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Many power players people dislike the battle forms exactly due these reasons, because you won't be so good as a true martial at same time it prevents you from casting and demands some actions to enter and exit from the form.

It's easy to say now, I'm sure. But overall, I don't really mind being less-than-optimal when it comes to DPS. So long as it doesn't gimp the entire team. There's something thematically cool about screeching through the sky as a Phoenix or biting someone's head off as a T-Rex that you don't get when swinging a sword more rapidly than your average dude.

if you want some utility and crowd control and many per encounter rechargeable spell you should consider Psychic

Psychic sounds like a lot of fun. Mind control is a fun theme to play with, when games allow you to do this well. How would you say a Psychic stacks up against a Kineticist overall?

Unless for thematic reasons just don't go with single element kineticists from 1-20.

I wouldn't want to go 100% single element. But so far, my temptation would be to dip heavily into Air and add in bits of the others where there's either a dead Air level or a worthwhile "must have" Impulse elsewhere. But to get all of the needed Junctions and Impulses, I'd have to plan out what elements to take and in what order.

Don't worry too much about overflow abilities once that Channel Elements allows you to use blasts or activate instances again in a one-action and most overflow abilities was developed considering that you will loose your aura that's why they are stronger IMO. You also can get both air + water in order to use the air impulses for utility and water impulse for CC.

When I first read the class, Air/Water is what got me the most excited. It wasn't until I noticed that almost everything Water does is Overflow that I started having concerns.

At a glance, knowing my preferred play style, it seems like I'd rather keep my aura up and keep getting passive benefits rather than cashing it all in for one extra-strong blast. Does dropping your aura often get in the way when you're focusing mostly on Air abilities?

Complete Pathfinder newbie here (though I have experience from D&D and other systems). I just received Player Core for a recent birthday and am looking up details to roll a first character. No table yet, but wanted one or two PCs on hand in case I can find an online or pick-up game.

I like magical characters with crowd control and lots of utility. I don't need to have huge DPS, so long as I'm not a liability to my team. Overall "coolness" is more important to me. Storywise, I tend to like natural outdoorsy characters. Mechanically, I like characters with lots of per-encounter or at-will abilities that I can just do rather than having to ration out over the course of a day.

Druid and Kineticist both immediately caught my eye. Untamed Druid would let me shapeshift per battle using the Focus spell, plus having movement and sensory abilities on hand whenever I'd need them. Build looks fairly straightforward, unless I'm missing something, as there's a new Shape feat at nearly every level. Nomming on people sounds cool, especially once you can turn into dragons and dinosaurs, and there's still spells for utility. Probably thinking Dwarf here.

Kineticist seems awesome as well. I especially am drawn to the crazy utility of Air. Even their weaker options involve planet-wide communication, turning into gas to slip through cracks, or flinging people 135 feet away on a whim. I like the free movement and forced movement. I like rouge-like characters, especially if they're not tied to the standard criminal themes. More "tricky" than "thiefy". Human would give me an extra Impulse plus, maybe more importantly, Clever Improviser that'll help with their poor skills issue.

My thoughts there would be how to plan this type of character out in advance. There seems to be plenty of low-level feats I'm interested in, but I'm also drawn to the resistances/immunity and aura benefits. Plus, for a utility caster, I'd need more elements if I'm going to get the most out of something like Base Kinesis. (That seems opposite of what I'm reading online, where it seems more common to pick your favorite element and then poach the utility features from Air.)

Water seems the most thematically compatible, though everything is Overflow which would stop stances and auras and ongoing abilities. Metal/Wood are more tanky than I'd imagine someone so light and mobile. Fire fixes Air's low DPS, but kinda forces you into multiple junctions to improve the damage. Earth has some cool abilities like Swim Through Earth and Igneokinesis. At the same time, this seems opposite of Air flavor and I'd be picking odd things like Tremorsense over the Armor in Earth and Tremors that Earth does best.

Two questions here:

1) Any recommendations of which character I should try first, once I get a chance to play?

2) If I go with the Kineticist, any specific Junctions or Impulses that'd be ideal for someone who wants to play (mostly) as an Air Kineticist, only with an extra gate or two to expand their portfolio?

For me, it'd probably be Psychic or Druid.

IRL I'm fairly studious, with INT being my main stat by far. In a fantasy world, I think I'd likely be the same except to a magnified degree. Psychic would let me use subtle magic to read thoughts and manipulate people while still laying low. No need to get my hands dirty and make myself a target. I'd just Tyler Durden my way through everything, surrounded by nice people who just can't help but do nice things for me.

Druid would be the other that's instantly appealing. With high Nature and Survival skills I could live off the land, and being able to control animals and the weather would be OP in most fantasy-era settings. I can heal myself, shapeshift to swim or hide or fly, have full access to an entire spell list with zero effort. I think it'd be a nice setup to living a quiet hermit's life somewhere.