What are Incantation buffs?
The best way to describe buffs is that they are used to enhance. Every player who has played an RPG knows what they are but Elden Ring is home to its own set of ways to pump your character up.
Spells are actually divided into two groups in the Lands Between, Sorceries and Incantations. There isn’t actually that much difference between the two when you get right down to it. Sorceries primarily use a staff to cast while Incantations use seals. Both of them function in pretty much the same way but instead of intelligence, Incantations usually scale with the faith stat instead.
Incantations are also more diverse in nature, and focus on enhancing the player somehow while Sorceries focus on negation and weakening the enemy. It’s two sides to the same coin, but Incantations take the edge for me because when it really gets down to it, it’s far more reliable to be able to target your own character to improve it instead of targeting fast or resistant enemies to weaken them. So Incantations are the way to go when it comes to buffing up your player.
Different kinds of buffs- Offensive Buff, Defensive Buff, and Enchantments
So what exactly are Incantation buffs? Well they use faith based playstyles to improve your character for a period of time. Every kind of buff serves its purpose to make you better, but each of them have a different focus.
Offensive buffs are incantations that boost your physical power or one of your other skills that can do damage to an enemy. These can be the bread and butter of some builds like barbarians, berserkers, and heroes which try to pack as much damage into each hit as possible.
Defensive buffs are incantations that boost your ability to take damage of any kind, physical or elemental. These help you take the hits a little easier and are favored for paladins and barbarians.
Enchantments are incantations that add some kind of attribute to a weapon or tool. These give them special effects that can be useful in the game. You see Enchantments more commonly in builds that focus on dexterity weapons like the samurai. It’s also popular for builds that add special ashes of war to their weapons and then enchant them to create devastating combos.
Are some buffs better than others?
Of course! And there are a lot of factors that go into deciding what makes a good incantation buff. Most of the buffs end up being some kind of enchantment that gives a weapon an attribute. It can be useful in niche builds, but that doesn't really make it an amazing buff. What really makes a buff comes down to how expensive it is to use it, how hard it is to be able to use it, and how well it works.
That doesn't just mean for itself, but for the builds that a player wants to create. Some incantation buffs are so good that they get used in almost everything. Others are for very select reasons, or they just don't give you enough to make the list.
So, what makes a buff good? Well, it really comes down to four things: What is the requirement to be able to use the spell and how early do you get it? How much resources do the incantation use, and what benefits do you get for the cost?
With all that in mind, these are my top 10 incantation buffs ranked.
10. Black Flame Blade
Black Flame Blade is a weapon enchantment that gives your weapon a black flame enchantment. What makes this one good is the ability for each strike to knock out a set percentage of the opponent’s hp.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Enchantment
- Use Requirement: Faith (17)
- Origin Prayerbook: Godskin Apostle Incantations
- FP Cost: FP (15), Stamina (10)
- Effect: Black Flame blade is an enchantment that adds fire damage equal to faith scaling, and deals 20 + 2% max HP damage over 2 seconds upon hitting.
The Good and the Bad:
- Black Flame incantations are useful in general because of how well they scale. This means that they aren't really the greatest in the early game or against enemies with small health bars. But late game these spells can do a huge chunk of damage, especially as the player gets a high faith.
- Most armament enchantments have a rule that doesn't allow them to be used on weapons with built in elemental affinities. Black Flame Blade falls into this group too and won’t work on any weapon that has a natural skill applied to it like the Golden Halberd. This doesn't mean that
- Black Flame Blade has one of the shortest durations of any enchantment at only 7 seconds. Since most enchantments have somewhere between 40-60 seconds of duration, this is hands down one of the lowest times on any list. For a comfortable player the time doesn't mean much. For a new player it can mean a lot of wasted magic trying to figure out a build.
- Black Flame Blade is not a weak spell, not only does it take out 2% of the maximum health on an enemy. It also scales the fire damage to faith by .65 which is better than the .40 for Bloodflame blade. If it's used with an uchigatana that has unsheath, that means that it can do an incredible amount of damage in a split second.
- Black Flame Blade has one of the fastest cast times of any spell, as fast as grease is applied. It can be added to a weapon in the middle of a hit combo without making you fall back just to cast a spell. This makes it a big deal for players trying to make fast sword builds.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman- Black Flame Blade's duration time increases from 7 seconds to 9.1 seconds. It may not seem like much but it makes for a bigger target window that
- Fire Scorpions Charm- Fire Scorpion charm gives an increase to fire damage, making the flame damage from this incantation even better.
- Godslayer Seal- This seal buffs the Godslayer incantations including the black flame spells. The spells receive a 10% increase and can give your Black Flame blade a 257-point buff when it's upgraded, with an S rank for scaling.
Builds:
Black Flame Blade serves as a melee enchantment buff option for players that are focused on magic heavy builds or high damage builds against bosses. It's not the most common spell in builds, but it does have a niche place, especially in fire, bleed, and black flame themed builds.
Blackflame Apostle
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-black-flame-build-guide-black-flame-apostle/
Blackflame Spellblade
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-black-flame-faith-build-guide-black-flame-spellblade/
Blackflame Bushido
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-faith-samurai-build-guide-black-flame-bushido/
Sanguine Samurai
http://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Builds#sanguinesamurai
9. Bloodflame Blade
Bloodflame Blade is an enchantment buff that gives some of your weapon’s access to bleed damage and fire damage that scale with faith for 60 seconds. The fire damage scales with the player's faith and applies the hemorrhage status effect to most enemies.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Offensive, Enchantment
- Use Requirements: Faith (12), Arcane (10)
- Origin Prayerbook: Blood Weapon
- FP Use Requirements: FP (20), Stamina (10)
- Effect: Bloodflame blade enchants any weapon in the right-hand slot, or any buffable weapon by giving it stackable 40 bleed damage over 2 seconds. It also applies fire damage equal to faith scaling.
The Good and the Bad:
- The attacks stack damage and bleed effects at a very quick rate. There are plenty of ashes of war that unleash multiple strikes or an overwhelming power strike like unsheathe does for the uchigatana. There are a lot of ways to stack bleed damage and this spell is great at getting most of them to trigger.
- One of the things that frustrates me about the enchanted weapons is that I can't necessarily put Bloodflame blade on a weapon with magic, blood, or other affinities. This isn't uncommon to the game, but it can be annoying when you want to use Bloodflame Blade on a popular weapon like Moonveil Blade.
- This spell is one of the best buffing enchantments in the game and is actually found fairly early on. Bleed builds are usually considered one of the stronger play builds so being able to tap into this spell early on makes it really useful against most tough early game enemies.
Making it better:
Tools:
- Fire Scorpion Charm- This charm increases fire damage by 12% but increases damage taken by 10%. Taking damage is less of a concern for these builds, so the added fire damage only makes it stronger.
- Old Lord's Talisman- This charm boosts the duration of the spell from 60 seconds to 78 seconds. That's more than enough time to wipe out most enemies for only 20 focus.
- Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear- This tear is used in the Wondrous Physicks flask to increase fire damage by 20% for three minutes.
- Blood Tax- This ash of war is used to stack a huge amount of bleed damage and physical damage when it gets used with Bloodflame Blade
Builds:
Blackflame Blushido
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-faith-samurai-build-guide-black-flame-bushido/
Grim Reaper Build
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-grave-scythe-build-guide-grim-reaper/
Blazing Bushido
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-nagakiba-samurai-build-guide-blazing-bushido/
Blackflame Apostle
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-black-flame-build-guide-black-flame-apostle/
Blackflame Spellblade
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-black-flame-faith-build-guide-black-flame-spellblade/
Scorching Slayer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM5xVeSQMJs
8. Blessing's Boon
Elden Ring is a Souls game so it's no joke to say that healing factors are a big deal in this game. There are only two healing incantations that are considered buffs by the game, and of the two of them I have to say Blessing's Boon is the better of the two hands down.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Enchantment
- Use Requirements: Faith (24)
- Origin Prayerbook: Erdtree Incantations
- FP cost: FP (60), Stamina (30)
- Effect: Blessing's Boon is a healing incantation that regenerates 8hp per second for 90 seconds, for a total of 720 HP.
The Good and the Bad:
- Healing is a key factor in Elden Ring so anything that lets you devote more resources to other needs is a good thing. This spell only heals about 720, but even in the late game that is more than 2/3 of your health bar. If you're good at staying out of the way of your opponents, that's really all you need.
- This healing spell isn't just for you, it's for all your friends too. It regenerates all ally health, and the health of your spirit ashes that are within range of the spell when it triggers. I usually stay fairly close to my allies in combat so this works for me.
- Like anything, there are a few spells that work with this one, and talismans that can get the most out of it. So it works to have a steady health regen throughout a lot of fights.
- This spell has lower stat requirements than blessing of the Erdtree and half the cost even though Erdtree blessing only does 300 points more of healing.
- Most incantations don't stack well with spells of similar types so it's no shock that none of the health regeneration buffs do it either. There aren’t that many, so that doesn’t really matter too much. But it does make it harder to decide between regeneration buffs and straight healing spells.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman- This talisman extends the spell to a total of 118 seconds adding in 28 seconds of extra healing.
- Blessed Dew Talisman- This talisman is a natural healing regeneration talisman and adds an extra boost to the hp recovered
Builds:
Perfect Paladin
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-guide-perfect-paladin/
Lightning Lancer
Hellfire Herald
Dragon Knight
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-arcane-faith-build-dragon-knight/
Thundering Swordspear
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-dexterity-build-thundering-swordspear-guide/
Dragon Warrior
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-arcane-bleed-build-guide-dragon-warrior/
Golden Champion
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-dual-swords-build-golden-champion-guide/
Sanguine Samurai
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-rivers-of-blood-build-guide-sanguine-samurai/
7. Lord's Divine Fortification
Lord's Divine Fortification is the strongest incantation for holy damage negation in the game that protects the player and their allies too. This is the strongest of the Holy damage protection buffs, but also used in most builds against major bosses including the Elden Beast and Radagon. It tends to be on the higher end of the requirement spells, but it does a really good job protecting the players against late game enemies that can one-shot them with holy attacks.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Defensive
- Use Requirements: Faith (27)
- Origin Prayerbook: Two Fingers Incantations
- FP Cost: FP (30), Stamina (20)
- Effect: Lord's Divine protection increases holy damage negation by 60% of the player and nearby allies for 70 seconds
The Good and the Bad:
- Right off the bat, most of the incantations that can negate any kind of damage by 60% made my list because that can be enough to carry any player through most of their fights. Lord's Divine Fortification is another one of those spells that does that because being able to tank holy damage is a big deal in the late game and in the PVP
- Several of the bosses use Holy damage in the game, so this is a big counter to almost every boss that has holy damage on its side. That includes the Elden Beast boss, and pretty much all of the Leyndell bosses. Being able to limit boss damage against such big hitting bosses is a big deal
- Lord's Divine Fortification isn't just for the player, it's for their friends too. This is one of the groups boosting spells which is what justifies it. Group boosting incantations don't just work for the multiplayer, they also work for NPC allies and
- This incantation is one of the ones that is picked up in the much later combats. You either have to beat Malenia then to Gideon, or defeat Maliketh. Both of them are very late game boss fights, so this incantation is more for those NG+ builds instead of a starter build.
- One of the big problems with several of the greater barriers is that they require a high faith to cast while the normal barriers only require 10 faith. I still think Lord's Divine Fortification is good, but at 27 faith for requirement, that makes it kind of awkward to try and put on the roster. Golden Vow is where a lot of players stop putting points into faith, so this can seem like a lot of extra work for not much pay out if the player doesn't have faith boosting gear.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman- This is the fan favorite talisman that extends spell duration times. In this case it takes the 70 second duration and makes it 90.
- Haligdrake Talisman- This talisman stacks with Lord's Divine Protection and can reduce holy damage up to 20%. With
- Radagon Icon- This gives 30 dexterity to spell casting times to make them faster. On a lot of the bigger or slower spells, this is a huge deal
Builds:
Perfect Paladin
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-guide-perfect-paladin/
6. Terra Magica
Terra Magica is the magic buffing spell of this list, because it increases the attack damage of all magic by 35% for 30 seconds. This spell is used in a majority of magic builds for that reason, adding an extra layer of damage to their attacks.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Offensive
- Use Requirements: Intelligence I20)
- Origin Prayerbook: Glintstone Sorceries
- FP Cost: FP (20), Stamina (12)
- Effect: This Spell increases magic damage from all sources within the sigil by 35% for 30 seconds
The Good and the Bad:
- One of the biggest downsides to Terra Magica is the fact that it is stuck in a sigil. If you want to get the boosts, the player has to stay inside of it. Cutting a player's mobility out from underneath them is not a great sell, but the magic boosting that comes from this means that even some bow builds can drop a boss before it ever reaches them.
- Terra Magica is one of the shorter lasting spells for this list coming in at only 30 seconds. This doesn't seem like a lot, but 30 seconds is more than enough time to fire off an unbelievable number of magic attacks. Used in spell-slinger builds it can easily cover the most basic spells like glintstone pebble. In archery builds that use Barrage as a backup, a player can fire off almost a full quiver right at the start of a battle.
- Terra Magica buffs just about any weapon that scales with intelligence and deals magic damage, so it makes for some really strong 1 hit combos with spells like Comet Azur. This also works for bosses that tend to be large or slow.
- This spell stacks well with just about everything that has to do with magic. Not only that, but a lot of sorceries such as Ranni's Dark Moon are not buff spells, but enemy debuffs which means that they can drop enemy resistance to magic even more.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman- This talisman extends this spell an extra 9 seconds. It means standing in place for 9 extra seconds but it also means 9 seconds to get off a critical attack
- Magic Shrouding Cracked Tear- this is one of the options for the Flask of Wondrous Physick and it boosts magic attacks by 20%.
- Magic Scorpion Charm- This talisman increases magic damage by 12% and increases physical damage taken by 10%. Since that can be canceled out by Golden Vow, it makes for an extra essential
Builds:
Death Blade
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-sword-of-night-and-flame-guide-deathblade/
Glintstone Archer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRKNwKL9ZzU&t=190s
Crystal Mage
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-crystal-sorceries-mage-build-guide/
Cold-Blooded Raptor
Carian Spellknight
Moonveil Shinobi
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-moonveil-katana-build-guide-moonveil-shinobi/
Death Mage
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-death-sorcery-build-guide-death-mage/
Sanguine Samurai
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-rivers-of-blood-build-guide-sanguine-samurai/
Warrior Wizard
Silent Spearcaller
Haima Hoplite
5. Barrier of Gold
Barrier of Gold is the greater barrier version of Magic Fortification and is used to protect against most of the sorceries in the game. It is an effect that also works on allies, boosting their magic damage negation too.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Defensive Buff
- Use Requirements: Faith (24)
- Origin Prayerbook: Erdtree Incantations
- FP Use Requirements: FP (30), Stamina (13)
- Effect: Barrier of Gold increases Magic Damage negation by 60% for the user and nearby allies or spirit ashes for 90 seconds
The Good, and the Bad:
- Barrier of Gold is so good for one big reason; it shuts down most magic damage. With 60% magic negation there are a lot of creatures and just as many magic weapons and bosses that have magic as part of their skills. On its own this spell can carry players through entire sections of the game, like Liurnia of the Lakes,
- Like just about every other spell, Barrier of Gold doesn't stack with other spells of similar types. So, it can't be used with Magic Fortification to negate 95% of magic damage. Incantations aren't the only source buffs and debuffs, so this spell is often put in builds that have some kind of magic negation. You'll even see it mixed up with sorceries such as Ranni's Dark Moon which also absorbs enemy damage, lowers their resistance to magic, and causes frost buildup.
- Being able to shut down magic damage is a huge deal in the game because so few things really do the trick even close to how well this one works.
- This spell only requires 24 faith to use which may seem like much but in reality it isn't. Most players will cap out their levels at about 150-200 for their most comprehensive builds like the Bloody Bushido builds and most of the stronger builds include Golden Vow at 25 Faith. Not only is there armor that grants extra faith, but just having the points will almost feel like an afterthought once the player maps out their favorite rune farming locations.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman- This talisman boosts the spell duration up to 118 seconds which applies an extra 116 health regenerated
- Blessed Dew Talisman- This talisman restores 2 hp per second and stacks with other regeneration skills
Builds:
Perfect Paladin
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-guide-perfect-paladin/
Golden Champion
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-dual-swords-build-golden-champion-guide/
Sword Saint
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-sacred-relic-sword-build-guide-sword-saint/
Sanguine Samurai
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-rivers-of-blood-build-guide-sanguine-samurai/
Death Blade
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-sword-of-night-and-flame-guide-deathblade/
Warrior of the Waves
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-ruins-greatsword-build-guide-warrior-of-waves/
4. Black Flame's Protection
Black Flame's Protection is one of the defensive buff incantations in the game. There are several, but it stands with Golden Vow as one of the only ones that actually protects against straight physical damage. It also has a side effect that it reduces all healing factors for 70 seconds. So, any healing factor that gets used, no matter what it is, loses 1/5 of its ability to heal
Stats:
- Buff Type: Defensive
- Use Requirements: Faith (30)
- Origin Prayerbook: Godskin Apostle Incantation
- FP cost: FP (30), Stamina (13)
- Effect: Black Flame's Protection provides a 35% negation to physical damage, and a 20% reduction to healing for 70 seconds
The Good and the Bad:
- Black Flame's Protection does what other buffing spells do not, it protects against physical damage. There are very few other spells that do this so it really helps to have something take the edge off of a big swing from a boss.
- One of the great parts of this spell is that it does stack with incantations like Golden Vow and Rallying Standard. This means that it is a huge deal in anybody building a tank-based build. Even with the high faith requirement, this spell really makes a dent in the big swings from a boss that can knock a player out in a single hit if they get caught.
- Black Flame's Protection is one of the only spells on this list that actually made it here even though it costs the player something. All forms of healing are reduced by 20% for the duration of this spell. Now when you consider the fact that the player is also going to end up able to handle up to 65% physical damage negation by the time you have the build put up, that's not really that big a deal. But it does mean that if you need to heal, you might want to pack an extra heal potion somewhere for the road.
- One of the things that ended up pushing Black Flames Protection down the list for me is that it requires 30 faith to use. Since it's the best physical damage negation incantation out there that makes it really good. But 30 faith means the player has to make a dedicated faith build or put a lot of extra points into one stat that they might not put points into normally.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Crimson Seed Talisman- This talisman increases HP restoration effects of the Flask of Crimson Tears by 20% which means that it cancels out the negative side of Black Flame's protection. It does also mean wasting a talisman spot to put this spell in, but in some cases that's not a big deal at all.
- Old Lord's Talisman- This talisman boosts the duration of this spell up to 90 seconds.
- Godslayer Seal- This seal boosts this spell stats by another 10% as it does with most of the Godslayer incantations.
Builds:
Blackflame Bushido
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-faith-samurai-build-guide-black-flame-bushido/
Crusader
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-advanced-paladin-guide-crusader/
Blackflame Apostle
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-black-flame-build-guide-black-flame-apostle/
Blackflame Spellblade
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-black-flame-faith-build-guide-black-flame-spellblade/
Flame Dancer
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-giants-red-braid-build-guide-flame-dancer/
Godslayer's Greatsword
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-godslayers-greatsword-build-guide/
3. Flame, Grant Me Strength
Flame Grant Me Strength is an all-around damage increasing spell that boosts physical and fire damage by 20% while also improving stamina for recovery. It has one of the faster casting times in the game and is used in every major build that uses fire or lightning to any degree.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Offensive
- Use Requirements: Faith (15)
- Origin Prayerbook: Fire Monk Incantations
- FP Cost: FP (28), Stamina (16)
- Effect: Flame Grant me strength improves physical damage by 20%, fire damage by 20%, and stamina recovery by 5% for 30 seconds
The Good and the Bad:
- Flame Grant Me Strength buffs both physical and fire damage by 20%. That means if you're using a weapon that does both, it boosts that weapon 40%. Since this is used with sacred seals like Giant's Seal, that shoots up even more and in some builds is enough to end the fight in three or four blows.
- Just like Terra Magica, Flame Grant Me Strength is one of the spells that only lasts 30 seconds. That makes it a lot lower duration times than most of the buff spells on this list, but it's just that good. Most fire builds stack as much damage boosting as possible in the start of the fight so 30 seconds can be more than enough time to even finish boss battles without using too much of the player's casting resources.
- Even though it doesn't seem like much, any kind of stamina recovery is a big deal in the critical moments. This usually gets paired with the Green Turtle Talisman which also increases stamina recovery meaning that fire has a much faster stamina pool than most other builds.
- The cost for the spell is middle of the road, but the fact that it only needs 15 Faith means that this talisman can be used way earlier in the game than any other talisman. That puts it 10 levels before Golden Vow and a good way to improve the player in the early game.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman- This talisman extends the duration of this spell from 30 seconds to 39 seconds.
- Flame Scorpions Charm- This spell increases all damage dealt by fire by an additional 12% but increases damage taken by 10%. This is easily canceled out with Golden Vow
- Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear- This tear is used in the Flask of Wondrous Physick and adds an additional 20% to all fire damage dealt.
- Giant's Seal- This is a talisman that buffs attack damage of Giants' Flame and Fire Monk incantations by an extra 20% and can be stacked in NG+.
Builds:
Blazing Bushido
fextralife.com/elden-ring-nagakiba-samurai-build-guide-blazing-bushido/
Hellfire Herald
Blood Dancer
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-regalia-of-eochaid-build-guide-dragon-dancer/
Dragon Knight
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-arcane-faith-build-dragon-knight/
Colossus Guardian
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-prelates-inferno-crozier-build-colossus-guardian/
Death Blade
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-sword-of-night-and-flame-guide-deathblade/
Scorching Slayer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM5xVeSQMJs
Thundering Sword Spear
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-dexterity-build-thundering-swordspear-guide/
Blasphemous Beastmaster
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-blasphemous-blade-build-guide-blasphemous-beastman/
Frenzied Acolyte
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-madness-incantation-build-guide-frenzied-acolyte/
Sanguine Samurai
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-rivers-of-blood-build-guide-sanguine-samurai/
Sorcery Sentinel
Gravity God
Lightning Dragoon
Blasphemous Herald
Golden Champion
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-dual-swords-build-golden-champion-guide/
Black knife assassin
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-black-knife-build-guide-black-knife-assassin/
Flame Dancer
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-giants-red-braid-build-guide-flame-dancer/
Mad King
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-morgotts-cursed-sword-build-guide-mad-king/
Godslayer’s Greatsword
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-godslayers-greatsword-build-guide/
Sword Saint
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-sacred-relic-sword-build-guide-sword-saint/
Pyromancer
Drake Knight
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-magma-wyrms-scalesword-build-guide-drake-knight-ng-guide/
Crucible Knight
Grim Reaper
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-grave-scythe-build-guide-grim-reaper/
Death Mage
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-death-sorcery-build-guide-death-mage/
Black Arrow
Dragon Dancer
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-regalia-of-eochaid-build-guide-dragon-dancer/
Perfect Paladin
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-guide-perfect-paladin/
Blazing Executioner
Warrior of the Waves
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-ruins-greatsword-build-guide-warrior-of-waves/
2. Protection of the Erdtree
Protection of the Erdtree is an incantation that negates all elemental damage by 30% for the span of 70 seconds. This means that it reduces damage from all types of damage except physical damage. This makes this spell very useful in general, allowing it to protect the player and their allies from almost any kind of damage.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Defensive
- Use Requirements: Faith (35)
- Origin Prayerbook: Erdtree Incantations
- FP Use Requirements: FP (30), Stamina (50)
- Effect: Increases affinity damage negation for user and nearby allies by 30% for 70 seconds
The Good and the Bad:
- Right off the bat, this incantation has a rough start because it needs 35 Faith just to use it. So, it really belongs in dedicated faith builds. That doesn't make it bad, it just means that the player either has to be dedicated to faith or end up using this later in NG+ games.
- Protection against affinities pretty much covers all the bases here. There's protection against the elements, status effects, and just about any kind of specialized damage. Negating 30% of special damage can shut down the major impact of most enemy builds and most heavy bosses that rely on magic, holy, fire, or bleed damage later in the game. Even scarlet rot takes a hit to this spell, and that alone can make it very useful against one of the strongest bosses out there.
- Protection of the Erdtree stacks with several other spells like golden vow and can be pivotal as an all-in-one defensive spell that frees up extra spell slots. For people focusing on magic or incantation offensive builds, this is great for spell economy.
- General all-purpose spells like this can be pretty hard to come by in this game and most builds usually leave the player wide open to some kind of damage. Having the bases all covered is worth the expenses that come with this spell.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman – This talisman increases this spell length up to 90 seconds.
Builds:
GoldenEye Archer
Perfect Paladin
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-guide-perfect-paladin/
1. Golden Vow
Golden Vow is a buff that improves all damage dealt by players and their allies while reducing all damage taken for the span of 80 seconds. This is the all-purpose incantation that handles all forms of damage on both sides which means that it can be useful for any play style.
Stats:
- Buff Type: Offensive and Defensive
- Use Requirements: Faith (25)
- FP Use Requirements: FP (47), Stamina (50)
- Effect: Golden Vow increases all damage dealt by self and allies by 15% and damage negation by 10% for 80 seconds.
The Good and the Bad:
- One of the big rules of Elden Ring is that different buffs of the same type do not stack together. That's part of what makes Golden Vow so good, because it's the only Aura buff incantation of the whole group. That means that this spell stacks with just about anything and everything.
- Golden Vow also takes the cake as one of the longest lasting incantations out there too. Most incantations run between 30 seconds to 70 seconds for most of the better ones. Golden Vow is sitting on an 80 second duration which can be made even longer with the fan favorite Old Lord's Talisman.
- Golden Vow only needs 25 Faith for it to be activated. Physical damage negation incantations are few and far between so being able to access one 5 levels earlier than other incantations in the game means that the 5 levels can be put towards other stats. I don't mind having a high faith for different reasons in my build, but being able to put those five points somewhere else like my dexterity or my arcane is really good for players who want to focus more on other parts of their build.
- Not everything about the Golden Vow is good. One of the biggest downsides to this spell is that it takes 47 focus just to cast it. That can be a pretty big chunk out of any player's FP bar and force them to put more into their cerulean flasks than they would want to.
- 10% Damage negation isn't considered a whole lot even in the later boss fights, but Golden Vow goes with just about everything and even buffs your allies too. When you throw it on top of spells like Black Flame's Protection or any of the elemental damage buffs, the defensive protections build up fast.
Making it better:
Useful Gear:
- Old Lord's Talisman- This increases the duration of the spell from 80 seconds to 104 seconds.
Builds:
Golden Vow is so popular that it makes it into almost every build there is at some point. But for some of the builds, it ends up a staple for them. Here are just a few of the builds that are popular with Golden Vow.
Mad King
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-morgotts-cursed-sword-build-guide-mad-king/
Godslayer's Greatsword
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-godslayers-greatsword-build-guide/
Sword Saint
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-sacred-relic-sword-build-guide-sword-saint/
Pyromancer
Black Arrow
Sanguine Samurai
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-rivers-of-blood-build-guide-sanguine-samurai/
Crucible Knight
Grim Reaper
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-grave-scythe-build-guide-grim-reaper/
Dragon Dancer
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-regalia-of-eochaid-build-guide-dragon-dancer/
Perfect Paladin
http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-strength-faith-build-guide-perfect-paladin/
Blessed are the Faithful
There is a lot of debate about what makes for the strongest play style in the game because Elden Ring is such an open-ended game that lets the player really approach it however they want. That being said, it's also a game of some of the hardest hitting bosses out there, with some of the most complex interactions out there. Making this list was hard because it was important to focus on the Incantations which means the sorceries got left out, but for a lot of players the faith build is the way to go.
I have spent a lot of time since I started playing the game trying to figure out what kind of play style I really enjoy most, and you can honestly say that incantations have some of the most intricate plays out there. Sure, there will always be a magic vs faith argument on which is better, but at the very least, Incantations are a powerful set and the way they buff the player and debuff the enemy is more than enough to lay even the greatest of the Demigods low.
