Excalibur Buff Ideas

[SquidTheSid]

Excalibur was my first frame in the game, and I love the concept of a master swordsman. Sadly, I'd say that he's anything but as he's easily outclassed by other frames in melee combat (Valkyr, Rhino, Loki, etc). As usual, feel free to leave any constructive criticism. 

 

So, some buffs that would get him into a better shape:

 

Stat Changes: 

 

- Health: 100 > 150

 

- Armor:  65 > 130

 

Reasoning: As a melee-centric frame, Excalibur can't take many hits. Increasing his health and armor to a level comparable to  Oberon's would increase his EHP by over 50%, letting him tank enemies much more effectively. 

 

- Sprint Speed: 1.0 > 1.1

 

- Base Stamina: 100 > 150

 

Reasoning: More QOL changes, really. Excalibur is quite a slow frame and he runs out of stamina quite quickly. These changes would bring him more in line with the other melee-centric frame: Valkyr. 

 

Passives: 

 

- Combo Master: Excalibur's combo counter requires 40% less hit to increment (e.g. 15 hits > 9 hits for 2.0 multiplier) and lasts for 250% longer (e.g. 3 seconds > 7.5 seconds). 

 

Reasoning: This really should be a passive change to melee as a whole (since the combo counter needs to be far more flexible than it currently is in order to let melee compete with guns past the early game). These changes would encourage Excalibur players to focus a bit more on melee and a bit less on 4 spam in general gameplay. 

 

- Stance Mastery: Any stance mod equipped on any melee weapon will receive full mod capacity, regardless of polarity (i.e. every melee weapon will receive +10 mod capacity from every stance). Excalibur can equip two stance mods at once (although he can only gain +10 mod capacity) and toggle between then using the "reload" key while melee is equipped. 

 

Reasoning: Excalibur is a swordsman, so it should make sense that he should be proficient in a variety of melee weapons and combat techniques. This change would let Excalibur players mix and match stances to their liking and let them use more obscure stances without penalizing them for doing so. 

 

Active Changes:

 

1). Slash Dash

 

- + Speed increased to 40 / 42 / 44 / 48 from  30 / 32 / 34 / 38.

 

Reasoning: Slash Dash feels a bit sluggish as a mobility tool, and this buff would put it more in line with Rhino Charge (same speed values). 

 

- + Slash Dash staggers affected enemies (similar to Ash's stagger on Smoke Screen)

 

Reasoning: Slash Dash doesn't have much to offer in terms of CC. Again, to compare Slash Dash to Rhino Charge, it lacks the knockdown offered by Rhino Charge.  Giving it a stagger effect would give it some sort of crowd control effect. 

 

- + Slash Dash has a forced Bleed Proc on affected enemies. 

 

Reasoning: Slash Dash can already proc Bleed on enemies, but it's not consistent. A forced proc would make it more useful and let it scale better, as well as helping make up for the relative lack of CC offered by Slash Dash. 

 

2). Radial Blind

 

- +/-Removed as a skill. Added as a sub-effect to Radial Javelin. 

 

Reasoning: Radial Javelin falls off hard late game, and Radial Blind is Excal's only for of reliable CC. Combining it with Excal's ultimate would grant him space for another ability as well as making his ultimate more versatile. This means that Blind will cost twice as much, but it can now be more powerful as a result of its increased costs. 

 

2). Holy Scabbard

 

The power of Excalibur's Scabbard prevents mortal wounds from being inflicted to the user. While activated, Excalibur and his allies within a 2/4/6/10 meter radius become immune to status procs, and receive 50% (affected by power strength, caps at 75%) less damage.  Downed allies cannot die as long as this ability is active (that is, their death timer is put on hold, but they are still incapacitated). In addition, if Excalibur were to become downed during the duration of this ability, he would be granted borrowed time and immune to any mortal wounds, at the expense of his energy pool.

 

At the end of the duration, Excalibur instantly receives all damage (can be fatal) absorbed by the ability if the borrowed time effect was triggered (e.g. Excalibur hits fatal health range, and his energy is drained and borrowed time activates. If he takes 5000 damage during the remainder of the ability, he would instantly receive all of the damage the accumulated from activation to ending, reduced by the ability's damage reduction, when the ability ends.)

 

Cost: 75 Energy.

 

Duration: 4/6/8/10 seconds

 

Reasoning: A much needed defensive buff, this ability would let Excalibur become a powerful support frame for his team. While he can't reflect damage like Trinity can, or reflect projectiles or reduce damage as effectively as Mesa can, he can become the lifeline to his team and prevent absolute failure. 

 

This ability would give Excalibur an "Oh S#&$!" button outside of Radial Blind, since he gets 10 seconds of borrowed time to reposition himself, revive allies, or protect an objective. Granted, he'll be SOL since he'll have 0 energy outside of that and will most likely instantly die once the ability expires, but it will give him and his team a fighting chance. In addition, this ability can prevent your whole team from burning revives if they're shot down by a bombard. 

 

tl;dr: Link damage reduction buff in AoE, prevents Excal and teammates from dying during the duration of the ability, but not after. 

 

3). Super Jump

 

 

 

+ Super Jump now travels in a 45 degree arc instead of straight up (still travels same height, but will be in a parabolic arc) and point of landing is easier to aim. 

 

+ Performs an automatic melee slam attack with a x4 damage multiplier on landing.

 

+ Enemies become unaware of Excalibur during the duration of the ability (same effect as invisibility, but less of a jarring transition). 

 

+ Can now be activated while jumping and/or in the air. 

 

-  Initial stun removed. 

 

- Invisibility removed (again, mostly for cosmetic reasons). 

 

Reasoning: Super Jump is not a very good ability. These buffs are the minimum it needs to be brought up into a usable shape.  The automatic slam attack gives him good and cheap CC (especially if he has the Jat Kittag) with some nice damage on top of that. Super Jump now also acts a a double jump, letting him have two jumps and a dash, essentially. 

 

 

4). Radial Javelin 

 

-  +Radial Javelin now blinds affected enemies (same duration and range as Radial Blind). 

 

-  +The Blind effect ignores LoS

 

-  +Enemies in the LoS of Radial Javelin are knocked back in addition to being blinded (similar to Banshee's Sonic Boom). 

 

-  +Radial Javelin now deals finisher damage. 

 

- +Blind effect applied after cast animation, post-cast animation delay reduced to 1.5 seconds. 

 

Reasoning: As an ultimate, Radial Javelin is underwhelming since it only does damage and briefly tuns enemies. Combined with a knockback effect, a blind, and finisher damage, it'll be a lot more powerful in terms of CC and help make up for the more expensive blind casts.

 

tl;dr: 

 

- Buff Excal's base stats to make him tankier and more mobile. 

 

- Increase the speed of Slash Dash and give it some minor CC 

 

- Remove Radial Blind and combine it with Radial Javelin (remove LoS nerf too). 

 

- Add in a defensive AoE damage reduction ability to replace Radial Blind. 

 

- Super Jump now acts as a double jump and performs an automatic slam attack with 400% increased damage. 

 

- Radial Javelin knocks back enemies and deals finisher damage, in addition to blinding enemies. 

 

Question: Is Radial Javelin's rework too strong? Should I remove the knockback effect and leave just the blind?

Edited March 17, 2015 by SquidTheSid

[(XBOX)Brennon Cook]

He just needs to git buffer as his buff.

[Z1B1]

why not make super jump as a passive ... or instead of super jump make a passive double jump :P that would be ... well i would still not use him

[VioDuskar]

read all ideas, pretty good actually

[SquidTheSid]

why not make super jump as a passive ... or instead of super jump make a passive double jump :P that would be ... well i would still not use him

 

I was thinking about that (holding jump to activate super jump), but I couldn't think of anything new off the top of my head at the moment to replace it as is, so I just made it into a cheap and spammable form of CC. 

[Z1B1]

I was thinking about that (holding jump to activate super jump), but I couldn't think of anything new off the top of my head at the moment to replace it as is, so I just made it into a cheap and spammable form of CC. 

 

uu going a bit on the direction of prototype :PP that acctually could look fun

[SquidTheSid]

read all ideas, pretty good actually

Thanks. 

 

My two main inspirations were to:

 

- make him more suitable for melee combat by letting all of his skills augment melee combat in some way.

 

- use the lore of Excalibur more in his abilities (hence the point of the scabbard preventing fatal injuries and bleeding/status procs during its duration. Morgan le Fay teals the scabbard from Arthur and chucks it into the lake, ultimately leading to Arthur's death in his final battle - inspiration for the borrowed time sub-effect)

[SquidTheSid]

why not make super jump as a passive ... or instead of super jump make a passive double jump :P that would be ... well i would still not use him

Looking into it, King Arthur used a spear and dagger in addition to Excalibur, but a spear throw or a dagger toss really wouldn't fit in with the theme of "swordsmaster". 

 

Perhaps he should maybe get a AoE melee damage and lifesteal buff, like a rallying cry? Although that would be dangerously close to War Cry. 

 

I was also thinking of something related to the Lady of the Lake, but I don't want to enter Hydroid's domain and I'd like to keep it swordsman themed, so I'd need to have some time to think that over. 

Edited March 17, 2015 by SquidTheSid

[--MZez--]

U did a nice job man but excal is good enough actually with couple of formas hes perfect

[SquidTheSid]

U did a nice job man but excal is good enough actually with couple of formas hes perfect

 

Well, any frame is good with a couple of formas, no? 

 

These changes are to help him become a more specialized frame (while still being versatile enough for new players to pick up and play) centered around melee combat. 

 

I'd say he's been needing a buff, since he falls off hard in endless T4 missions compared to frames like Nova or Loki. 

[(PSN)True_Reclaimer]

Upvote, saw this on reddit too

[Koujjo]

He definitely needs either more CC or better survivability or both. As a melee frame he is probably the worst at it.

[(XBOX)SkinnyANOINTED1]

Wow really great ideas. I don't think superjump needs the cc smash at the end that would cause it to cost more and its simply a mobility tool. One idea i had was to make superjump a two step ability where you could jump or if u hold the button down u would get some sort of duration buff for melee

[SquidTheSid]

Couple of ideas thrown my way were:

 

Keep RB and RJ separate, remove Super Jump. 

 

Super Jump is now a passive that costs stamina to activate, (no longer makes you invisible) 

 

Remove damage reduction on HS (and maybe reduce its initial energy cost). 

 

Change RJ to work like ballistic battery. RJ now does lower initial damage, but can now scale much higher (damage scaling based on damage dealt with melee or Excal's other abilities). Bonus damage is equal to 100% of melee damage (affected by power strength) and has a brief knock back effect to LoS enemies within 10m. 

[Sev7n]

I use excal on a regular basis and majority of the time it is for melee play.

he's even my most used frame and no i dont use him for the cheese build's that spam radial javelin

 

His abilities do not need buffs all of them are pretty balanced imo.

 

The real problems with excalibur have to do with the way other systems in this game work.

 

Combo meter expires far to quickly

Stamina needs a rework

[5H4DE]

Im in for the stat increases and especially for  Stance Mastery passive , i'd love to switch between stances as excalibur :X

[SquidTheSid]

I use excal on a regular basis and majority of the time it is for melee play.

he's even my most used frame and no i dont use him for the cheese build's that spam radial javelin

 

His abilities do not need buffs all of them are pretty balanced imo.

 

The real problems with excalibur have to do with the way other systems in this game work.

 

Combo meter expires far to quickly

Stamina needs a rework

 

Yeah, the combo meter expires far too quickly and builds up far too slowly for it to be useful. Why not pull out a Latron Prime (R.I.P) instead and snipe enemies? 

 

At the minimum, I think he should have improved base stats (more armor and a tad bit more health), a bit more sprint speed, more stamina.

 

I also think that  Super Jump needs to be reworked, but it serves its place, I guess.

 

Plus, I'm not a big fan of the LoS nerf on radial blind as well. 

 

But yeah, higher base stats and a combo/stamina rework would go a long way into making him better. 

[SquidTheSid]

Im in for the stat increases and especially for  Stance Mastery passive , i'd love to switch between stances as excalibur :X

 

Yeah, it's something that I think should be there for all frames in the game (more variety is always better, and there are some stances people never use because others are clearly better). 

 

But if anybody should have it, it's Excalibur, since he is a  swordsman themed frame.

[Sev7n]

Yeah, the combo meter expires far too quickly and builds up far too slowly for it to be useful. Why not pull out a Latron Prime (R.I.P) instead and snipe enemies? 

 

At the minimum, I think he should have improved base stats (more armor and a tad bit more health), a bit more sprint speed, more stamina.

 

I also think that  Super Jump needs to be reworked, but it serves its place, I guess.

 

Plus, I'm not a big fan of the LoS nerf on radial blind as well. 

 

But yeah, higher base stats and a combo/stamina rework would go a long way into making him better. 

I can support the increase in base stats, its not going to make him wildly more powerful than where he is now.

 

But one thing you should take into consideration is slash dash can travel faster than melee coptering, if you put a flow on with streamline you can pretty much slash dash forever as long you continue to kill enemies (i actually just slash dash majority of the time i'm on my excal, you can do the roll jump slash dash in the air combo and go across the entire map before the rest of the team is half way lol). All of this pretty much removes any need for sprint speed on him

 

His super jump is less of a mobility skill now and servers as an escape ability. If you get cornered or trapped and cant slash dash out for example you can pop your super jump and get away or if an entire room is firing at you then you can pop a  super jump then slash dash to get to cover. Basically the invisibility that has been added to it is a huge lifesaver in tough situations

 

As for the LoS nerf i think its something we'll end up seeing added to most aoe abilities in this game down the road. Because of that i dont really want to comment on whether or not it should be removed or altered till i see how it effects gameplay once all frames have it. As of right now however you can slash dash in or behind a group of enemies pop super jump and then radial blind them all. It's not as easy as before but with the correct combination it can still do what it needs to pretty well

 

 

But if or when they ever revisit stamina in this game and increase melee combo time; it will be easier to see how well excal really shines at melee play

[Wawazat]

why not make super jump as a passive ... or instead of super jump make a passive double jump :P that would be ... well i would still not use him

i like this idea more than the survival ability.

 

make jav deal melee finisher and increase melee counter like blade storm. adding blind might be too op.

 

blind as its own separate move is fine.

 

slash dash does bleed as its proc, so it shouldnt get knock down like rhino charge. but it should be affected by the melee count and count as a melee attack too. (would like finisher here too but too op)

 

replace the now passive super jump with another cheap move (like 10-15 energy)

melee weapon do not cost energy when channeling for the duration of the ability and call it something like superior focus (would pair great with all those channel mods that cannot be used in abundance normally) give it a base 10/12/14/16 duration (since its so cheap)

 

i like all the base stat buffs too

EDIT: as a passive, super jump should not need to turn excal invisible or deal damage

Edited March 17, 2015 by Wawazat

[SquidTheSid]

Here's the latest iteration so far: http://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/2zbyjo/potential_excalibur_buffs/

 

RB is its own move, SJ got changed to a passive (but no longer turns you invisible), RJ now works like Mesa's Ballistic Battery, where it stores damage dealt through Excal's abilities or melee and can be released once charged up to deal a massive amount of damage (far more than regular RJ, but less spammable). 

 

HS has the damage reduction aspect removed, it only prevents status procs and death now (Maybe it can build up RJ's meter too? It'd probably be too strong if it did that). 

 

> slash dash does bleed as its proc, so it shouldnt get knock down like rhino charge. but it should be affected by the melee count and count as a melee attack too. (would like finisher here too but too op)

 

Yeah, it's not a knockdown, it's more of a brief stagger, similar to an impact proc. Knockdown would be far too strong, as it'd be a better version of Rhino's charge.

[Wawazat]

Here's the latest iteration so far: http://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/2zbyjo/potential_excalibur_buffs/

 

RB is its own move, SJ got changed to a passive (but no longer turns you invisible), RJ now works like Mesa's Ballistic Battery, where it stores damage dealt through Excal's abilities or melee and can be released once charged up to deal a massive amount of damage (far more than regular RJ, but less spammable). 

 

HS has the damage reduction aspect removed, it only prevents status procs and death now (Maybe it can build up RJ's meter too? It'd probably be too strong if it did that). 

 

> slash dash does bleed as its proc, so it shouldnt get knock down like rhino charge. but it should be affected by the melee count and count as a melee attack too. (would like finisher here too but too op)

 

Yeah, it's not a knockdown, it's more of a brief stagger, similar to an impact proc. Knockdown would be far too strong, as it'd be a better version of Rhino's charge.

read the reddit post too. after rereading the holy scabbard, the prolonged down is nice in group but in solo play with nobody to pick you up, you will die all the same which means this is just an ability to make you immune to procs for a duration. (a nice feature but really not something id consider being a whole ability) its not good enough in solo play (yes id use it if i had max effiency but i would rather blind and evade then just be immune to procs otherwise) there are augment mods and abilities that include the proc effect at a cheaper rate. 

 

consider a damage reduction while active or less stamina cost when blocking while active (after all the move is called scabbard)?

[SquidTheSid]

read the reddit post too. after rereading the holy scabbard, the prolonged down is nice in group but in solo play with nobody to pick you up, you will die all the same which means this is just an ability to make you immune to procs for a duration. (a nice feature but really not something id consider being a whole ability) its not good enough in solo play (yes id use it if i had max effiency but i would rather blind and evade then just be immune to procs otherwise) there are augment mods and abilities that include the proc effect at a cheaper rate. 

 

consider a damage reduction while active or less stamina cost when blocking while active (after all the move is called scabbard)?

 

How about 10% lifesteal on melee attacks or something? I originally had 50% damage reduction (scaled up to 75%), but that made him too much like Trinity with her Link ability

[Eyeless]

I use excal on a regular basis and majority of the time it is for melee play.

he's even my most used frame and no i dont use him for the cheese build's that spam radial javelin

 

His abilities do not need buffs all of them are pretty balanced imo.

 

The real problems with excalibur have to do with the way other systems in this game work.

 

Combo meter expires far to quickly

Stamina needs a rework

 

Though Excalibur may be fine, his kit is done so much better in nearly exactly the same way by better frames. 

 

Rhino, Zephyr, and Hydroid use clones of Slash Dash but theirs have additional utility/mobility that offer a lasting utility outside of basic mobility.

 

Excalibur doesn't. 

 

Radial Blind was nerfed to be LOS yet Mirage and Oberon's blind is not bound to LoS and flies in the face of DE's balance and reasoning for the RB nerf. Plenty of frames still CC better than Excalibur. 

 

Super Jump I can still see use for, but it could be better. Vauban's bounce pads offer additional utility beyond simple vertical mobility, I think this skill needs it too. Changing it into a toggle that increases run speed, base stamina, melee speed, and jump height has been the most popular suggested change and one I'd be very glad to see. 

 

Radial Javelin when used outside of minmaxed XP farming is simply trash. Other frames deal that damage faster, more effectively, and at higher levels you're paying 100 energy for a crappier Radial Blind without bonus damage multipliers. Wooo it can go through walls... 

 

Even with maxed power strength this drops off quick at lategame. It's just a waste of an ability past trash mobs at low level content. He needs something more, rather than just being the most senor generic. 

 

Even though I play him quite a bit (I used to main him myself) I still lament his lack of scaling that other frames get in terms of overall utility in all their kits, and wonder why at later levels I should feel less compelled to use my ULTIMATE in higher levels of difficulty.

 

 

Excalibur may be fine, but when DE claims to be undergoing a year of quality and have this frame as the games very MASCOT, fine shouldn't be enough. 

Edited March 18, 2015 by Hastur609

[5H4DE]

 

Super Jump I can still see use for, but it could be better. Vauban's bounce pads offer additional utility beyond simple vertical mobility, I think this skill needs it too. Changing it into a toggle that increases run speed, base stamina, melee speed, and jump height has been the most popular suggested change and one I'd be very glad to see. 

 

 

This especially . DE please .