How to play a dex build for someone who's always been a strength bonker?

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

So I only recently started playing elden ring even though I bought the game day one, irl problems kept me busy, but I've been enjoying it thoroughly. I also came to the realization that I've only played dark soul games as a big two hand strength U.Greatsword/hammer/axe bonker.

DS1/2/3 I've always been satisfied after one playthrough and whenever I came back years later I kinda just stuck to what I knew. Elden ring has me wanting to try a lot more, especially dex with all the katana's and other swords but I've never actually tried that playstyle.
any tips for someone wanting to learn it would be appreciated.

EDIT: I'm more looking on survival tips for playing as dex guys, I'm used to either mid rolling or having a greatshield to take hits for me rather than relying solely on lightweight rolls.

[zmanbuilder]

I'd say curved greatswords are a great transition weapon if you are used to the unga bunga of strength.

[Rubyeyed]

There is nothing to learn tbh. Go to the first camp with godrick soldiers. Farm 2 Lordsworn straight swords. Dual wield. When available put lightning AoW on them. (if you don't like straight swords go for curved swords, those are even better)

Enjoy shredding.

I also always played with colossal 2h swords but dual wielding is too good to pass on in this game. It feels a lot better in boss fight too.

btw, my first run on release was with the Greatsword (the Guts' sword) and it was painfully slow on MANY bosses while second playthrough dw was pure joy.

[Twisty]

The Nagikiba is a great option for katanas. It's quick, long, does good damage etc.

If you're looking for a quicker playstyle, curved swords are fast and fun to use, with a status on them they are great!

Another good contender is Scythes. A bit slower but they feel "heavy" and are scythes.

Curved Greatswords, Greatspears, and Spears are also good for dex builds.

[Chris1]

Key ingredients for a dex build are to dual wield. Slap the same weapon in both hands (ie, one katana in left, one in right) and the "block" button turns into a "hit you twice" button which dramatically increases the potential for things like status effects like bleed build up.

Dex has a huge range of weapon types. It's a ton of fun to use claws (you can "pair" them by two handing them, which puts one in each hand, without the need to equip two). Claws combined with blue dancer charm and a minimum armor set up with stacking concurrent attack buffs (rotten wing insigna + thorny cracked tear) absolutely shreds. Dual wield straight swords and katanas are also great ways to play dex. Dual twinblades is commonly referred to as "easy mode" along with dual curved swords, because the jumping attacks can hit a ridiculous amount of times, great for status procs & multi-hit buffs.

I would say, if you have only ever played strength, I would also recommend entertaining the idea of a pure faith or even faith/strength build. Faith is the deepest play style in the game, offering a huge range of incantations and faith weapons represented in almost all weapon types. You can mix it up with lightning (also great for dex builds), poison, rot, healing, buffs like golden vow/howl of shabriri, protection like lords divine fortification, and a litany of holy-focused options. It will be probably pretty different from your pure strength play through and really with all the variety it's a ton of fun shooting ice lightning out of the ground, zapping enemies with fortissax's lightning spear, drowning enemies in rings like multi-layered ring of light. There is so much variety in faith, it feels almost like the game was built up around it.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Rubyeyed:

There is nothing to learn tbh. Go to the first camp with godrick soldiers. Farm 2 Lordsworn straight swords. Dual wield. When available put lightning AoW on them. (if you don't like straight swords go for curved swords, those are even better)

Enjoy shredding.

I also always played with colossal 2h swords but dual wielding is too good to pass on in this game. It feels a lot better in boss fight too.

btw, my first run on release was with the Greatsword (the Guts' sword) and it was painfully slow on MANY bosses while second playthrough dw was pure joy.

Originally posted by Chris1:

Key ingredients for a dex build are to dual wield. Slap the same weapon in both hands (ie, one katana in left, one in right) and the "block" button turns into a "hit you twice" button which dramatically increases the potential for things like status effects like bleed build up.

Dex has a huge range of weapon types. It's a ton of fun to use claws (you can "pair" them by two handing them, which puts one in each hand, without the need to equip two). Claws combined with blue dancer charm and a minimum armor set up with stacking concurrent attack buffs (rotten wing insigna + thorny cracked tear) absolutely shreds. Dual wield straight swords and katanas are also great ways to play dex. Dual twinblades is commonly referred to as "easy mode" along with dual curved swords, because the jumping attacks can hit a ridiculous amount of times, great for status procs & multi-hit buffs.
I would say, if you have only ever played strength, I would also recommend entertaining the idea of a pure faith or even faith/strength build. Faith is the deepest play style in the game, offering a huge range of incantations and faith weapons represented in almost all weapon types. You can mix it up with lightning (also great for dex builds), poison, rot, healing, buffs like golden vow/howl of shabriri, protection like lords divine fortification, and a litany of holy-focused options. It will be probably pretty different from your pure strength play through and really with all the variety it's a ton of fun shooting ice lightning out of the ground, zapping enemies with fortissax's lightning spear, drowning enemies in rings like multi-layered ring of light. There is so much variety in faith, it feels almost like the game was built up around it.

Interesting the emphasis on dual wielding, last time I really looked into dual wielding or rather "Power stance" was in ds2 and the general concensis back then was that it wasn't worth it.

And I will definitely try faith and int builds as well.

[Azusa]

I was in the same boat. It's easier than you might think. Dex damage scales really well in Elden Ring, not to mention most of the good status effect weapons are Dex scaling moreso than STR. Big difference w/ Elden Ring vs. DS is, you need to focus on VIT up to the soft cap, regardless of STR or Dex. Otherwise you'll get past the first act of the game and start becoming a chew toy for even regular mobs.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Rubyeyed:

There is nothing to learn tbh. Go to the first camp with godrick soldiers. Farm 2 Lordsworn straight swords. Dual wield. When available put lightning AoW on them. (if you don't like straight swords go for curved swords, those are even better)

Enjoy shredding.

I also always played with colossal 2h swords but dual wielding is too good to pass on in this game. It feels a lot better in boss fight too.

btw, my first run on release was with the Greatsword (the Guts' sword) and it was painfully slow on MANY bosses while second playthrough dw was pure joy.

Originally posted by Azusa:

I was in the same boat. It's easier than you might think. Dex damage scales really well in Elden Ring, not to mention most of the good status effect weapons are Dex scaling moreso than STR. Big difference w/ Elden Ring vs. DS is, you need to focus on VIT up to the soft cap, regardless of STR or Dex. Otherwise you'll get past the first act of the game and start becoming a chew toy for even regular mobs.

Yeah I mean that is what I'm asking more so than just the weapon strength and scaling of dex, what I am looking for more so is advice on survival, I usually am at mid weight on my strength bonker so I do use mid rolls, just curious how much better light rolls are.

[Azusa]

In general, jumping is a better dodge mechanic in Elden Ring than rolling. Not always, some attacks can't be jumped, but way more can than you would think. Jumping uses no stamina (but jump attacks do). It turns your entire lower body into iframes for the duration of the animation, and those iframes last longer than even a lite roll. Basically, nearly all attacks from human sized enemies can be jumped. It's only those that come down on you from above you need to roll.

Since the timing of your jump is unaffected by encumbrance, going for a lite roll build is kinda pointless, unless you're doing Fashion Souls.

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

Originally posted by Azusa:

In general, jumping is a better dodge mechanic in Elden Ring than rolling. Not always, some attacks can't be jumped, but way more can than you would think. Jumping uses no stamina (but jump attacks do). It turns your entire lower body into iframes for the duration of the animation, and those iframes last longer than even a lite roll. Basically, nearly all attacks from human sized enemies can be jumped. It's only those that come down on you from above you need to roll.

Since the timing of your jump is unaffected by encumbrance, going for a lite roll build is kinda pointless, unless you're doing Fashion Souls.

Did they nerf rolls in elden ring compared to souls games? I get what your saying about jumping but it sounds like the rolls are weaker than older games.

[Azusa]

Rolling is still effective, but it requires a fair amount of END to make a roll focused build, since nearly all actions other than jumping cost stamina. The big difference in general with Elden Ring vs DS is you can't just pump nearly all your level points into a single stat and call it good. All builds need moderate to high VIT. All builds need at least a few points in END, even mages. Ignoring ARC is possible but your item find rate will be nerfed, so it'll take longer to farm anything that isn't a guaranteed drop.

I don't think rolls were nerfed exactly in Elden Ring, the number of iframes on a dodge roll was increased across the board from what I understand. But the stamina cost was also increased, so it's now more of a tactical repositioning tool rather than the primary damage avoidance mechanic it was in DS. You would not be successful in most of the harder Elden Ring boss fights trying to just roll every attack. The bosses have roll catch attacks.