Noobish Kin/DP Questions

Hello all. I've been playing CoH on and off since beta and I've never found a toon that I've wanted to commit to long term. However I just recently rolled a Kin/DP Defender and he just feels right. I've been reading the boards for a while and I've heard various conflicting opinions about Kinetics and DP powers and pools etc.

First a few comments... While playing this toon the combo of Hasten/Siphon Speed/Siphon Power is just ridiculous. I really felt like a super hero gameplay wise and that is without enhancements.

As far as pools go I plan on taking Stealth/SS for "free" invisibility and Inertial Reduction for vertical movement. I also plan to take the Leadership Pool (minus maneuvers).

I will be honest I understand IOs but I've never really embraced the IO system. I plan to get into it once I hit 50. So far I've been taking the old school approach of selling everything until I hit DOs and only buying enhancements when I get to the 2 levels below requirement.

So my questions are as follows:

Since I'm slotting for leveling is 1x Acc in all of my to hit based powers plus 6 slotted Tactics 3x End Redux 3x To Hit Buff cool accuracy wise till IOs?

Does Stealth/SS still stack for invisibility? If so how come I see builds with SS, Grant Invisibility and Invisibility yet no Phase Shift?

Should I take Pistols, Dual Wield and Empty Clips? I've seen some posted builds drop one of those 3 powers. It seems that the 3 together would make for a pretty stable single target attack chain. (I know Empty Clips is a cone.)

Any general advice for my SO based leveling plans? Am I unnecessarily gimping myself doing it this way? I don't really have a lot of Inf so I plan to play it cheap and save up for end game.

Tactics does help quite a bit with the need for kinetic powers to hit targets. Stealth and superspeed do indeed stack and it's quite viable for manuvering into position to maximize fulcrum shift. The epic sleep AoE power helps with this feature, too, down the road.

Dual pistols itself is handy for kinetics because of the 3 AoE powers. With the damage debuff in swap ammo, you can really impact incoming damage stacking with siphon power and fulcrum shift.

IO sets help with niches that your primary and secondary powers in themselves do not feature, for instance a resistance set IO enhancement for -knockback on your kinetic can be VERY handy. You can slot it in a power such as increase density and not even have to activate that power to get the bonus.

On my kinetics, I really like the speed boost + grant inviz combo to help teammates 'stealth' through some missions. A lot of kinetics and defenders would take powers in the concealment pool in order to slot defense IO sets, specifically the Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge bonus. Invisibility on a defender is 10% defense base across the board (except psy), so it isn't shabby for that angle either.

There's nothing wrong with your slotting style. Myself, even if I don't go full sets, I often spring for the level 35 generic IOs at level 32, since they are stronger than level 35, 40, 45, SOs and they don't lose effectiveness. Generic IOs are easy to understand and are quite cheap to build - usually. Sometimes the salvage for accuracy can get very salty. I would say that the majority of players wait until at least the mid 40s before purchasing their final IO set enhancements and recipes.

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely consider generic IOs and Grant Invisibility in my future build. How do Architect enhancements compare to standard SOs?

Do you think it is worth it to trade build up and conserve power for the st hold/aoe sleep or are the forementioned powers too redundant with Kinetics as a primary?

I was about to start a similar thread. I'm about to make a Kin/DP too.

Good Point about Power Mastery, I din't think about it. Do you guys also recommend Mace Mastery for +Def (considering the fact that I'll pick up Manuevers and CJ) and and Focused Accuracy?

And I was also wondering if it is best to make a Corruptor instead. Does Kin Defs waste Damage buffs above the cap?

This depends on what you plan to do mostly whether to go corruptor or defender. If you plan to solo mostly, making a corruptor would make sense. If you plan to team, the defender's buff rate is higher: 25% on fulcrum shift compared to 20% for the corruptor rate. In other words, the defender can bring the scrappers, blasters, dominators, tanks, stalkers, masterminds (and pets) and brutes to higher damage levels.