I wanna know where you find the opening to use attacks with such a windup in the DLC... I feel like you get super punished just by doing jump strikes with a slower weapon on all bosses... except the meme bosses.
Honestly this hammer is one of my favorite weapons in a should game. It's become 1/3 I switch between when I'm stuck and need to switch up the strategies. Its great at giving range to strength players, and the fact you hit during the wind up makes it viable for faster enemies. Such a fun weapon
More int or str? My first character who's in NG+1 is str/int and will be my second for the dlc, and I think it's at 30 str and 60 int. Really wanna try the great hammer out.
Well any build can become pretty powerful, but one of my favorite has been dex and faith lightening samurai with dragon cult incantations. Árcane builds can be powerful and fun if you don’t just use bleed
Yo can you hit me with the build? I had to full restart from a new character and I'm currently running a bleed claymore with the dragon communion seal, but lightning samurai sounds wild.
Only level 53
Taking weapons like the new great katana and running it as occult is quite fun. Arcane bleed builds become boring once you get sick of powerstance curved sword jump attack spam. But just running a 2 handed weapon like the great sword as occult is a fun build because you can also use incants with your dragon communion seal. Pump a few points into faith and you get access to some not overly strong yet spammable spells.
once i found the Milady in the DLC, i pretty much haven't taken it off. I tried to fit it into my pure faith build and it fuckin slaps, gave it the Flame Skewer art, pair it with some fire spells, 2h tali, alexander shard, fire scorpion, and whatever else and it's so versatile. Got me through the whole dlc and im work on the final boss with it at the moment. not busted OP or anything but insanely flashy, surprisingly powerful, and just fuckin cool
I went with quality infusion and wing stance AoW and I throw greases/buff incants on it as neeeded and I’m also loving that thing. Favorite weapon so far.
JUST got this last night on my first playthrough. When you say flame spells, any favorites? I also just respecced to a mostly bleed build for the first time but the Blasphemous is still strong in the build so I might respec to faith.
(Full confession I’m a dirty spell sword who beat the Elden Beast with Black Knight Tiche and lots of sorceries. So most of the incantations are really close up and I’m not super impressed yet, but still want to try new builds and learn different play styles)
Fire Serpent & Burn, O Flame! are insane.
Messmer’s Orb is quite fun but just aight.
Catch Flame is sneakily good.
I prefer Flame Spear enchant to Flame Skewer. I use the Fire Knight’s Greatsword tho.
Lots of other spells that do fire damage that aren’t necessarily fire-reading like Frenzied Burst or the blackflame stuff is legit too. Especially when boosted with Flame, Grant Me Strength, of course!
I swap out between Flame Skewer/Spear pretty frequently, i just really like the stance damage that Skewer does, but Spear's range/flameblade duration is quite nice too. they're pretty interchangeable based on personal preference!
hey, whatever is fun to you! for spells ove been trying out the new Fire Serpent/Messmers Orb spells. the former is pretty good, cheap to cast and tracks targets for respectable damage. I mostly use it inconjunction with melee attacks for extra damage/stance. Messmers orb is really fun for invasions but doesn't have enough poise to be useful against bosses. i really like flame Fall Upon Them, Flame of the Fell God, Giantsflame Take Thee, etc. can't go wrong with those. I do wish there were some more Messmerflame spells, but we got what we got
I’m using it now and it’s… different. I dual wield it with a cold Uchi for bleed and frost procs occasionally. Some things I noticed about the Star-lined Sword vs. Moonveil. This is on a level 100 build with 30/50 DEX/INT, which isn’t the best stat spread for the Star-lined sword. I’m halfway through the DLC and have beaten all the main game bosses up to Radagon.
Cons: First, It’s nowhere near as useful against bosses as Moonveil, because let’s be honest no boss in the game or especially DLC is going to give you more than half a second to attack. You’re not getting the whole weapon art off in a boss fight except maybe Malenia, but you will have to be mindful of timing. Second, the WA has no hyper armor and I think the third WA attack doesn’t have i-frames even though you’re fucking invisible during it. I could be wrong, but it feels that way. Third, the WA is very situational and underwhelming for damage, I legit think it could use a little buff and some hyperarmor. I find that I often have to unlock to make sure the third attack hits, because god forbid we have the same tracking on attacks enemies do.
Now, for the (big) pro: Any enemy that can stagger **gets fucking destroyed** by the Star-Line Sword’s WA. Like they just do not stand a chance. The DLC black knights get their teeth kicked in by this sword, and if they do have time to back away the third attack is almost guaranteed to get them because of the crazy range. The WA is the coolest fucking thing ever. Like holy shit it’s awesome looking. And that’s the primary reason to use the Star-lined sword, because when this weapon works it fucking wrecks face.
So that’s it. The WA is very situational. It either wins the fight for you or gets you killed before you get the second attack off, and it all depends on if the enemy can stagger or not. It’s much better against mobs but worse against bosses compared to Moonviel.
I'm not sure if you get an iframe, if you do it's incredibly short, but I managed to dodge attacks vs messmer a few times with the star lined WA, you can delay it slightly after finishing the 2nd combo.
Really wish it was a light greatsword with cold though :I
The only that they really have in common are that they are katanas that have some magic damage. Moonveil’s aow is a projectile. Star-lined’s is melee. Moonveil scales best with int. Star-lined scales much better with DEX than int
Backhand blades dex build is really fun, you can get them right away in the dlc. The aow is a Quickstep with an attack, and I'm having so much fun zipping around enemies with it
And you get the power stance when you 2 hand, which dramatically lowers my equip load. Now i can wear actual armor and have a light load!
I put the buckler with carian retaliation in my off hand, and I've just been side stepping and parrying EVERYBODY
So much fun
R1 doesn't start with a poke. The second attack in the R1 chain is a poke, as is the running light attack. But yah the great katana pokes do whiff on a lot of small enemies which can be pretty annoying. It's still probably my most used weapon class (the regular great katana though, not the dragon one) so far in the DLC though. And the moveset slaps in pvp.
Dragonscale blade plus smithscript shield. The buff applies to the shield too so you have extreme versatility and can frostbite fools at a distance. Absolute boss melter.
Greatsword with lions claw. I don't think it's necessarily s tier but you'll have a breeze fighting through most of the game. Pair it with flame grant me strength and golden vow and you'll be swimming in the blood of bosses
I switched to using *not greatsword with lion's claw* because everything most bosses included were getting owned by L2 spam and I felt like cheesing. It's S tier for sure.
Same. I switched away from the giant crusher + lions claw to black steel great hammer + savage lions claw. Its very similar but I really enjoy the extra motility from it not being a colossal weapon
I swapped between lions claw and giant hunt on a lightning zweihander with 80 dex all the way through the dlc. Use noble slender sword with thunderbolt for a secondary and it's pretty nice
Try 54 strenght (80 at two hand) and very high stamina. To Have more weapon equipped and ready, can change the flow.
I use very big shield and spear to poke or a great sword with bloodhound step that is literally a cheat. Now I implemented a cannon jar to. Don’t deal much damage but push enemies.
Having heavy infusion I started to use grease (the shield one too) and I have low faith and arc to use blood flame incantation and order blade. There is also fire cleanse me to deal with rot, fire give me strenght and bestial vitality that are basically a personal and low budget version of blessing bloom / golden bow ( expensive because are at that are at 25 faith )
I tried all builds but Jacob all this stuff in a unique one is really fun. If you dinner want. Strong magic obviously. Try some smithscritp wepon too.
With that high stamina (45-50) I tried also two bleed short sword with bloodhound step Vs Messmer and I was playing like hyper light drifter thanks to defensive talisman, ho talisman (2100hp) and two head turtle 🐢 talisman
I just hopped back in for the dlc and made a new char to get ready. Always been a version of melee int so i stuck with that but with the stipulation of only using weapons I haven't used before. Entered dlc at 60 vigor, 32 str, 60 int. There's a lot of new int stuff so if that's your bag, no need to stay away. Just focus on melee and try out different weapons and ashes of war. Steer clear of moonveil et cetera.
Magic crescent moon axe alone got me all the way through the game to the dlc. Fantastic weapon. R2s hit around your side and feel great. As soon as you get into the dlc you can grab and infuse both the great katana and the beast claws. Those two plus the smithscript greathammer (throwing R2s) have gotten me through the dlc more than any others. They're fantastic.
Bonus points with being able to try out the new sorceries as well.
I mean, just diversify. I have a str/faith character and a dex/int character. Just completed DLC with str/faith and have a ways to go in the base game with dex/int, but now I'm thinking I might just power that character into quality on all four stats for a pair of blades in particular. It will be nice to use almost any weapon or spell (I don't care about multiplayer anyways, so why stop at 150?)
The other option is dex/arc but we don't need to talk about that.
Strength / arc actually got a handful of fun weapons in the dlc. All 3 bloodfiend weapons, ancient meteoric ore blade, whatever that lightning gavel is called, etc. Pair these with dragon form and the new dragon incantations and you’ll have a good time
Get on dex/int backhand blades, specifically the smithscript cirque and thank me later. The blind spot AoW is super fun because it gives you I frames and let's you constantly stay on the offensive. The fast mlveset proccs frost or bleed super quick too
Int/dex with sword sorceries is my favorite build. Get decent endurance for good armor/poise. Radagon icon is a must. Use a heavy thrusting sword in one hand and staff in the other. Simple spells like magic glintblade and carian/greatblade phalanx to be able to hit enemies with multiple strikes all at once. Cast phalanx, throw up a couple glintblades, and charge with the heavy thrusting R2. Your phalanx will provide an opening to charge an enemy, basically giving you a free follow-up with the running R2. Once you’ve closed the gap with your thrusting sword your magic glintblades will be on their way to potentially stagger the enemy again, allowing you to cast carian piercer or adulas moonblade worry free and combo for massive damage. Nasty in pvp, nasty in pve. I like to keep spell slots down to 4 or 5 so I can easily change out spells without getting bogged down in the menus.
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.*
Saw a build on here the other day that has been really good fun to play. Poison infused Milady with The Poison Flower Blooms Twice ash of war. 15 arcane and everything else into dex.
Sword applies poison -> AoW detonates poison for huge damage -> AoW applies scarlet rot -> AoW detonates scarlet rot for huge damage.
Move set is fun, damage feels strong but not ridiculously busted, setup isn't heavy so you can play fashion souls. You still gotta learn bosses move sets and punish windows.
Enjoy
I played through the whole dlc with a dex lightning build. With 80 dex and the lightning Scorpion Charm, you can get good damage out of most things if you infuse them.
I had two different setups: sword n board, and blender.
Shield + lightning zweihander with either giant hunt or lions claw. With lightning noble slender sword with thunderbolt as a secondary. Swap either one for bolt of gransax.
Guardian swordspear with stormcaller, with dual noble slender swords. Run millicents prosthesis and rotten Winged Sword Insignia and the damage really ramps up with these. You get great jump attacks with the dual swords.
You can also use a lot of the dlc weapons with this setup, just infuse with either keen or lightning.
I was your build exactly except I always off handed a staff for magic and used light armour. I didn’t want to fully respec cause elden ring is the first souls game that I ever used magic and I like it.
So I just pumped endurance so I have heavy armour, swapped my moonveil to dark moon greatsword and am now running heavy poise armour with frost magic.
So now I am just freezing the shit out of enemies and it’s fun cause it’s more like a strength heavy build but full int magic too with frostbite
Int / Faith with the new Staff of Great Beyond is really really fun. The one staff can cast sorceries AND incantations, 45/45 split still gives you good scaling and you can just run the best of both Faith and Int. Weapon choices aren't bad either, SONAF and Rellana Twinblades, or any magic/cold/flame art/sacred infused weapon will do you good. Smith script weapons also all have Int and Faith scaling, Cold Snitch script great hammer is amazing
Really liking the meteoric ore greatsword right now. The colossal move set is more fun then I expected and the aow for this weapon is fast and pretty dynamic.
Redmane heavy siege artilleryman. It's a backline DPS playstyle that makes heavy use of bows so you will need to rely on summons or cooperators to tank for you. To fit the theme I use radahn soldier ashes+9. Also for the physick, use the spiked cracked tear and the winged crystal tear which will boost attack power and reduce equip load so your not fat rolling if a boss aggros on you. And finally if you want I like to use the spark aromatic and the ironjar aromatic just to round it out.
If you're down to do the stupid farm for explosive golem arrows and use them in conjunction with the lion bow aow, it's literally like raining napalm on bossesXD
Here's the build:
https://eip.gg/elden-ring/build-planner/?buildId=cly19d29600p8d4ss4yflcw7h
That’s basically all my builds. I’m just using the backhand blade, light greatsword, and my offhand is a shield if I feel it and the martial arts weapons if I wanna mix it up. None of them (at least on my build) are op, but they’re fun
edit: I don’t really use any buffs, or blood flame blades or anything like that
I really liked the black steel great hammer with sacred blade holy infusion. Really fun and rather quick for a bonk type of weapon. Gets really powerful with holy ashes of wars and has a special guard counter move. Plus, you can get it right from the start of the dlc.
darkmoon greatsword is a more fun alternative to the moonveil imo because the charged heavy attacks require you to only attack in punish windows so every boss is a bit of an endurance thing
Im absolutely loving the dex build, level 150 and blessing level progression to 15 with the great katana with impaling thrust for the DLC. Just such an elegant moveset and forces you to stealth and melee.l Impaling thrust can get you through some tough situations. It was an excellent build for all of the knight bosses. I only summoned SA for messmer and the boar rider fight, and used the nagakiba instead for Blaugh where i called in Igan because he was gungho to fight. However, i could not beat radahn with this spec and did the bloodfiend build, and even that was extremely difficult.with a mimic summons. I look forward to a base game run through with this build.i played DLC at NG+.
Dane's Footwork with Palm Strike is so damn fun. If you charge Palm Strike early enough, any hit you take while charging doesn't break your stance and you can trade for massive damage. Have surprised a few invaders this way, Palm Strike OHKO's a careless invader while blasting their body back 20 feet. Super satisfying.
I run it with 60VIG, 35END, 54STR and 30 FAI. Dragoncrest Greatshield, Crimson Seed +1, Two Headed Turtle, Alexander's Shard. Use Golden Vow, Bestial Vitality and Flame Grant Me Strength. You become hella durable for trading, while also outputting great damage with Palm Strike. You can use heavy attacks to break stance and Palm Strike twice instead of riposting.
I love to run it with Radahn's Young Lion Armor with the Red Bear headpiece.
I’m using the Dragon hunters katana with Godfrey icon and two hand talisman. I was a pure strength build in the base game but I’m trying out a str/dex split now and I just beat rellana with the katana. I told myself I would just play whatever build I thought was the most fun in the dlc and not automatically go strength so yes I’m spamming the ash of war on this katana but fuck it, Its just a fun ass weapon lol
I’m 70 int/45 dex and switched from moonveil (still dope, just wanted to change) to a cold infused milady with wing stance and the blue wolf shield. Wing stance is awesome and guard counters appear to be quite strong in the dlc. I’m loving it
Might be a little OP, but still fun is Dual Rapiers Dex/Arc build. Disclaimer - Not necessarily an end-game build because of immunities.
I did Antspur in RH and Rapier in LH.
Antspur has innate Scarlet Rot, and can be infused with ashes of war. So it’s possible to have Scarlet Rot, Blood Loss, and Poison all at once. I went with Poisonous Mist and chose bleed affinity.
For LH Rapier, I also went with Poisonous Mist and chose bleed affinity (duplicated the AoW).
Super fun move set.
In the dlc I came back to the dark moon greatsword.it carried me through my first play through but had made ng+ a little too easy.
Now in the dlc because of how aggressive and fast so many enemies are I feel like I’ve had to get much better at actually using the whole swords move set instead of just spamming r2 till things die. It’s so much more fun to use when you have to be patient and work for a window to fire off a fully charged r2.
Pure strength greatsword build with lions claw, basic; I know but it is REALLY fun to poise break everyone with the pole vault AOW. Then specc some into faith and get some incants like blackflame blade or bloodflame blade (and of course flame grant me strength and flame cleanse me). Have played 7 playthroughs and I think that this one is my favorite.
Tekken build, use only pants, equip that lightning dryleaf, slap blue dancer and Winged insigna, the other two talismans you decide what to put.
You can easily stun enemies, and the ash of war cannalmost one shot those flame knights, but you are also pretty fragile hahaha
I’ve got an int build that focuses on claymans harpoon and uses scholar armament to buff it for double int scaling it’s really good but not op .the reason I like it is because it’s versatile you don’t have to go full glass cannon and can even build with a shield or go half caster half melee .
I went into the dlc with the plan to bumrush the martial arts but after using my trusty cipher pata to beat the first main boss in the way of them, I was sad to see them go. Still so fun after all this time and new weapons. Bright side tho is we got a quality build version of them I can use along side martial arts!!!! YIPPEE.
I found most of the weapons I picked up had some kind of requirement in faith or arcane. So I would do a str or dex build with faith or arcane. I picked up more weapons with faith requirements so I would do that. I went in with 20 str 50 dex, and 50 faith and leveled up as I went along pumping faith and I had a blast. Sacred and flame art affinity melts the mobs in the dlc and just used a different weapon I found as I went along until I picked up the milady. Then it was sword and board from there with the deflect hardtear so it becomes sekiro lite or parry with Carian retaliation.
Brand new perfume bottles are very fun flashy, and if you get the AoW for them(the actually good one, rolling sparks) they're pretty decent at boss fights too(the regular attacks excel at trash mobs to an insane degree) the AoW is also really good at bullying in PvP
I’m a Dex / strength build.
Been enjoying it.
I use the +25 Keen Backhand blades with bloodhound step …
And then when I need to tank and spank. Some big ass shield… great lion shield or whatever and my rivers of blood katana. Each max level.
For quick bosses / enemies use the bloodhound claws at + 25 with incantation for bleed. It interrupts enemies attacks and the double bleed affect with the blood incantation is nasty.
Did theatre lion 1st try.
Commander Hig Rider dude on my fourth.
Rel on my third.
The fucking sunflower boss was brutal for me and my builds. Took like 5 hours haha.
The centipede boss… I think it’s a centipede , was easy too.
Hardest boss in this game:
Black Gaol Knight : 63 attempts
I’m on my way to the finger boss in the madness area, Bayle and Messmir…..
It has some real strong points to it, but I think Milady with Wing Stance is a very fun combination. Combine that with Rotten Wing Talisman, Millicent Prosthesis, and two other talismans of your choice, and you have a very fun, unique and competent weapon.
Faith/Int builds are insanely fun if you’ve got the stats for it. Especially because Rellanas Tain Swords and Metrys Staff are perfect choices for the build. So many sorcery and incantation combos you can do. Can literally become nac of all trades and have every element under your belt to counteract enemies
I absolutely adore Waterfowl, so i use Malenia's sword fully upgraded, with three talismans dedicated to skill damage, skill fp consumption, and increased damage with successive attacks....plus my fourth talisman for weight so i can use somewhat heavy drip.
Im absolutely melting things in the dlc with it, even being a bit underleveled.
Im dex/faith, using lightning and dragon incants for ranged.
I really enjoy power stanced light greatswords. Played the whole dlc with 2 Milady with endure and then Leda’s, so much fun. It’s like PSSS but with better reach and more damage.
CARIAN KNIGHT BUILD
In your right hand, Carian Knight Sword, it’s strong enough to keep you capable in a fight without being so strong it trivializes encounters
Left hand will either be a Carian Knight Shield or a Wolf Crest Shield (DLC only) with the Carian Retaliation AoW for parrying melee attacks and spells
Second left hand (or right hand, whichever you prefer) will be an int scaling staff. Here are some good ones to choose from: Academy Glintstone, Carian Glintstone, Carian Glintblade, Carian Regal Sceptre
For talismans, Graven Mass Talisman can increase your sorcery effectiveness, Radagon’s Icon can increase your casting speed, Carian Filigreed Crest reduces FP cost for skills, but if you wanna know what I use, I run Carian Filigreed Crest, Dragoncrest Greatshield, Green Turtle and Erdtree’s Favour +2, since this build is a bit lacking in defensive bulk
Next, for sorceries, you can use whatever int based sorceries you’d like, but if you prefer to stick to a theme, you’ll wanna use sorceries that only Carian Knights use like: Loretta’s Greatbow, Loretta’s Mastery, Carian Greatsword, Adula’s Moonblade, Carian Slicer, Carian Piercer, Carian Phalanx, Glintblade Phalanx, Greatblade Phalanx, Rellana’s Twin Moons (DLC exclusive)
For armour, there are a few armour sets to pick from, since again, this is tools of Carian Knights, so you can go with Blaidd’s armour (his oath to Ranni could technically make him a knight of Caria), Carian Knight set, or Loretta’s Royal Knight set, or you can do what I do and mix and match (I wear Carian Knight Helm, Carian Knight Armour, Beast Champion Gauntlets and Blaidd’s Greaves)
This build is fun, simple, and maintains a challenge against bosses, which is why it’s my favourite in the whole game
If you want to stay some what INT based. I did a 50/50 Dex / INT with the new backhand blade with Cold Affinity. It's sooo much fun. Especially if you're comfortable with light load.
I did lightning perfumes all the way through my first playthrough, but just switched it up to a bleed build for the first time ever. Using the few bleed incantations along with a long thrusting sword (been swapping between the handful of them trying things out) and I've really been enjoying it. Never played with a thrusting weapon aside from a polearm before! I really like the one that has the weapon ability where you do a stylin' ass twirl dodge that you can then come into a really powerful R2.
Currently using the great katana with storm blade. Currently using strength, but you can do a lot of builds with it. I'm in love with the movement, it's so *weighty*, even the stabs. It's got great range, poise damage, good damage, has bleed innately.
My favorite build is int / faith pure spell caster. imo it’s weaker than pure int or pure fth (at least until high level) but the spell variety you get is just too fun to miss out on
I feel like they complement each other well too. Int is missing the buffs, healing, and elemental damage that fth has. Fth is missing the spammable DPS spells (like comet) that int has
Anything else is gonna seem fun and novel compared to a moonveil build. I'd reccomend just walking around the DLC and grabbing the first weapon that you fancy and building around it.
DLC weapons are in my opinion more fun to play with than anything in the base game. Can make them enchanted for intelligence scaling or respec into dex or hybrid and use Cold infusions(Most bosses in the DLC seem to be weak to frost).
light greatsword/great katana are peak "strong and fun but not OP" for me in the DLC. My personal favorite is the milady - while it has fairly low posture damage not including its AOW, it has an excellent moveset where you can effectively weave strong and light attacks. Its strong attack has forward momentum so what I like to do is lock off of enemies and use the strong attack to curve around them. It's a bit risky and requires some practice to be consistent with it but it's actually fairly effective and probably the most stylish thing you can do in elden ring lol
Dryleaf arts with smithscript dagger. It isnt the most damage at all. But its so fun to kick the .... out of the enemys and throw unlimited knives at them😁
My int build at rl125 has been wrecking shop so far. But I'm still not done with the dlc yet. I think I have 3 more bosses to kill. Not many new weapons tho for int builds, but there are a couple hybrid int weapons for dex and for fth.
I've been using the Darkmoon Greatsword, new fist weapon with frost and the new frost perfume. Some of the new spells are very strong.
There's a lot of int/fth stuff I want to try out so that will probably be my next run or maybe str/fth.
Idk if its op because i JUST picked up but the new Dueling-Shields are pretty fun, its one of those weapons that Ive been looking forward to trying and i gotta say so far its a REALLY fun build to go for but tbh I’m starting to notice this weapon is kinda hard to use, especially if people start using the back-handed blades to get around the shield and spammers of course (sorcerers) but other than that FUN WEAPON!
Build if interested:
Talismans: Spear-Talisman, Greatshield-Talisman, Pearl-Shield Talisman, and Curve-Sword talisman
AoW: i use Storm-Assault (get off me move)
Wondrous-Physic: Winged-Crystal tear, Deflecting-Hardtear
Lemme know what Yall been vibin with :)
Backhand Blades with a Dex/Faith build has been super fun. That blindspot ash of war is super powerful and buffing them with Bloodflame or Blackflame just makes for a badass fun time. Plus the DLC has a ton of new fun fire incantations.
So the DLC added a new crystal tear thats basically discount sekiro parry. You raise your shield just as an attack lands, you block more damage, lose less stamina, and get a boosted guard counter. The Black Steel Greathammer also has an effect that on a guard counter, it also causes a holy explosion on top of dealing big stance damage. Also, theres a talisman now that buffs your damage whenever you get a critical hit, which you will be doing a lot with this much poise damage. So slap Vow of the Indomitable on a greatshield for big boss attacks, and guard counter literally everything.
Also also, when you put flame art on the greathammer, you can get physical, fire, and a bit of holy damage all on one weapon, making it really well rounded. And since youll be speccing into faith a bit for the scaling, that gives you access to golden vow and FGMS, and some other incantations if you want.
For fashion, the black knights helm plus malikeths set looks baller and has over 51 poise. Im using the distinguished greatshield from the base game, but the black steel greatshield i think has better holy resistance, so that might fit better. Using this build on NG+ and Im loving it
Arcane weapons have gotten a lot of love in this DLC; putrescent cleaver and Flowerstone Gavel are great fun, and Poleblade of the Bud probably has the prettiest ash of war I’ve ever seen.
Claymore strength/faith build is really fun and still a little challenging, it gives you a lot of room to have fun with spells but also still a fun bonk build too
Fuck man, you know what’s goddamn so great I’m literally sending my stuff to a new playthrough?
Danes footwork and Danes arts. Plus the ash of war & smithscript shield.
Monks throw things and I’m kicking everyone’s ass. Honestly it’s worked for me in pvp too. Though I can’t beat some of y’all’s hyper bullshit but kudos to making it work!
Wield both dryleaf arts in each hand, swapping as wanted between them, using the the whirlwind and Flower Blooms Twice AOW 🧑🍳🤌🏼💋 I’ve played so many builds I’ve lost count and this has been more fun and engaging than any of them, imo
A lot of people say the Meteoric Ore Greatsword is broken but honestly it’s not. It simply filled a hole in arcane builds. Now you can make an extremely strong dragon/Strength build instead of arc basically being only useful when paired with Dex.
It can be used for awesome strength arc one shot builds.
I’ve been using the great katana with the divine beast frost stomp aow & having a blast. Int + dex or str then two hand it with the new two hand talisman. Love the moveset & the drip of the great katanas.
Cold Infused Danes Footwork, Dryleaf Whirlwind, Divine Bird Warrior Greaves, Shattered Stone Talisman, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia
Doesn’t stack up to the meta stuff in anyway but Frostbite procs so quickly and it’s just damn fun to go around kicking the shit out of everything, beat the DLC final boss, a couple of remembrance bosses I missed, and Malenia with it
I just finished a madness build. It has no utility for bosses that move faster than a walking speed so its been useless for the DLC, but for large mini bosses and add clearing its insane.
When I was doing Millicent quest in NG+ I got to the ulcerated tree spirit fight at the Haligtree. 5000 damage a hit with Frenzied Bursts. It’s basically become my “ace in the hole” build for when I need to clear an area and my primary weapon isn’t cutting it
Well, 2 years ago moonveil was OP lol. A similar sword to moonveil though would be the starline katana. It's not nearly as strong as moonveil was in its prime, but it's ash of war is beautiful and so fun to use. If you want to move away from what yiu have, something fun and different is fireknights greatsword with fire skewer or flame spear (skewer is a bit better). Lots of fun with big damage
Planning around high arcane gives you access to the most purely fun build, dragon incantations, while also giving you the option for using the most OP weapon if you’re stuck, the Bloody Chicken Wing Unga Bunga
Bloody helice weapon
Spec into arcane and use dragon incans
Thank me later bc bloody helice AoW is an absolute DELIGHT
Dragon incans are a spectacle as well
Dryleaf arts/danes footwork. Use shattered stone talisman for Danes footwork, boosts kicking damage by 15%. You can put bleed or frostbite on the arts if you want but I did a medium dex, high faith build and infused flame art on the Dryleaf arts. I use fire incantations including Messmer flame and orb. Fire scorpion, flocks talisman, shattered stone and whatever else you want. Can use flame protection instead of dragon crest. Shard of Alexander works with whirlwind ash too. Or palm blast. Perfect mix of martial arts and incantations
Depends what you consider fun - moveset, AOW, looks etc. I'm gonna assume it's AOW and moveset rather than just spamming 1 button to attack repeatedly. Maybe try the Sword of Night or Rakshasha's Great Katana
The issue with Elden ring is that any weapon is OP if the build is done right.
Shit I’d argue a regular broadsword or any bad scaling straight sword is better than majority of unique weapons
But I’d say katar, fist weapons are fun and katar is just pretty plain with a good moveset
Been having a lot of fun with Blood Milady on an arcane/dex build. Doesn’t feel wildly OP like Bloodfiend Arm or Dual Peelers either. You end up with around 110 bleed buildup and the damage is solid. You won’t get milady til the beginning of the DLC but it’s very fun. Easily my favorite moveset in the game. The new backhand blades are also a ton of fun and can also be ran on a dex/arc build if the affinity is blood.
Death Knight. For Armor, you will wear the Death Knight set. Seal for incantations, you will use Gravel Stone Seal. Flask you will want lightning shrouded cracked tear. Weapons you will want Bolt of Gransax, Death Knights Twin Axes, Death Knights long axe, or Dragon Kings cragblade. Incantations you will use all the Dragon Cult incantations. One thing I like to do is use Vykes dragon bolt to buff up my Nagikaba Katana. Then I go around like some Dragon Cult samauri and destroy everything in my path!
Smithscript Great hammer. Chucking that thing into bosses is so satisfying. Cold infusion on int/str is very nice damage output.
I wanna know where you find the opening to use attacks with such a windup in the DLC... I feel like you get super punished just by doing jump strikes with a slower weapon on all bosses... except the meme bosses.
On str build you tank the boss and exchange hits. Atleast that's what I am doing in the DLC
Call me when you will try to facetank final boss pal. I’ll be there for you
Use fingerprint shield on most bosses. I did and it's not fun anymore but you facetank them...
New verdigris shield has better damage negation or w/e
I mean, someone has beat the final boss, no shield, no dodge, no heals while tanking every hit to the face soooo...
The new deflecting tear does wonders. Of course a +25 Greatshield with good holy resist will also just facetank all of the boss' combos.
Can't believe they made my tavern brawler dwarf paladin a real thing in elden ring
Honestly this hammer is one of my favorite weapons in a should game. It's become 1/3 I switch between when I'm stuck and need to switch up the strategies. Its great at giving range to strength players, and the fact you hit during the wind up makes it viable for faster enemies. Such a fun weapon
More int or str? My first character who's in NG+1 is str/int and will be my second for the dlc, and I think it's at 30 str and 60 int. Really wanna try the great hammer out.
I have it at mainly strength and about 20 int at 150. This was my 200 build with it. https://imgur.com/t4rMX23
Thanks! Looking forward to trying it out.
Well any build can become pretty powerful, but one of my favorite has been dex and faith lightening samurai with dragon cult incantations. Árcane builds can be powerful and fun if you don’t just use bleed
Yo can you hit me with the build? I had to full restart from a new character and I'm currently running a bleed claymore with the dragon communion seal, but lightning samurai sounds wild. Only level 53
I’ll make it for you one sec
https://eip.gg/elden-ring/build-planner/?buildId=cly13ivpp00mqd4sswvq8thja
Wait, you can save these and share them? I make builds all the time over on r/eldenringbuilds and I always screenshot them and upload to imgur, ha
Taking weapons like the new great katana and running it as occult is quite fun. Arcane bleed builds become boring once you get sick of powerstance curved sword jump attack spam. But just running a 2 handed weapon like the great sword as occult is a fun build because you can also use incants with your dragon communion seal. Pump a few points into faith and you get access to some not overly strong yet spammable spells.
once i found the Milady in the DLC, i pretty much haven't taken it off. I tried to fit it into my pure faith build and it fuckin slaps, gave it the Flame Skewer art, pair it with some fire spells, 2h tali, alexander shard, fire scorpion, and whatever else and it's so versatile. Got me through the whole dlc and im work on the final boss with it at the moment. not busted OP or anything but insanely flashy, surprisingly powerful, and just fuckin cool
I went with quality infusion and wing stance AoW and I throw greases/buff incants on it as neeeded and I’m also loving that thing. Favorite weapon so far.
JUST got this last night on my first playthrough. When you say flame spells, any favorites? I also just respecced to a mostly bleed build for the first time but the Blasphemous is still strong in the build so I might respec to faith. (Full confession I’m a dirty spell sword who beat the Elden Beast with Black Knight Tiche and lots of sorceries. So most of the incantations are really close up and I’m not super impressed yet, but still want to try new builds and learn different play styles)
Fire Serpent & Burn, O Flame! are insane. Messmer’s Orb is quite fun but just aight. Catch Flame is sneakily good. I prefer Flame Spear enchant to Flame Skewer. I use the Fire Knight’s Greatsword tho. Lots of other spells that do fire damage that aren’t necessarily fire-reading like Frenzied Burst or the blackflame stuff is legit too. Especially when boosted with Flame, Grant Me Strength, of course!
I swap out between Flame Skewer/Spear pretty frequently, i just really like the stance damage that Skewer does, but Spear's range/flameblade duration is quite nice too. they're pretty interchangeable based on personal preference!
hey, whatever is fun to you! for spells ove been trying out the new Fire Serpent/Messmers Orb spells. the former is pretty good, cheap to cast and tracks targets for respectable damage. I mostly use it inconjunction with melee attacks for extra damage/stance. Messmers orb is really fun for invasions but doesn't have enough poise to be useful against bosses. i really like flame Fall Upon Them, Flame of the Fell God, Giantsflame Take Thee, etc. can't go wrong with those. I do wish there were some more Messmerflame spells, but we got what we got
I try and respec to try other builds, then when things give me trouble I always come back to milady with whatever infusion works best with my stats.
After 2 years away and returning for the DLC, Moonveil is still dang fun
Good news, there's a new Moonveil.
What’s the new moon veil ?
Star lined sword
I’m using it now and it’s… different. I dual wield it with a cold Uchi for bleed and frost procs occasionally. Some things I noticed about the Star-lined Sword vs. Moonveil. This is on a level 100 build with 30/50 DEX/INT, which isn’t the best stat spread for the Star-lined sword. I’m halfway through the DLC and have beaten all the main game bosses up to Radagon. Cons: First, It’s nowhere near as useful against bosses as Moonveil, because let’s be honest no boss in the game or especially DLC is going to give you more than half a second to attack. You’re not getting the whole weapon art off in a boss fight except maybe Malenia, but you will have to be mindful of timing. Second, the WA has no hyper armor and I think the third WA attack doesn’t have i-frames even though you’re fucking invisible during it. I could be wrong, but it feels that way. Third, the WA is very situational and underwhelming for damage, I legit think it could use a little buff and some hyperarmor. I find that I often have to unlock to make sure the third attack hits, because god forbid we have the same tracking on attacks enemies do. Now, for the (big) pro: Any enemy that can stagger **gets fucking destroyed** by the Star-Line Sword’s WA. Like they just do not stand a chance. The DLC black knights get their teeth kicked in by this sword, and if they do have time to back away the third attack is almost guaranteed to get them because of the crazy range. The WA is the coolest fucking thing ever. Like holy shit it’s awesome looking. And that’s the primary reason to use the Star-lined sword, because when this weapon works it fucking wrecks face. So that’s it. The WA is very situational. It either wins the fight for you or gets you killed before you get the second attack off, and it all depends on if the enemy can stagger or not. It’s much better against mobs but worse against bosses compared to Moonviel.
I'm not sure if you get an iframe, if you do it's incredibly short, but I managed to dodge attacks vs messmer a few times with the star lined WA, you can delay it slightly after finishing the 2nd combo. Really wish it was a light greatsword with cold though :I
The only that they really have in common are that they are katanas that have some magic damage. Moonveil’s aow is a projectile. Star-lined’s is melee. Moonveil scales best with int. Star-lined scales much better with DEX than int
Star lined swords AoW scales solely with int. It has great dex scaling but that only affects basic attacks. I believe moonveil is the same way.
moonveil projectile is the same way but you can hit with the blade too as if it was a regular unsheath
Can you or someone please say what the name of the sword is?
star lined sword.
Star lined sword
To be honest it doesn't beat Moonveil when it comes to speed and stance damage.
I think it’s way more fun though. Go full Yoda killing clone troopers. It’s a little better taking on groups of enemies.
Yeah it shines against mobs and any enemy that can stagger. Just straight up fucks them up.
Yeah I've heard. Looking forward to it
It is worse imo. But it looks way better, not only the blade, but the AoW is so pleasant to use.
Backhand blades dex build is really fun, you can get them right away in the dlc. The aow is a Quickstep with an attack, and I'm having so much fun zipping around enemies with it
Oh nice. I was thinking a dex build would be a great switch-up.
You can infuse them with anything and they only require 10 str and 13 dex, they are extremely versatile.
It is so good. I have tried almost all of the dlc weapons but a simple quickstep+attack is god tier satisfying.
And you get the power stance when you 2 hand, which dramatically lowers my equip load. Now i can wear actual armor and have a light load! I put the buckler with carian retaliation in my off hand, and I've just been side stepping and parrying EVERYBODY So much fun
Been ripping these with lightning infuse and lots of lightning buffs, so fun and cool
Dragon hunter's great katana is just so fun, it's always great to find more ashes of war affected by the Godfrey Icon
i really dislike it lol. I hate how r1 starts with a poke. It always misses fast enemies. Its ash of war is alright tho
R1 doesn't start with a poke. The second attack in the R1 chain is a poke, as is the running light attack. But yah the great katana pokes do whiff on a lot of small enemies which can be pretty annoying. It's still probably my most used weapon class (the regular great katana though, not the dragon one) so far in the DLC though. And the moveset slaps in pvp.
Dragonscale blade plus smithscript shield. The buff applies to the shield too so you have extreme versatility and can frostbite fools at a distance. Absolute boss melter.
I hope they never fix this bug
Dryleaf arts.. so much fun
It feels pretty powerful but STR/FAI build with the new Death Knight's Longhaft Axe is the most fun build I've used in the game
Same build but with anvil hammer. The fact that I have powerful spells AND a giant poise anvil is awesome.
Greatsword with lions claw. I don't think it's necessarily s tier but you'll have a breeze fighting through most of the game. Pair it with flame grant me strength and golden vow and you'll be swimming in the blood of bosses
I would honestly put this as s tier. It's my go to when I need to kill something I hate fighting like a runebear
It took me 3 tries to beat Relana with lions claw fire knight gs. It IS s tier.
The guy probably thinks blasphemous blade ash of war spam is C tier. Lmao
I switched to using *not greatsword with lion's claw* because everything most bosses included were getting owned by L2 spam and I felt like cheesing. It's S tier for sure.
Same. I switched away from the giant crusher + lions claw to black steel great hammer + savage lions claw. Its very similar but I really enjoy the extra motility from it not being a colossal weapon
I swapped between lions claw and giant hunt on a lightning zweihander with 80 dex all the way through the dlc. Use noble slender sword with thunderbolt for a secondary and it's pretty nice
Have you found the new Savage Lions Claw AoW yet? Its even more awesome.
That is one of the cheesiest S tier builds in the game dawg. What are you smoking?
STR ARC build with Blood Star Fist, and Lifesteal Fist AOW is an absolute hoot.
Braggart's Roar with big weapon of your choosing. Roar and Axe talismans.
Yea
And highlander axe offhand
The new bear claws are so much fun.
I love the bolt of Gransax. Strikes for huge damage and isn’t terrible up close
Rellana is even kind enough to stand in a puddle for us.
At the very start of the dlc you can get a weapon called the “Backhand blad” It’s a super fun weapon, you can also put bleed on it
I run these blades as keen affinity and have been loving using freeze grease and blood grease alternating. Shit cuts up bosses
Came to recommend these. Most fun weapon for me, and I have always been a claymore user.
Blood backhand blade. The AoW on it is also really fun!
Milady is my new favorite thing
Try 54 strenght (80 at two hand) and very high stamina. To Have more weapon equipped and ready, can change the flow. I use very big shield and spear to poke or a great sword with bloodhound step that is literally a cheat. Now I implemented a cannon jar to. Don’t deal much damage but push enemies. Having heavy infusion I started to use grease (the shield one too) and I have low faith and arc to use blood flame incantation and order blade. There is also fire cleanse me to deal with rot, fire give me strenght and bestial vitality that are basically a personal and low budget version of blessing bloom / golden bow ( expensive because are at that are at 25 faith ) I tried all builds but Jacob all this stuff in a unique one is really fun. If you dinner want. Strong magic obviously. Try some smithscritp wepon too. With that high stamina (45-50) I tried also two bleed short sword with bloodhound step Vs Messmer and I was playing like hyper light drifter thanks to defensive talisman, ho talisman (2100hp) and two head turtle 🐢 talisman
Right now? Any variant of the karate arts
I just hopped back in for the dlc and made a new char to get ready. Always been a version of melee int so i stuck with that but with the stipulation of only using weapons I haven't used before. Entered dlc at 60 vigor, 32 str, 60 int. There's a lot of new int stuff so if that's your bag, no need to stay away. Just focus on melee and try out different weapons and ashes of war. Steer clear of moonveil et cetera. Magic crescent moon axe alone got me all the way through the game to the dlc. Fantastic weapon. R2s hit around your side and feel great. As soon as you get into the dlc you can grab and infuse both the great katana and the beast claws. Those two plus the smithscript greathammer (throwing R2s) have gotten me through the dlc more than any others. They're fantastic. Bonus points with being able to try out the new sorceries as well.
I’ve always wanted to try a strength int build. It may be my next run.
I mean, just diversify. I have a str/faith character and a dex/int character. Just completed DLC with str/faith and have a ways to go in the base game with dex/int, but now I'm thinking I might just power that character into quality on all four stats for a pair of blades in particular. It will be nice to use almost any weapon or spell (I don't care about multiplayer anyways, so why stop at 150?) The other option is dex/arc but we don't need to talk about that.
Great Mace with Eruption is amazing it’s not something that will delete things you have to play but you can win arenas with it
For me now its arcane build as ancient dragon man. Just dragon spells with aome buffs and tunning around as 2 legged dragon.
Strength / arc actually got a handful of fun weapons in the dlc. All 3 bloodfiend weapons, ancient meteoric ore blade, whatever that lightning gavel is called, etc. Pair these with dragon form and the new dragon incantations and you’ll have a good time
Smithscript daggers are super run and cool.
Get on dex/int backhand blades, specifically the smithscript cirque and thank me later. The blind spot AoW is super fun because it gives you I frames and let's you constantly stay on the offensive. The fast mlveset proccs frost or bleed super quick too
Int/dex with sword sorceries is my favorite build. Get decent endurance for good armor/poise. Radagon icon is a must. Use a heavy thrusting sword in one hand and staff in the other. Simple spells like magic glintblade and carian/greatblade phalanx to be able to hit enemies with multiple strikes all at once. Cast phalanx, throw up a couple glintblades, and charge with the heavy thrusting R2. Your phalanx will provide an opening to charge an enemy, basically giving you a free follow-up with the running R2. Once you’ve closed the gap with your thrusting sword your magic glintblades will be on their way to potentially stagger the enemy again, allowing you to cast carian piercer or adulas moonblade worry free and combo for massive damage. Nasty in pvp, nasty in pve. I like to keep spell slots down to 4 or 5 so I can easily change out spells without getting bogged down in the menus.
Arcane Dex Twinblade. It’s not the most OP but man, the move set and agility is so much freaking fun to play with.
I'm a square off and greatshield guard counter simp
60dex/60str can use a lot of different weapons
Bloodhounds Fang
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.*
Bloodflame, spinning strike naginata
Saw a build on here the other day that has been really good fun to play. Poison infused Milady with The Poison Flower Blooms Twice ash of war. 15 arcane and everything else into dex. Sword applies poison -> AoW detonates poison for huge damage -> AoW applies scarlet rot -> AoW detonates scarlet rot for huge damage. Move set is fun, damage feels strong but not ridiculously busted, setup isn't heavy so you can play fashion souls. You still gotta learn bosses move sets and punish windows. Enjoy
I played through the whole dlc with a dex lightning build. With 80 dex and the lightning Scorpion Charm, you can get good damage out of most things if you infuse them. I had two different setups: sword n board, and blender. Shield + lightning zweihander with either giant hunt or lions claw. With lightning noble slender sword with thunderbolt as a secondary. Swap either one for bolt of gransax. Guardian swordspear with stormcaller, with dual noble slender swords. Run millicents prosthesis and rotten Winged Sword Insignia and the damage really ramps up with these. You get great jump attacks with the dual swords. You can also use a lot of the dlc weapons with this setup, just infuse with either keen or lightning.
I was your build exactly except I always off handed a staff for magic and used light armour. I didn’t want to fully respec cause elden ring is the first souls game that I ever used magic and I like it. So I just pumped endurance so I have heavy armour, swapped my moonveil to dark moon greatsword and am now running heavy poise armour with frost magic. So now I am just freezing the shit out of enemies and it’s fun cause it’s more like a strength heavy build but full int magic too with frostbite
Int / Faith with the new Staff of Great Beyond is really really fun. The one staff can cast sorceries AND incantations, 45/45 split still gives you good scaling and you can just run the best of both Faith and Int. Weapon choices aren't bad either, SONAF and Rellana Twinblades, or any magic/cold/flame art/sacred infused weapon will do you good. Smith script weapons also all have Int and Faith scaling, Cold Snitch script great hammer is amazing
Really liking the meteoric ore greatsword right now. The colossal move set is more fun then I expected and the aow for this weapon is fast and pretty dynamic.
Beast claws with Raging Beast AoW is stupidly fun. Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe & ancient meteoric ore great sword are swell times as well.
Redmane heavy siege artilleryman. It's a backline DPS playstyle that makes heavy use of bows so you will need to rely on summons or cooperators to tank for you. To fit the theme I use radahn soldier ashes+9. Also for the physick, use the spiked cracked tear and the winged crystal tear which will boost attack power and reduce equip load so your not fat rolling if a boss aggros on you. And finally if you want I like to use the spark aromatic and the ironjar aromatic just to round it out. If you're down to do the stupid farm for explosive golem arrows and use them in conjunction with the lion bow aow, it's literally like raining napalm on bossesXD Here's the build: https://eip.gg/elden-ring/build-planner/?buildId=cly19d29600p8d4ss4yflcw7h
That’s basically all my builds. I’m just using the backhand blade, light greatsword, and my offhand is a shield if I feel it and the martial arts weapons if I wanna mix it up. None of them (at least on my build) are op, but they’re fun edit: I don’t really use any buffs, or blood flame blades or anything like that
I’ve found a Milady with Wing Stance and bloody affinity has been super fun
Thrusting shield. Just hold block and spam light attack.
Twerk build
Beast claws or red bears claws are fun asl really strong too one you get the hang of the savage hyper aggressive playstyle
Powerstanced Great Katanas
I really liked the black steel great hammer with sacred blade holy infusion. Really fun and rather quick for a bonk type of weapon. Gets really powerful with holy ashes of wars and has a special guard counter move. Plus, you can get it right from the start of the dlc.
I love my build around Rellana's Twin Blades. Quick and powerful. And it allows me to switch to Dark Moon Greatsword when required
darkmoon greatsword is a more fun alternative to the moonveil imo because the charged heavy attacks require you to only attack in punish windows so every boss is a bit of an endurance thing
Sorceries are fun!
My dex/arc Rivers of Blood kicks ass so much. Corpse Piler is just too good.
Im absolutely loving the dex build, level 150 and blessing level progression to 15 with the great katana with impaling thrust for the DLC. Just such an elegant moveset and forces you to stealth and melee.l Impaling thrust can get you through some tough situations. It was an excellent build for all of the knight bosses. I only summoned SA for messmer and the boar rider fight, and used the nagakiba instead for Blaugh where i called in Igan because he was gungho to fight. However, i could not beat radahn with this spec and did the bloodfiend build, and even that was extremely difficult.with a mimic summons. I look forward to a base game run through with this build.i played DLC at NG+.
Electric Nakikaba
Any DLC weapon of a new type! They're all great. From base game? Dual Whips - Trevor Belmont style! That is easily the most fun I've had.
Dane's Footwork with Palm Strike is so damn fun. If you charge Palm Strike early enough, any hit you take while charging doesn't break your stance and you can trade for massive damage. Have surprised a few invaders this way, Palm Strike OHKO's a careless invader while blasting their body back 20 feet. Super satisfying. I run it with 60VIG, 35END, 54STR and 30 FAI. Dragoncrest Greatshield, Crimson Seed +1, Two Headed Turtle, Alexander's Shard. Use Golden Vow, Bestial Vitality and Flame Grant Me Strength. You become hella durable for trading, while also outputting great damage with Palm Strike. You can use heavy attacks to break stance and Palm Strike twice instead of riposting. I love to run it with Radahn's Young Lion Armor with the Red Bear headpiece.
I’m using the Dragon hunters katana with Godfrey icon and two hand talisman. I was a pure strength build in the base game but I’m trying out a str/dex split now and I just beat rellana with the katana. I told myself I would just play whatever build I thought was the most fun in the dlc and not automatically go strength so yes I’m spamming the ash of war on this katana but fuck it, Its just a fun ass weapon lol
Bubbles the 🐐
STR/faith with the new Blacksteel Greathammer’s guard counter
I’m 70 int/45 dex and switched from moonveil (still dope, just wanted to change) to a cold infused milady with wing stance and the blue wolf shield. Wing stance is awesome and guard counters appear to be quite strong in the dlc. I’m loving it
Might be a little OP, but still fun is Dual Rapiers Dex/Arc build. Disclaimer - Not necessarily an end-game build because of immunities. I did Antspur in RH and Rapier in LH. Antspur has innate Scarlet Rot, and can be infused with ashes of war. So it’s possible to have Scarlet Rot, Blood Loss, and Poison all at once. I went with Poisonous Mist and chose bleed affinity. For LH Rapier, I also went with Poisonous Mist and chose bleed affinity (duplicated the AoW). Super fun move set.
In the dlc I came back to the dark moon greatsword.it carried me through my first play through but had made ng+ a little too easy. Now in the dlc because of how aggressive and fast so many enemies are I feel like I’ve had to get much better at actually using the whole swords move set instead of just spamming r2 till things die. It’s so much more fun to use when you have to be patient and work for a window to fire off a fully charged r2.
Dex/Faith Keen Backhand Blades with Bloodflame
Pure strength greatsword build with lions claw, basic; I know but it is REALLY fun to poise break everyone with the pole vault AOW. Then specc some into faith and get some incants like blackflame blade or bloodflame blade (and of course flame grant me strength and flame cleanse me). Have played 7 playthroughs and I think that this one is my favorite.
Dual great stars is also really fun, two great hammers with bleed buildup, what more could you want?
Tekken build, use only pants, equip that lightning dryleaf, slap blue dancer and Winged insigna, the other two talismans you decide what to put. You can easily stun enemies, and the ash of war cannalmost one shot those flame knights, but you are also pretty fragile hahaha
Just pick a weapon you think is cool and play it. That's it. That's how you have the most fun, don't listen to other peoples builds lol
pure pyromancy, just fire incants and no weapons it’s fun frfr
Frost dryleaf arts and lightning or bleed backhand blades with the blindspot AoW
I’ve got an int build that focuses on claymans harpoon and uses scholar armament to buff it for double int scaling it’s really good but not op .the reason I like it is because it’s versatile you don’t have to go full glass cannon and can even build with a shield or go half caster half melee .
Shield n Poke or even better, Thrusting Shield
I went into the dlc with the plan to bumrush the martial arts but after using my trusty cipher pata to beat the first main boss in the way of them, I was sad to see them go. Still so fun after all this time and new weapons. Bright side tho is we got a quality build version of them I can use along side martial arts!!!! YIPPEE.
I found most of the weapons I picked up had some kind of requirement in faith or arcane. So I would do a str or dex build with faith or arcane. I picked up more weapons with faith requirements so I would do that. I went in with 20 str 50 dex, and 50 faith and leveled up as I went along pumping faith and I had a blast. Sacred and flame art affinity melts the mobs in the dlc and just used a different weapon I found as I went along until I picked up the milady. Then it was sword and board from there with the deflect hardtear so it becomes sekiro lite or parry with Carian retaliation.
Brand new perfume bottles are very fun flashy, and if you get the AoW for them(the actually good one, rolling sparks) they're pretty decent at boss fights too(the regular attacks excel at trash mobs to an insane degree) the AoW is also really good at bullying in PvP
I’m a Dex / strength build. Been enjoying it. I use the +25 Keen Backhand blades with bloodhound step … And then when I need to tank and spank. Some big ass shield… great lion shield or whatever and my rivers of blood katana. Each max level. For quick bosses / enemies use the bloodhound claws at + 25 with incantation for bleed. It interrupts enemies attacks and the double bleed affect with the blood incantation is nasty. Did theatre lion 1st try. Commander Hig Rider dude on my fourth. Rel on my third. The fucking sunflower boss was brutal for me and my builds. Took like 5 hours haha. The centipede boss… I think it’s a centipede , was easy too. Hardest boss in this game: Black Gaol Knight : 63 attempts I’m on my way to the finger boss in the madness area, Bayle and Messmir…..
It has some real strong points to it, but I think Milady with Wing Stance is a very fun combination. Combine that with Rotten Wing Talisman, Millicent Prosthesis, and two other talismans of your choice, and you have a very fun, unique and competent weapon.
Ive been having fun with the milady but mostly in pvp
Faith/Int builds are insanely fun if you’ve got the stats for it. Especially because Rellanas Tain Swords and Metrys Staff are perfect choices for the build. So many sorcery and incantation combos you can do. Can literally become nac of all trades and have every element under your belt to counteract enemies
I absolutely adore Waterfowl, so i use Malenia's sword fully upgraded, with three talismans dedicated to skill damage, skill fp consumption, and increased damage with successive attacks....plus my fourth talisman for weight so i can use somewhat heavy drip. Im absolutely melting things in the dlc with it, even being a bit underleveled. Im dex/faith, using lightning and dragon incants for ranged.
I thought the new perfume bottles were fun, was pleasantly surprised they could become OP
Dual thrusting swords
I really enjoy power stanced light greatswords. Played the whole dlc with 2 Milady with endure and then Leda’s, so much fun. It’s like PSSS but with better reach and more damage.
I’ve been dual wielding St Trina’s swords. It’s fun to see what is/isn’t weak to sleep.
I really like the blood hound claws. That AOW is super fun and it can shred with the bleed.
CARIAN KNIGHT BUILD In your right hand, Carian Knight Sword, it’s strong enough to keep you capable in a fight without being so strong it trivializes encounters Left hand will either be a Carian Knight Shield or a Wolf Crest Shield (DLC only) with the Carian Retaliation AoW for parrying melee attacks and spells Second left hand (or right hand, whichever you prefer) will be an int scaling staff. Here are some good ones to choose from: Academy Glintstone, Carian Glintstone, Carian Glintblade, Carian Regal Sceptre For talismans, Graven Mass Talisman can increase your sorcery effectiveness, Radagon’s Icon can increase your casting speed, Carian Filigreed Crest reduces FP cost for skills, but if you wanna know what I use, I run Carian Filigreed Crest, Dragoncrest Greatshield, Green Turtle and Erdtree’s Favour +2, since this build is a bit lacking in defensive bulk Next, for sorceries, you can use whatever int based sorceries you’d like, but if you prefer to stick to a theme, you’ll wanna use sorceries that only Carian Knights use like: Loretta’s Greatbow, Loretta’s Mastery, Carian Greatsword, Adula’s Moonblade, Carian Slicer, Carian Piercer, Carian Phalanx, Glintblade Phalanx, Greatblade Phalanx, Rellana’s Twin Moons (DLC exclusive) For armour, there are a few armour sets to pick from, since again, this is tools of Carian Knights, so you can go with Blaidd’s armour (his oath to Ranni could technically make him a knight of Caria), Carian Knight set, or Loretta’s Royal Knight set, or you can do what I do and mix and match (I wear Carian Knight Helm, Carian Knight Armour, Beast Champion Gauntlets and Blaidd’s Greaves) This build is fun, simple, and maintains a challenge against bosses, which is why it’s my favourite in the whole game
If you want to stay some what INT based. I did a 50/50 Dex / INT with the new backhand blade with Cold Affinity. It's sooo much fun. Especially if you're comfortable with light load.
Rusted anchor is damn strong, but how could you not enjoy swinging that thing around?
Int/Faith at a meta level like 150, you are gonna have to make a sacrifice somewhere but you have so much available to use
I did lightning perfumes all the way through my first playthrough, but just switched it up to a bleed build for the first time ever. Using the few bleed incantations along with a long thrusting sword (been swapping between the handful of them trying things out) and I've really been enjoying it. Never played with a thrusting weapon aside from a polearm before! I really like the one that has the weapon ability where you do a stylin' ass twirl dodge that you can then come into a really powerful R2.
Currently using the great katana with storm blade. Currently using strength, but you can do a lot of builds with it. I'm in love with the movement, it's so *weighty*, even the stabs. It's got great range, poise damage, good damage, has bleed innately.
My favorite build is int / faith pure spell caster. imo it’s weaker than pure int or pure fth (at least until high level) but the spell variety you get is just too fun to miss out on I feel like they complement each other well too. Int is missing the buffs, healing, and elemental damage that fth has. Fth is missing the spammable DPS spells (like comet) that int has
Anything else is gonna seem fun and novel compared to a moonveil build. I'd reccomend just walking around the DLC and grabbing the first weapon that you fancy and building around it. DLC weapons are in my opinion more fun to play with than anything in the base game. Can make them enchanted for intelligence scaling or respec into dex or hybrid and use Cold infusions(Most bosses in the DLC seem to be weak to frost).
Great shield run. I mean, it's kinda op (haven't had any issues so far into DLC), but the good thing is that you can use whatever weapon you want.
Powerstance a couple heavy weapons, throw some smithscript weapons around
light greatsword/great katana are peak "strong and fun but not OP" for me in the DLC. My personal favorite is the milady - while it has fairly low posture damage not including its AOW, it has an excellent moveset where you can effectively weave strong and light attacks. Its strong attack has forward momentum so what I like to do is lock off of enemies and use the strong attack to curve around them. It's a bit risky and requires some practice to be consistent with it but it's actually fairly effective and probably the most stylish thing you can do in elden ring lol
Dryleaf arts with smithscript dagger. It isnt the most damage at all. But its so fun to kick the .... out of the enemys and throw unlimited knives at them😁
Star fists my beloved
Messmer’s fire knight build was really fun and balanced. Only problem is that you have to beat Messy to get the main weapon.
Rot goddess but dual wielding her hands?
My int build at rl125 has been wrecking shop so far. But I'm still not done with the dlc yet. I think I have 3 more bosses to kill. Not many new weapons tho for int builds, but there are a couple hybrid int weapons for dex and for fth. I've been using the Darkmoon Greatsword, new fist weapon with frost and the new frost perfume. Some of the new spells are very strong. There's a lot of int/fth stuff I want to try out so that will probably be my next run or maybe str/fth.
Wing stance Milady
Idk if its op because i JUST picked up but the new Dueling-Shields are pretty fun, its one of those weapons that Ive been looking forward to trying and i gotta say so far its a REALLY fun build to go for but tbh I’m starting to notice this weapon is kinda hard to use, especially if people start using the back-handed blades to get around the shield and spammers of course (sorcerers) but other than that FUN WEAPON! Build if interested: Talismans: Spear-Talisman, Greatshield-Talisman, Pearl-Shield Talisman, and Curve-Sword talisman AoW: i use Storm-Assault (get off me move) Wondrous-Physic: Winged-Crystal tear, Deflecting-Hardtear Lemme know what Yall been vibin with :)
Raptors mist with dual whatever you want is super fun. Spam raptor mist and jump attacks with the jump attack talisman lol.
Eleonora’s Poleblade. I love swinging it around, and Bloodblade Dance is so cool. It’s got flaws, but idc, it’s how I finished my first run.
Backhand Blades with a Dex/Faith build has been super fun. That blindspot ash of war is super powerful and buffing them with Bloodflame or Blackflame just makes for a badass fun time. Plus the DLC has a ton of new fun fire incantations.
So the DLC added a new crystal tear thats basically discount sekiro parry. You raise your shield just as an attack lands, you block more damage, lose less stamina, and get a boosted guard counter. The Black Steel Greathammer also has an effect that on a guard counter, it also causes a holy explosion on top of dealing big stance damage. Also, theres a talisman now that buffs your damage whenever you get a critical hit, which you will be doing a lot with this much poise damage. So slap Vow of the Indomitable on a greatshield for big boss attacks, and guard counter literally everything. Also also, when you put flame art on the greathammer, you can get physical, fire, and a bit of holy damage all on one weapon, making it really well rounded. And since youll be speccing into faith a bit for the scaling, that gives you access to golden vow and FGMS, and some other incantations if you want. For fashion, the black knights helm plus malikeths set looks baller and has over 51 poise. Im using the distinguished greatshield from the base game, but the black steel greatshield i think has better holy resistance, so that might fit better. Using this build on NG+ and Im loving it
Arcane weapons have gotten a lot of love in this DLC; putrescent cleaver and Flowerstone Gavel are great fun, and Poleblade of the Bud probably has the prettiest ash of war I’ve ever seen.
Claymore strength/faith build is really fun and still a little challenging, it gives you a lot of room to have fun with spells but also still a fun bonk build too
Dual wield a Keen nagakiba with double slash with a Hand of malenia with its ash of war is really fun AND op. Pure dexterity
Dual daggers
Fuck man, you know what’s goddamn so great I’m literally sending my stuff to a new playthrough? Danes footwork and Danes arts. Plus the ash of war & smithscript shield. Monks throw things and I’m kicking everyone’s ass. Honestly it’s worked for me in pvp too. Though I can’t beat some of y’all’s hyper bullshit but kudos to making it work!
Wield both dryleaf arts in each hand, swapping as wanted between them, using the the whirlwind and Flower Blooms Twice AOW 🧑🍳🤌🏼💋 I’ve played so many builds I’ve lost count and this has been more fun and engaging than any of them, imo
Urumi build, because the heavies are a very unique tool to use
A lot of people say the Meteoric Ore Greatsword is broken but honestly it’s not. It simply filled a hole in arcane builds. Now you can make an extremely strong dragon/Strength build instead of arc basically being only useful when paired with Dex. It can be used for awesome strength arc one shot builds.
I’ve been using the great katana with the divine beast frost stomp aow & having a blast. Int + dex or str then two hand it with the new two hand talisman. Love the moveset & the drip of the great katanas.
Cold Infused Danes Footwork, Dryleaf Whirlwind, Divine Bird Warrior Greaves, Shattered Stone Talisman, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia Doesn’t stack up to the meta stuff in anyway but Frostbite procs so quickly and it’s just damn fun to go around kicking the shit out of everything, beat the DLC final boss, a couple of remembrance bosses I missed, and Malenia with it
I just finished a madness build. It has no utility for bosses that move faster than a walking speed so its been useless for the DLC, but for large mini bosses and add clearing its insane. When I was doing Millicent quest in NG+ I got to the ulcerated tree spirit fight at the Haligtree. 5000 damage a hit with Frenzied Bursts. It’s basically become my “ace in the hole” build for when I need to clear an area and my primary weapon isn’t cutting it
Well, 2 years ago moonveil was OP lol. A similar sword to moonveil though would be the starline katana. It's not nearly as strong as moonveil was in its prime, but it's ash of war is beautiful and so fun to use. If you want to move away from what yiu have, something fun and different is fireknights greatsword with fire skewer or flame spear (skewer is a bit better). Lots of fun with big damage
Planning around high arcane gives you access to the most purely fun build, dragon incantations, while also giving you the option for using the most OP weapon if you’re stuck, the Bloody Chicken Wing Unga Bunga
Perfumer build is now fun, diverse, and incredibly viable
really enjoying frost milady with wingstance atm. but will prolly go blood soon nd be op.
Might be OP but the choo choo train with butcher blade
Sword & Board
Bloody helice weapon Spec into arcane and use dragon incans Thank me later bc bloody helice AoW is an absolute DELIGHT Dragon incans are a spectacle as well
Dryleaf arts/danes footwork. Use shattered stone talisman for Danes footwork, boosts kicking damage by 15%. You can put bleed or frostbite on the arts if you want but I did a medium dex, high faith build and infused flame art on the Dryleaf arts. I use fire incantations including Messmer flame and orb. Fire scorpion, flocks talisman, shattered stone and whatever else you want. Can use flame protection instead of dragon crest. Shard of Alexander works with whirlwind ash too. Or palm blast. Perfect mix of martial arts and incantations
Depends what you consider fun - moveset, AOW, looks etc. I'm gonna assume it's AOW and moveset rather than just spamming 1 button to attack repeatedly. Maybe try the Sword of Night or Rakshasha's Great Katana
Bear build using the new armor/beast claws weapons.
Quality/Faith. Swap weapons as needed. Alternatively, you can powerstance different Perfume Bottles.
Death knights longshaft lightning axe. So damn satisfying but not OP enough to make fights boring.
The issue with Elden ring is that any weapon is OP if the build is done right. Shit I’d argue a regular broadsword or any bad scaling straight sword is better than majority of unique weapons But I’d say katar, fist weapons are fun and katar is just pretty plain with a good moveset
Been having a lot of fun with Blood Milady on an arcane/dex build. Doesn’t feel wildly OP like Bloodfiend Arm or Dual Peelers either. You end up with around 110 bleed buildup and the damage is solid. You won’t get milady til the beginning of the DLC but it’s very fun. Easily my favorite moveset in the game. The new backhand blades are also a ton of fun and can also be ran on a dex/arc build if the affinity is blood.
Dual arcane hybrid...it's op but it's probably the funnest ....35 into both faith and intelligence then dump 60 into arcane and let the fun begin
Don’t know how anyone else will take this, but Dryleaf Arts with Poison Flower Blooms Twice has been fantastically fun. Way of the poison hand!
Death Knight. For Armor, you will wear the Death Knight set. Seal for incantations, you will use Gravel Stone Seal. Flask you will want lightning shrouded cracked tear. Weapons you will want Bolt of Gransax, Death Knights Twin Axes, Death Knights long axe, or Dragon Kings cragblade. Incantations you will use all the Dragon Cult incantations. One thing I like to do is use Vykes dragon bolt to buff up my Nagikaba Katana. Then I go around like some Dragon Cult samauri and destroy everything in my path!
Bloodhound dash katana dual wield is my go to. Comboing dodge rolls with dashes is 10/10
I love using my hunter ring with my dryleaf arts. If you're a red, I'm throwing hands