Review: Kuva Kohm (U28.3.3)

The Kuva Kohm is an MR13 spool-up Shotgun. On top of increasing in Fire Rate, spooling up also drastically increases the number of pellets fired, though this comes at an increased ammo cost. With solid Crit and great initial Status Chance, it is an extremely potent close-range weapon.

Acquisition

It's a Kuva weapon, standard spawn-and-vanquish-a-Lich.

Stats

The Kuva Kohm has a strong spread of stats, at least at close range. Its Crit is very solid, being very much worth building for even with the mediocre Shotgun Crit mods. Its Status Chance is an absurd 90% - easily the highest in the game. This combines exceptionally well with its Slash-biased damage. Innate Punch-Through is greatly appreciated, dramatically improving efficiency against crowds.

You will note that the KKohm oddly has a base Multishot of just 1. The Kohm family (Kohm Primary and Kohmak Secondary) share a spool-up mechanic. Besides increasing in Fire Rate, they also fire additional pellets, and consume more ammo-per-shot. The Kohm and Kuva Kohm fire up to 12 pellets at full spool, consuming 4 ammo-per-shot.

As such, its massive Mag Capacity gets eaten up more quickly than you might first expect, though even at full spool it has an excellent Reload Ratio of 6.26. Status Chance is also seemingly split among these pellets. The Wiki suggests it is linearly divided (ie at 12 pellets, each has 90/12 = 7.5% base Status Chance).

Naturally, as a Shotgun, the KKohm suffers from Damage Fall-Off, starting at 13 metres. At 26 metres, it loses a staggering 93.75% damage - inflicting just over 6% of its original damage. This is one of the harshest in the game, beaten only by (to my knowledge) the Kuva Brakk losing a ridiculous 96% damage at long range.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: These pictured builds do not include the extra Multishot when spooled up. To get the full damage output, multiply the Multishot by 12. Additionally, the numbers do not the Kuva Lich damage bonus, which is an extra multiplier of 1.25x to 1.6x.

Crit 0-Forma:

With only an innate D polarity, it can be difficult to fit in a good build. This above example build is a basic Crit build, though without Primed Ravage, it is not particularly strong.

Status 0-Forma:

A pure Status build on the other hand is very potent. Though this pictured one is slightly lacking in damage-per-shot, the +Fire Rate from Shotgun Spazz results in a massive number of Status procs being inflicted. If you drop Shotgun Savvy, there is space to switch Scattering Inferno for Blaze, which offers a lot more damage at the cost of fewer Status procs.

Viral + Heat is my recommended go-to as usual, and it is extremely strong against unshielded targets. The massive damage multiplier from stacked Viral procs is especially potent for amplifying Heat procs. Corrosive + Heat has good multipliers particularly against Infested and Ferrite-armour, and is also a great armour-depleting combo. Magnetic + Toxin is a strong though slightly redundant anti-Corpus setup, massively weakening their Shields and striking at their health directly.

Recommended Setups: Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested, Ferrite-armour, Magnetic + Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus

Crit 1-Forma:

One added V polarity and the extra ranks from being a Kuva weapon allow you to fit both Primed Point Blank and Primed Ravage, for significantly higher damage output.

Status 1-Forma:

The extra space also boosts the pure Status build, though not to as significant a degree. This pictured build does have 5 capacity to play with, and Shotgun Savvy is not a particularly important mod.

Though a pure Status build is much easier and cheaper to set up, the extra damage-per-shot offered by Crit cannot be overlooked, especially as it also boosts the damage dealt by procs. This is doubly so if you reliably land headshots, as Crits deal quadruple damage while non-Crits will only deal double damage.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Hybrid 2-Forma:

A second added V polarity and you can start to really flesh out a full build. The D polarity that Shotgun Savvy occupies may not be useful, as there are only 3 Shotgun mods in total that even fit in it, so may be worth replacing with one of those Vs.

There are a lot of alternative mods to consider for the Kuva Kohm. Laser Sight is a conditional +Crit Chance mod that gives a larger boost than Blunderbuss, so can be potentially used as a direct replacement. Shrapnel Shot is the conditional +Crit Damage equivalent, but is slightly weaker than a maxed Primed Ravage. Motus Setup is a different conditional mod, increasing both Crit Chance and Status Chance.

(Amalgam) Shotgun Spazz, as used in some of the previous builds, is an option that significantly boosts Burst DPS and proc output, while also reducing spool-up time. It does come with the drawback of significantly increasing ammo consumption.For any elemental setups that include Electric, Primed Charged Shell is a strong option for significantly increasing damage output. Sweeping Serration significantly increases Slash bias if you want to focus on Slash procs. Vigilante Armaments is always an option for no-fuss extra damage and procs.

A Primed Cleanse mod is especially strong as much of the KKohm's power comes from procs, notably damage-over-time ones like Fire and Slash. These double-dip the Primed Cleanse Faction damage bonus, which is hilariously overkill in most content, but becomes relevant at extremely high levels or the Steel Path. 

There are two main options for the Exilus slot - an Ammo Mutation mod or +Projectile Speed. Vigilante Supplies offers a medium Ammo Mutation effect while also adding to the Vigilante mod set bonus, while Primed Shotgun Ammo Mutation provides a much larger Ammo Mutation effect. Fatal Acceleration gives +40% Projectile Speed, which significantly increases the KKohm's Damage Fall-off ranges. This improves damage-per-pellet beyond close range, though does not address pellet spread.

My Build

My only build is this Viral + Heat one. For a while I'd used (Amalgam) Shotgun Spazz, but that build munched through ammo at a ridiculous rate. Blaze, though much slower, is more ammo efficient and hits a lot harder.

Kuva Lich Bonus

As a fast-firing Status weapon, I'd consider Heat to be the best overall option. It combines exceptionally well with Viral or Corrosive, and can also combine into Radiation. Toxin boosts both Viral and Corrosive, and is solid on its own, but Viral and Corrosive have a stack cap of 10 each, while Heat can be stacked infinitely.

Radiation and Magnetic both have their uses, the former against Alloy armour and enemy auras, and the latter against the Corpus. Additionally, they do not interfere with elemental combos, allowing otherwise impossible setups like Corrosive + Radiation and Viral + Magnetic.

Combat Use and Summary

With a massive capacity and high spooled-up RoF by Shotgun standards, the Kuva Kohm fares quite well against large groups. Innate Punch-Through allows it to penetrate most enemy units, and it can fire an impressive number of shots before needing to reload.

Its Status output is among the best in the game, and combined with a high Slash bias, allows the KKohm to be exceptionally effective against heavily armoured targets. It can rapidly max out Viral or Corrosive procs, and stack up a huge number of Slash/Fire/etc procs with ease. 

The KKohm is least impressive against unarmoured and especially Status-immune enemies, but still remains fairly capable thanks to its solid Crit and the Kuva Lich damage bonus.
 

 
Between pellet spread and its extremely harsh Damage Fall-Off, the Kuva Kohm is practically useless outside of close range. It deals almost no damage, with very few pellets connecting with any given target.

Without +Fire Rate mods, the KKohm's spool-up time is quite significant and frustrating. It takes about a second to reach full speed and pellet count, which in Warframe combat time, is very long.

Consuming 4 ammo-per-shot at full spool, for a total of 16.68 ammo-per-second, the KKohm is among the most ammo-hungry weapons in the game. Though it does not quite compare to the fastest firing Rifles or Secondaries, Shotgun ammo is much rarer and replenishes far fewer rounds. As such, it is practically mandatory to run at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc with the KKohm for anything besides a short mission. If running +Fire Rate as well, multiple such ammo restoration mods may be required.


Overall, the Kuva Kohm is an extremely powerful Full-Auto Shotgun in close quarters. It puts out an immense number of pellets and procs, capable of tearing through most enemies quite easily. It is however nearly useless at longer ranges, guzzles Shotgun ammo like crazy, and has a frustratingly long unboosted spool-up time. Nonetheless, if you enjoy bullet-hose/spray-and-pray type weapons, the Kuva Kohm is a powerful Shotgun option to consider.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4.5/5 - High RoF for a Shotgun, innate Punch-Through and very large Mag Capacity allow the Kuva Kohm to mow down crowds of enemies with ease once spooled-up.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4/5 - Solid Crit and the Kuva Lich bonus give the Kuva Kohm decent DPS against unarmoured and Status-immune targets. This does however require you to be at essentially point-blank range of the target, as pellet spread and damage fall-off drastically reduce damage output at range.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 5/5 - High Status Chance, good Slash bias and very high pellet output makes the KKohm very effective against heavily armoured enemies. It can inflict a massive number of Slash procs, easily augmented by Viral and potentially complemented by Heat as well.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: NA/5 - Especially as a Shotgun, which has the worst +Crit Chance mods, the Kuva Kohm does not make very good use of Hunter Munitions. Its high Slash bias and insane base Status Chance inflict more than enough naturally. That slot is far better used for simply increasing Status Chance, Multishot, or base Damage instead.

Vs Variants

The MR13 Kuva Kohm is a majority upgrade over the MR5 Kohm. It has a significantly higher Crit Chance, slightly higher Fire Rate and Status Chance, and of course has the Kuva Lich bonus to make up the apparent loss of base Damage. In exchange, the Kuva has lower Mag Capacity, but most importantly much, much worse damage Fall-Off. The regular Kohm loses roughly half of its damage at long range, while the Kuva loses an insane ~94% damage. While the Kuva is far more effective at close range, it does almost nothing beyond 20 or so metres.

Competitors

There are only a few other Full-Auto Shotguns, and none of them really compare. Though the Boar Prime can output more procs-per-second, it has worse Crit, longer Reload Time, far smaller Mag Capacity, and much worse Slash bias. The Sobek is far weaker than either, and the Astilla fires a single pellet so is not comparable.

The beam-type Shotguns are much stronger contenders. The Phage is hybrid-viable and deals pure Viral, which allows for otherwise impossible (and extremely powerful) combos like Viral + Corrosive, or Viral + Magnetic. The Convectrix is very capable of inflicting Slash procs, but is severely lacking in overall damage output.

The other Shotguns are generally slower-firing weapons, more suited to single-targets than groups.  Few weapons can compare to the sheer number of procs that the Kuva Kohm can put out, particularly Slash procs. In a similar vein however, few other weapons consume ammo at such a ravenous rate.

Rivens

The Kuva Kohm has a below-average 2/5 (0.85) Disposition, which seems fair given its close-range firepower. I would not be surprised to see it drop more in the future. The regular Kohm retains a very high 4/5 (1.3), allowing it to remain relevant, albeit not as versatile as the Kuva.

Naturally, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great stats to have. +Slash can be good for forcing more Slash procs. +Elemental damage can help to save a mod slot. +Status Chance can be helpful to put out even more procs. +Faction Damage greatly amplifies damage done by damage-over-time procs like Slash and Heat. +Fire Rate can be very helpful to shorten the initial spool-up time, and increase overall damage output, but also increases ammo consumption. +Ammo Max can be helpful, but doesn't solve the underlying ammo inefficiency issue. +Projectile Speed increases Damage Fall-Off ranges, which is greatly beneficial beyond close range.

-Impact/Puncture are both ideal negatives, shifting damage bias towards better damage types/procs and not significantly reducing damage. -Faction damage to a weaker faction (Infested is optimal) can be manageable. -Mag Capacity and Reload Speed can be very manageable, given the KKohm's excellent base Reload Ratio. -Ammo Max is also manageable by Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. +Recoil is largely a non-issue, as the KKohm has minimal recoil to begin with.