Elden Ring DLC: How To Master The Passive Abilities In Armor? - Top 10 Armor

Since the launch of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, it has been rated as the most difficult DLC in history by many players: some extremely difficult bosses and dazzling combat mechanisms make them feel that this game is too challenging. But there is a solution. You need to learn some combat skills and item selection skills. In combat, the most important thing is to ensure that your health is always within a safe range, and the safest thing is to increase your maximum health. Usually, the higher your maximum health, the stronger your ability to survive enemy attack spells and projectiles, and you also have a lot of room for error. In Shadow of the Erdtree, you are provided with a lot of items that can increase your maximum health, such as armor and talismans. This guide will introduce you to several best options. You can choose one or more to combine according to your usage habits or game style. Come and take a look! Crimson Amber Medallion +3 You can find 4 Crimson Amber Medallions in the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. The default version can increase your maximum health by 6%, followed by 7% and 8%, and the most powerful +3 version can directly increase it by 10%. This is far beyond the reach of many armors, and this talisman, unlike Great Runes, has no drawbacks or caveats, making it the best choice for your build when facing enemies that can be hard hit you. But it should be noted that Crimson Amber Medallion +3 can only be found in the DLC. You can go to Fog Rift Catacombs and defeat Death Knight boss and then find it in its loot. If you just want this talisman as a supplement to your build, you can look for Crimson Amber Medallion +2 in Ashen Capital Leyndell in the base game, which is enough. Morgott’s Great Rune Of all Elden Ring Items that increase your maximum health, Morgott’s Great Rune is the clear winner, as it increases your health by 25%. This means that when you’re fighting a long battle with an enemy, your high health will give you more chances to defeat them, and it will also make it more likely that you’ll get the final Elden Ring Runes bonus. But it should be noted that this bonus is ideal when you have other health-increasing buffs, equipment, and spells in your build. If you focus your entire build on health before a fight, you’ll be invincible. Also, like the other Great Runes, Morgott’s Great Rune requires a Rune Arc before each activation, which can be a bit cumbersome, but if you think about the benefits that Morgott’s Great Rune brings to you, I believe you’ll understand its importance. Erdtree’s Favor +2 Although Erdtree’s Favor +2 only provides you with a 4% increase in maximum health, it doesn’t seem to be outstanding, but that’s not the point. This talisman also grants you an extra 10% Stamina and 8% Equip Load. These bonuses make it a versatile and valuable talisman for a wide range of builds. You can combine Erdtree’s Favor +2 with Radahn’s Great Rune to get a significant boost to both Health and Stamina. Best of all, it weighs only 1.5, making it lighter than regular armor, making it very easy to equip. You’ll find a large courtyard in Ashen Capital Leyndell, and within it is a tree guarded by three Lesser Ulcerated Tree Spirits. The Erdtree’s Favor +2 is in that tree. If you don’t want to fight the little monsters, you can just run up to this talisman and run away immediately. If you want to farm some Elden Ring Runes here, you can do so as the Lesser Ulcerated Tree Spirits will also drop these rewards. Radahn’s Great Rune Among Runes can be equipped, Radahn’s Great Rune is the most powerful and a favorite among high-level players - not only does it increase your health by 15%, it also increases your Stamina by 15%. This is why you can use it in conjunction with Erdtree’s Favor +2 talisman, which together will significantly increase these key attributes. Like Morgott’s Great Rune, you need to use a Rune Arc before using Radahn’s Great Rune. Radahn’s Great Rune is one trophy you get from the battle against Starscourge Radahn in Caelid, which is also one of the most challenging missions in the DLC, as you need to navigate a very dangerous platform to reach the top of the arena. Fire Knight Helm Fire Knight Helm first appeared in Elden Ring DLC, and is one of the few armor pieces in the base game and DLC that directly increases your total health. It gives you 2% more max health, plus 5% more Stamina and 4% more Equip Load, making it a versatile Elden Ring Item. Compared to the previous talismans, Fire Knight Helm also provides you with a solid protection - strong resistance to physical and fire damage. If you want an item that can both protect you and increase key attributes, Fire Knight Helm is the best. And compared to the previous items, Fire Knight Helm is a little more difficult to obtain, requiring you to challenge Fire Knights in Shadow Keep repeatedly until one of them drops it. But you can also get other parts of Fire Knight Armor Set from it, which is also very useful. The above are the items in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC that can increase your maximum health and enhance your survivability. If you have better options, you are welcome to share them with many players in iGMeet Discord. I wish you a merry game in this interesting game!

In Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC, Tarnished can finally use martial arts to fight enemies, as two new Hand-to-Hand style weapons have been added - Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork. This is excellent news for players who like to use Monk, because with the blessing of these two weapons, Monk Class will be more lethal. But before getting these two powerful weapons, you need to go through some challenges and tasks first. These tasks and challenges are not too difficult, and you can explore them on your own, but if you follow this guide, I believe you will get Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork more easily. Additionally, this guide will show you the best builds for Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Footwork. How To Get Dryleaf Arts? When you enter the DLC, you will find yourself in Scadu Altus region, which is very convenient. What you need to do now is to find and go to Highroad Cross Site of Grace in Scadu Altus region, where you will find a sign that says May the Best Win, and a note called Monk’s Missive. These two messages will lead you east to Moorth Ruins, and after arriving at Moorth Ruins Site of Grace, you will find a boss you need to fight - Dryleaf Dane. You can use May the Best Win sign you just picked up when fighting it, and it will use martial arts and Holy magic on you. At this time, be careful of its Palm Blast skill, because it will kill you immediately if you are not careful. After you defeat it with high calmness and flexible mobility, you will get Dryleaf Arts and Dane’s Hat dropped from its body. Read More: How To Defeat Midra, Lord Of Frenzied Flame In Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC? - A Recommended Guide How To Get Dane’s Footwork? Unlike Dryleaf Arts, Dane’s Footwork is available only after you’ve completed most of Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, as it can only be found in the penultimate boss fight of the entire DLC. In this fight, you’ll face Miquella’s Followers, mainly Needle Knight Leda and Dryleaf Dane, who you’ve already fought before. Other bosses will appear after you’ve completed a quest or reached a certain level of progress. Besides picking up Dane’s Footwork in this fight against both bosses, you can also take their gear and numerous Elden Ring Runes directly after they’ve been defeated. The skills and damage types used by Dryleaf Dane in this fight are similar to the previous one, except that the previous Dryleaf Arts are replaced by Dane’s Footwork, which is not important. What needs to be noted here is Needle Knight Leda’s Needle Piercer skill, which is likely to cause unexpected damage to you when you’re not prepared. If you feel you’re having a hard time in this fight, you can use Pureblood Knight Ansbach’s summons to help you so you don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer number of NPCs you have to fight. Dryleaf Arts Build The biggest advantage of these Hand-to-Hand weapons is that you can put them in your off-hand, since you can switch them to two-handed moves in certain situations anyway, so they can be put in any build. For Dryleaf Arts, which build you want to put it in depends entirely on the build you are running. For example, if you are currently running a build centered on Flame, injecting Flame Arts into it will increase Fire damage and Faith scaling. Similarly, injecting it into a build centered on Magic will increase Magic damage and Intelligence scaling. In addition to this, you can also increase the base damage of Dryleaf Arts, since most of the damage of this weapon comes from Palm Blast. Here, you can use Shard of Alexander to increase the damage of Palm Blast by 15%, or use Godfrey Icon to increase the damage of Palm Blast by 15% when charging. When using this skill, Tarnished will gain an outstanding balance, allowing it to withstand attacks while charging. For Talismans, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman helps you take less physical damage while charging, while Two-Headed Turtle Talisman helps you regenerate faster, allowing you to unleash more Palm Blasts in combat. Dane’s Footwork Build While both Hand-to-Hand weapons are excellent in terms of stat stacking, Dane’s Footwork is a bit better given its Ash of War Dryleaf Whirlwind. It strikes four times in quick succession while also increasing kick damage. This weapon is a great addition to any combo build, especially those using Arcane. As mentioned above, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman increases your own physical damage cancellation, and equipped with Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, it increases all your attacks by 13% when you get max stacks. Alternatively, you can use the new Elden Ring Item in the DLC, the Shattered Stone Talisman, which increases the effectiveness of all kick attacks by an additional 10%. Combined with your newfound martial arts skills, enjoy punching and kicking in Shadow of the Erdtree. That’s all you need to know when using these two powerful Hand-to-Hand weapons in Shadow of the Erdtree. I hope you have fun playing this DLC. If you have better ideas for the build of these two weapons, you are welcome to express your opinions in iGMeet Discord. You may also get some runes as rewards.

FromSoftware’s extensive Faith builds have been a favorite for many players, including dozens of incantations, seals and weapons. We can see this trend in Elden Ring as well. Among them, as a powerful weapon, Black Steel Greathammer is also expanded through Faith builds. This article will provide detailed information about how to build Black Steel Greathammer to make it a powerful weapon. It is undeniable that we will encounter various difficulties and dangers in the game and getting some Elden Ring Runes will reduce the bumps of the journey absolutely. Players can find Black Steel Greathammer by finding Black Knight in Church of Consolation in southeastern Gravesite Plains. Black Steel Greathammer is very compatible with STR/FAI builds, and you can use them together. Strengths And Weaknesses Of Black Steel Greathammer Strengths: Fast move, buffable and infusible, together with fabulous stance damage Weaknesses: Low Range and only obtainable very late in-game The true power of Black Steel Greathammer is unleashed when infused into a Flame Art or Sacred in a Faith-focused build. Players can adjust scaling with its Ash of War infusion. This is its biggest advantage. Similar to Black Knights, Black Steel Greathammer also has a special Guard Counter. After the counterattack, a circle of holy light will appear on the ground with an explosion effect. The attack power is proportional to Faith. Best Stat Distribution For Black Steel Greathammer As mentioned earlier, Black Steel Greathammer is powerful when combined with a STR/FAI build. As a versatile weapon, Faith is the best stat distribution for Black Steel Greathammer. Strength is another stat distribution that has a perfect fit. However, in a Strength-focused build, the overall damage output of Black Steel Greathammer is slightly less. Best Talismans For Black Steel Greathammer Curved Sword Talisman: Increases 20% Guard Counter damage Greatshield Talisman: Decreases 20% stamina damage taken while being blocked Two-Headed Turtle Talisman: Upgrades the speed of stamina recovery speed by 22.5% Crimson Seed Talisman +1: Enhances HP restoration from Flask of Crimson Tears by 30% Best Shields For Black Steel Greathammer Black Steel Greathammer can only be used to its full potential when Guard Counters are employed. Players can choose to use Guard Counters with a shield. In an emergency, dual wielding is also an option. However, considering that it can only cause physical damage negation of 76 under normal circumstances, it is not recommended to use Guard Counters with dual wielding. As for which shield is better to choose, the key factor lies in the player’s Endurance and maximum equipment load. The weight of the shield is often positively correlated with its defensive capabilities. Therefore, heavier shields should theoretically be the first choice for players. However, considering practical factors, for example, their weight is often not suitable for most builds. Medium shields take into account both weight and defense value and are widely used by most players. Serpent Crest Shield and Brass Shield are two best medium shields, sharing of great significance. Serpent Crest Shield owns the highest guard boost in the category of medium shields, together with extremely lightweight, which can be obtained by solving Incursion Painting in Land of Shadow. And on the other hand, Brass Shield is one of the most balanced shields in the game, which could be farmed by the soldiers along the way back in Limgrave. It is the best replacement of Serpent Crest Shield for players. If players have necessary Endurance to wield a Greatshield, those two shields are the most appropriate options for them: Verdigris Greatshield: Best Greatshield definitely, which can be acquired by completing Moore’s questline, taking place of the crown from Fingerprint Stone Shield. Haligtree Crest Greatshield: A lighter variant among those Greatshields with a sharp difference of weight. Best Incantations For Black Steel Greathammer Players can choose the appropriate incantation based on their own situation. The following are two incantations that directly improve the effectiveness of Black Steel Greathammer: Golden Vow: Boosts attack and defense for self and allies by 15% and 10% separatively. Flame, Grant me Strength: Upgrades physical and fire-affinity attack power by 20% There are also some incantations that are also worth recommending, such as Pest-Thread Spears, Flame of Frenzy and Knight’s Lightning Spear. Best Crystal Tears For Black Steel Greathammer Deflecting Hardtear: Upgrades spontaneous guard, receiving a 5-minute long buff that enhances the damage of Guard Counters. Greenburst Crystal Tear: Temporarily boosts the speed of stamina recovery. If being equipped with two-Headed Turtle Talisman, boundless stamina will be given for three minutes. Let’s enjoy the game first. Moreover, if you would like to embrace more game resources, please access to iGMeet discord. It boasts a Giveaway channel where relevant product gift messages will be released sometimes. Please participate in the discord group to know more details. The above is some sharing about Black Steel Greathammer build, mainly referring to its strengths and weaknesses, and which stat distributions, shields, incantation, and crystal tears could make it a weapon with particular significance. Hope you have a fabulous game journey.

Spinning Gravity Thrust is one of the craziest newest Ashes of War builds from Elden Ring DLC, and it’s so powerful that I made an OP build specifically centered on it, Berserker Samurai Build. Here I’ll cover the play style for this Berserker Samurai, what gear to use, the best Talismans, helpful gameplay tips, and the pros and cons of this build. So if you’re looking for an effective build for this Ash of War, this guide is for you. Build Basics Berserker Samurai’s insane damage output can instantly break almost any boss in the game, with bleed procs raw firepower. This is a super aggressive build that trades hitting and taking damage to deal as much damage as possible in a short period, so this build theme really matches its playstyle. Berserker Samurai has high Dexterity and Arcane, and a little Faith Stat, with access to attack and defense boosting spells as mentioned above, to improve its overall firepower and survivability. Pros & Cons Speaking of pros to this setup, aside from the insane damage output of this weapon and Ash of War, as mentioned before, Spinning Gravity Thrust makes it like a sitting duck as it makes the target flinch and nearly stuns them. Humanoid Types are pretty much powerless compared to this setup. And giant targets or bosses will definitely die faster than anything because of its jaw-dropping firepower and Bleed procs. However, every setup has its weaknesses and drawbacks, and Berserker Samurai is no exception. The first one I want to talk about is the obvious issue with Ash of War, which is that its long animations make you more vulnerable to attacks. Since you’re already in mid-air, you’ll be dodging ground attacks more often, but you’ll still take damage most of the time, especially if you’re still adjusting to Ash of War’s timing. While the idea is that you will take damage to deal massive damage to your opponent, if you over-abuse Spinning Gravity Thrust, 90% of the time it will result in your death. Ash of War has a very slow acceleration animation, so when you are facing fast-moving targets, you will find yourself often missing a lot of targets or hitting the air. The last thing I want to say about its disadvantages is that Spinning Gravity Thrust consumes a lot of Stamina. This means that you will be using up Stamina most of the time, especially when rushing to the target, which is the regular play style of this build. Gear Now that the basic play style and overview are over, let’s move on to the gear that Berserker Samurai needs. Main Weapon: Great Katana Let’s start with the chief weapon of this build, Great Katana. This Katana requires 14 Strength and 18 Dexterity to use effectively, and this time we will infuse it with Blood. In terms of scaling, it will have D for Strength, C for Dexterity, and lastly D for Arcane. Now this may seem bad, but trust me, this weapon is more than enough to wipe out an enemy in seconds. Weapon Skill: Spinning Gravity Thrust Moving on to the core of this build, Ash of War Spinning Gravity Thrust. This is one of the deadliest Ash of War I have seen so far. What it does is it lifts the user into the air and performs a violent multi-hitting spinning thrust attack that not only does a ton of damage per attack, but it also causes the target to flinch during the attack. In addition to its insane damage multipliers, you also trigger Bleeds when using Ash of War, which makes its damage even more insane. Pressing L2 allows you to fire Ash of War, and pressing L2 again after the first animation finishes will perform another set of animations, but the second set of animations will have a powerful Sweeping Finisher that will knock the target back. Secondary Weapon: Dragon Communion Seal Moving on to the secondary weapon of this build, I am using Dragon Communion Seal here in case we need to slot Arcane Scaling offensive Incantation later. I’m only using Seal for the attack buffs for this build, but you can definitely use any Seal you want as long as you have enough Elden Ring Runes. Spells With the weapons out of the way, let’s move on to the spells I recommend. The first is Flame Grant me Strength, which grants an additional 20% Physical Attack Boost and Stamina Recovery Buff. The second buff is of course Golden Vow. This buff increases overall damage by 15% and adds 10% damage negation, which is very helpful. Talismans Next, let’s look at the best Talismans for this build. The first Talisman on the list is once again Shard of Alexander. This can increase skill damage by 15%, especially when performing Witching Hour Slash skill, so be sure to slot this one. Since we’re dealing with Bleed procs a lot with this build, I recommend using Lord of Blood’s Exultation. It will give you another 20% attack damage if blood loss procs are happening nearby. This happens all the time, so it will help you deal a ton of damage. Of course, since we’re dealing with fast multi-attacks, as usual, slotting in Millicent’s Prosthesis and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia is optimal for this build. You’ll always have the multi-attack buff active when performing Spinning Gravity Thrust, so make sure to prioritize these Talismans. However, I’ll have other Talisman suggestions later that will suit different combat situations. Armor Set Now that the main gear is done, let’s move on to the best Armor Set for Berserker Samurai. For this build, I’m wearing Land of Reeds Helm to preserve the identity of the build, in addition to using White Reed Armor and White Reed Gauntlets, and finally Land of Reeds Greaves. However, you can also choose to wear Rakshasa Set for a higher Attack Rating, as this Armor Set provides a damage boost overall. In summary, you can wear whatever you want, as long as you have about 51 poise, which is enough most of the time. Stats Then, let’s move on to Berserker Samurai’s stats. First, we start with Vigor, which I have assigned 60 points to. Since this build will be engaging enemies in melee combat, you will be taking damage quite often, so having 60 Vigor is essential for this build. Next is Mind, which I have assigned 20 points to. Now, you may find this quite low, especially with 26 FP required to use Spinning Gravity Thrust. However, enemies and bosses usually die quickly after 1 to 4 spins, so I don’t need more than that. In the event that the boss survives after 2 to 4 spins, you can also finish the fight by opening the flask easily. Next, talking about Endurance, I have assigned 30 points to it. Even though Spinning Gravity Thrust will drain your stamina in a few seconds, it’s actually OK to only have 30 points. As mentioned, enemies die very quickly. Then you also need to have at least 14 Strength to effectively wield Great Katana. Since Dexterity is our main stat for this build, I have allocated 75 points in total. And since we have equipped Millicent’s Prosthesis, it can even go up to 80. Next is Intelligence. We don’t need these, so it will be 10 points. Then Faith has been allocated 25 points, giving you access to the previously mentioned Flame Grant me Strength and Golden Vow. Finally, we have allocated 45 points to Arcane so that we can have more Attack Rating, while increasing our blood loss to 132 so that we can ensure that it triggers more often. Gameplay Now that the stats are taken care of, let’s move on to the gameplay and optimization tips for Berserker Samurai. Optimize Your Opener First, you need to optimize your opener as usual. Before or at the beginning of the battle, I usually cast Flame Grant me Strength and Golden Vow, and finally Bestial Vitality. Next, we can turn on Flask of Wondrous Physick for damage reduction and multi-attack boost. With all the buffs active, this build will be super aggressive and do as much damage as possible in this opening. Use Spinning Gravity Thrust Properly I know this build is a Berserker, however, if you miss Ash of War too many times as mentioned before, you will pay the price with death because of its overly long animation. Beyond that, you still need to master the timing of casting Ash of War. Unfortunately, getting good at it requires experience, and its usage varies from boss to boss. However, most of the time you will win the fight because of its damage output. Use Gear Wisely Now for the last tip, I recommend swapping Millicent’s Prosthesis for Crusade Insignia when exploring the overworld or dungeons, so that you can get a lasting buff while you’re on the landscape. Of course, if you think you need more protection, swap the aforementioned Talisman for Dragoncrest Greatshield. Berserker Samurai is a difficult Samurai build to master, and its satisfying violent thrusts can wipe out enemies in seconds. If you want to melt bosses with ease, don’t miss this guide. See you next time!