Several characters in Elden Ring have had a history of wanting to harness the power of dragons. Now, you can do the same with your character using the power of Dragon Communion. This build showcases the strengths of a Dragon Communion-themed approach and how to work with it.
The best Dragon Communion build in Elden Ring
The Dragon Communion build will use a plethora of Dragon Communion Incantations in Elden Ring. To channel these, the Dragon Communion Seal is important to buff the spells’ damage. This build’s main stats are Faith and Arcane, with the former impacting your spells’ damage and the latter improving your chance to inflict multiple status effects.
With a high Arcane stat, it seems only fair to include the Ripple Blade as the main weapon. You can buff this weapon with any item or spell, making it even stronger. For this build, we have included new Dragon Communion Incantations from Shadow of the Erdtree, so if you’re running a different build, you should respec your character before getting started.
| Build parameters | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Recommended level | 150 or more |
| Primary stats | Faith, Arcane |
| Secondary stats | Vigor, Mind |
| Weapons | Ripple Blade Dragon Communion Seal |
| Armor | White Mask Drake Knight Set |
| Talismans | Flock’s Canvas Talisman Lord of Blood’s Exultation Kindred of Rot’s Exultation Fire Scorpion Charm |
| Weapon skills | Wild Strikes |
| Additional spells | Golden Vow Bloodflame Blade Bayle’s Flame Lightning Ghostflame Breath Rotten Breath Theodorix’s Magma |
Stat distribution
As mentioned earlier, the main stats of this build are Faith and Arcane, so get them both up to 40 first. Then invest points into Vigor until 40, Endurance until 30, and Mind until 30. Following that, continue investing points into Arcane until it hits the 60 soft cap. Strength and Dexterity should be at 11 each for weapon prerequisites, and Intelligence can stay at its base level.
This is what your endgame stats should look like:
- Vigor: 50
- Mind: 30
- Endurance: 30
- Strength: 11
- Dexterity: 11
- Intelligence: Base level
- Faith: 40
- Arcane: 60
As you level up, you can invest more points into Vigor until it hits 50 for survivability. If you still find yourself dying too quickly, you can get Vigor up to 60 instead. The rest of your subsequent levels should be spent leveling up Faith if you want more spell damage or Arcane until it hits 80.
Incantations and buffs
This build uses six different Incantations.
- Golden Vow: Increases your attack and defense stats.
- Bloodflame Blade: Imbues your weapon with Bloodflame, granting bonus Fire damage and an innate blood loss buildup.
- Bayle’s Flame Lightning: Slams the ground with Bayle’s signature Flame Lightning strike.
- Ghostflame Breath: Launches a breath of Ghostflame to damage enemies. Builds up Frostbite the longer you channel it.
- Rotten Breath: Launches a breath of Scarlet Rot to damage enemies. Builds up the Scarlet Rot effect the longer you channel it.
- Theodorix’s Magma: Drops magma onto enemies, creating a pool of consistent Fire damage.
Use different Incantations to bypass enemy resistances and exploit their weaknesses. With the variety of spells you have, no enemy should be immune to your damage.
For your Flask of Wondrous Physick buffs, we recommend mixing the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear with one of two options. You can either use the Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear for more Fire damage or the Cerulean Hidden Tear to grant you infinite FP for a short period of time.
Gear breakdown
The main weapon of this build is the Ripple Blade. This weapon scales incredibly well with Arcane, and while it cannot be imbued with Ashes of War, it can be buffed with greases and spells. The Bloodflame Blade buff lets this Axe tear through enemies in no time.
On your offhand, you will want the Dragon Communion Seal for two reasons. The first is its high scaling with your primary stats, Faith and Arcane. The second reason is its 15 percent damage buff to your Dragon Communion Incantations, which is your main source of damage.
There are several armor choices for this build, but the only mandatory piece is the White Mask helm. This piece buffs your damage when you cause blood loss. The rest of your armor set can be filled by various Dragon-themed sets, of which we chose the Drake Knight Set.
Talisman breakdown
Four talismans work perfectly for this build:
- The Flock’s Canvas Talisman is an essential talisman to have for any Incantation-based build. Equipping this talisman will increase the power of your Incantations by eight percent.
- The Lord of Blood’s Exultation increases your damage every time you cause blood loss in the vicinity. This 20 percent damage buff stacks fully with the White Mask’s passive effect.
- The Kindred of Rot’s Exultation increases your damage every time you inflict Scarlet Rot on your enemies. With your high Arcane stat, Rotten Breath will trigger this effect often.
- The Fire Scorpion Charm increases your Fire damage output by 12 percent. This boost affects Bloodflame Blade and your Incantations that deal Fire damage like Theodorix’s Magma and Bayle’s Flame Lightning.
