In Defense of Khora and Her Powers of Defense

It seems that some people think that Khora is a bad Warframe, that she desperately needs a rework. To that, all I can say is that those people are wrong. It’s very easy to see why, because, like Revenant, Khora on release was a very mediocre frame with middling stats. There were a multitude of problems mostly focused on Venari, who was a timed ability rather than a passive. But these days, Khora is a very rounded, generalist Warframe who can do a bit of everything.

I know I’ve written about Khora before, but having 1. just bought Khora for my sister, who absolutely loves the Warframe to bits and 2. just received Reddit Silver for a small write up on Khora, I might as well go through her pros and cons and some misconceptions.

Firstly, Whipclaw. I’d say that Whipclaw, on the surface, seems like a weak ability. It’s a little awkward to aim and hit with and it’s nowhere near as fast as first-basic-ability attacks like Volt’s Shock or Ember’s Fireball. But it’s a whip, it’s not going to be THAT fast. Whipclaw though has a lot more damage potential than most basic first abilities, and not just because you can use a Riven’d ‘Stat Stick’ on her.

You see, Whipclaw bases part of its damage on your melee weapon and, unlike Exalted weapons, will also take Riven Mods into consideration when its damage is calculated. But you don’t need a dedicated weapon built for pure damage for Whipclaw to work. Any weapon will do, but you can stack additional damage by using Accumulating Whipclaw, which increases Whipclaw’s damage for every 3 enemies hit at once. But you don’t even need that. As long as you use a strong weapon with mods on it, then Whipclaw will do damage too.

Ensnare is also a very powerful but slightly slow ability that can ensnare all nearby enemies within a 10m radius. This is amazing for grouping enemies up, ready to murder them. The only downside is that there’s a 0.5 second delay before the enemies in a radius are ensnared. Ensnared enemies though are mostly harmless and won’t attack until Ensnare ends. Amazingly, Ensnare doesn’t require line of sight to reach out and grab additional enemies, so you can cast it on an enemy and it will reach through walls.

Venari, Khora’s loyal metal Kavat companion, is a champion all of her own. While she can’t use the buffs Smeeta and Adarza Kavats use and doesn’t benefit from the set bonus of set mods, Venari’s damage and healing scale based on Khora’s power strength and Venari’s health seems to scale far higher than a Kavat’s health normally would. Venari can also use Animal Instinct for even more loot and enemy radar. But more importantly, Venari can be used aside any animal or mechanical companion, so you can have two cats, if you wish.

Sure, Venari’s AI can be a bit buggy, but Venari can also be controlled to attack or disarm an enemy, which a normal, purely AI-controlled NPC might not manage to do. Venari though can also heal, and at 100% power strength, heals 50 health per second. With enough power strength, you can have your very own animal version of Oberon following you around. A cat who is also capable of healing things like Cryopods and other objectives.

Strangledome, I think people just consider it annoying because some enemies spin around wildly, but Strangledome is quite frankly the better of the many dome-like, protect-an-area effects.

Seriously. It’s better than Cataclysm, it’s better than Snow Globe, it’s better than Bastille and it’s just as good as Gara’s Mass Vitrify. Strangledome might not block bullets but it blocks enemies, grabbing them from a wide range and stringing them up, completely stopping them from doing anything. Strangledome also doesn’t block your own weapons in any way, the way Cataclysm or Snow Globe do. Strangledome also does pretty good damage, and with only 40% power strength, will murder its way through 20 waves of Helene or 15 waves of Hydron.

But most importantly, Strangledome won’t disappear the second a Nullifier touches it. In fact, if you break a Nullifier’s bubble, Strangledome will grab a Nullifier and stop the bubble from coming back, even if you don’t destroy the dome. When a bubble does it it, only the parts of Strangledome touched by the bubble will disappear, unlike the entirety of Cataclysm or Snow Globe.

The only genuinely bad thing about Khora is the farm for her. You can ONLY obtain her via Sanctuary Onslaught, which is sparsely populated because it doesn’t give nearly as much affinity or as good rewards as Elite Sanctuary Onslaught.

The thing is though, you don’t build Khora for pure damage. You want a round build with her. A bit of power strength, a nice helping of range, some duration and you’re good. Khora is a rounded frame who has something for everyone and I would recommend at least sticking an Orokin Potato in her and trying her out.

Shame the farm for her sucks ass though.