Leader reflections (I Miss Kinsano)

Games Halo Wars Series
1

Seriously, I have played against Kinsano maybe twice in over a hundred games since Colony came out. They nerfed her, then they nerfed her again, and now she’s just straight up awful, and practically unplayable. Truthfully Cutter and Isabel are the only viable UNSC leaders at this point.

As for the other leaders, I was happy to see Decimus get some love. His early game rush abilities are insane, but not unbeatable. I think he fits in nicely now.

On to Shipmaster… Locust teleport is still a broken mechanic. Locusts aren’t OP, they are just fine, but being able to teleport them on a ridge above an undefended base is an abusive ability. It’s a strategy game people! There is no strategy to this method. It’s an exploit that needs addressing. Shipmaster players have a big advantage with crazy powers to abuse. Not all Shipmaster players are bad, but there are many that punch above their weight class because of the broken leader mechanics.

Colony is solid, but not OP like original Kinsano was. My main leader of choice currently. Very fun to play with. Skitterers are awesome, but again, not OP.

Isabel tanks are terrifying, but her weak early game gives opponents a good chance to beat her. If she gets shielded Scorpions with Canister shell though, then the game is just over, even if you have a full pop of Hunters/Cyclops. Doesn’t matter. There is no counter for it at that point. You lose.

Cutter still plays great and fits wonderfully. Strong early game, giving good map control.

Forge, Anders, and Kinsano simply have nothing to give to the current meta.

Forge Grizzlies suck compared to Scorpions, which is just wrong. Full pop of grizzlies should rinse a full pop of scorpions, it’s just that simple.

Anders has no relevant powers outside of Kodiak siege sentinels.

Once again, Kinsano just had both her balls chopped off. It wasn’t even cool how much they took from her. She was so fun to use too. Her once great abilities and powers have been rendered almost totally useless. I’m glad the Jackrabbit rush is gone, but really? Now she’s straight up unplayable.

What are your thoughts on the OP leaders, mechanics, and the leaders that need some love to be playable again?

2

I agree with all of this, except that Kinsano is underpowered. She is still very viable, just she’s out shined by Cutter’s infantry and Isabel’s tanks. Could use some tweaks with her leader powers, but nothing crazy.

3

i do agredost of the unsc leaders are now unplayable due to jack rabbit nerfed but i dont want to see jack rabbit rushes return

solution to unsc buff jack rabbit SINGLE TARGIT HIT DAMAGE by 50% that way you can contest choppers but this would do nothing to basic unit squad encounters such as grints and marine squads. scout vehicle spam should beat infantry but you should beable to beat scout unit spam with shrapnal and gernade thirw from a skillful stand point

i do not want to aee splash damage return to jack rabbits as thats what made them not fun to play against but they need to contest choppers and ghosts right now they dont even come close to beating chopper ram and shrapnal rounds.

move scorpian to tech 2 and move nighting gil to twch 1. covy get engineers which are insane early ob so unsc shouls get there healers early on aswell

4

> 2533274927740213;2:
> I agree with all of this, except that Kinsano is underpowered. She is still very viable, just she’s out shined by Cutter’s infantry and Isabel’s tanks. Could use some tweaks with her leader powers, but nothing crazy.

Agreed. Unfortunately what ever 343 do unless its a Nerf its going to get the keyboard warriors all angry.

5

Kinsano wary hogs should be her thing. They should never nerfed the hogs. And the leader scorch to buildings was OP. But isn’t that Kinsano? Flame the building killer…

6

Why do people want to play only the broken stuff?

Kinsano got nerf and she’s still strong. Yes, Strong. And you all say she’s garbage.
Decimus got buffed. Now vortex is broken. They are all spamming vortex while having no clue how to actually play the leader.

Unplayable …
Now, they really killed one thing on Kinsano ; her cyclop. Her cyclop IS useless.

Kinsano unplayable … Dude you must realize that she was b.r.o.k.e.n. So if you can’t get wins with her anymore, you must start to learn to play a “balanced” game.

Putting Kinsano in the same bag as Anders is so crazy … Just her passive powers give her a better T3 than Cutter’s.

7

Yes, she was broken. I’m not saying that wasn’t the case. Totally with you there. Fact is NOBODY plays her anymore. NOBODY. Top level play popularity is restricted to Cutter, Decimus, Shipmaster, Colony, Atriox, and the occasional Isabel. You never see Forge, Anders, or Kinsano. They are dead in the meta. You’re kidding yourself if you think Kinsano didn’t get nerfed too hard

8

> 2535433590088088;6:
> Why do people want to play only the broken stuff?
>
> Kinsano got nerf and she’s still strong. Yes, Strong. And you all say she’s garbage.
> Decimus got buffed. Now vortex is broken. They are all spamming vortex while having no clue how to actually play the leader.
>
> Unplayable …
> Now, they really killed one thing on Kinsano ; her cyclop. Her cyclop IS useless.
>
> Kinsano unplayable … Dude you must realize that she was b.r.o.k.e.n. So if you can’t get wins with her anymore, you must start to learn to play a “balanced” game.
>
> Putting Kinsano in the same bag as Anders is so crazy … Just her passive powers give her a better T3 than Cutter’s.

Getting wins with any leader is possible, including Kinsano. I have a 73% win rate. Not like “all-time great” status, but respectable. Fact is that wins are much easier to come by with other leaders than Kinsano right now. Banished leaders are too good to not play right now IMO. I’m sticking with Colony until the next update.

9

I main Ship master so i’m a little salty LOL. (I don’t go straight locusts/teleport like you see most).

Ship Master is completely underwhelming in the initial stages of the game. Every other banished leader has choppers as scouts. UNSC has Marines with Grenades. (I would’t count marines but maaann, can a marine throw a guided grenade a long distance haha)

Both of these wreck Ghosts. The only viable option in the early game is Suicide Grunts but is easily countered by the tier 1 snipers and are utterly useless against choppers.

Now i’m of decent skill. There is still some areas I lack in but can beat most or at least trade matches with them. (We have had some good matches Jdawg)

If you play a ship master, you should almost undoubtedly gain map control. There is nothing he can do in the early stages against any leader. You should reach higher tech levels and population before a ship master does.

Now this is where teleport makes up for that. It isn’t a broken mechanic (especially since all banished can teleport). You should have sufficient units guarding your bases or close enough to respond to a locust/teleport. I’ve only lost to one Ship Master player using this method. Didn’t even think about him doing it lol and caught with my pants down. Locusts are in a good place. They are easily taken down now by a few hunters. Mixture of of a couple hunters and banshees with a shroud or two will shut locusts down easy.

If you are a playing him. Shutting him down in the early to mid game is your top priority and can be done so easily as he doesn’t have much to offer off the get go. They had made the scout mine almost useless (seems like they delayed the detonation time and not being able to at least drop the mine in the proximity of your own base is ridiculous.

Now when the late game hits and he has Displacement, teleport, extraction, and Gates. That’s when he can cause trouble using hit and run tactics.

But all in all, I might not be using him to his fullest potential. So maybe he is a better/OP leader than I give him credit for. I just severely have a hard time in the early stages of the game against good players, which usually gives them the advantage with map control.

10

I’m not top level, but I still main Kinsano. She’s not unplayable.

11

> 2533274904506600;3:
> i do agredost of the unsc leaders are now unplayable due to jack rabbit nerfed but i dont want to see jack rabbit rushes return
>
> solution to unsc buff jack rabbit SINGLE TARGIT HIT DAMAGE by 50% that way you can contest choppers but this would do nothing to basic unit squad encounters such as grints and marine squads. scout vehicle spam should beat infantry but you should beable to beat scout unit spam with shrapnal and gernade thirw from a skillful stand point
>
> i do not want to aee splash damage return to jack rabbits as thats what made them not fun to play against but they need to contest choppers and ghosts right now they dont even come close to beating chopper ram and shrapnal rounds.
>
> move scorpian to tech 2 and move nighting gil to twch 1. covy get engineers which are insane early ob so unsc shouls get there healers early on aswell

I agree , also I think everyone overplayed her last season including myself. Now that the banished are in a good spot and all viable everyone has new options. The only two leaders that need slight buffs would be anders/forge.

12

Forge is still bad even if you hit the same power spike Isa gets. It’s just weird. Maybe the cost and pop diff, who knows.

Isa now is alright in 3’s, the character should absolutely lose in 1’s. She has no game before 8m ish and is rofl stomped by most rushes. That’s her spike though, same as colony. If you don’t rush her then you have to play the same spike in terms of what your character can do. At 8m if I show up to your base with 3 tanks and 3 night’s you’ll lose if you don’t have something similar. You could hornet/night’s, hunter/engi, never seen the clops version played. Hell you could match me night’s/tanks in Kisano’s case.

At T1 it takes 3 shell canister’s usually for tanks to kill a hunter. That obviously changes when you throw engi’s shield into the case. If played the same spike you can usually jump the curve. After that it only gets harder for the person playing tanks; ESPECIALLY COLONY. His hunter’s become un-killable for the tank player.

Played right it shouldn’t be too much of a problem playing the majority of covies and not to bad for ander’s and Kisano.

13

I don’t miss her at all. Got tiring going up against her all the time with the same brain dead “strategies”. This season is definitely much more varied and enjoyable, sure, forge and Anders need some help, but last season I pretty much versed 95% kisano, the rest either atriox, shipmaster and sometimes very rarely was cutter.