Excalibur 2.0

[Magnus]

Original topic here: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/348338-excalibur-20/

This is being reposted due to the fact Excalibur has received yet another nerf, and has taken Oberon's place at the very bottom of the list of useful frames in hopes that such a rework will actually come about.

---

Excalibur. A frame named after the legendary sword, but has almost nothing to do with melee at all. The poster boy of Warframe, but far from a badass. His most useful skill nerfed into uselessness, his novelty jump made outdated by melee lunges, and his other two skills simply pale in comparison to any other frame's.

So, here is Excalibur 2.0. This builds on his name but still supports his original design, just made significantly better to fit all the changes that have happened.

The poster boy for Warframe -should- be a badass, not the most useless frame in the game.

---

1. Kendo - This operates like Ash's Bladestorm, but is single target and has much shorter range. Excalibur slides forward and thrusts a blade into the target with pure speed. The target takes heavy slash damage, is procced slash, and falls down slowly.

 

As it falls down slowly, you have temporary invincibility as the enemy you've just killed soaks up all damage from any enemies. In this half second of time, you can target and recast on another enemy close enough to you, and chain through a group of enemies. You can also cast Dynamic Momentum during this period, in order to close the gap on enemies to far away but too dangerous to run towards.

This will also give you a melee multiplier, allowing you to move through grunts and ultimately kill a high threat target.

The distance that can be dashed scales with Range, and Strength affects total damage. Duration does not effect the invincibility period.

Reason to replace Slash Dash: it was never a very good skill in the first place. While you're invincible for a little bit, you don't do that much damage and you don't knock over enemies. You're left vulnerable afterwards, and it's completely unused by most players. Turning it into a viable damage source would be ideal, something that can last up in levels, and still provide some survivability.

---

2. Dynamic Momentum - This is a combination of Super Jump and Radial Blind. Excalibur lunges himself towards the direction he's aiming. Upon hitting a surface or reaching the end of the lunge's range, he unleashes a burst of light and blinds all nearby enemies. Enemies are unable to hit you during the lunge.

The distance of the lunge and blind is affected by Range, the amount of time enemies are blinded for is affected by Duration. Strength does not affect this skill.

Reason to replace Radial Blind: it was made that enemies only in the line of sight could be affected, you had to stand in their sight as they shot you as you stood in place, lifted up your sword to blind. If enemies were high enough a level, you'd be one shot and ultimately, it made the skill worthless as a disable.

---

3. Unlimited - Toggleable. Triple melee and skill damage and reduced stamina drain from swinging and blocking, accomplished by visually over-channeling the wielded melee weapon. This removes the ability to channel regularly while active. Because of the nature of the skill, it can still damage enemies while displaced by Limbo.

While active, Excalibur can only use his melee weapon, but can still use skills, which are giving increased range and power during Unlimited.

 

As a note, while it looks like Channeling, it is not. It does not gain the benefits of whatever channeling based mods you have on, but instead gives you a raw, tremendous increase in damage all around. Every hit on an enemy does not drain your energy, but it instead slowly drains on its own.

The multiplier is affected by Strength.

Reason to replace Super Jump: it was already replaced by the inclusion of melee air lunges. Any frame can do it now.

---

4. Justice - On the ground, Excalibur will slam down his blade into the ground, taking a moderate amount of time like the current Radial Javelin. A mass of giant blades, similar to how Thrust looks, will burst out from the ground and up through enemies. If there is an enemy knocked down in front of Excalibur as he activates this, the knocked down target takes double damage.

When cast in the air, Excalibur will fling himself downwards towards where he's aiming and slam into the ground with his blade to perform the same. Hitting an enemy with this lunge will also deal double the damage. The lunge cannot be aimed up or to the sides, only in a specific cone downwards.

The blades themselves will be limited to, maybe, twenty total and will deal heavy Finisher damage and impale enemies. Enemies that don't die instantly will be held in place for a very short time by the giant blade and can be hit by other sources. As soon as an enemy dies, the blade holding it vanishes. After the blades vanish by timer, the enemies will be dropped to the ground.

Strength affects the number of blades and damage, Range affects the size of the AOE, and Duration affects how long the blades remain. Justice CAN be recast before the blades vanish. As the lunge is only downwards, it is not affected at all.

Reason to replace Radial Javelin: While Javelin was okay, it was overshadowed by many other nukes and ultimately wasn't at all special, but now it's also made useless by line of sight. The visual change would make it look far more intense for how long the cast time is, and when used in air, it becomes a targeted AOE, and as for the double damage on a single target, it makes it desirable to cast on a single deadly target as much as a mass of enemies.

---

And as a closing note, the real reason for these changes: synergy.

These skills are all written with the intent of synergy amongst each other. Dynamic Momentum not only blinds, but can also put you in melee range of enemies. Not only is it a disable, but it's a skill that sets you up for a combo.

Once you land in front of the enemies, you can use Kendo to tear through enemies directly in front of you and perform some Finisher attacks for tremendous damage on any survivors. With Unlimited, you can boost Kendo's damage even higher or just start cutting through the hoard of blinded enemies normally.

After casting Justice, any enemies still impaled and held can be treated to a barrage of melee attacks under the affect of Unlimited without any worries of counter attack by such strong enemies. Treat yourself to some good, safe hits on that Level 400 Heavy Gunner.

But most importantly, you can use Dynamic Momentum to fly up into the air, blind all the enemies nearby, and then use Justice to fling yourself back down into a mass of enemies. If you use Justice alone, there might be too many enemies and you could take damage from the ones not hit by a blade if you don't use it in conjunction with Dynamic Momentum.



Not only is each skill now more useful on its own with these changes, but in conjunction with each other, Excalibur becomes a highly mobile blade wielding death machine much more fitting of his name. Something worthy of being a poster boy.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Extraxi

[Rayden_Tenno]

^ this. Excal needs to be reworked. His skills changed.

[NabiCho]

I like the idea. Excalibur always had a melee-centric theme. I'll leave my opinion on the proposed changes to his abilities.

 

1. I like Thrust, although making Power Strength affect the knock-back might fling the enemy too far. I do like the fact that it can open up enemies to finishers. (Ankyros Prime would like that.) Meanwhile, for Kendo, how does it work? Is it a targeted dash attack or something? Or, is it a short range stab attack?

 

2. So, it's a dash attack with Radial Blind attached to it? I quite like the idea, as it gives him some room to do melee onslaught.

 

3. This is somewhat average. The thing I like about normal channeling is the Life Steal, which is quite important to survive for a melee-oriented playstyle.

 

4. Does this have LoS (which is the most controversial thing about RJ)? Anyway, I find the CC of this thing rather redundant since Dynamic Momentum can do that plus applying that stealth damage bonus to the enemy. Visually, I love it. It reminds me of Zhong Hui from Dynasty Warriors.

 

Just my 2 cents. Take it with a grain of salt. :)

[Bezeloth]

I agree that he needs masisive rework. Hes supposed to be melee but his toughness just plainly sux his skills are sluggish weak and outdated. THese suggestions seem solid and more dynamic but as always everything needs testing and iteration. Its a good start though.

[KyrosQF]

Could just rework his abilities.

 

Slash Dash - Melee combo counter augment now built into the ability. Damage done is counted as finisher damage.

{New Augment} - Now refunds the energy cost of casting it when an enemy is hit.

 

Radial Blind - The damage multiplier persists through the duration of the skill instead of just the first hit. Affects any melee attacks used on the victims.

 

Super Jump - Can only be used in midair and cannot be recast until the tenno lands on a surface.

 

Radial Javelin - Each enemy hit increases the combo counter (Melee).

Edited March 21, 2015 by KyrosQF

[Magnus]

1. Meanwhile, for Kendo, how does it work? Is it a targeted dash attack or something? Or, is it a short range stab attack?

 

3. This is somewhat average. The thing I like about normal channeling is the Life Steal, which is quite important to survive for a melee-oriented playstyle.

 

4. Does this have LoS (which is the most controversial thing about RJ)? Anyway, I find the CC of this thing rather redundant since Dynamic Momentum can do that plus applying that stealth damage bonus to the enemy. Visually, I love it. It reminds me of Zhong Hui from Dynasty Warriors.

 

1. Kendo is like a single target, shorter range Bladestorm. You basically dive into some samurai inspired finisher move, maybe thrusting back  next to your side, and lifting the enemy's body up on to you. Because of your close proximity to the enemy, it grants you momentary invincibility as the enemy soaks up whatever bullets, lasers are now headed for you. During this time, fractions of a second mind you, you're capable of recasting it by pointing at and targeting another enemy within close range.

 

Because it's single target, the damage would be comparable to that of Bladestorm in order to keep it useful, and the ability to recast it makes it viable through later stages of the game.

 

I reworked the OP to elaborate more, thank you.

 

3. You won't need Life Steal with how 1 and 2 are designed. They give you plenty of ways to avoid damage entirely. But, you did give me the idea to add on that Unlimited should also effect his skills positively.

 

4. I imagine it'd have a shorter range versus the current Javelin, so it wouldn't be fair to have it affected by Line of Sight. You should be able to stab things through walls every now and again. The CC itself is different from the blinding of Momentum, where it completely restricts an enemy and lets you just unload on an enemy's head if need be.

 

But it is mostly just to look a lot cooler and have more use than the current Javelin.

 

Could just rework his abilities.

 

Slash Dash - Melee combo counter augment now built into the ability. Damage done is counted as finisher damage.

{New Augment} - Now refunds the energy cost of casting it when an enemy is hit.

 

Radial Blind - The damage multiplier persists through the duration of the skill instead of just the first hit. Affects any melee attacks used on the victims.

 

Super Jump - Can only be used in midair and cannot be recast until the tenno lands on a surface.

 

Radial Javelin - Each enemy hit increases the combo counter (Melee).

 

None of those multipliers or little bonuses are slightly redeeming in the eyes of synergy or metagaming.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Extraxi

[MichaelSD]

Nice ideas, but I would prefer to have him as a close combat frame, not a specific sword frame.

[Magnus]

Nice ideas, but I would prefer to have him as a close combat frame, not a specific sword frame.

 

You should try rereading, then. You'd see the proposed skills are about getting into and taking advantage of close combat.

[Daz11]

Radial Blind also affects enemies looking away from you. What they meant by line of sight is your line of sight.

[MichaelSD]

You should try rereading, then. You'd see the proposed skills are about getting into and taking advantage of close combat.

 

Don't call it kendo than.

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

Not to sidetrack but I can nuke the map with a near endless string of smiles using Oberon. Why is Broberon constantly denagraded by players?

[ROSING]

Disagree with the Oberon dig, but apart from that this sounds really fun for Excalibur. The Ult is unique enough as well!

 

And as for sword specific frame, especially with respect to Kendo, as long as he uses that energy sword that he can conjure than it is justified that it is called Kendo. I thank also for Unlimited an aura similar to the energy blades should surround your weapon to distinguish it!

[Magnus]

Don't call it kendo than.

 

You should read beyond the name, then. I had chosen the name, as the actual sport, Kendo, is all about being faster, stronger, and looking for openings in your opponent's movements, while the purpose itself, and quoted from Wikipedia;

 

To mold the mind and body.

To cultivate a vigorous spirit,

And through correct and rigid training,

To strive for improvement in the art of Kendo.

To hold in esteem human courtesy and honor.

To associate with others with sincerity.

And to forever pursue the cultivation of oneself.

Thus will one be able:

To love one's country and society;

To contribute to the development of culture;

And to promote peace and prosperity among all peoples.

 

In other words, it's quite a fitting name for the first skill for the "first" Warframe.

 

Not to sidetrack but I can nuke the map with a near endless string of smiles using Oberon. Why is Broberon constantly denagraded by players?

 

You can do the same with Miasma, for more damage and at a higher range with a faster recast. As for his other skills, again, any other frame can do any of what he does, even his Imbue augment, better than others.

 

 

And as for sword specific frame, especially with respect to Kendo, as long as he uses that energy sword that he can conjure than it is justified that it is called Kendo. I thank also for Unlimited an aura similar to the energy blades should surround your weapon to distinguish it!

 

I'm glad someone else picked up on the idea of the name, and yeah, I imagine that's ultimately what'll happen. I personally wish I could get an artist to whip up a quick rendering of what over channeling would look like at all.

 

I imagine Excal and Excal Prime would have different versions, too, since they like that kind've stuff.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Extraxi

[Kruglov]

Not to sidetrack but I can nuke the map with a near endless string of smiles using Oberon. Why is Broberon constantly denagraded by players?

 

Because people keep building him for strength and not efficiency and don't play aggressively with him.

[MichaelSD]

You should read beyond the name, then. I had chosen the name, as the actual sport, Kendo, is all about being faster, stronger, and looking for openings in your opponent's movements, while the purpose itself, and quoted from Wikipedia;

 

To mold the mind and body.

To cultivate a vigorous spirit,

And through correct and rigid training,

To strive for improvement in the art of Kendo.

To hold in esteem human courtesy and honor.

To associate with others with sincerity.

And to forever pursue the cultivation of oneself.

Thus will one be able:

To love one's country and society;

To contribute to the development of culture;

And to promote peace and prosperity among all peoples.

 

In other words, it's quite a fitting name for the first skill for the "first" Warframe.

 

I did kendo myself, and your quite is what Clint Eastwood is to the Old West. It is matter of taste, I do not like it, too specific.

[Demiax]

1st ability needs a change, to the name really. Also you might as well call it "Thrust" or something. For his 1st, he would slide forward and do a finisher attack on an enemy, this skill would not have its damage potential determined by the users weapon, the "finisher animation" would only be an animation. The skill would do the following damage at the following levels (250 / 350 / 450 / 550)

[-SLX-J3tAc3]

 

 

 

Original topic here: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/348338-excalibur-20/

This is being reposted due to the fact Excalibur has received yet another nerf, and has taken Oberon's place at the very bottom of the list of useful frames in hopes that such a rework will actually come about.

---

Excalibur. A frame named after the legendary sword, but has almost nothing to do with melee at all. The poster boy of Warframe, but far from a badass. His most useful skill nerfed into uselessness, his novelty jump made outdated by melee lunges, and his other two skills simply pale in comparison to any other frame's.

So, here is Excalibur 2.0. This builds on his name but still supports his original design, just made significantly better to fit all the changes that have happened.

The poster boy for Warframe -should- be a badass, not the most useless frame in the game.

---

1. Kendo - This operates like Ash's Bladestorm, but is single target and has much shorter range. Excalibur slides forward and thrusts a blade into the target with pure speed. The target takes heavy slash damage, is procced slash, and falls down slowly.

 

As it falls down slowly, you have temporary invincibility as the enemy you've just killed soaks up all damage from any enemies. In this half second of time, you can target and recast on another enemy close enough to you, and chain through a group of enemies. You can also cast Dynamic Momentum during this period, in order to close the gap on enemies to far away but too dangerous to run towards.

This will also give you a melee multiplier, allowing you to move through grunts and ultimately kill a high threat target.

The distance that can be dashed scales with Range, and Strength affects total damage. Duration does not effect the invincibility period.

Reason to replace Slash Dash: it was never a very good skill in the first place. While you're invincible for a little bit, you don't do that much damage and you don't knock over enemies. You're left vulnerable afterwards, and it's completely unused by most players. Turning it into a viable damage source would be ideal, something that can last up in levels, and still provide some survivability.

---

2. Dynamic Momentum - This is a combination of Super Jump and Radial Blind. Excalibur lunges himself towards the direction he's aiming. Upon hitting a surface or reaching the end of the lunge's range, he unleashes a burst of light and blinds all nearby enemies. Enemies are unable to hit you during the lunge.

The distance of the lunge and blind is affected by Range, the amount of time enemies are blinded for is affected by Duration. Strength does not affect this skill.

Reason to replace Radial Blind: it was made that enemies only in the line of sight could be affected, you had to stand in their sight as they shot you as you stood in place, lifted up your sword to blind. If enemies were high enough a level, you'd be one shot and ultimately, it made the skill worthless as a disable.

---

3. Unlimited - Toggleable. Triple melee and skill damage and reduced stamina drain from swinging and blocking, accomplished by visually over-channeling the wielded melee weapon. This removes the ability to channel regularly while active. Because of the nature of the skill, it can still damage enemies while displaced by Limbo.

While active, Excalibur can only use his melee weapon, but can still use skills, which are giving increased range and power during Unlimited.

 

As a note, while it looks like Channeling, it is not. It does not gain the benefits of whatever channeling based mods you have on, but instead gives you a raw, tremendous increase in damage all around. Every hit on an enemy does not drain your energy, but it instead slowly drains on its own.

The multiplier is affected by Strength.

Reason to replace Super Jump: it was already replaced by the inclusion of melee air lunges. Any frame can do it now.

---

4. Justice - On the ground, Excalibur will slam down his blade into the ground, taking a moderate amount of time like the current Radial Javelin. A mass of giant blades, similar to how Thrust looks, will burst out from the ground and up through enemies. If there is an enemy knocked down in front of Excalibur as he activates this, the knocked down target takes double damage.

When cast in the air, Excalibur will fling himself downwards towards where he's aiming and slam into the ground with his blade to perform the same. Hitting an enemy with this lunge will also deal double the damage. The lunge cannot be aimed up or to the sides, only in a specific cone downwards.

The blades themselves will be limited to, maybe, twenty total and will deal heavy Finisher damage and impale enemies. Enemies that don't die instantly will be held in place for a very short time by the giant blade and can be hit by other sources. As soon as an enemy dies, the blade holding it vanishes. After the blades vanish by timer, the enemies will be dropped to the ground.

Strength affects the number of blades and damage, Range affects the size of the AOE, and Duration affects how long the blades remain. Justice CAN be recast before the blades vanish. As the lunge is only downwards, it is not affected at all.

Reason to replace Radial Javelin: While Javelin was okay, it was overshadowed by many other nukes and ultimately wasn't at all special, but now it's also made useless by line of sight. The visual change would make it look far more intense for how long the cast time is, and when used in air, it becomes a targeted AOE, and as for the double damage on a single target, it makes it desirable to cast on a single deadly target as much as a mass of enemies.

---

And as a closing note, the real reason for these changes: synergy.

These skills are all written with the intent of synergy amongst each other. Dynamic Momentum not only blinds, but can also put you in melee range of enemies. Not only is it a disable, but it's a skill that sets you up for a combo.

Once you land in front of the enemies, you can use Kendo to tear through enemies directly in front of you and perform some Finisher attacks for tremendous damage on any survivors. With Unlimited, you can boost Kendo's damage even higher or just start cutting through the hoard of blinded enemies normally.

After casting Justice, any enemies still impaled and held can be treated to a barrage of melee attacks under the affect of Unlimited without any worries of counter attack by such strong enemies. Treat yourself to some good, safe hits on that Level 400 Heavy Gunner.

But most importantly, you can use Dynamic Momentum to fly up into the air, blind all the enemies nearby, and then use Justice to fling yourself back down into a mass of enemies. If you use Justice alone, there might be too many enemies and you could take damage from the ones not hit by a blade if you don't use it in conjunction with Dynamic Momentum.



Not only is each skill now more useful on its own with these changes, but in conjunction with each other, Excalibur becomes a highly mobile blade wielding death machine much more fitting of his name. Something worthy of being a poster boy.

Adding on to this: make excal's base runspeed 1.1-1.2 as well. Slowness is a huge no-no in this game.

[(PSN)MoRockaPDX]

-snip-

 

You can do the same with Miasma, for more damage and at a higher range with a faster recast. As for his other skills, again, any other frame can do any of what he does, even his Imbue augment, better than others.

 

-snip-

  This again. Sure, there is a frame that do any one part of what Broberon does x many times better. Point of being a jack-of-all trades is to do a lot, not necessarily be the best at any one. And smite is sick right now.

 

Because people keep building him for strength and not efficiency and don't play aggressively with him.

Truth.

[Magnus]

Expanded on skills a bit further in OP.

[MEsoJD]

nice

[Andruunicul]

DE , we need an Excalibur REWORK!!!!!!

[FoxFX]

The main issue I have with Excalibur is not just his skills, but the role he is suppose to play.

 

Frost is the Ice Warframe, Ember the Fire Warframe, Ash the Smoke Warframe, Loki the Trickster, Valkyr the Berserker....

 

 

All other Warframes have these specific themes that garden to the abilities they use.

 

EXCALIBUR doesn't seem to have a defined role. All I've heard from others is that Excalibur is suppose to be "the jack of all trades," but with the way other Warframes are, we have long since passed the point of having a "jack of all trades" Warframe.

 

Excalibur needs to have that defined role. If anything, he should be the Sword Warframe that actually takes advantage of the melee combo counter.

 

I would agree for your first ability OP. An ability like that would surely put Excalibur on the right path as well as give Excalibur some reason to even use the Augments he has.

[MichaelSD]

The devs do not want to change him. See later fix in 10.0.4:

Removed dead animation time at the end of Excalibur’s Radial Javelin and radial Blind casting animations.

 

Besides that the animation is ugly now, that was not even the problem with RJ.

[-SLX-J3tAc3]

The devs do not want to change him. See later fix in 10.0.4:

Removed dead animation time at the end of Excalibur’s Radial Javelin and radial Blind casting animations.

 

Besides that the animation is ugly now, that was not even the problem with RJ.

Don't worry, bro. Keep the faith - DE will fix you up!

[MichaelSD]

Don't worry, bro. Keep the faith - DE will fix you up!

 

Like the last couple of times? Because every time they touch Excalibur they make him weaker.