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 📝 [Furious Javelin] is large damage boost and this build attempts to utilize it along with strong crowd control options. There are many ways to utilize this augment and the build should be tailored to the size of the tileset and your playstyle.
🔢 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.
Ensnare pulls enemies into a small group for you to setup a strong [Furious Javelin] cast. This isn't necessary on tilesets with large open rooms.
Resonator keeps enemies occupied while you position yourself for a Javelin cast. It's more useful in large rooms but can be a hindrance in small tilesets as you'd need to chase down enemies constantly. The [Conductor] augment can slightly alleviate this issue.
Larva is a fast and cheap alternative to other crowd control options but the Helminth range nerf forces it to be more useful in medium sized tilesets.
Roar, Eclipse and other damage buffs can be used when you don't need the assistance of a crowd control ability to get a good [Furious Javelin] proc. This primarily applies to the most open tilesets with no line of sight restrictions.
Other abilities are decent but provide a lot of redundancy due to the existence of operator mode and the previously mentioned abilities.
📊 Ability Stats 📊 Range is the primary stat on this crowd control build with Duration, Efficiency, and Strength being kept above the baseline to benefit Furious Javelin.
⏲️ Duration ⏲️ Duration is given a small boost to benefit your crowd control ability and to give you more time to use the [Furious Javelin] buff. Flex mods can be replaced with more Duration but be careful using Narrow Minded on anything other than the smallest tilesets.
⛽ Efficiency ⛽ Efficiency is raised by [Streamline] to help the energy economy but it isn't necessary if you're using outside sources of energy regeneration. Blind Rage can also be slotted in over Transient Fortitude or a flex mod if you're using multiple energy sources.
📏 Range 📏 Range is increased by a few mods to give your crowd control abilities greater coverage on large tilesets. It isn't necessary in open rooms with few line of sight restrictions as Javelin already has great range even at the base. Overextended and Stretch are flex mods that should be swapped depending on which tileset or room you decide to camp.
💪 Strength 💪 Strength is increased to keep the [Furious Javelin] buff competitive against other options. Flex mods should be swapped with additional Strength if you're having issues with bursting down high level enemies.
↔️ 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.
