Kinetic melee

[crkohl]

On 12/27/2019 at 9:25 AM, Broken_Prey said:

On live I had a level 50 KM/SD scrapper. I loved him but when I remade him here I made him a KM/SD stalker. I haven't played him much yet, too many alts, but the combo looks like he is going to be a beast. 

Just wanted to update on this build. It’s amazing. I’m shocked Kinetic Melee hasn’t gotten more hype on the forum for Stalkers. Burst auto-critting is way too fun, it has the fastest Assassin’s Strike animation out of hide, the first three attacks are quick and strong which leads to fast stacks. Most fun I’ve had with a character in a long time. Highly recommend leveling yours up when you can.

[Sovera]

15 hours ago, crkohl said:

Just wanted to update on this build. It’s amazing. I’m shocked Kinetic Melee hasn’t gotten more hype on the forum for Stalkers. Burst auto-critting is way too fun, it has the fastest Assassin’s Strike animation out of hide, the first three attacks are quick and strong which leads to fast stacks. Most fun I’ve had with a character in a long time. Highly recommend leveling yours up when you can.

I played a Scrapper KM almost to 50 but felt disappointed and let it be. The same reason I felt that way applies to Stalkers but is corrected a little bit, and that's that the rotation is fast if we only use the early attacks, sure, but the attacks are all low damage *because* they are early ones. Stalker helps in the ST damage (as it always does) by substituting the T1 for AS (obviously a large large upgrade).

 

Just three ST attacks leads to some annoyance in how we can't do a gapless AS, T3, T2, AS, since AS will not have recharged by then. We must do AS, T2, T3, T2, AS, which makes AS' hidden proc go 'wasted' on a T2. If we are doing max level content only then Moonbeam/Zapp can sort of takeover (Moonbeam better, but Zapp gives access to another AoE) as AS, Moonbeam, T3, T2, but Moonbeam's large recharge makes it awkward to use for every rotation.

 

Otherwise yes, KM is not just really pretty but fast and fluid. It only has one AoE but it's decent in how it comes early and allows to fit in a Force Feedback and the recharge is sort of perfect to try always use AS before it to fish for auto crit.

[Shred Monkey]

Responding to some of the early posts before reading the whole thread so maybe this is asked/answered already... 

 

My understanding of Concentrated Strike is that when it crits, it takes Power Siphon off cool-down.  So does increasing your crit chance (with AO procs) increase it's chance of activation or is it a fixed %?

 

 

[crkohl]

4 hours ago, Sovera said:

I played a Scrapper KM almost to 50 but felt disappointed and let it be. The same reason I felt that way applies to Stalkers but is corrected a little bit, and that's that the rotation is fast if we only use the early attacks, sure, but the attacks are all low damage *because* they are early ones. Stalker helps in the ST damage (as it always does) by substituting the T1 for AS (obviously a large large upgrade).

 

Just three ST attacks leads to some annoyance in how we can't do a gapless AS, T3, T2, AS, since AS will not have recharged by then. We must do AS, T2, T3, T2, AS, which makes AS' hidden proc go 'wasted' on a T2. If we are doing max level content only then Moonbeam/Zapp can sort of takeover (Moonbeam better, but Zapp gives access to another AoE) as AS, Moonbeam, T3, T2, but Moonbeam's large recharge makes it awkward to use for every rotation.

 

Otherwise yes, KM is not just really pretty but fast and fluid. It only has one AoE but it's decent in how it comes early and allows to fit in a Force Feedback and the recharge is sort of perfect to try always use AS before it to fish for auto crit.

Fair points all around. I guess I haven't noticed the ST gap issue as I mostly play in teams and using Burst in between ST attacks helps with the chain. I've been using the T1 attack still too if I do have a gap, and it indeed is quite weak compared to the T2 and T3. I'm only lvl 37 on this toon so far, but my plan was to grab Zapp and Ball Lightning as you mentioned. Looking forward to adding an additional AoE attack to the chain.

 

I do wish Burst's radius was 10' as opposed to 8' too. I don't think that would make it OP by any means. 

[BrandX]

34 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

Responding to some of the early posts before reading the whole thread so maybe this is asked/answered already... 

 

My understanding of Concentrated Strike is that when it crits, it takes Power Siphon off cool-down.  So does increasing your crit chance (with AO procs) increase it's chance of activation or is it a fixed %?

 

 

Fixed %

[TrashBasher]

I have recently taken up a KM/SR scrapper and I really like it.  I don't play like a robot trying to get the highest DPS I can.  I just enjoy trying to get the damage from Power Siphon and taking stuff out as fast as possible, but when you are in game, it isn't so smooth.  

 

One thing that is not mentioned is that Concentrated Strike has a bonus base accuracy, 90% vs 75% for normal powers.  It also has a higher DPS than all but Smashing Blow, so it is a good choice when the PS buff is off but your damage bonus is still high.  It is fun to take out a mob with one CS running at 150%+ damage bonus.

 

I find repulsing Torrent to be fun from time to time and the PBAoE packs a wallop when boosted.

 

My basic play is to find the Boss, throw Weaken Resolve, PS, follow, drive up the damage bonus and then Burst.  If I have a number of lowbies, I tend to switch targets if I can then Burst.

 

What is the average damage bonus?  No idea, but over 60% seems reasonable for sure, and when you Burst at 150%+ you get solid results.

[BrandX]

I had made a version of KM/Nin for my main, for the energy aspect.  I liked KM, but went back to StJ with Atomic Aura on the fists, purely for the animation reasons.

 

Not that KM has bad animations, I like them, just for this character I liked StJ better 🙂

 

I don't recall KM being weak, just some powers aren't that good to take, but some of them also imo aren't meant to be part of the always use rotation.