[Top 5] Elden Ring Best Erdtree Greatsword Builds That Are Powerful

The best greatsword builds that arrived with the new DLC

Updated:

14 Sep 2024

Wielding the Sword of Legends

Having grown up on Bleach, Final Fantasy, and just about every game and show about a character with a giant sword, I'm a huge fan of the Greatsword category. It's one of the most robust weapon groups in Elden Ring, starting with the Greatsword and curved Greatsword categories. Shadow of the Erdtree managed to deliver an even more exciting upgrade to the genre with the inclusion of the new light Greatswords as well and they, are, great. The whole group hits hard and gives us some of the most formidable weapons for any Strength scaling character.

Speaking of Bleach, with the new Great Katanas, and even some of the early Curved Greatswords, we even saw some Ichigo builds pretty early on in the Elden Ring character builds, right up there with Kratos from God of War, and Guts from Berserk. Sadly, these two builds fall into different weapon categories, but we still have plenty that come to use in the new Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion.

Picking the Top 5 Greatsword Builds

What a great sword

Picking the top five Greatsword builds is no easy task, because there were so many to choose from in the original content game. It definitely leaves the player spoiled for choice, and that includes the addition of the Light Greatswords, which give us M,Lady and Rellana's Twin Blades. The Twin Blades in particular are arguably one of the best weapons in the new DLC, giving us an overwhelming skill to dual-wield swords with only one weapon slot, summon fiery AOE, and cut down enemies with precise magic damage.

That said, those are just the tip of the iceberg that we get with the greatsword category. I chose my builds today based heavily on what the DLC has given us, and what it has improved the most upon with its treasure trove of new armors and talismans.

5. M'Lady

After you, M'lady

What is the M'Lady

The M'lady comes to us from several players, and is featured as one of the ultimate new swiss-army build weapons of the DLC. Thanks to its fantastic R2 moveset, the amount of styles that it lends itself to, and the ability to apply itself to multiple armor sets makes it the perfect utility weapon to come in strong on the greatsword list. The M'Lady lends itself to plenty of interesting combos, since it can be used as the ideal weapon for a Stormcaller build, a Sacred Dancer build, or even a Death Knight build.

The M'Lady scales best with Dexterity, and does best with the Keen affinity, which is why we apply it to almost every build except some of the Bleed builds. It's also one of the best builds to trigger hemorrhage in an enemy, which makes it the primary Bleed entry on our top 5. The goal of the build is essentially universally the same. It requires a small parrying shield to parry the enemy, then using its R2 combined with its skills to trigger the best qualities of any build that it lends itself to. Learning the parries can be tricky, but it's worth it for a solid build that can take on any boss.

Playing the M'Lady Pros and Cons

This is a fast weapon with a great heavy attack sequence for damage and stance-breaking.
The M'Lady can be given a large variety of ashes of war and functions really well with a Keen or Blood affinity.
This weapon can lend itself to a wide variety of ways to approach any situation as needed. It does best with Keen affinities, but can lend itself to Sacred, Lightning, Flame, Bleed, Storm, and Magic builds.
This is a build that can lend itself to any play needs, but may require either a lot of points across the board in stats, or a lot of Re-specing throughout the game. That makes it a great all-game build, but is resource heavy.
This is a very skill based weapon, so it may require patience learning the movesets of some enemies to get the hang of the timing, unless the player wants to just lean into the heaviest possible build.

Weapon Loadout

1. M'lady

Requirements: 12 Strength, 17 Dexterity

The M'Lady is one of the first light greatswords that can be picked up in the DLC and it serves as one of the most prolific swiss army weapons out there. We see it using the keen or a blood affinity and being combined with different ashes of war for different uses. The M'Lady lends itself to multiple armor sets depending on the ash of war used for the purpose. The weapon scales well with Dexterity, so at the cap, it is capable of cutting even bosses to ribbons with ease.

Ashes of War:

Sword Dance- Keen Affinity- Dancer's Set- Bloodflame Blade, Sacred Armament, Scholar's Armament, Vyke's Dragonbolt, Blackflame Blade
Blink Bolt-Keen Affinity- Death Knight Set- Vyke's Dragonbolt
Wing Stance- Bleed Affinity- White Mask and Lord of Blood's Exultation
Repeating Thrust- Keen or Bleed Affinity- White Mask and Lord of Bloods Exultation
Stormcaller- Lightning, Bleed, or Keen affinity- Divine Beast Set
Flame Skewer- Keen or Flame affinity-Messmer's Set
Blood Tax-Keen or Bleed affinity- White Mask set

*There are plenty of more ashes of war that can be applied to the M'Lady but this forms a base set at the core of the M'Lady options.

2. Buckler Shield

Requirements: 8 Strength, 13 Dexterity

There are a few good shields to use here, and it really depends on what kind of shield you need for what build when it comes to the M'Lady. The universal standard is the Buckler Shield and that's because it has one of the better parry abilities in the game. Other than that, pick the shield that works for the cause.

If you're hunting suggestions to make building your character faster, Spiralhorn Shield works best for the bleed build with a built in Parry skill, boost of 50 points to robustness, immunity and focus, and it causes bleed on parrying. Pillory Shield increases vitality by 50 points and can be given a parry special ability. The Smoldering shield is the best for fire builds since it comes with a Robustness buff of 30 points and deals fire damage on attacks. It, however, uses a shield bash which means it needs to be paired with the appropriate flame skills to make it work best.

3. Erdtree Seal

Requirements: 40 Faith

The Erdtree seal is usually my go-to seal for any build that puts many points into faith, mostly because it has the best incantation scaling in the game. It also has no weight to the seal which is handy for heavier builds. If you're not keen on the 40 in Faith problem, any seal will do the trick as long as it can enchant M'Lady.

Gear Loadout

Helms

Rakshasa Helm- Increases damage dealt and damage received by 2%
Dancer's Hood- Increases damage from dancing attacks by 2.5%
Divine Beast Helm- Increases Strength, Dexterity, and Storm damage
Messmer's Helm- Boosts Messmer incantations and Fire Knight Skills
Death Knight Helm- Boosts ancient dragon incantations and skills by 2%
White Mask- Increases player attack whenever bleed is triggered in the vicinity

Armor

Rakshasa Armor- Increases damage dealt and damage received by 2%
Dancer's Dress- Increases damage from dancing attacks by 2.5%
Divine Beast armor- Increases Strength, Dexterity, and Storm damage
Messmer's Armor- Boosts Messmer incantations and Fire Knight Skills
Death Knight Armor- Boosts ancient dragon incantations and skills by 2%

Gauntlets

Rakshasa Gauntlets- Increases damage dealt and damage received by 2%
Dancer's Bracelet- Increases damage from dancing attacks by 2.5%
Messmer's Gauntlets- Boosts Messmer incantations and Fire Knight Skills
Death Knight Gauntlets- Boosts ancient dragon incantations and skills by 2%

Greaves

Rakshasa Greaves- Increases damage dealt and damage received by 2%
Dancer's Trousers- Increases damage from dancing attacks by 2.5%
Messmer's Greaves- Boosts Messmer incantations and Fire Knight Skills
Death Knight Greaves- Boosts ancient dragon incantations and skills by 2%

Extra Essentials

Talismans

Millicent's Prosthesis- Boosts dexterity +5 and raises attack power with successive strikes
Ritual Sword Talisman- Boosts attack power 10% at full health
Shard of Alexander- Raises the damage from skills 15%
Two-Headed Green Turtle Talisman- Raises stamina recovery 22.2%
Any Scorpion Charm- Boosts their damage 12% and damage received 10%
Divine Beast Talisman- Boosts all storm damage by 10%
Lord of Blood's Exultation- Boosts damage whenever bleed happens in the area
Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- Boosts damage on consecutive strikes
Godskin Swaddling Cloth- Restores health on successive attacks

Spells

Golden Vow- Increases damage dealt by 15% and reduces damage taken by 10%
Flame, Grant Me Strength – Boosts physical and fire damage by 20%
Bloodflame Blade- Enchants the weapon with the Bloodflame Affinity
Sacred Weapon- Enchants weapon with the sacred affinity
Vyke's Dragonbolt- Enchants the weapon with ancient red dragon lightning

Stats

50-60 Vigor
15-25 Mind
30-35 Endurance
18-25 Strength
80 Dexterity
8-80 Intelligence
25-80 Faith
20-80 Arcane

4. Redmane Gladiator

Are you not entertained?

What is a Redmane Gladiator

Radahn was probably one of the favorite bosses in the base game, and we got a bunch of amazing new lore about him in the DLC. That comes with some of Radahn's soldiers which we can actually talk to in the form of Redmane Freyja. Freyja comes equipped with a great armor set, a shield that we can get from her, and her all important curved Greatsword, the Freyja's Greatsword.

This is an awesome customizable curved greatsword that we can add various ashes of war to, and it's specifically made for old favorites such as the Flames of the Redmanes skill and the Savage Lion's Claw skill. Mix that with the shield and the armor, and we're in the perfect fighting form to build ourselves an all new gladiator or hoplite build to conquer the Shadowlands.