[Top 5] Elden Ring Best Bow Builds That Are Powerful

Updated:

22 Jul 2024

The Way of the Bow

The Archer has been an icon of fantasy and medieval imagery since as far back in history as we can remember. Most of us grew up on tales of Robin Hood but the legends of great archers go back to the gods themselves. So it's fitting that just about every fantasy game has an archery option.

Archery options are a dominant play style for just about any gamer that plays a shooter game of any kind too, so when you get players that are trying to cross over, it makes for one of the easiest styles to transition between gaming styles with.

That's not the only thing that makes a bow good though, since it's also one of the ideal playstyles for the grind players. I include myself in this because I enjoy a sense of grind in any of my games to give me time to really hone my skills for it. It might just be that I like to over-prepare, but when it comes to archery, this build is probably one of the best not just for exploring, but also honing your skills on the path to build the levels that you need to perfect your play style.

The Art of Playing a Ranger

Being a Ranger is not an easy task at all. The best builds to start out end up being the Bandit or the Samurai because both give you starting bows and points in Dexterity with some Arcane too. The Hero is also an alright option for players that are looking to get the blue cloth armor early so they don't have to worry about hunting for a staple armor set later or if they want to transition.

The rest of range really comes down to knowing your playstyle and having the patience to get your resources. Since there are a lot of needed items for crafting, or a lot of specific arrows that are needed, players are going to need to know all the best spots in the game to get their resources. They also need a ready supply of arrows to buy which means exploring the map to find your merchants or get your bell bearings to give to the twins at the Roundtable Hold.

Archery is a precision skill so it makes great use of the target ability in the game, but it also has the option to target manually if the player is dealing with tricky moving opponents. Either way the player can stay at range, and they can control the field of the battle.

Rankings the Top 5

5. Serpent Sniper

The Venomous Sharpshot

The Serpent Sniper is the poison build for the bow. I had a lot of options for how to pick out a top five, and there were some pretty hefty greatbow and holy archer builds out there. The Serpent bow makes the list because it's meant to alternate the max amount of damage in status while keeping tough enemies at range to avoid getting hit.

There is a lot of focus on the ability to trigger scarlet rot and poison in this build but both skills can be kind of a slow burn, especially against bosses. So this build is also good for making sure that while the poison is being dealt, there is also some other kind of damage going on. It plays very much like a rogue in a lot of ways, trying to wear the enemy down until you can go in for the kill.

What makes it good and why it's fun

The Serpent Sniper is good just because it deals in two types of status damage, Poison and Scarlet Rot. Both are kind of a slow burn ability on their own, but they both take chunks of damage out and they can be triggered repeatedly and pretty fast in any poisoner build.
Poison is good against a lot of early enemies and can be used for wearing down some tougher opponents. Scarlet Rot is just good against almost any enemy in general and acts like a much more aggressive poison status. Together they can usually take out any enemy, and they can be used very tactically by a sniper.
The problem with poison is the fact that it is a slow burn status effect. Against bigger tougher enemies in the later game they have a lot of resistance to it which is why the scarlet rot makes it better. But any slow effect will suffer in the late game. The big reason why I chose poison over another popular build, the Golden Eye Archer, is just because holy damage is pretty much useless against bosses in the late game since those bosses are immune to holy damage.

Gear Loadout

Primary Weapons:

Serpent Bow

Physical (75), Poison Buildup (15)
Requires 8 Strength, 15 Dexterity, 11 Arcane

The Serpent Bow is just the choice for any build that does poison damage for a ranged option. It has the fun ability that it adds 15 poison to any arrow that it shoots. Since you're combining that with ammunition like the Serpent Arrow, you can keep poison going pretty much the whole fight.

Secondary Weapons:

Black Bow

Physical (70)
Requires: 9 Strength, 20 Dexterity

Black bow is good in this build for the reason that it's good in almost every bow build. Having barrage and the handling of a light bow on a normal bow just makes this bow solid, especially in a build that requires status ailments.

Poisoned Nagakiba with Poison Moth Flight Ash of War

Physical (115), Blood Loss Buildup (45)
Requires: 18 Strength, 22 Dexterity

The Player can also use Serpentbone Blade but that weapon is more of a weapon for the Samurai build. Poison Moth Flight is a great Ash of War that gives the player an extra poison buildup option, but it also keeps enemies more at range for an archer that has light defenses.

Dragon Communion Seal

Requires: 10 Faith

There are plenty of good seals that can be used but the Dragon Communion Seal has no weight to it, only requires 10 faith, and has some of the best scaling for a seal in the game. If that isn't enough, It also boosts Dragon Communion Incantation spells by 15% which means spells like Ekzykes's Decay and Rotten Breath are both on the table as an extra offense option at closer range. Breath attacks also let this build add another layer of damage to speed up the poison a little bit more.

Poison Pots:

Poison Pots act like little poison grenades for the build and give a higher chance of causing poison status if they're used well.

Ammunition:

Serpent Arrow

Physical (30), Poison Buildup (78)

The Serpent arrow is the best arrow for the poison archer because it has the best poison buildup and the best physical damage option for any arrow that can be used.

Poisonbone Arrow

Physical (25), Poison Buildup (60)

Poisonbone Arrows are the craftable poison arrow but they serve just fine for the majority of the

Rotbone Arrow

Physical (25), Scarlet Rot Buildup (60)

Rotbone arrows are a good backup on the poison build because scarlet rot and poison are basically the same status effects under different names. But that means you can trigger both to do some serious damage.

Armor and Essentials:

Helms:

Mushroom Crown- This helm raises attack power whenever something nearby suffers from poison or scarlet rot including the player.

Armor:

Mushroom Body- This piece doesn't increase attack power but it does increase resistance and immunity some which is a good thing to deal with scarlet rot issues.

Gloves:

Mushroom Arms- this piece goes with the poison mushroom aesthetic and is good for resistance and immunity against poison and rot.

Boots:

Mushroom Legs- This piece is part of the poison mushroom set and boosts resistance and immunity against poison or rot effects.

Talismans:

Kindred of Rots Exultation- This talisman increases attack by 20% for 20 seconds whenever poisoning or rot is triggered nearby.
Arrow's Reach Talisman – This increases the range of bow and some other ranged attacks by 65%.
Arrow's Sting Talisman- Raises the attack power of arrows and bolts by 10%
Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- Raises the attack power of successive attacks by up to 13%
Shard of Alexander- Boosts attack power of skills by 15%

Spells, Ashes of War, and Spirit Ashes

Ash of War: Poison Moth Flight- This is a ranged ash of war that delivers poison damage to an enemy at range.
Poison Mist- If you're casting spells, or not using this as a backup to poison moth flight, this is a good way to poison your enemy.
Any Tanky Spirit Ash- Your Spirit Ash for this build, if you use one at all, is meant to be your front line to distract enemies while you rain in poison arrows. “Some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make.” Rip my pumpkinhead.

Stat requirements:

50 Vigor
25-35 Mind
40-50 Endurance
18-25 Strength
80 Dexterity
18-25 Intelligence
35-50 Faith
25-40 Arcane

Build Credits and Further inspirations:

Serpent Archer by Emerald Wolf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX2j9t0aQAo&t=15s

Serpentbone Samurai by Fextralife:

http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-serpentbone-blade-build-guide-serpent-samurai/

4. Magical Bullseye build

The Magic Marksman

The Magic Marksman is usually a beginner build for most players who follow a lot of the popular online builds, but it can get hard to use in the middle game. Even with that problem, once the player gets into NG+ and starts focusing on a high stat build, the Magic Marksman can become one of the best archer builds in the game.

The Magic Marksman build focuses on dealing the maximum amount of damage in magic damage to an enemy. There is a lot of ranged use of Terra Magica to hit targets for high amounts of damage (upwards of 2k according to one Fextralife article) but the build also has a fun hybrid that it picks up later when it gets into frost damage.

Coldbone Arrows and Spiritflame Arrows both deal magic damage and frost buildup which can trigger frostbite. This takes a good chunk out of the enemy health bar then greatly weakens them to all types of damage. If the archer can trigger Frostbite, then there's more than enough damage in the Dwelling Arrows and other spells used to take apart almost any enemy.

The Magic Marksman also uses other spells to debuff enemies at the higher intelligence levels where they can use spells like Renala's Full Moon and Ranni's Dark Moon. These work as ranged spells that weaken the enemy even more to magic damage and make it even easier to follow up with high crit attacks.

What makes it good and why it's fun

Magic is one of those elemental damages that is good in just about every situation. There are some with resistance to it but overall it works pretty well not just for PvE, but PvP as well.
Magic is one of the only ammo types that really comes with more than enough ammo for anything. There are four types of arrows that do magic damage instead of the usual two, and even though coldbone arrows have barely any magic damage, they do still deal magic damage. The only other bow build with more potential ammunition is the Black Bowman and that build doesn't power up its ammo the same way the Horn Bow does.
Magic is also one of those builds that comes with plenty of ways to power up and weaken enemies at the same time. Terra Magica is a magic booster, but Ranni's Dark Moon debuffs enemies with magic. So the build comes with plenty in it to take care of the tougher opponents.
The spellblade build is pretty much solid as it is, but because there's plenty of ranged spells with different values like Gravity or Thorn Sorcery, there's plenty of ways to customize this build to make it work the best way for your style of play.

Gear Loadout

Primary Weapons:

Horn Bow

Physical (65), Magic (30)
Requires: 10 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 12 Intelligence

The Horn Bow is the bread and butter weapon for the Magic Marksman because it deals its own magic damage. Magic damage on its own is one of the skills that can be buffed up the most of any type of elemental damage next to fire. The Horn Bow is one of the reasons that the Magic Marksman makes the list, because it's also one of the best bows in Elden Ring in attack power and diversity.

It has the skill magic shot on its own, but it can also have any ash of war added to the weapon to give it skills like Rain of Arrows or Enchanted Shot. All of them have their perks, but since the Horn bow always adds extra magical damage to the build, it just makes it that much better.

Secondary Weapons:

Azur Glintstone Staff

Requires: 10 Strength, 52 Intelligence

Azur Glintstone Staff is one of the best staffs in the game and it also reduces casting time in sorceries. Some of the sorceries and skills for this build can take a bit of time so anything that reduces the casting time is great. It does consume 20% more fp for casting but Carian Filigreed Crest cancels this out and the player can always put a little bit of extra into their Mind stats, or carry extra cerulean flasks.

Albinauric Bow

Physical (82)
Requires 7 Strength, 18 Dexterity

The Albinauric and the Black Bow are basically interchangeable based on whatever the player wants to do with their bow alternate. The Albinauric bow has the highest base longbow damage in the game and it can be infused with the Rain of Arrows ash of war for handling larger enemies.

Black Bow

Physical (70)
Requires: 9 Strength, 20 Dexterity

The Black Bow is used in this build for the fact that it has Barrage and the player can just pump a bunch of arrows into their target at closer range. This is great if you're using Spiritflame and Coldbone arrows because it gets the frostbite to trigger. It also helps to rain in damage once the enemy is weakened or gotten too close for other slower abilities like Mighty Shot.

Carian Knight's Shield

Requires 10 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 15 Intelligence.

The Carian Knight's Shield is a fun shield because it has no skill, has 63 Physical and 63 Magic damage with high Magic damage negation of 71 too. The shield also scales well with strength and intelligence, and has no skill which means it won't override any bow in the other hand's special abilities. It can be a really useful backup peace if the player uses the Horn Bow and an alternate bow in the main hand and the shield and the staff in the secondary hand