Elden Ring Arcane & Faith Build - Dragon Knight

Apr. 8, 2024

Elden Ring Arcane & Faith Build – Dragon Knight

In this Elden Ring Dragon Knight Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you my Dragon Knight build. This is an evolution of the Dragon Priest build, and this build can be played at around level 100. If you want to find out how to play that build around this level, then this guide will show you all the information you will need to know.

An Arcane/Faith Build that focuses on the use of Dragon Spells, as well as boosting general Incantation and melee damage.

We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This Build is recommended for Level 100.

When I started working on this build, I was trying to put together a pureFaithcaster. What I quickly realized was thatArcaneis the way to go if you’re trying to play a Faith caster because theDragon Communion Sealis too good. Not only does it boost the damage of Dragon spells, but it also has S-scaling in Arcane and C-scaling in Faith, making it outperform any of the seals that I’ve tested at this point in the game.

I didn’t set out to make a Knight build when I was working on this build, but I quickly realized that when you have theJellyfish Shieldon your left hand in order to boost your damage by 20%, that means you have to put the seal on your right hand in order to maintain that buff. You’re already halfway there to a tank if you put a weapon in your right hand after you buff with Golden Vow, having a +35% increased damage which makes for a good melee opportunity. When you combine that with any sort of weapon that has Arcane scaling, you will do incredible damage. Since you can change a lot of weapons’ Ash of War to occult, this makes them scale with Arcane.

When it comes to the weapon that you want to use, it’s really up to you. This build is not supposed to be focused on the weapon specifically, so any weapon that has occult affinity or comes natively with Arcane-scaling is fine. I picked theIron Greatswordfor mine because in my testing with Bloody Slash, which also increases in damage per point of Arcane, it did the most damage on greatswords and curved greatswords. However, if you want to get your equip weight down, which you might want to do because your stat spread is kind of difficult to maintain, you could use a lighter weapon like a straight sword or a long sword, then set it to occult. You can pull points out of endurance by doing this, which will free up some points for the stat spread of the build.Bloody Slashhits like a truck with this build because you’ll be buffed withGolden Vow, and you’ll have a lot of points in Arcane.

When it comes to armor, you can really use any that you want. I recommend using the heaviest you can get away with while still being able to medium roll. One piece that’s absolutely crucial for this build is theSilver Tear Maskbecause you need the Arcane that this helmet provides in order to help alleviate some of your stat spread. However, it reduces your attack power by 5%, but it’ll end up being around 1% by having a B Arcane-scaling weapon.

Radagon’s Soresealis there to alleviate some of the stat problems this build has at level 100. As you approach level 150, this isn’t going to be as much of an issue and you’ll probably be able to pull this out of the build in order to increase your protection. Right now, this is a stat-hungry build because you need Strength and Dexterity for the shield requirements, and having extra Endurance and Vigor is really good for this build.

Faithful’s Canvas Talismanincreases the potency of your incantations by a small percentage. In my testing withDragon Communion Incantations, this boosts them by a substantial amount. If you’re using these incantations, which you definitely should for your build, you should always have this one equipped.

TheCurved Sword Talismanis there for block counters. If you’re playing more of a caster and you’re leaning away from the Knight side, you can probably swap this out with one of the other charms I mentioned. You can do block counters with this build because you have a shield, and you can deal fantastic damage with the way you’re set-up with that. There’s no reason not to have this.

The fourth slot is up to you, and there are three choices here. TheRitual Sword Talismanwill boost you damage by a total of 10% if you’re at max health. If you’re using Bloody Slash, this isn’t going to benefit you as you will be dealing damage to yourself. However, if you’re not using Bloody Slash, you’re going to use either theFire Scorpion Charmor theMagic Scorpion Charmin order to boost your fire damage or magic damage. You can use swap them around depending on the situation. If you don’t know which one you’re going to use, I would default to the Fire Scorpion Charm because you’re going to use Black Flame for this build.

There are a total of nine spells that we use for this build. These are:Golden Vow,Blessing’s Boon,Lightning Spear,Flame, Grant Me Strength,Black Flame,Stone of Gurranq,Agheel’s Flame,Smarag’s Glintstone Breath, andRotten Breath.

Golden Vowis there to boost your damage by all sources by 15% for 90 seconds, as well as increase your defenses if you’re going to have light defenses because you have Radagon’s Soreseal and one of the scorpion charms equipped. Getting all the defense you can is great and also boosting that damage at the same time. You want to pretty much want to keep Golden Vow up 100% percent of the time if possible, at least when you’re fighting.

Blessing’s Boonis there for a heal over time if you decide to use Bloody Slash. If you’re not using Bloody Slash, you probably don’t need this spell.

Lightning Spearis there to give you a ranged lightning option, and sometimes enemies are weak to lightning so this is good to have.

Flame, Grant Me Strengthis there to boost your physical and fire damage. This will boost Black Flame, Agheel’s Flame, Stone of Gurranq, and your melee attacks. It’s very situational because it only has a 30-second buff, but this is something you should use before going through a boss fog or facing a difficult enemy. However, you probably won’t be using this regularly.

Black Flameis there to give you a ranged fire option. It’s probably one of the best ones out there, and it does a fairly good amount of damage with this build. You want to use this when lightning isn’t useful, and flame is a better option.

Stone of Gurranqis your physical damage ranged option for an enemy that’s resistant to fire or lightning. You can chain this spell by mashing R1 over and over, which is great.

Agheel’s Flameis an upgraded version ofDragonfire, and this spell absolutely hits like a freight train with this build. You can basically just melt bosses with it especially when you have the scorpion charm, Ritual Sword Talisman, and all your buffs. It’s devastating, and you’re going to want to use this to kill tough enemies that are weak to fire.

Smarag’s Glintstone Breathis basically the same thing but a magic damage version. It gives you an alternate damage type and that benefits from the Magic Scorpion Charm instead of the fire one, so you want to swap that if you’re planning on farming or helping people with bosses. Just like Agheel’s Flame, this spell is a boss melter.

Lastly, we haveRotten Breathbecause it’s there to set the Scarlet Rot status effect. We’re not really using it for the damage as much as that status effect. Maybe there’s a fight where you want to set this on a tough boss. You shouldn’t need it because the other two spells are devastating, but it’s there as a back-up in case.

Generally, how this build plays is that you’re going to roam around in the landscape or in dungeons. You’re going to keep Golden Vow up most of the time and keep the buff on your Jellyfish Shield when you want to attack as it’s only a 30-second buff. You’re going to refresh the buff before you go into a group of enemies, which’ll buff your damage and melee attacks by another 20%. You’re going to be throwing your spells such as Lightning Spear and Black Flame, chucking them out sparingly because you don’t have a ton of FP with this build at this level. You’re going to be switching up between melee and ranged spells, not necessarily focusing on range. If you want to go only range, you’re going to need a lot more FP. For tough bosses or a pack of enemies, you’re going to use Agheel’s Flame or Smarag’s Glintstone Breath to melt them.

What I like about this build is that you have a lot of tools in your kit, having different damage types. You can basically deal with any threat, and a lot of enemies just die quickly. If you help people with bosses with this build, they’re going to think you’re hacking. You’re going to enjoy having to play around with this build, having a lot of options. You can also add other spells to this build, as these are just a few that work really well.

The stats that I have for this build are 36Vigor, 20Mind, 21Endurance, 15Strength, 12Dexterity, 9Intelligence, 25Faith, and 50Arcane. The stats in the photo attached are with Radagon’s Soreseal, so you’ll want to subtract 5 from what you’re seeing on the screen which will match the numbers I listed.

Vigor is there because you’re going to be in melee range sometimes, and also because your Dragon Communion Incantations take a long time to cast. There’s a real possibility you’ll get hit in the middle of casting them, and you want to live.

20 Mind is the bare minimum, as you can get away with this build and still use everything in your tool kit. Keep in mind that if you do want to play as a pure ranged caster, you’ll want to at least have this to 30 or 35 while dropping points from Vigor.

Endurance is at 26 as this is the bare minimum I need to use the Iron Greatsword, Jellyfish Shield, and the armor that I’m wearing. This may vary depending on what you’re going to use. You don’t want any more endurance here than you absolutely need in order to keep those stat points for other stats at this point of the game. As you progress further in the game, it’s not going to matter as much. For now, you want to keep that as low as you can.

Strength and Dexterity should only meet the minimum requirements for the Jellyfish Shield. You won’t be needing any more than that. You’re also getting additional Dexterity from Radagon’s Soreseal, so you won’t really need to put points there.

Faith is at 25 to not only meet the requirements for Golden Vow, but also for the advanced versions of the Dragon Communion Incantations. Keep in mind that the Dragon Communion Seal has C-scaling in Faith, so you’re going to benefit in terms of spell damage from those points as well and they’re not just wasted to unlock spells.

Lastly, 50 points in Arcane. Arcane starts to fall off right about at this point in the game, so we don’t want to add more points in Arcane. As you progress through the game, you’re probably increasing this to just boost your damage. This is a good point to stop because you need points for your other stats, and your stat spread is all over the place.

You’re going to want to use theFlask of Wondrous Physickwith this build. You’re going to want to change the damage type that it buffs in that flask between magic and fire, depending on which breath you’re using at the moment. Another one you’ll want to have for this flask is theCerulean Hidden Tearas this eliminates your FP cost for 10 seconds. If you use the flask while having the Cerulean Hidden Tear, you can just use spells such as Agheel’s Flame for boss fights, melting them in seconds. You’ll want to get in the habit of doing this when you need it.

That’s it for our Dragon Knight 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.