Elden Ring Paladin Build Guide: Confessor Build for Beginners
Mar. 6, 2024Elden Ring Paladin Build Guide: Confessor Build for Beginners
ThisElden Ring Paladin BuildGuide covers a reliable, formidable Beginner Paladin Build that players can get started with in Elden Ring. This build is thematically inclined towards the stalwart Paladin, who makes use of Holy magic to both buff and protect his party, while also being capable of holding his own in battle.
This Elden Ring Paladin Build is a beginnerConfessorClassbuild that focuses on being able to mitigate a lot of damage, dealing some back, while also havingIncantationson hand. This build will need some investment inFaithto buff your Incantation power, as well as make use ofAshes of Warthat empower your Weapon damage with the Faith attribute-scaling.
We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This Paladin Build is recommended for beginner players.
There are a few classes you can choose from when making this Elden Ring Paladin Build, but I like to go with the Confessor Class. I feel like it has a pretty good kit; it’s pretty good stat-wise and equipment-wise. It has a 100% physical damage resistantShield, although that will be replaced rather early on. It has a couple of Incantations, aTalisman, and it’s just a good all-around starting class. It also has some sort of inquisitor-looking attire which I really like the look of, although you’ll probably want to replace that for better armor later on.
ForKeepsakes, I like to pick theGolden Seed, this gives you an extra Flask to either heal or get mana with. It’s a huge advantage when you’re a new player in this game and it can make all the difference in some boss fights where you for example just needed one more flask and you would have won. It helps you get off to a better start. Obviously, you can choose any keepsake you want at the beginning but that’s my recommendation.
You can also goProphetfor this build if you want even more Faith but the kit that you start with is not so good and it doesn’t really have a Paladin feel to it. It’s more of a Faith-caster setup. You could also goVagabond, which is even tankier than the Confessor, but it doesn’t really have that Faith that you want so I feel like Confessor is the best choice here.
Okay, now that you’re done withCharacter Creation, or let’s say you’re already playing, the first thing you’re going to want to do is get theBrass Shield. This Shield is farmable at theWaypoint Ruins, and it’s not very far from the very beginning of the game. You’re going to farm theenemiesthere with the Shield equipped in order for them to drop it – you’ll notice who they are. Farm these guys for about 10-15 minutes and you should get this Shield unless you get luckier and it drops earlier.
This is another 100% physical resistant shield, but it has a higherGuard Boost. Guard Boost reduces theStaminayou consume when you block and that’s exactly what you need for this build because you need to be able to absorb attacks with the Shield and then counter with your own attacks. This Shield has a 16 Strength requirement and you only start the game with 12 as a Confessor so you’ll need to pump that up four points rather quickly, as soon as you can. If it took you about 10-15 minutes to farm these enemies in order to get the shield then you probably have about that many in levels anyway so that should work out just about right.
Make sure that while you’re in the Waypoint Ruins, you grab theItemin thechestthat’s at the bottom of like a little set of stairs going down. This will allow you to slot Ashes of War on your weapon and you’re going to need that right away so make sure you grab it while you’re there, once you have the shield.
Once you have that item, you’re going to hop on your horse and head up the hill toStormhillwhere alone knightis wandering around up there kind of on the edge of a cliff. You’re going to kill this guy and he’s going to give you an Ash of War (Golden Vow) that’s going to allow you to put holy damage on your weapon and make it scale with Faith a bit, so you’re going to get more improved damage out of that weapon.
It’s also going to give you an ability that you can use that buffs the defense and attack of all those around you that are friendly. So if you summon wolves or summon a pack of whatever spirits, it will actually buff them too which is fantastic and kind of falls into that Paladin theme. This also works in Multiplayer and, it will buff people in your group as well. So if you wanted to be that like buffer tank character like that Paladins typically are then this is fantastic for that.
Now that you have it, you’re going to want to slot that onto your weapon at the nearestSite of Grace, and then you’re going to head south down the road to theWeeping Peninsula. Just past a bridge there and through a little cavern area there’s going to be another Site of Grace next to a merchant, and you’re going to rest there and wait until nightfall. There is aNight’s Cavalrythat spawns there, and you’re going to want to defeat it to get theAsh of War: Barricade Shieldfor your shield.
This ability is absolutely fantastic – it’s a game-changer. This Ash of War buffs your shield so that when you use it, for about ten seconds or so, it allows you to absorb attacks with your shield even more effectively to the point that enemy attacks will just be rebuffed off of it, giving you an opening to Block Counter and allowing you to save that Stamina in order to attack.
I cannot stress how valuable this is. You can literally go toe-to-toe with bosses and just block their attacks and swing back at them. It is absolutely devastating and you’re going to want to use this against pretty much any tough enemy.
Now that you have the equipment that’s needed for a Paladin, for the most part, you could probably sub out some of your Armor pieces for some heavier Armor, or something that looks a little more Paladin-themed as you find more armor. But this is generally the setup we’re going to use for the early portions of the game. Remember, this is a beginner build – you obviously can swap things out later on in the game but this will get you started playing that Paladin style early on in the game.
So let’s talk aboutStats. This Paladin Build needs several stats, it is a very stat-hungry build. It needs Strength to use better Shields and also to increase general weapon damage. It needs Endurance to use heavier Armor and more stamina for blocking, it needs Faith to increase the damage and healing of its Incantations, and it also needs Vigor. The Confessor class does not start with a lot of health and any time you’re playing a melee character, you need health. You will get hit it, just happens – nobody’s perfect – so you’re going to need a lot of health as well.
Once you have that 16 Strength for the Brass Shield requirement, I recommend pumping Vigor for a while. You start at 10 so you’ll want to get that up to 15 or 20 as quickly as you can because you’ll notice that you die rather easily. Take a couple of hits and you’re dead early on in the game. So, getting that bigger up to 15, or 20 would be even better. Once you’ve done that, you can start putting a few points into Endurance and then start really cranking Faith up.
So the main strategy here is that you walk into a boss, summon yourwolvesor whateversummonyou want, buff with the Golden Vow, pop a blue pot, and then go to town attacking.
Use Barricade Shield whenever you have to, and Block Counter when you get attacked. Block Counters are accomplished by pressing Heavy Attack (R2 most of the time) just after your Shield is struck by an attack. Not only does Block Counter do high damage, but it also deals considerable Stance Damage which tends to leave enemies vulnerable to Critical Attacks. You don’t have to use them all the time, but you should be proficient in using them when playing a Paladin, as its a huge part of the playstyle.
As a Paladin build, this setup doesn’t have a ton of damage compared to some other builds. You’re not going to be a DPS machine with this build, but you’re going to have rather high survivability. You’re going to be able to tank effectively for your group or by yourself, and you shouldn’t die very very easily. Blocking makes all the difference in the world and it’s very hard, especially for new players, to get the hang of Souls-like combat without using a shield. It’s a more advanced play style to go without a shield in a lot of cases, unless you’re simply hanging back and range-ing with staff – but even then most mages have a shield in the offhand a lot of times in order to block incoming attacks. If an enemy gets too close and they don’t really have a way to escape they can still block. So. using a shield can be very very good for new players.
Feel free to swap out the Ash of War on your weapon at any point for another sacred version if you can find one, like maybeSacred Bladeif you get that one and you like it better. Really what that Ash of War: Golden Vow is there for is to provide that holy damage and Faith scaling on your weapon so as you crank Faith up, which you should to increase your Incantations’ power, you’re dealing more damage with your melee attacks as well. Sacred Blade accomplishes this same function so feel free to switch to it if you’d like. However, feel free to stay with Golden Vow too, because it does buff your group and if you know that you’ll be in a group very often, like engaging in co-op, or if you summon a lot, then it’s a good one to keep equipped as well.
In terms of spells, there isn’t really an IncantationVendorreally early on in the game like there is forSorceries, so these are kind of scattered around the map, and they do various different things. So you’d have to check ourInteractive Mapfor the locations of these to see if any of them interests you. Some of them are offensive and some of them are more fire-based, which might not fit the Paladin theme, but you might want them anyway for your build.
You’re going to have to check around for that to make sure you get those, but if you absolutely want to go to anIncantation Trainer, the fastest way to do that is to just get on the road in Stormhill, and go east intoCaelid. Rest at the first Site of Grace there. Once you do, you’ll actually get taken toRoundtable Hold, which is like the Firelink Shrine of the game, if you will – it’s the hub area. There is an Incantation Trainer there that will teach you some new spells so you can book it over there – it’ll take you about five minutes to ride there probably if you just want to beeline it – but that’s a good way to get some more Incantations early since there is a vendor there.
And that’s it for our Beginner Paladin 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.
