This is not a DPS [Redeemer] build, don't expect it to do any damage by itself. This guide primarily exists to explain how the [Blood Rush] and gladiator mods work and to explain how to abuse this knowledge to great effect.

IF YOU'RE COMING FROM THE EXCALIBUR/[Baruuk] BUILDS AND JUST WANT TO USE THE WEAPON AND BUILD GO TO TRICK #1

This gets complicated and long so please bear with me as it leads to some interesting build possibilities which includes but is not limited to:
Infinite melee combo duration on any frame with an exalted melee weapon.
Consistent and constant red crits as [Baruuk].
*Consistent crits as [Excalibur]. (Keep in mind he only has 15% crit chance innately.)

First, if we're to discuss anything we need to write down the terms:

• "The [Blood Rush] effect" = The effect that the [Blood Rush] and gladiator mods provide, a bonus to critical chance "based on your current combo counter". This will be shortened to "BRE".
• "The counter" = The buff represented by a four leaf clover that tells you how much your currently equipped melee is getting out of the BRE at any moment.
• "Updating the counter" = Every time the value of the counter is changed, either increased or decreased the value is updated.
• "Activating the counter" = The first counter update that goes from 0 to 1.

Second, let's dispel a misunderstanding. The BRE doesn't care about your melee combo, at all. Instead it's solely and completely dictated by the counter.

Third, these are the properties of the counter:

• It starts off at 0 and is not displayed in the hud until it has at least a single stack. (Duh.)
• The counter won't activate if there are no BRE effects on the weapon but it will still update.
• It goes up by one whenever a new combo tier is reached (Regardless which tier is reached.)*
• Whenever any weapon's combo drops a tier or drops to 0 it's set to that weapons tier minus one. (Regardless of which weapon drops.)**
• Naramon drops or heavy attack Efficiency drops only update if they drop a tier. (Losing some combo points without dropping a tier will not trigger an update.)
• The counter is hard capped at 11. (This is why the BRE isn't stronger on [Venka Prime].)

* Example: If your melee weapon is currently at 0 combo and your counter is at 8, if you hit 20 enemies and [[Reach]](/items/arsenal/384/reach/) x2 combo the counter will go to 9.
** Example: if your exalted weapon is on x2 and your counter is at 8, when your exalted weapons combo falls below x2 the counter will be set to 0 as well.

Fourth, here's some other facts that are relevant to this discussion:

• Normal weapons and exalted melees have completely separate and unrelated combo counters each with their own duration.
• When casted, exalted weapons spawn at 0 combo.
• When despawned, exalted weapons do not updated the counter.
• You do not gain combo if your combo duration is 0 or in the negative.
• The [Redeemer] always gets 5 combo per enemy hit regardless how many pellets hit. [True Punishment] changes that that value to 20.
• [Quickening] gives you a bonus of 0 to 3 extra combo per hit enemy.
• Mods on a weapon only affect that weapon, set mods work globally, meaning gladiator mods on your normal melee boost your currently equipped exalted weapon.
• Combo duration from [Swift Momentum], [Melee Guidance] or the Primary and Secondary Dexterity arcanes change the combo duration of the current weapon, including exalted.
• The counter IS NOT the heavy attack multiplier, if you get it stuck on x11 this does not mean your heavy attacks will be doing x12 damage. You just get the BRE.
• The [Redeemer] shots contain punchthrough meaning you can easily hit multiple grouped up enemies with a single shot building combo faster.

Fifth, Now with all of that out of the way, how do [Excalibur]'s and [Baruuk]'s exalteds work and how do we abuse the above knowledge.
Both weapons have two components, the actual weapon they are using (a sword, a set of sparing weapons) as well as energy slashes and blasts they emit.
The energy waves do not build combo while the weapon hits themselves do.

There are three tricks we can do with all this knowledge (maybe more):

Trick #1

Build combo on your [Redeemer] with a lot of combo duration on the weapon itself then cast your exalted weapon and benefit from the gladiator mod boost.
The build above is used for this and it works excellently especially with naramon as it takes 2+ minutes to drop to x9.
Except there's a problem, if you accidently hit any enemy with your exalted weapon, (not wave) your combo goes up and when it falls down after a bit it's resets your stacks, despite you still having combo on your melee. Once your melee ticks down to a lower tier the value will be updated but that can take quite a while.
The solution to this issue is running [Melee Guidance]. As that will prevent you from gaining combo on your exalted weapon at all. (For as long as you don't have other global combo dur boosts.)

Trick #2

Build combo with the exalted weapon themselves, use your melee just for statsticking gladiator mods, and boost your exalted weapon's crit chance with their BRE.
This requires at least 1 gladiator mod to be used on your exalted to activate the counter which is fine as [Gladiator Might] is a mod you'd use anyway. Use [Swift Momentum] and dexterity weapon arcanes as well as naramon to [Extend] your combo duration. With no melee range mods this will feel clunky, the buildup is also painfully slow and with teammates stealing your kills it gets worse, I'd highly recommend using the previous trick instead.

Trick #3

Build combo with the exalted weapon then despawn the weapon this will get the counter stuck on x11 then use your melee at max combo and prevent new combo generation with [Melee Guidance]. This is, kinda a meme. It requires you to use an exalted frame but specifically not to use their exalted weapon for DPS, it also uses up your aura slot and forces you not to use dexterity arcanes on top of bein entirely too slow to build up especially on [Baruuk] who has very poor range on his 4 and requires a separate resource to use it.

And finally, Sixth, combo building with the [Redeemer]:

The gunblade stances contain a mixture of slashes and shots, obviously we're here to build the combo as fast as possible meaning that we don't care about the slow slashes, instead completely focusing on spamming shots. To build the combo as fast as possible we need to abuse the first hits in the neutral and foreword combo. By using a E=>W+E=>E=>W+E=>Repeat combo you're just left with shots and your combo will charge really fast. As [High Noon] has 3 hits in the series while [Bullet Dance] has only 2, [High Noon] is the superiors option.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.