Excal Pointers?

[Rajal]

So, I recently forma'd my Excalibur (My first forma!) and changed his aura slot to accommodate Steel Charge (Maduri). I don't know if this affects Exalted Blade, but I figured it did... Previously I had Energy Siphon, which I know it is disabled while EB is running, but I feel like I made a mistake. I see a ton of people fighting over which is the best aura on Excal so it's really confusing. I don't have a lot of the super special mods (No primed stuff, no Over Extended, etc) So the questions I have are: Does Steel Charge affect EB? What kinds of mods should I be on the look out for this 'frame? My Excal is currently decked out with this stuff, keep in mind that as of this post, he's lvl 18: Maxed Steel Charge Aura, Rank 6 Vitality, Rank 4 Flow, Maxed Streamline, Maxed Intensify, Maxed Rage, Rank 5 Equilibrium (I think I can swap this out).

 

Also I'd like to add that I have a Dakra Prime, which I have yet to forma, though I'm currently leveling another set of weapons as I relevel my Excalibur: Amprex, Kohmak, Plasma Sword. I plan to reequip my Dakra when I get back into the void for goodies. My Dakra is equipped with these mods: Maxed Crimson Dervish, Maxed Fury, Maxed Fever Strike, Mased True Steel (can probably swap this out), Rank 2 Jagged Edge (swappable too I think), Rank 3 Pressure Point, Maxed Vicious Frost, and Maxed Organ Shatter (swappable too I think). I think I can probably put in something like Spoiled Strike, but I'm not sure. I'm certain I'll probably need to hit up Derelicts for some of the special mods, just need a team with keys and stuff. Or I can just wait for my buddies to help out...

Edited July 20, 2015 by Rajal

[CombatPastor]

Here is the Excal build I use almost exclusively: http://goo.gl/laOLpc

 

The thing I like alot about Excalibur is the un-polarized Aura slot. By adding forma to the other slots and leaving this one blank, you're able to switch to whichever Aura fits the situation. Great versatility, but requires more forma on the frame.

 

That's not to say Steel Charge isn't good. It does affect the damage from Exalted Blade and works better than Energy Siphon (in my opinion) if you intend to stay in EB mode long-term. Dakra Prime works for Excal because of his passive that boosts attack speed and damage by 10% for all single swords, dual swords, and nikanas (including D. Nikana). Some of the best weapons to use on Excal are those with Syndicate mods that boost overall damage. Prisma Skana, Prisma Dual Cleavers, and Jaw Sword work well, but may be a little hard to obtain if you don't already have them. Easier to obtain (and still just as useful) are the Mire, the Skana and Dual Cleaver (both non-prisma). Remember, EB does use the same Syndicate AoE effect as the melee Excal is carrying, so here's a few things to look at - remember Syndicate procs happen every time the weapon gains 2,000 afinity. Use whichever one suits your playstyle!:

 

Mire - uses the Toxic Blight mod, giving 100% Toxin damage on the weapon just like a Toxin mod, but also deals 1,000 Viral damage, 25% of base energy (so about 25 energy on Excal - like picking up a free energy orb), and 10% base movement speed increase for 30 seconds.

 

Dual Cleavers/Prisma Dual Cleavers - uses the Justice Blades mod, boosting overall Melee damage by 100%, but also deals 1,000 Blast damage, staggers opponents (staggered opponents are open for melee finishers!), restores 25% of maximum health (great passive HP regen) and increases the frame's base armor by 25% for 30 seconds (Excal jumps from 225 armor to 281 rounded).

 

Skana/Prisma Skana - uses the Bright Purity mod, boosting overall Melee damage by 100%, but also deals 1,000 Corrosive damage, restores 25% of maximum health (again, great passive HP regen), and increases the frames base HP by 25% for 30 seconds (Excal goes from 740 max HP to 765). Trust me on the Skana thing! the melee weapons' stats don't carry over to EB, just the mods equipped!

 

Jaw Sword - uses the Blade of Truth mod, boosting overall Melee damage by 100%, but also deals 1,000 Gas damage, restores 25% of maximum health (same passive HP regen) and increases maximum stamina by 100% (Excal goes from 100 Stamina to 200 - more melee, blocking, etc.) The Stamina thing may not last much longer, considering DE's getting rid of stamina in U17, but for now, that's the effect.

 

There are more melee weapons with Syndicate mods, but these tend to fit with Excal's passive best. You can also run weapons that don't have syndicate mods, if you'd like (Nikana, D. Nikana, Dakra Prime, Dual Ether, Dual Ichor, Dual Zoren, Dual Heat Sword, Cronus, Pangolin Sword, Plasma Sword...there might be more? lol) but you lose out on some of these awesome effects.

 

tl;dr - Check out the melee weapons with syndicate mods. Steel Charge is useful, but its best to be able to change auras based on team and game composition. Take all info to heart and play to HAVE FUN!

Edited July 20, 2015 by CombatPastor

[Dirty_H4rr1]

yeah, steel charge affects exalted blade. regarding your melee weapon, the best ones that synergise well with EB (imo) are prisma skana and prisma dual cleavers, as you can equip the syndicate mods in addition to berserker, crit chance/damage mods, fury, pointed strike and 2 elemental mods.

You can exchange the fury mod with an unranked life strike for better survability, as you'll be gaining speed from berserker.

[Primal_Scream]

Mainly try to mod excel for energy efficiency and power strength. I have modded mine for those, vitality and redirection. He is unstoppable with that build, for me.

[Rajal]

Sadly, I missed out on the Prisma stuff when Baro came to town. Don't have the Prisma Skanas either, but I'll keep a look out for those again. I didn't have enough Ducats for the cleavers, but I do have normal ones sitting around all alone and unranked. I still need Lifestrike, Syndicate rank ups (need a prime pieces and that has been driving me insane), and Berserker. Will have to do more Dark Sectors and Void stuff for those.

[Darzk]

SC aura does effect EB, but it's in the manner of a +melee% damage mod on your weapon, so it stacks additively with those other mods. What this means is it provides a 60% bonus on top of the 320%-420% damage you already have, or a overall damage increase of 14.3%-18.75%. 

 

When facing armored targets, Corrosive Projection would add far more damage to attacks, more like 30%+.

 

What you also have to consider is that the effect of your aura is shared with teammates, who most likely will not be using melee weapons. This means that SC aura is somewhat selfish, because it's not providing a benefit to teammates. I would choose an aura with a 5% benefit to the team over a 15% benefit to myself any day of the week.

 

The 'benefit to teammates' is a decent argument for using ES or Rejuv or w.e the team needs, even if it's not helpful to you personally.

 

I'd also avoid the trap of worrying too much about EB's damage. It deals a LOT of damage in it's current iteration, enough that you don't really need to focus on squeezing those last few percentage points of damage out of your mod setups. I much prefer a 'tanky' or CC setup on the frame than going with pure power strength, for example.

[T3RT1UM]

Should have left the aura slot alone.

[CombatPastor]

SC aura does effect EB, but it's in the manner of a +melee% damage mod on your weapon, so it stacks additively with those other mods. What this means is it provides a 60% bonus on top of the 320%-420% damage you already have, or a overall damage increase of 14.3%-18.75%. 

 

When facing armored targets, Corrosive Projection would add far more damage to attacks, more like 30%+.

 

What you also have to consider is that the effect of your aura is shared with teammates, who most likely will not be using melee weapons. This means that SC aura is somewhat selfish, because it's not providing a benefit to teammates. I would choose an aura with a 5% benefit to the team over a 15% benefit to myself any day of the week.

 

The 'benefit to teammates' is a decent argument for using ES or Rejuv or w.e the team needs, even if it's not helpful to you personally.

 

I'd also avoid the trap of worrying too much about EB's damage. It deals a LOT of damage in it's current iteration, enough that you don't really need to focus on squeezing those last few percentage points of damage out of your mod setups. I much prefer a 'tanky' or CC setup on the frame than going with pure power strength, for example.

 

 

There's always the option of using Radial Blind and doing a melee finisher, which bypasses armor. I'd stick to doing that for the heavies, but doing it that way removes the armor from the equation completely and allows much more of the Steel Charge damage to go through.

 

I do agree that SC is still more geared for Solo play.

[Rajal]

Urgh... should have left that slot alone. I'm guessing it's too late to turn back now... Thanks for all the awesome pointers though.

[Rajal]

Decided to go ahead and forma him again. Blanked out his aura slot like it should be. Leveling him won't be a problem, but still, two formas down the drain. At least I have one building in the foundry now, though. Next time I'll try and consider what to forma and stuff rather than jump without looking first. Again, thanks for the input. If you guys have anything else to throw in, please do so.

[Darzk]

Decided to go ahead and forma him again. Blanked out his aura slot like it should be. 

.... what.

 

It would have made more sense to just add another polarity to the main mod slots. A blank aura would generate 7 points, while a mismatch would generate 5 points, so you've only gained 2 mod points by swapping back to a blank. Way less than you could have gained by cutting the cost of a mod in half. 

 

Plus it would give you a ton of extra points when you use SC aura, so you would have been able to experiment with alternate builds that might not match your polarities, or go for max strength/eff without having enough polarities for it with another aura, etc.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Darzk

[Rajal]

...blarg. Well, now my noobishness is really showing. Meh...

 

Some people did make some good pointers about flexibility though so that's why I switched it back. Next forma will be on the normal slots, and as you pointed out, SC was a selfish pick. I probably should have switched the polarity to something else rather than blank... eh. Oh well. This is a learning experience. On the plus side I can at least help out my friends whenever I take Excal out for runs by varying our auras on the fly... I guess.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Rajal

[CombatPastor]

Don't worry. I forma'd my Excal 7 times before I found the build I love...and it turns out to be a 3 forma build (with the blank aura slot). How about that? lol

 

Nah, but really, in the future you can use the Warframe Builder website to put together potential builds. There are also a whole host of people that post their builds to the site. Don't rely solely on Warframe Builder though. Test the builds for everything you put together in-game. Warframe Builder is great for getting a baseline understanding of things, but sometimes the numbers can lead you wrong.