Elden Ring has recently released numerous updates, and these patches have put a lot of foolish ambitions to rest. Suffice it to say, many builds that were once overpowered are more or less dead now. On the bright side, that gave rise to more innovations among the community and placed other meta stuff in the spotlight.
As it is, there are still several Elden Ring builds that are capable of cheesing the most challenging aspects of the game. Will they survive the next nerf wave via updates? Only time will tell. But at the moment, these builds are the ones befitting an Elden Lord.
Updated May 31, 2024, by Erik Petrovich: As time has gone on, and as the game has continued to receive patches and balance changes, ideas on what forms the most overpowered Elden Ring builds have generally shifted. The Rivers of Blood build, for example, was once the king of the hill, and others could barely match it in PvP, but nowadays, it's still powerful – just not number one. This guide has been updated to reorganize entries based on their pre-Shadow of the Erdtree power levels, as well as to provide some more knowledge on each build to help players understand their quirks, benefits, and playstyles. Just getting the gear for the one-strike lightning build, or the Comet Azur build, isn't enough to put it to be effective with it. For example, you have to perform a specific series of inputs to trigger things in the correct order and create the one-hit lightning build, but it's worth it because it's easily one of the most powerful Elden Ring builds when done right.
This list is only comprised of items that can be found in the base version of Elden Ring. For information regarding Shadow of the Erdtree, stay tuned as Game ZXC covers the Elden Ring DLC on launch.
16 Dragon Lightning Priest
Lightning Remains On Top In Elden Ring
Another build that starts off strong is this lightning-addicted maniac.
Lightning Spear is the workhorse here, and if players want to conserve FP, they can just buff up 
Uchigatana with Electrify Armament. Meanwhile, the dragon lightning skills are certified boss killers.
Later on, players will want to nab themselves a 
Sacred Relic Sword to deal lots of area damage. The Incantations scale well into the endgame.
15 Unga Bunga Build
Demolish Opponents With Two Massive Colossal Weapons
Melee builds aren't lagging behind when it comes to one-shotting bosses. This one utilizes the pile of buffs before ultimately running at the enemy, jumping, and then doing a heavy jump attack.
At full HP, start with 
Golden Vow , then 
Flame, Grant me Strength, and then Royal Knight's Resolve Skill . Make sure both hammers hit the target.
14 Sacred Relic Sword Farmer
Farm Millions Of Runes Per Hour With This Weapon
Some of the best Elden Ring builds empower players' capabilities while playing the game normally, but some of the most useful builds in Elden Ring are targeted towards very specific goals. The Sacred Relic Sword Farmer build is one of these targeted builds, in this case, targeted towards Rune farming.
With the Ash of War on the Sacred Relic Sword and gear that amplifies Rune Gain and Weapon Skill damage, players can easily farm millions of Runes per hour with this build. Head to Mohgwyn Palace, specifically the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace, and look for a huge group of Albinaurics resting on a slope nearby.
Buff yourself, consume a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot , and clear out all of them with the Wave of Gold Skill Weapon Skill. Then, sit at the Grace, turn around, and do it again – with each swing, you should net tens of thousands of Runes. Just don't bring this build into PvP or against particularly tough bosses – it's meant to farm enemies in AoE, not necessarily perform well in one-on-one combat.
13 Scavenged Bleeder
A Great Dual Bleed Build With Style
For a simpler Bleed build that still does well against bosses or enemies that are immune to Bleed, one can go wrong with the Occult 
Scavenger's Curved Sword . For best results, players need two of these, which means either a second playthrough or getting it from other players via item drops.
Before entering combat, players just need to apply the Seppuku Skill buff to both weapons, drink the Physick Flask, and then attack the enemy with a dual jumping power attack (usually LB/L1). The target will bleed in no time. If the target is immune to Bleed, then buff the weapons with Golden Vow and Flame, Grant me Strength , then continue with the jumping power attacks.
12 Magma Pyromancer
A Faith And Fire Incantation Wielding Monk
While Pyromancy builds and methods were mostly overshadowed by the more wrathful and powerful lightning incantations, this combination is more than competitive. This Pyromancy build revolves around spamming two to three skills and incantations, primarily.
Elden Ring: 15 Hidden Locations Only Experts Found
The expansive world of Elden Ring holds many secrets for players to uncover, and these are just a few locations that have been found by fans.
Against bosses or regular enemies, 
Magma Shower Skill with the dual Magma Blades or 
Burn, O Flame! can both knock them down and make quick work of them. Meanwhile, tough and single targets are pretty susceptible to 
Giantsflame Take Thee . Of course, don't forget the buffs and flasks, Golden Vow, Flame, Grant me Strength, and 
Blessing's Boon before slinging some firestorms.
11
10 Guts
Take The Berserk Inspiration To The Next Level
For a pure Strength build, one can't go wrong with this Berserk tribute build which happened to be overpowered. It takes full advantage of the 
Ash of War: Lion's Claw in a Colossal Greatsword. Players will mostly spam that skill and go in for critical attacks once the enemies have been staggered.
Elden Ring: All The Obvious Berserk References Throughout The Game
Fans have been obsessed with comparing every aspect of Elden Ring to Berserk since the game was released, but how many actual references are there?
For multiple targets or large enemies, then 
Flame of the Redmanes Skill will do the work to stun them. And yes, this build can and will humiliate 
Malenia, Blade of Miquella solo with no summons. With the amount of defensive provided by the Berserk-inspired armor set, and the sheer amount of power going into its specific strengths, you'll be almost unstoppable cosplaying as Guts.
9 Marais Executioner
Cosplay as Elemer of the Briar
This build revolves around taking advantage of the charged variant of the 
Eochaid's Dancing Blade Skill . It spins multiple times like a drill and does so longer if charged. There are a lot of ways to increase your damage with weapon skills in Elden Ring, and ways to increase damage with repeated attacks, too.
Paired with talismans that increase damage on successive attacks and buff charged attacks, a single skill is usually enough to take massive chunks off of enemies' HP. It does take a while to get used to this playstyle, but the payoff is worth it. It's essentially like a Flail build taken to the next level, making it one of the strongest builds in Elden Ring that doesn't rely on a status effect.
8 Lunar Frostmage
Frost Magic Is Borderline OP, So Capitalize On It
This build is all about interweaving spellcasting and melee fighting, as you will wield Frost spells in addition to the Moonlight Greatsword, one of the best weapons in Elden Ring and the foundation of this overpowered Elden Ring build.
It's more of a battlemage build, but the idea is the same as other Frostmage builds. Instead of spamming just 
Glintstone Icecrag , players will rely on 
Dark Moon Greatsword 's 
Moonlight Greatsword Skill heavy attack to shoot projectiles.
Elden Ring: How to Get Meteoric Ore Blade
This guide will show you how to get the Meteoric Ore Blade in Elden Ring.
Glintstone Icecrag is a backup here. For boss fights, players will want to start off with 
Ranni's Dark Moon and then follow up with Icecrag for large enemies or 
Night Comet for fast and evasive bosses.
7 One-Strike Lightning
When It Hits, It Wrecks – But It Has To Hit, First
The creators of this build (the community) swear by its one-shot potential, but the sequence of buffs for ensuring that is a little complicated. So for bosses, follow these instructions swiftly and carefully, it's crucial to do them in quick succession:
First, equip the 
Black Dumpling helmet. Then, cast 
Howl of Shabriri repeatedly until Madness triggers and until HP is low (which triggers 
Red-Feathered Branchsword ). Switch to the 
Mushroom Crown helmet, and cast Golden Vow.
Activate Contagious Fury Skill from the 
Jellyfish Shield , then trigger Poison on the character using the 
Poison Pot (which activates Mushroom Crown buff). Finally, remove the Poison using boluses.
Quickly enter the boss arena or fight after completing all of these steps, and then cast 
Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike on the boss. If they're not dead, or they entered the second phase, then cast Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike again. Most regular enemies will simply die to Lightning Spear or something similar without the need for elaborate buffs.
6 Moonveil Mage
Moonveil Katana Makes For A Snazzy, Starry Samurai
Moonveil 's poise damage has been nerfed a bit, so the weapon barely makes the cut when it comes to "overpowered," but it slaps hard. Much like Blasphemous Blade builds, players will simply have to abuse Moonveil's 
Transient Moonlight Skill weapon skill (usually the heavy variant) to deal magic damage from a safe distance.
Moonveil also deals a small amount of Bleed damage, and can be paired with a second Katana to unlock the dual-wielding moveset, if you have the Weight to stay in the Medium Weight category. Think of it as more of a melee katana build with a few magic spells for situational encounters.
5 Comet Azur Wizard
Arguably The Strongest Pure Caster in Elden Ring, Situationally
Most likely the build that everyone's been talking about, this wizard is all about one-shotting the enemy with a Kamehameha wave of 
Comet Azur . Buff up using 
Terra Magica , drink the Physick Flask, and then fire away with an 8-second unlimited beam of magic that will deplete a stationary boss' HP (or at least halve it).
For even more damage, do some Seppuku with a modified Uchigatana until low HP to trigger the Red-Feathered Branchsword's buff.
4 Blasphemous Paladin
The Blasphemous Blade Is Still Ridiculously OP
Quite possibly the most powerful fire paladinbuild at the moment, this build relies on abusing 
Blasphemous Blade's weapon skill; Taker's Flames Skill . It deals staggeringly high fire damage, which is further increased by the talismans.
Elden Ring: 14 Great Spells For Multiplayer
PVP players in Elden Ring have several spells to choose from when challenging other players. Here's which spells work the best in PVP.
To maximize Ritual Sword Talisman , make sure HP is full before firing off the weapon skill. Radagon's Soreseal makes characters a glass cannon, but this can be mitigated with the Golden Vow buff. That, in conjunction with Flame, Grant me Strength , will also buff Taker's Flames' damage to astronomical levels.
3 Dual-Wield Rivers of Blood
Fearsome In PvP, But Not Great Elsewhere
No pairing of weapons and no build is quite as feared in Elden Ring PvP as the Dual Rivers of Blood build. By going into New Game Plus or trading with another player, one can get two
Rivers of Blood for the ultimate bleed combination. Paired with armor, talismans, and other items to boost the power of your Bleed buildup, this build is nigh-unstoppable.
However, the nature of Bleed damage is that, while it's extremely powerful against fleshy foes that can bleed, its borderline useless against enemies that don't bleed. In PvE, the Rivers of Blood dual wield build is only OK, but against other players (and in areas of the game with lots of humanoids), this build shows its teeth.
2 Black Flame Reaper Paladin
Black Flame's Percentage-Based Damage Is Great On Bosses
This is a build that can start out strong and become even stronger late-game. Players will start with the 
Winged Scythe and take advantage of its weapon skill, which deals Holy damage and has incredible range.
Later on, players can swap the Winged Scythe with the 
Godslayer's Greatsword which also relies on its busted weapon skill.
1 Lord Of Blood
Mohg Demands Blood, So Sate Him
Thanks to the fixes introduced in past updates, bleed is not only a viable tactic now, but it's also quite busted. It made 
Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear a little too powerful, where abusing its 
Bloodboon Ritual weapon skill can gradually deal more than 10,000 points of damage, which is usually enough to kill bosses using less than a full bar of FP.
The best part about Mohg's spear is that it's a thrusting weapon and can be used with a shield. Meanwhile, both Rivers of Blood and 
Eleonora's Poleblade are powerful thanks to proper Arcane scaling and can be used for smaller encounters. Of course, this build isn't that powerful against enemies that can't bleed, so use it wisely.
Elden Ring
- Platform(s)
- PS5 , Xbox One , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , PC
- Released
- February 25, 2022
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment , From Software
- How Long To Beat
- 58 Hours
