INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Thunderdome. This is a standard Khora Whipclaw farming build for endurance survival/looting missions (e.g. steel essence farm, arbitrations e.t.c.). [Accumulating Whipclaw] and [Pilfering Strangledome] are standard augments to enable [Whipclaw] DPS and Strangledome looting respectively.

Infinite scaling survivability is via extreme crowd control from strangledome, ensnare, as well as shield gating using the combination of [Brief Respite], augur mods and [Catalyzing Shields]. [Venari Bodyguard] is a further optional backup plan that negates death. At neutral efficiency with [Brief Respite] and ONE augur mod, every cast of [Whipclaw] generates 47.5 shield which gives about 0.6s shield gate. Exactly two casts of [Whipclaw] therefore caps max shields (93 with [Catalyzing Shields]) and gives the maximum 1.33s shield gate. If you add another two augur mods on your secondary, you can generate 67 shields which is approximately 1s shield gate from a single cast of 1.

UPDATE MARCH 2025
[Whipclaw] no longer uses statsticks on a regular melee and is now an exalted that can be modded and use arcanes. While technically the potential maximum raw damage has reduced (due to lack of incarnon bonuses and rivens), the nuking and KPM potential has increased due to the ability to use acolyte mods/galvanized mods and melee influence arcane. If you don't like faction mods, swap Primed Smite for [Primed Reach] (just note faction mods do TRIPLE DIP melee influence procs meaning they boost influence by a 1.55^3 = 3.72x multiplier. [Primed Reach] can add a flat 3m to the 10m maximum range of [Whipclaw] and surpass the cap to 13m.

Melee Vortex
Best for looting, this is because influence can kill enemies outside of the dome while vortex will pull enemies into the dome quicker and only kill enemies in the dome. NOTE: use ARCHON CONTINUITY for corrosive procs
https://overframe.gg/build/827172/

Melee influence

UPDATE JULY 2024
Due to armor and health scaling changes, [Khora] [Whipclaw] can now scale into endurance without armor strip or slash, relying purely on raw damage.

I have removed Spectrorage as the primary subsume as energy is not really an issue these days with [Equilibrium] + [Synth Deconstruct] on Steel Path Survival density missions in addition to the host of possible energy regeneration methods such as [Grimoire] [Xata] Invocation, Glaxion Photon Overcharge, Primary Exhilirate, Emergence Dissipate and Zenurik. In addition, Khora basically one-shots all enemies quicker than before meaning you don't need to spam [Whipclaw] as much.

PLAYSTYLE

1. Cast ensnare on an enemy to group enemies then use your melee statstick to manually build combo (should be extremely quick e.g. a few seconds to hit max x12). This is because building combo with [Whipclaw] is much slower. Alternatively just shoot [Rauta] a few times or wait for [Venari] to attack a build combo via [Tandem Bond].
2. Cast up to two strangledomes at choke points on the map (e.g. doorways, hallways entering into a room). Rotate your kills between these, allowing time for new spawned enemies to run into and be captured by the dome.
3. Cast [Whipclaw] onto the strangledome to hit all enemies in the dome and kill them.
4. Cast Ensnare onto select targets such as acolytes, as ensnare increases [Whipclaw] damage
5. Keep Venari on heal mode if you prefer to keep your team topped up on health.

See here for video guide: https://youtu.be/4ziV7bxU0eU?si=FtyKq8AxoHRtbVZQ

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Duration is mainly used to keep strangledome active so you don't have to keep recasting it. Duration is otherwise not useful for [Whipclaw], Ensnare or [Venari]. [Primed Continuity] and Molt Efficiency give duration.

Efficiency
Efficiency can be neutral as long as you run [Equilibrium] with [Synth Deconstruct] on a companion such as [Diriga], Panzer or a Hound, and play sufficiently high density maps such as Steel Path Survival. Getting kills on enemies tagged by [Synth Deconstruct] as well as Eximus can produce health orbs which are converted into energy orbs at a pretty rapid rate. If you don't spam [Whipclaw] and only kill enemies when they are sufficiently captured by strangledome, you can also reduce your energy expenditure. Primed Flow/[Flow] is needed in order to make Violet Crit Damage shards have double effect. If you still have energy issues, consider using an energy subsume such as Lycath's [Hunt], Dispensary, Nourish or Spectrorage.

Range
Range is the most important stat for [Khora], since it benefits the cast range and explosion radius of [Whipclaw] (note this caps at 200% range), pull radius of Ensnare and finally the size and pull radius of Strangledome.

Strength
This is the least important stat since it does not affect ensnare and we do not rely on the damage of Strangledome. While strength does scale into the base damage of [Whipclaw], the augment *[Accumulating Whipclaw]** makes up for the negative strength by allowing you to stack an extra +350% damage which is additive to the bonus provided by ability strength. Since the total amount of damage is capped at +350% and is not affected by strength, we can drop strength completely to minimum.

Aura

• Brief Respite - best for endurance runs where you want to stay alive using shield gating. Two casts of whipclaw at neutral efficiency caps max shields with catalyzing shields on
• Corrosive Projection - if running catalyzing shield with Augur stat stick you can use corrosive projection to maximise DPS against armored enemies
• Swift Momentum - good option if you don't own dexterity arcanes to increase combo duration to maintain whipclaw combo
• Steel Charge - gives extra mod capacity to save forma and small boost to [Whipclaw] (+60% melee damage is additive to dmg mods on statstick, so may not actually contribute that much to overall whipclaw damage, particularly if you have a +dmg riven).
• Combat Discipline - Only run if you use Dispensary and drop Arcane Energize for Arcane Avenger

Exilus
Completely flexible slot.
Cunning drift is used to hit the range cap on Whipclaw.
Primed sure footed - best in slot prevents knockdowns. [Handspring] is next best alternative. Not needed if you run Unairu Poise or Wrym
Vigilante pursuit helps increase enemy radar to track enemies

Flexible Slots
Pilfering Strangledome - Use this in endurance SP survival missions where you want loot and oxygen e.g. steel essence, kuva survival and resource farming. For non-looting missions, you can replace this with either an efficiency mod (streamline/fleeting expertise), more range (stretch) or more survivability mods (Rolling Guard)

Venari Bodyguard - completely OPTIONAL mod for extra backup survivability. Prevents death once every 150s, but you can reduce this cooldown completely by simply getting about 30 to 40 kills. which should take only 20-30s. If you don't find this useful or are subsuming over Venari, simply drop this for Augur Reach or Streamline.

Catalyzing Shields - This is needed to reduce shields and give more effective i-frames per cast of whipclaw. For non-endurance or if you feel you don't need the safety of i-frames and status cleanse, swap this for either augur reach (more range) or streamline (better efficiency). Flexible for Rolling Guard.

Arcanes
Arcane Fury - boosts Whipclaw damage
Arcane Aegis - optional for lazy survivability
Molt Efficiency - more duration for Strangledome
Arcane Energize - optional for more energy
Arcane Avenger - adds flat 45% crit chance to Whipclaw

Archon Shards
1 Amber Cast Speed for recasting Strangledome/Ensnare
4 Violet Melee Crit Damage to boost [Whipclaw] further

HELMINTH

Usually we subsume over [Venari] since it is the least useful ability and [Venari] is still technically around even if you subsume over it. If you are NOT looting, you could consider subsuming over Strangledome and just using Ensnare to group.

Lycath's Hunt - Kills from [Khora]'s [Whipclaw] counts as melee kills for Lycath's [Hunt], giving each [Whipclaw] kill a 50% chance to drop health orbs. With [Equilibrium], each health orb gives 55 energy, meaning every 10 kills gives on average 275 energy. This is the highest amount of energy you can generate, and is basically overkill unless you plan on spamming Whipclaw non-stop while NOT using Strangledome. You could therefore subsume this over 4 on a pure DPS build.

Spectrorage - [Spectrosiphon] augment allows each kill to have a 50% chance to drop energy orbs, meaning every 10 kills gives on average 125 energy.

Dispensary - creates empowered health orbs that give 100 health as well as normal energy orbs. Each empowered orb is converted into 110 energy by equilibrium. This is an excellent way to make energy independent of enemies and spawn rates.

Nourish - adds Viral damage buff to Whipclaw AND boosts energy gain from energy/health orbs via equilibrium. Requires more strength, so swap Molt Efficiency for Molt Augmented and add more strength mods: https://overframe.gg/build/722942/

Silence - shuts down annoying acolyte, eximus and thrax abilities.

ARSENAL

Companions
Make sure to equip Primed Pack Leader so whipclaw generates overguard

Panzer: https://overframe.gg/build/220091/
Hound: https://overframe.gg/build/540825/

Primers+Energy
Grimoire: https://overframe.gg/build/569013/
Tenet Glaxion:

Venari
Venari 'Catstick" Build: https://overframe.gg/build/357971/