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Dexterity Builds have always been one of the most popular and powerful ways to play Fromsoft games, andElden Ringis no exception. With great mobility and rapid attacks, Dexterity builds can deal fantastic damage while keeping you out of danger. There are many different ways to build with Dexterity in Elden Ring, from using status effects like Bleed to combining with Sorcery or focusing on parrying and Critical attacks.
Related:Elden Ring: Best Dexterity Scaling Weapons
In this guide, we’re going to walk you through some of the best Dexterity builds of each different kind, as well as give you some options to customize them for your own playstyle.
Dual-wield Arcane Build
Starting Class
Samurai, Bandit
Primary Stats
Dexterity, Arcane, Vigo
Secondary Stats
Endurance, Mind
Uchigatana, Rivers Of Blood, Reduvia, Antspur Rapier, Estoc
Highest Poise armor that allows you to Medium Roll
Ashes Of War
Seppuku, Poisonous Mist, Unsheathe, Chilling Mist
Lord Of Blood’s Exultation, Shard Of Alexander, Claw Talisman, Green Turtle Talisman, Carian Filigreed Crest
This is probably the most famous and popular way to play Dexterity in Elden Ring, letting you benefit fromBleed, Poison, and other status effect playstyles. The great thing about building around Dexterity and Arcane is you can switch weapons to focus on the status effect that does the best damage to the enemy you are looking to take down. This is especially important as some bosses and enemies are completely immune to certain statuses.
Normally with this build, you will dual wield your weapon type of choice and use the L1 dual attack and jumping attack to inflict as many hits, and thus buildup as much status as quickly as possible. You can mix your Ashes Of War with your weapons' native status effects to buildup multiple different statuses with your attacks. By throwing in weapons and skills with additional effects likeScarlet RotandFrostbite,you can overwhelm enemies with status and additional damage.
Related:Elden Ring: Every Katana, Ranked
Spellblade Build
Prisoner, Astrologer
Dexterity, Intelligence, Vigor
Mind, Endurance
Moonveil Katana, Meteoric Ore Blade, Crystal Sword, Meteorite Staff
Transient Moonlight
Magic Scorpion Charm, Graven Mass Talisman, Carian Filigreed Crest, Cerulean Amber Medallion
This is a great route to go if you want to mix some sorcery in with your melee damage, opening up many different ranged options and hugely expanding your toolbox. This playstyle is also supported by some of the best (and coolest) weapons in the game. TheMoonveil Katanais certainly the most notable of these, and you may base your whole build around this weapon once you get hold of it. For melee, you can dual-wield the Moonveil with another Katana like the Uchigatana or Meteoric Ore Blade, but you will need to carry a Glintstone Staff for your spell casting, and you may well find that you need to have higher Intelligence than Dexterity to be able to equip the best staves.
For your spells,Glintstone Pebble, Rock Sling, andLoretta’s Greatboware all amazing options that scale well throughout the game and can be used to open combat or snipe opponents. Between these and theTransient Moonlightskill, you will have a multitude of ways of dealing damage at range.
Pure Dexterity Critical Build
Dexterity, Vigor, Endurance
Mind, Arcane
Dagger, Rapier, Misericorde, Buckler, Parrying Dagger
Parry, Quickstep, Bloodhound’s Step
Dagger Talisman, Assassin’s Crimson Dagger, Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger, Ritual Talisman, Radagon’s Soreseal
If you like the idea of inflicting big critical damage on your enemies, then you can focus more on pure Dexterity without a strong support stat. The best compliment to this playstyle is to focus on Parrying, as enemies you riposte can be hit with a follow-up critical attack. This can be a tough technique to master, but the number of enemy attacks that can be parried is surprisingly high, including some very nasty boss attacks. Being able to stance-break and crit these foes can be incredibly powerful. You can also simply outmaneuver many enemies and get backstab criticals, especially if you use the Quickstep or Bloodhound’s Step skills.
Two amazing talismans for this build are the Assassin’s Crimson and Cerulean Daggers, which restore HP and FP on criticals, allowing you to sustain your health and use your skills repeatedly in combat very easily.
