Kinetic Melee

Hey guys, I'm sure similar threads have been made before, but seeing as I didn't find one on the top 8 pages, I felt safe to go ahead and make one.

So, I remember a flurry of information about KM when it hit a few issues back but now I'm having trouble finding information on it. Where does it fall in comparison to other scrapper sets? For that matter, aside from Shields, does it have any strong synergies with Scrapper secondaries? KM/DA seemed like an amusing concept, as does KM/Regen and KM/SR.

If you had to choose between KM and Claws, which would you say offers an all around better play experience?

On a scrapper? I'd go Claws.

From what I've read on here and experienced in-game, KM for Scrappers just feels... off somehow. Stalkers on the other hand >_>

As for synergy. I rolled up a KM/Shield but just couldn't get into the animations. (I'm weird like that, choosing less effective powers, ala fashion over function sometimes)

Ended up rolling a KM/SR to 23 and shelving him as the SO's didn't really give me the boost I'd been expecting. Loved the concept I'd created, just couldn't get into the powerset for some reason.

KM is similar to claws in that both offer high-uptime damage buffs, moderate mitigation by way of knockdown, knockback, -damage and/or stuns, and relatively balanced levels of single target and aoe damage compared to some sets. Both also do their best aoe damage in spherical pbaoe form, my favorite kind on a scrapper. They differ substantially in that claws does much better aoe than KM and KM does perhaps not quite as much better single target than claws, as well as claws requiring redraw and KM not.

In my opinion most of these traits add up to making both of these sets ideal pairs with resist-based secondaries. The damage buffing is a major boon to damage auras, and the mitigation is useful even after you've ioed yourself into some s/l defense. This is going out on a limb, but if you can bear with me for a moment, both sets also perform admirably in situations where you'd find your target cap saturated with minions and lieutenants for extended periods. Who knows if they'll ever add anything like that to the game though, right?

I have a 50 claws/elec and a 50 km/fire. I went elec with claws because it rarely requires redraw and in my opinion benefits from claws' strong mitigation in shockwave. Fire and km work well together because fire has all kinds of amusing toys that you want to be firing off frequently and healing flames is a superior enough heal that you don't need a reliable mass knockback as badly. Fire also supplements km's aoe damage greatly whereas between spin and spin, elec would be hard pressed to do more than it already does via damage aura. I imagine both primaries would pair about equally well with dark, which is to say just fine once you have your tier 4 cardiac.

Both would also be fine with other secondaries of course. You can't do claws/shield and km/shield looks even dorkier than km/other things so I would steer clear of that. KM is easily better than claws when paired with regen unless you just adore redraw. WP and invuln are very claws-friendly, SR has more redraw than you'd expect unless you specifically avoid enhancing practiced brawler for recharge at 50 and carefully avoid firing it too often so I would imagine that it could be a good fit for km.

Both sets are cool, I'd say make one of each, heh.

Kinetic Melee also has the advantage of not being entirely Lethal/Smashing Damage.

The lack of redraw for Kinetic Melee is a good thing as well depending on your secondary.

Regen? Going to be lots of redraw.

Fire Armor? Lots of redraw.

SR? Onlly if you set your mez protection on auto.

WP? None except for the few cases of SoW use.

I have an IOed Claws/Da, and a KM/ElecA. When it can time to choose characters to become Incarnates it was the Km/ElecA hands down. First it is one of the coolest looking combos I have ever played. Mixed with items from the Ninja pack, or the Conical Hat it really gives a god/avatar of storms/thunder Feel to it. I could see it doing the same with /DA though.

In the end for me it was the t9 that made the decision. I detest KB on a scrapper, really I hate it in general. As the claws t9 is KB it has a way of frustrating me, and my teammates who are melee. Adding a level shift (or 3) could only make that worse in my eyes. So, Km it was.

There is also the Energy component to its damage, it is a nice change from what scrappers had for so long. Yes we have fire, and elec now, but KM is somehow...cooler.

For secondaries, Interface REALLY shines with a damage aura, I mean really. When I play my DB/WP scrapper who does not have one I can see massive differences.

All in all, I just have more fun with KM, the spiffy animations, the change in damage type, the cool utility of Siphon, and the nice -dmg secondary effect is great for me.

The redraw factor on Claws is way overrated.