Are exalted melee weapons even worth using?

[Aruquae]

On 2024-02-13 at 3:10 PM, (PSN)Madurai-Prime said:

Yes, but only for people that actually use more than 1 forma.

That’s odd, my four forma Desert Wind can’t seem to kill a SP corrupted grineer butcher without a stat stick+augment+extra strength. You lie

Edited February 15 by Aruquae

[Thorham]

12 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

That’s odd, my four forma Desert Wind can’t seem to kill a SP corrupted grineer butcher without a stat stick+augment+extra strength.

Strange... which level?

[Aruquae]

3 minutes ago, Thorham said:

Strange... which level?

Hepit on Void, so a simple level 115. I know with a proper setup it can do it’s fair share of damage, but alone… it’s not even worth it. I tried doing a viral-heat combo (before I had augment) along with Umbral mods and crit (but no combo mods). 

Edit: Eugh, I said “A simple level 115” ignore that, I was just putting that in perspective to some of the other void nodes on SP. 

Edited February 15 by Aruquae
Not going to wash off that cringe in a while

[Thorham]

3 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

I know with a proper setup it can do it’s fair share of damage, but alone… it’s not even worth it.

You really need a proper setup, yes. Desert Wind is supposed to be stronger than Exalted Blade and my Exalted Umbra Blade build rips through SP missions unless it's hours long endurance runs, and my build isn't anything special.

Edited February 15 by Thorham

[Aruquae]

Just now, Thorham said:

You really need a proper setup, yes. Desert Wind is supposed to be stronger than Exalted Blade and my Exalted Umbra Blade Build rips through SP missions unless it's hours long endurance runs, and my build isn't anything special.

Yea, I was just making that post to highlight how dependent one of the “strongest exalteds” are by themselves. I don’t want to sacrifice all of those mods slots on Baruuk (purely for strength, when I would like some efficiency+duration for 1 and 2), along with wasting a melee for a gladiator stat stick because that thing is… sucky with combo to say the least. 
A simple “1 or more forma” wouldn’t work in this situation, as it needs more than forma. 
Did that make sense? I kind of rambled

[Thorham]

6 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

Yea, I was just making that post to highlight how dependent one of the “strongest exalteds” are by themselves.

What do you mean by 'by themselves'?

7 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

I don’t want to sacrifice all of those mods slots on Baruuk (purely for strength

You shouldn't have to. One strength mod + Helminth Empower should be plenty.

8 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

along with wasting a melee for a gladiator stat stick

Does it really need that?

9 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

A simple “1 or more forma” wouldn’t work in this situation, as it needs more than forma. 

Ha ha ha, one forma, I think I have nine or ten on my Excalibur Umbra (including Exalted Blade) 🤣

[Aruquae]

1 minute ago, Thorham said:

What do you mean by 'by themselves'?

Without stat sticks+strength+augment+anything else I forgot. I just want them to at least be on par with normal melee (because they can function by themselves without sacrificing anything)

 

2 minutes ago, Thorham said:

You shouldn't have to. One strength mod + Helminth Empower should be plenty.

True, augment also plays a big role… which is fine because it opens up  new playstyle, but at the same time… that is the brunt of his damage. Also, that’s the thing why do I need to much strength just for it to be decent? (Also use pillage for the sweet shield tanking, so can’t do empower). 

 

3 minutes ago, Thorham said:

Does it really need that?

Shockingly, yes. The difference is amazing, red crits are so satisfying. 

 

4 minutes ago, Thorham said:

Ha ha ha, one forma, I think I have nine or ten on my Excalibur Umbra (including Exalted Blade) 🤣

Fr, my Baruuk probably already hit the double digits, let alone his desert wind. 

[Thorham]

12 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

Without stat sticks+strength+augment+anything else I forgot. I just want them to at least be on par with normal melee (because they can function by themselves without sacrificing anything)

Just tried a simple Exalted Blade crit build with no strength, no augment, no arcanes and no archon shards. Level 115 void SP is doable.

16 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

Shockingly, yes. The difference is amazing, red crits are so satisfying. 

But how much damage do you really need? You only really need yellow crits on regular SP missions.

[Aruquae]

14 minutes ago, Thorham said:

Just tried a simple Exalted Blade crit build with no strength, no augment, no arcanes and no archon shards. Level 115 void SP is doable.

Doable? How long does it take? I guess your forma-ing payed off. Also, comparing exalted blade to desert wind isn’t a good idea for two reasons.

1. Different stats (really negligible though)

2. Exalted blade can deal better combo damage compared to desert wind. The waves for desert wind don’t count for combo. 

 

15 minutes ago, Thorham said:

But how much damage do you really need? You only really need yellow crits on regular SP missions.

Enough damage to kill an enemy… shouldn’t strong weapons be actually strong? This isn’t so much about “I want big pp damage” it’s more about why I have to sacrifice pretty much an entire loadout just to make ONE ability strong. 

[Thorham]

20 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

How long does it take?

Units with heavy armor die slowly. Light units die in a few hits.

20 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

I guess your forma-ing payed off.

Yes, I forgot that. I have an extra Excalibur with just one forma, but the blade is shared with my fully decked out Excalibur, so that's four forma on the blade.

20 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

1. Different stats (really negligible though)

Aren't Desert Wind's stats better?

20 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

The waves for desert wind don’t count for combo. 

Same for Exalted Blade. The blade has to hit enemies to gain combo.

20 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

it’s more about why I have to sacrifice pretty much an entire loadout just to make ONE ability strong

That's true. If you want to really use exalted weapons you have to dedicate a whole build to them. However, you should be able to do better than having trouble against a 115 corrupted butcher with a more basic build.

Edited February 15 by Thorham

[Raikh]

As someone who lived and breathed Exalted Blade Excal for a considerable amount of time: No, they are not worth using nowdays compared to a regular Melee if you can build your regular Melee to its full extend purely from a dmg potential angle. The dmg just doesn't scale nearly as high with them lacking partially access to Melee Combo Multipliers, Acolyte Mods, Rivens and now also Arcanes and they potentially also need to make some modding sacrifices for Tennokai where regular Melees just eat 1-2 more Formas they didnt need previously.

Why would I dedicate my entire build to using an Exalted, when I could instead run a Melee Weapon with someone like Kullervo? Its not like its a fair comparison to measure an entire build/loadout to just one sharp stick. Baruuk's Desert Wind is still the best out of the bunch and feels respectable, but it still starts seeing problems earlier than a well built regular Melee with an appropriate Warframe behind it.

Exalted Weapons can be "forced" to do enough, but it feels like playing with a handicap more often than not, which is steadily sapping away the novelty of them and its getting worse rather than better with time as more melee features are added and they keep being exlcuded from them.
I was once excited when I heard a new Exalted Frame is coming because I love these Weapons conceptually. Nowadays I dread the fate of a new Warframe coming with one.

 

Edited February 15 by Raikh

[Aruquae]

1 minute ago, Thorham said:

Aren't Desert Wind's stats better?

Ehhhh, pure impact with high crit. Still impact though, which has seen better days. 

 

1 minute ago, Thorham said:

Same for Exalted Blade. The blade has to hit enemies to gain combo.

Um… I think one of us misread it. Doesn’t exalted blade already hit enemies in order to deal the brunt of it’s damage? I meant Baruuk’s Desert Wind’s waves don’t count for combo. 

 

2 minutes ago, Thorham said:

However, you should be able to do better than having trouble against a 115 corrupted butcher with a more basic build.

Really, without the augment+stat stick+strength, Desert Wind is just underwhelming. I can’t say much on Exalted Blade (as I never use Excalibur), but I think you can agree it would be nice to use an actual melee, and an exalted weapon, instead of choosing one or the other. 

2 minutes ago, Raikh said:

As someone who lived and breathed Exalted Blade Excal for a considerable amount of time: No, they are not worth using nowdays compared to a regular Melee if you can build your regular Melee to its full extend purely from a dmg potential angle. The dmg just doesn't scale nearly as high with them lacking partialy access to Melee Combo Multipliers, Acolyte Mods, Rivens and now also Arcanes and they potentially also need to make some modding sacrifices for Tennokai where regular Melees just eat 1-2 more Formas they didnt need previously.

Why would I dedicate my entire build to using an Exalted, when I could instead run a Melee Weapon with someone like Kullervo? Its not like its a fair comparison to measure an entire build/loadout to just one sharp stick. Baruuk's Desert Wind is still the best out of the bunch and feels respectable, but it still starts seeing problems earlier than a well built regular Melee with an appropriate Warframe behind it.

Exalted Weapons can be "forced" to do enough, but it feels like playing with a handicap more often than not, which is steadily sapping away the novelty of them and its getting worse rather than better with time as more melee features are added and they keep being exlcuded from them.
I was once excited when I heard a new Exalted Frame is coming because I love these Weapons conceptually, nowadays I dread the fate of a new Warframe coming with one.

 

THANK YOU, you put my entire perspective on exalted weapons into words. @Thorham, this is what I was referring to.

[Thorham]

9 minutes ago, Raikh said:

As someone who lived and breathed Exalted Blade Excal for a considerable amount of time

I can't play anything else 😅I have 90% usage on Excalibur + Excalibur Umbra.

10 minutes ago, Raikh said:

No, they are not worth using nowdays compared to a regular Melee if you can build your regular Melee to its full extend purely from a dmg potential angle.

Sure, if you want max damage, look elsewhere. I just enjoy the way it plays, so that's why I stick with it.

10 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

as more melee features are added and they keep being exlcuded from them

That's the real issue. It's like exalted weapons are being gimped on purpose by not adding the features that regular weapons get.

13 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

Doesn’t exalted blade already hit enemies in order to deal the brunt of it’s damage?

Yes, however, Exalted Blade gets no bonus based on combo. It's only useful for heavy attacks, and you can still depend on the waves, though.

15 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

but I think you can agree it would be nice to use an actual melee, and an exalted weapon, instead of choosing one or the other

I like using Exalted Blade exclusively with a regular melee weapon as a backup. However, if you don't, then it should be possible to make some kind of sane build for using both, yes.

 

[CrownOfShadows]

On 2024-02-13 at 7:38 AM, BriefLegendary said:

So I main Baruuk and I tried to mod him many times, but it does not matter since there is really only one real option and that is to use a pseudo-stat-stick with the gladiator mods and build combo on that weapon so you gain the 330% crit chance on his Desert wind, while you also run melee guidance so it has -1 combo duration, since if you lose combo on his Desert wind the gladiator bonus doesn't apply until you lose all combo and have to begin again. Your pseudo-stat-stick has other combo duration mods so you can keep it at 12x combo with Naroman. On the actual Desert wind you put normal mods like on any melee EXCEPT acolyte mods, amalgam mods and combo duration mods. 

So the problem begins with melee weapons:

• They can't equip all of the melee mods mainly blood rush and weeping wounds which is a massive downside to me already, since I think of those mods as the best melee mods 

 

• They can't equip melee arcanes, so another aspect of modding that they do not posses

 

• They have separate combo counters from normal melees which isn't a problem but they can interact via the gladiator set bonus, which seems unintentional

 

The advantage they do have is that they scale with strength, but to me that isn't worth it for the above trade off, I mean Khora's whip also scales off power strength and can benefit from all of the above with a stat-stick and also has a very good augment for whipclaw.

The problems for Baruuk don't really stop there since to build combo on Desert wind itself is a huge pain since his waves don't count, he can't get high combo duration and the fists blow away enemies, the only real option is to ground slam into hoards of enemies which isn't always possible and it's a huge pain + you have a very limited time since his restraint is constantly recovering and when your restraint fully regenerates you lose all combo, which is also the case on all exalted melee weapons, but on Baruuk especially since he doesn't use energy but restraint which is harder to manage. Also his waves don't benefit from condition overload or range mods and I think it's the same for Excaliburs wave attack from his Exalted blade.

I know that you need to balance these melees because the scale of strength and can get up to 750 base damage with 300% strength but why can Khora do it, I always thought the energy drain was the counterbalance to this but that probably isn't sufficient enough, since we have so many energy sources. Baruuk especially suffers from it since he has an alternative resource which cannot be maintained as easily and the only thing making his melee viable (in higher level content) is his augment + the gladiator set jank which I dislike. I mean all of his abilities lead into his 4th and I think it gets outclassed by Khora and any melee in the game if Kullervo uses it.

 

I guess I'm just a salty Baruuk main, because Kullervo can do outclass me with one press of a button, and Khora too. It would be cool if at least the waves of desert wind build combo and Exalted blade's waves probably too. I mean Desert wind gains a damage multiplier if itself has combo build on it (up to 3.5x), because you have to manage restraint and combo at the same time and if you at any time regain your restraint back you lose all combo on Desert wind. I mean the very concept of restraint suggests that Desert wind is powerful and needs to be restrained but that is not really true unless you heavily invest into Baruuk with 5 violet shards, which I don't recommend (as a Baruuk main) you are better of putting them on Khora/ Kullervo and probably even any frame that would use incarnon melees.

 

As it stands now I think it's better if a weapon is pseudo-exalted instead of pure exalted.

I always liked Baruuk and played him for years but only in the last few months have I finally GOT him. A few months ago I actually would've said he sucks. The key to playing him is actually slide attacks. They build combo very fast and also do better damage, and also avoid some of the irritation that Desert Wind's waves create. Also this might sound crazy but I stopped using Reactive Storm. While it does adapt, if you pay attention it very rarely actually uses the element you would really want. I think it's better to mod Desert Storm for the faction, choose exactly the best elements and save a mod slot on Baruuk himself. All that status is a really pretty number, but think about how much work it's really doing for you - like what does 1000% status do for you? It just applies all the possible statuses on your weapon. I came to this realization actually via Chromatic Blade on Excal, after I dropped that from my builds as well. If you want the status vs heavy armor, well there's also tennokai and Wrathful Advance now, not to mention a helminth armor strip (which is how I run my Baruuks).

As for exalted weapons in general, honesty I'm on the fence. People complain about them being weak but... well some are, most aren't.

Baruuk, Khora, Excal and Mesa outclass any regular weapon imo (although I'm an L4 player with MASSIVE investment in them all), except maybe the glaive but I hate using the glaive. Atlas surely technically outclasses any weapon but honestly he's the warframe with an exalted that I've played the least, I barely managed to copy a meme build and then peaced out, he needs a rework. Gara is interesting, I'd say she's about on par with most high level weapons, but it's a bit asymmetrical with her. I'd say Wukong is above average with his exalted, it really does damage, better than any of my usual go-to melee weapons. Titania's secondaries are very strong but I find them slightly below average overall, although I have a little investment left to do on her.

Warframes that are most definitely worse than any upper level weapon would be Hildryn (oh it has big numbers, but omg it sucks), Valkyr (nice numbers but also really sucks to use, even with WA) and maybe Ivara (I've seen videos where they use Concentrated Arrow to great effect, but I've never personally been able to get anywhere with her bow although it's been awhile - this is likely a case of me just not trying hard enough or learning enough). I'm not sure about Garuda's Talons, haven't used them enough (although they've always felt pretty much like regular claws). Titania's exalted melee is just awful to use and the damage without WA or something is pathetic.

It's funny I always want to think Nezha's chakram and Styanax's spear are exalted or psuedo-exalted for some reason but I guess DE finally had enough of that by then.

-------------

Overall, I do dislike how limited the mod selection for exalted weapons feels, but I think mostly they're in a fine spot except for one or two outliers. I wouldn't mind some specially tuned exalted-only mods, or even special mods for particular exalteds that fit on the weapon instead of the warframe. Also I think warframes with exalted weapons are often put into awkward situations where they are shorter on mod space than others (mostly due to augments), which is unfortunate.

I'm not sure about the melee arcanes - do I wish they had them? Yes. But do they actually need them? I'm not certain, so many of them are still out-classing their counterparts that it's hard to say give them more power. As for pseudo-exalted, that need for a stat stick can be frustrating, but honestly I think it has some charm for that niche - and also like 75% of my interest in rivens would evaporate if stat sticks disappeared. Personally I think they're fine, we just need better documentation, but I'd be ok with making all pseudos into proper exalteds too.

I think exalted and even pseudo-exalted are overall good - they make those frames extra interesting and extra deep.

I think one major factor as to why people dislike exalted and pseudo-exalted is that there are so many badly explained technicalities that it takes forever to learn how to actually build (and play) for each individual warframe, so I think a lot of people just jump in and immediately reach the conclusion that they suck, or like me struggle for a long time before it finally clicks together. There are mysteries about how many of them work even to this day. Also, a lot require really high investment to reap the full benefits, so same problem there. My Mesa story is actually similar to my Baruuk's - I remember it took a long time and many experiments before it finally all snapped together and I felt incredibly strong with her, but for a while I thought her peacemakers kinda sucked above a certain level.

Edited February 15 by CrownOfShadows
forgot Valkyr & Garuda

[Aruquae]

5 minutes ago, Thorham said:

I can't play anything else 😅I have 90% usage on Excalibur + Excalibur Umbra

Respect

 

5 minutes ago, Thorham said:

That's the real issue. It's like exalted weapons are being gimped on purpose by not adding the features that regular weapons get.

That is exactly what I was trying to point out, as i’ve said before “What is the point of having a “strong melee” to take up an ability if they’re constantly shafted whenever melee gets content?” 

 

6 minutes ago, Thorham said:

Sure, if you want max damage, look elsewhere. I just enjoy the way it plays, so that's why I stick with it.

Not looking for max damage (damage cap is overrated), I’m just looking for enough damage to suffice that doesn’t involve me building exclusively for one ability. 

 

7 minutes ago, Thorham said:

I like using Exalted Blade exclusively with a regular melee weapon as a backup. However, if you don't, then it should be possible to make some kind of sane build for using both, yes.

I’m just going to mark this as me not typing clear enough, because I agree. That is exactly what I was trying to say. I want to be able to use my normal melee, and my exalted melee. Not sacrificing normal melee to boost what should’ve been a (seemingly) more powerful version of a melee. OR Using a normal melee, but not an exalted just because it’s worthless outside of a very specific loadout. I like being able to switch exalted normal on the fly, you know?

[Raikh]

9 minutes ago, Thorham said:

Sure, if you want max damage, look elsewhere. I just enjoy the way it plays, so that's why I stick with it.

Not judging anyone using them. I'm stating the issues I see because I think they deserve better and should see appropriate changes or updates to their functionality.
And precisely because people still enjoy them is why they should be treated fairly and be included for new melee features. Lets not pretend the game is well balanced in any shape or form that some Exalted accidentally becoming too powerful on accident for a week would be a real issue.

[Thorham]

1 hour ago, Aruquae said:

I’m just going to mark this as me not typing clear enough, because I agree.

You're plenty clear. Perhaps I should've worded things a little different, because I'm not arguing against what you said.

1 hour ago, Raikh said:

I'm stating the issues I see because I think they deserve better and should see appropriate changes or updates to their functionality.

Indeed.

[DraconaxPrime]

Baruuk is just fine.  His Desert Storm is incredibly strong.  My Baruuk crits for 100k+ with it easily, without even using a stat-stick or gladiator mods.  Just press 4, press E, win game.  Reactive Storm is an absolutely necessary augment, as it gives his 4 extremely high status chance, along with ensuring your 4 is always dealing the best dmg type for enemies.  My Baruuk has 322% strength, along with some red shards set to melee crit dmg, allowing him to hit extremely hard.

 

[Nidusisgat]

Exalted blade on excal is overpowered idk for the rest 

[Thorham]

9 hours ago, (NSW)RELLGAMESOOOBAD said:

Exalted blade on excal is overpowered idk for the rest 

How exactly?

[Xzorn]

Weird people seem to feel Baruuk has the stronger Exalted weapon but every time I use it I cringe at the rag doll.

I guess it shows how bad the raw damage of Exalted weapons has gotten. 100k was nothing when they got combo multiplier. I still have pics of Valkyr doing ~2mil ground pounds and slides on lvl 300 armored Corrupted Heavy Gunners. Excal was not much less but unable to make use of the damage. He'd just pop.

I feel Excal is the higher end once you add in Helmith Nourish, x8 Stealth and +3 Tau Emerald. Corrosive + Viral + Heat at 120% x2 status is no joke.
He's not going to survive to see that damage potential without help. None of these frames will besides Valkyr, maybe.

 

17 hours ago, CrownOfShadows said:

Ivara (I've seen videos where they use Concentrated Arrow to great effect, but I've never personally been able to get anywhere with her bow

Concentrated Arrow could use a few tweaks. While you can get the single target high the lack of status on the AoE just kinda cripples the reward. It relies on too many things like also using her Dashwire augment, only working against humanoid targets and the AoE only scaling with Hunter's Munitions against armor.

Garuda's Claws used to be comparable to Venka Prime without a Riven. Now with the Arcanes. There's no point.

[Nidusisgat]

Mod it for strength get on any mission and boom no ragdoll perfect excal ig

[Okaazkul]

I like how people talk about exalted weapon like one homogeneous group, when in my honest opinion, there is currently 3 categories of exalted weapons :

• Ultimate weapon : Exalted than should be your most powerful weapon, based of their cost, in general a constant energy drain. You need to ajust your build to boost there damage, but also to use them more often and more longer. Thing like Excalibur's Exalted blade, Wukong stick, Ivara bow etc. should be in this category. But a majority of them are not enougth powerful to justify their cost if you just go for more Power Strenght. For them you generally have to go search for specific buff and/or mod to give to them their full potential : Ivara's bow with her augment and Hemmorrhage can nuke even in SP, you can have near 100% upkeep of Valkyr claw and be immortal with Equilibrium and Lycath's Hunt...
• Part of transformation : Titania's ultimate transform you in a little fairy using archwing, so you need to have weapon adapted for that. There are not particarly strong but the center of the ability is the insane mobility boost you gain. Same thing for Sevagoth, You're ultimate isn't center aroung his claw, but around his 4 new abilities you can use and mod separately. You need to build the exalted to use those abilities to there full potential, but all the potential are not just in the weapon.
• 4th weapon slots : A special case in my point of view are Hildryn Balefire Charger. For most people they are considered the worst exalted weapon. Yes they can lack in crit and statuts, but they don't see all the picture. See, compare to "Ultimate weapon", Balefire charger don't need as much effort to use as you wish, and so less need to build around, because of the lack of constant energy (or in her case, shield) drain. Instead they use shield as ammo and only consume it when you shoot them. And also it's the only exalted weapon that isn't an ultimate ability, so of course it's less powerful. In this case, it feel more like you trade an ability to have an easy access to a 4th weapon slot.

[BriefLegendary]

1 hour ago, Okaazkul said:

I like how people talk about exalted weapon like one homogeneous group, when in my honest opinion, there is currently 3 categories of exalted weapons :

• Ultimate weapon : Exalted than should be your most powerful weapon, based of their cost, in general a constant energy drain. You need to ajust your build to boost there damage, but also to use them more often and more longer. Thing like Excalibur's Exalted blade, Wukong stick, Ivara bow etc. should be in this category. But a majority of them are not enougth powerful to justify their cost if you just go for more Power Strenght. For them you generally have to go search for specific buff and/or mod to give to them their full potential : Ivara's bow with her augment and Hemmorrhage can nuke even in SP, you can have near 100% upkeep of Valkyr claw and be immortal with Equilibrium and Lycath's Hunt...
• Part of transformation : Titania's ultimate transform you in a little fairy using archwing, so you need to have weapon adapted for that. There are not particarly strong but the center of the ability is the insane mobility boost you gain. Same thing for Sevagoth, You're ultimate isn't center aroung his claw, but around his 4 new abilities you can use and mod separately. You need to build the exalted to use those abilities to there full potential, but all the potential are not just in the weapon.
• 4th weapon slots : A special case in my point of view are Hildryn Balefire Charger. For most people they are considered the worst exalted weapon. Yes they can lack in crit and statuts, but they don't see all the picture. See, compare to "Ultimate weapon", Balefire charger don't need as much effort to use as you wish, and so less need to build around, because of the lack of constant energy (or in her case, shield) drain. Instead they use shield as ammo and only consume it when you shoot them. And also it's the only exalted weapon that isn't an ultimate ability, so of course it's less powerful. In this case, it feel more like you trade an ability to have an easy access to a 4th weapon slot.

We can include all exalted weapons I suppose, but non melee ones usually have something that distinguishes them from normal primary/secondary weapons.

I will list them alphabetically and what I think about them:

• Baruuk is all about his 4th which is not as good as normal melee weapons in my opinion, his other abilities only allow him to use his Desert wind and don't do much else like most other fames that can use abilities to boost the performance of their weapons. All of his other abilities are bad on their own except desolate hands which do provide him with 90% dmg reduction. He is also on the lower middle tier of usage and I think with each new melee release he will just fall further down. 
• Excalibur and exalted blade are iconic to this game so I don't think he will ever be forgotten and exalted blade is satisfying to use and he has other abilities that can do stuff on their own.
• Hildryn has her Baelfire, but I used that very little and it seemed underwhelming, but I am a huge fan of pillage. She also has decent usage stats.
• Ivara has just so much and her Artemis bow just seems like a bonus and the bow has many build potentials. Also decent usage rate.
• Mesa has Regulators probably the best exalted weapon. I mean its Mesa and she is one of the most used frames.
• Sevagoth has his shadow with claws. Another exalted melee and I never used it, since I subsumed Sevagoth the same day I got him. Very low usage rate
• Titiania has 2 exalted weapons, but that doesn't really matter since most people use her for the archwing to zoom around the map me included. High usage rate
• Valkyr has her Talons, which are another exalted melee weapon and also seem underwhelming. She also has low usage rate
• Wukong has his staff, another exalted melee that isn't that good, but he has other abilities that are kinda busted. And Wukong prime is the 2nd most used warframe in the year 2023.

It is true that all exalted weapons can't use arcanes, amalgam and acolyte mods, but that is more important for melee weapons. This is supported by the usage rate since all melee ones are low in the lower half of the usage rates with the exception of Wukong and Excal and the non melee ones are all above average in usage or at least in the upper half. Excal is a special case with him being a starter and getting Excal umbra for free and he is also satisfying to use. Wukong has his twin and is a good low effort warframe and that is why I think they are the exceptions. 

The melee exalted warframe will simply fall behind with every new melee, every new feature that normal melee weapons get and exalted ones don't.

Edited February 16 by BriefLegendary
Typo

[BriefLegendary]

I also dislike that the waves from exalted blade and desert wind don't build combo. It infuriates me.