The Cossack
1) Introduction
The Cossack, the 2nd bot that everyone can buy and also probably one of the best one can buy in the early stages of the War Robot game. What makes the Cossack so unique is the fact that it can Jump -one of the 3 bots that can- and that for new players, it's probably the best bot for one to train their piloting skills. Refer to section 3 below for this.
At any rate, the Cossack will be the 1st bot most players will have to experience and use Medium weapons. Initially equipped with a Molot T, it can be deceptively weak, partly due to the fact that many new players have not yet figured out how much damage a weapon can actually dish out.
That said, the Cossack's main purpose is a beacon runner i.e. to go and cap beacon one after another. On Bronze tier, the Cossack can easily cap one beacon on one end of the map and the next beacon on the opposite end. Coupled with it's Jump ability, which in practice has no charge time, the Cossack is one of the fastest bots around, and it is these traits that makes it so useful as a beacon runner.
Nonetheless, the Cossack -by virtue of being a light bot- is very fragile. Arguably the most fragile, especially when taking account that the player is exposed when jumping, and hence can be easily killed. Knowing when to jump, and when to not jump is the key to use the Cossack to it's full potential. Don't worry, the average Destrier will, most of the time, not be able to catch up to the Cossack in Bronze tier, hence it is not as hard to get our of their weapon range and even to avoid those Molot/Punisher bullets.
Once you're bumped into silver tier, never go out in the open with the Cossack, keep well out of enemy's sight and range, and keep capping beacons while slightly harassing them with a few bursts of your sole weapon here and there. Leave the bot killing to your teammates and keep running for beacons. In fact, the more you lure the enemy from your teammates as they chase you for capping their beacon, the better the chances of your team to survive their onslaught and push further into enemy territory.
Being such a fragile bot, larger maps with less cover such as the Yamantau, parts of the Springfield map, and potentially Canyon can be devastating for the Cossack as they can be easily targeted.
2) Setups
The Cossack comes with a Molot T. One thing about the Molot/Punisher is that most time, you have to expose yourself while shooting to give a lot of damage, and players on the receiving end tend to run for you when they realize where you're shooting from, something that is unwanted for a Cossack. However, as there is a dearth of choices for a Cossack to use for new players, it is a good chance for new players to get used to hit-and-run tactics, even when using Molot/Punishers.
Since the Cossack is a useful bot, a lot of players still use them in lower-Silver tier, sometimes even in high-Silver, and by them, most would have access to Workshop points. A Taran is a good weapon for a Cossack by this point. The Taran Cossack is a good hit-and-run setup, and by virtue of its Jump ability, one can easily shoot any shielded bots from its back. The Taran's high rate of fire, and short reload time also means the Taran Cossack can deal a sizeable amount of damage, provided the Cossack does not die first.
Another useful setup is the Orkan Cossack. As the Orkan can unload it's entire clip in seconds, it is a useful ambush bot setup, when the Cossack jumps into range, unloads the Orkan, and jumps away to safety. The 2 cons to this setup is that energy shielded bots are almost impervious to this attack, the other being that at 300m, it's possible that the Cossack won't survive the encounter, especially against Plasma Death Buttons and it's variation, due to the 50m range difference. Nonetheless, is a skilled player's hand, it has brought much frustration on enemy players, especially when they are ambushed from directions that they did not expect.
It can also be seen that some players opt for the Cossack to be a purely beacon runner, hence attaching the Ecu Shield on it instead of a weapon. While this is a viable strategy in bronze tier, where weapon levels are usually not high and the Ecu can withstand a lot of punishment, in Silver tier, the Ecu is too fragile and can easily destroyed by Tarans, hence not much improving the life of the Cossack on a battle. Perhaps when Pixonic decides to buff the Ecu, this setup might see much more usage for some players.
3) Miscellaneous
One of the things that puts the Cossack on a special place in my garage is the fact that the Cossack can teach new players all the skills one needs to play the game well. From the importance of covers, to the timing of a jump, to cornershooting, to beacon capping, to weapon range. I have found that many powerful players have spent a lot of time in the Cossacks when they first started, instead of zooming up to higher tiers and better bots. Before the addition of the many various bots nowadays, one of the signs of a good player was having a Cossack in their hangar as a beacon runner, or so the older players have said many times.
The fragility of the Cossack actually trains one on using covers as much as possible to reduce damage, and when to use Jumps so that one does not get under fire and die in seconds. Many players who rush without developing these skills tend to jump everytime the Jump skill finishes charging, which more often than not leads them to be under severe fire or even putting themselves as an easy target for Treb fire. By the time when Thunders and Pinatas are abundant on the maps, the Cossack pilot needs to understand the significance of weapon ranges and utilize then to their advantage.
Since the Cossack's weapon hardpoint in on the side of its torso, it is fairly easy to cornershoot, both reducing exposure to enemy fire and ease of use for hit-and-run tactics. Many a player can extend their bots lifespan by corner shooting and the Cossack is a good bot to learn how to do this effectively.
All in all, the Cossack is one of the most useful bots, not because it is an overpowered bot in terms of stats and gameplay, but because it is the one bot that may potentially develop many of a players skills needed for piloting bots. The Cossack, while too fragile to survive long in gold tier, has a special place in most players heart.
Thank you,
Izumabakumatsu
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