Elden Ring Hand of Malenia Build Guide - Waterfowl Warrior

Apr. 25, 2024

Elden Ring Hand of Malenia Build Guide – Waterfowl Warrior

In this Elden RingHand of MaleniaBuild Guide, I’ll be sharing myWaterfowl Warriorbuild, designed for level 150 and tailored for NG+. This build features theHand of Malenia, a weapon you can only acquire near the end of your first playthrough, depending on the order in which you tackle the game’s content. Since this is the first NG+ build I’m showcasing, I plan to mix future builds between NG+ and endgame content as I create them. For now, enjoy this guide and look forward to more in the future.

A Dexterity Build that uses Hand of Malenia to devastating results via Waterfowl Dance.

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Let’s dive into the weapon for this build: theHand of Malenia, aKatanaknown for its impressive physical damage and exceptional scaling withDexterity. To optimize its potential, this build focuses on reaching 80Dexterity, as the weapon’s effectiveness begins to taper off beyond that point. However, as you progress further into NG+, you might consider pushing this stat up to 99 to keep boosting your damage output.

What’s unique about thisKatanacompared to others is that bleed buildup isn’t a significant focus for this build, mainly because you don’t have many ways to increase the rate of bleed accumulation. TheWaterfowl Danceability, despite its rapid sequence of hits, surprisingly doesn’t cause much bleed buildup, which is unexpected given how frequently it connects with enemies. So while you’d expect frequent bleeding due to the attack’s rapid succession, it doesn’t happen as often. Consequently, bleed isn’t a major component of this build, though you might still trigger it occasionally.

For regular enemies, you can rely on theKatana‘s running R2 attack and standard strikes. But for tougher foes and bosses, theWaterfowl Danceis your go-to move. A great advantage of this ability is that you can chain it by pressing L2 multiple times—you can do it up to three times in a row.

While performing this move, you gain some poise, allowing you to avoid being staggered depending on the point in the animation and theStrengthof the incoming hit. Additionally, this build emphasizes high poise to further reduce the risk of interruption during the combo, making it a powerful tool for tearing through bosses and challenging enemies.

One of the downsides of theWaterfowl Danceis that it consumes a ton of stamina. If you perform the full sequence by pressing L2 three times, you’ll likely deplete most, if not all, of your stamina bar. This makes it challenging to immediately follow up with another combo of three L2 presses, as you might not have enough stamina left for the full sequence.

This is why managing your stamina is crucial when using this skill effectively. It’s also why this build prioritizes highEndurance, not only to increase your stamina pool but also to support equipment that provides high poise. Having that extra stamina reserve is key to making the most of this weapon.

Regarding the armor, I went with theCleanrot setprimarily for its aesthetics. It gives you thatCleanrot Knightvibe while wielding this weapon, which looks pretty cool. The poise is decent, sitting at around 48, but it’s just shy of the breakpoint for builds that require high poise due to lengthy attack animations. Ideally, you’d want to aim for about 56 poise to maintain stability during intense moves.

To compensate, I equipped theBull-Goat’s Talisman, which provides enough poise to withstand a couple of hits while executingWaterfowl Dancewithout breaking your flow. However, this setup isn’t entirely optimal. Looking at my equip load, there’s room to carry heavier armor, which typically offers both better protection and higher poise. If you’re willing to use the extra load capacity, you could switch to heavier armor for increased resilience.

If you want to play this build 100% optimized and not go the cosplay route that I did, what you would do instead is wear heavier armor and then swap out theBull-Goat’s Talismanfor something likeGreat-Jar’s Arsenal, or you could swap it out for something like theGreen Turtle Talismanto get more stamina recovery to help out with yourWaterfowl Danceuses. This will give you more protection and more poise as well.

Besides that talisman, the other talismans that I use areShard of Alexander,Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, andMillicent’s Prosthesis.

These two talismans,Millicent’s ProsthesisandRotten Winged Sword Insignia, increase your damage as you hit rapidly.Waterfowl Dancehits over and over rapidly, so this builds up your attack power, which is then going to increase the damage of yourWaterfowl Danceand your regular attacks. You can’t get both of these talismans in one playthrough unless you have someone drop you one.

So it’s likely that you’ll useWinged Sword InsigniaandMillicent’s Prosthesisunless you can get someone to drop youRotten Winged Sword Insignia. If you have it, useRotten Winged Sword Insigniaover Winged Sword Insignia.

Shard of Alexanderincreases yourWaterfowl Dancedamage by about 15%, which is great because you’re going to use this on all the toughest bosses.

If you prefer a more optimized build, you might consider using heavier armor instead, allowing you to replace theBull-Goat’s Talismanwith something like theGreen Turtle Talismanfor faster stamina recovery, theGreat-Jar’s Arsenalfor extra equip load, or theDragoncrest Greatshield Talismanfor increased defense. This approach gives you flexibility in terms of both poise and protection.

The general playstyle for this Hand of Malenia Build is straightforward. For regular enemies, you can use running R2 attacks with theKatana, and when facing groups or tougher foes, switch to theWaterfowl Dance, which has a significant area of effect. This move is particularly effective against pesky birds or clusters of enemies.

If you’ve used otherKatanasin the game, you’ll be familiar with the basic attacks, so stick with those for standard encounters. Reserve theWaterfowl Dancefor more challenging situations, pressing L2 a bit earlier to account for its brief windup time, ensuring it connects as enemies approach.

One of the great things about this build is that it doesn’t rely on external buffs. The power-ups come from actually hitting enemies, so you don’t need to useGolden Vowor any other buffs that require regular reapplication. If you’re not a fan of constantly refreshing your buffs, this build is ideal. It’s straightforward and allows you to focus on combat without the hassle of maintaining active buffs.

Moving on to the stats for this build, I have 50Vigor, 25Mind, 36Endurance, 11Strength, 80Dexterity, 16Intelligence, 7Faith, and 9Arcane.

I started as anAstrologerfor this build. That’s why I have 16Intelligence. You don’t need anyIntelligence,Faith, orArcanefor this build. So if you’re playing a different class, your stat distribution will be a bit better as those points inIntelligencecould be inStrengthorDexterityorEnduranceorVigororMind.

For this Hand of Malenia Build, I have setVigorto 50. This is sufficient for my playstyle, although it’s cutting it close at times. Depending on your aggression level and personal preferences, you might consider increasing it to around 60 during your playthrough to give yourself more of a safety margin. As I progress deeper into NG+, I’ll likely bump it up to 60 for some extra health cushion.

ForMind, 25 is sufficient for this build. The constraint onWaterfowl Danceisn’t your FP but your stamina. Even with ample FP, your stamina won’t support frequent spamming of this move. Thus, you don’t need more than 20-25Mind. If you wish, you can lower it to 20 and invest those extra points inVigor,Endurance, orDexterityfor increased damage output.

RegardingEndurance, you can’t really have enough for this build. HighEnduranceis crucial, especially if you’re aiming for heavier armor with high poise while maintaining a medium roll. If you want to be fully optimized and still retain mobility, you’ll need a good deal ofEndurance. This also helps with stamina forWaterfowl Dance, making 50 a good target. You can redistribute a few points fromMindintoEnduranceto accommodate heavier armor or continue to increaseEnduranceas you level up to improve your protection and poise.

When it comes toStrength, theHand of Maleniadoes scale a little bit with it, albeit poorly. You only need 11Strengthto two-hand this weapon, which is what we’re doing. I didn’t put any more points here to give us more points for things likeVigor,Endurance, andMind.

Theoretically, once you max outDexterityat 99, you could probably start putting points intoStrength. If you have your optimalEndurance,Vigor, andMindspread, then you would want to start increasingStrengthto keep increasing your damage, although it’s only going to be by a little bit. But realistically, that’s probably not until NG++ or the very tail end of NG+, depending on how much of NG+ you do.

Lastly, when it comes toDexterity, 80 here. It starts to fall off significantly after 80Dexterity, so you’re really going to hang out here for a while until you get the other things sorted, like your armor and poise, and then continue to increase your damage withDexterity. Then you’ll continue to increase your damage withStrengthafter that. Again, this is probably the latter half of NG+, probably into NG++, that you’ll start increasingDexterityup to 99.

A couple of tips about this Hand of Malenia Build before we wrap up. First, you can use something in your offhand like theSacrificial Axe. Although I’m not doing it here, that will give you FP back when you kill something. SinceWaterfowl Dancekills enemies rather easily, this can save you some FP. You really don’t have FP issues with this build, so it’s not something you need to worry about much.

You could also put something like theBlasphemous Bladein your offhand to gain health back when you kill enemies. It’s not a bad option, because you do tend to trade damage if you don’tMindhaving the weight of theBlasphemous Bladein this build. But that really depends on how muchEnduranceyou have, what armor you’re using, and how much poise you have.

When setting up yourFlask of Wondrous Physick, definitely include theGreenburst Crystal Tearfor increased stamina recovery. Stamina is the biggest limiting factor forWaterfowl Dance, and you want to be able to use it repeatedly in boss fights. Faster stamina recovery lets you pull off the full combo without interruption, which is critical for maintaining your damage output. It’s frustrating to startWaterfowl Dance, try to use it again, and find you only have enough stamina for one L2 press instead of all three. To avoid that, ensure you have theGreenburst Crystal Tear.

Additionally, include a tear that boosts your damage with successive attacks. This effect complementsWaterfowl Dance‘s multiple hits, giving you a noticeable increase in attack power and making this skill even more potent. With these two tears in your flask, you’ll be better equipped for boss fights and high-stamina combat scenarios.

That wraps up our Waterfowl Warrior build. I hope you enjoyed this NG+ build, we’ll have more NG+ builds coming out. As always, let us know if you have questions or other tips in the comments below. We have a ton more builds coming forElden RingandShadow of the Erdtreeso stay tuned for those. If you need help finding the spells, items, or equipment in this build, and securing some personal objectives, make sure to check theElden Ring Map.

Castielle

Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.