So I have a Kavat, now what?

[Canach]

I am now the proud owner of a female Adarza Kavat, "Karma" with long tufted ears and a peacock tail, beautiful teal body that matches my ship interior highlighted by dark blue feathers and a rusty orange underbelly. Her piercing glare is white.

Going to a Kavat, I will be losing my favorite sentinel supports; Vacuum and Medi-Ray and a fully maxed Sweeper Prime, but I will be gaining ... eh... what?  A really cool Kavat, obviously.

What are the real strong points with these things? How do you use them? What are they good for? or is the only real value just their 'live-animal' companionship and the breeding game?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT:  Added picture!

"Everybody wants to be a kavat, 'cause a kavat's the only kavat that knows where it's at!" - The Aristokavats

Edited July 19, 2018 by Canach

[Praxxor]

Hunter Recovery is a mod that heals you based on the damage your pet deals. Adarza in particular can give you a 60% flat critical chance buff every few seconds for 10 seconds. Very reliable way to put your DPS on steroids.

You should consider getting Smeeta too though, that one has a random buff with dozens of potential buffs.

[Dylki]

A Kavat isn't as hardy as a Kubrow, and it doesn't do as much base damage, although it has a higher crit chance. 
A Kubrow is more of a frontline fighter, a strong companion that has skills that aren't so powerful, but make up for it with brute strength in battle.

Kavats are the opposite! The strong points about Kavats are their skills. There are only two types of breedable Kavats in game right now: The Smeetas and the Adarza(love!!).

The Smeeta Kavat has two skills:
Mischief cloaks your Kavat and makes a decoy that draws fire. This happens every 7 seconds, and it lasts for nine seconds. The decoy attacks enemies too, and so does your Kavat. The decoy will die fairly quickly in higher levels of play, but it's still rather useful.

Now, the real kink about the Smeeta is its other skill: Charm! Every half a minute, your Kavat has a 28% chance to buff you with 'good fortune'.

The available buffs include: 200% crit chance for 30s, Warframe ability and melee channeling costs are immediately refunded upon usage for 10s, double resources and affinity for 120s, one instant reload, negate all damage taken from the next hit and generate 150 overshields, create 1 of the planet's rare resource.

The crit buff is very strong, because it just adds a flat 200% cc! If your Nukor has a 3% crit chance, it goes straight to 203%, which is pretty cool!

The resource buff is also invaluable when you're farming resources. It works on Kuva, too! If the buff is active when you destroy the siphon, your Kuva yield will be doubled!

 

Now, onto the Adarza! It has a 40% chance to reflect damage back at enemies, amplifying it by 60%. It's not too useful, because your Kavat usually dies from getting hit so it may not live long enough to see this skill come into use ;w;

However, its other ability, Cat's Eye, is the reason why it's very much loved by many! Every 20s, the Kavat grants all allies within 25m a 60% increase in crit chance for 10s!

It's not as much as the Smeeta's buff, but it's a lot more consistent, frequent, and it also buffs your team! (unfortunately, multiple cat's eyes cannot stack ;w;)
When Cat's Eye activates while under the effects of Blood Rush, Blood rush will multiply the critical chance after the modded crit chance is added with the Cat's Eye's critical chance. This synergy can lead to staggeringly high critical strike damage due to orange and red crits!

I prefer using the Adarza because unlike the Smeeta, I know for sure that i'll get a certain buff at a certain interval, so it's much more reliable!
However, the Smeeta is much more versatile, although inconsistent. I would advise using the Smeeta for farming missions or exp grinds, for that chance of getting the resource and exp doubler buff!

I hope this helped clear up some of your doubts and queries about Kavats! 

Edited July 19, 2018 by Dylki

[Dhrekr]

23 minutes ago, Canach said:

What are the real strong points with these things?

Hunter Recovery is much, much stronger than Medi-Ray. 12% with a cooldown each 15 seconds? Hunter Recovery can refill your whole health pool (unless you're Inaros, I guess) in a couple of hits, and the kavat can keep dealing damage all the time, forever.

Cat's Eye gives you 60% (flat) critical chance to all your weapons. I cannot even say how strong this is. It's twice as strong as Arcane Avenger (with which it stacks). This makes every single weapon crit a lot, and several weapons start accessing orange/red crit territory.

... and this buff applies to everyone in your team.

 

Also, you can revive the Kavat as many times as you want.

 

How is there any comparison? Sure, maybe the Kavat is a little bit dumb when travelling, and sometimes it just gets stuck in a group of enemies, but the bonuses it gives you are without comparison. The only thing sentinels have is Vacuum - i.e. "I have to walk to things to pick them up, oh no!"

[Elanair]

Well for starters... dump the Adarza and get a Smeeta.

After that, enjoy your extra rare resources, double affinity gain buff and other goodies.

Just to be clear, I'm joking although as a personal preference I do prefer the Smeeta over the Adarza but hey, all depends on your play style and what you want out of your kavat.

Also don't forget to get it's genetic templates to sell, sounds like a nice appearance and energy color. Might be worth a bit.

 

[(PSN)The_Lost_Pharoah]

I too used a Carrier Prime sentinel with Vacuum. I dont know about your Kavat, but I have the Smeeta. Honestly I will not go back to using my Carrier. The Smeeta Kavat gives awesome buffs, it took some adjusting not having vacuum but once you adjust its fine.

[Canach]

Dhrekr,

Yeah, I got Medi-Ray primarily for Inaros actually, and it is awesome in that capacity, but I soon came to appreciated it across all frames - healing is not generally needed, but is nice - I just need to get the Hunter Recovery mod.

Vacuum is not about convenience, it is about always instantly being fed energy and ammo, I can live without it (Razorwing), but it is a very legitimate benefit which I will miss when kavatting.

[Canach]

18 minutes ago, (PS4)The_Lost_Pharoah said:

I too used a Carrier Prime sentinel with Vacuum. I dont know about your Kavat, but I have the Smeeta. Honestly I will not go back to using my Carrier. The Smeeta Kavat gives awesome buffs, it took some adjusting not having vacuum but once you adjust its fine.

I thought I wanted a Smeeta, but I got an Adarza and am looking forward to giving her a spin... Smeeta will come eventually.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Canach

[(XBOX)Cotton Tail]

Also you can couple Hunter Recovery with Pack Leader which means you heal your Kavat by using melee and he/she returns the favour 

[Canach]

Thanks for all the posts, could somebody please share some builds as well?

[(XBOX)Thang Hung]

37 minutes ago, (XB1)Cotton Tail said:

Also you can couple Hunter Recovery with Pack Leader which means you heal your Kavat by using melee and he/she returns the favour 

Was just going to add this in here myself. I love this combo, even works with Excalibur's Exalted Blade.

I prefer the Adarza truth be told, having said that I use Smeeta. Every time I tell myself to put my Smeeta in stasis and get my Adarza out, my Smeeta gets me double Kuva or Cetus Wisps or something and I end up sticking to the Smeeta. 

Side note: The person in Cetus that sells the Operator masks from time to time sells a Kavat skin. Can't recall the name but, I really like it and use it on both my Kavats.  

Edited July 19, 2018 by (XB1)Thang Hung
typo

[(XBOX)Thang Hung]

10 minutes ago, Canach said:

Thanks for all the posts, could somebody please share some builds as well?

Sharpend Claws, Pack Leader, Maul, Bite

Charm, Hunter Recovery, Link Health, Link Armor

Side Note: Depending what warframe I'm using at the time I rotate in/out some combination of Link Health, Link Shields, Link Armor i.e. Link Shields is of no use if you are playing Inaros/Nidus.

Side Side Note: Replace Charm with Cat's Eye when using Adarza

Edited July 19, 2018 by (XB1)Thang Hung
To add a side note

[Kebast]

Until pets get some sort of loot pickup similar to vacuum... Just level to 30 and put in stasis.

[kamyung]

I used my Helios prime cause I have spare parts on it and mostly cause I am about 20k polymer bundle short of building the kavat incubator core but I have seen people using kavats and it is a beast . so what I am trying to tell is if your around mastery rank 8 start farming it cause it is worth if you want to be stronger

[Canach]

33 minutes ago, Kebast said:

Until pets get some sort of loot pickup similar to vacuum... Just level to 30 and put in stasis.

 

27 minutes ago, kamyung said:

I used my Helios prime cause I have spare parts on it and mostly cause I am about 20k polymer bundle short of building the kavat incubator core but I have seen people using kavats and it is a beast . so what I am trying to tell is if your around mastery rank 8 start farming it cause it is worth if you want to be stronger

Yeah, both my Carrier Prime and Helios Prime are maxed out and using a maxed out Sweeper Prime. I tried Kubrows when they first came out, they were not able to compete and I abandoned them - then shortly thereafter I started playing a different game and was gone for 3 1/2 years.  Been back 4 months, MR 15, thought it was overdue for me to try the Kavats out, and afterwards probably revisit the Kubrows too.  Believe me, it's not the same game that it was in 2012.

I think I'll start with building my Adarza for survivability and Cats Eye as my priorities, looks like she won't be worth anything in combat (compared to my Sentinels) until I get a Bite mod (300 plat). I don't mind spending plat and forma, but we'll see...

[Emulad0or]

The problem with pets is not that they don't have Vacuum. The problem with them is the terrible AI. It makes your pet jump in the middle of 50 enemies, die, force you stop everything you are doing to revive it, just so it can get itself killed again in less then a minute... Sentinel have precepts that make them attack, if pets also had that and you could just force them to not go kamikazi on the enemy, they would be awesome...

Since that is not the case, I only use my Smeeta for kuva farming and fishing, and use my Sentinels for everything else

[(XBOX)Thang Hung]

@Canach Farming Bite is not that bad. Need to find all 3 caches in the Sabotage mission on Earth, Cervantes. It's a little slow at the start but, once you get a feel for for where the caches "usually" are it goes pretty quickly. Maul can be gotten with this same method along with the "Link" mods. It's kind of one stop shopping for your Kubrow/Kavat needs. 

Side note: Killing wild Kubrow while your doing this mission will give you extra chances at pet mods. 

[Canach]

3 minutes ago, (XB1)Thang Hung said:

@Canach Farming Bite is not that bad. Need to find all 3 caches in the Sabotage mission on Earth, Cervantes. It's a little slow at the start but, once you get a feel for for where the caches "usually" are it goes pretty quickly. Maul can be gotten with this same method along with the "Link" mods. It's kind of one stop shopping for your Kubrow/Kavat needs. 

Side note: Killing wild Kubrow while your doing this mission will give you extra chances at pet mods. 

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

[Arcainyx]

Wrap up all of these suggestions in one build: Maul, Bite, Link Health, Link Armor, Sharpened Claws, Pack Leader, Hunter Recovery, Cat's Eye, ????, ????

Play with a tanky frame and use melee more often to keep yourself and your pet healed...Inaros, Valkyr (Prime), etc.

 

Consider trying out the other mods in the Hunter set.  If you equip your frame with status based weapons and use slash procs/Hunter Command you can have more control over what your kavat is attacking/it will do more damage to those targets.

Consider the other kavat specific mods.  I recommend you use Swipe especially if your build will be like the build I posted above and/or similar to builds others have posted.  Although Swipe may not work completely in combination with other mods like Sharpened Claws being able to hit several targets will increase your kavat's melee damage increasing the effect from other mods such as Maul and Bite.

Kavat mods can also drop from Hyekka Masters making some of the more popular affinity grinding spots more appealing to you if you need to farm them.  An example of this is Hydron, Sedna.

[Canach]

I think I will be pairing my Adarza with Inaros. My Inaros is melee-oriented and doesn't suffer from loss of vacuum, as he usually does not need energy or ammo pickups. The only loss going from sentinel now will be the loss of medi-ray, but he's OP anyway so the kavat will be fine for him. Was running the pair together yesterday (Karma is now L28) and it was working a lot better than with other frames tried so far; Ash, Banshee, Nova, and Saryn. Second runner up was probably Nova, who did pretty well with her too.

I also noticed that she does have quite the aggro problem, even with nothing equipped but heal/shield links she's always engaging (grineer, infested) and getting lost (as predicted), she is fun though. Like the warframes and weapons, I think the trick is building her right, then using her in the right missions with the right warframes - not switching to her wholesale.

Thanks to everyone for the posts, further feedback is welcome, I would especially like to see more of people's builds.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Canach

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_IGN]

I use nothing but Smeeta now.   All my warframe have strong melee weapons.   Hunters Recovery+Pack Leader means we are both pretty much invincable, although there can be times because of so much killing that the Kavat has trouble attacking something and I might have to run around like crazy to not die lol.   But my Kavat keeps most of my warframes alive NO problem up to level 45-50 stuff.    

Animal Instinct is a must for radar,  Most of the time this is the ONLY radar mod I have with me.  

I dont use the fancy attack precepts that strip armor or stun?  Just Swipe+Maul.  Dont have bite...  The kavat hitting 3 targets at a time + Hunter Recover = win.  

When I use smeeta she has a distraction mod.... I do not use this either.  I think it makes her less aggressive, she just hides while her decoy is out i think?  

Sanctuary would be the last optional mod I use to make it easier to revive others.   The rest is just all the Link Mods's I can fit.  

Smeeta can double affinity gain,  can double+ loot,  can generate rare loot out of the blue.   I could prob use Adarza for eido's but its to much of a pain switching them out of storage.

I love vacuum but I'd rather get more rare loot.   I have a fat pile of resources though.   If your starting out I dont know which path is better.  I just learned to run through loot and mods I guess.

[Canach]

Dang, planned a build, did the math 5 freaking forma?!  That's what happens when nothing is polarized already, right?

Anyway guess I'll let the thread die now, thanks for all the posts! Having a lot of fun with her and pretty much got the animal sorted out - as much as you can with a kavat - got her a pet mousey to play with today too - Cheers! 👍

[(XBOX)Thang Hung]

On 2018-07-20 at 9:48 PM, Canach said:

Dang, planned a build, did the math 5 freaking forma?!  That's what happens when nothing is polarized already, right?

Anyway guess I'll let the thread die now, thanks for all the posts! Having a lot of fun with her and pretty much got the animal sorted out - as much as you can with a kavat - got her a pet mousey to play with today too - Cheers! 👍

I’d like to apologize for some incorrect information I posted earlier. It is not the mask vendor Kakak, it is Master Teasonai who sells the Kavat skin I alluded too. It only cost a few plains resources and I really like it, check it out when you find him carrying it (stock rotates). 

Inaros is my favorite Warframe to pair with my Kavats, however I am very much digging them with Umbra also. Any frame you use Hunter Adrenaline on give them try with your Kavat, the set mods add quite a bit of damage to their attacks. Now go spend some Forma lol. 

[DatDarkOne]

On ‎2018‎-‎07‎-‎20 at 8:48 PM, Canach said:

Dang, planned a build, did the math 5 freaking forma?!  That's what happens when nothing is polarized already, right?

Anyway guess I'll let the thread die now, thanks for all the posts! Having a lot of fun with her and pretty much got the animal sorted out - as much as you can with a kavat - got her a pet mousey to play with today too - Cheers! 👍

Just wanted to add, there is another frame that pairs extremely well with Kavats.  Ivara.  This is due to how Prowl as effects the kavats.  It allows them to stay alive while also getting additional stealth bonuses to their attacks.  This might not seem like much to some, but it's quite a powerful combination with Pounce, Sharpened Claws, and Swipe.  

I don't know if Loki and Ash have the same effect on pets when using their invisibility.  

[Canach]

On 2018-07-22 at 9:41 AM, DatDarkOne said:

Just wanted to add, there is another frame that pairs extremely well with Kavats.  Ivara.  This is due to how Prowl as effects the kavats.  It allows them to stay alive while also getting additional stealth bonuses to their attacks.  This might not seem like much to some, but it's quite a powerful combination with Pounce, Sharpened Claws, and Swipe.  

I don't know if Loki and Ash have the same effect on pets when using their invisibility.  

Well, sentinels do - the problem with using my Adarza kavat with my Ash is that Ash is very dependent on his Energy and Ammo pickups and will really feel the loss of vacuum. It could be a lot of fun though, I'll give it a shot.