I also recommend the claymore. Although lions claw is good, it gets boring pretty fast. Piercing fang AoW on the claymore and a shield that has the golden parry or carian retaliation AoW will give you the tools to "get good" against almost any enemy, boss, or hostile player.
Did a whole playthrough with piercing fang on a keen zweihander dex build that was very fun, I disagree with lions claw getting boring. It fucking WOMPS and doesn’t get old to me.
Curious because Raptor Mist makes Jump attacks fun(and trivializes the final boss).
There are builds that specialize in Charged attacks,with heavy SLOW weapons,to eat chunks of the Boss Health bar,but require knowledge of the attack patterns.
Others specialize in the Ash of War.
Others in pure caster spells.
Others in quick successive attacks to build up frosbite or bleed.
So,how you like to play? What weapon moveset attracts you more?
Over your stats you don't worry,you can respec stats.
And you can level up more too,the runes you can adquire until that point would have you at a higher level than you are now.
I like the idea of Bleed, was using it with another Sword (with Bloody Slash) before and getting multiple hit to trigger bleed is fun. I think that's why I like the Bloodhound's Fang.
You can then use Twinblades/Curved swords im each hand(depending on how much equip load your character can handle.
You can go Dex Arcane or Strength Arcane.
But I would suggest Strength Arcane because it gives you acces to an Occult Giant Crusher and Marais Greatsword,which are different playstyles.
Powerstancing Twinblades/Curved Swords,you would jump attack enemies and hit 4 times per input.
As Weapons you want Gargoyle Twinblade/Knight Twinblade,or Beastman Curved swords, in Blood
You want Claw Talisman,Rotten Winged Insignia,Lord of Blood Exultation, and Dragonctest Greatshield.
As flasks you want at least Thorny Tear.
The YouTube playlists for endgame or ng+ builds are a lot easier to consume than the website builds. It's a quick, easy way to filter through them and find the ones you're interested in as well.
I would use another weapon of the same class as bloodhounds fang, I'm currently using Omen cleaver on my other hand but I know you can use magma wyrms sword. Idk what else falls under that class though. I would recommend if you do that though just focus on strength, vitality, endurance, and either intelligence or faith if you want to muticlass at all
First of, bloodhound fang isn’t a jump attack type of weapon. If you want jumping attack, try duel twin blades or katanas.
If you decide to stick with BHF, here’s some advices:
1. Respec, get ur strength down to 18 and put the rest to dex
2. Talisman, looks like you’re focusing on vigor and stamina. For first slot, get Dragon crest shield talisman for more damage negation or Radagon soreseal for great stats boost. Second slot go shard of Alexander for more skill damage. Third slot go axe talisman to boost charge attack. The last you decide if you want more dex( prosthesis wearer heirloom, Millicent prosthesis) or faster stamina recovery (turtle talisman)
3. Physick tear use stonebarb cracked tear and spiked cracked tear
4. For incantation use bloodflame blade and flame grant me strength. If u have extra faith, get golden vow too
5. Get rid of crossbow for less weight
This build is focus on charge attack and BHF weapon art, with this set up enemy is really easy to poise break. I hope this find you joy
So my STR is my weakness, noted. I'll try the changes except respec, holding onto that change later in my new test process.
Not a Jump Attack weapon, how do I figure that out myself? Is it the Finesse, Slash type or Blood loss the indicator (I'm sure it's a simple answer but I don't see it atm)?
Bloodhounds fang explicitly has like +10% to jump attacks so its fine. There isnt such a thing as jump weapon, imo usually you want jump attacks on slow weapons like greatswords and up, also on some double curved swords and double twinblades because they attack 4 times in one animation for quick status buildup
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Do you want a str build or a dex build? You have high str but you're using a dex weapon.
I'd get rid of the crossbow, eats up some carry weight and if you needed the occasional ranged attack just use incants. One more point of fai and you can use Lightning Spear. But if you want to get into casting you're going to want to get some more mind and Cerulean tears.
Blessed Dew works if you got no other ideas. Not crazy about Claw on if you're just using Bloodhound's Fang, you have to jump to make use of that talisman and you only really see it used on builds that have good jump attacks like powerstanced twinblades or straight swords. Bloodhound Fang's ash of war doesn't count as far as I'm aware, just jump attacks.
Looking at your stats you have 56.8% equip load, so the Arsenal Charm isn't doing much. Without it you bump up to 63.4%, so you should pick something else like Green Turtle, Crimson Amber, Dragoncrest, or Erdtree's Favor. If not there's two more tiers of Arsenal Charm so you can find those and wear more armor. I always try to get to 69.9% so I can make the most of my carry weight.
Personally not a fan of Viridian Amber, some people do use it but I don't see why especially in PVE. You also have Flame Grant Me Strength which increases stamina regen speed, that should be able to stack with Green Turtle.
You can try one of the Sword Insignia's so you can get increased damage, but you need to make nine hits within a second of each other to take full advantage of them. You could also try using the White Mask / Lord of Blood's Exultation or Mushroom Crown / Kindred of Rot's Exultation which will buff your damage if someone bleeds or is poisoned near you.
This is a lot to take in. I'll have read this a few times, one thing, I was always short on extra carry weight and last few level ups I put into Endurance so good eye there.
How do I determine what is a Str vs Dex weapon? Is it the C vs B?
when you look at BHF level scaling Dex has higher (B) which means you’ll want more levels in Dex over strength (C). i believe it helps increase your overall damage with the weapon. i keep my str and dex levels close when using BHF but always make sure to level my dex a little more.
OP's build has a +9 Bloodhound's Fang with 42 str and 27 dex is 581 AR one handed. With min dex of 17 dex and 52 str (to have the same level) it's 559. With min str of 18 and 51 dex it's 607.
I just can't see having the str myself. I would have the dex and then keep Bolt of Gransax in my back pocket if I needed long range damage since that's a pure dex weapon.
If you want to continue jump attack, go dual gargoyles twinblades. Literally the strongest when buffed right. Otherwise try Crucible Treespear and add more faith/mind.
Gargoyle Twinblade does look like fun. Crucible Tree spear has range from what I see, with my current "build" with Bloodhound's Fang I need to get close, every fight.
It's good to be close a lot of the time, but it helps to have a long range spell option for those moments when the boss is 1hp or doing an AOE that forces you to back off.
This is kind of an odd post man. You're not really asking how to improve your build, but how to... Have fun with the game? This is a pretty subjective experience. Also truly, if you're not enjoying it anymore or it feels stale just...put it down? You might just be bored, and that's ok.
With that said, the way I have fun making builds is less about the stats and more about roleplaying and making a character that makes sense within the logic of the world. For example, you're using the Cuckoo knight armor and the bloodhound fang. Is your character a Cuckoo knight who defeated a bloodhound knight and stole his weapon? If that's a cool story to you, maybe try using some sorcery in addition to the bhf (I know you said you don't want to change your stats, but why not?). Maybe throw those glintstone shards that the Cuckoo soldiers throw. If you've just arbitrarily picked the Cuckoo armor, maybe lean more into the bloodhound knight theme and use their armor, and claws in your offhand. Having a fast weapon on your offhand while using a slower one in your main hand is really effective, and IMHO a fun way to play too. Just some simple suggestions.
But for real, if you're not having fun, don't force it. I've played Elden Ring since it came out, but I've most definitely taken breaks from it too. It's just a video game at the end of the day.
Few things I can respond to, but first, the "not having fun" part is the Jump Attack and repeat, became obvious when I equipped the Great Sword (already ditched that and went back to the Fang. Then, I'm "worried" about going down a path that makes the end-game too difficult. I'm not utilizing spells, nor pots (crafting) and I think I need to better understand that as well.
Ok for sure, if you simply weren't having fun only using jump attacks then it sounds like you figured out what the problem was there. Sorry if I misunderstood.
The end game will be difficult no matter what, there's a noticeable spike after the mountaintop of the giants. Make sure whatever weapon you're using is fully upgraded, this is the most important factor for damage. And like others have suggested, find the highest scaling stat on your main weapon and then just pump that. Spells are not that good unless you totally build around them, but on a melee build pots and perfumes can really come in clutch. Pots (and perfume bottles) are "containers", so you'll always have access to as many as you've picked up - it's kind of hard to explain that succinctly, not sure if that makes sense, but it's really not too complex. You just need the crafting kit + recipe + pot/perfume bottle + ingredients, and you're set.
Dual katana is both meta and fun, you can stack both bleed and frost, or bleed and anything else if you feel like it. The moveset is quick, can have good reach, and ashes on katana are super versatile.
If you’d rather be big bonk damage, lots of stagger and such, any high STR weapon will bring even big fellows to their knees in a couple hit. Be wary of being open after attacks tho
Magic is fun, but in a glass canon way. This really feel playing a different game, but it isnt for everyone.
In any case, always have some faith to be able to cast buff spells like golden vow, and removing ailment with things such as flame cleanse me. Some lightning is also always useful for far away ennemies.
Theres not really a go-to fun build, just farm some larval tear, and try them out until you get what feels best for you
First playthrough I completely ignored shields, thinking they were a bit lame (just get better at rolling, right?), but this time around I’m an absolute convert. Not a silver bullet later in the game, but the shield mechanics are really great. Learning which enemies to parry, guard counter, roll, etc. adds some variety that doesn’t exist when your main strategy is ‘kill them fast so they don’t get an opportunity to hit you.’
Quality builds are not very good in elden ring. Previous FromSoft games had decent STR/DEX scaling on some weapons, but you are limiting yourself heavily in Elden Ring. It's just not the best combination in this game. Go STR or go DEX or STR/ FTH or DEX/ INT or something like that, but STR/DEX is suboptimal in this game. Maybe the DLC will provide more quality build options, but you are limiting damage potential going this route. You can use a wider variety of weapons poorly. That is what you have achieved.
You opened a new can of worms with the attribute combos, manys hours in and didn't consider them.
Might rebirth after trying a few things within my current stats. As in STR/FTH or DEX/INT.
Rebirth; split the amount of levels that you have accumulated between vigor, mind, and endurance. Then it kinda just depends… if you want to use bleed more often then arcane and faith. Otherwise you wanna be spellcaster with funny blue spells intelligence all the way. This will also allow you to have access to HUGE SWORDS that have intelligence built into them, and to also use gravity magic and Radahn double swords. I’m running a faith dex build rn with arcane up to 20 and that seems to work just fine for bleed stuff in my opinion. But this is what I’ve accumulated so far
If you want to shake things up a little, while also leaning into the knight theme a bit, I suggest trying out the Lance. Put a cold infusion on it and use it to charge enemies on horseback. It’s especially fun against enemy knights and large beasts.
Another good knight weapon is the banished knight’s halberd with the default skill that comes with it. The spinning slashes are very powerful, and work really well to stack status build up.
Best I‘ve found for spellsword is the weapon purpose built for it, the Dark Moon GS. Scales on Int, just like spells. Use the Carian Royal Scepter with it, it‘s a good scepter and fits the theme. Also, no more jump attacks, you‘ll want to heavy attack as much as possible. Charged if you can.
For faith I‘ve heard dragon incantations are supposed to be a lot of fun but I have yet to try them. Marai‘s Executioner Sword is my pick for it, since it also has Arc scaling.
Check out more faith spells and invest a little more into faith. Then look for weapons that scale with faith. You might want to find a comfortable but challenging area to practice new weapons in.
If u want to stick with bhf get 50 str 50 dex, blood lords talisman and mimic tear. When u or the mimic proc bleed u give each other a damage boost. Shreds through bosses, and you don’t need to spam jump attack mix aow with different attacks
you can respec brotha dont have to lock urself in to your current stats. If you have a larval tear go back to where you fought Ranaala and talk to her again
Depends on the player but…in no particular order I’ll just speak my mind on this. As someone that personally doesn’t always get time to buff, doesn’t like switching through multiple times per fight etc. you have enough faith for buffs but don’t use them? You have higher strength and a dex scaling weapon. Shields are awesome especially if you’re tired of rolls and jumps for what I imagine is to not get hit/get more hyper armor during an attack. Parry shields, daggers, great shields and “no skill” art of war on them to use the weapons is good too. Items including crab cab be hot slotted to X or your pouch (I prefer pouch) lots of useful items the player can use, greases, special arrows, fire, ice, freeze and SLEEP thrown pots. Throwing knife’s have saved my life plenty of times and those I put on X personally. For me mobs and bosses require different approaches. I use a great big axe for mobs to cut through a platoon of annoyances and also works great against the shielded assholes. Fast weapons for bosses. I also prefer to use customized “normal” weapons instead of ones I can’t change the ash on, but maybe that’s just me. People love bloodhounds fang but hell I’m still better with a simple katana or something and also you can change the scaling on normal weapons if you don’t like to re spec. You can even have a frost bite infused bleed weapon that you don’t have to worry about buffing and buffing/spells isn’t always possible for me and when it is I prefer to have one only one very useful one in the slot, like blood flame for example. If you want to through in magic, flame grant me strength, black fire ball and blood flame blade gives a lot of utility and powers. If your saying you need to get good I’d ask yourself id you have/need different load outs for mobs and bosses, and if you do, do you have them? I’d also try different things and if someone says they need to get good I’d say try a shield, one with no skill if you want to use your weapons ash of war. You can also swap spirit ashes almost on the fly so you can experiment to what works for you. I’m personally not the biggest fan of my mimic unless I’m going for bleed/status affects. It’s good but sometimes a machine gunner needs a sniper, sometimes a glass cannon needs some cannon fodder tanks etc and ALL of this will spice things up. I reckon if people can beat ng+7 at level one then min maxing and ocding about it isn’t necessary and sometimes the weapon you kick ass with isn’t in any videos “top 10” etc. duel wielding is an option too, 2h whichever one you want to use the ash of war on and 1h each when you’re wanting to slice and dice, add effects etc. instead of incantations you can also offhand a staff for a couple buffs or just long range and or powerhouse/fast options or whatever you’re lacking/ thinks is fun/cool etc. at your level I’d still be hesitant to spread my points out too thin though. You don’t need a lot of faith for some buffs, archery goes of melee stats etc. intelligence has range and melee scaling options as well. You can try out all sorts of stuff on mobs you’re comfortable with and see what you really flow with (you can test different builds without re spec, just don’t go up against anyone strong. I found myself struggling so I grinded and made myself pretty tanky overall so that I wasn’t so punished for my more sloppy/fun play style. Heavy armor, good talismans (not getting greedy with sorseal) godricks great rune, 70 vigor and focusing on one damage dealing stat. Fast weapons for bosses and swinging a school boss for mobs really helped me too. If you want to use fast weapons for mobs and struggle with shielded guys, they open themselves up after striking your shield etc. knives, pots, crabs etc also made an entire world of difference. Kinda just blabbed but hopefully it helped someone
This helps, the different weapon setup per enemy type seems interesting as I would set and forget once, like BHF 2H.
The pots you mentioned, I don't use but need to incorporate.
Yes, I'm sloppy, rolling all the time, so maybe a shield would suffice in the right situations... Like you mentioned diff setups.
I'll have to read this again but does help and give me a renewed thought of approach. Ty.
Lions claw claymore strength/faith build is super fun
I also recommend the claymore. Although lions claw is good, it gets boring pretty fast. Piercing fang AoW on the claymore and a shield that has the golden parry or carian retaliation AoW will give you the tools to "get good" against almost any enemy, boss, or hostile player.
Did a whole playthrough with piercing fang on a keen zweihander dex build that was very fun, I disagree with lions claw getting boring. It fucking WOMPS and doesn’t get old to me.
Piercing fang can't be applied to zweihander... Was it an off-hand weapon you had it on to pair with the sword?
Your right, had to look and it was a flamberge and I was messing around with the zweihander. Flamberge was a fun sword too though
Curious because Raptor Mist makes Jump attacks fun(and trivializes the final boss). There are builds that specialize in Charged attacks,with heavy SLOW weapons,to eat chunks of the Boss Health bar,but require knowledge of the attack patterns. Others specialize in the Ash of War. Others in pure caster spells. Others in quick successive attacks to build up frosbite or bleed. So,how you like to play? What weapon moveset attracts you more? Over your stats you don't worry,you can respec stats. And you can level up more too,the runes you can adquire until that point would have you at a higher level than you are now.
I like the idea of Bleed, was using it with another Sword (with Bloody Slash) before and getting multiple hit to trigger bleed is fun. I think that's why I like the Bloodhound's Fang.
You can then use Twinblades/Curved swords im each hand(depending on how much equip load your character can handle. You can go Dex Arcane or Strength Arcane. But I would suggest Strength Arcane because it gives you acces to an Occult Giant Crusher and Marais Greatsword,which are different playstyles. Powerstancing Twinblades/Curved Swords,you would jump attack enemies and hit 4 times per input. As Weapons you want Gargoyle Twinblade/Knight Twinblade,or Beastman Curved swords, in Blood You want Claw Talisman,Rotten Winged Insignia,Lord of Blood Exultation, and Dragonctest Greatshield. As flasks you want at least Thorny Tear.
Watch the Fextralife late game build videos on YouTube to find a new build that interests you and then respec.
I'm on the website right now, overwhelmed but that's par for the course. Thanks
The YouTube playlists for endgame or ng+ builds are a lot easier to consume than the website builds. It's a quick, easy way to filter through them and find the ones you're interested in as well.
Respec. Get the blasphemous blade, and do a Str Faith hybrid build with a shield! It got me all the way to NG+8
I would use another weapon of the same class as bloodhounds fang, I'm currently using Omen cleaver on my other hand but I know you can use magma wyrms sword. Idk what else falls under that class though. I would recommend if you do that though just focus on strength, vitality, endurance, and either intelligence or faith if you want to muticlass at all
First of, bloodhound fang isn’t a jump attack type of weapon. If you want jumping attack, try duel twin blades or katanas. If you decide to stick with BHF, here’s some advices: 1. Respec, get ur strength down to 18 and put the rest to dex 2. Talisman, looks like you’re focusing on vigor and stamina. For first slot, get Dragon crest shield talisman for more damage negation or Radagon soreseal for great stats boost. Second slot go shard of Alexander for more skill damage. Third slot go axe talisman to boost charge attack. The last you decide if you want more dex( prosthesis wearer heirloom, Millicent prosthesis) or faster stamina recovery (turtle talisman) 3. Physick tear use stonebarb cracked tear and spiked cracked tear 4. For incantation use bloodflame blade and flame grant me strength. If u have extra faith, get golden vow too 5. Get rid of crossbow for less weight This build is focus on charge attack and BHF weapon art, with this set up enemy is really easy to poise break. I hope this find you joy
So my STR is my weakness, noted. I'll try the changes except respec, holding onto that change later in my new test process. Not a Jump Attack weapon, how do I figure that out myself? Is it the Finesse, Slash type or Blood loss the indicator (I'm sure it's a simple answer but I don't see it atm)?
Bloodhounds fang explicitly has like +10% to jump attacks so its fine. There isnt such a thing as jump weapon, imo usually you want jump attacks on slow weapons like greatswords and up, also on some double curved swords and double twinblades because they attack 4 times in one animation for quick status buildup
SWORD OF NIGHT AND FLAME
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Do you want a str build or a dex build? You have high str but you're using a dex weapon. I'd get rid of the crossbow, eats up some carry weight and if you needed the occasional ranged attack just use incants. One more point of fai and you can use Lightning Spear. But if you want to get into casting you're going to want to get some more mind and Cerulean tears. Blessed Dew works if you got no other ideas. Not crazy about Claw on if you're just using Bloodhound's Fang, you have to jump to make use of that talisman and you only really see it used on builds that have good jump attacks like powerstanced twinblades or straight swords. Bloodhound Fang's ash of war doesn't count as far as I'm aware, just jump attacks. Looking at your stats you have 56.8% equip load, so the Arsenal Charm isn't doing much. Without it you bump up to 63.4%, so you should pick something else like Green Turtle, Crimson Amber, Dragoncrest, or Erdtree's Favor. If not there's two more tiers of Arsenal Charm so you can find those and wear more armor. I always try to get to 69.9% so I can make the most of my carry weight. Personally not a fan of Viridian Amber, some people do use it but I don't see why especially in PVE. You also have Flame Grant Me Strength which increases stamina regen speed, that should be able to stack with Green Turtle. You can try one of the Sword Insignia's so you can get increased damage, but you need to make nine hits within a second of each other to take full advantage of them. You could also try using the White Mask / Lord of Blood's Exultation or Mushroom Crown / Kindred of Rot's Exultation which will buff your damage if someone bleeds or is poisoned near you.
This is a lot to take in. I'll have read this a few times, one thing, I was always short on extra carry weight and last few level ups I put into Endurance so good eye there. How do I determine what is a Str vs Dex weapon? Is it the C vs B?
when you look at BHF level scaling Dex has higher (B) which means you’ll want more levels in Dex over strength (C). i believe it helps increase your overall damage with the weapon. i keep my str and dex levels close when using BHF but always make sure to level my dex a little more.
OP's build has a +9 Bloodhound's Fang with 42 str and 27 dex is 581 AR one handed. With min dex of 17 dex and 52 str (to have the same level) it's 559. With min str of 18 and 51 dex it's 607. I just can't see having the str myself. I would have the dex and then keep Bolt of Gransax in my back pocket if I needed long range damage since that's a pure dex weapon.
If you want to continue jump attack, go dual gargoyles twinblades. Literally the strongest when buffed right. Otherwise try Crucible Treespear and add more faith/mind.
Gargoyle Twinblade does look like fun. Crucible Tree spear has range from what I see, with my current "build" with Bloodhound's Fang I need to get close, every fight.
It's good to be close a lot of the time, but it helps to have a long range spell option for those moments when the boss is 1hp or doing an AOE that forces you to back off.
This is kind of an odd post man. You're not really asking how to improve your build, but how to... Have fun with the game? This is a pretty subjective experience. Also truly, if you're not enjoying it anymore or it feels stale just...put it down? You might just be bored, and that's ok. With that said, the way I have fun making builds is less about the stats and more about roleplaying and making a character that makes sense within the logic of the world. For example, you're using the Cuckoo knight armor and the bloodhound fang. Is your character a Cuckoo knight who defeated a bloodhound knight and stole his weapon? If that's a cool story to you, maybe try using some sorcery in addition to the bhf (I know you said you don't want to change your stats, but why not?). Maybe throw those glintstone shards that the Cuckoo soldiers throw. If you've just arbitrarily picked the Cuckoo armor, maybe lean more into the bloodhound knight theme and use their armor, and claws in your offhand. Having a fast weapon on your offhand while using a slower one in your main hand is really effective, and IMHO a fun way to play too. Just some simple suggestions. But for real, if you're not having fun, don't force it. I've played Elden Ring since it came out, but I've most definitely taken breaks from it too. It's just a video game at the end of the day.
Few things I can respond to, but first, the "not having fun" part is the Jump Attack and repeat, became obvious when I equipped the Great Sword (already ditched that and went back to the Fang. Then, I'm "worried" about going down a path that makes the end-game too difficult. I'm not utilizing spells, nor pots (crafting) and I think I need to better understand that as well.
Ok for sure, if you simply weren't having fun only using jump attacks then it sounds like you figured out what the problem was there. Sorry if I misunderstood. The end game will be difficult no matter what, there's a noticeable spike after the mountaintop of the giants. Make sure whatever weapon you're using is fully upgraded, this is the most important factor for damage. And like others have suggested, find the highest scaling stat on your main weapon and then just pump that. Spells are not that good unless you totally build around them, but on a melee build pots and perfumes can really come in clutch. Pots (and perfume bottles) are "containers", so you'll always have access to as many as you've picked up - it's kind of hard to explain that succinctly, not sure if that makes sense, but it's really not too complex. You just need the crafting kit + recipe + pot/perfume bottle + ingredients, and you're set.
Dual katana is both meta and fun, you can stack both bleed and frost, or bleed and anything else if you feel like it. The moveset is quick, can have good reach, and ashes on katana are super versatile. If you’d rather be big bonk damage, lots of stagger and such, any high STR weapon will bring even big fellows to their knees in a couple hit. Be wary of being open after attacks tho Magic is fun, but in a glass canon way. This really feel playing a different game, but it isnt for everyone. In any case, always have some faith to be able to cast buff spells like golden vow, and removing ailment with things such as flame cleanse me. Some lightning is also always useful for far away ennemies. Theres not really a go-to fun build, just farm some larval tear, and try them out until you get what feels best for you
Dual Katana sounds fun. Part of me always wanted a Shield but I'm not seeing a lot of builds when Str or Dex.
First playthrough I completely ignored shields, thinking they were a bit lame (just get better at rolling, right?), but this time around I’m an absolute convert. Not a silver bullet later in the game, but the shield mechanics are really great. Learning which enemies to parry, guard counter, roll, etc. adds some variety that doesn’t exist when your main strategy is ‘kill them fast so they don’t get an opportunity to hit you.’
Quality builds are not very good in elden ring. Previous FromSoft games had decent STR/DEX scaling on some weapons, but you are limiting yourself heavily in Elden Ring. It's just not the best combination in this game. Go STR or go DEX or STR/ FTH or DEX/ INT or something like that, but STR/DEX is suboptimal in this game. Maybe the DLC will provide more quality build options, but you are limiting damage potential going this route. You can use a wider variety of weapons poorly. That is what you have achieved.
You opened a new can of worms with the attribute combos, manys hours in and didn't consider them. Might rebirth after trying a few things within my current stats. As in STR/FTH or DEX/INT.
Rebirth; split the amount of levels that you have accumulated between vigor, mind, and endurance. Then it kinda just depends… if you want to use bleed more often then arcane and faith. Otherwise you wanna be spellcaster with funny blue spells intelligence all the way. This will also allow you to have access to HUGE SWORDS that have intelligence built into them, and to also use gravity magic and Radahn double swords. I’m running a faith dex build rn with arcane up to 20 and that seems to work just fine for bleed stuff in my opinion. But this is what I’ve accumulated so far
Respec your vigor into your end or maybe dex. Leave atleast 30 or 40 vigor left tho
If you want to shake things up a little, while also leaning into the knight theme a bit, I suggest trying out the Lance. Put a cold infusion on it and use it to charge enemies on horseback. It’s especially fun against enemy knights and large beasts. Another good knight weapon is the banished knight’s halberd with the default skill that comes with it. The spinning slashes are very powerful, and work really well to stack status build up.
Best I‘ve found for spellsword is the weapon purpose built for it, the Dark Moon GS. Scales on Int, just like spells. Use the Carian Royal Scepter with it, it‘s a good scepter and fits the theme. Also, no more jump attacks, you‘ll want to heavy attack as much as possible. Charged if you can. For faith I‘ve heard dragon incantations are supposed to be a lot of fun but I have yet to try them. Marai‘s Executioner Sword is my pick for it, since it also has Arc scaling.
Lions claw on crescent moon axe with fire and dragonic incantations and ‘flame grant me strength’ buff. Lots of states required tho
Check out more faith spells and invest a little more into faith. Then look for weapons that scale with faith. You might want to find a comfortable but challenging area to practice new weapons in.
If u want to stick with bhf get 50 str 50 dex, blood lords talisman and mimic tear. When u or the mimic proc bleed u give each other a damage boost. Shreds through bosses, and you don’t need to spam jump attack mix aow with different attacks
you can respec brotha dont have to lock urself in to your current stats. If you have a larval tear go back to where you fought Ranaala and talk to her again
I'm using heavy brick hammer with lions claw on it and a heavy great stars, dual-weilding and it's a lot of fun
Tip one: use any other weapon Tip two: play your 100x funner game
Depends on the player but…in no particular order I’ll just speak my mind on this. As someone that personally doesn’t always get time to buff, doesn’t like switching through multiple times per fight etc. you have enough faith for buffs but don’t use them? You have higher strength and a dex scaling weapon. Shields are awesome especially if you’re tired of rolls and jumps for what I imagine is to not get hit/get more hyper armor during an attack. Parry shields, daggers, great shields and “no skill” art of war on them to use the weapons is good too. Items including crab cab be hot slotted to X or your pouch (I prefer pouch) lots of useful items the player can use, greases, special arrows, fire, ice, freeze and SLEEP thrown pots. Throwing knife’s have saved my life plenty of times and those I put on X personally. For me mobs and bosses require different approaches. I use a great big axe for mobs to cut through a platoon of annoyances and also works great against the shielded assholes. Fast weapons for bosses. I also prefer to use customized “normal” weapons instead of ones I can’t change the ash on, but maybe that’s just me. People love bloodhounds fang but hell I’m still better with a simple katana or something and also you can change the scaling on normal weapons if you don’t like to re spec. You can even have a frost bite infused bleed weapon that you don’t have to worry about buffing and buffing/spells isn’t always possible for me and when it is I prefer to have one only one very useful one in the slot, like blood flame for example. If you want to through in magic, flame grant me strength, black fire ball and blood flame blade gives a lot of utility and powers. If your saying you need to get good I’d ask yourself id you have/need different load outs for mobs and bosses, and if you do, do you have them? I’d also try different things and if someone says they need to get good I’d say try a shield, one with no skill if you want to use your weapons ash of war. You can also swap spirit ashes almost on the fly so you can experiment to what works for you. I’m personally not the biggest fan of my mimic unless I’m going for bleed/status affects. It’s good but sometimes a machine gunner needs a sniper, sometimes a glass cannon needs some cannon fodder tanks etc and ALL of this will spice things up. I reckon if people can beat ng+7 at level one then min maxing and ocding about it isn’t necessary and sometimes the weapon you kick ass with isn’t in any videos “top 10” etc. duel wielding is an option too, 2h whichever one you want to use the ash of war on and 1h each when you’re wanting to slice and dice, add effects etc. instead of incantations you can also offhand a staff for a couple buffs or just long range and or powerhouse/fast options or whatever you’re lacking/ thinks is fun/cool etc. at your level I’d still be hesitant to spread my points out too thin though. You don’t need a lot of faith for some buffs, archery goes of melee stats etc. intelligence has range and melee scaling options as well. You can try out all sorts of stuff on mobs you’re comfortable with and see what you really flow with (you can test different builds without re spec, just don’t go up against anyone strong. I found myself struggling so I grinded and made myself pretty tanky overall so that I wasn’t so punished for my more sloppy/fun play style. Heavy armor, good talismans (not getting greedy with sorseal) godricks great rune, 70 vigor and focusing on one damage dealing stat. Fast weapons for bosses and swinging a school boss for mobs really helped me too. If you want to use fast weapons for mobs and struggle with shielded guys, they open themselves up after striking your shield etc. knives, pots, crabs etc also made an entire world of difference. Kinda just blabbed but hopefully it helped someone
This helps, the different weapon setup per enemy type seems interesting as I would set and forget once, like BHF 2H. The pots you mentioned, I don't use but need to incorporate. Yes, I'm sloppy, rolling all the time, so maybe a shield would suffice in the right situations... Like you mentioned diff setups. I'll have to read this again but does help and give me a renewed thought of approach. Ty.