Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has an insane variety of new weapons, skills, sorceries and incantations to experiment with. Most people can't even try them all in a single playthrough, which is why I wanted to tell you about my personal favorite builds.
Elden Ring has already shown us what weapon variety really means, and it continues to do so in the DLC. There are so many new builds to try out, it's hard to wrap your head around it. To help with this, here are our five favorite builds for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Enjoy!
1. Milady
My personal favorite new weapon of the DLC is the Milady. A light great sword with a heavy attack, that hits twice per charge, and is also infusable.
Pair that with the new Ash of War Winged Stance and you got yourself a well-rounded and incredibly versatile weapon. You can either go for a multi-hit build by infusing it with bleed or frost and spam heavy attacks, or you take the Shard of Alexander and only use the Ash of War for heavy thrust damage.
The Milady is definitely applicable for every situation and can get you through all the base game and the DLC.
Multi-Hit Build:
- Infusion: Blood/Cold/Rot/Poison
- Talismans: Millicent's Prosthesis, Axe Talisman, Ritual Sword Talisman, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman
- Physick: Spiked Cracked Tear and Thorny Cracked Tear
Winged Stance Build:
- Infusion: Keen
- Incantations: Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength
- Talismans: Shard of Alexander, Rellana's Cameo, Ritual Sword Talisman, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman
- Physick: Stonebarb Crystal Tear & Thorny Cracked Tear
If you want to maximize damage, do what I did:
Finish Millicent's Questline by helping her defeat her sisters and get the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia. Then get into New Game + and progress Millicent's Questline until she appears at Windmill Village. When you see her there, kill her, and get Millicent's Prosthesis. The two Multi-Hit Talismans stack and lead to a massive increase in damage
Finding Milady
Just go and get the Milady now, I promise it's worth it.
2. Backhand Blades
Anime-Style Weapon Art? Check!
Infusable with status effects? Check!
An S-scaling in dexterity? Check!!!
If you want to be slicing through the DLC's bosses or go online and make players ragequit, then I've got the weapon for you. The backhand blades hit fast and hard and give you a great mobility tool with its default Ash of War Blind Spot.
The proper way to use them is to get behind an enemy with Blind Spot and charging them with a heavy running attack, which is a four-hit combo. Use Bloodflame Blade and Multi-Hit buffs, and you're good to go.
- Infusion: Keen
- Incantations: Bloodflame Blade, Flame Grant Me Strength, Golden Vow
- Talismans: Lord of Blood's Exultation, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Millicent's Prosthesis and Lacerating Crossed-Tree
- Physick: Thorny Cracked Tear & Greenspill Crystal Tear
Finding The Blackhand Blades
Not so hard, huh?
3. Black Steel Greathammer
Another great weapon, the Black Steel Greathammer is for the simple-minded players, who want to get through the DLC, without worrying too much about boss patterns. Combine that with the Black Steel Greatshield and you can guard-counter like there's no tomorrow.
The Black Steel Greathammer has a unique property to it that adds holy AOE-damage to it's guard-counters, which also increases the poise damage of the weapon. This means that you can stagger enemies a lot and go for critical hits. Use Sacred Blade on the Greathammer to imbue it with even more holy damage and bonk away!
- Infusion: Heavy
- Incantations: Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength
- Talismans: Great Jar's Arsenal, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, Curved Sword Talisman and Dagger Talisman
- Physick: Deflecting Hardtear & Stonebarb Cracked Tear
Finding The Black Steel Greathammer
And voilà!
4. Aspect of the Crucible: Wings
Arguably the most requested ability in the game. Fans could only watch in terror, the first time a crucible knight used this ability against them. Ever since, everyone wanted to use it, and now we actually can.
It works best if you put it on any twinblade, because it adds a flurry of slashes, which are great for applying status effects. You know the drill: Multi-Hit Talismans, Keen Infusion and Bloodflame Blade for maximum destruction.
If you put on the Crucible Knight armor set, you get an increase in damage for all Crucible skills and incantations.
- Infusion: Keen
- Incantations: Bloodflame Blade, Flame Grant Me Strength & Golden Vow
- Talismans: Lord of Blood's Exultation, Millicent's Prosthesis, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Shard of Alexander
- Physick: Thorny Cracked Tear & Dexterity-Knot Crystal Tear
Finding Aspect of the Crucible: Wings
A little complicated, but worth it.
5. Great Katana
Last, but not least, we have the great Katana. It works best with a heavy poise breaking build, through utilizing the Ash of War Savage Lion's Claw. You can go pretty straightforward with the build and just set the affinity to keen.
Add Bloodflame Blade into the mix, and you will trigger bleed easily because of the multiple hits on Savage Lion's Claw. You can also use the charged heavy attack to break the enemy's poise, which will be further enhanced by the Axe Talisman
- Infusion: Keen
- Incantations: Bloodflame Blade, Flame Grant Me Strength, Golden Vow
- Talismans: Lord of Blood's Exultation, Shard of Alexander, Millicent's Prosthesis, Axe Talisman
- Physick: Stonebarb Cracked Tear & Spiked Cracked Tear
These are all the builds I wanted to tell you about, I hope you will have fun with experimenting. There are infinite possibilities when making these weapons work, and I'm sure there are better and worse ways to do it. The important thing is, to always experiment with different things and have fun.
Finding The Great Katana
And there you have it - the best builds we've found so far!