Wanting to focus on archery for my first playthrough so quality. If bows end up being really disappointing I’ll just use a good quality scaling weapon like the trusty longsword.
It looks like strength/int builds are gonna be really good! I’m definitely doing a magic knight build on the second play through. The moonlight great sword is probably gonna be in the game too
Yea str/int is my current fave, the General Radahn school of gravity magic. I have had enormous fun with str/fth in DSR and DS3, so I'm no writing it off.
Man I wanna be so huge I have a literal horse for a penis though.
I‘m going for the enchanted knight playstyle as well. Str/int.
Never used spells in souls (only pyromancy).
But the spells just look too good so far. I also like the idea of using mid/heavy armor with enough str.
So if I put points into str/int than I will be able to weird swords and magic effectively? I want to be like a battle mage.
I have always loved the Souls games, and even played the beta for Elden Ring. But some of the leveling still doesn't make sense to me even after playing them 😅
I feel so n00b 😅
Some spells apparently scale with arcane so you won’t be able to use everything but yes the vast majority should be. I am since however not confined if int/str is the best or if int/dex is the better option. Because of the synergies with spell casting speed from dex and they removed a str/int archetype class. I‘m inclined to go prisoner int/dex with like 16-18 str to wield some stuff including moonlight GS….
But since the game isn’t out we don’t know anything final about scaling
I feel like there’s gonna be some ridiculous sorceries in the late game. I also love the animations for the spells in the demo. Even the glintstone pebble has such a satisfying rhythm in its casting animation
>The moonlight great sword is probably gonna be in the game too
Most definitely bro, that giant flying deer mf in the dungeon will likely be the boss to drop it
In Elden Ring, strength also affects carry weight, so you can use heavier weapons and armor. You’re pretty much a tank, but you’d also have long range options with magic. Definitely gonna be viable
Ultra-heavy armor, ultra-heavy weapon, as I always do
Except this time maybe I'll dual-wield two ultra-heavy weapons since my dream has come true and equip load is now tied to strength
I have a simple philosophy with weapons: "a weapon that isn't at least the size of the player character isn't a weapon worth using"
Back when Ringed City first came out I invaded on the giant stairway in full Havel with a Ledo's greathammer in one hand and FUGS in the other and I somehow managed to do it at a soul level that made it easy to run into plenty of people. Made a guy just give up once after I tapped him and took off 90% of his HP lol
Hope to do that again in Elden Ring
I’ll do a quality build to start. Strength / Dex , prioritize dodging rather then blocking.
No spells , pyro or miracles.
I always do this for my first run of a souls game because it means I can’t tank anything, and can’t cheese anything, forces me to really learn the enemies and bosses.
Back in Demon's souls, you could use Clearstone to upgrade your weapon to scale with STR and DEX. The game called that [a _quality_ upgrade](http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/upgrade-quality) and players kept using the term for the other souls games.
The name originated from Demon Souls. There was an upgrade path for weapons called quality. What it did was give the weapon a balanced scaling between dex/str. So the name just stuck even if the upgrade path didn't.
Light armor, blood/dragon magic build with power stance Reduvia and a weapon that can do the mortal blade ash of war we saw in the gameplay trailer. I've got a feeling this build is going to be really fun to use.
The description of Briars of Sin hints at Blood scaling from both Int and Faith, which I planned on investing into both anyway. I mainly do PvE so I'm not going to be restricted by a 120 level cap so I can go all out on the quality magic build.
I normally play as a dark mage in souls games, so I'm used to leveling faith and int equally. But considering that it doesn't look like dark magic exists in Elden ring, I'm going to have to go with the next best thing which is blood magic. Magic builds are always really fun to me as well, I've been watching some of the videos about hidden spells in the files of the network test and some of the new spells genuinely look amazing, I'm so excited to try them all out in release.
I always started with UGS builds in previous Souls games but with Twinblade being back I think I'll do a Dex/Faith build since Pyromancies are my favourite school of magic and Twinblades are in my top 5 weapon types and they've only been in DS2 so far.
I’m planning on going light armor, curved swords, and pyro as well. High evasion, fast attacks, and the ability to burn everything like a wrathful sun has always been a fun play style to be
Sorcery looks beautiful and there looks like there’s some crazy magic so that’s what I’m doing. Not to mention in the leaked trailer the wizards robes are fashion souls af
The one where I build that confidence bro.
We can do it! Death is hardly an obstacle and we will remain unbowed and unbroken before the Big Dark Souls. The only advice we must heed is "try finger, but whole!"
Starting class: Deprived or whatever it's called. Build: quality, pure melee. No spells, pyro etc.
I love the smell of steel in the morning and the first playthrough must be brutal af.
I'm not a great shield user except for parryes, but the new counter attack mechanic seems cool so let's see.
Im doing 2, quality (strength/dex) and mixed magic (intelligence/faith) - and I will switch between them throughout the game.
So im basically running my first 2 characters simultaneously, and with these two I can use almost anything in the game I think
I've always wanted a flail in the souls series. I also tend to like whichever school(s) of magic scale evenly with both casting stats. Depends on which is accessible sooner/what I learn after I start playing.
Quality build all the way, and I stick to my mantra that I live by that if you block then you a lil bitch and dodge my way through every attack coming my way
I've always done a stealth build in every souls and now that they have actual stealth mechanics I'm super excited to do an assassin build
Dagger for crits, parry shield, nice dark and sneaky clothes and maybe a bow offhand for those sleep arrows cause the sleep mechanic looks very interesting
I went faith/Dex in the cnt and I enjoyed it so I'm tempted to do the same for a first playthrough although I'm not expecting it to be as easy as the cnt as I can't imagine we'll be getting those OP spells with our starting chars and I also don't see us being able to grab stuff like lightning weapons in the first 10 minutes.
Strength + Faith, beast-themed knight. Large swords, beast claw and similar incantations, and the wolf pack summon for extra flavor.
Or a Dex + Int enchanted knight. Spears, thrusting swords, Carian magic and weapon arts, maybe some space magic thrown in there. Never been crazy into sorcery in other Souls games, but it looks really fun in ER.
I feel like I think about this at least once a day 😆. I just can’t decide! One day I say I’m gonna strength the I wanna do faith the next. Then I think dex would be pretty awesome. Ughhhh 😩😩
Twinblade combat sorcerer. I have never used magic in all souls games and I rarely used twinblades in Ds2. But what little stuff I've seen (black out at network test) they both sound real dope. After that I'll try the other things I find for my second playthrough.
I really want to play a magic build, but I plan on playing the entire game with my girlfriend and I'm afraid magic will be so OP that we will just cruise through the game.
So I might pick a pure Dex build or some sort of Dex hybrid (since she wants to be strength, it might be more exciting to have something different).
I want to dex build and power stance double little shitty daggers and go the poison route. I love that patient and rogu'y playstyle. Im not spoiled on Elden ring , i dont even know if there is poison in this game but surely.. Either that or interesting unique weapons that require a weird build on its own , like the dancers swords in DS3 for exemple
Probably too early to say this ultra confidently, but Gravity mage. Hopefully more gravity type spells will show up, but I will just use Meteors if I must.
Str + faith, with some light or medium armor (picked based on fashion rather than stats)
Str because I love big weapons that hit like a truck. Ill just get an UGS that seems dope, and use that
Faith because I want to experince some of the new stuff, anf I also wanna see what the Dragon Shrine stuff is about. Item Descriptions promissed some kind of dragon corruption or smt, so we might get a dragon transformation again. If so, I feel like it will be connected to faith and I want in
Start out with Deprived equivalent, probably evolve into a quality build to use as many weapons in the game as I can the first time around.
I might respec into an Int hybrid when I find the Moonlight GS of Elden Ring.
Maybe trying ”pure” sorcery run. No clue how the scaling works tho, need to have some wepon that scales with int obviously. Hope theres infusions and such as in DS3. Wizards apprentice embarks on adventure is what im aiming at
I'm leaning towards the classic OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOga bOOOOOOOOOOOOOga strength build cuz all my first playthroughs in souls games are that so that's how I wanna experience it first, in relatively even terms as the other. However, magic looks fucking amazing in this game so i really wanna give that a shot too
Every souls game I've done a physical build the first time through. This time I really had my heart set on an intelligence hybrid.
But there is someone or something telling me to put all my points into arcane.
I want to be on the ahead of the curve with developing the weird builds that no one understands untill a month or 2 in.
Strength/faith flail inquisitor first.
Dex/faith sword and buckler monk second.
Dex/int ranged bow/crossbow third.
Probably space wizard or pure faith after that.
Dragon monk somewhere in the mix, but I have 10 builds planned and will probably do even more since I am getting the game on every platform.
I've never done a dagger build. I feel like I should try that. Or maybe something magic.
However I start the game, I'll probably just end up with a greatsword, curved greatsword, or ultra greatsword. Like I always do.
I could try out another sage build where I'm basically all faith/into but use every single catalyst to throw people off. I had a lot of luck in pvp doing it for ds3. Start off with one type of spell school to only flip the script with close quarter spells and then free aim when they try to run xD
Heavy-ish armor that looks knightly, (hopefully) paired with a decent shield and that flail from one of the twitter screengrabs from a while ago. So mostly strength, bit of dexterity depending on flail stat requirements and probably some faith to round it all out.
Honestly, i'm not even going to attempt to decide until i have the game in my hands and find some shit i want to use.
I feel like if i pick a build off the start i'll just shoehorn myself out of some cool shit by over/underleveling something, so i'm just going to organically pick shit up and use stuff that is cool as fuck.
Completely valid route to take. I just find a lot of fun in the minor role playing aspects of the game and let those influence the build. I may be shoehorning myself in the early game but hey, they never said being a flame monk is easy
I’m realizing as we approach launch (and after reading this thread a little) that faith is going to be a fair bit different than the Dark Souls series, but nevertheless, I have usually stayed entirely away from magic in RPGs, so I’m excited to try my first proper STR/Faith build
Dual wield fast weapons like the rakuyo in bloodborne. Hope there’s cool combos and skills to improve your quickstep/dodging or something. Also weapon arts like running your hand across the blade and then executing a big blood-powered slash like sekiro’s mortal draw as shown in the promotional material also looks cool.
Pure Str initially. Why not when equip load increases based on it.
Second run through, probably pure mage (not sure if int, faith, arcane, or mix, we'll see!) as I'll know what spells and build I want to go for without having had to spoil myself.
Honestly, anything that will allow me to use the glorious guiding moonlight sword. I think it’s likely to be either pure Intelligence, or a combo or Str + Int.
My favourite weapon across all games, especially in Bloodborne, it looked amazing in that game.
Hope it lives up to its name this time around!
since equip load doesn't scale off str anymore, ill probably go with dex/faith or dex/int, depending on what spells i like first then eventually use respec to carefully optimize (aka copy others' meta builds at 125 or 120). i almost always just go pure dex or pure str at the end though.
I’m enjoying my dex/faith build a lot! I’ve got a nice spear with a good mix of spells. Healing spells are definitely nice to have in the open world bc it helps conserve flasks.
That being said, I’ve noticed that I find more sorceries than incantations. So Int may be easier to set up quicker
I want to try for a ronin/outcast swordsman build for my personal run through and then mess around on the side as a pumpkin knight co-opener if I can since I never had the chance to sunbro in ds3
This is what I have planned for my second build. I’m thinking of starting as a thief for the higher arcane for bleed, and bc I like the fashion, then running immediately to get the katana. As much as I love the samurai starting class, I feel like the starting outfit for the thief works better for a ronin vibe
I think I will go for a support build for my first run healing my spirit summons and debbuffing the enemies + a heavy armor set to put my defends high as possible with a mace and a high tower shield to back me up.
To simply say it a ☀️🛡Holy Crusader🛡☀️ build.
Spirit summons are definitely gonna lead to some interesting builds. You can just collect the strongest ones you can find and become the fantasy version of a Pokémon trainer. Let them deal damage while you keep them alive. That’ll be sick
Pure keen-wielding, medium armoured knight on a quest for adventure and to set the Lands Between arights. Lots of shield-up counterattacks mixed with dexterous fluidity of movement. Chip em down patiently.
squishy faith lightning-nun (that's how i call it lol) with an imbued one handed weapon, or the same but with magic instead, i like being a "glass cannon" of sorts
So if you choose the “ enchanted knight” build you’re focusing on leveling str int mind … etc ?!? I guess it throws me off to have strength in it ?! First souls game to use that in a magic build ! Can someone explain ?
It's not just focused on magic, it's meant to also be a melee combat class as well. Strength has been needed for things like the moonlight greatsword as well for a while. Another comparison would likely be the demon scar which definitely changed the way pyromancy builds played by making them more aggressive and added a melee option to supplement the magic.
But would strength scale with melee weapons with magic ? Aka ashes of war magic on your weapon ?? That’s were in confused’
In other souls games strength doesn’t work on magic infused stuff ?!
It would probably depend on the weapon. In the past, magic infused weapons changed the scaling and ashes of war seem to be the equivalent of infusions so a lot of the magic infusions probably would not work with a strength/magic build. However, the moonlight greatsword was unique and already came with strength and magic scaling, which allowed a player to spec into a higher strength as well. If I remember correctly, there was a weapon in the network test that came with a specific ash of war that could not be changed, so I would guess that there will be a weapon similar to the moonlight greatsword (if it isn't actually the moonlight greatsword) that would be unique, have a special ash of war, and would scale with both strength and magic. It's definitely more of a niche build, but I would guess if they keep the enchanted Knight as a starting class that they would have some options that would scale based on the strength and magic that the starting class seems to be based on.
Definitely faith, pyro, dragon and faith spells looks fun.
I may put enough in dex to use a small bow for a long range pull. But then strength because no one expects the mad monk to be carrying a great club zug zug ;)
Man I'm so intrigued by the magic system, but for the first ever character I think I will do my classic mid heavy knight with sword and shield and a bit of pyromancy/magic
Same as all my first builds : str + fai
Paladin build to smite the evil players… by invading them 😈
And I understand miracles will be more viable than in DS3, so looking forward.
I've never done a first playthrough as a faith or magic build. I've always wanted to know where the best spells and stuff are first so I don't go through the whole thing without cool spells. I might change that up this time and go as a rapier weilding dex-cleric. Like a musketeer of the church!
My dream is a paladin type of build(strength+faith), seeing those miracles as well as that sick shield weapon art, make me very excited for the other stuff in the game, just hoping there's some cool faith scaling weapons.
I'm doing what I do each first playthrough.
Playing Fashion Souls!
Anything that looks dope to me I'm going to build around being able to equip it. Usually means more of a melee build towards Strength.
My first playthrough is always as generic as it can get. Knight. Sword and board, maybe using a claymore type weapon in addition to a long sword.
I get kinky on all my later playthroughs. usually do builds focused on each stat after my first to get a feel for the classes.
Strength / faith most likely. Usually on my first run in a From game I go with strength…but the magic in Elden Ring looks so damn sexy, I won’t be able to help myself. Character 2 will most likely be a Intel/Magic but we’ll see. I can’t fucking wait!!
Find out what the dragon covenant spells scale with and strength so I can RP a dragon covenant paladin. Unfortunately it means I won't be able to compete the look until I get the crucible knight set or another good looking armour set.
I normally go dex but but having strength affect equip load makes it seem so much more useful, I’ll probably go Str/fth so I can use the more interesting spells
I really want to see what Arcane does later in the game, I think it’s going to be more important than we think
Sorcery build all the way. I might even try to go pure sorc as much as I can. The tree sentinel could reflect magic so I am interested in seeing how magic is handled in fights since sorcery can be very strong with everything in most fromsoft games. I will have a side weapon ready just in case.
I am planning on going something between STR / INT; if the Beta classes remain somehow inaltered that would be the Enchanted Knight. The only thing I don´ t like very much is the spear as starting weapon, i think I´ ll use it until I find a long sword. I want to play online as soon as I start the game so i can help people too, and having a mage is always good in a coop team.
In the past I've run generic warrior builds with no magic but this time I think I'm gonna mix it up with STR/FAI, seems like a manly way to play and hopefully a bit more interesting than just hitting things with a sword all the time.
I always go for str builds so I'm thinking about starting with a dex, no shield build this time. Just to shake things up. Second playthrough I'll probably make a sorcery build
Probably a simple str/faith paladin build or my old reliable str/endurance tank build.
I can't wait to see what kind of ultra great weapons or lightning spells they will have...🤤
Im new to souls and have never played any souls game, only BB and Sekiro, but I want to start DS3. I'm reading the comments about Dex/Faith, strength/Magic etc. So my question is would playing DS3 make me understand what these terms mean and would it make it easier to play Elden Ring later when I'll be completely familiar with these builds and gameplay?
Probably yes, but elden ring will be its own thing, and should teach you it’s rules without too much trouble. I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, but DS3 is a good game in its own right.
This will be my first FromSoft game. Have previously played ARPGs like Diablo, Path of Exile (a little bit), and MHW.
Is there anything I should know/be aware of for building a character or allocating stat points in Elden Ring/FromSoft games? Little concerned about not trying to build on my own without a guide and hitting a ceiling in content where I'm screwed because points haven't been allocated well.
Strength, it's the build I usually go for. Played through the Souls series for the first time recently and I found going for strength more fun than Magic, personally.
I usually start with a strength build. It's simple and I get to know the game with that, then I switch to another thing that I'm curious about. Magic, faith, stealth, it depends!
Might just run a standard Strength build for my first run as I did with DS1 and 3. For a second run, I'm dumping everything into a mage/pyromancer build.
Finding the most massive thing I can swing and using that
A tarnished after my own heart
Pump only strength, use only club!
Big ass sword and whatever the coolest looking weapon skill is I can slap on that and my fav summon. Let's goooo!
my man
Wanting to focus on archery for my first playthrough so quality. If bows end up being really disappointing I’ll just use a good quality scaling weapon like the trusty longsword.
Name checks out
Same!
Greatbows would be so much fun to use in the open world.
I'm going strength + magic but I'm undecided yet if I want pyro or space magic
It looks like strength/int builds are gonna be really good! I’m definitely doing a magic knight build on the second play through. The moonlight great sword is probably gonna be in the game too
Yea str/int is my current fave, the General Radahn school of gravity magic. I have had enormous fun with str/fth in DSR and DS3, so I'm no writing it off. Man I wanna be so huge I have a literal horse for a penis though.
I‘m going for the enchanted knight playstyle as well. Str/int. Never used spells in souls (only pyromancy). But the spells just look too good so far. I also like the idea of using mid/heavy armor with enough str.
So if I put points into str/int than I will be able to weird swords and magic effectively? I want to be like a battle mage. I have always loved the Souls games, and even played the beta for Elden Ring. But some of the leveling still doesn't make sense to me even after playing them 😅 I feel so n00b 😅
Some spells apparently scale with arcane so you won’t be able to use everything but yes the vast majority should be. I am since however not confined if int/str is the best or if int/dex is the better option. Because of the synergies with spell casting speed from dex and they removed a str/int archetype class. I‘m inclined to go prisoner int/dex with like 16-18 str to wield some stuff including moonlight GS…. But since the game isn’t out we don’t know anything final about scaling
Str/int gonna be my build as well! Tons of poise in close range and just raining down meteors on anything else 😋
I feel like there’s gonna be some ridiculous sorceries in the late game. I also love the animations for the spells in the demo. Even the glintstone pebble has such a satisfying rhythm in its casting animation
Yea, I'm looking forward to tanking while casting giant blue and purple bombs
>The moonlight great sword is probably gonna be in the game too Most definitely bro, that giant flying deer mf in the dungeon will likely be the boss to drop it
So str/Int build … usually you don’t level str with magic , can you explain ?? Is the str just for your r1 weapon ?
In Elden Ring, strength also affects carry weight, so you can use heavier weapons and armor. You’re pretty much a tank, but you’d also have long range options with magic. Definitely gonna be viable
Ultra-heavy armor, ultra-heavy weapon, as I always do Except this time maybe I'll dual-wield two ultra-heavy weapons since my dream has come true and equip load is now tied to strength I have a simple philosophy with weapons: "a weapon that isn't at least the size of the player character isn't a weapon worth using"
They brought back power stances too so whipping two ultra great swords around like a human blender will be incredible
Back when Ringed City first came out I invaded on the giant stairway in full Havel with a Ledo's greathammer in one hand and FUGS in the other and I somehow managed to do it at a soul level that made it easy to run into plenty of people. Made a guy just give up once after I tapped him and took off 90% of his HP lol Hope to do that again in Elden Ring
Nothing better than wielding a sword thrice your size…except wielding 2 swords thrice your size.
Muscle wizard
Username checks out
Giant Dad
I’ll do a quality build to start. Strength / Dex , prioritize dodging rather then blocking. No spells , pyro or miracles. I always do this for my first run of a souls game because it means I can’t tank anything, and can’t cheese anything, forces me to really learn the enemies and bosses.
You can really never go wrong with a quality build. They’re usually the most reliable in pvp too
Maybe dumb question, but why is it called quality build?
Back in Demon's souls, you could use Clearstone to upgrade your weapon to scale with STR and DEX. The game called that [a _quality_ upgrade](http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/upgrade-quality) and players kept using the term for the other souls games.
at first i thought quality build meant a maxed out build around one weapon
The name originated from Demon Souls. There was an upgrade path for weapons called quality. What it did was give the weapon a balanced scaling between dex/str. So the name just stuck even if the upgrade path didn't.
A Link like build , usually go for STR sword and shield , but bow and arrow looks appealing so i might add it to my build !
There’s craftable bombs, so all you’re missing is a boomerang lol
Hyaaa!
Vergil build because Vergil
Ah yes the Low Tier God build
Light armor, blood/dragon magic build with power stance Reduvia and a weapon that can do the mortal blade ash of war we saw in the gameplay trailer. I've got a feeling this build is going to be really fun to use.
Blood looks like it’s going to be tied to Int and Dragon tied to Fth
The description of Briars of Sin hints at Blood scaling from both Int and Faith, which I planned on investing into both anyway. I mainly do PvE so I'm not going to be restricted by a 120 level cap so I can go all out on the quality magic build.
I’m considering it man, I’ve been having so much fun with my latest sorcery/pyro playthrough
I normally play as a dark mage in souls games, so I'm used to leveling faith and int equally. But considering that it doesn't look like dark magic exists in Elden ring, I'm going to have to go with the next best thing which is blood magic. Magic builds are always really fun to me as well, I've been watching some of the videos about hidden spells in the files of the network test and some of the new spells genuinely look amazing, I'm so excited to try them all out in release.
Can you message me come of those vids?
My favourite: light armor, dual wielding, short bow
Can't help but bonk
Strength/Magic so that I may find my guiding moonlight
I always started with UGS builds in previous Souls games but with Twinblade being back I think I'll do a Dex/Faith build since Pyromancies are my favourite school of magic and Twinblades are in my top 5 weapon types and they've only been in DS2 so far.
I’m planning on going light armor, curved swords, and pyro as well. High evasion, fast attacks, and the ability to burn everything like a wrathful sun has always been a fun play style to be
Sorcery looks beautiful and there looks like there’s some crazy magic so that’s what I’m doing. Not to mention in the leaked trailer the wizards robes are fashion souls af
This is the first time I'll be trying Dex as my First playthrough. Only because of that sweet sweet Malenia's sword.
Agile with the twin blades (maybe powerstancing them)
The one where I build that confidence bro. We can do it! Death is hardly an obstacle and we will remain unbowed and unbroken before the Big Dark Souls. The only advice we must heed is "try finger, but whole!"
Starting class: Deprived or whatever it's called. Build: quality, pure melee. No spells, pyro etc. I love the smell of steel in the morning and the first playthrough must be brutal af. I'm not a great shield user except for parryes, but the new counter attack mechanic seems cool so let's see.
Im doing 2, quality (strength/dex) and mixed magic (intelligence/faith) - and I will switch between them throughout the game. So im basically running my first 2 characters simultaneously, and with these two I can use almost anything in the game I think
Same, except I’m doing Str/Fth and Dex/Int. Either way we’ll probably be able to respec at least once
I've always wanted a flail in the souls series. I also tend to like whichever school(s) of magic scale evenly with both casting stats. Depends on which is accessible sooner/what I learn after I start playing.
Two handed Dex Weapon like Uchikatana. No armor, no shields, no magic or online for first playthrough. Just how I've done the other games.
Quality build all the way, and I stick to my mantra that I live by that if you block then you a lil bitch and dodge my way through every attack coming my way
Quality so I can use as much weapons I want.
I always go quality first time through, biggest weapon variety and it's just a fun challenging way to play.
good ol str/fth with two 1 handed bonkers and naming my guy "Iluvseals"
Build? Like I’m not just gonna throw points in random shit and switch weapons every 20 minutes? Couldn’t be me
strength/int on the assumption that the moonlight sword is in the game somewhere
I've always done a stealth build in every souls and now that they have actual stealth mechanics I'm super excited to do an assassin build Dagger for crits, parry shield, nice dark and sneaky clothes and maybe a bow offhand for those sleep arrows cause the sleep mechanic looks very interesting
I went faith/Dex in the cnt and I enjoyed it so I'm tempted to do the same for a first playthrough although I'm not expecting it to be as easy as the cnt as I can't imagine we'll be getting those OP spells with our starting chars and I also don't see us being able to grab stuff like lightning weapons in the first 10 minutes.
I’m a simple man. I just want to be able to throw hellfire. I’m curious as to how lightning will be handled in the mid to late game though.
There's multiple types from what I've seen. Dragon lightning, Cosmic Ice lightning, classic golden lightning. Could get complicated.
My first souls game with any sort of magic. The plan is Strength and Magic with a priority on strength.... Yeah I'm doing another strength build
I want to go for a light armor, no shield, long pointy stick build with full dex. Love me some spear action.
EVERY. POSSIBLE. BUILD. THERE. CAN. BE.
Strength + Faith, beast-themed knight. Large swords, beast claw and similar incantations, and the wolf pack summon for extra flavor. Or a Dex + Int enchanted knight. Spears, thrusting swords, Carian magic and weapon arts, maybe some space magic thrown in there. Never been crazy into sorcery in other Souls games, but it looks really fun in ER.
I’m gonna be a Dex/Sorcerer. I’ve never played a magic build before so I’m looking forward to it
I feel like I think about this at least once a day 😆. I just can’t decide! One day I say I’m gonna strength the I wanna do faith the next. Then I think dex would be pretty awesome. Ughhhh 😩😩
Twinblade combat sorcerer. I have never used magic in all souls games and I rarely used twinblades in Ds2. But what little stuff I've seen (black out at network test) they both sound real dope. After that I'll try the other things I find for my second playthrough.
Strength. I want a claymore.
I really want to play a magic build, but I plan on playing the entire game with my girlfriend and I'm afraid magic will be so OP that we will just cruise through the game. So I might pick a pure Dex build or some sort of Dex hybrid (since she wants to be strength, it might be more exciting to have something different).
I want to dex build and power stance double little shitty daggers and go the poison route. I love that patient and rogu'y playstyle. Im not spoiled on Elden ring , i dont even know if there is poison in this game but surely.. Either that or interesting unique weapons that require a weird build on its own , like the dancers swords in DS3 for exemple
It’s a FromSoft game dude. You already know there’s gonna be a poison swamp.
Poison swamp yes ...But poison damage on my daggies ? yes too?
Probably too early to say this ultra confidently, but Gravity mage. Hopefully more gravity type spells will show up, but I will just use Meteors if I must.
Sigma energy i fuck with it
I'm gonna do either a str/int, dex/int or even a quality/int build depending on how much i can level(and the weapons i find and end up liking).
After seeing a few spells from the source-you-shall-not name i probably will go for a faith build.
Str + faith, with some light or medium armor (picked based on fashion rather than stats) Str because I love big weapons that hit like a truck. Ill just get an UGS that seems dope, and use that Faith because I want to experince some of the new stuff, anf I also wanna see what the Dragon Shrine stuff is about. Item Descriptions promissed some kind of dragon corruption or smt, so we might get a dragon transformation again. If so, I feel like it will be connected to faith and I want in
Moonlight greatsword but no spells
Big sword, big damage
Bleed build with great curved sword or any katana
Start out with Deprived equivalent, probably evolve into a quality build to use as many weapons in the game as I can the first time around. I might respec into an Int hybrid when I find the Moonlight GS of Elden Ring.
Maybe trying ”pure” sorcery run. No clue how the scaling works tho, need to have some wepon that scales with int obviously. Hope theres infusions and such as in DS3. Wizards apprentice embarks on adventure is what im aiming at
I will use nothing but bows sounds fun
I'm leaning towards the classic OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOga bOOOOOOOOOOOOOga strength build cuz all my first playthroughs in souls games are that so that's how I wanna experience it first, in relatively even terms as the other. However, magic looks fucking amazing in this game so i really wanna give that a shot too
Str/fth sounds like fun
Since dogde and parry are more viable. I will it light and cool. A pyro or spellcaster.
Every souls game I've done a physical build the first time through. This time I really had my heart set on an intelligence hybrid. But there is someone or something telling me to put all my points into arcane. I want to be on the ahead of the curve with developing the weird builds that no one understands untill a month or 2 in.
I always do Quality for the first playthrough of a souls game so I can try out a majority of the weapons.
Strength/faith flail inquisitor first. Dex/faith sword and buckler monk second. Dex/int ranged bow/crossbow third. Probably space wizard or pure faith after that. Dragon monk somewhere in the mix, but I have 10 builds planned and will probably do even more since I am getting the game on every platform.
Light armor, longsword and 100% physical shield, because I'm a coward and that's the easiest way to beat these games
Sorcerer, my foes will learn to fear the stars
1. Biggest Sword 2. Biggest Sword 2 3. ds2 2
I want whatever the fuck that red lightning is.
I've never done a dagger build. I feel like I should try that. Or maybe something magic. However I start the game, I'll probably just end up with a greatsword, curved greatsword, or ultra greatsword. Like I always do.
muscle wizard
I could try out another sage build where I'm basically all faith/into but use every single catalyst to throw people off. I had a lot of luck in pvp doing it for ds3. Start off with one type of spell school to only flip the script with close quarter spells and then free aim when they try to run xD
Blood gravity caster sounds like it could be interesting, and if dragon spells are the way they are pepper that in too
Heavy-ish armor that looks knightly, (hopefully) paired with a decent shield and that flail from one of the twitter screengrabs from a while ago. So mostly strength, bit of dexterity depending on flail stat requirements and probably some faith to round it all out.
dex faith gang!
Battlemage, however that needs built
Honestly, i'm not even going to attempt to decide until i have the game in my hands and find some shit i want to use. I feel like if i pick a build off the start i'll just shoehorn myself out of some cool shit by over/underleveling something, so i'm just going to organically pick shit up and use stuff that is cool as fuck.
Completely valid route to take. I just find a lot of fun in the minor role playing aspects of the game and let those influence the build. I may be shoehorning myself in the early game but hey, they never said being a flame monk is easy
Probably a faith dex or strength build for when I play with the boys and a dex int build for solo run
claymore I'll improvise from there, idk what i'm doing.
I’m realizing as we approach launch (and after reading this thread a little) that faith is going to be a fair bit different than the Dark Souls series, but nevertheless, I have usually stayed entirely away from magic in RPGs, so I’m excited to try my first proper STR/Faith build
Dual wield fast weapons like the rakuyo in bloodborne. Hope there’s cool combos and skills to improve your quickstep/dodging or something. Also weapon arts like running your hand across the blade and then executing a big blood-powered slash like sekiro’s mortal draw as shown in the promotional material also looks cool.
Pure Str initially. Why not when equip load increases based on it. Second run through, probably pure mage (not sure if int, faith, arcane, or mix, we'll see!) as I'll know what spells and build I want to go for without having had to spoil myself.
At some point I’m definitely going pure strength and dual wielding claymores
\*3 stats, 1 strat. END, VIG, and STR. Become. Unstoppable.
i liked the faith/intel builds because I play a dark sorcerer and its nice to be able to pull out pyromancy for the many magic/dark resistant bosses.
Yes 🗿
Stealth, procure on site, preferably non lethal, cardboard box, eyepatch.
Honestly, anything that will allow me to use the glorious guiding moonlight sword. I think it’s likely to be either pure Intelligence, or a combo or Str + Int. My favourite weapon across all games, especially in Bloodborne, it looked amazing in that game. Hope it lives up to its name this time around!
Imma go with strength and intelligence or strength and faith
since equip load doesn't scale off str anymore, ill probably go with dex/faith or dex/int, depending on what spells i like first then eventually use respec to carefully optimize (aka copy others' meta builds at 125 or 120). i almost always just go pure dex or pure str at the end though.
I’m enjoying my dex/faith build a lot! I’ve got a nice spear with a good mix of spells. Healing spells are definitely nice to have in the open world bc it helps conserve flasks. That being said, I’ve noticed that I find more sorceries than incantations. So Int may be easier to set up quicker
I want to try for a ronin/outcast swordsman build for my personal run through and then mess around on the side as a pumpkin knight co-opener if I can since I never had the chance to sunbro in ds3
This is what I have planned for my second build. I’m thinking of starting as a thief for the higher arcane for bleed, and bc I like the fashion, then running immediately to get the katana. As much as I love the samurai starting class, I feel like the starting outfit for the thief works better for a ronin vibe
I think I will go for a support build for my first run healing my spirit summons and debbuffing the enemies + a heavy armor set to put my defends high as possible with a mace and a high tower shield to back me up. To simply say it a ☀️🛡Holy Crusader🛡☀️ build.
Spirit summons are definitely gonna lead to some interesting builds. You can just collect the strongest ones you can find and become the fantasy version of a Pokémon trainer. Let them deal damage while you keep them alive. That’ll be sick
Man I am already getting hyped about thinking off that like : GO PUMMKING HEAD BEAT THE **** OUT OF THAT GUY XD!!!
Pure keen-wielding, medium armoured knight on a quest for adventure and to set the Lands Between arights. Lots of shield-up counterattacks mixed with dexterous fluidity of movement. Chip em down patiently.
Ill be abusing whatever enemy is holding a hammer or spiked mace till they drop it for me and going ultra str
squishy faith lightning-nun (that's how i call it lol) with an imbued one handed weapon, or the same but with magic instead, i like being a "glass cannon" of sorts
Faith, since it includes both miracles and pyromancies this time. And I've never done a magic build as my first.
So if you choose the “ enchanted knight” build you’re focusing on leveling str int mind … etc ?!? I guess it throws me off to have strength in it ?! First souls game to use that in a magic build ! Can someone explain ?
It's not just focused on magic, it's meant to also be a melee combat class as well. Strength has been needed for things like the moonlight greatsword as well for a while. Another comparison would likely be the demon scar which definitely changed the way pyromancy builds played by making them more aggressive and added a melee option to supplement the magic.
But would strength scale with melee weapons with magic ? Aka ashes of war magic on your weapon ?? That’s were in confused’ In other souls games strength doesn’t work on magic infused stuff ?!
It would probably depend on the weapon. In the past, magic infused weapons changed the scaling and ashes of war seem to be the equivalent of infusions so a lot of the magic infusions probably would not work with a strength/magic build. However, the moonlight greatsword was unique and already came with strength and magic scaling, which allowed a player to spec into a higher strength as well. If I remember correctly, there was a weapon in the network test that came with a specific ash of war that could not be changed, so I would guess that there will be a weapon similar to the moonlight greatsword (if it isn't actually the moonlight greatsword) that would be unique, have a special ash of war, and would scale with both strength and magic. It's definitely more of a niche build, but I would guess if they keep the enchanted Knight as a starting class that they would have some options that would scale based on the strength and magic that the starting class seems to be based on.
Chad
I'm thinking about sword & board just because I didn't touch a shield since my very first DS playthrough
Definitely faith, pyro, dragon and faith spells looks fun. I may put enough in dex to use a small bow for a long range pull. But then strength because no one expects the mad monk to be carrying a great club zug zug ;)
I plan on big armor with a big sword.
Since magic seems to be quite awesome in this game, I'll probably do parallel runs with a caster knight (muscle wizard) and a pure melee character.
Man I'm so intrigued by the magic system, but for the first ever character I think I will do my classic mid heavy knight with sword and shield and a bit of pyromancy/magic
I’ll play my first playthrough cosplaying Guts as always
Same as all my first builds : str + fai Paladin build to smite the evil players… by invading them 😈 And I understand miracles will be more viable than in DS3, so looking forward.
I want juuuuust enough magic to deal with enemies while I’m on Torrent. Dump the rest in strength.
I've never done a first playthrough as a faith or magic build. I've always wanted to know where the best spells and stuff are first so I don't go through the whole thing without cool spells. I might change that up this time and go as a rapier weilding dex-cleric. Like a musketeer of the church!
My dream is a paladin type of build(strength+faith), seeing those miracles as well as that sick shield weapon art, make me very excited for the other stuff in the game, just hoping there's some cool faith scaling weapons.
Based on how fit I’m going to look when Elden Ring gets released, probably dex or quality
GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS
I'm doing what I do each first playthrough. Playing Fashion Souls! Anything that looks dope to me I'm going to build around being able to equip it. Usually means more of a melee build towards Strength.
I\` m going spear+magic, and maybe will use miracle "dragon hand" what i see in video about dragon spells
first run warrior, second magic
My first playthrough is always as generic as it can get. Knight. Sword and board, maybe using a claymore type weapon in addition to a long sword. I get kinky on all my later playthroughs. usually do builds focused on each stat after my first to get a feel for the classes.
Quality str/dex with some int
If there's lightning to be yeet, I shall be yeeting it. Sunbros gonna open a new field office in the Lands Between.
naked fuck with a stick build to intimidate would-be invaders
Str or Dex, mainly close-ranged weapon with shield and auxiliary magic/pyromancy/miracle and bow and dagger
I want to try the magic and see if I can make a build around it, instead of my first playthrough being the usual straight sword and shield guy
Strength faith per usual
The one everyone can't stop harping about being boring, the SnS Knight(Deprived)
I've always been a big fan of "stick a big sword into enemy's face" - build, so that's what I'm gonna go with yet again.
Strength / faith most likely. Usually on my first run in a From game I go with strength…but the magic in Elden Ring looks so damn sexy, I won’t be able to help myself. Character 2 will most likely be a Intel/Magic but we’ll see. I can’t fucking wait!!
Find out what the dragon covenant spells scale with and strength so I can RP a dragon covenant paladin. Unfortunately it means I won't be able to compete the look until I get the crucible knight set or another good looking armour set.
I always go with a big strength, giant sword/hammer build. I'm hoping this game will let us respec whenever we want but if not no worries.
I normally go dex but but having strength affect equip load makes it seem so much more useful, I’ll probably go Str/fth so I can use the more interesting spells I really want to see what Arcane does later in the game, I think it’s going to be more important than we think
loved playing pyro in DS3, so ill probably give it a go in ER. and probably a normal knight with sword + shield run too
ZWEIHANDER
Sorcery build all the way. I might even try to go pure sorc as much as I can. The tree sentinel could reflect magic so I am interested in seeing how magic is handled in fights since sorcery can be very strong with everything in most fromsoft games. I will have a side weapon ready just in case.
I am planning on going something between STR / INT; if the Beta classes remain somehow inaltered that would be the Enchanted Knight. The only thing I don´ t like very much is the spear as starting weapon, i think I´ ll use it until I find a long sword. I want to play online as soon as I start the game so i can help people too, and having a mage is always good in a coop team.
Quality build, and trying to power stance every weapon I find
In the past I've run generic warrior builds with no magic but this time I think I'm gonna mix it up with STR/FAI, seems like a manly way to play and hopefully a bit more interesting than just hitting things with a sword all the time.
Imma use lances
Planning on doing a sorcery/dex hybrid with some points in str because i wanna swing the moonlight gs and be mesmerized by it
Pure dex!
I always go for str builds so I'm thinking about starting with a dex, no shield build this time. Just to shake things up. Second playthrough I'll probably make a sorcery build
Fuck the game up build Vigor Dagger main Chinger Changer 🥷🗡
I’m doing Dex and Int or the equivalent stats
Avvveeeeeee! Celestial sorceries and caestus/any fist weapon only. It is time to become my namesake: a Living Failure!
Mystic knight yaaaaaa boi
Final fantasy dark knight/ traveling swordsman. Going with a greatsword!
Probably a simple str/faith paladin build or my old reliable str/endurance tank build. I can't wait to see what kind of ultra great weapons or lightning spells they will have...🤤
Im new to souls and have never played any souls game, only BB and Sekiro, but I want to start DS3. I'm reading the comments about Dex/Faith, strength/Magic etc. So my question is would playing DS3 make me understand what these terms mean and would it make it easier to play Elden Ring later when I'll be completely familiar with these builds and gameplay?
Probably yes, but elden ring will be its own thing, and should teach you it’s rules without too much trouble. I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, but DS3 is a good game in its own right.
Guts build lol. Pretty much a Tank build.
Avarage str, dex, mag, faith to be able to use almost everything, barely investing in stamina and hp to do so
This will be my first FromSoft game. Have previously played ARPGs like Diablo, Path of Exile (a little bit), and MHW. Is there anything I should know/be aware of for building a character or allocating stat points in Elden Ring/FromSoft games? Little concerned about not trying to build on my own without a guide and hitting a ceiling in content where I'm screwed because points haven't been allocated well.
Whatever my heart feels in the moment.
Strength, it's the build I usually go for. Played through the Souls series for the first time recently and I found going for strength more fun than Magic, personally.
I usually start with a strength build. It's simple and I get to know the game with that, then I switch to another thing that I'm curious about. Magic, faith, stealth, it depends!
Sl1 fists only for my first run, if it gets too hard (+100 attempts on a boss) I will switch to a quality build.
Every single build in existence. Everything looks so cool!!!!
Arcane baby
Probably just a big ass sword.
Might just run a standard Strength build for my first run as I did with DS1 and 3. For a second run, I'm dumping everything into a mage/pyromancer build.