Kinetic Melee: The low down

Hey all.

I've gone for a bit and recently returned to play some more pew pew. I was looking at trying out Kinetic Melee on either a scrapper or brute. Before I dive right in and start the process, I was hoping to get some feedback, positive and negative, about the set since it has been in the hands of players for a bit of time now.

So, what are some of the likes or dislikes for Kinetic Melee?

Are there secondaries that seem to benefit from a pairing with KM?

Do you prefer to play as a scrapper or brute with KM?


Thanks!

I think scrappers benefit more from KM than brutes. Power Siphon is a powerful damage buff that lasts a long time. Damage buffs are diluted on Brutes because they already have fury. Further, scrappers have higher base damage to be buffed. Finally, Concentrated Strike, when it criticals, will instantly recharge Power Siphon. Only scrappers can critical.

I think a great pairing would be Dark Armor (surprise), Electric, or Fire. I'll say it again; Power Siphon is a powerful damage buff that lasts a long time. It will provide a high benefit to defensive sets that include damage auras. The -damage debuff is not very large, but it will stack more effectively with sets that start with high resistance powers.

I was a little underwelmed by it on my scrapper, but I'm actually really enjoying it on my Dark Armor Stalker. She's only 14, but I shut off xp to do Praetoria content.

The main problems with Kinetic Melee are that you don't get a spike like you do with Build Up (but, once you have a chain, overall you'll have a higher +dam% for longer with Power Siphon than you will with BU, at the cost of a lower to-hit bonus), and that it LOOKS far slower than it actually is (much like tai-chi, which seems to be the inspiration for the animations).

It's fast and hits like a bus loaded with concrete-filled nuns. I love it on my scrapper.

Ok, thanks for the input so far gang.

What about powers? Anything jump out as superfluous or skippable?

I prefer my busses filled with concrete and my nuns deisel powered, but I digress.

As others have stated: scrappers, IMO, but I thought CS on a stalker also had a chance to instantly recharge "build up?"

I think most of the powers for KM are wants, other than Repulsing Torrent. Doesn't do good damage, and its mitigation is iffy, since it does KB in a cone. I'm going to pick it up for my KM Scrapper in the 40s, but only use it as a mitigation tool: and even then, I'm going to debate taking Energy Torrent from the APP instead, especially if it really only does KD, and not KB. Confront is up to you and your AT, of course.

Focused Burst isn't used by me TOO often, but I like having a ranged attack on my melee characters, as there are runners or times where it's going to be nice to have (should be nice in the Battle Maiden fight, for instance). Concentrated Strike is just awesome... hits hard, and it makes me chortle with glee (okay, almost, I'm of Swedish descent and not THAT expressive) whenever it recharges Power Siphon.

I've given it a try on a tank, scrapper and brute so far. I was sold on KM/Inv or Inv/KM one way or another.

The tank just felt too slow at bringing things down, even with the early solid ST chain. The light quick attacks just weren't doing it for me.

The scrapper was my favorite, damage wise. Out of the box the ST chain was very quick (even if the damage comes at the end of the animation, making it seem slightly slower) But the brute was putting up decent numbers and I really wanted that more "tanky" feel, figuring the 90% res cap would get me that when I needed it.

The brute has some solid damage. (Running beside a KM/Regen friend) with fury built up our numbers are similar at the moment, mine being slightly higher outside of criticals. Power siphon causes the scrapper to pull ahead clearly though. (And when IO's come into play and it is up half the time the scrapper will continue to pull ahead.)

It's very much an ST set. I heard someone compare Burst to footstomp, its not even in the same league. (8 foot radius vs 15) But it seems fun so far.

As for secondaries, shield seems awesome if you can get past the animations. SR or Elec would be solid as high recharge means more uptime on power siphon. But really anything can work well.

The main thing I notice about Kinetic Melee is that it sounds like you are defeating your foes by having cars drive past them at high speed. I keep wanting to create a character based on a NASCAR concept.

The animations and sound effects are still awesome, though, even if (possibly intentionally) amusing. I particularly like it combined with Shield (an energy shield in one hand, with the one handed kinetic animations colored the same looks awesome) but both my Kinetic Melees so far are Scrappers.

Once again, thanks for all the feedback. I've decided to make a KM/Elec scrapper which lead me to another query. I posted that question in the Scrapper forum for more advice.

What is the opinion of it on Tanks? I'm trying out a WP/KM tank right now. He's pretty nice so far but I'm seeing issues with a tight build. Mainly because I don't know what (if anything) is skippable from KM.

For what is worth, I like the Kinetic Melee/Shield Defense/Soul Mastery tanker.

It is impressive, when it comes to tanking an AV... quite literally, by neutering that AV's damage output.

* 4 single-target Kinetic melee attacks do a -7% damage debuff on the target.
* 1 AOE Kinetic melee attack does -14% damage debuff.
* Shield Defense's Against All Odds imposes a -7% damage debuff on things in melee range of you.
* Stick Darkest Night on the AV you are meleeing, and that is another -21% damage debuff.

As such, you can easily maintain -63% to -70% damage debuff on the AV.
It is fun turning a scary AV into a wimp.

-Kokoro

I think this is one of the sets that doesn't really give Brutes an easy 'win'.

KM is best for Scrappers and Stalkers (in my opinion).

The reason why is because Concentrated Strike (when it Crits.) automatically recharges Power Siphon for Scrappers and Power Siphon (the Build Up power, forgot name) for Stalkers.

I was originally going to make a KM Scrapper...but to be honest, I don't like any of the secondaries for Scrappers (the Secondaries I do like I already have toons with and don't like to make toons with powersets I already have for the most part).

So I made a KM/Ninjitsu Stalker. He's lvl 23 finally (just got him 23 this morning) and now that he has some common IOs in him, hopefully I won't have many end. problems....but so far, he's been okay/fun to play with

I suppose I am the only person who has made a Kinetic Melee Stalker here. I tried it after I made an Energy Melee Stalker, and I have to say that KM is epic on stalkers. A few highlights:

• Burst is a 100% critical from hide, letting you take out all of the minions with decent slotting/popping a red and using buildup. On defense sets/with a purple inspiration you can do a dreaded Build Up - Burst - Placate - Burst combo, flattening everything within an 8 foot radius of you.
• The damage debuff is useful, considering the low HP and dismal cap of 75% resist. Wail on an AV for awhile and your team will thank you.
• Concentrated Strike's build up recharge is arguably more useful than it simply going critical, because it increases the power of all your attacks by 80% for 10 more seconds. This allows for consecutive use of build-up, to which my current record is 4 uses in a row.
• Assassin strike has the quickest activation time on this set than any other.