Best Elden Ring Arcane build: stats, weapon, armor and talismans

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How to play with the Arcane build in Elden Ring

For this build, we want to draw on the strength of two weapons, the blood-reddish Reduvia dagger and Mohg, Lord of Blood’s signature weapon, Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear. Both weapons scale with Arcane, so allocating most of your points to this stat increases the damage output.

We’re running these two weapons for more flexibility when dealing with different encounters. The star of the show is Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear’s skill Bloodboon Ritual, a stationary ability that deals massive damage to enemies in the vicinity. However, because you need to stand still to cast it, finding the right moment to do so is important. While you wait for a window to cast the skill, you can attack enemies with Reduvia by either going melee or using its skill Reduvia Blood Blade to kite them.

The damage you can cause with this build is not only from the hits you land with both weapons. Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear and Reduvia attacks build Bleed up, which is one of the best detrimental effects in the game since its damage is calculated based on the enemy’s total HP.

Instead of relying on complex move sets or aggressive gameplay, this build is considerably safer than many others. In many scenarios, you want to hide from enemies for long enough to fully cast Bloodboon Ritual and diminish one-third of the boss's health bar. At the same time, Reduvia’s projectiles allow you to keep some distance from the boss, avoiding most of their attacks.

To take the damage of this build to stunning numbers, you should invest some points in Faith to use basic buff incantations, such as Flame Grant me Strength and Golden Vow. While the former you find in Fort Gael in Caelid, the latter is located in the Corpse-Stench Shack, northwest of the Bridge of Iniquity in Altus Plateau.

Elden Ring Arcane best stats

Like other builds such as the Faith and Intelligence ones, the Arcane build is centred around one specific stat, not requiring you to spread your points across many attributes. Focusing on one stat is the best approach to maximize damage as well as more basic traits any character needs.

For this build, we suggest that you pick the Hero as your starting class in Elden Ring. Hero has good numbers that will help you to reach the final figures needed for each stat. Below, you find an idea of how your stats should be at level 150:

• Vigor:60
• Mind: 27
• Endurance: 25
• Strength: 30
• Dexterity: 14
• Intelligence: 7
• Faith: 25
• Arcane: 60

As expected, Arcane and Vigor are the two main stats for this build. The former determines the damage while the latter improves the chance of you not getting killed while casting Bloodboon Ritual. We put 25 points in Faith to meet the minimum requirements to cast Golden Vow, but you can put these points in Mind, Endurance, or even Arcane if you don’t plan on using this incantation.

Elden Ring Arcane best weapons

To get the most out of our high Arcane stat, we run two incredible arcane weapons. The first is Reduvia, a dagger that scales with Dexterity and Arcane and is capable of shooting projectiles that deal posture damage and Bleed buildup. A good strategy to use, especially while you’re still low-level and learning the game, is to kite bosses with Reduvia’s skill. In addition to keeping a safe distance from them, you also build up blood loss.

Another positive aspect of Reduvia is that you can get it relatively early in the game by defeating Bloody Finger Nerijus, an invading NPC who you find in the Agheel Lake close to the Murkwater Catacombs. If you plan on completing Bloody Finger Yura’s quest, it inevitably leads to this confrontation.

Although Reduvia can easily carry you throughout the whole game, you want to also get Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear. Considered by the community as one of the best weapons in the game, this late-game spear is capable of killing massive groups of enemies and major bosses in the game because of its skill Bloodboon Ritual. By using the skill, you can trigger up to three attacks that throw blood in the vicinity, dealing Fire damage and inflicting Bleed buildup.

Unfortunately, Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear is a late-game weapon, not only because you need 24 Strength, 14 Dexterity, and 27 Arcane, but also because you need to defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood. He is an optional boss in Elden Ring who is hidden in his palace beneath Caelid. Although there are two methods to access Mohgwyn Palace, they involve progressing in the game. But once you defeat him and receive his Remembrance of the Blood Lord, you can exchange it for Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear in Roundtable Hold.

Elden Ring Arcane best armor

When it comes to armour sets for this build, you’re free to run whichever you want, always keeping a medium equipment load. Keep in mind that you don’t have a lot of Endurance with this build, so you can’t wear heavy armour pieces without sacrificing mobility. In case you’re not sure what to wear with this build, we have a couple of suggestions.

In the early stages of the game, the Royal Remains set is a fantastic option and possible to get in the first hours of the game. This set has a good balance in terms of damage mitigation, weight, and poise. It doesn’t necessarily meet the idea of an Arcane build aesthetically speaking, but it will carry you throughout a good part of the game.

A late-game option is the Drake Knight set or at least a few pieces of this set mixed with others. The idea is to keep you able to roll out of the enemy’s attacks and handle a couple of hits while casting your main skill. You can get the Drake Knight set in Crumbling Farum Azula, one of the last areas you unlock in Elden Ring.

Now, the White Mask is a piece of armour that positively affects this build in terms of raising the damage you cause. This helm is part of the War Surgeon set and it buffs your damage when blood loss is triggered in the vicinity. This is a great addition to the build that synergizes well with the talismans we’re running. To get the White Mask, you need to defeat one of the three Nameless White Mask enemies, invading NPCs who you find northwest of the site of grace called Palace Approach Ledge-Road. You must go there before you face Mohg, or the enemies won’t appear.

Elden Ring Arcane best talismans

In terms of talismans, we picked the ones that assist in maximizing the build in general, especially its damage potential. Most of these talismans are obtainable between the mid and late-game stages.

The first is the Lord of Blood’s Exultation, a talisman that increases your attack power when blood loss is triggered in the vicinity. This is the same effect that you get from the White Mask piece of armour, but you don’t need to worry about them overlapping. You can actually stack them, doubling the buff you receive when Bleed proc. You earn this talisman as a reward for defeating Esgar, Priest of a Blood, an optional boss found in Leyndell Catacombs.

Another talisman that you want for this build is the Shard of Alexander. Skills in Elden Ring are extremely strong, but, with this talisman which buffs their attack power, their damage goes even further. To get this talisman, you need to complete Iron Fist Alexander’s questline, so it takes a while before you can equip it.

Considering how important Bloodboon Ritual is, we also want to use the Fire Scorpion Charm, a talisman that increases Fire damage as well as the physical damage you take. The trade-off is worth it though. We actually want to kill enemies before they can hit you and with 60 Vigor you don’t need to worry about quickly dying.

Next build: Elden Ring Spellblade build

Need more help? Jump back to our list of Elden Ring builds or our Elden Ring walkthrough.