Ranking All 101 Elden Ring Incantations From Worst To Best

This guide is a text version of the corresponding video from Rusty:

• Ranking All 101 Elden Ring Incantations From Worst To Best
  
• Elden Ring Patch 1.09.1

Introduction

I feel like FromSoft and I are in constant competition to see who can make each other look like the bigger idiot. And- and I- I- I'm losing. I- I've always lost.

So, the patch notes were wrong, I guess.
Founding Reign of Stars never got nerfed.
Yeah, people tested this.
Apparently, the patch notes just lied.

I want a public apology right now.
You're fired, FromSoft. I'll hear you.

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Oh, ♥♥♥♥! 101 incantations! Oh my god!

Hope you don't have an exam tomorrow, because guess what your ass is doing tonight. The other video about ranking sorceries was close to an hour long, and I'm officially declaring this week, let's all ♥♥♥♥ on Rusty's free time week.

Thank you for celebrating.

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№ 101 — Vyke's Dragonbolt

Incantations across the board have a very different design philosophy than sorceries.
Whereas sorceries tend to have multiple purposes and excel in a variety of situations that require certain types of elemental damage or status, incantations are much more isolated.

But that also means they're more likely to benefit the player in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

This means deciding the so-called worst incantation is a pretty big ask, because even if you are the worst incantation, you're probably still good at something.

But after taking everything I could think of into consideration, weighing the pros, cons, and hidden benefits of each in rigorously organized detail, I've decided that Vyke's Dragonbolt is that incantation.


It's a subtype of bad that I like to call «perfectly ♥♥♥♥♥♥».

The very existence of this spell tremendously upsets me. It's harder to get than most other lightning buff incantations, demands way more resources from the player, and the equip load buff is unlikely to even do anything unless you care enough to teeter the edge between mid and heavy load in a way that forces the effect to actually help.

It manages to be highly demanding while not only being a worse version of like five other incantations at once, but also being easy to replicate with the right talisman setup.

It's the easiest incantation to buff while also having gone buffless for a little over a year now, while also looking cool enough for just the right amount of people to defend it and say it's one of their favorite incantations, inhibiting further discussion of its utility and prompting it to be ignored in every subsequent patch.

Vyke's Dragonbolt is why people wake up in the morning and choose violence.

I really just want to cut through the noise here and say this:

FromSoft, you listened to me on Waves of Darkness, you cared when I brought up sorcery casting speeds. This spell needs something. I don't know what that something is, but please.

№ 100 — Inescapable Frenzy

I love when scripts write the jokes themselves because the very name of this incantation is practically asking for a quippy journalist headline zinger like

50 ways to escape Inescapable Frenzy

or

Inescapable Frenzy misses its mark

In case you aren't familiar, this is the spell that has you grabbing the enemy by the head and giving them the old Ghost Rider stare of penance treatment by forcing them to look into your eyes and gaze into a timeline where this spell actually did something worth a damn.

Just because Madness is exclusively PvP doesn't mean frenzy incantations are bad.

In fact, some of them are outright damage cannons. This one, however, is heavily limited
to whether or not you can grab them to begin with.

General rule of thumb, if you can hug an enemy and clasp your hands together behind their back, it'll work.

So that limits you to soldiers, and other tarnished invaders, and Gideon, I guess.

On that note, when I run into groups of standard enemies just hanging out together enjoying their complimentary yellow contact lenses, I think I'm officially allowed to call Madness a scam.

I understand if you want to make Madness a PvP specific thing for the sake of balance, but when the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sewer rats start speaking Latin, how do you expect people to just not ask questions?

№ 99 — Immutable Shield

Another potentially cool incantation with a variety of functions that either don't work like you want them to, or are just flat-out underwhelming.

Scholar's Shield has twice the duration with added guard boost and magic damage negation,
all while needing only 12 intelligence.

Immutable Shield only works when blocking attacks that cause status, meaning any idea you had of running through Lake of Rot with a shield in your face is already moot.

And non-physical damage negation isn't honestly that important when it's being put on a shield.
Non-physical defense is almost always spread too thin because not a single living organism in the game that isn't Placidusax doesn't know how to deal more than like two elements at a time.

The few sections in the game where it actually would be really helpful is trivialized by the 30 second uptime and the casting speed of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ glacier, all while forcing you down the uncomfortable path of double-dipping Int and Faith.

And who the ♥♥♥♥ is out there splitting Int and Faith with a shield?

№ 98 — Cure Poison

Wow, wonder what the item description writer did on their day off.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good spell. I mean, kinda good. It's not really, it's not.

Requiring 7 Faith means I could tell this was going to get outclassed before I even knew what the upgrade was.

«Flame, Cleanse Me» only requires 12.

You can pick it up just by heading to Liurnia and yoinking the spell from the monk camp in like five minutes. And it won't exactly force the spell to be useful if you'd rather have a linear playthrough that doesn't skip Godric.

Because it's not like Cure Poison is frothing with efficiency anyways because the most threatening instances of poison you find in Limgrave are jellyfish and flowers.

I think you'll be fine.

№ 97 — Assassin's Approach

A spell that would have actually been useful in earlier Souls iterations. Spook, for example, was even a starting sorcery for DS3 that pretty aptly lent itself to stealth builds despite the game being less friendly to stealth overall. And maybe that's why this spell doesn't seem to do as much.

Elden Ring just gives you more stealth options by default such as crouching, hiding in foliage, craftables that give fall damage resistance, and even armor pieces that muffle sound, forcing Assassin's Approach to be less of a utility than it normally would.

Soft Cotton is very easily craftable and Unseen Form I think is much friendlier to stealth builds anyways because crouching while semi-transparent actually feels more stealthy than just walking up to someone with sound padding in your shoes.

№ 96 — Order Healing

It doesn't heal. Nope, doesn't heal. So that's just one strike against it already for false advertising.

Additionally, a casting time this slow just shouldn't belong on a spell like this. If I'm casting this, it's almost always gonna be because I'm currently in the middle of breathing in a giant fart of death and would really like to be away from its smell radius.

How practical is it that I have to stand still and allow whatever is currently farting on my face to continue doing so for the duration of the cast, resulting in almost no difference in what my situation was before I even casted it?

I'm still caught in the smoking section, my death blight is still building up, and I still need to leave and cast it somewhere else. This is what I imagine it would be like if an AI played Elden Ring.

All it would take is the right enemy and the program would be caught in a loop, both healing and accumulating death blight for all eternity.

Truly a fate worse than death.

№ 95 — Elden Stars

Yep, yep, here it is.

Elden Stars has evolved into infamous status, so much so that even the players who have never used it just assume it's bad because it does no damage.

And they're correct, because it does no damage.

I am so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tired of people constantly bringing up the point that the projectile spam forces rolling as though this spell was the only way you could get that to happen. Panic rolling can be enabled by so many different incantations and sorceries, and even ashes of war in PvP, that as long as you have more than one bullet flying around at any given time, it's probably gonna happen.

An outsmarting dodge AI in PvE, I would liken to outsmarting your dog by pretending to throw the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ball. If it does any damage at all, it'll do maybe two ticks worth and then disappear with a little foot like it never happened in the first place.

№ 94 — Lord's Aid

It alleviates poison, blood loss, and sleep. So it alleviates blood loss.

And I guess sleep as well if you're extending out to PvP, but if not, then I'd suggest ditching this in the favor of Bestial Constitution and never looking back. Even if you're playing co-op and favor support builds, I can think of almost no reason to put this on, or at least no reason that favors it above other incantations with lower faith and FP requirements.

More like:

«Lord someone please aid this spell. Look, we've got over a hundred of these to rifle through».

You're gonna have to deal with some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ every once in a while.

№ 93 — Order's Blade

This is an incantation that you have to force to pull any weight.

Dual statting is completely fine in my book, but that comes with some prerequisites.

First, you can't have an int and a faith requirement for a spell if it only scales off of one.

Second, you shouldn't have another incantation with a similar effect that is both easier to acquire and friendlier to stat building, while also just being a better damage type overall. Wonder if there's an incantation out there that beats that description.

Holy damage is already starving when it comes to utility and damage as it is, so it's pretty unwise to start throwing weapon buffing spells with identical stat requirements at us and expect us to just use it.

№ 92 — Litany of Proper Death

This one kind of breaks my heart a little because despite being extremely situational, it's probably one of my favorite anti-undead tools to use in the game.

It's got cat piss damage, even against undead enemies, and it's one notable function is specifically reserved for after downing a skeleton and you want to lay them to rest peacefully instead of just putting on a holy enchantment and slapping their corpse like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ barbarian.

Throwing this down makes you feel like a medieval exorcist, and that's really cool and all, but it's not like holy damage sources are exactly rare to come by.

I mean, ♥♥♥♥, healing incantations pull more than enough weight as it is just from how they deal with revenants.

I get that situational spells aren't always bad, but in a video like this where every spell is competing with each other in some way, being niche just means it inevitably becomes a stepping stone on the way to something better.

№ 91 — Gurranq's Beast Claw

This not only does physical damage, but it also does slash damage. Once again, taking my info directly from the regulation bin, so in case you were wondering why it does oodles of noodles of damage on certain targets and barely anything to most others, this is likely the reason why.

But with the amount of annoying enemies that have high slash defense, I find myself much less sympathetic with the people that have a tendency to say how great it is and other people are just using it wrong.

It works great as a low-level damage spell when it actually does its job, but when it only clocks in two days a week, I start wondering why it takes 8 Deathroot to unlock a spell that only needs 15 Faith.

Oh, and it doesn't knock targets in the air like Garang does to you, because of course it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ doesn't.

№ 90 — Fire's Deadly Sin

I don't know how this is going to sound, but the Bloodflame Glitch actually made this spell worth using.

It was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, sure, and it obviously wasn't intended because it could even proc frost effects after using ♥♥♥♥ like Chilling Mist. I guess you can still use it to reset frostbite easily.

Sure haven't gotten tired of saying that 38 times in like seven different videos. I have pretty much nothing else to say about this one.

If you cast it and sit down at a grace, you remain on fire, which looks kind of funny, I guess.

That's about it.

№ 89 — Surge, o Flame

That FP cost is a lie and a scam.

That number means absolutely nothing when the ticks happen every nanosecond and subsequently tanks your FP bar like a freshly unclogged toilet.

Do not use this incantation if your Mind stat isn't at least 60, because you're going to get hyper fixated on how easy it is to stunlock some enemies with it. You'll continue holding the button down, because of course you will, that's how it's meant to be used, and then you'll switch to another spell to combo while your target is still reeling.

Your character's going to do that stupid animation where they hold the catalyst out in front of them and twist it around like they're a Dairy Queen employee serving you a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ blizzard. You look up and "oh ♥♥♥♥, you just wasted all your FP".

Have fun getting your arteries repurposed as dental floss for the omen that's about to kick your head through your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

№ 88 — Law of Causality

Taking five hits for a huge damage spell to activate sounds like an amazing gimmick.
So amazing that it focuses more on the gimmick itself than it does actual utility.

It's extremely fun when it actually works and does damage, and the knockback creates more than enough space while almost always doing enough poise damage to stance break something in the process.

But taking five consecutive hits will almost never happen, unless you're either just that bad, the enemy is that weak, or you're just that desperate to make the spell work and see what it does. It becomes increasingly worthless the more iterations of NG plus you play through because of damage scaling.

Attacks that are 100% negated with the shield don't activate the counter, and so much of PVP is defined by how quickly you can delete someone else in one or two hits that making a spell utility activate after receiving five is just inherently a stupid idea.

№ 87 — Poison Mist

This spell used to be the only way I ever fought the Draconic Tree Sentinel standing guard outside Leyndell.

Why does no one use this anymore?
What happened to it?
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun police, that's what happened.

You thought extending the Sentinel's line of sight stopped us from sprinkling around some of our beloved fartness? Well, congratulations losers, because that's exactly what it did.

Now the only way I can get someone to stand still long enough for this spell to actually work is by great hammering the ♥♥♥♥ out of their kneecaps until I hear the trademark ping sound, and if I've succeeded in doing that, then I might as well just use one of the other 67 damage incantations that benefit from a stationary target.

№ 86 — Urgent Heal

The only healing incantation with no AOE, meaning it's the only healing incantation that won't deal damage to undead and revenants.

The amount of HP this restores is already inferior to the starting spell you get from the Prophet class, but people tend to prefer it because it's a slightly faster cast and you can walk.

Regardless, when it comes down between the two, I'd much rather be stuck with the regular heal because it is morally okay to abuse revenants.

For early game, 16 FP is a moderately high ask for a little bit of health, and that trade only becomes tolerable as soon as you've found a better healing tool anyways.

№ 85 — Black Flame's Protection

If you're a fan of stacking playthroughs up to NG+3 territory and above, this spell becomes exponentially more necessary the more you climb, because that health bar feels smaller and smaller with each iteration.

In fact, I'm pretty sure they wanted you to start using it during NewGame+ because you don't even have access to it until you've found the Haligtree.

Problem is, you are straight up just not going to need this in the first couple iterations of NewGame+ because nothing is really ever that threatening, at least until you start into +3 or +4.

And by that time, you've probably forgotten all about the spell to begin with.

It's necessary where it shouldn't be, and it leaves a lot to be desired in just about any other situation.

№ 84 — Bloodflame Talons

Another spell that honestly just pisses me off because of how hard it drops off.

I was prepared to love this incantation with all of my heart and soul, only for it to suddenly become functionally bereft mid to late game, to the point where you just look at it with this bitter resentment. Like it's the spell's fault it's not good enough or some ♥♥♥♥.

Bloodflame Talons on paper not only is a wonderful incantation, it also looks cool, which I believe is a very important half of what all spells should be. Unfortunately, it's missing way too much for me to consider using it other than a select few circumstances.

Hitbox is way too small, the damaging part of the spell, i.e. the explosion, comes out very delayed even if the cast time can be reduced, and it just leaves way too much to be wanted from the spell to consistently recommend it.

№ 83 — Black Flame Blade

This is the kind of incantation I'm afraid to rank because it being a Black Flame incantation means there's probably a community of low rune level runners out there who swear by its end game effectiveness because they did hitless Millenia with nothing but a slab of fiberglass and a vegetable skewer.

15 FP cost plus a 7 second duration means it's only FP efficient if you're proactive with it.
And in that regard, 7 seconds of uptime is almost oppressively bad.

It becomes a nice little accessory to have when I slap it into a full-fledged magic lineup focused around Black Flame, but when reapplying the same buff over and over again is all I'm ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ doing with my free time, the combat loop gets boring really quickly.

№ 82 — Rejection

Rejection deals zero damage. Well, I beg to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ differ.

Rejection is strictly a utility spell because it has to be.

It's fun to blast ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ off the sides of cliffs, but let's face it, you can do that with plenty of different spells with a bit of creativity and forethought.

It offers extremely high knockback and guard break potential, meaning it's commonly used to set up slower but higher damage spell combos, but any enemy bigger than your average studio apartment can still just haul ass right through it and tackle you.

For only 9 FP, I suppose I can't complain too much, but the more benefits I look for in this incantation, the only one I keep finding is:

«man, this sure would be a funny clip to show people».

№ 81 — Poison Armament

I hear a lot of people comparing this to Frozen Armament just because they're both status buffs for your main hand weapon, and I think that's a very unfair comparison because not even Poison Armament is that useless.

70 poison buildup per attack means it's officially been brought up to par with status efficiency of Poison Grease.

The downside being, it's still the same type of poison being dealt, so it still receives a huge middle finger drop-off point by the time you make your way into the mid game.

Outperforming Poison Grease isn't the hardest bar to climb over, but at least now I have a solid backup plan if I'm running low on my used kleenexes.

№ 80 — Darkness

Darkness was once seen as the worst of the worst, but it has garnered a lot of recent popularity due to its high utility on stealth builds.

It went from being overrated to underrated, and hopefully with this argument you're about to hear, back to overrated again. This isn't me going contrarian mode, I promise.

The utility of Darkness hinges on two major variables — how many enemies you've aggroed at once and the likelihood of a more dangerous enemy being alerted if you make too much noise.

If you've let loose the horde and you're being pursued by like 13 enemies, blowing smoke in their face and picking them off one by one is something you see in Metal Gear.

This is not Metal Gear.

Against crowds, your FP is almost always gonna find better use by just digging an AOE spell out of your ass and wiping everyone with it. And against single targets, it's only ever useful when you want it to be.

It's fine if you're trying to do a stealth-only build, but it's pretty much never necessary.

№ 79 — Bestial Constitution

On the surface, this spell sounds like it does quite a bit.

Alleviating frostbite and blood loss sounds pretty amazing, seeing how they're two of the most annoying and also most commonplace ailments you're facing both on and offline.

Support spells in general have always felt lacking because they require a short period of inaction during the cast, immediately stripping them of most of their benefits in PvP.

№ 78 — Shadow Bait

I am really surprised this one made it this far up my list.

This can trigger traps and pressure plates in dungeons and it can be used to lure away enemies that are already aggroed. It performs about as ♥♥♥♥♥♥ as you would expect on almost any boss, but you can cast this in a cave filled with glintstone miners to clump them up and position them to receive an AoE spell.

It works on albinaurics too, making Mogwin Palace a bit easier to explore without getting overwhelmed, but it still doesn't work on most enemies despite how useful it can be.

And considering both this and Darkness barely avoided being in my worst 10, I think spot 78 is being more than nice enough to this spell.

№ 77 — Lightning Fortification

Officially the only support spell you've looked up a guide on how to obtain.

Brother Corhyn sells it, but you have to motivate his ass all the way to Altus before he even tells you he has it.

Now, why did I rank this spell so low?

Well, let me answer that question with another question. Exactly how many instances of lightning damage are you exposed to between here and Farum Azula?

If you answered one because you thought of the Draconic Tree Sentinel and then immediately blinked, then you're correct.

And I guess the Lendell Knights too, but they're, ♥♥♥♥, they're pushovers, ♥♥♥♥ them.

And the reason that matters is because guess what incantation you find in Farum Azula?

№ 76 — Lightning Strike

I love this spell for a very comical reason. Or rather, I love watching people try to use it under certain circumstances.

Not because it offers a perfect setup to hone bolt despite the spell itself only sometimes doing serviceable damage, and that's if the lightning actually hits something. I love this spell because I love seeing videos of faith builders trying to fire this ♥♥♥♥ off inside a dungeon or a cramped space.

Because of the way the bullet physics works, it summons an emitter that travels upward and then across to your target enemy. The bullets that rain down from it are the hit bullets of the spell.

However, they cannot penetrate map geometry and almost always get lodged into the ceiling while you're busy getting your teeth knocked out by whatever you were trying to hit.

№ 75 — Magic Fortification

35% less magic damage from all sources and just in time to deal with one of the most magic-saturated areas in the game?

Well, shame I've already picked up Thoph's Barrier and Eternal Darkness, two spells I generally wouldn't be caught dead using. And that's because if you somehow die with these spells equipped, you have problems no single YouTube video can help you with.

Magic Fortification either underperforms in PvE due to the lack of magic enemies you run into after Raya Lucaria, or it underperforms in PvP because trying not to get one-shot by a sorcery in PvP is like trying to cool down your egg roll by starting your car and sticking it in the exhaust pipe. If only there wasn't an upgraded variant of this exact same incantation the next biome over.

Otherwise, I might've had some nice compliments for this one.

№ 74 — Protection of the Erdtree

The same gripes come to mind every time I try to use the other fortification spells.

If you're using this out in the open where you have plenty of ample room to recast it once it fizzles out, then that's fine. But 70 seconds is just long enough for me to cast it at the very beginning of a boss fight. Forget about it.

And then when an attack finally connects and hits me for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HP, I just sit there like an idiot thinking:

what the hell?
How did I die?
I just cast that barrier spell like 10 seconds ago.
What, is this game stupid or something?

Now that I think about it, 30% damage negation is barely enough to make the spell worth it during the end game. And you're almost always better off sticking to a single fortification spell anyways because even the basic ones offer 35% negation as a minimum.

№ 73 — Flame Fortification

I'm willing to put this one above most other beginning fortification spells only because fire damage is wielded by some of the most annoying chuckle ♥♥♥♥♥ ever conceived by that torture chamber Miyazaki calls an office.

Flame Protect Me is an upgrade to this, but you probably won't be seeing that one for a long time. So you're stuck with this one for a while.

I'm really starting to feel like 70 seconds was a number deliberately chosen to make us forget about reapplying the spell just in time for it to end.

I could be fighting the godskin noble or something, and just as the buff runs out, my character suddenly realizes she's late for her appointment to headbutt a fire pit.

№ 72 — Whirl, O Flame!

A giant's flame incantation that surprisingly sees very little use for the amount of damage it does.

Don't get me wrong, it's yet another incantation I wouldn't so much as look twice at, but I think a lot of people are turned away from it from the wrong reasons.

Despite feeling slow, it can probably outrange most pebble and comet sorceries when charged.

It's got little to nothing going for it in terms of FP efficiency, but the slow speed combined with the excellent tracking can make it a solid pick if you're fighting in cramped spaces.

№ 71 — Scarlet Aeonia

This spell I think is very highly underrated.

I didn't say it was good, but I do think the three-slot cost gets a lot of people to dismiss it unfairly.

The only reason I can think of why it works in PvP is because no one expects you to actually whip it out, and despite not seeming like it does anything in PvP, it actually doles out the single most damaging variant of Scarlet Rot in the game you can possibly inflict. I don't know the max HP scaling off the top of my head, but it's like oppressive levels of mean.

Nevermind, just checked, it's one-third of 1% of your max HP for 90 seconds, so that's 30% of the enemy's total HP chomped up if you just decide to leave them alone afterwards.

It's a great incantation, it does what it does extremely well, and I dare you to try and defend why this ♥♥♥♥♥ needs three spell slots and 48 FP.

I actually dare you to tell me I should have ranked this higher.

№ 70 — Aspect of the Crucible, Breath

I can tell just by what this does to NPC invaders that it works wonderfully against real ones.

This incantation is basically a wide cone of damage that forces anyone in front of it to fall over and spend the next five seconds of their life jackhammer spamming the roll button while the fear of God eats away at their patience.

The payoff is pretty wonderful with how consistently it can knock people over, but you better not miss because if you do, your character just spends a good two or three seconds huffing like they just finished up cardio day, leaving you perfectly open to whatever pain your enemies feel like inflicting.

Also, anyone in PvP has plenty of time to predict the spell and practice the ancient art of running the hell away from you.

№ 69 — Lord's Heal

Probably the least efficient heal you could choose FP-wise, but the quicker draw time can really make the difference between life and death against faster bosses.

I get that more HP being restored at once is sometimes exactly what the situation calls for, but you've got another healing incantation Corhyn gives you at Altus that heals you for a moderately strong amount of HP, all while not hogging up nearly as much of the focus bar.

I can always talk about how it flips Revenants on their asses like a cockroach with brain damage, but that doesn't exactly set it apart from any other healing incantation in the game.

№ 68 — Beast Claw

I really liked how much damage this spell did against targets vulnerable to slash damage, but the more I've explored different builds and different spells, the more out of love I continued to fall with this one.

Beast Claw is only ever serviceable.

It is the linchpin in exactly zero builds, and it's probably the most mediocre spell I could imagine slotting, even when considering other bestial incantations. And I feel like Beast Claw kinda knows it too. It wasn't made to contend with gods or take down dragons.

It was made to target that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ over there who somehow rolled out of the last five melees you threw at him and just take him out of the picture.

I don't know who that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is for you, but I'll bet you thought of him, didn't you?

№ 67 — Erdtree Heal

Who in the ♥♥♥♥ needs this much healing?

№ 66 — Flame of the Fell God

Be it positive or negative, everyone I've seen online feels way too strongly about this specific incantation.

It's either woefully misunderstood when it actually deserves to have a state named after it, or it cheated on your mom, single-handedly causing your parents divorce and deserves the death penalty. If you need to heal or buff yourself or do anything related to not combat, this spell will shield you from any faffing around from your enemies 99% of the time.

The lingering fire is great for flinching small and even medium-sized enemies, and if it's too large to roll out of the way, then that means it'll just receive the full damage from the initial explosion.

Neither of these benefits make this spell legendary because there's either a spell that's much better for protection or much better for damage.

I still can't recommend it for most reasons, but it's not like this spell was responsible for a market crash or something.

Like, calm the ♥♥♥♥ down, Jesus.

№ 65 — Law of Regression

This is the ultimate oh-♥♥♥♥ button for any status ailment you'd like to counter.

Any situation where you need to cure a status ailment, Law of Regression will excel in.

Not only that, but the regress effect also works on enemy debuffs, and this isn't limited to PvP either. Grave Warden duelists will likely cast a war cry sort of ability that buffs their damage and poise, and Law of Regression can just sponge that ♥♥♥♥ right up like it never even happened. It's amazing.

So why is this ranked so low despite me talking it up so much? That's because it has the same problem I find myself having with every other spell in the game that tries to do multiple things well.

They don't. They fail pretty much all the time.

Why use Regression to counter Scarlet Rot when I can just use Flame Cleanse Me?
Or why use it to counter Death Blight when Order Healing exists?
Why use it to deactivate enemy debuffs when you can just, I don't know, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kill them?

№ 64 — Noble Presence

I really want to like this spell.

It looks and feels awesome when it hits something, but good luck landing this on anything that isn't stance-broken or smaller than a double-decker bus. It'll have all the same effects as clearing your throat.

Charging it to any degree might as well play a laugh track because you're downright delusional if you think you could power through an attack without help from a talisman or something. But when it does hit, oh my god.

The damage is pristine. Divine, even. Those are both exaggerations, but I promise if the range left a bad taste in your mouth, just stick with it a little longer.

It won't do much, but it'll do enough.

№ 63 — Ekzyke's Decay

Not sure who this spell pissed off before it got sledgehammered, but my boy Ekzykee's just does not deserve this.

You like Rotten Breath?
You don't think it costs enough FP per cast?
You think it should actually cost more?

Well, here you go.

This is the incantation for you.
Man, this used to be good, too.

№ 62 — Blessing of the Erdtree

This is the upgraded variant of Blessing's Boon, which is a crying shame because it actually thinks it's better, too.

More heals per second isn't always the best thing, especially when we're talking about regen.

If you're using a spell like this to keep yourself at 100% HP to take advantage of a talisman setup, you're always better off just using Blessing's Boon, Bestial Vitality, the Icon Shield, or for ♥♥♥♥'s sake, something that doesn't cost 65 FP to cast.

Are you kidding me?

№ 61 — Bloodflame Blade

Listen here, clever tits.

Just because fire damage is in balance to the point where just about anything you light a firecracker in front of is likely to go up in smoke doesn't mean fire damage just shouldn't get a good buff.

Bloodflame Blade deals both fire damage and bleed buildup, so in order to balance it properly, I'm assuming they just made both types of damage be ♥♥♥♥ on purpose.

Just because it's doing two things at once doesn't always mean you have to go halfsies on each. That usually just results in both advantages not pulling any weight.

This one is only really useful if you put it on a dagger or something that's fast, and probably with something that already has innate bleed to begin with.

№ 60 — Aspects of the Crucible, Horns

Like the other Crucible incantations, personality and looking cool seem to be prioritized over making sure the spell is actually efficient, and most people who use this routinely seem to agree online, which I think is enough of a rarity for me to confidently say this spell is fun, but easily outclassed.

Ashes of War, like Piercing Fang, serve as competent distance closers while doing enough damage and costing less FP to be considered over this spell most of the time.

But who gives a ♥♥♥♥ about any of that when you get to erect a pair of dragon horns out of your shoulder and tell whoever's in front of you where they can stick them?

№ 59 — Borealis's Mist

Look, if it requires over 150 FP for one fully charged cast, then it better be doing some heavy lifting, and this just isn't.

This is unfortunately the case with most named dragon incantations.

It does technically do magic damage, but around 30% less than Smarag's Glintstone Breath, which consumes around 25% less FP.

I think this is an appropriate time to say Frostbite might be considered a little more powerful than it actually is. Most people just tend to go after the initial damage proc than actually taking advantage of the defense debuff that Frostbite causes.

Did you know fire damage resets Frostbite status, viewer? Did you know that?

I bet you didn't.

№ 58 — The Flame of Frenzy

Not sure why the «THE» at the very beginning is so necessary.

You don't call it «THE Immutable Shield» or «THE Oh Flame». The Flame of Frenzy has a wickedly slow spool up time that makes it extremely hard to ignore.

Aside from casting Madness, which already has its work cut out for it, trying to be any semblance of useful outside of PvP. You think fire damage is an easy way to claw your way into my heart, FromSoft?

Well, you may have been mistaken.

Casting it repeatedly builds up Madness, obviously, but it feels like casting this repeatedly is the only way it can pull any good amount of weight.

It does get noticeably better once you start climbing into the 80s, and it's got stance damage, sure, but hey, so does chucking ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rocks.

№ 57 — Bestial Sling

Look, I know guys, I'm disappointed with where this landed to.

Bestial Sling was a huge go-to for almost all of my characters within the first few months of the game being released. Attacking without delay means it could be whipped out as the second part of a combo after just about anything, and can comfortably be comboed into other incantations as well.

This is the important part because one of the main utilities of Sling is flinching smaller enemies, which momentarily leaves them open to something else that you should think about throwing at them afterwards.

I'm sure my opinion would have been different had this video come out six months ago, but a lot of the advantages Bestial Sling used to have have unfortunately been fixed over the years.

№ 56 — Divine Fortification

This one is an interesting spell.

It feels like the item you thought was ♥♥♥♥♥♥ because an old homeless man gave it to you saying you'll need it one day, only to find out he was totally right, and that one day is basically the entire last leg of the game.

Well, ♥♥♥♥. I guess I should have actually kept that one.

Don't worry, you get a much more powerful one later on towards the end of the game as well. Oh, well, what's the point of even keeping this one then?

Well, you have to kill Malenia.



Well, you have to be defecating rainbows if you think I'm doing all that ♥♥♥♥.

№ 55 — Howl of Shabriri

Do more damage, take more damage.

Pretty, pretty straightforward.

№ 54 — Black Flame Ritual

This was an incantation that I really came to like the more I used it.

It's situational at best, but if most of these being situational is news to you, then hello! Welcome to my channel, first-time viewer. This video has lots of spoilers, so please look up a guide on getting past LIurnia before you continue watching.

The max HP debuff is extremely useful no matter what you put it on, so regardless of the spell's actual utility, it always does at least something of significance when it lands. I just wish it didn't share the same disadvantages with the Noble's version whenever he uses it.

When I'm caught in the ring's sweet spot, I feel stupider than a tractor driver on the interstate, but if I'm inside the ring and I fight the urge to roll, I can just be all, no, you're trapped in here with me, and continue walloping the big ♥♥♥♥ like nothing even happened.

Player variant of this spell has the exact same problem.

№ 53 — Flame, Protect Me

This one is a massively helpful spell in like three situations, but in most others, you just won't even remember that you have it.

It's great against Fire Monks, but if you're on your way out of the mountain, then you're just about done with those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ too, so what's even the point?

You'll find it in the Giant Conquering Heroes grave, which is yet another frequent reminder that if Elden Ring gives you something, you'd best hold on to it because the next three bosses probably have an attack that gets completely sharded on by that exact thing you just picked up.

№ 52 — Ancient Dragon's Lightning Spear

It's like Lightning Stake, but somehow tremendously worse. The base lightning damage on this thing is 360, and I realize that just sounds like I'm throwing out a random arbitrary number at you for no reason, but if we really stop and compare how this measures up to other Ancient Dragon incantations, the damage is shockingly bad.

Wait, what? Why are- Why are there-

Oh, because I said shocking? Haha, funny.
My editor is really funny, guys. Let's all- let's all give him a hand.

Fortisax's spear comes in at around 370 lightning damage per spear when cast at point-blank range. Frozen Lightning deals up to around 540 at point-blank when both bullets hit, and Ancient Lightning Strike is whatever the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell it wants to be.

Comparing all of this to a measly 360 almost makes it feel like Ancient Lightning Spear is in a league of its own.

As in, a worse league. Worse than the other options, is- is what I'm saying.

№ 51 — Heal

Guess what this one does.

If you're looking to use this offensively, then I think I'm officially the 3500th person on YouTube to tell you that it can damage revenants and other undead enemies, but let's be honest, you've only ever used it on revenants.

Because getting into a slap fighting competition with a seven-mile spanking machine doesn't sound like fun or a good time, it sounds like karma for something I did wrong.

I barely even have to rank this one, let alone know how. It's- it- it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ heal.

What, you need an instruction manual?

№ 50 — Dragonbolt Blessing

This one holds quite a few advantages over Vyke's Dragonbolt, in case you're still wondering why that's listed as my worst incantation.

Firstly, this is found at Stormcaller Church.
So much of the game ahead of you is not lightning.

You'll only realize the steep drop-off in usefulness once you head into Laendel, where all the knights are carrying tasers. It increases all your resistance by 30, which if you're at the beginning of the game, then why the ♥♥♥♥ not?

And it gives you tier 2 hardness, and I almost want to just not explain that and ask you what you think it means instead. This means any moderately big weapons like great swords and great axes and anything below that tier will straight up just bounce off of you.

The only higher levels of hardness out there you can achieve are guarding with the Ant' Skull Plate or the Ironjar Aromatic. Which also decreases lightning defense.

№ 49 — Lansseax's Glaive

I'm gonna be honest, I spent a good 10 minutes just capturing the footage for this spell because I kept gaslighting myself into thinking there's no way the damage on this is actually this ♥♥♥♥ and that I was using the wrong catalyst or didn't have any talismans equipped or something.

Nope, I know the damage probably looks impressive to somebody, but I'm casting this with a plus 25 Gravelstone and 80 Faith, and this is the absolute best I can squeeze out of it without whipping out an Excel sheet and seeing what I can min-max.

This is the problem I have with most damage-oriented spells. No matter how photogenic you look calling down a giant lightning glaive, there's almost always a more efficient use of gameplay.

Should I tack on Lightning Scorpion and Lightning Shrouding tier, equip it with Flock Canvas, boost it with Gravelstone, and throw on Rallying Standard for good measure?

Or is it quicker to just do something anticlimactic like whip out a Lightning Affinity Katana and press a button until whatever is trying to kill you stops moving?

№ 48 — Frozen Lightning Spear

I swear to god, I've watched lightning from this thing literally strike above someone's head and it does no damage.

Instead of pissing yourself over the inconsistency, I find it much easier to just treat it like Ancient Lightning Sphere and walk up to someone and crack him in the head with the very first bullet. That way, you've done your job no matter what the subsequent bolts end up hitting.

If you can get past that, it does have a pretty huge AOE and some nice Frostbite buildup that makes it great when paired with Cold Affinity weapons.

Now, if we could just have a talk about that weird Faith requirement on all of these lightning spells, then we could be getting somewhere.

№ 47 — Bloodboon

Actually, not bad if you free aim it, but why do I need to? That's not me nitpicking the spell or anything. That's a genuine question.

Is adjusting the angle that big of a deal? Wow, I guess this is me nitpicking the spell. ♥♥♥♥ me.

Give Stone of Garank any more verticality and it's practically traveling in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ semicircle, but I have to free aim Blood Boon to keep it from hitting the floor? It's not like this changes my opinion that much on the incantation itself.

It's pretty difficult to balance a spell with both fire damage and bleed buildup in a way that makes it suck.

The bullet scatter is pretty consistent. The damage is nice.

I don't know what else you want from me. I have nothing else to say. It's a spell.

№ 46 — Bestial Vitality

This spell doesn't do ass if your health bar is any bigger than your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pinky finger, but I have a soft spot for it, specifically for what it does outside of combat.

Bestial Vitality, when you weigh all the regen spells together, is the most efficient for your FP, and that would actually mean something if a viable strat wasn't popping it and then literally walking away from the game to do something else.

For casual adventuring, you'll never need another healing spell in your life. You'll always enter boss fights with full HP, allowing you to take full advantage of ritual talismans without needing to reset at a grace, slap on Old Lord's Talisman to heal 780 HP per cast over time.

It's far from effective if you're being pursued by literally anything that can attack, but way too many people are discounting it by comparing to other regens like Blessings Boon, and that ♥♥♥♥ just ain't fair to me.

№ 45 — Dragonice

Does anyone else feel like this spell is just unnecessary?

Like, don't get me wrong, 110 frostbite buildup per tick could give anyone the chills, ha ha, but with the amount of FP this consumes as a baseline, I don't even think I need to point out that you have better options.

I love that Dragon Communion players can have access to so many different status builds and utilities that normally just wouldn't be on a Faith build, but I feel like Dragon Ice was just thrown in at the last minute because someone on the creative team took a look at all the spells and just went, oh, ♥♥♥♥.

Guys, guys, we didn't give Faith any cool frostbite ♥♥♥♥.
Hmm, okay, is there an ice dragon in the game? No?

Well, there is now.

№ 44 — Electrify Armament

Weapon buffs aren't the greatest incantations, but I feel like saying that just further perpetuates the idea of forward-traveling projectiles being the most preferable and powerful spells you could possibly use.

Which they are, but hey, it's not our ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fault. Anyways, Electrify Armament is the greatest weapon buff spell you can possibly find with incantations.

No lightning damage dealers means nothing that's lightning resistant up until Leyndel. Lightning also gets amplified by bodies of water and rain, making it a wonderful choice in Dragon Barrow.

Unfortunately, it's not boosted by Gravelstone Seal, which I think is the one thing that actually could have made this spell spectacular.

№ 43 — Aspects of the Crucible, Tail

Tired of constantly getting your ass clapped when something dares to turn around?

Well, here's your chance to give some of that ♥♥♥♥ back.

It can flinch even bigger dudes, it deals stamina damage like an elephant tranquilizer, and the second attack when charged almost always knocks enemies backward.

Apparently, this is really hard to properly avoid in PvP, mostly because everyone expects the second swipe only for them to be attacked once, but because of how input cues worked, they've already committed to the second roll, which promptly accomplishes ♥♥♥♥ and all.

It swats omens in knights like flies, it's great against pumpkin heads because it'll only ever hit one foot off the ground, and it can travel through walls. Kind of.

Hands down the most useful Crucible incantation.

And we're at 43.



Yep, sorry.

№ 42 — Dragonfire

It's a dragon that breathes fire. And it does fire damage.

Dude, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AI could write these videos.

I don't know, man.

Do you not like having FP? Like, at all?

Dragon incantations are tough to rank because they have all the same principles. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of damage or immediate status all at once with an FP price that rivals spirit summoning.

So I'm sorry if all of these end up relatively close together because it kind of just feels like I'm ranking 12 different iterations of Crystal Torrent or some ♥♥♥♥. I know they're obviously more nuanced than that. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, duh, that was a throwaway line. It was a throwaway.

Calm your tits, one person in the comments that's about to lecture me about how damage and numbers work.

№ 41 — Flame, Cleanse Me

This has a few things that make it wonderful and a few other things that make it ass.
As is the case with most magic in the support category.

You find it decently early, it has a low faith requirement and FP cost, and it basically nullifies whatever need you once had to hoard all those boluses. The 15 fire damage to yourself seems pointless until...

Wait a minute.

Doesn't fire damage reset for- This was obviously going in the top half of the list somewhere, but the low faith requirement means it's accessible to pretty much every build, making it a staple in PvP and Lake of Rot, and that's about it.

№ 40 — Flame Sling

It's a fireball.
A ball of fire.
An orb of heat.
A globule of combustion.
A spherical source of scarlet luminescence that does okay damage.

Alright, next spell.

№ 39 — Swarm of Flies

This will never be restored to its former power, and we should all breathe a sigh of relief that that's the case, but it still ends up proccing bleed on anything with blood in it with around one or two casts, and since blood loss is still scaled on max HP, anything that one, is a projectile that moves forward, and two, causes bleed buildup will only increase in utility the further the game grows in difficulty.

The tracking is probably nothing special, but because the swarm is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ slow, it still never has a problem hitting anything.

It traps smaller foes in the flinching animation for a good five seconds, so feel free to combo this up with whatever you like. Maybe another bleed spell.

Or, you know, a normal spell, if you did grow up loved.

№ 38 — Flame, Grant Me Strength

♥♥♥♥♥ stacks with Golden Vow. That's all I should need to say.

Flame Grant Me Strength first achieved fame in the early days of Elden Ring video content, where everyone was obsessed with how much damage you could do by turning the whole game into some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up version of Whack-A-Mole.

Expectedly, this incantation has stayed towards the top ever since. It's got 15 Faith as a requirement, making it pretty much just as accessible as Flame, Cleanse Me.

Just gotta sacrifice a couple levels for it, kill a few Caelid crows, no big deal. The stamina recovery speed is literally always nice, and boosting physical and fire damage means it does twice the work on fire and flame art affinity weapons.

A wonderful support spell that makes the best spells even better. But for the love of God and all of his historically recorded disciples, 30 seconds is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crime.

Fix it.

№ 37 — Glintstone Breath

Nothing wrong with favoring higher damage over what's efficient, and most of the Dragon Communion spells throw FP and stamina efficiency out the window and trade in all that spare energy for exactly that.

Glintstone Breath is unfortunately my least favorite dragon incantation. Someone ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ a little too loudly, and now FromSoft wants faith players to have access to magic damage too. And as a design philosophy, I can get on board with that, sure.

Build preference shouldn't ♥♥♥♥ you over 10 hours down the road just because you landed on the wrong square, but I really don't get the feeling that Glintstone Breath was designed with a gracious sentiment behind it.

I feel like FromSoft knew people would succumb to ♥♥♥♥♥ fits about faith users getting the shaft again, so they just tossed this one in last minute, like:

here, this enough?
Well, ♥♥♥♥ you, it's going to be.

№ 36 — Magma Breath

If you liked Magma Shot, you're gonna like Magma Breath, because this is basically Magma Shot, but with a giant dragon head in the way of your aim. Magma Breath is an 18-wheel MP7 diesel engine dump truck of an incantation.

The spell comes out swinging, and it doesn't stop. It does mega damage even without the need to build around it too much, and I would keep this around because fire damage becomes a great utility once you climb into the mountaintops, and it's really friendly towards arcane builds, not just because the ideal seal needs that ♥♥♥♥, but because some of the best fire weapons in the game tend to either scale with faith or arcane or both.

It's great against hands, dogs, and anything that moves faster than you do, but if Magma Breath hits like a truck, then 30 FP for cast on a spell that's chain castable is about as efficient as fueling that truck with melted cheese.

№ 35 — Fortissax's Lightning Spear

Yes, I know the lightning can spread. Doesn't mean it's good for clearing crowds.

Please don't try to use this in the same situations in Lanceaxe's Glaive.
You already have a Lanceaxe's Glaive.
It's called Lanceaxe's Glaive.

The real potential damage is in exactly the same spot as Ancient Lightning Spear, right in front of someone's ♥♥♥♥-ugly face.

Imagine just casting two of these at the same time, with very little penalty to damage. Actually, if you compare the projectiles, I'm pretty sure each Fortissax Spear does more base damage than one Ancient Lightning Spear.

Yep, just checked.
Ancient Spear's 360 versus Fortisax Spear's 367 and 374.

This thing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shreds. It has horrible FP efficiency, but once you see those damage numbers climbing into the 5 to 6k range, I just dare you to give a ♥♥♥♥.

№ 34 — Theodorix's Magma

This just barely loses to Magma Breath for damage to efficiency.

On in-game builds, it'll dish out around 40% more damage while demanding 50% more FP. So if I wanted to be a massive ♥♥♥♥♥, I would just say that Magma Breath is better. But there's much more to life than getting ratioed, so I'm not going to.

The Magma Pools have a slightly wider spread. The initial projectile is a tad bigger, meaning it's more likely to hit, but also more likely to get caught on a wall.

And I have no idea why people are comparing the arc that each spell makes, because I just opened the regulation bin and both bullets behave the exact same, you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ twerp.

№ 33 — Smarag's Glintstone Breath

It's more magic damage. That's about it.

I get that a few riots would have been held if you didn't give Faith users any magic damage options, but the shortcomings of this incantation are more at the fault of just magic damage as a whole. Does it dole out chunks of damage at anything you point it at? Yes, almost always.

But such a large majority of enemies are either resistant to magic or just don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about it that if you have Agil's variant, I'd almost recommend just never using this one. It's still on the upper half of the list.

I'm not saying it doesn't work. I mean, you can score around 5k damage in total against pretty much any enemy as long as you don't care about all the FP you're losing.

But if we're weighing the benefits of fire damage versus magic damage, there are entire wiki pages out there that do a pretty good job explaining what the correct choice is.

№ 32 — Great Heal

I can try and force you to give a damn about FP efficiency all I want, but if you have your thumb hanging out of your mouth waiting for me to explain how to make the big numbers pop up on the screen, then this is officially where your interest in this video probably dies.

Great Heal is objectively the best, as in the most efficient immediate heal spell you can find in the game.

I say immediate because we've still one more regen incantation to take into account that we haven't even made it to yet.

№ 31 — Scouring Black Flame

This one is competent. It's one of the incantations of all time, I can say that confidently.

Firstly, the weird vertical angle upon launch is something a lot of people find annoying, but I personally think the upwards angle is pretty useful against flying enemies and NPC invaders that think they can jump over everything.

Besides, if you really do find it that annoying, nothing a good ol' free aim can't fix. The black flame effect means it chews up enemy HP like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lawnmower, it's got a faster than average recovery time, and it can sweep up multiple dudes in an instant.

I would almost advise charging it when you're able to, because the impact when charged versus when it isn't honestly feels like a completely different spell.

№ 30 — Golden Vow

Ah yes, all reliable.

The spell that does everything you want it to and gives a great big planet-sized middle finger to everything else. Deal more damage, take less damage. Which means on principle, it's already better than Howl.

Golden Vow does nothing spectacular, but the reason it's preferred as much as it is has nothing to do with the percentages. This is the single most flexible support incantation in the entire game.

It just stacks with whatever the hell it wants.

Want more physical damage negation? Stack it with Boiled Crab.
Want to deal more damage? Stack it with Grant Me Strength, or Exalted Flesh, or Blood Boil.

I guess in retrospect, it doesn't even matter whether or not this is technically better than Howl, because guess what it also stacks with?

Barrier of Gold, Flame Protect Me, pretty much any fortification buff or weapon enchantment.

How it measures up individually against each buff is an unfair comparison, when its job is to just take all those buffs and make them better.

№ 29 — Death Lightning

This spell really needs some work. I get why the bullets are so sporadic.

It wouldn't make sense if every cast landed in the exact same area, because it would either be really predictable or really annoying to play around.

But can I at least hit something with this?

This spell is just bound to miss if you're aiming at anything that isn't skyscraper big. But 513 base lightning attack and 564 when charged is pretty unreasonably strong.

This puts Death Lightning in an extremely interesting position, where its utility, and whether or not it can spank ass, solely depends on the size of the ass it's spanking.

Building around a spell like this can torque it all the way up to around 5k if you're dedicated enough, but you might as well only use this against dragons and trolls, because any target smaller than that, and you're just rolling the dice.

№ 28 — Rotten Breath

This is strictly a PvE spell. I think that's all it's ever going to be.

You just remain too ♥♥♥♥-with-able during the cast animation, because channeling the power of a dragon also means channeling the poise of a guinea pig with one leg. Like most other dragon incantations, it's really easy to free aim, and with the amount of physical damage this does at higher levels, it can very quickly turn into a pretty effective ♥♥♥♥-you-everything-in-front-of-me-must-die button.

Against most bosses, you can get Scarlet Rot to proc with one good cast, and then just spend the rest of two minutes running out the clock and forcing the boss to chase you around like some ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up episode of Tom and Jerry.

Not the Noxtella Dragonkin, though.

Nope, apparently the second phase transition cures Rot if he's afflicted.

Just figured that out right now as I'm capturing footage for it, so plan accordingly, I guess.

№ 27 — Agheel's Flame

This is quite the outlier when it comes to dragon incantations.

Every other upgraded variant of these types of spells have either been nerfed into irrelevance, or there's some major drawback that's preventing it from seeing more frequent use.

I don't really feel like any of that is present with Agil's Flame.

Then again, Dragonfire is probably the easiest in this spell class to balance and upgrade around.

Like, okay, we need to give it more fire damage. Done. What's next?

Well, we should probably increase the effective range of Shadow Bait at some point.

All right, I'm going on break. Let me know if anything comes up.

№ 26 — Radagon's Rings of Light

Everyone talks big ♥♥♥♥ till a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ starts T-posing in the Coliseum.

The split stats is a damn shame on this one, because that means so many people are never going to be able to experience one of the hardest hitters in the game. I haven't seen a single NPC or real invader jump over this thing successfully.

Charging this up and letting it work its magic is the closest thing you can get to free damage without just downloading a cheat table somewhere. It's a little weird on dragons or any enemy with an obvious weak spot. The spell is actually made up of 16 different bullets that form a circle around the caster.

They have what's called a shared hit list, meaning if one of them just so happens to hit the body of the dragon first, all the other bullets immediately turn off and you don't get the extra damage despite the spell literally passing through the ♥♥♥♥♥♥'s head.

Pretty good in most other situations though, so I wouldn't sleep on it.

№ 25 — Golden Lightning Fortification

This negates 60% of all lightning damage. Holy ♥♥♥♥.

Keep in mind, the only big experiences we've had with lightning damage leading up to Farum Azula have been either the Leyndell lightning knights with moves so telegraphed you think they work part-time as theater instructors, or this big bony ♥♥♥♥♥ over here.

So being tossed into Farum Azula where lightning suddenly becomes a huge problem is just not something you're ever gonna be prepared for if you don't know it's coming. This spell is the only tool you will ever need to combat that. I am not kidding. It is that good.

You're basically allowed over twice the amount of hits you could normally withstand from lightning attacks, and once you really start feeling that in-game damage, you'll be glad you picked this up.

№ 24 — Barrier of Gold

I feel like this one is sort of slept on outside of PvP.

NG+ Raya Lucaria doesn't ♥♥♥♥ around, especially when dealing with Renala's constant spam. You get it pretty decently into mid-game, but once people blow past Liurnia, I feel like people just assume this won't be a mainstay for them because they've officially bypassed the magic area of the game. Astelle, Adula, Deathrite Birds, and Zaymor heroes all deal magic damage.

You still run into plenty of battle mages. Even HailIgtree Knights can use that ♥♥♥♥-butt pebble ash of war for some reason. And Barrier of Gold just takes a fat, healthy poop all over it. 60% defense on anything means if someone hits you with that type of damage in the endgame, it is going to tickle you. It is gonna tickle your balls and then leave the room.

Additionally, an incantation that increases magic defense is stupid powerful because there's a sorcery that also doubles as a shield enchantment, and that ♥♥♥♥♥ tacks on another 70% magic damage negation.

So have fun pissing off mages in PvP.

№ 23 — Giantsflame Take Thee

Do you like Cannon of Haima?

Would you like it if Cannon of Haima demanded two spell slots from you instead of one?

Would you like it if Cannon of Haima constantly got caught on the ceiling but still somehow damages everything in a radius the size of a large office room? Well, you should, because that's kind of what Cannon of Haima does to begin with.

I don't know why I'm trying to set this up like it's an inefficient spell or something, because if we're looking at what you have available, it's definitely not. Calling the spell inefficient leaves no room for nuance. I just really didn't wish it cost 30 FP and takes up two spell slots.

I'd even be fine with a damage nerf in the case where that change is actually made, but who gives a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about efficiency when you can aim this at the floor and flashbang yourself?

№ 22 — Triple Rings of Light

Yes, I know we still haven't gotten to Discus of Light yet. Yes, that's intentional.

I do not like this spell as much as I do the original discus. It may do some baller damage every now and then when your enemy is in the sweet spot, but it'll always cost 23 FP per cast, and that's just a bit over the top, in my opinion.

Gale made this ♥♥♥♥ look untouchable in terms of quality, but I'm starting to think that's mostly just because Gale was a neat boss that we all liked, and so everything he also uses looks neat and powerful. If he was Slave Dentist Gale, I'm sure I'd use whatever toothpaste he did too. Same concept.

Triple Ring sounds great and looks cool because of the extremely wide area it covers, but Discus of Light is only 3 FP per cast, and yeah, I don't even think we're close to beating that here.

№ 21 — Lord's Divine Fortification

60% damage protection against a holy element, which is just as powerful as it sounds.

What's wrong, Cleanrot Knights? Maybe that golden toothpick would see better use grinding between your ass cheeks.

Morgoth? Got more holy attacks I should worry about?

Maliketh? More like, Malak-can't-you-force-such-♥♥♥♥-out-your-ass. Yeah, he's still hard.

Endgame holy damage and one-hit game overs go together like Square Enix and bad business decisions. Most of the heavy hitter trump card bosses of the game just so happen to deal holy damage. Electo, Black Blades, Morgoth, Elden ♥♥♥♥♥, the big-ass tree hanging out in the north.

I like playing hard ♥♥♥♥. I like being challenged. I streamed myself doing a Deathroot% run with no preparation because I thought I could realistically do it within a couple hours.

And I almost actually did it. I didn't, but I almost did.

So if I'm being bonked over the head by a holographic golden hammer and thinking that does too much damage, then someone needs to calm the ♥♥♥♥ down.

№ 20 — Discus of Light

Way of White Corona needed a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reboot.

It needed a high-definition remake from the ground up.

Actually, no, it didn't. All it really needed was more damage and it probably would have been fine. Discus of Light is very strong evidence of that. Way of White Corona in Dark Souls 3 was one of the most ignored miracles in all of history.

It was so bad that everyone died. The end.

Discus of Light, on the other hand, is an extremely strong contender for most FP-efficient incantation. The amount of damage this does only gets more and more surprising the further through the game you go.

And casting this with a Golden Order seal with a good split between Int and Faith can really make it stand out. It ultimately depends on how you build yourself, as is the case with most magic, but if you've set yourself up even somewhat decently for it, it'll always come in handy.

№ 19 — Placidusax's Ruin

Wow, they finally did it.

They actually made an in-game boss spell you get from a huge dragon that isn't total dog water, and it takes up three ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spell slots.

And you know what? I think that's completely fair.

I can't think of a single enemy this fire beam can't melt. The initial lightning burst comes out extremely fast, like, way faster than it probably should, creating a pseudo-rejection slash Wrath of Gold knockback effect that has great utility in PvP, and you can even aim the fire beam.

Kinda. Not really. You can pivot yourself slightly if you aren't locked onto anything, which controls the area the beam passes over.

That's as much aiming as watching a wildlife documentary is touching grass, but it's one of those simple utilities that I think a lot of people forget about or just assume a spell like this doesn't have.

Casting it in the air can cancel your fall, which is true with all named dragon incantations, and it can even lead to some badass death-from-above style executions on bigger enemies.

№ 18 — Honed Bolt

Honed Bolt is the kind of spell that everyone just feels comfortable with.

It's like Fireball in Dark Souls 3.

You know, it's not planning on doing any show-stopping damage.

You know, there are probably more physically attractive spells out there that you could reasonably pull if you cleaned yourself up and took a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shower once every two weeks, but this spell has always been there for you to pick you up when you don't know what to do.

It's fast, it's reliable, it doesn't cost a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of FP, and it's perfectly spammable against any enemy you can think of.

Enemies with a dodge AI don't even see it coming and won't even try to move out of the way.

You can squeeze out a good 1k damage per cast on a dedicated faith build, and the few shortcomings it has don't really even bother you that much.

№ 17 — Flame, Fall Upon Them

I love the ♥♥♥♥ out of this spell. I think everyone does.

It tries to convince other poor, ignorant newcomers that it's a mid-range spell that's good at clearing out multiple enemies.

These people do not know how a shotgun works.

Each group of fireballs have their own individual damage, each of which are boosted by whatever fire-boosting spell, talisman, potion, or mod you prefer using.

The way this spell works is actually very complicated, but to put everything in layman's terms, the amount of damage something can take from this spell is kinda limited, and I'll try to show you how it works.

Flame, Fall Upon Them launches 15 fireballs.

I gave them extra homing and a bigger hit radius here just to make sure all 15 were actually hitting. This is what it's like normally.



Now, remember that shared hit list ♥♥♥♥ that I brought up a while ago?

Well, this is what limits the damage on this spell, so now if we were to just, say, turn this off...



Yeah, you should now be able to see why this is very necessary.

№ 16 — Dragonmaw

Dragonmaw and Dragonclaw are two dragon incantations that not only stand out the most among others, but they have some of the coolest advantages as well.

Dragonmaw takes commitment.

It takes balls of adamantium and the foresight of Nostra-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-Damus.

Scoring a hit with this has a small skill floor, but after doing some rigorous calculations, weighing the advantages against other dragon spells, I've come to the conclusion that eating your enemy's hole with a disembodied dragon head is extremely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ funny.

And it's also one of the highest damage incantations in the whole game.

№ 15 — Wrath of Gold

Higher than ♥♥♥♥ holier than thou ass damage with a bit of hidden utility to boot.

♥♥♥♥ deflects projectiles, arrows, beastclaw, I'm assuming a few others so long as they're physical. Everything about this spell is just comfortable.

The range feels right, the recovery time feels generous enough, and a charge cast can flinch crucible knights and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tree sentinels.

The only thing turning my head on this and preventing me from considering this for the top 10 was the FP cost. 40 FP is just way too much for this spell, no matter what it does.

I don't care if it pre-orders Armored Core 6 for me, 40 FP is too much.

№ 14 — Frenzied Burst

Miss Loretta's great bow? Want a .50 cal but don't have any intelligence?

Worry not, Frenzied Burst is probably all that and more.

Extremely minimal madness buildup, almost to the point of not even having any major drawbacks. If you can wait three seconds for the madness to go down organically, that's basically giving yourself an extra cast. You already know why this one's good, you've seen this ♥♥♥♥ in Reddit clips and YouTube shorts of people getting zapped from full health with 269 vigor and a cheat table.

The damage this does is just, it's unreasonable, and 24 FP is honestly a perfectly fair price for it.

Maybe a little costly once you get into NG+ iterations, but hey, 14 is still pretty good, right?

№ 13 — Dragonclaw

Dragon Claw is the GOAT, at least when it comes to dragon incantations.

You thought getting eaten whole by a dragon was horrible fate? Try getting ♥♥♥♥♥ slapped by one instead.

I'd put this one slightly over Dragonmaw because even if the wind-up time is incredibly slow, it's still much faster, and slower cast time is something you should tend to expect with Dragon Communion spells anyway.

My favorite thing to do with this is to equip the Dragon Communion seal in one hand and Golden Order in the other, and just alternate the first attack with each hand.

Doing this pretty much allows you to rival Dragonmaw's DPS while also more consistently hitting and flinching big enemies.

№ 12 — Black Flame

If you like chewing up the health bars of ♥♥♥♥ that's 20 levels higher than you because you have something to prove, consider this, and most other Black Flame spells, your own personal starter kit.

It's good. It's really good.

I have nothing else to say about this one.

№ 11 — Greyoll's Roar

This is hands down the single most flexible setup incantation you can possibly have.

Why is that? Well, guess what, you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥?

That's because it doesn't buff you, it debuffs the brainlets around you.

This incantation just has every single utility you can think of.

It has a wonderful debuff, it's got great range, damage, good knockback for crowd controlling, and gets boosted by the Dragon Communion seal. It's every single thing you could possibly want in a spell. I understand why it needs two slots, I'm still gonna be mad about it because I think it should be one.

I think it should be one because I'm a god complex piss baby who likes overclocking his build on everything and dealing big boy meme damage. In case you were looking for a few incantations and are still currently waiting for them to be listed, well, hey, at least you know where they are now.

№ 10 — Unendurable Frenzy

This spell is just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ war cannon.

Flamefall upon them is very commonly compared to this because they have similar properties. They both spread out in a wide cone and can hit multiple targets at once, but when you compare the damage output, it's barely even a contest. It's comparing apples and couches.

I can do close to 6k right up in someone's face with barely any building around it and without even procking madness on myself. One little poise buff and you'll never have to worry about getting blue balled out of half the damage again because apparently a chunky fart from a crab can be enough to knock you out of it.

It's even good against smaller enemies just due to the sheer amount of space it covers, and resources like Speckled Heart here and Lucidity can reset the madness status immediately so you can continue turning whatever's in front of you into cooked pasta.

№ 9 — Lightning Spear

Lightning Spear is, it's just great.

I don't think I have a single bad thing to say about it. A lot of people apparently don't favor this spell too much because its damage when charged isn't much to look at, but I think it's a perfectly competent spell with one of the fastest draw times in the West at 70 decks.

It's a wonderful example of finding beauty in mundanity. This spell is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boring. Just skipping around Altus with nothing but a taser. It's as ordinary as freshly mowed grass on a Sunday.

But lightning damage is already a massively underrated utility as is, especially if you use it on anything standing in water or when it's raining, and you can just whip this thing out so fast that even if it is dodgeable from a distance, a huge majority of enemies won't even have time to react to it if you're even kinda close to them.

It's nice, it's consistent, it never not does its job, and that's something I just really appreciate.

№ 8 — Blessing's Boon

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, who do you think you are, putting a support incantation in your top 10?

I'll have you know if you had a Patreon, I would make 10 fake accounts and just spam report that ♥♥♥♥♥ like my life depended on it.

Okay, and if I had a pair of scissors, I could just cut your ethernet cable and you wouldn't exist to me.

Blessings Boon demands you pay attention to it, and I'm going to tell you why. When you measure out the efficiency of every healing spell you have access to, Blessings Boon blows them all out of the water. It's barely a competition.

At only 30 FP per cast, it makes for a wonderful support incantation in such a way that almost completely replaces the need to even use Crimson Flasks if you have everything set up right.

Old Lord's Talisman works perfectly with it, it can stack with Blessed Dew, Icon Shield, and Holy Ground, all on top of still being able to damage Revenants, and only at the cost of a single spell slot.

It's one of the few spells I always have slotted in during a Faith playthrough.

№ 7 — Stone of Gurranq

Stone of Gurranq deals big boy poise for big poise boys.

It shatters Crystallians like they're made out of sugar glass, it pisses with damage, it has low requirements and FP cost, and the extremely long bullet time means you can practice your half-court shots from a safe distance above your enemies. I'm actually not kidding.

If you aim it right, you can just snipe ♥♥♥♥ with this.

There you go, now nothing bad can ever happen to you.

The traveling arc and momentum can make it difficult to free aim. I personally think watching a giant boulder nope straight over the head of who I was locked onto stops being funny the 58th time I see it, but the hit radius is so huge that you can just spike this ♥♥♥♥ into the floor and it'll probably damage something.

№ 6 — Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike

Speaking particularly in PvE situations, this is probably the best possible incantation you could have against anything that's even kind of big.

I consider Tree Sentinels and Abductor Virgins to be kind of big, and I'm consistently getting 3000 damage as a baseline on an uncharged attack with no building around it. So imagine the sorts of violence you can be responsible for when all those bolts land on the exact same big ass.

Having trouble with a dragon that's 30 levels higher than you? No, you're not.

Can't beat the final boss? What final boss? There's nothing here.

Are we even playing the same game?

Oh, oh, I can't, I can't, I can't use it indoors.

I mean, it makes sense, but I'm still gonna ♥♥♥♥♥ about it.

№ 5 — Black Blade

This is my personal favorite incantation out of anything else on this list. It's the near perfect balance of looks cool and slaps ass that I find myself looking for in so many other spells. Those of you with a keen eye might notice that it has a predecessor that predates most others.

The great grandfather of this bad ♥♥♥♥♥ goes all the way back to Dark Souls 1 in the image of Gravelord's sword dance. It's very different on paper, but just by looking at the animation you can almost feel how they improved the spell and I'm glad they found a way to bring it back after so many years.

If you can land a hit with both the sword and the projectile you end up doing upwards of 5k damage per swing without even building that much around it.

It has the turning radius of a Dyson, it feels comfortable to use, and the max HP scaling makes NG+ iterations that much more doable.

№ 4 — O, Flame!

— But mom, I want the Karian Greatsword.
— Son, we have the Karian Greatsword at home.

I know that joke is intended to undermine whatever the second option is, but much like eating at home is healthier and cheaper for you, O Flame deals much healthier endgame damage while being significantly cheaper than most early game incantations.

Slap on a poise-breaking weapon and shatter your enemy's kneecaps and then use this as a follow-up. Incredibly underrated, even as a fire incantation.

The only setback I seem to run into pretty commonly was the Cheerio-sized hitbox that pretty much demands you throw your hand up someone's ass to score a hit, but that's far from a huge problem when your enemy's kneecaps are busy being broken.

№ 3 — Pest Threads

I never get tired of converting people over to this spell.

If it's bigger than you are, it'll hit at least two or three times.

It doesn't even require you to be locked onto anything to home into ♥♥♥♥, it just knows what to do as soon as you whip it out.

I can't deny that there are certainly more efficient ways to deal with larger enemies and bosses that don't involve pretending to be Spider-Man, but I'm so tired of everyone just dismissing this one because of its relation to the Servant of Rot incantations.

It trashes Estelle and Placide attacks, it absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥ on Elden Beast, and with the right build centered around it, it becomes a pretty decent threat even against smaller enemies that like dodging. Spells like this are why hitless runs in Souls games are becoming less and less remarkable over time.

Because what talent is there to be showcased in a situation where you don't even need to move your character?

Pest threads is a kind of ♥♥♥♥ that enables people to stream themselves beating the game using an actual sword. And apparently that's not even impressive anymore.

№ 2 — Catch Flame

This spell is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid, I'm serious.

I'm so pissed off that this spell made it this far up the list.

It's just, it's just a firework. No, it's not even a firework.
It looks like someone lit a firework inside a paper bag and tossed it in their bathtub.

But the small fact that it can be cast repeatedly makes it one of the most formidable offensive incantations that anyone could ever end up with.

You thought Karian Slicer was a problem? I'm getting almost 1k per cast on a character profile I haven't given a ♥♥♥♥ about for two months and just started footage capping on it because I had everything unlocked already. I don't know what my build is in this clip.

Go on, say it matters. Look at the damage I'm doing and tell me I should care about my build.

Small hitbox my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass cheeks.

I'm hitting dudes seven feet away from me with this ♥♥♥♥.

You can roll cast, backstab cast, sprint cast, jump cast, iron ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skillet.

I can't believe I'm even saying this, but I think this might need a nerf.

No, no it doesn't.

♥♥♥♥ you.

If Karian Slicer is fine, then this ♥♥♥♥'s fine too.

№ 1 — Burn, O Flame!

This is FromSoft's very own love letter to the people that wanted Firestorm to be good.

Firestorm, in case you're unfamiliar, was a spell in Dark Souls 1 through 3.

It was one of the assiest spells to have ever asked. It always whiffed, it was only ever good against targets you could break your neck trying to look at, and it was just generally overlooked.

Burn O Flame corrects every single one of Firestorm's shortcomings while not sacrificing any of its former benefits. A single charged cast can easily rack up six to seven thousand damage if you strategically positioned yourself underneath a dragon's scrotum.

The flame geysers feel much more evenly spread, making it extremely useful as an area denial spell. And no matter how small or fast the enemy is, it always seems to get caught by at least one or two pillars. The cast animation is kinda long, but you can even duck underneath certain attacks.

Charging it barely takes a fourth of a second, and as soon as your hands hit the ground, those flame pillars are hitting something.

So if an invader manages to close in on you and flinch you out of the animation, they'll almost always need to retreat immediately after to avoid the damage, because this WILL hit you if you ♥♥♥♥ around.

Listen, this is not the spell you want to play chicken with. If someone uses this, respect it and back that ass up.

———————————————

📝 Elden Ring Wiki and other Steam guides

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3352516135
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3347915674
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006733096

[Drag Raker]

Please update this list now that we have new DLC incantations. Thanks!

[¢hค໐ti¢¢ Hunter of Monsters]

Where you get the cainhurst knight set o-o

[Theopotamus]

I'd argue Order Blade should be moved up at least 50 slots. it makes your weapon completely annihalate death birds and all undead, low stat requirements (you can use a trinket to bridge the gap for starter builds) it also makes weapon art projections (think flame of the redmane) get the 300% dmg buff vs undead. You can take flame grant me strength, stack it with golden vow, then flame of the redmanes for over 2.5k at around lvl 50 vs deathbirds. Trivializes a lot of dungeons that would otherwise be a pain in the ass too because it perma kills skeletons.

[Manchegonads]

Braindead list, Vykes at the literal bottom, goddamn Burn, o Flame! at the top? Absolutely braindead.

"objective" my ass I've done about 6 playthroughs just using incants and most of this list is straight wrong

[Deroes]

Appreciate someone putting this into written form! Some likely won't agree for PvP reasons and that's fine I'm pretty sure Rusty gives a disclaimer at some point how he doesn't really PvP in souls games so this obviously isn't for those situations. As for Burn, O Flame! being at the top I'll have to test it myself but it's at least an alternative to killing those highly resistant to lightning enemies that are also huge, plus in the clip for the video it shows him catching even black knifes with it which I feel is justification enough.

[nichts]

Also jesus christ pest threads at no.3

[nichts]

Burn, O Flame is top tier? Theres a lightning spell that can do more overall damage for the same thing, sure its a higher cast time. But your only gonna use those spells in PvE, anyone whos semi competent invading you is going to have a ranged weapon and just poke you to death while you cast this shit.

[Narm]

I disagree pretty strongly with this list. It's clearly a PvE list, and strictly PvE, it's not terrible, but still, lot of stuff is dependent on build and playstyle.

Blatantly wrong for PvP. Can't blame it much for that, PvP is a very different game, and a lot of good sorceries and incants are good for non-obvious reasons, like elden stars is a setup and control spell. Great for forcing certain spacing, and the explosion at the end will do a sizable amount of damage in a duel but landing that is just a bonus, the real damage comes from whatever it was intended to bait them into. Pest threads, black blade, and even burn o flame are terrible in PvP, extremely easy to outspace or dodge. But they are super good in PvP in the right situation.

Again, not terrible for a PvE list, but still highly subjective. Ask anyone with 500+ hours and all of them will give a pretty different list.

The best incants are whatever work for you.

[Monster]

How can this list possible be bad lol? Rusty actually takes everything into consideration to form an objective opinion on pretty much everything here. Like the damage it does, how easy it is to cast and to hit an enemy with, how versatile it is etc.
I would agree with 85-90% of the list.

[Grape Drank]

Scarlet Aeonia is optimal for ambushing people coming down in elevators.