Elden Ring Claymore Build Guide - Spellsword
May. 15, 2024Elden Ring Claymore Build Guide – Spellsword
In this Elden Ring Claymore Build Guide, I’ll be showing you my Spellsword build. This is a variation of theSpellbladeandMagusbuilds that I did earlier on. This build focuses on stance breaks rather than critical attack damage. You can play this build early on in the game, but you will have to defeat Godrick the Grafted in order to get Glintblade Phalanx.
Spellblade is a quality build that utilizes Claymore and Glintblade Phalanx Ashes of War. Primarily scales with strength and intelligence and heavily relies on periodic stance-breaking and critical hits. Rendering enemies unable to retaliate.
We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This build is recommended for all levels.
The weapon that I chose for this build isClaymore, and there are a couple of reasons for that. The charged R2 attack of the Claymore is really strong. It has a thrust attack, which only the Claymore and Zweihander have, although the Zweihander is a Colossal Sword so you can’t use Glintblade Phalanx with it. I really like using the charged R2 from a safe distance so I can attack without taking damage. Additionally, the charged R2 attack ofGreatswordsis about double that ofThrusting Swords. While you might get more critical damage with aRapier, you’re not going to be able to break the guard or stance of an enemy as easily with a Thrusting Sword than you will with a Greatsword. Also, Claymore has a very long reach, so when you’re doing the follow-up attack with Glintblade Phalanx, you’re able to hit much further than you would with a Thrusting Sword. Lastly, the follow-up attack ofGlintblade Phalanxdoes Stance damage, about the same as a jump attack with the weapon type you’re using. If you’re using a Thrusting Sword, it’s going to deal less Stance damage than a Greatsword.
The way I have the Claymore set-up is I have a Heavy infusion and I’m using theAcademy Glintstone Staffto use Scholar’s Armament in order to buff my attack’s magic damage. I have about 50 Strength and Intelligence, splitting between these two attributes. If you’re wondering how to play this build from the start, you’re going to prioritize either Intelligence to get more magic damage, or Strength then buffing yourself withScholar’s Armamentand not worry about Intelligence. You’re probably not going to split between these attributes early on in the game, but once you get to NG+, it’s definitely a better way to go. At 50 Strength and Intelligence, you have about 900 attack rating when you’re buffed and using this two-handed. You can take those attributes to 80 and still get more damage all the way to NG+, which makes this build future-proof.
The damage withGlintblade Phalanxis higher if you’re just talking about the Glintblades that come out, because this deals 100% magic damage when you’re using Magic or Cold infusion. It doesn’t really do that much damage anyway, so we’re not building for Glintblade Phalanx’s damage. We’re just trying to get some damage out of it and get the Stance damage from the blades. Each blade deals 10 Stance damage for a total of 40 damage from Glintblade Phalanx. If you do a charged R2 attack while two-handing this weapon, it’s about 36 more, for 76 Stance damage. If you can hit back-to-back with these and hit with a regular R2 attack instead of the charged R2 attack, you’re looking at somewhere around 64 Stance damage, which is enough to break almost any enemy in this game. Not all bosses, but a lot of them.
You’re going to decide after casting Glintblade Phalanx if it’s better to use the follow-up attack and do less Stance damage but more damage in general, or use a charged R2 attack, get a little bit less damage, but get more Stance damage. That’s going to depend on the boss you’re facing and your spacing. For example, if you cast Glintblade Phalanx ahead of time, you’re going to follow-up with an R2 because you can only use the R2 attack immediately after casting Glintblade Phalanx.
We’re going to use theAcademy Glintstone Staffhere because this is going to give us the best sorcery scaling at our current Intelligence when fully upgraded. Depending on how much Intelligence you have or where you are in the game, this might not be the best staff for you. TheMeteorite Staffmight be better for you early on in the game, or theDemi-Human Queen’s Staff. Later in the game,Carian Regal Scepterwill be much better as your Intelligence increases further and further into NG+.
I’m using different pieces of armor for this Elden Ring Claymore build. I have theCarian Knight Helm,Blue Silver Mail Armor,Black Knife Gauntlets, andBlack Knife Greaves. It doesn’t really matter which armor you’re going to use, as long as you have 51Poise. I’m using theBull-Goat’s Talismanhere to add to this in order to reach that breakpoint. If you want to use a heavier armor to free up that talisman slot, you absolutely can.
The talismans that we’re using for this Claymore build are:Axe Talisman,Shard of Alexander, andAssassin’s Cerulean Dagger
Axe Talismanwill increase my charged R2 damage, which we use quite often.Shard of Alexanderincreases not only Glintblade Phalanx’s damage when they connect, but also the follow-up attack when you’re using that.Assassin’s Cerulean Daggerwill refund the cost of Glintblade Phalanx if I hit enemies with it and stagger them, then following it up with a critical attack. This is similar to what I did in the Spellblade and Magus builds.
Other talismans you can use are Spear Talisman to increase your R2 and charged R2 attacks while they’re attacking you, which happens a lot during boss fights, or maybe when enemies are charging towards you on the landscape. You could also use the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman in order to give yourself more protection. Magic Scorpion Charm isn’t a bad option for this build, because it will increase the damage of the Glintblades by 10%, since they do 100% magic damage. It will also slightly increase the damage of your weapon if you have magic damage on it.
Spell-wise, we only really useScholar’s Armament. This Elden Ring Claymore build has 50 Intelligence, so there are a lot of different spells you could use to further boost your magic damage.Terra Magicawill boost your magic damage, though you don’t deal a lot of magic damage with this build, so I don’t find that very useful.
You could add ranged spells to damage enemies far out into the landscape to have an easier time exploring. With 50 Intelligence, especially in NG+, you’re not going to be slaughtering anything. You could pick-off enemies at a distance or soften them up before they get to you if you want. This build is really about staggering enemies, so this isn’t something that I factored in here.
When it comes to the attributes for this Claymore build, I have: 54Vigor, 25Mind, 25Endurance, 50Strength, 13Dexterity, 50Intelligence, 7Faith, and 9Arcane. We don’t need any Dexterity, Faith or Arcane for this build. 13 Dexterity is for the Claymore’s requirement. We’re not going to increase it at all because of the Heavy scaling of our weapon.
54 Vigor is enough for you to be able to trade damage and not die. You try not to trade damage with this build, but it happens when you mistime your attacks or dodges. You should increase this to 60 throughout NG+.
25 Mind is here because you don’t really use a lot of FP with this build. Glintblade Phalanx doesn’t use a lot of FP, and you do a significant amount of buffing with Scholar’s Armament from checkpoint to checkpoint. It’s not a substantial amount to increase Mind to around 30-35 as it doesn’t cost as much as Golden Vow. You want to keep Scholar’s Armament’s buff up 100% of the time, so you will spend some FP doing that. You’ll get some FP back from Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger, so you could even remove 5 points from this.
25 Endurance allows us to use all the equipment that we have and still do a medium roll. You can increase Endurance if you want to use heavier armor to replace Bull-Goat’s Talisman and give yourself more protection. If you’re min-maxing, that’s what you should do.
We also have 50 Strength and Intelligence. We have good scaling with Heavy on the Claymore, so points in Strength are good. We also have good sorcery scaling with the Academy Glintstone Staff, which we’ll swap out for Carian Regal Scepter at around 65 Intelligence. Increasing these attributes will increase our damage, so both of these are really good. It just depends on which damage type you’re going for, if it’s physical or magic. I suggest increasing Strength first as you’ll get more counter damage when you attack. You can increase Intelligence first if you’d rather be a spellcaster.
When it comes to theFlask of Wondrous Physick, I like usingGreenburst Crystal Tearto give me more stamina recovery.Stonebarb Cracked Teargives us more Stance damage for 30 seconds, making it easier for us to stagger bosses. They can’t do anything for 30 seconds, and they’ll usually die even before that, so make sure to use this. If you want, you can also useMagic-Shrouding Cracked Tearto give yourself more magic damage, although it’s not a substantial amount.
As forGreat Runes, you should useGodrick’s Great Runeearly on because it increases six of the attributes you need, and it frees up points from Dexterity.Radahn’s Great Runeis also good for additional health, stamina, and FP.
Also, you gain 10% more Stance damage from attacks when you’re using it two-handed. That’s not going to apply to Ashes of War, but it will apply to your weapon attacks. For example, this will be helpful for enemies that can be staggered with 70 Stance damage, but you only have 66 Stance damage while one-handing the weapon.
That’s it for our Spellsword 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.
