Excalibur Umbra and Melee Only Comprehensive Guide. Old Peace.
As someone who's primarily played melee only Excalibur since the beta, here's my, justifiably long, comprehensive, definitive, and complete guide where I explain every layer of this gameplay style specialized for Excalibur Umbra. Arcane Expertise and Arcane Persistence included!
For potentially more detail (and especially actual gameplay) please check out my channel!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:15 Credentials
3:06 Keybind recommendations
4:50 Melee Careen and heavy spamming
6:18 Two main builds for Excalibur, Slash Dash or Exalted Blade
7:35 Influence for Exalted Blade focus
8:15 Affliction for Slash Dash focus
10:09 Sacrificial set unless Wrathful Advance
12:55 Survival strategies, Persistence and Brief Respite
20:07 Affliction build in detail
23:50 Umbra Passive
27:27 Slash Dash in detail
30:28 Radial Howl in detail (subsume slot)
33:28 Radial Javelin (see RJ videos for how to buff)
36:20 Exalted Blade in detail
39:52 Augments
49:30 Warrior's Rest
51:40 Subsumes
53:05 Focus School and Unairu
54:54 Combo Duration without Naramon
57:36 Archon Shards
1:03:04 Companion recommendations
1:07:40 DUAL ICHOR
1:10:05 Advanced Exalted Blade tutorial
1:10:58 Brightbonnet slam for energy
1:11:27 Importance of blocking
1:11:54 Hard landings and slam
1:12:50 Advanced Slash Dash damage tutorial
1:17:44 Affliction Exalted Blade heavy attack
1:19:25 Advanced mobility
1:27:20 Melee only gameplay conclusion
1:28:18 Recap