Build Paralysis

[Karsk]

I can't decide what build to go for. I never finished the base game so I will be starting from the beginning. I did bleed as my build last time but I don't wanna do that again. I don't wanna do unga-bunga and apparently sorcery is pretty easy so I have no idea. I am never satisfied with my builds and always want to go back and pick something else. Anyone else suffer from that?

[Mad Engineer Kikoumaru]

After beating the game once, I solved that by just having a few characters with different builds and playing a bit of each instead of just focusing on one.

[Bonkers]

Yeah, I know that problem pretty well. Build and attack rating calculators online only make it worse, too.

Best thing I've found for myself is to start several characters and sticking to specific, different builds with them. If I get bored or frustrated with one I can just continue playing with whatever build/character I feel like right now. Sometimes a character will click due to an unexpectedly good weapon for example and I'll end up sticking with it for far longer than usual.

If you're afraid of forgetting your progress when switching characters, putting down map markers (the green symbols, not the beacons) for places you have yet to explore or bosses you have yet to fight helps a lot too.

[BingusDingus]

Go Claymore, never look back.

[Razkil]

Honestly, what he others say is definitely a good solution. Having multiple characters running is a great solution.

An alternative would be a "jack of all trades" kind of thing. Like instead of going "sorcerer" go "magic knight", so you use sorcery or melee when the situation calls for it. Combining multiple things into a build, to make it more versatile is a good way to not get bored too quickly.

[Wheee333ee33e3e]

Do weapon types. There's a lot of unpopular but very strong weapons from those, claws being one of the best. Hammer/poise damage is also great for the dlc, all the important bosses are vulnerable to it. Star fist hits like a colossal, is as fast as a light weapon, can bleed, poise damage, do consecutive hits and is considered completely busted.

[zmanbuilder]

Crucible hammer big bonks. plus you get to use all those fun crucible incantations.

[ezpz]

There are a ton of Faith weapons in the DLC, you can't go wrong with a str/faith or dex/faith.

[zmanbuilder]

Originally posted by bioanalytical:

There are a ton of Faith weapons in the DLC, you can't go wrong with a str/faith or dex/faith.

str/fth also lets you play a fun death knight build.

[DarkFenix]

I perpetually suffer from this. I eventually completed the game on an int build and a dex build, and including those (ie. those are now picked back up and in the DLC) I have a total of five playthroughs at varying points.

Faith is kinda boring me, because honestly I'm just whacking enemies with a different coloured stick and shooting different coloured spells at them, it's functionally the same as my int build. But if you haven't done a similar build, you'll likely enjoy it, faith is very well catered for in the DLC.

Bleed is reasonably fun, it's still entertaining my because the base game caters really well to it and there are a multitude of options to swap between. Currently power stancing Eleanor's pole blade with a blood twinblade.

Int is my OG completion. Fairly versatile build, if you sit back spamming spells it can be pretty easy. But it doesn't have to be that way, you can grab some very nice melee weapons that scale with int. I tend to flip back and forth between the darkmoon greatsword, moonveil, and now my magic-infused milady carrying carian sovereignty.

Dex is only moderately interesting, there are some nice weapons but there's frequent overlap with arcane builds. The DLC does add some very nice dex weapons though, I've been having on-off fun playing with those.

And lastly my current favourite, unga bunga. Pure strength, currently using the greatsword (this playthrough is only half way through the base game so far). It doesn't get old staggering bosses quickly, bullying crucible knights, and pancaking anything small. Added variety in that it lets me play around with big beefy toys like greatbows and ballistae, things I'd normally not use on lighter builds.

[Mad Engineer Kikoumaru]

Another thing that helps me with build paralysis is just to make cosplay builds, just try to see if you can build a fictional character you like in Elden Ring. Really tempted to build Sakuya Izayoi from Touhou now that there's a throwing knives weapon... too bad there's no time magic.

[zmanbuilder]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

I perpetually suffer from this. I eventually completed the game on an int build and a dex build, and including those (ie. those are now picked back up and in the DLC) I have a total of five playthroughs at varying points.

Faith is kinda boring me, because honestly I'm just whacking enemies with a different coloured stick and shooting different coloured spells at them, it's functionally the same as my int build. But if you haven't done a similar build, you'll likely enjoy it, faith is very well catered for in the DLC.

Bleed is reasonably fun, it's still entertaining my because the base game caters really well to it and there are a multitude of options to swap between. Currently power stancing Eleanor's pole blade with a blood twinblade.

Int is my OG completion. Fairly versatile build, if you sit back spamming spells it can be pretty easy. But it doesn't have to be that way, you can grab some very nice melee weapons that scale with int. I tend to flip back and forth between the darkmoon greatsword, moonveil, and now my magic-infused milady carrying carian sovereignty.

Dex is only moderately interesting, there are some nice weapons but there's frequent overlap with arcane builds. The DLC does add some very nice dex weapons though, I've been having on-off fun playing with those.

And lastly my current favourite, unga bunga. Pure strength, currently using the greatsword (this playthrough is only half way through the base game so far). It doesn't get old staggering bosses quickly, bullying crucible knights, and pancaking anything small. Added variety in that it lets me play around with big beefy toys like greatbows and ballistae, things I'd normally not use on lighter builds.

Its the paladin playstyle for fth/str, buffs and heals plus bonker of choice, the crucible spells are actually really good and useful, the tail swipe hits large enemy groups easily, plus crucible builds give you the option of a greatsword, greatspear or a colossal hammer and a greatshield. for more caster with decent melee.

Death knight is also amazing, the axes hit really hard, have a fun ash of war and its buffed by the death knight armor, plus all the ancient dragon incantations get buffed too, death lightning is a must on the build as it fits the theme too well.

Or go tree sentinel with the golden halberd and the urdtree greatshield, never fear spell casters again.

[scambammer]

I knew that before even beginning the game I should be building towards some sort of end game load out. I'm not an overly meta gamer type BUT I am old, have a demanding full time job and cannot afford to spend thousands of hours of spare time in any game. I certainly cannot spend hundreds of hours of indecisive leveling only to find stuff later game that I want to use but have leveled opposite and would need a respec to use. I'm still new enough that I don't know how respec works - nor do I care.
So what I did was open up the elden ring wiki and browsed all of the weapons and spells and incantations and stuff in the game and theory crafted before I even spent a minute in game. It gave me an idea of what to aim for so that I leveled my stats appropriately in the meantime. Now this maybe ruined some surprise aspect. But not really. The amount of information overload overwhelmed my brain enough that I forget almost everything I had read other than the 'goal' end game buildout.
In short I kinda suffer from the stress of choosing a class like you. So maybe it's just easier to do some wiki 'window shopping' and give yourself an idea of the full range of possibilities. Maybe something interesting and not what you would've thought of strikes your eye

[DarkFenix]

Originally posted by zmanbuilder:

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

I perpetually suffer from this. I eventually completed the game on an int build and a dex build, and including those (ie. those are now picked back up and in the DLC) I have a total of five playthroughs at varying points.

Faith is kinda boring me, because honestly I'm just whacking enemies with a different coloured stick and shooting different coloured spells at them, it's functionally the same as my int build. But if you haven't done a similar build, you'll likely enjoy it, faith is very well catered for in the DLC.

Bleed is reasonably fun, it's still entertaining my because the base game caters really well to it and there are a multitude of options to swap between. Currently power stancing Eleanor's pole blade with a blood twinblade.

Int is my OG completion. Fairly versatile build, if you sit back spamming spells it can be pretty easy. But it doesn't have to be that way, you can grab some very nice melee weapons that scale with int. I tend to flip back and forth between the darkmoon greatsword, moonveil, and now my magic-infused milady carrying carian sovereignty.

Dex is only moderately interesting, there are some nice weapons but there's frequent overlap with arcane builds. The DLC does add some very nice dex weapons though, I've been having on-off fun playing with those.

And lastly my current favourite, unga bunga. Pure strength, currently using the greatsword (this playthrough is only half way through the base game so far). It doesn't get old staggering bosses quickly, bullying crucible knights, and pancaking anything small. Added variety in that it lets me play around with big beefy toys like greatbows and ballistae, things I'd normally not use on lighter builds.

Its the paladin playstyle for fth/str, buffs and heals plus bonker of choice, the crucible spells are actually really good and useful, the tail swipe hits large enemy groups easily, plus crucible builds give you the option of a greatsword, greatspear or a colossal hammer and a greatshield. for more caster with decent melee.

Death knight is also amazing, the axes hit really hard, have a fun ash of war and its buffed by the death knight armor, plus all the ancient dragon incantations get buffed too, death lightning is a must on the build as it fits the theme too well.

Or go tree sentinel with the golden halberd and the urdtree greatshield, never fear spell casters again.

Not a bad idea, I have been meaning to try out 'sword' and board. And there is that rather nice blacksteel bonkstick to play around with, complete with special shenanigans when you counterattack. Maybe it's time to return the favour, crucible knights traumatised me in my early days, time to spread the love.

[zmanbuilder]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

Originally posted by zmanbuilder:

Its the paladin playstyle for fth/str, buffs and heals plus bonker of choice, the crucible spells are actually really good and useful, the tail swipe hits large enemy groups easily, plus crucible builds give you the option of a greatsword, greatspear or a colossal hammer and a greatshield. for more caster with decent melee.

Death knight is also amazing, the axes hit really hard, have a fun ash of war and its buffed by the death knight armor, plus all the ancient dragon incantations get buffed too, death lightning is a must on the build as it fits the theme too well.

Or go tree sentinel with the golden halberd and the urdtree greatshield, never fear spell casters again.

Not a bad idea, I have been meaning to try out 'sword' and board. And there is that rather nice blacksteel bonkstick to play around with, complete with special shenanigans when you counterattack. Maybe it's time to return the favour, crucible knights traumatised me in my early days, time to spread the love.

Warning, 40 endurance will be needed unless you want to use great jar talisman.

[Karsk]

Originally posted by scambammer:

I knew that before even beginning the game I should be building towards some sort of end game load out. I'm not an overly meta gamer type BUT I am old, have a demanding full time job and cannot afford to spend thousands of hours of spare time in any game. I certainly cannot spend hundreds of hours of indecisive leveling only to find stuff later game that I want to use but have leveled opposite and would need a respec to use. I'm still new enough that I don't know how respec works - nor do I care.
So what I did was open up the elden ring wiki and browsed all of the weapons and spells and incantations and stuff in the game and theory crafted before I even spent a minute in game. It gave me an idea of what to aim for so that I leveled my stats appropriately in the meantime. Now this maybe ruined some surprise aspect. But not really. The amount of information overload overwhelmed my brain enough that I forget almost everything I had read other than the 'goal' end game buildout.
In short I kinda suffer from the stress of choosing a class like you. So maybe it's just easier to do some wiki 'window shopping' and give yourself an idea of the full range of possibilities. Maybe something interesting and not what you would've thought of strikes your eye

Yea I also don't have endless time. I am leaning towards faith but it's hard to choose between light or heavy weapons for example.