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 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
• 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 e.g. steel essence 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
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
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

Khora's Whipclaw is a 'pseudo-exalted' ability like [Gara] and [Atlas] and requires a stat stick to produce the most amount of damage. Base stats are 25% cc, 20% sc and 200% crit multiplier with even distribution of impact, puncture and slash.

The new Incarnon melees are the absolute best stat sticks now and "raw damage" whipclaw is now the superior form that can oneshot low levels and even scale into endurance, performing better than slash.

All different weapons use the same standard build: https://overframe.gg/build/345033/

Without Incarnon melee, the best staticks are either HIGH DISPOSTION melee if you own a RIVEN (e.g. [Amphis], [Ankyros], [Ether Daggers]) OR [Kuva Shildeg], [Tenet Exec] and [Tenet Agendus] with +60% Toxin if you DON'T own a riven. Otherwise the actually melee you use doesn't matter.

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

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

Primers+Energy
Grimoire:
Tenet Glaxion:

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