by F1ameBlade — last updated 3 years ago
From the shadow of the long night emerges a new Excalibur.
ITEM RANK
3060 / 60
APPLY CONDITIONALS
Excalibur Gameplay Guide[Excalibur] is heavily focused on melee damage and his defensive options are limited to crowd control abilities or sources outside of his kit. He gets a small bonus to certain melee weapons but the majority of his kit is focused on increasing the effectiveness of his [Exalted Blade]. With the right mod configuration and some basic knowledge of external defensive tools he can complete most missions in this melee oriented meta.
[Excalibur Umbra] is a free upgrade to the base [Excalibur] so we'll be using him for the baseline of all Excalibur guides. Additional information about this is in the notes section near the end of this guide.
📝 Build Overview 📝 [Excalibur] has a fairly balanced kit but we can use the Mecha set mods to nuke enemies. This build also utilizes the Furious Javelin augment and subsumed abilities to push the Mecha nuke even further.
🔢 Helminth Options 🔢 Slash Dash is the weakest ability in this setup and doesn't provide reasonable returns even if you're using a melee stat stick. Javelin isn't a great ability without the augment but losing out on the ability to even slot in the augment is a massive downside.
Roar provides another source of multiplicative damage that synergizes with [Furious Javelin] and the Mecha Nuke. It's entirely unnecessary on most content but it allows a few slash procs to wipe out level cap enemies.
Eclipse is one of the strongest buffs but requires a good source of light to scale past other options.
Fire Blast strips armor from enemies which allows other damage over time procs other than Slash's Bleed to scale against high level enemies.
Warcry, Elemental Ward, Fire Walker, or other defensive abilities can work in this build as the Mecha set carries all of your damage.
Any other abilities that aren't listed can work because this build primarily relies on the Mecha set rather than the abilities to carry your damage and survivability.
📊 Ability Stats 📊 Strength is the primary focus in this build but all stats should be kept around the baseline. None of them scale the Mecha set nuke on their own.
⏲️ Duration ⏲️ Duration is boosted to give [Furious Javelin] and your subsumed ability a longer effect time. Flex mods can be swapped out for more Duration if you want to cut down on ability upkeep.
⛽ Efficiency ⛽ Efficiency is slightly boosted to keep your energy economy in check. Streamline becomes a flex mod if you have outside sources of energy generation.
📏 Range 📏 Range isn't touched because Javelin shouldn't need it. The minimal boost from even a few enemies from Furious Javelin becomes exponential when a Mecha nuke procs.
💪 Strength 💪 Strength is boosted by a few mods to benefit [Furious Javelin] and your subsumed ability. It isn't necessary but the only sources are from [Power Drift] and the Umbral set mods. Replacing a flex mod for even more Strength might be a bit too greedy when we're already using multiple forms of exponential damage.
↔️ Alternate Playstyles ↔️ Most builds utilize tools that can be swapped out to serve the same purpose albeit in a different manner. The following suggestions are an outline and aren't exhaustive.
🔧 Mods 🔧⚙️ Arcanes ⚙️ Arcane Energize synergizes with [Primed Flow] and keeps your energy topped off. It can be replaced if you have other strong forms of energy recovery either through abilities or other energy support frames. Offensive arcanes like Arcane Avenger or Arcane [Fury] are usually the call.
Arcane Strike gives melee weapons a large damage per second boost which synergizes with most meta options. Some builds won't be able to utilize it so it can be replaced with other arcanes. Tertiary defensive arcanes like Arcane Aegis or Arcane Guardian are usually the call.
📋 Final Notes 📋 [Excalibur Umbra] is a direct upgrade to the base [Excalibur] as it shares all of the same abilities other than Radial Blind. It's given to all players for completing a necessary story quest so we have all [Excalibur] builds using the Umbral variant. This limits modding potential due to the existence of three Umbral polarized slots but most builds have minimal impact.
[Excalibur] has a passive that increases the damage and attack speed of some melee weapons by a small amount. Listing off every single weapon would significantly increase the size of this guide but a good rule of thumb is that it applies to most swords that can be held in one hand. This passive applies to [Excalibur Umbra] even though he also has the Sentience passive.
[Excalibur Umbra]'s passive requires a meta weapon to compete against most endgame enemies. He will prefer to use his primary weapon but he will switch to his secondary and melee weapon in certain scenarios. Tailor these weapons appropriately to the mission as a bad mod configuration can significantly hinder the Specter's ability to function.
Tau resistance from the Umbral set mods can be combined with [Adaptation] to grant you complete immunity to Sentient attacks. This has a reasonable chance of being patched if Sentient focused content is released so be wary of this interaction in future updates.
🔄 Linked Builds 🔄 📧 Contact Information 📧 Remnants of the Void / Phantom Vanguard Discord Server
If you have any questions or concerns please contact us through the Discord server. We appreciate all forms of support and welcome any criticism designed to help us improve. If you enjoyed this guide you can also support us by giving it a 👍 and sharing it with your friends!This build is part of a collection that you can either find on the builder's profile or through a special bot we have in the Discord server. We have builds for every item in the game and we're adding new ones frequently. Come check it out!
🏆 Credits 🏆 🛑 Disclaimers 🛑 This build may make certain assumptions about mechanics that can change after a patch. Multiple unnecessary forma may be used to facilitate more options across multiple builds with one polarity plan. Certain sub-optimal mods may be run to fit them into the forma polarity plan. We do not make builds that purposely attempt to abuse mechanics that aren't intended by the developers. None of these previous statements are excuses for a fundamentally incorrect build and we ask that you please contact us when we're wrong. We do not consent to anyone other than the original author of this guide posting it without permission.
