I'm concerned with Kelvin. It may just be me, but he doesn't feel exactly fun to play

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#1

Instead of Kevlin, he might as well just be named Sublimate. This is basically all you’re really doing as Kelvin aside from spamming Chomp on every minion in sight. His Ice Wall is really good and admittedly satisfying to land when you do land it, but it is on a lengthy cooldown. Same for sublimate, but its very much understandable why those abilities have the cooldowns they have. They’re very powerful control abilities. So why does Kelvin feel unsatisfactory to play?

Probably because he has nothing else going for him outside of those. He feels slow and his Point of View UI honestly feels obstructed by his jaws. It is a really neat touch, but in practice it feels…constricting, I guess? Enclosing. Something along those lines. Basically I feel cramped when playing him which is really odd and I should have no reason for feeling so, but it honestly does and I feel its because of those jaws obstructing parts of the screen. Which in turn, feeling that way, impacts my enjoyment of the character.

But also just his gameplay in general. Aside form feeling slow, he has just simple melee attacks which in all honestly feel and look just as slow as he moves. I guess if you wanted Kelvin players to feel sluggish in multiple ways, then my hat is off to you. You succeeded. His melee combo feels slow, his off hand melee attack feels slow, and his Alternate fire attack feels slow.

I feel slow as Montana, but I also feel powerful. His Minigun does wonders to do that. I don’t get that same feeling for Kelvin, all I feel is slow and sluggish. No power at all. In fact, I often feel vulnerable and naked when Sublimate is off cooldown. I feel like I’m always at risk of death even though I’m a tank. I don’t feel like I can jump into the front line and do what I want because I’m melee. I don’t have the damage or speed to really hound anyone when Sublimate and Ice wall are on cooldown. I have Chomp, but that’s practically reserved for chomping minions to increase my health pool more and more.

Maybe I’m just rambling and speaking for myself, but I can’t say I ever really enjoyed playing Kelvin as a whole. His Ice wall and sublimate feels good, but then everything else feels bad. I only ever play Kelvin when I see a Miko, just to help that Miko player on the off chance they still need to complete their lore challenge of playing with a Kelvin on the same team.

How does everyone else feel about Kelvin? Anyone actually fans of using him?

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#2

Kelvin seems to be a bit of an acquired taste. I personally adore him and he is actually quite fast (movement wise). I’ve watched him keep up with Miko’s and even Rath’s at times and he has very good damage for being primarily a tank/utility character. His attacks are slow compared to some other characters, but I find his secondary attack to be crazy good in almost all close quarters situations due to the pushback effect it has. I also don’t mind his POV (probably because I’ve gotten used to it with other characters like Attikus).
As for his survivability without Sublimate I actually found this pretty easy to handle. I always utilize his health regen in addition with health regen items so I’m gaining maybe 16-30hp/sec at any given time which is typically enough to get out of most tight spots you might find yourself in.

I suppose he’s just not your cup of tea. I REALLY want to like Montana and Foxtrot (I always use burst fire guns in shooters), but I just don’t like how they handle. It happens and it’s kinda the motto of the game “A badass for every badass”.

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#3

I haven’t used him, so I can’t contribute to this topic the way you would probably prefer…
But I will say one thing, I encountered a Kelvin player last night in PvP in capture…
And if he has a Miko attached to him… Damn he can be one tough fella to take down!
Sure, he didn’t seem like he did much damage, neither did Miko (as he’s busy healing constantly), but they were practically unkillable, they were the type of combo that had me saying ‘not gonna waste my time’, as they were a great distraction method for capture points…
Held you there attempting to take them down for long periods…
So yeah, was an interesting encounter.

#4

Sublimate is his only good move. Chomp is clunky and hard to hit. His ultimate is one of the worst in the game. His secondary attack is pretty much just a better version of his primary with slightly lower DPS. I love him as a character but just wish his other abilities were more useful. He’s basically a one trick pony.

#5

Love Kelvin to death but i have to agree on the slow feel. also he is to large to have almost no damage resistance or sustainability in combat. His health regen is there but that doesn’t do much when range chars can be blind and hit you. not to mention he has zero range, anywhere in his kit. Lets not even talk about his low damage output. You have to sacrifice all survivability to bring his damage out of the “God Awful” range. Really want to see him be more useful.

#6

Not every Kelvin will have a pocket healer. He needs to be usable outside of a combo like that. thats what @tcjgame is tring to say.

#7

To be fair his chomp can do upto 500 damage (but at the very least more than 15% of a players max health) which is as much if not more than a lot of other characters ultimate. And he can do it every 5 seconds.

I personally love kelvin. I wouldn’t mind if he got some damage buffs of course, but what I think could be more fitting and balanced would be to instead increased the size of his hit boxes (especially the width) for his standard attacks and chomp, which would make it easier to hit moving targets.
He takes a lot of getting used to. He’s a very hit and run character, and shines with a big team.
Do big damage with a chomp or two, then sublimate and “dissapear” come back from behind and chomp yourself some kills while they’re distracted with your team.

Edit- this wasn’t meant to be a response to your comment, but a response to the thread in general.

#8

Oh right, sorry, my bad!..
Was just adding my own experience, as I’ve never actually encountered a Kelvin until last night…
Or I don’t remember encountering him…
Maybe his lacking doesn’t make him very memorable on the Battleborn PvP field?
And I’ve played heaps (in the rank 50’s now)…
I guess that warrants what y’all are saying, given how much I’ve played, he seems to be absent amongst the players selecting him…
Maybe for the exact reasons y’all pointed out, shame…
I’ll have to give him a try!

#9

he is a very rarely played char. and largely weak. its understandable that you haven’t seen much of him. he is really only useful in incursion as-well.

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#10

I find Kelvin kinda dull to play. I don’t think he’s bad, just boring.

I wish his E was less clunky to use. Do any Kelvin players have advice on how to use it when you’re meleeing a player? It feels weird that I have to stop meleeing so the chomp animation can wind up. Is it better to just keep meleeing them or to weave chomps in?