Elden Ring Faith Build Guide - Red Lightning
Apr. 21, 2024Elden Ring Faith Build Guide – Red Lightning
In this Elden Ring Faith Build Guide, I will be showing you my Red Lightning build. This is an NG+ build that focuses on the use of Dragon Cult Incantations and their lightning aspect. You can also play this build in your first playthrough, but it will take you a while to gather all the needed things for this. You won’t be able to play the majority of this game with this build, which is why I recommend to play this in NG+.
A Faith Build that focuses on the use of Dragon Cult Incantations that deal Lightning Damage.
We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This Build is recommended for Level 150-200.
Our seal set-up will be anErdtree Sealon our right hand, andGravel Stone Sealon our left hand. The Gravel Stone Seal buffs yourDragon Cult Incantationsas long as you’re holding it. Its scaling is not as good as the Erdtree Seal, so by holding it in the left hand while casting seals in our right hand, we’re going to get far better incantation scaling. We get the Erdtree Seal’s incantation scaling, while getting extra damage from the Gravel Stone Seal.
Once you progress enough in an NG+ playthrough, you can get a second Gravel Stone Seal. I would recommend swapping out the Erdtree Seal for that, upgrading it, and casting with it on your right hand. Having two Gravel Stone Seals equipped will provide you with more damage than using the Erdtree Seal, so this is not a bad way to go. If you’re on your first playthrough, you should only use the Erdtree Seal once you have over 60 Faith.
For armor, there’s no specific one you should be wearing. You can wear a helmet which givesFaith, if you want to min-max. For the other armor slots, you want to wear an armor set that gives you 51Poise. This will make it so that if you get hit by a regular attack while casting spells, it doesn’t interrupt your cast animation, which’ll make it easier to play this build.
When it comes to the talismans we have for this build, I haveFlock’s Canvas Talismanwhich increases the damage of incantations in general, which is nice.
We also have theLightning Scorpion Charmwhich increases all of your lightning damage, but it makes you take more damage. All of our spells are lightning, so it benefits all of them.
We also haveRitual Sword Talisman, which increases all of our damage by 10% whenever we’re at full HP. You’re going to try and stay at full HP as often as possible.
Lastly, theDragoncrest Greatshield Talismanto futher boost our defenses, particularly because we’re weakened a little bit from the effect of the Lightning Scorpion Charm.
The first spell we’ll be using isGolden Vow. This is a spell that increases your damage, while reducing the damage you take. I use this situationally, mostly for boss fights. I don’t really use this while I’m out on the landscape because my damage is good enough the way it is. If you need a little extra damage, you can use this and buff yourself. I know people have criticized some of my builds for buffs, but it doesn’t make sense to not incorporate that into this build when you need it.
The next spell we’re taking a look at isLightning Strike. Lightning Strike is found in the Weeping Peninsula, so you’ll find this very early in the game. This is your bread-and-butter spell with this build. This is going to be the spell that you’ll use to kill a majority of the enemies. It has very good damage and it hits in a zigzag line in front of you, so it can hit multiple enemies at the same time. What’s good about this is that you can cast it rapidly after casting it. This allows you to shell out a lot of damage quickly, and it allows you to burst down a difficult enemy or a boss. Another thing that I like about this spell is that you can use it on horseback, as it will go to your target no matter which direction you’re facing.
The next spell we’re going to be using isLightning Spear. It’s a staple in any lightning builds and incantation builds because it’s very effective. You can charge it for extra damage, and this is good for just picking off single targets or finishing of a target that needs to be hit quickly. This is your fast-casting spell, as Lightning Strike takes a second for that first cat. Lightning Spear will be your alternative if you need to get a fast cast off, or if you don’t have the spacing or time to use Lightning Strike. Something that’s interesting about this spell is that it’s only one FP less than Lightning Strike, so it’s not going to save you that much more FP to use this spell.
We’ll also be usingLansseax’s Glaive. This is a Red Lightning spell that sorts of make you rise up into a slash animation, hitting decent damage if you hit with a slash. It then sort of fans out in an AoE behind it, hitting enemies for less damage. You can use this when there’s a large number of enemies in front of you, as the AoE of the spell will kill them. You can also hit a fast-moving target that you can’t hit with Lightning Strike or Lightning Spear. It’s not going to miss very easily, and it deals decent damage.
Next, we haveFrozen Lightning Spear. This move sort of slams a blue lightning in front of you that does lightning damage in a cone. It also does frostbite build-up, and I find this spell good to apply the frostbite status effect. There are some enemies that are going to be resistant to lightning, and this is a good way to help debuff them so that your lightning spells do more damage. You can use this on lightning-resistant enemies at the start of the fight, so you can deal more damage to them. It’s also not a bad one-off spell, as you can kill enemies and bosses with it if it’s set-up correctly.
The last spell we’re going to be using isAncient Dragons’ Lightning Strike. This is another red lightning spell that summons lightning where you’re standing, then goes outwards from you in a directional pattern. It then strikes repeatedly as they move outward. When you charge it, it’ll go even further than it would originally. This spell is useful in two situations: when you’re surrounded by enemies, or when you’re next to a big enemy. This deals incredible damage, as it will hit them repeatedly. Another thing I like about this spell is that it can be cast from horseback, so you can round up a bunch of enemies on the landscape to wipe them out.
If you want, you can make a little bit of changes or tweaks for this build. If you want to use a melee weapon to use with this build,Coded Swordis not a bad choice to use. It scales only with Faith, so it’s not a bad idea to use this with the high Faith we have with this build. It’s also a different damage type, holy damage. It isn’t the greatest damage in the game, but it can still be good against bosses that are resistant to lightning. This also gives you a decent melee option if you don’t want to use ranged attacks, this is good enough for your first playthrough when you don’t have as much attribute points.
Slotting a spell likeHeal, orGreat Heal, can be a good choice. This will give you a way to spend FP to top yourself up, so you could get the benefits more often from Ritual Sword Talisman. With this build, you’re going to take a lot of small hits, so you’ll be going through your potions fast. If you have a heal over time, you have to wait for it to replenish your HP. Having these spells slotted will make playing this build much easier, as you won’t have to spend time just waiting around.
The attributes we have for this build are: 55Vigor, 44Mind, 20Endurance, 8Strength, 12Dexterity, 16Intelligence, and 9Arcane. You absolutely don’t need any Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, or Arcane for this build. Your starting class will dictate what the stat spread is for these, but you only really need Faith. You can add Arcane to this build if you want to add more incantations that have Arcane requirements, like Blood spells or Dragon spells. I didn’t include them here because it’s a lightning-themed build.
We have 55 Vigor here, which is a good amount for NG+. It’s probably more than I normally have, so you can take a couple points out here and put them into Mind if you want to get more FP. You will eventually want to take this up to 60 as you take increased damage from using Lightning Scorpion Charm. Even though we gain some protection from Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, you still want to make sure you have enough health to survive a hit.
44 Mind is there because you don’t have a regular attack with this build, unless you use something like a Coded Sword to save yourself some FP, which I would strongly recommend if it’s your first playthrough. You’re just going to be casting spells, so you’ll be consuming FP fast. Having a large FP pool will prevent you from having to use potions all the time, and some of these spells cost quite a lot of FP.
20 Endurance is simply here in order to be able to medium roll and you give you some stamina. A lot of times when you’re chaining Lightning Strike, you’re going to run out of stamina before you run out of FP. Getting Endurance up to like 25 or 30 wouldn’t be bad for this build, as it’ll allow you to use Lightning Strike more easily.
Lastly, we have 80 Faith here in order to take advantage of the Erdtree Seal. You’ll eventually take this up to 99, although the scaling from this drops off considerably. I think you only get one point of incantation scaling per point of Faith from this point forward, so you’re only looking at maybe 19 more incantation scaling. However, that’s the only way to increase your damage at this point.
If you’re using theFlask of Wondrous Physick, you want to use theLightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear, as it’ll increase your lightning damage. All of your spells are lightning, so you’ll be benefitting greatly from it whenever you need that extra damage for boss fights.
You might also want to useGreenburst Crystal Tearto increase your stamina generation. That way, if you fling a lot of spells, your stamina will replenish quickly. You’ll also be able to dodge roll with the additional stamina recovery while casting spells, so you’re not sort of handicapped by the stamina that you have.
For Great Runes, there are two that I would recommend. You can either useGodrick’s Great Runeearly on, until you haveRadahn’s Great Rune. I usually don’t recommend Godrick’s Great Rune unless you have five or six stats that need it, but it’s not a bad one to use early on. When you use Radahn’s Great Rune, you’re going to have more HP, stamina, and FP, which is what we need for this build.
That’s it for our Red Lightning 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.
