Elden Ring Wing of Astel Build Guide - Nebula Knight
May. 14, 2024Elden Ring Wing of Astel Build Guide – Nebula Knight
In thisElden Ring Wing of Astel Build Guide, I’ll be showing you my Nebula Knight build. This is a level 150 Knight build that uses Intelligence and Dexterity in order to achieve great results.
A Dexterity/Intelligence Build that uses the Wing of Astel to great effect by capitalizing on its weapon skill Nebula.
We have over 110Elden Ring Buildsnow, for all classes and playstyles. This build is recommended for level 150.
The weapon that we’re using for this build is theWing of Astel, which is aCurved Swordthat deals physical and magic damage. Its weapon skill,Nebula, is extremely deadly as it shoots out a bunch of stars that detonate after a second or so. What’s great about this ability is that it’s 100% magic damage, so you can boost it very easily withMagic-Shrouding Cracked TearandMagic Scorpion Charm, or evenTerra Magica. Also, the stars tend to hit in a wide area if they’re out in the open, but it groups up you’re in a tight corridor. You can lure an enemy into a tight corridor then cast this, so the stars will hit the enemy over and over with that ability.
Another cool thing about the Wing of Astel is that it has a unique R2. Its animation is pretty similar to the otherCurved Swords, but it shoots out little waves that deal independent damage from the blade itself. If you charge it, you’ll actually get two of them in a row. It hits an enemy from point black with the weapon, and the waves come out similar toMoonveil. If you hit them with the wave fromTransient Moonlightand the sword itself, you’ll deal increased damage. It’s something similar here, so you want to charge the R2 when you’re on top of the enemy in order to deal substantial damage. A lot of times, this will stagger them as well, allowing you to get a critical strike. Since we’re using Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger, you’re going to gain a lot of FP back when you do that.
I was theorycrafting with this build with the Wing of Astel, which I’ve been doing for some time. I always thought that I would use dual Curved Swords with this, maybe a Cold infused Bandit Curved Sword in the offhand, or Scavenger’s Curved Sword for a little bit of bleed as well, thinking you can hit over and over with dual Curved Sword attacks, stack buffs fromMillicent’s ProsthesisandWinged Sword Insignia, then use Wing of Astel for massive damage. However, I found that Wing of Astel is powerful on its own, and you don’t do enough normal attacks as you use the charged R2. I ended up using a shield to get block counters out, as we aren’t really going to use dual Curved Swords effectively. You can still use a dual wield set-up with Wing of Astel with Cold infusion on your offhand to get that Frostbite build-up, but I like the Knight playstyle of this build. It’s also a bit unnecessary to dual wield, so I didn’t go for it.
Additionally, I’m using aCarian Glintblade Staff. I don’t have it upgraded as the reason I’m using this one is because it’s lightweight and it allows me to castScholar’s Shield, which increases my shield’s Guard Boost and protection. Our shield doesn’t have the greatest Guard Boost, so getting that 25% increase is good.
Our shield is theCarian Knight’s Shield, which I have maxed out. It’s a really good shield for builds with low Strength, so it’s not bad. Ideally, with a block counter build, you’d have aGreatshieldin order to get enemies to rebuff, which makes it easier to do block counters. You can use a Greatshield with a low Strength requirement to substitute for Carian Knight’s Shield, but I like how this shield looks. I also don’t have too much trouble with block counters, so it’s up to y ou if you want to use a better shield.
When it comes to armor, I’m using theGreathelm. The other armor pieces are from theScaled Set. The reason for this is to get good protection andPoise. I happen to like the look of this armor set, but you don’t have to use these exact pieces. We’ll hit the breakpoint of 56 Poise here, so you’ll basically be powering through all the regular attacks to castNebulawithout getting staggered.
The talismans I’m using for this Elden Ring Wing of Astel build are:Magic Scorpion Charm,Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger,Shard of Alexander, andCurved Sword Talisman.
Magic Scorpion Charmis great for this build because we have the waves coming out from the R2 attack, and Nebula. These deal 100% magic damage, and your regular attacks deal about 50-60% magic damage. You’re going to get a 6% increase on those in terms of damage, so you’re going to use this a lot in this build. It’s going to help you stack up damage when you’re using your attacks and abilities.
Assassin’s Cerulean Daggeris great here, as we don’t have a lot of points in Mind. We have about 20 points in Mind, so we don’t have a lot of FP pool. This is going to allow you to keep using your abilities as you stagger enemies with block counters, your charged R2 attacks, or Nebula. It’s really good in fights around the landscape. For boss fights, I will swap this out toDragoncrest Greatshield Talismanas you’re not really going for staggers.
Shard of Alexanderis there to boost the damage of Nebula even further. This ability already hits extremely hard, and this talisman gives us an extra 15% damage, which is great.
Lastly, we have theCurved Sword Talisman. This increases your block counter damage by 20%. If you don’t find yourself doing too many block counters, I would suggest switching this out for theAxe Talismanto give your charged R2 attacks more damage. Keep in mind that if you’re using the Axe Talisman, it’s not going to increase the damage of the waves. It’ll increase the damage of the actual sword when it connects with the target. You could also use theDagger Talismanto increase your critical strike attack. When you do a critical attack after a block counter, the Dagger Talisman will boost that damage.
Generally, the way this Wing of Astel build plays is that when I’m going around the landscape, I’ll do block counters on regular enemies as long as they’re not all packed together. If they are grouped up, you can just useNebulato wipe them out easily. It hits at around 120° or so, so it will take out big packs of enemies. You could also throw it up early on a difficult enemy that’s aggressively charging towards you. After Nebula explodes, you can use your charged R2 attacks on the enemy, which can stagger them. You can then follow up with a critical strike, which works really well.
I like to buff withScholar’s Shieldoften. I wouldn’t say you need to do this with all regular enemies. If you’re fighting a tough enemy, it’s a good thing to do to get that extra Guard Boost. You don’t have a lot of points in Endurance, so you don’t have much stamina with this build. Using Scholar’s Shield will help you reduce your stamina consumption when you’re blocking.
Terra Magicais a bit hard to use with this build. It’s only good if enemies are being aggressive towards you, and you can use it before being attacked. When you cast it and they become aggressive, you can stand in it to spam Nebula and do your charged R2 attack. It’s not something you’ll be doing all the time, but it’s good to have when you need it.
The attributes that I have for this Wing of Astel build are: 49Vigor, 20Mind, 25Endurance, 12Strength, 50Dexterity, 50Intelligence, 14Faith, and 9Arcane. You don’t really need any Faith or Arcane for this build. Those are just there because I started as aConfessor. If you started as aPrisonerorAstrologer, you’re going to have a better attribute spread to get more points in Mind, or Endurance if you want to wear heavier armor. You could also put those points towards Intelligence or Dexterity if you want to get a little bit more damage as well.
Vigor is at 49 because you are going to get hit with a lot of attacks with this build. Sometimes, you’ll trade damage to use Nebula. Nebula is extremely strong, so trading damage usually comes out in your favor if you can hit with a lot of the explosions. Typically, you’ll stagger an enemy before they can kill you, so you have time to heal and do a critical strike.
20 Mind is a bit lower than I’d like. As I mentioned above, if you have a better starting class, you’ll have more points available to increase this. You can probably get this to 25-30 range depending on what class you are, which will make it a lot better. This will allow you to cast Nebula a lot more frequently and use your buffs like Scholar’s Shield or Terra Magica without having to use up many blue flasks. Keep in mind that your R2 attacks don’t consume any FP, so you don’t use as much FP as you think. However, when you’re in boss fights, you’re going to be spamming Nebula. You don’t want to run out of FP and chug a blue flask.
Endurance is at 25 because this allows us to medium roll with our set-up. You can probably get away with 24 Endurance, but having extra stamina doesn’t hurt.
When it comes to Dexterity and Intelligence, 50 will be the soft cap. The damage you do with your weapon starts to drop off after 50 in each of these attributes. However, Intelligence affects the wave damage from R2, as well as Nebula. If you’re just using Nebula and the R2 attacks, you’d probably be better off dropping Dexterity down to 20 then increasing Intelligence to 80 so that you’d maximize your damage. You’ll have less block counter damage, but your staple attacks will be stronger. That will give you an option to be a Spellblade if you want, and also use a better staff like Carian Regal Scepter. I like playing the Knight gameplay of this build, so I didn’t do it that way.
If you’re using theFlask of Wondrous Physick, I strongly recommend usingMagic-Shrouding Cracked Tearas your primary damage type is magic. Your staple attacks deal pure magic damage, so it’s going to benefit those really well. I also like using theGreenburst Crystal Tearfor stamina recovery if you’re blocking with the shield. You also want to get your stamina back faster if you’re spamming with Nebula, so it’s really good overall. You can never really have enough stamina with this build. If you don’t need stamina recovery, you can use theIntelligence-knot Crystal Tearinstead to increase the damage of Nebula and your R2 attacks.
That’s it for our Nebula Knight 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.
