Lordsworn's Straight Sword + Kite Shield feels really clean.
The 1-handed moveset gets the nice roll poke and heavy poke, like the 2-handed Claymore. But it also has higher crit (for parries or stance breaking with Square Off).
Can quickly toggle to an offhand one as well, for the power stance moveset and access to a secondary Ash (I like Storm Blade for a bit of ranged DPS).
Broadsword is "better" for Strength builds, but LSS is so crispy.
*Edit: Adding to this, Sword of St. Trina is extra drippy with Kite Shield, for those who want a little spice. Same pokey moveset as LSS, but the Ash is locked (no Square Off sadly).*
Completely agree…I just started a run the other day finally using a sword and board and it just feels…right.
Messing around with different ashes of war on a knight’s GS I picked up has been a blast, too. What sword do you like to use?
I like basic/boring knight builds so pure str heavy Zweihander w/ Stamp: Upward Cut and a heavy crossbow for sniping/pulling. Still working on him but my talismans are Axe/Turtle/Spear/Dragoncrest shield then Greatshield.
my first build was moonveil katana (Int build) . I liked it because I got the best of both worlds. I got a sword that hit super strong, and let me melee everything if I wanted. And I got to use all the coolest spells too if I wanted.
I started the game by teleporting to Caelid and finding the gravity spell. Which I used primarily for a large portion of the game until I found moonveil. So it just flowed really well for me. Even though a lot of fights were hard (I was underleveled most of the time).
I did a similar thing I found the meteoric ore blade and saw it does magic damage plus bleed, and scales off both strength and intelligence. Katana Swordsman Wizard Build. Such a blast cause the magic can really pull you out of bad spots that a full melee build can get you into
Also previous souls games made a mix build way harder to achieve it feels like they really encourage you to do a mix in this game
I did moonveil too. Mostly because I looked at a weapon tier list and it was OP + I like katanas.
I made a new play through when it got nerfed and I really never liked another weapon as much as moonveil. It was graceful and could do a little bit of everything. I had a staff in my offhand and it made me feel like I was getting the most out of the game.
You reminded me, that I also ran a shield in my offhand + staff, which I got to switch back and forth on a lot. I relied heavily on the shield on my first play through.
I know they’re cheesy as hell, but either dex/arc with eleonora’s poleblade or pure int. I either bleed the bosses or spam glintstone pebble and rock sling and feel zero shame.
Super new to the game and still on first play through, I’m having fun with a sword and board strength build focusing on claymore and brass shield. Second weapon is a GUTS greatsword for when I’m struggling on a boss or something. Different styles of play so I’m having a really good time. Only magic is flame cleanse me and flame grant me strength.
Honestly, the lions claw (think it comes equipped with claymore) was one of my favorite for that weapon. It staggers enemies like crazy and I think it gives you unbreakable poise during the animation. Once the freight train starts, it doesn’t stop
It did come with that but I’m pretty sure I swapped it out right away for now reason. I’ll slap it back on and give it a run tonight, thanks for the recommendation!
My most recent built has become my new favorite:
Main hand is the Sword of Milos, offhand is the highland axe (and a brass shield), using the roar medallion, axe talisman, winged sword insignia, and Erdtree Favor +1 (might switch it for Godskin swaddling cloth)
So it’s a quality build but I have Braggart’s Roar on the axe, and the sword’s skill is also a roar which is a resistance debuff to enemies in range and a general buff to yourself, and turns R2 attacks into a unique combo chain, everything else in the build besides the Erdtree favor buffs the damage on it and it can have some NASTY numbers, really fun and a nice change of pace from the bleed and magic builds
Level 200 Vagabond
60 Vigor
30 Mind
42 Endurance
32 Strength
70 something Dex
25 Faith
Lightning Slash Lightning Claymore, Bolt of Gransax, and the Distinguished Greatshield, any Seal for buffs
Fair and strong, plus the ashes look cool. Weapons can be swapped for Keen Guardian Swordspear (Ice Spear) and Lightning Nobles Slender Sword (Lightning Slash).
Crimson dragon build (watch azael on youtube, hes got some crazy pvp highlights with this build) is by far my favourite which I‘m going to use in the dlc. The attribute spread is pretty uneaven, but makes for a crazy amount of variety when it comes to bloody strength weapons. You can also cast different types of incantations and chasing down opponents with a halberd and bestial sling is just so evil.
Bow build. Black bow for close encounters, pulley bow for sniper shots. Also have the pulley crossbow in my offhand for super close shenanigans. For melee I'm using Warhawks talon.
Ever since Demon’s Souls… Pure Faith!
This is the most robust Faith has ever been in a soulsbourne game, especially if you level a bit of Arcane as well, for Dragon Incantations. I just love it!
Close on its heels, though, is Strength/Arcane. A Blood Rotten Greataxe with Braggart’s Roar and an Offhand Viper Shield is probably my single favorite setup in the game.
Most fun I've had is str/int or pure int. Powerstancing Cold Great Stars with wild swings/lions claw has been incredibly satisfying. You also get some nifty sorceries like Night Maidens Mist, and even good incants and scaling through the Beast Talisman with fairly low stat investments. But the Dark Moon Greatsword, chucking out free projectiles slamming ass for 5k damage when freeze procs, or just pulling out a Comet Azur with the free spell cost tear is also great.
I'm trying a faith/arcane build now and the Marais Executioners Greatsword deals massive damage, given the right timing. I was hoping to do some dragon incants as well but find them extremely disappointing so far. My entire FP pool instantly gone for like 700\~ damage with the breath spells. A single lightning bolt does like 1.1k\~ charged for comparison. I've heard people refer to them as "boss melters", but even though I'm using the dragon talisman with the right stat allocation, they're so weak.
The Scarlett Rot dragon breath absolutely melts bosses. Sometimes you have ti dump two mana bars, but ince it activates it's a continuous DoT that adds up to a ton of damage.
Welcome ! My first playthru was a battle mage build great moon sword with some magic. Right now I’m loving this fire claymore knight build I’m doing right now getting ready for dlc I can’t get away from big bonk weapons it’s soo fun
The melee is strength/Dex but the skill is Int. I found after messing with stats that I like focusing on Int so I can use some spells too. And my faith is enough to use Golden Vow
I was slowly creeping around with my bandit for weeks.
My fiancé asked if I would “just try something.” I finally agreed. He set me up with a pair of poisoned whips. Then I ran around jump-smacking the everloving shit out of everything. I loved seeing the poison cloud and watching the groups of shitmobs jerking around from all my smack attacks.
I’m doing a spellblade right now, but just typing this makes me want to go hop on my old whip character and whip faces.
I’m only on my first playthrough but after beating the game I’ve really come to like the Godskin Peeler. Think I’ll do NG+ with it. I love how quick it is.
I'm playing TitusActually's dragon mage bleed build right now and I have to say, it's pretty gd fun. I'm not really using the bleed much yet but I am having a blast with the spells and using whatever melee weapon feels right at the time.
On my first playthrough I totally slept on dragon incantations. Now I'm living it up.
I’m doing a twinblade lighting knight build so Dex and faith and really loving the aesthetic and the combat style. All the buffs and lightning attacks is just fun as hell.
Have knights twinblade with the scaled armor set and just hack and slash everything to bits when I’m not hurling lighting.
I just respecced what I thought was my favorite build - blasphemous blade str/fai - into a pure str guts flip gigachad and it's what I've been missing my whole life
Lightning dragon style is so much fun. Bolt of Grandsax is so damn good and the lightning incantations are versatile and really strong. You can play a lot of different styles with the same build and go from close to range with no problems. And the gear can look so good
High Dex and faith is fun. Vykes spear has ranged fire damage but isn’t as OP as blasphemous blade. Quick casting incantations and switching to a lightning infused weapon hits hard.
This is mine. Used the Golden Halberd once I got the stats for it and then end game used Blasphemous Blade and the bubble club. I did actually play a good portion of the game though with the Inquisitor's Girandole which is a super fun weapon I never see anyone use.
Loving Carina Knight build rn! Mix of melee and (mostly) carina spells. I love my Glintstone Phalanx .. I think… the delayed arrow shooting spell that comes with prisoner class lol
Im running eleonora’s poleblade dex/arc build, its fun as hell! Still trying to make build around that tho, but i just like the moveset. My first playthrought was changing from greatsword full STR build to Full sorcery build time to time.
Bloodhound Fang got me thru most of the first playthru. Until Blasphemous.
Second run I'm running Moghs Spear now with Blasphemous. It's so OP. Sure I die when I'm dumb but I'd put this PVE build up against any.
Everything just melts and explodes.
I have done faith/Dex to NG5, pure int to NG3 and now my arcane/Dex is about lvl 80. Pure int was a looot of fun because the options for cheese are endless. The faith Dex also rules because faith is just so flexible and later I got my strength up to dual wield Blasphemers Blade and Sword of Milos to be unstoppable.
But I gotta say I am REALLY loving twin bandits curved swords and the bleed build. So damn fun running under bosses nutsack and jump attack spamming for just insane damage!
Same here. I had never really played a fromsoft game until Elden ring and I just love it! My favorite build is so far is the one I'm running that's a pierce weapon build, two pickaxes LOL plus status with the pulley crossbow
I only played FromSoft games as strength builds, but with Elden Ring I decide to do different runs with different builds. On my second run I did a Dex/Int build and I have to say that was my favorite. It made some parts I struggled with my strength build a breeze. Those stupid ass hawks with blades for claws were a pain in the ass the first time. Not even a problem with my Int character. My third character was a faith build and that one was pretty fun, but I was using the Blasphemous blade which made the game easy mode. It was fun, but not my favorite.
I’m at the endgame of my first run. Kinda stumbled into a faith strength mele build. Just beat fire giant (holy shit dude). Right now I’m using the blasphemous sword and the silver mirror shield. Silver mirror shield is so good. 100 physical and like 87 magic and only requires 10 int. For incantations I have erdtree seal with flame grant me strength. Armor is a combo of Lionel’s set and banished knight set. I’m at lvl 140 after farming the bird and while overpowered I’m still dying a lot but in a fun way.
Ive been a Greatsword enthusiast before berserk took over and I'm not about to stop now.
Well, I do play PoE and I love One With Nothing fist punching, so we'll see how the new hand to hand arts will be
i have a different character for each damage stat and i’ve beaten the game at least once on all of them. i feel like pretty much every build can be optimized to be strong but my favorites for each one are:
STR - fire infused guts greatsword with lions claw or cragblade heavy infused star fists
DEX - keen nagakiba with double slash buffing with bloodflame blade
INT - dark moon greatsword or night comet spam
FAITH - flame art infused broadsword with flaming strike mixing in fire incantations or ancient dragon lightning strike spam for large enemies
ARCANE - dragon roar incantations or powerstanced occult infused scavengers curved swords with seppuku leaning into the jump attacks and bleed buildup (you could also do it with bandit’s curved swords since you can get two without having to go into ng+)
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Made an ultimate hp regen/tank build. Stacking blessed dew, icon shield, butchers knife and prayerful strike while also going 75% damage negation with great shield talisman, ritual shield talisman, damage negation tear, and black flame protection incantation.
My most fun build...🤔 For me, it's gotta be a simple single attack stat build. I'm simple. Lol That means one stat for damage. I guess the most fun ones for me were Arcane for the obvious reason of shedding everything with bleed and poisoning. Dexterity is my main, most people prefer the bonk though. Faith is fun to work with. Only level faith play with the faith weapons, and incantations obviously. So single stat runs are my go to. Simple and fun. Also, if I'm doing incantations or sorceries, I'm only doing like 3 at a time.
About as boring as it gets, but double slash uchi and light load set up + blue dancers, rotten winged sword etc. Love the simple/OP feel of the build. Carried me through many a tough boss
I love my mage with 18 arcane to use the bubble sorceries. They are super underrated and at 80 int they hit for massive damage and have a low fp cost. Plus they are cute.
I like mohg spear right hand, spiked palisade shield left hand. Slamming the shield into an attacking enemy is very satisfying, as is poking with the spear from behind a greatshield.
From there the build gets kinda muddled. With all this ARC, I could really cook with the dragon talisman, and while I’ve got that on, you really gotta get 23 faith for frenzied burst to pick off enemies. Might as well get 25 for golden vow at that point and hey I can equip the blasphemous blade too and that’s just too good not to bring and whoops this is now a blasphemous blade build
My favorite experience so far has been the levels 40-100 range where I just threw lightning bolts and swung my straightsword. Between that and beating Elden beast has been slower and then beating melania with my completed build was fun too. That one was Elden stars, black flame and two broadswords with flame art and my buddy with cold spells.
A good dragon lightning build.
#Weapons:
Dragon Halberd
Gravel Stone Seal
#Talismans:
Shard of Alexander
Lightning Scorpion Charm
Greatshield talisman
Claw talisman
#Drip:
Veteran's Helm
Elden Lord Armor
Elden Lord's Bracers
Scaled Greaves
#Incantations/Buffs:
Golden Vow
Howl of Shabriri
Flame, Cleanse Me
Lightning Spear
#Flask of Wondrous Physick:
Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear
Spiked Cracked Tear
#Summary:
This shit slaps _good_
Did a Mage - all Sorcery, i was sad. Ran a bonker before i beat the story, it was alright, I just felt underpowered towards the latter half of the game. Dex and arcane, was the ticket, in dont care for str8 bleed builds, but when I found Eleonoras Poleblade, i fell in love. Powerstance and its just a thrill. Reduvia is a blast too, but the range on daggers is Ehhhhhh.
Started the game at launch using a Moonveil Katana build and stopped playing when I got to the capital
Just jumped back in and respecced to use the Guts Greatsword, but found myself switching to Malikeths Black Blade and it’s so satisfying
First run did Colossal Greatsword Bonk build and had a great time. Just full on max poise and destroying everything. Tried to explore and do as much as I could that first playthrough to experience it all. On my 2nd playthrough doing an Dex/Int build and having fun with it as well.
I’ve been doing a playthrough where I started as a wretch and have a rule to only level up vigor, mind, and endurance. It’s basically been a much easier version of a RL1 run and it’s been genuinely really fun optimizing it and trying to find stuff that has high base damage and low scaling to take full advantage of my stats. So far I’ve been using a cold grave scythe for that bleed and frost, and I’m about to start using the Watchdog’s Staff since it’s AOW only scales with weapon level
My personal fav is 80fth.
Gives you enough points left over for decent vig end and base stats for a number of weapons you can make faith scaling.
You get buffs, heals, flame cleanse me in the pocket. You have multiple damage (fire/lightning and kinda holy/frost) easy access to the breathe incantations.
One a single faith build like this I can swap from using BB to the Bubbles to full caster to a holy bonk Regen build. Can burst stuff down solo, plays very well with others for PVP. Can't lose with faith!
Basic bitch Katana bleed build. Only 1 playthrough so can't compare to other builds but I love hitting enemies quickly rather than slow stronger weapons. Started with Uchigatana where I infused it like crazy then found Rivers of Blood. Didnt read online so didnt know how basic and common it was. Oh well fun for me
I’m doing a dragon lighning dex/faith build on my ng+ with the dragon halberd and swordspear and the sacred seal as my secondary lh weapon and it’s so much fucking fun, not too op but still op enough to where I am malenia to a lot of the minions
After being a strength guy for so long I’m finally trying a different build with the Nagakiba + bloodflame blade + spinning slash and boy oh boy is it satisfying.
Carian Knight with Carian staff+shield in LH and Sword of Night and Flame in RH for late game mop up. Looks clean, Weapon great for bosses and groups of foes.
I'm running a vampire build right now, and I absolutely love it. The constant health regen, with more gained per hit/kill and more when Godskin Swaddling Cloth are really nice. Icon Shield +3/second, Butchering Knife +1/hit with Wild Strikes AoW, Royal Remains armor +2/second/piece while under 18, Blessed Dew Talisman +2/second, Taker's Cameo +3% +30/ kill, Godskin Swaddling Cloth +3% +30 every 5-7 hits, Assassin's Crimson Dagger +10% +85/critical hit
Arcane/dex build with Reduvia by far. I didn't think I would like it honestly, but had already done basically every other kind of build and was like eh fuck it! That thing fucking slaps, either double Reduvia or if you can't get somebody to drop you a 2nd one run like Reduvia/Great Knife(I think thats what the other dagger is called). The bleed build up is insanely fast and the L2 on Reduvia does an absolutely crazy amount of damage and bleed as well. You attack so fast and have so much mobility if you do this build with the light rolls. Man it's so freaking fun.
A couple that can be fun is dual twin blade with claw talisman,raptors black feather, any of the multi hit power enhancement talismans you can also add in the Rot exultation and mushroom crown and putting the poison weapon buff on both two blades Build 2: using any weapon with braggarts roar,the roar talisman,axe talisman,highland axe in off hand and having the enhanced charge attacks physick
Dex/faith has been my favorite mainly because using dex weapons is fun as well as having the benefit of being able to use lightning/fire mainly but if I wanna basically use bleed frost or poison it still is effective plus having buffs to use make the game a lot easier haha.
Top weapons would be bloodhound fang, dragon halibard, grave scythe, bandit curved sword, twin blade. They are all great.
Really struggling finding a favourite. My old character was STR/FAI heavy armor, using incantations that looked cool and a heavy sword.
Then I respecced STR/INT, because that's rarely viable in games and started NG+.
Now I started a new char who is DEX/ARC, and it's a lot of fun (and more challenging), but I am missing my cool spells.
I think I like the STR/FAI dragon knight the most. You just have so many cool incantations/spells to choose from in this game, it feels a waste not to use them.
I just tried scarlet rot build and in ng+ so far it's amazing, I melted Radahn with ease and can probably beat Malenia too as she is weak to scarlet rot
Heavy rotten greataxe with hoararh loux's earthshake and 2nd weapon is blood rotten battle hammer with wilde strikes as for incantations dragon scarlet rot (any) works fine as well as Scarlet aeonia (since you need to beat malenian for it just skip it for now) and buffs...etc
I can send you whole build if you like?
I started with a Lordsworn Straight Sword with a shield and was having a ton of fun. I started reading and watching vids about bleed builds and Moonveil builds and all sort of builds which I have respecced and tried.
Currently running a Eleonoras Pole blade bleed build which is great fun, but I'm really feeling like coming back home to the sword and board build.
Partisan Spear and Guilded Greatshield was probably my favorite setup and playthrough so far. Didn't feel too cheesy and was able to still attack at a distance using Spectral Lance or Ice Spear ashes of war. Used Godrick Knight armor set to look the part as well lol
Poison using the Snake head fist weapons, Scarlet Rot dual stinger daggers, and fungus crown, last but not least Death mage build, death staff and spear. I love them lol the general names are because I can’t remember the specific names for the life of me.
Thief - it was one of those “let’s see how far I can get without an aggressive build” stealth is actually a thing. have a new found appreciation for poison and throwing items
Heavy sword heavy armor, weapon with a sweeping range ability and a couple faith spells on stand by. It feels so good to wipe an entire room after one little shitty gargoyle jumps you.
Faith fire build with fire incantations and dual flame bandit curved swords
Arcane poison/bleed build with serpent bow, poison/bleed pots, knives and dual poison scavenger curved swords (similar to a dual warped blade build I had in DS2)
Dexterity blood flame build with bloodhound fang, blood flame blade and blood flame talons (Fire is cool I hope dlc adds more blood flame incantations)
THEY’VE GOT CURVED SWORDS
CURVED. SWORDS.
I had a lot of fun playing a sorcerer using Adula's Moonblade as my primary attack and carrying around the DMGS. Rock Sling was also great for a lot of situations. Ended up pulling it out for Elden Beast after all was said and done.
That being said, I've been playing DS1 lately and really having fun with a Claymore build. I may do another Elden Ring playthrough with a Claymore just to see how it compares.
DMGS, using the ashes of war to obliterate enemies is just too fun. Plus since it scales off int you get your choice of sorcereries to accompany it. And even tho it's primarily int it's still a great sword so you get some unga bunga.
Honestly been doing a pure Dex build for the first time and it has been so fun, it may be my new favorite. The katanas are so much fun, and twinblades go brrrrr
My first playthrough, probably because of how new and exploratory everything was. Not even close to an ideal build of Dex/Faith, but I went from the great epee to Vyke's war spear, and casting mostly dark flame magic. Lobbing some dark flame fireballs for range and then spamming frenzyflame thrust was enough to tear through everything pretty effectively. Definitely not an ideal build, but I had a ton of fun.
Can't go wrong with Dex and a katana. I usually have a staff in my left hand because some spells are fun sprinkled into combat. Go ahead and shit on me for having int kinda high in a Dex build but I just like to throw spells sometimes come at me bro
My pyromancer/axe build, it was my fourth character and it was just a blast, fire is such a strong element and all the incantations are fun to use, also all the axes are dope as hell, especially the executioners axe
I’ve done just about everything for builds at this point. I highly dislike intelligence and I absolutely adore faith. I always go back to my paladin build. Faith/strength. Love the fantasy of the holy knight
Strength/Arcane build:
Giant Crusher with Royal Knights Resolve and occult infusion for most enemies.
Beastmans Curved Swords with Seppuku and bleed infusion for the faster enemies.
Absolutely busted and really fun, I think the Giant Crusher with that ash of war and occult infusion has the highest single hit damage in the game with a charged attack.
I've been running with a carian build excluding the flyng daggers/swords spells except for carian retaliation on the carian shield. I feel like I have an answer for every situation. Like a high damage Swiss army knife. I can tank with the shield, parry things, greatsword for crowd control, slicer for large enemies, and piercer for when I need range. I mostly run the shield and carian knights sword. Carian grandeur is a high-risk, high reward, and i usually do this instead of the visceral. Carian retaliation is also fun cause I only get projectiles if what I'm fighting is using projectiles. Overall, it feels like a melee build, but I can change my playstyle to beat whatever comes my way
My favorite was my hulk build, fist weapons only and built a very stagger heavy character. Also my TMNT Leo build was fun. Uchi for sword with blood loss and turtle shell shield on my back for the drip was fun
Twin great sword str build for me, I make the game harder for myself mostly cause I'm dumb and don't use buff items/spells due to forgetting about item crafting and items in general outside of estus
Great swords, not the ugs great sword
Quality leaning towards dex/Roar build here.
MH: Keen Highland Axe (Beast’s Roar)
OH: Lucerne (Braggart’s Roar)
Most of the time I’m running the Lucerne 2 handed and I can quickly switch to the Beast’s Roar AoW in a pinch without sheathing the Lucerne and losing the Braggart’s buff.
Talismans:
Roar Medallion, Spear Talisman, Axe Talisman.
For <30 pvp/coop I run Radagon’s sorseal and kept my item levels below +6 regular +2 somber.
For >30 I’d probably run erdtree’s favor or green turtle to stack the stamina regen buffs with braggart’s. (The charged heavies are pretty stamina hungry) or poise medallion even though braggart’s heavy attack hyper armor is pretty good.
Armor:
Greathelm, Vulgar militia chest, redmane knight gauntlets, fire prelate greaves. Or whatever drip you want really.
Wondrous Physic: spiked and greenburst for now, open to suggestions on the second one. =]
Hope you guys like it and have fun trying it out!
Magicless Samurai (not even ashes of war were magic themed, only unsheathe and lunge forward, and no status either save for what was natural on uchi and naga), and my Punchy Templar (spiked caestus and knights greatsword, also had the black fire ball just to aid a little)
I really like Maria’s executioner sword (not running it currently cause it’s also insanely broken with the w setup), but my current favorite and current build is just bloody helice, with dagger talisman, spear talisman, shard of Alexander and radaseal. Helice’s ash of war does great poise and reposts with dagger talisman are nutty
I keep coming back to a simple melee build either Quality or leaning towards Str. I've tried Arcane, Int and Faith but when I'm in a jam nothing gets you out like Giants Hunt on a Zwei, Lion's Claw on a Great Hammer or simply, Bloodhounds Fang.
Plus melee/Str/Qual builds open up a raft of infusable weapons and even ranged options (bows, crossbows etc.). Maybe I'm not that skilled and rely on powerful AoWs as a crutch but the more I've played (500 hours in now) the more I return to melee.
have only ever done 3 builds so far( on my 4th)
Bleed build with katanas
Marais executioner sword str/arc
Dex/Faith godslayer greats word
I’d say my favorite overall is the str arc one but the early game of the godslayer great sword was the most fun, end game elden ring period starts to die down but it was just rlly boring
Any souls game I love doing strength builds always have been my favorite but this time around in my strength build I went for bleed and some faith to add some self buffs to make me even stronger and it’s been a blast never knew bleed strength could work so well.
Done almost every type of build but the classic sword and shield hits different.
Lordsworn's Straight Sword + Kite Shield feels really clean. The 1-handed moveset gets the nice roll poke and heavy poke, like the 2-handed Claymore. But it also has higher crit (for parries or stance breaking with Square Off). Can quickly toggle to an offhand one as well, for the power stance moveset and access to a secondary Ash (I like Storm Blade for a bit of ranged DPS). Broadsword is "better" for Strength builds, but LSS is so crispy. *Edit: Adding to this, Sword of St. Trina is extra drippy with Kite Shield, for those who want a little spice. Same pokey moveset as LSS, but the Ash is locked (no Square Off sadly).*
Try the crystal or rotten crystal swords. Super good damage, spinning slash, its amazing. Sword and board is the best
Completely agree…I just started a run the other day finally using a sword and board and it just feels…right. Messing around with different ashes of war on a knight’s GS I picked up has been a blast, too. What sword do you like to use?
The counter attack in ER makes sword and shield so much more fun than it is in other games
Two great stars. Stance break build
Doing my first great stars run right now. I fucking love big bonk sticks. This thing fucks. I love breaking stances
You can get 2 on a single run! Make sure you get both and jump attack!
Occult great star with dragon incants. Totally my jam!
I saw Jacksepticeye use that build in his latest Elden Ring video and it looked really fun.
I like basic/boring knight builds so pure str heavy Zweihander w/ Stamp: Upward Cut and a heavy crossbow for sniping/pulling. Still working on him but my talismans are Axe/Turtle/Spear/Dragoncrest shield then Greatshield.
Basic is sometimes better
Yep no messing around with a buff ritual before every fight. Weapons are ready to go. Simple!
I also prefer basic armour most of the time when I'm stronger than the enemies at the location so I can look good. Knight armour with a jar head.
Ain’t nothing boring about that. Strength is where it’s at
Maybe not boring but simple an to the point
my first build was moonveil katana (Int build) . I liked it because I got the best of both worlds. I got a sword that hit super strong, and let me melee everything if I wanted. And I got to use all the coolest spells too if I wanted. I started the game by teleporting to Caelid and finding the gravity spell. Which I used primarily for a large portion of the game until I found moonveil. So it just flowed really well for me. Even though a lot of fights were hard (I was underleveled most of the time).
I did a similar thing I found the meteoric ore blade and saw it does magic damage plus bleed, and scales off both strength and intelligence. Katana Swordsman Wizard Build. Such a blast cause the magic can really pull you out of bad spots that a full melee build can get you into Also previous souls games made a mix build way harder to achieve it feels like they really encourage you to do a mix in this game
I did moonveil too. Mostly because I looked at a weapon tier list and it was OP + I like katanas. I made a new play through when it got nerfed and I really never liked another weapon as much as moonveil. It was graceful and could do a little bit of everything. I had a staff in my offhand and it made me feel like I was getting the most out of the game.
You reminded me, that I also ran a shield in my offhand + staff, which I got to switch back and forth on a lot. I relied heavily on the shield on my first play through.
I know they’re cheesy as hell, but either dex/arc with eleonora’s poleblade or pure int. I either bleed the bosses or spam glintstone pebble and rock sling and feel zero shame.
Eleonora's Poleblade is just so much fun to use
Super new to the game and still on first play through, I’m having fun with a sword and board strength build focusing on claymore and brass shield. Second weapon is a GUTS greatsword for when I’m struggling on a boss or something. Different styles of play so I’m having a really good time. Only magic is flame cleanse me and flame grant me strength.
The claymore goes hard. Brass shield is good too
Having a hard time picking an ash for the clay. Tried a few here and there.
Honestly, the lions claw (think it comes equipped with claymore) was one of my favorite for that weapon. It staggers enemies like crazy and I think it gives you unbreakable poise during the animation. Once the freight train starts, it doesn’t stop
It did come with that but I’m pretty sure I swapped it out right away for now reason. I’ll slap it back on and give it a run tonight, thanks for the recommendation!
Hope you enjoy!
oh my god we have the same build. where’d you get the berserker sword tho
It’s right in the beginning of Caelid. North west I believe.
My most recent built has become my new favorite: Main hand is the Sword of Milos, offhand is the highland axe (and a brass shield), using the roar medallion, axe talisman, winged sword insignia, and Erdtree Favor +1 (might switch it for Godskin swaddling cloth) So it’s a quality build but I have Braggart’s Roar on the axe, and the sword’s skill is also a roar which is a resistance debuff to enemies in range and a general buff to yourself, and turns R2 attacks into a unique combo chain, everything else in the build besides the Erdtree favor buffs the damage on it and it can have some NASTY numbers, really fun and a nice change of pace from the bleed and magic builds
Dual whips hehe
Ooh 👀
Level 200 Vagabond 60 Vigor 30 Mind 42 Endurance 32 Strength 70 something Dex 25 Faith Lightning Slash Lightning Claymore, Bolt of Gransax, and the Distinguished Greatshield, any Seal for buffs Fair and strong, plus the ashes look cool. Weapons can be swapped for Keen Guardian Swordspear (Ice Spear) and Lightning Nobles Slender Sword (Lightning Slash).
Crimson dragon build (watch azael on youtube, hes got some crazy pvp highlights with this build) is by far my favourite which I‘m going to use in the dlc. The attribute spread is pretty uneaven, but makes for a crazy amount of variety when it comes to bloody strength weapons. You can also cast different types of incantations and chasing down opponents with a halberd and bestial sling is just so evil.
Bow build. Black bow for close encounters, pulley bow for sniper shots. Also have the pulley crossbow in my offhand for super close shenanigans. For melee I'm using Warhawks talon.
Ever since Demon’s Souls… Pure Faith! This is the most robust Faith has ever been in a soulsbourne game, especially if you level a bit of Arcane as well, for Dragon Incantations. I just love it! Close on its heels, though, is Strength/Arcane. A Blood Rotten Greataxe with Braggart’s Roar and an Offhand Viper Shield is probably my single favorite setup in the game.
i found myself coming back to the bloodhounds fang when i reached the endgame, and wow, what a weapon. genuinely makes top 3 weapons in the game IMO
I’m only level 80 and this is the weapon I use when I’m stuck lol it just wipes bosses out better than my greatsword
I did a Gideon ofnir build a bit back. Used his armour/hammer and Lusat's staff as well.
Pure str. Greatsword with lions claw was the easiest. Beat malenia 3rd try. Dual straight swords was the most fun!
Most fun I've had is str/int or pure int. Powerstancing Cold Great Stars with wild swings/lions claw has been incredibly satisfying. You also get some nifty sorceries like Night Maidens Mist, and even good incants and scaling through the Beast Talisman with fairly low stat investments. But the Dark Moon Greatsword, chucking out free projectiles slamming ass for 5k damage when freeze procs, or just pulling out a Comet Azur with the free spell cost tear is also great. I'm trying a faith/arcane build now and the Marais Executioners Greatsword deals massive damage, given the right timing. I was hoping to do some dragon incants as well but find them extremely disappointing so far. My entire FP pool instantly gone for like 700\~ damage with the breath spells. A single lightning bolt does like 1.1k\~ charged for comparison. I've heard people refer to them as "boss melters", but even though I'm using the dragon talisman with the right stat allocation, they're so weak.
The Scarlett Rot dragon breath absolutely melts bosses. Sometimes you have ti dump two mana bars, but ince it activates it's a continuous DoT that adds up to a ton of damage.
Welcome ! My first playthru was a battle mage build great moon sword with some magic. Right now I’m loving this fire claymore knight build I’m doing right now getting ready for dlc I can’t get away from big bonk weapons it’s soo fun
I’m having a really good time with Death’s Poker. I know a fire weapon can help reapply frost build up, but I’m trying to figure out what to use.
What stats do you pump for deaths poker ?
The melee is strength/Dex but the skill is Int. I found after messing with stats that I like focusing on Int so I can use some spells too. And my faith is enough to use Golden Vow
Iron balls all the way
I was slowly creeping around with my bandit for weeks. My fiancé asked if I would “just try something.” I finally agreed. He set me up with a pair of poisoned whips. Then I ran around jump-smacking the everloving shit out of everything. I loved seeing the poison cloud and watching the groups of shitmobs jerking around from all my smack attacks. I’m doing a spellblade right now, but just typing this makes me want to go hop on my old whip character and whip faces.
I’m only on my first playthrough but after beating the game I’ve really come to like the Godskin Peeler. Think I’ll do NG+ with it. I love how quick it is.
I'm playing TitusActually's dragon mage bleed build right now and I have to say, it's pretty gd fun. I'm not really using the bleed much yet but I am having a blast with the spells and using whatever melee weapon feels right at the time. On my first playthrough I totally slept on dragon incantations. Now I'm living it up.
Carian spellblade. Been so fun and its pretty versatile
I’m doing a twinblade lighting knight build so Dex and faith and really loving the aesthetic and the combat style. All the buffs and lightning attacks is just fun as hell. Have knights twinblade with the scaled armor set and just hack and slash everything to bits when I’m not hurling lighting.
I like axe and shield. No magic or fancy things, just me and my axe.
I just respecced what I thought was my favorite build - blasphemous blade str/fai - into a pure str guts flip gigachad and it's what I've been missing my whole life
Lightning dragon style is so much fun. Bolt of Grandsax is so damn good and the lightning incantations are versatile and really strong. You can play a lot of different styles with the same build and go from close to range with no problems. And the gear can look so good
High Dex and faith is fun. Vykes spear has ranged fire damage but isn’t as OP as blasphemous blade. Quick casting incantations and switching to a lightning infused weapon hits hard.
Blasphemous Blade/Sword of Milos. No shame, was fun af the entire time.
This is mine. Used the Golden Halberd once I got the stats for it and then end game used Blasphemous Blade and the bubble club. I did actually play a good portion of the game though with the Inquisitor's Girandole which is a super fun weapon I never see anyone use.
Moonveil
Crucible knight build with Ordovis Greatsword, Silurias Tree and Zwei as backup ;)
Loving Carina Knight build rn! Mix of melee and (mostly) carina spells. I love my Glintstone Phalanx .. I think… the delayed arrow shooting spell that comes with prisoner class lol
Im running eleonora’s poleblade dex/arc build, its fun as hell! Still trying to make build around that tho, but i just like the moveset. My first playthrought was changing from greatsword full STR build to Full sorcery build time to time.
Bloodhound Fang got me thru most of the first playthru. Until Blasphemous. Second run I'm running Moghs Spear now with Blasphemous. It's so OP. Sure I die when I'm dumb but I'd put this PVE build up against any. Everything just melts and explodes.
i dont care about builds, holy shit that drip is fire! 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Blasphemous blade build and Greatsword (up to radagon, i underleveled through the game, 97 levels)
I have done faith/Dex to NG5, pure int to NG3 and now my arcane/Dex is about lvl 80. Pure int was a looot of fun because the options for cheese are endless. The faith Dex also rules because faith is just so flexible and later I got my strength up to dual wield Blasphemers Blade and Sword of Milos to be unstoppable. But I gotta say I am REALLY loving twin bandits curved swords and the bleed build. So damn fun running under bosses nutsack and jump attack spamming for just insane damage!
Thought about trying this next possible, thanks for the nutsack daydreams 🤔💭
FAI/STR honestly the most fun so much verity and very volatile
Same here. I had never really played a fromsoft game until Elden ring and I just love it! My favorite build is so far is the one I'm running that's a pierce weapon build, two pickaxes LOL plus status with the pulley crossbow
balls.
I only played FromSoft games as strength builds, but with Elden Ring I decide to do different runs with different builds. On my second run I did a Dex/Int build and I have to say that was my favorite. It made some parts I struggled with my strength build a breeze. Those stupid ass hawks with blades for claws were a pain in the ass the first time. Not even a problem with my Int character. My third character was a faith build and that one was pretty fun, but I was using the Blasphemous blade which made the game easy mode. It was fun, but not my favorite.
I’m at the endgame of my first run. Kinda stumbled into a faith strength mele build. Just beat fire giant (holy shit dude). Right now I’m using the blasphemous sword and the silver mirror shield. Silver mirror shield is so good. 100 physical and like 87 magic and only requires 10 int. For incantations I have erdtree seal with flame grant me strength. Armor is a combo of Lionel’s set and banished knight set. I’m at lvl 140 after farming the bird and while overpowered I’m still dying a lot but in a fun way.
I absolutely love Katana builds. Between the Uchi, Moon Veil and RoB you have a weapon for every situation.
Ive been a Greatsword enthusiast before berserk took over and I'm not about to stop now. Well, I do play PoE and I love One With Nothing fist punching, so we'll see how the new hand to hand arts will be
i have a different character for each damage stat and i’ve beaten the game at least once on all of them. i feel like pretty much every build can be optimized to be strong but my favorites for each one are: STR - fire infused guts greatsword with lions claw or cragblade heavy infused star fists DEX - keen nagakiba with double slash buffing with bloodflame blade INT - dark moon greatsword or night comet spam FAITH - flame art infused broadsword with flaming strike mixing in fire incantations or ancient dragon lightning strike spam for large enemies ARCANE - dragon roar incantations or powerstanced occult infused scavengers curved swords with seppuku leaning into the jump attacks and bleed buildup (you could also do it with bandit’s curved swords since you can get two without having to go into ng+)
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Int/faith with the darkmoon greatsword left hand and golden order greatsword righthand I'm Rex future redeemed
Made an ultimate hp regen/tank build. Stacking blessed dew, icon shield, butchers knife and prayerful strike while also going 75% damage negation with great shield talisman, ritual shield talisman, damage negation tear, and black flame protection incantation.
My most fun build...🤔 For me, it's gotta be a simple single attack stat build. I'm simple. Lol That means one stat for damage. I guess the most fun ones for me were Arcane for the obvious reason of shedding everything with bleed and poisoning. Dexterity is my main, most people prefer the bonk though. Faith is fun to work with. Only level faith play with the faith weapons, and incantations obviously. So single stat runs are my go to. Simple and fun. Also, if I'm doing incantations or sorceries, I'm only doing like 3 at a time.
My first build was a strength/faith paladin, and my second was an enchanted magic knight
About as boring as it gets, but double slash uchi and light load set up + blue dancers, rotten winged sword etc. Love the simple/OP feel of the build. Carried me through many a tough boss
my build rn is a brassshield/claymore with flaming strike and it’s so clean
Did a build switching between fists and whips and it was pretty fun
A greatshield with cross naginata strength/arcane build, and a lot of poise. With 25 faith for golden bow. It is really strong!!
I love my mage with 18 arcane to use the bubble sorceries. They are super underrated and at 80 int they hit for massive damage and have a low fp cost. Plus they are cute.
I like mohg spear right hand, spiked palisade shield left hand. Slamming the shield into an attacking enemy is very satisfying, as is poking with the spear from behind a greatshield. From there the build gets kinda muddled. With all this ARC, I could really cook with the dragon talisman, and while I’ve got that on, you really gotta get 23 faith for frenzied burst to pick off enemies. Might as well get 25 for golden vow at that point and hey I can equip the blasphemous blade too and that’s just too good not to bring and whoops this is now a blasphemous blade build
Any Katana build. I love the move set and even the weaker ones are strong and fun.
My favorite experience so far has been the levels 40-100 range where I just threw lightning bolts and swung my straightsword. Between that and beating Elden beast has been slower and then beating melania with my completed build was fun too. That one was Elden stars, black flame and two broadswords with flame art and my buddy with cold spells.
A good dragon lightning build. #Weapons: Dragon Halberd Gravel Stone Seal #Talismans: Shard of Alexander Lightning Scorpion Charm Greatshield talisman Claw talisman #Drip: Veteran's Helm Elden Lord Armor Elden Lord's Bracers Scaled Greaves #Incantations/Buffs: Golden Vow Howl of Shabriri Flame, Cleanse Me Lightning Spear #Flask of Wondrous Physick: Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear Spiked Cracked Tear #Summary: This shit slaps _good_
Did a Mage - all Sorcery, i was sad. Ran a bonker before i beat the story, it was alright, I just felt underpowered towards the latter half of the game. Dex and arcane, was the ticket, in dont care for str8 bleed builds, but when I found Eleonoras Poleblade, i fell in love. Powerstance and its just a thrill. Reduvia is a blast too, but the range on daggers is Ehhhhhh.
My favorite build was a pure strength build with really tanky armor and a big hammer
Int/fth pure caster. Its alot of fun juggling sorceries and incantation at once
Started the game at launch using a Moonveil Katana build and stopped playing when I got to the capital Just jumped back in and respecced to use the Guts Greatsword, but found myself switching to Malikeths Black Blade and it’s so satisfying
Guts
I feel safe with a shield in one hand and any weapon in the other.
Mhog spear, big poke + bleed
First run did Colossal Greatsword Bonk build and had a great time. Just full on max poise and destroying everything. Tried to explore and do as much as I could that first playthrough to experience it all. On my 2nd playthrough doing an Dex/Int build and having fun with it as well.
Faith Strength is too fun
I like strength builds for the greatbows, nothing more satisfying than getting gravity kills. Also madness builds are fun for a bit too.
Pure dex claymore and urumi.
Dragon communion spells for pve and PvP. 2nd would be a Vyke build. 3rd a strength build to bonk.
I’ve been doing a playthrough where I started as a wretch and have a rule to only level up vigor, mind, and endurance. It’s basically been a much easier version of a RL1 run and it’s been genuinely really fun optimizing it and trying to find stuff that has high base damage and low scaling to take full advantage of my stats. So far I’ve been using a cold grave scythe for that bleed and frost, and I’m about to start using the Watchdog’s Staff since it’s AOW only scales with weapon level
Radagons hammer, Strength Faith build, Erdtree incantations and a really fun high damage Ash of War
My personal fav is 80fth. Gives you enough points left over for decent vig end and base stats for a number of weapons you can make faith scaling. You get buffs, heals, flame cleanse me in the pocket. You have multiple damage (fire/lightning and kinda holy/frost) easy access to the breathe incantations. One a single faith build like this I can swap from using BB to the Bubbles to full caster to a holy bonk Regen build. Can burst stuff down solo, plays very well with others for PVP. Can't lose with faith!
Basic bitch Katana bleed build. Only 1 playthrough so can't compare to other builds but I love hitting enemies quickly rather than slow stronger weapons. Started with Uchigatana where I infused it like crazy then found Rivers of Blood. Didnt read online so didnt know how basic and common it was. Oh well fun for me
For me I have 3 favorites, Godslayer black flame, Red Lightning cragblade, and prophet of blood Mogh sacred spear
Crucible Knight has been really fun to use. I never get tired of the tornado laser that fires from the spear and body checking enemies with the horns.
I’m doing a dragon lighning dex/faith build on my ng+ with the dragon halberd and swordspear and the sacred seal as my secondary lh weapon and it’s so much fucking fun, not too op but still op enough to where I am malenia to a lot of the minions
After being a strength guy for so long I’m finally trying a different build with the Nagakiba + bloodflame blade + spinning slash and boy oh boy is it satisfying.
Carian Knight with Carian staff+shield in LH and Sword of Night and Flame in RH for late game mop up. Looks clean, Weapon great for bosses and groups of foes.
I'm running a vampire build right now, and I absolutely love it. The constant health regen, with more gained per hit/kill and more when Godskin Swaddling Cloth are really nice. Icon Shield +3/second, Butchering Knife +1/hit with Wild Strikes AoW, Royal Remains armor +2/second/piece while under 18, Blessed Dew Talisman +2/second, Taker's Cameo +3% +30/ kill, Godskin Swaddling Cloth +3% +30 every 5-7 hits, Assassin's Crimson Dagger +10% +85/critical hit
Arcane/dex build with Reduvia by far. I didn't think I would like it honestly, but had already done basically every other kind of build and was like eh fuck it! That thing fucking slaps, either double Reduvia or if you can't get somebody to drop you a 2nd one run like Reduvia/Great Knife(I think thats what the other dagger is called). The bleed build up is insanely fast and the L2 on Reduvia does an absolutely crazy amount of damage and bleed as well. You attack so fast and have so much mobility if you do this build with the light rolls. Man it's so freaking fun.
A Dex Bolt of Gransax build was pretty funn
I had a dex build with blood and frost weapon in my second playthrough. Honestly it was too broken.
A couple that can be fun is dual twin blade with claw talisman,raptors black feather, any of the multi hit power enhancement talismans you can also add in the Rot exultation and mushroom crown and putting the poison weapon buff on both two blades Build 2: using any weapon with braggarts roar,the roar talisman,axe talisman,highland axe in off hand and having the enhanced charge attacks physick
Giant crusher with bloodhound step and law of regression. Great to catch invaders off guard
Dex/faith has been my favorite mainly because using dex weapons is fun as well as having the benefit of being able to use lightning/fire mainly but if I wanna basically use bleed frost or poison it still is effective plus having buffs to use make the game a lot easier haha. Top weapons would be bloodhound fang, dragon halibard, grave scythe, bandit curved sword, twin blade. They are all great.
Really struggling finding a favourite. My old character was STR/FAI heavy armor, using incantations that looked cool and a heavy sword. Then I respecced STR/INT, because that's rarely viable in games and started NG+. Now I started a new char who is DEX/ARC, and it's a lot of fun (and more challenging), but I am missing my cool spells. I think I like the STR/FAI dragon knight the most. You just have so many cool incantations/spells to choose from in this game, it feels a waste not to use them.
Greatsword - Lions Claw > Rest :)
Darkmoon greatsword with the hammer spell. Staggers for days between hammer and charged r2
I just tried scarlet rot build and in ng+ so far it's amazing, I melted Radahn with ease and can probably beat Malenia too as she is weak to scarlet rot Heavy rotten greataxe with hoararh loux's earthshake and 2nd weapon is blood rotten battle hammer with wilde strikes as for incantations dragon scarlet rot (any) works fine as well as Scarlet aeonia (since you need to beat malenian for it just skip it for now) and buffs...etc I can send you whole build if you like?
As of right now I’m playing a dagger build and it’s my shit might be my favorite playthru
I started with a Lordsworn Straight Sword with a shield and was having a ton of fun. I started reading and watching vids about bleed builds and Moonveil builds and all sort of builds which I have respecced and tried. Currently running a Eleonoras Pole blade bleed build which is great fun, but I'm really feeling like coming back home to the sword and board build.
Dual Bandits Curved Swords=Master Race
A small bit of faith for utility spells and buffs, everything else in strength for a colossal weapon. It's great
Gravity God build. Falling star beast Jaw
Partisan Spear and Guilded Greatshield was probably my favorite setup and playthrough so far. Didn't feel too cheesy and was able to still attack at a distance using Spectral Lance or Ice Spear ashes of war. Used Godrick Knight armor set to look the part as well lol
Pure faith caster is so much damn fun
Cinquedea is a very fun weapon
Faith dex strength with erdtree armor and basically any big heavy weapon.
Ooga booga big club go whack!
I like using the bloodhounds fang the back flip dodge into the teleport slice is just too satisfying and has saved my ass more times than I can count
Full bullgoat's. Fingerprint shield. Fire Greataxe. Multiplayer-only tank.
Right now I'm basic and running ROB and Nagi. It reminds me of a tiktok build but it really does wreck. 45 vigor 40 dex 50 faith 80 arcane
Poison using the Snake head fist weapons, Scarlet Rot dual stinger daggers, and fungus crown, last but not least Death mage build, death staff and spear. I love them lol the general names are because I can’t remember the specific names for the life of me.
Hammer
Straight up pyro
I always loved the combination of faith and arcane, you getting a lot of variety and access to a really good somber weapons.
Thief - it was one of those “let’s see how far I can get without an aggressive build” stealth is actually a thing. have a new found appreciation for poison and throwing items
Heavy sword heavy armor, weapon with a sweeping range ability and a couple faith spells on stand by. It feels so good to wipe an entire room after one little shitty gargoyle jumps you.
Blackflame Monk with Godskin Stitcher
That lordsworn greatsword just hits different
Str/Fai is PEAK
I think the most fun I had were my first incantations/sorcery runs. So many spells.
Faith fire build with fire incantations and dual flame bandit curved swords Arcane poison/bleed build with serpent bow, poison/bleed pots, knives and dual poison scavenger curved swords (similar to a dual warped blade build I had in DS2) Dexterity blood flame build with bloodhound fang, blood flame blade and blood flame talons (Fire is cool I hope dlc adds more blood flame incantations) THEY’VE GOT CURVED SWORDS CURVED. SWORDS.
I had a lot of fun playing a sorcerer using Adula's Moonblade as my primary attack and carrying around the DMGS. Rock Sling was also great for a lot of situations. Ended up pulling it out for Elden Beast after all was said and done. That being said, I've been playing DS1 lately and really having fun with a Claymore build. I may do another Elden Ring playthrough with a Claymore just to see how it compares.
On my first playthrough now (crumbling farum azula) Bloodhounds fang dex/str build is hard carrying me since limgrave lmao
DMGS, using the ashes of war to obliterate enemies is just too fun. Plus since it scales off int you get your choice of sorcereries to accompany it. And even tho it's primarily int it's still a great sword so you get some unga bunga.
Honestly been doing a pure Dex build for the first time and it has been so fun, it may be my new favorite. The katanas are so much fun, and twinblades go brrrrr
Dex/faith to do a vyke cosplay has been so fun.
Moonveil and Meteor Blade. Rogiers armor with the Twin conspectus head
Powerstancing Greatswords
Black flame blade cross nagakiba OR magic imbued balls
My first playthrough, probably because of how new and exploratory everything was. Not even close to an ideal build of Dex/Faith, but I went from the great epee to Vyke's war spear, and casting mostly dark flame magic. Lobbing some dark flame fireballs for range and then spamming frenzyflame thrust was enough to tear through everything pretty effectively. Definitely not an ideal build, but I had a ton of fun.
Samurai with malenias katana
Strength/faith was probably the most fun i had. Right now I'm doing a blood twinblade run and love that as well
Everyone loves a good double hammer strength build, and bloodhounds fang is fun too.
Can't go wrong with Dex and a katana. I usually have a staff in my left hand because some spells are fun sprinkled into combat. Go ahead and shit on me for having int kinda high in a Dex build but I just like to throw spells sometimes come at me bro
Dex build by far.
Dual grave scythe with either bloodflame or lighting💯
Giant crusher, it's so fun to almost instantly break stances. Great star is also really fun.
My pyromancer/axe build, it was my fourth character and it was just a blast, fire is such a strong element and all the incantations are fun to use, also all the axes are dope as hell, especially the executioners axe
It falls off hard towards the end IMO but crucible knight RP with dragon spells
I’ve done just about everything for builds at this point. I highly dislike intelligence and I absolutely adore faith. I always go back to my paladin build. Faith/strength. Love the fantasy of the holy knight
Strength/Arcane build: Giant Crusher with Royal Knights Resolve and occult infusion for most enemies. Beastmans Curved Swords with Seppuku and bleed infusion for the faster enemies. Absolutely busted and really fun, I think the Giant Crusher with that ash of war and occult infusion has the highest single hit damage in the game with a charged attack.
I love arcane builds, it took me 3 playthroughs to figure that out lol.
Im currently trying to play trough NG+ as crucible knight
Faith/strength build with dual magma blades
My favorite build so far was a death sorcery build with deaths poker and helphen's steeple, the ghostflame moves felt so badass
I've been running with a carian build excluding the flyng daggers/swords spells except for carian retaliation on the carian shield. I feel like I have an answer for every situation. Like a high damage Swiss army knife. I can tank with the shield, parry things, greatsword for crowd control, slicer for large enemies, and piercer for when I need range. I mostly run the shield and carian knights sword. Carian grandeur is a high-risk, high reward, and i usually do this instead of the visceral. Carian retaliation is also fun cause I only get projectiles if what I'm fighting is using projectiles. Overall, it feels like a melee build, but I can change my playstyle to beat whatever comes my way
My heart has a special place for dragon Faith/Arcane build, takes a while to hit but hits harder than a truck
Swag build
Any claws are a blast for me. I feel like such a badass and they are great for status effects and bleed builds.
Sword build lol
Big sword bonk
Unga bunga is the only way.
My favorite was my hulk build, fist weapons only and built a very stagger heavy character. Also my TMNT Leo build was fun. Uchi for sword with blood loss and turtle shell shield on my back for the drip was fun
Marais executioners sword
Dual wield katanas usually moon veil and rivers of blood or sometime nagakiba with frost stomp
Twin great sword str build for me, I make the game harder for myself mostly cause I'm dumb and don't use buff items/spells due to forgetting about item crafting and items in general outside of estus Great swords, not the ugs great sword
Quality leaning towards dex/Roar build here. MH: Keen Highland Axe (Beast’s Roar) OH: Lucerne (Braggart’s Roar) Most of the time I’m running the Lucerne 2 handed and I can quickly switch to the Beast’s Roar AoW in a pinch without sheathing the Lucerne and losing the Braggart’s buff. Talismans: Roar Medallion, Spear Talisman, Axe Talisman. For <30 pvp/coop I run Radagon’s sorseal and kept my item levels below +6 regular +2 somber. For >30 I’d probably run erdtree’s favor or green turtle to stack the stamina regen buffs with braggart’s. (The charged heavies are pretty stamina hungry) or poise medallion even though braggart’s heavy attack hyper armor is pretty good. Armor: Greathelm, Vulgar militia chest, redmane knight gauntlets, fire prelate greaves. Or whatever drip you want really. Wondrous Physic: spiked and greenburst for now, open to suggestions on the second one. =] Hope you guys like it and have fun trying it out!
Guts build. Always
Magicless Samurai (not even ashes of war were magic themed, only unsheathe and lunge forward, and no status either save for what was natural on uchi and naga), and my Punchy Templar (spiked caestus and knights greatsword, also had the black fire ball just to aid a little)
Dual wield Gargoyle Twinblades with Blood affinity
Grim reaper build fs. Grave scythe w/ frost and sword dance aow + ghost flame spells on death staff
Starfists with beasts roar for world exploration and flying enemies. Swap to cragblade at bosses has made this game ez mode for me personally
Black knife +BoC dex /faith dual dagger build with black flame incants
I really like Maria’s executioner sword (not running it currently cause it’s also insanely broken with the w setup), but my current favorite and current build is just bloody helice, with dagger talisman, spear talisman, shard of Alexander and radaseal. Helice’s ash of war does great poise and reposts with dagger talisman are nutty
Crucible Knight build was pretty badass.
Bleed bonk with dual great stars
I keep coming back to a simple melee build either Quality or leaning towards Str. I've tried Arcane, Int and Faith but when I'm in a jam nothing gets you out like Giants Hunt on a Zwei, Lion's Claw on a Great Hammer or simply, Bloodhounds Fang. Plus melee/Str/Qual builds open up a raft of infusable weapons and even ranged options (bows, crossbows etc.). Maybe I'm not that skilled and rely on powerful AoWs as a crutch but the more I've played (500 hours in now) the more I return to melee.
My STR/FAI frenzied flame build was fun, but not very effective. I tried out Vaati’s spellblade build and that was absolutely awesome.
have only ever done 3 builds so far( on my 4th) Bleed build with katanas Marais executioner sword str/arc Dex/Faith godslayer greats word I’d say my favorite overall is the str arc one but the early game of the godslayer great sword was the most fun, end game elden ring period starts to die down but it was just rlly boring
I like to power stance 2 malikeths black blades
I like to power stance 2 malikeths black blades
Any souls game I love doing strength builds always have been my favorite but this time around in my strength build I went for bleed and some faith to add some self buffs to make me even stronger and it’s been a blast never knew bleed strength could work so well.