Is Excalibur Good In 2024?

Just came back from a 14 year break and I'm trying to understand all the new ***.

I've always wanted to build excalibur, but my HNM linkshell would only pay for me to make Apocalypse or Aegis back in the day because excalibur was "useless trash".

Is Excalibur a respectable weapon these days? I understand Burtgang or w/e is extremely good, but it's not necessarily what I'd like to make first.

I finished my Apoc(III) after being back for like two weeks. I was told it's also useless garbage by people when doing V1VD, but ofc my options are limited having just returned.

Opinions?

Its not a terrible weapon, kotr is pretty consitent dmg and the AMs nice, its just not what id call amazing like burt can be.

It has its uses as everything is situational as ever.
For a sort of hybrid tanking situation I’d use it
If I didn’t have Burtgang however and I was purely looking to tank all the things then Sakpatas sword or even malignance sword is going to offer up better utility for that.

Excalibur I generally get more overall use out of on RDM screwing around but for PLD it’s good for fights like Aminon and the like.

I still use apocalypse all the time and it’s quite useful especially when solo or low man or you just can’t trust a healer or something along those lines.

From a raw DPS standpoint how does it hold up?

IMO, people are trying to be nice. It's not worth the gil and while there are situations where you might put it on briefly if you had access to every weapon, it's not going to make you feel super powerful in any of those situations.

Most of the time, you will get better DPS out of a Naegling. Not saying this to be dismissive, the game is approaching sandbox level lately anyway, and you could still derive personal enjoyment from it. Just trying to give a more honest opinion, when many will want to spare feelings.

Raw dps is naegl though if its single wield idk how 1k~ naeg savage compares to 1k kotr, which is the only scenerio it can compete in WS wise as anything after favors savage due to scaling

It can be useful/fun to have for solo shenanigans on RDM, mainly due to the skillchain properties KotR has (letting you Savage > KotR > Savage for double light with decent WS) - but there's certainly no content where you're effectively locked out by not having it.

At R15 it can do a decent chunk of Naegling's overall DPS (especially if you toss in the extra double lights you can do while not needing to use CDC to make it happen) but it's still gonna lose out overall. Yet another one of those "this would be considered pretty dang good if Naegling didn't exist" weapons.

Excalibur is clearly the best looking sword in the game... Therefore: Most Powerful Best Sword

A man of culture.

I used it in Segments if I'm able to help DD. KoR is consistent at 1k and has a nice AM for pulling.

Its also used on Aminion by some PLDs to help with the WS wall.

I'd rate it Good, and its easy to make.

I've made a bunch of relics to test out their use by pushing the damage with it. It wasn't good dmg ... it has amazing skillchain props but the actual damage it pushes is very low. So unless you are purely making it for skillchaining I wouldn't make it... and even then don't expect high numbers from it. Don't make it for aminon either... its very hard to hit aminon with it. For aminon just use reikiko and CDC (dex based ws a lot easier to hit him with).

8.4 ftp at 1000tp isn't bad at all. It just gets beat quickly by savage as TP scales, but PLD is a tp slug.

I have not seen CDC used on Aminion but Reikiko makes a lot of sense.

I can't imagine a better sword for a British national to wield! It means I'm KING!

Also, for a casual who only has one relic.

Also, for a RDM so I'll get out of the PLD forum already.

You're at 8.55 ftp equiv by 1300 tp(+moonshade) on naegling, and it only gets better from there. 15 MND on Naegling itself makes up for the difference in base damage vs R15 excal. 51 more acc. An extra 10% WSC on both mods. The real icing on the cake is the 1% attack per buff though, which will match excal's attack with only 2 buffs and in real conditions amounts to a considerable boost.

I can't see excalibur winning without involving some benefit of the AM or blockrate. Excal procs require meleeing so no good on aminon, but if you were meleeing you would have no issue holding the higher TP to make them up with savage.

Relics are cheap and easy. You could have finished it instead of reading this thread.

Get it done cause it's shiny, makes great lockstyle, and cause you'll enjoy the journey.

.....also cause Naegling is boooo-ring.

Edit:
Who said apoc was useless garbage?! Well...I guess it is, but it allows you to Catastrophe which is one of those singular broken things in FF11 that shouldn't exist. A self-curing weaponskill that hits kinda well that heals you!?

Don't bring your apoc to a zerg-fest, but if people don't see the gameplay value in it they should just go play Duck Hunt instead. They are blind.

Naegling needs deleted.

One of the first things I noticed when returning was that 99% of players used that weapon. Even on jobs that aren't high ranked in swords. My first thought was that it was god awful game variety.

I wouldn't say it's "useless garbage", but considering the prime scythe can also absorb hp while doing immensely more damage.. it's certainly not necessary once you have access to that.

Excalibur was easier to justify back when relics were like 30m. Now it's harder to say it's worth making, though there's some caveats to it.

A) While what Thorny says is true about dmg scaling of SB vs KoR, KoR also skillchains with itself which SB can not do. This isn't relevant on fights cited like Aminon or most party heavy fights however neither of the jobs that can wear Excal are going to want to be using SB on Aminon to begin with due to the wall (Black Halo is better here for RDM and PLD isn't really going to have a lot of time to be DDing to begin with, though there's a stronger case for it, PLD probably wants Malignance Sword for this fight). Fusion as an SC property is generally desirable for incidental skillchains though for plenty of places where SC damage is more likely to happen. It isnt going to win against Naegling but it will be competetive enough for consideration (which can be said about 90% of the weapons in the game..)

B) The +10 block rate augment can't be ignored. It isnt as strong as the 18% PDT II from Burt overall however it lets you play around with block sets for higher CL content where capping block rate even with Ochain/Duban isn't necessarily free. Can afford extra MDB or Magic Evasion. Also easily the second best tanking sword in physical damage heavy fights for this reason for those without the mythic. More of an aside and not a focal point, but 30 undispellable Regen is also not a nothingburger.

Wait til you see what everyones off-hand is, though theres atleast some variety mixed in there

From the perspective of someone who isn't quite a hardcore enough PLD to build a Burtgang, I love my Excalibur and it's my go-to tanking/hybrid mainhand. I pair it with Aegis for magic damage fights, Duban for physical, or Srivatsa for a more all-arounder build.

Completely agree with Prothescar here. For defensive purposes, block rate and Regen/Refresh aftermath are nice. For offense, while it isn't Naegling, KoR is not a bad WS and Fusion/Light are good SC properties.

For someone trying to focus on PLD as their main priority who doesn't already have Burtgang, I'd probably suggest spending your time working on the Mythic instead. But for someone who wants a cheaper/faster but still good quality REMA, Excal is a great option. That being said, if you're using PLD more casually you could also get by fine with Sakpata/Malignance for tanking... For me personally, I'm in that sweet spot of wanting a little more than that, but since PLD is not even in my top 10 jobs I just can't justify the mythic grind.

As for price/hassle to build, based on my server's (Phoenix) current prices:
For Excal, you'd be looking at roughly 145-150 million gil from scratch to 119 R15. Very fast building process to make the lv75 by trading currency, so your speed on grinding out the WS killshot trials is the major factor (and it's not that bad as magian trials go, since KoR is solid). You will want the R15 augments (~60m of swarts, just like every REMA), that Block Rate and KoR damage are both nice - if you aren't willing to drop that last 60mil on augments, don't bother making the weapon IMO.

That's compared to Burtgang costing about twice as much in gil from nothing to R15 (~295mil on my server at the moment). But then you factor in the additional substantial time cost of Mythics... all the hassle of needing to do Nyzul, Ein, Assaults, ZNMs. And Burtgang then gets the pure torture of Atonement killshot trials, have fun.

First question is what are you trying to do with it? If you just want to spam a single WS, then it's Naegling + TP Bonus or Crocia + Daybreak/TP Bonus. Excal's contribution is that it lets you three step double light, KOR -> Savage -> KOR/CDC is really strong. You can even do something silly like Savage Blade -> Death Blossom (or CDC) -> KOR -> Savage Blade -> KOR/CDC.

Having a fusion property WS is just really useful to have anytime your doing multi-step SC's. I only wish that Death Blossom was Distortion/Fragmentation instead of Fragmentation/Distortion.

Plenty of people talking about Burtgang's 18 PDT II, but other things not being brought up here: Burtgang has +23 enmity, increased enmity generation from Atonement (double-ish, depending on TP used), enmity retention on taking damage (unquantified?), and the AM3 can be quite useful as a TP generation tool, if the fight allows you to melee.

When compared to 30 HP regen, 3 refresh, and 10 block rate it's not even remotely close. Excalibur is a very bad tanking sword, bordering on totally useless. If you have Reprisal or Pallisade up, I'd argue that a Brilliance is a better sword.

Excalibur has a very small niche with its SC properties, so if you think you'll be doing a lot of solo self-SC then it will provide a tiny boost to your DPS in that situation, maybe.

It could be a "decent" bridge weapon before you get a Burtgang, but I would not recommend spending 150-200m on a weapon that will eventually end up in your mog safe and never equipped. This also assumes that as a newer player you somehow have access to a Windurst wave 3 boss clear to make the Excalibur relevant.

Excluding Prime and Bonanza weapons, if you asked most people to pick the top ten swords for PLD and RDM, Excal would probably sit around the middle of both lists. Rarely the best option for a situation, but not unusably bad, either.

That said, if you always wanted to make Excal, make it. Whether it's good or not is irrelevant. That's why I made mine.

Absolutely no one here is saying Excal beats Burtgang for tanking, outside of maybe coming into play in some very niche use cases (e.g., Aminion). But if you don't see yourself making Burtgang any time soon, or ever, Excal is a nice option with good all around utility that won't just gather dust in your Mog Satchel. Up to the player as to whether that's worth 150mil and grinding out some trials.

Taking Burt off the table, you're comparing to:
- Brilliance primarily for the Enmity+ (requiring Sinister Reign augments).
- Malignance for some MDB and Status resist that you might use for situationally for certain fights (and maybe still would regardless of what weapons you have available).
- Sakpata as a decent all-arounder (but for its flashiest stat of DT-10%, it's painfully easy to cap DT in a tanking set without sword, and using it is not really allowing you to open up vital non-DT options in other slots).
- Su5 that is nearly as expensive, also un-sellable once augmented, doesn't have a great niche.
- Naegling that provides good offense and is one you want in the toolbag, but does nothing for PLD's primary reason to exist.

If that's your set of options, I would argue that Excalibur is FAR more appealing and will get frequent use. If it's not THE best non-Burtgang option (which it arguably will be a lot of the time), it's still going to be no worse than a top 3 option for nearly any use case, which I still categorize as a pretty good weapon. If you think anything but BiS for every scenario is trash, OK don't make it.

I'm a good example of someone who will get good use out of Excalibur: PLD is decidedly NOT my priority, I have a good 10 other jobs I put ahead of it. I only have so much time and tolerance for creating more Mythics, and I'd make them for other jobs before I made it for PLD. But I do like having PLD available for stuff like Dynamis or Ambuscade and gearing it as well as I reasonably can with that in mind.

Like I said in my previous reply, if you're trying to build a PLD tank as your top priority, just suck it up and make a Burtgang and you'll be happier long term. Don't waste your time on Excalibur when it would become a rarely used niche toy once you have a max rank Burt. But if you don't plan to go for Burtgang any time soon and can tolerate the cost and magian trials? Excalibur is pretty damn good for you.

Excal was my first relic and while I have it r15, i barely use it. It did a lot of work over the years, but it just does a lot less now.

I will definitely echo that it's fun to play with, it has decent defense traits, and that it SCs well. That's all true. Its ODD and deals 25% hp as additional damage have fallen off tremendously in usefulness for lots of different reasons. Don't expect it to be a king maker, because it just isn't that(REGARDLESS OF LORE!~).

It's an important lockstyle piece to go with Caliburnus, triple cool points if your glow is purple/pink.

Is Excalibur a respectable weapon for tanking? Yes

Is it better than Burtgang? No, Burtgang is much better.

Is Apoc useless garbage? No, I used to use it to solo things I couldn't otherwise VD Dawn and some Aeonic fights but Foenaria sort of crushed it's niche.


I have a Burtgang but it's on my bucket list to make Excalibur for nostaligia reasons.

It's your $15 bucks, do what makes you happy.

LOL, at trying to use Atonement and AM3 for hate generation. Thanks for the laugh.

HELL WITH EVERYONE OPINION ITS A MUST LOL

I'm still at the last part of it Knight of The Round WS is OP lol once done

I like the knight of the round ws thats why i'm going for it.

I would test this out on PVP but no one wants to taste it

A single Atonement is worth 1.5-2 flash worth of enmity. Are you also not using flash because LUL enmity? What are you using your TP for while tanking as a PLD? Do you sit on 3k TP for an entire Sheol Gaol boss? Are you slamming 40k KoR? Please, teach me the ways of PLD.