My Kelvin helix build

Battleborn Open Beta Kelvin Discussion
#1

I love this character and I wanted to share my helix build!

LEVEL 1
:black_medium_small_square:THE BIG CHILL - use only when I am playing solo or playing against a lot of tanks
Increases Kelvin’s health regeneration. +7 Health Regeneration per Second
:black_medium_small_square:COLDCLOCK - Use in PvP, - especially when quick enemies present
Every fourth melee hit applies a brief slow to nearby enemies. +1 Second Slow Duration
:black_medium_small_square:DENSITY (Unlock Rank 3), - use when there is no team healer
Increases Kelvin’s maximum health. +360 Max Health

LEVEL 2
:black_medium_small_square:QUICK BITE - don’t care for because Sublimate is my escape, I don’t chomp and run. (maybe if it said attack speed)
Damaging an enemy with Chomp increases Kelvin’s movement speed for a short time. +30% Movement Speed for 2 Seconds
:black_medium_small_square:STRONG WIND - This was my go to before I unlocked the mutation, overshield is always nice.
Increases the bonus shield strength imparted by Permafrost when Kelvin activates Sublimate. +50% Permafrost Shield Strength
:black_medium_small_square:DIFFUSION (Unlock Rank 5) - PVP YES! If you are playing the right way, you can get close to 4000 HP by end game.
Chomp deals bonus damage equal to 3% of Kelvin’s current health

LEVEL 3
:black_medium_small_square:SWELLING WIND - Yes, helps escape and track down enemies if you want to assassinate with chomp
The longer Kelvin remains in his Sublimate form, the more his movement speed increases. Up to +60% Movement Speed
:black_medium_small_square:ICEMAKER - This ruins Kelvin because the Stun more effective to execute a chomp.
Replaces Sublimate’s stun effect with an icy trail that slows enemies. +3 Seconds Slow Duration

LEVEL 4
:black_medium_small_square:MASTICATION RESTORATION - Yes if there is no team healer, or they are bad at it.
A portion of health damage dealt by Chomp is returned to Kelvin as health. +23% Life Steal
:black_medium_small_square:SLOW FOOD - Preferred if you selected a slow (LVL 1 or LVL 3 Helix)
Chomp deals increased damage against slowed enemies. +25% Damage
:black_medium_small_square:SHIELD SNACKER (Unlock Rank 7) - Kelvin is not shield oriented, and I prefer the Life steal
30% of the damage dealt by Chomp is returned to Kelvin as shield strength.

LEVEL 5
:black_medium_small_square:ICE VI - Prefer the damage reduction, again, shield not as important to me
Increases the bonus shields imparted by Permafrost. +20% Shield Strength
:black_medium_small_square:GAINEDBLUE ICE - Yes. just in case of an Ult done while trying to escape
Kelvin takes reduced damage when Permafrost is active. +30% Damage Reduction

LEVEL 6
:black_medium_small_square:WINDCHILL - Honestly, I mostly cancel Sublimate on my own due to the desire to stun and chomp.
While Sublimated, damaging major enemies increases the skill’s duration. Up to +3 Seconds Duration
:black_medium_small_square:CONSUME - Yes, because even late game you are still chomping minions for more health (instakills)
Killing an enemy with Chomp drastically decreases Sublimate’s cooldown time. -5 Seconds Cooldown Time

LEVEL 7
:black_medium_small_square:GROUPTHING - Preferred I suppose, health is nice for Kelvin!
Kelvin’s health regeneration rate increases when he’s near allied Battleborn. +7 Health Regeneration Per Second
:black_medium_small_square:ICY FORCE - I don’t find myself needing to push enemies away, if anything I want them close, TO CHOMP!
Increases the push back effect of pounding the ground.

LEVEL 8
:black_medium_small_square:HIBERNATION - If you find yourself in the need of faster health regen, then yes.
Kelvin regenerates health faster while Sublimated. +21 Health Regeneration Per Second
:black_medium_small_square:WINDY SEASON - If health is no problem, go this route!
Decreases Sublimate’s cooldown, allowing more frequent use. -20% Cooldown Time

LEVEL 9
:black_medium_small_square:OVEREATER - Want more chomping?
Reduces the cooldown of Chomp, allowing more frequent use. -20% Cooldown Time
:black_medium_small_square:SAWTOOTH - Makes the ability to assassinate even that much more potent.
Increases Chomp’s maximum health bonus damage. +15% Damage

LEVEL 10
:black_medium_small_square:WALLED IN - I suck at Ice Wall to be honest.
Reduces Ice Wall’s cooldown, allowing more frequent use. -20% Cooldown Time
:black_medium_small_square:ABSOLUTE ZERO - Probably the better option, especially in a team fight scenario.
Enemies in close range of an Ice Wall are slowed. +3 seconds Slow Duration

THANKS FOR READING!

#2

Nice breakdown, but I do contend a few points.

For me, Sublimate slowdown effect is a must. A 2 second stun is not enough to capitalize on, even for your teammates, unless you simply spend the whole time Sublimated standing on top of one guy. The slow effect leaves them trapped much longer if you lay it down as a field instead of a path, allowing both you and your teammates to really lay on the hurt. Even more effective against Minion waves who are too dumb to do anything but move in a straight line.

I also disagree with the Chomp mutation as a must. Most of the time it’s an extra 70-90 damage per chomp, which is nice but the Sublimate permafrost buff plus the general permafrost buff later on has saved my backside so many times I can’t not take them. Kelvin more than any other character can truly abuse the teleport retreat by Sublimating out, teleporting, and Sublimating back to the front lines.

#3

thanks for the reply!

Yeah I can see how there can be an argument made in the stun vs. slow effect, I have always gone with stun because I like the fact that it not only freezes them in place but also prevents them from using a skill, also there is the helix skill where chomp does extra damage vs. slow, which does not effect a stunned character.

It also depends on your team, I typically play with a group of 5, so they have a fast reaction time, and I can tell them who I am about to stun, so that also helps. If playing with random people, you may be better off with a slow because its more obvious to teammates.

I think what I love about Kelvin is his assassination potential, but there is a whole different way to build him as far as being super tanky, since his HP keeps rising, and his passive gives him an over-shield. So if your on the front lines constantly chomping away, you could probably take a lot of damage.

I’ll try to get a few games in building him as a tank (which is probably the way he was intended) and let you know how I felt.

#4

Any of you Kelvin players have his last 2 Mutations unlocked? Can’t find them anywhere. :<

#5

Closing in on his rank 9, hoping to get it today, but we’ll see.

#6

FYI, in story mode, going with 2 of the shield modifiers (30% snacker, 20% shield gain on skill) gets you full shields on every chomp. That’s a 200 pt damage sponge every 5 seconds.

Not AS effective (but still nice) in MP as you dont damage players quite as much it seems.

#7

Rung 7 Mutation (Unlocked at character level 9)

Iceheart: Killing or Assisting against an enemy battleborn Increases Kelvins health regeneration rate. +150 Health regen over 3 seconds.

1 Like
#8

My Helix Build:

LEVEL 1:THE BIG CHILL - I always choose this, helps boost my health back up when my shields are up and keeps me in fights longer. Increases Kelvin’s health regeneration. +7 Health Regeneration per

LEVEL 2:DIFFUSION (Unlock Rank 5) - Used to choose the strong wind, but once I got shield eater mutation, this became much more valuable. Chomp deals bonus damage equal to 3% of Kelvin’s current health

LEVEL 3:black_medium_small_square:SWELLING WIND - Very helpful for reeking havoc on the enemy line and making quick get aways. The longer Kelvin remains in his Sublimate form, the more his movement speed increases. Up to +60% Movement Speed

LEVEL 4:SHIELD SNACKER (Unlock Rank 7) - YES!! This is where my Kelvin becomes a powerhouse. Combined with the Helix below (and possibly even without, need to look into that), I’m fully restoring my shield with every chomp. That’s 200 point of Damage soaked up every 5 seconds (IF you land your chomps, VERY important). 30% of the damage dealt by Chomp is returned to Kelvin as shield strength.

LEVEL 5:ICE VI - Only adds to the benefits from above (although I haven’t done much testing to see if any portion of this is wasted, I’ll update it once I get a chance to look into it.) +20% Shield Strength

LEVEL 6:CONSUME - With this you are often able sublimate in, get a kill (or kills if you are hitting minions), and sublimate out before anyone can take you out. Killing an enemy with Chomp drastically decreases Sublimate’s cooldown time. -5 Seconds Cooldown Time

LEVEL 7:GROUPTHING - Kelvin’s health regeneration rate increases when he’s near allied Battleborn. +7 Health Regeneration Per
ICEHEART: Killing or Assisting against an enemy battleborn increases Kelvin’s health regen rate. +150 Health regen.

Torn between Groupthing and Iceheart. Iceheart could possibly keep you in the fight more or give you that little extra to escape, but as Kelvin I do more minion killing and damage soaking than anything else so my Kills/Assists tend to be lower and the +7 around other battleborn is good for retreats without have to teleport back to base to restore health.

LEVEL 8:black_medium_small_square:HIBERNATION - By this late stage of the match I’m usually in the thick of things soaking up damage and sublimating out to escape. The chomp kill helix usually helps decrease my cooldown enough to have my sublimate available to the regen is more useful to make sure I make it back to safety and can get back in the fray sooner. (although in retrospect I believe it is only about 63 health, not that much considering his pool. Might try the reduced cooldown next time) Kelvin regenerates health faster while Sublimated. +21 Health Regeneration Per

LEVEL 9: OVEREATER - As stated before, connecting with chomp fully restores shields at this point. CHOMP AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!!! Reduces the cooldown of Chomp, allowing more frequent use. -20% Cooldown Time

LEVEL 10: ABSOLUTE ZERO - Probably this, but honestly it doesn’t matter. I rarely use my ult and when I do I have doubts that it actually makes that much of a difference in the game. Enemies in close range of an Ice Wall are slowed. +3 seconds Slow Duration

Gear:
A piece with positive shield regeneration, the higher the value the better - Putting a piece of gear with positive shield regen on Kelvin causes him to regen a shield up to a max of 200 and (currently) the shield regen rates seem faster than the health regen rates (and that’s WITH factoring in the regen I’m getting from my helix options).
Gear with Increased Max health - Always useful and will help boost damage of chomp thanks to helix. I may swap this for health regen and or movement speed if I ever get any better ones.
Cooldown gear - get fast sublimate and chomp

If you can find good duel purpose pieces that include some of the above traits, then having a shard generator is nice. Kelvin can be slow to gain XP in the beginning and being able to both get all our gear activated and supplement our XP with buildables is very handy.

Been loving this build so far. What do you all think of it?

#9

I like the idea of using the shield. I still haven’t gotten around to playing Kelvin with Slows. If your going to get one of the shield abilities, might as well go all in. The fact that he gets shields after ever skill is also useful.

Also I think his ult is glitched. The way I have my skill use set, I hold the button down and when I release the skill is suppose to pop, but when I go to use Ice wall, some of the time (not sure if its every time) when I release the button, it will build the wall where it showed when I first pressed Triangle, instead of where I was aiming my ice wall. Very annoying when trying to trap enemies.

It is funny to put an icewall behind a backpedaling enemy.

#10

I’ve noticed that too. Still think they should just ditch Ice Wall and go for a cold dome like in Algorithm story mode for his ult.

#11

I feel like that would be too similar to Reyna’s ult and Marquis’ L2 ability, whatever its called. I like the idea of an Ice wall, mostly because no other character has an ability like that, the closest is Kleese building the rifts, but they are too tiny to be an effective block, except maybe a doorway, but even then its easy to destroy unless you upgrade the health.

#12

It’s just not effective. 7 seconds is just not that much time to slow people down and requires precise aiming, timing and luck trap someone with it.

Many characters share similar ults:

Ambra and OM
Benedict and Marquis
ISIC and Toby
Thorn and Shane/Aurox
Not certain on this but, Montana and El Dragon

They’re similar cause that type of action works in the game. Currently…the wall does not.

#13

Maybe a wall with an AOE effect attached to it? I think its suppose to stun, I think we just need a bigger wall. We need a Donald Trump worthy wall.

#14

FYI, his legendary from completing lore is:

Plasmite-Infused Plating
+217 max health
+2.17% Damage Reduction
Kelvin Only: Missing with Chomp resets its cooldown for 1 immediate use.