Elden Ring, from FromSoftware, has captivated gamers worldwide with its rich lore, challenging gameplay, and an immense variety of ways to build your character. One of the most intriguing aspects of character customization is the Arcane stat, which allows players to Elden Ring Runes utilize powerful and often deadly abilities. In this article, we'll walk through the 15 best Arcane builds in Elden Ring, showcasing both beginner-friendly setups as well as late-game builds that will let you dominate your enemies.
1. Blood Dragon Build (Level 50)
The Blood Dragon build is an early-game Arcane build that focuses on rapid bleeding triggers and versatile playstyles. This build utilizes dual curve swords with a blood infusion, making it perfect for triggering bleed status on enemies quickly through fast attacks. In addition, the build uses the Dragon Communion Seal, which grants you the ability to cast early-game dragon spells. This is a fantastic way to combine the power of Arcane with dragon magic, offering both versatility and devastatingly quick bleeding damage.
2. Red Rogue Build (Level 50)
The Red Rogue build is a versatile build that works from the early game all the way into the late game, adapting as your character evolves. The build focuses on using the Ruvia weapon and its weapon skill, Ruvia Blood Blade, which creates a projectile that triggers significant blood buildup at close range. This, combined with the fast attack speed, allows for rapid bleeding buildup and high damage output. While you could enhance this build with the Dragon Communion Seal to cast spells, the focus here is purely on maximizing blood buildup.
3. Blacku Build (Level 50)
The Blacku Build is another early-to-mid-game build that uses the Cleaning Bone Weapon, a fist weapon that deals both physical and magic damage while scaling with Arcane. This weapon comes with Life Steal Fist, which heals you as you land hits. This powerful healing mechanic allows you to get through tough battles and frequently recover health, making the build both offensive and defensive. The ability to heal while causing serious damage makes it an excellent choice for those looking for survivability and offensive power.
4. Blood Dancer Build (Level 100)
The Blood Dancer build is a popular Arcane setup, especially for players who enjoy using Eleanora's Pull Blade, which scales with both Arcane and Dexterity. This build shines because of the weapon’s ability to trigger bleed quickly through the Blood Blade Dance ability, as well as its high stance damage. The combination of bleed buildup and fire damage makes it perfect for powerful, rapid attacks. This build also utilizes the Dragon Communion Seal, allowing you to cast various dragon-related spells for added versatility in both combat and strategy.
5. Dragonite Build (Level 100)
For those who prefer playing with dragon spells, the Dragonite Build focuses on maximizing the damage of dragon breath abilities, particularly A Gill’s Flame or Smog Glintstone Breath. The key to this build is to use buffs like Golden Vow, Flame Grant Me Strength, and Fire Scorpion Charm to amplify damage. The Faithful Canvas Talisman is also useful to boost dragon spells, allowing for devastating attack power. Whether you’re playing in a boss fight or clearing groups of enemies, the Dragonite Build can melt opponents with ease.
6. Frenzy Acolyte Build (Level 100)
This build revolves around Madness, using the Dragon Communion Seal to cast spells and the Frenzy Flame Seal to boost Frenzy spells. Frenzy magic is excellent for causing significant fire damage and overwhelming your opponents quickly. Spells like Flame Grant Me Strength and Golden Vow make sure your Frenzy-based spells hit harder, while the Fire Scorpion Charm further amplifies your fire damage. This build is fantastic for players who enjoy long-range destruction and quick, explosive damage.
7. Sanguine Samurai Build (Level 150)
If you prefer using Rivers of Blood, the Sanguine Samurai Build is one of the best ways to go. This build focuses on the weapon skill Corpse Piler, which is perfect for quick, consistent bleed buildup. Corpse Piler has excellent range and is ideal for tearing through enemies, especially those weak to bleeding. Since you can use this weapon from the mid-to-late game, the Sanguine Samurai build will carry you through the toughest battles with ease.
8. Dragon Warrior Build (Level 150)
The Dragon Warrior Build combines dual weapons and dragon spells. The idea is to stack attack power with buffs like Millicent’s Prosthesis and Rotten Wing Sword Insignia, so that when you cast a powerful dragon spell like Dragon Ma, it hits harder and can easily break through enemy defenses. The focus here is to combine physical attacks and magic for the best of both worlds, making this a versatile and dangerous build for players who love to attack repeatedly.
9. AoC Executioner Build (Level 150)
The AoC Executioner Build focuses on the Maray Executioner Sword, which scales with both Strength and Arcane. The weapon’s Aoch Chad’s Dancing Blade is a powerful weapon skill that can one-shot most difficult enemies or come very close to it when charged up. This build benefits from boosting your damage with things like Millicent’s Prosthesis and Rotten Wing Sword Insignia, ensuring that each spin of the Dancing Blade deals increasingly devastating damage as you chain attacks together.
10. Grim Reaper Build (Level 150 Plus)
The Grim Reaper Build uses the Grave Scythe, which can be acquired early in the game, and the Dragon Communion Seal. The core concept is to buff yourself with Blood Flame Blade and use the Stormcaller Ash of War to spin through enemies, building up your attack power as you do. This build is ideal for players who like the idea of spinning through enemies while constantly buffing themselves. The added benefit of using poison or rot as needed makes this build adaptable and incredibly versatile.
11. Bloody Ballerina Build (Level 150 Plus)
This unique and niche build utilizes the Bloody Helis, a heavy thrusting sword with a weapon skill called Dino’s Finesse. The idea here is to use Dino’s Finesse as an i-frame skill to dodge incoming attacks while dealing significant damage in return. Managing stamina is essential, as Dino’s Finesse consumes a lot, but with the Green Turtle Talisman and other stamina boosters, you can make this build work effectively. It’s a fun and different approach to Arcane builds.
12. Blood Lancer Build (Level 150 Plus)
The Blood Lancer Build revolves around the Sword Lance, a hybrid sword-lance weapon that benefits from high blood buildup. When infused with blood, the weapon excels at causing bleeding. This build uses the Blood Tax skill, which is similar to Repeated Thrust but heals the player as it deals damage. When combined with Blood Sucking Crack Tier, the build becomes even more potent, dealing massive damage while healing itself. Rotten Wing Sword Insignia and Millicent’s Prosthesis increase your damage output further, making this a potent, survivable, and devastating build.
13. Bloody Beast Claw Build (Level 150 Plus)
The Bloody Beast Claw Build uses the Beast Claw Weapon and its weapon skill Savage Claws, which attacks repeatedly, building up bleed on the enemy. The weapon’s high attack speed allows you to quickly trigger bleeding while dealing considerable damage. This build is fun for its agility and power, offering players a fast-paced, aggressive playstyle. It’s less effective than the Blood Lancer but still enjoyable and powerful when used well.
14. Dragon God Build (Level 150 Plus)
The Dragon God Build focuses on the Rock Heart Item, which transforms the player into a dragon, granting a boost to dragon spells. The build uses the Dragon Communion Seal to maximize the power of dragon-based spells like Exes Decay and Dragon Ma. The Blue Dancer Charm further boosts physical damage while the player is in dragon form. This build can dish out a lot of damage in a short amount of time, especially when casting multiple Dragon Ma spells in quick succession.
15. Double Dragon Build (Level 150 Plus)
The Double Dragon Build revolves around alternating between Poison and Scarlet Rot to build up huge damage over time on enemies and bosses. The Poison Flower Blooms Twice Ash of War is the centerpiece of this strategy, allowing you to hit enemies with poison while dealing substantial rot damage. The alternating damage over time can melt bosses very quickly, and the build offers a fun and tactical approach to taking down tough enemies.
Conclusion
Arcane builds in Elden Ring offer a wide range of playstyles, from bleed-focused builds to dragon magic and poison-based strategies. Whether you're just starting the game or you’re deep into New Game Plus, there’s an Arcane build for everyone. These builds show just how versatile Arcane scaling can be, offering players the chance to mix magic, physical attacks, and Elden Ring Items buy devastating debuffs to control the battlefield. Which Arcane build will you choose? Let us know in the comments below!