Exalted Weapons Builds Guide

The aim of this guide is to show optimal builds to use for the exalted weapon abilities possessed by some Warframes and to suggest the best matching normal weapons in which to equip the mods.

Introduction

A question frequently asked by newcomers to the game is, “What is a good weapon for XYZ Warframe?” While there are some wonderful synergies to be found where unique weapon mechanics and Warframe abilities interact in particularly special ways, the majority of the time there is no best, or necessarily even good weapon for any particular frame. Frames and weapons are separate and players can and should choose the most enjoyable and effective builds and weapons for their favoured playstyle and mission parameters.

There are however some frames with “Exalted” weapon abilities, so named for Excalibur’s “Exalted Blade” weapon. These abilities behave like weapons themselves, either inherent to or summoned by the Warframe, except that they aren’t modded for separately. Instead, they will be modded by the installed mods in one (or two) of the player’s carried weapons. As such, there are in fact good weapons for these particular frames, since ideally the weapon carrying the mods would also benefit from the same build.

The aim of this guide is to show and explain optimal builds to use, either as is or as a starting point, for the exalted weapon abilities possessed by some Warframes and to suggest the best matching normal weapons to equip the mods in, which ideally would also be effective with the same build themselves. There is one section for each frame that will contain a description of the ability, the relevant stats, main points derived from the stats, the build and notes related to it and recommendations for weapons well suited to the build.

Important Notes

Before proceeding, some notes relevant to all that follows:

The following types of mod will not be used since none of them will work with any of the exalted weapons discussed:

• The “Acolyte” mods from the “Operation: Shadow Debt” event will not work. Notably Blood Rush, Body Count, Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds will not be used in any build.
  
• Weapon specific mods: Syndicate augments, Riven mods, Rathuum mods, Index mods.
  
• Sub-class specific mods: eg. Covert Lethality, Charged Chamber, Concealed Explosives.
  
• Drifting Contact. Although at the time of writing it does work, it is unintended and will be changed.

Secondly, this guide will refer to “120% IPS" (Impact, Puncture, Slash) physical damage mods. These mods, such as Buzz Kill and Fanged Fusillade, add 120% of a specific physical damage type and are only beneficial on certain weapons. The (slightly outdated) list of weapons that are compatible with these 120% IPS mods is found in this most helpful “120% Physical Damage Compatibility” guide. In short, if a weapon has over 75% (for the purpose of this guide, 80% will be used) of its physical damage in one type, a 120% IPS mod will add more raw damage than a 90% element (excepting for enemy resistances).

Further worth noting, since these are Warframe abilities, all are affected by Power Strength increasing mods (Intensify, Transient Fortitude, Blind Rage and Power Drift). Though this guide will not be going into Warframe builds, it should be kept in mind that increasing power strength will increase exalted weapon damage. Conversely, using Overextended will reduce Power Strength and thus exalted weapon damage.

Power Efficiency and to a lesser extent, Duration, will affect the initial activation cost and energy drained per second the ability remains active. Efficiency over and above the regular 175% cap will counter Duration below 100%. Conversely, high Duration can counter the increased drain from lower Efficiency (but not the activation cost). Energy Siphon, Energy Vampire and energy restore pads do not work while exalted abilities are active (except in the case of Ivara).

In all instances, Warframe auras will also increase exalted weapon damage. These include Steel Charge, Rifle Amp and Pistol Amp. Coincidentally, all Warframes in this guide (except Excalibur and Ivara) have a matching V polarity aura slot by default.

For the purpose of the guide, it is assumed that Warframes and weapons are max level, with a Catalyst installed and sufficient formas. It also assumes all mods are max level. Primed mods will be used, however in their absence their regular variants can be directly substituted. Some weapons suggested may have a minimum Mastery Rank requirement.

Lastly, please note that while physical damage mods are explicit, elemental damage types shown are illustrative for the purpose of the guide. They should of course be matched for the appropriate mission and faction as required or preferred.

PS. There were originally links to all mods and powers described but including them added text that wasn't originally part of the guide and messed up formatting. As such, links will be kept to a minimum until or unless a solution can be found.

Exalted Weapons

Excalibur

Exalted Blade[warframe.wikia.com]

The frame that put the Exalted into “Exalted Weapons” has been in the game since day one. A master swordsman, activating Excalibur's fourth ability creates a sword out of energy. Uniquely among all melee type weapons, Exalted Blade has a ranged attack with every swing, sending energy waves out from the sword, through obstacles to hit enemies as far as 40 meters away. The slide attack will perform a short-range Blind, at the cost of some energy, in addition to its regular damage.

Another benefit is that with Exalted Blade active, Excalibur automatically blocks 60% of damage incoming from the direction he’s facing. The energy waves are treated as melee attacks from the Exalted Blade and as such can be used with channelling mods and can crit. Exalted Blade takes its mods from the player’s carried melee weapon.

Exalted Blade Stats

• Normal Attack: 250
  
• Wall Attack: 1,000
  
• Slide Attack: 535
  
• Aerial/Slam Attack: 500
  
• Crit Chance: 15%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 2x
  
• Status Chance: 10%

Notes

• Base Damage is evenly divided amongst IPS types. As such it is incompatible with any 120% IPS mods.
  
• Excalibur’s passive ability grants him 10% bonus damage to one-handed swords, dual swords, nikanas and rapiers as well as Exalted Blade itself.
  
• Due to average crit chance and low status chance, building for pure elemental damage is preferable.
  
• Exalted Blade has a 3,200% damage multiplier for melee finishers, greater than any conventional weapon.
  
• Excalibur’s second ability, Radial Blind[warframe.wikia.com] opens enemies to finishers. This synergises well with Exalted Blade’s already huge multiplier, with Hammer weapons’ 2,400% finisher multiplier and also with Covert Lethality daggers. However Covert Lethality offers no benefit to Exalted Blade and is not recommended.
  
• Steel Charge aura will increase the damage of Exalted Blade

Build

• Spoiled Strike is a good damage increase with all four 90% elemental mods.
  
• Life Strike offers very good survivability but could be substituted for another mod as preferred. Further, it could also be of lower rank and still be reasonably effective whilst saving mod capacity and some of the energy used while channelling.
  
• Despite only having a 15% crit chance, Berserker (and Naramon - Shadow Step) will proc frequently enough to be viable. Berserker is recommended over Fury in the absence of Primed Fury. The downside is that the buff resets each time Exalted Blade deactivates.
  
• Other alternatives include (Primed) Reach (though this has no effect on the waves), Dispatch Overdrive to gain a large movement speed buff, a finisher or channelling mod if they fit the player's playstyle or another 60% dual-stat mod could also be used for more damage (though is really not needed).

Alternate Build

• Substituting True Steel and Organ Shatter in place of Spoiled Strike and Life Strike can provide higher damage, albeit inconsistently and at the cost of the health restoration from Life Strike.
  
• A crit build can have potentially higher DPS on average, but the damage is only greater one quarter of the time. Three out of every four hits with a crit build will be weaker than with Spoiled Strike. Having said that, Naramon - Deadly Intent will increase the viability further (from roughly one in four hits to one in three) and higher attack speed means more chances to land critical hits.

Suitable Weapons

• Because of Excalibur’s passive, Broken War (Build[warframe-builder.com]), a one-handed sword is highly recommended as it is readily available to all players, includes a free Catalyst and requires only one forma.
  
• Alternative weapons include Dragon Nikana or Nikana Prime, both of which do more damage than Broken War with the same build. The Nikana Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is also very well suited to the alternate crit build.
  
• Other one-handed and dual Swords and the Destreza also benefit from Excalibur’s passive however will all be lower DPS than Broken War.
  
• Another way to consider weapon choice is that using a sword-type weapon, despite Excalibur’s passive, is somewhat redundant when Excalibur has his own exalted sword. As such, an entirely different class of weapon could be used to grant a different capability without affecting the build. Such weapons could include the thrown Orvius (Build[warframe-builder.com]) or the gunblade Redeemer (Build[warframe-builder.com]).

Excalibur [Chromatic Blade]

Chromatic Blade[warframe.wikia.com]

With the introduction of a new augment for Excalibur's Exalted Blade ability, Chromatic Blade, some powerful new builds have become possible. The augment adds a flat 50% status chance that is increased by power strength, reaching an additive 90% at 180% power strength, which is enough to reach 100% status chance including Exalted Blade's base 10%.

Further, the augment converts all the physical damage listed into a single, base element. Similar to Chroma, changing Excalibur's energy colour in the appearance tab of the Arsenal will dictate which element Exalted Blade becomes: Toxin, Electric, Fire or Cold. Similar to other pure base-elemental weapons, this element will be added last for the purpose of creating elemental combinations.

Notes

• Chromatic Blade converts base damage to pure elemental. As such it is incompatible with any 120% IPS mods.
  
• Excalibur's energy colour in the Arsenal dictates the elemental damage type of Exalted Blade. This elemental damage is added last for the purpose of creating elemental combinations, or to itself if an equivalent elemental mod is used.
  
• At 180% power strength and R3 Chromatic Blade, Exalted Blade will reach 100% status chance.
  
• Condition Overload adds a large amount of damage depending on the number of status procs affecting an enemy. With 100% status chance it will be extremely effective.
  
• There is a synergy between a 100% status chance weapon and Growing Power[warframe.wikia.com] aura.
  
• Beyond the increased status chance and conversion of the damage from IPS to elemental, Exalted Blade has no other different stats than already described above.
  
• Madurai - Blazing Fury, Searing Wrath and Burning Rage will each add up to 30% Slash, Puncture and Impact damage respectively.

Build

• For the purpose of elemental combinations, it is assumed that the player has set Excalibur's elemental damage type to Fire. Presuming the player is using Fire as their chosen element, the above build will result in Corrosive + Blast damage since the base fire will combine with the solitary cold element last.
  
• Blast procs count as two status procs for the purpose of the damage boost from Condition Overload. As such, this specific combination is exceptionally powerful since Corrosive procs will strip armour, Blast procs will knockdown enemies and both will greatly multiply the boost from Condition Overload.
  
• If the player wishes to use a different energy colour, the order and combination of the elemental mods will need to be altered accordingly to maintain Corrosive + Blast. This combination is particularly effective against Grineer, Infested and Corrupted enemies.
  
• True Steel & Organ Shatter do not add a great deal of damage and can be swapped for other mods if desired. Potential mods include Healing Return or Life Strike for health regen, Drifting Contact to extend the melee "combo counter" timer, Spoiled Strike or the last 90% elemental mod for greater damage or Dispatch Overdrive for a movement speed buff.
  
• Berserker (and Naramon - Shadow Step) will proc frequently enough to be viable. Berserker is recommended over Fury in the absence of Primed Fury. The downside is that the buff resets each time Exalted Blade deactivates.

Alternate Build

• For the purpose of elemental combinations, it is assumed that the player has set Excalibur's elemental damage type to Toxin. This build will work with Excalibur's damage type set to Toxin or Fire, however Toxin will result in much greater damage due to the way Gas procs work.
  
• The AoE Toxin damage from Gas procs is only increased by Toxin elemental mods, base damage mods and critical hits and as such Spoiled Strike is very good here.
  
• This particular build is especially effective against Corpus and Infested enemies (in the absence of a Toxic Ancient!). It can work against Grineer and Corrupted, but Toxin damage is reduced by armour so it will be less effective.
  
• If Fire is used as the damage type, Molten Impact could be substituted for another mod.
  
• True Steel & Organ Shatter can be effective, but aren't necessary.
  
• Life Strike is strictly optional and could be swapped for other mods if desired. Potential mods include Healing Return, also for health regen, Drifting Contact to extend the melee "combo counter" timer or Dispatch Overdrive for a movement speed buff.
  
• Berserker (and Naramon - Shadow Step) will proc frequently enough to be viable. Berserker is recommended over Fury in the absence of Primed Fury. The downside is that the buff resets each time Exalted Blade deactivates.

Suitable Weapons

• Condition Overload is beneficial on weapons with especially high or guaranteed status chance; several Stances (and weapons) offer guaranteed status procs and so are the best suited.
  
• Destreza (Build[warframe-builder.com]) with Vulpine Mask is a great choice since it does guaranteed slash procs, has good crit chance and benefits from Excalibur's passive.
  
• The Jat Kittag (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Lesion and Mios are also well suited. The Mios in particular with Defiled Snapdragon has guaranteed slash procs in many of its combos.
  
• The alternate build can be used on many weapons with either high status or stances that offer guaranteed procs. Suitable weapons include Jat Kittag (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Lesion, Silva & Aegis Prime and the new rapier, Endura. The Endura also has guaranteed slash procs and benefits from Excalibur's passive.
  
• The Twin Basolk (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is also a good choice. It's pure elemental, high status, the matching stance, Swirling Tiger offers guaranteed impact procs and it also benefits from Excalibur's passive.
  
• The 300 day login reward, Zenistar (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is another pure elemental weapon with high status and some extra uniqueness. Since the disc can be detached, it can create a persistent AoE gas zone that will damage or kill any enemies that enter it, even while Exalted Blade is active. Further, with Excalibur's second ability, Radial Blind, he opens up enemies to finishers; this is an extremely powerful synergy with the Zenistar's disc and Gas procs.

Ivara

Artemis Bow[warframe.wikia.com]

Like most great, fictional archers, Ivara has a cool bow and a quiver full of fun trick arrows. Ivara’s Artemis Bow will use mods from any primary weapon, excepting shotguns. Uniquely amongst the other exalted frames however, another ability beyond her exalted weapon must be considered, since Ivara’s Prowl[warframe.wikia.com] ability has mechanics that interact with her weapon choice. Crucially, her invisibility is temporarily broken when firing a weapon that is not silent.

Artemis Bow at least is silent, firing multiple arrows in a vertical line uncharged, a horizontal line when fully charged and somewhere between the two on partial charge. Unlike other bows however, charging is not required; any arrow shot will do full damage. Ivara’s Navigator[warframe.wikia.com] ability allows the player to control one of her arrows, steering it manually from an on-board perspective. Similar to shotguns, increasing multishot directly increases the number of projectiles fired. As a last note, Artemis Bow uniquely of the exalted weapon abilities does not drain energy while it is active. Instead it uses energy per shot (affected by Power Efficiency) and further, Energy Siphon aura and Zenurik - Energy Overflow will remain active with the bow in hand (although Prowl does disable them).

Although unrelated to Artemis Bow, a brief mention should be given to Ivara's first ability, Quiver[warframe.wikia.com] from which she can fire a Sleep Arrow that incapacitates enemies and leaves them open to melee finishers. As such, Ivara also has a great synergy with Hammer weapons’ 2,400% finisher multiplier and also with Covert Lethality daggers. Combining Life Strike and Dispatch Overdrive with a Covert Lethality dagger as mentioned offers Ivara a great way to respectively replenish health and gain a large movement speed buff. The latter is particularly useful for Ivara who, unlike Loki and Ash, cannot sprint or bullet jump while invisible.

Artemis Bow Stats

• Fires 7 arrows per volley
  
• 160 base damage per arrow
  
• Crit Chance: 25%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 2x
  
• Status Chance: 20%

Notes

• Base damage is divided 80% in Puncture. Thus Artemis Bow is compatible with the 120% IPS mod, specifically Piercing Caliber.
  
• High crit chance favours a crit-focused build.
  
• Heavy Caliber has no negative impact on Artemis Bow
  
• Because of Prowl, any weapon should either be silent or use Hush to silence it at the cost of a mod slot.
  
• Rifle Amp aura will increase the damage of Artemis Bow. However this doesn’t match Ivara’s default aura polarity.

Build

• Vile Acceleration can be swapped for Shred, trading punch-through for faster charge time. Charge time however is only relevant if the player uses the horizontal firing frequently and would prefer it to be faster. Charge time has no effect on damage, only on the firing pattern.
  
• Vile Acceleration could also be substituted for Hush and the same build used on a normally unsilenced primary weapon.
  
• Primed Cryo Rounds could be used in place of a 90% element for an increase in raw damage. However this will require another forma to add a D polarity and further, will restrict elemental damage types to Cold, Viral, Magnetic or Blast only or using a lower damage 60% dual-stat mod in the D polarity slot.
  
• The sole exception to the initial note regarding avoiding sub-class specific mods, Thunderbolt will work with Artemis Bow. It can cause self-damage however so care should be taken with it equipped.

Suitable Weapons

• Because of Ivara’s Prowl ability, silent weapons are preferred and thus normal bows are the obvious choice. Paris Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is also compatible with Piercing Calibre, but is otherwise inferior to the Dread (Build[warframe-builder.com]) or Attica with the above build. It should be noted that Heavy Caliber does affect the accuracy on these base weapons significantly.
  
• The Rakta Cernos is not the best match due to its already very fast charge time; adding Shred or Vile Acceleration to this bow is of little benefit. It does however have the syndicate "Blight" effect, helpfully restoring some energy to Ivara and releasing a 1k Viral damage burst in an AoE with a guaranteed proc, halving the health of surviving enemies.
  
• The Zhuge (Build[warframe-builder.com]) automatic crossbow is also silent and effective but benefits more from dual-stat elements so will lose 60% elemental damage compared with previous suggestions. Shred can be swapped for Speed Trigger or Vile Acceleration for increased RoF in exchange for punchthru.
  
• The same build above could be applied to most crit-focused rifles if the player doesn’t care about remaining invisible. Substituting Hush however will allow Ivara to remain undetected by sight or sound. Suitable rifles for such a build include Dex Sybaris (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Latron Wraith, Prisma Gorgon, Amprex, (Prisma) Grakata and the Tonkor.
  
• Removing Heavy Caliber would increase the choice of potential weapons at the expense of damage. Sniper rifles (Build[warframe-builder.com]), the Soma Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]) or the Tenora most notably.

Mesa

Peacemaker[warframe.wikia.com]

Warframe’s answer to the pistolero, Mesa keeps her pair of Regulator pistols attached to her forearms, always at the ready. Perhaps she’s afraid of losing them or she thinks a hip holster is sooooo 19th Century. Uniquely amongst the exalted weapons, Peacemaker benefits from mods in the player’s secondary weapon slot. Further, the player doesn’t directly control and fire her exalted weapons. Instead, Mesa comes to a standstill, becoming immune to many crowd control effects, and holding down the fire button will automatically target anything and everything within the targeting reticle and up to 50 meters away, excepting Capture targets and those inside nullifier bubbles.

The reticle appears on the screen in the same colour as Mesa’s energy colour. Thus monochromes (ie. whites, blacks and greys) and most dark or desaturated energy colours will be difficult to see. The reticle begins quite large but shrinks the more Mesa fires, making aiming more important the longer she stays in Peacemaker. However the damage increases the longer she fires, from an initial 1.5x multiplier up to 3.75x. Rate of fire also increases as long the trigger remains held down. Peacemaker doesn’t need reloading and further, since it’s considered an ability, can shoot through Frost's globe (from the outside) and across the Rift. Thus a friendly Limbo can render Mesa immune to harm herself whilst remaining able to put bullets into anything hostile, banished or otherwise.

Mesa's first ability, Ballistic Battery[warframe.wikia.com] can store up a percentage of any weapon damage inflicted, including damage from Peacemaker (provided Ballistic Battery is activated first). It can be deactivated while Peacemaker is active, applying any stored damage to the next shot. Her second ability, Shooting Gallery[warframe.wikia.com] gives her a damage buff that increases all weapon damage, including Peacemaker. It also has a crowd control effect that offers great survivability, particularly when combined with her third ability Shatter Shield[warframe.wikia.com] (and further, the Staggering Shield augment) which together serve to stun and stagger enemies and greatly reduce incoming damage.

Peacemaker Stats

• 125 base damage
  
• Crit Chance: 25%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 3x
  
• Status Chance: 10%
  
• Range: 50m

Notes

• Base damage is divided 50% impact, thus Peacemaker is not compatible with any 120% IPS mods.
  
• High crit chance (and exceptionally high crit multiplier), low status chance favours a crit-focused build.
  
• Punch-through is of little use to Peacemaker due to the high RoF and auto-targeting.
  
• Since Peacemaker will derive no benefit from most QoL mods, such as reload speed, accuracy, recoil, etc. it is ideal to use a weapon that doesn’t require them either.
  
• Pistol Amp aura will increase the base damage of Peacemaker.

Build

• A fire rate mod (eg. Anemic Agility, Gunslinger) or an Expel Faction mod could be substituted for a third 90% element if preferred. For example, 90% + 60% Toxin + Expel Corpus/Gunslinger.
  
• Primed Heated Charge is highly recommended for the sheer amount of raw damage it adds.

Suitable Weapons

• The best matches for Peacemaker are Crit + Elemental focused secondary weapons that require no QoL mods. The most suitable candidates include Lex Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Brakk, Magnus, Pandero and Spira Prime.
  
• Substituting a 90% element for a 60% dual-stat will be a suitable build for the Vaykor Marelok (Build[warframe-builder.com]) and Akstilleto Prime. The 30% damage loss is negligible and won’t be noticed. Replacing two would suit the (recently buffed and temporarily unvaulted) Sicarus Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]).
  
• Akmagnus (Build[warframe-builder.com]) could also use the unaltered build above, however without Quickdraw, it suffers from an excruciating 3 second reload time.
  
• Aksomati (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is also a suitable weapon, however without (Primed) Pistol Ammo Mutation it will run out of ammunition incredibly fast.
  
• Dual Toxocyst pistols (Build[warframe-builder.com]), otherwise mediocre weapons entirely unsuited to the above build, have a unique mechanic. On scoring a headshot with the weapon, it gains a 6 second buff that grants it unlimited magazine, increased Rate of Fire, 100% base damage as toxin and reduced recoil (the toxin damage will add to or combine with other equipped elements). If the buff is procced normally, Mesa’s Peacemaker ability will benefit from the RoF and toxin damage buff for the remaining seconds. Although it is a useful buff, it lasts only for a few seconds, cannot be refreshed and must be procced first with a headshot from the unbuffed pistols which, without the buff, are slow and have high recoil. The optimal Peacemaker build is incompatible with them, but trading damage for Rate of Fire lessens the loss somewhat. This is an interesting interaction that may be enjoyed but Peacemaker will be more effective in most circumstances with the build and any other weapon listed above.

Titania

Razorwing[warframe.wikia.com]

A relatively recent addition to the game, the fairy-like Titania wasn’t satisfied with just one exalted weapon. No siree, Titania brings not one, but two exalted weapons with her into combat! Shrinking down to a miniature size, activating Razorwing makes Titania harder to hit and allows her to fly around in three dimensions. In her flying form, she carries Dex Pixia, akimbo machine-pistol like weapons and Diwata, a giant…errr, tiny sword.

Dex Pixia uses mods from any equipped primary weapon, and unlike with Ivara this includes shotguns. It fires full-auto from a 60 round magazine that auto-replenishes itself quite rapidly when the trigger is released. The weapon has fair accuracy and negligible recoil. Diwata uses the mods in the player’s equipped melee weapon. Attacking with it, Titania will automatically move herself towards an enemy to attack, the same as Archwing melee. Apart from having relatively high base damage, Diwata is otherwise unremarkable. Since these are two separate weapons, they will be presented separately below.

Dex Pixia Stats

• 160 base damage
  
• Crit Chance: 15%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 2x
  
• Status Chance: 25%
  
• Rate of Fire: 5.83 rounds per second

Notes

• Base damage is divided 80% in Slash. Thus Dex Pixia is compatible with 120% IPS mods, specifically Fanged Fusillade and Sweeping Serration.
  
• In spite of mediocre crit chance, due to the RoF crit mods offer a good damage increase.
  
• High status chance combined with a good RoF makes a status build very effective.
  
• Heavy Caliber has little to no negative impact on Dex Pixia.
  
• QoL mods such as reload speed, recoil etc. are of little to no benefit and preferably avoided.
  
• Rifle Amp aura will increase the base damage of Dex Pixia.

Build

• Although 2x 90% elements would offer higher damage, a 60% dual-stat mod brings the status chance to ~62%. Combined with the RoF, it will proc with a high frequency and is more effective than 30% raw damage.
  
• A second 60% dual-stat mod will increase status chance to ~78%, a third to ~89% and a fourth to ~97%.
  
• Although Vile Acceleration offers the highest DPS increase, Shred trades some RoF for punch-through. This is also a DPS increase since one shot can hit multiple enemies.
  
• Primed Cryo Rounds could be used in place of a 90% element for an increase in raw damage. However this will require another forma to add a D polarity and further, will restrict elemental damage types to Cold, Viral, Magnetic or Blast only or using a lower damage 60% dual-stat mod in the D polarity slot.
  
• Having said that, combining Primed Cryo Rounds with Thermite Rounds would combine to offer 225% Blast damage with a ~62% status chance, providing both significant damage and tremendous crowd control.

Alternate Build

• Swapping the two crit mods for another 60% and 90% elemental pair is a small loss in overall damage. However adding another elemental combination and further, increasing status chance to a massive ~78%, is extremely effective.
  
• Combining Corrosive and Blast damage offers great crowd control and can strip armour. Radiation and Viral will also offer crowd control and a large health debuff.
  
• After the first elemental combo, the second 150% could also be a single element, eg. Toxin or Heat. Alternatively, the player could equip 300% of a single combo. 300% Gas damage with ~78% status is devastating versus even the highest level Corpus enemies.
  
• (Primed) Bane mods could also be used to increase damage against a specific faction.

Suitable Weapons

• For the higher damage "hybrid" build, the Prisma Grakata (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is the ideal match. Although Heavy Caliber renders it less effective at range, it remains a formidable assault rifle. Shred may be preferable over Vile Acceleration as the RoF increase will make the Prisma Grakata much less usable and less ammo efficient.
  
• A variation on the above focusing on Slash damage (and Slash status procs) could be equipped on the Dread (Build[warframe-builder.com]) since it's compatible with Fanged Fusillade. Heavy Caliber and/or Vile Acceleration mod could be substituted as preferred.
  
• For the alternate build, an extremely effective combination of status and elemental damage, the Karak Wraith (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is a great match. The Quanta Vandal (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is also very effective with a similar build. Heavy Caliber has little to no noticeable negative impact on either of these weapons.
  
• Although the shotguns are not particularly great matches, they aren’t terrible either. Either the weapon or Dex Pixia will be sub-optimal, but they’ll both remain very capable weapons. The Vaykor Hek (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is the only crit-focused shotgun, while the Strun Wraith (Build[warframe-builder.com]) and Boar Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]) are status focused shotguns. The Tigris Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]) is also an effective status shotgun and is compatible with Sweeping Serration. Vicious Spread could be substituted into above builds to increase base damage for both the weapon and Dex Pixia.

Titania [Continued]

Diwata Stats

• Normal Attack: 160
  
• Attack Speed: 1.08
  
• Crit Chance: 5%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 1.5x
  
• Status Chance: 10%

Notes

• Base damage is divided as 75% in puncture. Thus a 120% IPS mod, specifically Auger Strike, will offer precisely the same damage increase as a 90% elemental mod.
  
• Due to low crit and status chance, building for pure elemental damage is preferable.
  
• Steel Charge aura will increase the damage of Diwata.

Build

• Primed Reach increases the range from which Titania is able to hit an enemy. It can be swapped with Life Strike for health return or another 90% elemental mod for higher damage.
  
• Spoiled Strike is a damage increase over a fourth 90% elemental mod, abeit not by a lot.
  
• Auger Strike can be exchanged for a fourth 90% elemental mod as preferred.

Suitable Weapons

• The best matches for the above build are the Sydon (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Vaykor Sydon, Boltace and the recently released Hirudo.
  
• Ignoring Auger Strike in favour of a fourth 90% elemental mod allows for most other non-crit melee weapons to be used. Good matches are Broken War (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Kesheg, Tonbo, Orvius or a gunblade such as Redeemer.

Valkyr

Hysteria[warframe.wikia.com]

The recently primed Valkyr was heavily nerfed in mid-2016. Despite this, Hysteria can still be an effective and fun exalted ability to use, albeit not to the extent it used to be. Activating Hysteria, Valkyr summons energy claws on both wrists. As well as having great stats, Hysteria renders her invulnerable and grants life steal on her attacks; she can swiftly replenish any health lost outside of Hysteria. There is also a great synergy with Valkyr’s other abilities: Warcry[warframe.wikia.com] and Paralysis[warframe.wikia.com] in particular. Warcry greatly increases her melee attack speed, and Paralysis opens enemies to finishers (which, with Hysteria’s high damage is usually instakill).

The nerf however means that as long as Valkyr keeps Hysteria active, the energy cost to maintain it increases considerably, draining energy much faster than it can be replaced. Since Valkyr is invulnerable during Hysteria she cannot regain energy from Rage (although blue Energy Orbs do work). As such, the player should expect some energy management; toggling it off and on again will reset the counter, high efficiency/duration can make it last for longer, as can Primed Flow at the cost of a mod slot. Another method is to use Rage to turn health damage into energy that, in turn, fuels Hysteria which replenishes any lost health. Alternatively, relying on other weapons and using Hysteria only when a situation demands it can keep Valkyr and the team alive. The nerf was unfortunate and arguably poorly judged, but it is what it is. As such, some care should be taken when toggling it off or having it disable itself when energy runs out since, similar to entering a nullifier bubble, it leaves Valkyr vulnerable again.

Hysteria Stats

• Normal Attack: 250
  
• Wall Attack: 750
  
• Slide Attack: 750
  
• Aerial Attack: 500
  
• Slam Attack: 300
  
• Crit Chance: 50%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 2x
  
• Status Chance: 10%

Notes

• Base Damage is evenly divided amongst IPS types. As such Hysteria is incompatible with any 120% IPS mods.
  
• Extremely high crit chance, low status chance favours a crit-focused build.
  
• Since Hysteria has inherent life steal, Life Strike is redundant.
  
• Hysteria has a massive 6,400% damage multiplier for melee finishers.
  
• Valkyr’s third ability, Paralysis[warframe.wikia.com], opens enemies to finishers. This synergises well with the high finisher damage Hysteria does, with Hammer weapons’ 2,400% finisher multiplier and also with Covert Lethality daggers. However Covert Lethality offers no benefit to Hysteria and is not recommended.
  
• Steel Charge aura will increase the damage of Hysteria.

Build

• Spoiled Strike offers less damage than a third 90% elemental mod. However it does offer a way to boost all physical damage if preferred.
  
• Although Hysteria is short-range, even by melee standards, Primed Reach makes it noticeably more useable; the spin attack in particular becomes terribly effective.
  
• Berserker is preferable to (Primed) Fury since attacks will proc critical hits more often than not, making it very easy to keep the buff active.
  
• Naramon - Deadly Intent can provide a large buff to the already high crit chance. There is also a great synergy with Naramon - Shadow Step since the high frequency of critical hits will make it very easy to keep active.

Suitable Weapons

• Any crit-focused melee weapons would suit use with the above build. It is preferred to avoid those that may rely on either Syndicate augments (eg. (Prisma) Dual Cleavers, (Prisma) Skana) or 120% IPS mods (eg. Ack & Brunt, Destreza), although avoiding the mods themselves is sufficient. The most suitable examples include Atterax (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Dual Ichor, Fragor Prime, Dual Dark Split-Sword, Heliocor and the recently added Venka Prime.
  
• Although it has slightly lower base crit chance and multiplier than the above, the Nikana Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]) has very high base damage that easily makes up the shortfall.

Wukong

Iron Jab[warframe.wikia.com]
Primal Fury[warframe.wikia.com]

Based on the Monkey King from Chinese literature, Wukong can summon an Iron Staff that changes length and shape. His exalted staff uses the mods in the player’s equipped melee weapon. Further, and unlike the other exalted frames, Wukong’s exalted weapon (and equipped mods) is used in not one but two of his abilities: Iron Jab, and of course, Primal Fury. Using Iron Jab performs a swift, powerful attack against one target, doing high damage and ragdolling them forcibly.

Activating Primal Fury summons the Iron Staff proper and it has some notable aspects. Most obvious, as Wukong hits more targets the Iron Staff will get longer, increasing its effective range. Further, and unlike other exalted weapons, adding Power Range (f.ex. using Stretch) also increases the range of the Iron Staff. Blocking with it reduces frontal damage considerably. Lastly, Wukong’s passive ability means that his melee “Combo Counter” lasts for 5 seconds instead of the default 3 seconds, a helpful boon since Body Count doesn’t work on exalted weapons.

Iron Jab Stats

• Normal Attack: 800

Notes

• Base damage is fully 100% as Impact. Thus Iron Jab is compatible with the 120% IPS mod, specifically Collision Force.
  
• Having noted the above, melee impact weapons out of all IPS weapons in the game can enjoy the great benefit of Primed Heavy Trauma, offering a massive 165% buff to impact damage.
  
• Attack Speed mods have no effect on Iron Jab. Thus Spoiled Strike offers a large damage bonus with no negative effect.
  
• Primed Reach, channelling and finisher related mods have no effect on Iron Jab.
  
• Iron Jab attacks are not multiplied by the melee "Combo Counter", but they do add to it.
  
• Steel Charge aura will increase the damage of Iron Jab.

Primal Fury Stats

• Normal Attack: 250
  
• Wall Attack: 417
  
• Slide Attack: 535
  
• Aerial/Slam Attack: 500
  
• Crit Chance: 25%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 2x
  
• Status Chance: 25%

Notes

• Base damage is divided 85% as Impact. Thus Iron Staff is compatible with the 120% IPS mod, specifically Collision Force.
  
• Having noted the above, melee impact weapons out of all IPS weapons in the game can enjoy the great benefit of Primed Heavy Trauma, offering a massive 165% increase to impact damage.
  
• High crit chance and high status chance can favour both, depending on whether damage or status procs are preferred. However status procs would overwhelmingly be Impact.
  
• Iron Staff has a 2,400% damage multiplier for melee finishers, the same as Hammer-class weapons.
  
• Wukong’s third ability, Cloud Walker[warframe.wikia.com], opens enemies to finishers. This synergises well with the high finisher damage his Iron Staff does, with Hammer weapons’ 2,400% finisher multiplier and also with Covert Lethality daggers. However Covert Lethality offers no benefit to Primal Fury and is not recommended.
  
• Steel Charge aura will increase the damage of Primal Fury.

Build

• Primed Reach is highly recommended for the range increase it offers.
  
• Primed Heavy Trauma offers a huge increase in raw impact damage. Collision Force offers a comparatively modest damage bonus that remains higher than a 90% elemental mod. Using both is not advised.
  
• The sole exception to the initial note that regular mods be substituted in the absence of a Primed variant, a regular 90% elemental mod is preferable to Heavy Trauma.
  
• Swapping both 90% elemental mods for 60% dual-stat mods increases status chance to 55%. This would proc status effects with a fair frequency at the cost of 60% total elemental damage.
  
• Berserker is preferable to (Primed) Fury since it will proc critical hits frequently enough to make it easy to keep the buff active.
  
• Due to the immortality granted by Wukong’s second ability, Defy[warframe.wikia.com], Life Strike is not of great benefit to him.
  
• Due to the phenomenal synergy Wukong has with Rage, using Naramon - Shadow Step is not advised for him as it will in fact lower his survivability considerably. Naramon - Deadly Intent remains very useful however.

Suitable Weapons

• The most suitable weapons will be crit-focused melee weapons with a high proportion of impact damage, such that they would benefit from Primed Heavy Trauma as well. Ideal matches are Fragor Prime (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Heliocor and Furax Wraith. Close behind them are Sancti Magistar and War.
  
• Although it has lower crit chance, the Jatt Kittag (Build[warframe-builder.com]) has the same high status chance of 25% and high impact damage as well, making it suited for a hybrid crit and status build.
  
• There is no build that will be optimal for both Iron Jab (which benefits only from raw damage) and Primal Fury (which greatly favours a crit-focused build). If a player should wish to maximise Iron Jab however, there is a build included below in the Atlas section.

Other Abilities

There are two other Warframes with abilities that interact with equipped weapon mods, despite not being exalted weapons. For the sake of completion they are included here.

Ash

Teleport[warframe.wikia.com]
Blade Storm[warframe.wikia.com]

Recently reworked at the end of 2016, a lot was said about the changes made to Ash. While the mechanics of his Blade Storm ability have changed somewhat, the way it interacts with melee related mods has not. Although Blade Storm does not benefit from melee mods to the extent that the exalted weapons above do, there are some important considerations:

• (Primed) Fury and Spoiled Strike will respectively increase and decrease the animation speed of Blade Storm, conversely shortening and lengthening the attack. Quickening will also increase the animation speed while channelling.
  
• Blade Storm attacks add to and are multiplied by the melee “Combo Counter”. Thus Body Count and/or Drifting Contact could be used to keep the counter active for longer.
  
• Steel Charge aura will increase the damage of Blade Storm.

Mention should also be made of his third ability, Teleport.

• Teleporting to an enemy will open them to a finisher. This synergises well with Hammer-class weapons’ 2,400% finisher multiplier and also with Covert Lethality daggers.
  
• Equipping the augment Fatal Teleport will automatically perform a finisher on Ash’s hostile Teleport target as well as increasing damage dealt by (up to) a further 200%. In the case of a Covert Lethality dagger, the target is instantly killed (irrespective of the augment’s rank).
  
• Equipping Life Strike and channelling is a great way to replenish health.
  
• Finishing Touch increases finisher damage by 60%.

As an example, a Covert Lethality dagger (Build[warframe-builder.com]) would suit Ash particularly well, with or without Fatal Teleport. The build shown can instakill on a finisher, restore health, restore energy with the syndicate "Blight" effect, grant a movement speed buff, keeps the melee “Combo Counter” active longer and speeds up the Blade Storm animation. This build is just a demonstration of the utility and synergy on offer to Ash, and not necessarily an optimal build. Whatever build or weapon is used, it should suffice to say that it is well worth building around the player's choice of the aforementioned mods that benefit Ash and synergise well with his abilities. These are (Primed) Fury, Covert Lethality, Quickening, Life Strike, Fatal Teleport, Steel Charge, Body Count, Drifting Contact and Finishing Touch.

Atlas

Landslide[warframe.wikia.com]

Following on from Ash alphabetically, Atlas is another frame that interacts with equipped mods despite lacking an exalted weapon. As tough as rocks himself, Atlas is a seldom encountered frame with a penchant for slamming things into other things. He slams rocks into enemies’ bodies and his fists into their faces. In the quieter moments when he isn't punching things, he can summon two rock golems to continue punching things on his behalf.

Landslide, Atlas’s first ability, propels him forward where he performs a punch against the targeted enemy, which also damages those right next to them. Yes, that's right...Atlas punches his enemies so hard that even their friends feel it. As well as adding to and being multiplied by the melee “Combo Counter”, Landslide has a counter of its own, increasing the damage and impact radius of successive attacks up to a cap where it will remain until Atlas's attack chain is broken. This counter is affected by Power Duration. Unlike with Ash, this ability will benefit fully from the mods equipped in the player’s melee weapon slot (similar to Wukong's Iron Jab). As such, a build will be included as with the exalted weapons above.

Landslide Stats

• Normal Attack: 350
  
• Crit Chance: 5%
  
• Crit Multiplier: 2x

Notes

• Base damage is fully 100% as Impact. Thus Landslide is compatible with the 120% IPS mod, specifically Collision Force.
  
• Having noted the above, melee impact weapons out of all IPS weapons in the game can enjoy the great benefit of Primed Heavy Trauma, offering a massive 165% buff to impact damage.
  
• Attack Speed mods have no effect on Landslide. Thus Spoiled Strike offers a large damage bonus with no negative effect.
  
• Primed Reach, channelling and finisher related mods have no effect on Landslide.
  
• Steel Charge aura will increase the damage of Landslide.

Build

• While (Primed) Fury has no direct benefit to Landslide, and is thus technically a wasted mod, it is still very important to the base weapon being used. Another damage mod could be substituted if preferred.
  
• Unlike for Wukong, for whom a crit-focused build is preferable, raw damage is preferable here and thus both Collision Force and Primed Heavy Trauma can be used. Since Landslide is 100% base Impact damage, the mods add precisely the amount of damage indicated on the card.
  
• A third 90% elemental mod, although lower in terms of raw damage, may be preferable for the purpose of matching elemental damage types to factions.
  
• Unlike with the exalted melee weapons and similar to Ash, Landslide benefits greatly from Body Count keeping the melee “Combo Counter” active for longer.
  
• This build could also be used to maximise the damage of Wukong's Iron Jab ability. Body Count doesn't benefit Iron Jab however and in that instance could be traded for another damage mod.

Suitable Weapons

• Weapons with a high proportion (80%) of base impact damage to benefit from the above build are the best matches. Suitable weapons are mostly Hammer-class: Jat Kittag (Build[warframe-builder.com]), Heliocor, Synoid Heliocor and Sancti Magistar.
  
• Further, the great-sword War, the (vaulted) Bo Prime and Clantech Shaku (which is also the only weapon to be 100% base impact) are very well suited.
  
• Of the above, the comparatively mediocre Synoid Heliocor is a great choice since it isn’t a crit-focused weapon and has the highest base attack speed in its class. It would also allow him to have a third "pet" on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Sancti Magistar can heal Atlas and his allies upon landing a charge attack with it.
  
• Since the build requires 2 V and 1 – polarities, it is also ideally suited to conventional Blood Rush/Body Count weapons, thus Sancti Magistar, War and Heliocor make excellent candidates.

Conclusion

As with all things related to frame and weapon builds there is no single, right answer, only what the player enjoys, wishes to equip and finds effective. It is hoped however that this guide has been able to highlight the interactions between exalted weapon abilities, weapon mods and the weapons in which they are carried. The goal has been to demonstrate that exalted weapons can be considered weapons themselves whose mods are being carried in a traditional weapon slot. By building for the exalted weapon first, the aim was then to work backwards and match suitable weapons to the build, rather than the usual method of tailoring the build to the weapon.

The exalted Warframes are a lot of fun to play, devastatingly effective and often have some unique and interesting interactions with their own power sets, different weapon mechanics and builds used. It is hoped that this guide has been informative and that it encourages players to obtain and try these Warframes out, experiment with them, find other suitable weapons, weapon builds and synergies to complement their exalted abilities and to have endgame viable builds to aim for.

References

Warframe Wiki[warframe.wikia.com]
Warframe Builder[warframe-builder.com]
120% Physical Damage Compatibility Guide

[JIMSL1CE]

Exalted blades can now be modded individually

[fRED]

Hello!
Any plans to include stat sticks for Gara and Khora in the guide?

[Nolo Contendere]

Exalted weapons do not benefit from acolyte mods. However, you can benefit from the set bonus for the gladiator mods.

[Lawrence]

Does Valkyr's claws proc Blood rush?

[KingsGambit]

Hey, Thanks for the message. Update is in progress :-)

[SyntaxAlpha]

Gara's "Shattered Lash" uses melee weapon mods; Any plans to add her to the list?

[death0serpent]

Do you by any chance have in mind a build for Excal to benefit most from the Chromatic Blade setup?

[General Baguettson]

I noticed you didn't speak of the prisma dual cleavers for chromatic excal, while they have a syndicate mod and very high bast status chance, making them pretty intersting.

[KingsGambit]

Updated as of 11th June 2017 to include a new section for Excalibur's Chromatic Blade augment, to add some newer weapons as suitable where appropriate and some other minor changes.

[arachnid14]

in other abilities add the augment for inaros elemental sandstorm that lets his melee weapons add elements to his 3 ability