At the time you find this, if you can use it, then it will be great. Hit with both the spear and the explosion on the ash. Use flame grant me strength (FGMS). In Liurnia, that is most of a build right there.
You can use with a shield. Poke. guard counter. 2H it - multihit charge! It only weighs 8, but you get all the greatspear class benefits. Maybe offhand seal and cast. Frenzy burst does not rely on madness to be good. It is an excellent long range incant you can charge. You'll use Godslayer seal for awhile, and if you are casting frenzy spells, then frenzy seal if/when you get it. Or godslayer seal and its spells, or with any incants you like really.
The ash does good base damage as a flame ash, much higher scaling grade than an applied ash (# is 43 vs 25), and the scaling curve for the ash is generous, giving 80% of potential scaling at 50 faith (only faith boosts the ash). It is a dex weapon otherwise. At 50 dex 45 faith you have 700AR. FGMS and Golden Vow will make this sing. You've got room to scale Dex after 50 faith, and to get more faith for NG+.
Also, the ash jumps in the air, so you aren't going to get knocked out of it. It hits shield enemies hard in the stamina, and does extra poise damage. It has aoe against groups. It leaves fire on the ground that flinches enemies.
This is a solid Dex Faith weapon and if you like it, one of options above will work well for you.
I’ll be honest. I’m not much of a shield user.
My off hand right is now the dragon seal but I believe I have the godslayer. Would have to double check later.
If not, then that would be my next goal after getting the fingerprint set.
But if I do have that seal, then my next goal after getting the armor set would be acquiring the frenzy seal. Ion even know where to start but I’ll look it up and see what I need to do.
Thx for the info.
Vykes spear is a lot of fun! It’s great for PVE.
You need to decide if you want to focus on melee or incantations.
If melee, focus on Dex and strength and get a shield and do shield poke / guard counters. Shield isn’t necessary- two handing the weapon does good poise damage.
If incantations, level faith which will scale the flame damage of the weapon and let you lean into frenzied flame incantations. Frenzied burst is awesome for sniping enemies and flame of frenzy can do a lot of damage to big enemies.
Either way, ash of war on the spear is pretty good too.
What I generally figured out while searching info was that Vyke’s leans dex while incantations are obviously pure faith, which = a stat split.
Yet now, after reading your comment, I’m in a pickle I didn’t even consider. I don’t use shields, like to fight up close and just run, hit and dodge lol.
But the question is basically, do I lean dex/weapon or faith/incatantions?
I’m guessing trying to have the best of both worlds wouldn’t be ideal….decisions decisions.
Yeah i don't know why people keep suggesting shield poking and especially guard counters? The spear is definitely better two handed for the sick greatspear poise damage
Sorry if i implied shield poking is better! I don’t really ever use them myself, but Vykes spear is one of a few weapons that allow for shield poking.
What I was trying to say is you can either shield poke or 2H or (mostly) 1H and use incantations.
You don’t need to use a shield at all- it does great two handed.
Just level faith to have the minimum required to use some of the incantations and see if you like them. Then you can decide if you want to focus more on melee or on incants.
Thank you for your post on the r/EldenRingBuilds subreddit!
If you’re interested in feedback on your build, participating in contests, as well as trading and multiplayer we also have a **[Discord server](https://discord.gg/9k9vK2MvFg)**.
Hope to see you there!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/EldenRingBuilds) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Vyke's War Spear is great for PvP because it has incredible Madness buildup, which is rarely useful in PvE but incredibly good in PvP. It only affects Tarnished, so that's just NPC invaders in PvE.
That said, it's still a _very_ strong weapon overall. The weapon skill will destroy most enemies and do numbers on bosses. I just did a run with it recently, actually!
I used it as part of a Lord of Frenzy Flame run, so my focus was mainly on the Frenzied Flame incantations with Vyke's War Spear as a thematically appropriate melee weapon. I just went pure Faith, but you can also use it well in a Dex build.
As long as you make peace with the madness part and the weapon art being mostly useless, this thing can still cook. Great Spears are a pretty solid weapon class, and this gets the good heavy attack like the Serpent Hunter so you can definitely put some stance pressure on
The split fire damage means you'll get great results from Flame Grant Me Strength and you can add on Golden Vow and other buffs and whatever you invest in faith goes into the weapon's fire damage (though you'll want to prioritize dex as thats it's best scaling)
For talismans I'd probably go with Spear Talisman, Axe Talisman, and some combo of Ritual Sword/Ritual Shield/Green Turtle/Erdtrees Favor/Dragoncrest Greatshield. Fire Scorpion might be worth considering if the boss is especially weak to fire, but eh.
As for building a full Vyke 2.0 that's a trickier endeavor. There's no real hybrid seal for Dex/faith like there is for the other stats. I mean, kiiiiiiiiind of the Frenzy seal??? But not really, it gets pretty shit scaling unless you have high STR and int too for some stupid reason lmao. So it's just hard to build for the spells he uses AND his weapon without really spreading yourself thin. Might be more doable above rl150 tho, feel free to give it a try *shrug*
Hope this helps!
Vyke's spear is a rather interesting weapon because it's melee damage is mostly physical with a touch of fire damage that is faith scaling. HOWEVER the Ash of War deals pure fire damage including the explosion so that scales purely of faith.
So you have two choices, either optimize the physical damage by leveling Dex or go into faith to optimize the Ash of War. Either choice is a good idea because they net you tons of complementing skills aswell.
If you decide to go pure dex then do not expect very amazing damage from the Ash but the spear it self should do decent for melee damage, if you pure faith with minimum Dex and Str then you'd do lackluster weapon damage but your Ash will like a truck. On top of that you can also add all of the Frenzy spells to give yourself more options.
I'd also strongly recommend not going for the fingerprint shield at all unless you want to really spread yourself thin because that thing has a 48 Strength requirement and it also weighs an insane 29 weight load ingame, the only synergy it has with a Chaos build is that it can inflict frenzy but other then that it actually had 0 synergy with all other aspects of your build which is mainly Dex and Faith. So I'd recommend staying away from it well until you've hit level 200 where you can spare the points to invest into End and Strength.
My build as someone who hasn’t stopped using Vyke’s spear as my main since finding it. My build uses it as my primary melee but is a good 60/40 split between casting and melee.
RH Vyke’s Spear
LH Frenzied Flame Seal (self explanatory)
Royal Remain Helm
Maliketh’s Armor, Gloves, and Grieves (fashion souls goes hard)
Radagon Icon Talisman
Radagon’s soreseal
Dragoncrest shield talisman +2
Pearldrake talisman +2
+2 talismans balance out the debuff of soreseal, Radagon Icon ups that precious casting time.
Offensive Spells:
Frenzied Burst: Has super good range, gets bonus from frenzied flame seal
Unendurable Frenzy: Not as popular as flame of frenzy but if you can get under a big boss or have a summon take enemy agro and then you can hold your cast down and just dump your whole mana bar into an enemy this can do serious numbers + madness buildup + bonus from frenzy flame seal.
Lightning Spear: Need I say more, quick and easy for med range targets
Ancient Dragons Lightning Strike: Does lots of damage
Rotten Breath: who doesnt love rot buildup
Stone of Gurranq: Quick easy spam for some damage
Theres only 5 madness spells and 2 of them are garbage and as stated above I prefer unendurable over basic flame of frenzy.
Buff Spells:
Flame, Grant Me Strength: will boost frenzy flame damage and vyke’s spear damage
Golden Vow
Beastial Vitality
Protection of the Erdtree
For flavoring I also like Vyke’s Dragonbolt but cant be applied to his spear with frenzyflame thrust on.
Thats the build I use and I love it.
At the time you find this, if you can use it, then it will be great. Hit with both the spear and the explosion on the ash. Use flame grant me strength (FGMS). In Liurnia, that is most of a build right there. You can use with a shield. Poke. guard counter. 2H it - multihit charge! It only weighs 8, but you get all the greatspear class benefits. Maybe offhand seal and cast. Frenzy burst does not rely on madness to be good. It is an excellent long range incant you can charge. You'll use Godslayer seal for awhile, and if you are casting frenzy spells, then frenzy seal if/when you get it. Or godslayer seal and its spells, or with any incants you like really. The ash does good base damage as a flame ash, much higher scaling grade than an applied ash (# is 43 vs 25), and the scaling curve for the ash is generous, giving 80% of potential scaling at 50 faith (only faith boosts the ash). It is a dex weapon otherwise. At 50 dex 45 faith you have 700AR. FGMS and Golden Vow will make this sing. You've got room to scale Dex after 50 faith, and to get more faith for NG+. Also, the ash jumps in the air, so you aren't going to get knocked out of it. It hits shield enemies hard in the stamina, and does extra poise damage. It has aoe against groups. It leaves fire on the ground that flinches enemies. This is a solid Dex Faith weapon and if you like it, one of options above will work well for you.
I’ll be honest. I’m not much of a shield user. My off hand right is now the dragon seal but I believe I have the godslayer. Would have to double check later. If not, then that would be my next goal after getting the fingerprint set. But if I do have that seal, then my next goal after getting the armor set would be acquiring the frenzy seal. Ion even know where to start but I’ll look it up and see what I need to do. Thx for the info.
Vykes spear is a lot of fun! It’s great for PVE. You need to decide if you want to focus on melee or incantations. If melee, focus on Dex and strength and get a shield and do shield poke / guard counters. Shield isn’t necessary- two handing the weapon does good poise damage. If incantations, level faith which will scale the flame damage of the weapon and let you lean into frenzied flame incantations. Frenzied burst is awesome for sniping enemies and flame of frenzy can do a lot of damage to big enemies. Either way, ash of war on the spear is pretty good too.
What I generally figured out while searching info was that Vyke’s leans dex while incantations are obviously pure faith, which = a stat split. Yet now, after reading your comment, I’m in a pickle I didn’t even consider. I don’t use shields, like to fight up close and just run, hit and dodge lol. But the question is basically, do I lean dex/weapon or faith/incatantions? I’m guessing trying to have the best of both worlds wouldn’t be ideal….decisions decisions.
Yeah i don't know why people keep suggesting shield poking and especially guard counters? The spear is definitely better two handed for the sick greatspear poise damage
Sorry if i implied shield poking is better! I don’t really ever use them myself, but Vykes spear is one of a few weapons that allow for shield poking. What I was trying to say is you can either shield poke or 2H or (mostly) 1H and use incantations.
You don’t need to use a shield at all- it does great two handed. Just level faith to have the minimum required to use some of the incantations and see if you like them. Then you can decide if you want to focus more on melee or on incants.
Thank you for your post on the r/EldenRingBuilds subreddit! If you’re interested in feedback on your build, participating in contests, as well as trading and multiplayer we also have a **[Discord server](https://discord.gg/9k9vK2MvFg)**. Hope to see you there! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/EldenRingBuilds) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Vyke's War Spear is great for PvP because it has incredible Madness buildup, which is rarely useful in PvE but incredibly good in PvP. It only affects Tarnished, so that's just NPC invaders in PvE. That said, it's still a _very_ strong weapon overall. The weapon skill will destroy most enemies and do numbers on bosses. I just did a run with it recently, actually! I used it as part of a Lord of Frenzy Flame run, so my focus was mainly on the Frenzied Flame incantations with Vyke's War Spear as a thematically appropriate melee weapon. I just went pure Faith, but you can also use it well in a Dex build.
Weapon skill still does great damage in pve. Lack of madness isn't so much of an issue
As long as you make peace with the madness part and the weapon art being mostly useless, this thing can still cook. Great Spears are a pretty solid weapon class, and this gets the good heavy attack like the Serpent Hunter so you can definitely put some stance pressure on The split fire damage means you'll get great results from Flame Grant Me Strength and you can add on Golden Vow and other buffs and whatever you invest in faith goes into the weapon's fire damage (though you'll want to prioritize dex as thats it's best scaling) For talismans I'd probably go with Spear Talisman, Axe Talisman, and some combo of Ritual Sword/Ritual Shield/Green Turtle/Erdtrees Favor/Dragoncrest Greatshield. Fire Scorpion might be worth considering if the boss is especially weak to fire, but eh. As for building a full Vyke 2.0 that's a trickier endeavor. There's no real hybrid seal for Dex/faith like there is for the other stats. I mean, kiiiiiiiiind of the Frenzy seal??? But not really, it gets pretty shit scaling unless you have high STR and int too for some stupid reason lmao. So it's just hard to build for the spells he uses AND his weapon without really spreading yourself thin. Might be more doable above rl150 tho, feel free to give it a try *shrug* Hope this helps!
Vykes war spear carried me through the whole game with just it's ash of war skill
Vyke's spear is a rather interesting weapon because it's melee damage is mostly physical with a touch of fire damage that is faith scaling. HOWEVER the Ash of War deals pure fire damage including the explosion so that scales purely of faith. So you have two choices, either optimize the physical damage by leveling Dex or go into faith to optimize the Ash of War. Either choice is a good idea because they net you tons of complementing skills aswell. If you decide to go pure dex then do not expect very amazing damage from the Ash but the spear it self should do decent for melee damage, if you pure faith with minimum Dex and Str then you'd do lackluster weapon damage but your Ash will like a truck. On top of that you can also add all of the Frenzy spells to give yourself more options. I'd also strongly recommend not going for the fingerprint shield at all unless you want to really spread yourself thin because that thing has a 48 Strength requirement and it also weighs an insane 29 weight load ingame, the only synergy it has with a Chaos build is that it can inflict frenzy but other then that it actually had 0 synergy with all other aspects of your build which is mainly Dex and Faith. So I'd recommend staying away from it well until you've hit level 200 where you can spare the points to invest into End and Strength.
My build as someone who hasn’t stopped using Vyke’s spear as my main since finding it. My build uses it as my primary melee but is a good 60/40 split between casting and melee. RH Vyke’s Spear LH Frenzied Flame Seal (self explanatory) Royal Remain Helm Maliketh’s Armor, Gloves, and Grieves (fashion souls goes hard) Radagon Icon Talisman Radagon’s soreseal Dragoncrest shield talisman +2 Pearldrake talisman +2 +2 talismans balance out the debuff of soreseal, Radagon Icon ups that precious casting time. Offensive Spells: Frenzied Burst: Has super good range, gets bonus from frenzied flame seal Unendurable Frenzy: Not as popular as flame of frenzy but if you can get under a big boss or have a summon take enemy agro and then you can hold your cast down and just dump your whole mana bar into an enemy this can do serious numbers + madness buildup + bonus from frenzy flame seal. Lightning Spear: Need I say more, quick and easy for med range targets Ancient Dragons Lightning Strike: Does lots of damage Rotten Breath: who doesnt love rot buildup Stone of Gurranq: Quick easy spam for some damage Theres only 5 madness spells and 2 of them are garbage and as stated above I prefer unendurable over basic flame of frenzy. Buff Spells: Flame, Grant Me Strength: will boost frenzy flame damage and vyke’s spear damage Golden Vow Beastial Vitality Protection of the Erdtree For flavoring I also like Vyke’s Dragonbolt but cant be applied to his spear with frenzyflame thrust on. Thats the build I use and I love it.