#16

This thread here: Kelvin Gear Discussion Should give you a good explanation of gear choices. I found that a +shield recharge item of around 34 will let you begin charging shields just like characters of other factions. I would highly suggest shooting for establishing a shield first as Kelvin needs time to become tanky in matches. That item I mentioned is a simple grey item so it costs next to nothing to activate. After that I shoot for max shield items and either attack speed or run speed. Run speed is excellent for early matches as it allows you to engage and disengage quickly. Once you lvl enough you can recharge sublimate quickly enough that if wont matter but early on it definitely helps. Attack speed works very well too and will yield results the entire match. Cool down reduction might be good early on but chomp has a very low cool down to begin with and once you have leveled enough you can chomp to reduce the cool down on sublimate which makes a cool down reduction not as important. Last but not least are +skill damage gear. A nice piece of gear that has a static boost to this gear as well as a proc’d boost (on minion death etc) can set up some brutal chomps and even boost sublimates damage to help secure kills on fleeing characters. Hope this helps!

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#17

I honestly love playing as Kelvin. He’s my favorite go-to tank. He does crazy amount of damage and can dip out of battle really quick when you need to. It’s pretty bumming that not many people use Kelvin that much because they’re honestly missing out. I once finished an Incursion mode in Overgrowth in less than 10 minutes with him. 10/10 needs more Kelvin love.

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#18

Totally not my type of character (or so I initially thought), but I greatly enjoy being him. I try my best to support my teammates with him, taking all the damage I can and stun our enemies so my teammates can either take them out or go for whatever objective is going on (I play almost exclusively on Capture, so collectors are the goal usually). Using the stun effect on Sublimate and his Ice Wall is extremely helpful for getting those crucial extra hits on enemies, or keeping them from fleeing. Plus, he is just an awesome character. Giant Ice golem that is pretty light hearted, even in taunts as nothing is very showboating or crude, more just fun and funny. Hell, I get a tad nervous if I ever see him on the enemy team, as I hope they can’t utilize him like I can, or worse, even better than me.

#19

You can have absolute zero in other temperature scales :wink:

But yeah, the name is clearly an allusion to ice or low temperatures…

I think he is a high learning curve character and therefore other tanks are easier to play. He doesn’t have a single high damage move that’s easy to execute (chomping another Battleborn is tricky) and he has very limited range in his attacks, other than sublimate, which often needs to be saved for an escape. I just think people look elsewhere for tanks, but I’ve played with and against some good Kelvins (usually paired with a Miko). Any character in this game is viable if played right with the right team, but some are higher learning curve than others, and I would put Kelvin in that category.

#20

Not at all, Chomp’s hitbox is quite forgiving, they have to be at the utmost extremes of your screen for it to not hit.

Secondary attack, my friend, it outranges most melee character’s main attacks and if you’re up against someone like Mellka or Caldarius who want you to chase them but still be quite close, you can actually nick them a few times by using it while chasing.

#21

Thanks for the corrections Master_Oddjob, that just shows how badly I suck using him :sunglasses:… Like I said, any character is viable if played correctly, one of the great things about this game…I just think he requires a little more effort to do well with than the other tanks, but that doesn’t mean that effort isn’t worth it or that he’s not a good character to pick

#22

Kelvin is bad El Dragon,Boldur,Atty,Deande Tier

For a tank he takes a lot of damage fast. His only choice of playing him is spamming Sub and running away. The easy hitbox he has doesn’t make up for anything he has. Chomp is useless because the shield doesn’t make you last longer, just shorter. If there’s no minions it’s really useless. Sublimate is the only good thing for him but it does no damage. Almost every CC skill does damage and it does no damage making it mediorce. The cooldown is too long.

His alternate attack pounds the ground but has little AOE damage making it useless. Primary is the only thing you need. Ice Wall is useless as well, you can trap people only if you are in a hallway otherwise you need really good timing to stun them most of the time you will rarely do that. Ghalts traps can stop his Subl. Subl should make him invincible. The skills should automatically give him a damage reduction to even be serviceable for a “Tank”.

More like a Glass Tank who hit and runs.

#23

As long as there are people who think like you, there are people who will underestimate people playing those characters and pay for it.

So please, continue. I need someone to get easy health stacks off of anyways.

#24

You remarks on Kelvin come off more as a “I just lost with him I’m mad” rather than a rational review of his abilities. Kelvin was ranked B tier by reviewers, which I agree with, and as such could use a touch of love but overall is a solid character. Kelvin was also described as advanced by Gearbox and while I don’t always agree with their difficulty rankings I do feel this is true. This is due to he fact that Kelvin does not operate like any traditional tank, dps, or support. What he truly is from start of the match to finish is a disruptor. Yes you can eventually have him do solid damage or tank well enough but disruption is at the core of his character. You mentioned sublimate does no damage which is completely false. I have finished off countless opponents with sublimate. You mentioned ground pounds damage but failed to recognize its best quality…interrupting and pushing. Chomp doesn’t generate tons of shield because it would be OP if it single handedly kept you alive. Your mad because Kelvin doesn’t do what you want him to do rather than recognizing what he can do. I felt the same way until I read through the gear and play style guides provided on these forums. Now I can’t go more than a match or two without playing him.

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#25

Galilea
Rath
Shayne and Aurox
Phoebe are much better than Kelvin in every aspect of the game. Him plus the other melee characters are near the bottom tier compared to the 4 melee characters I mentioned who should never be used over the others unless you like the battleborn.

#26

Soon as you chomp you lose 40 shield in 3 seconds.

Sounds useless to me.

#27

Apparently your not here to have a discussion because you give little to no explanation to your points. When your ready to provide an explanation I’ll be happy to have a discussion.

#28

Galilea has better CC but she’s only more durable if she has her shield up, which is just begging for the team to bear down on her and mess her up when her shield goes.

Rath is an Attacker, I’m not sure why you’re comparing the two.

Same goes for Shayne and Aurox and Phoebe. None of these characters are meant to control an area, they’re meant to push into them. Why are you comparing them to Kelvin? I could wave about my E-cred going into detail about how I would solo each and every one of those characters but it’s pointless, this isn’t a deathmatch game.

I wasn’t aware that the opposing team members could only attack me every 3 seconds. By the time permafrost shields would have naturally disappeared, I’ve already soaked up damage with them. They’re gone, and I have that much more health left. I can look at the end of a match to see how much permafrost shields I’ve generated and know that ~80% of them were directly soaking damage - I usually end up with around 100k permafrost shields generated per match. All of that is damage that I didn’t need to have a pocket healer for, I didn’t need to teleport back to base to recover from or stand around on a supply depot healing.

I’m not even going to touch arguments on the other characters that you’re writing off as garbage, I just will take satisfaction knowing that you’re going to be in for a very rude awakening once you start running into capable players using them.

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#29

Kelvins Subly can get interrupted which shouldnt happen.

He is not a viable melee character.

#30

Rath’s dreadwind can be interrupted, he’s not a viable character.

Shayne and Aurox’s stealth can be interrupted, they’re not a viable character.

We can do this all week.

You’re just posting nonsense.

#31

He was my 5th mastery love him 2nd favorite tank right behind bouldur

#32

Shayne and Rath are much better than Kelvin so it doesn’t matter it they can get cancelled. It does for Kelvin with his glass tank and easy target hitbox.

Kelvin is not a viable melee character comparing to other melee.

#33

Skipped a lot of lower posts so hopefully this isn’t terribly repetitive, but I play Kelvin as more of a support than a tank - that is, while he can take damage, I focus more on disabling the enemy so my team can finish them off. I go for CC’s at every opportunity and if I’m going to use chomp for health it’s usually only on minions. I don’t focus on getting health too much, as that tends to hurt the team in the long run, I find.

#34

I have over 250 hours of playtime with Kelvin. I’ve gone 18-3 in a 4v5. I’ve gone 15-0 on 5v5. I’ve been complimented and referred to as MVP several times as Kelvin. I typically have a combination of most kills, least deaths and most damage dealt. If you don’t think kelvin is good it’s because you have very little reliable information on the subject.

#35

I’ve used Kelvin a bit, not to the level of success I’d like, but I have seen some EXCELLENT Kelvins. He’s a bit down right now because of the 1 sec on Sublimate stun, but they’re taking it back to 2.

I did have a GREAT Meltdown highlight a little while ago, on Paradise, IIRC. It was a tight match, my team almost in winning position, but they were holding us back. We hadn’t scored in a while, and they were catching up. About 450 for us, high 300’s for them, so it was pretty tight.

We had a wave meet at mid, I had my ally Oscar Mike backing me up. I say on the mic: “Ok, we’re getting this wave through!” and I chomp and smash their minions while he’s working them with Fragcendiary, meaning our wave gets through pretty untouched. The other team’s Orendi scoots in to try to clear, I body her against a piece of terrain with ground pound, smack her to KO.

The nearby Marquis in the tunnel leading to their back grinders is shooting at the wave, at us, he starts to run, but too late. I Sublimate for the stun, trigger his Owls and smash him, too. Double-kill. The wave is following behind.

I think it was Whiskey Foxtrot who was next, and I was working him, took his sticky Napalm right on the face rather than having it get back on the wave, and OM is firing right along with me. WF ducks out and I barely miss the triple-kill, but OM gets him, leaving me the Assist.

The wave is still safe, but I’m pretty dinged up at this point. I jump on the Thumper turret, and start wailing away. Darn thing salvos me down right before killing it, but OM finishes it off easily and he guides the wave in peacefully for the win.

It was pretty darn cool. The “Kelvin Fullback Bulldozer.” (Note: these weren’t opponents at full health or anything, where I 100-0’ed them right in a row. It was just one of those moments when I got in the zone and was hitting all the right buttons at the right times, a combo of ground pound, main attacks and skills that I was quite proud of.)

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