I was previously only aware of its ability to freeze on crit (which is pretty cool), and never knew about the singularity/cryo nova (with similar 100% proc chance to freeze). I mean it describes this in the Wiki, but I play a loose elemental allegiance, so Wilhelm was the only character using this weapon (and I only melee with Power Fist, which doesn’t proc the singularity cryo nova). Let me spell this out a bit for the uninititated:
*If you shoot something and score a critical hit with it, they will freeze (if it doesn’t outright kill them). For the record, I have shot enemies, seen the “critical” pop up and had them not freeze, but it’s rare.
*If you melee something in the critical location, they will freeze.
*If you melee a frozen enemy (crit not required), you will generate a singularity effect centered on you. This will be followed by a cryo nova that freezes anyone caught in it. It doesn’t seem to matter how the target was frozen either, but sometimes if they die when you hit them, it won’t proc (I think it comes down to a tie or close race between cryo DoT killing them vs the timing of your melee strike).
*If you enter a vehicle with the Excalibastard equipped the freeze-on-crit effect transfers to the turret. You need to select weaponry capable of critting, and then you need to crit something, but it does make the Shuggurath easy to deal with (for example).
Seriously, this weapon is awesome. Freeze the biggest guy in a mob, melee him a few times to proc singularities that draw everyone else in, who then freeze with the cryo nova, and then repeat with the little graveyard of frozen dudes. The cryo nova even takes a moment to fire, so if enemies are behind cover, you have a moment to run to them to catch them in the freeze.
I have yet to play as her. But I did watch parts of Bahroo’s playthrough on Twitch. Long story short-she is insanely powerful when using Cyro weapons of any sort; probably the most powerful Vault Hunter in any of the three games, especially in the first playthrough (Sal might catch up at higher levels). The middle tree is the best of the three.
Maybe if you use it as a gun, it can be lackluster. But its singularity effect makes crowd control a breeze with melee characters.
On my Aurelia right now, I’m using a lvl 11 excalibastard for a melee build. If I shoot enemies its almost worthless, but the singularity is what allows me to run this build.
The same goes for melee Athena and claptrap as well. The excalibastard isn’t a laser so much as it is a blade with a laser attached to it, kind of like the rapier. If you think of it like that, its a god-tier weapon.
I love the Excalibastard. It is my go-to gun for most of the melee-related BA challenges and it works great for crowd control. If only the game had more mobs. How fun would the Excalibastard be in the some of those really tight and crowded BL2 levels?
[quote=“htmensch77, post:6, topic:64678”]How fun would the Excalibastard the Pre-Sequel be in the with some of those really tight and crowded BL2 levels?
[/quote]Totally agree!
I personally think it is pretty decent for shooting as well with my Lady Hammerlock, don’t much care for other lasers. Mine is a level 25 and let me tell you this it is the only gun I use against the KB5, bunk3r wannabe on NVHM
I like to rate guns on a 1-5 scale. The assumption is that you have a very generic build, for any character. Each level it stays useful past the item’s level determines it’s place on the scale. The Excalibastard pushes an 8.
Freeze on crits, good at any level.
Cryo nova when used as a melee weapon, good at any level.
Near* perfect accuracy, good at any level. *Oddly enough, if fired continuously it still suffers recoil despite being a hyperion weapon.
Only thing that gets better with level is base damage and cryo DOT.
After 12 characters, every single one has made great use of this thing.
If I may quote myself, the excalibastard is basically just a blade with a laser attched to it. With Aurelia, since she freezes so easily, there is almost no reason to use it at all on her, unless you really want to.
Depends, if you use it as a melee weapon, it works okay, as seen here in the first wave of the Badass round:
Aurelia Excalibastard show case 1:
Once the avalanche stacks come into play, the damage output of the Excali goes through the roof. See those 2.3mil melee hits without BAR? Yeah, that’s how good the Excali is.
