Elden Ring Dragon Halberd Build Guide - Vanquisher
May. 19, 2024Elden Ring Dragon Halberd Build Guide – Vanquisher
In this Elden Ring Dragon Halberd Guide, I’ll be showing you my Vanquisher build. This is an all-game build which you can start using early on in the game.
The Vanquisher Build is an “all-game” build that players can use fairly at the beginning of the game and until the end. The highlight of this build is theDragon Halberdweapon, making it special because of the skill that is associated, which is theAsh of War: Spinning Slashthat buffs the damage with Ice Lightning by 160 Lightning Damage and 80 Frost build up for 45 seconds. Not only does it have great damage, but the weapon has a decent guard boost.
We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This build is recommended for all levels.
The weapon that I’m going to use for this build is theDragon Halberd. I find it very interesting and unique weapon, and it’s just fun to play with. You can get this weapon early on from theDragonkin SoldierinSiofra River. You can go down there and beat it if you’re confident enough, so you can play almost the entire game with it. If you don’t feel confident, it might take you a little while to get this build off the ground as you might need to level up or find another weapon until you obtain the Dragon Halberd. The requirements for the Dragon Halberd are really low, as it only requires 22 Strength and 10 Dexterity, so you can really use this early on in the game.
What makes the Dragon Halberd unique is it has an Ash of War,Spinning Slash. This is more or less the same as the other Spinning Slash but functions a little bit differently. It has a significantly higher FP cost, but it buffs your weapon with Ice Lightning, increasing your attack rating with lightning damage by 160. It not only does damage as a weapon skill, but it also buffs your damage. If you didn’t know, Ice Lightning isn’t the same as Lightning, because it builds upFrostbiteon each attack, allowing you to trigger it on tough enemies and bosses. One usage of Spinning Slash will buff your weapon, so you might just buff your weapon periodically for 17 FP. Its L2 follow-up costs only 11 FP, so it’s cost-effective to use it twice in a row if you’re trying to go for massive damage. However, out on the landscape, you may just need to buff your weapon and use it once.
TheDragon Halberdalso has a pretty good attack rating. While two-handing it at 55 Strength and 45 Dexterity, you have 730 attack rating, which is pretty good. This is all physical damage, so you can use buffs and items such asExalted FleshandFlame, Grant Me Strengthto increase it. Dragon Halberd will end up with like 890 attack rating, which is really high for a weapon that weights 10. It also has a decent Guard Boost at 51 when it’s fully upgraded.
Another thing I love about the Dragon Halberd is that its R1 attack thrusts, so you’re going to take advantage of theSpear Talismanto further increase your counter damage, which is what you usually do with halberds. You can mix up damage types as you can do slashing damage or thrust damage, which is really great
The armor that I’m using for this build is theGelmir Knight Set. I chose this for the aesthetics, so it doesn’t really matter which armor you’re using as long as you have more than 51 Poise here. The idea is that when you’re using Spinning Slash, you’re going to power through attacks from bosses and not get staggered while using it.
We’ll be using either theWarrior Jar ShardorShard of Alexander, whichever you want to use. These talismans will boost the damage of Spinning Slash, which is nice.Ritual Sword Talismanwill also boost our overall damage whenever we’re at full health, so you’ll most likely only get that buff on the first Spinning Slash you use on a boss fight. You’ll lose that buff as you trade hits with bosses and enemies, but you’ll do substantial damage on the first few hits. Also, when you’re out on the landscape, you’ll tend to not get hit with this weapon because of its excellent range. You’ll usually kill enemies pretty quickly so you wouldn’t take damage.
We can also use theDragoncrest Greatshield Talismanfor bosses, as we’ll be trading damage during boss fights. However, it’s not so good outside of boss fights, so you could swap it out for a talisman that helps with FP cost, such asCarian Filigreed Crest. This is going to help with the FP management since we’ll be using Spinning Slash regularly. The other talisman that I mentioned is theSpear Talisman, which increases your counter damage when you hit enemies that are mid-attack. Since you can poke with your Dragon Halberd, you can frequently do counter damage to enemies.
The attributes that I have for this Elden Ring Dragon Halberd build in NG+ are: 50Vigor, 30Mind, 25Endurance, 55Strength, 45Dexterity. You don’t need anyIntelligence,Faith, orArcanefor this build, although you can make a case for Faith in order to useFlame, Grant Me Strengthto kill tough enemies and bosses. You could even take it up to 25 forGolden Vow, but you don’t really need it for this build. You’re buffed while using Spinning Slash anyway, so you don’t need to focus on buffing yourself much.
Vigor is at 50 so that you could trade damage with enemies and not die. You’re not using a shield, so you’re exposed to hits, especially when you’re learning the build. Vigor is there just to help you survive.
30 Mind will help you use Spinning Slash more effectively. When you’re at NG+ or at the end of your first playthrough, you can swap outCarian Filigreed Crestfor this build. Early on in the game, items like Carian Filigreed Crest andAssassin’s Cerulean Daggerare good to have so you can use Spinning Slash more. However, as you increase Mind, you wouldn’t need these anymore, so you can replace these with something more beneficial to your build.
Endurance-wise, this Dragon Halberd build is very stamina-hungry. I find that Spinning Slash consumes a lot of stamina. I have 25 Endurance here, which is enough to medium roll with my set-up. You can allocate points elsewhere, and if you’re in your first playthrough, I recommend not focusing too much on Endurance. As you get into NG+, increasing your Endurance or using something that increases your stamina is very beneficial for this build. Sometimes, you won’t be able to use Spinning Slash because you run out of stamina.
Your Strength will be at 55 while Dexterity will be at 45. You’ll take both of these up to 80 eventually in NG+ and beyond, to further increase your damage. Dragon Halberd scales pretty well up to 80 in both attributes, which is why we’re a little bit skewed that way. Otherwise, you’re going to get a lot of damage out of this, even going up to 80. Because of this, Dragon Halberd is a good weapon for NG+, maybe even NG++.
As far asFlask of Wondrous Physickgoes, there’s a few ways you can go here. You can useStrength-knot Crystal TearorDexterity-knot Crystal Tearto further boost your damage. You can also useGreenburst Crystal Tearin order to give you stamina back faster, so that you can spam Spinning Slash and power through attacks for a few seconds, which is nice depending on the boss you’re fighting. You could also useOpaline Bubbletearin order to protect yourself from the first hit you take, which is great for boss fights. You’re going to be spamming Spinning Slash early on to buff yourself, negating the damage for one hit, which is nice.
If you’re wondering whichGreat Runeyou should be using for this build,Godrick’s Great Runeis a good choice early on. You need to increase five attributes for this Dragon Halberd build, more if you want to increase Faith for Flame, Grant Me Strength. If you’re playing without needing to cast buffs, I thinkRadahn’s Great Runewill be a better choice here because you gain health, stamina, and FP. As I mentioned, this is a stamina-hungry build and you need more FP to use Spinning Slash more.
That’s it for our Vanquisher 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.
