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Elden Ring has recently released numerous updates, and these patches have put a lot of foolish ambitions to rest. Suffice it to say, many builds revolving around that were once overpowered are more or less dead now. On the bright, side, that gave rise to more innovations among the community and placed other meta stuff in the spotlight.
As it is, there are still several Elden Ring builds that are capable of cheesing the most challenging aspects of the game. Will they survive the next nerf wave via updates? Only time will tell. But at the moment, these builds are the ones befitting an Elden Lord. Time to wow some maidens and power up the bass cannon with these builds.
Updated January 11, 2024 by Erik Petrovich: The best Elden Ring builds vary greatly – a build that might work well for one player might not feel as powerful in the hands of another. Particularly skill-intensive, twitchy, and PvP oriented builds (like the dual Rivers of Blood build) can be ridiculously OP in the hands of a player who knows how to use it, but something like the One Shot Lightingn build, which requires a bit of setup but no fast reactions, might be more their flavor. Some builds aren’t very good for normal PvE or PvP combat at all, but show their strength in other ways. For example, the newly listed Sacred Relic Sword build focuses exclusively on Rune gain.
16 Dual-Wield Rivers of Blood
Fearsome In PvP, But Not Great Elsewhere
No pairing of weapons, and no build, is quite as feared in Elden Ring PvP as the Dual Rivers of Blood build. By going into New Game Plus, or trading with another player, one can get two Rivers of Blood for the ultimate bleed combination. Paired with armor, talismans, and other items to boost the power of your Bleed buildup, this build is nigh-unstoppable.
However, the nature of Bleed damage is that, while it’s extremely powerful against fleshy foes that can bleed, its borderline useless against enemies that don’t bleed. In PvE, the Rivers of Blood dual wield build is only OK, but against other players (and in areas of the game with lots of humanoids), this build shows its teeth.
15 Sacred Relic Sword Farmer
Farm Millions Of Runes Per Hour With This Weapon
Some of the best Elden Ring builds empower players capabilities while playing the game normally, but some of the most useful builds in Elden Ring are targeted towards very specific goals. The Sacred Relic Sword Farmer build is one of these targeted builds, in this case targeted towards Rune farming.
With the Ash of War on the Sacred Relic Sword, and gear that amplifies Rune Gain and Weapon Skill damage, players can easily farm millions of Runes per hour with this build. Head to Mohgwyn Palace, specifically the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace, and look for a huge group of Albinaurics resting on a slope nearby.
Buff yourself, consume a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot, and clear out all of them with the Wave of Gold Weapon Skill. Then, sit at the Grace, turn around, and do it again – with each swing, you should net tens of thousands of Runes. Just don’t bring this build into PvP or against particularly tough bosses – it’s meant to farm enemies in AoE, not necessarily perform well in one-on-one combat.
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13 Scavenged Bleeder
A Great Dual Bleed Build With Style
For a simpler Bleed build that still does well against bosses or enemies that are immune to Bleed, one can go wrong with the Occult Scavenger Curved Sword. For best results, players need two of these, which means either a second playthrough or getting it from other players via item drops.
Before entering combat, players just need to apply the Seppuku buff to both weapons, drink the Physick Flask, and then attack the enemy with a dual jumping power attack (usually LB/L1). The target will bleed in no time. If the target is immune to Bleed, then buff the weapons with Golden Vow and Flame Grant Me Strength, then continue with the jumping power attacks.
12 Magma Pyromancer
A Faith And Fire Incantation Wielding Monk
While Pyromancy builds and methods were mostly overshadowed by the more wrathful and powerful lightning incantations, this combination is more than competitive. This Pyromancy build revolves around spamming two to three skills and incantations, primarily.
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Against bosses or regular enemies, Magma Shower with the dual Magma Blades or Burn O Flame! can both knock them down and make quick work of them. Meanwhile, tough and single targets are pretty susceptible to Giantsflame Take Thee. Of course, don’t forget the buffs and flasks, Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength, and Blessing’s Boon before slinging some firestorms.
11 One-Strike Lightning
When It Hits, It Wrecks – But It Has To Hit, First
The creators of this build (the community) swear by its one-shot potential but the sequence of buffs for ensuring that is a little complicated. So for bosses, follow these instructions swiftly and carefully, it’s crucial to do them in quick succession:
- Equip the Black Dumpling helmet.
- Cast Howl of Shabriri repeatedly until Madness triggers and until HP is low (triggers Red-Feathered Branch Sword)
- Switch to the Mushroom Crown helmet.
- Cast Golden Vow.
- Activate Contagious Fury from the Jellyfish Shield.
- Trigger Poison on the character using the Poison Pot (activates Mushroom Crown buff).
- Remove the Poison using boluses.
- Enter the boss arena or fight and then cast Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike on the boss.
- If they’re not dead, or they entered the second phase, then cast Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike again.
Regular enemies usually just die to Lightning Spear or something similar without the need for elaborate buffs.
10 Guts
Take The Berserk Inspiration To The Next Level
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For a pure Strength build, one can’t go wrong with this Berserk tribute build which happened to be overpowered. It takes full advantage of the Lion’s Claw Ash of War in a Colossal Greatsword. Players will mostly spam that skill and go in for critical attacks once the enemies have been staggered.
For multiple targets or large enemies, then Flames of the Redmades will do the work to stun them. And yes, this build can and will humiliate Malenia solo with no summons.
9 Marais Executioner
Cosplay as Elemer of the Briar
This build revolves around taking advantage of the charged variant of Eochaid’s Dancing Blade. It spins multiple times like a drill and does so longer if charged.
Paired with talismans that increase damage on successive attacks and buff charged attacks, a single skill is usually enough to take massive chunks off of enemies’ HP. It does take a while to get used to this playstyle, but the payoff is worth it.
8 Lunar Frostmage
Frost Magic Is Borderline OP, So Capitalize On It
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It’s more of a battlemage build, but the idea is the same as other Frostmage builds. Instead of spamming just Glintstone Icecrag, players will rely on Dark Moon Greatsword’s Moonlight Greatsword heavy attack to shoot projectiles. Glintstone Icecrag is a backup here.
For boss fights, players will want to start off with Ranni’s Dark Moon and then follow up with Icecrag for large enemies or Night Comet for fast and evasive bosses.
7 Blasphemous Paladin
The Blasphemous Blade Is Still Ridiculously OP
Quite possibly the most powerful fire paladin build at the moment, this build relies on abusing Blasphemous Blade’s weapon skill; Taker’s Flames. It deals staggeringly high fire damage, which is further increased by the talismans.
To maximize Ritual Sword Talisman, make sure HP is full before firing off the weapon skill. Radagon’s Soreseal makes characters a glass cannon, but this can be mitigated with the Golden Vow buff. That, in conjunction with Flame, Grant me Strength will also buff Taker’s Flames’ damage to astronomical levels.
6 Moonveil Mage
Moonveil Katana Makes For A Snazzy, Starry Samurai
Moonveil’s poise damage has been nerfed a bit so the weapon barely makes the cut when it comes to “overpowered” but it slaps hard.
Much like Blasphemous Blade builds, players will simply have to abuse Moonveil’s Transient Moonlight weapon skill (usually the heavy variant) to deal magic damage from a safe distance. Think of it as more of a melee katana build with a few magic spells for situational encounters.
5 Comet Azur Wizard
Arguably The Strongest Pure Caster in Elden Ring, Situationally
Most likely the build that everyone’s been talking about, this wizard is all about one-shotting the enemy with a Kamehameha wave of Comet Azur. Buff up using Terra Magicus, drink the Physick Flask, and then fire away with an 8-second unlimited beam of magic that will deplete a stationary boss’ HP (or at least halve it).
For even more damage, do some Seppuku with a modified Uchigatana until low HP to trigger Red-Feathered Branch Sword’s buff.
4 Unga Bunga Build
Demolish Opponents With Two Massive Colossal Weapons
Melee builds aren’t lagging behind when it comes to one-shotting bosses. This one utilizes the pile of buffs before ultimately running at the enemy, jumping, and then doing a heavy jump attack.
At full HP, start with Golden Vow, then Flame, Grant Me Strength, and then Royal Knight’s Resolve. Make sure both hammers hit the target.
3 Black Flame Reaper Paladin
Black Flame’s Percentage-Based Damage Is Great On Bosses
This is a build that can start out strong and become even stronger late-game. Players will start with the Winged Scythe and take advantage of its weapon skill, which deals Holy damage and has incredible range.
Later on, players can swap the Winged Scythe with the Godslayer’s Greatsword which also relies on its busted weapon skill.
2 Dragon Lightning Priest
Lightning Remains On Top In Elden Ring
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Another build that starts off strong is this lightning-addicted maniac. Lightning Spear is the workhorse here, and if players want to conserve FP, they can just buff up Uchigatana with Electrify Armament. Meanwhile, the dragon lightning skills are certified boss killers.
Later on, players will want to nab themselves a Sacred Relic Sword to deal lots of area damage. The Incantations scale well into the endgame.
1 Lord Of Blood
Mohg Demands Blood, So Sate Him
Thanks to the fixes introduced in past updates, bleed is not only a viable tactic now, but it’s also quite busted. It made Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear a little too powerful where abusing its Bloodboon Ritual weapon skill can gradually deal more than 10,000 points of damage, which is usually enough to kill bosses using less than a full bar of FP.
The best part about Mohg’s spear is that it’s a thrusting weapon and can be used with a shield. Meanwhile, both Rivers of Blood and Elonora’s Poleblade are powerful thanks to proper Arcane scaling and can be used for smaller encounters. Of course, this build isn’t that powerful against enemies that can’t bleed, so use it wisely.
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
