[Top 5] Elden Ring Best Spellblade Builds That Are Good (NG+ up to level 200)

Updated:

06 Sep 2024

The Sword and the Staff

Elden Ring is a game of deep quests, arcane secrets, and mighty magic that the wielder can harness to take their place on the Elden Throne. In that quest for power, every player will come across the deep secrets of spellwork, and ultimately the power of the gods manifested.

So what makes a player a spellblade? Well it's safe to say that if the faithful have the paladins, then the occult have the spellblades. Spells in this game really break down into two parts,

The Fundamentals of Playing a Spellblade

Incantations and Sorceries are two sides of the same coin, so where paladins focus on the faith, spellblades put their stats mostly into intelligence. This scales sorcery casting the same exact way that faith scaling works for seals which makes it pretty easy to pick up, or even just transfer the stats over if you go to Queen Rennala for a stat adjustment. Intelligence is the big stat here for sorceries in general, but it also boosts magic damage that's done and cuts down on the casting times the higher it scales.

Mind is another big stat for this build, mostly because having FP never hurts. This is a build that uses a lot of FP to make the best use of their skills and without the FP stats being there, the player has to sink extra resources into cerulean flasks. Spellblades are also usually a lot lighter equipped than the paladins are and they don't have a ready access to the healing without putting an extra item in which can clog up the controls and make it hard to cycle through what you need when you're in the middle of battle. So Mind is a big stat for a lot of these just to keep the player ready to cast spells at the drop of a hat.

The remaining stats really depend on what you're trying to use. Arcane isn't that big a deal for most spellblades since they get their big power buff from intelligence. However, the weapons that a player chooses may be the big answer on whether or not the remaining stats are really needed in Strength or Dexterity. The final big stat for this is Endurance. Every spell doesn't just have an FP cost, it also has a stamina cost. You can use Green Turtle Talisman to fix that a bit, or if you need that extra talisman slot, then it's good to just pump up that Endurance to make sure you can handle the casting cost.

Sorceries are usually cast with a staff, so it's important to really focus on what you're trying to build since there are a lot of staffs in the game that power up different sorceries. Staffs like the Meteorite Staff can be great for scaling, but it also powers up gravity sorceries. The same is true for Staff of the Guilty which scales differently than other staffs but is vital for thorn sorceries which are big for bleed buildup. Some of the staffs just scale better than the others and do more damage, but when picking one, it's never a bad idea to see which one fits your spells and your stat spread the best .

The Second big part of a spellblade is picking the right weapon. By name, it implies a wizard with a sword almost. That being said, there are a bunch of weapons in the game and there's really no wrong way to pick one as long as you keep your playstyle in mind and figure out how to blend the spell slinging and the weapon play into the same build.

Now, there are about 6 spell slots for the player by the time they finish getting far enough in the story. In fact, with the Nokstella talisman the player can actually hold 8 or so. That being said, having a large list of spells that you can actually use in the battle can be overwhelming and slow you down if you don't have everything sequenced out right. That means there's a lot of time spent figuring out your spell order. What you're going to use first, what you're going to use the most, and how fast can you cycle between the two? For each of these builds, I went ahead and incorporated a list of the best spells for each style, but I usually find that I don't really want a full slot of 6 or more spells.

Paladins use a lot of buffs, and it's easier to figure out how to kind of line your spells up so that you can use them and then go about your day. From the times I played through, spellblades favor their spells more than even the paladins in their style. So with that in mind, I usually find I like to find the right weapon for the job, then to keep my spell slots down to no more than four spells to max out without realizing at a critical moment that I might not be ready to cast.

Ranking the Top 5

5. Haima Hoplite

haima-hoplite-artice-image

What is a Haima Hoplite

Haima Hoplite is a name that came from one of the Fextralife builds but ends up being pretty much the best build for a good pure spellblade build. There are a lot of ways to play a Glintstone Sorcery build, including one of my all time favorites, the Glintstone Ranger. But the Hoplite gives us a unique and slightly more tank-like build for the spellblade. This build uses sorceries at range and uses a lot of help from Terra Magica to really boost those magic damage assaults. With a trusty enchanted spear and shield, the Haima Hoplite stands their ground, even if the enemy brings the fight to them.

Walking the Path of the Hoplite

This build is almost completely a pure magic build so it helps to start out by maxing out the intelligence stat. This build focuses heavily on dealing magic damage so this is a good start. This is also one of the major sword and board builds out there, and it gets the name from the fact that it uses a large shield and a spear as its primary weapons.

Most of the pure spellblade builds out there focus a lot on using mage sets, like the Spellblade armor set. Which is great and boosts magic damage a good 10%. But this build is a little bit more tank driven. Since Terra Magica is one of the staple spells in this build, it also means the player has to stand still in one place to get that 35% increase to magic damage. So with bosses and aggressive enemies that get in your face, that's not ideal. I fixed this for my own play style by blending the Glintstone Ranger and the Haima Hoplite together into a tank player that is still light on their feet but can take on even the strongest enemies from their magic circles.

The Clayman's Harpoon was the original weapon for this build because it deals magic damage on it's own, but it also can be enchanted which is different than the crystal spears or the lazuli weapons that have magic damage built into them but can't be enchanted with other ashes of war. That means that you can give it any magic powered ability and it's going to be good for the cause.

This is also one of the only builds that I really favor having to put a shield into the build. There's plenty like the Carian Knight's Shield which is a good medium shield but also has magic damage and great magic resistance. Or, the player can use the greatshield options. Shields do scale with strength so this is going to encourage some extra strength scaling too, but having the ability to go swap out is really useful.

As it works, I end up keeping my staff and my spear in the same hand and running my shield in the other hand to block hard hits if I can't dodge out of the way in time. With the greatshield there's plenty of advantages and there's always the option of running a staff in both hands which helps for being able to swap at will and always have access to their sorceries.

Gear Loadout

Primary Weapon:

Clayman's Harpoon

Requirements: 12 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 12 Intelligence

The Clayman's Harpoon is the primary weapon for this build and that's because it comes with built in magic damage and the ability to be given ashes of war and enchanted. It's not as strong in base physical damage as weapons like the Cross-Naginata, but it also doesn't have to be given a magic affinity either to make it stronger. This weapon doesn't scale as well with Dexterity as it does with Intelligence and Strength, so this is more of a STR/INT weapon, but that works out since this build also encourages the use of the shield.

Cross Naginata

Requirements: 16 Strength, 20 Dexterity

This is one of the strongest spears for the normal spears and it has a unique and pretty fluid move set. On top of that it does bleed damage which is always a bonus, and it can be infused with any of the magic ashes of war including Loretta's Slash, which is the same skill as the reaper builds built using magic damage.

This weapon can also be used for skills like Carian Grandeur and just about any other magic enchantment. It doesn't have the built in magic damage of the Clayman's Harpoon, which isn't the best. But it does have a much stronger stat base and it can be given the magic affinity when you enchant it.

Loretta's War Sickle

Requirements: 20 Strength, 15 Dexterity, 20 Intelligence

This weapon comes with the built in skill of Loretta's Slash and it has some pretty solid magic and general damage too. It's not the best weapon in the build, but it is a reliable one and serves as a good backup if the player doesn't want to waste a spot or an enchantment on the Loretta's Slash ability.

Marais Executioner's Sword

Requirements: 24 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 23 Arcane

This is more of a backup weapon, because it does force the player to put a lot of extra stats into arcane when it usually isn't needed for this build. But the Eochaid's Dancing Blade skill actually functions really well in this build when you're looking for an alternative to some pesky enemies. Since you already have a greatshield, you have a good heavy sword and board vibe and this weapon has scaling magic damage built in which fits with the Haima build.

Carian Knight's Sword

Requirements: 10 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 18 Intelligence

This weapon comes with Carian Grandeur built in which makes it convenient for use in a build like this. It also does a good amount of extra poise damage which is great for dealing with enemies. Since this is a spellblade build, it makes it useful as a backup to the spear for a lighter player build whenever the player is focusing more on the use of the staff than the shield and spear.

Moonveil

• Requirements: 12 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 23 Intelligence

Moonveil is just a great backup weapon to a lot of the builds but that's because it's a semi long range weapon. What makes it even better is that it scales best with Intelligence stats which means it sees its best power in a build like this, even as a backup weapon.

Not only that, the overhead strike version of Transient Moonlight can be spammed fast, and it does a lot of poise damage that is great for staggering unique foes and bosses. The fact that it leaves the opponent open for critical attacks makes it great here.

Staffs and Seals:

Academy Glintstone Staff

Requirements: 6 Strength, 28 Intelligence

The Academy Glintstone Staff is a great starting weapon for this build, and it scales pretty well. I still prefer the Carian Regal Scepter but this is a good one to pick up that doesn't have to take forever to start using.

Carian Regal Scepter

Requirements: 8 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 60 Intelligence

This is probably the most powerful staff in the game you can get that scales with intelligence without increasing your FP cost in some way. It also boosts full moon sorceries which makes it great if you're using the moon sorceries to weaken your enemies before trying to hit them with maximized magic damage or deadly special abilities.

Spells:

Scholar's Armament- Enchants the right hand weapon with magic damage
Terra Magica- Increases all magic damage done from within the sigil for 30 seconds by 35%
Loretta's Greatbow- Creates a massive magical greatbow which can charge up to release an enchanted shot
Carian Phalanx- produces a large number of floating magic blades that attack the enemy when nearby
Stars of Ruin- produces a volley of projectiles that deal magic damage that can track down most targets.
Founding Rain of Stars- Produces a large downpour of magical projectiles.

Armor Loadout:

Helms:

Spellblade's Pointed Hat- Increases Magic and Frost damage by 2%
Queen's Crescent Crown- grants +3 Intelligence
Hoslow's Helm- a good armor that balances weight with poise and defense.
Lusat's Glintstone Crown- Boosts primeval sorceries like Stars of Ruin by 15% while costing 15% more FP

Armor:

Spellblade's Traveling Attire- Increases Magic and Frost damage by 2%
Hoslow Armor- a good armor that balances weight with poise and defense.

Gauntlets:

Spellblade's Gloves- Increases Magic and Frost damage by 2%
Hoslow's Gauntlets- a good armor that strikes a balance between weight, defense, and poise

Boots:

Spellblade's Trousers- Increases Magic and Frost damage by 2%
Hoslow's Greaves- A heavier armor set that has good poise and defense.

Extra Essentials

Alternate Gear- Shields and etc

Carian Knight's Shield
Cuckoo Knights Greatshield

Talismans

Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- Increases damage on successive strikes
Magic Scorpion's Charm- increases magic damage by 12% but reduces damage negation
Carian Filigreed Crest- reduces the casting cost of spells
Shard of Alexander- increases the power of abilities by 15%
Radagon Icon- reduces spell speed
Godfrey Icon- Increases the damage of charged attacks and skills by 15%

Stats

60 Vigor
35-40 Mind
35-50 Endurance
50-65 Strength
12-40 Dexterity
80 Intelligence
14-30 Faith
24 Arcane

Build Credits:

Haima Hoplite by Fextralife

http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-spear-and-shield-build-guide-haima-hoplite/

Glintstone Sorcerer by Fextralife

http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-glintstone-kris-build-guide-spellthief/

Glintstone Ranger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRKNwKL9ZzU&t=66s

4. The Sword Sage/Death Mage

sword-sage-article-image

What is a Sword Sage

The name Sword Sage or Death Mage pretty much says it all. This is a build that focuses on the use of one of the most powerful swords in the game, and the use of the death sorceries. The death sorceries weren't all that powerful to begin with, but they received an upgrade in patch 1.07 that increased their damage and decreased their casting cost.

If this were strictly about Player vs Player, this build might actually rank just about number one on the list because death blight affects players the best. But once this build is leveled up, it makes for a heavy, staggering, and very strong critical damage dealing build in the NG+. While death sorceries may have their limitations, they're still incredibly powerful when paired with the Sword of Night and Flame.

Walking the Path of the Sage

Even with the upgrade of the Death Blight sorcery stats in the 1.07 patch update, getting death blight to trigger isn't really that easy. This is definitely a build where intelligence needs to be maxed out to get the most out of the spells that you use. The rest of the stats really fall under the choice of the gear that you choose. Some people will use helms like Twinsage Glintstone Crown to boost their stats the last little bit, or certain armor sets to boost damage.

I usually run with the spellblade set.for the boost to magic damage, but just about anything can be used for armor as long as you stay able to move around fairly easily. The real big part of this build is going to be the sword of Night and Flame, which is the star of most of the deathblade builds. It also uses the Staff of the Prince of Death, which requires some pretty high stats of its own to scale well.

Believe it or not, the two biggest stats in this build are going to be both faith and intelligence. Both are important for the scaling of the Staff of the Prince of death, and the Sword of Night and Flame. For my personal preferences I say go 80 for both, but that requires a lot of grinding in a game that maybe feels like it's a bit overkill. I still say put Intelligence at 80, but we can soft cap Faith at about 65 and get some of the perks of scaling it for the spells and seals.