While I doubt I'll be able to finish the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC before I head to the East Coast this summer, I'm eagerly anticipating a return to this game, which I think is my favorite of FromSoft's "Soulsborne" games.
I've beaten this game on several characters, using a variety of builds. But I'm also very rusty - I've not really been playing Elden Ring since going through Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and my big marathon of all the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, so these folks have been sitting there as Elden Lord for months without play.
So, I decided to grab each and take them through my usual late-game rune-farming route in Ephael, Brace of the Haligtree, typically leaving from the Prayer Room and either going to the next site of grace or just wending my way back.
I've found different builds to be varyingly easy to play - I was surprised how effective, for example, a pure-Faith pyromancy build worked (especially given all of the people who have complained about Faith builds) when playing through I think my last full clear. But I figured I'd talk about the impressions I got returning to the game.
Jumping Blasphemy:
This is a dual-wielding greatsword Strength/Faith build that uses the Blasphemous Blade and the Gargoyle Greatsword with a Flame Art scaling. It also uses a chestpiece and talisman that boosts damage from jumping attacks, so the typical move is to hop and hit L1 to bring both swords down on a target, which does a ton of damage.
This was the first build I beat the game on (though far from my first character) and so I naturally have a certain affinity to it. The Blasphemous Blade's health absorption (when you kill an enemy) makes it very nice for lengthy dungeon crawls. Its ash of war is also quite nice, hitting very hard in a line in front of you that both heals you and can knock enemies over.
That said, I found that the timing on jumping and striking could be a little tricky - you need to watch your stamina, and also just make sure that you hit the attack button while in the air.
Moonlight Frost Battlemage:
My original character was an Astrologer and went through most of the game as a pure spellcaster, but I respecced him a bit, adding in Strength to wield the Darkmoon Greatsword. While I still have spells to cast, the most efficient way to play appears to be to use the sword's ash of war, which empowers the sword to then send forth powerful rays of frost when you use R2 attacks. This was hitting for over 2000 damage at a reasonable range for a pretty small FP investment. And, of course, you also have a big honking sword if you're caught in a moment when the buff falls off.
I honestly found that in this return this build felt stronger than I remembered it. Notably, I messed up the Selivus quest line by progressing Ranni's quests too far (it was my first playthrough!) so I never got the Magic Scorpion Charm, meaning that this is technically doing less damage than it might otherwise do (though also I'm a little more resilient).
Different Moonlight Samurai:
This is a dual-wielding build that uses the Moonveil and a Cold Ichigatana. Moonveil's Transient Moonlight ash of war is, of course, very nice and powerful. I was finding that I didn't seem to trigger bleeding or frostbite on targets, which seemed to undercut some of the power of the build. I think it felt a little less effective than the other Moon-themed build, but it might have shined a little more on bosses where the status effects could shine through a bit better.
Arcane Dragon Build:
I've really wanted to make Arcane work - and to be fair, when everything lines up, dragon incantations can be insanely powerful - but the build does run into some problems when you need sustained power. I have the Ripple Axe for conserving resources.
This character had gone back and forth between this dragon theme and a more Arcane/Dexterity Rivers of Blood build, and I've sort of gone back and forth one which build I prefer. I think I had intended to finish the game with the Rivers of Blood build, but then the Elden Beast's immunity to Blood Loss made it feel kind of powerless.
Again, the dragon build doesn't feel all that great for non-boss situations, so I wouldn't say this is one of my more enthusiastic characters to take into the DLC.
Pyromancer:
This is a pretty fun pure-caster build, using a lot of Fire Giant incantations. 95% of the time you're just casting Flame, Fall Upon Them (I love the Fire Giant spells' names,) which is hilariously imprecise, but will usually hit your target (sometimes twice) and hits hard. With lots of Mind and your flasks leaning a little harder on Cerulean tears, I don't think I even have a melee weapon in this build.
Necromancer:
This is an Intelligence/Faith build that is theoretically built around Rancorcall and Ancient Death Rancor, though also Rykard's Rancor. In practice, I found myself falling back on the Sword of Night and Flame, which is a little more user-friendly.
Rancorcall and Ancient Death Rancor are cool, but they're best at long range and as an opener. They charge up and then move very slowly toward a target, but have a bad turning radius, so if something starts to charge at you while the various skull projectiles are going toward them, you often risk not hitting them at all - but if they do hit, they will break poise and add up to serious damage, especially if you set it up so that there are like three castings of this all heading toward the target at the same time.
Rykard's Rancor is a little easier to use - a single flaming skull flies slowly toward the target, but it can turn a lot better, circling around the target. The skull itself doesn't actually do damage, but the trail it leaves behind causes a series of explosions, which means a single casting can hit multiple targets and also the same target multiple times. This is a good crowd option, as well as a medium-range cast before you start facing them off in melee.
Finally, the Sword of Night and Flame hits hard, with the R2 attack doing a sweeping fire attack (which sometimes is not quite as wide as it looks) and R1 giving you a miniature Comet Azure (that can't be held down to continue firing) that can also knock enemies down.
I actually found myself really liking this one, though when I realized I had never beaten the Great Jar's Champions on it, I gave that a try and got utterly hosed.
So there you have it. I think I'm tempted to take my original guy in first. Naturally, with new weapons and armor to be found in the DLC, I might want to bring in some additional builds - I have a Quality Build that uses the Fallingstar Beast Jaw (which, to confess, is actually what my Necromancer build was using when I beat the game on her - after trying several builds and not feeling like I was doing much with any of them, I fell back on this build but got bored just doing the same thing). I've never done a Strength/Intelligence build (which could be tempting what with Radahn's swords). (EDIT: Oh duh, my Darkmoon build is Strength/Intelligence. Oh well.) I was also always tempted to try a Frenzied Flame build, but I'm given to understand that's really more for PvP, which I'm not into.
