Poor Kelvin! The lonliest Battleborn

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#1

I’ve always been a bit skeptical about “hand to hand”/non-ranged Battleborn characters…Galilea and Rath have a bit of reach with their weapons, and a healthy speed/rate of fire…but others…Boldur, El Dragon` and especialy Kelvin have a high learning curve

I am still up in the air with El Dragon1…I can’t play him worth a darn, and my opponents seem a mix bag, he’s not as tough as the others and is certainly faster, but is still has a short reach, the few players I’ve seen that have done well, have had the benefit of some excellent gear, and use his “clothesline” skill as a means of escape, not attack (as it does relatively low damage and is hard to recover from)

Boldur is annoying…but not very threatening…he can take a lot of damage, can get an overshield with his 1st right helix skill, andhe has that shield!..with a runes of power allowing attacks to heal him, and another helix upgrade preventing him from slowing down when holding the blasted thing
His attacks are damaging, but ridulously slow. While I have seen some players use Boldur to draw tons of enemy fire with his high health/shield/rune regeneration,…I don’t seem him getting many kills, except to finish off an already weakened opponent with a “Boldurdash” slam. Still it makes him a unique “support” character

But what aouut Kelvin? Poor Kelvin. He’s essentialy Boldur without the Shield. lots of helth…no force field. and still with realtively slow attacks that are a devil to aim in a melee
so what else?
1.) he gets a “small” force field when he uses a skill…but a weak one compared to the overshields Boldur and Ambra get
2.)Sublimate is very much the definition of “meh” it’s not useless…but like El Dragon’s clothesline it’s used more as a method of escape, and can stun opponents…but thatsreally only useful if your trying to set up a foe for an attack by a teammate
3.) Chomp does a lot of damage…as long as you are close enough to an opponent to count his nose hairs. A zero reach, melee, ability that has to be primed first? ugh, at least it has a short cooldown
4.) Ice wall…How many times have you been playing and are ecstatic when you reach level five and unlock Dreadwind, Photonic Shield,Bindleblast, Boomsday, Airstrike (and whatever Alani and Ambras powers are)…how often do you think a player is thrilled with getting Ice Wall? Again, not useless…just very meh…but using an ultimate should be a thrill. Ice wall “might” stun a for if you can prime/aim/shoot quickly (it does have a small area of effect).

In the end with Kelvin, you get a high health, but still relatively fragile character, that has to run up to an opponent (losing most health en route) make a few half halfhearted swings, with skills that won’t do much to prevent the opposing team from getting a high kill count

#2

Kelvin is not a tank. The problem is that you are trying to be one, This is the only major learning curve Kelvin has.

And use his secondary melee more. It’s great.

I do think they could have made a different change to Sublimate, like give it a stun when initiating (2s) and again if you end prematurely (1s) instead of what they did.

It also stinks that Ghalt still has a 2-second stun, given you are more likely to survive getting hit by Sublimate or Alani’s Geyser than getting pulled into a Scraptrap.

#3

ok fair enough…I assume a high health charcater who’s main option is punching is a “tank” (or in comic book terms, a “brick”) If kelvin isn’t meant to punch out his opponents,and isn’t there to soak up damage, what’s his “purpose”?

#4

I have to say I have never ever been ecstatic for hitting 5 with Reyna because of her Ult, I love her and play her a ton but her ult is just as bad as ice wall (that is it can be amazing under the right circumstances but it stays off cooldown most of the game).

I would also suggest trying out Phoebe, she is my favorite melee character, and she has an interesting and rewarding playstyle.

Oh, and try using a maximum shield item with Kelvin it will boost his force field.

#5

He’s a brawler, closer to Shayne & Aurox, IMO, than Bouldur. All three can be quite disruptive though, so they have some things in common.

Kelvin is labelled a controller, but I think “disruptor” is a better descriptor in some ways. IMO, his job is generally to wreak havoc in the enemy front (or mid) lines. You could say that about Boldur too, but Kelvin needs to flow in and out of the fight, preferably coming at people from different angles, whereas Boldur can very much take a straight-ahead, in-your-face approach.

Kelvin has much more ability to impact a team fight all at once than Boldur (not saying Boldur can’t, but Kelvin has much more of an AoE presence), between ice wall, the ability to stun or slow enemies over a wide area, and knock people all over the place.

#6

Well as a side note, I use S&A mainly for the boomerang attack…her close combat attacks aren’t that much more powerful than her boomerang (I think 54pts. vs. 48pts.) that is more than made up for her ability to attack at range without having to reload or worry about recoil

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#7

shayne’s melee damage is doubled by Aurox.

#8

I have gone pretty much fully bangarang for S&A myself, you are looking at 166 (Melee) vs 115 ('rangs) dps before helix options, both have a +18% mutation, but 'rangs also have the ricochet option which increases DPS by 50% (though less focused, and doesn’t work if only enemy is there). However I take advantage of the random nature of the ricochet by using a pacifier, which can debuff a swarm of mobs in seconds.

#9

After Boldur hits level 5 he becomes the team fight. Kelvin certainly has better aoe CC but since they took away his 2 second stun not even his early game can compare to a good Boldur’s. If a good Boldur is in the match it becomes a game of focusing him to prevent him hitting level 5. Here is a video of the best Boldur on PC doing a quick Scrimm https://www.twitch.tv/skelion/v/79658088

I think you’ll find Kelvin just cannot compare late or early game. I’m not saying Kelvin is bad but they certainly over nerfed him since they didn’t touch Boldur at all.

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#10

Kelvin was the first Defender I started playing as and even though I’ve grown fond of the other ones too Kelvin is still hands down my fave… He is very fun to play as. Though I have not yet tested how much the stun nerf really affects him - I do feel it’s going to be quite a bit since the old stun was just long enough for one Chomp.

But man do I love that permanent health buildup! In PvE I can reach 10k and the most I’ve gotten in PvP I think was close to 8K!

His ULT is by far the worst though. Once my own teams Kelvin locked me in so that I couldn’t move and I was quickly dispatched by the enemy team. I’ll never stop being salty about that… shakes fist

#11

I know full well what Boldur can do. I was simply trying to point out some distinctions between them. I think sublimate needed a change, but think this wasn’t the best way to do it.

#12

I realy love kelvin… he is a great ganker who can soak a lot of damage.
And the more things you kill with chomp, the more hp you have… the more hp, the more damage you do with chomp.
lategame he is a real beast and i usually end up with nore kills than rath.
Even his ultimate is extremly strong. stun your foes who run away, block their path and bodyblock them from the other side. they’re pretty much stuck und you can chomp them to death :smiley:

#13

Kelvin is a character for PvP with Minions, which he can execute with his Chomp as he has infinite upscaling health. It is even possible to go over 10.000 health with him.

#14

That’s the thing, the right circumstances. I’ve saved teammates countless times and had a whole minion wave stay alive (thralls and elite with the pack) because of a properly timed bubble that let them take almost no damage from OM’s ult or going head to head with the opponents bots. There’s a few occasions where popping that bubble prevented a sentry from going down. It’s f’n huge! Yeah, it sucks not having a high damage ult like the others, but I love its uniqueness!

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#15

I find Kelvin hard to play with Aussie lag and his ultimate is lacklustre.

Wish his attacks could lock on or something to make up for their range.

Love his personality though…

#16

Kelvin got really hurt after the nerfs.

But if you get really good with him he’s ok.

#17

@docavalon,

Are you playing PVP or PVE? I am asking because the advice is different based on this.

#18

I wish Kelvin was awesome in both PvP and PvE. But he’s not. He’s okay in PvP if you know how to play him. In PvE he feels almost useless. As an ultimate I’m disappointed in his Icewall.