I've been going over kineticists and their many possible ways you can build them. This is just one more class feature that gives you a choice to further customize how your character can be played. This feature is gotten at 19 but I'm going to calculate at 20 for simplicity sake. I am also going to calculate without infusions, which means kinetic blade and kinetic whip will not be a part of this. I'm going to assume a total CON of 30, which includes your overflow bonuses.
There are 4 different metakinesis that can be reduced, and you only get to reduce one of them. Empower gets reduced to 0, maximize gets reduced to 1, quicken gets reduced to 2, and double blast gets reduced to 3. For this theory crafting I'm looking at all day blasting which means that double blast is out since gather power can only prevent 2 burn so double blast is not sustainable for all day blasting.
Empower: Reducing this one means you can empower all blasts all day for free, even without using gather power. This means its the most reliable for increasing your damage per round (DPR). It also means you can gather power for your composite blasts + stack infusions that total 7 or less OR use a simple blast and infuse for 8 burn.
Simple physical blast: 1.5x(10d6+10+CON) = 72.5 avg
Simple energy blast: 1.5x(10d6+CON/2) = 59.5 avg
Composite physical blast: 1.5x(20d6+20+CON) = 150 avg
Composite energy blast: 1.5x(20d6+CON/2) = 112 avg
Maximize: Reducing this one means you need to gather power to not take burn, but you also have 1 left over to either use for your composite + infuse for 6 or you can use a simple and infuse for 7.
Simple physical blast: (10*6+10+CON) = 80
Simple energy blast: (10*6+CON/2) = 65
Composite physical blast: (20*6+20+CON) = 150
Composite energy blast: (20*6+CON/2) = 125
Swift: Reducing this one means you need to gather power to not take burn and you can't use a composite blast without using your internal buffer or taking damage. With this one you can do two different, with different infusions, as long as you don't go over 6 burn. that I'll include composite for this, but it is limited uses due to burn or buffer.
Simple physical blast: 2x(10d6+10+CON) = 110 avg
Simple energy blast: 2x(10d6+CON/2) = 80 avg
Limited use
Composite physical blast: 2x(20d6+20+CON) = 200 avg
Composite energy blast: 2x(20d6+CON/2) = 150 avg
Final thoughts
To me, it looks like empower and swift are the best ones to reduce the cost. Free empower is the best for ease of access and a source of a permanent DPR boost. It is also interesting to note that composite physical blast average is equal to the maximize same. Maximize does not provide much more DPR over empower and still requires you to gather power to use it. Its a decent option for you if you use composite energy blasts over simple blasts. Swift is your best option if you rely on your simple blasts but terrible if you use your composite blasts. It is also the definitive best choice if you built your kineticist for battlefield control. You can sling two different area control blasts every round, as long as you can gather power.
Bump, thoughts anybody
For the most part, the best option seems to be empower, unless you have particular plans for the double blasts.
With empower, you are boosting every blast, rahter than just the ones you are spending an full round in order to do it (like comparing regular summons to summoner SLAs or sacred summons).
Since the difference in damage isn't too great, it seems much more adventageous. Basically, since having to move is fairly common, something that boosts ALL DPR is more valuable than something that boosts SOME DPR, particularly when the difference is that small. Also, empower lets you gather power for infusions, which can be more important than straight damage much of the time (that is just the icing on the cake....juicy, juciy icing made up of tons of d6's).
Getting more blasts in a round isn't really a thing to consider for damage, but rather it should be looked towards for effects. A pair of entangling blasts seems like it could glue an opponent to the ground in a single round, for instance.
Side note- how does elemental overflow factor into the comparisons? (ie- the 'bonus that is double the amount of burn' effect of overflow, not the con boosting one). I didn't see any mention of it in your equations.
For the most part, the best option seems to be empower, unless you have particular plans for the double blasts.
With empower, you are boosting every blast, rahter than just the ones you are spending an full round in order to do it (like comparing regular summons to summoner SLAs or sacred summons).
Since the difference in damage isn't too great, it seems much more adventageous. Basically, since having to move is fairly common, something that boosts ALL DPR is more valuable than something that boosts SOME DPR, particularly when the difference is that small. Also, empower lets you gather power for infusions, which can be more important than straight damage much of the time (that is just the icing on the cake....juicy, juciy icing made up of tons of d6's).
Getting more blasts in a round isn't really a thing to consider for damage, but rather it should be looked towards for effects. A pair of entangling blasts seems like it could glue an opponent to the ground in a single round, for instance.
Side note- how does elemental overflow factor into the comparisons? (ie- the 'bonus that is double the amount of burn' effect of overflow, not the con boosting one). I didn't see any mention of it in your equations.
I do think empower is the best choice 90% of the time. But it is good to note that swift can be doable if you're built for it. You can drop a grappling wall and entangling grasping earth or cloud in the same round. Any sort of double crowd control or area control can be quite effective.
Also another nice thing about the swift option is that you open up the possibility to use your standard action for other non blast activities such as telekinetic combat maneuvers.
As far as overflow, I could claim I wanted to do it w/o situational bonuses but I actually just forgot. However, at 20 the max damage bonus is 12 so empower blasts will be +18, maximize will be +12, and double will be +24.
For the most part, the best option seems to be empower, unless you have particular plans for the double blasts.
With empower, you are boosting every blast, rahter than just the ones you are spending an full round in order to do it (like comparing regular summons to summoner SLAs or sacred summons).
Since the difference in damage isn't too great, it seems much more adventageous. Basically, since having to move is fairly common, something that boosts ALL DPR is more valuable than something that boosts SOME DPR, particularly when the difference is that small. Also, empower lets you gather power for infusions, which can be more important than straight damage much of the time (that is just the icing on the cake....juicy, juciy icing made up of tons of d6's).
Getting more blasts in a round isn't really a thing to consider for damage, but rather it should be looked towards for effects. A pair of entangling blasts seems like it could glue an opponent to the ground in a single round, for instance.
Side note- how does elemental overflow factor into the comparisons? (ie- the 'bonus that is double the amount of burn' effect of overflow, not the con boosting one). I didn't see any mention of it in your equations.
I do think empower is the best choice 90% of the time. But it is good to note that swift can be doable if you're built for it. You can drop a grappling wall and entangling grasping earth or cloud in the same round. Any sort of double crowd control or area control can be quite effective.
As far as overflow, I could claim I wanted to do it w/o situational bonuses but I actually just forgot. However, at 20 the max damage bonus is 12 so empower blasts will be +18, maximize will be +12, and double will be +24.
Hmmm....that mostly closes the gap between empower and maximize from just a skim over the material.
For the most party, maximize is only notable because you can stack it with empower. Possibly useful if you are doing something that needs a simple blast rather than a composite when you go around gathering power (perhaps the composite just doesn't work with the infusions you want to use, or maybe you need a touch attack via an enegy blast and you aren't a fire user)
Yes, empowered maximized simple blast would push you slightly over two blasts from swift. You get the same 6 infusion burn max as swifting but half the utility.
Dot