Excalibur Was My First Love....

[(PSN)Cerata_]

As my starter frame, Excalibur was one of three frames that I didn't just grind to level 30. I took my time with him, discovered the star-chart, and really grew to love the everyman frame. I picked up Rhino and Nyx shortly after him, and quickly realized something; Excalibur feels like a starter frame.

 

He's a jack-of-all-trades, and master of LITERALLY NOTHING. I've played since update 15 hit on consoles, and pretty quickly worked my way up to MR10 (#nolife), mostly by picking up and building every frame I could. At this point, I've played most of the frames in game. No matter how effective a particular frame is, they all have a niche somewhere, a reason you'd pick them over another frame for a specific use. Some frames have more uses than other such as Loki, Nova, Trinity, etc, but even Rhino, who is often called the "noobframe" has stuff to bring to the table.

 

I'm not calling for CC, damage or scaling powers specifically. I'm calling for something that Excal does exceptionally well when compared to other frames. Draco farming does not count. There's nothing special about him. Valkyr, Ash, Mirage, Trinity, Volt, Loki....honestly, most frames are better at Melee than he is. "But wait Spider!" I hear you scream, "Radial Blind is great for CC!" It's...it's really not. Even ignoring those line of sight issues, Mirage does it much better, AND with added benefits. Plus, f it's CC and team damage reduction you want, why are you using an Excalibur? 

 

"But wait" you continue, "Radial Javelin can be great when--" Didn't I already tell you that Draco doesn't count? He's not even the only frame that can nuke like that. And the other two skills are far too situational to really build for, not to mention that there are other frames, with better kits, that have better (okay, maybe not in the case of Rhino charge) versions of those two abilities. 

 

As it stands, he's that boyfriend you had in highschool that you thought was great at the time, but once you start dating other people in college, realized was completely unremarkable. 

 

So that's enough complaining. What do we do about it? Turn him into Mesa. 

 

Wait, what are you--

 

 

 

 

Wait, no, stop that, I'm serious. 

 

Mesa is (in my opinion) the perfect damage frame. Ignoring Peacemaker, as I get the least use of that skill, her three other abilities are all viable at letting her do what she does: Shoot things until they're dead. In my mind she's Excal's contemporary, He's the blade, She's the gun.  

 

Shooting gallery actually adds a good it of group support, while Shatter Shield always makes sure Mesa is taken care of. Ballistic battery isn't perfect, but its far from useless. The point is, she can handle herself. But shes supposed to be a ranged frame, a Melee frame would require different skills. Behold, my ideas:

 

 

 

Skill 1: Purifying Blade

 

Excalibur charges his melee weapon with Ethereal energy. At max rank, adds a 200% damage multiplier. The duration of the skill is increased with each melee kill. Duration is given a bonus when in melee only mode.

 

Skill 2: Blinding Fury

 

Excalibur raises his melee weapon, unleashing a burst of blinding light that temporarily blinds and staggers enemies. Each enemy blinded permanently has a harder time hitting Excalibur. Hitscan weapons loose accuracy, projectile weapons gain the chance to bounce off of Excalibur's armor. Affected by power strength. 

 

Skill 3: Graceful Death

 

Excalibur's intense focus and conditioning allows him to move in superhuman ways. Excalibur gains a movement speed and jump height increase. While Graceful Death is active, sprinting and acrobatics require no stamina to use.

 

Skill 4: Warrior's Focus-Toggle

 

Excalibur's sharp senses allow him to outmaneuver and outsmart his enemies. Excalibur creates a slowing aura (think artic eximus) making nearby enemies move at a comical pace. 

 

 

 

These are just spitballs, and I left numbers out on purpose. I also feel he should have a couple passives, and perhaps a health buff, but that's for another time. This is a discussion, so critical yet respectful thoughts are appreciated. My solution isn't the only solution, it may not be the best solution, but I wanted to throw my hat in the ring, cause I love Cal, and want him to feel special like he did back in highschool. 

 

Wait what. 

[Hybridon]

I like everything except his 4th on your topic.

 

But I liked how you built his powers around melee, the niche that he should have as his.

[(PSN)Cerata_]

I like everything except his 4th on your topic.

 

But I liked how you built his powers around melee, the niche that he should have as his.

Yeah, I'll be perfectly honest, I wanted to get rid of Radial Javelin, but couldn't think of something I really wanted for him that wasn't just a rehash of something else...so I'd love any ideas of that.  

[TisEric]

Better skill set:

 

1 - Merciful Cut - Excalibro sharpens his sword furiously and explodes with energy , gains x3 melee multiplier +25% stress relief.

 

 

2 - Blinding Fury - Excalibro raises his sword and blinds himself off that sweet tang , you deal double damage but can't see farther than 10 meters. 

 

 

3 - Furious Defense - Excalibro stands his ground and swings his sword wildly with large sweeping arc in front , reflect 100% of bullet damage.

 

 

4 - Honor of the Fallen - Exalibro honors the souls that he took by committing glorious seppuku. lose one revive to gain 25% bonus rep.

Edited March 3, 2015 by TisEric

[JakeRobber]

I would be a big fan of Super Jump being replaced by your idea for a 3 ability.  You have my +1 just for that.  Sounds like a really fun ability to use.

 

Edit:  Purifying blade sounds great too.

Edited March 3, 2015 by JakeRobber

[Magneu]

I'd love a tweak that changes Radial Javelin into an Archwing melee style mode, where you gain increased range and auto lock/snap to targets; essentially, Excalibur summons an ethereal Skana and uses that as his weapon with unique, Excalibur only animations/combos, with possibly some sort of damage mitigation for survival (or encourage use of your idea of casting Blinding Fury to debuff, Graceful Death to self buff, and Purifying Blade to ensure you can go to down like a boss. More synergy between a frame's skills is always good). Seems like a chance for the animation team to go Tempo Royale style and blow us away with some amazing move-sets.

 

As is, Radial Javelin is iconic (debatable, compared to old move), high damaged attack that can only scale well with builds AND teams dedicated to boosting Excalibur. Quite boring, IMO. Hek, I'd take an augment that turns Radial Javelin into a toggle skill like I listed above. Maybe change the skill into my idea, and make an augment that releases an old style Radial Javelin upon entering/exiting the mode, keeping the current stun?

[faiyde]

I like all of these except ability no 1, i'd rather keep slashdash, reducing its power cost and basing its damage off your melee's, so it becomes another move use whenever appropriate rather than an ability you have to invest in to get any real use out of.

 

As a passive it would be great if he had a large buff to the combo counter system when melee is held- combine that with the revised 3 ability and slashdash for a supermelee effect that requires at least some actual skill and practice to use.

Edited March 3, 2015 by faiyde

[tinyranitar]

I'd say keep his 4 the way it is. A sword that slays an army is still cool enough for me.

[Eyeless]

I love this, it'd make him much more interesting to play! I hope DE revises him in this 'Year of Quality' but won't be surprised if they never give their poster boy the love he deserves. 

[AkerTheSpjot]

I like everything except his 4th on your topic.

But I liked how you built his powers around melee, the niche that he should have as his.

This speaks for myself

Love the fact that your ideas turn him into melee-based warframe that is not tanky, but instead mobile and agile. Hope this gets implemented

Edited March 3, 2015 by The_Vile_Blade

[(XBOX)SkinnyANOINTED1]

Sounds real good. Ive been on other posts and a lot of members are talking about making this upgraded version locked behind mastery rank 10 or so (maybe even higher).

With that said I like some of ur ideas because I think the original theme behind Excalibur was mobility and offense. I had an idea to just change one power: Superjump/supercharge. Now im not suggesting take superjump away because I love it. Instead give an option (if you hold the button down) to go into supercharge mode. Which is 5/10/15/20% melee speed increase (fixed) for 5/6/7/8 seconds (affected by duration mods). Exc would also receive unlimited stamina and no channel cost for the duration.

[(PSN)Cerata_]

Better skill set:

 

1 - Merciful Cut - Excalibro sharpens his sword furiously and explodes with energy , gains x3 melee multiplier +25% stress relief.

 

 

2 - Blinding Fury - Excalibro raises his sword and blinds himself off that sweet tang , you deal double damage but can't see farther than 10 meters. 

 

 

3 - Furious Defense - Excalibro stands his ground and swings his sword wildly with large sweeping arc in front , reflect 100% of bullet damage.

 

 

4 - Honor of the Fallen - Exalibro honors the souls that he took by committing glorious seppuku. lose one revive to gain 25% bonus rep.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I would be a big fan of Super Jump being replaced by your idea for a 3 ability.  You have my +1 just for that.  Sounds like a really fun ability to use.

 

Edit:  Purifying blade sounds great too.

 

:D

 

I'd love a tweak that changes Radial Javelin into an Archwing melee style mode, where you gain increased range and auto lock/snap to targets; essentially, Excalibur summons an ethereal Skana and uses that as his weapon with unique, Excalibur only animations/combos, with possibly some sort of damage mitigation for survival (or encourage use of your idea of casting Blinding Fury to debuff, Graceful Death to self buff, and Purifying Blade to ensure you can go to down like a boss. More synergy between a frame's skills is always good). Seems like a chance for the animation team to go Tempo Royale style and blow us away with some amazing move-sets.

 

As is, Radial Javelin is iconic (debatable, compared to old move), high damaged attack that can only scale well with builds AND teams dedicated to boosting Excalibur. Quite boring, IMO. Hek, I'd take an augment that turns Radial Javelin into a toggle skill like I listed above. Maybe change the skill into my idea, and make an augment that releases an old style Radial Javelin upon entering/exiting the mode, keeping the current stun?

 

I was considering a sort of leap-to-target attack as a nice gap closer, but was having difficulty in making that an ultimate that didn't feel similar to Bladestorm. It's still on the table though. I like the augment idea, +1

 

I like all of these except ability no 1, i'd rather keep slashdash, reducing its power cost and basing its damage off your melee's, so it becomes another move use whenever appropriate rather than an ability you have to invest in to get any real use out of.

 

As a passive it would be great if he had a large buff to the combo counter system when melee is held- combine that with the revised 3 ability and slashdash for a supermelee effect that requires at least some actual skill and practice to use.

 

I think Slash Dash's mobility would be nicely replaced with Graceful death, and Melee tends to need damage buffs to be effective down the line, hence the thought behind that. But an augment for Graceful Death....

 

I'd say keep his 4 the way it is. A sword that slays an army is still cool enough for me.

 

It's not really about cool, it's about fun. And (to me at least) an insta-nuke feels out of place on a melee frame, and very un-fun. 

 

I love this, it'd make him much more interesting to play! I hope DE revises him in this 'Year of Quality' but won't be surprised if they never give their poster boy the love he deserves. 

 

Thanks :D

 

I feel that they're going to regret coining "Year of Quality" lol

 

This speaks for myself

Love the fact that your ideas turn him into melee-based warframe that is not tanky, but instead mobile and agile. Hope this gets implemented

 

Yeah, I almost gave him Shatter Shield, but felt that type of damage reduction was waaay overdone. With Blinding Fury, you still have to pay attention to your surroundings if you want to keep from going down.

 

Sounds real good. Ive been on other posts and a lot of members are talking about making this upgraded version locked behind mastery rank 10 or so (maybe even higher).

With that said I like some of ur ideas because I think the original theme behind Excalibur was mobility and offense. I had an idea to just change one power: Superjump/supercharge. Now im not suggesting take superjump away because I love it. Instead give an option (if you hold the button down) to go into supercharge mode. Which is 5/10/15/20% melee speed increase (fixed) for 5/6/7/8 seconds (affected by duration mods). Exc would also receive unlimited stamina and no channel cost for the duration.

 

I'd rather add a Melee speed increase to Graceful Death than to add the supercharge mechanic. Superjump isn't worth enough mobility right now, I'd like to add both speed AND jump height, so if anything, SJ gets a buff. I'll throw some melee speed in there too. No stamina at all mixed with no channel cost could lead to some exploits I think, so I wouldn't necessarily go that far. 

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone! 

[(XBOX)SkinnyANOINTED1]

Graceful Death it is then. So let it be written, so let it be done.

[Koujjo]

All good ideas but I'd just be happy if they reverted him back to the way he was before they started screwing with him. Radial Blind is now probably the worst CC in the game.

[tinyranitar]

It's not really about cool, it's about fun. And (to me at least) an insta-nuke feels out of place on a melee frame, and very un-fun. 

Lotus herself said: "There are times, Tenno, when even the best get surrounded." when talking about Javelin.

 

And since Javelin is the main playstyle of many (including myself), changing it would change a popular frame so much that it maybe, would not be popular anymore.

 

Not to mention, for legend sakes, Excalibur in the hand of Arthur is the blade that has the power to slay an entire army. Maybe changing his visual for this skill is good too, like how swords rise from the ground instead of stabbing them in the back.

[Ryjeon]

Honestly I feel anything would be better than what we have now. Every one one of his abilities feels either stiff and outdated or like a place-holder. That said he's still functional as a relic of that classic style, but out of all the frames I think he's ripe for a total redesign from the ground up. His augments suggest that he's supposed to be this great melee brawler, but his powers just don't come together to create a satisfying experience.

 

I think in order for him to operate well according to his concept his abilities need to activate quickly as well as fluidly connect with the core approach of a melee skirmisher. He needs to be able to pick his positioning and establish his defense via his movement abilities, create his opening via his cc ability and then strike brutally and effectively with shocking forcefulness. His powers do affect this to some degree but they could be improved upon. He just feels like a stiff old proto-type while other frames are well oiled modern omni-mechs.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Ryjeon

[Koujjo]

His augments suggest that he's supposed to be this great melee brawler, but his powers just don't come together to create a satisfying experience.

 

 

 

Slash dash along with Surging Dash actually works fairly well for some respectable melee DPS. The problem is they nerfed his CC without giving him any more survivability. So now I feel compelled to only play him with a group to prop him up or shelve him.