In Elden Ring, choosing the right stats for your build will determine your play style for most of the game. If you’re looking for the best ones to rule both PvP and PvE in The Lands Between, you’ve come to the right place.
While experienced Souls players may already know exactly what build they’re going to create in Elden Ring, newer players may be overwhelmed and play the game like any other RPG. However, planning your build and sticking to it is important in Elden Ring, as it means you’ll be able to tackle any area and boss the game throws at you.
The starting class you select will help you get the best possible start on a basic build, but you can customize it further after you start leveling up. Here’s a breakdown of how builds work in Elden Ring, and some of the best ones you can use to dominate in PVP and PVE.
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Planning a build in Elden Ring
Rather than pumping all your stats equally or fixating on one stat, it pays to know about soft caps. This is when it makes sense to stop leveling a certain attribute and to start leveling something else. The most significant soft caps kick in at around 50 points, and then you’ll really start to experience diminishing returns.
This will naturally steer players who venture into NG+ and beyond to a point where they can reach the soft cap for every stat. This essentially gives them a balanced build. However, doing this from the start could result in your character becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none.
Therefore, most players choose to prioritize certain stats from the beginning, focusing on what suits their play style. There’s always room to branch out later once you get your character where you initially planned. For your first playthrough though, it’s wise to plan your build from the start.
Which stats should you level?
We’d recommend choosing two offensive stats and prioritizing these in the beginning. It’s also helpful to pick one melee stat (such as Strength or Dexterity) and one magic stat (Intelligence or Faith). This way, you’ll always have multiple options in difficult boss fights.
There’s nothing worse than needing to respec your character just to beat one boss because your build isn’t suited to the battle.
Some stats work well with others, for example, Dexterity works well with Intelligence because it reduces casting time and means you’ll always have ranged and melee attacks at your disposal.
Tank builds usually level Strength, Endurance, and Vigor to make sure their character can wear heavy armor, lift powerful weapons, and withstand lots of damage. Although it’s also useful to invest some points in Faith.
This is because Faith stacks with a lot of melee weapons, and the player can use incantations to buff themselves before combat or to inflict status ailments on their enemies.
If you do select a melee build, be it either Strength or Dexterity, it’s important to make sure you’re using your FP for something. This is a powerful resource, so don’t just ignore it. Put it to work in a way that benefits your build.
Remember, your build is just as much influenced by the items you use as it is by your stats, but certain weapon types complement particular stats. For example, katanas are most suited to Dexterity builds while greatswords work best with Strength.
Best builds in Elden Ring
With the above in mind, here are some of the best builds you can create in Elden Ring:
Bloodthirsty Vampire build
There are several versions of this build online, but our custom Vampire build in Elden Ring was very successful in PVP and PVE. It even made difficult bosses like Fire Giant and Malenia much easier. It won’t be a build you can take full advantage of until later in the game, but we’ll tell you exactly what to do to get it.
To create this build, focus your efforts on leveling Dexterity to around 40 or 50. Make sure you also pump some points into Vigor, Endurance, and Arcane. This will benefit the build later and help keep you alive.
You can largely ignore Strength and Intelligence, but we’d recommend leveling Faith and Mind. This will give you some Incantations to fall back on and the Faith will stack with one of your weapons later.
For armor, we’d advise something light. The Royal Remains set could work well, as not only does it not weigh much, but it offers health regen when you’re low. The grinning skull mask will also make you look like a member of the undead.
However, you can equip Varre’s White Mask to give your bleed damage a boost. This can be farmed from the invaders at the Mausoleum Dynasty. Make sure you do this before killing the boss Mohg though. Otherwise, the invaders will no longer spawn and the item will be lost on that playthrough.
You’ll need two swords to make this build work, one is the Blasphemous Blade, obtained by killing Rykard. The second is Rivers of Blood, obtained by killing Okina when he invades the Church of Repose.
The Blasphemous Blade stacks with Faith mostly, so your points will be well spent. The sword also heals you upon killing enemies. This coupled with Rivers of Blood makes you a true Bloodthirsty Vampire!
This is because Rivers of Blood stacks with Dexterity and inflicts bleed damage. So not only will you be causing your victims to bleed out, but you’ll also be taking their health. In the right hands, these two swords are a dangerous combination.
Be warned, as the Blasphemous Blade is a greatsword and Rivers of Blood is a katana, you won’t be able to dual-wield them like you can with two katanas or two greatswords. In order to ‘power stance’ a weapon in Elden Ring and take advantage of full dual-wielding, both weapons need to be of the same type.
However, you can take advantage of the Blasphemous Blade’s life-sap by having it in your left hand or your back. You’ll still be able to strike with it, but killing things with the katana will have the same effect.
As for Talismans, we’d recommend using Taker’s Cameo, Godskin Swaddling Cloth, Lord of Blood’s Exultation, and the Rotton Winged Sword Insignia. This way you can extract more health from your kills and attacks, as well as inflicting even more damage on subsequent hits.
Miracle Tank build
Another build we had lots of success with was the Miracle Tank, it also provides a lot of flexibility and room to tailor it to your needs. On the surface, the Miracle Tank is the classic Souls knight Strength build, but with added Faith.
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Essentially, the build involves leveling Strength, Vigor, and Endurance to create your standard heavy armor-wearing tank, but to also level Faith. This way, you can buff yourself with incantations and damage enemies from afar.
Finally, we use a weapon with Faith and Strength to do major damage up close while keeping ourselves safe. Dexterity, Intelligence, and Arcane are less important in this build, but we’d recommend not neglecting Mind.
Once again, we used the Blasphemous Blade, although you can use any weapon that stacks with Faith and Strength. Yet we love how that sword not only inflicts fire damage on enemies but heals us too. Its Taker’s Flame ability is also excellent.
You can wear most heavy armor sets, we liked Radahn’s because of its good balance between mobility and protection. You can also switch out the helmet for something like the Rulers Mask if your Faith needs a boost.
To perform incantations, you’ll need a Seal equipped in your left hand. This way you can alternate between those and regular attacks. You can also equip a shield if you like, just be prepared to switch between the two when required.
We used Frenzied Flame incantations with the Seal you’re given by Hyetta for allying with the Three Fingers. This boosted our flame attacks and it worked well with the Blasphemous Blade. We ended up referring to ourselves as the Frenzied Miracle Tank by the end, but any Incantation type will work well.
For Talismans, we equipped the Rotton Winged Sword Insignia, the Green Turtle, the Pearldrake, and the Dragoncrest Greatshield to buff your attacks, stamina, magic, and physical defense. The Two Fingers heirloom can also give a boost to Faith.
Snow Witch build
The Snow Witch is a powerful Intelligence build that makes use of cold and moon sorceries to take advantage of helpful buffs and do massive damage from afar.
Of course, she is a reference to Ranni, so you’ll need her set to take advantage of this build. You can unlock this by playing through her quest and opening a chest in Renna’s Rise. The hat gives a 10% boost to frost magic, so it’s well worth using.
You should also equip the Dark Moon Greatsword which is given as a reward for completing Ranni’s quest. Not only does this stack with Intelligence, but it also does passive cold damage to enemies. For your other hand, equip the Carian Regal Scepter as this will boost your Moon magic.
For your stats, you should pump your Intelligence to around 50 but also work on your Mind and Vigor attributes. A few points into Dexterity and Arcane could also come in handy later. This build doesn’t place much emphasis on Endurance, Strength, or Faith.
Essentially, you’re creating an ice mage that can blast enemies with cold/moon damage from a distance but slice them with the greatsword if they get too close. Try to collect and use cold and moon spells, but don’t neglect your other elements, as some enemies will be resistant.
Fortunately, even with an emphasis on cold spells, your build will still be able to sling other elemental spells and do major damage to those you hit.
You should equip the following Talismans, Dragoncrest Greatshield, the Cerulean Amber Medallion, Ancestral Spirit Horn, and the Stargazer’s Heirloom to boost your defense, FP consumption, and Intelligence.
Rotten Rapiers build
The Rotten Rapiers build involves stacking poison and scarlet rot damage to inflict devastating status effects on enemies in just a few hits. This can be achieved by using the Antspur Rapier along with Rogier’s Rapier while in the power stance.
Rogier’s Rapier should be in your left hand with the Antspur in your right. The latter does native scarlet rot damage, meaning you’ll not need to buff it to inflict that status effect.
Both swords can be fused with any Ash of War, meaning they can be leveled with a variety of stats. However, we’d recommend smithing both weapons with poison and leveling your Arcane and Dexterity stats primarily. Strength, Vigor, Endurance, and Mind are also helpful, but the magic stats are less so for this build.
You can wear any armor you like with this build, but for your helmet, always equip the Mushroom Crown. This will buff your poison and scarlet rot damage once it sets in – which it will, a lot.
You should also wear the Kindred of Rot’s Exultation Talisman. Like the Mushroom Crown, this too will buff your poison and scarlet rot damage. These two items stack and a build with this, Dexterity, and Arcane can be incredibly deadly. Watch as a boss’s health depletes and they are unable to cure either status.
We’d also recommend equipping the Green Turtle and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia Talismans. The choice is yours for your fourth Talisman, however, we’d recommend equipping the Godskin Swaddling Cloth to heal you with each successive stab of your blades.
In NG+ you can add Millicent’s Prosthesis Talisman (provided you helped this NPC the first time around) to raise your dexterity and buff your successive damage even further. You could even switch our Rogier’s Rapier for a second Antspur Rapier if you want to trade some poison damage for more scarlet rot.
This build is devastating in PVE, but less so in PVP where bleed and strength builds are still king.
If you’re looking for more ways to overcome the many difficult challenges in Elden Ring, we’ve got plenty of other guides to help. You can find them by clicking here or clicking the individual links below.
Elden Ring Stonedigger Troll | Elden Ring Margit the Fell Omen | Elden Ring Tree Sentinel | Elden Ring Grave Warden | Elden Ring Pumpkin Head | Elden Ring Soldier of Godrick | Elden Ring Godrick the Grafted | Elden Ring Red Wolf of Redagon | Elden Ring Rennala | Elden Ring Flying Dragon Agheel | Elden Ring horse guide | How to beat Radahn | How to Beat Godfrey
