A complete Elden Ring Sorcerer PvE Build and Guide to the class. Designed to help you create a versatile, powerful, ranged caster character on your first playthrough, detailing everything you need to know throughout the game!
This guide is up-to-date for Elden Ring Update 1.14
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Sorceries
- Catalysts
- Melee Weapons
- Shields
- Talismans
- Armor
- Flask of Wondrous Physick Mixtures
- Attributes, Leveling Up, and Flask Allocation
- Early Game Summary
Introduction
Sorcerers leverage their Intelligence to harness the forces of life and the cosmos to obliterate their enemies from afar. These fundamental forces include Glintstone, the Moon and the Stars, the Primeval Current, and Gravity.
This guide is oriented towards PvE and will cover recommended sorceries, catalysts, melee weapons, talismans, Physick mixtures, armor, and stats, as well as where you’ll need to go to find all this stuff!
My recommendations are focused on what you be working toward in the mid to late game on your first playthrough, basically when it’s finally time to throw out the Meteorite Staff, and what you should have for NG+. However, I will include early-game precursors, so you can make use of this guide from the moment you open the doors in the Chapel of Anticipation.
All of your stats and Flask allocations are designed to boost the power of your ranged attacks (sorceries) and allow you to play the entire game at range. You’ll only swing your melee weapon if you want to.
In exchange for exceptional ranged performance, you will struggle a bit with prolonged melee combat. Don’t get me wrong, you can still take down regular enemies with your melee weapon just fine, but you’re meant to be fighting tougher enemies with your sorceries, and you don’t have enough spare Crimson Flasks or stamina to swing your melee weapon for such long periods of time.
Many boss fights feel quite different as a ranged build, they tend to feel a bit more like you’re doing a dance-off. Since you’re at a distance, it’s easier to see the full attack, so you might get the impression that attacks feel less cheap because you can see them coming and fully appreciate their style and grace.
Sorcery is a fair bit more complicated than other classes and builds too, even compared to other Faith and Arcane-based casters. Overall, Sorcery just offers an extremely different experience than you’re probably used to, especially if you’ve only done melee-focused builds.
The Complexity of Magic
As you may have noticed from the tiny scroll bar, this is a pretty long guide. Part of that is because I wanted to go into greater detail about my favorite playstyle, but it has more to do with the fact that Sorcery is just a lot more complicated than the rest of the classes, particularly compared to the melee ones.
By the end of the game, you’ll have over 50 sorceries to choose from with each offering different strengths and weaknesses. If you haven’t experienced magic in a From Software game before, take it from me, magic is complicated enough to be its own dedicated game.
PvE vs PvP Sorceries
In From Software games, Elden Ring included, sorceries are generally balanced for PvP or PvE, usually not both. When the same spell is useful for both PvP and PvE, it’s typically not for the same reason.
PvP-oriented spells are designed to be used against a highly opportunistic, variable, and more reactive opponent that prioritizes (or at least strongly considers) their own survival. As a result, PvP-oriented spells tend to offer greater reliability and may have some controlling or pressuring components that are often irrelevant in PvE.
Meanwhile, PvE spells are designed to be used against opponents that don’t consider their own survival and have predictable movesets. As a result, PvE-oriented spells tend to deal significantly more damage but can be less reliable or completely ineffective against most player (or NPC invader) opponents.
I don’t have too much experience with PvP in From Software games and have opted to play Elden Ring in offline mode, so my recommendations in this guide will be tailored primarily to PvE and the single-player experience.
Regarding Shadow of the Erdtree
FromSoftware opted to expand all of the schools of magic, except for Glintstone Sorcery. As a result, there are a ton of completely new and entirely distinct caster builds, though the most important parts of this build remain the same.
Based on several playthroughs, I have concluded that all the new spells are better left to other caster builds, except for maybe Fleeting Microcosm. The only things that have been expanded are your melee weapon and armor options.
Sorceries
In the Dark Souls series, maximizing efficiency was the most important consideration with Sorcery builds. You’d constantly be asking yourself, “How do I take down these enemies while minimizing the amount of resources consumed?”
Elden Ring has moved pretty far away from that idea by diversifying enemy behavior and spell functionality. From Software has carefully balanced the capabilities of each spell to where nothing is good against every single enemy. Sorceries now differ significantly and consequentially in the following ways:
- Casting Time / Spammability
- Range
- Multi-Target / AoE
- Reliability
- Damage Output
- Bonus Effects
- FP Efficiency
Deciding which spells to memorize is all about maximizing your capabilities, while picking a spell to cast is about what works and what is most effective against a given enemy. To use an analogy, memorizing spells at a Lost Grace is akin to putting tools in your toolbelt, while casting spells is more about using the right tool for the job.
Default Sorceries to use with this Build
This build assumes you’ve managed to locate all 8 Memory Stones scattered throughout the Lands Between, thereby having at least 10 Memory Slots available.
Comet Azur
Comet Azur is your most damaging and FP-efficient sorcery, but it has some major drawbacks that prevent it from being used regularly.
- It has a ridiculously long cast time, so unless you haven’t engaged yet or know you have a ton of time before the enemy can respond, you may end up getting attacked or be forced to dodge before the initial cast even finishes.
- There’s no tracking beyond the initial lock-on; so speedy and evasive targets will typically only get hit by the first tick or two before dodging out of the way.
- You can’t aim it very well, and it likely won’t hit if the target is at a different elevation or there’s anything blocking the way.
- Range is pretty standard. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t have nearly as long a range as its cousins from the Dark Souls series. If you want longer range, you’ll need to use a sorcery that specifically offers that.
- It costs 3 Memory Slots!
Thanks to all these drawbacks, Comet Azur is probably the least essential part of the build, but I still refuse to give it up because the blue magic laser beam goes brrr.
Typically, Comet Azur should only get used against very large and/or slow enemies with a bunch of health. It can be useful against bosses too, especially after big attacks with a ton of end lag like Malenia, Goddess of Rot’s Scarlet Aeonia.
Make sure you have a nearly full FP bar, or at least enough that you can be sure you’ll defeat the enemy before running out. You don’t want to run out of mana when your enemy has just a sliver of health left.
If you really want to go bananas when activating this spell, take Terra Magica as the 7th spell slot, mix the Cerulean Hidden Tear and Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear into your Flask of Wondrous Physick, and equip Lusat’s Glintstone Staff and Azur’s Glintstone Crown.
Activate everything and just watch your enemy evaporate into the primeval current. Bonus points if you’re able to use it against an enemy that also has frostbite and full moon sorcery debuffs.
Comet Azur is given to you by Primeval Sorcerer Azur on Mt. Gelmir on the Atlus Plateau.
For more detailed information on how to obtain Comet Azur, check out my guide on All Legendary Sorceries and Incantations Locations.
Early Game Precursors to Comet Azur
- Gavel of Haima
- Meteorite
- Meteorite of Astel
Comet
Comet is the strongest version of the Glintstone Shard series of sorceries. It’s basically the same as the Crystal Soul Spear from the Dark Souls Series, but unlike Dark Souls, you don’t really need to use weaker versions alongside it because FP efficiency is just less of a thing in Elden Ring. I have tried using Glintstone Cometshard alongside Comet to save on FP, but it’s really just not valuable.
Comet will be the sorcery that you use most often by far because it just doesn’t have that many weaknesses against the enemies you encounter in PvE. It deals strong damage, has good range, can pierce through enemies, has a pretty short casting time, and can be spammed.
That spammability, where you can chain it multiple times in a row without recasting, is what makes it competitive with other spells in terms of DPS because there are lots of sorceries that can surpass it in damage dealt by a singular cast.
The biggest limitation of Comet is that it doesn’t home towards enemies very well, and they can dodge it, so it’s extremely unreliable against evasive enemies. In addition, while it is strong in many areas, it’s not the best at any given thing. Comet is very much a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.
Comet can be found at the Academy of Raya Lucaria in a chest behind an illusory wall. The paintings of Rennala guide the way.
If you want more information on how to find Comet, check out my guide on All Item Locations at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Early Game Precursors to Comet
- Glintstone Pebble
- Great Glintstone Shard
- Glintstone Cometshard
- Night Comet
Stars of Ruin
The Stars of Ruin covers the biggest weaknesses of Comet. If you keep missing your shots because the enemy is too evasive or speedy, Stars of Ruin will almost certainly be able to hit them thanks to its homing properties.
Assuming that all projectiles hit, Stars of Ruin also does slightly more damage per use than Comet. However, it can’t be chained together like Comet or deal as much damage against unaware enemies, so its damage output is only relevant when that extra damage enables you to take down a target in a single cast, or you can’t spam anyway.
Stars of Ruin should only be used against super evasive enemies that you can’t hit with Comet or when you need the small amount of extra damage from Stars of Ruin to be able to defeat an in a single hit in order to save FP.
Stars of Ruin is given to you by Primeval Sorcerer Lusat, who is confined at the back of a hidden cave in eastern Caelid called Sellia Hideaway. In order to gain access to Lusat, you must progress through Sorceress Sellen’s questline until she gives you the Sellian Sealbreaker.
If you want more information on obtaining the Stars of Ruin, check out my guide on All Legendary Sorceries and Incantations.
Early Game Precursors to Stars of Ruin
- Glintstone Stars
- Star Shower
- Rock Sling
- Night Comet
Phalanx Sorceries
The Phalanx sorceries are pretty similar to one another, and now all have their niche thanks to some rebalancing from update 1.07, but I’ll get to differentiating them in a moment. First, I want to go over why one of them deserves to be part of your arsenal.
Compared to other spells at your disposal, all of the Phalanx sorceries are relatively weak. The unique benefit of these spells comes from the fact that you can pre-cast them, essentially getting a second opening’s worth of damage for free (+FP cost, of course).
Pre-casting can take place both before an enemy encounter begins or when an enemy is temporarily out of range, which tends to happen a lot with giant bosses that move around frequently, like dragons.
I don’t find it worthwhile to constantly reapply my Phalanxes between regular groups of enemies because I find it a bit tedious, but the game doesn’t really penalize you for doing beyond the fact that the blades will disappear if they make contact with an object.
Still, there are still instances where you want to leverage the auto-firing nature of these sorceries. The Phalanx sorceries are really nice to have if you’re going through a dark area or one where enemies are hiding because the little Glintblades will lock onto enemies you don’t always see. Even if they don’t actually hit the enemy in question, they’ll still warn you that an enemy is present.
It’s also really nice to have them active if you really want to make sure you’re defeating enemies as fast as possible, like when you’re in a difficult area or super low on Flasks.
Now that you appreciate the Phalanx sorceries, we can talk about which one you should pick. There’s no need to have more than 1 because they aren’t all that different from each other, but they do differ in terms of damage dealt, cost, and reliability.
Ranking | Damage Dealt | Cost | Reliability |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Carian (801) | Glintblade (21 FP) | Greatblade (3 blades) |
2. | Greatblade (738) | Carian (28 FP) | Glintblade (5 blades) |
3. | Glintblade (640) | Greatblade (35 FP) | Carian (9 blades) |
I’ll be covering each of them in greater detail, but there is a clear use case for each one. Use Carian Phalanx if you want to deal maximum damage at all costs. Use Glintblade Phalanx if FP cost is your top priority. Use Greatblade Phalanx if you don’t want to sacrifice reliability for damage output or want to deal more Poise damage.
Carian Phalanx
Carian Phalanx summons a ton of little daggers. If almost all of them hit, Carian Phalanx offers slightly higher damage while costing slightly less than Greatblade Phalanx. Carian Phalanx’s damage dealt is less reliable, though because all of the many swords need to hit in order for it to surpass Greatblade Phalanx, and it’s easier to lose some if you walk through a doorway.
Carian Phalanx is taught exclusively by Preceptor Seluvis after you complete his first quest (giving Seluvis’s Potion to Nepheli Loux, Gideon Ofnir, or the Dung Eater). Preceptor Seluvis is located inside Seluvis’s Rise, west of Caria Manor in northern Liurnia.
You can also purchase them from Count Ymir at the Cathedral of Manus Metyr.
Greatblade Phalanx
Greatblade Phalanx deals median damage but costs the most FP, though this damage is concentrated into 3 larger Greatblades. Since there are only 3 blades and they are larger, Greatblade Phalanx offers the greatest reliability and deals the most Poise damage out of the Phalanx Sorceries.
These benefits come at a cost. The cast time is slightly longer, but enough to make a difference, and it costs the most FP.
The Greatblade Phalanx drops from defeating Bols, the Carian Knight, at the Cuckoo’s Evergaol in western Liurnia.
Glintblade Phalanx
Glintblade Phalanx fires 5 swords. Its greatest advantage compared to the other 2 is efficiency. You’re spending 25-40% less FP for 80-86% of the damage and average reliability.
Glintblade Phalanx can be learned by obtaining the Royal House Scroll and giving it to someone who can teach you sorceries, such as Sorceress Sellen, Miriel, Pastor of Vows (turtle pope), or Preceptor Seluvis, and then purchasing the sorcery from them.
The Royal House Scroll is located atop a ruined building in southern Limgrave, where a couple of pesky aristocrats are sniping you with Glintstone Pebbles.
Ranni’s Dark Moon
Ranni’s Dark Moon is strong in 3 areas: damage per hit, AoE, and range. It also offers a few unique effects including the ability to block incoming spells and applies a couple of valuable debuffs that help us to deal even more damage.
The magic damage debuff works by lowering the affected enemy’s Magic Damage Negation by 10%, so the effect is more impactful the more magic-resistant an enemy is.
The biggest drawback of Ranni’s Dark Moon is its incredibly long cast time, making it impractical to use very often in the heat of battle. Most of the time, you’ll be using it as your first 1-2 casts when the enemy is far away and/or not paying much attention to you. Once the debuffs have been applied, you’re better off switching to another spell with higher DPS (damage per second).
There is some debate about whether Ranni’s Dark Moon or Rennala’s Full Moon is better, but I think Ranni’s Dark Moon is a far better option because it only deals a tiny bit less damage (100), which typically isn’t relevant in AoE situations and can quickly be made up if you manage to make the enemy get frostbite.
Ranni’s Dark Moon is located in a chest atop Chelona’s Rise on the Moonlight Altar plateau in southwest Liurnia. Gaining access to the Moonlight Altar only becomes accessible at the very end of Ranni the Witch’s questline.
If you want more information on how to solve the Chelona’s Rise puzzle and obtain Ranni’s Dark Moon, check out my guide on All Legendary Sorceries and Incantations.
Early Game Precursors to Ranni’s Dark Moon
- Cannon of Haima
- Eternal Darkness
- Loretta’s Greatbow
- Rennala’s Full Moon
Adula’s Moonblade
Thanks to its gigantic area of effect, Adula’s Moonblade excels at dealing with large groups of enemies and hitting massive bosses where it can be difficult to get a target lock without your camera going crazy.
It deals a pretty good amount of damage too, and can even be spammed, but its shorter range often makes it less practical to use frequently, while its cast time makes it a bit riskier to pull off against smaller and faster targets. It’s not quite as strong as Comet in terms of single-target damage either, so it often takes more than one hit to defeat a lot of regular enemies.
Adula’s Moonblade also applies frost and can be a great option to use against bosses when you don’t have enough time to cast Ranni’s Dark Moon multiple times but still want to make sure they get frostbitten.
Overall, I recommend using Adula’s Moonblade when you can but don’t get too greedy. Switch to a sorcery with a longer range (and get back to that range) if you’re not confident that you’ll be able to actually finish the cast without getting hit.
Adula’s Moonblade drops from defeating Glintstone Dragon Adula on the Moonlight Altar in southwest Liurnia. She’ll be guarding the entrance to the Cathedral of Manus Celes.
If you want more information on reaching the Moonlight Altar, check out my guide on Ranni the Witch’s questline and the Age of Stars ending.
Early Game Precursors to Adula’s Moonblade
- Glintstone Arc
- Carian Greatsword
- Cannon of Haima
Loretta’s Mastery
Loretta’s Mastery conjures a magical greatbow to shoot 4 homing great magical Glintarrows at your target. These arrows are quite powerful and have extremely long range.
Both spells are stronger than Comet and can hit things about as far away as you can lock onto them. Each arrow will only hurt a single enemy, but they travel much faster than the Full Moon Sorceries and can be charged.
A single uncharged shot will defeat most normal enemies, and single charged shots can defeat stronger ones. You can hold the charge indefinitely, but the required cast time is comparable to that of the Full Moon Sorceries.
Loretta’s Sorceries aren’t spammable either, so they’re only really worth using against faraway enemies. Loretta’s Mastery also fires the arrows at an angle, and unless you’re by a ledge or aiming up, the bottom one will most likely crash into the ground.
You receive Loretta’s Greatbow for defeating Royal Knight Loretta at Caria Manor in northern Liurnia.
You receive Loretta’s Mastery for defeating Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree, on the Haligtree Promenade guarding the way to Elphael.
Early Game Precursors to Loretta’s Mastery
- Rock Sling
- Loretta’s Greatbow
- Rennala’s Full Moon
Founding Rain of Stars
The Founding Rain of Stars is your most situational Sorcery. You summon a cloud overhead (and slightly in front of you). After a brief delay, the clouds of the cosmos will rain down stars for several seconds.
The cosmic rainfall deals a ton of damage, especially against larger bosses, enough that it’s worth casting against such enemies as often as possible, though only one can be out at a time. It’s also super FP-efficient and has a short cast time, so it’s pretty safe to cast against anything.
Reliability is the only real concern because of that placement mechanism. Your target needs to move slowly, or at least remain stationary while the stars are falling down, and you need to know where they’ll be in advance, stand there, and then cast it ahead of time.
Given that the Founding Rain of Stars is excessive and completely unreliable against non-bosses AND costs 2 Memory Slots, it’s not worth keeping memorized all the time.
You’re better off swapping it out with Sorceries that aren’t useful for a specific boss, usually Loretta’s Greatbow | Mastery and either Comet or Stars of Ruin, but don’t hesitate to remove whatever isn’t doing anything for you.
You can loot the Founding Rain of Stars from a chest at the top of the Heretical Rise in the middle of the Mountaintops of the Giants.
For more information on how to solve the Heretical Rise, check out my guide on All Legendary Sorceries and Incantations.
Early Game Precursors to Founding Rain of Stars
- Magical Downpour
- Meteorite
Alternative Sorceries for the Build
There aren’t really any objectively bad options besides the weaker precursors you get earlier in the game like Glintstone Pebble, Glintstone Stars, and Glintstone Arc.
Almost all late-game sorceries now deal damage that is commensurate with their FP cost, activation time, and overall usefulness. In other words, those factors are trade-offs for damage output. More situational sorceries tend to deal more damage. The more FP a sorcery costs, the more damage it tends to be capable of dealing.
That said, there are a ton of sorceries out there, and some are still better than others, so I have included a list of sorceries that I feel are excellent contenders for the remaining memory slots for your Sorcerer:
- Glintstone Cometshard or Shard Spiral (for FP efficiency)
- Night Comet (instead of Stars of Ruin)
- Cannon of Haima (bigger AoE)
- Terra Magica (for additional pre-cast damage)
- Unseen Form (makes the game easier)
This list has been toned down to remove sorceries that now have a dedicated archetype and build.
When should you charge spells in Elden Ring
Charging spells is a new feature in Elden Ring where you can hold down R1/RB for longer to boost the damage output of a spell or skill at no additional FP cost. The damage boost isn’t huge, but it is enough to take out some enemies in a single shot when it wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
Unless stated specifically, spells only deal any additional damage once they are fully charged; there’s almost never any benefit to just half-charging a spell. Charging never results in a sustained damage (DPS) increase over chaining a spell back-to-back unless the spell gains additional functionality like lasting longer.
Most of the time, the only real benefit of charging comes from being more efficient with your FP when that damage increase would enable you to take down an enemy in 1 less hit than it would have taken if you were to use an uncharged version instead.
Catalysts
Catalyst is the general term for a casting weapon, which means Staves and Seals in Elden Ring. With a single exception in Shadow of the Erdtree, only Staves can cast Sorceries and only Seals can cast Incantations. The light attack of all Catalysts allows you to cast whichever spell is currently selected.
Carian Regal Scepter
The Carian Regal Scepter offers the highest overall Sorcery Scaling without any drawbacks, resulting in it being the second most damaging staff. It also boosts the damage dealt by Rennala’s Full Moon and Ranni’s Dark Moon.
I think the Carian Regal Scepter is the best staff in PvE for this build, though there are some alternatives that you might want to consider, especially if you can stomach the significant trade-offs.
The Carian Regal Scepter can be purchased from Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold in exchange for the Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen.
Meteorite Staff (Early to Mid-Game)
In the early and mid-game, you’ll want to use the Meteorite Staff. It doesn’t need to be upgraded and comes with S-tier Intelligence Scaling, though its actual Sorcery Scaling is weaker than that of all other staves as you begin to head into the late game.
Spend your Smithing Stones on upgrading your main melee weapon and Carian Regal Staff (or alternative). Keep using the Meteorite Staff until you see better Sorcery Scaling The changeover should happen after you pass the +7 upgrade threshold once you have enough Intelligence.
You can loot the Meteorite Staff from a corpse at the southern edge of the Street of Sages Ruins in the Swamp of Aeonia in central Caelid. You’ll also find the invaluable Rock Sling sorcery nearby.
You can easily warp to the Sellia Crystal Tunnel on the northern edge of the Swamp of Aeonia very early in the game using a transporter trap chest in the Dragonburnt Ruins at Agheel Lake in the heart of Limgrave.
Lusat’s Glintstone Staff
Lusat’s Glintstone Staff offers about 10% more damage over the Carian Regal Scepter at the cost of 50% (!) more FP consumption, making it the most damaging staff in the game. This works mechanically by the staff just having better Sorcery Scaling compared to other staves, and the only effect of the staff is the cost increase.
It’s a popular pick because it offers the most damage per cast, but I think that the increased cost mostly negates the value, especially against bosses.
The only times you’ll be able to truly benefit from the extra damage are when FP doesn’t matter, which can be the case in PvP if you’re able to defeat your opponent before running out of mana or outside of dungeons where you’re getting frequent refreshes to your Flasks.
You can reduce the cost associated with Lusat’s Glintstone Staff by equipping the Primal Glintstone Blade talisman or using the Cerulean Hidden Tear in your Flask of Wondrous Physick.
Then, only use Lusat’s Glintstone Staff while you don’t consume any FP, but both of those options come with their own trade-offs too, so I just don’t think it’s worth messing around with in PvE.
Lusat’s Glintstone Staff can be found in a chest in Sellia, Town of Sorcery, in Caelid. In order to access the chest, you must defeat the Nox Swordstress and Nox Priest mini-boss.
Azur’s Glintstone Staff
Azur’s Glintstone Staff offers ever so slightly less Sorcery Scaling than the Carian Regal Scepter but offers reduced casting time at the cost of increasing FP consumption by 25%.
The reduced casting time comes from the staff granting 40 Dexterity exclusively towards casting speed. When paired with the Radagon Icon talisman, you can be maxed out on casting speed without having to invest a single point in Dexterity.
Just like with Lusat’s Glintstone Staff, you can equip the Primal Glintstone Blade talisman to mitigate the increased FP costs, but the benefit of the talisman is diminished because the FP consumption effect is weaker for this staff.
In general, faster casting can help to make the game easier, especially when fighting enemies with a lot of health, like bosses. Some of the later fights and many in Shadow of the Erdtree are balanced exclusively around the maximum casting speed you get at 70 Dexterity.
You’ll be spending less time vulnerable during each opening or still manage to get the cast off and evade your opponent’s next attack if you’re a bit slow to realize you have an opening. As I’ve said before, trade-offs aren’t my cup of tea, but this staff is worth using if you need an additional 10 virtual Dexterity to max out your casting speed.
Azur’s Glintstone Staff is located at the end of a roof-hopping escapade at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
If you want more info on how to find Azur’s Glintstone Staff, I recommend checking out my guide All Item Locations at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Crystal Staff and Rotten Crystal Staff
The Crystal Staff and Rotten Crystal Staff are effectively identical except that the Rotten Crystal Staff can inflict Scarlet Rot with its melee attack, meaning the only consequential difference between the two is cosmetic.
These Crystal Staves offer almost the exact same Sorcery Scaling as the Carian Regal Scepter (~366 vs 373 at +10), making them a great alternative if you can’t or don’t want to spend the Remembrance to buy the Carian Regal Scepter.
The Crystal Staves also boost the damage dealt by the stronger Crystalian sorceries, including Shattering Crystal, Crystal Torrent, and Crystal Release. It does not boost the damage dealt by Crystal Burst or Crystal Barrage, probably because those aren’t truly Crystalian.
There are a few situations I can think of where you may want to consider using one of the Crystal Staves:
- You have opted to use several Crystalian sorceries, likely instead of Comet Azur. After all, Crystal Torrent is basically just store brand Comet Azur.
- You can’t obtain the Carian Regal Scepter because you are unable to purchase it from Enia and don’t want to deal with the trade-offs of Lusat and Azur’s Glintstone Staves.
- You prefer the appearance of the Crystal Staves. I know some of you will call me a heretic for this, but really, the damage difference between these options is small enough that appearance is a totally valid reason to use one staff over another.
The Crystal Staff can be found in a chest inside the Academy Glintstone Cave beneath the Academy of Raya Lucaria. The path to the chest is behind a hidden wall.
The Rotten Crystal Staff drops from Rotten Crystalians that wield the Rotten Crystal Staff. They can be found in the second half of the Haligtree dungeon, Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.
Melee Weapons
Weapons (what you use in your right hand) are going to come down more to preference, though you do want to make sure to use a weapon that either already scales with Intelligence or can at least be made to scale with Intelligence by using an Ash of War to change the weapon’s affinity.
In addition, I recommend sticking to weapons that have Strength and Dexterity requirements that are below 20 because you can’t afford to spend more stat than that until you make a fair bit of headway into NG+ when stat requirements start becoming irrelevant. In this section, I’ll only be highlighting some weapons that naturally scale well with Intelligence.
Finally, I want to emphasize that I don’t think the differences in damage output between these weapons are all that consequential. Most of the time, you’re gonna be casting spells anyway, especially against more difficult enemies where damage output matters, so pick the weapon that you find most fun to use or that you think looks the coolest.
Milady with Wing Stance (Shadow of the Erdtree only)
Milady comes with a regular skill, Impale, and Standard scaling. You’ll need to use Ash of War: Wing Stance to modify it to be either Magic or Cold so that it scales with Intelligence. Both Milady and Ash of War: Wing Stance are only available in Shadow of the Erdtree.
Milady
Milady is a Light Greatsword, a new and positively amazing weapon class added with Shadow of the Erdtree. It is the only Light Greatsword that can be modified with Ashes of War, though Wing Stance is the only thing you’d want to use, and you can only equip Wing Stance to Milady.
I imagine the only reason that Wing Stance wasn’t baked in was to allow players to alter its attribute scaling so that the fantastic Light Greatsword class could be used by non-Intelligence and/or Faith builds.
You can loot tip your fedora for Milady, who is locked away (in a chest) in the highest tower at Castle Ensis. The tower you’ll need to climb is on top of the western building and is accessible almost as soon as you reach the Castle.
Ash of War: Wing Stance
Wing Stance gives Milady a stance attack that makes her function in the same way as Rellana’s Twin Blades and the Sword of Night and Flame, though the stance attacks themselves don’t have any fireworks, and are far more reminiscent of Count Dooku swordsmanship.
Both of the Wing Stance attacks hit hard and fast. The light stance attack is a spammable sweep that you can chain into the strong stance attack, which is an insanely strong leaping stab. Use the light stance attack for groups and the stab stance attack for stronger individuals. You can also dodge some attacks with that initial leap.
You can loot the Ash of War: Wing Stance from a chest in an outer tower overlooking Ensis Moongazing Grounds, accessible by jumping off the balcony at the Castle Lord’s Chamber.
On your way back, be sure to use Loretta’s Mastery to snipe that dastardly spear guy waiting to skewer you on some wooden scaffolding.
Star-lined Sword (Shadow of the Erdtree only)
If you prefer Master Yoda to Count Dooku, look no further than the Star-lined Sword! It’s a Katana with a far more acrobatic Unique Skill used by a demi-human master and apprentice. It also matches Azur’s Glintstone Robes perfectly.
You can receive the Star-Lined Sword for defeating the Demi-Human Queen located with her Demi Order along the Cerulean Coast.
Moonveil
Many Sorcerers consider this katana to be the best weapon for Intelligence builds in Elden Ring and a strong weapon even for non-caster builds. It scales well with Intelligence, has a great skill that’s easy to use, and just looks cool.
The Moonveil also inflicts bleed, but I don’t recommend relying on that in PvE since so many different enemies are immune or highly resistant to it, and you’ll probably be using the Transient Moonlight skill most of the time anyway, and that doesn’t apply bleed.
The Moonveil drops from defeating the Magma Wyrm at the end of Gael Tunnel (not Gaol Cave) on the border between Limgrave and Caelid.
Carian Sorcery Sword (Shadow of the Erdtree only)
Carian Sorcery Sword is a rather unique Thrusting Sword that’s available only in Shadow of the Erdtree. It scales with Intelligence (S), Strength (E), and Dexterity (D), and features a regular skill (Impale) that you can’t change with an Ash of War.
Its most unique trait is that it lacks a traditional strong attack. Pressing that button will make the weapon act as a catalyst instead, allowing you to cast Sorceries. I have no idea why they didn’t give the spellcasting capability as a Unique Skill instead, or at least Carian Sovereignty!
The weapon does not possess a proper Sorcery Scaling Stat, so it is weaker than a dedicated Catalyst. Using Comet at 80 INT to test, I dealt ~1320 damage with Carian Regal Scepter +10, ~1031 with Carian Sorcery Sword +25, and ~580 with Carian Glintstone Staff +0.
As a thrusting sword, Carian Sorcery Sword allows you to poke at enemies, including Spider-Scorpions, while your shield is up and deal more damage when you hit them during their attack animation.
This sword also deals nonstandard critical damage thanks to its 110 Critical stat. Your critical hits will deal significantly more damage compared to what you can possibly do with your other weapons, and you should use this in lieu of a dagger, including the Glintstone Kris.
You can loot the Carian Sorcery Sword from a chest on top of the main building at Castle Ensis. You can’t (practically) reach that area until after you’ve defeated Rellana and can cross the river and drop down onto the roof near the portal belfry.
It’s such a shame that they gave it Impale instead of Carian Sovereignty, as that’s the one big thing we’re missing from Rellana.
Glintstone Kris
If you’re looking for a weapon that’s more reminiscent of the hideous wax candlestick dagger you were strongly incentivized to use in Dark Souls 3, look no further than the Glintstone Kris! It’s a dagger, so it features the same animation set as the Scholar’s Candlestick you might be used to.
The regular slashes are fairly weak, but the Glintstone Kris makes up for this with a unique skill where you fire a powerful short-range Glintstone Shard that you can immediately follow up with your strong attack (R2/RT) for a special lunging stab! This skill seems to be pretty effective at breaking stances and guards too.
Like most daggers, the Glintstone Kris also deals slightly more critical damage than other weapons, so it’s nice to have it on hand exclusively in those situations as a secondary weapon. You deal critical damage whenever you do the special backstab (or frontstab) animation against a vulnerable enemy.
Keep in mind that the critical damage difference between the Glintstone Kris and Moonveil is quite small, and you will need a bit more Endurance to carry both at the same time.
The Glintstone Kris is given to you by Sorceress Sellen at the end of her questline if you side with her.
Dark Moon Greatsword
The Dark Moon Greatsword is one of the Legendary Weapons in Elden Ring (you need it for the Legendary Armaments Achievement). This is the Elden Ring version of the famed Moonlight Greatsword.
This time around, From Software has opted to balance the Strength requirement of the weapon so that it’s actually practical to use as a caster, unlike in past games where the Strength requirement was way too high to use outside of dedicated builds.
Please note that the Dark Moon Greatsword is considerably heavier than all of the options I’ve listed here and is probably one of the heaviest weapons you’ll realistically be able to wield as a Sorcerer in general.
If you have barely enough Endurance to wear your current armor, you’ll probably need to level up your Endurance to get back down to your Equip Load ratio.
The Dark Moon Greatsword is your reward for completing Ranni’s questline that ends beneath the Cathedral of Manus Celes on the Moonlight Altar in southwest Liurnia.
If you want more information on how to obtain the Dark Moon Greatsword, check out my guide on how to complete Ranni the Witch’s quest and unlock the Age of the Stars ending.
Bastard’s Stars
The Bastard’s Stars are a Flail made out of what looks like a solar system bound to Astel. It scales with Intelligence (A), Dexterity (C), and Strength (E) to deal ~67% of its damage as Magic. The Unique Skill: Nebula is different from the one offered by Wing of Astel, and comes with an initial hit.
You can exchange the Remembrance of the Naturalborn for Bastard’s Stars with Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold. You receive this Remembrance for defeating Astel, Naturalborn of the Void, guarding the elevator beneath the Moonlight Altar.
Wing of Astel
The Wing of Astel is a bit unconventional as a weapon since it’s literally the wing of a giant alien space bug, but it’s treated as a curved sword and has the same animation set as falchions, scimitars, and shotels, so it ends up being in between straight swords and daggers in terms of swing speed, range, and damage per swing.
The Wing of Astel really shines when it comes to its rare skill called Nebula where you birth several clouds of stardust that explode after a short time in quick succession. It’s quite a sight to behold, and I highly recommend giving this weapon a try.
It works best in a NG+ playthrough where you shoot for a light equip load with Lusat or Azur’s gear. I highly recommend equipping a second Wing of Astel in your left hand as curved swords are really made to be dual wielded. Sadly, you do put one away when you cast Unique Skill: Nebula.
The Wing of Astel is located in a chest above the Hermit Merchant in Ainsel River behind a different giant insectoid alien. In order to reach it, you’ll need to have access to the upper area of Ainsel River and Nokstella, Eternal City.
Carian Knight’s Sword
If you’re after something more standard, look no further than the Carian Knight’s Sword. It’s a Straight Sword and occupies a sort of middle-ground between the Moonveil and Glintstone Kris in just about every regard: range, swing speed, damage per swing, skill, etc.
It’s a great option if you prefer something basic and don’t want to deal with anything too fancy or complicated. The skill has 3 charge tiers, with the third having a lot more range. Unfortunately, you can’t equip it with Ash of War: Carian Sovereignty or any other Ash of War.
The Carian Knight Sword is located in a chest carried by a black caravan in western Liurnia that can be found in between the Four Belfries and Kingsrealm Ruins.
Shields
A Shield can be a useful addition to this build, as some enemies have more health or poise than you can deal with, or they’re difficult to dodge. You’ll have to put your staff away and endure being cut off from your magic unless you pair it with the Carian Sorcery Sword from the expansion.
You have 3 options, all of them Medium Shields. Which one you use is largely dependent on how much weight you can spare.
I don’t recommend using the Carian Thrusting Shield despite it being on-brand because there are too many trade-offs with it that you can’t afford for how little you’ll end up using it.
Silver Mirrorshield
The Silver Mirrorshield is one of the lightest Medium Shields in the game at 3.5, and yet it still offers 100% Guarded Physical Damage Negation along with a whopping 89% Guarded Magic Damage Negation. In exchange, its Guarded Fire, Holy, and Lightning Damage Negation are more worthless than an Albinauric’s legs.
You receive the Silver Mirrorshield (and a +10 Somber Smithing Stone) for bringing Latenna the Albinauric to her big sister at the Apostate Derelict on the Consecrated Snowfield.
Carian Knight’s Shield
The Carian Knight’s Shield weighs 1 more unit than the Silver Mirrorshield in exchange for better guard boost and more evenly distributed non-Physical Guarded Damage Negation.
You receive the Carian Knight’s Shield for defeating Moongrum, Carian Knight, guarding the entrance to Rennala’s chambers at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Wolf Crest Shield
The Wolf Crest Shield continues the trend of trading weight for more even Guarded Damage Negation and higher Guard Boost. It also matches better with the Beast Champion Armor than the Carian Knight’s Shield.
You can loot the Wolf Crest Shield in the same building where you fight Moonrythill of the Boreal Valley. There are some stairs outside that take you down to a lower level. They’re on the right as you’re facing the chapel.
Talismans
I recommend using the Graven-School Talisman, Graven-Mass Talisman, Radagon Icon, and Magic Scorpion Charm. These talismans will consistently maximize the damage dealt by all of your Sorceries.
Graven-School Talisman
This talisman provides a 4% damage boost to all sorceries, which is effectively a 4% damage boost. It doesn’t seem like much, but it can be the difference between defeating many enemies in 1 hit instead of 2.
The Graven-School Talisman is located in a secret area at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
For more info on how to find this talisman, check out my guide on All Item Locations at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Graven-Mass Talisman
This talisman provides an 8% damage boost to all sorceries, so it’s literally just a stronger version of the Graven-School Talisman. Unlike most other talismans with upgraded versions, you can equip both Graven talismans at the same time!
The Graven-Mass Talisman can be found atop the Albinauric Rise at the edge of the Consecrated Snowfield on the western side of the Mountaintops of the Giants.
To remove the seal and enter, you’d need to solve a quick puzzle – put two imps to fight each other. You can easily do that by summoning the Fanged Imp ashes.
Radagon Icon
This talisman increases your casting speed by giving you 30 Dexterity which only counts toward increasing your casting speed, which maxes out at 70 Dexterity. The casting speed increase may be subtle at first, but if you wear it for a while and then take it off for a while, you’ll feel slower and start to regret ever taking it off.
The Radagon Icon can be found in a chest on the second floor of the Debate Parlor where you fought the Red Wolf of Radagon at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
For more info on how to find this talisman, check out my guide on All Item Locations at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Radagon Icon is one of the Legendary Talismans in Elden Ring. You need to get it if you want to complete the Legendary Talismans Achievement.
Magic Scorpion Charm
This talisman boosts all magic damage dealt by 12% (as much as the Graven talismans combined) but increases your physical damage taken by 10%. In the Dark Souls series, this was called the Magic Clutch Ring.
The Magic Scorpion Charm is given to you by Preceptor Seluvis after giving him the Amber Starlight Shard near the end of his questline. Do not give Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade until you have received the Magic Scorpion Charm or you will become unable to obtain it from this playthrough!
Alternative Talismans for the Sorcerer PvE Build
These Talismans are strong alternatives to the main ones I recommend. However, you won’t be able to equip every single configuration alongside the Beast Champion Armor (with cape) at 30 Endurance.
Godfrey Icon
This talisman increases the damage dealt by fully charging chargeable sorceries (and skills) by 15%. You are able to access it sooner than the Graven-Mass Talisman, so you will use this one for a significant chunk of your journey, but it’s still a worthwhile alternative later on. You could swap it out for the Magic Scorpion Charm if you dislike taking extra damage, or the Graven-School Talisman if you are okay with giving up a bit of sustained.
Primal Glintstone Blade
This talisman reduces FP consumption by 25% and reduces max HP by 15%. I would definitely use this with Lusat’s Staff, but I don’t think it’s too necessary otherwise.
Moon of Nokstella
This talisman is great if you want access to additional spells but don’t care as much about damage output.
Dragoncrest (Great) Shield Talismans
This series of talismans boosts your physical damage negation from 10-20%, depending on the variant. If you’re after increased survivability, this is a great option.
Rellana’s Cameo (Shadow of the Erdtree only)
If you’re using Milady with Wing Stance, you might want to consider using Rellana’s Cameo instead of the Graven-School Talisman. It offers a +45% boost to your Wing Stance and you’re only giving up 4% Sorcery damage.
Armor
Sorceries don’t cost that much stamina to use, and the weapons you wield don’t weigh very much, so the only real benefit you get from extra Endurance is being able to spam cast for longer before needing to take a break.
At the same time, it still takes an excessive amount of Endurance in order to lower your Equip Load ratio enough to where you are considered to be carrying a light load while wearing most of the wizard robe outfits.
In my opinion, being able to wear the full wizard robes in your first playthrough isn’t a good idea. You give up a ton of damage mitigation in return for basically nothing because you can’t afford to spend enough Endurance to reach a light equip load. Some of the helmets do have special effects, but you can just wear those alongside heavier armor. You’re gonna look pretty eccentric either way.
This puts us Sorcerers in a pretty weird spot where the best course of action seems to be to just wear heavier armor in the first playthrough, even though that doesn’t align with our archetypal garb. In NG+, when you do have spare stat to allocate toward Endurance, you can achieve the light equip load with the Azur and Lusat robes.
Thankfully, heavy armor sets in Elden Ring tend to look pretty fantastical, so you won’t look super weird in the heavy armor, but given that what armor set is best will vary depending on your priorities, I’m only going to give a couple of brief recommendations on armor sets that I think fit well with this build.
Carian Knight Armor
The Carian Knight armor set is wearable when you have 15 Endurance. The helmet comes with a free antenna so you can continue to communicate with Ranni even after she departs for the stars.
The Carian Knight armor set can be picked up off a corpse in the magic zombie graveyard at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
Hoslow’s Armor
Hoslow’s armor set becomes wearable with a medium load when you have 20 Endurance, though by the time you are able to pick it up, you will likely already have more than that. I highly recommend picking this set up before visiting Mohgwyn Palace and using it there, even if you already use Beast Champion.
The Hoslow armor set is dropped by defeating Juno Hoslow as the final assassination of the Volcano Manor. You should see the invasion location marked on your map after picking up the Red Letter at Volcano Manor. You can defeat Rykard and still receive this armor set, but you must pick up the Red Letter first.
Beast Champion Armor
The Beast Champion armor set becomes barely available when you have 30 Endurance and use the exact equipment I recommend. You have less than 0.1 weight left before you’re considered to have a heavy load instead, so you can’t even afford to modify your talismans unless you remove the cape.
The Beast Champion’s Armor Set drops off of Recusant Bernahl at Crumbling Farum Azula.
Azur’s Glintstone Robes
Azur’s Glintstone Robes feature pointy green Glintstones. They look the best with the Star-lined Sword and Glintstone Kris and share the same Old Sorcerer’s Legwraps as Lusat’s Robes.
Azur’s Glintstone Crown increases the damage dealt by Comet Azur by 15%, and Comet and Glintstone Cometshard by 10%, but increases the FP cost of all Sorceries by 15%.
You can pick up Azur’s Glintstone Robes where his body once was on Mt. Gelmir if you chose to support Sellen at the end of her quest.
Lusat’s Robes
Apparently only Master Azur gets Glintstone robes. Lusat’s regular old blue stone Robes look and sound the best with the Wing of Astel or Bastard’s Stars and, of course, Lusat’s Glintstone Staff.
Lusat’s Glintstone Crown increases the damage dealt by Stars of Ruin by 15% and its precursors by 10%, but makes all Sorceries cost 15% more FP. The crown also matches the Beast Champion armor set quite well.
You can pick up Lusat’s Robes where his body once was in Sellia Hideaway in Caelid if you chose to support Sellen at the end of her quest.
If you want to check out all the armor sets in Elden Ring, visit my Full Elden Ring Armor Set Catalog and Locations Guide.
Flask of Wondrous Physick Mixtures
There are several approaches to concocting a mixture for your Flask of Wondrous Physick, depending on your priorities. Beyond picking something that’s effectively useless, there isn’t really a bad combination of Crystal Tears, so I recommend that you pick 2 that cater best to your preferences.
Recommended Concoction
I use the Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear in conjunction with the Opaline Hardtear because I favor long-lasting buffs that improve both offense and defense.
This combo also allows you to “pre-game” your Physick before even entering boss rooms, so you don’t need to waste a precious opening during the actual fight to drink it.
Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear
The Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear boosts your Magic damage by 20% for 3 minutes. This effect is quite potent and lasts for the majority or entirety of boss fights. Outside of bosses, it usually lasts long enough to clear out a difficult room and definitely long enough to take down tough enemies.
Dropped by the Erdree Avatar at the base of the Minor Erdtreee in eastern Liurnia, north of the Church of Vows.
Opaline Hardtear
The Opaline Hardtear grants +13.5% Damage Negation for 3 mins against all damage types. It’s basically a combination of the Pearldrake and Dragoncrest Greatshield Talismans. Additional survivability is valuable in boss fights in general, but essential for the ones in the Realm of Shadow.
Dropped by the Putrid Avatar at the base of the Minor Erdtree at Greyoll’s Dragonbarrow near the Farum Greatbridge in northeastern Caelid.
Alternative Crystal Tears
Use one of these in place of the Opaline Bubbletear. I do not recommend giving up the Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear unless you want to make the game harder.
Winged Crystal Tear
The Winged Crystal Tear effectively gives you a light equip load, granting the superior roll and Stamina regeneration while enabling you to equip much heavier armor and still get the better damage negation it offers.
Cerulean Hidden Tear
The Cerulean Hidden Tear eliminates FP consumption for 7 seconds. This is a popular choice among Sorcerers because it synergizes so well with Comet Azur to give you way more than a free full FP bar, equivalent to several sips from your Cerulean Flask. I personally don’t use it very often because it’s too situational. If I have time to take a sip of Wondrous Physick, I could just take a sip of my Cerulean Flask instead. Furthermore, very few things have enough health and will let you hit them for long enough to where you can completely drain your mana from full anyway.
Intelligence-knot Crystal Tear
The Intelligence-knot Crystal Tear increases your Intelligence by 10 for 3 minutes. It is mainly only useful before you hit the 80 Intelligence hard cap but becomes less and less useful as you get closer to 80 as individual points of Intelligence become less impactful.
Cerulean Crystal Tears
The Cerulean Crystal Tears each restore half of your maximum FP and together will completely refill your mana. These tears are likely to be more valuable to you as a Sorcerer since your build is so dependent on casting.
Check out my guide on the Flask of Wondrous Physick and Crystal Tear Locations if you want to learn more!
Attributes, Leveling Up, and Flask Allocation
The base requirements for the Sorcerer build are comprised of the requirements to survive and effectively wield most of the suggested weapons available to you as well as cast all of the relevant Sorceries or their precursors.
Attribute Points
Below is the stat distribution I recommend you strive for as you approach these semi-arbitrary level milestones:
Attribute | lvl 100 ► | lvl 150 ► | lvl 200 ► | lvl 250 ► | lvl 300+ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vigor | 40 | 50 | 60 | 60 | 60 |
Mind | 30 | 35 | 40 | 50 | 60 |
Endurance | 15 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 |
Strength | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
Dexterity | 12 | 30 | 40 | 70 | 70 |
Intelligence | 52 | 68 | 80 | 80 | 80 |
Faith | – | – | – | – | – |
Arcane | – | – | – | – | – |
Please note that these stats are rough estimates. They don’t perfectly add up to the nice, round level thresholds. Your values will vary slightly depending on your base class. Here’s the overall process:
- From level 1 ► 100, your goal is to focus on cranking up Vigor, Mind, and Intelligence. You are driven by the requirements on the best spells you can cast and the ability to equip Azur’s Glintstone Staff.
- From level 100 ► 150, you’ll climb high enough with Dexterity to take off Radagon Icon in lieu of a better Talisman while adding a bit to your other stats.
- From level 150 ► 200, you’ll get a bit more Dexterity to take off Azur’s Glintstone Staff and put Radagon Icon back on, while climbing higher with your other stats, including hard capping on Vigor and Intelligence.
- From level 200 ► 250+, you’ll focus on Mind, Endurance, and Dexterity to approach their soft caps, and then hit them as you head toward 300.
Vigor
Vigor primarily increases your HP (red bar) and has a hard cap at 60. Your Vigor should increase by 10 by the time you finish your current continent.
Mind
Mind primarily increases your FP (blue bar) and has a hard cap at 60, with the most significant gains per Attribute Point occuring between 35-50 Mind. You really don’t need more than 15-20 if you’re mainly using Skills and Ashes of War, but if you’re casting, you wanna improve your Mind.
For this build, you want to shoot for 50 Mind, but it should be one of the last caps
Endurance
Endurance increases your Stamina (green bar) and Maximum Equip Load. The former is a resource that gets consumed whenever you do anything beyond walking around (or running outside of combat). You’ll get practically all of the Stamina between 1-50 Endurance and have a lot of flexibility with equipment within that range as well.
You need 30 Endurance to have a Medium Equip Load with the Beast Champion armor, Moonveil, Carian Regal Scepter, and Glintstone Kris. However, 35 gives you more flexibility, and 50 Endurance gives you the opportunity to go for a Light Equip Load with the wizard robes.
Strength (Str)
Strength increases your damage dealt with weapons that scale with it, which are typically the heavier weapons. Two-handing (not dual-wielding) a weapon multiplies the amount of Attribute Points for the purposes of damage output and Strength usability requirements (you can lift heavier things because using both hands).
Your weapons do not scale significantly with Strength, so only invest enough points to satisfy the minimum requirement listed on the tin.
Dexterity (Dex)
Dexterity increases your damage dealt with weapons that scale with it, which are typically lighter weapons and those that require more precision. Dexterity also reduces casting time for Sorceries and Incantations, maxing out at 70.
Dexterity is complicated for casters. You need enough of it to satisfy the requirement to wield your melee weapon, but you also want to hit 70 Dexterity to max out your casting speed. Remember, Radagon Icon grants +30 Dexterity and Azur’s Glintstone Staff grants +40 Dexterity, though their Dexterity only counts towards casting speed.
You’ll need to use at least one of those items until you get pretty far into NG+ or the very end of the expansion, so the practical target is 30 or 40 Dexterity.
Try not to overshoot the casting speed cap. Invest your Attribute Points in another stat, like Mind or Intelligence and use those items in the meantime until you can reallocate them to real Dexterity without losing anything.
Intelligence (Int)
Intelligence primarily increases the Sorcery Scaling on Staves, governing the damage you deal with Sorceries and whether you can cast them in the first place, though it can also increase the Magic or Cold damage dealt by a weapon that scales with it.
Intelligence is so influential to a Sorcerer, as it governs how much damage you can deal as well as which spells you can cast. You want to shoot for the hard cap, 80, as soon as you can.
Faith (Fth)
Faith primarily increases the Incantation Scaling on Seals, governing the damage you deal with Incantations and whether you can cast them in the first place, though it can also increase the (Sacred) Fire and Holy damage dealt by a weapon that scales with it.
You have no need for Faith with this build.
Arcane (Arc)
Arcane increases your damage dealt and rate of status effect application (Bleed, Poison, etc.) with weapons that scale with it, typically related to those status effects and random weird stuff. It also increases the chance that an enemy will drop something.
You have no need for Arcane with this build.
Leveling Up
Prioritize spending your Attribute Points on what you need right now to satisfy some threshold, alternating between damage and survivability.
You should have just enough damage-boosting stats to defeat most enemies in a whole number of hits. If your final hit overshoots their health bar by 50%, that’s half of a hit wasted.
You should have enough survivability that you can consistently survive 2-3 hits, or maybe not get one-shot by some smackerdoodle with extra beef, like Placidusax’s Sound-Dampening Lightning Spear.
You should have enough HP that you can get the full amount from your Crimson Flask while still being able to survive at least 1 more hit. The same applies to FP and Cerulean Flasks for caster builds.
If one side of this survivability-damage output coin is satisfactory, focus on the other until it’s satisfactory, and then switch back. It doesn’t work to dump everything into one of them because of diminishing returns.
Crimson and Cerulean Flask Allocation
Since enemies won’t be able to hit you most of the time because you’re too far away, you won’t need nearly as many Crimson Flasks to survive until the next Site of Grace.
At the same time, you will need a lot of Cerulean Flasks to have enough FP to enable you to cast the entire time. I recommend starting with a 50:50 split (so 7 of each Flask) and making tweaks as needed.
If you haven’t yet maxed out your Flasks, you can still strive for that 50:50 ratio, and when you can’t have an equal number of each, I recommend having more Cerulean Flasks than Crimson ones. If you’re struggling to find Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears, check out my guide on All Golden Seed and Sacred Tear Locations.
In boss fights, you can get away with far fewer Cerulean Flasks but need more Crimson Flasks to survive, as you’ll take more hits than you normally would when you fight normal enemies. Most boss fights don’t require more than 3 Cerulean Flasks.
Early Game Summary
I recommend starting as an Astrologer so that you can have a few Sorceries and a catalyst from the get-go. However, I strongly recommend swapping the sword to the right and hand the staff to the left hand. Melee weapons don’t hit as hard unless you equip them to your right hand.
As a Sorcerer, you have a few extra steps to complete in order to set yourself up for success in the rest of the game. First, I recommend procuring a Lordsworn Straight Sword by defeating Godrick Soldiers until one of them drops it and picking up the Ash of War: Gravitas from the Alabaster Lord at the beach near the Seaside Ruins to get early Intelligence scaling on your melee weapon.
You’ll also want to enter into the tutelage of Sorceress Sellen at the Waypoint Ruins in Limgrave. She’s the main Sorcery vendor where you can turn in the scrolls you find to unlock new sorceries to buy. Check out our dedicated guide on how to reach the first sorcery vendor and defeat the Mad Pumpkin Head mini-boss.
Then, you’ll want to head over to those Dragon-Burnt Ruins at Agheel Lake and warp over to the Swamp of Aeonia in Caelid to pick up the Meteorite Staff and Rock Sling sorcery at the Street of Sages Ruins. Riding Torrent will stop you from coming into contact with the rot-laden waters of the Swamp of Aeonia, preventing the buildup of Scarlet Rot.
You should also pick up 2 of the scrolls for Sellen. The first is located south of Agheel Lake and east of the Forlorn Hound Evergaol at the enemy camp with all of the Wandering Nobles that sling endless Glintstone Pebbles at you. The second is located at the graveyard just at the Church of Irith in Liurnia. You can get there even if you haven’t made it to Stormveil Castle yet by going around to the east side of the castle, near the collapsed bridge and Finger Reader Crone.
Don’t forget to stop by every single Graven Rise (gray watchtowers). All of them contain something you want, most of them contain Memory Stones, which you’ll need to equip more sorceries. Most of them are located in Liurnia. In general, you’ll need to explore Liurnia and the Academy of Raya Lucaria thoroughly since you’ll find most upgrades there.
Allocate your stats on an as-needed basis. If you are regenerating more HP and FP than can fit in your bars with each sip from your flasks, upgrade Vigor and Mind. Strength and Dexterity should be at the minimum required by your melee weapon. Try to be roughly 5 points ahead in Endurance for what you need to maintain a medium load, so 15 for Carian Knight + 5 = 20.
You’ll find a ton of late-game sorceries super early in the game, so don’t feel pressured to dump everything into Intelligence right away. I think they want you to use those ugly helmets and the Queen’s Crescent Crown, but the drawbacks are annoying and don’t make you feel pretty. Focus on being able to defeat most normal enemies in 1 hit from the Comet (and precursor). If you can’t, upgrade Intelligence. Many of the main Glintstone Comet precursors map Intelligence stats to enemy health thresholds in specific regions.
Earlier Game Precursor Sorceries
These are the sorceries I recommend using before you have enough Intelligence to equip the final version. The sorceries in italics are the ones I use the most, though you will probably equip all of them, if only for a short period.
- Comet (Main)
- Night Comet
- Glintstone Cometshard
- Great Glintstone Shard
- Glintstone Pebble
- Stars of Ruin (Homing)
- Rock Sling
- Night Comet
- Star Shower
- Glintstone Stars
- Gravity Well
- Adula’s Moonblade (AoE and Melee)
- Cannon of Haima
- Carian Greatsword
- Carian Slicer
- Glintstone Arc
- Glintblade Phalanx (Pre-Casting and Reactivity)
- Comet Azur (Giant and Stance-Broken Enemies)
- Meteorite of Astel
- Meteorite
- Gavel of Haima
- Ranni’s Dark Moon (Tactical Advantage)
- Cannon of Haima
- Loretta’s Greatbow
- Eternal Darkness
- Glintstone Icecrag
- Terra Magica
- Unseen Form
Next up, check out the Pyromancer Build Guide for Elden Ring. This PvE-focused in-depth guide will show you another fantastic caster ranged build and teach you how to play it and where it excels!
Elden Ring Rock Heart Build: Communing with Dragons (PvE)
A complete Rock Heart PvE Build for Elden Ring, enhanced by Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and designed to help you reach the ultimate level of Dragon Communion by combining draconic items from the base game with molten fury from the Jagged Peak.
Shadow of the Erdtree Rellana Build Guide: How to Play as the Twin Moon Knight
A complete Shadow of the Erdtree Rellana PvE Build, designed to help you create a powerful spellblade knight character using mostly new items from Elden Ring’s expansion, along with a few from the base game.
Elden Ring Bleed Build Guide for Shadow of the Erdtree (PvE)
A complete Elden Ring Bleed PvE Build and Guide. Designed to help you create a cohesive, versatile, and aggressive character on a fresh playthrough using items that aren’t too far off the beaten path to the Land of Shadow.
Elden Ring Lightning Spear Build Guide (PvE)
A complete Elden Ring Necromancer PvE Build and Guide. All you need to know to create a versatile, powerful, ranged caster character!
Elden Ring Necromancer Build Guide (PvE)
A complete Elden Ring Necromancer PvE Build and Guide. All you need to know to create a versatile, powerful, ranged caster character!
Elden Ring Pyromancer Build Guide (PvE)
A complete Elden Ring Pyromancer PvE Build and Guide. All you need to know to create a versatile, powerful, ranged caster character!