Excalibur Build Feedback

[(PSN)Fidodude84]

Hi all!

Wanted to throw out some excalibur builds i have been playing around with to get some opinions. I really enjoy excalibur but hate the whole focus on exalted blade all the time from builds i have seen so iv done a couple of survival builds that i wanna try out.....see what you think!

Pure survival

Rejuvenation

endurance drift

quick thinking

steel fiber

primed continuity

rage

primed flow

fleting expertise

vitality

overextended

Built for survival only, endless missions, in my head it seems pretty solid but any feedback would be welcome.

Radial blind build

Corrosive projection

power drift

vitality

steel fiber

primed continuity

stretch

constitution

fleeting expertise

intensify

radiant finish

Built for blind and the augment radiant finish. Wanted some power strength to keep up the bonus damage. Again feedback would be ace.

Cheers all!

[(PSN)Daikon177]

Not sure if steel fiber is worth it, i didnt think his armor was all that high, unless its buffed during exalted blade?

[(PSN)Fidodude84]

Armour is 225 so with fiber that takes it to 473....i think lol! Sometimes the figures get away from me. Seemes decent enough and helps with survivability a little at least. I also have arcane grace so heath is constsntly being buffed

[Acebaur]

Steel Fiber is totally worth it on Excal. He has 225 armor now which gives 42% damage reduction. Adding in Steel Fiber increases that to 61%.

 

 

I don't understand the purpose of the first build. How is that good for endless? Rejuvenation isn't really that great of an aura and with virtually no power strength your only useful skill will be Radial Blind. At which point the second build is better. 

 

The second build looks much better, though I would drop Corrosive projection for Energry siphon. The reason is if you are going to make heavy use of Radial Blind then enemy armor doesn't matter as finishers bypass it completely. Also you don't really need a lot of power strength with Radiant Finish so consider Handspring over Power Drift. 

[(PSN)Fidodude84]

The first build was more for endurance than strength. I find abilitied strength focused drop off end game so was going more for utility and was trying to sync rejuvination with quick thinkibg and rage really to keep regaining health when things go downhill. Apreciate the feedback though, very helpful!!

Man my spelling looks rough there!!!

[(PSN)Fidodude84]

Like i say though, these are builds im just playing with, wanted to keep the energy coming in from rage on the first build and thought maybe i could do that with rejuvination.....

[Epsik-kun]

Rejuvenation is a garbage aura on high levels. Best synergy for Rage is to get Life Strike on your melee.

Endurance Drift is essentially a wasted slot. The best option for non-RJ Excalibur is Handspring. It will save your life countless times.

I don't see the point of Overextended in the first build, as it would suit the RB build much better. 

You don't need Radiant Finish if you're planning to use EBlade for finishers and have over 100% Strength.

However, with 40% Power Strength you might actually want to use the RB augment and get rid of Intensify.

Constitution is unnecessary - you'll have more than enough duration on your RB with Fleeting and Primed Continuity. Get maxed Efficiency instead (75% or 90% - up to you, if you keep Duration over 100%).

Power Drift is a wasted slot, again. You might want to either use Handspring or get Cunning Drift for extra few meters on your RB

[(PSN)Fidodude84]

Nice one, cheers for that. Iv never really used handspring to be honest so il have tro try this out. Appreciate the thourough breakdown tho!

[ThorienKELL]

What will you kill with if you don't use EB, or better, why even using excal at all if you dislike his best ability. I cannot asses your builds at glance like that, put screenshot or write value of STR DUR EFF RAN for each build. 

 

Here is my Excal, for comparison, for sorties I use slightly tougher variant (QT, P Flow and full fleeting) - you can do whatever you want with build like this because it has no weak sides. 

 

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/543047245833910200/58D83EE04BFD28148497ADE2A86E089F515AA0BB/

[Epsik-kun]

What will you kill with if you don't use EB, or better, why even using excal at all if you dislike his best ability. I cannot asses your builds at glance like that, put screenshot or write value of STR DUR EFF RAN for each build. 

 

Here is my Excal, for comparison, for sorties I use slightly tougher variant (QT, P Flow and full fleeting) - you can do whatever you want with build like this because it has no weak sides. 

 

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/543047245833910200/58D83EE04BFD28148497ADE2A86E089F515AA0BB/

>no weak sides

>dead meat if gets hit by a magnetic proc

>useless flow

>higher EBlade cost than the minimal one

>can be oneshotted in T4S starting at like 20 minutes

>no weak sides

right.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Epsik-kun

[SwiftPotato12]

Both those builds seem pretty solid, I main Excal(prime).

 

Just for comparison, heres my build:

 

Toxic Flight(optional, can be replaced with any utility mod. Rush is a pretty good alternative for survivability)

Steel Charge(Bonus melee damage. AFAIK it effects exaulted blade)

Redirection(optional)

Vitality(optional, but recommended)

Primed Flow

Streamline

Intensify

Rage

Radiant Finish(Bonus finisher damage. Finisher damage effects Exaulted Blade, but gives you a pretty solid boost on finishers in general.)

Stretch(optional)

 

It focuses on everything, so you don't have any negatives. This rewards using all your kit in unison. The core of this build is: Rage, Radiant Finish, Vitality. Obviously a lot of these mods can be switched out. I usually play with a lifestrike + channeling melee weapon for the sustainability. All you have to do to get more energy with rage, is take damage, blind, and life strike a heavy enemy.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited February 4, 2016 by SwiftPotato12

[(PSN)Fidodude84]

I just dont like relying on eb in missions which seems to be the norm. I like excalibur as i emjoy using blind, sash to get up close and finishers because, well, they are just awesome. Plus this triggers syndicate explosions aswell so im not looking to rely on the waves of eb to get my kills. I was just looking for alterrnate builds for more fun.

Swift potato. Cheers for the feedback, i have a general build too which uses no corrupted mods and that seems pretty solid, sometimes seems the best way without getting tangled in negatives.

[ThorienKELL]

>no weak sides

>dead meat if gets hit by a magnetic proc

>useless flow

>higher EBlade cost than the minimal one

>can be oneshotted in T4S starting at like 20 minutes

>no weak sides

right.

Magnetic proc? Is it something scary? Oh please share your knowledge, mighty disciple, cause I never perceived the hidden danger behind this nasty proc! Must I use "warm coat" mod to protect myself!?

 

Flow is never useless, it gives you, you know, stored energy so that you can use all your powers. Any time as you like, not not rely of enemies actually damaging you, as per rage. 

 

EB cost is very low I assure you, perhaps not capped but if you actually kill stuff you have more then enough energy for everything. If you have flow - even better!

 

Oneshotted? Not likely. Most of my frames have worse defense, armor and offense then excal and yet, they miraculously live through all kinds of missions, 40min+ daily and sorties every evening, but i guess this depends on skill of player unfortunately. My weak build (forgot to change it) today carried whole party in sortie #1 interception, 500+kills, 60%+ damage iirc, now I'm sorry that I haven't saved screenthos, And team were no noobs, all were well over MR10.

 

But admittedly, in sortie nr 3 when corpus snipers begin to really hurt can be oneshotted, no matter how well you play, that is why I have other build, with QT and even bigger, primed flow.

 

Perhaps you would like to share one of your builds, since you consider yourself so smart?

[Epsik-kun]

Magnetic proc? Is it something scary? Oh please share your knowledge, mighty disciple, cause I never perceived the hidden danger behind this nasty proc! Must I use "warm coat" mod to protect myself!?

 

Flow is never useless, it gives you, you know, stored energy so that you can use all your powers. Any time as you like, not not rely of enemies actually damaging you, as per rage. 

 

EB cost is very low I assure you, perhaps not capped but if you actually kill stuff you have more then enough energy for everything. If you have flow - even better!

 

Oneshotted? Not likely. Most of my frames have worse defense, armor and offense then excal and yet, they miraculously live through all kinds of missions, 40min+ daily and sorties every evening, but i guess this depends on skill of player unfortunately. My weak build (forgot to change it) today carried whole party in sortie #1 interception, 500+kills, 60%+ damage iirc, now I'm sorry that I haven't saved screenthos, And team were no noobs, all were well over MR10.

 

But admittedly, in sortie nr 3 when corpus snipers begin to really hurt can be oneshotted, no matter how well you play, that is why I have other build, with QT and even bigger, primed flow.

 

Perhaps you would like to share one of your builds, since you consider yourself so smart?

Well, why not? Let me educate you a bit.

 

Magnetic proc is a thing, that makes you run out of energy. Your "faultless" build wastes a slot for Flow, which is useless for a properly built Excalibur instead of using Rage, that can sustain you in any possible situations, without relying on energy restores/orbs/EV.

Thinking, that Flow is "never useless" is a common mistake that comes from someone who never tried to remove Flow from the build.

EB cost is indeed low, but it can be lower, that's the point.

I'm also glad, that you consider 40+ minutes star chart to be endgame, but I think, I have to break it to you - it isn't. You can solo 40 minutes of highest level Dark Sectors with an unranked frames.

Sorties aren't a challenge either, save for very specific augmented ones. Let's say, level 100 augmented damage sortie survival with Napalms is actually a challenge. Everything else is not.

On T4 enemies have constant tripled damage, so given you didn't bother to use Steel Fiber to increase your EHP by almost 50%, you will get oneshotted pretty soon, especially if Corpus Snipers are a threat for you.

Also, no - you won't have enough enemy energy drops to sustain your "never useless" Flow if you run an armor augmented lvl 100 sortie or simply a hourly T4S.

Also, I have to say, that by polarizing aura slot on Excalibur you had killed potential RJ build.

 

I won't say that mine build is that different. Save for the fact, I can solo over a hour of T4S with it, and survive a lvl 105 T4 Corrupted Bombard missile to the face.

[(PSN)Victini24316]

Prime flow is a staple if your going for an exalted blade build.

Also I would recommend going with the steel charge aura instead, I see a lot of Excalibur's running it

Edited February 5, 2016 by (PS4)Victini24316

[Epsik-kun]

Prime flow is a staple if your going for an exalted blade build.

Primed Flow is a waste of a slot if you are going for an Exalted Blade build. It can be used for RJ build however.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Epsik-kun

[Acebaur]

@Epsik: Interesting choice with Stretch. Why is that in there instead of say Intensify?  Also what would you recommend in place of P. Continuity if one doesn't have that mod?  Swap it with the regular or Const.? Or something else entirely?

[Epsik-kun]

@Epsik: Interesting choice with Stretch. Why is that in there instead of say Intensify?  Also what would you recommend in place of P. Continuity if one doesn't have that mod?  Swap it with the regular or Const.? Or something else entirely?

Mainly to test it. My previous build had Intensify instead of it. I believe, having extra range on your Radial Blind and spin Blind will be more useful after the point when you can die under a second. Also, godlike Slash Dashes.

I used regular Continuity prior to getting Primed one. Constitution would be a better option, but it requires higher mod space, has a different polarity and then there's that moment when you swap it for Primed Continuity and lose the extra knockdown recovery speed.

I just didn't use Transient Fortitude prior to getting Primed Continuity.

[ThorienKELL]

Well, why not? Let me educate you a bit.

 

Magnetic proc is a thing, that makes you run out of energy. Your "faultless" build wastes a slot for Flow, which is useless for a properly built Excalibur instead of using Rage, that can sustain you in any possible situations, without relying on energy restores/orbs/EV.

Thinking, that Flow is "never useless" is a common mistake that comes from someone who never tried to remove Flow from the build.

EB cost is indeed low, but it can be lower, that's the point.

I'm also glad, that you consider 40+ minutes star chart to be endgame, but I think, I have to break it to you - it isn't. You can solo 40 minutes of highest level Dark Sectors with an unranked frames.

Sorties aren't a challenge either, save for very specific augmented ones. Let's say, level 100 augmented damage sortie survival with Napalms is actually a challenge. Everything else is not.

On T4 enemies have constant tripled damage, so given you didn't bother to use Steel Fiber to increase your EHP by almost 50%, you will get oneshotted pretty soon, especially if Corpus Snipers are a threat for you.

Also, no - you won't have enough enemy energy drops to sustain your "never useless" Flow if you run an armor augmented lvl 100 sortie or simply a hourly T4S.

Also, I have to say, that by polarizing aura slot on Excalibur you had killed potential RJ build.

 

I won't say that mine build is that different. Save for the fact, I can solo over a hour of T4S with it, and survive a lvl 105 T4 Corrupted Bombard missile to the face.

 

You are using maximum efficiency build with rage. That is one way of doing things, I guess, not very common but OK - and that is why you don't need flow. But rage can sustain EB even with 130% EFF, no transient and not hurting your duration. Flow recommended. In fact most of excal builds I see work that way. That is the other way.

 

Third way is imo optimal, that is why I'm using it. Good duration for RB, enough energy for whatever you want, even clear the trash with RJ and ability to sustain EB longest of all methods, without depending on receiving damage and on any external source. And I go without flow in many of my frames because almost all of them have high efficiency and trio of primed cont, 3/5 fleeting and streamline as staple. But I choose not to do it on my excal, for mentioned reasons. My chroma happily uses rage and no flow for example. 

 

And your method is not immune to magnetic proc either. Unless you counting as being without energy and receiving damage to replenish a advantage. 

 

And my other build (P flow, QT) has massively larger effective HP then your steel fiber "tough" excal. Maybe you could learn thing or two instead of trying to educate others. 

 

And I'm glad that you shared YOUR idea of endgame with us. For me staying 40 minutes is limit not for my frames or skills or gear but my back and neck and general boredom and tediousness of 1hr+ missions. Why would I have to do this to myself? I am playing games for fun, I have nothing to prove to anyone. This game is not particularly difficult, it's all about proper skill synergy and perks. My ash and excal are with arcane trickery syndanas, huras kubrow and naramon school mostly invisible and immortal. Yey! I have beaten the game - I'm the best. Yawn.

[Epsik-kun]

Maybe you could learn thing or two instead of trying to educate others. 

Indeed, maybe you could. I think you actually should learn a thing or two.

As you have said yourself, you have to use a whole another build for sorties, because you get killed by trash enemies like Corpus Snipers. Indeed, QT + P. Flow build will have really high EHP if it's complete. However, completing this build requires you to get QT, P. Flow, Vitality, Steel Fiber, Rage. Given any adequate melee Excalibur uses Rage, it is still 4 mods just for survivability. If you don't use all of them - no, your build won't have "massively larger effective EHP" than Vitality + Steel Fiber + Rage build, in most cases it will be actually worse.

The only case when you might consider putting Flow on your EBlade Excalibur is when you're going for Blind Rage + Transient build, that's all. In every other case it is a wasted slot. I can manage my energy when it's limited to 40 without running out of it. 150 allows you to spam everything you want whenever you want. Flow with Rage is an overkill. Flow without Rage is a cheap bandaid.

And, no, Rage has an absurd advantage over Flow in regards of magnetic procs, because my build will get the energy back as soon, as proc ends. Your build will either have to use external methods of restoring energy or end up a dead meat.

 

Well, here you go with the difference. Your level of "challenging" and my level of "challenging" are different. Your build may be an "optimal" for you, on the level of difficulty you prefer to face, but that isn't the same for me. I can't afford having such a feeble build to face enemies I consider actually dangerous, and I can't afford having close to zero offensive capabilities of QT combo build.

And your choice of redundand Arcanes just confirms it once again.

 

I wouldn't say anything, weren't you to claim your build "doesn't have weak sides", because it has plenty of them.

[(PSN)Hayabusa_3-17]

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/582088-any-good-excalibur-builds/?p=6726077

 

This was a post I made in an earlier Excalibur topic. Look into it and tell me what you think.

[(PSN)Fidodude84]

Nice one, cheers for the thourough response, il definatly try some of these out later! Cheers dude!

[ThorienKELL]

@Epsik-kun

 

At glance of our discussion, one may think that your vastly superior build is something unheard of. In reality they are almost identical, you are arguing mostly trivial matters of restoring energy when in reality anything really works. 

 

Corpus sinpers, same as grinner balista can do dramatic damage to any frame, I would hardly classify it as trash past lvl 100. 

 

If you're using QT, you don't need steel fiber, why would you? Flow is there as multi role mod so it cannot be classified as "defensive" - so I use only 2 mods for defense, and one for energy - exactly the same as you, and yet somehow you still find your build superior.

 

Further more, your build requires you to get damaged. In lower level missions this does not happen. In frost bubble this does not happen. In limbo this does not happen. if enemies are incapacitated as per cc or blind, this does not happen. Your build truly excels only it high level survival and yet you insist it to be "universally better".

 

Your steel fiber increases damage reduction form 40 to 60%, and quick thinking is giving you over 1000 additional HP, any yet you insist that my slot is wasted and my build is "weaker"

 

Really, I wouldn't said anything were't you claim you "know better" then the others, you just have slightly different approach and bit of ego. 

Edited February 5, 2016 by ThorienKELL

[Epsik-kun]

@Epsik-kun

 

At glance of our discussion, one may think that your vastly superior build is something unheard of. In reality they are almost identical, you are arguing mostly trivial matters of restoring energy when in reality anything really works. 

 

Corpus sinpers, same as grinner balista can do dramatic damage to any frame, I would hardly classify it as trash past lvl 100. 

 

If you're using QT, you don't need steel fiber, why would you? Flow is there as multi role mod so it cannot be classified as "defensive" - so I use only 2 mods for defense, and one for energy - exactly the same as you, and yet somehow you still find your build superior.

 

Further more, your build requires you to get damaged. In lower level missions this does not happen. In frost bubble this does not happen. In limbo this does not happen. if enemies are incapacitated as per cc or blind, this does not happen. Your build truly excels only it high level survival and yet you insist it to be "universally better".

 

Your steel fiber increases damage reduction form 40 to 60%, and quick thinking is giving you over 1000 additional HP, any yet you insist that my slot is wasted and my build is "weaker"

 

Really, I wouldn't said anything were't you claim you "know better" then the others, you just have slightly different approach and bit of ego. 

Yeah, you pretty much took the mod that forms Excalibur and replaced it with a useless bandaid - trivial matter. I think you also don't have Life Strike on your weapon. In star chart reality - yes, everything works. Unranked frames work too.

Well, the truth is, Ballistas and Snipers are trash level for Excalibur. They might be dangerous for frames who rely solely on CC and movement for survival, but for Excal who can take a blow they don't pose any threat. Things that can kill Excal in sorties are Scorches and Napalms.

You don't seem to realize, that on lower levels, or when everything is in CC you usually can kill stuff fast enough for it to drop energy orbs or don't have to kill stuff at all. You start to run out of energy when enemies start to become tough, and that's the same moment when you start to receive some guaranteed damage. On EBlade Excalibur Flow (and Primed Flow) will never outperform Rage, there's exactly zero situations and possible builds, when Flow will be superior to Rage. And this includes Quick Thinking build.

And you don't seem to understand the point of Quick Thinking build, because it is to give you a buffer of damage, not to make you transfer all incoming damage into energy. This will kill you. And the reason why you need Steel Fiber is to make your health take as much damage as possible, before it'll go into energy. Then, energy is restored by Rage and health by Life Strike - you get your survivability working. Simply using just P. Flow and Quick Thinking will eventually get you staggered and dead.

Well, maybe it because Steel Fiber gives you over 700 EHP, that won't put you into stagger, won't leave you without energy, can be rapidly replenished in combat and won't require you to waste a slot for Flow. I'm not sure, which one of these reasons are the main one.

I didn't claim I know better than "the others". In fact, I did not claim anything, it was you who became insecure as soon as you were told your build is nowhere close to having "no weak sides".

 

 

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/582088-any-good-excalibur-builds/?p=6726077

 

This was a post I made in an earlier Excalibur topic. Look into it and tell me what you think.

The very reason I don't use the Quick Thinking build is because it will kill RJ build, like it did in your case.

[ThorienKELL]

 I think you also don't have Life Strike on your weapon.

You think too much, LS is must have on all my melee weapons. 

 

Well, the truth is, Ballistas and Snipers are trash level for Excalibur.

Create 10 lvl 70 balistas in simulacrum and tell us how it went.

 

there's exactly zero situations and possible builds, when Flow will be superior to Rage.

I just give you several examples, where you don't receive damage and yet you choose to push your way no matter what. Is discussion even possible I wander?

 

And you don't seem to understand the point of Quick Thinking build

I know exactly how QT works. When you make mistake, you don't die. Sometimes this is all you need. I prefer it to having 20% of DR more. QT is very solid safety mechanism, that saved my butt on many frames many times. 

 

And don't tell me how rage/life strike combination works. I have all frames and all functional builds. My chroma and wukong use such mechanics, but i opted for other way with my excal.

 

I didn't claim I know better than "the others". In fact, I did not claim anything, it was you who became insecure as soon as you were told your build is nowhere close to having "no weak sides".

But you did exactly that. You made your specialized build and claimed others are "weaker". When I told my build has no weak sides I thought about STR/DURA/RAN/EFF, not that it can take 100 lvl bombard rocket to face, QT build can. You build differs in one, very debatable mod and you act superior, which is annoying. 

 

The very reason I don't use the Quick Thinking build is because it will kill RJ build, like it did in your case.

Why are you keep mixing again heavily specialized RJ build into conversation is unclear to me. RJ build looks nothing like builds we talk about here.

 

 

I would even agree to test your build but ...what, flow out, rage in max FE in and steel fiber? I doubt I could even tell the difference honestly. And yet you argue three pages like it's some science.

Edited February 5, 2016 by ThorienKELL

[Epsik-kun]

 I think you also don't have Life Strike on your weapon.

You think too much, LS is must have on all my melee weapons. 

So, you do have some common sense.

 

Well, the truth is, Ballistas and Snipers are trash level for Excalibur.

Create 10 lvl 70 balistas in simulacrum and tell us how it went.

It went like this:

there's exactly zero situations and possible builds, when Flow will be superior to Rage.

I just give you several examples, where you don't receive damage and yet you choose to push your way no matter what. Is discussion even possible I wander?

And I just stated you why all your examples prove nothing - do you even read? 150 energy Excalibur can sit inside a globe in the same exact fashion 300 energy Excalibur would. Especially, given the difference in Efficiency. And when you go on low level mission, you can sustain 150 energy 0 efficiency EBlade. And I have no idea where do you wander - don't ask me.

 

 I didn't claim I know better than "the others". In fact, I did not claim anything, it was you who became insecure as soon as you were told your build is nowhere close to having "no weak sides".

But you did exactly that. You made your specialized build and claimed others are "weaker". When I told my build has no weak sides I thought about STR/DURA/RAN/EFF, not that it can take 100 lvl bombard rocket to face, QT build can. You build differs in one, very debatable mod and you act superior, which is annoying. 

You claimed your build has no weak sides. I said it's bullS#&$ - that's all I did. Having to rely on external energy sources is a weak side, no matter how you feel about it. Having low EHP on melee frame is a weak side too. And Rage on Excalibur isn't a "debatable mod". It's a core mod.

 

The very reason I don't use the Quick Thinking build is because it will kill RJ build, like it did in your case.

Why are you keep mixing again heavily specialized RJ build into conversation is unclear to me. RJ build looks nothing like builds we talk about here.

Do you even read? Like, seriously?