The Debtor's Cage

Khora builds for Range, not Strength.

Range scales Whipclaw's cast range and explosion radius (capped at 200%), Ensnare's pull, and the size and pull of Strangledome.

Strength is dumped to minimum because Accumulating Whipclaw provides a flat, additive +350% that does not care about Strength, so the negative Strength costs you almost nothing on damage.

Since the March 2025 change Whipclaw is a modate-able exalted with its own arcane, so it scales on acolyte and galvanized mods and the melee influence arcane rather than a statstick.

1.

Cast one or two Strangledomes at chokepoints: doorways, the mouth of a room.

Rotate kills between them so fresh spawns have time to run in and be caught.

2.

Spam Whipclaw at the held enemies or directly onto the dome to hit everything inside.

3.

Cast Ensnare on priority targets like acolytes.

Ensnare raises the damage they take from Whipclaw.

4.

Keep Venari on heal mode if you want the team topped up.

At neutral Efficiency with Brief Respite and one Augur mod, every Whipclaw cast generates about 47.5 shield, roughly a 0.6s gate.

Two casts cap max shields at 93 with Catalyzing Shields on and give the full 1.33s gate.

Add two more Augur mods on your secondary and a single cast generates around 67 shield for roughly a 1s gate on its own.

Range is the priority stat and the reason the whole build exists.

Duration is only there to keep Strangledome up so you are not recasting it.

Efficiency sits neutral-to-positive because Equilibrium plus a Synth Deconstruct companion on a dense map produces more energy than you spend.

Strength is deliberately floored.

Overextended and Stretch (via the augment slots and Cunning Drift) push Range to the cap.

Streamline holds Efficiency positive.

Equilibrium plus Primed Flow is the energy engine, and Primed Flow also doubles the value of violet crit-damage shards on Whipclaw.

Primed Continuity keeps Strangledome alive.

Catalyzing Shields shrinks your shield pool so each cast refills a larger fraction of it, buying more i-frames per Whipclaw.

Accumulating Whipclaw is the damage.

Pilfering Strangledome is the loot, and the reason to run this over a plain nuke Khora.

For non-looting missions, drop Pilfering Strangledome for efficiency (Fleeting Expertise), more Range (Stretch), or Rolling Guard.

Catalyzing Shields can become Augur Reach or Streamline if you do not want the i-frame safety.

The exilus is open: Primed Sure Footed against knockdowns, Vigilante Pursuit for enemy radar.

Brief Respite for the shield-gate build.

Corrosive Projection if you run an Augur statstick setup and want raw armored-target damage.

Swift Momentum if you lack Dexterity arcanes and need combo duration.

Steel Charge for mod capacity.

Pick one.

Subsume over Venari, which stays partly active even when subsumed, or over Strangledome itself if you are not looting.

- Lycath's Hunt over Strangledome on a pure DPS build: Whipclaw kills count as melee kills, so each has a 50% chance to drop a health orb, which Equilibrium turns into 55 energy.

Roughly 275 energy per ten kills, effectively infinite.

- Dispensary for energy that does not depend on spawn rate.

- Nourish for a viral damage buff on Whipclaw plus more orb energy, but it wants Strength, so this becomes a different build.

- Roar for damage and a triple-dip on melee influence, at the cost of no energy return and a Strength requirement.

- Silence to shut down Acolyte and Eximus abilities.

Arcane Fury for Whipclaw damage, Arcane Aegis for lazy shield sustain.

Swap Aegis for Arcane Avenger (flat 45% crit to Whipclaw) or Molt Efficiency (Strangledome duration) to taste.

Any school works; the build does not depend on one.

Zenurik for a backup energy trickle, Madurai for the cast speed and Strength swing, Naramon if you are running the influence melee angle on Whipclaw.

Equip Primed Pack Leader so Whipclaw generates overguard for the pet.

A Panzer or Hound with Synth Deconstruct feeds Equilibrium.

Shield gating plus the crowd control of a full Strangledome.

Venari Bodyguard is an optional death-negate every 150 seconds, and the cooldown clears fast from kills.

It fails if you let the dome lapse and stand in the open with your shield gate on cooldown, or against heavy toxin.

Equilibrium plus a Synth Deconstruct pet on a dense map.

If it still runs dry, add an energy subsume (Lycath's Hunt, Dispensary) or play higher-density tiles.

Open maps with no chokepoints blunt Strangledome.

Very fast-moving hosts of light enemies can outrun the dome's pull.

Bosses ignore the whole plan.

A melee-vortex subsume version is better for looting because influence kills enemies outside the dome while vortex drags new spawns in.

A melee influence version leans on the arcane for map-wide clear.

Strong: genuinely endless survival, best-in-class loot multiplier, low weapon investment, comfortable to hold a point.

Weak: map-dependent, does nothing to bosses, the shield-gate rhythm is unforgiving until it is muscle memory.

Steel Essence and resource farmers who want to sit in one spot for an hour and come out with full pockets.