Infusion specialization only applies to infusions, not composite blasts. Composite blasts don't really become useful or worthwhile until 16 when you get composite specialization to reduce their cost to 1. Until then you get more bang for your burn reduction buck by going for stacking your infusions with infusion specialization, empower, and gather power.
Just to be clear, I did not apply infusion specialization to the composite blast. I applied the supercharge reduction to it.
Is it really the norm to assume that I should blow a 1/3 of my hit points into the aether before a combat even begins???
I didn't forget overflow. I just figured it was best used in emergencies or in boss fights and the like.
*sigh* no, you blow them into the air. If you had aether, then the hit points you spent would get you temporary hit points.
Given the amount of benefits you get from it, it makes sense to at least get some of the benefits at the beginning of the day.
If you're worrying about having DPR Competitive to that of a blasting Wizard/Sorcerer, Stop.
That's not something a Kineticist can do, at all.
A blasting wizard, even half optimized, will always beat a kineticist in the damage game.
I linked to the character sheet. You must have missed it.
BAB 9 + Dex 7 = +16 hitHe also has Point Blank Shot which gets him to 50/50 odds, but he's meant to be a long-range sniping build primarily so...yay.
Did you remember Elemental Overflow? Weapon Focus? Bracers of Falcon's Aim? An OverFlowing Rod?
Yeah, that seems to be the problem.
Ravingdork- elemental overflow might seem scary, but you pretty much need at least some, since it is a mechanic that appears to serve three purposes:
1. the straight 1 burn= +1 attack mostly serves to make up for the lack of weapon enhancement
2. The state bonuses serve as the standard attack buffing mechanic
3. It helps reduce how much you bleed out when taking on burn (since there is always room to put some of your stat bonuses to con, which counter acts the burn, so a small extent).
So the complaint about your bonus to hit sounds like someone saying "Why is my barbarian sucking so much when I am not raging and using this nonmagical club?"
Generally, you want 3 burn- that is +4 to attack and +7 to damage (+3 +1 from dex increase; +6 from burn +1 from con). Taking on 3 burn, due to the bonus you can put into con, only FEELS like 2 burn. That way, you are running around with the HP of a 16 con character (which is not bad at all). That moves you from 50/50 to 30/70.
Later on, if you take toughness, you could stand to take 5 burn and put the +4 stat boost into dex. That would get you a +7 to attack, which is brings you to 'hit anything except for 1'. And you would feel like a con 14 character...which is fairly standard. Take weapon focus later, and that should last you a good portion of your career.
Now...what to use the burn on? ...honestly, aerokineticists are the worst for that question. Earh, water, and aether all have their defensive options that you can EASILY justify burning on (I mean...with the conservative 3 burn, you would be running around with DR 9...which makes barbarians jealous). So best I can tell you is to dump at least some of it into your buffer so you can use it later in the day.
I did have Toughness. I dropped it in favor of Weapon Focus after starting this thread.
I've updated the character sheet to include a secondary elemental overflow stat block, as well as some badass new art.
Infusion specialization only applies to infusions, not composite blasts. Composite blasts don't really become useful or worthwhile until 16 when you get composite specialization to reduce their cost to 1. Until then you get more bang for your burn reduction buck by going for stacking your infusions with infusion specialization, empower, and gather power.
Are you sure about this, I believe Mark has clearly stated that infusion specialization and super charge combine to reduce the total burn cost of any blast, simple or composite. That includes form and substance infusions, blast and metas other wise double blast or quicken could never be used without taking burn.
The only thing you can not avoid taking burn from are utility talents.
Infusion specialization only applies to infusions, not composite blasts. Composite blasts don't really become useful or worthwhile until 16 when you get composite specialization to reduce their cost to 1. Until then you get more bang for your burn reduction buck by going for stacking your infusions with infusion specialization, empower, and gather power.Are you sure about this, I believe Mark has clearly stated that infusion specialization and super charge combine to reduce the total burn cost of any blast, simple or composite. That includes form and substance infusions, blast and metas other wise double blast or quicken could never be used without taking burn.
The only thing you can not avoid taking burn from are utility talents.
If I remember correctly, his clarification applied only to gather power/supercharge only (as they explicitly lower the blast's total cost, wherever it comes from), and NOT infusion specialization as well (as it explicitly ONLY mentions infusion costs).
The hard things to reduce are metakinesis, which can only be reduced by gather power/supercharge/internal buffer, and utility powers, which can only be reduced by the internal buffer.
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Found Mark's quote in this thread:
On page 15, it says that the blast wild talents are comprised of simple and composite blasts (or however the editors' exact wording goes; it's just above simple blasts), so gather power works just fine. Remember that metakinesis and infusions add to the blast's cost, so you can just add them in and then reduce them off. In your example, Infusion specialization 5 takes care of 5/6 of the infusions on its own, and supercharge handles the remaining 1 burn from infusions and 1 burn from composite (reduced by composite specialization), so you can do it all for no burn!
EDIT: Protoman is completely correct.
...And for ease of reference, here is the post Mark was referring to:
Empower +1 and -1 Metakinetic Master (empower) (= 0 burn)
PLUS Force Composite +2 and -1 Composite Specialization (= 1 burn)
PLUS Disintegrating Substance +4, Extreme Range Form +2 and -5 Infusion Specialization (= 1 burn)
= 2 burn for the whole modified blast
Supercharge -2
= 0 burn after a move action to supercharge.Looks like the key thing was you're applying supercharge to only an infusion? It should apply to the total modifed cost of the blast. Apply the gather power/supercharge reduction last.
Composite specialization can reduce burn cost to 0 with no issues.
Gather Power and supercharge work fine on composite blasts because they're blast wild talents. They don't specify simple or composite blast wild talents.Remember to add up all the the form and substance infusion costs together before applying infusion specialization.
What concerns me about this interpretation of infusion specialization is that the Elemental Ascetic can never use a composite full attack without taking burn. The same would go for a blade or whip specialist. If you do take the ability away for infusion specialization to absorb the cost of composite blasts then damage of kineticists plummets as you can never, before lvl 16, combine metas with any composite without taking burn or taking multiple rounds which wastes the double damage of composites and opens you up to interruption.
If you can move action gather power to empower a meta blast at level 8 for 0 burn then kineticist damage is fine, if not the house of cards falls down and you are limited to a small handful of rounds a day you can perform at peak and that's wizard territory without the versatility.
What concerns me about this interpretation of infusion specialization is that the Elemental Ascetic can never use a composite full attack without taking burn. The same would go for a blade or whip specialist. If you do take the ability away for infusion specialization to absorb the cost of composite blasts then damage of kineticists plummets as you can never, before lvl 16, combine metas with any composite without taking burn or taking multiple rounds which wastes the double damage of composites and opens you up to interruption.
If you can move action gather power to empower a meta blast at level 8 for 0 burn then kineticist damage is fine, if not the house of cards falls down and you are limited to a small handful of rounds a day you can perform at peak and that's wizard territory without the versatility.
I'm just going off how it reads, the RAW. You have simple blasts and composite blasts. These are the foundation of the attack. Infusion Wild Talents (infusions) modify the attack in one of two flavors, form and substance. A composite blast is not an infusion and shouldn't get reduced as such.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for buffs to the class but currently you'd have to houserule any improvements.
What concerns me about this interpretation of infusion specialization is that the Elemental Ascetic can never use a composite full attack without taking burn. The same would go for a blade or whip specialist. If you do take the ability away for infusion specialization to absorb the cost of composite blasts then damage of kineticists plummets as you can never, before lvl 16, combine metas with any composite without taking burn or taking multiple rounds which wastes the double damage of composites and opens you up to interruption.
If you can move action gather power to empower a meta blast at level 8 for 0 burn then kineticist damage is fine, if not the house of cards falls down and you are limited to a small handful of rounds a day you can perform at peak and that's wizard territory without the versatility.
Well, there is always the buffer, but that is a rather limited resource.
Another alternative is that you could create wondrous items to help out. For example, make some bracers that after a few days (or a week) to attune to your body and element(s) can reduce the cost of composite blasts by 1 with X (2, 4, 6 for lesser, reg, and greater) charges to it. It'll let you use composites more often without being an all day resource.
Your complaint boils down to "I can't apply every option the class gets every round without penalty." Other than the Fighter, I can't think of any class that can do everything available to them in a single round.
Under normal situations I would agree but I thought "all day, every day" was sort of the schtick of the Kineticist with the exception of a few very powerful utility powers.
And the limited uses per day I was referring too is basically your buffer plus your con mod which for a limited use resource that is extremely meager. Outside of say 4-8 rounds per day you are at half damage and that is if you don't power up your elemental defense. The overwhelming soul also basically cannot use composite blasts for damage.
The all day aspect is normal blasting and some other limited stuff. Big damage you can't do all day.
Your complaint boils down to "I can't apply every option the class gets every round without penalty." Other than the Fighter, I can't think of any class that can do everything available to them in a single round.
Under normal situations I would agree but I thought "all day, every day" was sort of the schtick of the Kineticist with the exception of a few very powerful utility powers.
And the limited uses per day I was referring too is basically your buffer plus your con mod which for a limited use resource that is extremely meager. Outside of say 4-8 rounds per day you are at half damage and that is if you don't power up your elemental defense. The overwhelming soul also basically cannot use composite blasts for damage.
The all day, every day is true for ~70% of what they can do. Flight, invisibility, earthquake, control weather, ethereal jaunt, etc. You just have to pay some burn if you want to do a few other utility talents or if you want to throw [u]all of your eggs[/u] into one blast.
Don't think of it as half damage unless you take burn, think of it as you have to take burn for double damage, or forgo the empower. Empower + infusions or composite. You have options. Choose for the given scenario.
I guess it just opens up character options. If composite blasts are limited to 2-3 times per day until you are competing against level 8 and 9 spells and those times per day compete against other good skills, it does not matter too much if your composite is weak as long as you have good basics. This does underline that an unmodified composite or a maximized basic is all the Dpr a kinetic is can depend upon which I guess was the whole point of Ravings original post.
P.S. this makes foe throw the highest all day damage combination assuming the thrown fails it's save
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With my current build, it looks like my best "at-will" damage will be using a move action supercharge to unleash a heavily infused thunderstorm blast.
12d6 + 1d8 + 26 = 72.5 damage on average
If I'm not mistaken, I can pretty much apply any one of my listed infusions to it, chaining it, snaking it, extreme sniping it, or swinging it in melee. Except for chaining it, I can also add the thundering substance infusion on top of that, pretty much for free.
Contrast that to the following:
Empowered air blast - 69.75 damage on average
Maximized air blast - 65 damage
Standard air blast - 46.5 damage on average
The damage only goes downhill from there with other options. Probably should never make an electric blast unless hitting the AC becomes an issue.
72.5 DPR is actually pretty good for "At-Will."
My Bard optimized for archery full attacks, while singing and after hasting, was at about 67.
The big problem I have with Kinneticist DPR is how little party buffs effect their DPR (unless they decide to break theme and get Kinetic Blade).
it's not 72.5 dpr, it's 72.5 per hit.
still, due to infusions (making it aoe, bypassing covers, deafening, etc) it it good enough (imo).
buffs do offer less to the kineticist compared to a more traditional martial, but they are still quite potent. heroism/gr heroism, bard song, etc
the main thing that boosts kineticist dpr imo is +attack buffs, because there's not much to optimize/gear for there in the traditional sense (i mean there are the gauntlets and an extremely overpriced item and... that's it?)
Woops, yeah you're right.
I illogically thought that since he did one attack per round for 72ish damage that it was his DPR. Didn't take the attack bonus into account.
With my current build, it looks like my best "at-will" damage will be using a move action supercharge to unleash a heavily infused thunderstorm blast.
12d6 + 1d8 + 26 = 72.5 damage on average
If I'm not mistaken, I can pretty much apply any one of my listed infusions to it, chaining it, snaking it, extreme sniping it, or swinging it in melee. Except for chaining it, I can also add the thundering substance infusion on top of that, pretty much for free.Contrast that to the following:
Empowered air blast - 69.75 damage on average
Maximized air blast - 65 damage
Standard air blast - 46.5 damage on averageThe damage only goes downhill from there with other options. Probably should never make an electric blast unless hitting the AC becomes an issue.
Chain only works on electricity blast, so the number one circumstance you'll be using your electricity for will be aoe situations.
Even with just two opponents, an empowered electricity chain blast will deal 101.175 dpr on average, and will be your best option unless resistances are in play, you have a party member capable of one-shotting things, or you are trying to eliminate a single target quickly.
I'm not that good at math, so let's see if I did this right:
B = probability of B hitting
A*B = Probability of both hitting independently
P(A*B)/P(A) = Probablity of both hitting, dependent on A hitting
A and B = 95%, given touch attack of +20 against monster with Touch AC less than 22
P(.95*.95)/P(.95) = .95
Average damage of A+B = 106.5 (2*(1.5*(7*3.5+11)))
Adj. Average damage = 101.175
Either way, DR is more common than Electricity Resistance (or so it would seem), so you have to take that into account for the damage comparisons as well. Electricity might not be higher on paper, but given it's better chance to hit against most enemies and damage type, it can end up being better.
How are you getting over a hundred? Are you accepting burn, or are you adding up all the targets' damage together?
he's adding the damage together. because that's how much damage you're doing in a round, but not damage to 1 target in a round.
he's adding the damage together. because that's how much damage you're doing in a round, but not damage to 1 target in a round.
Heh... by that logic, Wizards/Sorcerers are far and above the best DPS characters in the game.
he's adding the damage together. because that's how much damage you're doing in a round, but not damage to 1 target in a round.Heh... by that logic, Wizards/Sorcerers are far and above the best DPS characters in the game.
I don't think anyone is disputing that.
he's adding the damage together. because that's how much damage you're doing in a round, but not damage to 1 target in a round.Heh... by that logic, Wizards/Sorcerers are far and above the best DPS characters in the game.
I showed all my work for how I got the damage per round against two targets. You can extract the amount of damage-per-hit for one electric blast from that work
I'm not trying to mislead anyone. The 'logic' that I was using is that electric blast isnt useless. It's the only aoe option for Ravingdork's character as presented. I will give that I messed up the math a little, and the total dpr should be 2-3 points lower (I forgot to remove a d6 for the chain).
Most combat situations won't just be all the party vs. 1 guy. It's in these situations that an attack roll based, infinite use, chain lightning spell is incredibly useful.
I added my caveats, math, and justification in my last post, so see there for the setup.
Edit: I also think that Kineticist gives sorc/wiz a run for it's money on aoe blaster dps, but I don't have the time at the moment to back that up. Not an aerokineticist, mind you, but definitely a kineticist. I'll work on that point later. :D
Calling it an area of effect attack is misleading I think (unintentionally I'm sure). It doesn't fill an area and doesn't require a saving throw.
It's simply a multitarget attack, similar to scorching ray, whirlwind attack, or chain lightning.
The cyclone form infusion, on the other hand, would qualify as an area of effect attack.
Calling it an area of effect attack is misleading I think (unintentionally I'm sure). It doesn't fill an area and doesn't require a saving throw.
It's simply a multitarget attack, similar to scorching ray, whirlwind attack, or chain lightning.
The cyclone form infusion, on the other hand, would qualify as an area of effect attack.
I'm using area-of-effect attack in the MMO/game sense of 'effecting multiple targets above 2'. Just like I'd call an effect that hits one person then bounces to a single nearby target a 'cleave' effect. Just a poor choice of phrasing when those two terms are defined in the ruleset, I suppose.
I personally find attack rolls preferable to saves in most situations just because I have control over attack rolls. In that same line of thought, I find chain blast or impale to be better than the actual, templated aoe infusions, because of their ease-of-use/positioning and relative success chance against higher level enemies. That's my opinion, however, as it's the difference between guaranteed 1/2 (or 1/4 in some cases) damage on a true templated attack.
All this is neither here nor there, though, as it still your only real option for affecting more than one enemy per round, barring melee.
I don't think anyone is disputing that.he's adding the damage together. because that's how much damage you're doing in a round, but not damage to 1 target in a round.Heh... by that logic, Wizards/Sorcerers are far and above the best DPS characters in the game.
Dealing a lot of damage by spreading it out amongst enemies is a terrible tactic in Pathfinder/d20. Just because you did a lot of damage, doesn't mean you did a lot in combat. Killing, or disabling, an enemy is far more important. Outside of a few situations, martials are, pretty much, always going to do better DPR than casters, because their DPR actually kills the opponent.
Sure, they may have only dealt 150 to the wizards 1,000 points of accumulated damage, but when the martial is done with his turn, there is one less enemy on the board. This is a far more important factor than the accumulated damage of a fireball.
I mean, how many I dunno... []itensified, empowered, delayed blast fireballs[/i] will it take from an Orc/Dragon crossblooded Sorcerer with the Goblin fire drums to take down an equal level opponent? Now how many rounds will it take for a martial to do the same thing? Who does it faster?
AoE damage is strictly inferior to single target damage in nearly every case except for when you're fighting enemies lower level than you, because then the AoE damage could pose a real threat to them.
I mean, people talk about using fireballs or cone of cold to 'soften them up' in a fight. No one says, "Hey, Barbarian, full attack that guy to soften him up for my fireball."
Though true in every sense, Tels, if said super fireball put all of the enemies within one hit of being taken off the board, right before the fighter/archer shoots each one (removing them from the board), then I'd say the blaster did a damn sight better than most other casters.
Alternatively, the blaster might not get that close to killing them, but might do enough damage to cause the entire enemy force to lose heart and flee or surrender.
Conversely, chunking a bunch of enemies into 1 shot range is a great tactic for removing MANY enemies from the board in a few short actions.
Scenario 1: Large group of enemies 2-3 hit die less than party.
With AOE
Wizard casts Chain Lightning/Fireball/whatever and reduces a bunch of them low.
Next on initiative is the Zen Archer Monk who full attacks and kills one dude with each arrow because they were all so reduced
Kill count: 4-5 dudes
Without AOE
Wizard casts Haste to maximize martial damage for the encounter, so they can save spells.
Same Zen Archer: Kills like 1-2 dudes.
The AOE scenario resulted in more enemy incapacitates.
AOE is not useless when used in the situations it's intended to be used in.
Though true in every sense, Tels, if said super fireball put all of the enemies within one hit of being taken off the board, right before the fighter/archer shoots each one (removing them from the board), then I'd say the blaster did a damn sight better than most other casters.
Alternatively, the blaster might not get that close to killing them, but might do enough damage to cause the entire enemy force to lose heart and flee or surrender.
True for a wizard/sorc but a kineticist can do a little bit better than that. Their aoe may not be as good but they can do something like dropping a grappling deadly earth that can keep foes in place or force them to maneuver around it, controlling their movements. If you're in a dungeon or limited space area, walls, clouds, and deadly earths keep them in check while foe throws, bowling, impaling, and chain can take full advantage of the forced corralling.
The kineticist isn't just raw damage, unless you go for that kind of build. Yes they have utility in the form of their utility talents but they also have utility in their ability to infuse their blasts with unique properties that you can't add to a ray or fireball or do from 30+ feet instead of melee. I think the problem is that people look at the Kineticist's low raw DPR and forget to look at what comes with the damage. These aren't do special stuff OR do damage (well, the utility talents are, but not infusions) but instead they're do damage and f$#+ their day up in the same action.
Though true in every sense, Tels, if said super fireball put all of the enemies within one hit of being taken off the board, right before the fighter/archer shoots each one (removing them from the board), then I'd say the blaster did a damn sight better than most other casters.
Alternatively, the blaster might not get that close to killing them, but might do enough damage to cause the entire enemy force to lose heart and flee or surrender.
True for a wizard/sorc but a kineticist can do a little bit better than that. Their aoe may not be as good but they can do something like dropping a grappling deadly earth that can keep foes in place or force them to maneuver around it, controlling their movements. If you're in a dungeon or limited space area, walls, clouds, and deadly earths keep them in check while foe throws, bowling, impaling, and chain can take full advantage of the forced corralling.
The kineticist isn't just raw damage, unless you go for that kind of build. Yes they have utility in the form of their utility talents but they also have utility in their ability to infuse their blasts with unique properties that you can't add to a ray or fireball or do from 30+ feet instead of melee. I think the problem is that people look at the Kineticist's low raw DPR and forget to look at what comes with the damage. These aren't do special stuff OR do damage (well, the utility talents are, but not infusions) but instead they're do damage and f!&& their day up in the same action.
This is a fair point to raise. Truth be told, we have a lot of classes that are stuck doing mega damage as their only role in a fight, and they sure do a lot of damage. For kineticists, I thought it would be more fun to do less damage than those guys on your typical round-to-round actions (but still helpful damage; 2-rounding an on-CR or 3-rounding a CR+3, as shown earlier in the thread, is no slouch, as that means a party of 3 of those characters can 1-round a CR+3 "epic" encounter for 4 characters) but then add in more weird utility options, debuffs, and battlefield control, so you diversify your role a bit. But sometimes mega damage is fun too, as several of you guys convinced me on the playtest with some great analysis and personal perspectives. So as a result, thanks to you guys, thus was born elemental annihilator for just those situations, and that gal can put out some extreme damage while still potentially doing some of the debuff and battlefield control when needed (with infusions), but the cost is a sharp decrease in utility, though I think the annihilator, despite losing utility, still compares fairly favorably to a more standard beatstick or archer because of the capacity to add infusions into the mix when needed, which is helpful as a backup in different potential situations.
Shame you were forced to keep Spell Resistance though :(
Permanent reduce person would increase your to hit by +2 (+1 Size, +1 from dex). That's all I got.
Good call, same with alter self.
This is a fair point to raise. Truth be told, we have a lot of classes that are stuck doing mega damage as their only role in a fight, and they sure do a lot of damage. For kineticists, I thought it would be more fun to do less damage than those guys on your typical round-to-round actions (but still helpful damage; 2-rounding an on-CR or 3-rounding a CR+3, as shown earlier in the thread, is no slouch, as that means a party of 3 of those characters can 1-round a...Though true in every sense, Tels, if said super fireball put all of the enemies within one hit of being taken off the board, right before the fighter/archer shoots each one (removing them from the board), then I'd say the blaster did a damn sight better than most other casters.
Alternatively, the blaster might not get that close to killing them, but might do enough damage to cause the entire enemy force to lose heart and flee or surrender.
True for a wizard/sorc but a kineticist can do a little bit better than that. Their aoe may not be as good but they can do something like dropping a grappling deadly earth that can keep foes in place or force them to maneuver around it, controlling their movements. If you're in a dungeon or limited space area, walls, clouds, and deadly earths keep them in check while foe throws, bowling, impaling, and chain can take full advantage of the forced corralling.
The kineticist isn't just raw damage, unless you go for that kind of build. Yes they have utility in the form of their utility talents but they also have utility in their ability to infuse their blasts with unique properties that you can't add to a ray or fireball or do from 30+ feet instead of melee. I think the problem is that people look at the Kineticist's low raw DPR and forget to look at what comes with the damage. These aren't do special stuff OR do damage (well, the utility talents are, but not infusions) but instead they're do damage and f!&& their day up in the same action.
That sounds about right, provided the party of kineticists are experienced.
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Instead of just using all of your burn on your defense, consider using a point of burn to give your teammates Haste for 12 rounds just before a fight for most fights. Then you can open up with a Chained/Magnetic Electric blast to give all the martials using metal weapons a +4 to their attack rolls. You can do this over and over again if you wish at that level as long as SR doesn't stop you for some reason. Using an energy blast, we all know you won't actually miss unless some freak occurrence happens.
+4 to attack rolls is enough to put most decently optimized martial character into the very likely to hit category and they're now fast enough to reach the enemies wherever they may be. While you're not putting out the most amount of damage yourself you're almost guaranteeing that the martials are dropping the enemies like flies after you softening them up with the initial hit.
And oh look, now you're getting closer to playing a "God Caster" which is widely considered much more beneficial than a blaster-caster for groups while still pumping out non-insignificant amounts of damage. Don't be afraid to lower your own personal effectiveness just a bit to really make other people at the table shine. At 12th level you can be throwing out Thunderstorm/Magnetic/(some infusion costing 1 point, most likely Extended) every round against a big guy that you're all trying to focus on.
This is a fair point to raise. Truth be told, we have a lot of classes that are stuck doing mega damage as their only role in a fight, and they sure do a lot of damage. For kineticists, I thought it would be more fun to do less damage than those guys on your typical round-to-round actions (but still helpful damage; 2-rounding an on-CR or 3-rounding a CR+3, as shown earlier in the thread, is no slouch, as that means a party of 3 of those characters can 1-round a...Though true in every sense, Tels, if said super fireball put all of the enemies within one hit of being taken off the board, right before the fighter/archer shoots each one (removing them from the board), then I'd say the blaster did a damn sight better than most other casters.
Alternatively, the blaster might not get that close to killing them, but might do enough damage to cause the entire enemy force to lose heart and flee or surrender.
True for a wizard/sorc but a kineticist can do a little bit better than that. Their aoe may not be as good but they can do something like dropping a grappling deadly earth that can keep foes in place or force them to maneuver around it, controlling their movements. If you're in a dungeon or limited space area, walls, clouds, and deadly earths keep them in check while foe throws, bowling, impaling, and chain can take full advantage of the forced corralling.
The kineticist isn't just raw damage, unless you go for that kind of build. Yes they have utility in the form of their utility talents but they also have utility in their ability to infuse their blasts with unique properties that you can't add to a ray or fireball or do from 30+ feet instead of melee. I think the problem is that people look at the Kineticist's low raw DPR and forget to look at what comes with the damage. These aren't do special stuff OR do damage (well, the utility talents are, but not infusions) but instead they're do damage and f!&& their day up in the same action.
Is there any particular reason why we don't get infusions at levels 7 and 15? I mean I get that you're trying to reward for focusing on a single element and the one at 15 does that pretty well but if you want to diversify, you get punished by being denied a 3rd level infusion. This is a pretty key infusion for a lot of elements. Foe Throw, Magnetic, Impale and others. We're already having to be picky on which ones we get without getting the Extra Wild Talent feat but that puts us behind even more in known infusions, especially if we're trying to branch off to more elements.
Not only do you not get the infusion when branching out, the infusions you do (eventually) get from your new element must be lower in level, than if you had stayed with one element.