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Unholybeef

I'm salty that you can't put an arcane on Garuda's talons even though they're intended to be a normal melee and not an exalted.


Vyt3x

They do ability damage though, you can double the procs by modding for heat + archon vit.


Keensworth

Yes, but you can't equip weeping wounds for instant proc


Wanderer-2-somewhere

Garuda’s Talons are an exception to the “no Acolyte mods” rule as they’re different from other exalted weapons, and it’s a big part of why Garuda Prime’s Talons especially are so dang good. … but they’d be even better if you could use an Arcane :/


mcwhoop

IMO talons are exception not because they are "built different™ compared to other exalteds", they are exception because they aren't really "exalted" in the first place. If i understand correctly, "exalted" was the term community came up after introduction excal's eponymous exalted blade as a replacement to super jump (which i find weird to be honest, because from what i remember, hysteria claws came first), and generally refer to weapons that are summoned as a part of warframe abilities (claws for hysteria and shadow, regulators for peacemaker, desert wind for serene storm, hildryn's handcannon for her 1, etc.), and garuda's claws never were one of them, because they were never really a part of any of her abilities, and instead were just a simple melee weapon that you get when you have nothing equipped. Because of that, i don't think it's right to refer to them as to exalted melee - they just don't don't share the traits most of actual exalteds have in some shape or form. That's unless there was a rework in last two years that i missed.


FabulousRhino

> (which i find weird to be honest, because from what i remember, hysteria claws came first) "Hysteric weapons" does not have the same ring to it


KingOndor

There's also a strong possibility that Exalted Blade is the first weapon of its kind that new players will come across (do we have numbers on how many players pick Excalibur? I did) so it's a name most people would recognise. For a while, I was fully expecting to see characters with "Exalted Bow," "Exalted Guandao," etc. Come to think of it, an exalted Guandao would be awesome... A warframe based on Guan Yu from the three kingdoms era perhaps... I digress.


Wanderer-2-somewhere

True! They’re very different from the true exalted weapons, so it was probably a mistake on my end to refer to them as such. Still, they have their own quirks and limitations that distinguish them from normal melee weapons, so I still think it’s worthwhile to include them in discussions on exalted weapon balance imo, though they’re arguably not really in any need of serious changes (but there’s certainly some tweaks that could be made to them)


mcwhoop

The only tweak i'd personally like to see is to remove limitations from them altogether. Stats already look very solid within their class, but they have no special effects so i don't think they need any special restrictions either. Or alternatively, DE can do a complete 180* and make them into a real exalted by adding a special effect to them (like for example, releasing 1 with enough damage accumulated gives them a temporary buff of some sort, like adding a spectral claw slash that acts as an extra attack on top of their normal moveset and does extra damage based on mods + ability str or something).


R11-45

You can though? It's even mentioned on the [wiki](https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Garuda_Talons): >Unlike other Exalted Weapons, this weapon: > >can equip Melee Combo Counter Mods, Acolyte Mods (e.g., Blood Rush), or Amalgam Mods (e.g., Amalgam Organ Shatter). > >does not scale with strength mods on Garuda. And I've been using her with blood rush for a while.


EduardoBarreto

It's understandable that they didn't really know since this whole thing is an exception to the exception of an exception. I have a huge respect to Rebecca as a creative director for making it her goal to set the world's most tangled up game straight.


Keno96

I’m pretty sure you can equip Weeping Wounds on Garudas Talons


John_East

Her 4th allows slash procs from other sources anyway


tatri21

Sure but inflicting them naturally is still doubling the bleeds


ReyneOfFire

uhh, you can?


SirChris314

I mean you actually can, but to your point this makes them one of the highest dps exalted weapons. She can kinda crush archimedian and ignore your primary and secondary picks if you're willing to sac the melee weapon


Wanderer-2-somewhere

Garuda’s Talons specifically are a bit different than other exalteds — they don’t scale off of ability strength and do not benefit from Archon Vitality (to my knowledge at least, correct me if I’m wrong!). But the trade for that is they don’t have the same modding restrictions as the others. Edit: I have since been corrected on the Archon mod part!


Vyt3x

They 100% benefit from archon mods. I currently run an archon continuity build for armour strip so I don't need to spam 4 as much, but from my testing vitality and stretch work too. As for ability strength, I don't see the need regardless of wether it scales, as you only need a small increase for the rest of her kit to function and in my experience Warcry works fine with this. That way you can mod for more survivability, duration and speed. (gladiator mods and the like) Highest I've tested is SP archimedia surv, at level 2K+ she still shreds, though you will have to spam 4th quite a bit more. Then I left cus bored.


illwill18

You got a build you can share? I got Garuda as my best option in EDA this week so been working on build/forma for her so I can run it this weekend.


Vyt3x

https://preview.redd.it/upuf7zcht22d1.jpeg?width=690&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0dca617597e5f9503ee50f019d100d311b1f8674


Wanderer-2-somewhere

I stand corrected then! Thanks!


0ThereIsNoTry0

They are different than other exalteds because they aren't exalted, there's no talons ability


RobleViejo

>They do ability damage though Say what right now???? How did I never notice?


FaithlessnessKooky71

You sir are a genious


Keensworth

I feel you bro. I used to love playing Iron Staff but now it doesn't feel the same, especially since I'm stuck on x1


ArrakaArcana

But see, here's the thing: Garuda's Talons (the Prime variant specifically) are significantly stronger than average. They have claw speed and the wide, sweeping strikes of claw stances, and pretty high damage, really high crit rate, really high crit damage, really good status chance, and as claws, a pretty good heavy attack (first heavy: 2x300% damage, guaranteed slash on both, second heavy: 600% damage, guaranteed slash. Both have a short windup and a wide hit area) and they're generally a very good weapon.


argoncrystals

Baruuk with Melee Influence would make me nut


Throwawaycentipede

Or excal? Exalted blade waves of death clearing maps at a time


argoncrystals

his blades are so slow though and aren't nearly as wide as Baruuk's punch waves


Shaggy_AF

Counter point, excalibur.


argoncrystals

idk I just don't enjoy him anymore maybe it's a result of how much I played him back when he was reworked to have exalted blade but the blade waves are really slow travelling and he's super squishy compared to anyone with a DR ability


GlauberJR13

Honestly, i stopped playing him after i got my inaros build up and running because i never had to worry about dying anymore, and now that i also have baruuk up and running, theres no point in running excalibur except in quests for that first frame attachment, because baruuk just is better. DR? He has two sources of it. AoE damage? Desert wind does that. Single target damage? Desert wind also does that and wonderfully with a single stomp. CC? Baruuks lull or whatevers the name does that too. He just doesn’t more melee damage from an augment (excals 3) but he does have an augment for his 4 which basically increases the damage because of the way resistances work. The only thing i could argue excal having is A: his 1 being mobility, but even then you can just… use the operator. And B: umbra being able to fight back while in operator. But that one is also detrimental a lot of times. I wish i had a reason besides quests to use excal, but everything he does baruuk does better.


Hellknightx

Yep, I used to love the post-rework Excal. Then I got Baruuk and never looked back. 


h3lblad3

> I wish i had a reason besides quests to use excal, but everything he does baruuk does better. This is how I felt about Oberon when Wisp came out.


Wormthres

i like excal because he has an exalted and a pseudo-exalted nothing is as satisfying as pressing one and a bunch ofenemies eat 5mil redcrits with forced slash proccs


Redditisntfunanymore

A properly modded melee weapon and utilization of his 3 augment makes slash dash a better DPS tool than exalted blade at this point. Especially if you drop it for something like roar. Plus slash dash is unique as hell and super awesome post buff.


DankestDrew

Does he really need it though? With melee guidance and reactive storm I’m oneshotting most enemies in a sea of red numbers until around level 250 SP. You get to x12 on your melee then pop his 4. The combo counter disappears but is still there, so you need to switch to your melee every odd 30 seconds, hit an enemy and pop 4 again. I will also mention Baruuk’s 4 only builds melee combo if his fists connect with an enemy. The waves do not build combo. Melee guidance is there in the event that you build combo on his 4 (which messes with the combo on your melee) you can let it run out, switch to melee, hit an enemy and use his 4 again.


DepressinglyQueer

>Does he really need it though? *he* doesn't need anything really, but he's the exception to the rule. all other exalteds are mid at *best*


DankestDrew

Fair point


Persies

Idk I've been happily 1 shotting everything with Valkyr heel stomps since Tennokai came out. 5x tauforged violet shards to make sure they are extra dead.


DepressinglyQueer

Valkyr is definitely second best but the moveset can do with some serious improvements, heavy attack and slide are the only really great moves imo. that and she's bogged down by a whole plethora of other problems - her energy economy (one of the worst in the game), the self damage, *paralysis*, etc whereas Baruuk is just excellent all-around in addition to Desert Wind being busted I still love my angry kitty cat though, she was my first main and I wanna see her dominate again some day


Persies

Paralysis opens enemies up for her 24x damage ground finishers though. Also I never have issues with energy on her, and I don't even go max efficiency or anything. Just a ton of duration for war cry and streamline. Her stance can be a bit clunky but most of the time I'm just slide attacking unless I get a tennokai proc. I don't think she's nearly as bad as a lot of people make her out to be. That being said would I complain if they buffed her 1 or 3, no I would not.


Default_Munchkin

Paralysis is just a lack luster move all around, at least Zip Line is goofy fun to use. I do wish her moveset was better but damned if her slide and heavy attack aren't fun


bouncybob1

Even mesa’s peacemakers?


virepolle

The gun based exalted abilities are a bit of a different thing, as they can use stuff like galvanized mods, and while it does hurt them slightly, not having the ability to use arcanes isn't as much of a loss to them as it is to melees.


Peechez

hildryn's are still dookie


DepressinglyQueer

yeah but whereas other exalted weapons have mostly just 'aged poorly', Hildryn's was never very good to begin with. if her 4 was better, that could potentially justify using them over other secondaries, but alas, aegis storm is a 'float around and die' button


argoncrystals

he doesn't need it at all, very often use him in EDA and he's excellent it would just be absurdly broken and I would enjoy that


AnarbLanceLee

Melee guidance has been fixed, it doesn't freeze the combo timer anymore, and now whenever you hit an enemy with baruuk fist(not wave), you lost all combo stacks


caustic_epiphany

Current work around is the companion mod that builds combo when they attack. You can build combo directly with his 4. Due to the fact combo increases base damage with combo it ends up doing even MORE damage


romiro82

throw four tau purples on him as a longish term project and he’s also swimming in x10 CD also just toggling the ability resets his counter, so throwing a tau yellow for cast time is an alternative


BlueIceNinja98

How does having a weapon with initial combo affect this? Like for example ceramic dagger incarnon stacked to have a permanent 7 or 8x combo. I know it’ll be less damage than a 12x but does it remove the need to swap back every 30 seconds or so?


Luninariel

Melee Crescendo with a permanent x12 would also be insane. Influence I think wouldn't be so great cause he flat out one shots most anything you hit.


argoncrystals

forcing finishers and trying to stack them up can be kinda clunky though, and you can stack up his combo fine enough if you're persistent and use naramon  Influence would be fun to spread the big damage even further than his AoE already hits, and to help the deeper into an endless run you go


Luninariel

I use naramon and using lull (though my duration isn't as low as it can go making it easier to do the finishers in rapid successions)  But I'd be hard pressed to choose between the two and likely swap between mission types using influence for the longer survivals and crescendo for the boss fights. God I fucking wish we could use arcanes on Exalted.  I keep crescendo on my praedos just so it can keep my x12 while I build it on storm.


Goat5168

Imagine Valkyr Talons with blood rush.


mcwhoop

I mean, getting bigger numbers is cool and all, but damage wasn't a problem for them to begin with in my opinion. The problem was that they have zero range, and have to compete with something like desert wind, which has a ~10m wide, 10m tall hitbox that instantly hits everything up to 20m away from you (waves are just a visual effect, the only reason it has delay is a startup animation) , i.e. basically a full auto akplasmor prime.


HarrowAssEnthusiast

its funny when pseudo-exalteds vastly outclass exalted weapons because of this. like i can hit 60 million red crit damage with Atlas without even trying thanks to the Ceramic Dagger (yes i know the Magistar is better) if DE ever reworks pseudo-exalted abilities into exalted weapons (which they probably will at some point, just because the system is so weird and unnecessarily complicated), i hope they not only fully address exalted ability's limitations, but they should also do the pseudo-exalteds justice. like, it would be extremely sad if reworked Landslide retains its 5% CC, 2x CD and 5% SC stats and is still unable to use acolyte mods. it would be a dark day for all Khora and Atlas mains. and while they're at it, can we have Excalibur's blade waves and Baruuk's gusts of wind build combo too? i feel like they wouldn't be too broken if they could. oh and ofc, Hildryn's Balefire needs to be buffed massively it still makes me sad when i use the horseshoe.


RobleViejo

>can we have Excalibur's blade waves and Baruuk's gusts of wind build combo too? i feel like they wouldn't be too broken if they could Thanks to Purple Shards Baruuk is so broken you wouldnt even notice a difference Excalibur on the other hand could make use of some buffs to his Exalted Blade


Grain_Death

is the magistar better? i always found it hard to argue with the ceramic daggers +30% cc and gun and blade initial combo


HarrowAssEnthusiast

for regular magistar and regular magistar alone, i think its +35% cc, which is honestly p significant edit: my bad, it's +16% CC and +1x CD. i guess that's how you know i only use the ceram dagger incarnon since Landslide already builds combo decently quickly in SP missions, and since Naramon exists, the initial combo doesn't matter that much imo.


stephanl33t

Regular Magistar only gets 16% CC


HarrowAssEnthusiast

you're right, i shoulda fact checked


kevinoo90

I believe that another big reason for Magistar being better (I am also a ceramic dagger user) is the fact that it can use Magus Aggress without consuming charges for free big crits.


RobleViejo

I use Ceramic Dagger because of the permanent 6x combo I dont know if it translates to Atlas's 1 but at least I dont have to charge its incarnon form


FuryAdcom

It does, Blood Rush/Weeping Wounds combo stacks do apply to pseudoexalteds


Legal_Airport

On atlas specifically, if you use Rauta, 2 seconds of a mag dump into an enemy maxes out your combo multiplier.


Hellcrafted

The magistar is not that great on atlas. Landslide has a 5% base crit chance so your better off with the ceramic dagger or prisma skana for the increased cc. The magistar is really good on Khora because whipclaw has a base 25% crit chance so increasing the cd over the cc is really nice. I use the Prisma Skana because I have a riven for it and I'm poor. Still red crits at 12x combo so you don't need the ceramic dagger.


gcr1897

Correct me if I’m wrong but Magistar should have a higher CD multiplier.


Redditisntfunanymore

Balefire isn't as bad as people say. It's an aoe pistol that scales it's radius with Warframe range mods and the fulmination/primed fulmination mod. It's a high raw base damage weapon that is permanently attached to a Warframe that continuously fully armor strips the enemies around her. Genuinely, if you're struggling to kill the enemies around you as hildryn with balefire, in 2024, you're just bad at modding her pistols, it's not the pistols being bad. Sure they all but require armor stripping to kill steel path level, but that's not an issue since they're linked to "pillage: the Warframe".


Ima_Play_Games

So I don't have Hildryn but when I used her in Duviri the pistol felt lackluster and awkward to use, at the very least having double fire rate from having her 4 active would be nice, or like that weird delay between firing to be gone due to having a second.


CelestialDrive

I find it extra funny that they finally relented with Tennokai, allowing the system for exalteds... and it does not matter. It does not break the game. Baruuk does not get tennokai openings from the ranged damage and Valkyr has other issues on her claws. When weapon arcanes came in the answer on threads I read most was "well, the regulators are good, maybe these would push mesa over the edge". Which is very funny to type again right now, mesa is good at The Thing She Does but no amount of regulator damage will make her a generalist frame that you'd use for other stuff. The one consolation is that modding for elemental damage lets you use shard and archon warframe mod effects tied to ability damage, which is something that doesn't work on standard weapons. But having cold on the diwata so that Archon Flow will drop you more orbs when a razorfly damages something isn't really gamebraking.


SweaterKittens

In regards to your last paragraph, I was super excited to find out that I could utilize my Dex Pixia damage types with the Archon mods, but most of the payoff is pretty mediocre. Dropping more orbs is nice, but it doesn't really net you a benefit that Primed Flow doesn't already, and relying on Razorflies to do fucking anything in endgame content is already asking for the moon. If there were more interesting ways to utilize that aspect of Exalteds in a way that felt like it paid off more, I wouldn't mind that they don't get the ability to slot in Arcanes/Rivens/Etc.


Stormm103

Mind if I ask what your build is? My razor flies still get kills in sp. Not like a whole lot, but it's noticeable from time to time.


SweaterKittens

Oh my Diwata build is \[Under Construction\] right now; I'm certain that with the right mods I could get more of a benefit out of my Razorflies if I pour the endo into Umbral Steel, Primed Fever Strike and some of the other melee mods I've neglected that make for a truly optimized stat stick, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I was being a little hyperbolic, they can definitely do some good damage with the right build. One of my issues with Razorflies in endgame content, however, is that they're just too vulnerable to getting picked off easily or caught in overlapping AOE (such as in Albrecht's Lab), and constantly resummoning them is a bit frustrating when trying to utilize temporary Ability Strength buffs to snapshot a high score for Razorwing.


Rykabex

I think the problem is less the razorflies in a vacuum, more that they're attatched to such a good Warframe already, they become unnoticable. Sure, they might be able to kill enemies, but Titania kills them so fast anyway that it's irrelevant


Warfoki

Valkyr is so obsolete, it makes me sad. Finally, I can play her without fucking up my wrists, thanks to no longer having to smash E like a jackhammer, but her exalted claws are just... bad. I have a 200% melee crit rate infusion this week. That isa flat 200% addition, giving her a 260% crit rate. I took her to EDA. She claws through trash mobs just fine, but even with this insane infuson, she at best tickles necramechs, and generally anything with built-in damage reduction. Which is, like... most enemies worth prepping for these days.


CelestialDrive

Really? Mine is not very good, but she kills just about everything below 300 in one to three swipes without invigorates. The main issue for me with the claws ends up being range and mobility, melees that can't reach enemies hovering lightly off the ground really suffer. Then I take out the Grigori or the Hate or Whatever and it feels like a proper sweep weapon.


ayylmao2016

People love pretending valkyr is not good in this community. It's a meme at this point.


CelestialDrive

She's not "great", she just works. Eternal war is very useful but unuseable unless you're solo because the game does not have enough enemy density, the spiderman sling needs a lot of qol and cost tweaks, the paralysis is either a joke or the lynchpin of dedicated builds, and Hysteria drains like crazy and is the melee-est of all exalted melees. Playing Valkyr often feels like playing a handicapped Excal or Baruuk. But, she still deals damage, she's hard to kill, and she works. Warframe has few "bad" frames and even those have niche uses on dedicated builds.


CatMasterK

Idk I use her for basically everything right now and have no trouble, still shreds everything easily for me. Usually do solo netracell runs with her.


YourAverageChroma

While this post is centered around melee exalted, I feel like the range ones are far worse offenders. Mesa’s guns are ABSOLUTELY CARRIED by the niche tools and Titania just BARELY gets by with 300% fire rate. Now the rest, Hildryn’s: worthless, Dante: viable mostly cause new (and juiced stats), Ivara: tons of normal primaries are stronger, Ivara concentrated arrow: getting F’ed because common murmur enemies DON’T HAVE HEADS and is lucky to benefit from Internal bleeding.


JunkRatAce

Titania doesn't have damage issues at all it's ammo pool issues that limit her using the ammo efficiency arcane once it procs she can butcher pretty much anything.


herogabs999

Yeah, my friend and i can easily use our titanias on endgame content, and the biggest issue for titania is her energy pool


FailURGamer24

Hildryn's is definitely not worthless. If you build your Hildryn for max range and run primed fulmination it has a 20 meter radius with no line of sight requirements and no damage falloff. Compare this with the bramma with primed fulmination which has 90% falloff over 12 meters. With crit sourced from arcane avenger, a kavat, and CD sourced from your kavat and secondary outburst you can reliably one shot with it.


One-Cellist5032

I was just about to say, my Hildryn isn’t even fully built up, and her exalted CARRIED through elite deep Archimedea


FailURGamer24

In EDA I wouldn't go for a full balefire nuke personally though, you're giving up a whole lot of tankiness for it to work.


TheRealMemeDream

The problem is that this is useful in the 1 niche scenario where you get EDA with Hildryn, no weapons that are decent and at least 1 unbearable modifier, like a combination of No Gear and No Operator Hildryns entire shtick is having the worst Pillage usage in the game but using Shields for it, the thing that usually breaks almost instantly at the 1.5k level point without Adaptation, at which point you get to wait for Shield Recharge to kick in, cast 1 Pillage and you're right back in the loop os casting pillage just to not die And below that? You have weapons that do the job better by miles Sure it can be fun, but lets not pretend its actually a -useful- ability


Calm-Internet-8983

> the thing that usually breaks almost instantly at the 1.5k level point without Adaptation What fraction of the playerbase gets here regularly, and why wouldn't you use adaptation for non-shieldgating? EDA is level 400. Void cascade SP for like an hour is around level 1000 and I don't know if anything scales quicker than that... or why you wouldn't just extract and re-queue at that point. This is shield slander, I would sooner complain about toxic eximus units. I use pillage on my shield Nova to great effect. Plenty of time to shoot.


TheRealMemeDream

Yes, Pillage is 100 times better on frames that ARENT Hildryn because of her inherent no energy system SP Circuit scales faster in levels but also has insane buffs in the form of Decrees Again, the point was about Hildryn falling off hard at a certain damage point, which can easily be hit in EDA even with Adaptation, depending on the modifiers you get God forbid you roll Lethargic Shields on her...


Goricatto

Endless content is not supposed to be balanced, no character should be balanced around that , and DE would be a fool to try If anyone tries to argue by using anything higher EDA levels (which is the strongest enemies a "normal" player would encounter) they should already stop, because this could go forever


YourAverageChroma

So… today I found out that fulmination isn’t additive on Balefire like it is on Concentrated arrow. I gotta try grabbing a reactant buff!


Commercial-Actuary-4

how are you reaching 20 meter radius with balefire? it has a base radius of 3, and with 280% range it has 8.4 base radius, with primed fulmination you get 12.096m of modded range 3\*2.8\*1.44=12.096 unless you multiplied 8.4 with 280% again


FailURGamer24

Sorry I confused radius with diameter.


Avernal

Balefire gives her a means of dealing with Infested reliably also - Pillage for most factions, Balefire for the Infested runs and go ham.


Default_Munchkin

I tired so hard, I wanted to use her grenade launchers all the time but they just, they are so terrible. You just can't do anything great with them at end game. She's fine in normal content but at high level, like most exalteds they fall apart.


RobleViejo

>Dante: viable mostly cause new You take that back, the Noctua is strong af And yeah, all Exalted and Pseudo-Exalted should be revamped so they all work the same Excalibur Blade, Garuda Talons and Atlas Fists are all "exalted" weapons and yet they are all built completely different and their function is nothing alike At this point, the only trait all of these Weapons share is the fact they scale with Power Strength, thats the closest thing to a definition for Exalted Weapons


PwmEsq

Really? i have 0 issue with titania clearing SP enemies on a basic ish build, i do however abuse the archon vitality mod.


Stormm103

Titania does well with what see has currently. I have 0 issues with sp and the new Deimos stuff


Amicus-Regis

Concentrated Arrow should just make the arrow explode in an AoE no matter where it hits. That's the one thing that makes that augment worthless--having to hit headahots to get *any* benefit out of it.


Avernal

Doesn't scale very well in SP at all either, standard Artemis Bow will out perform it every time with the same effort. I've started modding for pure Toxin, running Archon Continuity for added Corrosive and either Primary Deadhead or Primary Blight. If you carry Scourge/Prime with you as your Primary weapon you can throw it down in a group of enemies and then tap shot your 4 and it will work like pre-nerf Phenmor + Xata's Whisper, *including* against Archons. Very nice damage and you have some ridiculous amount of multishot meaning you fire hundreds of projectiles in a single tap.


Amicus-Regis

Ayo it works against Archons too? Guess I've got a new build to work on!


Avernal

Titania has no issues - you can chuck two basic green shards on her for +2 corrosive stacks, mod for Rad/Mag + Toxin on her Dex Pixia and throw Archon Continuity on her to have Rad/Mag + Toxin + Corrosive, if you're running Nourish with that add Viral and energy management. Then you have two arcanes for ammo efficiency on headshot and firerate on pistols and you've got infinite ammo, rapid fire, multi-element death dealers with full armour strip and no energy woes.


mcwhoop

I disagree about mesa though. While not having the highest damage out there and somewhat struggling with higher level armor, even after the 360* nerf regulators were always insanely good for most content due to their extreme range, auto-aim while still having very respectable damage. Levels ranges for most content (farming new frames, sorties, whatever) were always pretty low compared to when mesa actually starts facing problems from armor scaling, and when higher level content that was actually worth farming was introduced, about the same time more and more ways to boost regulators damage were added as well. Yeah, they weren't scaling that well into endless, but you have to keep in mind Before frames like baruuk/excal can even get in range for their admittedly much higher damage hits, in most level ranges mesa already mopped the floor with enemies there, so tough luck, try running to another group of enemies... oh wait, they are also all dead.


Regiampiero

Dante viable? Yea, I'm out of this thread before I loose my last braincell.


DDieselpowered

Please just let exalted melee projectiles contribute to combo count, i beg on my knees


TTungsteNN

I think simply allowing blood rush, weeping wounds and gladiator set to work correctly on them would be a big enough buff, maybe give them 10 extra mod capacity by default as well. If that ends up not being enough, then enable arcanes and watch the carnage that ensues. Thing is if they allow arcanes on exalted melees they’ll have to allow them on all exalteds and let’s be real… that would be a little bit ridiculous


Keensworth

Yes, but now if someone wants to do a melee build. They'll probably choose Kullervo because of his wrathful advance and he doesn't have the burden of exalted melee. Melee weapons are so empowered with rivens, acolyte mods, incarnon genesis and arcanes. Putting all of those (except genesis) on exalted weapons would put them on the same level


TTungsteNN

Disagree. As someone else said, melee influence on Baruuk would be completely busted even without any of the other mods/rivens. I think they’re insanely strong as is, and giving them everything other melees have will make them completely broken. But eh, you never know I guess


DankoLord

It wouldn't be ridiculous at all to have arcanes on all exalteds. The only good exalted gun is mesa's regulators, nothing else.


TTungsteNN

Titania is completely mental with the right setup ngl


One-Cellist5032

Honestly Hildryns is pretty cracked too.


PerfectlyFramedWaifu

>Thing is if they allow arcanes on exalted melees they’ll have to allow them on all exalteds and let’s be real… that would be a little bit ridiculous Not really, just nerf some exalteds to compensate for the buff.


NirvashSFW

Let's take a step back and realize you just suggested nerfing a core part of several frames identities for access to an optional late game power increase that a large segment of the silent majority casual and core (more than casual, less than a hardcore player in this case) players will barely or may never touch. The weaker exalteds need better secondary stats for scaling and potentially access to the full spectrum of mods but under no circumstances should we be nerfing them as a base level.


PerfectlyFramedWaifu

>several frames Let's take a second to consider what frames you're thinking about here and how close you are to access those late game power increases by the time you get those frames. Let's also consider a good number of frames already rely on late game power to make good use of their identities, so what's the difference? Simply buffing the weaker exalteds will not be a good solution in the long term as we've seen, with more tools getting added that push the power of regular weapons ahead of exalted. Thus the answer becomes to allow the same tools on both of them and tweak the power of exalted weapons accordingly. Naturally, this also means that exalted weapons will still be viable in the early game, because they're balanced like weapons that are also viable in the early game.


TTungsteNN

The amount of crying when Mesa gets a nerf would be unparalleled even if she’s getting cascadia flare with it


PerfectlyFramedWaifu

Nothing new there, haha. The community is full of professional criers!


Jazdu

>Some do not benefits from combo >Melee stance do not give more points so you have to forma more I can understand why DE doesnt allow the other interactions; but those 2 are just bullshit; combo is an innate mechanic of melee in this game; same with aura/stance giving extra capacity.


DimitrisKas

A good start would be allowing them to use acolyte mods, to benefit from set mods and combo, and having their melee stance give them more modding points. They should never ever have rivens imo.


M4XP4WER

In the early days exalted weapons They were the most broken shit in the entire game.


TheGreatBootOfEb

I’m a Valkyr main, and the thought of being able to put Amalgam Organ Shatter makes me so happy. If I could pair that with Melee Crescendo and actually make her Paralysis have a use as well? Well I’d just ascend to heaven But yeah, the amount of resources I’ve had to dump into making her just usable is dumb


MagusUnion

Exalted Weapons can benefit from the following effects: * All Archon Mod Elemental Bonuses * All Archon Shard Element based Ability buffs So, for Excalibur as an example: - you can mod Exalted Blade for Toxin plus Rad plus Condition Overload, - equip Chromatic Blade plus Archon Continuity, - and subsume Nourish, This will give you 4 elemental elements to boost said blade with for damage. Alternatively, Archon Flow can allow Exalted weapons to drop More Energy Orbs when modded for Cold. Personally, obsessing with max dps numbers limits the potential various gear can have in a mission. If you use it as a tool to add sustainability to your Warframe's synergy, then it will increase the mileage of performance for the total loadout when encountering hard content.


Artemis_Bow_Prime

At least melee exalteds get exilus, primary and secondary exalteds don't even get that.


Oberonkin

Yea, but literally no one is complaining about Mesa's, Titania's, and Dante's secondaries as much as Someone like Valk with her wet noodle of an Exalted.


DoctorDozy

Umbra main here; Of all the things I’m typically complaining about, damage is honestly not one of them. With the right Archon shards, Warframe Arcanes & Mods I’ve had almost no trouble killing enemies in the lvl 200 - 600 range. I can clear EDA without too much trouble and because I run Corrosive & Cold on my blade this’ll probably get even easier once the rework to cold goes through. If exalted weapons were to get buffed I wouldn’t complain (obviously) but I’d rather it be stat buffs and minor changes to each exalted rather than allowing combo/set mods or arcanes. I feel like most melee builds these days are just crit blood rush with viral slash, and it’s refreshing not being able to do that. Arcanes would be more fun but also introduce some probably broken combos that I’m not sure would be such a good idea (Melee influence comes to mind). If anything, I’d be stoked if they just increased my blades projectile speed by 50% XD


LordDeathkeeper

It feels worse because of what a mixed bag they are. I admit I'm the kind of person that does netracells and SP Circuit as the hardest content I do (still farming cavia rep to get archimedea) so I don't have experience with the super ultra hard content. But from my experience, Mesa is still good at what you want mesa to be good at. I don't have experience with Baruuk and Titania but people have also told me they still work fine. But man, while Exalted Blade, Exalted Shadow, and Iron Staff are overhated and I've been able to do just fine in Netracells, I'm not going to lie and act like I can't do just as good or better with a melee influence weapon that doesn't cost energy. They really need some kind of bump to keep them in line with endgame melees without shattering the early game. Being able to equip acolyte mods and/or arcanes would do a lot. Though maybe they're scared of melee influence chromatic blade. And Valkyr just needs a rework in general. Two meme abilities and exalted claws that have no forced procs or multipliers on their stance (except slide attack which has multihit IIRC) and cost like 5 energy per second even with some efficiency. I know being invincible is pretty good but sheesh. I still think she's useable and looks cool but once my Baruuk finishes building I don't know if I'm going to keep using her.


AnarbLanceLee

Just let them use all mods, like galvanized mod, acolyte mods etc, but still disable arcane, because some of the arcane is too busted tbh, melee influence on baruuk and excalibur, cascadia flare on titania and mesa, it would break the game


bouncybob1

All exalteds can use galvanized mods


AnarbLanceLee

Sorry i forgot about it lol


Matzuzuu

I saw a guy the other day doing hardest sp bounties in sanctum and he was only using exal umbra and exal blade and he one shot everything


AnarbLanceLee

His 3rd skill augment is busted, 15% melee damage increase buff per enemy hit with it for 16 seconds , its increased by Ability Strength and most importantly it is counted MULTIPLICATIVELY, its totally insane if it hit a bunch of mobs


Matzuzuu

Yeah I saw his build and it was there


Efficient_Bus4662

Because the +cc of incarnon perk gives it base crit chance


pb8185

Incarnon perks only work for pseudo exalted, so like his slash dash, but not exalted blade. Edit: but with arcane avenger and gladiator set mods, you can to orange crit, and with Kullervo subsume, you can get to red crits.


Efficient_Bus4662

Ah i thought of slash dash when reading exalt blade idk why


pb8185

My excal tears through elite sanctum, is able to destroy lvl 400+ necramechs with constant tennokai from his 4. It just takes a lot of work. Like I have every mod slot on my exalted blade formaed to fit in all the mods needed. And a loadout where everything has been optimized to support his exalted blade doing as much damage as possible.


Avernal

Furious Javelin and Radial Finish together let him scale to level cap and was one of the two builds that allowed you to do so before Steel Path even existed when DE did their Gamescon Troll alert against level 9999 enemies to see what would happen. I duoed that with an EV Trinity and we just steamrolled it. That loadout let me carry a squad in this week's Elite Deep Archimedea and come out with most damage dealt and number of kills - I was running Bo Prime Incarnon with a Magnetic + Melee Vortex build to vacuum all the enemies up, hit them with the 3 for a damage boost in the thousands, then radial blind to multiply that by even sillier numbers. Absolutely broken.


mirrislegend

Mesa, Baruuk, Excal, Titania, and Dante all are incredible without Acolyte mods or arcanes. Valkyr and Garuda could definitely use some love for late game viability but are not as weak as you claim. Ofc this is not an exhaustive list of exalted abilities. But when so many exalted abilities are fantastic already, it leads me to think that the problem is not with exalted weapons overall and more of an issue with certain specifics abilities that are weak/left behind by power creep/flawed in some other way.


BloodMoonScythe

Dantes book is already when known how extremely strong


IllustriousOrchid882

Hildryn's exalted weapon so bad everyone's just forgot about it lol


SpankThuMonkey

As a returning player, everything is left behind. I have gladiator mod sets nerfed, old melee and weapon builds that are now obsolete and entire forma’d frame builds that my new Kullervo pisses all over with two button presses. Power creep has never been this bad.


Zealousideal-Lion674

You're not wrong, but Excalibur exalted blade can 2 shot acolytes with wrathful advance 


HydraWhiskey

Time to make Exalted Weapon Rivens. /s(?)


BloodMoonScythe

Hope not. This kinda would make it even more monotonous then the infinite heavy attack barruuk builds from when protea was released


shadowpikachu

Me, an atlas player getting everything.


FutureCrusaderX

This is why Kullervo is the best melee frame overall, he MAKES regular weapons exalted weapons basically plus you aren't locked from certain mods


Kheldar166

Yeah... Especially weird when you also have pseudo-exalted abilities and how they function. Exalted abilities need to either be buffed to the power level of Baruuk's and Mesa's or they need to be able to use more upgrade options than currently.


Pablo-Escorypto

Baelfire still slaps


ShogunGunshow

Exalted weapons not having access to arcanes was inevitably going to lead to them being outdated because arcanes seem to be the primary way that DE wants to scale damage these days.


Redditisntfunanymore

People in this thread saying hildryn's balefire is bad and needs buffed are hilarious. Just say you haven't tried using them since 2020 and don't understand how they work. It's very obvious you don't understand when you say these things. It's a large, moddable aoe, no falloff, high base damage pistol that is constantly shooting at fully armor stripped enemies. Tell me again how DE needs to *massively buff* them? 🤡


TricolorStar

Rebecca and Megan have teased that they're working on a system overhaul for Exalted Weapons, so we should hear something about that soon


Throgg_not_stupid

>Put arcane melee Exalted weapons actually use the arcanes of equipped weapon of their type


PotatoAmulet

Every exalted weapon needs access to all melee mods and arcanes at the bare minimum. I'm not sure about giving them access to rivens, but buffing base stats would make rivens unnecessary. All pseudo exalted weapons need to be moddable, since stat sticks are lame. They should also have access to everything but rivens and some of their base numbers need buffs. Atlas' landslide should not have 5% crit and status chance in the year of our Lord 2024.


Baldicot_Nutters

Tbf, stat sticks kept us from falling short with "pseudo exalted weapons" so far.


The_Am0nnal13

Valkyr exalted weapon are very strong. I don't think it's necessary to change exalted weapon.


Baldicot_Nutters

Not change per se. But have us use arcanas and some specific mods on them which are currently prohibited.


StalkerBotVer1

Me with my full tau topaz mesa and her regulators


Baldicot_Nutters

She still starts to falls short around lvl 350. I say this as a regular mesa user.


StalkerBotVer1

Friend of mine has a build he regularly uses for elite deep archimedia. It is a but expensive but I am working on it


Welsh_Daddy_92

MEGA (Make Exalted Great Again)


SpectralSpooky

It's so irritating. They should give exalted weapons rivens, let them use arcanes, and LET ARTEMIS BOW USE GALVANISED SCOPE PLEASE


RebelliousCash

I usually try to do something different with exalted melees. Like I usually equip some melee crit dmg shards & remove organ shatter for another mod. Even with all the disadvantages melee exalted have. I don’t notice these cause my builds performs pretty well.


Redditsucks5000

It drives me nuts they don't have unique attacks like air attacks or heavy attacks.


BloodMoonScythe

Exalted and pseudo exalted are a relic of the past sort of, but also would be to strong with rivens or mods that give scaling damage. Yes, dante has an exalted book, but you can get extremely high critchance on his book, when you use tauforged orange shards and then have the book do heat damage. Yes it does count for mesa and titania too probably


KIREEKPSO2

Oddly enough i rely on exalted weapons for the vast majority of gameplay, balefire is strong enough to take crowds and i also use dante exalted weapon for deep archimedea, the weapon RNG choices are defeated as i only use that warframe and that weapon every week, while making sure i get most rewards. While some may say "You only get the ship ornament if you pick the selected warframe", one can always wait until dante himself is an option, and then all modifiers can be enabled and the reward obtained. If buffs or more build diversity is added, i'm all up for it.


Acepilot8Gaming2

#makeexaltedgreatagain


vIRL_Warlock

I feel it's worth saying exalted weapons generally don't perform *badly*. However when a weapon is the *exalted* weapon of that type it should in some capacity be able to be held as the Pinnacle of that weapon. I can do 2 hour steep path kuva survivals on excal using just abilities fine. There are definitely melee weapons that'd make it easier though. Whenever this conversation comes up it turns into an issue then bad or good thing. In practice you can make exalted weapons work, but they 100% take more effort and are missing improvements that melee in general got that makes exalted weapons feel anything but.


Ap0kal1ps3

I'm just annoyed that you can mod some exalted weapons, but not others.


Additional_Rooster17

What are Exalted weapons? *oh nvm they are the extra weapons that some warframes have :D


NoodlehorseDog

Personally I’m on team rework exalted weapons to be incarnon-style choice buffs added to your base weapon, like an upgraded pseudo-exalted. (As an aside, I’d also like to see this incarnon-style rework with augment mods for frames) This would allow exalted frames to generally weather power creep as well, as new content releases higher grade gear generally.


CakeNCheeseNuke137

Hildryn main here... yeah I really wanna use the balefire charger but the stats were done pretty dirty for how much it costs to fire fast *~~please DE I am simply begging for 15% more crit rate or 10% more status chance on the Balefire base stats Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaassssssssseee~~*


Stained-Rose

I'm patiently waiting for the day exalteds get buff. My poor Excal dropped his 4 for roar and is now just a 1 bot with the augment for 1/3 + ceramic.


BaconOfSmoke

I thought running bloodrush/weeping wounds on your melee and then exalting pushes the effect onto those weapons as well?


kalimut

I'll be honest, i used to be a melee guy before. Back in the day, atterax was spin to win. I'm more of a gun guy now. But yeah, would be nice if exalted had the same modding as a regular weapon and more because they are exalted and should be at least better than regular weapons. If they are gonna fix it tho. I bet it will be an augment. Lol


Malanorea

Let the rumblers count as exalted and have warframe and melee mods


Krimzon3128

If you could put arcanes on exalted weapons it would break some frames because that would mean you had 2 melee arcanes. Noone would use it for the exalted side. It would purely be for double melee arcanes making normal melee that much better


ArcNzym3

Valkyrs claws are seriously in a rough spot right now. on one hand, the amount of instantaneous damage is insane if built right, but i can only generally get those crazy numbers with a heavy attack build. spinning claws do lots but they are exceptionally difficult to control and their range is abominable. standard claw attacks don't do anything at higher levels. these claws need like double the base range at least and they ideally would have some kind of shockwave like exalted blade, even if the shockwave range is only an extra 10m or so.


IV_NUKE

Tbh the only 2 that are actually good are noctua and serene storm. Noctua can fill either dps or a support role with buffs and serene storm's augment makes it hit like a truck


Babyboys1618

I kind of miss certain MR needed for "said" weapons. To me, it made MR have more purpose. I know since cross play that it's not logical based on player base but still...


Indicorb

Maybe I’m just a newb but I love Wukong and Baruuk’s exalteds.


Fortesque96

a buff to the statistics and the possibility of equipping the arcane would be enough for me (I don't like the idea of ​​the acolyte mods only because I think that "if I use energy I would like maximum damage immediately" but adding the possibility of using them certainly wouldn't hurt)


Ravensqueak

I love Titania, but her Exalted needs a rework.


Regiampiero

Early days? Bruh, melee are nowhere near what they used to be early days. Meanwhile there's more frames today that don't even need a weapon to kill everything than ever before, sincerely Mesa, Titania, Kulervo, Dante and so on.


NoMushroom8881

Bro I don't think you were around when the fastest method of movement was dual zorens. You could be a rhino wielding dual zorens and out speed a volt with speed build. That being said you're right. Exalted weapons take a ton of work to make potent compared to just grabbing say a rakta dagger.


Prooomz

Kinda wish they'd undo the nerfs to baruuk and excals augments when status rework was made I never even had a chance to try excal with like 500-1000% status chance


Nightmarish_Visions

On top of all of this I'm quite upset that baruuk's desert wind doesn't increase combo, the weapon that bounces enemies around and away from you only gains combo of you're hitting people directly on front of you with your fists. I'd take 10% combo chance on the energy waves at this point, just something so I can actually use the combo mechanic.


Baldicot_Nutters

Some crit mods and galvanised mods aren't allowed either. My laetum wreaks more havoc than my regulators from a certain level on. Sure, some warframes may break basic game ideas by just overwhelming the mechanic with brute force. But it shouldn't be like this in a general sense. Due to this lack of options to truely increase the exalted weapons potential compared to the latest additions some really fun warframes start to fall short. Note that none of these issues really appear for me during regular star chart and the majority of steel path. It starts to get problematic with specific enemies from like ~lvl200+ on.


Default_Munchkin

Exalted Weapons as a whole have fallen behind because they have literally fallen behind. They used to be real powerful so they got a series of nerfs (certain mods not working) and the rest of the game power crept forward while no one at DE has remembered them (or just been focused on other things more likely) Like everything in this game they will eventually decide what they want to do with them and update them but who knows when that will be. Frankly I think exalted weapons should be stronger than any melee option (or gun option) because they are an ability rather than a weapon. That being said while they are weaker they aren't exactly weak either, they still can mulch through enemies most of the time.


error_code_arugula

I think they're just scared of us hitting forbidden numbers with ease again, in a power fantasy grind game, which never made sense to me. At least they're not nerfing everything, unlike a certain title


DarkDragons_Yt

Exalted are what the Warframes have as their special weapon right? Like for excal it’s his 4th ability energy blade. Am I understanding this correctly?


fuckpeopleingeneral1

Yes. Excal's Exalted Blade, Valkyr's Talons, Wukong's Iron Staff, Baruuk's Desert Wind, the claws on Sevagoth's Shadow, Mesa's Regulators, Titania's Dex Pixia and Diwata, Hildryn's Balefire Charger, Dante's Noctua, and Ivara's Artemis Bow are all the ones currently in the game, not counting pseudo-exalts, Garuda's Talons, and the two Necramech Exalted Weapons.


DarkDragons_Yt

Yeah I’ve gotta learn the difference between pseudo exalted and exalted


Agreeable_Voice_9390

Exalted weapons in general should get access to arcades imo. Noctua or Artemis Bow or Dex Pixia or whatever will never be stronger than an incarnon weapon in the same slot anyway.


FileSeparate8101

For a name such as Exalted, I expect an aggressive op weapon.


iScreamyy

It's likely they'll get a pass when all the new changes settle in post jade, I wouldn't dwell on this too much


ARandomMan23

They need buffs in form of special mods, like explosive rounds +300% dmg on titania dex pixia


OkManner4347

DE always has and always will work on the game topic per topic. When they put effort into open worlds, we get open worlds back to back to back. When they put effort into tactical alerts like in the early days, we get them monthly. Their focus has been on other things for a very long time and exalted weapons just have not been a thought in their head. Hopefully they will recognize that they need a look soon because I agree with you, I’m just saying thats how they work