Searching for the best Elden Ring builds? It can be a daunting experience spending your hard earned runes for the first time on stat points, especially in an RPG game like Elden Ring which makes it difficult to regularly level up your character. In the worst case scenario, placing stat points in the wrong categories may not end up helping you, and the requirements for your subsequent level ups increase each time.
The first 20 levels shape your entire Elden Ring class, so it’s important to select your stats carefully. While it may be tempting to place some stat points into faith as an Astrologer, you’re better off committing to the full sorcery build in order to maximise your damage in the late game. Though Elden Ring does feature respecing, this option doesn’t appear until deep into the mid-game content.
Elden Ring’s deep character customisation options make this game so special, but if you’re looking to destroy your enemies you need to create the perfect build. Here’s what you need to create the best Elden Ring builds, including where to allocate your stat points and which items you need to find.
BEST ELDEN RING BUILDS
These are the best Elden Ring builds:
- Glass Cannon Mage
- Blood Loss Samurai
- Deathblight & Fire’s Deadly Sin Prophet
A lot of players typically finish Elden Ring around level 120 – 140, so we’re going to break down the key stats you need by the time you reach level 120. Once you obtain the required amount of stats needed for your build, spend the rest of your stats in these three areas: Vigor, Mind, and Endurance. It’s important to remember that the soft cap for Vigor is 60, Mind is 55, and Endurance is 32.
Glass Cannon Mage
Starting Class: Astrologer
Key Stats: Intelligence 80, Dexterity 18, Strength 12
Essential Items: Moonveil Katana, Lusat’s Glintstone Staff, Cerulean Hidden Tear
Best Spells: Comet Azur, Terra Magicus
The Glass Cannon Mage deals more damage than literally any other class in the game, but you will be extremely fragile as a result. If a random enemy manages to attack you while you’re fighting against a boss, there’s a good chance you’re going to die. Not every fight is going to be a complete walk in the park, but the ones that are will be over in seconds.
This build becomes borderline broken once you gain access to Comet Azur and the Cerulean Hidden Tear, giving you access to a constant beam of destructive energy for ten whole seconds. Check out our Elden Ring spells guide where we highlight exactly where you can find Comet Azur.
As for the Cerulean Hidden Tear, you need to make your way to Mt. Gelmir and defeat the Uncerated Tree Spirit found near the Road of Iniquity Site of Grace. This Elden Ring crystal tear temporarily eliminates all FP consumption – when combined with a number of powerful spells like Comet Azur and Meteorite of Astel, you can unleash a constant barrage of damage towards your enemies. Make sure you have the best Elden Ring spirit ash summons equipped to distract any enemies to ensure your spells hits their target.
To deal the highest amount of damage with your spells, we recommend picking up Lusat’s Glintstone Staff from Sellia, Town of Sorcery. This staff is available as a reward for defeating the Nox Swordstress and Nox Priest boss. What makes this staff stand out among the competition is the special effect: it enhances the power of all sorceries, but consumes additional FP.
For your main hand weapon, you should use the Moonveil Katana before it receives an inevitable nerf. This sword deals far too much damage in its current state, and it scales perfectly with the intelligence stat to add to its damage output. Battle against the Magma Wyrm at the Gael Tunnel in Caelid to receive this weapon as a drop.
Blood Loss Samurai
Starting Class: Samurai
Key Stats: Dexterity 55, Strength 40
Essential Items: 2x Uchigatanas (with the Seppuku Ashes of War), Lord of Blood’s Exultation, White Mask, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia
The bleed effect might be the most fun players can have in Elden Ring using melee weapons. With just a few slashes, enemies instantly lose large chunks of their health by filling up their haemorrhage bar. This effect deals damage equal to a percentage of your opponent’s max health points, putting them in danger very quickly. A common misconception about this build is that you need to put points into Arcane, but this stat doesn’t scale with Seppuku, the primary Ash of War choice for the Blood Loss Samurai. Huge shout outs to YouTuber RageGamingVideos for highlighting this amazing build.
We’ve gone for the Samurai class as it starts with one Uchigatana already. To our knowledge, there’s only one other Uchigatana in the game, residing in the Deathtouched Catacombs in Limgrave. To take these weapons to new heights, equip them with the Ash of War: Seppuku to drastically increase their attack power while adding blood loss to each attack.
Head to the Freezing Lake in the Mountaintops of the Giants area and find the invisible scarab’s footsteps near a tree – take down the scarab to earn the Ash of War. Before you apply it to your weapon, be sure to duplicate the Ash of War at a Blacksmith to apply it to both katanas.
To amplify this build’s damage output even further, we’re going to need a powerful Elden Ring talisman. Head to the Leyndell Catacombs and make your way to the end to fight against Esgar, Priest of Blood. Esgar drops the Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman, increasing your attack power by 20% whenever a nearby player or enemy is inflicted with blood loss. This buff is almost always active as Seppuku initiates a temporary bleed effect after use.
Another essential talisman is the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, acquired after completing Millicent’s quest line. This talisman raises your attack power with successive attacks, perfect for a dual Uchigatana build. Finally, the White Mask which can be found as a drop from one of the NPC invaders near the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace. The effect on this mask works just like the Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman, increasing your attack power whenever it senses blood loss nearby.
Deathblight & Fire’s Deadly Sin Prophet
Starting Class: Prophet
Key Stats: Strength 30, Faith 80
Essential Items: Fire’s Deadly Sin, Erdtree Greatshield, Old Lord’s Talisman, Eclipse Shotel
Unlike the other builds in this guide which are very strong, the Deathblight and Fire’s Deadly Sin combination is actually broken. It appears the Fire’s Deadly Sin incantation has a bug which spreads the effect of any weapon skill – in this case, this build completely breaks PvP combat as Deathblight consumes humans within seconds. The end result leaves human characters impaled by a rotting tree, instantly killing them. We fully expect this PvP interaction to be patched out at a later date, but the rest of this build should continue to work. We’d like to give a shout out to YouTuber KhrazeGaming for discovering this powerful build.
The first item you’re going to need is the Fire’s Deadly Sin incantation – this usually isn’t very helpful in most combat situations, but it becomes significantly better when combined with the Erdtree Greatshield. You can find this incantation by completing the Flightless Bird painting puzzle in West Lyendell. Next up, you need to make your way to the long set of stairs in Altus Plateau where the Tree Sentinel Duo reside, this boss drops the greatshield.
This build is interesting because you don’t need to fight with a primary weapon, and the initial stat requirements for the Erdtree Greatshield are surprisingly low, giving you access to this combo by the mid game. Activate Fire’s Deadly Sin to start the burning effect for the next 40 seconds – this activates the Erdtree Greatshield’s Golden Retaliation skill, turning the shield into a machine gun.
Golden Retaliation allows you to reflect spells back towards your opponent, but Fire’s Deadly Sin counts as an enemy spell as it slowly damages your character. The greatshield scales with Strength and Faith, which is why we’ve put so many points into Faith for this build. You can increase the duration of the incantation by picking up the Old Lord’s Talisman located in a chest in Crumbling Farum Azula.
To activate the Deathblight effect, you’re going to need the Eclipse Shotel. This is a curved sword which scales with Faith and Dexterity, but you won’t be using it to slash at your enemies. This weapon is stored at the altar of the church in Castle Sol, located in the Mountaintops of the Giants region. Once you have this weapon, you don’t even need to attack with it, just make sure you have it equipped with you in your right hand at all times. Activate the Shotel’s weapon art to automatically inflict Deathblight to any nearby enemies.
Those are the best Elden Ring builds in the game so far. Once you have your build sorted, it’s time to start picking out some stylish threads. Be sure to read our best Elden Ring armor sets guide to equip yourself with elegant robes and battle-hardened protective gear. Now that you’re all set up and ready to go, it’s time to take on every Elden Ring boss – good luck on your journey.
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