Elden Ring Strength Faith Build Guide - Perfect Paladin

Apr. 11, 2024

Elden Ring Strength Faith Build Guide – Perfect Paladin

In this Elden Ring Strength Faith Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you myPerfect Paladinbuild. This is sort of an update to the Paladin build that we did at level 50. People have been waiting for a direct upgrade from this. TheLightning Lancerbuild wasn’t quite a perfect upgrade from this.

So in this guide, I’m going to be showing you how to make that, as well as giving you some tips on how to play this build all throughout the game so that you can make aPaladinand continue to upgrade it through the course of the game and into New Game+.

A Strength/Faith Build that focuses on the use of Block Counters and buffs to slash enemies to pieces.

We have over 110 builds for Elden Ring. This build is recommended for NG+

I’m going to be showing you the NG+, version first, and the first thing we’re going to talk about is the weapon that I’m using here. I’m using theMiquellan Knight’s Sword, and there are a couple of reasons for that. One, I like the R2 attack on this weapon. It pulls you forward in a slide that can gap close on enemies. A lot of times after you do a critical attack on them after you do aBlock Counterand then critical attack, they’ll jump backward, and I find that this R2 is good at gap closing that jump backwards so that they can’t get away from you, and you can slap them right when they get off the ground.

Secondly, the abilitySacred Bladewas buffed in patch 1.07. It adds more damage now. It’s faster. Most importantly, the blade portion of the attack does its own damage as well, meaning if you do this point blank on an enemy, you get the damage from the wave, and you get the damage from the sword, which allows it to do incredible damage when you’re point blank

I am also using theHaligtree Crest Greatshieldhere. I love the look of this shield. It allows you to do block counters more easily because it’s a Greatshield. It has very good guard boost when fully upgraded at 79, meaning you don’t take a lot of stamina damage when you block, allowing you to keep that stamina for attacking and counterattacking. It’s a really good shield, and it really just looks awesome for a paladin-type build because it kind of gives you that crusader, that holy warrior-type look.

Besides these two items, we have theClawmark Seal, which allows you to cast incantations with 280 incantations, scaling the way we’re set up. This isn’t terrible. It’s not fantastic for NG+  so I don’t think you’re going to be a primary spellcaster or anything like that, but it will allow you to cast spells. You don’t need to upgrade it if you don’t use any offensive spells, but I do find that some of them, likeWrath of Gold, are nice periodically to deal with groups of enemies where, or maybeRadagon’s Ring of Light, where you don’t have a lot of AoE with this build, and it’s great for large packs of enemies.

We obviously also use staple spells likeGolden Vow, which increases our attack and defense. We useFlame, Grant Me Strengthto increase our physical damage, and we haveBlessing of the Erdtreeto give us heal-over-time. So these are all really staple buffs in a Paladin-type build, and we definitely make use of them here.

I’m using theHaligtree Knight sethere for the chest, gloves, and legs, as well as theGreathelmfor the style that I’m using. You could also use theHaligtree Knight Helmif you like that better. That does give you someFaith, so there is some advantage to using that. I tried to get it to drop, but I couldn’t get it to drop, so I just went with theGreathelm. I like the look of it anyway but that’s the armor I’m using.

Again, it’s not the most optimal here. You could get more protection using theGreat-Jar’s Arsenalinstead of theBull-Goat’s Talismanif you want more poise and more protection.

Now, when it comes to the talismans I’m using for this build, there are a couple that I always use no matter what, and then there are a couple that I juggle around depending on the scenario. The first one is theBull-Goat’s Talisman.

This puts you over the poise breakpoint, allowing you to tank through a hit and continue to swing withSacred Blade,cast a spell, or even use one of your charged R2 attacks with theMiquellan Knight’s Sword. So this is really good. It’s not optimal for this build.

Ideally, you would probably put something like theGreat-Jar’s Arsenalhere and use heavier armor to get more protection and more poise, but I like the style of this armor and sort of the Paladin Crusader type feel, which is why I opted for this. But if you wanted to be perfectly min-max, you would put something likeGreat-Jar’s Arsenalthere instead and wear heavier armor. The other one isShard of Alexander. This is something that’s going to buff theSacred Blade.Sacred Bladehas just really good since patch 1.07, and you’re going to use it all the time now that it’s so quick and that you can use it point-blank.

It’s really good after you backstab an enemy or you riposte an enemy after you critically strike them after a block counter. When they’re trying to get up off the ground, if you use this point blank, you deal a ton of damage. It works well. So those two I use all the time. The other ones I sort of juggle around are theSacred Scorpion Charm. This will boost any holy damage spells you have, likeWrath of Goldor anything likeRadagon’s Rings of Light, and anything else you want to add that does holy damage. It’s going to boost some of the damage of your weapon, and it’ll boost the damage ofSacred Blade.

Sacred Bladeis 100% holy damage, so it’s really good for boosting the damage. Then it will increase the damage you take, so it’s not always optimal. But if you find you’re using spells more that deal holy damage orSacred Bladea lot, then this is a good one to have. Another one that we use here isRitual Sword Talisman. Again, this boosts all of your damage spells, weapon attacks, and weapon abilities. So it’s really good if you find you’re not taking damage or maybe you’re going into a fight and you want to try and burst something down really quickly and you don’t plan to get hit, this is a good one to have.

But during tougher boss fights, you’re probably going to take some damage, so I don’t recommend it there. Another staple of this build is theCurved Sword Talisman.This increases your block counter damage by 20%. You can one-shot enemies with block counters with this build early on in NG+ because of the amount of damage you do if you have this on there. So I definitely recommend having this most of the time equipped.

You probably swap it out on fights likedragonsand things like that where you’re just not going to do block counters. And then additionally, theAxe Talismanis good for getting those charged R2s. Again, this slides you forward and allows you to gap close. So you can use charged R2s with this sword probably a lot easier than you can use with some others because you can start charging outside of the range of the enemy’s weapon and then slide into it at the last second and hit them before they can finish their windup.

Now, if you’re talking about playing this build early on in the game, I would recommend doing some of the things you probably saw in the Paladin video. You can useNoble’s Slender Swordhere in order to get a very high critical attack longsword that also has very good reach.

TheMiquellan Knight’s Swordhas a very good reach as well. It’s good for block counters because sometimes when enemies hit you, they sort of push you away. And when you go to do a block counter, you might miss if you have a shorter one. So theNoble’s Slender Swordis good here, as is theLordsworn’s Straight Sword. It’s a bit shorter, but it also has a better critical rating than theMiquellan Knight’s Sword, and it has the same critical rating as theNoble’s Slender Sword.

So either of those two choices is good early on for a Paladin build. Now, because of the changes toBarricade Shield, I don’t recommend using this on your shield. Also, the way we’re set up here, we’re usingSacred Bladewith our L2. So if you haveBarricade Shieldon there, you’d have to two-hand to useSacred Blade, which I don’t like doing. And again, you can putSacred Bladeon either theLordsworn’s Straight Swordor theNoble’s Slender Sword. So that works well for this build.

Again,Sacred Bladeis very easy to find in Elden Ring early on. It’s near theThird Church of MarikaandLimgrave. So you’re going to be able to get this quickly. So what I recommend doing for your shield early on to get a goodGreatshieldis get theGilded Greatshield. And you can farm that from the ruins at the very beginning of the game.

There is the one knight there that has theGilded GreatshieldandSpear. You can farm him to get this. It’ll probably take you a while to do. But that is a greatGreatshieldthat you can get quickly in the game. So between that and theLordsworn’s Straight Sword, which is rather easy to get, or theNoble’s Slender Sword, which can take a while, you can farm all these items and getSacred Bladeright at the very beginning of the game and start playing this build.

Now when it comes to talismans, you can get a lot of these very early on. For instance, theCurved Sword Talismanis found inStormveil,and theAxe Talismanis found in theMistwood Ruins. TheSacred Scorpion Talismancan be found right in front of theSmoldering Church, which is on the road on the way toCaelid. This is not hard to do. You just kill the NPC invader there and you get this one.

So those are three of the ones that we use you can get rather early on. And obviously, you’re not going to even have three talisman slots that early in the game, so you’re going to be able to make this build and put it together fast. So talking about the Strengths of this build a bit, you have super tankiness. You have aGreatshieldthat allows for very easy block counters and you deal incredible block counter damage.

Some of the highest block counter damage I’ve seen on a build, particularly if you’re using a straight sword. You can buff your damage constantly withSacred Bladeand it gives you a ranged option if something hops backward or is just outside of melee range. You also have a gap closer with your charged R2 that allows you to get back in range or surprise enemies that are going to be aggressive and charge up to you.

You can start charging this up earlier so that they run into it when they’re coming into you. Just have a lot of flexibility. You can use spells and buffs. You can buff cooperative players or you can buff your spirit summons and you can make yourself tankier withGolden Vow. So there are a lot of things you can do with this build and it’s just a ton of fun to play in my opinion. I think Paladin builds are some of my favorite builds in this game.

Someone asked me, “What’s your go-to build?” I think I’ve always gravitated more towards paladin builds. I don’t think they’re the most powerful builds in the game in terms of outright damage, you just burst things down quickly but the amount of survivability they have and the amount of fun that you have with block counters and options that you have always appealed to me because you’re very safe with this sort of build. You can explore and not know what’s around the corner and you can face it with just about something to handle every scenario.

So talking about our attributes for this build, we have 50Vigor, 27Mind, 32Endurance, 40Strength, 25Dexterity, 16Intelligence, 45Faith, and 9Arcane.

We don’t needIntelligencefor this build. I started as anAstrologer, so disregard that. We don’t need anyArcanefor this build either. Those are just from the starting class.

50Vigoris enough to survive just about anything at the beginning of NG+. You have decent armor, you have aGreatshield, you’re buffing withGolden Vowso you’re not going to die right away at the beginning of NG+ with this amount of Vigor. But you will want to take this up to 60 eventually because you’re not using theDragoncrest Greatshieldon this build. So you should be getting that up to 60 at some point.

Mindis at 27 here. You probably want moreMindthan this. So you’re going to want to take this up to about 35 or 40 eventually throughout NG+ because you have a lot of FP usage with this.Sacred Bladeis not cheap. Buffs likeGolden VowandFlame, Grant Me Strengthare not cheap.Blessing of the Erdtreeis not cheap, and you use these things regularly. So they’re going to drain your FP. So getting more FP is good.

32Enduranceis about the breakpoint, give or take a couple of points of equip weight for this setup. If you change your armor around or you change your talismans around, etc. You might need another point or so. Generally speaking, this is enough for this setup.

I have 40Strengthand 25Dexterityhere. These further increase the damage of yourMiquellan Knight’s Sword.Miquellan Knight’s Swordscales best offStrengthandDexterity. And honestly, it’s kind of a tie about how much it scales off either one Strength. Probably slightly better thanDexterity. But as you get higher withStrength,Dexterity isgoing to start outperformingStrength. So you want to getStrengthup to about 45 andDexterityup to about 45 to increase the damage of your regular attacks further.

We haveFaithat 45 here. Because even though the weapon itself doesn’t scale well withFaith, theSacred Bladeweapon skill is 100% holy damage, meaning it only benefits from yourFaithattribute. So if you don’t have a good amount of Faith, yourSacred Bladeis going to hit like a wet noodle. And you need it to hit rather well, even if your regular attacks suffer a little bit, which they don’t suffer much, but they will suffer a little bit from prioritizing Faith. So you need that Faith there. Also, having highStrengthandFaithallows you to use theClawmark Seal effectively, which is another reason to have a goodFaith.

A couple of final tips before I wrap up this build guide. If you’re using theFlask of Wondrous Physick, you’re going to want to use theHoly-Shrouding Cracked Tear. This is going to make yourSacred Bladehit even harder. It does 100% holy damage. And any holy damage spells you cast, likeWrath of Goldor maybeRadagon’s Rings of Lightor anything like that, anything that does holy damage, it’s going to benefit.

And it does benefit your regular attacks, even though only about 35% of your regular attack damage is holy damage. But when you buff with Sacred Blade, you deal even more holy damage. That becomes about 50%. So this becomes even more beneficial when you’re buffed withSacred Blade. And lastly, For theGreat Runeto use here,Godrick’sis a really good choice. You needVigorwith this build. You needMind. You needEndurance. You need Strength. You needDexterity. You needFaith. That’s six of the eight attributes.

Getting five in each of those is just going to make your build that much better. That wraps up the perfect paladin video. I hope I’ve showed how to make a really goodPaladinbuild in New Game+. I know holy damage is not the most optimal type, but it still slaps pretty hard here. And a lot of the bosses I fought in this gameplay are holy resistant, and it still melted them pretty good. So really enjoy paladins in this game. 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.