Elden Ring Black Flame Faith Build Guide - Black Flame Spellblade

Apr. 8, 2024

Elden Ring Black Flame Faith Build Guide – Black Flame Spellblade

In this Elden Ring Black Flame Faith guide, I’ll be showing you my Black Flame Spellblade build. This is a level 100 version of the Black Flame Apostle build and sort of advances that build. If you’ve been wondering what to do with that build, then you should read this article.

A Dexterity/Faith Build that uses Black Flame and Bleeding to destroy enemies.

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

The first thing I want to do is talk about the weapon to use for this build. I am using theCross-Naginatafor this build, but there are several weapons you can use for this build. You can actually use theFlamberge,Nagakiba, orScythe. The reason for that is that all these weapons allow you to use certainAshes of Warand they all have bleed build-up on them. You can use any weapon you like that uses the Ashes of War, but I feel like having the bleed build-up on the weapons intrinsically is very good for this build when coupled withBlood Flame Blade. Blood Flame Blade is simply less effective on weapons that don’t have bleed on them. If you make a weapon bleeding using an Ash of War, we can’t use the Ashes of War we want to use and you won’t be able to buff with Blood Flame Blade. That’s why finding weapons that have bleed on them that can also use the Ashes of War we want to use is crucial for this build.

There are four Ashes of War you can use for this build and it’s going to come down to personal taste. You haveRepeating Thrust,Spinning Slash,Double Slash, andBlade Dance. You can use any of these that you want in combination with those weapons as long as it allows it. I’m not sure if every single one of those weapons allow all four of these, but they should allow three of them in most cases. Selecting which weapon with which weapon art you want to use is how you’re going to go about building this from the beginning.

The reason we want these Ashes of War is because they allow us to swing faster than we would normally with these weapons, allowing you to set bleeding in the case that you’re using Blood Flame Blade. It also allows you to hit multiple times with Black Flame Blade if you’re using that instead.

I chose the Cross-Naginata for my build is because Repeating Thrust sets the bleed status effect faster than anything, and used alongsideBlack Flamegets that status effect on a target quickly. It also attacks from a very good range. Being able to start the wind-up of this ability early in a lot of cases allows you to hit with the very tip of the spear, keeping you a good distance away from bosses and out of harm’s way. This makes you usually out of the boss’s reach once you roll backward. If you would use this with a rapier for example, you would get hit a lot more often. I also happen to like the moveset of this weapon, as it’s got a lot of pokes and an overhead slash with R1. You can hit tall and flying enemies with this move.

Additionally, Repeating Thrust costs 7 FP, which is substantially cheaper than Double Slash or Spinning Slash, so you’re going to save a lot of FP using this. But again, it’s up to personal taste and you can use whichever you like.

You’re going to want the Godslayer’s Seal for this build for the S-scaling and additional damage to Godslayer Incantations. It doesn’t buff all of the incantations you’ll use for this build, but it will boost the Black Flame ones which we’re going to use primarily.

For armor, it’s not very important with what you wear as long as you can do a medium roll. I’m using theBlackflame Monk setjust because it kind of fits the theme, but you can use whatever you like.

When it comes to talismans in this build, I don’t think there’s an exact perfect set-up. That’s because the way you play your Black Flame Spellblade is going to vary from person to person. Some people might use Black Flame a lot because it’s very good with this build, using melee only when they have to. Others will melee first and only use Black Flame when they need to. It will depend on the situation and what you’re facing, so your talismans are going to change. I’m going to run you through what those might be. What I generally use is the Winged Sword Insignia, Radagon’s Soreseal, Radagon Icon, and the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman +1.

TheWinged Sword Insigniaincreases your damage as you hit enemies repeatedly. This is really good with Repeating Thrusts. You do one cast to this, and you’re buffed. You do two casts, and you’re almost at max buff, which is really good in some situations. Radagon Icon is there to speed up the casting of your spells like Black Flame Blade and Black Flame so that these go off faster. You really can’t cast fast enough, so this is good. Radagon’s Soreseal is there to meet the requirements of the weapon while also giving us some extra Health and Endurance for equip weight. Any time you have a weapon that has over 15 Str/Dex requirements, this is a really good choice. Finally, Dragoncrest Shield Talisman is there to kind of offset some of that extra damage that we take from Radagon’s Soreseal, and just to make you a little bit more tanky in general.

There are several talismans that you can swap in and out of depending on what you’re facing. For instance,Lord of Blood’s Exultationincreases your attack power by 20% when someone near you has suffered blood loss for about 20 seconds or so. This is good for fights that are prolonged where you know you’re going to set bleeding early on or repeatedly, like a boss fight that’s particularly susceptible to bleed. I don’t recommend having it on all the time because I feel like you kill enemies too quickly for this to happen regularly, but it’s one that you can certainly use with this build. You can swap it out with the Winged Sword Insignia or Dragoncrest Shield Talisman.

Fire Scorpion Charm is also not bad for this build, as a lot of your incantations will benefit from using this talisman. A lot of your spells deal fire damage, so this talisman would boost all of those. This is a really good choice, but keep in mind that it lowers your mitigation. If you’re using this with Radagon’s Soreseal, you’re going to be really squishy so I wouldn’t recommend using both of those at the same time.

Another good choice for this build would be Ancestral Spirit’s Horn. This gives you 3 FP back after defeating enemies. You go through lots of FP for this build, so this would not be a bad option for you.

Lastly, Ritual Sword Talisman is also not a bad choice for this build, particularly if you find yourself using Black Flame more often because it will boost your overall damage by 10%, including spell damage, when your HP is at max. If you find yourself flinging Black Flame regularly, you’ll probably want to swap this one. Just make sure to keep your health at full in order to take advantage of that buff.

The spells I like to use for this build areBlack Flame,Black Flame Blade,Scouring Black Flame,Bloodflame Blade, andGolden Vow. These are not the only spells you can use for this. For instance, you can addBlessing’s Boonto give yourself a heal over time. You could also addLightning Spearto have another ranged option of a different damage type. There are lots of other spells you can use here, but the focus should be around those four or five spells.

Black Flameis an excellent ranged option with this build. It fires off pretty fast with the amount of Dexterity and Radagon Icon that we have. You can also charge it up for extra damage, for unaware targets or if you have time for slow enemies. What’s great about it besides the fire damage is the fact that it does percentage-based DoT depending on the max health of the target, which makes it more effective against more challenging targets as they have more health. If you’re a person who likes to co-op, bosses have way more health, so this is an effective spell for that.

Black Flame Bladedoes the same thing in terms of doing a DoT effect to the target’s health, being more effective depending on the max HP of the target. It’s a little bit harder to use because you have to buff yourself and then attack very quickly because it has a short duration. The best times to do these are after a dodge roll or while you’re sprinting, so you should get into the habit of doing this. It works really good with your weapon skill, whatever it may be, to apply a couple hits of this quickly. Black Flame Blade is not one of those spells that you’re going to use all the time. It’s too much of a pain in the butt to repeatedly buff yourself while fighting enemies. You’re going to use Black Flame Blade in co-op, in situations where bosses cannot bleed or have bleed resistance, or in situations where you cannot hit a boss repeatedly. Getting that little bit of Black Flame on them is better than hitting them with bleed build-up, as you’ll never get to build it up as the enemies do not allow you to hit repeatedly.

Scouring Black Flameis an addition over the Black Flame Apostle Build. What’s really good about this spell is the AoE. This build really lacks AoE, particularly if you’re using the weapon I chose because it’s a poking weapon most of the time. You’re going to give yourself an AoE option with this, and this can be charged up like Black Flame to launch farther instead of damage. It’s really good on big targets and targets that have shields. One of the downsides of playing with this weapon type are enemies with shields. You’re going to bounce off of shields, but this is really good at dealing with those enemies because not only does it put DoT on them through their shield. It still deals damage to them, but they’ll take full damage if they let go of their shield.

You’re going to generally useBloodflame Bladewhile you’re running around maps and legacy dungeons because bleeding is usually fine against enemies, and the buff lasts for 60 seconds compared to Black Flame Blade’s 5 or 6 seconds. It also enhances bleed build-up by making bleed build-up continue for a second or two. You’ll notice it when you stop attacking an enemy, as they’ll still keep bleeding. It makes this build shine, and it’s one of the reasons we want a bleed weapon to begin with.

Lastly, we haveGolden Vowwhich is a 90-second buff that increases your overall damage by 15% while increasing your damage mitigation as well. This applies to all your damage, so it’ll boost both normal attacks and spells. You’re going to want to keep this buff applied to you when you see a bunch of enemies up ahead and you know you’re going to be fighting for a couple of minutes. You shouldn’t use Golden Vow unless you know you’re going to be fighting a bunch of enemies as it costs a lot of FP. This is also great during boss fights.

My stats for this build are: 30Vigor, 30Mind, 15Endurance, 12Strength, 30Dexterity, 9Intelligence, 43Faith, and 10Arcane.

Vigor is pretty self-explanatory. You need health as you’re going to be in melee range a lot of times when you’re using these weapon arts that have long animations. You’re going to trade some damage. You need to survive those, and that’s what you have a lot of Vigor for.

30 Mind is there because this is an absolutely FP-hungry build. You cannot get enough FP, and I wouldn’t want to try playing this with less than 30 Mind. Black Flame is 18 FP, Spinning Slash uses 14 FP. It’s only 7 FP for Repeating Thrust, which is the reason I use it. Scouring Black Flame is expensive. These spells are very expensive, and you want to be able to use them whenever you want. Having a high FP pool is very much needed for this build.

When it comes to Endurance, you just want enough to equip the armor set that you’re wearing. 20 Endurance is usually enough to wear a medium armor set and still do a medium roll.

Strength is just enough to be able to wield the weapon you’re using. This will vary slightly depending on the weapon that you’ll be using. You may need a little bit more or a little bit less here, but it’s just at this number for the weapon requirement.

Dexterity is there for two reasons. Increase the damage we deal with weapons, as we put Keen scaling on all of the weapons that we pick. Whatever weapon you want, you’re going to pick Keen scaling. Most of these are Dexterity or leaning towards Dexterity-side of things to begin with so that’s going to benefit them a lot. It also increases the speed at which you cast spells, which is great.

Faith is not only there to meet the requirements for spells, but also to make your spells hit hard. If you’re playing any sort of Spellblade build, you want your spells to be effective, so you need a good amount of Faith here.

Lastly, you need at least 10 Arcane to use Blood Flame Blade. You don’t want any less than that, and you don’t really need any more here as your weapon doesn’t have Arcane scaling so it’s not going to increase in bleed build-up from Arcane like some weapons would.

That’s it for our Black Flame Spellblade build! 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.