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Warframes often come with exalted weapons, which are built into their abilities. The earliest example can be found in Excalibur's Exalted Blade, the first-ever Exalted ability. These exalted weapons, added separately on particular heroes when you equip them in the Arsenal, can be modded independently. Furthermore, there are also pseudo-exalted abilities in the game.
These abilities are deemed 'pseudo-exalted' because they use similar equipped weapon types as a mods platform to gain more power. Oftentimes, a throwaway dedicated weapon will be modded specifically to make a chosen ability more potent. These weapons are referred as stat-sticks in Warframe.
5 best melee weapons in Warframe to use as stat sticks
5) Jaw Sword
Jaw Sword has a healthy 1.4 Riven disposition value in Warframe. This does not place it in the top 10 weapons in terms of disposition and Riven grade. However, Jaw Sword's disposition has gradually increased since it got tucked into a Nightwave-only drop.
Previously, most players used Jaw Sword as a starter melee weapon, as the blueprint was part of a Junction reward. The current usage rate among beginners has dropped significantly since.
The main reason Jaw Sword is used as a stat stick is due to its augment mod, Blade of Truth. Acquired from the Arbiters of Hexis, Blade of Truth grants you +100% Melee Damage, as well as the 'Truth' proc for each 1,000 Affinity points.
The syndicate proc effect is only a 25% Health restore, which is only somewhat useful for newcomers with no other means for sustain. The extra damage, on the other hand, makes Jaw Sword an especially good stat stick for Atlas' Landslide.
4) Kestrel
Like Jaw Sword, Kestrel is not among the chart toppers in terms of Riven disposition. However, it is on the higher end of that spectrum with a 1.45 disposition value in the current update (33.5).
Unrolled Kestrel rivens are a great purchase for those seeking extra utility out of stat sticks. Generally, these sticks are not even unsheathed unless you want to manually form a combo builder.
Kestrel is one of the standout rare melee weapons in this regard. All selections in the Glaive weapon class have a unique effect on thrown heavy attacks. For Kestrel, this effect is a guaranteed knockdown on all affected targets.
For Steel Path missions, this can act as a quick pocket crowd control tool. The knockdown does not last too long, but it can easily be refreshed with another thrown heavy attack. This way, Kestrel gives you a poor man's permastun while retaining its stat stick benefits.
3) Innodem
Like other Incarnon weapons, Innodem's Evolution Tree talents are also factored into pseudo-exalted weapons. However, its use case is limited to only one of those abilities: Ash's Blade Storm.
Ash's Blade Storm was previously the least reliant on a stat stick to reach its maximum potential. It used to only be affected by Combo Counter and Attack Speed. Later. However, the Warframe community discovered that the undisclosed shadow clone's true damage proc is also affected by various other stats.
This makes the potential ceiling for Ash's Blade Storm much higher with Warframe stat sticks. Uniquely, Blade Storm is affected positively by high unmodded base damage on the actual stat stick used.
For example, weapons in the Hammer class are a good fit in this context. The added nuance here is that increased Finisher Damage also affects the output. An otherwise difficult stat to find mods for, the best-in-class damage increment here is Covert Lethality, a dagger-exclusive mod.
For this purpose, the Innodem gives Ash the best damage output on his Blade Storm. It boasts the highest base damage on daggers with a pure physical spread, whereas close competitors like the Rumblejack split into elemental damage by default.
2) Amphis
Amphis is widely considered the top Warframe stat stick. This is because it has held the top spot for the mathematically highest Riven Disposition for a long time.
In other words, Amphis Rivens can theoretically roll the highest damage numbers on Riven mods. For min-maxers, these are the easiest weapons to bring high critical damage and modded base damage.
Khora's Whipclaw is the pseudo-exalted ability to benefit the most from having a min-maxed riven of higher value. This is because Amphis Rivens can also mathematically grant you the highest Critical Damage boost without factoring in Incarnon weapons.
The average +critical chance value on this Riven can get Khora into red-crit territory without Arcane Avenger or other additive buffs. That being said, Amphis Rivens do not have a monopoly on that count.
They are not even the only Riven with a 1.5+ Disposition value in the current patch (33.5). Amphis stands above Ether Dagger and Ankyros due to its consistency in topping the chart over several years of disposition revisions.
1) Incarnon Magistar
By default, all Incarnon Genesis weapons are a league above regular ones as stat sticks. Like the original set of Incarnon weapons from Angels of The Zariman, these Genesis weapons also receive a feature-complete perk tree to bolster their strength.
The key point that makes these good stat sticks is how they interact with pseudo-exalted weapons. Like with Innodem, the +critical chance and +melee damage perks directly affect the reference weapon for the pseudo-exalted ability.
These are all additive bonuses that apply before mods are added to the equation. For example, a +15% critical chance talent should boost the base critical chance on Khora's Whipclaw to +40%.
Several Incarnon Genesis upgrades for melee weapons grant critical chance perks in their Evolution Tree. Sibear, for that matter, grants a +25% critical chance with Aboslute Valor. However, Magistar's Critical Parallel uniquely grants both a +16% critical chance and +1x critical damage multiplier.
The base Critical Damage multiplier is so overpowered that it single-handedly overrides the numbers game compared to all other options. For reference, a Magistar without a specialized stat-stick Riven mod will grant Whipclaw higher or similar overall DPS compared to an Amphis with a god-roll Riven.
For the purposes of this stat stick, it is recommended you stick with the regular Magistar. The fancy Syndicate variant, Sancti Magistar, admittedly comes with a status-resistance passive when you have it in your inventory. However, the Sancti Magistar only gets a +0.2x Critical Damage buff from Critical Parallel.
Check out other guides on this game from Sportskeeda:
All Warframes tier list ||Warframe Incarnon weapons tier list || Kuva weapons tier list || All Warframe Twitch drops this week || Best stat-stick weapons in Warframe || Latest Baro Ki'teer Inventory || All Warframe Promo Codes || Best weapons in Warframe for each Mastery Rank
