Kineticist Feedback Thread

[rainbowsash]

I'm definitely still having this issue in my game. Impossible to escape the Vanae grapple at level 4 and 5 for me. It will say that I succeeded but still keep me in the grapple, and then very rarely it will actually tell me I failed the grapple (I assume that's just a low roll). This is with base physique and maxed intelligence for those levels, btw

Did that with physique 60 just to make sure, and got the same effect. This is not a speed of thought thing, this is a vanae thing. Vanae (both kinds of them) make an attempt to grapple you every turn as long as you are stunned or tripped. This is not much of a problem when it comes to stun as it wears off naturally, but tripped status has no set duration, you'll remain tripped until you stand up. See where this is going? It doesn't just SAY you succeed, you actually succeed at removing grapple, but you still remain tripped, so before you have any chance to do anything about it the vanae tries to grapple you again, and succeeds, because her chance to succeed at it is equal to her chance to hit you with a melee attack, which is 100% because again, you're tripped. Checkmate. The moral of this story - if a vanae trips you, get up IMMEDIATELY, or you'll get grapple-locked for eternity unless you have both super high reflexes and evasion. Lvl 12 Smuggler would probably have the chance to recover, but lvl 5 Kineticist's only hope is Mind Trick which luckily clears Tripped as well. I'm not sure if all this stuff is intended, but this is definitely not a technical bug.

 

[Isharon]

Levitate/gain air also clears tripped and makes you immune to it, so you can use that too before you get tripgrabbed

 

[LeoTheLion]

I really like the new class

 

[quara8]

I've been playing as Kineticist for a while, and I really like the class so far (even though I haven't reached high levels yet). I keep wondering though, how being a kineticists is a career? Mercs can hire themselves as bodyguards or soldiers; smugglers can transport goods for money (legally or not); and there are always jobs in the tech sector; but what can kineticists do to earn a living - push boxes in a warehouse, working for Space-Amazon?
Joking aside, the only idea I had where I think a kineticist would excel at would be assassinations - a rather unique choice for a future CEO of a megacorp


on another note:

does kineticist get unique dialogue and interactions like the old classes do? Stuff like smuggler picking locks, tech specialists hacking and talking tech, and mercenary loving tanks.

So far, no. There's not even class text for saving the Overqueen on FIRST-14.

If they don't add some interactions, Kineticist will always feel like an afterthought. But what should the extra interactions be?

FIRST: Press a button/flip a switch on the other side to shut down the Force Field.

A quick fix to solve this (at least until appropriate content gets written) could be to enable other classes' interactions for kineticists, IF the relevant stat is high enough. So for example if INT is at least (let's say) 95%, kineticists is able to access Tech Specialist content; same with PHY for Merc content and REF for Smuggler content.
Now I don't know if every interaction would be appropriate without some (minor) rewriting, but at least some should be usable without any changes - for example rescuing Kiro by repairing the broken machine (which at the moment only a Tech Specialist can do).

 

[Isharon]

but what can kineticists do to earn a living

Telekinetic blowjobs! And stuff.

 

[Amakawa Yuuto]

I mean, given their combat skills, they can take pretty much the same type of jobs mercenaries can. They're in no way limited to assassinations.

 

[HalfFilledBooks]

Some of the kineticist's specials just aren't very good for the action economy. For example take reality schism, it takes 1 turn to deal 20% extra damage for the rest of the combat, this means you have to be doing 5 turns worth of damage to make up for the 1 turn you spent to use that ability, which means 5 turns later, 6 turns total, you break even action economy-wise, 11 turns to have done the equivalent of using the ability for an extra time. This isn't even taking account the other utility abilities you might want to use instead of damage, or if you get stunned/grappled, or if you miss, it just takes too long to get a pay off. Either increase the percentage buff, or make it cheaper action economy-wise while also increasing cooldowns and energy costs to keep it balanced. This also goes for vortex brand.

 

[Amakawa Yuuto]

Yeah, the old problem of Pokémon buff moves - they're only really useful in relatively even battles, so they don't get used outside PvP.
And there, one "Attack up" is +50% damage, not just 20%.

 

[HalfFilledBooks]

Some of the kineticist's specials just aren't very good for the action economy. For example take reality schism, it takes 1 turn to deal 20% extra damage for the rest of the combat, this means you have to be doing 5 turns worth of damage to make up for the 1 turn you spent to use that ability, which means 5 turns later, 6 turns total, you break even action economy-wise, 11 turns to have done the equivalent of using the ability for an extra time. This isn't even taking account the other utility abilities you might want to use instead of damage, or if you get stunned/grappled, or if you miss, it just takes too long to get a pay off. Either increase the percentage buff, or make it cheaper action economy-wise while also increasing cooldowns and energy costs to keep it balanced. This also goes for vortex brand.

Another idea i had is to replace the effects of haste and reality schism entirely to: "doubles the damage of the next attack (basic attack or activated ability depending on side)." This could have the effect of cleaning up the kineticist's action economy. Instead of having to set up the psionic crits one after the other, or setting up deep freeze then crushing attack again and again, you can just set it up once for the amount of damage of having to set it up twice. Note, to balance this you might have to consider giving reality schism/new haste a decently long cooldown, but for the most part the idea itself should be quite balanced. Not counting cooldowns (which you should, I'm just trying to make a point) this is only improving action economy by 1 turn.

Normal sequence: (gravity flux) -> (geothermal spike) -> (gravity flux) -> (geothermal spike)
4 turns

New sequence: (gravity flux) -> (reality schism) -> (geothermal spike)
3 turns

It also sort of simulates the power spike the other classes get when they double their damage with the double attack, just remember to include the crit and deep freeze bonus when doubling damage, or what's the point of setting up an especially big, satisfying hit.

 

[Hanzo]

Problem is, you're using common sense. +20% damage increase doesn't increase final damage by 20%.

 

[Isharon]

Depending on your damage, You might as well not have to use multiple attacks either.