Warframe's Pseudo-Exalted rework will pop the Melee Riven bubble

With Warframe's Techrot Encore update this March 2025, pseudo-Exalted abilities are getting a rework. The gist is that they will be upgraded from pseudo-Exalted to actual Exalted abilities with dedicated modding ramps. This is not a buff, but more of a sidegrade due to various reasons. For new players, however, it brings visibility to a niche mechanic that would otherwise get overlooked.

Many people might be wondering what exactly pseudo-Exalteds are. For new or returning Warframe players who are not sure what it is or what's changing, here's a primer.

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How will pseudo-Exalted abilities change in Warframe: Techrot Encore?

The Pseudo-exalted rework is one of the big QoL changes in the patch (Image via Digital Extremes)

First, to address what are pseudo-Exalted abilities: these are specific abilities that are affected by mods equipped on your weapon. There are, to our knowledge, only five such abilities currently in the game, and all of them specifically scale from mods on melee weapons in different ways.

These are:

• Excalibur's Slash Dash (first ability)
• Gara's Shattered Lash (first ability)
• Ash's Bladestorm (fourth ability)
• Khora's Whipclaw (first ability)
• Atlas' Landslide (first ability)Based on what you're rocking on your melee weapons

Based on what you're rocking on your melee weapons, all of these abilities scale with damage (and speed in Ash's case) to some degree. The melee weapon itself doesn't matter, only the mods you're using on it do. Called stat-stick builds, these specific melee builds cater to the unique quirks of each specific ability.

Check out our Warframe stat-stick guide to learn more, although note that it won't be very useful a couple of weeks later when the patch drops.

So, what exactly is changing?

According to Devstream 184, the following changes are being implemented:

• Pseudo-Exalted abilities will now be treated as Exalted weapons on their own, so you can mod them separately. For example, Whipclaw will now be a separate weapon you can mod independently while using Khora.
• Pseudo-Exalted and Exalted weapons can now also be implanted with Arcanes. It's not known whether Mesa's pistols are also affected by this change.
• A lot of mods restricted from usage on Exalted weapons will now work with Exalted and pseudo-Exalteds, so it's also a buff to all Exalted weapons.
• Pseudo-exalteds themselves will get some polish and lite-reworks in some cases. The combo system from Landslide will also be implemented on Gara and Khroa, for example.

Since Ash will get a general touch-up, the devs have not revealed yet how exactly the Bladestorm ability is changing. We will learn this in the February devstream.

What does this mean for stat sticks?

By and large, this pseudo-Exalted reworks means that stat-sticks are now dead in the water. Before, Incarnons like Magistar used to be the top-notch options to push pseudo-Exalted abilities to the extreme thanks to the Incarnon talents. Now, this functionality will be gone, so this is an overall nerf for Whipclaw in particular.

In other words, high Riven Disposition melee weapons that were once top stat-sticks by that virtue alone will lose their value. Jaw Sword Rivens and Ether Dagger Rivens will plummet in price, and the Veiled Melee Riven mods are also expected to drop a bit in value.

This still leaves out some of the more nifty interactions — Incarnon Ceramic Dagger's combo bonus with the Secondary Outburst Arcane will still work. So although the very concept of stat-sticks is not dead yet, there will be significantly fewer stat-sticks in general.

Check out our other guides on the game:

• All Warframes tier list
• Warframe Incarnon weapons tier list
• Best weapons in Warframe for each Mastery Rank
• All new Mods in Warframe 1999, and how to get them
• Nightwave Nora's Mix Vol 8 start date and rewards