Fire/Kin Duo build help

Hello all. I played the first 3 months of CoH launch then stopped after that. Here I am returning after all this time. The game has come along way and tons of stuff I need to learn still.

That being said, yes, I've used the search and I've gone through numerous Fire/Kin build threads. Most of them are all geared towards farming. Well that is fine when I'm 50 but I'm level 18 and I duo with my brother who is a tanker.

I started off with the "Striking The Match, A Fire/Kin Guide" by Star Sentinel and was using that build. However now that I'm 18 I find that I'm not enjoying my hero as much as I think I should.

Could I get some help with finding something that may work better for me and still be viable?

Some things I do not like:
Hasten - I understand the power of this but at my level when I use it, its an end drain. Its situational and I feel that I could go for something more useful earlier on.
Hot Feet - such an end drain, I'm using lvl 20 IO everywhere mind you. I have to toggle it off because I run out of end after a couple fights which makes doing missions somewhat slow IMO.
Super Speed - not a big fan, I can't control it very well.

Super Jump seems cool but it looks like it may conflict (or be overkill) when I eventually get Inertial Reduction?

I tried a ill/rad controller before I started with this hero and I didn't feel as heroic as the fire/kin. I really do like the fire/kin build.

Any help would be great, even to 40 would be helpful. I appreciate your time in advance.

I forgot to mention, I do not have the new expansion pack, if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

Its hard to give advice in this situation. For one thing, experiences are subjective. I like Hasten and Super Speed, even on a Kin. I dont like combat jumping. So we already differ widely, and that isnt your primary or your secondary.

The only other advice I can think of is to tell you to try all your powers, even if it means you dont take Hurdle, Health and Stamina. Take every power, even Repel. Try them all for yourself. Play your character to at least level 25, preferably 32 to try the top power in your set, if you can stomach it.

By the time you reach 25 (or 32) you'll have a good idea whether you really like playing a build, especially if you've tried every power. Then you can do a respec trial and drop the powers you dont like OR abandon the character.

For me the fun aspects on my Fire/Kin as I played up were Char, Transfusion, Repel, Flashfire, Siphon Speed, Hover and Speed Boost. Later I dropped Repel but I had a lot of fun with it as I leveled up. As I got higher in levels, I found I really l iked Bonfire, Fire Imps, Transference and Fulcrum Shift. Cinders too, but that was back in issue zero or issue 1 time frame, so it lasted a lot longer. I never liked Hot Feet, but I use it.

Anyway, if you don't like the core functionality of Char, Transfusion, Siphon Speed, Flashfire and Speed Boost, you might not enjoy the combo. Those are the powers that you'll be doing ALWAYS (well, how often you do Speed Boost is up to you). If you dont like zipping around and siphoning / draining / healing off guys and stunning/holding guys, then you just aren't going to enjoy the combo.

The only exception would be if you really like big damage (albeit damage limited in its variability on how easy it is to bring to bear). And even then, you wont really experience that until level 38.

But if you already dont enjoy the siphon + char + transfusion + flashfire + speed boost thing, then I doubt you'll like it more later. Possible, but unlikely.

Lewis

Thanks for the advice guys. I do enjoy the Char, Transfusion, Siphon Speed, Flashfire combo (don't have speed boost yet). I just struggled to see hasten and hot feet so early in the build being effective. I'll play around with it some more and see if I'm able to get them later in the build. My guess is as soon as I get stamina and get it slotted decently with some IOs that I will probably see less of an end drain from Hot Feet. I'll stick with what I got going through the 20s and see what happens. Worst case I respec or re roll I guess. Thanks for the tips guys.

Anyone else has any tips, feel free. Like I said I'm still learning and very open to suggestions.

Don't leave hot feet on all the time, nor use it on every mob then. At your level, you really want to use Hot Feet when you get the extra damage from Containment. If the mobs die before you get the holds going, then leave it off... just because you have a power doesn't mean you got to use it.

And as others have said, fire/kins are a bit of a chore to play till you hit 32 level.

once you hit 22, put 3 SO end-reducers in hot feet. its still going to drain you, but even though it wont feel like you're doing much, even hitting brawl once in a while, you'll be doing good damage overall.

I like my fire/rad more than my fire/kin, but that is a different issue. I know that fire/kin is the popular build.

I have always felt that with fire/ trollers that you just grind it out until imps, where you become pretty awesome. I don't think there is a great way to overcome the end problems of Hot Feet at lower levels. I put as much acc into Char as I could and just did my best. It was totally a grind until 32, but worth it.

I duo with a friend of mine almost exclusivly he's a blaster and out damaged me by a leaps and bounds early on so I rarely used hot feet except when we got seperated till I could slot 2 acc and 2 end redux and stamina. With a tank who should be taking most of the damage and keeping the baddies occupied I'd try to focus on healing, power siphon, and applying SB so his attacks come back faster and hit harder at the lower levels. I reapply fire cages quite a bit so I also slotted and end reduc there too, which seemed to help. I didn't take SS this time but I have on other toons and when I use it in missions I usually just hold the key forward key for short intervals or tap it and turn it off in combat. But if you don't like it get rid of it. you have other options for travel powers or the temp powers. If you have Ninja run use that and sprint with siphon speed and you should be good. Hasten is worth it but the end crash can be a little rough, best thing I can tell you is stock/make a couple of blues until it starts to hurt less. Stick in there and keep with it you'll start seeing value pretty soon in the build once you get imps you'll be wanting to turn up the difficulty and it only keeps getting better as you level from there.