Combat Styles & Builds — Elden Ring Guide

Combat Styles & Builds — Elden Ring Guide

Elden Ring offers an unparalleled level of build diversity, allowing players to craft unique combat styles tailored to their preferences. Whether you favor brute force, arcane magic, swift strikes, or status effects, the game provides the tools to realize your vision. Understanding these core combat styles is the first step to creating your ultimate Tarnished.

Melee-Focused Builds: These are the most straightforward and often the most accessible for new players. They revolve around close-quarters combat, using several weapons to deal physical damage.

• Strength Builds: Emphasize high Strength, Vigor, and Endurance. They wield heavy weapons like Greatswords, Greataxes, and Great Hammers, focusing on high damage per hit, staggering enemies, and wearing heavy armor for poise and defense.
• Dexterity Builds: Focus on high Dexterity, Vigor, and Endurance. They use faster weapons like Katanas, Curved Swords, and Spears, emphasizing quick attacks, critical hits, and evasive maneuvers.
• Quality Builds: A hybrid approach that invests in both Strength and Dexterity, allowing the use of a wider variety of weapons that scale well with both stats.

Magic-Focused Builds: These builds leverage the arcane arts to decimate enemies from a distance or imbue their weapons with magical properties.

• Intelligence Builds (Sorcery): Focus on Intelligence, Mind, and Vigor. They wield staffs to cast powerful sorceries, ranging from devastating projectiles to area-of-effect spells.
• Faith Builds (Incantations): Focus on Faith, Mind, and Vigor. They use Sacred Seals to cast incantations, which include healing spells, offensive elemental attacks (fire, lightning, holy), and powerful buffs.
• Arcane Builds: While often paired with other stats, Arcane influences discovery rate and the effectiveness of certain weapon skills and status effects like Bleed and Dragon Communion Incantations.

Hybrid Builds: These builds combine elements of melee and magic, offering versatility and adaptability.

• Spellblade Builds: Combine melee combat with sorceries. They often use Intelligence-scaling weapons and cast spells to supplement their physical attacks or buff their weapons.
• Faith/Melee Builds: Combine Faith-based incantations with melee combat. They might use weapon buffs, healing spells, or offensive incantations alongside their chosen weapon.

Status Effect Builds: These builds focus on inflicting debilitating status effects on enemies, which can bypass traditional defenses and deal massive damage.

• Bleed Builds: Focus on weapons that inflict Bleed buildup, often paired with Arcane. When the Bleed meter fills, the enemy takes a large chunk of damage.
• Frostbite Builds: Focus on weapons or spells that inflict Frostbite, slowing enemies and reducing their damage output.
• Poison/Rot Builds: use weapons or consumables that inflict Poison or Scarlet Rot, dealing damage over time.

Key Elements for Any Build:

• Vigor: Essential for all builds to ensure survivability.
• Mind: Crucial for magic-users and those who rely heavily on weapon skills.
• Endurance: Important for Stamina and Equip Load, allowing for more actions and better armor.
• Weapon Choice: Select weapons that scale well with your primary stats.
• Armor: Choose armor that provides good defense and poise without causing a fat roll.
• Talismans: Equip talismans that complement your build's strengths and mitigate weaknesses.
• Spirit Ashes: use Spirit Ashes that synergize with your playstyle, whether for offense, defense, or utility.

Experimentation is key in Elden Ring. Don't be afraid to try different weapons, spells, and stat allocations. The ability to respec your stats after defeating Rennala provides ample opportunity to refine your build and discover new combat styles.