Thoughts about KM

Sup Heroes and Villains I've been playing the new zones and new melee power Kinetic Melee. And I was all hyped up about it until I played it. I was disappointed, I was thinking that I was going to be able to siphon the end of the enemy like Protean. but that is the lest of my let downs the big one is the total lack of damage I find that KM has. I haven't played Elev control enough to say much about it. but so far compared to Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning Ken Melee is a major let down. Both DP and DS are every well rounded and match the power sets really well, but my stalker I made was way to squishy unlike the other ones I've made. I then tried the set on a higher defense archetype but found that even as a brute I wasn't dealing the damage I get from SS. I'm not sure if it is just me. But I think KM is just too much show and not enough go.

I'd like to know what you guys think. Please keep it civil. barking annoys me.

I personally like the look and setup for the set. My Scrapper isn't too high level since I have a few new characters with Going Rogue, but if you look at the damage of the set and other threads discussing it, KM is pretty solid for damage, though it is more focused on single target damage than AOE.

Repulsing Torrent is kind of crummy, though. Still not sure how KB was seen okay on a melee set. Still, it works overall from what I can see and what I've read from the more mathematically inclined types on the forums.

Not sure why you aren't seeing much damage. Got my Kin/EA brute all through Praetoria and up to 22 and I was more than happy with the damage. IT cranks out some nice single trget numbers. Plenty of go & show.

Alter666, i agree with you. it feels all show and no go. i got my scrapper up to level 19 and just couldn't do it anymore. it feels like it's taking too long for the powers to do dmg because of the animation.

don't get me wrong. i love the sound and animation that kinetic melee provides (sounds like a jet taking off). but i think the devs need to speed up the animation and provide the set with more dmg. i'm sure siphon power helps with the dmg. but siphon power just doesn't last long enough in my opinion.

i think i'll give martial arts a try since they updated it again.

On a Stalker, KM is pretty decent. It's got some AoE and good mitigation. Why would you say it was squishy? What set were you pairing it with?

I haven't had much time to play lately, only my Inv/KM Tanker, but so far, only lvl 15, he doesn't seem slow. In fact, with the 3 first attacks, they activate so fast, sometimes they activate even though the previous attack defeated the foe. I wonder if that's a bug....

As for Siphoning Endurance, I don't think it was ever said we were getting 'Siphon Melee'. Although we get a power called Siphon Power, I think the word power was with the definition of strength. The concept of my tanker is he's a martial artist with a technique that manipulates force with the slightest touch. He can alter force into its fundamental parts (mass and acceleration) allowing him to do some crazy stuff. Fits the concept like a glove, IMO

My stalker was a KM/WP(I got killed by easy people, gave me the what the hell moments)... I couldn't solo maltiple missions in my stalker because I wasn't able to take out the enemy before the took me out. I'm no sure if it is cause I was useing Willpower or what. I was able to solo all of pretoria with my KM/Invun brute, but I had a lot of trouble in some of the missions. it just seemed to take a long time to get through the missions...

Not sure if it is cause Preatoria is harder on the lowbie or what but it was just a pain to solo.I ended up skipping a the mission where you go in to find the meeting place for the destroiers and Resistance because I just coudn't survived that endless amount of Blastmasters they were throwing at me solo... I'm sure if I teamed with someone it would be no problem... but the only time I team as lowbie is when I have 20 days to hit 50. so I can unlock epic archs.

It's prolly just me... I not a melee person anyway... I love my blasters... DP is the bomb. two shoting same level foes is awesome. I love the look of it... I'll try the willpower kin tank... more hitpoints... might not de as fast. I love the stalker concept being all ninja... they jus can't take a punch I guess. Bt this all could be my horible luck.... nah... can't be that.

I was trying to solo protean... I've done it before. but it was wih my MM. With my other toons it is inposible to solo him...

Missions in Praetoria are SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult than those in standard CoH/V lowbie zones. I think some people are taking KM, testing it only in Praetoria, and then comparing it to experiences in Atlas Park and King's Row, not realizing the level of challenge is different.

EDIT: And when I say 'significantly', I mean, there are times where I died 3 or more times trying to solo all the waves of ambushes and such, or against a nasty Destroyer's lieutenant with too many Blast Masters around him.
/EDIT

Also, did you take all 3 of the initial single target attacks? And Power Siphon? At level 14 on a scrapper with all those + hasten, I'm just slaughtering stuff now.

I have a lvl 50 KM/shield scrapper and I have found it to be the most fun I have had in ages. The damage output is very good and shield charge coupled with burst works really well, especially after building up some PS. I have also been able to solo AV's with it. It can be a little end heavy in the longer fights but jsut going from mob to mob its absolutely great. I have found the damage from Concentrated Strike is awesome, yes the animation is long, but who cares, the damage is extreme and you feel like your actually thumping some1. For me KM has given CoH a new lease of life and I have found a new favourite toon.

I love the look.... I guess it is just my luck with the game.

Part of the reason KM feels slow is that mobs seem to react to it at the start of the animation where with other sets you hit them first before they turn round.

I'm enjoying my KM/SR stalker, but my fire/KM tank in the beta sucked (lvl 41), I have 12 50 tanks and many others 35+ and this was flat out the worst I've ever played. I was dying on occasions to 3 white minions if one of them was a sapper. I think this was a symptom of the first thing, even though I was knocking the sapper down, he was still draining all my end at which point toggles dropped and I was permamezzed till dead.

the rooting is horrible but otherwise its a nice set

The set isn't slow animating but it is slow killing. By the time Kinetic Melee is doing high damage other sets already have killed the entire spawn and are looking for the next. If repulsing torrent weren't a power that was more likely to slow you down than speed you up it might be a different story

I'm leveling up in praetoria using it as a tank and I love it. I'm pretty sure the -damage has saved my life two times so far.

Not sure what everyone is smoking when they say the damage is low and the animations are slow. The animations are fast, so individual attack damage is a little lower, but they all chain together nicely.

KM is fine. It's a very well balanced and damaging Single Target specialist.

What makes it "feel" slow is two things:

1) The animations "feel" a bit slow. They aren't, but they do feel like it at times because you are actually using up all the animation time doing something rather than a quick hit and then a short pause of doing nothing at all.

2) With the mechanics of how Power Siphon works, the set lacks the immediate, on demand, spike of damage that other sets get with Build Up. You have to activate P.S. and then do a couple of attacks to see the big damage bonus...which easily ends up HIGHER than Build Up, but it takes a couple of seconds to get there.

Easiest way to deal with P.S. is to consider it a mini-fury.

Now, all that said, Kinetic Melee is NOT the best suited powerset for Brutes and Tanks as they lack the base damage before Power Siphon and they lack Critical Hits for the instant recharge of Power Siphon that lets Scrappers and Stalkers keep it up almost constantly.

Note that I said it's not the BEST suited powerset. It is perfectly acceptable for Brutes and Tanks (and I'm simply loving my KM/EA Brute), but you have to live with a slightly lower "top end of power" that Scrappers can achieve with it.