My Ideas To Improve Excalibro

[Thaumatos]

And the Prime argument doesn't make sense, people are already crying for Excal Prime so it wouldn't change a thing, DE has no reason not to make Excal more useful than just RB spam.

Of course it makes sense.  Currently "Founders" items are horrendous.  Actually they've never been good outside of the game's original gear set.  How many people do you see running around with Lato or Skana Prime?  I have never seen those weapons in use...EVER...and I've been here for a long time.

 

Also, all of the "Give me Founders option!" chatter has died down.  They'd rather not stir the pot.

[RahuHordika]

No, it doesn't make sense. Excalibur Prime and regular Excal are literally the same thing, so I fail to see how tweaking his powers to be more useful beyond Radial Blind spam would 'stirr' anything; no one here is asking for a buff to founders items all we're asking for in this thread is for Excal's other abilities to be buffed/tweaked.

And I'd appreciate if we got back on topic and talked precisely about that.

[DSpite]

I have a simpler solution. We leave Radial Javelin as is, we just change it from firing a Skana - which is not a proper javelin - to this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin

[Lukap99]

I have a simpler solution. We leave Radial Javelin as is, we just change it from firing a Skana - which is not a proper javelin - to this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin

 

Edited August 23, 2014 by Lukap99

[Liverslices]

I love Excalibur, he was my first Warframe, and I even bought Founder's package so I can get Excalibro Prime.

 

Even though he can be fun to play as, he needs some love, after all he is not only a beginner frame but he is also the "mascot" and poster boy.  He's in forums off to the side, he's on the main site where you download the game standing front and center, in the devstream 32 link he's once again standing front and center with loki and ember off to the sides.

 

Hell there's even a large statue of him in the background of every devstream.  Whenever you need them, he's always there to kick @$$, look cool, and stand proudly.  Now it's time to thank him for that with some much needed improvments.

 

Nothing too extreme just some slight tweaks.

 

First of all, he is supposed to be "The Swordsman, yet he's not really tanky enough to get in close at high levels to effectively use melee, unlike other frames such as Rhino, Valkyr, and Ash.  As "The Swordsman" he needs the tankiness to get in the bad guys faces and hit them with his sword without being CCed or instagibbed in higher levels.  I know he has Radial Blind and it's a great skill but I don't want to have to basically rely on it all the time and turn what can be a very fun frame into a one trick pony.

 

First his base stats.

 

Health 100 to 120.  Not a huge buff, just something to help his tankiness

 

Shields   These can stay the same.   A slight increase wouldn't be out of the question but it's probably not necessary

 

Speed - Slight speed increase.  Maybe 1.1 or 1.2.  Let him run fast so he can run up and hit the bad guys with his sword.

 

Stamina - Stamina drains melee FAST, so increase to 130 so after he runs up to the bad guys, he can hit them more times with his sword and block more shots coming at him

 

Power - This is good as is for now.

 

Armor - Definitely needs an improvement.  Change from 65 to 150 or so.  Give him some much needed durability to get in the thick and cut people into little pieces.

 

Now for his skills

 

Slash Dash - It needs some tweaks.  First other than an armor ignore, it is outclassed by Rhino's Charge in every way shape and form.  It has a windup time, it's slower, does less damage, and has no CC for the enemies that aren't killed.  I really enjoyed using this skill back when I was a newbie and remember getting all giddy when I was able to get in a position where enemies were lined up perfectly to hit 3 or more at a time.  It's time to bring that back.

 

Mainly, remove or at least decrease the cast delay.  Make him move faster, after all he is trying to cut people up as quick as possible,  and let it scale with your melee weapon.  

 

This will give it some good buffs without directly increasing the damage and will make it fun without making it mega OP.

 

Radial Blind-  It works great as is, though perhaps let it leave enemies open for finishers like Valkyr's Warcry and Ash's teleport.  

 

 

 

Super Jump - Ok, so you can jump high.  YYYAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!! /end sarcasm

 

I see how this skill has some useful utility in some limited instances but it is honestly really lame compared to most other skills and in many cases can be rendered obsolete with good parkouring, coptering, etc.

 

What this needs is to be made similar to Zephyrs ground slam skill, though on a smaller scale.  First you activate it and jump like always, that remains unchanged.  But then you can activate it again and bring you weapon slamming down hard.  This will be much stronger than a regular air attack slam, and has a few extra bonuses.  First of all if you directly hit a nonboss enemy, they get split in half vertically.  If you played LoL then it's a lot like a Darius ult.  

 

Secondly, regardless of whether an enemy is hit and split a shockwave is split out in a close proximity and all enemies nearby, take damage and are stunned.  It may also be nice to make them open to those fancy finishers though having both this and RB have that effect might be too much.

 

 

 

Now for his ultimate Radial Javelin

 

Simple changes.  First of all, give the javelins their own unique models, instead of skanas mashed together.   Increase the number of javelins launched and increase the range.  This will give it better use and once again you won't need to just straight up buff the damage.  

 

Also make the dead enemies pinned to walls last longer so I can pull out an arm chair, have a drink, read the paper and declare the area my new big game hunter den.

 

 

These are some simple changes that can give him much needed improvements and make him more fun to play as, but will still not make him "ZOMG OP EAZYMODE".

 

What do you guys think?  If you like and agree with these ideas then awesome, it would be great to see your support.

 

If there's something you disagree with then that's fine also.  But then please post why you disagree, and what you think should be done.  Don't just post something like "Oh he's fine as is" or "This all sucks, you're stupid"  Give actual reasons.

 

Now let's get some love for Excalibro!

 

"Needs to be more tanky" -  He is a balance of mobility and damage, not tanky sounding at all. The whole point to a                                                       swordsman is to not get stabbed by the person you are fighting.

 

"Increase stats" - Personally I think he  is fine where he is. DE has balanced warframes pretty well in the stats department.                             But I see your point.

 

"Slash Dash: Only good because of Armor Ignore" - Hmmmm.... Duh?

 

"Superjump rendered usless by parkour" - No. I used the crap out of superjump just recently in Corpus tilesets against the                                                                 NG Hyenas. Superjump isnt suppose to be the same as zorencoptering, it goes                                                                 vertical while ALL other parkour goes laterally.

 

"Make bodies last longer when pinned" - Why? This isnt a problem, and it doesnt need fixing.

 

 

It sounds like you are just trying to make a playstyle work for Excalibur that wont work at high levels. You cant just run up to a lvl 50 heavy gunner and expect Radial Javelin to kill it. Excalibur is high mobility and high early game damage. In lategame he becomes high mobility and high CC.

 

 

I don't think Excalibur needs any stats changed, he's the first Warframe and the base for all others, change his stats, and everything get's weird. An armor increase would be nice, heck Loki (Prime) has more armor, BUT with his lower shields and health, Loki (Prime) needs it. I don't think Excalibur needs to be more tanky, I view him as an offensive utility 'Frame. I still get giddy when I'm in a narrow hallway or a large room with a large group of enemies in a line, Slash Dash is a great way to clear. Radial Blind is fine as is, I don't think it should cause enemies to fall to the ground, maybe make melee hits be critical? That'd make it more useful and not too OP. Super Jump is highly useful, combine it with Slash Dash, cover a ton of ground quickly and hit flying targets midair. Combine Super Jump with Radial Javelin, and you increase the chance of Radial Javelin hitting, making it ignore cover and whatnot. I only wish that Super Jump was like Zephyr's Dive Bomb or had the effect of Heavy Impact. What I want most of all for Super Jump, is to decrease the time I have to wait to hit my melee key to do a ground slam and activate Radial Javelin, I lose a bit of air due to this delay. Radial Javelin is fine, but maybe have it proc bleed? I don't know, I'm fine with Excalibur (Prime) as is. 

Agree, but would it hurt to hit the enter key once or twice?

Edited August 24, 2014 by Liverslices

[RahuHordika]

It sounds like you are just trying to make a playstyle work for Excalibur that wont work at high levels. You cant just run up to a lvl 50 heavy gunner and expect Radial Javelin to kill it. Excalibur is high mobility and high early game damage. In lategame he becomes high mobility and high CC.

If by high CC you mean the dull spamming of a single ability, because I can think of many other frames, even the other starters, whose abilities overall do not lose effectiveness use as levels progress. In Excal's case Blind is the only thing that scales and the only thing that ends up useful in the long run (arugably jump too, but that's map dependant), Slash Dash is meant to be mobility AND damage, and it certainly lacks the latter on higher levels much earlier on than other frame's powers and there is literally no excuse why Radial Javelin should be a waste of a slot in the late game.

Other frame's abilities copy upon the model of those two Excal's abilities and give them in fact better utility a higher levels, and they even give unique twists of their own so there is no reason why those two should remain poor on their own, furthermore many of other frame's abilities do no turn into mere complements of one spammable ability in the set. SD and RJ lack uniqueness and therefore bring really anything to the table besides, as you said, a complement (well, to the former) to Blind spam. Also as you said, Excal is a balance of mobility and damage, and his abilities meant to damage end up doing a poor job at it rather quickly.

[CombatPastor]

So...now that Oberon has a built-in Radial Blind with his 4, is Excalibur still being ignored?