One of the reasons people enjoy FromSoftware’s games is that they offer an abundant amount of playstyles for the players. People who prefer to be glass cannons can use magic from afar while those who wish to get up close and personal have the option of using dexterity or strength builds. Elden Ring may offer the most variety out of all of their games to date, especially with new additions to the series such as the Ashes of War.
That being said, a good amount of the player base would have gone through most of the content at this point. However, with the sheer amount of choices of builds out there, there are still probably some that players haven’t tried yet.
Set aside those bleed builds for now and try out the ones down below if they sound like a great time to you!
Elden Ring: Fun Off-Meta Builds to Try Out
If you’re getting bored of the same old standard builds being shown everywhere, then here are some fun off-meta builds to try out! Got your own build? Let us know in the comment section.
The Berserker
The equipment in this build powers you up once you’ve reached below 20% of your HP.
It works great for both PvP and PvE. This build is for people who like a high-risk high-reward playstyle as it shines when you are low on health. You can choose any weapon that you prefer.
Items needed:
- Twinbird Kite Shield – When the wearer is at or below 20% of their max HP, they receive a 5% attack boost and 10% defense boost
- Red-Feathered Branchsword – When HP is below 20%, raises attack power by 20%.
- Blue-Feathered Branchsword – When HP is below 20%, damage negation is increased.
- Royal Remains Armor Set – When HP is below 18%, regenerates 8 hp per second(2 hp for every piece of the armor set).
Here are some items you can use if you want to pad your health a bit:
- Morgott’s Great Rune
- Crimsonspill Crystal Tear
- Crimson Amber Medallion
It may work even better in PvP as foes are lulled into a false sense of security when you reach critical levels of health. Your low HP can have opponents greed for risky hits, which cause them to trade for their lives when you tank their damage and dish out your own.
Bomberman
The Ruptured Crystal Tear is an item that you can mix with other Tears in the Flask of Wondrous Physick. It causes the player to explode after a three-second delay, dealing Holy damage to enemies in close proximity and to the player themselves.
Most players disregard this when they first obtain it as it seems impractical. However, not everyone finds out that there is a second Ruptured Tear that you can combine with the first for a bigger explosion, albeit for an increase in the damage you take as well.
Drinking a flask with 1 Ruptured Tear deals 800 holy damage to enemies and 300 to the player.
Drinking two tears will deal 1750 holy damage to enemies and 700 to the player.
The best part is that this build does not require a lot of setup. You just need to acquire both tears from their respective bosses. There are optional items you can get if you want to increase the tear’s damage. Items such as the Sacred Scorpion Charm and buffs like the Golden Vow Incantation will increase the already incredible damage of the explosion.
It has limited use in PvE as you can only drink one flask before having to go back to a Site of Grace to replenish. It is, however, a great way to finish off bosses when they are significantly low on health.
It can be great in PvP as the damage is enough to one-shot opponents who don’t invest in Vigor
The only difficult part is landing the explosion on the other players.
Support Yourself
One of the popular summons in the game is the Mimic Tear. It is a summon that copies your character’s current stats and equipment. It basically feels like another player. If you need help with a boss and dont have anyone to call on, then you can rely on the Mimic Tear being there. In fact, you can let the Mimic handle the boss entirely and just support them from the sidelines. While this build leans mostly for PvE as it centers around supporting your spirit summon, you can tweak this for PvP if you want to support other players.
There are a good amount of Faith incantations that you can use for supporting.
For healing spells there are:
- Erdtree Heal
- Lord’s Heal
- Blessing of the Erdtree
For buffing spells you can use:
- Golden Vow
- Protection of the Erdtree
For weapons, you can use the Commander’s Standard Halberd as it has the Rallying Standard skill that raises damage and damage negation for yourself and nearby allies by 20%.
Another optional item you can use is the Shabriri’s Woe talisman, which makes enemies target individuals who wear it. So you can equip the talisman, summon your Mimic Tear, and then unequip it. Your enemies will constantly be attacking your Mimic and you are free to support them as you please.
Gotta Go Fast!
Goats are one of your first encounters at the start of the game.
They seem like normal goats except for when you get too close and they start rolling away. Which would leave anyone surprised as to what just happened.
Funnily enough, there is an Ash of War in the game that lets you perform the same rolling move as they do. The Lightning Ram Ash of War can be obtained from a Teardrop Scarab near the Sainted Hero’s Grave in the Altus Plateau.
The move itself has a few caveats:
- It has a long wind up at the start before you roll.
- You are very vulnerable while rolling.
- The damage isn’t the best
What makes it worthwhile is the sheer ridiculousness and hilarity of defeating opponents with this move. You can make it a fun challenge to try to beat bosses using only this. You can also use it in PvP, those defeated with it either laugh it off or will probably never live it down.
Unlike other skills or weapons, the damage from Lightning Ram scales with your weapon’s upgrade level and the scaling. You can also equip talismans like the Shard of Alexander which increases the attack power of skills by 15% or the Lightning Scorpion Charm which increases lightning damage by 12%.
Another way to enhance your damage is to cast the Fire’s Deadly Sin incantation before you start rolling. At the cost of gradually decreasing your HP, it engulfs you in flame and deals fire damage to nearby opponents.
Looking for more Elden Ring guides? Here are some of ours:
- Elden Ring: How to Reach Mohg, Lord of Blood
- Elden Ring: Why is Uchigatana so Good?
- Elden Ring: Best Ashes of War For Katanas
- Elden Ring: Godskin Duo Cheese
- Elden Ring: Malenia Cheese
Not played the game yet? You purchase Elden Ring on Steam here.