My Personal Impressions Of The Huras Kubrow In Combat

[Pendragon1951]

Now first off I made the mistake of treating my Kubrow Wynter like a weapon instead of like a Sentinel and was wondering through 16 levels why my potato was greyed out until with the help of some info from the forums I realized my mistake. I can tell you early on if played smart and with the right Warframe survivability was not an issue, I did lose her once but without any penalty when I arrived back to my ship.

 

Once I added the gold potato I loaded her up with what seems to be the requisite mods, link armor, hunt , maul etc so living through combat at the side of my Rhino Prime was not a problem, in fact at lvl 30 she now has more shields than my Rhino Prime lol. 

 

There are two main problems with the Kubrows, one of course everyone knows is pathing, if you jump down from somewhere instead of following you down they either need to find another was down or they teleport to where you are if your far enough away. The other and most crucial aspect of the Kubrow that is a big problem is their combat AI. I can be standing right next to a enemy and she won't attack unless I fire at the enemy's feet then it's as if she comes awake. Kubrows are like a poorly aimed melee weapon. She can be facing where the enemy are coming from shooting at her and hitting her and she does not attack them. It's almost like you have to run towards the enemy and throw her like a spear.

 

I do not feel she should have to be thrown per se at a enemy for her to take some kind of action, what this does to the player is having to pay attention more to what the Kubrow is NOT doing instead of trying to survive on the battlefield, at least with a spectre you know he is fighting and you really don't have to pay attention because you know he will kill anything and everything.

 

Don't get me wrong the Kubros are a devastating weapon once well modded, but you can have the deadliest gun on the battlefield but it's no good until you shoot it. I would really suggest somehow using the combat AI of the Spectres to improve the Kubrow's battlefield awareness because at the moment it totally relies on the player to launch it towards the enemy. Some may say, but Huras is a stealth Kubrow, and you would be correct but if they don't attack at the appropriate time it doesn't matter what Kubrow you have if it has no well tuned battlefield awareness.

 

These are my personal impressions of how my Kubrow worked for me, but unless the AI becomes more aggressive Wynter will be sitting out the rest of the war in stasis. 

[TheErebus.]

I think the issue is, everyone is dealing with kubrows the same way they deal with sentinels. As in, they don't care at all.

Kubrows however are a much bigger thing to take care of and look out for during a fight. My sunika kubrow has only died twice (one because stalker hit her instead of me and the second time was during a test to see how long bleed out lasted for without mods).

[Pendragon1951]

@TheErebus I agree with you, but if I am bringing someone on the battlefield I want them to be a benefit and not a hindrance and me having to pay attention to it's actions is a hindrance on the  battlefield.

[TheInfiniteDoom]

I really think that all of the issues I have with Kubrows so far come down to either AI or UI.

 

On the UI, I can see that my Kubrow is in danger. I can see the shields dropping, I know I need to do something. There's just one problem: I have no idea where my Kubrow is. I look down, my Kubrow is not within 5 feet of me. I spin around (as my Kubrow fights for its very life), frantically searching for my little buddy. Nowhere do I see a furry friend being beaten to a pulp. I look to my minimap. There is no indication of my Kubrow's location on the minimap. I think to myself "I really wish there was some way to bring my Kubrow to me, or to otherwise guide myself toward my Kubrow". Sadly, there is no way to issue any sort of command to a Kubrow. You cannot summon your Kubrow to your side, nor can you send your Kubrow into battle to seek out enemies. If it has resigned itself to a duel to the death, then that is your Kubrow's fate.

 

AI-wise, my Kubrow is lackluster at best. The "leaping strike" animation, wherein your kubrow leaps at an enemy, swipes, and then jumps back seems to be set to trigger when the Kubrow is too far away from enemies to actually connect. Many times, I have watched my Kubrow sprint wildly toward a low-level Grineer, jump 3/4 of the way toward it, swipe at the air, and then jump back. It will do this multiple times, connecting exactly 0 times and dealing exactly 0 damage as a result. That is, when my Kubrow actually decides to attack. They seem to lack the Sentinel's wild aggression or revenge instincts. My Kubrow appears to occupy one of four states:

-Idling near me

-Attacking enemies that I am already attacking, dealing little to no damage and accomplishing nothing that I couldn't have done myself.

-Running off after an enemy, eventually getting caught in a group of enemies somewhere that I cannot see nor help with.
-Dead, as a result of running recklessly into poison clouds or enemy groups somewhere outside my range of vision. During this state, I channel my inner Adam Jensen as I repeatedly mumble "I didn't ask for this".

[JohnProdman]

@ Pendragon

 

Think of the Huras Kubrow as the equivalent to Shade. It's not supposed to engage an enemy unless the enemy attacks you first.

 

It's the Stealth variant, not the combat.

[DknightOdin]

You make a good point, and I'm sure they're probably pretty aware of this, but I think it's pretty low on their priority list at the moment. I mean Kubrows JUST came out. I think they need to fix most of the other bugs before they start working on the Kubrow ai.

[Kilobotto]

It's almost like you have to run towards the enemy and throw her like a spear.

 

That made my day.

[Pendragon1951]

@JohnProdman, I know but even if stand there taking the hits in front of a group of enemies she still does not attack unless like I said I move towards them and it isn't like they are out of range.

 

@DknightOdin, that is true but the Kubrows were suppose to be a big deal, so their AI should be an issue they need to deal with or else they will start hearing a lot of comments like mine of putting my Kubrow in cold storage and going back to my Sentinel.

[DknightOdin]

putting my Kubrow in cold storage and going back to my Sentinel.

Honestly that may be the best thing to do until their ai makes them even somewhat useful. That being said, with the right mods Kubrows can be quite the tanks.

Edited July 22, 2014 by DknightOdin

[Pendragon1951]

I agree like I said above my Kubrow now at lvl 30 has more shields than I do, its at about 1500