"Excalibur is such a BAD Warframe!"...

In this Warframe Build Guide, we are going to take a look at Excalibur.
In fact, today I'm going to show you a super strong Excalibur Steel Path Build where we will talk about his Mods, his Skills and playstyle and overall about how we can make Excalibur deal MILLIONS of Damage with ease.
This Warframe Guide is inspired by the works of TheKengineer, WarframeFlo, KnightmareFrame, Grind Hard Squad and many more...
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Warframe Umbra,
Warframe Excalibur Umbra Build,
Warframe Excalibur Umbra Steel Path,
warframe excalibur prime,
warframe excalibur steel path build,
warframe excalibur umbra steel path build,
MHBlacky,
warframe excalibur gameplay,
warframe excalibur 2024,
warframe excalibur umbra 2024

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Do you still play Excalibur?

[@toony9986]

Sometimes I pick him just for fun lol

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Good ol' nostalgia. Totally get it ^^

[@Shikyorei]

Gotta show my love for Space Dad now n again

[@ericwalker1310]

I.. just have Umbra for now and he really fun to slash enemies to dices

[@cxrrvptxr]

I have 2 umbras thanks to merging and 2 regulars

[@tripandroctonus7787]

I saw an Excalibur prime at a relay and I freaked out. It was like spotting a unicorn in the wild.

[@DanTessman88]

I just had one in all 3 of my razorback raids

[@armoredtitan7375]

Same

[@Valseil]

bro you just spotted a chinese dude XD

[@tripandroctonus7787]

@@Valseil Lmao I know but I've played for years and never seen a Excal prime 🤣

[@kurtisacton6231]

definitely not me i swear >.>

[@satiivaindiica]

Excalibur is hands down my favorite frame so I'm Def going to use this build

[@payne7761]

Trying to unlock everything and get to steel path is absolutely daunting.

[@equestrianmidnight5619]

Just take it one step at a time. Enjoy the journey. :) The worst thing you can do is rush it.

[@d2kwazza57]

Hey mate if you still have nodes to do try and add me on warframe I’ll help you through your nodes if you struggle or want company @D2k_WAZZA

[@arcadeinvader8086]

my favorite excal: furious javelin ofc arcane reaper for survival exalted blade -> wrathful advance crit zaw with exodia brave for energy sustain and melee exposure for anti-armor surging dash augment for max combo after every dash purple archon shard with the gigabuffed melee crit damage DPS also makes it well into the millions

[@zeeman0306]

Dope video as usual. The only suggestion I have is to make sure to denote that Condition Overload only works on the DIRECT hits of the sword. The waves coming from the blade don't benefit from the conditional buff, so if you're not hitting enemies directly with the blade, it might be better to use Primed Pressure Point. --Edit: Or Sacrificial Pressure + Sacrificial Steel if you don't have access to Primed Pressure Point. P.P.P. is better than S.P. overall by rank 8 vs max rank (10) S.P. so once you do get it, swap to P.P.P.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Thank you for the awesome feedback

[@zeeman0306]

@@MHBlacky_ENG No problem.

[@TheJack56]

Getting back to the idea of DE removing the stat stick, that would be a good reasin to change the Augment of Excalibur's First Skill to something Scaling (like Zephyr augment) so can be used in SP

[@trevor93939jhxgeyeuejnrnfjdise]

Or just make his slash dash use the same mods and stats as his exalted umbra blade

[@Wlokegnr]

My excal uses an Elec blade for pure corrosive, I just used green shards to strip armor, and unstripped enemies die just as easily anyways

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Sure, once they have no armor left, they're squishy af xD

[@OneOfTheLostOnes]

Great video. Appreciate the details of how every part works within the whole. It was super useful in understanding how to adapt it to my playstyle. Thanks! Keep it up!

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Big thank you for the awesome feedback ❤️ I'm happy that you didn't just like the vid but that it also gave you the ability to incorporate the elements shown into your own build. That's always the best :D

[@Tb_Antt]

I use skaijati plus radial blind for survivability w/ huras kubrow.

[@ExcaliburGT]

😂

[@BluJay.]

Yeah you need to move to nikanna prime

[@mrwhat5094]

​@@BluJay.Nah skaijati is crisp

[@BluJay.]

@@mrwhat5094 it’s terrible

[@mrwhat5094]

@@BluJay. Nah it's crisp

[@silversteve4293]

you can also just give him an acceltra or some kind of sniper and you don't even need to do anything in the game. Not to mention you can do the marked for death and howl combo with the 300% finisher damage mod Also Blacky makes it sounds like armor strip is only good on Excalibur but it increases damage massively for every character. Like imagine putting 2 green shards on mesa and then she would also strip armour in a blink of an eye and kill anything easily The mirage Damage reduction and guardian mod is genius tough

[@TheSilentEntry]

If only you truly knew how good Excalibur really is

[@TheJack56]

It might was more like Bad-ass Warfrsme

[@atreva]

how 440% health on umbral vitality?

[@mattyman051]

Probably has the full set on his Warframe maxed out Edit: haven’t watched yet

[@thestarryeyedobserver]

he has all 3 umbra mods equipped. they buff eachother

[@dogma32]

Health was recently changed. The percentage you saw is probably before the warframe EHP rework.

[@bartofii]

Excaliber was my favorite for the longest. I loved the sword dash most and primarily used a nikana for melee... havent touched them since the changes to melee removing channeling and giving us heavy attacks. I also had another status exalted build that i was messing with to give it access to void damage for mini blender effects

[@DuneCrescent]

An unpopular choice for some for survivability that I use is Healing Return on the exalted blade as your damage is already covered the healing will keep him going pretty efffortlessly.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

With the high status chance, sure! :D This will definitely work ;)

[@DuneCrescent]

@@MHBlacky_ENG One little trick with that too is you can take Archon intensify since Healing Return will proc it. Anothe idea I had is that with the corrosive on exalted it's also entirely viable to run Nourish for both the viral procs and energy gains to support him

[@rca6268]

Love your videos, they're always very entertaining and educational. Too bad Furious Javelin isn't equipable on Umbra. Not sure when you made the video, but you can only equip it on regular Excal now. I instead went with a maxed Fleeting Expertise to get my efficiency back. Edit: My bad, I just realized I had already Helminthed (?) my Radial Javelin with Wrathful Advance, that's why it wasn't equipable. Sorry about that!

[@Josh-oh5bs]

I have it equipped on my Umbra as well, just checked.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Haha, I was confused there for a second xD Thank you for the nice feedback though ❤️

[@creammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm]

Well I didn't know when I started

[@TyFighterTV]

"I tried the very strong Kullervo option and I died a lot" -Most honest Warframe content creator lololol

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Well, it's the truth xD

[@Rawrdesu-]

I was just making a build for him, what a coincedence

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Hahaha Man in the Wall is watching :D

[@DoctorTex]

Question, what is that cephalon styled room you sometimes show up in? I always thought it was the Simulacrum, but...well, I probably couldve saved that 50000 standing when I saw it wasnt that room.

[@ArthiosVankrul]

You mean the one where he showcases the Warframes and weapons? It is the simulacrum, but it's a different "style" of it, usually available for purchase at events like night of naberius and so. You can buy another good style by using the capillars from farming Dante at Loid.

[@DoctorTex]

@@ArthiosVankrul The room where he showcases the abilities is the same place as where he shows the weapons?

[@ArthiosVankrul]

@@DoctorTex Not specifically in this video, but when he does weapon showcases, yes. To clarify I'm talking about the one where he fights 20 corrupted heavy gunners. The rest is random mission gameplay.

[@TheLunarDawn]

If we're talking about the same spot, yeah it should be the Simulacrum. The one used in this video is specifically called the "Ballroom Simulacrum," which used to be an event-only reward. Now it can also be purchased during Naberus (Halloween) since the Backstreet-Boys-Reunion-Tour. Though if you can't wait, there is now an alternative year-round alt Simulacrum from Loid called the Sanctum Simulacrum for 75 capillaries.

[@DoctorTex]

​@@ArthiosVankrulAh. I was referring to, for example, the room where he tests slash dash on a bunch of regular heavy units. So that's also the simulacrum? Or is that a mission node? Sorry if I caused confusion earlier.

[@FunnelCake-m4c]

What’s your secondary color on your excal it looks pretty

[@gustavo541995]

Hope DE transforms pseudo exalted into hability damage frames like dante and octavia.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

I also hope they'll find a healthy solution ;)

[@safarixmesh]

@@MHBlacky_ENG on which prime time they talked about stat sticks changes?

[@jevaughniericketts6925]

Imagine just subsuming ur Excalibur and then he post a vid about Excalibur 😂😂😂

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Well... Let's just say at least he's easy to refarm 😉

[@jevaughniericketts6925]

@@MHBlacky_ENG yh

[@jevaughniericketts6925]

@@MHBlacky_ENG gotta wait like 4 day tho lol

[@Kitsune24500]

Everybody knows the real reason to use Excalibur Umbra is for the drip

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Pssst, don't tell 'em :P

[@danielsimpson5994]

I replace Slash Dash with Roar

[@kingppen]

Great video

[@shyper17]

Ok hear me out. Excalibur Umbra may not be immortal like Revenant or as powerful as say... Saryn or Octavia. But he is the true champion of the real endgame - fashion frame.

[@Gujynaws7]

I want to use Excalibur umbra or even normal Excalibur till endgame but everyones saying he's bad and you shouldn't use him in endgame

[@sylaconnocalys8443]

​@@Gujynaws7it just takes a lot for him to be good in the endgame. You gotta invest a lot of material. I play him in endgame stuff and yeah he's not the best but I love umbra so I don't really care.

[@Gujynaws7]

@@sylaconnocalys8443 idk what mods R good on him so I'm not sure

[@Gujynaws7]

@@sylaconnocalys8443 all ik is I'm keeping him till endgame

[@Gatobizcocho]

Ah gentlements everyone knows that umbra is the more versatile fun to play and badas-s of all the frames he is my favourite boy

[@mcjagergaming]

Just run full umbral with adaption, and Arcane Reaper. Have a tennokia mode on exalted Blade with life strike make your Blade color red/orange/yellow for the heat dmg from chromatic, and make sure to put corrosive on aswell. Now you can health tank, and can do at least 200k a swing. Just rember to use heavy when the pop up happens to refresh your health. This build should be able to take you all the way to lvl 2000's or so no problem.😮

[@Dr._Elysium295]

Definetly going to have to try this out, thanks.... kiddo

[@Eclipse_IV]

As someone who mains excalibur (and has since umbra came out), I think excalibur is underpowered compared to newer frames. The functionality of his kit just does not hold up to modern content, and REQUIRE augments or helminth abilities to be useful. Slash dash is useless without its augment (which is why everyone replaces it with other abilities). Radial javelin is literally useless without the augment. Exalted blade is okay, but still subpar without chromatic blade (thats why everyone runs chromatic blade). The sad thing is that if (some of) the augments were a part of excal's base kit, he would feel cohesive as a frame. Use slash dash to build combo (augment), blind for cc and melee damage, javelin for damage increase (augment), and exalted blade for big damage. Compare that to frames like gauss or kullervo, whose abilities just work together right out of the box. For gauss, mach rush gives mobility and is used to charge battery, kinetic plating gives a ton of survivability, thermal sunder does damage and cc and armor stripping, and redline gives a ton of buffs. He has everything he needs, and each ability serves a purpose. For kullervo, he gets a massive amount of crit chance and heavy attack efficiency, an abillity to get a bunch of overguard, an ability to hit groups all at once, and an ability to build combo. Not only is his kit functional, but it works really well with itself. Build combo > chain enemies > heavy attack for massive group damage, and get overguard whenever you want. Neither character NEEDS augments or helminth abilities. Excalibur NEEDS augments and/or helminth abilities to have every ability be functional. Augments should AUGMENT a kit, not be a fundamental necessity. The thing that annoys me the most, though, about excal's kit is the fact that he is not shield immune during slash dash. The number of times I have gotten afflicted with a status effect and died the instant slash dash ended is absurd. People usually say to just not use slash dash, but thats no fun. I hyper invested into slash dash and I will use it, damn it. I replaced exalted blade with wrathful advance, and I can easily hit 20 to 200 million damage per hit with slash dash (depending on priming and armor), gain 40 combo per enemy hit with slash dash (augment + naramon), and then wrathful advance for damage from 100 million to the damage cap. Why would I want to be complacent with mashing left click with exalted blade? I just wish I had those extra slots that those augments take up. The umbra augment is also a slap in the face, since it takes up yet another slot just to make the frame functional. Is he a bad warframe? No. But he definitely has a lot of problems that prevent me from calling him "good". And since he is technically viable, I dont know if DE cares enough to fix the issues. After all, they added that bandaid fix to umbra and called it a day. ... Good video tho.

[@derekspringer6448]

Tl;dr but honestly bro there are a lot of frames who aren't half of what they should be without augments. Its what makes them exciting to get and worth the rep farm. You're comparing Excalibur with only two frames. Some frames work well with their moves, some need help. Honestly saying "such and such frame is no good without (insert mod)" isn't helpful because they are mods.... We have access to them! Kullervo has like one augment that sucks if I remember correctly so that kind of makes up for it in a way. Honestly Excalibur's moves work better together than a lot of frames... imo Hildryn has basically one move, two if you count haven and need it for Blazing Pillage. I love putting gloom on her but what is her kit by itself? Shit. What about Gara? 2 for survivability... four to keep two up or charge it if you wanna spend all that time doing so... one to break four. With hecka duration you only need to cast four and one every minute or so. Pppptttt... Whats Rhino without augments/armor buff mods? A roar machine? I love using Chromatic blade with a red color, archon vitality, stand at the right distance so that your melee attack AND the wave hit the enemy every single attack and let them heat procs STACK baby!

[@Eclipse_IV]

@@derekspringer6448 You're absolutely correct that many frames dont work well without their augments. But that is still fundamentally a negative flaw in the frames' design. Many frames only have one or 2 useful abilities. Those are still flaws and should be fixed. The presence of multiple flawed frames does not subtract from the fact that Excal is flawed, and his kit does not work without augments. I was only focusing on only talking about excal here because this video is about excal. Not about other flawed frames. Excal is kinda like kids who rely on their school's welfare food programs to eat. They are definitely better off than starving homeless people living in war-torn countries. But if the topic was already about those kids, bringing up the homeless people as a reason why those kids are fine is disingenuous to the topic at hand. Yes, everyone should have access to food. But we were talking about those kids first. Those kids should not have to rely on a crutch that is welfare food programs in order to eat. Its the same way for excal (albeit a lot less important of an issue). He relies on a crutch and is fundamentally underperforming. Yes there are frames worse off. But the topit was about excal, and you cant just use other frames as an excuse to brush off excal's flaws. Yes everyone should have a functional kit. But we were talking about excal first. Excal should not have to rely on a crutch that is augments in order to perform at a base level. Now, shifting the topic of conversation to your second point about "comparing excal with only 2 frames"... I could also compare excal to the other oldest frames whose kits actually work without many changes (of course because they got buffed/reworked, which is exactly why excal should get a buff too). Volt only has one one subpar ability (shock) which still does CC and applies status and adds a buff to his 3rd. His other abilities apply buffs for himself and the team, create a big shield that boosts damage, and has large scale nuke/cc ability. His kit just works. What about Mag: Her first abillity groups/ccs, her second ccs and can be used to block damage and increase damage, her third armor strips and restores shield, and her fourth restores shield. Her kit has cc, support, survivability, and damage increase. It just works. Rhino: Like volt, his first ability is kinda useless but at least it still does cc. His second is basically invincibility, his third is a TON of damage increase, and his fourth is hard cc that even affects demolysts. He has basically infinite survivability, a ton of damage, and cc that works on enemies that cant normally be cc'd. His kit just works. Other old frames that just work out of the box: Ash, Loki (not amazing in most content but at least every part of his kit now has a use [and loki mains still swear that he is stronger than you think]), Sayrn, Trinity, Mesa. Not to say that those frames are perfect... they just dont have flaws like excal does. Also, wisp and hydroid (thank god for his rework) arent old, but can be gotten gotten not too far into the star chart. Excal has neither a functional kit, nor survivability (blind does not work on enemies with overguard, so eximus still kill him), nor damage (without augments). Excal: 1st does (pitiful) damage, 2nd the only fully functional ability, 3rd does (pitiful) damage, 4th does (okay) damage (theres a reason IPS blade builds are exceedingly rare). With augments: 1st builds combo (perfect for a melee frame), 2nd does cc, 3rd does damage buff, 4th does (great) damage. Most strong frames only use augments to AUGMENT their damage. Excal NEEDS augments to make his kit functional.

[@thestarryeyedobserver]

you summed up my exact feelings on excalibur. everything down to the letter. i’m seriously hoping this gets addressed at some point, because i just don’t get why their “poster boy” falls off so hard without augments and helminth. it really feels like pablo just added slash to excalibur’s _outdated_ kit and just called it a day while volt and mag got everything they needed.

[@NiceGameInc]

Let's meet in the simulacrum, ID is Mr.DaburuKaramu. or let's meet in Lua SP circulus survival, as you wish.

[@0Rosanna]

I think de even missed the point with the augment warrior rest. All de needed to do was make it to where you don't lose buffs the instant you switch to operator mode. And overall I think it's about the time Excalibur gets a little but of a rework

[@MEYH3M]

DE needs to stop patching the flaws of frames using augment mods, Excalibur Umbra is a frame that can't spare a mod slot. 3 slots are taken but Umbral mods and 2 are taken by Furious Javlin and Chromatic blade. They just should've made it a toggle in the abilities screen.

[@Orokin31]

That is very true, same w zephyr's passive

[@equestrianmidnight5619]

The fact that he can't spare slots, I feel is evidence of a problem in Umbra's kit as well. Exalted Blade doesn't scale the best, which is why for big damage, Furious Javelin, Chromatic Blade, and possibly Wrathful Advance if you want it, *and* a stat stick just to have it keep up in end-game content. It's also got rather weak base stats. Furious Javelin is useless without the augment as well, requiring said augment or a replacement ability. Not to mention it costs way too much energy, and has a long cast animation that stops movement. He has no innate sustain for survivability, despite being a melee-focused frame. No innate way to keep his energy up so he can use his 2, which is the only way he can CC, and if you use Exalted Blade, and slide melee, that causes a blind, which drains energy as well. Going into Operator mode, which is something a lot of players do to activate those abilities, resets buffs, forcing a recast, and that's more wasted energy. I'm not suggesting he gets both survival and energy sustain, but the man needs something, dammit. XD And Warrior's Rest directly conflicts with Primed Sure Footed. I personally think he needs some buffs and changes. I think other frames need it more, but he's on the list for me.

[@BJ86491]

​​@@equestrianmidnight5619honestly his kit needs a LOT of buffs Here are ideas i had: Excalibur passive has a built in weaker berserker fury, only if you kill with swords, or nikanas too for umbra. Umbra's ai now defaults to exalted blade, or your melee weapon if its a nikana if you transfer into operator mode. Throughout this, it will not consume any energy when it uses abilities. Warrior's Rest now makes it so when he runs out of hp and kneels down, you can void sling into him to insta revive with full health, shields and energy. Slash dash and furious javelin have increased base slash procs, which increases even more per enemy hit. Radial blind grants a short time of invisibility like ash's smokescreen, radial howl grants a small universal faction damage boost like rhino's howl. Exalted blade has built in blood rush, and chromatic blade also grants a guaranteed physical damage proc based on what is being hit, along side the elemental damage. For example, if the exalted blade is hitting grineer armor or grineer flesh, the exalted blade has guaranteed slash procs. If youre hitting corpus proto shields, exalted blade will have a guaranteed impact proc. But after the shields are gone, the exalted blade will switch to guaranteed slash procs. For enemies like necramechs or the murmur, exalted blade will default to slash procs.

[@equestrianmidnight5619]

@@BJ86491 Here's some ideas I've seen that I liked: His 4 should have the base attack speed set to a perfect 1 instead of 0.833 and the base crit chance should rise from 15% to 28%. The wave from the blade should increase combo counter and just outright forces a slash proc, even with Chromatic Blade. Excal also needs some kind of damage reduction, every other melee frame has one. Baruuk has his passive and his 3, Valkyr can't be killed as long as her 4 is active, Wukong has an armor bonus from his 3 and is generally very difficult to kill, and the Exalted Shadow from Sevagoth is quite tanky. Furious Javelin should probably just be absorbed into his 3. Perhaps with somewhat reduced energy costs and a cast speed boost with the trade-off of it being weaker than the original augment. Radial Howl should grant Void damage to his melee. Since Umbra is supposed to be the sentient slayer, I feel he should get something for this, since currently, Xaku and Volt do his job better.

[@thorham1346]

@@equestrianmidnight5619 What exactly do you call end game content?

[@LunnarisLP]

gotta love how instead of fixing umbra they jus tmade an augment lmao.. so annoying and making his cool feature basically worthless.

[@Risen_Star]

Remember, nipple clamps are priority. (Talking about Styanaxs skin collection)

[@pn1555]

I went for a Gloom setup and got rid of Slash Dash (as I wanted to keep Excal's essence). The slow as a CC tool and Glooms lifesteal are just made for a melee Excal build. Paired this with Arcane Blessing, all the Umbra mods + Adaptation makes you easily survive until lvl 1000 or so (didn't test further). Also paired him with blue Archon Shards consisting of max energy and more health, as well as the green shards for the Kuva Nukor. Again, this allows me to stay alive CONSTANTLY up to level 1000. Edit: paired him with Nautilus, for even more CC and grouping.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

That's a good one for sure ;) I also have one of my 5 Loadouts dedicated to Gloom. Totally agree with you here ;)

[@MEYH3M]

Excalibur lacks any from of survivability, most frames have some form for damage reduction like Gauss/Xaku and the ones that don't have DR at least have Overguard like Stayanax/Frost/Kullervo or Shield replenishing abilities like Protea/Hildryn/Harrow Or at the very least HP healing abilities like Garuda/Oberon/Grendel. Excalibur has NONE of these. he needs a proper buff.

[@jeffrbake]

Agreed. He doesn't really bring much to the table anymore as well. He has some cool gimmicks, but there exists a frame that does anything he wants to do better.

[@kyrntheharpooner4150]

sounds like skill issue, just use regen and his 1 properly, idk why this video even exist excal is viable without all this in sp

[@MEYH3M]

@@kyrntheharpooner4150 Sounds like you are just being an idiot.

[@jeffrbake]

@@kyrntheharpooner4150 he can still take damage and get status effects in his 1. He just won't take health damage.

[@kyrntheharpooner4150]

@@jeffrbake Point stays, I have 0 issues i made the whole sp star chart and I have build half of the warframe in the game (archon shards and all) exca is a solid warframe, for real, you just have to use a bit more skill that most frames because if u stop fighting you die, some frame just dies for nothing but every exca death is because you made a mistake or your build is trash

[@FrozenxDeath]

"This warframe is bad" invariably means "I don't know how to mod/use this warframe/what to use it for"

[@sandersmurray3387]

I guess people just dont know how to build caliban

[@FrozenxDeath]

@@sandersmurray3387The thing with Caliban is, what he's really, really good at is crowd control, which most people don't have any interest in when the meta is nuke frames

[@sandersmurray3387]

@@FrozenxDeath people don't have any interest in crowd control people that's just not how the game is playing right now, especially with the content we've been getting recently. How is crowd control any good for archons, archimedia, open world etc?

[@FrozenxDeath]

@@sandersmurray3387 Ah, yeah, that is exactly what I said, put into different words. Well done.

[@sandersmurray3387]

@@FrozenxDeath so no answer?

[@musicman3351]

I saw someone using excalibur prime and I started fan girl-ing on the spot

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Hahaha in all my years of WF I've only seen like 3 of them out in the wild :D

[@zupremetv8618]

I seen a couple people use Excalibur prime in my public matches meanwhile I’m using umbra

[@tamop]

You can change your energy colour to Toxin and the Prime Continuity mod to Archon Continuity so you deal Toxin damage to anything while stripping armor with your ulti as well - it is good for instances with enemies with shields (like Corpus / Duviri / Circuit). And for the helminth you use Nourish so you spread viral stacks like crazy. A bit less damage probably, but Jack of all trades you are now.

[@twilight_skies]

But you can’t have both toxin as well as viral

[@tamop]

@@twilight_skies No, no. You don't have toxin and viral "both", you have toxin, viral and corrosive at the very same time. That's the trick here.

[@jameshutcheson1348]

Please start putting timetags in your video 🙃

[@ChaoticKatana]

My excal uses a toxic blade with Archon Continuity to strip armor. Also you can Tennokai the exalted blade. Opportunity's Reach is great.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

That's definitely also one great way to go :D

[@flaggy185]

Get all that magic bs outta here All i need is my Blade

[@processing8296]

facts!!

[@Master_Chief1250]

Arcane Reaper is also good for this build, as it heals 24 health per second and it gives 660 armor for 10 seconds, so if you are casually killing everything, then you'll have INSANE armor and you'll heal your shields while gaining all that armor

[@andria1909]

Funnily enough, even after trying out Umbra for several missions, I just actually learned how his abilities work after watching this video lul

[@atlas1227]

I haven’t been able to find an umbra exalted blade build that explains how to not die and how to be good, thanks for showing me 👍

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Happy you liked it ^^ Thank you for the lovely feedback ❤️

[@Alikaykillerfour4]

wouldn't it be better to turn excalibur's energy color blue for cold damage since it then allows you to make use of primed fever strike instead of north wind?

[@TheLunarDawn]

Actually, yeah as you're looking at +165% instead of +90% bonus damage. Though one issue will be when you use faction-damage through mods, as you will need to swap your Exalted Blade AND energy color if you go from Anti-Grineer > Anti-Corpus where you'll want the pure Toxin. It's going to be less frustrating to run North Wind, having to swap loadouts and energy colors on the Zariman...is a life I don't want to re-experience.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Yup, you got me there :P

[@IneedYoutube]

Can you make a vampire excal build? the idea is to get HP from killing enemies while getting energy from taking damage

[@unlockedmfg5591]

Is possible but at some point you can kill more enemies and for that you probably will die.

[@UltraGasLighterSupreme]

Negative range gloom + rage

[@qendium5044]

I've also been using Tharros strike recently and the armor strip + healing is huge. Super fun. I love how Excal is a really good warframe with a very solid identity, but offers enough wiggle room to make some of these more out-there builds.

[@TheLunarDawn]

For some extra survivability, you can run Brief Respite + 2-4 Auger mods and Blind Rage as well. Each cast of Radial Blind or Radial Javilin will restore 200-300 shields, which you can either combo into Catalyzed Shields for a Gate build, or use it with Primed Redirection to fish for Arcane Aegis procs!

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Sure, if you want to build him into Shield Gating, then this is definitely the way to go :D

[@TheLunarDawn]

With Rolling Guard, can comfortably run deep into all content with 6-seconds of invincibility with Guardian. (the mod lol) Used to run an Umbral set with Arcane Grace + Arcane Guardian on SP pre-AoZ, but the modern Eximi we have...started to feel like I was getting Cozbied. The occasional lulls of having no passive healing, no bonus armor, or neither can be brutal. ;-;

[@Lzad]

I was literally looking for Excalibur guides and then BOOM

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Hahaha nice! :D That's perfect timing, I'd say ^^

[@Lzad]

Definitely you’re my saviour 🙌

[@CrabyMan]

Cool build, it's always weird that people say he doesn't have to good survivability when I've gotten around steel path just fine, especially now with Arcane reapers and violet archon shards. Also, pillage works pretty good for armor strips and having oversheild protection, and I usually replace javelin, recently trying out 4 status Exalt blade, abusing archon continuity and focus radon

[@martimingles2216]

Hi i was wondering was is the name or the armor and syandana of the umbra you using

[@crisschan2463]

shoulder pads look like syrinx from baza collection

[@paytonkraft7564]

That's the beauty of warframe! You can take a garbage warframe and make it a god-tier if you experiment a little.

[@skully-gates]

i am and will be a Excalibur Umbra main forever 🤣

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Haha totally fair ^^ Hope you enjoyed the vid 😉

[@seannim]

"People usually don't have those mods"... bruh it just means you ain't ready for steelpath yet

[@TheKrillmeisterswe]

Excalibur is my favourite Warframe. Especially Umbra. I always come back to him. His exalted blade ability is just awesome.

[@noeltan3596]

As a returning player, this is good info. Some suggestions: Transient fortitude over Blind rage. Three red shards over blue shards. This ends up trading 27.5% duration and 225 mana for 55% efficiency, making mana recovery options better

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

It's an option worth trying for sure 😉

[@cantstandurbs876]

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but you can do this and a hell of a lot more with literally any other warframe, or hell, any MELEE and with less setup. Basically, Excalibur is still bad. You can make it somewhat viable, obviously, but regardless of how tuned up a turd is, it's still a turd, not to mention that hitting millions of damage on the Corpus or armor stripped Grineer is like breaking a twig and expecting people to be astonishment with the strength displayed. You could prime any other melee with this same setup and you'll do exactly the same if not even more damage, and at that point you no longer need Excalibur for anything other than shooting funny shockwaves around expecting to hit something before your team does.

[@bum116]

Samurai build aka 1 hit ko slash dash Just combine his Javelin augment + broken slash dash build

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Sure thing, Slash Dash is a freakin' strong one :D

[@NiceGameInc]

Can we meet in the game? i have a feeling i need to share my build so people realize how strong regular excalibur really is. My ingame name is Mr.DaburuKaramu

[@itachiuchiha-wn8xv]

Could i get the build your using? I main Excalibeur

[@NiceGameInc]

​@@itachiuchiha-wn8xv just DM me in game

[@VampirusX1]

Whoever says that didnt mod him right.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Agreed ;)

[@chickendrawsdogs3343]

Excal Umbra with Terrify somehow feels really appropriate. Dude is basically Guts if while wielding the Gram Prime. 🤣🤣

[@AlexeiX1]

Save yourselves 28 points and 2 mod slots of Umbral Vit and adaptation, that is like 5 year old build. Jut get rolling guard instead, and his 1 has invincibility to bail you out when rolling wont.

[@phantomskullstudios]

Umbral Vitality buffs intensify and has a free forma do you even know what your talking about?

[@AlexeiX1]

@@phantomskullstudios yeah sure it buffs it but not enough to be worth a whole slot, specially when you don't need the extra health. Even an augur secrets is better than that if you looking to just buff power. Only umbral mod that is worth nowadays is intensify and even then depending on the frame precision intensify is better.

[@caryroberts6748]

Excalibur when built correctly can do a few quite impressive things. The exalted blade of modded for toxin, blast, Radiation all three of these can benefit from both or either archon mods and shards. Blast can potentially heal, regen shields, toxin can deal corrosive damage and heal , radiation can increase ability damage. Sky’s the limit. Alternative and rather darkened strategy using proton snap. Can potentially change your entire range type and outputs.

[@Lionheartx675]

Wrathful Advance Helminth + Chromatic Blade + Archon Continuity + Toxin Exalted Blade + 2 Green Archon Shards is how you actually make Excalibur the best. The rest of the mods/arcanes should be slotted for survivability. Arcane guardian or reaper, adaptation, umbral mods etc. Also use a nikana + Amalgam Daikyu mod for built in lifesteal which is a mini gloom helminth.

[@mikeD1234]

I like the sound of this but Excalibur isn’t close to the top of my list to get green shards. When I feel like building another one I’ll make a budget version of this.

[@Glamador]

The real LPT is always in the comments. I prefer to get the viral from my primer and corrosive from exalted blade. I do use Eclipse though because Excal's natural survival tools are... Basically nonexistent. And I don't like to shield gate.

[@monsterdc0303]

I actually use daukyu and a zaw nikana to life steal

[@xx-tg3lj]

You can put weeping wounds, and blood rush on excal's exalted blade. The mods have to be placed on the melee weapon. The combo counter for excal's exalted blade activates the effects of weeping wounds, and blood rush w/o being on the exalted blade itself.

[@kacperkharebashvili892]

I personally don't like using these mods on exalted blade because the energy waves don't build combo. You have to sacrifice the range of exalted blade to make use of these mods. Using wrathful advance with purple crit shards already give highest tier crit chance and huge damage.

[@YaniBro]

Once an excalibur always a excalibur

[@mastergaming7135]

Now that there's status rework (June 18 2024) would we have to change anything, sir?

[@JTHMRulez1]

I'm not the OP. But I think with the changes this build is actually even better, as Corrosive is even better thanks to partial armor stripping being better than before.

[@bobamericanu2193]

One tauforged green shard is probably optimal now with the 90dr armor cap to add on to what @JTHMRulez1 said

[@timidiz8933]

WAIT THEY'RE GETTING RID OF STAT STICKS??? WHAT ABOUT MY ATLAS!?!?!?

[@ChozenBardoUmbra]

"Viable steel path choice" who the fuck would say that. Every frame at least is viable nowadays.

[@TheMicOnFireCuz]

can you please consider placing time stamps in these lol

[@brandoncsirbaugh]

Umbra main here and I will always choose Umbra any day.

[@lookalike4805]

*Excalibur* > Umbra ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@destroyer99612]

Umbra has more drip and has prime stats

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

The Bling is real! I also rather go without PSF and therefore bring my scarf... I mean without it I might catch a cold on Europa or Venus :O

[@lookalike4805]

@destroyer99612 Nothing Umbra can do that Excalibur can't.... And I can Afford Skins so the Drip argument only applies to Broke Tennos. 👀

[@xxhijirixx6525]

i dont think anyones ever said he is bad buddy

[@hyeonmu6576]

Exalted weapons (besides Mesa's) are widely considered underpowered right now, with many believing Excalibur's current best build to be Slash Dash that actually replaces Exalted Blade for whatever choice of Helminth ability. It's just... that's really only for relatively high level Steel Path. You can use Excalibur just fine with an Exalted Blade build and still clear the majority of content you'd want/need to.

[@SacredFlapsProductions]

@@hyeonmu6576 Baruuk>Mesa

[@NiceGameInc]

​@@hyeonmu6576 oh boy, most people just have no idea...

[@joaquimcalisto6417]

some newer players may do due to not know how to unlock his potential with a better arsenal equipped :)

[@UltraGasLighterSupreme]

​@NiceGameInc the thing is that slash dash has quite a few advantages over exalted blade. The stat stick can use accolyte mods, incarnon evo's, has i frames, and has a forced slash proc (i think, i might be wrong on that last one)

[@guapogonzalo8376]

the most broken for exalt blade from excalibur its fire in warframe energy and corrosive stat in blade build. And we get grendel's ability for external viral dmg.

[@UltraGasLighterSupreme]

Better off with kullervo for crit viability

[@Haispawner]

​@@UltraGasLighterSupremeThe meta slave fears the Excalibur enjoyer

[@gotdamnjimi9758]

Im going to try out your build but honestly my question is does Grendel ability actually affect excalibur exalted blade? Like does it give it viral damage?

[@gotdamnjimi9758]

Its the 1 stack of viral on the ability part that’s getting me very hesitant like why only one. Wouldnt you want multiple viral stacks

[@UltraGasLighterSupreme]

@@gotdamnjimi9758 it does

[@sienalilietta9152]

One tiny difference between Radial blind vs Radial howl Radial Howl : Removes any active damage resistances from Sentient units and Shadow Stalker within range.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Whoopsie, thanks for the correction ;)

[@lookalike4805]

You can even Confirm this Difference by Infusing *Radial Blind* on to *Excalibur Umbra* RIP... Potential Meme wasted. 😭

[@MrReindeerIRL]

"We dont like sudo Ex weapons" releases Dante and makes it an actual mechanic

[@rudycastillo4150]

I don't think removing the pseudo would be a great idea either they're nerfed to the ground, they buff exalted weapons, or they turn pseudo into exalted or they make pseudo exalts into straight ability.

[@suhleap]

9:30 exalted blade build

[@mundomain2673]

is torid with the incarnon a suitable replacement primer for da nukor w/corrosive?

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Yes, absoutely ;) Though I'm afraid you'd simply kill the entire room with it while "priming" xD

[@TheLunarDawn]

Yeah, that's just death...the instant kind. Personally I found it was a bit inconsistent, as you'd need to rebuild the Incarnon Charge to resume priming. Though if you like the Torid Incarnon fire as a primer, you should take a peak at the Primary Vermisplicer Kitgun. It can prime 6 elements, can be changed to a battery charge, and auto targets in a similar way to the Torid Incarnon at all times without needing to swap modes!

[@chuckfin]

Nah, lol.

[@TheBlack4Wolf]

I hope you answer this please, now i did what exactly build you did in video but not getting any red critical just asking how you getting red critical damage on your screen like this

[@spectregaming5198]

Are you armor stripping with nukur+ corrosive archon shards

[@TheBlack4Wolf]

@@spectregaming5198 i do yea armor stripping with nukur but what do you mean about shards ? i've the same shard as same as in the video

[@cocainedealer4013]

@@TheBlack4Wolf prolly low end shards . maybe higher purity shards

[@cry5049]

He stated you need kullervo ability to even red crti with exalted blade

[@unlockedmfg5591]

Kullero ability is the key with that thing you are an slayer

[@thatguyoverthere3898]

Okay but what if I put 5 Tauforged Violet Archon shards on my umbra, selected the third bonus for all 5 of them, and installed a max rank Primed Flow *cough cough* 450% crit damage bonus for all melee weapons *cough cough*

[@Jukantos]

MY MAN that's exactly the build i'm cooking at the moment (so far i got 1 Tauforged and 4 normal shards). For bonus use his Elemental augment to get infinite corrosive and cold procs with like 800% status chance. Instant armor strip and an even bigger crit multiplier 😂

[@thatguyoverthere3898]

@@Jukantos Chromatic Blade is definitely a huge help to improving the efficiency of the Exalted Blade. In fact if your Ability Strength is at least 189% and you install a max rank Chromatic Blade, you could achieve 100% status chance for the Exalted Blade without using anything else. On my build I'm running Blind Rage, Warrior's Rest, and all three Umbral Warframe Mods (all maxed out) so my Ability Strength is almost 300%. However, a couple things I'd like to point out: 1. Corrosive is arguably the best damage type now, however that's only against most factions. Against the Corpus (and an enemy with it's not exactly the best (but that's why Cold, Magnetic, and especially Toxin exists). 2. If your objective is armor stripping, then Heat is a better damage type to use than Cold because Heat procs result in the Ignite effect (which strips up to 50% of the target's armor). But you must keep in mind that enemies with Proto Shields take less damage from Corrosive and Heat. 3. If you don't really care much about armor stripping as much, Electricity is generally a better damage type than Cold on average.

[@thatguyoverthere3898]

@@Jukantos Oh yea also, get yourself Arcane Reaper and Molt Augmented if you don't have those already. There's a lot of Arcanes that work really well with Excalibur (Prime/Umbra), but I've found that those two work the best

[@thatguyoverthere3898]

@@Jukantos Also I'm so sorry lol allow me to clarify: 1. Corrosive is arguably the best damage type now, however that's only against most factions. Against most Corpus enemies (and any enemies with shields) it's not exactly the best. However, that's why Cold, Magnetic, and especially Toxin exist.

[@matanuigaming2556]

Damn it, I’d should’ve joined The Arbiters Of Hexis when I had the chance.

[@iamnotapotato.5]

What if you run nourish and corrosive on the exalted blade? Theoretically that would strip while you attack while also getting you closer to your max viral stacks, and getting you energy economy, not an excal player but this sounded like a good idea

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

I tried it out when testing but the problem was that this ended up causing too many viral effects which meant less corrosive and therefore the armor stripping would've taken too long to be a viable option. I mean you can surely do it. It's convenient. But it will take more time to kill the enemies 😉

[@kancelas]

Why is toxin and cold on the exalted blade build, you only need cold because of chromatic blade

[@rowdyace5719]

damage

[@thorham1346]

Viral.

[@riandickson5130]

I remember when energy color affecting a warframe's abilities was exclusive to Chroma. Made him super unique in that way, but now other frames get it. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but it feels less unique now.

[@Arbyjar]

Okay I actually developed my own build that isn’t quite as powerful, but is a bit more well rounded. It also doesn’t mess with chromatic blade, meaning my fashion is untouched. Just using furious javelin, modding for strength, range, and duration/efficiency (to taste) you can still get silly damage numbers, and the range turns slash dash into a very fun movement ability. Using Tharros strike as the helminth over the 2 as well, mainly because with all the strength you get a full strip, shield regen, and save yourself two archon slots. Also for those who don’t know, excal does a radial blind on his slide attack, so no lost utility there. Any remaining space can go to shields, energy econ, or whatever. This also frees up your secondary and melee slots for whatever you like (I suggest exodia contagion zaw) because you aren’t relying on chromatic blade or a primer. I use it for my SP circuit runs and steel path so it’s still plenty powerful

[@karloskillzone1782]

I keep having Excalibur umbra randomly disappear into a stone or off the map in plains of idelon, causing me to fail a mission.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Ufff... Now that's te game telling you it really doesn't like you xD

[@ThomasKejser]

The damage from your Umbral Blade counts as "ability damage". This means it can trigger archon mods. Archon Flow in particular, which means you can mod for Corrosive/cold on the Umbral Blade and noy have to worry about priming. With Archon Flow you the free yo the blues shard (which you cna replace with Purple for Crit damage) and you can run Arcane Strike instead of energize, freeing up another mod slot on the Umbral Blade... You won't need both Sacrificial mods, just subsume Kullervo and you will be red critting

[@ripLunarBirdCLH]

I actually started with Mag. And I'm quite satisfied. The level of crowd control Mag has allows it to be useful even when you join a game where enemies *VASTLY* overpower you.

[@alvaromafiol7050]

Mag it's very underrated, and you Will still have excalibur umbra by completing some Main quests

[@ElHarmonyV]

Mag also has the option to Full Strip enemies in a large radius.

[@ripLunarBirdCLH]

@@alvaromafiol7050 I actually despise full melee characters, which is why I didn't chose Excalibur. My current goals are Banshee, Nekros, Octavia and Citrine.

[@alvaromafiol7050]

@@ripLunarBirdCLH thats nice, you can get octavia pretty easy this week, shes on the duviri circuit

[@ripLunarBirdCLH]

@@alvaromafiol7050 But can I do Dunviri with mastery 3 warframe? I heard you can perma lock your account in Warframe if you start some quests too early.

[@twilight_skies]

I helminth on Pull in place of dash, use chromatic blade and furious javelin. Mod Exalted Blade into heavy attack, pull enemies together, furious javelin, heavy attack. Milllions of damage. Fun build.

[@agentmaine8352]

Gloom excal

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

One of my Loadouts has this one, too. I really like it ^^

[@nguyenhuyduc9151]

Im pretty sure Eclipse is more safe than gloom

[@agentmaine8352]

@nguyenhuyduc9151 I haven't tried it but gloom has treated me well I use slash dash to go immune for killer procs but other then that I just slice nonstop Blast eximus hurt no matter what we got tho lol

[@stanwainstein8933]

Why is this build better than running coloring for heat damge + archon vitality and then modding viral onto the exalted blade?

[@TheLunarDawn]

Off the top of my head, Archon Vitality will reduce your strength, armor, and health values as it breaks the Umbra set bonus. Adding Viral also requires 2 mods instead of 1, as its a similar philosophy when deciding progenitors for Lich weapons. Status dilution is a other issue, as you can only proc 10 stacks of viral, with any subsequent viral proc competes for priority with heat to either proc a DoT or nothing at all. Though if you get rid of viral and mod exclusively heat...you might be looking at a pretty beastly heat inherit setup.

[@spidermania220]

Hi blacky, could you do a eidolon hunt guide? And maybe some basic builds to start?

[@Theofficialabhinav]

Step one: Get sarpa with shattering impact Step two: Find a high damage weapon, preferably Rubico or Zenith Step three: Use volt’s shock trooper augment, subsume eclipse on his four (This is optional, but is better if you do) and his shield Step four: Armour strip the eidolon by shooting it with sarpa, put his shield down, cast eclipse and shock trooper and empty your magazine load on the limb. Tips: to avoid losing energy mod for efficiency and when the eidolon screams, get on your K-drive, if survivability is hard, mod for health or get a teammate that can revive you. If you’ve got any other questions or problems please ask me. 😊 Also, get a good amp (111 is mine but 177 is better. IMO 111 gets the job done.), use Madurai’s void strike.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

One day... One day I promise I'll get to it... I just really dislike Eidolons so I never bothered and need to do some research myself first xD

[@rinz5027]

This is the sign for me to go back and rebuild my Umbra. I've always been told why its bad and experienced it first hand, but now I have a template to build him again.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Hey, taht's nice :D I'm happy I could give you some motivation to revisit him ^^ Wish you much fun

[@technoultimategaming2999]

blacky just confirming my theory that any warframe is steel path viable if you mod them enough

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Yup, some are better, some are worse but base level SP should be possible with everyone 😉

[@yvngvudu]

Idk he still kinda sucks but not as much as Nidus in Steel Path.

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Yeah, taht's not wrong. I'm not saying he's Steel Path Meta by any means but I hope that I could present a build here that makes him at least viable enough ;)

[@ANGYCOW]

Ty bro i can melt Thure steel path enemies

[@dragonling748]

Just got to be honest, any build that requires a primer is not for me. I can more.damage more easily with Baruuk, and I don't need to mess to get it done

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Sure thing. If you don't like Primers then it won't be for you 😉

[@pi286]

im new... i dont like range.. i love mobility... should I keep playing exal? or is there better options? i love exal so far :P

[@quiethate]

If you like being fast try gauss

[@brave_skykorn]

Mmmmmmm. You should get barruk. His normal variant is earned through fortuna when you max out the fortuna syndicate. Then you unlock vox Solaris standing and you max that out to get the blueprints. Alternatively you should get his prime variant. To do that you just do missions to passively collect relics. And when you get to the point where you can check relics you can turn them radiant and find a group. Sorry about this paragraph but barruk is very helpful if you want a badass melee frame.

[@Grimmjow44]

Just enjoy the game and the process instead of watching endgame buildsXD

[@quiethate]

@@Grimmjow44 it’s impossible to yo all this stuff looks so damn cool while I’m currently st the new war, the prologue before you start the quest, I don’t have a void rig either so I think I’m screwed lol

[@blendervendor2220]

for mobilitiy I love playing volt... I think volt is a really good frame despite his abysmal passive. I love his abilties and his play style. Especialy becuase they buffed some parts of him and he's a huge SP nuke. Also you won't get so many people getting angry at you for taking 3 years to get to extraction

[@Herbal-Day]

I never knew what the MH means in MHBlacky....i still don't.

[@PhantomMenace.]

It can mean anything I see it as MH (Medal of Honor)

[@MHBlacky_ENG]

Monster Hunter ;) Used to make MH Content when I started out with YT years ago on a different channel ;)

[@Herbal-Day]

@@MHBlacky_ENG I've been enlightened.

[@PhantomMenace.]

@@MHBlacky_ENG Love that game

[@ethanvorn5153]

I synergize with umbra and vazirin operator I know it isn't as good as the rest of the meta focus schools, but it had saved me from death while i do good damage in steel path Edit: Need i mention it has a crowd control ability?

[@HarisNufail-09]

come on DE, a little rework on our boy here won't hurt...