INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Thunderdome. This is a standard Khora Whipclaw farming build for endurance survival/looting missions (e.g. steel essence farm, arbitrations e.t.c.), with the addition of Spectrorage and it's augment [Spectrosiphon] to generate tons of energy orbs for you and your team so everyone can spam abilities. [Accumulating Whipclaw] and [Pilfering Strangledome] are standard augments to enable Whipclaw DPS and Strangledome looting respectively.

Infinite scaling survivability is via extreme crowd control from strangledome, ensnare and spectrorage, as well as shield gating using the combination of [Brief Respite], augur mods and [Catalyzing Shields]. At neutral efficiency with [Brief Respite] and ONE augur mod, every cast of Whipclaw generates 47.5 shield which gives about 0.6s shield gate. Exactly two casts of Whipclaw therefore caps max shields (93 with [Catalyzing Shields]) and gives the maximum 1.33s shield gate. If you add another two augur mods on your secondary, you can generate 67 shields which is approximately 1s shield gate from a single cast of 1.

Alternate Dispensary/Lycath's Hunt Combat Discipline Avenger variant: https://overframe.gg/build/385801/

PLAYSTYLE

1. Cast ensnare on an enemy to group enemies then use your melee statstick to manually build combo (should be extremely quick e.g. a few seconds to hit max x12). This is because building combo with Whipclaw is much slower.
2. Cast up to two strangledomes at choke points on the map (e.g. doorways, hallways entering into a room)
3. Spam whipclaw and watch everything die. May need to rebuild combo manually with melee if you lose combo.
4. Cast Ensnare onto select targets such as acolytes, as ensnare increases whipclaw damage

See here for video guide: https://youtu.be/4ziV7bxU0eU?si=FtyKq8AxoHRtbVZQ

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Positive duration is useful for keeping Spectrorage and Strangledome active without having to recast as frequently, but you could also drop this to neutral and just cast more frequently (e.g. with [Fleeting Expertise] on).

Efficiency
We can keep efficiency at neutral in this build since energy will not be an issue with the orbs generated by [Spectrosiphon], ideally with arcane energize feeding into a [Primed Flow] boosted energy pool. This means you will be at max energy nearly all the time. If you do not run [Spectrosiphon] or another form of energy generator (e.g. dispensary), you will want to run near max efficiency (swap in fleeting expertise +/- streamline over Spectrosiphon/[Rolling Guard]).

Range
Range is the most important stat for [Khora], since it benefits the cast range and explosion radius of Whipclaw (note this caps at 200% range), pull radius of Ensnare, the radius of Spectrorage and finally the size and pull radius of Strangledome.

Strength
This is the least important stat since it does not affect ensnare or Spectrorage, and we do not rely on the damage of Strangledome. While strength does scale into the base damage of Whipclaw, the augment *[Accumulating Whipclaw]** makes up for the negative strength by allowing you to stack an extra +350% damage which is additive to the bonus provided by ability strength. Since the total amount of damage is capped at +350% and is not affected by strength, we can drop strength completely to minimum.

Aura

• Brief Respite - best for endurance runs where you want to stay alive using shield gating. Two casts of whipclaw at neutral efficiency caps max shields with catalyzing shields on
• Swift Momentum - good option if you don't own dexterity arcanes to increase combo duration to maintain whipclaw combo
• Steel Charge - gives extra mod capacity to save forma and small boost to whipclaw (+60% melee damage is additive to dmg mods on statstick, so may not actually contribute that much to overall whipclaw damage, particularly if you have a +dmg riven).
• Combat Discipline - Only run if you use Dispensary and drop Arcane Energize for Arcane Avenger

Exilus
Completely flexible slot.
Primed sure footed - best in slot prevents knockdowns. [Handspring] is next best alternative. Not needed if you run Unairu Poise.
Vigilante pursuit helps increase enemy radar to track enemies

Flexible Slots
Pilfering Strangledome - Use this in endurance SP survival missions e.g. steel essence and resource farming. For non-looting missions, you can replace this with either an efficiency mod (streamline/fleeting expertise), more range (stretch) or a survivability mod (e.g. Venari Bodyguard)

Spectrosiphon - If you don’t use Spectrorage, replace this with fleeting expertise. If you use Dispensary instead, replace this with Equilibrium.

Catalyzing Shields/Rolling guard - For non-endurance or if you feel you don't need the safety of i-frames and status cleanse, swap this for either stretch (more range) or streamline (better efficiency).

Other Augments - Venari Bodyguard is a viable alternative in endurance runs if you don't subsume over 3.

Arcanes
Energized - used to regenerate energy from all the orbs dropped. even rank 2 is enough, but energy gen will be quite slow without energize
Fury - boosts whipclaw damage
Avenger - use in combination with Combat Discipline and Dispensary

Archon Shards
1-2 Amber Cast Speed
Rest into Crimson Melee Crit Damage

HELMINTH

Spectrorage - with the [Spectrosiphon] augment, you can generate tons of orbs with the combination of ensnare to group enemies and whipclaw to kill ensnared enemies within the spectrorage mirrors.

Dispensary - equally good option but requires [Equilibrium] and [Synth Fiber] to generate the most energy (converts the initial big health orb into energy as well, even at full health). Replace Spectrosiphon slot with Equilbrium and make sure to put Synth Fiber on your companion. https://overframe.gg/build/385801/

Lycath's Hunt - Kills from [Khora]'s whipclaw counts as melee kills for Lycath's [Hunt], giving each whipclaw kill a 50% chance to drop health orbs. With equilibrium, this allows you to maintain energy passively as an alternative to Dispensary (use the same build)

Nourish - adds Viral damage buff to Whipclaw (best for raw corrosive build) AND doubles energy gain from energy orbs without needing an augment. Requires more strength, so drop [Spectrosiphon] for [Umbral Intensify] and Arcane [Fury] for Molt Augmented. Note Arcane Energize is essential for Nourish at 100 efficiency, othehrwise consider adding streamline.

ARSENAL

Khora's Whipclaw is a 'pseudo-exalted' ability like [Gara] and [Atlas] and requires a stat stick to produce the most amount of damage. Base stats are 25% cc, 20% sc and 200% crit multiplier with even distribution of impact, puncture and slash. This means it can be built either as raw crit elemental damage (for most content below SP level 1000) or a crit/status hybrid slash (for scaling endurance against grineer/corrupted above level 1000).

UPDATE 2023
The new Incarnon melees are the absolute best stat sticks now;
For Slash Status: Pick the +status chance evolutions on Mk-1 Bo (highest), Dual Ichor, Ceramic Dagger, Nami Solo
For Raw Elemental: Pick the +cc/cd evolution on [Magistar] or the +cc evolution on [Ceramic Dagger], [Sibear] etc

Without Incarnon melee, the best staticks are either HIGH DISPOSTION melee if you own a RIVEN (e.g. [Amphis], [Ankyros], [Ether Daggers]) OR [Kuva Shildeg], [Tenet Exec] and [Tenet Agendus] with +60% Toxin if you DON'T own a riven. Otherwise the actually melee you use doesn't matter.

Raw Crit Elemental (for non-endurance Grineer/Infested): https://overframe.gg/build/345033/kuva-shildeg/khoras-whipclaw-rivenless-raw-corrosive-statstick/

Hybrid Crit/Status Slash (for high level endurance Armored Grineer/Corrupted): https://overframe.gg/build/511154/mk1-bo/khora-slash-stick-updated-for-incarnons/

Primer with Secondary Dexterity - arcane dexterity is essential for combo duration.

Venari 'Catstick" Build (mostly used only for backup fetch and radar): https://overframe.gg/build/357971/