Elden Ring Ansbach's Longbow Build - Storm Arrow (Shadow of the Erdtree)

Jul. 18, 2024

Elden Ring Ansbach’s Longbow Build – Storm Arrow (Shadow of the Erdtree)

In this Elden Ring Ansbach’s Longbow Guide, I’ll be showing you my Storm Arrow build. This is a pure bow build that I designed for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, and it works pretty well from what I’ve seen so far. This build uses Ansbach’s Longbow, which is a new bow released along with the expansion. This build can be difficult to play, but making this work can be pretty satisfying.

A bow build that utilizes Ansbach’s Longbow to attack enemies before they can get to you. Ansbach’s Longbow has an excellent Ash of War, which is the Fan Shot. Aside from Ansbach’s Longbow, this build can also use the Albinauric Bow for different situations.

We have over 110 Elden Ringbuilds. Each one is meticulously crafted to offer unique playstyles, strategies, and experiences, ensuring there’s something for every adventurer in the Lands Between and also the Land of Shadow. Whether you seek the raw power of heavy weapons, the finesse of spellcasting, or the versatility of hybrid builds, our collection of builds has you covered. Explore the depths of the game’s mechanics and unleash your full potential with our diverse array of builds.

For this build, we will be using two bows:Ansbach’s Longbowand theAlbinauric Bow. These two bows will be used for different things.

TheAlbinauric BowhasMighty Shoton it, which has very high damage for a bow. Basically, what we do with this bow is we pick things off from afar. Mighty Shot is a fairly cheap Ash of War which costs 6 FP, which isn’t bad at all. It also allows you to conserve arrows, as you are going to kill majority of the enemies in one shot. It’s important because we useStormwing Bone Arrowsfor this build, so these doesn’t have to be farmed all the time. You don’t want to spend a lot of arrows for killing enemies as to not spend time farming for these arrows. You’re going to want to lean on the Albinauric Bow when you’re not fighting a boss, or when you are targetting enemies that you can lock onto its head, like a dragon.

As forAnsbach’s Longbow, its weapon skill,Fan Shot, shoots out arrows in a spread with good range. It seems like even if you just hit one arrow from the spread, you will still do the full damage of it, which is great. It does a lot of damage, so this is going to be your bread-and-butter skill when it comes to fighting bosses. Fan Shot is easily the best bow weapon skill in the game if you’re talking about it from a boss-killing perspective, as it has good burst damage, it only needs to connect with one arrow – which means that this has good tracking. It just shreds the boss’s health bar from a distance. You’re also using a talisman that increases the range of the bow, which we will be discussing later. You don’t have to worry about the damage drop off with this weapon.

However, a major downside ofFan Shotis that it uses eight arrows every time it is used, which is a lot. It isn’t efficient, so it prevents you from using it liberally when out on the landscape. You could still use it in a pinch if you’re facing a tough enemy that is close to you, but you’re going to try to avoid this situation from happening. With Mighty Shot, you can conserve your arrows for boss fights. Another thing about Fan Shot is that you can’t really use the Stormwing Bone Arrows with Fan Shot, as you’re going to consume a lot of arrows when using this skill. Predominantly, you’ll be using regular arrows when using Fan Shot.

One thing I like about Ansbach’s Longbow is that it operates like aLight Bow. You can roll, jump, or sprint while shooting. It’s really good for close-quarters combat, while theAlbinauric Bowand other bows are not, besides the Black Bow. This is kind of an upgrade over theBlack Bow, and with a better weapon skill in general. If you’re having trouble with tough enemies out on the landscape, you can switch over to Ansbach’s Longbow. Otherwise, you’re going to have a hard time if you don’t switch to it.

As for the armor, I am not wearing any armor for this build as I am using theLamenter’s Mask. The Lamenter’s Mask transforms you into a Lamenter, giving you a little bit of damage negation. It also doesn’t weigh anything, so it basically gives you armor for no weight at all. If you’re using theBlue Dancer Charmwith a bow build, this is a great way to get some protection while wearing no armor at all. You could also use thePriestess HeartorRock Heart, so it doesn’t just have to be the Lamenter’s Mask.

The talismans that we’re going to use for this build are:Blue Dancer Charm,Arrow’s Sting Talisman,Arrow’s Soaring Sting Talisman, and theShard of Alexander.

We’re using theBlue Dancer Charmfor this build because we have very light equipment load. We’re running at somewhere around 12 equip load when we have both bows equipped. I recommend unequipping theAlbinauric Bowwhen you go into boss fights, since you’re not going to use it. You could also unequipAnsbach’s Longbowwhen you’re out on the landscape if you know that the enemies aren’t going to get close to you. Also, Blue Dancer Charm only affects physical damage, so you’d have to use arrows that deal physical damage.

We also have theArrow’s Sting TalismanandArrow’s Soaring Sting Talisman. Both of these talismans increase the damage of your arrows regardless of what arrows they are, so these are great to have. Arrow’s Soaring Sting Talisman also gives you increased range, so Mighty Shot will greatly benefit from having this equipped. Also,Stormwing Bone Arrowsalso have good range, so you almost always do full damage regardless of how far away you’re shooting from.

Lastly, I have theShard of Alexanderhere because it boosts the damage ofMighty ShotandFan Shot. You’re using these skills a lot with this build. Shard of Alexander could also help you save arrows, as it will reduce the number of arrows that are consumed to kill enemies.

If you don’t have one of these talismans, you could use theRitual Sword Talismanin order to give you increased damage when you’re at full health, so this isn’t a bad talisman to use. However, we’ll be using aCrystal Tearthat drains your health, so I wouldn’t recommend using this one for bosses.Crusade Insigniacould also be a good talisman to use if you’re out on the landscape, as it increases your damage by 15% for 20 seconds after killing an enemy.

The attributes that I have for this build are: 60Vigor, 25Mind, 23Endurance, 25Strength, 65Dexterity, 16Intelligence, 7Faith, and 17Arcane. You don’t need any Intelligence, Faith, or Arcane for this build. The Lamenter’s Mask increases your Arcane, which is why it is at 17. If you want to increase your damage output, you could probably increase Faith so that you could useGolden Vow.

I have 60 Vigor to stay alive. You don’t need to go any higher than this as Vigor falls off really bad after 60. You could leave it at 55 if you want, but we have really light protection compared to most builds. You could light roll which is great, since you’re going to be rolling around pointblank. Light rolling is really important in order to use a bow build from close range.

As for Mind, we have 25 in order to use our weapon skills regularly. You probably don’t need to go any more than that.

Endurance is at 23, but you’ll definitely want to take this up at some point. Stamina is such a huge part of this build, so this is the bare minimum. 30 or 35 is probably better for this build, so you want to increase this eventually.

For the Strength and Dexterity split, I have 25 Strength and 65 Dexterity. I found this is right around the most attack power for these bows. You could go for higher Dexterity and lower Strength if you want, but your attack power will down at around 1 or 2 points, so it’s not really significant. You’ll want to keep increasing these for more damage, but you’re going to get probably only one attack rating per point.

When it comes to theFlask of Wondrous Physick, I’m using theBloodsucking Cracked Tearand theCrimsonburst Crystal Tear. I haven’t used these in a build before, so you’ll see these in more of our future builds.

Esentially,Bloodsucking Cracked Teargives you a 20% power increase for 3 minutes, but it continuously drains for health. It’s kind of a high risk, high reward playstyle. When you’re playing a bow build, your damage is low, so you’ll want to get any increase in your damage output.

Crimsonburst Crystal Tearis simply there to offset some of the health that you’re going to lose with the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear. This would help you to not drink a flask as often, so you can concentrate on the fight.

For theGreat Runes,Radahn’s Great Runewould be the best choice. You need the HP, FP, and stamina for this build, and Radahn’s Great Rune increases all of those.

That’s it for our Storm Arrow Build Guide! As always, let us know if you have questions or other tips in the comments below. We have a ton more builds coming for Elden Ring andShadow of the Erdtreeso stay tuned for those. If you need help finding items, and securing some personal objectives, make sure to check theElden Ring Map. Happy building!

Castielle

Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.