Thoughts about KM

I really didn't care for KM on my Brute in beta (at least at lower levels) but I'm liking it more on my current Scrapper. I don't have Power Siphon yet (didn't want to delay a more useful power pre-SO when it would be down most of the time) but at 22 I'm finding the set decent and very cool looking. Once I can take PS and slot some serious recharge in it I suspect the damage will actually be quite nice, though I hate the fact that Burst isn't a 15 foot radius or so... the animation looks way too powerful for what you actually get.

The animations tend to feel long because of what's happening on the screen. All of the attacks have a wind up to a final, quick burst of damage -- wave, wave, wave, BAM!

In other words, it's a set a quick-executing Knockout Blows and Eagle's Claws, with long windups to a final shot of damage. It would *feel* as fast as it actually is if the damage were happening throughout the animation, like Shadow Maul and some of the multi-swipe Dual Blades attacks.

As it is, yes, it's kind of silly thematically because why would anyone sit there and watch you wave your hands around instead of using that awkward pause to kick you in the sack? Eagle's Claw -- why would I stand there when a ninja guy jumps in the air in slow motion with his foot cocked back like he's going to put a footprint on my brain? Knockout Blow -- We've all seen Popeye cartoons... when a dude winds up like that? Newsflash -- he's gonna hit you in the face!

So just like with Dual Pistols (though not nearly as bad), it's a set full of style over substance. I've enjoyed playing the set so far, but yeah, you don't wanna spend too much time thinking about it because the animations are silly in a melee set.

A Kinetic Blast set with the same exact animations would be pretty great.

To me the animations make it actually feel faster, instead of slower. I don't have the last 3 attacks yet though.

i made a kinetic melee brute and i even deleted my other toon for it, kinetic melee is suppose to lower the enemies damage but the debuff is so small i only shave off only 1 hit of damage, and what if i dont want power siphon, thats not fair that all other powersets debuff doesnt need a build up power to work well, and even then at least they have debuffing enchanments to make it stronger, and kinetic melee doesnt, there are so many disadvantages to this kinetic melee and i really dont care about how the powers look like but just how they function, so PLEASE can you fix this problem to make it fair to the other powersets

Just to add, looking at KM's final attack, it has a very suitable amount of damage for its animation. I don't think there's a Scrapper attack that does more damage without having at least twice the recharge. It's one of the best ST attack in any set, being balanced pretty much only by its longer animation time. Again, Scrappers especially benefit from its chance to "crit" and immediately recharge Power Siphon, which gives an overall large boost to the rest of the set's damage.

Overall, the set is a bit above average, with a variety of good tools. It's balanced. There are other sets that aren't quite so balanced. Most new sets without obvious I win buttons (design flaws that get innocuously [or not] exploited) require some feeling out, otherwise they always feel sub-par. KM is actually a rather solid set. Scrappers and Tankers have obvious benefits (Power Siphon reset and better secondary effect numbers respectively), I'm not sure about Brutes and Stalkers yet.

If a set is going to be subpar till later levels its not a well designed set.

Also it sounds like a vacuum and Im constantly killing things while the KM is in suck mode with hideously "Oh Im so cool standing around not doing much" animations.

You can math the crap out of it.....and come to the conclusion that its adequate or even slightly better.....but If Im still killing things while Km dude is going all animatrix then its a subpar set.

My KM/INvu Brute isn't bad now that I IOed the hell out of his defence but pre-IOing I would die while animation was playing. I have the Heal power of INvu ready to go and bout time the animation is done I'm dead and I didn't even do damage to the baddie. But now that it is harder for the guys to kill me I'm mercen, also I don't even use power syphon.

You know, the #1 complaint about KM is "slow". I looked at the math and the first 3 attacks are pretty fast. I don't know if it's a bug or our eyes are deceiving. Kinetic attacks do seem slower even though it shows 1s. I think the problem is that the damage comes at the end of the animation so you feel it's slower. Power like Midnight Grasp deals damage very fast and then you are stuck in that animation for a while. The last 3 attacks are definitely slower especially if you use Focused Burst in attack chain.


I think it's ok if Kinetic does less damage because it has one of the most unique debuffs in -damage. The -damage part is quite obvious when you fight AV or even pylon. This secondary debuff alone makes Kinetic very unique and I like it. Well, I like the Stalker version.

I got my KM/WP scrapper to 50 and he solos, teams, and PvPs fine. He can solo the pillboxes in RV(when they haven't been taken over yet). The only animations I found slow on KM is Focused Burst and Concentrated Strike, over that I find them all in reasonable speed.