Tennokai on exalted melee weapons, any in-depth guides floating around?

[Amscarpi]

TLDR, basically the title, not really any TRULY in depth videos/posts on both tennokai and exalted melees as a whole, let alone both of them together

I have finally gotten around to actually acquiring (albeit slowly) all frames in the game, and have realized that I REALLY enjoy exalted melee weapons. Garuda, Baruuk, and Valkyr already have fundamental differences between how their exalted melees function, and I already have trouble figuring out the small changes I need to make on their builds normally. Throw in helminth, and now tennokai, and I am just…lost. I know there are guides focusing on Tennokai itself, but the lack of any longer builds/guides/posts using these frames alongside the system, makes it really hard to apply what I know about it to them. I know it’s still a new system but I haven’t seen any indication of creators making any truly in depth videos about it, or any posts talking much about it, here, on Reddit, anywhere really. Have I missed any?

[AndouRaiton]

The only guide i know of that talks about using tennokai in an exalted weapon build is one for Wukong's stick

 

Garuda's and Valkyr's Claws can be treated like normal melee weapons when it comes to building them and adding tennokai into it

Only real stand outs would be Excal's Exalted Blade and Baruuk's Desert Wind as im pretty sure the waves that come off can't trigger tennokai, but the actual hit with the sword/fist can so probably not worth including tennokai in those builds, unless i'm wrong.

[(XBOX)TehChubbyDugan]

IMO, Tennokai doesn't need too much of an in depth look, especially without arcanes.  It's basically free damage, and that's all you really have to understand about it.  Based on math and how I tend to build weapons, most of the mods don't do enough for me to care about, other than Discipline's Merit and Opportunity's Reach.

Condition's Perfection increases status chance, but it's only on Tennokai attacks.  Status melee (at least how I build) will put out status fast enough that the extra % won't make enough of a difference to warrant using it over anything else.  Dreamer's Wrath makes it more frequent and gives you more crit damage, but if you want more frequent, Discipline's Merit is better.  The crit damage is nice, but it's an additive 32%.  It's like having half of Gladiator Might for just Tennokai attacks.  It's good, but I prefer other options.  It's the same for Master's Edge.  You might get more damage, but if you're getting constant Tennokai attacks from Merit, then you're getting more damage overall, rather than just more damage for that single attack.  

With Merit you have basically constant uptime.  WIth Reach you get a huge window to use it on top of getting a Primed Reach size range bonus.  Considering exalted weapons have a follow through of 1, that range bonus means more enemies hit at full damage.  Both of these mods are also universal, in that they aren't for just crit or status weapons.  They will work however you build your exalted weapon.  Considering all exalted melee weapons are more than capable at running SP, just tacking on free damage is enough for me.  I don't really think min/maxing and building around it is worthwhile.

[Aruquae]

Copy and pasted from the off topic post you made earlier:

Well… the only exalted weapon that can really take advantage of Tennokai is Garuda’s talons. 

All of the others suck at building combo in their window, and sadly benefit more from gladiator stat sticks. 

Let me break it down for you, Tennokai requires combo. Exalted weapons (minus Garuda talons)=bad for combo. They can’t use combo mods in order to deal the heavy damage. And most of the time it takes too long for them to ramp up combo, without sacrificing too much damage, for it to be worth it. 

You’re better off with whatever loadout you had before. Exalted weapons are in a depressing state ngl.

[Tiltskillet]

I barely have ever used Exalted melee (not counting Garuda's Talons) so I'm the worst person to give a guide.  But I have a few thoughts that hopefully will help rather than lead you astray:

- Exalted melee can't slot Blood Rush, Weeping , or melee arcanes, so they're more restricted in what they can get out of Tennokai

- They're also shorter on capacity.

- Turning them off resets their combo counter, so you'd want to minimize that.  Hysteria could be a bigger problem because of its mounting energy drain and self damage quirk.

- Kengineer says that Disciplines Merit on  regular melee counts for Iron Staff (at least), and stacks.  Almost has to be a bug, but extremely powerful if it still works. 

 

 

 

[UnstarPrime]

The only exploration of Tennokai with Exalted Weapons I've done is with Baruuk.  However, I was quickly reminded that hitting enemies with his waves doesn't build combo; you only get combo if you hit with his actual fists.  Since building combo multiplier is such an important part of Tennokai's damage, to me it just doesn't seem worth the effort to use Tennokai with Baruuk.