Ideas for kinetic powers...

[captainstar]

Got these comments from Facebook asking for ideas to improve kinetic powers:

 

- AoE damage is to low for cast time

- Buff the damage or speed up the animations.

- I love my Kinetic Melee/Super Reflexes build. Love the ranged attack, and I think the damage output is great, but I do agree that the animations are a bit long. I especially agree with Shea, the one AoE is too long and the damage isn't very good on that particular attack.

- The attack animations are slow and the damage is low.

- I think the range could be a bit higher too.

- I was thinking about this a few weeks ago but then got alt-itis. I love the animations, they’re unique. Don’t mess with them.
I like the idea of Power Siphon but it’s underwhelming. Max of 5 stacks which is really difficult to maintain unless you are just using the first 3 quick attacks and who wants to have the tier 1-3 attacks on any build?
Also, your first few attacks are getting the least amount of damage buff, so it’s counter productive to lead off with your big attacks after hitting Siphon.
1) I don’t remember the damage increase per stack, but I remember Dark Melee was able to get higher +damage from Soul Drain, so maybe either increase the damage per stack or raise the stack limit. Or alternatively, just change and make it a Soul Drain clone.
2) The AOEs. Burst, the only melee AOE, only provides 1 stack. Or at least that’s all I’ve ever seen it do. Allow it to add a stack per target up to at least 5 stacks or higher, if the stack limit is raised.
Repulsing Torrent, I don’t believe Power Siphon even stacks for this power, but same as Burst, allow it to stack per target as well.
This would allow you to jump in a mob, hit Siphon, hit your AOE and then you can start rolling.
3). Allow Power Siphon to act like Fiery Embrace for non kinetic melee attack, giving a flat damage buff for Epic attacks, or any damage attacks from the armor set

- I have a LOT of melee toons. My only problem with kinetic melee is the animation times. Not as bad as TW but not good.
There needs to be differences between power sets. Everything can't be the same as everything else, otherwise why have anything different at all.
So, if I had to make a change, it would be to reduce the animation time a little.
KM probably won't ever be my "go to" power set but I don't actively avoid it like I do TW. lol

- the cast time sucks. theres a reason why ppl dont use it

[Greycat]

Wasn't the whole "cast time" thing already looked into and found it's pretty much the same as any other set? I seem to recall this discussion before...

[Luminara]

6 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Wasn't the whole "cast time" thing already looked into and found it's pretty much the same as any other set? I seem to recall this discussion before...

 

The animation time before effect on some of the attacks is nearly as long as the full animation.  Contrast the animation time before effect on Sky Splitter and Concentrated Strike.  Both 3.036s, but Sky Splitter's animation time before effect is 1.1s and Concentrated Strike's is 2.533s.

 

That's okay solo, but on teams, it's a corpse-blaster set.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

Wasn't the whole "cast time" thing already looked into and found it's pretty much the same as any other set? I seem to recall this discussion before...

Yes, this discussion has been had before. Multiple times. However, no one seems to care that KM's animation times are on par (or in some cases better) than other sets. So instead of looking into why the set feels slow, they disregard any data from any source that can be provided to claim that 'no, KM is just a much slower set than any others'. Whereas the problem they are seeing isn't a slow animation time set, it is that KM actually links when it does damage to the animations so the effect occurs later in the animation than most other sets. It's that delay before effect in the animation they are actually complaining about, but good luck getting anyone complaining about the set to accept that no matter how much data is presented.

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Luminara said:

 

The animation time before effect on some of the attacks is nearly as long as the full animation.  Contrast the animation time before effect on Sky Splitter and Concentrated Strike.  Both 3.036s, but Sky Splitter's animation time before effect is 1.1s and Concentrated Strike's is 2.533s.

 

That's okay solo, but on teams, it's a corpse-blaster set.

Staff sucks too so…

[Frozen Burn]

@Rudra is right here....

 

The problem with KM and why it "feels" so slow is that the damage comes AT THE END of the animation whereas other sets' damage with similar cast times occur part way through the animation.  So on these other sets, you see/hear the crunch/slice/bash and the damage numbers float on screen sooner than you do with KM powers - even though cast times are similar. 

 

However, KM - from a thematic perspective - rightly SHOULD come at the end of the animation as it is your full wind-up that empowers your hands to do the damage.  KM is unfortunately, it's own worst enemy compared to other sets. 

 

But it is also for this reason, that I could argue for faster cast times so that the damage dealt hits on par with other similar power sets.  Because playing my KM/SR scrapper in a team.... most things are dead before I can even finish my attacks.  So, there is truth in the "feeling" it's slow, because it is.  

 

Instead of looking at total cast time, for KM, the Devs should be looking at when the powers actually deal damage.  Eagles Claw vs Concentrated Strike is a prime example.  We all know Eagles Claw is an ungodly long animation at 2.53s and many skip it for that reason despite the high damage it does.  Eagles Claw does that high damage halfway through in 1.3s (according to CoD).  Concentrated Strike does its damage at 2.533s in the 2.83 animation.  That's not really fair for the Martial Artist to deal that damage within 1.3s, when the KM'ist has to wait 2.53s. 

 

Yes, Concentrated Strike does slightly more damage than Eagles Claw, but still, the gap between when the damage is actually dealt is far too great, imo.  2.83s (Concentrated Strike) - 2.53s (Eagles Claw) = 0.3s difference in total animation times.  So, if Eagle Claw does it's damage at 1.3s, then Concentrated strike should be shortened so that the damage occurs at 1.6s in it's animation (1.3s + 0.3s).  And similar for the other KM powers with their comparable counterparts from other sets. 

 

 

Edited June 28 by Frozen Burn
Filthy typos!

[biostem]

Beyond the animation issues discussed earlier in this thread, I wish the set's siphon ability worked as reliably as savage melee's "blood frenzy" mechanic...

[Rudra]

15 minutes ago, biostem said:

Beyond the animation issues discussed earlier in this thread, I wish the set's siphon ability worked as reliably as savage melee's "blood frenzy" mechanic...

If we're asking for powers to work reliably, then I'm asking for Radiation Melee's Radiation Siphon to not be dependent on the target having the Contaminated effect to heal the character, even if it is only half as effective as it currently is when healing without Contaminated.

[biostem]

2 minutes ago, Rudra said:

If we're asking for powers to work reliably, then I'm asking for Radiation Melee's Radiation Siphon to not be dependent on the target having the Contaminated effect to heal the character, even if it is only half as effective as it currently is when healing without Contaminated.

Well, I can get behind radiation melee attacks applying the contaminated effect reliably, sure.  Radiation siphon consuming or otherwise relying upon said contaminated effect can remain as-is...

[Rudra]

17 minutes ago, biostem said:

Well, I can get behind radiation melee attacks applying the contaminated effect reliably, sure.  Radiation siphon consuming or otherwise relying upon said contaminated effect can remain as-is...

I really don't care which. Either have it so that Contaminated can be consistently applied without having to rely on Fusion with its 90 second base recharge or have it so that Radiation Siphon heals the character to any extent even without Contaminated. Even Dark Melee's Siphon Life only needs a successful hit check to work whereas Radiation Siphon needs a Contaminated effect + a successful hit check. Yes, Radiation Melee has Dark Melee's advantage of a heal in the attack set whereas most other sets don't, but it is unreliable at best. I've slaughtered entire spawns at x8 without ever inflicting Contaminated on a single target. (And I'm not counting the ones that get Contaminated as they die, because they died when they got it, so it means nothing.) (Edit: And I'm not talking about just clearing one group at x8 and the next having anything get Contaminated. I'm talking about wiping out several full spawns at x8 without ever getting anything afflicted with Contaminated.)

 

Edited June 29 by Rudra

[biostem]

6 minutes ago, Rudra said:

I really don't care which.

No doubt, but I think a reliable "build resource - consume resource" mechanic is pretty well-tested at this point, (see water blast's 'tidal power' or street justice's combo system)...

[BrandX]

I'd love to see Focused Burst get some love.  My two thoughts on improving it are...

 

Giving it Total Focus level damage

 

or

 

Make it like a snipe, even that means it locks out snipes from the epics if needed to be done). 

 

Of course, I think all the range attacks in the sets should be used more often and not just as a utility.  Claws does this, Kinetics (and Spines) should too.  Don't let them just be utility.

 

Give Concentrated Strike extra damage on crits!   So sad to have an attack on Scrappers that doesn't crit damage.  

Edited June 30 by BrandX