The DLC of Elden Ring requires a good build to take down the challenging bosses. We have a strength build for you that makes quick work of them and is also very flexible.
Strength is one of the most important stats in Elden Ring, and weapons that scale with it usually deal decent damage. This is especially required in the new DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, as the expansion raises the difficulty level even further.
The bosses are significantly stronger than in the main game, so much so that many players are currently criticizing just that about the DLC. If you’re interested in traversing the Shadowlands with a strength build, we have a good one for you.
Very convenient: The following build is extremely flexible regarding your weapon choice. This means that with the build, you can use most strength weapons in the game, depending on your preferred playstyle.
Leveling the Strength Build Properly
What to level up? In our proposed build, “Strength” is of course the main attribute in focus. Because corresponding weapons scale with it, and the higher your strength level, the more damage you deal.
To play the build as we specify, you should have already reached level 150. This is already a good point to start in the DLC – so it’s practical if you have a strong build with you.
This is how you level up: The skill points for the strength build are distributed as follows:
- Strength: 50
- Mind: 10
- Endurance: 29
- Strength: 65
- Dexterity: 17
- Intelligence: 10
- Faith: 25
- Arcane: 23
At the start, you should ideally choose the Vagabond class. With its balanced attribute distribution, it has the best prerequisites to build any character. We will now explain why our points are distributed this way. As you can see, most points are invested in strength. You only need to level dexterity up to level 17, which is sufficient for most strength weapons in the game.
23 points in Arcane are required to use the weapon “Executioner’s Sword of the Marais.” If you don’t want that anyway, you can invest these points elsewhere. For example, in more strength, whose last “soft cap” is at 80. Beyond that, further levels in the attribute are hardly worthwhile.
Strength Build – Weapons
Which weapons should you use? As already mentioned, this is the big advantage of this build: You have the choice. Nevertheless, we would like to give you a few tips.
The great advantage of many strength weapons is that they deal a lot of poise damage in a short time. If you deal enough poise damage in a very short time, it will break on your opponent. Then you can land a critical hit on the glowing spot and deal an extreme amount of damage.
The following weapons are suitable for this purpose:
- Great Sword
- Ordovis’ Great Sword
- Blasphemous Blade
- Siluria’s Tree
- Giant Crusher
Of course, your weapon should be upgraded to the maximum. But that’s not enough, you should also have the right selection of Ashes of War, Talismans, and a suitable potion mix with you.
Ashes of War, Talismans and Potion Mix
Which Ashes of War are good? To enhance your weapons with abilities, you can choose an Ash of War. We particularly recommend the following three:
- Lion’s Claw: With this, you perform a somersault and deal a lot of poise damage. Usually, the poise will break after two or three uses. Additionally, your poise cannot be broken.
- Stonecutting Claw: Physical damage is increased by 15%, and poise damage by 10%.
- Courage of the Knight’s Vow: With this, you deal 80% more damage on the next hit.
Which Talismans should you have? We recommend the following Talismans:
- Ritual Shield Talisman: Increases attack power by 10% when at maximum HP
- Axe Talisman: Enhances charged attacks by 10%
- Shard of Alexander: Increases damage dealt with abilities by 15%
- Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman: Increases resistance to physical damage by 20%
If you do not have abilities in your weapons, you can also replace the Shard of Alexander with the following alternatives:
- Two-Handed Sword Talisman: Enhances attacks with two-handed weapons (only found in the DLC)
- Green Turtle Talisman: Accelerates stamina regeneration
- Great Jar’s Arsenal: Greatly increases maximum equip load (to wear heavier armor)
Which Tears should be in the potion mix? We recommend the following combination of Tears:
- Strength Knot Crystal Tear: Increases your strength by 10 points
- Cracked Rock Spike Tear: Increases your poise damage by 30%
Armor for the Build
Which armor should you take? In general, your build should have enough poise and a good overall weight of your armor. You should reach the minimum poise of 51, otherwise you will be staggered by the enemies’ attacks.
The actual weight of your armor, on the other hand, is relevant when it comes to dodging and stamina consumption. Clearly: The heavier your equipment, the more you carry around, increasing your load. This results in a slow, cumbersome roll, for example. Therefore, always try to maintain at least a medium load so that you can roll quickly enough.
If you keep all of this in check, you can basically wear any armor you want, with a particularly strong option being the Veteran’s Set or Radahn’s Set.
With this build, you should do well through the DLC, but of course also through the main game. Feel free to share your ideas on how you prefer to play with strength characters. On MeinMMO, you will find more guides on the topic of Elden Ring, and currently, also on the DLC. Here you can find the overview of all guides.
