Kinetic melee buff

[Jawbreaker]

I've tried and tried to get into kinetic melee, because it has such great thematic potential and the animations are very cool. But it seems so underwhelming to actually play and I'm wondering if it would be more enjoyable if the devs could maybe lower the damage slightly and speed up the animations to give it more of that crunch factor that makes brutes fun to play. I don't know where it ranks currently in overall power set usage, but I believe it was pretty low when that report initially came out a year or two ago.

 

Anyone else think that would be a viable change? If not, does anyone else have other suggestions?

[BrandX]

Concentrated Strike needs to do some crit damage.  Won't help brutes as much, but it would do lots for Scrappers/Stalkers.  I shaving of the time on this ability would go a long way in helping the set over all.

I would really love Focused Burst to at least be as good as Smashing Blow in terms of damage.  Other than it's awesome animation, I see no reason to take it, when I can get a better range attack in the Epic Pool.  Seeing the Epic Pool, I'd really like to see Focused Burst become as good as Moonbeam, maybe locking out the choice, having one or the other, if the idea of having two such great attacks is to much.

 

Other than that, when paired with Bio, I was doing 1:40 Pylon Times and others did faster.  

[nihilii]

KM is awkward in general but especially so for Brutes because the Power Siphon damage boosting mechanic pairs poorly with the Brute inherent nature of low base damage and low damage mod with Fury on the side.

Fixing KM for Scrappers/Stalkers could be simple enough (add crit damage to CS, speed up the slower animations). Fixing KM for Brutes without making it too strong for other ATs is an interesting challenge.

It might make sense for a KM revamp to follow the Claws dynamic, where the set has higher damage longer recharge attacks on Brutes and Tankers. Scrappers/Stalkers get crit CS, Brutes/Tankers get more meaty hits.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

yeah right now KM feels like a very watered down highly animated version of Super Str. Where rage is a short weak siphon power and all the attacks have longish animations. I hear the stalker version isnt too bad since the ATO's help recharge the damage bonus fairly regularly

Edited May 6, 2023 by Saiyajinzoningen

[nihilii]

Stalkers also get a straight Build Up instead of Power Siphon.

So the CS pseudocrits recharge BU, which you can always doublestack for more efficiency unlike PS.

[CaffieneNirvana]

Honestly, one thing I love about Power Siphon is when I have Gaussian's on it. So when I pop it, I START with good damage as I build the stacks, and then once the proc wears off, I still HAVE that damage. It may or may not add up to the same in the end, or maybe a bit less, though, but it's certainly fun for those 20s it gets to throw down with.

 

Having Concentrated Strike as a "gadget" attack (re: having an effect that procs when it crits), along with also being your tier 9, is a little problematic I'll admit. I don't think it would hurt if it could still do critical damage, especially since it's a single-target tier 9, especially since its critical rate is hard fixed at 20% last I knew. And maybe for Brutes or Tankers it could have the "hits one or two enemies behind the original target in a line" thing going on, since they don't get criticals. Or even make it a mini-targeted AoE with a maximum target limit of two to three, Iunno. It'd suit the Tanker/Brute repetoire a bit better that way, methinks.

 

I get pretty good and consistent damage with Kinetic Melee aside from that though, especially on my Scrapper. And it's REALLY fun when paired with Bio Armor, especially on a Tanker; stacking up some of that -DMG% debuff lets you stay in Offensive Adaptation almost constantly.

 

Maybe a *slight* buff to its overall damage wouldn't hurt though. Given the windup on some of the animations, it can feel odd when the end result is a bit weak.

Edited May 7, 2023 by CaffieneNirvana
babble babble

[RCU7115]

I would love to see the option if having a Follow Up power pick instead of Power Siphon. 

[Forsetti]

In my opinion

 

Kinetic Melee is a terribly slow power set due to animation length. The damage of kinetic melee is the same as the other sets when it finally goes off, that means that the DPS of kinetic melee is seriously less than other melee attack powers.

 

So the potential fix could go two ways, make the animations shorter to be like the other power sets or increase the damage to allow for the extended time it takes to get the animation off.

 

I will confess the animations are very very cool, but I get so frustrated, that here I am running an animation for an attack, and another player moves next to me and kills my target! All that wasted time! And of course, to add total insult over injury despite that the target mob is dead, my attack goes off, set to cool down and the energy is spent.

 

I have grown to despise this power set, and tell any players asking for advice, this one worth skipping.

 

Regards

[Razor Cure]

One thing I remember from KM back on Live (I havent made a new one) was ConcStrike looking utterly stupid a lot of the time. The animation itself is great..if you are literally doing it from a T-Pose. Im you are jumping or leaning forward/back a bit, the animation just gets borked and looks really silly

[biostem]

It'd be great if the powers had a chance to siphon the strength from enemies, even outside of when power siphon is active...

[Marbing]

 

16 hours ago, biostem said:

It'd be great if the powers had a chance to siphon the strength from enemies, even outside of when power siphon is active...

Siphon power could be an auto instead of a click. Always on. Or a toggle. That’d be a cool and unique buildup mechanic.

[kelika2]

regular buildup and all attacks have a chance for siphon all the time

or longer lasting siphon effects and aoes giving more than one stack

[biostem]

5 hours ago, Marbing said:

Siphon power could be an auto instead of a click. Always on. Or a toggle. That’d be a cool and unique buildup mechanic.

Could do something like a mutually exclusive siphon speed toggle that grants you increased recharge, or a siphon power toggle that grants you increased damage, (with an appropriate debuff applied to the enemy).

Edited May 13, 2023 by biostem

[BrandX]

On 5/9/2023 at 1:08 PM, RCU7115 said:

I would love to see the option if having a Follow Up power pick instead of Power Siphon. 

 

If I was to make any change to Power Siphon, it'd be a free Power Siphon buff,  just by clicking it.

[Gobbledigook]

They could give KM a type of fulcrum shift which is not too dissimilar from DM Soul Drain and let the attacks drain a very small amount of stacking damage like a small personal Siphon power.

[BrandX]

13 hours ago, Gobbledigook said:

They could give KM a type of fulcrum shift which is not too dissimilar from DM Soul Drain and let the attacks drain a very small amount of stacking damage like a small personal Siphon power.

 

I've the power feels like a Mini Fury (which may be why Brutes aren't as happy with it).   It's supposed to give a -DMG effect to the targets you attack.  It's likely just not noticeable.

[CaffieneNirvana]

I could be wrong, but Power Siphon may have *originally* been supposed to add on the -DMG effect, but it was changed (by Homecoming? I think?) to be native to most Kinetic Melee powers (re: everything except Repulsing Torrent). The descriptions weren't changed to reflect this, hence the confusion. Q.E.D., now Power Siphon ONLY does the damage buff thing.

 

However, the -DMG effect is basically 5% across the board. It does stack between different attacks, the only major difference is that some attacks' effects last a bit longer.

 

If you'd like to see proof of this, buy a Power Analyzer from P2W, use it on an enemy, then attack them without using Power Siphon and keep an eye on their damage statistic. Unless that's been changed since I tested it a few weeks ago.

 

Also, another thing I like about Power Siphon is that it can add up to being a bigger bonus than Build Up in four (Tanker, Brute) to three (Scrapper) stacks. Assuming you don't miss, it's not hard to get there in the first ten seconds or so, then you just need to keep it going. When I play Kinetic Melee in a team, I usually go for Lieutenant or Boss enemies first to this end.

 

...And sometimes solo too. I mean, it still does the trick for me for getting the nastiest-looking thing in a mob out of the way first. And if I still have it going once that's down, it's a good head start on the cleanup as well.

 

What I'd LIKE to see as a buff to it is allowing Repulsing Torrent to contribute to it, since as far as I remember, it doesn't. Nor does it have/get -DMG debuff with or without Power Siphon.

Edited May 15, 2023 by CaffieneNirvana
specificationation

[biostem]

As far as I'm concerned - if street justice powers can reliably build combo stacks and savage melee powers can reliably build stacks of blood frenzy, why can't kinetic melee get a guaranteed effect of its own?

[Spaghetti Betty]

Once upon a time, I suggested that Power Siphon be turned into an auto and the respective slot be replaced with a new power - Siphon Momentum, which would be similar to Power Siphon, but give stacking +rech to you and -spd to the enemy affected.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Spaghetti Betty