Exalted Blade "loadouts"

[R34LM]

So, since Exalted blade works around what mods you have equipped on your melee weapon, this opens up a few options on how to maximize its damage potential. Presently I see three options:

 

1. Full elemental build (at least two complex elements like Radiation/Viral)

 

2. Crit Build

 

3. Channeling damage build (use of killing blow and corrupt charge)

 

 

I was just curious what people have been building towards. Currently I do something like the full elemental build, but use an unranked life strike plus full efficiency to ham life steal if things get rough.

 

What do you guys do?

[Immune]

dmg mods - pressure point, spoiled strike, syndicate mod
fury, crit dmg, crit chance mods
2 elemental mods

[VKhaun]

I work weekends so I'm not up on all the changes but last I heard Syndicate mods work and last time I played around with him in Spy 2.0 I was having trouble killing cameras and stuff right above me because of maximum upward angles on the waves and Slash Dash. I'll probably run him with Kestrel for now.

 

Syndicate mod for Kestrel giving me power refunds to help keep it going, and when not in use I can throw the Kestrel at stuff like cameras and those Grineer doors. Astral Twilight is nice and different from a longsword to keep variety going. Proto Glaive skin looks really slick, too.

 

Be pretty cool if the "flight speed" bonus made the waves faster as well, but that wasn't happening when I tried it last.

[Ognj]

Channeling build is a waste, you can use radial blind's finisher damage, which is huge when augment is applied ( can instakill lvl 90 eximus heavy gunner ). I would say go for elemental with berserker and life strike ( berserker can proc and it can increase speed by a lot ), I use my Prisma skana so AoE Purity effect is a neat bonus and pops some lost hp.

[Tessai117]

I go a variation of option 1 I guess.

 

In contrast to what most claim I am very heavily against using berserker for EB

 

15% crit chance on the blade and a way lower crit chance on the waves itself is very low for a non multi hitting stance with relatively short range (the blade itself).

On top of that if targets are blinded the waves itself kill targets often before the blade can even touch the enemy's body losing even more berserker procs. Hell it even happens when performing finishers.

 

Channeling builds do not work with the constant energy drain EB has by default and will only end up overkilling everything while running out of energy frequently.

 

I'm having outstanding results with this (It is my void build but does very well in anything star-chart because the damage numbers are so high): http://goo.gl/jDyGYn

 

Fury alone gives EB enough attack speed since it's pretty speedy by itself to never miss berserker at all.

Corrosive is a really well rounded element vs pretty much everything.

Cold damage does like double damage vs shields and is way better than blast.

Buzz Kill because the waves have 70% slash damage even if the blade itself only has 33% (and slash rules)

Bright purity because everything about it. Even if they end up removing proccing the syndicate farts with EB the +100% base damage is still worth it

Life strike because duh.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Tessai117

[VKhaun]

Channeling build is a waste, you can use radial blind's finisher damage, which is huge when augment is applied ( can instakill lvl 90 eximus heavy gunner ). I would say go for elemental with berserker and life strike ( berserker can proc and it can increase speed by a lot ), I use my Prisma skana so AoE Purity effect is a neat bonus and pops some lost hp.

^

I would tend to agree with this.

 

Channeling looks like an attractive distractor in this case. Wiki says channeling and base damage don't help the waves, but that the waves DO help the melee combo counter. Then the combo counter affects everything and Radial Blind -> Execute deals STUPID amounts of damage so you don't really need much base damage. I was one hit killing lv95 Bombards in the sim with zero power strength and only Pressure Point and Killing Blow.

 

I'm thinking attack speed and wave damage. Get that combo counter and your zerk stacks going and slaughter trash with damage boosted waves, then execute big stuff as needed.

 

First build I try after work will probably be...

 

Pressure Point / 90% / 90% / 90%

Berserker / Syndicate / Crit Chance / Crit Damage

Edited June 22, 2015 by VKhaun

[Tessai117]

^

I would tend to agree with this.

 

Channeling looks like an attractive distractor in this case. Wiki says channeling and base damage don't help the waves, but that the waves DO help the melee combo counter. Then the combo counter affects everything and Radial Blind -> Execute deals STUPID amounts of damage so you don't really need much base damage. I was one hit killing lv95 Bombards in the sim with zero power strength and only Pressure Point and Killing Blow.

 

I'm thinking attack speed and wave damage. Get that combo counter and your zerk stacks going and slaughter trash with damage boosted waves, then execute big stuff as needed.

 

First build I try after work will probably be...

 

Pressure Point / 90% / 90% / 90%

Berserker / Syndicate / Crit Chance / Crit Damage

 

I'm sorry to disappoint but the waves do in fact not add to the melee combo counter. I think what the wiki means is that wave damage scales with the melee combo counter it does not add to it.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Tessai117

[VKhaun]

I'm sorry to disappoint but the waves do in fact not add to the melee combo counter. I think what the wiki means is that wave damage scales with the melee combo counter it does not add to it.

 

Well.

 

S#&$.

 

:/

[(PSN)Lethalbman10119]

I work weekends so I'm not up on all the changes but last I heard Syndicate mods work and last time I played around with him in Spy 2.0 I was having trouble killing cameras and stuff right above me because of maximum upward angles on the waves and Slash Dash. I'll probably run him with Kestrel for now.

 

Syndicate mod for Kestrel giving me power refunds to help keep it going, and when not in use I can throw the Kestrel at stuff like cameras and those Grineer doors. Astral Twilight is nice and different from a longsword to keep variety going. Proto Glaive skin looks really slick, too.

 

Be pretty cool if the "flight speed" bonus made the waves faster as well, but that wasn't happening when I tried it last.

wait, proto glaive skin fits on kestrel? oooooooooooooh

[VKhaun]

wait, proto glaive skin fits on kestrel? oooooooooooooh

 

And Halikar. Surprised me as well, but I'll take it.

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

I go a variation of option 1 I guess.

In contrast to what most claim I am very heavily against using berserker for EB

15% crit chance on the blade and a way lower crit chance on the waves itself is very low for a non multi hitting stance with relatively short range (the blade itself).

On top of that if targets are blinded the waves itself kill targets often before the blade can even touch the enemy's body losing even more berserker procs. Hell it even happens when performing finishers.

Channeling builds do not work with the constant energy drain EB has by default and will only end up overkilling everything while running out of energy frequently.

I'm having outstanding results with this (It is my void build but does very well in anything star-chart because the damage numbers are so high): http://goo.gl/jDyGYn

Fury alone gives EB enough attack speed since it's pretty speedy by itself to never miss berserker at all.

Corrosive is a really well rounded element vs pretty much everything.

Cold damage does like double damage vs shields and is way better than blast.

Buzz Kill because the waves have 70% slash damage even if the blade itself only has 33% (and slash rules)

Bright purity because everything about it. Even if they end up removing proccing the syndicate farts with EB the +100% base damage is still worth it

Life strike because duh.

If I may, I would correct you in 2 points:

- buzz kill is a waste speaking on EB side, as the blade damage is split into damage types so you're boosting only 1/3 of the damage with that. An elemental would then be a much better option.

- while I agree that Berserker is a waste if you count to trigger it with slashes or waves, it can be a nice mod to use with Reflection on Excalibur: since all the bullets will be redirected to enemies and even if they have a low crit chance, one of them will be a crit hit sooner or later, I can assure you that with Reflection on you'll be in perma Berserker. Not to mention you could benefit from life strike only by channeling parry...

[GL.exe]

pressure point, bright purity, fury, berserker, spoiled strike, smite (faction), and 2 element mods (faction dependent)

 

I find that crit dmg falls off around high lvls cuz of the armor the enemy has, this build will keep you smooth sailing until lvl 80+ infested. Assuming you are running a max strength excalibur with prime flow and rage. When it comes to health loss tho, I just pop a health restore here and there although if you really want to you can switch spoiled strike for unranked lifestrike, channeling dmg can compensate for spoiled strike but you'll lose more energy that way.

[Tessai117]

If I may, I would correct you in 2 points:

- buzz kill is a waste speaking on EB side, as the blade damage is split into damage types so you're boosting only 1/3 of the damage with that. An elemental would then be a much better option.

- while I agree that Berserker is a waste if you count to trigger it with slashes or waves, it can be a nice mod to use with Reflection on Excalibur: since all the bullets will be redirected to enemies and even if they have a low crit chance, one of them will be a crit hit sooner or later, I can assure you that with Reflection on you'll be in perma Berserker. Not to mention you could benefit from life strike only by channeling parry...

 

I did literally say the same in my explanation for using buzz kill. It is to boost the waves mainly (which is 70% slash) not the blade itself (which already does absurd damage at this point).

 

And I do not have space for reflection on my build. I did try it out mind you. I just didn't end up using it at all.. why parry things when you could just slash dash in, channel a single strike to get to full health whenever needed and keep on going? :)

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

I did literally say the same in my explanation for using buzz kill. It is to boost the waves mainly (which is 70% slash) not the blade itself (which already does absurd damage at this point).

 

And I do not have space for reflection on my build. I did try it out mind you. I just didn't end up using it at all.. why parry things when you could just slash dash in, channel a single strike to get to full health whenever needed and keep on going? :)

I'm sorry, I didn't notice the explaination for using buzz kill!

 

Regarding Reflection, keep in mind that you don't need to parry for it to proc: EB will automatically parry frontal attacks, that can be redirected to enemies without you having to do anything but being in EB.

Reflection is a great choice cause with the new Excalibur you can get rid of the whole parry mechanic, having him automatically doing the job for you.

So if you tried it out, just note that you don't need to do anything or "use" it at all, it will do everything on itself.

 

The parry part was just mentioned to say that you can even use Life Strike while ranged with Reflection on, just use channeling and parry if you're too far from an enemy and need urgent heal!

Also, with the auto-reflection you have a very high chance to be in perma Berserker!