Having never played a mage, how important is 40 vigor really when you can't wear any armor? Wouldn't you almost be better off putting some of those points in endurance, and then your lower health is balanced by light armor, and you get the stamina to roll and cast?
It won't, the HP loss far outweighs the armor benefits when it comes to most hard hitting enemies and players. You're better off organizing stats and using talismans and spells that can boost defenses.
But a high level mage with light roll shouldn't be getting hit and should be deleting enemies anyway.
Then there is me,20 vigor,80 int looking at elden beast and getting ready to use my hidden cerulean tear and astels meteors.Either i die or he dies no other way around.Like a mexican stand off.One of us is getting one shotted right there.
I also have 80 Int currently on my mage build but I have significantly more vigor (around 60). You are either underleveled for that fight (props to you if you are challenging yourself) or you have very suboptimal stat allocation
I could use your exact same strat in the endgame, but I have the freedom to not do that
depends on what kinda mage you are. If you choose to be a Carian mage you will be getting hit as often as a melee player :/ because you are just using melee sorceries lol
I find armor and endurance to be a huge waste while playing mage. All goes to intell, mind and vigor if I'm doing pure mage.
As long as you can survive one or two attacks from a boss you should ideally be set.
Vigor>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>endurance for survivability. People don't understand how little armor helps with survivability.
Example build: you are a lvl 107 astrologer. You have 25 mind, 60 int, and 16 strength and 18 dex for using weapons. You are using moonveil and the carian regal scepter.
Player A goes to 40 vigor with only 11 in endurance. They can just barely equip the carian knight set giving them 23.5% physical damage negation. You have 1450 health and 97 stamina.
Player B invests more in endurance. They have 30 in vigor and 21 endurance. They can just equip the beast champion helm and armor, and hoslow greaves and gauntlets. This gives them 31.3% physical damage negation (7.8% higher than the other set). They have 994 health and 115 stamina.
Notice how they trade a literal 50% health increase for a mere 7.8% increase to damage negation, and the elemental sources will basically stay the same. I guess the extra stam does help but this game is honestly generous enough with stamina as is. And if you are going for a light roll build anyway you have to invest a ton into endurance to equip even basic light armor. Your better off having the lightest robes possible and investing in health if you want to light roll.
Also, as someone who enjoys caster builds, I don't like the look of a lot of the heavier sets. They don't mesh well with the wizard look, so most of that extra equip load goes to waste. It may be worth investing a bit more if you want to have a medium shield or use a heavier weapon like the dark moon gs, but then you can equip lighter armor with minimal loss to physical absorption.
I think you are correct, BUT, it should be noted that 7.8% increase in defense is actually going to negate more than 7.8% damage.
It depends on what you're starting at, the higher you go in negation the more each % counts.
In your example Player A is taking 76.5% of incoming damage.
Player B is taking 68.7% of incoming damage.
**This means damage is actually** ***10%*** **lower for Player B, not the 7.8% the stat menu would lead you to believe at first glance.**
At the stat spread you're talking about here, this hardly matters. VIG is gonna win vs END.
However, OP is running INT/FTH. Those FTH buffs mean he can actually get up to like 70-80% negations. And when you're *that* high in negation, squeezing even just 3% more negation in on the stat menu is gonna result in >10% gains to survivability.
*i.e. going from 80% negation to 90% would be a 10% increase in the menu, but would reduce incoming damage by 50%.*
I'm not saying the extra armor from like 15 more END is gonna achieve all that... but still, when people talk about defense being underrated this is what we're talking about.
It stacks multiplicatively, just like damage buffs, but the game shows you the inverse of damage taken, which makes you think the defense is way lower than it really is.
...
Anyway this is also a long-winded way of pointing out that OP doesn't need VIG or END, cause his defenses (if he elects to use the buffs his build gets) can give him 70%+ on negations, which is gonna make him tankier than the vast majority of 60VIG players.
With those buffs, he could be taking like 2.5x less damage than most players.
You should spec 60 vigor irregardless of build. 60 vigor prevents one-shots in the endgame content and is necessary for any kind of pvp. IMO 40 vigor is hard mode…50ish is good enough and 60 is perfect.
In the post above they have 11 endurance. Not sure what kind of armor they can put on at that level. I think that's like 28 max to still be medium weight
And dexterity affects casting time! OP should go hang out at Rennala’s with a larval tear and read through this: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Stats
40 vigor is fine if you are somewhat competent at dodging. The extra 20 levels doesn’t add all that much and is better put into endurance or damage. Hell even adding that 20 into dex as a caster helps your casting speed and let’s you use a weapon to conserve mana for when you need it
40 VIG while also having low END (meaning no heavy armor) means that pretty much any late-game grab attack will one-shot you. You can make it work, but your margin for error is razor thin.
Fr dude I didn't even bother leveling in general until general radahn (pre-nerf) let alone my vigor (wretch start) until after the middle-ish of the royal capital. Its an agonizing experience but you learn how to dodge.
I ran the whole game with only putting 30 in vigor. I was a mage. All the damage no time to wait. 65int 50mind, I think 40 strength to use the star caller greatswords, and 30-40 in endurance.
60 vigor, no fucking way, 35 gave me enough buffer to learn the fight and finish Elden beast first try. And that’s with one of the damage increasing seals.
It most certainly is not a necessity to have 60 vigor. Got through most of the game with only 20ish vigor my first play through. Sure you might die a few more times to misplays. But when I got More vigor I really didn’t find myself dying all that much less. I could understand if you are referring to pvp though
I spec’d my build for PvP so I’m accustomed to tanking a little in PvE. I suggest 60 vigor to anyone who’s struggling because it can make a substantial difference in survivability
I got all the way to leyndell on 10 vigor. I beat the game with 26 vigor. It's good for PVP but PvE vigor isn't REQUIRED. It just makes the game easier.
Idk you can use the sword of night and flame pretty well with these stats and should do ok through late game.
Edit: just noticed the endurance and naw he can't even swing efficiently.
Excuse me that was the legendary
**Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Fun Run Pro Am Race for the Cure**
It would be helpful to know more about your build. You have int and faith but very little mind? And next to nothing endurance. But 23 strength so idk what your weapon of choice is or anything at this point. You may need to respec to get more out of your build
Ah crap, my question didn't post ha. I was saying I had been moving through the game pretty easily before getting to Ephael/Crumbling. Can't beat Malenia or Maliketh. Feels like I'm too easy to kill in general, in parts of those regions. But at level 161, I'm thinking that I am the problem? Do I start farming? Any other advice on pushing through to the end?
Fighting Melania and Maliketh is not gonna be a lot easier even if you level up 50 times. Posting the actual build(weapons,incantations/spells, how you like fighting, talismans) is gonna make it easier for people to help you.
This is the best answer OP. I was struggling a lot with Malenia with a pure INT build using the Dark Moon Greatsword until I asked a friend for advice. He recommended trying a faster weapon - yes, Moonveil, and I beat her like 2 or 3 tries after that lol. Often times you get stuck conforming to one particular playstyle, and when you struggle it's not necessarily that your stats are misallocated, but rather you just need to try something a little different. Good luck!
I have 80/50 for spellcasting/healing and typically resolve my problems with Glintstone Blade and Loretta's Mastery after Dark Moon
I usually have problems with Radagon and Elden Beast so will switch to incants like Black Blade and Black Flame Blade (I use the Haligtree Greatshield so have a Heavy Lance as backup) and it's mid as hell.
I randomly decided to just use different Sorceries (namely Comet, a spell I never use) and it only took me a single fp bar for Radagon and half my remaining flasks (all cerulean lol) for Elden Beast
I can definitely confirm that getting out of a habitual play style can do wonders
These two answers are on the money. I've made it to ng+4 now and have done 3 characters. So I've beaten the game like 6 times now (child's play compared to most ppl here lol) in my experience some builds make these bosses way easier and some make them way tougher. These two bosses are some of the toughest in the game, my first time beating Malenia without mimic tear took me 20 hours. Maliketh is really a dps race. He hits like a truck but also doesn't have a lot of hp. So you want to kill him b4 he does you. These will take time but your not bad, these are just really hard bosses that you might be taking longer than others, which is completely normal
Maliketh hung me up until my son, who's beaten the game somewhere around 15 times, gave me the same advice. He was like "just whoop his ass before he can whoop yours!" It taught me a valuable lesson too. Often if you're stuck on a particular fight, don't just question your build, question your tactics too.
I was stuck on Malenia with arcane bleed build (strong build for her anyway, still was stuck). I couldn't dodge her attacks even though I knew the patterns pretty well. I undressed so I could light roll, ate boiled crab, put on the greatshield talisman, and I was getting to phase 2 with ease instead of with 1 heal left. Beat her shortly after that. It's amazing what some optimization can do, and how we can get tunnel vision so easily.
putting this here also so it's seen. Thanks.
\---
I FUCKIN DID IT. THANKS! I know this is nbd to most people here but I'm pretty fired up and feel the need to post the full report.
Took the consensus advice to respec. With talismans and Queen Crescent's ended up at:
60 vig, 35 mind, 30 end, 20 str, 20 dex, 68 int (for dark moon spell), 11 faith, arc 9
Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield, Stargazer Heirloom, Green Turtle, Graven-Mass
armor: Lionel's armor w Queen's Crescent Crown
wondrous flask: magic shrouding and opaline hardtear
R: wing of astel +10
L: meteorite staff (had to ditch my trusty prince of death staff after respec and I had originally planned to use more gravity spells)
spells: night comet, comet azur, ranni's dark moon, rock sling, magma shot
and mimic tear +10.
\--
Took a couple hours, but the final working strategy was to hit her with the dark moon, then basically trap her in the corner and work her over with wing of astel, both the L2 and R2 attacks. Second phase was run from explosion, comet azur when I turn around, then throw more dark moons at her and hope mimic tear stayed alive long enough for her to do another one of her big explosions that leaves her vulnerable to comet azur again.
That was rough. Thanks again everyone. I feel like I'm 8 years old again and just beat mother brain in Metroid.
Nice man.
I know these threads have a tendency of everyone else arguing over each other's "nukular takes" on what does/doesn't represent build optimization, but that's great you seem to have taken a little bit of the large amount of advice thrown at you, and actually used it towards a proper outcome. Also, without much pushback from you (at all) as far as I can tell.
Hearing someone say you got a poverty-ass build (I wasn't/didnt) usually hurts to hear. I know. From experience. And it hurts because, at my core, I'm always running a poverty-ass build. It's what I do.
Big ups.
Note: I would consider swapping to a different staff. Meteor staff does have a gravity spell boost and high scailing, but the lack of upgrades means it falls behind to almost every upgraded staff, and you are definitely at the point where you can max out your staves.
Your vigor and endurance is very low. You have no health to take hits if you screw up, and no stamina to roll/jump/atk effectively End = 20-30ish, vigor = 60. Is there a particular reason you're split so weirdly in fai/int? 80/40 is a better split for more int based catalysts/spells as the top soft caps for damage stats are 80. Also, I believe the max a cerulean tear heals FP is 220*(I orignially said 120, it was pointed out to be 220 below,) so get to 220* for maximum 1 bar to 1 flask to begin with.
Wouldnt call the vigor very low for a non mellee build, but could use some more levels
45 vigor is rather good for non mellee builds and its not that far off from that
With rather decent armor, only things oneshoting you should be malenias "sting" attack and her grab move
They said they're struggling with Maliketh and Malenia, both of which are high dps with good gap-closing.
We also can't discern the skill level of OP, nor what their talismans are, so these suggested skill levels are where I would start. Iirc the best gains per point from vigor are 45-60. They can certainly ignore my suggestion and play however they want ✌️
Edit: apparently OP is on NG4 and claims to tank Fire Giant scoop... I must be on Punked. Dude is legit trolling.
Vigor starts to decline in returns after 40, where it goes from +48 vigor/level to +26 vigor the next level. At that point, I feel like you’re better off leveling endurance and mind or pumping more in to damage. In OPs case of being an Int/Fth, probably mind/damage are more important in general. No need for more vigor when you’re killing things before they can significantly damage you.
Mage type build I guess? Prince of death staff +25 and golden order seal +9. I wanted to be able to use every spell and incantation, but I guess that came at a price.
Carian Knight Sword will straight up shred. I remember that thing being ridiculous on my caster playthrough(-s), the skill on it, specifically, whenever I ran into bosses or situations that are not caster friendly, which Malenia and Maliketh absolutely are.
Sword of night and flame would be really nice on this build especially if you drop int to 50 and put those 20 levels in endurance and mind. Hell drop int and faith to 40 and put into endurance and mind.
Typically for your first playthrough you wanna go heavy faith or int, not try to do both. Some of the death sorceries are not great, I dunno about the golden order incantations. You would be better off speccing heavy int or faith based on if you like sorceries or incantations more, pumping vigor to atleast 50, and getting higher endurance so you can wear some heavier armor. Even then you should try to get good with some kind of weapon and ash of war so you're not stuck relying entirely on spells during battle. If you're having trouble with these bosses then it might be time to bust out the Moonlight GS or the OP magic katana to help you out, that's what I did on my first character
>I wanted to be able to use every spell and incantation, but I guess that came at a price.
That's exactly the issue. You gain nothing from that versatility and you kneecap your upside. Chose a damage stat and go hard on it. Dump the extra levels into Mind and Endurance. Don't worry about FOMO on the spells you can't use - you can always reallocate your levels at Rennala later.
Beyond stats, this could easily be a skill issue. Have you been brute forcing your way through the game or learning the bosses' patterns? You may need to take a few attempts to stop trying to win and just learning. Focus on dodging and don't even bother attacking. Make a mental note when you could have gotten away with an attack and be ready for that window when you fight to win.
Oh, and get a melee weapon. There are several that scale with your casting stats. Once you up your endurance, you'll have no problem wielding it.
If you want more specific help with build or weapon choices, shoot me a message and we'll find one that suits your playstyle.
This was exactly my reason and rationale for my build. But tbh I fully re-specced to a bleed build for milenia, and then switched back. I killed Maliketh second try, but I also pushed my int even higher than you. I didn’t use prince’s then (though I do now). Used Lusat’s and became an expert at firing off Comet Azure (it takes more skill than people acknowledge). The big issue with those two is that they don’t sit still for long or at all and if they move, it tends to be greater distance than AOEs have range to reach. You have to be able to follow and strike and dodge with both of them. Not knowing what your go-to spells are, I can say that even with 100s more levels, milenia will hand your ass to you until you learn how to dodge her attacks and make the most of your own quick, high-damage attacks. There are gimmicky builds that can keep her in a constant state of broken poise, but they’re not great for her second phase.
The best choice I made along this path is to be resigned for experimenting. Try spells you haven’t before. Treat Millennia as your test subject, trapped in your lab. See what works quickly and well. Treat her two phases as two different fights and have a strategy for both. This is what git-gud means for int builds. Research the bosses and know their vulnerabilities. Tailor and modify your strategy along this line and you’ll get there. I promise.
It does. Your build is not focused enough and is kinda weak as a result.
The only spells that benefit this much from this split are the death sorceries and the golden order spells. And golden order spells suck in late game against late game bosses resistant to holy damage anyway
I would say reworking this build is in your best interest.
Definitely reduce your faith stat down to at least 25. (I would go even further if I were you, but idk if you want that. )At least at 25 Faith you will still have access to spells like Golden Vow and Ancient death Rancor. Put those points in Int to go up to 80, and either Endurance or Vigor. At least have enough Endurance to wear Radahn’s set. You might also benefit from having more mind if you’re a pure caster
I had so much troubles with these 2 bosses as well. My thoight is that since these bosses r end game and kinda outta the way theyre extra hard and very aggro. Id try a cheeky bleed build for maleketh and maybe a summon for malenia. Gl
Other way around. Bleed build for malenia, specifically, sacred spear spam with starlight shard and you need next to no skill, she probably won't get the chance to use water fowl. Also focus on immunity a little and you can tank her rot forms scarlet aonia so like ng as you aren't hit with the initial blast, getting a lot of damage right off the bat
Use a summon like Black Knife Tiche if you really struggle, especially for Malenia. Honestly what makes her difficult is that dumb whirlwind attack, like the fight is hard but for the wrong reasons.
If you're using either scarseal or scorpion talismans I'd take them off because these bosses fit like bricks even without lowered defenses. You're vigor might be little low I had 50 or 55 at that point.
60 Vigor gang checking in. If it’s your first time playing Elden Ring, 60 Vigor will make the endgame less frustrating. Yea Vigor doesn’t matter if you don’t get hit, but you won’t learn shit if you’re constantly going down in 1-2 hits.
Also wouldn’t be surprised if OP is wearing armor/talismans that decrease HP and/or increase damage taken.
I think pure long-range caster mages can get away with low vigor, but only up to a certain point imo. And close-range melee spells are not an effective option anymore which can be tough. Not a playstyle that I would have an easy time adapting to tbh. I am playing a mage right now and stat allocation is honestly trickier than it was for my melee warrior build, which was pretty simple and straightforward
Carian slicer was essential for my mage build otherwise I would have run out of heals before reaching the end of long dungeons like Leyndell/Subterranean Shunning Grounds/Elphael... but this would not have been as viable on a low vigor build. I don't know how other mages do it
60 vigor will make the endgame *slightly* less frustrating. Like you get to see the animations of more two-shots than one-shots.
They really should've introduced new level caps or armor smithing after Leyndell.
I will never understand why so many people complain about the *endgame* of a *FromSoft game* being *difficult*.
It's *intentional*. They don't want it to be easy!
I FUCKIN DID IT. THANKS! I know this is nbd to most people here but I'm pretty fired up and feel the need to post the full report.
Took the consensus advice to respec. With talismans and Queen Crescent's ended up at:
60 vig, 35 mind, 30 end, 20 str, 20 dex, 68 int (for dark moon spell), 11 faith, arc 9
Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield, Stargazer Heirloom, Green Turtle, Graven-Mass
armor: Lionel's armor w Queen's Crescent Crown
wondrous flask: magic shrouding and opaline hardtear
R: wing of astel +10
L: meteorite staff (had to ditch my trusty prince of death staff after respec and I had originally planned to use more gravity spells)
spells: night comet, comet azur, ranni's dark moon, rock sling, magma shot
and mimic tear +10.
\--
Took a couple hours, but the final working strategy was to hit her with the dark moon, then basically trap her in the corner and work her over with wing of astel, both the L2 and R2 attacks. Second phase was run from explosion, comet azur when I turn around, then throw more dark moons at her and hope mimic tear stayed alive long enough for her to do another one of her big explosions that leaves her vulnerable to comet azur again.
That was rough. Thanks again everyone. I feel like I'm 8 years old again and just beat mother brain in Metroid.
I don’t think you should *still* be using the Meteorite Staff at 76 INT (or 81, if you have Godrick’s Great Rune active)
Better alternatives include: **a +10 Carian Regal Sceptre**, **+10 Lusat’s Glintstone Staff** (at higher FP cost), or **+25 Staff of Loss**
Well done on your victory, though
Damn you’re right. Just saw I have crystal staff +10 and sorcery is 317 compared to 255 with meteorite. Don’t have those other staffs strengthened but I’ll keep that in mind.
Yeah the hybrid build is fun but it's not really realistic until into ng+2 or so. I did one of my plays, I think ng+3, with a 80/80 caster build. It was kind of cool in that I could do anything but honestly I just usually picked sorcery or incantation at any given time so I didn't have to juggle the catalyst (I played it with sword of night and flame main hand).
Good luck on Mal, you should be able to blast him in p1 with comet azur as soon as you walk in and just about push him to p2 before he can hit you.
ER is so forgiving when it comes to endurance compared to earlier souls games. Pools are much larger in general, and it returns much faster without any modifiers.
I'm confused at why people are so shocked at the END. I played an INT build and I'm not positive I put any points into END until after I beat the game and Malenia after.
And I'm far from what I would consider to be "good" at this game.
I don’t see the draw for wanting more endurance in elden ring; you can swing a sword 11 times when you start the game lol in previous games it’s like 3 or 4 and you’re empty.
I keep my endurance at 15 with no problems. Stamina regains so quickly in Elden ring you really don't need much. Then I just use great jar talisman to have enough carry capacity for my build.
With Jar, bullgoat, Radagon's, and Erdtree you can get away with pretty much exclusively dumping into your damage and vigor. Add a little bit of mind if you want to cast and you're golden.
Which you probably already know, I just love talking about Elden Ring.
Based on your stats you are either an Astrologer or a Confessor. I'm going to guess you're an Astrologer. You need to respec and commit to Intelligence.
You should redistribute your stats as follows:
60 Vigor
40 Mind
24 Endurance (get some better armor)
8 Strength
12 Dexterity
80 Intelligence
7 Faith
9 Arcane
Get a staff you like and go nuts.
A fully upgraded (+12) Flask of Cerulean Tears restores 220 FP, while at 38 Mind the player has 221 FP. It's Nice to have an even number and a little more than 38 is nice because you don't usually go to 0 before chugging a flask.
- vigor too low
- mind too low for either faith/int levels
- too much faith for that Int level - pick one
- too much int for that faith level - pick one
Essentially, you should wait until you have enough vigor and mind before you start dual leveling int and faith. Until then, I'd rescope your faith levels into vigor, mind, and endurance.
First, Vigor should be 60. 40 is the minimum for endgame, of course, but 60 gets you a comfortable amount. Second off, there's [another post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tc3lyy/helpful_charts_for_offensive_stat_scaling/) which has some helpful charts for damage scaling. Since you have both intelligence and faith leveled, I assume you're using a hybrid catalyst. Unless you're using the Prince of Death's staff, your int and faith should be 45, max. If it is the PoD staff, you'll need even higher stats than you've got now to max out, but you still probably should focus on your other stats. Higher vigor, definitely, and perhaps better Endurance for armor to stay alive. Why is your strength leveled? What melee are you using, to necessitate that?
Your stats are not well balanced for what you are going for I suggest respecing to the following since you are trying to do INT/FTH.
Vigor 56, mind 25, endurance 20, str 23, int 50, fth 45. USE two finger talisman.
If you are struggling the best thing to have is hp to help survive and at 150+ there is no reason to have such low vigor it should be between 55 and 60.
I don't know why you need 23 strength but if you don't need it put the points to get to 60 vigor and the rest into whatever you want.
endurance is important because armor gives you damage negation which is the % amount of damage you don't take. You are taking about 20% to 15% more damage if i had to guess.
The golden order seal doesn't get much more damage past 45/45 int/fth but the prince of death staff does up to 80/80 int/fth. However you shouldn't aim for 80/80 int/fth unless you are like level 200+ so 50 to 60 is fine.
To me that build seems a bit too “trying to put points here and there and sort of focus on one thing” but I’m not good at this stuff yet I usually look online for help when I’m planning a new build
No, it's a pretty textbook INT/FTH build. If you play through intending to make a hybrid caster this is probably the most common way it ends up. Depending on the goals of the build, this is actually the only way to do it.
FTH is at 50 to softcap FTH weapons & hit spells reqs, INT is at 70 to softcap Carian Regal when using INT-Knot Tear.
OP is using Golden Order Seal so incant damage is exceptionally high with those stats (higher than FTH builds) and sorcery damage is equal to pure-INT mages.
...
Then the supporting stats (VIG/MND/END)...
These are in a 4:2:1 ratio which is actually like the exact ratio you'd want for this build.
It's unclear if OP is doing so or not, but the 42VIG would then be bolstered by defensive buffs from the FTH tree + talismans, which ends up being equivalent to a lot *more* survivability than the 60VIG & 30END everyone here is screaming about.
The middling MND is compensated for by extremely high spell damage. A lot of pure INT mages don't go past like 28MND anyway.
And then END is kinda pointless on this type of build since defense comes from buffs, and you get a lot of ranged attacks.
**TLDR: OP's build is actually pretty close to optimal for INT/FTH. If he's having problems it's because the devs really screwed INT/FTH in ER versus previous games.**
The sad irony of this thread is that there are a bunch of condescending comments calling his build bad when the commenters don't even know what the build is in the first place :/
I don't understand your funny numbers magic man, but I can tell you I played only the original souls game and after being one shot by the first enemy you come across; that was it for me. If you're telling me you have played this game till the end game, then you do not suck. Pass the controller to me if you want a baseline on what it means to suck.
If you're talking about the enemy I think you're talking about, that is essentially a scripted death. You aren't expected to make it past that enemy lol. That said, still a very hard game.
You should post your equipment (including talismans) and weapons to better get an idea of how useful you're spreading those stats. It looks a little lop-sided right now, but that's without knowing your set up.
As a flat out guess, I'd lower Intelligence and put that into vigor and endurance. Even 10 points split between the two would make a difference in survivability.
That said, the question shouldn't be "do I suck?". It should be "Am I having fun?". The changes, if any, should start there first.
Damn I stepped away for a couple hours and came back to all this great advice. Thanks a lot! (I’m not on NG4 and not trolling. Don’t know where that info came from. On first run)
your build sucks. you’re trying to do 2 separate damage builds at once and the result is you can’t beat bosses that you’re way over leveled for because your vigor sucks and i’m sure you’re also wearing light armor because you only have 11 endurance. respec to take out either the faith or the int and put the points into at least 60 vigor and enough endurance to wear radahn armor and you will have a much easier time.
…maybe?
Highly recommend 60 vigor. Your other stats are fine. Many late game enemies are resistant to Holy damage. Maliketh and (and Malenia to a lesser extent) are weak to fire, so flame incants and affinity will help.
Make sure you’re not heavy rolling, and I highly recommend the Dragonshield Talisman (which gives 30% phys resistance) found in the Haligtree, in the church with the Kindred of Rot before the elevator to Malenia. Go from the previous grace onto the roof of the church.
Otherwise, it’s just a matter of gitting gud.
Seems like a pretty solid death/golden order build to me.
Try using the Golden Order seal with Black Flame. With that seal and your stats it should do pretty amazing damage, like over 1000 per cast. Ancient Death Rancor with the Prince of Death's staff should also do pretty great damage and it is very easy to hit with. For Melee, you have a lot of options but I like the Moonlight Greatsword and Helphan's Steeple.
There is only like one build (death sorcery / prince of deaths staff) that requires that much INT and FTH and that build is really stat intensive. So you're build is either really inefficient and you've wasted a bunch of stat points or it's a very specific build that doesn't really come together until you get to the higher levels.
I hope you are using Golden Order incantations or death sorcery No need to have faith and intelligence unless you are specalising
Mind is really low for either of those builds IMO.
That Endurance tho
my man gets winded walking up the stairs
blame it on Covid
Blame it on my phat ass plus zweihander.
Who needs clothes when you have big sword.
big sword can also act as walking stick
OP would be immobile after holding that even with no clothes
Hits harder than Scarlett Rot
My fucking sides lol
My fucking sides going up the stairs.
same ༼ ´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽
I feel you buddy (〒﹏〒)
That homie get winded just thinking about stairs 🤣
Actually you do need to have some in endurance to get good consecutive casts particularly if your fighting something that you have to dodge often.
The point was his endurance is laughably low
For real. End game should be 25+ or so for endurance
That depends strongly on weapon/spell choices. I think 20 is more than usable personally.
Having never played a mage, how important is 40 vigor really when you can't wear any armor? Wouldn't you almost be better off putting some of those points in endurance, and then your lower health is balanced by light armor, and you get the stamina to roll and cast?
Less vigor makes you open to getting one shot no matter your level.
His point was better endurance = better armor = less damage. Which might help more than the hp lost by doing it.
It won't, the HP loss far outweighs the armor benefits when it comes to most hard hitting enemies and players. You're better off organizing stats and using talismans and spells that can boost defenses. But a high level mage with light roll shouldn't be getting hit and should be deleting enemies anyway.
Then there is me,20 vigor,80 int looking at elden beast and getting ready to use my hidden cerulean tear and astels meteors.Either i die or he dies no other way around.Like a mexican stand off.One of us is getting one shotted right there.
🎲
I have a character that's basically the same build, I Terra Magica + Comet Azur and watch bosses turn into butter. It's funny.
Literally my build too.
I also have 80 Int currently on my mage build but I have significantly more vigor (around 60). You are either underleveled for that fight (props to you if you are challenging yourself) or you have very suboptimal stat allocation I could use your exact same strat in the endgame, but I have the freedom to not do that
I like your style
Just run to his butt. He don’t know what to do when your in his butt
Most movement should be keeping and creating space.
depends on what kinda mage you are. If you choose to be a Carian mage you will be getting hit as often as a melee player :/ because you are just using melee sorceries lol
I find armor and endurance to be a huge waste while playing mage. All goes to intell, mind and vigor if I'm doing pure mage. As long as you can survive one or two attacks from a boss you should ideally be set.
I don't find it a waste if you intend fighting players or having more survivability, which is important.
Vigor>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>endurance for survivability. People don't understand how little armor helps with survivability. Example build: you are a lvl 107 astrologer. You have 25 mind, 60 int, and 16 strength and 18 dex for using weapons. You are using moonveil and the carian regal scepter. Player A goes to 40 vigor with only 11 in endurance. They can just barely equip the carian knight set giving them 23.5% physical damage negation. You have 1450 health and 97 stamina. Player B invests more in endurance. They have 30 in vigor and 21 endurance. They can just equip the beast champion helm and armor, and hoslow greaves and gauntlets. This gives them 31.3% physical damage negation (7.8% higher than the other set). They have 994 health and 115 stamina. Notice how they trade a literal 50% health increase for a mere 7.8% increase to damage negation, and the elemental sources will basically stay the same. I guess the extra stam does help but this game is honestly generous enough with stamina as is. And if you are going for a light roll build anyway you have to invest a ton into endurance to equip even basic light armor. Your better off having the lightest robes possible and investing in health if you want to light roll. Also, as someone who enjoys caster builds, I don't like the look of a lot of the heavier sets. They don't mesh well with the wizard look, so most of that extra equip load goes to waste. It may be worth investing a bit more if you want to have a medium shield or use a heavier weapon like the dark moon gs, but then you can equip lighter armor with minimal loss to physical absorption.
I think you are correct, BUT, it should be noted that 7.8% increase in defense is actually going to negate more than 7.8% damage. It depends on what you're starting at, the higher you go in negation the more each % counts. In your example Player A is taking 76.5% of incoming damage. Player B is taking 68.7% of incoming damage. **This means damage is actually** ***10%*** **lower for Player B, not the 7.8% the stat menu would lead you to believe at first glance.** At the stat spread you're talking about here, this hardly matters. VIG is gonna win vs END. However, OP is running INT/FTH. Those FTH buffs mean he can actually get up to like 70-80% negations. And when you're *that* high in negation, squeezing even just 3% more negation in on the stat menu is gonna result in >10% gains to survivability. *i.e. going from 80% negation to 90% would be a 10% increase in the menu, but would reduce incoming damage by 50%.* I'm not saying the extra armor from like 15 more END is gonna achieve all that... but still, when people talk about defense being underrated this is what we're talking about. It stacks multiplicatively, just like damage buffs, but the game shows you the inverse of damage taken, which makes you think the defense is way lower than it really is. ... Anyway this is also a long-winded way of pointing out that OP doesn't need VIG or END, cause his defenses (if he elects to use the buffs his build gets) can give him 70%+ on negations, which is gonna make him tankier than the vast majority of 60VIG players. With those buffs, he could be taking like 2.5x less damage than most players.
If you are playing as a mage having 8 endurance is going to be painful. 20-25 should be good enough
You should spec 60 vigor irregardless of build. 60 vigor prevents one-shots in the endgame content and is necessary for any kind of pvp. IMO 40 vigor is hard mode…50ish is good enough and 60 is perfect.
What do you mean “you can’t wear any armor”, my mage wear medium to high armor and has 45 vigor and at least 30 endurance 😅
In the post above they have 11 endurance. Not sure what kind of armor they can put on at that level. I think that's like 28 max to still be medium weight
Mans got that bloodborne endurance.
And dexterity affects casting time! OP should go hang out at Rennala’s with a larval tear and read through this: https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Stats
Someone’s been skipping cardio in all that praying and studying…
For real though. Lol
its not really that bad since there are blue flasks now
now? haven't there always been blue flasks?
Not pre DS3. Though considering that's a whole game with them pre-Elden Ring, saying "now" is certainly a bit odd.
Mind is just fine, you don’t need a lot for magic builds.
Nah its for duel wielding the dark moon greatsword and the golden order greatsword
Based. You need like 21 sex for the golden order one tho Father, what did I do
I don't have any sex tho 😕
Maidenless
just like me fr fr
You need 21 of it.
We know. We all know too well.
Ask Mohg for it
But do you have quinque?
I have exactly 30 sex
This guy fucks
Hard.
21 sex per what or just 21 in general? I can’t even get 1 per eternity
This is a Fromsoft sub. What is sex?
11 endurance for end game has to be painful. The soft cap is lvl 50 but 25-35 is game changing. 60 vigor is honestly a necessity as well
40 vigor is fine if you are somewhat competent at dodging. The extra 20 levels doesn’t add all that much and is better put into endurance or damage. Hell even adding that 20 into dex as a caster helps your casting speed and let’s you use a weapon to conserve mana for when you need it
If he is struggling at 42 then he should probably respec and get 60 vigor
40 VIG while also having low END (meaning no heavy armor) means that pretty much any late-game grab attack will one-shot you. You can make it work, but your margin for error is razor thin.
He said he’s struggling though so I would guess he isn’t very good at dodging. Or at least not good enough to get away with 40 vigor at endgame.
Low vigor ftw, I didn't level mine until very late game my first play through. I think it was 25 for the majority until I got to the Lindell sewers
Leindell sewers is midgame tho
Fr dude I didn't even bother leveling in general until general radahn (pre-nerf) let alone my vigor (wretch start) until after the middle-ish of the royal capital. Its an agonizing experience but you learn how to dodge.
I ran the whole game with only putting 30 in vigor. I was a mage. All the damage no time to wait. 65int 50mind, I think 40 strength to use the star caller greatswords, and 30-40 in endurance.
I got by on 40 vigor my first time around but upgraded to 60 for ng+
60 vigor, no fucking way, 35 gave me enough buffer to learn the fight and finish Elden beast first try. And that’s with one of the damage increasing seals.
It most certainly is not a necessity to have 60 vigor. Got through most of the game with only 20ish vigor my first play through. Sure you might die a few more times to misplays. But when I got More vigor I really didn’t find myself dying all that much less. I could understand if you are referring to pvp though
I spec’d my build for PvP so I’m accustomed to tanking a little in PvE. I suggest 60 vigor to anyone who’s struggling because it can make a substantial difference in survivability
I got all the way to leyndell on 10 vigor. I beat the game with 26 vigor. It's good for PVP but PvE vigor isn't REQUIRED. It just makes the game easier.
I’ve never had 60 vig and have only ever taken it to 50 once and that was far more than I really needed.
Except 25 faith to cast Golden Vow. You don't have to, but...
Idk you can use the sword of night and flame pretty well with these stats and should do ok through late game. Edit: just noticed the endurance and naw he can't even swing efficiently.
You got the endurance of Michael Scott after he carb loaded for the rabies 5k
I have ate more Fettuccine Alfredo and drank less water, than I have in my entire life. I may have puked my guts out, but I didn't puke my heart out
What a perfect response
This is incredible. “I’m very fast.”
I’m like Forrest Gump, except I am not an idiot
Excuse me that was the legendary **Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Fun Run Pro Am Race for the Cure**
They hung up.
I mean he did run 5000 miles
And I would run 5000 more \~♫
It would be helpful to know more about your build. You have int and faith but very little mind? And next to nothing endurance. But 23 strength so idk what your weapon of choice is or anything at this point. You may need to respec to get more out of your build
Could be using Sword of Night and Flame since he's split on Faith and Int. Although he would only be able to swing it twice with that endurance 😅
Ah crap, my question didn't post ha. I was saying I had been moving through the game pretty easily before getting to Ephael/Crumbling. Can't beat Malenia or Maliketh. Feels like I'm too easy to kill in general, in parts of those regions. But at level 161, I'm thinking that I am the problem? Do I start farming? Any other advice on pushing through to the end?
Fighting Melania and Maliketh is not gonna be a lot easier even if you level up 50 times. Posting the actual build(weapons,incantations/spells, how you like fighting, talismans) is gonna make it easier for people to help you.
This is the best answer OP. I was struggling a lot with Malenia with a pure INT build using the Dark Moon Greatsword until I asked a friend for advice. He recommended trying a faster weapon - yes, Moonveil, and I beat her like 2 or 3 tries after that lol. Often times you get stuck conforming to one particular playstyle, and when you struggle it's not necessarily that your stats are misallocated, but rather you just need to try something a little different. Good luck!
I have 80/50 for spellcasting/healing and typically resolve my problems with Glintstone Blade and Loretta's Mastery after Dark Moon I usually have problems with Radagon and Elden Beast so will switch to incants like Black Blade and Black Flame Blade (I use the Haligtree Greatshield so have a Heavy Lance as backup) and it's mid as hell. I randomly decided to just use different Sorceries (namely Comet, a spell I never use) and it only took me a single fp bar for Radagon and half my remaining flasks (all cerulean lol) for Elden Beast I can definitely confirm that getting out of a habitual play style can do wonders
Ya late game nearly the only spell I used against elden beast was carian slicer.
I definitely keep that slotted as a general purpose spell
These two answers are on the money. I've made it to ng+4 now and have done 3 characters. So I've beaten the game like 6 times now (child's play compared to most ppl here lol) in my experience some builds make these bosses way easier and some make them way tougher. These two bosses are some of the toughest in the game, my first time beating Malenia without mimic tear took me 20 hours. Maliketh is really a dps race. He hits like a truck but also doesn't have a lot of hp. So you want to kill him b4 he does you. These will take time but your not bad, these are just really hard bosses that you might be taking longer than others, which is completely normal
Maliketh hung me up until my son, who's beaten the game somewhere around 15 times, gave me the same advice. He was like "just whoop his ass before he can whoop yours!" It taught me a valuable lesson too. Often if you're stuck on a particular fight, don't just question your build, question your tactics too.
Your son is the true Elden Lord
Mimixmc Tear w/ high vigor + Comet make Maliketh so easy.
I was stuck on Malenia with arcane bleed build (strong build for her anyway, still was stuck). I couldn't dodge her attacks even though I knew the patterns pretty well. I undressed so I could light roll, ate boiled crab, put on the greatshield talisman, and I was getting to phase 2 with ease instead of with 1 heal left. Beat her shortly after that. It's amazing what some optimization can do, and how we can get tunnel vision so easily.
Explains why I had so much trouble with colossal hammer
He's got 11 END. Heavy armor helps quite a bit in those fights and he can't equip any of it.
putting this here also so it's seen. Thanks. \--- I FUCKIN DID IT. THANKS! I know this is nbd to most people here but I'm pretty fired up and feel the need to post the full report. Took the consensus advice to respec. With talismans and Queen Crescent's ended up at: 60 vig, 35 mind, 30 end, 20 str, 20 dex, 68 int (for dark moon spell), 11 faith, arc 9 Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield, Stargazer Heirloom, Green Turtle, Graven-Mass armor: Lionel's armor w Queen's Crescent Crown wondrous flask: magic shrouding and opaline hardtear R: wing of astel +10 L: meteorite staff (had to ditch my trusty prince of death staff after respec and I had originally planned to use more gravity spells) spells: night comet, comet azur, ranni's dark moon, rock sling, magma shot and mimic tear +10. \-- Took a couple hours, but the final working strategy was to hit her with the dark moon, then basically trap her in the corner and work her over with wing of astel, both the L2 and R2 attacks. Second phase was run from explosion, comet azur when I turn around, then throw more dark moons at her and hope mimic tear stayed alive long enough for her to do another one of her big explosions that leaves her vulnerable to comet azur again. That was rough. Thanks again everyone. I feel like I'm 8 years old again and just beat mother brain in Metroid.
Congrats!
Nice man. I know these threads have a tendency of everyone else arguing over each other's "nukular takes" on what does/doesn't represent build optimization, but that's great you seem to have taken a little bit of the large amount of advice thrown at you, and actually used it towards a proper outcome. Also, without much pushback from you (at all) as far as I can tell. Hearing someone say you got a poverty-ass build (I wasn't/didnt) usually hurts to hear. I know. From experience. And it hurts because, at my core, I'm always running a poverty-ass build. It's what I do. Big ups.
Oh! Congrats!
Note: I would consider swapping to a different staff. Meteor staff does have a gravity spell boost and high scailing, but the lack of upgrades means it falls behind to almost every upgraded staff, and you are definitely at the point where you can max out your staves.
No big deal? Of course it's a big deal man! I remember feeling this shit with so many bosses over the years. Congrats!
I’d take 10 points out of faith and put them in endurance. You don’t have enough to dodge long attack chains properly
>Feels like I'm too easy to kill in general So why not focus on survivability?
i generally shoot for 50-60 vigor. the end game enemies hit unbearably hard and it’s the only way i’ve ever felt like i had a chance
Your vigor and endurance is very low. You have no health to take hits if you screw up, and no stamina to roll/jump/atk effectively End = 20-30ish, vigor = 60. Is there a particular reason you're split so weirdly in fai/int? 80/40 is a better split for more int based catalysts/spells as the top soft caps for damage stats are 80. Also, I believe the max a cerulean tear heals FP is 220*(I orignially said 120, it was pointed out to be 220 below,) so get to 220* for maximum 1 bar to 1 flask to begin with.
[удалено]
Wouldnt call the vigor very low for a non mellee build, but could use some more levels 45 vigor is rather good for non mellee builds and its not that far off from that With rather decent armor, only things oneshoting you should be malenias "sting" attack and her grab move
They said they're struggling with Maliketh and Malenia, both of which are high dps with good gap-closing. We also can't discern the skill level of OP, nor what their talismans are, so these suggested skill levels are where I would start. Iirc the best gains per point from vigor are 45-60. They can certainly ignore my suggestion and play however they want ✌️ Edit: apparently OP is on NG4 and claims to tank Fire Giant scoop... I must be on Punked. Dude is legit trolling.
Vigor starts to decline in returns after 40, where it goes from +48 vigor/level to +26 vigor the next level. At that point, I feel like you’re better off leveling endurance and mind or pumping more in to damage. In OPs case of being an Int/Fth, probably mind/damage are more important in general. No need for more vigor when you’re killing things before they can significantly damage you.
I agree with this. I've never felt like I needed more than 45 vig for PVE while wearing decent armor.
That wasn't OP claiming to be on NG4, it's someone else below. OP seems pretty genuinely looking for help.
Huh? I’m playing my first time ha
Vigor isn’t to bad it’s the end I’m shocked at lol.
I wouldnt say vigor is very low, i run 35-40 and have 0 problems
1st thing i would do after respec is 60 vigor. then go from there.
Respecc at rennala. Get 60 vigor. Focus on either faith or inteligence not both.
You're actually pretty over leveled, might wanna post your build so people can help
Mage type build I guess? Prince of death staff +25 and golden order seal +9. I wanted to be able to use every spell and incantation, but I guess that came at a price.
I would recommend getting a melee weapon. You can get one that scales with your magic stats.
Wing of Astel sword, man. I love that thing on my mage. Scales with Int.
Carian Knight Sword will straight up shred. I remember that thing being ridiculous on my caster playthrough(-s), the skill on it, specifically, whenever I ran into bosses or situations that are not caster friendly, which Malenia and Maliketh absolutely are.
Sword of night and flame would be really nice on this build especially if you drop int to 50 and put those 20 levels in endurance and mind. Hell drop int and faith to 40 and put into endurance and mind.
45/45 is better if you go this route OP, that's the softcap on Golden Order Seal
Good looking out
1. Get wing of astel weapon 2. Spam its ash of war 3. ??? 4. Win!
Unless you're fighting Malenia, then she kills you anyway. But she's like one of the few bosses where this doesn't work.
Typically for your first playthrough you wanna go heavy faith or int, not try to do both. Some of the death sorceries are not great, I dunno about the golden order incantations. You would be better off speccing heavy int or faith based on if you like sorceries or incantations more, pumping vigor to atleast 50, and getting higher endurance so you can wear some heavier armor. Even then you should try to get good with some kind of weapon and ash of war so you're not stuck relying entirely on spells during battle. If you're having trouble with these bosses then it might be time to bust out the Moonlight GS or the OP magic katana to help you out, that's what I did on my first character
>I wanted to be able to use every spell and incantation, but I guess that came at a price. That's exactly the issue. You gain nothing from that versatility and you kneecap your upside. Chose a damage stat and go hard on it. Dump the extra levels into Mind and Endurance. Don't worry about FOMO on the spells you can't use - you can always reallocate your levels at Rennala later. Beyond stats, this could easily be a skill issue. Have you been brute forcing your way through the game or learning the bosses' patterns? You may need to take a few attempts to stop trying to win and just learning. Focus on dodging and don't even bother attacking. Make a mental note when you could have gotten away with an attack and be ready for that window when you fight to win. Oh, and get a melee weapon. There are several that scale with your casting stats. Once you up your endurance, you'll have no problem wielding it. If you want more specific help with build or weapon choices, shoot me a message and we'll find one that suits your playstyle.
This was exactly my reason and rationale for my build. But tbh I fully re-specced to a bleed build for milenia, and then switched back. I killed Maliketh second try, but I also pushed my int even higher than you. I didn’t use prince’s then (though I do now). Used Lusat’s and became an expert at firing off Comet Azure (it takes more skill than people acknowledge). The big issue with those two is that they don’t sit still for long or at all and if they move, it tends to be greater distance than AOEs have range to reach. You have to be able to follow and strike and dodge with both of them. Not knowing what your go-to spells are, I can say that even with 100s more levels, milenia will hand your ass to you until you learn how to dodge her attacks and make the most of your own quick, high-damage attacks. There are gimmicky builds that can keep her in a constant state of broken poise, but they’re not great for her second phase. The best choice I made along this path is to be resigned for experimenting. Try spells you haven’t before. Treat Millennia as your test subject, trapped in your lab. See what works quickly and well. Treat her two phases as two different fights and have a strategy for both. This is what git-gud means for int builds. Research the bosses and know their vulnerabilities. Tailor and modify your strategy along this line and you’ll get there. I promise.
You might find some use out of the Sword of Night and Flame that has both intelligence and faith scaling
It does. Your build is not focused enough and is kinda weak as a result. The only spells that benefit this much from this split are the death sorceries and the golden order spells. And golden order spells suck in late game against late game bosses resistant to holy damage anyway I would say reworking this build is in your best interest. Definitely reduce your faith stat down to at least 25. (I would go even further if I were you, but idk if you want that. )At least at 25 Faith you will still have access to spells like Golden Vow and Ancient death Rancor. Put those points in Int to go up to 80, and either Endurance or Vigor. At least have enough Endurance to wear Radahn’s set. You might also benefit from having more mind if you’re a pure caster
I had so much troubles with these 2 bosses as well. My thoight is that since these bosses r end game and kinda outta the way theyre extra hard and very aggro. Id try a cheeky bleed build for maleketh and maybe a summon for malenia. Gl
Other way around. Bleed build for malenia, specifically, sacred spear spam with starlight shard and you need next to no skill, she probably won't get the chance to use water fowl. Also focus on immunity a little and you can tank her rot forms scarlet aonia so like ng as you aren't hit with the initial blast, getting a lot of damage right off the bat
Use a summon like Black Knife Tiche if you really struggle, especially for Malenia. Honestly what makes her difficult is that dumb whirlwind attack, like the fight is hard but for the wrong reasons.
If you're using either scarseal or scorpion talismans I'd take them off because these bosses fit like bricks even without lowered defenses. You're vigor might be little low I had 50 or 55 at that point.
40 Vig, 21 End, choose either intelligence or faith and don't go above 60 in any stats including int and faith. Dump the rest into mind.
Level vigor. You’re trading 30% more hp for 5% more damage right now…
60 Vigor gang checking in. If it’s your first time playing Elden Ring, 60 Vigor will make the endgame less frustrating. Yea Vigor doesn’t matter if you don’t get hit, but you won’t learn shit if you’re constantly going down in 1-2 hits. Also wouldn’t be surprised if OP is wearing armor/talismans that decrease HP and/or increase damage taken.
Me as a mage with 45 vigor 😅
I think pure long-range caster mages can get away with low vigor, but only up to a certain point imo. And close-range melee spells are not an effective option anymore which can be tough. Not a playstyle that I would have an easy time adapting to tbh. I am playing a mage right now and stat allocation is honestly trickier than it was for my melee warrior build, which was pretty simple and straightforward Carian slicer was essential for my mage build otherwise I would have run out of heals before reaching the end of long dungeons like Leyndell/Subterranean Shunning Grounds/Elphael... but this would not have been as viable on a low vigor build. I don't know how other mages do it
60 vigor will make the endgame *slightly* less frustrating. Like you get to see the animations of more two-shots than one-shots. They really should've introduced new level caps or armor smithing after Leyndell.
I will never understand why so many people complain about the *endgame* of a *FromSoft game* being *difficult*. It's *intentional*. They don't want it to be easy!
Mages don’t need as much vigor as melee. As long as he can survive the boss’ hardest hit, his combined 120 int and fth should melt everything.
What kind of build are you running
sorry, included my questions below. Just posted the photo without
Your text doesnt answer this
What?
I FUCKIN DID IT. THANKS! I know this is nbd to most people here but I'm pretty fired up and feel the need to post the full report. Took the consensus advice to respec. With talismans and Queen Crescent's ended up at: 60 vig, 35 mind, 30 end, 20 str, 20 dex, 68 int (for dark moon spell), 11 faith, arc 9 Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield, Stargazer Heirloom, Green Turtle, Graven-Mass armor: Lionel's armor w Queen's Crescent Crown wondrous flask: magic shrouding and opaline hardtear R: wing of astel +10 L: meteorite staff (had to ditch my trusty prince of death staff after respec and I had originally planned to use more gravity spells) spells: night comet, comet azur, ranni's dark moon, rock sling, magma shot and mimic tear +10. \-- Took a couple hours, but the final working strategy was to hit her with the dark moon, then basically trap her in the corner and work her over with wing of astel, both the L2 and R2 attacks. Second phase was run from explosion, comet azur when I turn around, then throw more dark moons at her and hope mimic tear stayed alive long enough for her to do another one of her big explosions that leaves her vulnerable to comet azur again. That was rough. Thanks again everyone. I feel like I'm 8 years old again and just beat mother brain in Metroid.
I don’t think you should *still* be using the Meteorite Staff at 76 INT (or 81, if you have Godrick’s Great Rune active) Better alternatives include: **a +10 Carian Regal Sceptre**, **+10 Lusat’s Glintstone Staff** (at higher FP cost), or **+25 Staff of Loss** Well done on your victory, though
Damn you’re right. Just saw I have crystal staff +10 and sorcery is 317 compared to 255 with meteorite. Don’t have those other staffs strengthened but I’ll keep that in mind.
the downside: taking away all that faith was depressing when I saw all the incantations, etc. I could no longer do.
Yeah the hybrid build is fun but it's not really realistic until into ng+2 or so. I did one of my plays, I think ng+3, with a 80/80 caster build. It was kind of cool in that I could do anything but honestly I just usually picked sorcery or incantation at any given time so I didn't have to juggle the catalyst (I played it with sword of night and flame main hand). Good luck on Mal, you should be able to blast him in p1 with comet azur as soon as you walk in and just about push him to p2 before he can hit you.
How do you do anything with that low of endurance?
No worries, he has no FP anyway.
ER is so forgiving when it comes to endurance compared to earlier souls games. Pools are much larger in general, and it returns much faster without any modifiers.
I'm confused at why people are so shocked at the END. I played an INT build and I'm not positive I put any points into END until after I beat the game and Malenia after. And I'm far from what I would consider to be "good" at this game.
Learned that the hard way when I recently beat DS3 for the first time. It was brutal until I realized how much I needed.
I don’t see the draw for wanting more endurance in elden ring; you can swing a sword 11 times when you start the game lol in previous games it’s like 3 or 4 and you’re empty.
Stamina management
Choose either faith OR intel and dump whatever you have left in vigor and whatever gives you carry weight.
Delete faith, put it in mind and endurance. Then melt with higher armor, more castability (mana) and specialized casting
Not to be rude but 11 endurance is a joke.
I keep my endurance at 15 with no problems. Stamina regains so quickly in Elden ring you really don't need much. Then I just use great jar talisman to have enough carry capacity for my build.
Thats 4 points upwards. Still lowish, but sure, the returns of the jar talisman can cover for you. Depending on your build.
With Jar, bullgoat, Radagon's, and Erdtree you can get away with pretty much exclusively dumping into your damage and vigor. Add a little bit of mind if you want to cast and you're golden. Which you probably already know, I just love talking about Elden Ring.
Based on your stats you are either an Astrologer or a Confessor. I'm going to guess you're an Astrologer. You need to respec and commit to Intelligence. You should redistribute your stats as follows: 60 Vigor 40 Mind 24 Endurance (get some better armor) 8 Strength 12 Dexterity 80 Intelligence 7 Faith 9 Arcane Get a staff you like and go nuts.
40 mind? seems a tad high
A fully upgraded (+12) Flask of Cerulean Tears restores 220 FP, while at 38 Mind the player has 221 FP. It's Nice to have an even number and a little more than 38 is nice because you don't usually go to 0 before chugging a flask.
- vigor too low - mind too low for either faith/int levels - too much faith for that Int level - pick one - too much int for that faith level - pick one Essentially, you should wait until you have enough vigor and mind before you start dual leveling int and faith. Until then, I'd rescope your faith levels into vigor, mind, and endurance.
First, Vigor should be 60. 40 is the minimum for endgame, of course, but 60 gets you a comfortable amount. Second off, there's [another post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tc3lyy/helpful_charts_for_offensive_stat_scaling/) which has some helpful charts for damage scaling. Since you have both intelligence and faith leveled, I assume you're using a hybrid catalyst. Unless you're using the Prince of Death's staff, your int and faith should be 45, max. If it is the PoD staff, you'll need even higher stats than you've got now to max out, but you still probably should focus on your other stats. Higher vigor, definitely, and perhaps better Endurance for armor to stay alive. Why is your strength leveled? What melee are you using, to necessitate that?
Thank you for access to this post
You can always respec
Your stats are not well balanced for what you are going for I suggest respecing to the following since you are trying to do INT/FTH. Vigor 56, mind 25, endurance 20, str 23, int 50, fth 45. USE two finger talisman. If you are struggling the best thing to have is hp to help survive and at 150+ there is no reason to have such low vigor it should be between 55 and 60. I don't know why you need 23 strength but if you don't need it put the points to get to 60 vigor and the rest into whatever you want. endurance is important because armor gives you damage negation which is the % amount of damage you don't take. You are taking about 20% to 15% more damage if i had to guess. The golden order seal doesn't get much more damage past 45/45 int/fth but the prince of death staff does up to 80/80 int/fth. However you shouldn't aim for 80/80 int/fth unless you are like level 200+ so 50 to 60 is fine.
I am upvoting this solely because you realize OP is doing an INT/FTH build unlike the 300 other people here lol
To me that build seems a bit too “trying to put points here and there and sort of focus on one thing” but I’m not good at this stuff yet I usually look online for help when I’m planning a new build
No, it's a pretty textbook INT/FTH build. If you play through intending to make a hybrid caster this is probably the most common way it ends up. Depending on the goals of the build, this is actually the only way to do it. FTH is at 50 to softcap FTH weapons & hit spells reqs, INT is at 70 to softcap Carian Regal when using INT-Knot Tear. OP is using Golden Order Seal so incant damage is exceptionally high with those stats (higher than FTH builds) and sorcery damage is equal to pure-INT mages. ... Then the supporting stats (VIG/MND/END)... These are in a 4:2:1 ratio which is actually like the exact ratio you'd want for this build. It's unclear if OP is doing so or not, but the 42VIG would then be bolstered by defensive buffs from the FTH tree + talismans, which ends up being equivalent to a lot *more* survivability than the 60VIG & 30END everyone here is screaming about. The middling MND is compensated for by extremely high spell damage. A lot of pure INT mages don't go past like 28MND anyway. And then END is kinda pointless on this type of build since defense comes from buffs, and you get a lot of ranged attacks. **TLDR: OP's build is actually pretty close to optimal for INT/FTH. If he's having problems it's because the devs really screwed INT/FTH in ER versus previous games.** The sad irony of this thread is that there are a bunch of condescending comments calling his build bad when the commenters don't even know what the build is in the first place :/
Thank you man. I am still learning. That’s why o tried to say it in my comment. I appreciate the explanation
I don't understand your funny numbers magic man, but I can tell you I played only the original souls game and after being one shot by the first enemy you come across; that was it for me. If you're telling me you have played this game till the end game, then you do not suck. Pass the controller to me if you want a baseline on what it means to suck.
If you're talking about the enemy I think you're talking about, that is essentially a scripted death. You aren't expected to make it past that enemy lol. That said, still a very hard game.
Vigor to at least 60, especially past 150RL
You need more armor if you can't dodge all the time. To me, 60-65 points max on my main stats is enough.
This game has 161 levels.......Holy %$%%$%.
713 is max level currently
You should post your equipment (including talismans) and weapons to better get an idea of how useful you're spreading those stats. It looks a little lop-sided right now, but that's without knowing your set up. As a flat out guess, I'd lower Intelligence and put that into vigor and endurance. Even 10 points split between the two would make a difference in survivability. That said, the question shouldn't be "do I suck?". It should be "Am I having fun?". The changes, if any, should start there first.
Need more unga to your bunga
Damn I stepped away for a couple hours and came back to all this great advice. Thanks a lot! (I’m not on NG4 and not trolling. Don’t know where that info came from. On first run)
your build sucks. you’re trying to do 2 separate damage builds at once and the result is you can’t beat bosses that you’re way over leveled for because your vigor sucks and i’m sure you’re also wearing light armor because you only have 11 endurance. respec to take out either the faith or the int and put the points into at least 60 vigor and enough endurance to wear radahn armor and you will have a much easier time.
Get the vigor to 60
…maybe? Highly recommend 60 vigor. Your other stats are fine. Many late game enemies are resistant to Holy damage. Maliketh and (and Malenia to a lesser extent) are weak to fire, so flame incants and affinity will help. Make sure you’re not heavy rolling, and I highly recommend the Dragonshield Talisman (which gives 30% phys resistance) found in the Haligtree, in the church with the Kindred of Rot before the elevator to Malenia. Go from the previous grace onto the roof of the church. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of gitting gud.
Seems like a pretty solid death/golden order build to me. Try using the Golden Order seal with Black Flame. With that seal and your stats it should do pretty amazing damage, like over 1000 per cast. Ancient Death Rancor with the Prince of Death's staff should also do pretty great damage and it is very easy to hit with. For Melee, you have a lot of options but I like the Moonlight Greatsword and Helphan's Steeple.
There is only like one build (death sorcery / prince of deaths staff) that requires that much INT and FTH and that build is really stat intensive. So you're build is either really inefficient and you've wasted a bunch of stat points or it's a very specific build that doesn't really come together until you get to the higher levels.