City of Heroes Kinetics Defender Guide
Leveling in CoH and CoV with this Heroic Template
Of all the defenders, the kinetics defender occupies a unique space in City of Heroes. The power set is shared by other archetypes, such as the scrapper, but defenders use the movement of their body in far different way. Like the dark miasma defender, they can weaken their opponents, but kinetics defender can also use their abilities to strengthen their own attacks.
The key to kinetics defender leveling is finding groups that complement his abilities. This defender type can solo, but he cannot do it well as a scrapper or storm summoning defender. He should know how to do this for the times when he cannot find a group, but this power set works best in a group that contains another type of defender that specializes in healing, according to the City of Heroes stratic web page.
Leveling Using the Kinetics Defender Powers
The key to using the powers is to weaken the opponents defenses and attacks so that the kinetics defender and his group has a much easier time defeating the villaisn of Paragon City (or heroes if the player is playing City of Villains.) Because this is what the set is designed for, this process is not difficult. A player should know what each of his powers does and a brief overview is included below.
- Transufsion – Area Effect Heal. Must be cast on a single target, but affects nearby allies
- Siphon Power – this ability lowers an opponent's attack power
- Repel – Knocks back an enemy who comes too close to the defender
- Siphon Speed – Lowers an opponent's movement rate
- Speed Boost – Enhances the movement rate of a friendly target
- Increase density – Increases the defenses of a friendly target
- Inertial Reduction – A movement ability that does not take endurance to use after casting
- Fulcrum Shift -- Similar to Siphon Power, but it affects more than one target
City of Heroes Kinetics Defender Leveling by Soloing
While City of Heroes is described as a game that is friendly to the solo player, not every class solos or groups equally as well. This is true of many other mmorpgs, and should not be seen as a criticism of the video game designers for this game. The key to kinetics defender leveling solo is to compensate for the lack of attack powers in the main set through the secondary power set. There are no recommended movement powers, although flight and teleportation are both popular choices.
Playing a kinetics defender can be fun, if a player enjoys a challenge. Leveling one in City of Heroes takes a little more forethought than the other defenders types, although kinetics defenders will probably suffer from much less experience debt than a blaster.
Resources:
City of Heroes Forums Kinetics Defender Guide
