Kineticist for a high level game

[Sagetim]

I'll be playing in a game where we are starting at level 16 and the focus is going to be fighting monsters with little to no role playing. I've decided that I want to play a Kineticist from Occult Adventures, but now my question becomes: Should I stick with the baseline Kineticist, or go with the Roil Dancer archetype?

Most of the players in the party are taking the opportunity to try non-core classes (including things from Path of War) and to try out types of classes they haven't done before (so, for example, the guy that usually avoids full casters is rolling up a wizard/warder/spellblade, while the guy that normally plays a rogue or fighter type is making a Psychic). So, even if you think I should be rolling up any other class than Kineticist, that's too bad, that's what I'm making.

When I've looked at the class before, the Aether and Plant elements caught my eye, because one lets you shoot beams of positive energy, while the other allowed you to turn anything, even the innocent ball bearing, into a deadly weapon of head exploding power. So I'm probably going to use either or both of those elements, but again it comes down to: which will serve me better, the basic class or the roil dancer archetype?

[Kurald Galain]

Roil Dancer, hands down. The kinny is a rather weak class overall, so it really needs the boost that DSP maneuvers provide.

[Mezzaluna]

If you really want something off the wall, the Roil Dancer archetype stacks with one of DSP's other big kineticist archetypes, the Avant Guard.
The archetype combination suffers a bit before level 7 but after that, it really takes off.

Also, I definitely recommend Aether over Plant - the utility is much better and the archetypes plus secondary element you get at level 7 will make up for the lower blast damage.

[Sagetim]

Avant Guard looks interesting, but I think I'll stick to Roil Dancer for the sake of relative simplicity (though, it would be admittedly funny to pokemon out an Astral Construct with ranged attacks, or combo it with Burning Break to kool-aid man it through a wall).

As for being slow until level 7, well, we'll be skipping right past that part anyway.

Does anyone have suggestions for maneuvers, or combinations that would work well together? I'm thinking it will be nice to be able to use a kinetic blade with strike maneuvers, that it would go well with mithral current, but bearing in mind that feats, traits, and organizations can all open up other disciplines, are there any ridiculous combinations that would work well with kinetic blasts or the roil dancer's kinetic blade chincanery?

[Sagetim]

update (and double post, but we'll ignore that): So, we had our first session last night, spending much of it creating characters and talking our way through narrative introductions and getting introduced to the story the GM had in mind.

I wound up using the Unorthodox Style trait to trade out for Silver Crane, and wound up with a horrifying mix of maneuvers from Silver Crane, Elemental Flux (which was mostly just some stances), Mithral Current (mostly for counters) and Solar Wind (for strikes and boosts).

By taking advantage of the Solar Wind Style feats, and Variable Wind, I can not only punch things in the face with the element they are supposedly immune to, but also swap the damage that solar wind stuff does to my active energy type. It's nice, at least in theory. I dropped void from the list of elements I was considering, and wound up with Aether, Fire, and Wood (Positive energy blast).

Aether's got a lot of useful non-combat telekinesis shenanigans, Fire is Fire, and Positive Energy Blast hurts ghosts and doesn't afraid of anything.

I was thinking of swapping Fire out for Lightning, since I have an open infusion slot at 11 and haven't taken anything that fire gives access to.

Oh, and at the moment the character is the closest one in the party to having a name, having the title of "King of Ball Bearings". I would have called him Pinball Wizard, but Golarion doesn't have Pinball machines.