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I haven't played one. For the most part there are 3 abilities that require metal.
Metal Aura Junction: This is amazing when it works and cost nothing if you are going pure metal.
Rain of Rust: This is a decent situational one. I probably wouldn't pick it up though. Also doesn't have damage or a duration...
Magnetic Field: Don't really recommend this one. The effect probably wouldn't even give you a huge advantage.
In general the rest of the abilities are all decent if you never run into a metal enemies. Just gives nice perks of they happen to be metal.
It is 100% campaign dependent. If you have no idea what the campaign I would basically plan around less than 5% for metal creature effects. Some abilities have benefit against metal armor, these ones would be good if fighting a lot of humanoids. So pretty much just don't plan on it.
I have theory crafted a lot about Kineticist. It pairs really well with another element.
Can focus on a stance and tanking focus mainly on shard strike as your main offense and pick up a stance from another element.
Can focus on pure range with magnetic pinions + scrap barricades as your main abilities.
Overflow is useful in two cases.
The first is when you don't care about your aura effects - you don't use a stance, and you don't take aura junctions (or, in the case of a single element kineticist, you eventually do, but you don't care). in that case, a cost of "and I'll spend an action generating elemental blast" just isn't that big a deal.
The second is for people who *do* care about auras (and, in particular, a stance) using an overflow power as an opener. You use your overflow power first thing, and then get into your stance with the mandatory channel.
Scrap Barricade is particularly good for that use case, as the very beginning of the fight is a fine time to cut the enemy forces in half and make the ones behind the wall take a lot longer to engage than the ones in front of the wall.
4 abilities. Magnetic pinions. It's also an overflow. I am also you are assuming "retch rust" not rain of rust. (6 if you are counting the composites: rain of rust and lightning rod)I haven't played one. For the most part there are 3 abilities that require metal.
Metal Aura Junction: This is amazing when it works and cost nothing if you are going pure metal.
Rain of Rust: This is a decent situational one. I probably wouldn't pick it up though. Also doesn't have damage or a duration...
Magnetic Field: Don't really recommend this one. The effect probably wouldn't even give you a huge advantage.
Retch Rust is pretty decent even without the vs-metal rider. a 30 foot cone for 1d10/2 levels isn't bad, even as a two-action overflow.
Rain of Rust, by comparison, does nothing against nonmetallic targets.
Lightning rod, by comparison, is lousy regardless. Like, it does have a vs-metal rider, but it's bad even in cases where that rider applies.
4 abilities. Magnetic pinions. It's also an overflow. I am also you are assuming "retch rust" not rain of rust. (6 if you are counting the composites: rain of rust and lightning rod)I haven't played one. For the most part there are 3 abilities that require metal.
Metal Aura Junction: This is amazing when it works and cost nothing if you are going pure metal.
Rain of Rust: This is a decent situational one. I probably wouldn't pick it up though. Also doesn't have damage or a duration...
Magnetic Field: Don't really recommend this one. The effect probably wouldn't even give you a huge advantage.
No, he's talking about metal (including hybrid) abilities that only do something against metal targets. His list is correct. You are correct that there are other abilities that do extra stuff against metal targets, but those function fine (or still terrible for Lightning Rod) against non-metal targets.
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Xenocrat clarified my post. Overall, I think Metal Kineticist will pull their weight no matter what enemies you face. I do hope the GM would be nice and add a few metal monsters here and there!
Just wanted to say... poor Lightning Rod. I feel like impulse balance is much better than spell balance at least.
There are almost pros and cons of every impulse. The problem is Molten Wire is an amazing example of a good single target debuff/damage hybrid ability.
There is a very obscure case of Lightning Rod being "okay". You have a bunch of ranged characters and no other allies that cause off guard, and are fighting one strong enemy. It is pretty much a slightly stronger 2 Action Elemental Blast + 1 Action used on the minor debuff. I agree it is one of the worst impulses when you compare it to all the other amazing things you can do.
It is an okay single target option, Air/Metal doesn't really have much else when it comes to single targets. It does kind of feel like 3 elemental blasts will be better than this though :(. I really wish that it was buffed. It would be so cool to have a good melee impulse for an Air/Metal Kineticist.
Most parties will have no use for this because they will flank or have other ways to give off guard with prone.
Really, if I had a whole bunch of ranged allies though that use attacks, I would probably recommend splashing Water and build around Winter's Sleet.