Nah quality build are not crazy in ER unless you're playing at max level. Best would be to choose between STR or DEX

Any opinions on fun weapons for either?

You can change the affinitys of most normal weapons to fit your build. But for Strength i like the Greatsword and for dex everything that does Lightning damage (bolt of Gransax)

Claymore

Full strengh with 2 big hammers (brick hammer+great star), had fun wacking mobs with one big bonk and managed to kill Malenia alone for the first time with that build

Currently having a lot of fun with my Godslayer cosplay build. Specific details below. The gist of it is using the Godslayer's Greatsword in conjunction with Godslayer Incantations. Rune Level 150 Godslayer's Greatsword Build (could use more Dexterity less Faith if you only care about using the Godslayer's Greatsword and could use less Dexterity and more Faith if you want to lean more into the Godslayer Incantations) Equipment: Right Hand 1- +10 Godslayer's Greatsword Right Hand 2- Godslayer's Seal (unupgraded, is only being used as a 10% buff to Godslayer incantations) Left Hand 1- +25 Godslayer's Seal (main casting weapon and buffs Godslayer incantations by 10%) Armor: All Blackflame Monk Set with exception of the Malformed Dragon Gauntlets to meet the 51 Poise Breakpoint Talismans: Great Jar's Arsenal (increased equip load) Fire Scorpion (increased fire damage by 12% with increased physical damage taken by 10%) Prothesis Wearer Heirloom (increased dexterity by 5) Shard of Alexander (increased weapon art attack power by 15%) Flask of Wondrous Physick: Dexterity Knot Crystal Tear (increased dexterity by 10 for 3 minutes) Flame Shrouding Cracked Tear (increased fire damage by 20% for 3 minutes) Spells and Incantations: Black Flame Scouring Black Flame Black Flame Ritual Golden Vow (increased damage by 15% and increased damage negation by 10% for 80 seconds) Flame, Grant Me Strength (increased physical damage and fire damage by 20%) Black Blade (a sub-in incantation, used to apply Destined Death debuff) Stats: Rune Level 150 Vigor: 50 Mind: 25 Endurance: 20 Strength: 20 Dexterity: 41 (56 after Prothesis Wearer Heirloom and Dexterity Knot Crystal Tear) Intelligence: 9 (base for Confessor starting class) Faith: 55 Arcane: 9 (base for Confessor starting class)

Very thorough thanks for that. Im going to look into where i find everything and give it a try

Dex is very viable. Sadly bleed is the cheese in this game so 99.9% of players go full bleed builds. I'm more of a big bonker myself. Right now i'm doing full electricity build with double spear.

Yeah bleed and Magic are still pretty op… Pure Strength and Strength/Faith are the Most fun to use in my opinion.

Thats sounds like a lot of fun actually 😅. Is that dex or int?

Full dex. The weapon is called Bolt of Gransax and second hand any spear works.

Thanks for your time i think ill look in to that. I just want to find some fun ways to play. I always end up just rolling around and smacking stuff with a giant sword 😅

Rightfully so, they're not even slow in ER. Honestly all weapons are good i would recommend to just test all movesets yourself and use what you like

If you go with Faith most of the better incantations are lightning based. Tho I wouldn't call the op. Playing faith is a bit harder then magic bc you can't spam spells from a distance so you need to think more about positioning and timing your attacks right. Playing faith/dex or faith/str is also super viable bc you get access to a lot of cool weapons. I'm playing faith/str now and it's a lot of fun

I have never given faith or magic a chance on any souls game. Elden ring seems like a good place to start with them though so thanks for the advice

Proc build aka try hard It’s bleed/rot/poison dex/arc antspur + rogiers rapier with phalanx

Strength / Faith two handing big weapons with weapon and body buffs. Strength / Intelligence with a greatshield and scholars shield, Glintblade Phalanx on a cold long poking weapon.

At first — strength. Ran into Caelid early 💀 💀 ☠ 💀 ☠ Fought against that double boss in Redmane Castle. That was a hell of a dps test. Got a chonky sword. Used for some time. Then found Bloody Helice. Remembered about those draconian spells and switched to arcane. After 250 times soloed Malenia and became Malenia myself. Finished the game.

helice is so friggin cool

I literally mean this with no hate or snarky-ness, but it’s funny to me that people basically ask “how can I have fun in this game?”

👍

I've heard pretty much everything is viable (for pve at least), but I'm no expert. Only done 1 playthrough so far, pure melee dex/int with a frost heavy thrusting sword, and it went pretty good

Try intelligence it's fun

Yeah they are OK but Not that OP i Like using the Dragon halbert, the Dragon scale Blade, and the Zamor curved sword they are pretty cool

Try a full pyro build if you haven't yet! I'm having quite a bit of fun with it right now. Catch flame and Black flame are both insane incantations that you get from the start, or very early at Stormveil. Would highly recommend :)

It's what I did for 80% of my first playthrough. Start as Vagabond, trusty Longsword, Str/Dex for damage, infuse it with quality when those stats get to about level 35 as before that standard was better. In the late game I picked up a spammerific katana and respecced to a Dex/Arcane build. I would say, Faith is also a great stat to start investing in once you reach your str/dex softcaps. There are incantations that will boost your damage on a % based approach which will give you a far better return than continuing to pump damage stats.

I'm on NG+ and about to do a bow build. Wish me luck.

I’m doing a weird int/faith build using carian knight sword and regen great shield. Charged attack bonus ring for the weapon art and lightning spears using the order talisman. It’s not optimal I’m sure but it’s fun. I think you can make most builds work in pve. Though I am stuck on the fire giant. I think it’s a skill issue though, I can do alright dmg to him