![[Top 5] Paladin Builds that are Powerful in Elden Ring (Up to level 200 in NG+) Best Paladin Builds Elden Ring](/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_image_600xauto/public/2024-07/paladin-headline-article-image.jpg?itok=9IsfHuaE)
The Tarnished Paladins
The Lands Between are a vast territory of powerful enemies and fallen gods on the way to the Elden Throne. But even in the squabbling fighting in a godforsaken land there are still a few Tarnished faithful. The Paladins are a strong way to play Elden Ring that rely on great incantations and blessings from the Erdtree to lay enemies low.
Building your Paladin to fit you:
Every Build has some kind of stat set that it likes to focus on and for the Paladins that's traditionally a Strength and Faith combination. They rely heavily on incantations to build up their combat or to heal, so faith is a big deal in every paladin build. Strength makes for a powerful weapon, and endurance builds up the durability of the warrior in a fight.
Paladins are pretty much your standard sword and board class so with those stats in mind, it's pretty easy to lean into the sword and board because so many of the best shields scale with strength and dexterity. Not only that, but when you get into it, some of the best weapons in the game fall into the sword and board category so this is a fun way to really get into Elden Ring the good old fashioned way, like a Hero or a Paladin of the realm.
Almost every Paladin build will have Golden Vow in their spell slot, but after that it really varies depending on what you're going for. There are plenty of options to really charge into battle and have a lot of fun playing the part of a holy knight. Paladins are a fun build and a central classic theme to any Fantasy RPG playstyle.
Ranking the Top 5 Paladins
5: Perfect Paladin
![Body Image](/sites/default/files/authors/u176350/perfect-paladin-article-image-2.jpeg)
Upholding the Sacred Order
The Perfect Paladin is originally a build inspired by the Noble Swordsman and the Perfect Paladin builds by Fextralife. Paladins are a powerful type of fighter that relies on their holy faith and this build is no different. It makes full use of the incantations that can be found all over the map and the prayer books.
The Build for this one is as traditional as the player can get with a high focus on Faith and Strength with some put into Dexterity and Intelligence, There will be a more even point spread than other builds, but that’s just because this build meets the base stat requirements for a larger group of needs than the other builds which get more inventive with a specialized play style.
Why this build is good:
- This is a swiss army build and it gets the job done. Since it's a jack of all trades, it doesn't really bring it home on any one skill, but it can make use of anything in a pinch. This may mean spending more time around a Site of Grace while you’re tweaking your spell lists, but this build will make sure that you’ve got a solution tucked away.
- This build is also good because of the fact that it is self correcting. Some builds tend to just hope for the best in the skills that they pump up but in this case the player can put a little bit more focus into making sure that they’re able to handle each boss without changing too much of their playstyle.
- This is a build that can be started as early as Limgrave in the original playthrough. The Lordsworn’s Straight Sword and Noble's Slender Sword can be found early on and they can be used and pumped up most of the game until the player gets into their better weapons. But since this is a build that focuses on enchantment and Holy damage, there are plenty of ways to start this build much earlier than the usual NG+ needs of other builds
Gear Loadout:
Primary Weapons:
Miquellan Knight's Sword
- Physical 105, 68 Holy
- Requirements 11 Strength, 11 Dexterity, 16 Faith
The Miquellan Knight's Sword was the original sword for the Fextralife Perfect Paladin build, and it does a really good job for a weapon here too.
Night Rider Glaive
- Physical 129
- Requires: 26 Strength, 10 Dexterity
This weapon has the ability spinning slash which means that it can be enchanted with Vykes Dragonbolt or electrify armament. Vykes Dragonbolt gives us an 35% increase to equip load, which is never a bad thing
Nobles Slender Sword
- Physical 101
- Requirements: 8 Strength, 11 Dexterity
This weapon is a jack of all trades sword and is one of the longest and most useful in the game. It can also be enchanted with just about anything which makes it good for any situation so long as the player has prepared right and set their skills and affinities right.
Secondary Hand:
Erdtree Seal
- Requirements: 40 Faith
The Erdtree seal is a great seal and scales with incantation well. For this build we really like our faith so this seal helps us with a lot of our faster casting.
Eclipse Crest Greatshield
- Requirements 32 Strength
This shield is a powerful greatshield that can guard the character while making bigger attacks or taking on other foes. It also gives a flat buff of 50 to Robustness, Focus, and Immunity.
Jellyfish Shield
- Requirements: 20 Strength, 14 Dexterity
This is the best shield for this build since the player can enchant their armament with their seal, then switch to their shield and buff up the damage even more with contagious fury. This is also the lightest greatshield in the game and it offsets some of the heavier armor options.
Armor Loadout:
Helms:
- Consorts Headpiece
- Okina Mask
- Haligtree Knight Helm
- Maliketh's Helm
Armor:
- Maliketh's Armor
- Haligtree Armor
Gauntlets:
- Maliketh's Gauntlets
- Haligtree Gauntlets
Legs:
- Maliketh's Greaves
- Haligtree Greaves
Extra Essentials:
Talismans:
- Shard of Alexander – increases the power of skills 15%
- Bull-Goat's Talisman- Boosts poise 33%
- Great-Jar's Arsenal- Greatly increases maximum equip load
- Sacred's Scorpion Charm- Greatly increases holy damage
- Lightning Scorpion Charm- Greatly increases lightning damage
- Curved Sword Talisman- Increases your block counter damage by 20%
- Green Turtle Talisman- Increases Stamina recovery rate
Spells and Incantations:
- Golden Vow- Increases Physical Damage by 15% and Damage negation by 10% (25 Faith)
- Flame, Grant Me Strength- Boosts physical and fire damage by 20% (15 Faith)
- Vykes Dragonbolt- electrifies the body and right armament with red lightning while increasing the equip load.
- Electrify Armament- electrifies the right hand armament with lightning damage.
- Great Heal- restores a substantial amount of health (15 Faith)
- Wrath of Gold- inflicts an AOE of gold damage that staggers and throws back smaller enemies (32 Faith)
- Radagon's Rings of Light- produces several rings of light that deal a large area of damage around the caster (31 Intelligence,31 Faith)
- Poison Armament- Poisons the right hand armament (10 Faith)
- Bloodflame Blade- Enchants the right hand weapon with bloodflame (12 Faith, 10 Arcane)
- Blessing of the Erdtree- Regenerates a portion of health over time and can be combined with Royal Remains Armor (38 Faith)
Stats:
- 50 Vigor
- 25-33 Mind
- 30-35 Endurance
- 40-60 Strength
- 25-30 Dexterity
- 30-35 Intelligence
- 45-65 Faith
- 9-18 Arcane
Build Credits:
Perfect Paladin by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-guide-perfect-paladin/
Crusader by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-advanced-paladin-guide-crusader/
Templar by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/midgame-faith-build/
Noble Swordsman by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-straight-sword-build-noble-swordsman-guide/
4. Lightning Dragoon
![Body Image](/sites/default/files/authors/u176350/lightning-lancer-article-image.jpg)
Smite the Enemy
This build is made to smite enemies with the power of holy lightning and leaving nothing to stand in your way. Lightning is one of the most devastating elemental powers in the incantations and it can one shot most trash mobs with the right spell when it is used. That doesn’t make lightning the ultimate, but it is one of the most powerful and the least guarded against with the most variety of spell choices in the incantation list.
The Important stats for this build are going to be a spread range of Faith, Dexterity, and Strength. Dexterity is a big deal for using weapons like the Bolt of Gransax which is going to be the main weapon for this playstyle. And really? This build is about the Bolt of Gransax and any other lightning damage that can be hurled at the enemy.
The build does need a high faith count, sitting at least at a 45 although I would crank it up to 65 just for the scaling and the incantation speed. The build focuses around Bolt of Grandsax, but there are also a lot of alternate weapons that need strength, and a lot of the best shields for this build scale with strength as well. It's good to fill out the ratio between those three and go for the damage.
Why this build is good:
- Lightning Damage is probably one of the more powerful elements in Elden Ring and they make some pretty tough builds around it. It's not well guarded against Fire or Holy, and it can be buffed up quite a bit depending on how the player spreads out their stats.
- This build makes good use of range and close fighting, between the Lightning Strikes and the Lightning Spears it takes care of the mid range pretty well. And at close range, your main spear is still a good weapon. If you don't want that, Vyke's Dragonbolt and Electrify Armament both can buff up any weapon of your choice that can be enchanted.
- One of the good things about having any kind of build that uses enchantments on the weapon is that you can choose how you play a lot more carefully. Anything that can be enchanted in the right hand is going to get some real power added to it, and that makes it very adaptable.
- Lightning Spells in this game can be fairly useful in clearing out trash mobs quickly. This is always useful in farming runes or trying to complete some task in the NG+
Gear Loadout:
Picking your Primary Weapon:
Bolt of Gransax
- Requirements 20 Strength, 40 Dexterity
Bolt of Gransax is probably considered the best lightning weapon in the game and it has its own built in range damage. It's a little slow in the melee aspect, but that's what makes weapons like Dragon Halberd so nice to use when we need them.
Gravel Stone Seal
- Requirements: 4 Strength, 18 Faith
Gravel Stone Seal boosts Dragon Cult Incantations so it buffs a lot of the spells in the arsenal. It does have weight to it but it still gives a lot of benefits to this build to make it worth carrying.
Dragon Halberd
- Requirements: 22 Strength, 10 Dexterity
Dragon Halberd makes the list because Halberds can be pretty powerful and this one does both Lightning and Ice damage. It also fits into the stat specs for the build so it makes it a useful alternative if you want to keep your spell slots reserved for range and focus on using the abilities of your weapons up close.
Secondary Hand:
Erdtree Seal
- Requirements: 40 Faith
Erdtree Seal is one of the best seals in the game and it really scales well in general. Since there are a lot of opportunities to use incantations and offensive magic in this build it never hurts to have a Seal in each hand that can hammer the enemy.
Icon Shield
- Requirements: 22 Strength
The Reason the Icon Shield Made the list is because it is a greatshield with amazing protection, it stacks with Royal Remains and other spells, and it has a passive HP regeneration. It also has a no skill slot for the shield which means it can be carried while using your other weapons and give you access to your abilities. There are other greatshields that can be used but this is just one of the nice ones that gives you some passive healing.
Armor Loadout:
Helms:
- Royal Remains Helm
- Malikeths Helm
- Radahn's Helm
Armor:
- Royal Remains Armor
- Maliketh's Armor
- Radahn's Amor
Gauntlets:
- Royal Remains Gauntlets
- Maliketh's Gauntlets
- Radahn's Gauntlets
Legs:
- Royal Remains Greaves
- Maliketh's Greaves
- Radahn's Greaves
Extra Essentials:
Talismans:
Old Lord's Talisman- increases the duration of spells
Radagon Icon- Reduces spellcasting time
Flocks Canvas Talisman- Increases the potency of incantations
Lightning Scorpion Charm- Increases lightning damage by 15%
Dragon Greatshield Talisman- reduces physical damage taken by 20%
Carian Filigreed Crest- Reduces the casting cost of spells
Radagon Soreseal- greatly raises attributes
Shard of Alexander- Increases the damage of skills by 15%
Spells and Incantations:
- Golden Vow- Increases damage by 15% and damage negation by 10% (25 Faith)
- Great Heal- Restores a portion of health depending on the spell (15 Faith)
- Lightning Strike- summons a clash of lightning bolts that can damage multiple enemies (28 Faith)
- Lightning Spear- creates a powerful spear made from lightning to hurl at the enemies (17 Faith)
- Frozen Lightning Spear- creates powerful spears that do lightning and frostbite damage (34 Faith)
- Vykes Dragonbolt- enchants the body and the right hand weapon with red lightning while also increasing the equip load. (23 Faith)
- Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike- summons red lightning to wipe out multiple enemies (26 Faith)
Stat requirements:
- 50 Vigor
- 40-50 Mind
- 25-30 Endurance
- 25-45 Strength
- 12-25 Dexterity
- 16-25 Intelligence
- 65-80 Faith
- 9-15 Arcane
Build Credits:
Lightning Dragoon by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-bolt-of-gransax-build-lightning-dragoon-guide/
Lightning Lancer by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-treespear-build-lightning-lancer-midgame-guide/
Secret Red Lightning by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-faith-build-guide-red-lightning/
3. Iceflame Paladin
![Body Image](/sites/default/files/authors/u176350/cold-paladin-article-image.jpg)
The Song of Fire and Ice
If you look at just about any top rankings listing for builds and skills, something with Frostbite will probably be mixed in somewhere on that list for Elden Ring. It's just that good of a build. Frostbite has all the benefits of what makes bleed good because when it triggers it takes a big chunk of the health bar, then makes them more vulnerable to other attacks for a while.
The name of the game for this build is literally a fire and ice approach. The player tries to use weapons like the Zamor sword or the Nightrider flail to trigger frostbite, this does the damage and then the player triggers Fire of Sin or another flame spell to hit the enemy and remove the frostbite. The player is then free to trigger frostbite again and keep chipping away at their health bar until they perish.
Most Paladin builds are meant to be Faith and Strength builds, but they also follow a good sword and board theme that focuses on a blend of using incantations and melee. Frostbite almost always goes hand in hand with lightning or magic damage so there's plenty of potential there but it also ends up meaning that putting a lot of points into intelligence might be a thing just for the damage and spellcasting speeds.
Faith also needs to be decently high in this build because we want to have access to all the good buffs and late game frostbite and fire incantations. This gives us access to Borealis Mist, any of the Fire Giant incantations, and the Erdtree Seal which is a great scaling seal.
Whether you put more points into Dexterity or Strength will really depend on the weapons and armor that you choose for this build. There are plenty of good weapons on either side, or that need both to really get this build going. This includes Zamor's Curved Sword and Death's Poker which are two of the best weapons for this build.
Why this build is good:
- Frostbite is one of the better status effects in the game if you can get it to trigger because it weakens the opponent to damage being done. If it could be set off as easily back to back at bleed could be, it might even make the top of the list. But Frostbite does have a period that it applies to so it can't be triggered as easily nonstop. It can still be done with a Fire and Ice Build, but it's more steps for the same trick which is how it ended up lower on the list.
- Frostbite isn't just great because it takes a big chunk from the enemy health bar. It's also good because it makes the enemies weaker to other attacks. Depending on the attack you're trying to get to do damage, having your enemy vulnerable might actually be better than trying to trigger the damage loss over and over.
- Fire enemies are resistant to Frostbite since fire can immediately remove the frostbite. That doesn't mean that the effect can be triggered against them, and even if frostbite is going to struggle against some of the enemies in this game, frostbite is almost always hybrid to some kind of spellsword build that can get the
Gear Loadout:
Picking your Primary Weapon:
Main Weapon- Cleanrot Knight's Sword
- Physical 109
- Requirements 11 Strength, 13 Dexterity
This Weapon can be infused with Chilling Mist, or given a cold affinity to cause plenty of cold buildup on a skill like Repeating Thrust., and it can also be given frozen Armament enchantments. This is the longest of the normal swords and it does a great job in carving up the enemies.
Cold Nightrider's Flail
- Physical 115, Bleed Build Up 50
- Requirements 10 Strength, 24 Dexterity
This weapon is given a cold affinity and the Stormcaller ash of war. The Nightrider's Flail is one of the best flails in the game and does a good amount of damage that sets off frost fast. It can also be given the Chilling Mist ash of war but the Stormcaller ash builds up a good amount of damage and can also set off talismans like Rotten Winged Sword Insignia
Zamor Curved Sword
- Physical 125
- Requirements: 16 Strength, 18 Dexterity
This weapon has a very fluid move set and it also uses the Zamor Ice Storm ability as an Ash of War instead of a Sorcery. Since this is a Paladin build, we like having access to all the cold powers we can get and this is a good one.
Death's Poker
- Physical 123, Magic 36
- Requirements: 15 Strength, 17 Dexterity, 11 Intelligence
This weapon is good for the Ghostflame Ignition skill which does magic damage and frostbite buildup. It scales well in all the stats needed for this build and offers a great sword option for the paladin build. There are other sword options that are also effective for the Paladin build, but this one gets a little bit of benefit from all the stats and all the damages this type of build has to offer.
Secondary Hand:
Carian Knight Shield
- Requirements: 10 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 15 Intelligence
This is just a good medium shield for magic players and it offers a good amount of protection while giving the player the no skill feature to highlight their weapon.
Jellyfish Shield
- Requirements: 20 Strength, 14 Dexterity
Jellyfish Shield is great because it boosts all damage by 20% for 30 seconds, and it offers one of the lightest greatshields in the game with some of the best protection. Being able to freeze your enemy, then pump up your attacks and hit hard is a great strategy for a cold player.
Eclipse Crest Greatshield
- Requirements: 32 Strength
This shield is good because it comes with no ashes of war. That makes it great to pair with any weapon because that gives full focus to the skills that cause frostbite. But it's also a greatshield which gives better defense and it gives a boost of 50 to Immunity, Robustness, and Focus.
Giant's Seal
- Requirements: 40 Faith
Usually I like seals that weigh 0.0 on heavier builds but this build benefits from boosting fire spells so the Giant's Seal is the weight to go. It boosts incantations from fire monks and giant fire spells, which opens up a range of options for ways to light your chilly enemy on fire and make it hurt more.
Armor Loadout:
Helms:
- Queen's Crescent Crown- +3 to intelligence
- Silver Tear Mask- +8 to arcane
- Sanguine Noble Hood- An Aesthetic lightweight choice
- Spellblade's Traveling Hat- adds 2% to magic and frostbite
- Royal Remains Helm- Slowly replenishes hp when health is reduced and prevents death from skills like Fire's Deadly Sing
Armor:
- Fingerprint Armor- Armor with good poise
- Zamor Armor- Good for the Zamor aesthetic and being a good medium weight armor to balance out equip load
- Spellblade's Traveling Attire- Boosts magic and frostbite by 2%
- Royal Remains Armor- Slowly replenishes hp when health is reduced and prevents death from skills like Fire's Deadly Sing
Gauntlets:
- Fingerprint Gauntlets- An armor set with good poise
- Zamor Bracelets- Good for the Zamor aesthetic and being a medium weight armor to balance out the equip load
- Spellblade's Gloves- Boosts magic and frostbite by 2%
- Royal Remains Gauntlets- Slowly replenishes hp when health is reduced and prevents death from skills like Fire's Deadly Sing
Legs:
- Fingerprint Greaves- An armor set with good poise
- Zamor Wraps- good for the Zamor aesthetic and being a medium weight armor to balance out the equip load
- Spellblade's Trousers- Adds 2% to magic and frostbite
- Royal Remains Greaves- Slowly replenishes hp when health is reduced and prevents death from skills like Fire's Deadly Sing
Extra Essentials:
Talismans:
- Shard of Alexander- increases the damage of skills by 15%
- Bull Goat Talisman- Increases poise by 33%
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman- reduces physical damage taken by 20%
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- increases damage with consecutive attacks
- Assassin's Cerulean Dagger- critical attacks restore fp
- Curved Sword Talisman- Increases damage on successive strikes
Spells and Incantations:
- Borealis's Mist- A spell that deals a large amount of damage and frostbite buildup (23 Faith, 15 Arcane)
- Golden Vow- Increases damage by 15% and damage reduction by 10% (25 Faith)
- Flame, Grant me Strength- Increases physical and fire damage but by 20% (15 Faith)
- Frozen Lightning Spear- a spell that produces a spear that deals lightning and frostbite damage (34 Faith)
- Fire's Deadly Sin- A spell that sets self and the area aflame (19 Faith)
- Surge, O Flame- spell that incinerates area before the caster (9 Faith)
Stats:
- 50 Vigor
- 30 Mind
- 25-30 Endurance
- 40-45 Strength
- 40-45 Dexterity
- 25-40 Intelligence
- 25-45 Faith
- 9-12 Arcane
Build Credits:
Coldstorm Cleric by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-coldstorm-cleric-guide-all-game-build/
Frost Paladin by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-zamor-curved-sword-build-guide-frost-paladin/
Ghostblade by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-deaths-poker-build-guide-ghostblade/
2. The Blood Knight
![Body Image](/sites/default/files/authors/u176350/bloody-paladin-article-image.jpg)
Blades of Blood
Even the Paladins have a bleed build that can deal a good bit of damage even from early on in the game. Blood Weapons can be found in limgrave to start light, and by the time you get to NG+ you're going to be sporting the whole arsenal of bloody weapons for you to bleed your enemies dry.
The important stats for this build are almost always going to be high in Arcane and that's true for this build too. You're going to want to max out your arcane to somewhere between 65-80. Faith is also going to need to be pumped up to use all the good buffs and powerful spells that max out your damage. Bleed fighters tend to be aggressive because they can also be somewhat of a glass cannon if they overuse their abilities or cut their armor light.
That doesn't make bleed players weaker, but it does mean that this can be a build where you're either really good at your build, a big risk taker, or both. Either way there will be an adrenaline rush. Since this build is a paladin build, the weapons there are plenty of strength scaling weapons that give you some great bleed effects. But for this build we end up leaning towards dexterity with the Bloody Ballerina inspired build. So if you're wielding Bloody Helice, Rivers of Blood, or Eleonora's Poleblade, the focus is going to be on dexterity.
Why this build is good:
- Bleed is one of the most powerful status effects in the game because it takes large chunks out of the opponent's HP and it's not all that different from physical damage. Bleed takes care of health bars fast
- Bleed has a lot of weapons that can approach the play a lot of ways so it makes for one of the easiest ways to make your own playstyle and still hurt the enemies you want to cut down.
- There are some risks to playing bleed like fighting bleed resistant enemies. You will run into them but as long as there is a way to mix in some fire or other damage, this build usually comes out on top.
Gear Loadout:
Picking Your Primary Weapon:
Your primary weapon is really going to depend a lot on how you want to maximize your build layout. Because bleed has a lot of weapon opportunities so it's fun to build around the way that works for you.
Bloody Helice
- Physical 121, Bleed Buildup 55
- Requirements 16 Strength, 19 Dexterity, 17 Arcane
The Bloody Helice is the weapon of choice for builds like the Fextralife Bloody Ballerina and Crimson duelist build. It's good for it's Dynest's Finesse ability which causes fast bleed buildup in this build and it makes for a great weapon to focus on dodging and special skills.
Cleanrot Knight's Sword
- Physical (109)
- Requirements: 11 Strength, 13 Dexterity
The Cleanrot knight's sword is not only one of the strongest thrusting swords, it's also the longest and it can be enchanted with any of the blood ashes of war. There were originally builds like the Fextralife Crimson Duelist build, but this weapon offers the best thrusting sword stat's and range of any of the weapons for a dueling paladin flare.
Rivers of Blood
- Physical 75, Fire 75
- Requirements: 12 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 20 Arcane
Rivers of Blood is pretty much a samurai weapon but it's still a good bleed weapon and it fits in great with several of the more aggressive bleed builds here. Corpse Piler is just too good not to be considered for a spot like this, especially since paladins are a high faith build which gives you plenty of access to healing, buffs, and several shield options that come in handy.
Eleonora's Poleblade
- Physical 73, Fire 72
- Requirements: 12 Strength, 21 Dexterity, 19 Arcane
Eleonora's Poleblade comes with an awesome special bleed ability that is hard to stagger, causes a lot of bleed buildup fast, and creates plenty of distance from the opponent for followup attacks or using spells. It's also great because it's another bleed weapon that does not take health to use the skill which means it lasts a little longer or doesn't have to put quite as much into vigor if you need to focus stats somewhere else.
Secondary Hand:
Marred Wooden Shield
The Marred wooden shield has the best defensive stats of the medium shields that cause bleed, and it comes with No Skill so it doesn't affect the skills of weapons on the other hand.. It's 1 lbs heavier than the Marred leather shield, but if you're more likely to take a hit, it's the better shield.
Shield of the Guilty
Shield of the Guilty is one of the best light shields in the game for a bleed build because it has a bleed buildup of 50 and it raises focus by 40. It comes with shield bash as the main skill which can have its benefits, but it can also be infused with different ashes of war to make it more useful for different situations.
Giant's Seal
- Requires 4 Strength, 14 Faith
Giants Seal is good because of the fact that it boosts spells like Flame, Grant me Strength. Otherwise you can pretty much stick to the Dragon Communion Seal because it has no weight and gives you an extra advantage in breath attacks. But Giant's seal can boost flame damage to an impressive amount if you use it right, and that means that weapons like Rivers of Blood and Eleonora's Poleblade all benefit from this seal.
Extra Arsenal:
Spirit Ashes:
- Dung Eater Puppet- This spirit ash is one of the several that are fairly tanky and give you a good blood buildup when they attack an opponent too.
- Mad Pumpkin Head- This is just a tanky spirit ash that does a lot of damage and it also does bleed buildup. It's good for taking on enemies for a lot of distraction time if you need it or are playing a little more at range.
Armor Loadout:
Helms:
- White Mask- Raises attack whenever a bleed is triggered.
- Okina's Mask- raises dexterity but lowers focus
- Royal Remains Helm- Slowly raises hp when health is reduced
Armor:
- Royal Remains Armor- Slowly raises hp when health is reduced
- Briar Armor- an armor set that inflicts damage when dodge rolling into enemies. Inflicts more damage for each piece worn.
- Fingerprint Armor- a set with good weight and poise
Gauntlets:
- Royal Remains Gauntlet- Slowly raises hp when health is reduced
- Briar Gauntlets- Inflicts damage when rolling into enemies
- Fingerprint Gauntlets- a set with good weight and poise
Legs:
- Briar Greaves- inflicts damage when rolling into enemies
- Royal Remains Greaves- slowly raises hp when health is reduced
- Fingerprint Greaves- A set with good weight and poise
Extra Essentials:
Talismans:
- Lord of Bloods Exultation- increases damage done whenever blood loss occurs in the area.
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- Increases damage done on successive attacks
- Shard of Alexander- Increases the damage of skills by 15%
- Bull-Goat Talisman- Increases Poise by 33%
- Red Branch Sword Talisman- Increases attack power when HP is low
Spells and Incantations:
- Flame, Grant Me Strength- grants 20% increase to fire and physical damage (15 Faith)
- Golden Vow- increases physical damage 15% and physical damage negation by 10% (25 Faith)
- Bloodflame Blade- can enchant a blade to deal bloodflame damage. (12 Faith, 10 Arcane)
- Swarm of Flies- a spell that creates a swarm of flies that causes hemorrhage damage (11 Faith, 16 Arcane)
- Bloodboon- a spell that sprays blood flame around in front of the caster to inflict status damage (15 Faith, 17 Arcane)
- Blessing Boon- a health regeneration spell that can synergise with armor sets like royal remains set to regenerate and save on health potions while staying aggressive. (24 Faith)
- Great Heal- Grants a greater portion of health recovery (15 Faith)
Stat Requirements:
- 50-60 Vigor
- 18-25 Mind
- 30-35 Endurance
- 18-65 Strength
- 22-80 Dexterity
- 22-35 Intelligence
- 40-45 Faith
- 65-80 Arcane
Build Credits:
Bloody Ballerina by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-bloody-helice-build-guide-bloody-ballerina/
Sanguine Spellblade by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-aberrant-sorceries-build-guide-sanguine-spellblade/
Crimson Duelist by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-thrusting-sword-build-guide-crimson-duelist/
1.Black Blade Paladin
![Body Image](/sites/default/files/authors/u176350/black-blade-article-image-1.jpg)
The Black Blade
This is a build of power and quality wins the day. Maliketh's Black Blade is one of the hardest hitting great swords in the game, and it offers a powerful special skill to go with it. On top of that it comes with an Incantation called the Black Blade that can do a huge amount of damage to the enemy and whittle away their health fast.
This build also features a fallback into the bloodflame skills in its secondary weapon, which offer the player who knows their way around their gear a fluid advantage over a large array of enemies. Morgott's Cursed Sword is an equally good curved greatsword and on the NG+ you can dual wield these as a berserker backup option for this build. But this weapon is great for clearing trash mobs and staggering opponents before switching into Maliketh's Black Blade or a powerful spell.
This is a classic Strength/Faith paladin build that relies on using Maliketh's Black Blade, Lightning Bolt, and Morgott's Cursed Sword to clear the way. Since this is a skill that relies heavily on getting its moves and spells off, it also needs to focus on having a Poise of 51-72 to make sure the swings go through.
Why this build is good:
- This build falls into the category of 'good weapon is good'. The weapon choices for this build are strong as it is between Morgott's Cursed Sword and Maliketh's Black blade, but there's also just the Black Blade Incantation as well.
- This build takes off a lot of health and it does it really fast. It is one of the more aggressive builds that requires an aggressive player, but black blade and the special skills on the swords work out really well for this build.
- This build is one of those that scales incredibly well, but also has some weird soft caps in there. Normally I don't like the headache of trying to figure out soft caps and scaling for weapons, but in this case it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Maliketh's Black Blade is a strong weapon but it doesn't actually need to be capped out at 80 like so many other builds like to do. This puts plenty of left over stat resources into other stats that can benefit from this build. Getting to your goal faster just means that you can get through the game that much easier.
Gear Loadout:
Primary Weapons:
Maliketh's Black Blade
- Physical 127, Holy 82
- Requirements 34 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 20 Faith
This is one of the best great swords in the game and it has a powerful punch every time it hits. Not only that it comes equipped with a powerful, but expensive, ability called destined death which can clear out small enemies and take huge chunks of big enemy health bars with it. Maliketh’s Black Blade is one of the best swords of its type in the game, and this build makes full use of the synergy it has.
Morgott's Cursed Sword
- Physical 120
- Requirements: 14 Strength, 35 Dexterity, 17 Arcane
Morgott’s Cursed Sword is one of the best curved greatswords in the game and it deals a devastating area of bloodflame abilities that explode for you to do extra damage to the enemy. It’s also just like Rivers of Blood because you can spam the ability as much as you can use it before the FP or the Stamina bar run out. It’s not just good for clearing out trash mobs, but it can also take on a lot of the tougher enemies that don’t go down or gang up on you in the later game to give you trouble.
Secondary Hand:
Erdtree Seal
- Requirements: 40 Faith
The Erdtree Seal is just one of the best seals in the game and it scales incredibly well even at level 80. It doesn't boost any of the spells being used in this build but it certainly does a good job in getting those spells off fast at high levels.
Icon Shield
- Requirements: 22 Strength
This build doesn't really need a shield but this one still does a good little bonus by regenerating 3 HP per second. That's not even close to a lot in a game like this, but it does stack with other health regen spells and armors to give a pretty decent health regen to a build that tries to keep its spell slots pretty empty.
Jellyfish Shield
• Requirements: 20 Strength, 14 Dexterity
Jellyfish Shield is a great shield because it's a larger shield and it boosts attacks. It also is light in weight which makes it a great shield for adding to the defense for any sword and board build.
Armor Loadout:
Helms:
- Maliketh's Helm-set provides base poise of 51 and matches the theme of the Maliketh set.
- Briar Helm- Increases damage done by rolling attacks, and increases greatly with full set
- Royal Remains Helm- Provides a health regen whenever health is not full.
Armor:
- Maliketh's Armor- base set provides 51 poise which is greatly increased with bull goat talisman
- Raptor's Black Feathers- Boosts jump attack damage
- Blaidd'sArmor- has high poise to weight ratio and meets the 60 requirement for the full set.
- Briar Armor- Increases damage of rolling attacks and greatly increases with the full set
- Royal Remains Armor- Provides a health regen whenever the health bar is not full
Gauntlets:
- Malekith Gauntlets- meets the base requirement of 51 poise and is greatly increased by bull goat talisman
- Blaidd's Gauntlets- has high poise to weight ratio and meets the 60 requirement for the full set
- Briar Gauntlets- Increases roll damage and greatly increases with full set
- Royal Remains Gauntlets- Provides a health regen whenever the health bar isn't full
Legs:
- Maliketh Greaves- meets the base requirement of 51 poise and greatly increases with the bull goat talisman
- Blaidd's Greaves- has a high poise to weight ratio and meets the 60 poise requirement with the full set
- Briar Gauntlets- increases damage done from roll attacks and greatly increases with the full set.
- Royal Remains Greaves- Provides a health regen whenever the health bar isn't full
Extra Essentials:
Talismans:
- Radagon Icon- greatly increases spellcasting speed.
- Bull Goat Talisman- increases poise by 33%
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman- reduces damage taken by 20%
- Shard of Alexander- Increases skill damage by 15%
- Sacred Scorpion Charm- Increases Holy Damage by 15%
- Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- Increases damage on successive strikes
Spells and Incantations:
- Golden Vow- Increases damage by 15% and reduces damage taken by 10% (25 Faith)
- Flame, Grant me Strength- Increases Physical damage and fire damage by 20% for 30 seconds (15 Faith)
- Black Blade- Produces a large black blade that deals a large amount of damage (46 Faith)
- Black Flame's Protection- Reduces damage taken by 20% for 30 seconds (30 Faith)
- Great Heal- heals a large portion of energy and scales well with erdtree seal (15 Faith)
- Lightning Spear- Throws a spear of lightning at the enemy (17 Faith)
Stats
- 50 Vigor
- 30-33 Mind
- 35-40 Endurance
- 60-80 Strength
- 35 Dexterity
- 16-22 Intelligence
- 65-80 Faith
- 18-20 Arcane
Build Credits:
Black Blade by Fextralife
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-malikeths-black-blade-build-guide-ng-guide/
Behold the Tarnished Lord
As you make your way through the Lands Between there are going to be a lot of factions and a lot of interesting choices that you have to make. As the Paladin of the faithful you have a choice. Will you guide your sworn lord to the throne? Will the lands plunge into fires and chaos? Or will you take a seat on the throne to rule? The choice is yours once you take up your sword.