KM/Fire =/= SS/Elec
Kinetic Melee is a good set.
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
Unless I missed something, farming for shards is rather pointless due to the piss poor drop rate they fall at even while soloing on x8, ie while you may get 3 shards in a mission, you are more likely to get 0-1.
As long as you can handle the animations and how PS works, KM is a solid set.
I had a great time leveling up my own KM/FA scrapper. After finishing his build and getting him moderately incarnated out, I stopped playing him because he made highbie content too trivial. If that sounds like the kind of problem you don't mind having, I suggest you continue playing the character. Oh, and it's also a fantastic combination for ambush farming.
Honestly. Favorite damn primary ever to grace this franchise. It adds a little of all the above when it comes to attacks Light, medium, heavy, Disorients, Knock Back, PBAoE, Ranged, Tier 9.
My first was a KM/Nin Stalker and the comedic part of it all is that it reminds me of Street Fighter. Loved it from that moment. Can't really say I've seen much of an effect on it's debuff towards enemy strength, a red mob followed by three whites will make it hard until your tier 9s and depending on your secondary set. But the way the set meshes well together, ties from one attack to the next.
For Scrappers, Tankers, and Brutes - they get PS which at first seems a little underpowered compared to buildup. But five slot it with a build-up proc IO set and you're godlike when you start stacking those procs together. Stalkers instead get build up but with Concentrated Strike always critting on Hide (which instead of multiplying it's damage it recharges BU instantly) is also pretty sexy.
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Wait, what? Does Power Siphon give a chance to fire off a Gaussian proc on every single attack it modifies? Or am I misunderstanding?
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Originally Posted by Stryph
For Scrappers, Tankers, and Brutes - they get PS which at first seems a little underpowered compared to buildup. But five slot it with a build-up proc IO set and you're godlike when you start stacking those procs together.
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It shouldn't. However, if it does, that's really awesome.
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Originally Posted by Alef_infinity
Wait, what? Does Power Siphon give a chance to fire off a Gaussian proc on every single attack it modifies? Or am I misunderstanding?
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No.|
Originally Posted by Alef_infinity
Wait, what? Does Power Siphon give a chance to fire off a Gaussian proc on every single attack it modifies? Or am I misunderstanding?
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Chance to fire when you activate PS, when it does fire you get the buff like you would if it were in BU.
Interesting, but I unslotted mine in my last respect to give it more recharge and RectReticles for the +def.
I'm liking my km/fire scrap, but if i had to do it over i might make a broot just for the taunts. Burn and the aura send way too many things running when solo.
I love KM! Sadly, I also wish it had alternate animations. Some kicks. I'd love a mixture of KM and MA animations!
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
I have a Km/regen that recently hit 40 and she's been a blast to play.
SG: Guadians of Paragon - VG: Paragon's Darkness
The Usual Suspects: Fimboolvetr (Icer Tank), Tsukiyomi (Mind/Psi/Ice Dom), Smiting Dragon (Dm/Sr Scrap), Widow Mortis (NW)
Up and Comers: Ameterasu (Km/Reg Scrap), Arrhymian (Elec/Nin Stalk), TDMKII (Bot/Traps MM)
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Gaussion's only adds a proc, the proc has a chance so it is not always constant. Much like Kinect's KB proc under an AS for Stalkers, when it procs upon activating and landing AS - the target will be KBed. The BU proc will occur when the chance is in your favor, delivering Build Up ontop of PS.|
Originally Posted by Alef_infinity
Wait, what? Does Power Siphon give a chance to fire off a Gaussian proc on every single attack it modifies? Or am I misunderstanding?
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Originally Posted by MayorOfAngrytown
No.
Chance to fire when you activate PS, when it does fire you get the buff like you would if it were in BU. Interesting, but I unslotted mine in my last respect to give it more recharge and RectReticles for the +def. |
Recharge really? The power recharges quickly without using any. Unless if you're aiming for perma PS?
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Originally Posted by BrandX
I love KM! Sadly, I also wish it had alternate animations. Some kicks. I'd love a mixture of KM and MA animations!
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Don't like it. As someone else wisely said, it's another single-target set in a multi-target game, and besides, I've had enough of characters whose damage bonus is chained to constantly attacking, meaning I can't indulge my fluid, extremely mobile playstyle.
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Is it really that much more limited in AOE than others?|
Originally Posted by Laevateinn
Don't like it. As someone else wisely said, it's another single-target set in a multi-target game, and besides, I've had enough of characters whose damage bonus is chained to constantly attacking, meaning I can't indulge my fluid, extremely mobile playstyle.
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ELM, Swords, DB, Spines (weak on the ST), Claws...
Kin Melee has one PBAOE and a weak cone many skip.
Fire Melee has one PBAOE and a weak cone many skip.
Dark Melee isn't exactly an AOE Specialist.
Martial Arts has one PBAOE that's really only buffed up by leading it with Eagle's Claw.
The only think that helps the Swords is they have a PBAOE, a decent cone, and their tier 9 has such a weak cone, no one really uses it as an AOE.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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Ummmm, yeah. I don't see any reason why one wouldn't build to have PS as close to perma as possible. The CS 'crit' insta-recharge is nice, but unreliable. Why on earth wouldn't I want a rolling 30-150 ish % dmg buff perma? |
Originally Posted by Stryph
Recharge really? The power recharges quickly without using any. Unless if you're aiming for perma PS?
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And it actually doesn't recharge all that fast, you have to get significant amounts of recharge before it starts to overlap into period of time that you have the dmg buffs (decaying) - nevermind actual "perma."
I have a target build for km/regen with 147.5% recharge (including hasten), spiritual core alpha, and PS slotted with 2 Common +rech and 2 Rectified Reticle (not the proc) and it is still only up every 32 seconds. 20 seconds of uptime, + decay time, +crit recharges from CS and it's pretty close to perma. In theory; I haven't finished the build yet, and maybe with CS firing more often I'll find I have overkill for recharge in Siphon. I also am not certain actually how long the decay period lasts, so I might be underestimating the amount of time available for overlapping.
In fairness, I probably won't end up with that exact build. My intermediate 50 build (no purps/pvps) will have less recharge, but still with an eye to keeping PS up as much as possible. If I had my way I'd build KM for +dmg bonuses as a priority, but there aren't enough of them to be had for it to be worthwhile as a primary focus. Heh. Scrapper KM already hits like a truck on dust, and boosted it's just rediculous. I was teamed with a /pain and a /kin last night. Stupid amounts of dmg once KT/FS were going, and I think I got painbringered a couple of times in there too. I don't remember exactly what that does though, heh. Just sexy giant orange numbers. KM in the +300% dmg range (I monitor dmg buff just for kicks) is just mad.
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Originally Posted by Stryph
I too would like to see more animations. Especially Assassin's Strike carried over for Focused Burst or Concentrated Strike.
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FSC is great. City of Data says it's 1.91 damage scale (compare 1.2-1.4 for whirling sword, lotus drops, dragon tail, burst, etc.). It also gets radius 10 instead of 8.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
Is it really that much more limited in AOE than others?
ELM, Swords, DB, Spines (weak on the ST), Claws... Kin Melee has one PBAOE and a weak cone many skip. Fire Melee has one PBAOE and a weak cone many skip. Dark Melee isn't exactly an AOE Specialist. Martial Arts has one PBAOE that's really only buffed up by leading it with Eagle's Claw. The only think that helps the Swords is they have a PBAOE, a decent cone, and their tier 9 has such a weak cone, no one really uses it as an AOE. |
That said, after some thought, KM will probably be a lot better than it looks to me if you can leverage the +Dmg to get wonderful things from shield charge, fireball, etc. Still not my playstyle though.
Is it bad that KM has turned into my GO-TO SET for melee characters? xD
I just made a KM/Fire Scrap, haven't leveled him up any though.
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I was just curious. Wouldn't 5 stacks of LoTG: Recharge pretty much do it? Still new to mids here >_<
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Originally Posted by MayorOfAngrytown
Ummmm, yeah. I don't see any reason why one wouldn't build to have PS as close to perma as possible. The CS 'crit' insta-recharge is nice, but unreliable. Why on earth wouldn't I want a rolling 30-150 ish % dmg buff perma?
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FSC would be great if it had a standard recharge, but in reality it has a highly protracted recharge for the same DPA that most other sets get out of their pbaoes. It's also curiously expensive. KM is definitely in the bottom tier for pbaoe, so FSC does beat it there, but if you like FSC burst isn't really that far behind. It also does knockdown! What it is far behind is dragon's tail, lotus drops, and spin. This is part of why it goes so well with FA, but pairing it with any damage aura set or with shield would also go a long way toward making up the pbaoe deficit.
I luuuuuuuurrrrrrrrvvvvvv Kinetic Melee on scrappers.
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That's an advantage. IOs can fix recharge and endurance problems. They don't increase the radius or base damage of AoEs. |
Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
FSC would be great if it had a standard recharge, but in reality it has a highly protracted recharge for the same DPA that most other sets get out of their pbaoes. It's also curiously expensive.
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Put another way, if I could chose a weakness between 1) small radius and low damage and 2) long recharge and high end cost, I would always chose 2) because I know the tools to fix it are at hand and the end result will be dramatically better compared to applying those tools to 1).
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Well, it would certainly get you closer. I'm not really a numbers guru, I just obsess over a handful of toons ... numerically ... heh. Mine is KM/Regen, so I'm pumping recharge into it like there is no tomorrow. Other combos won't need as much in the secondary.|
Originally Posted by Stryph
I was just curious. Wouldn't 5 stacks of LoTG: Recharge pretty much do it? Still new to mids here >_<
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The "target build" example from above (147.5% recharge for PS to recharge in 32 secs) includes:
Hasten
5x LOTG +rech pieces
4x Doctored Wounds (5 pcs for the 5% rech bonus)
2 "purple" IO sets for another 20% rech bonus.
And Spiritual Core Alpha.
(probably another rech bonus in there i forgot about)
Again, just an example to get 20 secs uptime and 12 seconds "downtime." Again, in playing the character and not being remote close to that build I am starting to think that it is overkill to have the second +rech IO in there (in PS). It's slightly unlikely (especially with /Regen coming to brutes) that that toon will ever see the purples, and I haven't quite finished tuning a realistic build for when he gets to 50.
So no, just slotting 5x LOTG won't completely get you there, certainly not perma. But they help a lot and get you closer. With Crit-recharges it comes out pretty sweet.
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I have to disagree it has a PBAoE and a cone. It's not bad against multi-targets. I will agree that the constantly attacking format would be better for Brutes.|
Originally Posted by Laevateinn
Don't like it. As someone else wisely said, it's another single-target set in a multi-target game, and besides, I've had enough of characters whose damage bonus is chained to constantly attacking, meaning I can't indulge my fluid, extremely mobile playstyle.
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Granted I would still love SS better, even if it only has one AoE, because of Rage.
Uber Talgrim - level 50 emp/dark defender
Uber Rod - level 50 dark melee/regen scrapper
Rod Valdr - level 50 invuln/SS tanker
Talgrim - level 50 ninja/dark mastermind
OMG!! Please add these costume designs now!
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Crushing Impact and Scirocco's Dervish gives recharge bonuses.
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Originally Posted by MayorOfAngrytown
Well, it would certainly get you closer. I'm not really a numbers guru, I just obsess over a handful of toons ... numerically ... heh. Mine is KM/Regen, so I'm pumping recharge into it like there is no tomorrow. Other combos won't need as much in the secondary.
The "target build" example from above (147.5% recharge for PS to recharge in 32 secs) includes: Hasten 5x LOTG +rech pieces 4x Doctored Wounds (5 pcs for the 5% rech bonus) 2 "purple" IO sets for another 20% rech bonus. And Spiritual Core Alpha. (probably another rech bonus in there i forgot about) Again, just an example to get 20 secs uptime and 12 seconds "downtime." Again, in playing the character and not being remote close to that build I am starting to think that it is overkill to have the second +rech IO in there (in PS). It's slightly unlikely (especially with /Regen coming to brutes) that that toon will ever see the purples, and I haven't quite finished tuning a realistic build for when he gets to 50. So no, just slotting 5x LOTG won't completely get you there, certainly not perma. But they help a lot and get you closer. With Crit-recharges it comes out pretty sweet. |
Uber Talgrim - level 50 emp/dark defender
Uber Rod - level 50 dark melee/regen scrapper
Rod Valdr - level 50 invuln/SS tanker
Talgrim - level 50 ninja/dark mastermind
OMG!! Please add these costume designs now!
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Fixed your post.|
Originally Posted by UberRod
Crushing Impact and Obliteration gives recharge bonuses.
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Also, it's worth delving into the APP's for extra purple set slots and useful attacks.
Mains (Freedom) @Auroxis
Auroxis - Emp/Rad/Power Defender Pylon Video Soloing an AV
Pelvic Thunder - SS/Elec/Mu Brute
Sorajin - Elec/Nin Stalker
Neuropain - Sonic/Mental/Elec Blaster
I believe the best DPS chain for KM is just using the first 3 KM attacks, along with CS. Because of the way power siphon works, you get much more damage out of using the in set attacks to stack the PS buffs. Someone ripped into it with numbers once upon a time, I wish I could find the thread. I think with a nice chunk of recharge, you can run BB>SB>CS>BB>SB>QS forever and that stacks PS buffs like crazy.
Recharge is your biggest priority depending on what you go with for a secondary. It should go perfectly with /fire, as that is also a recharge hungry set. More recharge = more Power Siphon, Concentrated Strike, Healing Flames, and burn. It will also allow you to chain your attacks together without gaps.
I actually LOVE super strength. Honestly, probably my favorite melee set in the game. Decent single target damage and arguably the best PBAoE in the game. You don't really have to go out of your way for accuracy bonuses either, since rage has a nice to hit chunk. The disadvantages of SS are the rage crash and endurance. If you were to go SS/Elec, I would imagine very little in the way of endurance problems once you get power sink. I think KM/Fire and SS/Elec are both fun combinations, I don't think you'd be wrong to go either way. Both sets benefit from lots of recharge as well as smashing/lethal defense.
Long-time vet who has come back to the game after a year absence. I need some advice on Kinetic Melee but am completely unable to find any in the forums. How does this set stack up with the others? I've got an old KM/Fire back from when the set first came out sitting at level 20 and am wondering if I should continue in this endeavor, or should just give up on her and start SS/Elec brute farming for incarnate shards?