Elden Ring Best Builds (2024) | Elden Ring｜Game8 (2024)

This is a list of all the best builds in Elden Ring for 2024. Read on to learn more about the different stats and equipment for each build, as well as see which build is best to use for the Shadow of Erdtree DLC.

Elden Ring Best Builds Tier List

List of Best Builds

Build	Rating and Evaluation
Blasphemous Blade Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	An extremely easy-to-use build that deals a lot of Fire damage due to the number of possible buffs for Taker's Flames. Its lifesteal helps with survivability and the high Faith allows you to pivot to Pest-Thread Spears or Knight's Lightning Spear for bosses not weak to Fire.
Pure Strength Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Pure Strength makes it to S-Tier simply because Cragblade exists. Even without power-stancing weapons, Cragblade and Heavy-infusion ensures you dish out a lot of damage and staggers so long as you're wielding a colossal.
Shield Poke Cheese Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Made popular by the DLC, the Shield Poke build is the answer if you're having a tough time with any of the bosses in the DLC. Pair it with the Deflecting Hardtear and you have a build that can 100% block Physical damage while taking minimal stamina damage.
Strength Arcane Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Unlike regular ARC Bleed builds, STR-ARC builds wield colossal weapons that can either proc Bleed or have amazing ARC scaling. Instead of just Bleed, you also get to chain staggers like a regular STR build which makes a lot of boss fights a breeze.
Arcane Bleed Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	The DLC introduces a lot of possible bonus attack power sources for Bleed, making Bleed even easier to proc than before. This build's only downside is that without decent poise, you will have to look for openings instead of face-trading comfortably like STR-ARC builds can.
Dexterity Intelligence Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Damage is decent, with the build getting really good options with Magic/Frost-infused weapons, the Moonveil, or the DLC's Star-Lined Sword. However, despite the high damage, this build is squishier than others, requiring you to play boss fights perfectly.
Sorcery Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Deals amazing damage against most base game bosses. However, with the nerf to Terra Magica and the hyper-aggressive nature of DLC bosses, the playstyle just isn't viable in the DLC unless you commit to full spellcasting.
Pure Dexterity Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Gets a lot of decent weapon options for dealing Physical, Elemental (Lightning), or Bleed damage. While its damage is decent, the build's playstyle will have nothing too special compared to the nuke and AoW spam builds.
Dexterity Faith Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	DEX-FAITH builds opens your arsenal up to Faith weapons with DEX-scaling. This becomes a bit more viable in the DLC due to the Sword of Light, but overall, it is outclassed by STR-FAITH builds and their weapon variety.
Strength Dexterity Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	A quality build where you invest in STR and DEX equally. Since this build usually prides itself on weapon variety and playstyle versatility, it is perfect for players looking to tackle PvE and PvP.

Blasphemous Blade Pure Faith Build

Despite the knockdown nerf to Taker's Flames, the Blasphemous Blade pure Faith build is still one of the best builds you can use due to the amount of damage buffs you can stack, courtesy of the DLC.

If you can overlook its repetitive gameplay, this build is one of the most consistent builds you can use. As an added bonus, most of the DLC items you need to complete the build will be available without having to kill a boss.

Pure Strength Build

The Pure Strength Build benefits from heavy-hitting weapon types such as Greatswords, Colossal Weapons, and other similar types that scale primarily in Strength.

The challenge however, is that this build requires a lot of Endurance investment. You will have to look for ways to compensate for weight management through either special Talismans or mixing armor.

Best Strength Build Guide

Shield Poke Cheese Build

Anyone struggling with the base game or DLC boss fights can opt to throw in the towel and try out the Shield Poke Cheese Build. True to its name, the build has you safely poke the boss with a Thrusting Weapon of your choice while blocking with a Greatshield.

Strength Arcane Build

The DLC offers a selection of powerful options for Strength Arcane builds in the form of the Bloodfiend's Arm (for Bleed enthusiasts) and the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword (a STR-ARC colossal sword, perfect for Dragon Communion builds).

When gearing up for this hybrid build in base game, you can settle for a Blood-infused Greatsword which demolishes bosses especially when given a stance-breaking Ash of War like Giant Hunt.

Arcane Bleed Build

The Arcane attribute dictates the effectiveness of status buildups such as Bleed. This build prioritizes that along with Dexterity which is often a pair requirement for one of best Arcane weapons in the game such as Rivers of Blood or a Blood-infused Nagakiba.

By investing into Arcane, you will also be able to meet the requirements of several other strong weapons such as Eleonora's Poleblade, and if you decide to make a switch to a Strength and Arcane hybrid, Marais Executioner Sword and Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear.

Dexterity Intelligence Build

The Spell Blade build focuses on close to midrange combat, utilizing weapons that scale well with Intelligence, such as the Dark Moon Greatsword and the Moonveil katana.

With the high investment in Intelligence, this build also has access to different sorcery spells, giving you more options for engagement.

Sorcery Build

This build primarily focuses on pure sorcery, using Staffs and having Intelligence as its main attribute. This is ideal for use in frequent range combat using spells like Comet Azure and with some close-range spells such as Carian Slicer for backup.

This build requires a lot FP management as a tradeoff, making one of the best builds to use with tears like the Cerulean Hidden Tear.

Pure Dexterity Build

This build focuses Dexterity and comes with weapons that are easy and quick to use. Speed and aggression are the name of the game and this build benefits from doing consecutive damage to enemies and bosses.

One of the best weapons that scale of Dexterity is the Nagakiba. Since you will use fast-hitting weapons for this build, having the Winged Sword Insignia and even its stronger version is recommended.

Dexterity Faith Build

The Holy Build prioritizes both Faith and Dexterity. This combines the swift combat of Dexterity-oriented playstyles and the utility of incantations. At close-range, you can engage with quick attacks, and at range, you can use some ranged weapon arts like that of the Halo Scythe and incantations.

You may find some weapon arts to be limited in this build style due to the higher availability of Dexterity and Arcane weapon pairs, so you will still have to play carefully.

Strength Dexterity Build

This is a build that focuses primarily on levelling both Strength and Dexterity to take advantage of weapons that scale from both attributes like Bloodhound's Fang, Stormhawk Axe, and Ghiza's Wheel.

Note that this build will only shine at higher levels, since you will have to balance both core stats that often benefit more when invested pure or paired with other stats at a low level.

When you have not reached the higher levels yet, it is best to invest into a pure stat build first such as all Dexterity for the Bloodhound's Fang or all Strength for Great Stars.

Best Weapon Builds

Build	Rating and Evaluation
Bloodfiend's Arm Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Can deal a lot of damage and Blood Loss buildup when you spam charged heavy attacks. Infuse it with Blood and pair with Cragblade for easy Bleed and stagger procs.
Backhand Blade Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Has a very fast and fluid moveset (perfect for multi-hit builds) and its exclusive Ashes of War are powerful in PvE and PvP.
Fire Knight's Greatsword Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	A colossal sword that has very fast attacks. Very versatile since it handles like a greatsword while having the stance damage of a colossal.
Impenetrable Thorns Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Despite the 1.13 nerf, this build around the spell still does a lot of damage. However, its poor enemy tracking and min-max playstyle make it tricky to use effectively.
Black Steel Greathammer Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Has a very strong Guard Counter effect and can be paired with the Deflecting Hardtear to make timed blocks highly effective. Requires you to unlearn rolls and start using blocks more often.
Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Has amazing STR-ARC scaling. Its ash of war is a great gap closer and burst damage option. Held back by its lack of versatility as a somber weapon.
Obsidian Lamina Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Has a fast and fluid moveset that works well for Bleed builds. However, being able to dodge and counter with Dynastic Sickleplay takes some getting used to.
Milady Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Has an extremely fluid moveset and it can be infused with Bleed or Frost for great burst damage. Its low stance damage is what holds it back from being great.
Rellana's Twin Blades Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Stance attacks are very easy to use and they can deal high damage when spammed. However, its shorter reach makes it a bit worse than other light greatswords.
Greatsword of Radahn (Lord) Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Its ash of war deals a lot of damage if you manage to pull off the whole combo. Excels in PvP due to how relentless the ash of war is when trading at high poise.
Lightning Perfume Bottle Build	Damage:	Ease-of-Use:
	Viable against large bosses when used with Rolling Sparks but it won't allow you to get critical strikes. After the 1.12.3 nerf, this build has little going for it.

Build Creation Tips

Build Around Your Starting Class

Making a build may be easier depending on what starting class you use in Elden Ring since they have a starting fixed stat distribution. For example, having Vagabond with a Strength build in mind will have you worry less in investing into Dexterity for getting some early game weapons.

This is stat distribution will also be the base stats of your character whenever you decide to respec attribute points by offering Larval Tears to Rennala in the Academy of Raya Lucaria.

The Best Starting Classes

Have Enough Vigor and Endurance

Vigor is what you want to prioritize the most to prevent being one-shot killed by bosses and enemies.

In any build, Vigor and Endurance are essential above other stats related to aggression and utility. This is because they:

• Dictate how much punishment you can take before death (Vigor).
• Dictate the equipment (weapons and armor) you can have at different weight loads (Endurance). Medium and Light loads are recommended.
• Dictate how much stamina you can use for dodge rolls, attacks, and other related actions (Endurance).

In short, all of these are related to survival. To ensure that you are the top of your combat performance, also make sure that you live long enough to do so.

Level Mind to Spell and Skill Use

Leveling up Mind means increasing the amount of FP you can use for weapon arts, spells, and even Spirit Ashes. Some of these are expensive FP-wise, so make sure to check if you have a high enough FP capacity to use them.

Levelling Mind Can Be Optional

If your build and playstyle does not require much investment into the above options that require FP, you can ignore investing into this stat and focus on others instead. Similarly, you can focus all of your flask allocation for restoring your HP instead.

Elden Ring Related Guides

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Builds	Starting Classes
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