Another new Excal player in need of help

[(PSN)CraftyPawn]

Hi everyone.

I’m a brand new player, and I’m completely overwhelmed.

So far, this game is awesome, but I have 4 years worth of min/maxing threads, weapon choices, mods etc to sift through on Google and try as I might I can’t make heads nor tails of it. Every thread I read about ‘best Excal builds’ pretty much gives me an end game setup that I’m a long way off OR says to level some survivalist mods until you find your play style.

Now then, let me try and help everyone to help me - I know a play style I’d like to work towards from the off.

I’ve taken the general advice of ‘start with Excal’, and I love him. In other looter/shooters the roles I LOVE playing an up close shotgun style warrior and being a bringer of DPS. I like to melt hordes and am typically aware enough of knowing when to get up close and when to sit back. Not quite a glass cannon build, I do like to be able to take a bit of I make a mistake, but certainly more focused on dishing out the pain and being highly aggressive.

To that end, can anyone help me focus on the right primary, secondary and melee weapons to start levelling from the word go. Also, which mods should I focus on getting to achieve my desired play style for both my Warframe and weapons?

I understand this will be a huge work in progress, but I’m led to believe this Warframe is fine through to and including high endgame, so I’m going to stick with it until I’ve got a very high level build and have learnt loads more about the game before I start worrying about other warframes and weapons.

Thanks in advice for your kind help!

—————

Edit: WOW! 25 minutes in and some absolutely fantastic replies, thank you so much. Clearly I’ve stumbled into a game with a brilliant community and that’s just increased my interest in the game even more.

👍👍

Edited July 10, 2018 by (PS4)CraftyPawn

[Chewarette]

Well, for sure all the topics you'll find on the internet will not be very helpful, as they'll integrate Corrupted mods, Primed mods, 5xFormas and other stuff you won't have access to right now.

What I'd recommend is just going with the basic balanced build, equipping standard mods like Continuity (duration), Stretch (range), Streamline (efficiency), Intensify (power), Vitality/Redirection/Steel Fiber (resistance). Check up the Alerts to try to get the Steel Charge Aura too (that's a pain to get, don't hesitate to ask someone on the trade chans, you'll likely find someone who'll give it for free).

From then on you'll see what playstyle you want to evolve to. If you see you need more energy, then Flow will be helpful. If you need more Power, more Duration, or if you think Stretch is not that useful for you... You can adapt. Anyway, as long as you don't have Corrupted Mods, your builds are quite limited anyway.

Regarding the weapons, "unfortunately" that's up to you. May you prefer Shotguns (Hek/Tigris), Rifles (Soma), Bows (Cernos/Daikyu)... All weapons are viable, 90% of them are usable in "endgame content" with enough dedication (some will require 5-6 formas before being really reliable).

I'm not an Excalibur expert so I'll leave the specific build ideas on my fellow Tennos. 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Chewarette

[(XBOX)Tanta Cinta]

Excalibur recently got his global upgraded version, Excalibur Umbra. He is definitely a must have for any Excal fanatic and has increased stats for enhanced combat. 

The meta calls for his Chromatic Blade augment, which increases the Status chance of Exalted Blade drastically, and makes it do elemental damage only. When it comes to modding him, slap on the standard survivability mods (Vitality, Steel Fiber), and use at least 180% power strength in order to achieve 100% Status chance. The rest of the slots you can put Continuity/Primed, Flow/Primed, Streamline, and a stretch mod for some range if you want. 

Aura - Up to you. Usually it’s Steel Charge

Exilus - Handspring/Bullet Jump mod

Top 4 mods - Continuity/Primed, Flow/Primed, Vitality, Steel Fiber

Bottom 4 - Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Streamline, Chromatic Blade. 

You can swap out Transient Fortitude with Energy Conversion, which is a mod that grants +50% power strength when you cast an ability after picking up an energy orb. 

As mentioned above, there are some rather difficult concepts that you will get into later on, such as forma and polarities. The best thing you can do now is just farm those mods, do alerts, clean out your starchart, and play to your heart’s content!

Edited July 10, 2018 by (XB1)OTF SERENiTY

[Aazhyd]

There are a lot of starter pages / videos available and a lot give solid advice.

First of all, focus on survivability. This would include mods like Redirection, Vitality and Steel Fiber. Upgrade them whenever you can.

Second, you want to deal damage. Focus on Intensify and Stretch mods.

Third, you want energy to use your abilites. Here come Flow, Streamline and Continuity.

As for weapons, Braton is a pretty good starter weapon. Replace the MK1 with the regular one (blueprint available in the market for credits) and use mods that will increase damage. For sidearms, I use a Furis, and for melee a Heat Sword (I got that from a free code. There are some sites that collected codes, most of them still work and give goodies).

This is a setup that will get you to MR 4 easily. Good luck and remember there is so much to do and so much to learn yet, but that will come in time.

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Aazhyd

[(PSN)jaygates3]

Don't get me wrong, I tried a similar method to you when I first started, but excal alone can't take you far. High armor, health, ability strength, range and duration work as a good hybrid build. Ability strength - 30, range 45, duration 30 - can be done easy, I suggest using sword type weapons "heavy / sword and shield don't count"

[(XBOX)Tanta Cinta]

2 minutes ago, (PS4)jaygates3 said:

excal alone can't take you far.

Really?

[affropiaf]

first u need to know is how to mod ur weapon , i used this video for that , hope it help u :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-1ZVMaZX_o&list=PLi8xLqHWyQOrNpqNywCiouYp7EMi3l5xP

 

[(PSN)jaygates3]

Not as far 

3 minutes ago, (XB1)OTF SERENiTY said:

Really?

Well it depends, how far is he going ?

[(PSN)jaygates3]

Ignore the "Not as far" part

[(XBOX)SilverSurferGuy]

First off, welcome to Warframe! 🙂 

Second, start with a simple build for him. Flow for more energy, vitality or redirection for additional health or shields. Intensify for more power strength. Continuity for duration. Streamline for efficiency. Stretch for range. There are more complex mods better suited for Excalibur but for now a basic build like this will suffice. Excalibur is a solid Warframe and is my personal favorite! And don’t worry about the overwhelming feeling, I think we all were when we first started 😅