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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2643 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 25, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm playing Elden Ring for the first time. It's fun and gripping.

I picked the noob friendly Vagabond class. I've upgraded the hp flask quantity twice and got my steed and killed three dungeon bosses. I've put some points into dex, str, end.

Can I get some spoiler free advice? :)

Should you focus on only one type of combat, or can you create a mixed build with success? It would be nice to have a good ranged damage option but I also want to kick butts with badass melee weapons.

Dark Souls games (and ER is really just DS4) are generally designed so that they can be beaten with simple straight builds, broken weapons/skills and coop by even the filthiest casual, while a hardcore player can still challenge themselves with low LVL builds and meme weapons/skills. So absolutely everything is doable, it depends on how much work you want to put in. Mixed builds have a wide range from broken to meme depending on the details.

Generally, in DS games it's easiest to make builds by starting with a particular (upgraded) main weapon you like and maximizing its scaling + put as much as you need into survival. Then you can also use some supporting weapons, skills and spells that happen fit into that scaling, with maybe some accomodations for min reqs. There are also some melee weapons with ranged skills. Generally for lower lvls I like to put more into survival and use a high base dmg weapon with poor scaling so that I have more flexibility later on if I find a weapon I like. But if I remember correctly ER has some reskilling option so you should be able to switch entirely even if you chose poorly.

I can also give you some more concrete tips if you have something specific in mind. Later I might post my own mixed build for ER if I find the time.

I need to walk the line between clowning around aimlessly, and looking up too much info and taking the mystery and challenge out of the game. Giving myself some direction so that I might actually finish the game and not abandon it, without making it a paint by numbers affair.

Right now I don't know if I should head for that Castle that seems to be the main quest thing to do, or level up and get more equipment first. I've got some cool spirit summons but haven't applied any war ashes yet, don't think I have any worth using. I will not be using online mode btw.

I'm using the armors I started the game with, a sword that's a tiny tiny bit better than the default one, and I've got a flail (increased my dex to 18 to be able to wield it) for whatever situation might require blunt/strike damage.

I found Sellen(?) the Sorceress under the waypoint ruin in Limgrave (after beating the boss there), and bought a cheap spell that can send a glimstone projectile or something. I increased INT from 9 to 10 to be able to use it, and added the spell to a memorized slot, but it's still greyed out on the up-arrow and I don't seem to have a button for throwing magic...?

Stormveil Castle is a beef gate. The fact that you get pasted when you try and go through the lower gate is a sign that you need to do more exploring - there are at least two areas other than Limgrave to explore from your position, try playing around.

You need a catalyst to use spells. For sorceries that would be glintstone staffs or that one sword. But afaik sorceries always scale only with INT, so it's a difficult choice for mixed builds.

Oh. Balls. Guess I wasted those runes then.

So Faith is the way to go for combining physical with magic?

There's probably some way to play a high INT+secondary stat with an appropriate weapon that scales with both.

Edit: Just looked it up since I didn't quite remember it, there are INT+FTH and INT+ARC staffs, so these are technically hybrid, but not really relevant for you. No +STR or +DEX or others sadly.

Edit edit: The demihuman queens staff has high base scaling and low INT scaling, so that would be the correct staff for a hybrid physical build I think.

But generally FTH is easier for hybrid builds in two different ways: First, there are more explicit hybrid seals that make your incantations scale with another stat, and second there are much more utility incantations that have no or very little scaling. Golden Vow for example is a great generalist dmg/def % buff that has no scaling whatsoever, anyway.

There aren’t any catalysts which directly boost spells based on STR/DEX, but there are plenty of weapons with the relevant scaling. Moonveil and Dark Moon Greatsword come to mind. If those don’t do it for you, pop on an INT Ash of War. Or do weapon buff.

Yeah, that's what I meant with the first paragraph. But he indicated wanting to actually use sorceries, so I didn't expand further on that.

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