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Played the 1-2 subtier of #3-13: Defenders of Nesting Swallow. Party included:
Fighter-1
Rogue-1
Barbarian-1
Bard-1/Cleric-1
Aerokineticist-3 (me)
My experience may have been skewed because I was out-of-tier, but my 2d6+3 air blasts dominated encounters. When I was within 30 feet of my target I was doing as much damage as the front line Fighter was doing with his Greatsword (and my AC was 1 point higher).
Having a range of 60 feet with Air's Reach helped me defend the village by just sitting safely in the middle, out of harm's way.
When the Bard/Cleric had both Bless and Inspire Courage going I was +9 to-hit (when within 30 feet) versus the average AC of 17. Precise Shot FTW. Being mobile helped me mitigate cover.
[OFF-TOPIC]
I'm probably in the minority, but I have no problem with 2+INT skills. If you want skills, don't dump Intelligence. With an Int of 14, and traits that opened up Diplomacy and Sense Motive as class skills, I actually functioned as the party face for this scenario.
It's my fear that if the class is allowed 4+INT skills then ppl will be more comfortable dumping Intelligence, since that means they'll still have 2/level.
Just my two cents.
[/OFF TOPIC]
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Played this character again yesterday through Thornkeep: Enigma Vaults [one spoiler below].
Our party consisted of a Barbarian-3, a Magus/Swashbuckler-3, and two 3rd level Aerokineticists with almost the same build (except mine was a Sylph and his was a Human).
The boss obliterated us, killing the Barbarian and Magus and dropping me. The Human Kineticist survived.
What the final fight taught us was this: Kineticists need Combat Casting, or some way to reduce their chances of provoking an AoO when blasting. As it is now every blast provokes twice (and, as we learned the hard way, this boss had Combat Reflexes).
At 3rd level our DC to "cast" defensively is still only 17, but by 4th level it jumps to 19. Every 2 levels your DC increases by 2, and your Concentration check only improves by 2, which means you'll never technically get better at casting defensively. Ever.
Maybe introduce a Talent or something at 6th level that grants the benefits of Combat Casting. I'd totally grab it, at least.
Because, I can sense going forward, that small spaces will mean death for a Kineticist, whereas every other ranged specialist has ways to mitigate provoking AoOs.
That final encounter in Enigma Vaults is so brutal!
Also, Combat Casting just to help in grapples isn't a terrible idea either. In "Pyro vs the 8 Bears", my higher-level playtest pyro took a bunch of other concentration things and managed to get her blast concentration bonus to the point that she was more likely than not to succeed when grappled by a bear, but she failed anyway with a below-average roll, and she would have succeeded with another +4.