theme better than Air Superiority. Although, thinking back, I may just swap it out for Combat Jumping when I next respec. You can never have too much defence, and it'll be able to slot with cheaper IOs, and still be able to soft cap relatively easily.

I have Jump Kick on one of my Brutes. Of course, part of the reason is that it's a Fire/Fire Brute, and I didn't want any of the swords or Fire Breath for thematic reasons. (So for the min/maxers, the character is clearly a cripple already.) I decided to try Super Jump anyway as a travel power, along with Combat Jumping and eventually Acrobatics once I have room for it. Jump Kick gave me another attack without having to add another pool. And honestly, I do not care for the Toughness pool at all. Of course, since I'm only taking two pools on that character (Leaping and Fitness) there's really no functional reason I couldn't drop Jump Kick and replace it with Air Superiority. But Jump Kick seems to work well enough, and it fits the character.