Excalibur need survivability

[iNew_Vexx]

Like almost everyone who start the game, we chosen excalibur, the number 1, the market boy, etc, etc, etc. He is a very popular frame, according this lists:
list 1

mogamu list (tennocon - youtube)

But, why i dont see excalibur in high level content? The short answer, survivability. He is a excelent damage dealer frame...but that it. No good for solo content, not good for raids, not good for high level content, what is the focus of the most high level players.

Excalibur is a melee frame, his name is the name of a sword, he need survivability, like a shield, or life steal, or short invencibility, because he is a melee frame, he need this for player who love him, well, play with him, not just for fun, but in the most mission like we play with rhino, inaros, nidus, ivara, loki...

I ask myself, he is soo popular, but he is a ok frame...is that ok? I really wish a new skill for him, or a new redesign for his 1 and 3 (lets be honest, no one use radial javelin anymore, and the 1 is pretty bad in everyframe, with rare exceptions).

What you guys thinking about it?

 

(OBS: sorry for my bad english, im from Brasil)

 

[xXDeadsinxX]

Um no. If you really do think that he needs more survivability then you’re building him all wrong. He is very survivable. 

[NekroArts]

I think you're doing something wrong if you can't survive with Excalibur within sensible level range.

[GordoFreeman]

Radial blind? Slash dash for movement? Auto deflecting bullets (dmg reduction of sorts) coming from the front with the ult... wich when you are in you can slide into a mini radial blind for no cost?

[Daoxue]

Well, personally I think that's mostly just preference.
He is not super wanted on missions like maybe an EV trin or something, so maybe that's why you don't see him on them too often.

If you want more survivability, try using radial blind/life strike/quick thinking+rage+vitaily+flow

[FerroCutem]

Slap on condition overload and healing return, works perfect on Mot 30+ min.

You also have a blind which is one of the best cc abilities in the game.

[Teshin_Dax]

9 minutes ago, GordoFreeman said:

Radial blind? Slash dash for movement? Auto deflecting bullets (dmg reduction of sorts) coming from the front with the ult... wich when you are in you can slide into a mini radial blind for no cost?

How long did you stay away from the game or didnt play excal? 

"Exalted Blade's built-in Radial Blind (triggered by performing a spin attack) drains 25 energy per use (half the cost of a normal Radial Blind)."

[GordoFreeman]

11 minutes ago, Teshin_Dax said:

How long did you stay away from the game or didnt play excal? 

"Exalted Blade's built-in Radial Blind (triggered by performing a spin attack) drains 25 energy per use (half the cost of a normal Radial Blind)."

Still counts as a survival skill.

[(XBOX)Onyx Schnee]

fun tip: chromatic blade aug+60/60 mods+healing return+condition overload. there ya go

[iNew_Vexx]

5 hours ago, Daoxue said:

Well, personally I think that's mostly just preference.
He is not super wanted on missions like maybe an EV trin or something, so maybe that's why you don't see him on them too often.

If you want more survivability, try using radial blind/life strike/quick thinking+rage+vitaily+flow

yeah, this is why i create this post. You see, for exca survive he need a LOT of mods for working, plus healing return and status condition, and etc, etc, etc...this is not survivability, this is only the mods working.

And have this factor, in my opinion, exca isnt need because have a lot of frames now who do his work better, solo and with team. He is not a bad frame, but hi is not a top tier frame too, and i wish this for him, he deserve be a top tier frame.

[iNew_Vexx]

5 hours ago, GordoFreeman said:

Still counts as a survival skill.

You already try play him solo or in team in a survive mission in a wave 7, or maybe 10? Try use this radial blind over and over again...u"ll be dead in the second "free" blind. The range is short, very short, and cost half of the energy to cast for blind maybe 2 or 3 mobs...not worth.

[MrForz]

To be brutally honest, he does have a point. Excal will reach a point where you spam the f- out of Radial Blind or die (and sometimes both because some mobs timed their arrival perfectly with the ability's downtime) which makes the gameplay kinda meh. However... It might probably be for the best. Let the lockdown and support frames do their job and allow you to continue pulverizing everything you stare at.

[o.0-]

Since I've been using the proto-skin I've been thinking of how cool if Radial Javelin looked like it was an Exalted Glaive throw instead, and that Excal threw Glaive waves as Exalted Blade was used.

I wouldn't mind having the waves be a charged melee and removal of the slide blind instead along with other tweaks as I have tried Excal in Kuva Floods and such and have needed so much more utility in dire situations, as Excal can still be powerful in tons of content with various stylistic tweaks and adjustments, depending on what's available for Excal's evolution.

Edited November 3, 2017 by SPARTAN-187.Thanatos
words in atmo

[(PSN)kingbrown2012]

3 hours ago, Khaeji said:

You already try play him solo or in team in a survive mission in a wave 7, or maybe 10? Try use this radial blind over and over again...u"ll be dead in the second "free" blind. The range is short, very short, and cost half of the energy to cast for blind maybe 2 or 3 mobs...not worth.

You just don’t know ho to use excal at all my guy

[iNew_Vexx]

On 03/11/2017 at 12:50 AM, MrForz said:

To be brutally honest, he does have a point. Excal will reach a point where you spam the f- out of Radial Blind or die (and sometimes both because some mobs timed their arrival perfectly with the ability's downtime) which makes the gameplay kinda meh. However... It might probably be for the best. Let the lockdown and support frames do their job and allow you to continue pulverizing everything you stare at.

U have a point too, kkkkk. But its sad, i really wish a top tier exca.

[JuicyPop]

On 11/2/2017 at 3:46 PM, Khaeji said:

Like almost everyone who start the game, we chosen excalibur, the number 1, the market boy, etc, etc, etc. He is a very popular frame, according this lists:
list 1

mogamu list (tennocon - youtube)

But, why i dont see excalibur in high level content? The short answer, survivability. He is a excelent damage dealer frame...but that it. No good for solo content, not good for raids, not good for high level content, what is the focus of the most high level players.

Excalibur is a melee frame, his name is the name of a sword, he need survivability, like a shield, or life steal, or short invencibility, because he is a melee frame, he need this for player who love him, well, play with him, not just for fun, but in the most mission like we play with rhino, inaros, nidus, ivara, loki...

I ask myself, he is soo popular, but he is a ok frame...is that ok? I really wish a new skill for him, or a new redesign for his 1 and 3 (lets be honest, no one use radial javelin anymore, and the 1 is pretty bad in everyframe, with rare exceptions).

What you guys thinking about it?

 

(OBS: sorry for my bad english, im from Brasil)

 

I think it's largely because the stance for Exalted Blade is terribly bland. It's just not all that interesting to dip and duck behind cover while doing the same basic animations to shoot energy waves.  

I still use him occasionally but his play patterns quickly become boring despite the fact that his damage is just obscene when he's free to hit. 

Edited November 4, 2017 by JuicyPop

[Grimmstyler]

Radial Blind + [Arcane Trickery] = High level cheesing Survivabilty

Edited November 4, 2017 by Grimmstyler

[Lost_Cartographer]

Excalibur's defenses come in the form of Radial blind (LoS dependant, not the longest CC) slash dash use to move to a target, radial javelin for AoE stun (not quite as LoS dependant) and Exalted Blade (auto-block.)  Melee isn't my cup of tea, so I play him in easier missions because he looks cool.

The only buff I could suggest for Excalibur is to broaden his passive to all melee weapons, but since most passives are hyper niche (and in Ember's case, downright masochistic) it should at least extend to heavy weapons (great swords/ great axes,) nikanas and dual swords if it doesn't already.

Edited November 4, 2017 by Littleman88

[iNew_Vexx]

On 04/11/2017 at 5:17 AM, JuicyPop said:

I think it's largely because the stance for Exalted Blade is terribly bland. It's just not all that interesting to dip and duck behind cover while doing the same basic animations to shoot energy waves.  

I still use him occasionally but his play patterns quickly become boring despite the fact that his damage is just obscene when he's free to hit. 

The exalted blade stance is another problem, i agree.

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

 

Am 3.11.2017 um 02:43 schrieb Khaeji:

You already try play him solo or in team in a survive mission in a wave 7, or maybe 10? Try use this radial blind over and over again...u"ll be dead in the second "free" blind. The range is short, very short, and cost half of the energy to cast for blind maybe 2 or 3 mobs...not worth.

Boi you'll laugh your &#! off when you find this thread in a few years.

 

What you're experiencing here is less of an issue with his kit but much rather with your mods i'd assume.

Your priority for now should be farming and leveling mods. What you need is:

Rage-converts recieved damage to energy

(Primed)Flow- for your energy pool

Streamline-efficiency, lowers the cost

Continiuty and/or constitution - duration to keep is ult cheap

Vitality and steel fiber - your best friends when it comes to surviving

Stretch - for now, becomes kinda optional once your basestats are high enough

Later: Chromatic blade - makes his ult deal status, what adds to your survivability too.

Life strike - melee mod that heals you on channeling, includes exalted waves.

Add sone power strength to the mix too.

Put those in your excal and i guarantee that you'll change your mind about him. Rage keeps you pretty much energiced on even the smallest recieved damage, what gives you the posibillity to blind more often and to heal yourself. Exalted blade should become your bread and butter for that and dealing damage. Blinding not only keeps enemys from attacking you, beein among the strongest types of Cc, it also opens enemys to finishers, what's a sure kill move, and stealth multipliers, what makes his damage output rather high.

Max all the mods for the best result (except for life strike. Keep that one at rank zero. Doesn't need more.) And look up what works for exalted blade abd what doesn't.

Edited November 6, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108

[Epsik-kun]

Sure love seeing people who have no idea how to build and play Excalibur telling other they're playing and building Excalibur wrong.

The OP fails to properly convey his point across, however, the point itself is completely valid.
Excalibur indeed lacks the basic survivability to face the only content he truly excels at offensively.

In fact, for anything short of Augmented Armor/Grineer Sortie 3, Excalibur is a highly suboptimal frame - especially Exalted Blade one.
However, those missions often feature damage spikes of 5k damage and higher depending on the enemy pool, spawn rates, and modifiers.
The damage spikes are higher than Excal's EHP by such a huge margin, he can get bursted down during the downtime between two consecutive Slash Dashes.
By the way, Healing Return has virtually no effect on said damage spikes. Life Strike is an entirely different animal - no arguing here - however, there's that ages old issue with Excalibur channel-auto-blocking a couple of shots from high-level enemies losing all his energy in the process and dying.

Sure, said damage spikes are far from being constant and omnipresent - but they do exist and Excalibur can't take them despite being repeatedly forced into vulnerable positions of being constantly surrounded by enemies.
And, no Radial Blind is nowhere enough to reliably protect Excalibur from those spikes. RB is what makes them "non-constant", but RB has its failings - cooldown, animation length, LoS restriction.

Another ignorant suggestion would go along the lines of "you should just equip 5-mod survivability combo, and avoid being surrounded - both EBlade and RB have good range" - sure, one can do that too. And be massively less effective than a 300/300 frame with a stick running through the crowd but still fitting the 4-6 revives per mission limit.
The overall design of Excalibur's skill set and his stat line was based on him being able to trade blows with enemies and outplay them. However, in the modern game his stats are nowhere enough for the purpose of "trading blows" - the EHP of the current frames who can reliably take a beating from high-level enemies tends to be at least an order of magnitude higher than what Excal has.

[iNew_Vexx]

On 06/11/2017 at 1:25 AM, (PS4)CoolD2108 said:

 

Boi you'll laugh your &#! off when you find this thread in a few years.

 

What you're experiencing here is less of an issue with his kit but much rather with your mods i'd assume.

Your priority for now should be farming and leveling mods. What you need is:

Rage-converts recieved damage to energy

(Primed)Flow- for your energy pool

Streamline-efficiency, lowers the cost

Continiuty and/or constitution - duration to keep is ult cheap

Vitality and steel fiber - your best friends when it comes to surviving

Stretch - for now, becomes kinda optional once your basestats are high enough

Later: Chromatic blade - makes his ult deal status, what adds to your survivability too.

Life strike - melee mod that heals you on channeling, includes exalted waves.

Add sone power strength to the mix too.

Put those in your excal and i guarantee that you'll change your mind about him. Rage keeps you pretty much energiced on even the smallest recieved damage, what gives you the posibillity to blind more often and to heal yourself. Exalted blade should become your bread and butter for that and dealing damage. Blinding not only keeps enemys from attacking you, beein among the strongest types of Cc, it also opens enemys to finishers, what's a sure kill move, and stealth multipliers, what makes his damage output rather high.

Max all the mods for the best result (except for life strike. Keep that one at rank zero. Doesn't need more.) And look up what works for exalted blade abd what doesn't.

Calm down... First, i have ALL this mod, i use rage, vitality, fleeting expertise, intensify, streamline, primed flow, primed continuity, Power drift and Steel charge for aura. Im mr13 now, and never, in raids and incursions, see any Excalibur on High level missions. 

Be honest with me, you use him in incursions lvl 80+? And High lvl survival?

[Xaero]

While I disagree with you on point of Excal not being able to take on high level content solo, I think Radial Javelin could be reworked into some sort of defensive skill. For example, make energy swords fly around you, reflecting bullets and projectiles while also giving you damage reduction. No need to take away the existing mechanics if many like it. DE could make it so that tapping 3 works as it does now, and holding 3 makes swords fly around you.

[OoKeNnEtHoO]

Radial Javelin should be changed to something that boosts survivability like increase evasion or temporary shielding or something actually useful.

 

My experience of fighting while using Excalibur is like being in water.

When I use Slash Dash and get out of the danger zone: Getting out of the water.

Wheh i use Slash Dash and attacks something: Breathing from an air balloon underwater. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

When I use Radial Blind: Swimming up and taking a deep breath.

When I use Radial Javelin: Shouting while in water. Really bad idea.

When I have Exalted Blade: Wearing SCUBA gear and diving. Feels safe but need to watch the air.

When I slide-blind in Exalted Blade: Taking a breath while still in water with the SCUBA gear mouthpiece not in the mouth. Not a good idea.

When I run out energy: Running out of oxygen and will die unless I get out of the water or get more oxygen soon.

 

I use a Rage with Life Strike build and I 100% agree with OP that Excalibur should have a bit more survivability.

Edited November 9, 2017 by OoKeNnEtHoO

[JalakBali]

OP, you might be confusing "survivability" with "tankiness". Excal can plenty survive any content. But he is not tanky. The argument of his name being a sword and he should be melee worked in the old version, but in this version his name comes from Exalted Blade. He is named after a sword, which is not exactly the name you used for something tanky. He is not named after a knight.