Please explain Kineticist....

[imminence]

... with simple words :)

I realized, that there are explanations, walls of text, lots of informations but ... as so often in these games... not really enlightening, at least not for simple persons like me ;)

Five (first) questions:

1)
What is "burn", represented by a tiny icon on top left of the toolbar? Do I want to burn? Do I want to avoid it? What happens, if I don't care?

2)
Gather power "low...medium...high..."
As far as I understand it, she needs power for her ...well... spells. But why would I want to do so in a "low" or "medium" way? Sure, "high" costs one round, while "low" happens in a shorter time.
But when would I do what and why?
Is this only possible when in a fight?

3)
On level 2 I get another... feat...: Represented by a hand-icon I can again gather something from the souls of dead people. Does it need corpses nearby? What do I "gather"? For what do I need it? And again: Only during fight or anytime?

4)
My current kineticist is a plain one, not one of the subclasses. As main attributes she needs DEX and CON. No INT, no WIS, no CHA.
I understand that DEX is important for ranged combat, but which of these should I raise, like I would raise INT for a WIZ, STR for a fighter etc.?

5)
While a close combat Kin. forms a weapon out of nothing, the ranged Kin. just casts away. Would I want to give her a bow or a crossbow?


I'm sure, that there will be (many) more questions. Thx for kind replies in advance! :)

[Fellgrave]

Originally posted by imminence:

Please stay at topic. This should not be another thread about tactics or whatever.

I repeat my question:
When I make a basic Kin., should I give her a crossbow or leave her empty handed?

You could only give her a hand crossbow, as a kinetic blast requires one hand free to use.

That said, you're better off just using plain blasts instead every turn. The kineticist's Base Attack Progression isn't conducive to using a non blast method, as the damage from a single blast will outscale the number of attacks you can get off with the crossbow.

[Mithrals]

Originally posted by Seraph:

Originally posted by provokastoras:

I sm pretty sure nock nok alone on the dragon does less than 60 damage and thats if he has a 100% hit so quit ur....

Who give a ♥♥♥♥ about a class performance solo? this is a party game

A surprising amount of people play this game solo, it is a supported and intended way to play this game. I could say the same for party play and it would be an equally selfish statement.

I also don't understand how I cut content when playing solo? All I have to do it bring the individual followers to their missions and complete the content for them.

The game is designed in such a way that you can choose how many companions you bring. Most bring a full party, some bring none, and a few somewhere in between.

just cause you can do something doesn't mean everyone will, and fortunatly the devs understood this :)

[lemurs2]

Wow Seraph, you are a total rouge munchkin! I can have a lvl 19 (not 20) Kinet hit for 150 with one magic item. How does your beloved knock knock do with one magic item?

[provokastoras]

You

Originally posted by imminence:

Please stay at topic. This should not be another thread about tactics or whatever.

I repeat my question:
When I make a basic Kin., should I give her a crossbow or leave her empty handed?

You are right sorry for trolling your post like that. To get back t9 your original topic. The kinetists in general are roughly supposed to work like 3.5 warlocks. Because warlocks were busted and rediculously overpowered they nerfed them. First they divided the iffusions to elements then they made the eldrich damage elemental so it can be resisted. The general mechanic of how they work i described earlier in my post they were balanced as damage dealers in par with alchemists and they are meant to fuction like an arcane archer, albeit with less or more damage and some dubuffing depending on the build.
1.
So to get your questions one by one.
Range kinetics hate it and avoid it but its a necessary evil.
Melee kinetics is complecated some burn they seem to want for benefits so you ll need someone more experienced in that than me.

2. You do that to empower or add infudsions to your blasts without getting burned. Low you want to do when you are in possition to start firing you still cast at 3 secs. Medium or full in pnp would have little difference but this is real time so its more important. Normally a blast is 3 seconds cast the medium option makes it more than 3 seconds up to 6 the last makes your blasts casting time 6 seconds. Because you only fire one every 6 seconds... Well you want it to hit harder thats why you might want to go with those option. However that also means enemies get 6 seconds to stop you by hiting or triping or w/e so again thats something you do safe behind valerie. Note that on its own the high stance does not increase the damage you need the right combination of infusions /wild talents or abilities for that.

3. No idea sorry. I am mostly 3. 5 pnp so you should know better since you can try it out.

4.Con is important so you dont kill yourself the rest depends on your character. Eg a knight might want str over dexterity. Your character needs dex to hit. For me int is the most important for skill points but if you plan to be the face then charisma is better? + all high exp checks are charisma based and you can use it for use device as well. Depends what you want to do with the char. maybe you want her to carry gear so str?

5 you dont want a crossbow as ranged you never run out of spells and i ll be hard pressed to think a situation you need a bow over a spell. You probably want to give her the dagger you get from tartucio? and some other casters that gives +3 ac that seems to stuck with everything

[vitamin boost]

i think the ideal kineticist should be empty-handed and just rely on his/her blasts coz that's what the skills are being tailored for. it's like a set specialisation/weapon focus that is forced upon you because of the class. if you're not going to "use" it as your go to weapon, it kinda defeats the purpose of making a kineticist. might as well get a bard or a sorc or a magus for the spell and
weapon gameplay. (or maybe i'm just a purist..i dunno).

[Mauman]

Originally posted by provokastoras:

You

Because warlocks were busted and rediculously overpowered they nerfed them.

This always makes me laugh. Warlocks were pretty good, but definately not op. Especially compared to any other spellcaster (other than the the True name one, who's name eludes me right now and was actually truly busted, and not in a good way).

[provokastoras]

Love, classes are omnificer (artificer) >punpun> warlocks then tiers if you want me to indulge you make a tread for it not trolling this thread again.

[Mauman]

Originally posted by provokastoras:

Love, classes are omnificer (artificer) >punpun> warlocks then tiers if you want me to indulge you make a tread for it not trolling this thread again.

.....
I've only posted once in this thread. If you want to believe that warlocks are SUPER OMG IZ OP MY GUUUZZZESS then fine, ok. Most people who know d&d warlocks and other classes will disagree with you, especially those who've actually played them (like me).

But you do you man.....

Also, just so you know, calling anybody Love makes you look like a creepy and condescending idiot.

[imminence]

As I wrote earlier: Please stop trolling and stay on topic!

The next question:

All I am certain about is, that I don't want to play the knight-subclass.

What's about the other subclasses? As far as I learnt in this game is the fact, that a subclass has certain advantages but also (heavy) trade-offs.

The ingame-descriptions are made from professionals for professionals, so more guessing and "sounds good"-feelings for a simple gamer like me.

Would someone be so nice and explain in a nutshell the pros and cons of the subclasses, again with simple words and short phrases :) ?

[Seraph]

Originally posted by provokastoras:

Waste 40 minutes buffing before each encounter i just run in and kill it. Cu next year. +you dont have to solo anything to get to 20 just turn the exp sharing for skills off on pitax xhapter and you ll get to 20. Telling you everything is tiring really. Figure something out yourself as well.

Pitax skill xp is an exploit, the devs said so in their stream ,they have already nerfed them and they will nerf them more with 1.2.Enjoy your cheat while it last.

As for the OP question, there is very little gameplay drawback to dark elementalist, it's purely a role play one, it's an evil class, that should , if implemented correctly, only be available to evil aligned character. It function much the same as a baseline kineticist but you get an ability that allow you to unload your burn point onto the soul of an ennemy or group of lower level ennemy you just killed.
Basically, activate the abilities, selected a dead ennemies of sufficient level, and you lose a burn point.

Also Dark elementalist use int instead of con for many DC calculation, but that's more a change than a drawback, less tanky but much more skill point that way.

[Stigelmo de Axes I]

About Burn:
at level 3 you should get a passive skill called "elemental overflow" that adds a bonus to hit and damage based on the amount of burn you have, up to one point every 3 levels. It's not much, but as ranged kineticist you'd want that asap.

[imminence]

So, if I understood correctly, than I could progress a dark elementalist like I'd level a wizard, while CON for the basic kin. is more like quality of life and has nothing to do with the DC of these blasts, right?

[Sarasvato]

Originally posted by thainen:

4. For kineticist, it's CON. That's right, a Constitution-based caster.

But the Psychokineticist archetype is based on wisdom, does that mean infusions using CON modifier use WIS instead?

[bkgamingacc]

Originally posted by Sarasvato:

Originally posted by thainen:

4. For kineticist, it's CON. That's right, a Constitution-based caster.

But the Psychokineticist archetype is based on wisdom, does that mean infusions using CON modifier use WIS instead?

WIS replaces CON for Psychokineticist.

Calling Kineticist pure CON based caster is misleading.
Infusion Save DC is DEX.
Ranged Touch Attack Roll is DEX.
Kinetic Blade Attack Roll is STR / or DEX with weapon finesse.

[Morgian]

As bkgaming acc says, be careful with your stats. When a caster class gets her spellpower from a different stat than usual (e.g. sage sorcerer), then that stat goes for the whole spellcasting. It does not replace the stats for combat, like DEX for ranged touch.
If a subtype uses a different stat, that might open multiclass options with other classes. Or you simply prefer that stat because of it's common uses (e.g. WIS goes to will saves and perception).