Help Wanted! New Player And Excalibur.

[Syronox]

Hey guys! As the title states I'm a fairly new player, and I chose the Excalibur frame when I joined the game. Now since then, I've really come to enjoy him! I didn't at first, but as I obtained more mods, I began to really see the fun in playing Excalibur. 

Now the problem is that when I obtained a few more mods and started doing a few more missions, I realized just how ridiculously powerful Exalted Blade is. I gave it a shot, learned the combos, and my impression afterwards is this:

This is so incredibly boring.

 

I won't get into every little detail, but I absolutely despise Exalted Blade. It's the perfect example of what counter-productive gameplay is to me. Yes, it's very good. Yes, it's effective. No, it does not feel satisfying to me whatsoever. I cleared hordes of enemies in a single click, and with the right mods I felt like I was on endless energy supply which made me wonder what in the world his other abilities were even there for. EB's slide attack is a free Radial Blind, Slash Dash is hardly even needed as a gap closer since EB's range goes through objects, and I won't bring up Radial Javelin since that's pretty self-explanatory. 

So, what I want to ask of you here in the forums is what can I do with my Excalibur? I love dashing around, even as just a utility, and using my blind to stun waves of enemies to peel for a downed teammate! That said, I found that building up Slash Dash can really make it a powerful AoE ability for groups of enemies, not to mention it knocks down targets it doesn't kill - something I always thought would be incredibly helpful for things like Bombards or Ancient Healers. Radial Javelin is even a nice "Oh snap!" button for when enemies swarm me or get in the right position to be AoE'd down. 

Am I just doing it wrong? It's incredibly fun, and then I pressed 4 and it feels like what I found to be fun was completely invalidated by a superior method of mindlessly spamming melee attacks with Exalted Blade. Should I just pack up and look for a Warframe more suitable to my playstyle, or is spamming EB something that falls off later? This is very disappointing to me, and I'd really hope that there's a way to salvage it. I'd really hate to just chalk up my Excalibur as mastery fodder and move on.

Thanks in advance,

~Syro

Edit: Spellcheck

Edited December 11, 2015 by Syronox

[Sormatte]

Build him around radial blind instead! Requires a couple forma, but does the job very very well ^^ In addition, radial blind doesn't fall off in later levels like EB does. 

 

EDIT: Whats your playstyle like? I could probably recommend you a frame that should suit you.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Sormatte

[Syronox]

Build him around radial blind instead! Requires a couple forma, but does the job very very well ^^ In addition, radial blind doesn't fall off in later levels like EB does. 

Hey! EB falls off? This is actually very pleasing news! Thank you for the suggestion, would you say that Radial Blind is more sought-after in groups than an EB built Excalibur? I would like to think that Blind is such an incredible Cc ability, that having that potential would be borderline invaluable. 

Edit: I love the hit and run playstyle of Slash Dash and the Cc that Radial Blind has. I tend to lean towards the more assassin-type of playstyle. Loki doesn't quite interest me as much, but I've been considering trying out Ash! 

Edited December 11, 2015 by Syronox

[Sormatte]

Hey! EB falls off? This is actually very pleasing news! Thank you for the suggestion, would you say that Radial Blind is more sought-after in groups than an EB built Excalibur? I would like to think that Blind is such an incredible Cc ability, that having that potential would be borderline invaluable. 

 

Yup! Like every other damage ability, EB will fall off eventually. Honestly it all depends on what level mission you're going into, for long void missions going to 40+mins/waves, an Excal built for Radial Blind is much better in terms of contributing to the team. If you're going for some low level stuff like 20 mins or 20 waves in the void, EB is your best bet as you will be able to help your squad blitz through the rounds. And yes, RB is an incredible CC ability, its my goto Excal build for pretty much anything!

[Chroia]

Build him around radial blind instead!

^ That.

Context:

Pre-rework Excal was one of the only 2 Warframes that I felt had no reason to exist. (For reference, the other was pre-rework Oberon.)

I've been playing an MR2 account, using an unformaed, unpotatoed Excal with only found mods and crafted gear and no restores; in everything besides Raids (because I can't be bothered to try) for around 3 months.

I'm finally posting this because I've decided to finally rank him to 4, for the upcoming Sorites :P

This Excal for general use:

This Excal for Nightmare missions:

Playstyle revolves around parkour and Radial Blind for survivability,

Primary use or stealth finishers or slide attacks on blinded enemies, with Exalted Blade as an anti-armor damage boost or board wipe.

And it's been the most rewarding play experience I've had in Warframe in around 8 months.

So I think I'm in a decent position to offer some feedback.

<snip>

Edited December 11, 2015 by Chroia

[Col_Helghan]

Mine is specced for maximum range and nearly capped efficiency.

Strength is not needed for this build, duration is around 100 %.

 

Strengths:

- Arguably the best CC in the game.

- Blind entire maps for a decent duration, whether to kill everything that stands or to revive a fallen Tenno.

- Use the Blind to perform melee Finishers and with the Augment you can without a doubt, one shot a lvl 100 Bombard, Heavy Gunner, you name it.

- Slash Dash will have an enormous range, plus with nearly capped efficiency you can spam it indefinitely, great mobility tool.

 

Weaknesses:

- None

 

I agree, Exalted Blade is the most boring ability to use, you´ll soon get bored to death if you build for this ability, unless you prefer cutting everything down without using your weapons. ( Primary and Secondary most notably)

Edited December 11, 2015 by Zealotux

[Darzk]

As much as I'd like to agree that EB falls off, really it doesn't start to do so until a fairly high level range, with armored enemies. Without Corrosive Projection/teammates, EB may start struggling against armored enemies after you've been in a high end endless mission for over half an hour. With 4xCP, EB can handily take out level 200 enemies just fine. 

 

EB is extremely powerful offensively; the drawback is actually that you become fairly squishy against those high level enemies. While you might be able to kill them quickly, they kill you even faster. So even an EB setup will rely on RB's blind to stay alive at higher levels - it's not just about the damage anymore (although 4x damage to blinded targets from EB... sigh).

 

A Radial Blind build is mostly CC, but it does open up enemies to Finisher attacks, which ignore armor; so it's potentially better against heavily armored enemies than EB.

 

But fact of the matter is EB is very powerful, and while you may drop it from your kit and still be effective, you'd just be gimping your frame. It doesn't 'drop off' until a level range you won't be playing in for a damned long while.

[Uhkretor]

I was going to suggest something, but after reading the whole topic... I believe my suggestion is useless, because it isn't even what you're looking for and/or you won't be able to play with Excalibur with it.

 

... Suffice to say, I don't use powers and I can go pretty, pretty far... Like completing Sorties solo... anywhere.

[Klinve]

On 15/12/2015 at 6:02 AM, Uhkretor said:

I was going to suggest something, but after reading the whole topic... I believe my suggestion is useless, because it isn't even what you're looking for and/or you won't be able to play with Excalibur with it.

 

... Suffice to say, I don't use powers and I can go pretty, pretty far... Like completing Sorties solo... anywhere.

Hi Uhkretor, can you suggest your build? I have try sortie but i not doing well and need teammate to revive me few times in the game with my usual build to t4 void mission....

 

[Epsik-kun]

EBlading Excalibur is a frame naturally designed to do high level content. No need to "despise" strength of Exalted Blade - there is a lot of stuff that can outperform it untill Excal hits his "comfort" zone, which is around enemies level 70~200.

On 11.12.2015 at 8:46 PM, Sormatte said:

In addition, radial blind doesn't fall off in later levels like EB does. 

Except it does. I would even argue that Covert Lethality RB build will never take you as far as a good EBlade build would.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Epsik-kun

[ChaoticVice777]

35 minutes ago, Epsik-kun said:

EBlading Excalibur is a frame naturally designed to do high level content. No need to "despise" strength of Exalted Blade - there is a lot of stuff that can outperform it untill Excal hits his "comfort" zone, which is around enemies level 70~200.

Except it does. I would even argue that Covert Lethality RB build will never take you as far as a good EBlade build would.

The main kicker behind Radial Blind is the limitation to the line of sight, which becomes especially important once enemies start being able to potentially one shot Excalibur. Range is certainly nice, but as long as enemies are behind cover, the boost becomes irrelevant (or rather, it becomes more relevant for Exalted Blade and Radial Javelin). 

Excalibur's toolkit actually streamlines quite well. Radial Blind lends additional strength to Exalted Blade while giving Excalibur crowd control. Exalted Blade gives Excalibur a high damaging melee option at range (and auto-parry), something that is incredibly difficult to find within melee weapons. Even Radial Javelin is relatively useful, as it clears rooms (with the right build and provided enough energy to do so) and stuns enemies for a little while that aren't killed by this ability. Slash Dash is the "get out of jail free" card, and gives Excalibur the option to target airborne enemies while being airborne himself (and potentially building up the melee combo counter), something that Exalted Blade cannot necessarily accomplish easily.

[Uhkretor]

On 16/03/2016 at 7:08 AM, Klinve said:

Hi Uhkretor, can you suggest your build? I have try sortie but i not doing well and need teammate to revive me few times in the game with my usual build to t4 void mission....

 

I can't show you any specifics of my build because its really personalized to my way of playing... Its extremely "In-da-f*****'-face" without any use of powers, against enemies of lvl120 and above, during Sorties. Any fellow player that ran a Sortie mission, alone or in a team of variable amount of members, knows how hard and demanding they are..

 

What I can provide is a few guidelines. Instead of building towards power use, you need to build it completely the opposite. Powers are meant to be an addition to the Warframe abilities that you provide as a player. Meaning that the Excalibur, or any other Warframe for that matter, will only be as good as the player controlling it... As we all know by now, the player IS the Operator. But the Warframe alone isn't nearly as good as it should be with its weapons. What you need is, in terms of equipment, to have good weapons. Not just a good Primary, Secondary or Melee. You need all 3 of them: a good Primary, a good Secondary and a good Melee. On top of that, you need to have those weapons modded for the faction you're up against. This is where scanning comes into play. If you don't have information about your enemies, on the Codex, you won't know what to use to improve your weapons against each faction for maximum efficiency.

 

My way of playing was created and developed WAY long ago, predating Warframe by years. It just clicked immediately with Warframe and this has been happening since Update 8. Yes, since that far. Anyway...

There is something that many players, and this happens a lot with Warframes that have low values on such particular stat, ignore because "it isn't worth it"... Armor. I'm from the time where Excalibur's default armor value was of 84, which was eventually reduced to 61. With the rework, it gained more armor than Rhino. But I still see players ignoring its Armor value because "it isn't worth it" for whatever reason they can think of. I personally don't care about their reasons because by making Armor more important than Excalibur's abilities is actually more worth it than the other way around, despite what many fellow players would like it to be otherwise.

 

With all this, I've already pointed out a few places that you can improve. Some of the mods that you need, since the whole "efficiency" system depends on mods being used, you probably won't have and you'll need to get them to build a respectable Excalibur. The weapon choice is going to be left entirely to you because the weapons I am using are, to use the same words that most in the community do, obsolete. Yet, those "obsolete" weapons are able to practically 1-shot enemies of lvl90, depending if I choose to do headshot or not. If I do, they'll 1-shot lvl135 enemies without a problem. If I don't, its just a question of adding another shot or a few more.

 

Don't take me wrong, I'm not against colorful builds. CC builds, EB builds, speed builds, whatever you can think of... I'm not against any of that but my build is, without question, the most effective. However, my build is mine for a reason... It fits perfectly with me. So, I left a few points you'll be able to try, and this is a very sound advice, before attempting anything else. There is room for you to be flexible, if you choose to follow the base of my build, as much as you want. It even fits with any weapons you can think of, that's how much flexibility it'll be able to allow.

 

I'm already imagining you being creative with it by now...

Edited March 31, 2016 by Uhkretor

[Gefy]

Well, firstly Excal is a really good frame. I sort of understand you with the E-Blade thing but, maybe the reason why you hate it so much is because and I quote :

On 10/12/2015 at 7:43 AM, Syronox said:

I'm a fairly new player

 So, maybe that's why E-Blade is annoying you. Personally, I love it! Not sure what I'd do without it to be honest. The reason why you hate E-Blade is because you play missions that are too basic. But once you start doing the Void and Derelict along with Saturn, Jupiter etc... E-Blade will become very helpful. Sometimes enemies will take 2 hits rather than only one.(more impressive than it sounds)... Even the best users still use Excal. It's a good frame. I agree that most of its abilities are absolutley useless but, once you get deeper into the game, E-Blade will be a unimaganbly great help. I hope this didnt offend you in any way. I also hope this helps.

 

[Uhkretor]

... You almost make it sound like Excal's only weapon is E-Blade...

 

... If its indeed a case of "fairly new player", then there is absolutely no Warframe he'll be able to use. My "the Operator makes the Warframe" proves it. Now, he asked for advices on what he can do with his Excalibur, so I'm assuming that he knows the difference between an enemy, a wall, open ground and its consequences, and hiding spots and their consequences... I'm not saying that what you said is wrong or anything, variety is treasure to me on a standardized "copy-paste" online community. We simply don't know all the angles of his situation, so, we're kindly trying to answer him per point, per person.

 

... Its like having second opinions from an army of doctors, per doctor... Excal's abilities aren't useless though. Their usefulness depends on the player's abilities... If the player's actually decent, he won't be needing Excal's abilities until enemies reach lvl80, even if the player is using crap weaponry like Mk1-Braton. If the player sucks, he'll be needing his abilities at an early stage. If the player -really- sucks, there is no Warframe, no build, no weaponry and no ability he'll be able to use (not even adding "properly" to the equation). If the player is good, he won't be needing his abilities until enemies reach around lvl105. Now, if the player is a beast, I can assure you that he will never use any ability, no matter the situation and/or enemy lvl. So, Excal's abilities (which is the Warframe that Synorox mentioned) usefulness is very dependant on the Operator.

 

... I sure keep imagining Klinve being creative with his Excalibur, after I left my reply there...

Edited April 1, 2016 by Uhkretor

[Kryshok]

Just don't press 4 to win. What I mean is play Excal by using his other abilities etc. Excal was my first frame well before the re-work ,since then I see most Excal players spam EB and that's it. Personally I prefer a RB/RJ build. 

My suggestion would be to mix up your playstyle and try doing misions without EB. 

As to other frames...by sayng you like Excal's Slash Dash you might try Rhino, he has a charge attack, extra armor in Iron Skin as well as some CC but without feeling overpowered.