Kubrows, Inferior In Almost Every Way Against Sentinels

[Guest khk6]

So, firstly heres the good part about kubrows

1. With maximum of 110% shield and armor link, 165% health link topped on the kubrows base stats, and melee life leach, theyre quite durable. 

2. They attract enemy fire. This is good because, combined with their survivability, theyre essentially a 0 cost decoy that can fight back. This becomes a bad thing when things get out of control though, like when you are going on a long survival, but this could be avoided.

3. Its adorable.

 

Now heres the bad

1. I miss my vacuum. Alot. Like, alot.

2. No automatic full shield regen. (Unless you have a raksa kubrow)

2. RNG. You have 4 in 1 chance to get what kubrow you want.

3. The effort to get a single kubrow. Another minor RNG grind for kubrow eggs and argon crystal for the power cell. Then the 48 hours + another 48 hours to get the kubrow matured.

4. Their damage output is very low compared to sentinels. When I see my kubrow engage the enemy I see something like this :

scratch, step back, lunge, step back again, run around in circle, lunge, step back, ....

They spend more time running back, forth, and around than attacking. It doesnt hit much hard either.

4. Loyalty lost and limited recovery. This further cripples the damage output.

5. Frequently gets stuck somewhere, or doesn't attack nearby enemies. 

6. Need a constant supply of DNA stabilizers. While I dont have much problem ATM because I can easily earn 10k credit in 2,3 days, It could be a problem for newer players, or people who is busy IRL. Sentinels on other hand doesnt require a running cost after youve crafted them.

7.  They love to hug toxic ancients, doesnt move away from fire, and you need to destroy every void lasers that might vaporize your dog. 

 

In summary, sentinels doesnt need medicine nor love, is always loyal to you, and performs better despite requiring less effort than kubrows.

 

Some suggestions to make the kubrows less of a burden:

1. VACUUM. This is what keeps Warframes gameplay in a smooth flow.  You dont to need look around and run to it every single time you kill the enemy to collect its drops. Its usefulness only increases as enemies become higher level, where a more faster action and reaction is needed. 

Either equip all warframes with an orokin vacuum, or at the very least give the kubrows their own vacuum mod.

If the carrier sentinels needs a rework, theres alot of ideas in the forum already. One example I liked was to make the carrier store the excessive health/energy/ammo in them, and automatically replenishes the tenno with whatever they need.

 

2.Change the current loyalty and DNA system. Do away with limitations, and instead turn it into a boost. Something like:

No more DNA destabilizing everyday, and instead giving the DNA stabilizers increases the health by 35% for the day.

and 

You pet your kubrow, and for the next 3 games your kubrow has 35% increased damage. maximum of 2 boots per day.

 

3. Increase their attack damage, and make the AI a bit more smarter.

 

btw, this post sounded like complaint, but im loving my kubrows still. All I want now is to be on par with sentinels.

Edited July 22, 2014 by khk6

[aoguro]

thank you, great infos, i will give my first kubrov when its adult and which is a female sahastra a few tries and then i give stasis a chance to love it and care about :-)

[ZeroPhobic]

I agree totally with this. I feel these were a great idea in the beginning, then they started to think "how can we make money on these" and the good idea went way south. This is a trend with DE, good ideas going bad. Badlands going PvP, Kubrows going platinum pets, and RNG being the only system for rewards...

[Varzy]

Very much agree.

 

-- Their AI needs to be tweaked to be made much more aggressive - they should have combos in their own right, attacking enemies several times in a row and harassing them with impact and slash procs, instead of lunging once and jumping away.

 

To that effect we should be able to give simple orders. A hotkey that cycles our kubrow's AI state between Defensive (current AI, only attacks enemies you are attacking or are attacking you. Possibly focuses on knocking down enemies, dodging attacks, and harassment) and Aggressive (Attacks enemies indiscriminately, chains 3-4 attacks at once, attacks until enemy is dead or master leaves the area).

 

-- Giving Kubrows a small vacuum aura under the explanation that "kubrows pick up scattered loot for the master" would be very appropriate.

 

-- Give Kubrows an area marker on the minimap and a bleedout marker.

 

-- Give Maul a small "Damage Link" effect so their attack damage can scale with yours.

 

-- I like your suggestions with the Loyalty/DNA system. At the very least, DE should consider swapping the mechanics -- Loyalty degrades daily, whereas DNA Stability degrades on Kubrow death, making medicine necessary if your pet gets badly hurt a lot. Though if you fail to res them, a small drop in Loyalty as well as Health would make sense.

[Zarlockk]

You forgot to mention how hard it is to get Link Health/armor/shield mods

[StrahlTiger]

You make some good points, especially things like improving the AI and the hugging of toxic ancients. They to take some micro management which is a bit annoying. They're a brand new feature, element, and AI, so they will eventually be balanced to a true companion that won't suicide run into enemies like a mastery rank 0 player.

 

I have a strong feeling OP is suffering from Carrier withdrawal, though. Do you never use other sentinels? I wouldn't mind if we had a pack kubrow type of kubrow that gathered up items on the ground, but not everything needs vacuum. The great thing about warframe is being able to switch up your gameplay with so many different types of loadouts. I love how my kubrow cloaks me so I can move around and silently take down enemies. There's no reason for her to suck up items. I want her to cloak me, and kill enemies.