Kavats, Kubrow and Collars

[(PSN)DBR87]

With the introduction of Fortuna we where given a lot of new mods for Kubrows, Kavats and Sentinels. Now it's a much easier proposition to slot in the Sentinel set mods because Sentinels have 10 mod slots with an additional 8 mod slots for their various weapons. This keeps them in line with the Warframes, seeing as how Warframes have 8 mod slots for them selves (not including aura and exilus) and 8 mod slots on each weapon. So why do the beast companions get the short end of the stick? All they get is 10 mod slots. Obviously Bite, Maul, and now Fetch is going to be on every Kubrow/Kavat build. I personally never leave home with out Animal Instinct on my companion and imagine a lot of other players feel the same. So you're down from 10 to 7 or 6 mods slots to actually play with. Then considering considering companions didn't get the same treatment as Warframes back in the day and they have to slot their abilities in still, instead of them just being available for the pet to use on a cool down. So that's 5 mod slot on Kavats and Kubrows you don't have a choice to remove really, or the experience suffers greatly. Maybe you're one of the few people who can live with out Fetch and Animal Instinct? Well, can your Kavat/Kubrow live with out Link Health and Link Armor? The answer's "No" because you will be reviving them every minute with level 40 enemies or higher. So at minumum Kavat/Kubrow mods slots are reserved for Bite, Maul, Link Health, Link Armor, Fetch, and Charm/Trample/Savagery/Neutralize/How(Basically an ability) and it's a bit worse for Kavats because of how good Swipe and Sharpened Claws is. I would say Kubrows at best have 4 open slots and Kavats at best have 2. But I will admit that is all just me personally and I am sure there is that ONE guy that doesn't run Sharpened Claws or Link Health on their beast pet. 

The fact still remains that Sentinels and Warframes have far more mod slots available to them.

As it stands now there are two collars in the game and they are the Taichen Collar and the Kavasa Prime Collar and they are cosmetic. What I would suggest is add more collars to the game and allow them to all be equip-able to both Kavats and Kubrows and modifiable like weapons. For the  being equips, collars could give minor stat boost in certain areas. This is just some examples: Taichen Collar gives +10% Health, +15% Shields, +5% Faster Shield Recovery. Agile Collar (Made up) gives +20% Movement/Attack speed, 80% Knock Down Resistance, +50% Attack Range. Kavasa Collar Prime gives +20% Health, +50% Armor, +15% Shields. Brolic Collar (Made up) gives +40% Armor, +15% Health, +1% Health Recovery. Just examples but the idea is collars would boost Kavat and Kubrow stats a bit.

As for mods Bite, Maul, Flame Gland, Shock Collar, Hunter Synergy, Swipe and other damage stat boosting mods would go on the Collar. Mods like Link Health, Medi Pet Kit, Shelter, Sense Danger, Territorial Aggression, Animal Instinct, and ect would go on the Kubrow/Kavat. Now I really wish mods the ability mods like Charm and Savagery where just innate but if they HAVE to be slotted they would go on the pet themselves.

Long story short, I would love to give my Kavat some flaming claws or a set mod or give my Kubrow a corrosive bite, but as it stands now....it's just not feasible. Please allow collars to be equipe-able on Kavatas and Kubrows and allow 8 mods to be placed on them.

[Klokwerkaos]

Because the pets have built in weapons that work even on melee only sorties.  Because W oth fetch added there is no reason to run anything but a smeeta.  Because sentinels are objectively worse even with the extra mod slots.  Because sentinels have garbage survivability compared to pets.  Do not try to buff pets and make sentinels even more irrellavent.  The only sentinels I imagine will see any use anymore on any level of significance is Helios and carrier for qol purposes.  Otherwise the only reason to choose not a kavat is for cosmetic purposes 

Edited December 14, 2018 by Klokwerkaos

[Naneel]

I like the idea to make the collars moddable. But Boni plus mods could be a bit to much, but this would need some testing I guess.

[Ohforf3]

I think modding the collars could be a good thing but your suggestions on what types of mods go where is backwards.  Med kit, shelter, Link ___ should be the collar and Bite.  Maul, Flame Gland should be the animal.  The attack abilities are part of the animal and the collar is extra equipment strapped onto them.

[(PSN)DBR87]

19 hours ago, Klokwerkaos said:

Because the pets have built in weapons that work even on melee only sorties.  Because W oth fetch added there is no reason to run anything but a smeeta.  Because sentinels are objectively worse even with the extra mod slots.  Because sentinels have garbage survivability compared to pets.  Do not try to buff pets and make sentinels even more irrellavent.  The only sentinels I imagine will see any use anymore on any level of significance is Helios and carrier for qol purposes.  Otherwise the only reason to choose not a kavat is for cosmetic purposes 

Sentinels still have the advantage of superior A.I. and Sentinels can revive you. Sentinels are also a much smaller target than Kubrows/Kavats. That doesn't completely equalize the survivability aspect, but with the upcoming changes to where Link Health and Enhanced Vitality can be slotted, we'll eventually get to pair Inaros with a carrier that has 2k health, too, if DE follows through with the changes mentioned last dev stream. 

As for the Melee Only Sorties, I am pretty sure that modifier only effects Warframe equips. Will have to check that next time one rolls around but I run a DIriga with Vulklok a lot and don't ever remember a Sortie condition stopping him from killing things.

I understand the notion that "the meta dictates all" but can we really say "everyone will run Smeeta" if beast modding options become less restrictive? As it stands, there is literally NOTHING stopping Smeeta from dominating the meta right now. Now that Smeeta can put on Fetch, according to you, Smeeta is now the most equipped companion. Personally I have been bouncing back and forth between my 6 forma Huras and 5 forma Adarza for the damage Huras does (when he's not running into walls) and the crit buff Adarza does. On PS4, I have seen a health mix of Howling Raksas, people using to Helios scan everything, and Carrier with no weapon just for the extra ammo. Before fetch came, I liked running Diriga because of the attack range. Point being, each player is going to run a different companion depending on there needs, but with moddable collars, I don't see how Smeeta is going to make every other companion obsolete other than Helios and Carrier because 1: It would have already happened with Fetches release and 2: Helios and Carrier's utility make other sentinels not so appealing. But again, this is all conjuncture. Smeeta is really favored if your specifically resource farming. Adarza is better if you want to increase your damage out put and Kubrows do more damage in general than Kavats. Another advantage Sentinels have over beast is Rivens. Though Sentinel Rivens temporarily no longer drop from Sorties, they are still in the game and can drastically increase the damage of the weapon. I have a great Vulklok Riven myself.

6 minutes ago, Ohforf3 said:

I think modding the collars could be a good thing but your suggestions on what types of mods go where is backwards.  Med kit, shelter, Link ___ should be the collar and Bite.  Maul, Flame Gland should be the animal.  The attack abilities are part of the animal and the collar is extra equipment strapped onto them.

Good point

[(PSN)negativ21]

This is an awesome idea. Would really make pets more fun to use. One thing though, sentinels do have to slot in their abilities for them to work, like Investigator and Detect Weakness for Helios, and more. Afaict.

[Naneel]

 

vor 10 Stunden schrieb (PS4)negativ21:

One thing though, sentinels do have to slot in their abilities for them to work, like Investigator and Detect Weakness for Helios, and more.

Beasts have to do this too. And Kavats have more precepts available to them then Sentinels.

Addition : The attack precepts of the Sentinels could just be implementet into them, so you would not require a MOD. It can be shown to you, when you equip your Sentinel, so you know their attack range

Edited December 16, 2018 by Naneel
Addition

[(PSN)DBR87]

On 2018-12-15 at 1:52 PM, (PS4)negativ21 said:

This is an awesome idea. Would really make pets more fun to use. One thing though, sentinels do have to slot in their abilities for them to work, like Investigator and Detect Weakness for Helios, and more. Afaict.

I apologies. I meant the system of slotting abilities should be completely discarded for Robots and Beast like it was with Warframes. I really believe the abilities should be innate.

[Klokwerkaos]

On 2018-12-15 at 12:33 PM, (PS4)DBR87 said:

Sentinels still have the advantage of superior A.I. and Sentinels can revive you. Sentinels are also a much smaller target than Kubrows/Kavats. That doesn't completely equalize the survivability aspect, but with the upcoming changes to where Link Health and Enhanced Vitality can be slotted, we'll eventually get to pair Inaros with a carrier that has 2k health, too, if DE follows through with the changes mentioned last dev stream. 

As for the Melee Only Sorties, I am pretty sure that modifier only effects Warframe equips. Will have to check that next time one rolls around but I run a DIriga with Vulklok a lot and don't ever remember a Sortie condition stopping him from killing things.

I understand the notion that "the meta dictates all" but can we really say "everyone will run Smeeta" if beast modding options become less restrictive? As it stands, there is literally NOTHING stopping Smeeta from dominating the meta right now. Now that Smeeta can put on Fetch, according to you, Smeeta is now the most equipped companion. Personally I have been bouncing back and forth between my 6 forma Huras and 5 forma Adarza for the damage Huras does (when he's not running into walls) and the crit buff Adarza does. On PS4, I have seen a health mix of Howling Raksas, people using to Helios scan everything, and Carrier with no weapon just for the extra ammo. Before fetch came, I liked running Diriga because of the attack range. Point being, each player is going to run a different companion depending on there needs, but with moddable collars, I don't see how Smeeta is going to make every other companion obsolete other than Helios and Carrier because 1: It would have already happened with Fetches release and 2: Helios and Carrier's utility make other sentinels not so appealing. But again, this is all conjuncture. Smeeta is really favored if your specifically resource farming. Adarza is better if you want to increase your damage out put and Kubrows do more damage in general than Kavats. Another advantage Sentinels have over beast is Rivens. Though Sentinel Rivens temporarily no longer drop from Sorties, they are still in the game and can drastically increase the damage of the weapon. I have a great Vulklok Riven myself.

Of course what I'm saying is generalization and conjecture.

It doesn't mean nobody will run with those other things at all... but it all depends on what you want, and what most people want in the game is the same thing.

That said the utility of smeeta vastly outperforms all other companions.  It does damage buff, it does loot buff, it vacuums and it heals.  Damage buff is also pointless when you can smash melee and 1 shot 2 hours into arb and an hour into endless.  

Additionally the rivens, of which I have them for sentinels, really stack up to near nothing at the end of the day.  I have a beastly god tier shotgun for by sentinels and it falls off well before any melee secondary or primary ever will.  Is it useful for running through a low level exterminate?  I suppose, but it's still less useful than aoe.

Ultimately the sentinels just underperform massively, and the one thing smeeta has that nobody else does, is a loot buff, which actually scales into endgame dojo frame, where as nothing else does (not damage, not crit) and if you're not endgame, loot is even more valuable since you still have stuff to build.

Will everyone use smeeta?  No.  But is the utility of it vastly superior and do a lot of people recognize that?  Yes.