Excalibur 2.0 - We Are Almost There!

[Angus_JTV]

Any little buff to Excalalibur will be appreciated! Excalibur was my first Warframe, a brothers in arms for the first 6 levels. I use him a lot right now for Void Capture and Extermination, he is my favourite for that.
I keep my Excal with a lot of care and I hope you guys at DE will do the same giving some love (buff) to him, and every little improvement on Excal abilities and stats will be a kind of this. ;)

[r0ckwolf]

Any little buff to Excalalibur will be appreciated! Excalibur was my first Warframe, a brothers in arms for the first 6 levels. I use him a lot right now for Void Capture and Extermination, he is my favourite for that.

I keep my Excal with a lot of care and I hope you guys at DE will do the same giving some love (buff) to him, and every little improvement on Excal abilities and stats will be a kind of this. ;)

Since i did put a lot of thought into these changes, i would obviously most happy to see something in that direction being implemented. But at this point and considering how undewhelming Excalibur feels in comparison to most Frames, even the tinyiest buff would be welcome.^^

[r0ckwolf]

Watched Livestream, stil not even a mentioning of Excalibur being in need of a buff..............

[Vargras]

Watched Livestream, stil not even a mentioning of Excalibur being in need of a buff..............

Probably because Excalibur is pretty well balanced. As a result, he isn't really in dire need of a buff or nerf of any kind, and honestly, that's fine. All of his skills are pretty solid.

[tris1]

radial javelin= with the problems below I think the skill needs adjusting by my opinion I would give it a 100 per cent bleed proc, can go through objects, any targets hit that are not dead are pinned to walls/floor for a while

 

long casting animation

not immune to damage while using

only 1000 damage per target

no cc effect at all

maximum amount of targets

blocked by objects

 

radial blind: no problem at all

 

super jump: rather a new alternative ability was added everything this can do I can do the same without it while saving myself a mod slot/energy

[r0ckwolf]

Probably because Excalibur is pretty well balanced. As a result, he isn't really in dire need of a buff or nerf of any kind, and honestly, that's fine. All of his skills are pretty solid.

I strongly disagree! They are maybe balanced in their purpose of what they are intended to do, but their ingame usability is incredibly underwhelming!

 

-Slash Dash looses any kind of damage output around lvl ~15 enemys! Why, even though it clearly makes use of your melee weapon, isn´t it effected by the recent melee changes in any way?? Slash Proc, Combo Hit counter, % of your melee weapon as additional damage - all obvious changes that could/should be done!

-Super Jump lets you jump really high.... great... so there are maybe a handfull of rooms and areas where i could actually use this and it would still be insanely situational. The overwhelming majority of this games levelsets on the other hand, makes use of narrow corridors, in which the sealing is literrally only half a meter above your head! So all i´m doing ~80 % of the time is bump my head when i press 3... isn´t Excalibur supposed to be THE badass, ninja, first of all Tenno Swordfighter???

-Radial Javelin, technically a cool skill! A devestating aoe damage attack, i could live with that. Weren´t it for almost every frame having a skill that already does the same thing, only 2x as good. Avalanche, Miasma, MOLECULAR PRIME, Overload, Absorb... and the list goes on. All of these Abilitys have literraly the same or more damage potentiall like RJ, only with much added Utility, like stuns, slows, or FREAKING INVULNERABILITY!!!!

 

I do not want to sound to whiny or disrespectfull, i apreciate DE a great deal and i´m sure they are working hard all the time. The recent Warframe tweaks were very good and very welcome, all i´m saying is that Excalibur should get looked at too. It is painfully obvious, that over the course of the last year his effectivness has faded a great deal in comparison to everything that is out there ability wise. 

[(PSN)luminousvoid26]

I agree, Excalibur is mostly a frame used by those who haven't acquired any other frames yet. He should be a powerful presence in the game to be feared by enemies.

[Vaskadar]

Title change for the second time?

[Vargras]

I agree, Excalibur is mostly a frame used by those who haven't acquired any other frames yet. He should be a powerful presence in the game to be feared by enemies.

He already is if you know how to use him.

 

[Yaerion]

Watched Livestream, stil not even a mentioning of Excalibur being in need of a buff..............

Yes. He should have been the first to be looked at, to set landmarks on the balance process. So, as expected, any rework is not done with him as a basis/landmark, so it is unbalanced.

If Excalibur was the first of all, he should have the basis for everything, and be able to do almost everything. I don't really think he needs a buff, but rather a completion of its areas of competence.

He has got damage, mobility, sort of stealth (with blind). He lacks support, buff, self protection, CC (even if like Ember he can stun for few seconds, that's not what i call true CC: it's a lucky misappropriation).

I do not even ask him to be brilliant in everything. It's fair to let him less efficient than the specialists. But he needs to be the versatility personified.

 

The players who learn the game with him should be able to learn/finger the majority of its possibilities.

 

 

He already is if you know how to use him.

All this thanks to Blind. For the uninitiated, i translate the mysterious and luscious 'if you know how to use him' =spam Radial Blind.

Yey!.

Nothing against you, Vargras. As always, XK suffers from the damage-centered old design for 2 of its abilities, and has a situational occurence for his 3d (which mechanics has nothing in common with any of the 3d abilities (weird for a referent, isn't it?)). So like many of its progeny, he relies only on 1 ability.

 

That's what i wish to see changing.

[Vargras]

All this thanks to Blind. For the uninitiated, i translate the mysterious and luscious 'if you know how to use him' =spam Radial Blind.

Yey!.

Hardly. Slash Dash offers horizontal mobility, and Super Jump offers vertical. It's additional utility.

 

Radial Javelin, though...

[Yaerion]

Hardly. Slash Dash offers horizontal mobility, and Super Jump offers vertical. It's additional utility.

Radial Javelin, though...

Show me a video where you survive and help your team after medium level with SD and SJ. I need to lol. (+2 slots in the build).

That said, yeah, the mobility of Excalibur is there, it is undeniable.

He is not helpless. He has assets. That's what confuse people when we say "XK need changes!". His potential/initial promise is badly distributed and amputated.

That's my opinion. Some people don't think so.

The fact is that everyone will benefit from 4 powers with different roles, featuring/introducing all the aspects of the gameplay when can experience in battle.

XK is presented as an introduction to Warframe. A basis. A referent. A first thing.

In application, currently, it's not the case.

Edit: except from being an occurence of the problems of many warframes: damage-non-scaling-centered abilities, a unique brilliant ability with a true potential, 2 abilities redundant in doing damage, 2 abilites redundant in giving mobility.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Yaer

[tris1]

Yes. He should have been the first to be looked at, to set landmarks on the balance process. So, as expected, any rework is not done with him as a basis/landmark, so it is unbalanced.

If Excalibur was the first of all, he should have the basis for everything, and be able to do almost everything. I don't really think he needs a buff, but rather a completion of its areas of competence.

He has got damage, mobility, sort of stealth (with blind). He lacks support, buff, self protection, CC (even if like Ember he can stun for few seconds, that's not what i call true CC: it's a lucky misappropriation).

I do not even ask him to be brilliant in everything. It's fair to let him less efficient than the specialists. But he needs to be the versatility personified.

 

I agree since he was meant to be the first he should have been the basis for balance meaning he has skills from every category. of course he should not have the best of each category as everyone would choose him meaning he should have skills that are balanced so he has half the damage of war frame that does good damage.

[r0ckwolf]

i too agree! as kind of the advertising Warframe that´s on every picture, it´s kind of ironic that he is one of the weakest frames of all.

[r0ckwolf]

updated mainpost 6/14/14

[(PSN)MoriartyHaaaiii]

hmm... it would definetly give Excalibur more Teampresence, but the combination of RB and a team Super Charge might be a bit too much!!!

 

Speed, Warcry, Supercharge,

 

Streaming gameplay of a group using this combo on Twitch would just be ironic.

[r0ckwolf]

Speed, Warcry, Supercharge,

 

Streaming gameplay of a group using this combo on Twitch would just be ironic.

true!^^ that´s why i did not intended it to be a teambuff, but more a selfish melee focused ability for Excal to shine in melee encounters!

[ThreeDogKnight]

I like it.

[Kylecrafts]

Some solid ideas, there.

[SockBadger]

All of this \o/ But I would say that his 2nd ability the smoke bomb one seems a bit out of place as well.

 

As for the 'If it isn't broken-' argument. I would say that if a frame is consecutively played less than others, performs worse than others, then it is by definition broken. A warframe is a tool, each one achieves it's goals by different means, but it still achieves it's goals.

 

<edit for sudden idea's after writing>

 

Ever consider the more passive abilities of a warframe? Such as Zephyrs slow fall? How about something of the same idea in good old Excalibur? For instance a stamina reduction passive on melee weapons or melee weapons limited to the category of longswords, dual swords, nikanas and sword weapons?

Edited June 14, 2014 by SockBadger

[r0ckwolf]

All of this \o/ But I would say that his 2nd ability the smoke bomb one seems a bit out of place as well.

 

As for the 'If it isn't broken-' argument. I would say that if a frame is consecutively played less than others, performs worse than others, then it is by definition broken. A warframe is a tool, each one achieves it's goals by different means, but it still achieves it's goals.

 

<edit for sudden idea's after writing>

 

Ever consider the more passive abilities of a warframe? Such as Zephyrs slow fall? How about something of the same idea in good old Excalibur? For instance a stamina reduction passive on melee weapons or melee weapons limited to the category of longswords, dual swords, nikanas and sword weapons?

i agree that in that sense Excalibur is "broken"=much less desirable that almost any other frame atm.

However Radial Blind is very usefull and would have great synergy with my suggested changes. The current problem is, that the RB focused builds on Excalibur are EXTREMELY boring to use!!! It´s not a skill that looks paritcularly cool or anything or encourages creative useage, it´s just a powerfull aoe utility skill that disables and amplifies damage. For that reason i left it untouched and focused on his other skills, so that the combination of all of his 4 skills might lead to something fun and exciting.^^

[Flyghter]

I agree too Excalibur its broken on high level hes good just to blind  but what i see its that he is a close combat frame but he dont have health, shield ,armor  or dmg compared whit Valkyr (armor), or Volt(shield) or even Zephyr max modet he can rech 1290 shield ,health  soo why excalibur its blocked by his own ablity, on high level  RJ its pure suicide on casting.

I rly hope for a change on his KIT to dont be forcet just blind on high levels.....

[r0ckwolf]

emerge from the depth, for a renewed disscussion with new insights and opinions. some sort of excalibur rebalancing is absoluteley necessary even if it´s something else then i suggested. Community Hot-Topics, here we come!^^

[__Kanade__]

Give Slash Dash 100% Slash proc, Radial Javelins should have 100% Impact proc if they don't kill and keep enemies impaled to walls for a few seconds, and increase the duration of Radial Blind.

 

I say no to replacing Super Jump, both it and Radial Blind are not affected by enemy armor scaling, making them both perfect for whatever 'endgame' is, not to mention it's only 10 energy to use.

 

Not like my opinion on Super Jump would matter anyway, the idea of making all powers universal was made awhile ago in one of the dev streams. Your suggestion for his new 3 would make it a go-to ability, it's alittle on the op side and Excalibur doesn't have a very large energy pool, having him stay in a constant channeling state would be killing your energy on top of the high energy cost to use Super Charge.

Edited August 10, 2014 by __Kanade__

[Vaskadar]

Super jump should amplify the range of certain powers, it should also ensure that Radial Javelin hits targets below Excal.

 

Slash Dash changes in the OP are a must. The Radial Javelin changes are good as well, but I'd prefer them to function like arrows do when penetrating enemies. Perhaps have it scale with melee combo mults.