It's Time For A Melee Frame, I Vote We Retrofit Excalibur

[jmforeman02]

I started a thread recently about how Excalibur needed to be revisited and reworked to make him more end-game viable and to compete with the other frames. The problem is that he was made before they had much in place to balance him against, and a lot has changed since then. Most people agreed once I spelled out my arguments. But now I've had an idea about HOW to rework him and I wanted to share.

 

Both of Excalibur's augment mods are already set up to boost melee. His Super Jump ability needs to be reworked or replaced anyway, but right now it's only really good for extricating yourself from a crowd. If his Slash Dash consistently penetrated enemies it would also be good for this (right now it sometimes hangs up on an enemy). Another useful addition to Slash Dash for melee framing would be to make it not go past a targeted point if you aimed it at a point on the ground. This would allow Excalibur to Slash Dash from group to group before his melee combo bonus reset without overshooting the group if that's what you're trying to do. If Slash Dash also released a small (weapon's reach) knockdown blast in front when it came to a stop, then it would stun the next group of enemies and set up finishers. Radial Blind really needs to lose the LoS requirement or at least the 5 second cooldown. Mirage's ability has no such limitations. And Radial Javelin needs to lose the post-cast 2 second animation that makes you quite vulnerable to enemies that weren't stunned like nullifiers or mobs just outside the radius. Other than those few little tweaks, all he would really need are some passives that would help him. Passives like: longer time before melee counter reset, no stamina loss when blocking, wider blocking arc, faster movement speed, faster melee draw, knockdown resist, have Slash Dash and Radial Javelin use his current melee multiplier, or make his Super Jump his normal jump and replace Super Jump with something, you know, useful. Not all of them obviously, just 2 or 3 of those possibilities would be enough. Then Excalibur would not only be end-game viable, but he would be the kind of space ninja we all dreamed about, dashing from enemy to enemy, slicing them up, blocking bullets with swords all along the way. He would be momentum based with his abilities contributing to and drawing strength from his melee multiplier. He would be a fast paced slayer. He's even named after a legendary sword. How much better a melee frame name can you get?

Edited March 31, 2015 by jmforeman02

[(PSN)Artennos]

Valkyr is the melee frame! lol

[jmforeman02]

Except she's not as good at it as this Excal would be. The real problem with her is that she's too slow to get from group to group to keep her combo counter up. Her ripline requires a good latch place to bring her to a target, and only brings one enemy at a time to her. And her hysteria is great for invulnerability but the damage doesn't scale well. She also has no passives to help her with melee like Mesa does with guns. Valkyr has become a slow tank that also does melee, not really a true melee frame.

Edited January 15, 2015 by jmforeman02

[Morgax]

Wouldn't mind more melee viable frames, i've been trying "skinless" Rhino recently with ironclad mod, still not as good as catlady.

[bejuizb]

Except she's not as good at it as this Excal would be. She also has no passives to help her with melee like Mesa does with guns.

hwat.

 

Mesa doesn't have passives either. And you're talking about a frame with lifesteal, invulnerability, an attack speed steroid, an enemy armour and movement speed debuff, a cheap cc stun with a massive damage multiplier and a high mobility basic ability and you're assuming she won't be as good as Excal? 

 

Also, to provide less agitated feedback, your ideas make Excalibur a good ability frame, not a good melee frame. Melee requires melee weapons. Not energy as a primary source.

[BabyKurama]

Valkyr is the melee frame! lol

Isn't she the Berserker??

[jjpdn]

His name is kind of weird for what he does.

 

We should rename Exalibur into something else, and then make another melee frame named Excalibur. 

[jmforeman02]

Mesa doesn't have passives either. 

Mesa does have passives:

 

• +10% fire rate on dual pistols.
• +20% reload speed for single sidearms.
• +50 Health when melee weapon is not equipped.
• Extra ammo on some weapons including Soma. (may have been removed)

[Brandr_]

Holy %$# of jesus. We already have one. This thread is unnecessary

 

Valkyr is a melee frame. "But isn't she a berserker, Wolf" Yes, but her 2, 3, 4 abilities allow for melee combat

 

2: Speed and attack buff

3: Stun, and draws enemies in if you have the mod for it

4: Gives invincibility at the cost of being limited to, oh, melee combat. With an added bonus! It's modified by your current melee!

 

Wow, it's almost as if a berserker, AND melee frame are one and the same. Plus, we have one!

[jmforeman02]

His name is kind of weird for what he does.

 

We should rename Exalibur into something else, and then make another melee frame named Excalibur. 

Lol. I forgot that he was named after a sword. I'll add that to the original post. But I still like the retrofit idea.

[bejuizb]

 

Mesa does have passives:

 

• +10% fire rate on dual pistols.
• +20% reload speed for single sidearms.
• +50 Health when melee weapon is not equipped.
• Extra ammo on some weapons including Soma. (may have been removed)

 

They got removed quite a while back. They were experimental and weren't supposed to be released.

[jmforeman02]

They got removed quite a while back. They were experimental and weren't supposed to be released.

 

Afraid not. I just tested the +50 health one after you posted that and it worked.

 

 

Also I still maintain that Valkyr is mainly used for tanking, not as much for meleeing despite what she was designed for, but is there any reason at all that there can't be two? Especially since they would have completely different styles. Valkyr would be more of the face-tanking melee frame while Excal would be a fast moving slayer, a DPS melee frame. He would build up a high melee muliplier and keep it up, moving from group to group. We already have Ash too who's a stealth melee finisher frame. Does it matter?

Edited January 15, 2015 by jmforeman02

[tmtke]

If the designers will add back charge attacks as they hinted in the last livestream, slash dash could be made a time based ability, which would allow excal slash dashes for every charged attack as long as the ability lasts.

Hell, even super jump could be transformed into one, but that would grant directional melee (also with some nerf to the really OP dir. melee).

Edited January 15, 2015 by tmtke

[jmforeman02]

If the designers will add back charge attacks as they hinted in the last livestream, slash dash could be made a time based ability, which would allow excal slash dashes for every charged attack as long as the ability lasts.

Hell, even super jump could be transformed into one, but that would grant directional melee (also with some nerf to the really OP dir. melee).

It would add some extra depth to melee if you could tie in charge attacks with those abilities. I like it. Not sure how it could be done though. Btw, you can look down to avoid a directional melee.

Edited January 15, 2015 by jmforeman02

[IlluminaZero]

I agree with OP 100%. Radial Blind already gives strong incentive for melee play, and the two new ability augments just further reinforce the concept of a melee Excalibur.

 

The only problem is his "balanced" stats (check out Hydroid or Nova Prime) and... Hate to bring it up again, Super Jump being almost useless. Especially with directional aerial melee.

 

If DE wants to make Exalibro a "well balanced beginner frame" they should just give him Rhino's skills. Rhino is both easier to use and has a more well balanced skillset.

 

Excalibur is begging to become an awesome melee frame, but his stats and insistence on keeping super jump are holding him back.

[(XBOX)Skode]

Valkyr is still the melee frame, her ultimate is being retweaked as mentioned in the latest devstream to be more fluid with its animations and have unique combos. Excal should never be the melee frame as he's meant to be the beginner friendly "balance" frame... New players won't last long if they've been trained in the artvof hack and slash being a winning strategy. Heck it only even works for valkyr because she's invincible in her ultimate but her shields are pathetic outwith it.

[jmforeman02]

Valkyr doesn't have to be the only melee frame though. And new players will adapt to new frames like they always do. Play style always changes with the frame.

[SandwitchPrime]

Except she's not as good at it as this Excal would be. The real problem with her is that she's too slow to get from group to group to keep her combo counter up. Her ripline requires a good latch place to bring her to a target, and only brings one enemy at a time to her. And her hysteria is great for invulnerability but the damage doesn't scale well. She also has no passives to help her with melee like Mesa does with guns. Valkyr has become a slow tank that also does melee, not really a true melee frame.

valkyr relies on her 2 and does better than 4......

you can pull yourself just syaing

[MEsoJD]

Really they need to look into giving all warframes unique passive features. Valkyr and Excalubur should inherently deal more melee damages from the get go.

[jmforeman02]

I agree. I think passives would help define warframe roles and add a lot of diversity to their play style.