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Wow I was reading Final Gate and it become pretty fantastic now once that you gain a free action to Channel Elements again (and you aren't Quickened) technically allowing the kineticists to Blast + 3 action overflow every single turn.
Yup it's pretty good. Just be wary you don't rely too much on any stances or aura effects while all the enemies go.
Couldn't agree more. Air, Earth Wood, Water junctions are amazing (I love the tactical play of water so rank it up there too).
Fire doesn't feel great as it just seems fire should have had the 1 die higher built in already so theirs feels almost obligatory to make fire good.
Metal is a decent concept, but the damage won't be enough to matter in most cases. Which is a real shame because I love how metal turned out otherwise (except the magnetic aura, most monsters don't use metal).
For other side Fire Aura and Metal Aura are the best IMO.
Wow I was reading Final Gate and it become pretty fantastic now once that you gain a free action to Channel Elements again (and you aren't Quickened) technically allowing the kineticists to Blast + 3 action overflow every single turn.
Or a two-action overflow, and then have an action free to do whatever.
There's definitely a tradeoff there from the fact that you don't have your aura up when it's not your turn. Some builds wont' care at all. Some will care a lot.
So, yeah. In some ways, it's a semi-capstone that you can choose to build towards.
Is it just me or does the melee options for Weapon Infusion seem really weird? Like, why would someone ever use Sweep on an attack instead of just Agile? They give an identical effective bonus on your second attack (as long as you're attacking a different creature), but Agile is untyped. I guess in the event there's some abiltiy which'd let you make multiple attacks without increasing MAP? Forecful is in a similar position in that whilst +1-5 damage on your second attack is nice, very rarely would that ever be better than just getting a +1 to hit on said attack. In general the options don't seem super balanced vs each other. You kinda just use either Backswing or Reach on the first attack (assuming that even if you use a diffent trait it still counts as the same weapon), then on the second attack either use Agile or Reach.
If you have some way of making a blast that ignores MAP sweep (and forceful) become stronger options since Agile wouldn't apply.
There does not appear to be any way to actually do that though.
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One thing that seems kind of cool about the kineticist is that there are different ways you can fit its components together for interesting effects. You can focus on auras and build a character who's going to be a pseudo-melee blaster with passive effects happening around them constantly, or focus on overflows and use more high impact abilities with a cadence instead (and it does the on/off mechanic a lot better than swashbucklers or gunslingers, imo).
Different elemental combinations likewise open up a variety of options, though I feel like the inertia of the class right now encourages you to have as few elements as you can tolerate, you can even just pick up composites as a single element kineticist if you want.
In some ways the kineticist is almost too cool. I feel like in hindsight it does what people wish they did with the Inventor or Thaumaturge (or every class to some extent), and as I said, it does the 'spend an action to get ready' mechanic better than older classes
... That's not to say that those classes are bad, or that the Kineticist is stronger than them, but that in the wake of the kineticist it's hard not to look at some older classes and feel like Paizo was way too conservative with their designs.
If I had one major mechanical complaint so far, it's that the class is kind of slow to get off the ground. The class is totally functional at low levels from what I've seen so far, but there's a lot of conceptual and mechanical meat in junctions and having a toolbox of impulses that mean some of that "all coming together" moment is at 8 or 9 instead of 5 or 6 (and can be stretched out even longer if you want a more convoluted combo of abilities).
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... That's not to say that those classes are bad, or that the Kineticist is stronger than them, but that in the wake of the kineticist it's hard not to look at some older classes and feel like Paizo was way too conservative with their designs.
I get where you're coming from here, but you're reading it wrong. They've been developing skill and understanding on how to do this stuff all this time. From a game designer perspective, PF2 has been incredibly tightly balanced from the beginning, but in order to pull that off at all they had to start out pretty conservative, and then slowly pushed the envelope a bit more each time, learning as they went. They were able to pull off the Kineticist because they had done classes like the Swashbuckler before it - designed them, and sent them out for playtest, and tuned them based on the playtest, and then seen how they played for years at actual tables.
If they had gone for this level of radical at the beginning, the results wouldn't have been nearly as good.
I think most builds are actually going to try and stack as many elements as possible to grab 1-2 choice powers from each. Even if you want to go with basic fire offense, you don't need crit spec or resistance after you grab the aura so you're free to spec into others at 9+ and use the reflow class feature to change them as needed.
In particular, air has a few impulses with fantastic scaling effects for mid-late game pickup, wood's protector tree can be grabbed with a delayed natural ambition along with its level 6 wall, earth has its own wall along with what is essentially a stacking apex (str) for a 14th level feat, and others.
I honestly am not all that enthused by most of the gates. Fire's aura, earth and wood crit spec, and that's about it. Resistance is cool and all, but I haven't been hurting for it before kineticist and so I'm not super concerned about getting that junction. Skills are pretty whatever too. Air, water and fire have good impulse junctions, but you can get those for free with a mono element start.
And yeah, you aren't going to stack the earth stance with fire, but others might find it attractive.
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I could definitely see a Fire/Earth brawler. There's an obvious aura-based Fire build that wants to be up close, but Fire doesn't have the tools to really survive that, especially not if you like being abel to actually use that +strmod to damage. Dip Earth for the armor, and suddenly you do. Early game, you lose a die size on your two-action impulses, but you *gain* a die size on your close-ranged blasts. Take Fire aura at 5, fire impulse at 9, and ignore the crit junction altogether because you'll absolutely be taking that Flames Oracle dedication if you don't have a buddy to be all Oracular *for* you. Skill junction is optional. Resist junction is nice, but also optional.
Basically you'd want to have almost all of your damage-dealing be Fire for obvious reasons, but there's some pretty nice utility to be had for dipping some of the others, and some of the junctions are less awesome than others.
Side thought: One of the things we're definitely going to want to do at some point is to put together a list of the really particularly poachable impulses for each element.
Asked in the pc thread, but why not. Archetype kineticists might not get the blast scaling or free stance activation when gathering their element, but the feat impulses all still scale with character level.
Air:
Four winds gives four willing creatures a half speed move (full speed at 10th)
Whisper on the wind is message but eventually upgrades to one-way planetary range communication. For those merchant guild members that want to get ahead of the competition.
Clear as air is that invis impulse. Available to archetypes at level 12 making for an easy multitalented 9, basic 10, advanced 12 progression.
Cyclonic ascent is full party flight. Available to archetypes at 16, two levels after it scales to hit the whole party.
Earth:
Geologic attunement is imprecise tremorsense that upgrades to precise at 13th.
Calcifying sand is a reaction that gives you [level] resistance to physical damage. Has a funny rider you won't see trigger. Available to archetypes at 8.
Swim through earth is earth glide by the time you can get it. Available to archetypes at 16, two levels after scaling.
Fire:
Volcanic escape is a reaction that lets you Leap half speed after being attacked without triggering reactions. Good escape tool. Available at 12.
Metal:
Flashforge can make any level 0 common, handheld weapon or piece of adventuring gear if it can be made completely from metal (at gm discretion). Can be magnetic and have simple moving parts. 10 minute duration, flat DC after each use or it breaks. Surely there's something here for the creative soul.
Consume power is metal's defensive reaction. Similar to earth but resists acid, elec, fire or sonic. Available at 8.
Scrap barricade is a wall. Lasts until the end of your next turn but can be sustained. Available at 12.
Water:
Deflecting wave is water's defensive reaction. Level resist vs bludgeoning or slashing and double vs fire and acid.
Ocean balm is a single action touch heal with a 10 minute CD per target.
Return to the sea. As feet to fins and also removes underwater attack penalties. For those ocean campaigns. Available at 8.
Torrent in the blood. Ranged healing with a 10 minute CD per target. Available at 12.
Wood:
Timber sentinel. It's the protector tree spell as an at-will ability.
Dash of herbs. Ranged heal with a 10 minute CD per target. Uses d10s which is nice. Available at 12.
Wooden palisade. Wood's level 6 wall, comes with platforms for archers. Lasts until end of next turn but can be sustained. Available at 12.
The stances are kind of hard to use without the feat that lets you exclude allies which itself is available at 8.
The stances are kind of hard to use without the feat that lets you exclude allies which itself is available at 8.
Eh? Is there something specific to the archetype that makes auras party-unfriendly? If not, the fire "everything around me burns" stance happily hands out fire resist to your allies to go with it, thus preventing its damage.
wood impulse is also very strong.
same for metal aura junction.
for double impulse, even if you pick nothing else, you are looking at minimum level 9 either way (you wither start with 1, fork at 5, pick the second one at 9, or you start with 0 and pick the first one at 5 and the second one at 9), level 13 if you pick up a single other junction except the impulse ones, level 17 just for 2 junctions and 2 impulse junctions in a dual element setup.
as a simple example, fire/earth where you pick up the fire impulse, the fire aura, the earth crit spec, is already level 13, you can either pick a single more junction or a 3rd element at level 17. At that point, full immunity to fire and cold sounds better to me than opening up a 3rd element.
hence why i said most kineticists will be around 2 elements imo if they are trying to optimize.
Metal's aura is a status penalty with a limited target selection. Anything that's a status penalty is of questionable value with AoE fear and dirge of doom doing the same thing with far fewer restrictions (and how many mindless creatures are also going to qualify for metal's aura). Wood gives good temp hp, but, I don't find it particularly impactful. Not enough to go out of my way for it at least.
Otherwise, yeah. Fire really requires those two to function and earth is a nice rider as mentioned. I also can't argue against fire and cold immunity even if I personally find it unnecessary.
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The stances are kind of hard to use without the feat that lets you exclude allies which itself is available at 8.Eh? Is there something specific to the archetype that makes auras party-unfriendly? If not, the fire "everything around me burns" stance happily hands out fire resist to your allies to go with it, thus preventing its damage.
I forgot to put fire's in there. It's actually unique in not also affecting your allies adversely like the rest do. Water's uneven terrain, metal's difficult terrain if wearing metal, wood's speed cut and hazardous terrain and air's -1 to ranged attacks that go through the aura all affect allies too.
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I forgot to put fire's in there. It's actually unique in not also affecting your allies adversely like the rest do. Water's uneven terrain, metal's difficult terrain if wearing metal, wood's speed cut and hazardous terrain and air's -1 to ranged attacks that go through the aura all affect allies too.
That's not the only stances, though. I don't know all of them, but water has one that gives a little defensive bump while also triggering for instant healing if you or an ally gets crit.
Metal's aura is a status penalty with a limited target selection. Anything that's a status penalty is of questionable value with AoE fear and dirge of doom doing the same thing with far fewer restrictions (and how many mindless creatures are also going to qualify for metal's aura).
Just wanted to touch on the "status penalty" thing... PF2 is designed to support party optimization. Kineticists in particular are one the one class that's most bent towards party optimization. A lot of what you can get as a kineticist could be solid gold or near-useless depending on party details, and it's all different things for all different parties.
So yeah, if you have a bard in the party who's intending to go Dirge, then you just don't take the aura junction for metal. You take something else. If your party has no bards or Fear specialists, though, and no one who's intending to archetype bard, then the fact that it's redundant in certain other parties doesn't make it any less worthwhile under those conditions.
By the same token, it's interesting to note that the kineticist is weaker in PFS because you can't do long-term party optimization in the same way... and we're not sure about how leveraging the utility side of the kineticist is going to apply.
I forgot to put fire's in there. It's actually unique in not also affecting your allies adversely like the rest do. Water's uneven terrain, metal's difficult terrain if wearing metal, wood's speed cut and hazardous terrain and air's -1 to ranged attacks that go through the aura all affect allies too.That's not the only stances, though. I don't know all of them, but water has one that gives a little defensive bump while also triggering for instant healing if you or an ally gets crit.
Water's is level 12, wood's is 8 (archetype 16) and not friendly, earth's are at 14 and 18 (aside from the tremorsense one), air's are 12 and 18. Unfortunately, not much to work with there.
I could definitely see a Fire/Earth brawler. There's an obvious aura-based Fire build that wants to be up close, but Fire doesn't have the tools to really survive that, especially not if you like being abel to actually use that +strmod to damage. Dip Earth for the armor, and suddenly you do. Early game, you lose a die size on your two-action impulses, but you *gain* a die size on your close-ranged blasts. Take Fire aura at 5, fire impulse at 9, and ignore the crit junction altogether because you'll absolutely be taking that Flames Oracle dedication if you don't have a buddy to be all Oracular *for* you. Skill junction is optional. Resist junction is nice, but also optional.
Basically you'd want to have almost all of your damage-dealing be Fire for obvious reasons, but there's some pretty nice utility to be had for dipping some of the others, and some of the junctions are less awesome than others.
I had the same thought actually, you could even flavor it as using some of the powers you have as manipulating molten glass.
Both Fire + Earth and Air + Earth seem like the most compelling options for me right now. The first for the reasons you mentioned, the latter due to how strong air utility is and how well the composite aura of those 2 elements seem to scale damage-wise. I'm feeling like 2 to 3 elements is going to be the sweetspot for me.
I'm thinking now of a fire/earth/water build. Steam knight for automatic damage at turn start, lava leap to leap above someone and land for more bonus damage from steam knight and then reigniting your aura with your third action. Lava leap isn't the best at scaling but the two instances of steam knight damage triggering weakness might be good enough to make it work. Fastest would be dual fire/earth at 1, tri to water at 5 and pick up fire's weakness aura at 9, but better routing is probably fire/earth 1, weakness aura at 5, tri water at 9 and steam knight at 10.
Steam knight's 3rd ability free action steam damage. Xd6+weakness
Lava leap triggering steam knight's second ability to alter a leap and deal damage jumping over someone. Xd6+weakness
Lava leap itself. Yd6+weakness+zd6 bludgeon
Gather elements and reactivate stance or blast. At 16+ just blast and let steam knight reactivate naturally with the auto stance feat.
Do free actions available at start of turn all need to be valid immediately or can I free stance at turn start and then trigger steam knight's free action?
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Earth, Wind, and Fire is an appealing combination for a lot of reasons.
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Earth, Wind, and Fire is an appealing combination for a lot of reasons.
Needs wood for Turn the Wheel of Seasons so every first round of combat can be September.
Hopefully I am not repeating a question that was already asked, and I hope this isn't asking too much but I saw reference to 'infusion' feats.
I don't remember these from the playtest; are these similar in function to infusions from 1e in that they modify how the elemental blast works?
Also how many of them are there? Are there any standouts that make elemental blasts (more) interesting?
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Ok, think I have a rough idea of what my next character will be.
The idea is to use Earth, Fire and Air and end up grabbing the fire aura, Desert Wind (Air/Earth composite), Two Element infusion and Ash Strider (Fire/air composite).
The general plan would be to set up the composite aura and the fire aura with the first action into Fire Strider to activate both. Onwards you can proc those twice with Ash Strider into an Air/fire blast with Two Element Infusion.
As a general offensive plan looks really solid, gets the flavor I wanted to get (i wanted to play a character that wields the power of sandstorms) and seems like a cool thing to play, zipping all over the battlefield.
Since my group plays with FA, I will probably grab Sentinel at 2 and start as an Air + whatever Kineticist. I would grab the missing element at 5 and the fire Aura at 9 along Ash Strider.
Sadly, this would delay a bit the cool level 6 and 8 Air utility, but I guess that's fine in the long run. Hope once I can read all the impulses properly in August 3rd this still makes sense.
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Hopefully I am not repeating a question that was already asked, and I hope this isn't asking too much but I saw reference to 'infusion' feats.
I don't remember these from the playtest; are these similar in function to infusions from 1e in that they modify how the elemental blast works?
Also how many of them are there? Are there any standouts that make elemental blasts (more) interesting?
They free action modify a blast. That means you can't use more than one at a time, and they don't work some other features, like the 19th level minicapstone that free action gathers and lets you blast or enter a stance.
1 - Versatile Blasts adds one additional damage type available to each element's blast. Fire/Air get cold as an option, Metal gets electricity, Earth/Wood get poison, Water gets acid. Not an infusion.
2 - Weapon Infusion. First, you can change your damage type to one of B/P/S. Second, you can add either a melee or ranged trait. The range traits convert your range to a range increment, and include propulsive or thrown for some strength damage if you don't need max range. Melee is reach, agile, and all the worse stuff you won't use.
4 - Two-Element Infusion. Combine two different blasts you have, but use the best of their range and damage die. (So only useful if you have air or fire and one of the others to have a d8 with 60' range.) Also makes the blast split its damage between the two types you choose, which is only really useful if you aren't sure whether it has a weakness and want to try to trigger two possibilities at once. Can be useful when using other infusions that boost a blast's damage - if you're adding a die or boosting a die size for fire or air, better to start with a d8 than d6.
10 - Chain Infusion. Use an action (not a free action for once) and then your next blast, if it hits, can keep chaining on hit to successive targets up to five times. MAP applies. So for two actions you make one attack, if it hits you make a second attack with MAP (still no benefit), if it hits you make a third attack at -10 (the first time you're getting a potential benefit), and so on until you miss or hit five things. It's bad except against scrubs you can easily hit at -10 who are too spread to hit with an AOE.
Thanks Xenocrat! And just double checking: are those four the only four that exist, or are they just the most noteworthy ones?
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Thanks Xenocrat! And just double checking: are those four the only four that exist, or are they just the most noteworthy ones?
I think there's something else with the infusion trait that surprised me, but I can't remember what it was and I don't think it was as straightforward as these.
These are the only four I saw flipping through the universal feats and looking.
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There's pacifying infusion from safe elements which costs an action and lets you add nonlethal and not hit allies,
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Hopefully I am not repeating a question that was already asked, and I hope this isn't asking too much but I saw reference to 'infusion' feats.
I don't remember these from the playtest; are these similar in function to infusions from 1e in that they modify how the elemental blast works?
Also how many of them are there? Are there any standouts that make elemental blasts (more) interesting?
They free action modify a blast. That means you can use more than one at a time, and they don't work some other features, like the 19th level minicapstone that free action gathers and lets you blast or enter a stance.
1 - Versatile Blasts adds one additional damage type available to each element's blast. Fire/Air get cold as an option, Metal gets electricity, Earth/Wood get poison, Water gets acid.
2 - Weapon Infusion. First, you can change your damage type to one of B/P/S. Second, you can add either a melee or ranged trait. The range traits convert your range to a range increment, and include propulsive or thrown for some strength damage if you don't need max range. Melee is reach, agile, and all the worse stuff you won't use.
4 - Two-Element Infusion. Combine two different blasts you have, but use the best of their range and damage die. (So only useful if you have air or fire and one of the others to have a d8 with 60' range.) Also makes the blast split its damage between the two types you choose, which is only really useful if you aren't sure whether it has a weakness and want to try to trigger two possibilities at once. Can be useful when using other infusions that boost a blast's damage - if you're adding a die or boosting a die size for fire or air, better to start with a d8 than d6.
10 - Chain Infusion. Use an action (not a free action for once) and then your next blast, if it hits, can keep chaining on hit to successive targets up to five times. MAP applies. So for two actions you make one attack, if it hits you make a second attack with MAP (still no benefit), if it...
I don't think you can use them with each other, because they have the metamagic-esque restriction of "must immediately follow up with the required action; even another free action fizzles it". Also, pretty sure Versatile Blasts wasn't actually an infusion?
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Thanks, I wrote can where I meant can't. And you're right about Versatile.
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Even then, you can specialize in only one element, you just need a secondary damage type in case you run into something resistant or immune. This is very important for fire, as other elements already offer bludgeoning, piercing or slashing.
Fire can bludgeon as "hard light", and either pierce or slash like a blowtorch... if it can make sense.
A lot of people have focused on this issue of resistance, and with some reason for the case of immunities, but it's always good to remember that there are a good number of creatures resistant to physical damage in the game (like the infamous golems and ghosts) and that the Martials don't usually have a way out of this situation.
The fact that practically any kineticist has a very different damage alternative already makes him significantly more effective in this regard, not to mention the fact that impulses are not considered exactly magic, which makes the kineticist the second most effective class against golems in the game.
Here's something worth asking:
What are the chances of encountering a creature which is resistant/immune to both your element AND physical damage?
Basically when you find a creature with Resistances all damage except.
Also many golems enter in this category.
And to correcting myself, Impulses are not spells, but they are still magical abilities, so golems can be troublesome for them.
Ok, think I have a rough idea of what my next character will be.
The idea is to use Earth, Fire and Air and end up grabbing the fire aura, Desert Wind (Air/Earth composite), Two Element infusion and Ash Strider (Fire/air composite).
The general plan would be to set up the composite aura and the fire aura with the first action into Fire Strider to activate both. Onwards you can proc those twice with Ash Strider into an Air/fire blast with Two Element Infusion.
Okay... how are you running both the Fire aura and the composite Earth/Wind aura at the same time? Aren't they both stances?
(I legit don't know. I've not actually seen any of the composite impulses yet. It had just seemed to be how those things were working.)
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Ok, think I have a rough idea of what my next character will be.
The idea is to use Earth, Fire and Air and end up grabbing the fire aura, Desert Wind (Air/Earth composite), Two Element infusion and Ash Strider (Fire/air composite).
The general plan would be to set up the composite aura and the fire aura with the first action into Fire Strider to activate both. Onwards you can proc those twice with Ash Strider into an Air/fire blast with Two Element Infusion.
Okay... how are you running both the Fire aura and the composite Earth/Wind aura at the same time? Aren't they both stances?
(I legit don't know. I've not actually seen any of the composite impulses yet. It had just seemed to be how those things were working.)
I'm guessing fire aura refers to the fire aura junction, which isn't a stance. It just creates fire weakness (but only against your fire damage, not allies'). The drawback is that the earliest you can have this "running" would be 9th level- dual gate start, expand elements at 5th, and aura junction for fire at 9th.
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Another issue with relying on two element infusion builds is you can't use that feat with the Channel Elements free blast - the free action trigger/order of operations conflict. But if you're using normal actions to blast and not also Channeling you're fine.
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Ah... I suppose that that would prevent the free blast from using any of the infusions, then. That's... potentially significant, for those who like going overflow.
It's funny. Initially, overflow looked really expensive... and then we found out that you'd get a free blast or stance and it suddenly looked very cheap... and now we find that costs are creeping back in again.
The balancing factors for the kineticist are really subtle and intricate in a way that it seems like basically none of the other classes are.
(That sound you hear is me giggling gleefully. So many delightful little crevices to play in.)
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I've been doing some basic number crunching. When it comes to your straightforward fire kineticist, with full investment into damage (impulse, aura and crit junctions*, 16 base str, damage stance) they will match or beat ranged martials while dealing AoE damage with your bread and butter flying flame+strike+stance
The main problem is that three action rotations are a pain to make work and martials typically discard raw damage for other benefits. Prone, slow, stun, blind, pin, etc. The kinetic aura is also pretty small and the kineticist has no way to keep enemies in their range without support.
However, this assumes your party is good at applying buffs and debuffs. If your party isn't good at this, kineticist is a monster compared to others. They're weird in that they need no math support to put up good numbers but don't scale nearly as well with it.
Other kineticists are going to run into damage issues without that weakness aura though. Earth/wood has the cheese to make it happen and metal might have its own hazardous terrain potential, but I'm worried for the others.
*turns out the critical junction's damage is negligible even when activating weakness.
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Yeah... the thing about playing with auras is that once you're depending on the aura junction, you're not really a ranged character anymore. Like, the initial aura size is 10 feet. That's not ranged. That's a reach weapon.
I've been doing some basic number crunching. When it comes to your straightforward fire kineticist, with full investment into damage (impulse, aura and crit junctions*, 16 base str, damage stance) they will match or beat ranged martials while dealing AoE damage with your bread and butter flying flame+strike+stance
The main problem is that three action rotations are a pain to make work and martials typically discard raw damage for other benefits. Prone, slow, stun, blind, pin, etc. The kinetic aura is also pretty small and the kineticist has no way to keep enemies in their range without support.
However, this assumes your party is good at applying buffs and debuffs. If your party isn't good at this, kineticist is a monster compared to others. They're weird in that they need no math support to put up good numbers but don't scale nearly as well with it.
Other kineticists are going to run into damage issues without that weakness aura though. Earth/wood has the cheese to make it happen and metal might have its own hazardous terrain potential, but I'm worried for the others.
*turns out the critical junction's damage is negligible even when activating weakness.
I think damage wise Air + Earth has good potential as well due to the composite Stance. Double Boomerang with the stance on seems fine, only issue I see with it is that it needs a few levels to scale.
Like, at level 8 you can force every turn but the first one 2 saves vs 5d4+2 and still get to move half your speed (which can easily be 20ft by then). Thats quite good for that level, and it only gets stronger as you level (you also get some better options to use the stance).
But yep, besides that, fire + whatever and hazardous terrain shenanigans builds I imagine the class will lack a bit of damage, which is fine by me considering the amount of utility the other elements have.
Yeah... the thing about playing with auras is that once you're depending on the aura junction, you're not really a ranged character anymore. Like, the initial aura size is 10 feet. That's not ranged. That's a reach weapon.
With aura expansion feat you can increase to 20ft. It's basically the throw reach. This make sense for damage focused builds and usually is enough for most in dungeon battles. (yet can be problematic with large AoE burst/emanation impulses in small rooms)
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Yeah... the thing about playing with auras is that once you're depending on the aura junction, you're not really a ranged character anymore. Like, the initial aura size is 10 feet. That's not ranged. That's a reach weapon.With aura expansion feat you can increase to 20ft. It's basically the throw reach. This make sense for damage focused builds and usually is enough for most in dungeon battles. (yet can be problematic with large AoE burst/emanation impulses in small rooms)
Sure... but that feat doesn't kick in until level 10. It's great once you get it and all, but even after that it's not exactly an amazing reach, and before then, comparing in-aura damage to ranged damage is just telling yourself lies.
Yep but I didn't expect anything from low level auras at all. For example, fire weakness aura only activate after you take lvl 5 junction and it is just 2 dmg weakness what is always good but isn't fantastic in this level where you also don't get too much impulses per turn.
In general what I saw in the videos is the most auras are developed for mid-to-high levels. Bellow this your tactics need to be different.
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Yep but I didn't expect anything from low level auras at all. For example, fire weakness aura only activate after you take lvl 5 junction and it is just 2 dmg weakness what is always good but isn't fantastic in this level where you also don't get too much impulses per turn.
In general what I saw in the videos is the most auras are developed for mid-to-high levels. Bellow this your tactics need to be different.
Most of this stuff isn't going to be individually fantastic, though. Especially when it comes to auras, the kineticist is all about piling small advantages on top of one another. So... you take the aura junction and the damaging aura stance, and at level 5 you're doing 4 points of fire damage to any unfriendlies in your immediate area, and an extra 2 damage from your other fire impulses (up to 6 and +3 with your next level). You get elemental weapon with your level 1 feat, and you're adding your strength damage to your blasts too, because it's all within reach 10. You spend your level 2 and 4 feats getting Incendiary Aura off of an Oracle archetype and now you're also handing out persistent fire damage (3d4) wherever you go. Basically all of it comes online at level 5, but it's all very close range.