Is there a VIABLE way to make a Str/Int build with a Scythe?

[Skaeldrig]

Hej there.

Played ER such a while now, experimented with some different playstyles, but never went really further than Limgrave or Liurnia ^^ I REALLY like the idea of a Grimreaper-stylish mage.

Staff in one hand, scythe in the other. For style, grave scythe is number one. But my question is: will this be viable till the endgame? I'd like to use the scythe+staff+"undead" armor from Roundtable. I kinda have an idea of the scaling of weapons, so i know that scythes are pretty bad for int-builds. But is this scaling really that much important?

I'm really bad at cobble builds together or min-maxing. So i hope you guys can help me out a little bit.

Thanks in advance, Skaeldrig

[Honk1]

I've been thinking about this myself ever since I met a player in pvp who was running that kind of fashion on a character named "skulmer everlich" which I found kind of hilarious, but I haven't tried it myself, so take everything I write with a grain of salt.

I haven't used the grave scythe on an int build, but it has bad scaling and high base damage in general, so I don't think the scaling will be too much of an issue if you go magic or cold infusion. If you go for magic infusion, you obviously shouldn't go str+int. As for ashes of war, you have some cool options:

- Quickstep on the grave scythe is really good for pvp and also decent in general for some grim reaper assassin style gameplay; raptor of the mist is also good for that style-wise
- You can use spinning weapon to turn your weapon into a blender for rapid bleed/frost procs
- sword dance or freezing mist are also good and fit the style

The main problem that I see for this kind of build is the spells. There are dedicated death spells that fit the style, but they all require faith and leveling faith does not really benefit the scythe.

Imho you should focus on some cool things instead of trying to do everything at once. Maybe consider not using the death spells and going pure int with some of the carian sorceries? You could also do a srength build without spells with some arcane for bloodflame blade; in combination with spinning weapon, you can get crazy status procs.

[Swordsman]

Magic Scaling works fine for scythe. Just play, focus on INT over strength. You get the magic whetstone pretty soon anyway.

[CazadorDeLobo]

The speed of certain incants combined with the dex bonus to cast speed makes this idea somewhat null. Go Lightning scythe, and don't rely on str for this due to the lack of viability vs. the opposite scaling stats.

[Fineous🔥]

Get yourself this scythe from any skeleton wielding it (it also grants negative status bonus)

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Grave+Scythe

Now "stuff" it with frost and this ash of war

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Ash+of+War:+Phantom+Slash

Congratulations you can summon your very own ghost and make them all feel the chill of the grave so just use the required int to use the scythe properly and rest to int and FAYF (typo intended for comedy value.....). You can summon skeletons with

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Tibia%27s+Summons

And angry floating skulls with death magic to make the perfect necromancer!.

[bigbiggaboo]

Scythe is fine on int builds, its completely viable for pve and pvp.

[YourNotJimmy]

Cragblade Ashes of War either Heavy or Frost is always fun

[Argonaut]

Put chilling mist on a scythe and make it magic scaling and voila. Scythe mage build. Your scythe damage and spell damage will both scale off of intelligence and you can pump the rest of the points into dex or endurance for faster casting speed or more armor.

[Aertes]

Use the skeleton's scythe, it scales better with strength.

[NineChameleon]

As a lot of people have said, focus more on INT less STR. Death Sorceries are a thing that exists but if you use them you'll be doing an INT/FTH build. Which are harder to use early game. Go INT "specialise" maybe in frost spells. Then use Skeleton/undead Spirit Ashes? Make your Scythe Magic scaling (not frost, that splits it to dex) or just go standard and use Frozen Weapon/ Scholars Armament. Maybe take a basic black flame spell too so you can reset the frostbite.

I wouldn't worry too much about "viability" unless you're talking pvp.
For level 160 which is where I make builds for, you'd be looking at something like uh

VIG: 50
Mind: 32
END: 20
STR: 17
DEX: 14
INT 80
FTH: 17
ARC: 9

If you start as a Prisoner.
If you want more STR less INT maybe go STR/INT as 30/68 or something.

With a magic grave scythe you'll be looking at a chunky 750 AR
433 with standard infusion but you can buff it. Going 30 STR with change the AR's to 748/474 respectively.

anything above 60 INT will give your spells a decent punch. 17 Faith can be dropped if you dont want to carry a blackflame spell to reset frost.

[Honk1]

Цитата допису NineChameleon:

As a lot of people have said, focus more on INT less STR. Death Sorceries are a thing that exists but if you use them you'll be doing an INT/FTH build. Which are harder to use early game. Go INT "specialise" maybe in frost spells. Then use Skeleton/undead Spirit Ashes? Make your Scythe Magic scaling (not frost, that splits it to dex) or just go standard and use Frozen Weapon/ Scholars Armament. Maybe take a basic black flame spell too so you can reset the frostbite.

I wouldn't worry too much about "viability" unless you're talking pvp.
For level 160 which is where I make builds for, you'd be looking at something like uh

VIG: 50
Mind: 32
END: 20
STR: 17
DEX: 14
INT 80
FTH: 17
ARC: 9

If you start as a Prisoner.
If you want more STR less INT maybe go STR/INT as 30/68 or something.

With a magic grave scythe you'll be looking at a chunky 750 AR
433 with standard infusion but you can buff it. Going 30 STR with change the AR's to 748/474 respectively.

anything above 60 INT will give your spells a decent punch. 17 Faith can be dropped if you dont want to carry a blackflame spell to reset frost.

If you want to go this route, Vagabond is a better starting class because it only has 7 arcane and 13 dex. However, you'll need a few levels until you can start casting spells.

[NineChameleon]

Цитата допису Honk1:

If you want to go this route, Vagabond is a better starting class because it only has 7 arcane and 13 dex. However, you'll need a few levels until you can start casting spells.

Ah yes my bad. Sorry optimising is one thing I dont do as much as I should. Should be dumping arcane.

[Skaeldrig]

Thanks guys for your answers! This gave me back my faith into finishing the game with my scythe-mage :)

Atm it looks like this,started as an astrologer:

Grave Scythe +4 (enchanted with sacred blade)
Meteorite Staff
Astrologer Set

Stats: Level 27

Vigor 16
Mind 15
Endurance 9
Strength 17 (enough to use Scythe)
Dexterity 13 (enough to use Scythe)
Intelligence 20
Faith 7
Arcane 9

Best route to go for upcoming levels is to spend pts into
Vigor,Intelligence,Strength. Am I right? Maybe little bit more vigor at
the beginning, to stay alive easier?

Damage is pretty solid atm. Using my Skeleton Ashes, Rock Slingshot as opener, than maybe 2-3 glintstone pebbles, and when it comes to close combat, the sacred blade/scythe.

Edit: I'm not really interested in PvP, so basically i'm talking about PvE only.

[Honk1]

Цитата допису Skaeldrig:

Thanks guys for your answers! This gave me back my faith into finishing the game with my scythe-mage :)

Atm it looks like this,started as an astrologer:

Grave Scythe +4 (enchanted with sacred blade)
Meteorite Staff
Astrologer Set

Stats: Level 27

Vigor 16
Mind 15
Endurance 9
Strength 17 (enough to use Scythe)
Dexterity 13 (enough to use Scythe)
Intelligence 20
Faith 7
Arcane 9

Best route to go for upcoming levels is to spend pts into
Vigor,Intelligence,Strength. Am I right? Maybe little bit more vigor at
the beginning, to stay alive easier?

Damage is pretty solid atm. Using my Skeleton Ashes, Rock Slingshot as opener, than maybe 2-3 glintstone pebbles, and when it comes to close combat, the sacred blade/scythe.

Edit: I'm not really interested in PvP, so basically i'm talking about PvE only.

I would put points into vigor until you reach 40 vigor. Until then, I'd only put points into other stats for reaching the base requirements of equipment.

Maybe you should try Carian Slicer on the build? Since it is very fast and the scythe is slow, there is some synergy there (and it is a very strong spell in general).

[Skaeldrig]

Цитата допису Honk1:

I would put points into vigor until you reach 40 vigor. Until then, I'd only put points into other stats for reaching the base requirements of equipment.

Maybe you should try Carian Slicer on the build? Since it is very fast and the scythe is slow, there is some synergy there (and it is a very strong spell in general).

So u mean the next 24 levels go into vigor? Or 40 pts max through out the playthrough?
I knew Carian Slicer from my previous attempts on Elden Ring, but never got warm with it, dunno. Maybe i'll give it a try now. But i really love the looks of the scythe in close combat ^^

[Honk1]

Цитата допису Skaeldrig:

Цитата допису Honk1:

I would put points into vigor until you reach 40 vigor. Until then, I'd only put points into other stats for reaching the base requirements of equipment.

Maybe you should try Carian Slicer on the build? Since it is very fast and the scythe is slow, there is some synergy there (and it is a very strong spell in general).

So u mean the next 24 levels go into vigor? Or 40 pts max through out the playthrough?
I knew Carian Slicer from my previous attempts on Elden Ring, but never got warm with it, dunno. Maybe i'll give it a try now. But i really love the looks of the scythe in close combat ^^

Next 24 levels. I'd aim for 50+ for the whole playthrough if you don't pvp (and 60 if you do).

If this sounds excessive: Scaling for weapons only really kicks in at higher upgrade levels, so putting points into stats for damage at the start is kind of a waste. Vigor on the other hand actually gets better and better until 40: According to the wiki, the next point will give you 25 hp, the 40th point will give you 48 hp. You reach 1450 hp at 40 vigor, which is almost triple of what you have now.