@@TheEnolarz that aint a challenge. blue dancer charm would give you insane damage on that build, then you can just boiled crab + dragoncrest greatshield talisman to have 40% damage reduction while naked.
@@ScottJund yeah it's a fucking curse LMAO. GinoMachino did it and when he fought lategame bosses you could literally fast forward to see the outside behind him go from day to night
So even an established channel just putting a video out without sub notifications to back it up is destined to be sucked into the TH-cam abyss? Disheartening for a small channel to see...
@@ScottJund If you're talking about the video I think you are, he was talking about releasing TH-cam Shorts without sub notifications, not a regular TH-cam video. YT Shorts might be hindered by sub notifications because some subs might not wanna watch Shorts and/or there's dead accounts that won't interact with the Short. Unchecking the sub notify box will theoretically only put your Short in front of live accounts, therefor giving your Short a better chance at succeeding. Doing this for a normal YT video will likely ruin any starting momentum for the vid. I don't know how confirmable this info is, but I hope it helps. Great vid man 👍sorry my first comment is me yappin'.
My overwhelmingly powerful strategy proves my own skill and moral superiority. Your overwhelmingly powerful strategy is disgusting subhuman behavior. When my build numbers beat your build numbers it's a demonstration of my skill. When your build numbers beat my build numbers the game is bad.
Damn you sir and blast your eyes, your build is degenerate flavor-of-the-month L2 spamming, while mine is carefully considered and emphasizes honest fundamentals.
My favorite "powerful" build type is "ignore leveling my Vig up high enough and replay each boss a million times to learn the pattern by heart so I can actually beat it."
That's how I like to play. For some reason there's a huge stigma against people who don't level up vigor in the community, which I don't get. I like to be forced to learn attack patterns.
@@lonelyshpee7873 The stigma only applies when said person complains about being one shot, and when asked where their vigor is proceeds to give the number in the single or teen digits. You and Gakulon I presume don't complain when a boss one shots you because you don't have any vigor do you so no there is no agenda out there to get you. Take a sip of what ever brew you like, and return to your game.
@@HankNghiem To be fair, I usually hit the 40 Vig mark unless I'm going for a specific brittle caster archetype just for fun. Throwing stones in glass cannons, or something
Generally, I view the "easiest" build as the one that gives you access to the most tools to exploit. Something like a 30 STR and 50 FTH gives you access to a massive amount of tools. You can use a greatshield, have optimized melee damage since fire and holy infusions soft cap at 50 instead of 80, and have a bunch of stats left over to dump into END.
Part of the reason why I and so many others are still in love with this game, they finally just said fuck it and made everything pretty good. Elden Ring, and more specifically your mage build is the only mage build I've ever done because of the insane amount of spells you can have, the use cases, and the impossibly fun combo spell mechanic thing where you can mix up spells on the fly are just beautiful
Every build is easy except for my build, which is a pure Mind build with literally no points put into anything else. Depleting my mana bar takes three hours. Please help.
Mate, I wish I could just translate the worlds you spoke in this video to all languages in the world, because you're 100% right. People just have to accept the fact that any play style can be broken if you're know what you're doing and how to build properly.
For me, it’s what I call the “Dungeon Runner” build. Blasphemous Blade + offhand Sacrificial Axe or Sword of Milos, Takers Cameo, Shard of Alexander, and Ancestral Spirit’s Horn + whatever other gear you want. Basically, you never run out of HP or FP because you can spam Takers Flames and then recover all your HP and FP right back from killing enemies. It’s makes dungeons and the over-world piss easy. The only major weaknesses are bosses and PvP because you can’t utilize the regen as much, but yet again Blasphemous still carries a bit and you can just change up the talismans before fights.
Just found out Dragon King's Cragblade AoW will perma-stun Malenia when done against her, it sends her to the ground and a follow-up charged heavy attack will break her poise, sending her in a stun/animation loop shen can't escape, she can't even start waterfowl dance.
What I really don't get is the amount of people "prepping" for SotE. (this only applies to people who beat the game originally 1 or more times) OK. Just take any character you beat the game with, use that. "but I want a different build" You have at least 10 respecs to use throughout the expansion to try out everything. The only way making a new char makes sense is if you want to start SotE in NG+ / next NG cycle. But most people just make a new char for some inexplicable reason. Edit: My argument will not hold any water if after the DLC patch drops, From will add extra content to base game also.
Insane that some people think certain builds break the game when it gives you so many tools to make any build adaptable. First played the game with a dual UGS build and simply by going to 15 Faith you can stack Electrify Armament and Flame, Grant Me Strength on top of your physick and just do stupid damage and stagger. Got even more broken with some further Faith investment and swapping to an Iron Cleaver, basically had no situation it truly struggled with and excelled in situations my INT build struggled with.
Hi! I have some thoughts on the subject that I'd like to talk about given I've a fair amount of experience with these games (and I've beaten Malenia with strength, dex, faith, int, and arcane builds for the fun of it (sometimes multiples times, in cases where damage stats have internally diverse builds like speccing into bleed in one save file or into the dragon seal in the next)) but first-- while I agree that all builds are the easiest if you build them in specific ways-- I take issue with: 1:07 "Every single build is broken as long as you are good at making your character" and 2:43 "if you're struggling and you're looking to other builds for complaints because your build is just so weak and theirs is just so strong, I guarantee I can take whatever build you have and make it look just as broken, you just have to know how to actually build your character." My problem with these claims is that they offload the burden of responsibility from Elden Ring's theoretical capacity for introducing a diverse range of viable build crafting options, and makes it the player's fault for not running optimal loadouts. I think it's fair to point to things like "rivers of blood" or "comet azure" and whatever, but on first principles, not every arcane build wants to run bleed against Malenia. Not every magic user wants to run comet azure against Mohg. Not all strength builds are equally strong. Some incantations and combat arts are next to worthless. It also just has to be said, there's no such thing as being "good" or "bad" at building your character in Elden Ring. The first half of build crafting is your stat distribution, and it doesn't take any serious skill or effort to put all your points in your health and respective damage stats (either you know what those stats mean, or you're new and you don't. The quality being tested here is hindsight). The second half to build crafting is your equipment, and not all weapons, talismans, and elixirs are created equal. Some are easier to get to. Some are EARLIER to get to. Some you don't even unlock until you're almost done with the game. Others are trapped behind questlines you might not even know about. Others are stuck behind difficult bosses and others are trapped behind boring ones (shoutout to my +10 dragon seal and the stupid fucking dragons I had to kill). So unless when you say "I can take whatever build you have and make it look just as broken" you mean "I can swap your stats around so enemies die in one extra hit in your stage of the game" or "I'm going to completely change everything about how you like to play Elden RIng because you're playing sub optimally, also you might not even have access to the areas that drop the items you need to make this build work" then I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Granted, I expect most veteran players already have every item in the game (or at least have a guide open to find the ones they've missed) but veterans also aren't the ones who need help making a broken build (and some of them might not even need one to begin with), so on some level I'm not sure who this video is for. Anyway! With that out of the way, my two cents is that builds that lean into dumping points into health are the easiest. Vigor is the easiest build. Certainly not in every situation, but at least in my experience, it is the most brain dead: health is the stat that determines how many hits you can take before "taking damage" becomes something with consequence, i.e. when it crosses 0. I've seen some b u l l s h i t magic builds, but even they at least get heart attacks when they're out of mana and about to die in one hit. I think strength builds are especially guilty here, cause it doesn't matter if you have shit recovery (and unless you're running 13 vigor) you're healing through the next few hits and then hitting them again for all the damage in the world. Also "rivers of blood." I love bleed archetypes, but that was the one that made me go "wow, I fucking hate these weapons, I'm never using them against Malenia again." For me, overpowered weapons have killed more moods than bosses.
as a guy who just finished his first playthrough with only using bleed (bloodhound/morgott weapons, later used Mohgwyn spear) I can confirm that it's OP when it works... but i honest to god struggled more on Radagon and Elden Beast than Malenia.
My first playthrough was magic and this is very much true, some bosses were easy like Morgott since I could just use comet azur. Some bosses were hard like Godfrey since you can't do jump attacks with magic.
Honestly i never really thought any one single archetype or build was superior than the rest there might have been some on launch but now its just an even playing field basically. i know i need to redownload the game and go kill mohg before friday and than planning on swapping my build for the dlc so looking forward to that
ok can you help me with these erdsteel dagger Celebrant's Sickle Varre's Bouquet Harp Bow and no like 50 buffs like jelly shield and Commander's Standard
Just started playing elden ring and it was my first souls like. I am a bit of a psycho and I like to learn everything about the games I play so I realized really early that the game had all of these op cheesy builds. Only facts in this video, every “mage builds are easy and op” comes from the guy spamming lions claw with guts greatsword and vice versa. Parts of this community are just really insecure and want to feel like beating these games is an insane display of skill since they don’t achieve much irl, and it shows.
I suppose to have a more tangible answer, the “easiest” playstyle is the one easiest to make. Personally I cannot build int because I’ve never built Int, so technically Int is the hardest but dragon communion, magma blade puddle strats is easy for me (I can imagine the greeding for damage in Close battle is very difficult for some) people play game’s differently and that’s okay.
OBJECTIVELY the strongest build is whichever one makes other people go "damn, that was sick" when they watch your overly compressed Malenia kill in the Elden Ring twitter replies.
Any run is invalid if it’s not level 1 wretch, no site of grace, no damage, no buffs, no armor, no talismans, no weapon, no summons, no jumping, no rolling, no audio, blindfolded. Anything else is just op easy mode.
Honestly, I'm actually really curious how you make Int/Faith work - the archetype seems really cool & I love the idea of casting Every Spell, but it just doesn't seem to get rewarded very much.
‘why care what other people use?’ I wish it felt like other people had a shared experience with me like dark souls. I am lonli and i need the human connection :’)
Since this video is kind of on the topic can anyone give me some advice with a tree sentinel cosplay build I've been trying to make? I want to continue using the golden halberd, but that holy damage is brutal against the main bosses. Anyone have any tips to help me eek out a bit more damage without turning it into a dragon ball power up scene?
yeah holy damage is notoriously bad endgame, so you'd want to expand on your physical damage as much as possible. you likely have faith to use the halberd so Golden Vow and Flame Grant me Strength is 30% more physical damage for you right there.
My first 100% playthrough was pure intelligence and summons and i loved it. 2nd playthrough was a dual wield jump attacking bleed build. Not nearly as fun.
I always have this metaphor in mind when this topic is debated. I know I will get some hate for it but w/e. Imagine, you really like doing marathons, you've been doing marathons for years and this marathon named Elden Ring is definitly your favorite one but also the hardest you ever done. You get to the finish line and you start talking with the other competitors on how hard it was and how much fun it was to overcome the difficulty. But then, another competitor comes to you and you realise he did it on a bike and say "I don't really think it was this hard?" Sure, you can do it exactly like you want to, but let's not pretend we achieved the same thing, we didn't have the same experience and it's frustating to see you hanging out with us. Bike is an analogy for Magic build with summons/ strong spirits ashes, where you just click your magic spell 20 times in a row and never have to learn the bosses moveset or dodge a single time. And for the question "where do you draw the line for which build is normal and which one is cheesy?" I just throw the line at: Did you learn the boss moveset? If not, you probably cheesed it with your build.
I love this whimsical little fantasy world you've created in your head where the mere act of using magic somehow means bosses will no longer rush you down to turn you into paste.
@@-snek. Magic build with summons/ strong spirits ashes* Well that's not a fantasy world, I finished the game 3 times with magic builds to see if it was as easy as it seems. And yes, if you have summons/spirit ashes, the boss will ignore you, you might have to dodge once or twice (I know it's scary but most builds actually have to engage with mecanics of the boss)
If magic builds were that consistent and op people would have already no hit all bosses by now. Unfortunately all builds will have a caveat on some boss down the line and this way of thinking is just gatekeeping elitism for pixels on a screen.
@@xReifox I'll hold an L, my brain skipped over the part about summons and spirit ashes and I thought you were dogging on magic alone. I overwhelmingly play pure melee, but the times I've tried pure caster builds I find it MORE difficult than melee because of lengthy animation locks, juggling spells and squishiness causing issues when every problematic boss gives you so little breathing room. I've just seen too many people who think casting is always easy baby mode because of how it was in past games.
@@-snek. No worries. If you want to play a solo mage, I recommand using night comet + staff of loss. Bosses don't dodge it and it legit make the game very easy. Even no-hit malenia with it (No way I could ever do that on a melee build, I'm not that good).
Ok but the real answer is intelligence. You get Night Comet to ignore all mechanics except spacing, you get Rock Sling to get giga stagger and ignore magic resist, you get Meteorite Staff for an early-mid game +17ish equivalent staff, you get more ways to apply frostbite, you get SUCCUMB, you get Haima/Gavel, and with a little strength and/or dex investment you get access to some of the most fun weapons and AoWs in the game. Int mains stay winning.
other than obviously bleed shenanigans you'd want to go for status buildup. an anti bleed dual dagger setup would go 50 str 50 int, then have one fire infused and one cold infused to repeatedly proc frostbite with max damage scaling at softcaps
low level quality is bad but with the stats of a quality build you could easily just go fire or lightning infusion as those softcap at 50 str/dex respectively
Really hate the elitism in souls like games but it's totally understandable. Two people can beat the game but have totally different experiences. It kinda sucks when you spend 100 hours to beat the game and watch a friend marathon the bosses and beat it in a fifth of the time just for them to say "tHiS gAmE wAs EaSy!". Like sure you shouldn't care but there's no clear distinction the game gives like hard mode and stuff. I think one day there should be a souls like game that works like Slay the Spire where, for example, if you beat the game for the first time it allows you to do it again, but with a small debuff or limitation. The first playthrough would still be hard, but it allows all kinds of options for players to experiment with to win. Imagine getting into the 20th playthrough though and the games like "now do it with fists lol". Just a better version of NG+ that allows everyone to play at whatever level they want while also letting sweaty players earn their imaginary metal for beating the game the "right way".
I wish I knew a single thing about making a build 😭I hardly understood a single term in this video but Elden Ring looks really fun. Idk how to start though...
Scott's essentially saying that any build can find a specialised playstyle that can make them powerful. Typically most builds prioritise their HP stat (Vigor) and either Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Faith or Arcane; spellcasters additionally invest in Mind and melee characters invest in Endurance. My first character was literally running the big swords build he shows an example of early on and even something as simple as that was able to leverage breaking enemies' stances to beat the entire game without needing to be a god-tier player. There are build guide videos here on TH-cam if they're your thing, but most of the starting classes provide an example framework of how stats are typically invested into the build they represent. Elden Ring being a big game means you get plenty of levels to experiment with all of the stuff you can find around the world, and you can respec your character several times across the game to try out new things or go back to a reliable build.
its def bleed or int, but being easier doesn't matter just play the game how you want lol, but i don't think anyone should just be preaching copium, there's definitely a hierarchy of what's strongest, it's just they're all very strong and viable
Not all are easy it depends on the player universally the easiest for all players is a beefy tank where you can block with a big shield can use magic spells for defense and talismans for getting rid of statis effects you only need to dodge ever so often making it easy won't do alot of damage but won't really have a problem 👍
Props to you for telling the truth! Would have been easy to join the endless delusional bandwagon of "magic is op!! pure strength is the real elden ring experience!!". For me personally I found strength builds to be the easiest to beat the game with, took a 6month break, came back and first timed malekith with a strength build even though i struggled to beat him with int. I also think its a complement of the games design that bosses are designed such that some will be stronger vs some builds/playstyles and weaker vs others, though i never really felt disadvantaged when playing strength builds. Same with pure faith builds but for different reasons.
Bows literally break the game, at least for base game. Longbows let you kill things in the overworld as they just stand there like idiots, shortbows/black bow you can jump attack around like a maniac with a light roll and the boss will never touch you
Yeah I want to enjoy Elden Ring but I'm a soulslike noob except for sekiro for some reason. I'm like actually cracked at sekiro but i just can't with the other games.
Hey! "Build" is not only stat distribution, you talk here ONLY about that. Buid is everything, stats, weapons, armour, talismans, spells etc. down to playstyle. Show me how op is melee centered faith build using ONLY Sorcerer's stuff.
Facts. Some long critiques ive seen judge the combat with a zwei and think they know what their talking about just because they hitless it. Literally forgetting about regular players
Thing is, game doesn't teach you how to build a character. You are limited by what's within reach or what you find. You can only "build" a character with heavy use of fextralife and foreknowledge. and that's not to mention the outright lies and mistranslations the game has in a multitude of item descriptions. Like, the steelwire torch does NOT increase firepower like it says it does. Full Moon Crossbow does not do better with holy bolts like it says. And the problem is how awful and annoying and time consuming it takes to make a proper build (emphasis on proper) that you want. And those "builds" trivialize the game, so can you say you're really playing it when the boss doesn't get to do anything? The alternative since the game is poorly designed, is that YOU don't get to do anything since the bosses are so oppressive with so many terrible mechanics. I also think a game like this shouldn't be required to do math (with obscure stats the game actively hids and doesn't tell you like how much talismans increase potency) or require online guides. Something messed up about that making a community mandatory to make a build and then "have fun".
Never liked toxic souls player nonsense "oh you use this you didn't beat the game." Fuck you my poorly optimized Ichigo cosplay build used spirit ashes and shit on this game lol. Good video
0:45 So I Comet Azure the whole health bar of: Godrick Rennala (endgame set-up) Ancestor Spirit Radahn Magma Wyrm Makar Regal Ancestor Spirit Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella Valiant Gargoyles (1 of the 2 obviously) Astel Godskin Noble Rykard (endgame set-up) Elemer of the Briar Godfrey Morgott Mohg, the Omen Commander Niall Fire Giant (up to phase transition) Loretta Malenia (Phase 2) Godskin Duo Dragonlord Placidusax Maliketh (phase 1) Lichdragon Fortissax Mohg Hoarah Loux (Phase 1) "3 bosses in the game"
No armour. No magic. No weapons. Just naked man with fists. Easiest build by far.
@ScottJund Challenge accepted? c:
@@TheEnolarz that aint a challenge. blue dancer charm would give you insane damage on that build, then you can just boiled crab + dragoncrest greatshield talisman to have 40% damage reduction while naked.
@@ScottJund No no he means literally bare fists that do 1 damage on a basic punch
@@lunatik4291 bitch thats not even a build at that point thats you just forgetting to equip something
@@ScottJund yeah it's a fucking curse LMAO. GinoMachino did it and when he fought lategame bosses you could literally fast forward to see the outside behind him go from day to night
thanks to the people yesterday who helped me test something with posting this early. it did not work at all looool.
So even an established channel just putting a video out without sub notifications to back it up is destined to be sucked into the TH-cam abyss? Disheartening for a small channel to see...
@@onesmartcat yeah im not sure what piratesoftware was goin on about it absolutely does not work at all
Strange. I watched it yesterday just fine lol
@@ScottJund Piratesoftware has a lot of good points about things, but he also just pulls things straight out of his ass sometimes.
@@ScottJund If you're talking about the video I think you are, he was talking about releasing TH-cam Shorts without sub notifications, not a regular TH-cam video. YT Shorts might be hindered by sub notifications because some subs might not wanna watch Shorts and/or there's dead accounts that won't interact with the Short. Unchecking the sub notify box will theoretically only put your Short in front of live accounts, therefor giving your Short a better chance at succeeding. Doing this for a normal YT video will likely ruin any starting momentum for the vid. I don't know how confirmable this info is, but I hope it helps. Great vid man 👍sorry my first comment is me yappin'.
It’s literally the “real ones win with their favorite Pokémon” thing
really starting to remind me of that championship-winning pachurisu lol
My overwhelmingly powerful strategy proves my own skill and moral superiority. Your overwhelmingly powerful strategy is disgusting subhuman behavior. When my build numbers beat your build numbers it's a demonstration of my skill. When your build numbers beat my build numbers the game is bad.
Duh!
okay neckbeard lol
Damn you sir and blast your eyes, your build is degenerate flavor-of-the-month L2 spamming, while mine is carefully considered and emphasizes honest fundamentals.
My player skill vs your unpatched cheese.
@@D00dleNetbro missed the joke
My favorite "powerful" build type is "ignore leveling my Vig up high enough and replay each boss a million times to learn the pattern by heart so I can actually beat it."
xD
That's how I like to play. For some reason there's a huge stigma against people who don't level up vigor in the community, which I don't get. I like to be forced to learn attack patterns.
@@lonelyshpee7873 The stigma only applies when said person complains about being one shot, and when asked where their vigor is proceeds to give the number in the single or teen digits. You and Gakulon I presume don't complain when a boss one shots you because you don't have any vigor do you so no there is no agenda out there to get you. Take a sip of what ever brew you like, and return to your game.
@@HankNghiem To be fair, I usually hit the 40 Vig mark unless I'm going for a specific brittle caster archetype just for fun. Throwing stones in glass cannons, or something
"Like you're a 3rd edition Cleric"
hey, I understood that reference
What is the reference
Very informative, thank you ,other guides just glance over some builds that people think are bad, but you find the strengths in every build.
Scott if you ever skibidi some gyatt rizz ever again im going to go insane
11 year olds are especially annoying these days huh?
I think it's already too late to save your mental health
Erm what the sigma
Generally, I view the "easiest" build as the one that gives you access to the most tools to exploit. Something like a 30 STR and 50 FTH gives you access to a massive amount of tools. You can use a greatshield, have optimized melee damage since fire and holy infusions soft cap at 50 instead of 80, and have a bunch of stats left over to dump into END.
Part of the reason why I and so many others are still in love with this game, they finally just said fuck it and made everything pretty good. Elden Ring, and more specifically your mage build is the only mage build I've ever done because of the insane amount of spells you can have, the use cases, and the impossibly fun combo spell mechanic thing where you can mix up spells on the fly are just beautiful
Every build is easy except for my build, which is a pure Mind build with literally no points put into anything else. Depleting my mana bar takes three hours. Please help.
Mate, I wish I could just translate the worlds you spoke in this video to all languages in the world, because you're 100% right. People just have to accept the fact that any play style can be broken if you're know what you're doing and how to build properly.
Scott, I think I’m going crazy. i swear I’ve already seen this video
Nuh uh
I used the Fingerprint Shield on Gaius.
Got that off my chest...
For me, it’s what I call the “Dungeon Runner” build. Blasphemous Blade + offhand Sacrificial Axe or Sword of Milos, Takers Cameo, Shard of Alexander, and Ancestral Spirit’s Horn + whatever other gear you want. Basically, you never run out of HP or FP because you can spam Takers Flames and then recover all your HP and FP right back from killing enemies. It’s makes dungeons and the over-world piss easy. The only major weaknesses are bosses and PvP because you can’t utilize the regen as much, but yet again Blasphemous still carries a bit and you can just change up the talismans before fights.
THE ONE WITH THE BEST L2 BUTTON. L2 RING.
Just found out Dragon King's Cragblade AoW will perma-stun Malenia when done against her, it sends her to the ground and a follow-up charged heavy attack will break her poise, sending her in a stun/animation loop shen can't escape, she can't even start waterfowl dance.
What I really don't get is the amount of people "prepping" for SotE.
(this only applies to people who beat the game originally 1 or more times)
OK. Just take any character you beat the game with, use that.
"but I want a different build"
You have at least 10 respecs to use throughout the expansion to try out everything.
The only way making a new char makes sense is if you want to start SotE in NG+ / next NG cycle.
But most people just make a new char for some inexplicable reason.
Edit: My argument will not hold any water if after the DLC patch drops, From will add extra content to base game also.
*Laughs in Greatshield*
Insane that some people think certain builds break the game when it gives you so many tools to make any build adaptable. First played the game with a dual UGS build and simply by going to 15 Faith you can stack Electrify Armament and Flame, Grant Me Strength on top of your physick and just do stupid damage and stagger. Got even more broken with some further Faith investment and swapping to an Iron Cleaver, basically had no situation it truly struggled with and excelled in situations my INT build struggled with.
so what you're saying is just use mimic tear +10 in every fight. ok got you, thanks
Mimic tear sucks if your build is bad.
@@nu1xmeat shield
Tbh I find Dex/faith/arc/str. Bloodhounds fang +bloodflame blade and bloodflame incants the easiest and most fun.
I remember when it came out everyone called RoB easy mode and Jump Attack Str build which staggers Bosses every 3 hits the GIGACHAD build lol
They all resist holy meanwhile theres me with a holy build crying in the corner
Hi! I have some thoughts on the subject that I'd like to talk about given I've a fair amount of experience with these games (and I've beaten Malenia with strength, dex, faith, int, and arcane builds for the fun of it (sometimes multiples times, in cases where damage stats have internally diverse builds like speccing into bleed in one save file or into the dragon seal in the next)) but first-- while I agree that all builds are the easiest if you build them in specific ways-- I take issue with:
1:07 "Every single build is broken as long as you are good at making your character"
and
2:43 "if you're struggling and you're looking to other builds for complaints because your build is just so weak and theirs is just so strong, I guarantee I can take whatever build you have and make it look just as broken, you just have to know how to actually build your character."
My problem with these claims is that they offload the burden of responsibility from Elden Ring's theoretical capacity for introducing a diverse range of viable build crafting options, and makes it the player's fault for not running optimal loadouts. I think it's fair to point to things like "rivers of blood" or "comet azure" and whatever, but on first principles, not every arcane build wants to run bleed against Malenia. Not every magic user wants to run comet azure against Mohg. Not all strength builds are equally strong. Some incantations and combat arts are next to worthless.
It also just has to be said, there's no such thing as being "good" or "bad" at building your character in Elden Ring. The first half of build crafting is your stat distribution, and it doesn't take any serious skill or effort to put all your points in your health and respective damage stats (either you know what those stats mean, or you're new and you don't. The quality being tested here is hindsight).
The second half to build crafting is your equipment, and not all weapons, talismans, and elixirs are created equal. Some are easier to get to. Some are EARLIER to get to. Some you don't even unlock until you're almost done with the game. Others are trapped behind questlines you might not even know about. Others are stuck behind difficult bosses and others are trapped behind boring ones (shoutout to my +10 dragon seal and the stupid fucking dragons I had to kill).
So unless when you say "I can take whatever build you have and make it look just as broken" you mean "I can swap your stats around so enemies die in one extra hit in your stage of the game" or "I'm going to completely change everything about how you like to play Elden RIng because you're playing sub optimally, also you might not even have access to the areas that drop the items you need to make this build work" then I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Granted, I expect most veteran players already have every item in the game (or at least have a guide open to find the ones they've missed) but veterans also aren't the ones who need help making a broken build (and some of them might not even need one to begin with), so on some level I'm not sure who this video is for.
Anyway! With that out of the way, my two cents is that builds that lean into dumping points into health are the easiest. Vigor is the easiest build. Certainly not in every situation, but at least in my experience, it is the most brain dead: health is the stat that determines how many hits you can take before "taking damage" becomes something with consequence, i.e. when it crosses 0. I've seen some b u l l s h i t magic builds, but even they at least get heart attacks when they're out of mana and about to die in one hit. I think strength builds are especially guilty here, cause it doesn't matter if you have shit recovery (and unless you're running 13 vigor) you're healing through the next few hits and then hitting them again for all the damage in the world.
Also "rivers of blood." I love bleed archetypes, but that was the one that made me go "wow, I fucking hate these weapons, I'm never using them against Malenia again." For me, overpowered weapons have killed more moods than bosses.
The true easy mode is when u give up ur fashion to optimize ur poise
as a guy who just finished his first playthrough with only using bleed (bloodhound/morgott weapons, later used Mohgwyn spear) I can confirm that it's OP when it works... but i honest to god struggled more on Radagon and Elden Beast than Malenia.
My first playthrough was magic and this is very much true, some bosses were easy like Morgott since I could just use comet azur. Some bosses were hard like Godfrey since you can't do jump attacks with magic.
Honestly i never really thought any one single archetype or build was superior than the rest there might have been some on launch but now its just an even playing field basically. i know i need to redownload the game and go kill mohg before friday and than planning on swapping my build for the dlc so looking forward to that
ok can you help me with these
erdsteel dagger
Celebrant's Sickle
Varre's Bouquet
Harp Bow
and no like 50 buffs like jelly shield and Commander's Standard
hes actually talking about quality build, with greatsword and giant hunt, thats the best build for the entire game
Finally Elden Ring content
Dude said "shamefully had to use mimic tear" in this spoiler free review so clearly Scott does have some thoughts on what's "proper".
The 3rd edition cleric earned you a sub my good sir
I would agree bosses dodge spells if night comet didn't exist
Just started playing elden ring and it was my first souls like. I am a bit of a psycho and I like to learn everything about the games I play so I realized really early that the game had all of these op cheesy builds. Only facts in this video, every “mage builds are easy and op” comes from the guy spamming lions claw with guts greatsword and vice versa. Parts of this community are just really insecure and want to feel like beating these games is an insane display of skill since they don’t achieve much irl, and it shows.
watching this again because i always gotta tune in for the fromsoft scoot videos
I suppose to have a more tangible answer, the “easiest” playstyle is the one easiest to make. Personally I cannot build int because I’ve never built Int, so technically Int is the hardest but dragon communion, magma blade puddle strats is easy for me (I can imagine the greeding for damage in Close battle is very difficult for some) people play game’s differently and that’s okay.
Default torch build is the only honorable build
Great video, Scott. Hope to see you posting DLC content soon. 💚
Watching ginomachino has shown me that all builds are op.
even RL1 can be easy, all you do is just put on red feather, blue dancer, and use a katana to do some massive damage.
OBJECTIVELY the strongest build is whichever one makes other people go "damn, that was sick" when they watch your overly compressed Malenia kill in the Elden Ring twitter replies.
I played the game with level 1 summons and a bad weapon did 0 reserch on the game and it was harder than it ahould have been
Appreciate you stepping away from dbd long enough to deliver this psa
I used spirit ashes when ER came out with zero shame.
Any run is invalid if it’s not level 1 wretch, no site of grace, no damage, no buffs, no armor, no talismans, no weapon, no summons, no jumping, no rolling, no audio, blindfolded. Anything else is just op easy mode.
Honestly, I'm actually really curious how you make Int/Faith work - the archetype seems really cool & I love the idea of casting Every Spell, but it just doesn't seem to get rewarded very much.
vacuum slicer build?
‘why care what other people use?’
I wish it felt like other people had a shared experience with me like dark souls.
I am lonli and i need the human connection :’)
Since this video is kind of on the topic can anyone give me some advice with a tree sentinel cosplay build I've been trying to make? I want to continue using the golden halberd, but that holy damage is brutal against the main bosses. Anyone have any tips to help me eek out a bit more damage without turning it into a dragon ball power up scene?
yeah holy damage is notoriously bad endgame, so you'd want to expand on your physical damage as much as possible. you likely have faith to use the halberd so Golden Vow and Flame Grant me Strength is 30% more physical damage for you right there.
My first 100% playthrough was pure intelligence and summons and i loved it. 2nd playthrough was a dual wield jump attacking bleed build. Not nearly as fun.
I always have this metaphor in mind when this topic is debated. I know I will get some hate for it but w/e.
Imagine, you really like doing marathons, you've been doing marathons for years and this marathon named Elden Ring is definitly your favorite one but also the hardest you ever done.
You get to the finish line and you start talking with the other competitors on how hard it was and how much fun it was to overcome the difficulty.
But then, another competitor comes to you and you realise he did it on a bike and say "I don't really think it was this hard?"
Sure, you can do it exactly like you want to, but let's not pretend we achieved the same thing, we didn't have the same experience and it's frustating to see you hanging out with us.
Bike is an analogy for Magic build with summons/ strong spirits ashes, where you just click your magic spell 20 times in a row and never have to learn the bosses moveset or dodge a single time.
And for the question "where do you draw the line for which build is normal and which one is cheesy?"
I just throw the line at: Did you learn the boss moveset? If not, you probably cheesed it with your build.
I love this whimsical little fantasy world you've created in your head where the mere act of using magic somehow means bosses will no longer rush you down to turn you into paste.
@@-snek. Magic build with summons/ strong spirits ashes*
Well that's not a fantasy world, I finished the game 3 times with magic builds to see if it was as easy as it seems.
And yes, if you have summons/spirit ashes, the boss will ignore you, you might have to dodge once or twice (I know it's scary but most builds actually have to engage with mecanics of the boss)
If magic builds were that consistent and op people would have already no hit all bosses by now. Unfortunately all builds will have a caveat on some boss down the line and this way of thinking is just gatekeeping elitism for pixels on a screen.
@@xReifox I'll hold an L, my brain skipped over the part about summons and spirit ashes and I thought you were dogging on magic alone. I overwhelmingly play pure melee, but the times I've tried pure caster builds I find it MORE difficult than melee because of lengthy animation locks, juggling spells and squishiness causing issues when every problematic boss gives you so little breathing room. I've just seen too many people who think casting is always easy baby mode because of how it was in past games.
@@-snek. No worries.
If you want to play a solo mage, I recommand using night comet + staff of loss. Bosses don't dodge it and it legit make the game very easy. Even no-hit malenia with it (No way I could ever do that on a melee build, I'm not that good).
Ok but the real answer is intelligence. You get Night Comet to ignore all mechanics except spacing, you get Rock Sling to get giga stagger and ignore magic resist, you get Meteorite Staff for an early-mid game +17ish equivalent staff, you get more ways to apply frostbite, you get SUCCUMB, you get Haima/Gavel, and with a little strength and/or dex investment you get access to some of the most fun weapons and AoWs in the game. Int mains stay winning.
Shout out to 3rd edition clerics and 3.5 evasion builds
I'd love to see you make dual daggers look broken tbh, I wish they were.
other than obviously bleed shenanigans you'd want to go for status buildup. an anti bleed dual dagger setup would go 50 str 50 int, then have one fire infused and one cold infused to repeatedly proc frostbite with max damage scaling at softcaps
@@ScottJund Thanks I actually want to try that now
What about quality?? Unless you're around lv 200 it's not worth to use.
Of course that's just for infusions, somber weapons are good.
low level quality is bad but with the stats of a quality build you could easily just go fire or lightning infusion as those softcap at 50 str/dex respectively
Ignoring investment, I think Faith ARC is the best build. Maybe some STR or DEX just to equip stuff. The variety of tools you get is just insane.
Really hate the elitism in souls like games but it's totally understandable. Two people can beat the game but have totally different experiences. It kinda sucks when you spend 100 hours to beat the game and watch a friend marathon the bosses and beat it in a fifth of the time just for them to say "tHiS gAmE wAs EaSy!". Like sure you shouldn't care but there's no clear distinction the game gives like hard mode and stuff. I think one day there should be a souls like game that works like Slay the Spire where, for example, if you beat the game for the first time it allows you to do it again, but with a small debuff or limitation. The first playthrough would still be hard, but it allows all kinds of options for players to experiment with to win. Imagine getting into the 20th playthrough though and the games like "now do it with fists lol". Just a better version of NG+ that allows everyone to play at whatever level they want while also letting sweaty players earn their imaginary metal for beating the game the "right way".
The easiest build is finding out whatever the enemy is weak to and using that (my build)
the easiest playstyle is to have overlevel phantoms carry you threw the game say in the 300+ lvl
It’s strength because I beat the game with that build
Night Comet my beloved
I like to think my magma sorcery is op on ulcerated tree spirits. Endure + gelmir's fury on the triple shitter ulcerated tree spirits is funny.
I wish I knew a single thing about making a build 😭I hardly understood a single term in this video but Elden Ring looks really fun. Idk how to start though...
Scott's essentially saying that any build can find a specialised playstyle that can make them powerful. Typically most builds prioritise their HP stat (Vigor) and either Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Faith or Arcane; spellcasters additionally invest in Mind and melee characters invest in Endurance. My first character was literally running the big swords build he shows an example of early on and even something as simple as that was able to leverage breaking enemies' stances to beat the entire game without needing to be a god-tier player.
There are build guide videos here on TH-cam if they're your thing, but most of the starting classes provide an example framework of how stats are typically invested into the build they represent. Elden Ring being a big game means you get plenty of levels to experiment with all of the stuff you can find around the world, and you can respec your character several times across the game to try out new things or go back to a reliable build.
Yea pretty much everything can be strong, just gotta be good kek.
Though bow builds are still pain to play with. Not bad, but pain.
its def bleed or int, but being easier doesn't matter just play the game how you want lol, but i don't think anyone should just be preaching copium, there's definitely a hierarchy of what's strongest, it's just they're all very strong and viable
This video was fact-checked by real Boletarian patriots TRUE
Obviously the easiest build type is the summoner.
Not all are easy it depends on the player universally the easiest for all players is a beefy tank where you can block with a big shield can use magic spells for defense and talismans for getting rid of statis effects you only need to dodge ever so often making it easy won't do alot of damage but won't really have a problem 👍
Scott assuming that i "build" my character. My brother in Christ i get 60 vigor and dump stats until i can use cool weapons
Why use builds when you can use EVERYTHING
Okay, counterargument, Blasphemous Blade. It's good even if the boss has high fire resistance.
the easiest build is the one that suits your personal play style the best :)
Props to you for telling the truth! Would have been easy to join the endless delusional bandwagon of "magic is op!! pure strength is the real elden ring experience!!". For me personally I found strength builds to be the easiest to beat the game with, took a 6month break, came back and first timed malekith with a strength build even though i struggled to beat him with int. I also think its a complement of the games design that bosses are designed such that some will be stronger vs some builds/playstyles and weaker vs others, though i never really felt disadvantaged when playing strength builds. Same with pure faith builds but for different reasons.
The easiest build is the no dodge build i think or radans greatbow ashe of war spam
I play bleed almost exclusively and I still think it is the easiest. 😂
Wrong, my build is the hardest (i forgor to equip weapons)
Ye but bows are objectively shit
Need to ask Scott to make that build broken then.
i can make a lion greatbow with radahn spears do like 4000 damage per Rain of Arrows on bosses
Bows literally break the game, at least for base game. Longbows let you kill things in the overworld as they just stand there like idiots, shortbows/black bow you can jump attack around like a maniac with a light roll and the boss will never touch you
Good job on branching out from dbd! Keep it up, you are great
Say it louder, yayuh!
Yeah I want to enjoy Elden Ring but I'm a soulslike noob except for sekiro for some reason. I'm like actually cracked at sekiro but i just can't with the other games.
i'll give it a second watch dw scott
but that Scott x Zubat reading is still waiting like your homework, so
Gigachad take, people love to low other's effort. Who cares if they used summons, it's a singleplayer game man.
Distortion2's Lv.1 build is pretty easy...
Was this whole thing a rant to say every build is easy?
Hey!
"Build" is not only stat distribution, you talk here ONLY about that.
Buid is everything, stats, weapons, armour, talismans, spells etc. down to playstyle.
Show me how op is melee centered faith build using ONLY Sorcerer's stuff.
What about dex? Didnt hear you say anything about dex 😂😂
This is why I don't care about PvE after beating all the main bosses. To bad PvP is a joke.
Facts. Some long critiques ive seen judge the combat with a zwei and think they know what their talking about just because they hitless it. Literally forgetting about regular players
Thing is, game doesn't teach you how to build a character. You are limited by what's within reach or what you find. You can only "build" a character with heavy use of fextralife and foreknowledge. and that's not to mention the outright lies and mistranslations the game has in a multitude of item descriptions. Like, the steelwire torch does NOT increase firepower like it says it does. Full Moon Crossbow does not do better with holy bolts like it says.
And the problem is how awful and annoying and time consuming it takes to make a proper build (emphasis on proper) that you want. And those "builds" trivialize the game, so can you say you're really playing it when the boss doesn't get to do anything? The alternative since the game is poorly designed, is that YOU don't get to do anything since the bosses are so oppressive with so many terrible mechanics.
I also think a game like this shouldn't be required to do math (with obscure stats the game actively hids and doesn't tell you like how much talismans increase potency) or require online guides. Something messed up about that making a community mandatory to make a build and then "have fun".
List of easiest tools :
Magic
Shields
Bleed
Summons
Never liked toxic souls player nonsense "oh you use this you didn't beat the game." Fuck you my poorly optimized Ichigo cosplay build used spirit ashes and shit on this game lol.
Good video
I still dont know how to play the game
tldr: git gud (at making builds)
The mimic build is the easiest. It's just that simple
Nope, only if your build is good.
0:45 So I Comet Azure the whole health bar of:
Godrick
Rennala (endgame set-up)
Ancestor Spirit
Radahn
Magma Wyrm Makar
Regal Ancestor Spirit
Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella
Valiant Gargoyles (1 of the 2 obviously)
Astel
Godskin Noble
Rykard (endgame set-up)
Elemer of the Briar
Godfrey
Morgott
Mohg, the Omen
Commander Niall
Fire Giant (up to phase transition)
Loretta
Malenia (Phase 2)
Godskin Duo
Dragonlord Placidusax
Maliketh (phase 1)
Lichdragon Fortissax
Mohg
Hoarah Loux (Phase 1)
"3 bosses in the game"
preach
but also use throwing knives, makes some bossfights more fun.
W vid Scott
this video is nothing but ohio
Chainsaw is the answer
Ai generated video