I Know Hes A Beginner Frame But Come On

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Looking through the fórums i notices something, when you get down to it Excalibro is pretty much worthless. In this thread i just want to talk about how painful is for me to see Excal, the face of warframe and my started frame, beign tosed aside, sadly with good reason.

 

Way back when i started about a year ago, or more, The reason i choose Excalibur as my starter was because he was suposed to be a starter frame based around Swordplay and i liked that, also his design is freaking awesome. Now as i blasted trough grineer scum and greedy milk Corpus i noticed that the higher i got the weaker Exaclibur felt, and that feeling intensified when i crafted by first Warframe ever: Ember. Yeah she wasnt the thoughest in terms of raw defence but her damage was brutal, her design was hilariously awesome and being a pyromaniac myself well, you know we got along pretty well.

 

Now i have far more knowledge, i have crafted Ember (30), Valkyr (30), Oberón (27), Ash (regret it) and Saryn (17) and have taken all of them through all the solar system and endless events. Looking back at the frame that started all, Excalibur, his flaws are far more evident than ever: Hes painfully average, there is nothing where he can shine. Sure people consider that his flash is OP but in reality spamming a single skill doesnt hide his weaknesses. Lets compare him to other frames.

- Defences? Rhino is far more balanced than him whit great armor, shields and avove average health.

- Mobility? Volt, Nova, Loki, Valkyr all much reliable mobility than poor Excal.

- CC? Loki, #@*&$@ is all about CC. Mag too. and both are starter frames.

- Style? I will admit of all male frames Excalibur is probably the coolest, though not as much swag as Gentleman Oberón.

- Melee combat? going by stats alone Valkyr, Rhino and even Ash are better prepared for melee combat. With skills? just slap Loki on the lineup, and im not counting his invisibility.

 

As you can see Excalibur lacks in all áreas, even in melee combat where he is suposed to be the based around.

 

You know what was the final nail in Excal's Cryopod? Zephir. The Little girl can do everything Excalibur do and better. Melee, CC, Mobility everything Excalibur was suposed to be good at Zephyr can do and better, and all you have to do is join a clan where she was already researched and run some missions for Oxium, wich is not that hard anyways. As for Excalibur you need to fight Amulas on Plunto, wich is not a friendly place for Squishy frames or unskilled players.

 

And dont bring me the excuse that "Hes a frame for beginners" because last tie i checked, i all good games whit choises the starter clases/characters may look S#&$ty at the start but hide a powerful forcé within. Need Examples?

 

- If you can name me any starter pokemon that is S#&$ compared to the ones you can caught later i will eat my shorts.

- Mario is the Super Smash world is considered a starter carácter, and sure he is pretty balanced whit average speed, strenght, mobility and some good powers, but thrust meonce Mastered Mario goes from Noob's choise to profossional nightmare.

- In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones there is this Boy you meet in a village almost at the start of the game (sadly forgot his name, havent used my gameboy in eons) and hes one of this "Trainee" classes that pretty much sucks in any aspect of the Word but once you manage to lv him up (wich was pretty hard to keep him alive early :/) He has Access to some of the strongest clases in the game like Pirate, Hero or @(*()$ Beserker.

 

Possible solution:

I feel like Excalibur should be like that Guy (his name! think brain think!), a "Trainee" class that should be easy to use and may not be as strong early but once properly crafted he turns in every pro player's wet dream.

 

Stat wise i think he is all right but could use some tweaking in terms of Shields/Health or maybe a stamina buff? so he can get more out of the melee system.

 

Now his skills are all over the place, and im not talking about Slash Dashes dropping everywhere, i mean his skills are nothing expectacular and dont blend well together, as they should been a Melee oriented frame. 

 

- Slash Dash: Is pretty good actually. Though it needs to increase or at least keep the combo meter and its damage should scale whit your melee weapon and increased by said meter, this scaling beeing increased by power strenght (Base ability damage+Weapon damage%).

Heres the twist: Slash dash will have a 100% stat chance and the dominant element of your melee will be prob, so you can choose a Nikana to slash away through waves of infested, Pummel through Corpus shields whit an Impact Hammer (nocking them aside as well) or hell why not grabbing a pair of Inchors and infect everyone whit your Poisonous dash. The strategic posibilities are as endless as the amount of Melee weapons you have.

 

- Radial Blind: Not a bad skill and probably the only reason people still use Excalibur. Its ok though you should change the animation depending on the weapon type hes using as well.

 

Super Jump Impecable Condition: Excalibur increases his stamina regeneration and Jump height for a few seconds. Duration, Stamina and Jump gain increased by mods. With this Excalibur can be a much more lethal forcé in melee combat, the High Stamina regeneration will allow him to dispatch foes and get back stamina fast enough to block incoming bullets, the increased Jump heigh whit his reasonable speed will give him a much more manageable mobility that blends flawlessly with melee combat.

 

- Radial Javelin Impale: Summon a set number of blades above him that will impale nearby enemies to the ground. Affected enemies take heavy damage, initially stunned for half a second and then rooted in place unable to move and whit decreased accuracy. Damage affected by current melee weapon and Strenght mods, Root duration affected by Duration mods, amount of blades affected by Strenght and AoE affected by range mods.

 

Here is the thing Radial Javelin wasnt bad perse, it had good damage and it was pretty cool to see enemies being impaled to walls but the cast animation is SLOOOOOOOW as Hek and the damage is quite unreliable as you get in higher missions. With Impale even if the animation is still a bit slow enemies who dont die by the blade will be initially stunned and will have a severe accuracy reduction as they are impaled on the ground. Its gruesome, its efffective and it gives Excalibro an Ultimate that is both Visually impressive and reliable in High (CC) and low (Damage) lv missions.

 

Whit these changes i feel the three starter frames will be very well balanced and will give New players a much more solid choice at the beguining: Mag for those who want to focus on Ranged combat, Loki for players who want a more utility oriented (and harder) frame and Excalibur for those looking for a more Melee oriented gameplay. Covering all three aspects of the game.

 

Also since Mag and Loki can be used in high lv stages this changes will help Excalibur to also be able to scale all the way up with his friends.

 

Im just a Excalibro fan who wants its good old Starter a way to be played without Flash spam and to properly represent its legacy as the original Warframe. Now if you excuse me Valkyr and i have to suit up, getting Excalibro back wont be easy.

Edited May 9, 2014 by The_Sharp_Demonologist

[OblivionNecroninja]

Yeah, the power creep has not been kind to Excal.

[Maou]

*cough Radial Blind Build cough*

 

I do agree that he needs buffing abit, though I would probably if not surely pick Excalibur over Mag on usefulness on the long run. 

[Axeroix]

*cough Radial Blind Build cough*

[Aka_Miso]

excal prime+natural talent max flow and intensify on him I doing 50% of the damage on t3 missions and thats with nova, rhino and valkyr in the group

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Fammia Not that you have to. This Excalibur would be more of a, Melee Carry if you will. He can defend himself and has some utility but Works better whit teammate support.

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Sasoka Even then Radial Javelin is still ooutperformed by virtually any other Ult around. Namely Rhino Stomp, Tornado or MPrime.

 

Impale at least gives him utility on top of the damage while keeping him as a melee frame.

Edited April 29, 2014 by The_Sharp_Demonologist

[insaninater]

>RE: Radial blind.

 

Eh... Radial blind is cool and all, but the rest of his abilities are just pathetic in terms of scaling. Even then compare radial blind to rhino's iron skin (sorry I don't have other examples, ex and rhino are the only 2 WFs I have), one temporarily stuns enemies close to you, the other makes you literally invincible to everything for about the same time.

 

Ex could definitely use a bit of love, but at the same time, right now people want new warframes when they have him, and we should keep that, but I could see making him scale a bit better working out for the best.

Edited April 29, 2014 by insaninater

[Aka_Miso]

Sasoka Even then Radial Javelin is still ooutperformed by virtually any other Ult around. Namely Rhino Stomp, Tornado or MPrime.

 

Impale at least gives him utility on top of the damage while keeping him as a melee frame.

t2 max intensify on rhino stomp kills 3 units and stuns 10+

t3 max intensify on javelin all dead

[RahuHordika]

A pity you're most certainly going to get a lot of 'get gud' pointless comments on this one.

However I agree here, Mag might need some tweaks to her but Excal is the only guy who is reeally looking lackluster as of now out of all the starters. Naturally he is good on the early to mid game but past that all of his powers become nothing but utility and the ult is just pointless.

I suggested the Slash Dash tweak a while ago, would be nice if it modified based on your current held weapon.

The ult needs a lot of tweaks as of now, but I wish I could contribute more to that.

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

RahuStalker Even then the only utility he has its his Blind, adn the Dash only helps him but i might as well just slide.

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

insaninater As i said his skills arent really reliable, like at all.

[Evariskitsune]

I have to agree.. we've been over this several times.

 

Excalibur needs:

-More stamina

-slash dash needs a buff with Melee 2.0

-Super jump is pathetic, replace it with (anything)

-Radial Javelin needs a pinning / piercing ability, or some other way to give it CC capability. 

 

 

Also that Fire Emblem character you're thinking of is Ross. 

[Nexus730]

Not good.....NOT GOOD?! Dude, you don't even know how much fun and damage you can do with excal.

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Evariskitsune ROSS OF COURSE! how did i forgot about him.. Little #@*&$@ was my fav carácter.

I think Impale gives him fair utility for a melee frame and it still fits the theme.

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Nexus730 Oh yeah max intensify and Natural talent to cast Radial Javelin ONCE before surviving heavies just rip me to shreds before i can think about pressing 4 again.

Edited April 29, 2014 by The_Sharp_Demonologist

[Evariskitsune]

Evariskitsune ROSS OF COURSE! how did i forgot about him.. Little #@*&$@ was my fav carácter.

I think Impale gives him fair utility for a melee frame and it still fits the theme.

See I preferred Amelia and Ewan personally, but that's me.  (and I always paired those two for relationships.)

 

But yeah, Impale does a good job. 

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Evariskitsune I think i tried to pair Amelia whit Ross instead heh, cant remember if that actually worked.

[Aka_Miso]

Nexus730 Oh yeah max intensify and Natural talent to cast Radial Javelin ONCE before surviving heavies just rip me to shreds before i can think about pressing 4 again.

they dont do that to me

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Sasoka Well i dont know what are you playing because even whit Max Natural talent Radial Javelin is still too slow for just deal damage. It needs something else like my Impale idea.

[Hyunsai]

Excalibur in its current form should not be a starter frame, as it's only when you got some good knowledge of the game mechanics and some corrupted mods that you can shine with him.

[Aka_Miso]

Sasoka Well i dont know what are you playing because even whit Max Natural talent Radial Javelin is still too slow for just deal damage. It needs something else like my Impale idea.

nor do I know what your playing because excal is not weak even without corrupted mods

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Hyunsai Spamming a single skill (Radial Flash) doesnt mean hes good.

 

If i want CC i would pick Loki, or Mag or Rhino or Frost or anything else really.

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

Sasoka Well as such an expert as you say you are dont you think the changes i suggested would improve him? like removing the useless Superjump for something more adecuate or adding some CC to his ult?

[Aka_Miso]

Sasoka Well as such an expert as you say you are dont you think the changes i suggested would improve him? like removing the useless Superjump for something more adecuate or adding some CC to his ult?

super jump I've found useful if you use it with javelin it showers the enemies below and bypasses their cover while its not something extremely helpful it can still have some use if they were to remove it and replace it with your idea it wouldnt be fixing it because stamina isnt a huge problem in the game

Edited April 29, 2014 by Sasoka