Am I missing something in the KM set?

Damage seems fine to me at higher levels. I enjoyed the animations for the first 38 levels but it grew old for me.....quicker than I expected.

I've been trying to get a handle on why....and the best I can figure is the sound effects. The "buildup" of each power starts to get to me. And then the "thwack" of the power hitting seems weak. Just not satisfying....after awhile. That's the best way I can explain it.

@Deathstroke33

I'm kind of in the same situation. Seems like a lotta folks coming back after 1.5 - 2 years away. I'm currently trying a KM/Shield scrapper, and so far it seems pretty decent. I didn't take that crazy Torrent move, because... well, I don't wanna knock stuff away if I'm later gonna have Against All Odds, which, I think, works from havin mobs around you, like RttC in Willpower? One of those first three attacks does occasionally knock 'em away.

My plan is to take Hasten ASAP, and try to speed up this set. The first three attacks of this set actually make for some decent average damage as a chain, but around lvl 8 it starts to feel... I dunno, like it's too slow. Waiting for them to recharge becomes a pain, and you're still using vet powers and brawl to fill the gaps. Since it's still a new set, they will probly make some changes to it. I would suggest swapping places with Power Siphon and Torrent. That way you could get it earlier, and have a few clocks in it by lvl 8. (That's what I call recharge enhancers lol).

Then, change Torrent to a "Kinetic Leg Sweep" attack that just knocks everything down around you and has a chance to disorient. But anyway, I'm planning to try to speed it up, and get that 20 miserable seconds happnin more often. THEN, with AAO running, it might turn into a decent single target "buzzsaw" lol. I've never had Shield past lvl 26, and have no real experience with KM, so it's all new to me, but I think speeding it up is the only way to go, and try to get that PS perma. The damage isn't just Energy, it's also mostly Smashing, so... yeah I'm gonna need every ounce of damage later on, pounding on Maltas.

Also, I swear I read somewhere that KM's secondary effect is that it weakens the damage of the enemy? (You know, like how Dark Melee debuffs Acc?) I don't know if that's true. I don't really see any indication of it, no graphic around the mobs showing it. Also, I think they need to improve the way the PS buffs up top are displayed, so that there's more of a warning when it's about to go out.

One thing that concerns me is how long it takes the character to go thru the animation of activating PS. Is there a way to speed that up? Maybe Interrupt Time enhancers would make it activate quicker? I mean, that's a couple seconds where you're just standing there getting shot and pounded on. Not very Kineticky. It should be instant like some other build up type powers I've seen. If I'm gonna end up spamming it every 20 seconds, that's gonna get old REAL fast.

And I agree that the sound effects are irritating, sounding like some kind of demented car driven by muppets is about to come up behind you to do a drive by. It needs to be more of a "whisper version" of the kinetic sounds, and then the impacts more like Super Strength.

But anyway, I really don't wanna give up on this character. I'm already getting kinda sentimental... I was street hunting, lvl 6, clicked on a door to ToT real quick, and ended up fighting two of those sorcerreseses, a Lieut, and the other one was an orange boss! I thought I was doomed, but somehow pulled it off. Pretty epic fight lol. I summoned my buff pet a couple times to draw her fire off of me... let her waste those powers. Blackwand to the face, pound pound pound. XP. I take that as a good sign, when a toon does something like that at an early lvl.

I've got my KM/WP up to 41 currently and I have to say that I've generally found it on par with my MA, Fire, and Electric builds (all using WP). As others have said, Power Siphon makes the damage quite nice (a fully buffed CS will drop most bosses' health bars by half for me), but the big thing for me with is the nicely stacking mitigation.

Specifically, all the powers inflict -damage and then either have a good chance at knockdown or stunning your target. Your tier 2 and 3 recycle fast enough you can even stun bosses on a regular basis (not all the time... they die too fast for that... but it happens often enough to be noticeable... especially if its a War Walker). The net effect is that with each hit you're reducing your target's damage, buffing your own damage, and either knocking the target down or building mag for stun (or both in CS' case). It also stacks well with Air Superiority's knockdown (flight is my preferred travel power).

My current build calls for dark mastery as my APP. It made all the difference with my Fire/WP build where the lack of primary set mitigation was making life difficult. Coupled with the -damage, knockdowns, and stuns of KM it should give me more than enough debuff and soft control to deal with nearly anything.

I will speak up for Repulsing Torrent though. Unlike a traditional build-up, Power Siphon takes time to reach peak effectiveness. Opening on a large spawn with RT can really break up its alpha and give you time to build up your +damage before they get organized. You don't need it fully-slotted by any means (an Acc IO in the base slot is enough for that purpose), but with the changes to Fitness coming it makes a good one-slot wonder for breaking up alpha-strikes.

If you have room, I'd take Repulser Torrent for two reasons:

1. The very situational moments when you can throw a whole group into a corner before engaging in melee.

2. PvP It's damage is really good, and it's one of your 2 ranged attacks.

Other than those two reasons, it's trash unfortunately. It's not 100% knockback, it doesn't do -dam, it doesn't add to power siphon, and it has an accuracy penalty.