Playing smarter not harder

[Jarko]

I've been going for a build that's well balanced and would optimize myself against enemies and bosses based on their "weakness." I'm going for a jack of all trades build.

Imps and Gargoyles do not like weapons that inflict strike damage. Maybe norning stars are the best weapon for that

Erdtrees hate fire so using Black Flame is highly effective and it's not only because its fire, but also because it does percent dmg and what better way to compliment the spell with the fire scorpion charm talisman.

Any enemy with flesh are prone to bleed more. Elenora's poleblade will work with that. Lord of blood's exultation will compliment it

Im trying to categorize more enemies to see what common weaknesses they have.

as for stats. I would start off leveling up each trait to a base of 25, this will allow me to equip probably most weapons. The Palace Approach Ledge Road will help as a rune farm for that. The golden scarab and a bow will be used to farm

[nfinite.recursion]

All enemies bow (quite literally) before a good strength build. Use dual greatswords along with Glintblade Phalanx AoW to break enemy stance left and right. Put some points into faith for some backup incantations like Bloodflame and Blackflame. Carry the appropriate greases for additional damage.

[Nevict]

You could use a bow and keep many arrows of different elements at your disposal. Shortbows and the Black Bow allow for jumping and dodging attacks that are effective in close combat. The Serpent Bow adds poison to all of your shots, especially for those arrows that already have innate poison, and it is a very good choice for softening up enemies with a lot of health.

[Scheneighnay]

I'm trying the same thing right now.
Only problem is starting out, getting the right distribution of bombs for holy and sleep coverage is difficult, and the sleep isn't working when it should anyway.

Effectively a dex build for weapons. Curved swords for slash, rapiers for thrust, flails for crushing

[Superboniato]

In these games, "well balanced and optimized" are not the best definition for "every stat at the same level".

I get your idea and nothing bad about that. However i suggest you to search a litte about "level caps". Specially in this game where you can change the ash of war and affinty as many times as you need without any cost.

If you keep your idea, i suggest you 20 in every offensive stat and 40 vig and 25 end (level 96 aprox) It would be much more useful than 25 in every stat (level 120 aprox)

[RadioMars]

I was trying to make something like this. My idea was powerstancing many types of weapons. Surprisingly enough I ended up putting most of my stats into INT, because most of the regular ashes can give you an int oriented weapon. So I was benefiting from having slash/pierce/strike but the most fun came from the fact that this build uses tons of mind, which allows me to use ashes like nobody's business. You can totaly spread your stats a bit to give you more options and you will probably also get a bonus of being able to use some cool magic tricks. I mean there are tools that scale with many different stat. I only suggest you check the tools themselves first. You may end up leveling a stat combo that has few weapons to pick from, since not every single weapon can be altered to provide different stat scale bonuses

[Señor Brown]

Originally posted by Jarko:

as for stats. I would start off leveling up each trait to a base of 25, this will allow me to equip probably most weapons. The Palace Approach Ledge Road will help as a rune farm for that.

Is this build going to be used for multiplayer (co-op)? If so, then it will not be a good idea to spread your stats out like this. Your damage will likely be too low for the rune level required to have all stats at 25.

If it's not being used for multiplayer, then nvm.

[Jarko]

Originally posted by Señor Brown:

Originally posted by Jarko:

as for stats. I would start off leveling up each trait to a base of 25, this will allow me to equip probably most weapons. The Palace Approach Ledge Road will help as a rune farm for that.

Is this build going to be used for multiplayer (co-op)? If so, then it will not be a good idea to spread your stats out like this. Your damage will likely be too low for the rune level required to have all stats at 25.

If it's not being used for multiplayer, then nvm.

I'm making it for strictly PvE, it's Jack of all trades, but master of none.

[Nevict]

Originally posted by Jarko:

Originally posted by Señor Brown:

Is this build going to be used for multiplayer (co-op)? If so, then it will not be a good idea to spread your stats out like this. Your damage will likely be too low for the rune level required to have all stats at 25.

If it's not being used for multiplayer, then nvm.

I'm making it for strictly PvE, it's Jack of all trades, but master of none.

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.”
- William Shakespeare.

[Vinnolo]

weapon type damage is only useful for like 2 or 3 enemies, for bosses is more about if they can bleed or not, if they cant you just go with your physical damage weapon of choice

[Honk1]

I think exploiting enemies weaknesses might be more effective on a faith build:

- You have access to all protective incantations. They are extremely strong against enemies using a particular damage type - the best ones increase your absorption by 60% which is insane - and you can combine them with the protective talisman for the damage type and 60 vigor to become more or less unkillable
- You can use different spirit ashes for different bosses and buff them with the protective incantations mentioned before
- You have access to fire, holy, lightning and physical damage with your incantations.
- You can use bloodflame blade on a weapon with innate bleed. This is probably more effective than an arcane scaling bleed weapon with low arcane.
- You can use healing incantations, even offensively against revenants.

If it's more about jack of all trades for you, sure, go ahead (the protective incantations actually have relatively low requirements), but I think that kind of build would be pretty inefficient compared to pure faith.

[Senki]

Sounds like a pretty bad build but if it's fun for you go ahead.

I'm doing a build with a similar mindset of ''what's good against most enemies'' but without branching into all those different stats and weapons.

Str build with chainlink flail and chilling mist as the ash of war. I have strike damage+bleed+frost on a single weapon.

Then I have ordovis gratsword as a secondary weapon and enough faith to apply buffs like golden vow and blackflame. And a shield that I only use against dogs/imps/other fast enemies.

[Lenox]

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Damage+Types

This link categorizes what you’ve figured out for yourself. It’s how I approach things too, instead of just using one strong or overpowered (and future nerfable) weapon all game.

However, you’re undoing your optimal combat strategy with a horrid attribute spread and trying to use every weapon.

Let’s say you’re using a weapon that requires 25 STR & 25 DEX, but nothing else. You’re wasting the 25 points in INT, ARC, and FAI. That’s 55-60 or so levels wasted, depending on starting class.

You do not need a hybrid attribute spread to achieve your strategy. Instead, it’s better to choose a weapon weight class (so you don’t waste equip load) and consistent affinity and minimum requirements, and ignore the rest. That way you can put the rest of those attributes into Vigor, Endurance, or even Mind.

Also, if you feel the need to farm, something is wrong. But if over-leveling is your thing, then strategy doesn’t matter.

[Nevict]

I used to run a weapon buff build in the other games, when miracles had a buff for every damage type. Maybe you can attempt something similar.

[Logical Maneuver]

I did this for my first character. It was a wretch with 24 str, 24 dex, 55 arcane, and 50 vigor. I wanted to find as much rare loot as possible in a single pass and be able to use it all. It worked fine, and I beat the game with him. But I pretty much used the same two daggers from start to finish. It's kinda funny looking back at it, how bad it was. I was fighting elden beast wearing silver scarab, really had really low damage. I kept my bars empty so I didn't have to cycle through crap for heals and had not setup 1-4 hotkeys yet...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2804468091

I would not call it smarter because your damage suffers a lot (bleed carried my guy), and you can respect like 20 times a play through. Besides the weapon arts nothing stops you from using the weapon with reduced damage and getting a feel for the move sets. Smarter is going in with a clear plan and getting the most out of your smithing stones.

[RubbaKeys16k]

Originally posted by Nevict:

Originally posted by Jarko:

I'm making it for strictly PvE, it's Jack of all trades, but master of none.

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.”
- William Shakespeare.

Not relevant to an ER build but you might want to check your facts on that one. The jack was Bill, he didn’t say it.