Elden Ring Advanced Paladin Guide - Crusader
Apr. 4, 2024Elden Ring Advanced Paladin Guide – Crusader
In thisElden Ring Advanced Paladin Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you myCrusader build, which is a level 150 version of the Paladin build, or an evolution of theLightning Lancerbuild using aGreatswordinstead of aLance.
A melee/caster hybrid that focuses on Faith and Block Counters to obliterate enemies with holy or fire damage.
We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This build is recommended forLevel 150-200.
Let’s start with the weapon that I’m using for this. I am using theGargoyle’s Greatsword, and there are a couple of reasons for that. First up is the fact that you can change the Ash of War on this weapon. That allows you to use a lot of goodAshes of War, and it allows you some flexibility as well. The one I’m using isSword Dance. You could use different ones if you’d like. But I find this one to be particularly effective for this build. Additionally, because you can change theAsh of War, you can go back and forth between theSacredandFlameArtaffinities, allowing you to change the supplementary damage from Holy to Fire and back again, depending on what the enemy you’re facing is resistant to.
There are a lot of enemies late in the game that are resistant to Holy damage, so being able to swap it back and forth from Holy to Fire will definitely make you have to be more effective in those scenarios where if you’re playing a weapon that you can’t change it, and it’s only Holy damage, you’re going to struggle against certain enemies or bosses. Secondly, it has B-scaling andFaithat max level, and it’s the only greatsword in the game that has B-scaling andFaiththat you can change theAsh of Waron, making it a particularly good choice for this build. I also like the fact that this weapon attacks pretty quickly compared to some other weapon types, and the block counter on it is not as long as some weapons.
It’s not as fast as the straight sword, but it does have more reach, allowing you to connect a lot more frequently. The reason that I choseSword Dancefor this build is that it has a very low FP cost. It’s 6 FP. It gives you 2 hits for 6 FP, and then if you do the third hit, it’s another 6 FP for a total of 12. You don’t always have to use that third one if you don’t want to, but this is very efficient on the FP side of things. Additionally, theGargoyle’s greatsworddoesn’t have an extremely long reach compared to some other weapons, making, spinning slashes and repeating thrusts not as effective. But what I really like aboutSword Danceis that it actually pulls you forward when you cast it quite a ways, and actually, you can fly by enemies if you don’t use it from far enough away. So it’ll actually gap close a little bit for you, allowing you to start the animation early and pull you into the enemy where a lot of times the attacks will go right over you. One other thing I want to mention too before we move on from this weapon is that it has very low requirements. It has 18Strengthand 10Dexterity. That means with that with most classes, you’re going to have to put 0 points inDexand just a few points into Strength in order to meet the requirements, and then you can just crankFaithin order to deal really good damage with this sword and then have very good incantation scaling.
When it comes to the shield that I use for this build, I’m using theBrass Shield, no surprise here. If you’ve played either thePaladinbuild or theTemplarbuild, this is typically the shield you’re going to be using, and the reason for that here is that it requires 16Strength.
We have 18 only in this build, so there aren’t too many great shields that you can use at 18Strength, and I don’t think any of them are better than theBrass Shieldreally when it comes down to it, so I lit on this one. Fully upgraded, theGuard Booston this shield is 69, allowing you to useBarricade Shieldand still take no Stamina damage when blocking. Obviously,Barricade Shieldhas been nerfed since the last time we did one of these builds, so it’s a lot more difficult to use. However, it is still very usable with this setup, and you just have to be a bit better with it in order when to use it. You can’t spam it as much as you used to be able to do and just wait for something to attack you and then counterattack. Instead, you have to be a bit more precise about when you use it, but it’s still very good in this build.
The seal that we use for this build is theErdtree Seal. This seal gives you 353 Incantation Scaling at 80Faith. I think I’m at 79 here, which is why it’s showing 349. So, it’s very good. It’s the best Seal to use if you’re using a pureFaithbuild if you’re going for very highFaith. And it’s extremely important that you use highFaithif you’re using the seal as well because it actually scales worse than some other seals below about 70Faith.
So, you want to make sure that you get as close to 80 as you can as possible because you gain a lot of Incantation Scaling between 70 and 80Faith. So, if you’re going to go 70Faithor lower, you might be better off with a different seal, but because I’m going all the way intoFaithhere, theErdtree Sealis the one I’m using.
When it comes to armor for this build, you can pretty much use whatever you want. I recommend you use theHaligtree Knight’s Helm, though, as this increases yourFaith.
This will give you a couple of points ofFaiththat you can then take out of points for this build and put into something else. And it kind of fits the theme for aTemplar Paladin-style buildanyway. Otherwise, you can pretty much use whatever you want, just as long as you can medium roll. You’re not going to need tons ofEnduranceinto this build, so you’re not going to wear super heavy armor, but you’re going to be in that medium-ish armor area.
When it comes to Talismans for this build, I change up my Talismans a lot depending on what I’m doing. So, just keep in mind that the ones I use here are the ones I kind of default to, but you can swap other ones in and out depending on the circumstance. So, normally what I default to is theCurved Sword Talisman,Shard of Alexander,Flock’s Canvas Talisman, and theSacred Scorpion Charm.
TheCurved Sword Talismanincreases your block counter damage by 20%. If you’re playing a build with a shield, you should really be doing block counters, and this will boost the damage that you deal by 20%, which is fantastic. Builds that use shields, in my experience, typically do lower damage than other builds that do a wield or use just pure magic or have some two-handed setup that takes advantage of some combination. Because you’re trying to get a good balance of offense and defense. So, getting as much damage as you can is fantastic
Shard of Alexanderis there to boost yourAsh of Wardamage by 15%. In this case, for me, it’sSword Danceor whatever one you choose. I use this all the time. Again, it costs 6 FP. I spam this thing like crazy. It usually one or two shots just about any enemy. So, being able to just run around and one-shot or two-shot enemies with it is fantastic.
Flock’s Canvas Talismanis there to boost the damage of your incantations by about 8%. This is really good for this build because you have such high faith and you have a really good seal. You can cast spells extremely effectively for very high damage. So, boosting that even more is good.
Lastly, we have theSacred Scorpion Charm. This boosts your Holy Damage by 10% but increases the damage you take a little bit. This is good for this build because the weapon we’re using, we have the Sacred Affinity on it. So, it does Holy Damage. So, boost that and some of the spells that you use to deal Holy Damage as well, likeElden Stars. So, it boosts the damage of that as well. You can swap this one out for the Fire version if you change toFlame Art Affinityin order to boost Fire Damage. Or if you’re casting something likeBlack Flameregularly, this would be a good synergy there. Or any of the other Fire spells that incantations have. They have so many Fire spells. So, this is a good synergy for that. And you can swap this out back and forth as necessary. Another good talisman for this build is theRitual Sword Talisman.
This boosts your total damage by 10% when you’re at full health. This applies to your regular attacks and spells. And since this is a hybrid melee caster build, this will apply to all your damage, which is good. The downside is you have to be at full health. However, since you are playing like a Paladin-type build and you can use incantations that heal you over time, it should be much easier to maintain this than some other builds. So, it is not a bad option as well.
And lastly, you can swap in theGreen Turtle Talismanas well. If you find yourself doing a lot of blocking or a lot of block countering in a particular area of the game, it’s not a bad option to have. Just keep in mind that there are certain bosses where block counters are not very effective theFire Giant, for instance, or maybe you’re fighting aDragon. So, in those scenarios, you’ll actually want to swap out theCurved Sword Talismanfor something else like theRitual Sword Talisman. Because you simply won’t be using it in that instance. And this is kind of, again, what I meant by swapping these around depending on what you’re facing. When it comes to incantations, you have access to all the incantations in the game, except for the ones that requireArcaneandIntelligence. So, you have a huge variety of spells you can use. But I’ll run you through some of the ones that I like to use with this build.
First up isGolden Vow, self-explanatory. 90-second buff that increases your damage by 15%, and protections by 10%. It couldn’t go any better in a build than a Paladin build. So, this is really good for this. And, again, this applies to both your melee and ranged spells or any spells. So, it’s just a really good buff in general. I also like to useBlessing of the Erdtreewith this build.
Just like Golden Vow, it can buff those around you if you cast it near them. And it gives you 12 HP per tick and lasts 90 seconds, which is fantastic. Again, if you’re trying to keep your HP topped off in order to use something likeRitual Sword Talisman, this is a great way to go. And I like to buff withGolden Vowand this back-to-back when I go into boss fights.
If you’re using theFlame Art Affinity,Flame, Grant Me Strengthis a good synergy there as well. Because it’s going to boost your physical and fire damage, which the weapon will then do. And it’s a really good addition. It has a very short duration, so I recommend using that only during boss fights or tough enemies. But it’s really good if you’re using that setup. And it can boost your fire spells if you have a lot of fire incantations in your setup.
Another spell that I use regularly isLightning Spear.This gives me a third damage type. I can swap back and forth betweenFlame ArtandSacredfor the sword, and then I can useLightningSpearto give me lightning damage, which is really good. There are some other good lightning spells, but in my opinion, I feel likeLightning Spearis probably the best pound-for-pound lightning spell out there. It’s easy to use. It can be charged up for extra damage, it can be cast rather rapidly, and it has a decent range. A lot of the other lightning spells can miss, they cost a lot more FP and they have really long cast time, so they’re very hard to use in certain boss fights.
I also like to useElden Starsas this is kind of like the granddaddy of holy damage incantations. It requires 50Faithto use. This has a really long casting animation, but then it shoots out this golden star that travels for a very long distance, shooting out these little stars that continuously hit an enemy. The damage on it isn’t super high, even with our setup, but it does do considerable poise buildup and it gets damage onto an enemy from very far away, which means you can throw it up and run into the enemy and fight them or they can come to you while it’s still dealing damage to them. You can only have one of these out at a time, so you can’t spam it, but you can throw it up to begin a fight to get some early damage in and some early poise damage in on an enemy so that you can stagger them more easily with aBlock Counter.
You can also useBlack Flamefor a fire damage spell here. I really like that this puts a dot on the enemy as well, but there are a lot of really good fire spells you can play around with if you want something else.
And finally, I really likeBlack Bladewith this build as well. This incantation you won’t get till very far into the end game, but it does crazy damage from range. You can chain two of them together really rapidly and switch targets between, and it also puts a bit of a dot on the target. And it’s really good for fights where an enemy is just hanging back and isn’t being really aggressive or if you can create separation and get it off, it does a lot of damage, which is good. And it gives you another ranged option. It’s really good to have melee and ranged options, and melee is kind of covered on this build, so another ranged option is great.
When it comes to stats for this build, I have 50Vigor, 30Mind, 22Endurance, 18Strength, 12Dexterity, 9Intelligence, 79 Faith, and 9Arcane. 50Vigoris there because you are playing sort of a tank build. You’re going to be in melee range a lot. You’re going to be doing block counters. Sometimes you trade damage on those, and that’ll help keep you alive. 30Mindis there because you’re going to be using weapon arts constantly. If you’re usingBarricade Shield, that costs 12 FP per cast.
You’re going to need a good FP pool to get you through a fight without having to drink a ton of pots. That’s there. You’re casting a lot of spells and buffs. Those chew through FP, so you need a lot of FP for this build as well. 22Enduranceis just enough for the armor that I’m wearing in order to medium roll. This will fluctuate slightly depending on what armor you’re using, but it shouldn’t be any more than is necessary in order to medium roll. It would be great to have higher here in order to use heavier armor or a heavier shield if you can get a little bit more strength, but we just don’t have the points with the setup we’re going for. And when you’re usingBarricade Shield, you’re not expending any stamina when you’re blocking with that, so you don’t need a huge stamina pool if you’re going to be usingBarricade Shield. 18Strengthand 12Dexterityare there to meet the requirements for the weapon.
You actually only need 10Dexterity, but my class has 12. That’s why I have 12 here. So if you don’t have 12Dexterityand you have a little bit less, it would be actually better for this build. But the weapon doesn’t actually scale that great with Strength. After about 50 Faith, I’d say,StrengthandFaithgive you about the same damage per point, up to 80 or so. So you can just crankFaithand you come out about the same as if you put points intoStrength. Obviously,Strengthwould give you physical damage.Faithgives you holy damage or fire damage if you haveFlame Art. So there is a little bit of a discrepancy there. But since we want theFaithin order to be able to cast spells for more damage, it just makes sense to keep going withFaithpast 50 in order to get those spells to deal as much damage as possible.
You don’t need anyIntelligenceorArcanefor this build unless you want to use spells that use them as well. There are some incantations that requireIntelligenceandArcane. So if there are ones you want to add to this build, you’ll just take those up to the minimum for that. And lastly,Faithis our primary stat here. If you’re using theHaligtree Knight Helm, I would suggest getting 78Faith. This will give you 2 from the Helm. That’ll give you a total of 80Faith. I’m not wearing the helm here, which is why I have 79. But this would give you an extra point. You could either put inEnduranceor you can put inMindor something like that. Or maybe you want to put inArcanefor something else. It’s completely up to you what you do with that. But that’s there in order to get maximum damage. As I mentioned, theErdtree Sealshines between 70 and 80. So you really want to get as close to 80 as you can.
You can actually use other greatswords for this build as well. One example is theGargoyle’s Blackblade. This weapon has a fantastic weapon art that you can use in range.
And I do want to note, though, that if you’re using that weapon, you’d be better off going 50Strengthand 50Faithbecause it just scales really good withStrengthup to 50 and really good withFaithup to 50. But past those, it really drops off. So if you’re going to use that weapon, you want to go 50-50 instead of 18-80 or whatever. So just keep that in mind.
In that case, you would want to use theClawmark Sealto get points out ofStrengthin order to increase your incantation scaling. You’ll end up with markedly less incantation scaling if you do that, which is one of the reasons that we use Gargoyle’s Greatsword. But nonetheless, you can still use that weapon if you want to play this way. And that weapon has much, much higher attack rating when buffed compared to this weapon. So its melee damage will be a lot higher, but you’ll sacrifice some spellcasting. Additionally, you could use the Blasphemous Blade here as well. It has a lower overall attack rating than theGargoyle’s GreatswordorGargoyle’s Blackblade. However, its weapon skill is one of the best in the game, so there is that. And the way its stat spread works is that it gets about the same amount of damage from each point inStrength,Dexterity, andFaith. However, you will probably do some sort ofStrength-Faithsplit.
I used the same stat spread with the same equipment and put as many points as I could intoStrengthandFaith. So you’re going to use theClawmark Sealif you’re using this setup as well. And you’ll probably have even lower incantation scaling than either of the other two setups. And that’s because you need five extra points inDexterityfor the weapon in order to meet the requirements. And points intoDexteritydon’t increase your incantation scaling with that seal, so you kind of lose out a little bit more on there.
That wraps up ourCrusaderbuild. I have two other builds in the works right now. AGravity Godbuild and aBlack Flame Bushidobuild. I’m also working on a couple of other builds, so stay tuned for those. As always, let us know if you have questions or other tips in the comments below.
We have a ton more builds coming forElden RingandShadow of the Erdtreeso stay tuned for those. If you need help finding the spells, items, or equipment in this build, and securing some personal objectives, make sure to check theElden Ring Map.
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
