Quick Links

Elden Ring supports all manner of builds - even builds that want to have it all. Sometimes you want to have options in your play, and you don’t want to mess around with respec’ing. Maybe you want to Unga-Bunga one day, and be a nimble weeb the next. It doesn’t matter the reasoning, Elden Ring has you covered.

Related: Elden Ring Build Guide: Strength

The trade-off for all of this freedom is a lack of focus and attributes being stretched thin. Quality builds can do everything, but everything can do what Quality builds do, but better. It’s going to be a struggle to pull off, but you will be safe in the knowledge that practically every weapon is at your disposal.

What Is A Quality Build

Bloodhound's Fang in Elden Ring has become a very popular weapon

Quality builds take split builds to the extreme. Instead of splitting a melee stat with a magic stat, you are splitting your points evenly between Strength and Dexterity. This comes with a few issues, such as your damage not being as high as a pure Strength, or pure Dexterity build. The upsides, however, are a bottomless supply of weapons to play around with, opening up all kinds of freedom, creativity, and experimentation.

Stats To Aim For

Elden Ring Jellyfish Shield

Stats

Value

Vigor

55

Mind

12

Endurance

25

Strength

55

Dexterity

55

Intelligence

10

Faith

8

Arcane

9

The core of this build is the investment in Strength and Dexterity. This build will be running 55 in each, which is just below the soft cap of 60 - something we can fix later. This is a heavy investment in offensive stats, and it will have an effect on the rest of our build. You can fiddle the numbers a tad, but 55/55 is the bare minimum for this build to work.

Keeping with the 55 themes of the build, Vigor will be pumped to this level too. Ideally, we’d have 60, as this is the ideal health amount to tackle Elden Ring’s harder challenges, but sacrifices had to be made. Again, we can fix this later with Talismans, etc. so it won’t be a huge deal.

Endurance is at 25 because 25 is a pretty solid place to be. You won’t be able to swing your weapons with reckless abandon, but you will have enough gas in your tank to lay down some combos and get a sneaky roll in for good measure. Not only that, but it will open up the possibility for heavier armor - which is always nice.

The biggest hit to the build is the lack of Mind. Mind, even in a non-casting build, is required for Weapon Arts and Spirit Ash. This reduction in Mind will force you to use less effective Spirit Ash (although Mimic Tear is still an option) and will force you to be frugal with your Weapon Arts.

Quality Build - Sword On A Pole

Elden Ring PVP Cross-Naginata

Overview

Whilst you can use just about any weapon in Elden Ring when running a Quality build, it’s always wise to have one weapon that is your go-to death dealer. This build will be utilizing heavy armor, long-range, and even a bit of bleed to get the leg up on any would-be enemy.

Weapons

  • Cross-Naginata
  • Flamberge

The Cross-Naginata is one of the best weapons in all of Elden Ring. It has a brilliant moveset, it has great reach, and, to top it all off, it inflicts bleed. As a weapon, it ticks almost every box. Once you infuse it into a Quality Cross-Naginata, however, things get even better. The Quality Cross-Naginata comes with a whopping B/B scaling for Strength and Dexterity, making it the ideal candidate for a default weapon.

Following closely behind is the Flamberge. This Greatsword has many of the characteristics of the Cross-Naginata: B/B scaling when infused to Quality, long(ish) range, and bleed. It also deals more damage, but this is at the cost of speed. Both weapons are excellent choices, and you can’t go wrong with either.

The final benefit for the Cross-Naginata and Flamberge is their customizable Weapon Arts, letting you build the perfect weapon. What you choose will depend on the situation and preference, but Seppuku is a fantastic “all-around” Weapon Art that will greatly increase your DPS.

Related: Elden Ring Build Guide: Dexterity

Talismans

  • Radagons Soreseal
  • Prosthesis-Wearers Heirloom
  • Starscourge Heirloom
  • Erdtree’s Favor
  • Dragoncrest Greatshield

For this build, we want to ensure our damage is as high as possible to offset the inherent weakness of splitting our stats. To do this, we want to pump our Strength and Dexterity as high as we can. The three best Talismans for this are Radagon’s Soreseal, Prosthesis-Wearers Heirloom, and Starscourge Heirloom. Combined these will increase your Strength and Dexterity by 10, bringing both stats above the soft cap.

The final slot can be used for any number of Talismans depending on preference, but the two that provide the most benefit are Erdtree’s Favor and Dragoncrest Greatshield. Erdtree’s Favor will increase your HP, FP, Stamina, and Equip Load, all of which we need in this build. The Dragoncrest Greatshield on the other hand will increase your Physical resistance, making you harder to kill.

Armor

You want to be packing the heaviest, bulkiest armor you can find, whilst still maintaining a Medium Roll. Damage Reduction and Poise are incredibly important, but you don’t want to sacrifice your maneuverability or I-Frames in the process.

Flask Of Wondrous Physick

  • Strength-Knot
  • Dexterity-Knot

For Tears, the best choice would be to double-down on Stats. Both Strength-Knot and Dexterity-Knot increase their respective stats by 10 for three minutes. This increase, in combination with our Talismans, will bring our Strength and Dexterity to 75, which is just shy of the hard cap for these stats. This increase in damage is more valuable than practically any other tear combination.

Next: Elden Ring: Complete Guide And Walkthrough