#Dragonbolt

[schmem14]

August 13- Charlie & Harry

Summary: Harry decides to be a dragon keeper but is dismayed when he realises Charlie isn't happy about it... Prompts: Romanian Dragon Reserve, Wand Rating: M CW: None WC: 962

Read HERE on AO3

[dndtreasury]

Dragonbolt Blaster

[ghostofashina]

The dilemma with the source of golden lightning and how it can bring a hidden face of the Golden Prince.

I keep thinking about Godwyn's lightning. And something didn't sit right with me. And the more I dug into it, the more of a... revelation I had of Godwyn.

Except for Fortissax wielding "Death Lightning", I don't recall any ancient dragon with actual golden lightning. Yet, not only godwyn's lightning was described as golden, but every dragon cult incantation is golden.

According to Death Lightning:

It is said that this golden lightning was wielded by Godwyn, who befriended Fortissax.

But Vyke's dragonbolt ain't golden. And as Godwyn, he is said to be loved by a dragon. Not only that, but after we befriend Florissax, she gives us her own dragonbolt blessing, and it's not golden. The only golden dragonbolt we find, is near Godwyn's memorial, in a church with Radagon's statue (which, I have to say, I find very... odd.)

And then, we have the Gravel Stone Seal (and I believe it belonged to Godwyn at some point), which is even more odd, because it says:

The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lightning itself, are both imbued with gold.

Except this is straight up a lie. Only Godwyn had golden lightning and, therefore, his soldiers, etc.

But there's others sources of golden lightning. And I want to mention one kind that seems to come from Godwyn himself.

The flower. We have 2 types of lightning flowers. One of them you find all over the place in the base game, called Fulgurbloom. And other kind that only grows in Lands of Shadow, called Yellow Fulgurbloom. Now this is really interesting:

Fulgurblooms are found in many places, including Farum Azula, and can be used to craft an ordinary llightning grease. However, Yellow Fulgurblooms ONLY spawn inside Godwyn's catacombs and is used to craft the dragonbolt grease, a favorite tool of Godwyn's soldiers, an item that does not exist outside the DLC.

I always thought that Fulgurblooms were responsible for the eletric goats we find everywhere, and I still think it's the case. And that this a natural item of this world. Which I don't think it's the case of the Yellow Fulgurbloom. Blossoms in the realm of shadow's underground gravesites and places struck by lightning. Imbued with yellow lightning's essence: which means, in the presence of Godwyn. Yes, resembles Miquella's lily. Or even the butterflies. Because we also have the Red Fulgurbloom and it's said "to bloom where the red lightning of the ancient dragons strikes the earth". It grows where the lightning hits. So I guess that, besides the divided corpses of the Prince of Death, these flowers can help us confirm Godwyn was there at some point.

But, once again, where does the golden lightning come from? And this is where things start to make me dizzy. Because we have a known source of golden lightning: storms. At the base game, we have storms aspects linked to a Lord that Godfrey defeated.

Then, going back to DLC, all storms aspects come from the Hornsent. The Divine Beast Warriors wield aspects of storms, such as wind, ice and lightning: golden lightning, very similar to the dragon cult incantations. They even have a golden lightning spear. Not only that, but the Divine Beast Dancing Lion also have golden lightning and one of them is actually infected with Deathblight, for whatever reason. And the Divine Beast has the exact lightning of the Death Lightning, without the corruption of deathblight.

I don't have any big conclusion so far, but the more I look into it, the less I think Godwyn's lightning had the dragons as source. Don't get me wrong: it started with the dragons, of course it did, but I guess its roots are far more deep inside a genocide of a culture: part of a genocide is also appropiation of a culture being stolen. And that, perhaps, Godwyn himself had a part on it.

Messmer had an entire storehouse with dozens of specimens. That was not made to preserve the Hornsent culture in any good means, it was a source of study and experiment. And now I start to think he wasn't alone in this quest.

[varre-official]

Welcome back, my precious little Mohgchamps!

I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day Weekend thoroughly, because it's back to the Rune Arc Mines with you all.

And since I'm a generous and loving cult leader best friend, I'm even willing to part with a few tips to speed you on your way.

Do you see this, my beloved lambkin?

Yes, yes, I hear you. "I know what my pouch is, Varré, I keep my-"

Shut up. Listen to me.

Get all this trash out of there. Let's talk about some useful consumables to bring with you on your pillaging path.

FAN DAGGERS

Ever see one of your braindead charges hit their physic and get that nasty little opaline bubble tear around themselves, or smoke that uplifting aromatic, nullifying the first hit they take? Toss one or two of these bad boys at them and you've completely wasted their time. Additionally, if you're on a last-hit basis and need to keep your spacing tight, these will work wonders at finishing off your squirly little quarry.

SLEEP POTS

If you think sleep is a useless status in PVP, allow me to correct you. Not only will it stun your opponent (eventually) regardless of equipment or hyperarmor, it will also deplete a chunk of their FP, limiting their ability to ash spam at you like they've taped their finger to the L2 button. Very handy against casters and cerulean sippers, and a polite way to let someone know they are being exceedingly irritating.

DRAWSTRING GREASES

Messmer Fire for strength builds, Dragonbolt for dex builds, and Sleep/Rot/Poison/Bleed for arcane builds. Whether you are stacking extra AR, or ruining your charge's day with a nasty little status effect, these apply quickly, last longer than you might expect, and come in clutch when facing someone you're evenly matched with.

HEFTY ROCK POTS

Yes, these are more attuned to the strength enjoyer than your average arc/dex dynast, but hear me out. These are incredibly easy to craft, requiring only a hefty pot and three round rocks. They deal a base - a BASE, of 370 strike damage each, and that only increases with levels in strength, delivering up to a maximum of 1146 AR at max level (but who are we kidding. The meta is 150.)

There are plenty of other nasty surprises in the Land of Shadow to keep hosts on their toes, such as Fire Coils, the Perfume Oil of Ranah, and the ever consumable Golden vow.

Ditch the goat and your chad little mimic tear - they won't join you on your invasions, and drop your lantern - you won't need to stand out.

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

⚔️ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Dragonbolt Blaster
Weapon, rare ___ This magic item is a unique, two-handed ranged weapon. If you are proficient with light or heavy crossbows, you are proficient with the "dragonbolt blaster". A broken piece of a blue dragon's horn is set at the weapon's center, releasing tendrils of shimmering electricity from its point. The weapon doesn't require physical ammunition, and it has a normal range of 150 feet and a long range of 600 feet. On a hit, a target takes 2d10 lightning damage. You don't add your Dexterity modifier to the damage of this attack (unless it's negative). You have advantage on the attack roll if the target is wearing armor made of metal. If you take 10 or more lightning damage from a single attack or effect while holding this weapon, roll a d20. On a 1, the weapon breaks, but can be repaired with 100gp worth of materials and 8 hours of work. On any other result, the next target hit by the weapon within the next minute takes an extra 1d10 lightning damage. ___ ✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon's Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

If Drarry had another name, what would it be?

I’m thinking a name like Wolfstar or Sunseeker, you know what I mean? A combo. Wolf + star, sun + seeker and so on. What could Draco and Harry possible be then?

Lol my brain is just thinking lame ass stuff like Ferretscar, Chosenblood (the chosen one + pure blood, idk) and Dragonheart (Dragon is Draco, heart is… idk help), Scarmark, Darkscar, Lightningmark, Darkbolt, Purebolt, Dragonbolt, OMG GUYS DRAGONSPECS 💀🤚

PUREHEART

OKAY I GOT CARRIED AWAY

Okay so possible words to use for them:

Draco: Dark Mark (you can split that one into two), dragon, pureblood, ferret (💀🤚), APPLE 👹 SERPENT 👹 GREEN 👹 AND EH PERHAPS SILVER IDK

And for Harry: Scar, lightning, bolt, lightning bolt, brave, lion, heart, chosen

OKAY IDK WHAT THIS IS BARE WITH ME OKAY

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME SETTLE THIS

Edit: Check the reblogs and comments, it’s so worth it I promise!

[allaboutlov3]

The Grand Finale: Drarry Shipnames #plsvote

Click for more context (and to see all the wonderful ideas you lovely people had!)

thank you for participating and sending all of your beautiful suggestions :)

@i-am-the-london @mindylouise @yelenaswife1147 @majorapprentice @shanksofarmour @myfavcharacterdidntdrown @ahuman1020 @halloworhorecrux @slightly-more-valid-prongs @frnkmush @caffeinefics @girlofhoneyandglass @currentstatusdaydreaming @trantothestars @epicmarshmallow @saturnsconstellation @starmanbutitsregulusblack

[loxosceleslolo]

I found a Rune Arc and dragonbolt grease in Enir-Ilim and we know the Hornsent didn't much care for the Fire Giants, either...

And now I feel a little sadder about both the Hornsent and Marika, Our Lady of War Crimes

[arashi-no-saxlphone]

finished sote again. Good times. Nerfed Radahn is honestly still challenging but definitely more managable. Really slowed down. Overall a more enjoyable fight outside of a couple moves whose method of avoiding them remain a mystery to me. Ran up with the full boys and a spirit summon to see how rough it was - not so bad but definitely harder cause of the hp bloat on Radahn who already has just. So much hp. Really pulled it out though, Ansbach managed to survive the entire fight which is insane lmao. Thiollier died a bit beforehand and Florissax (the summon) os made of papier mache but her casting dragonbolt kept the boys alive for a LONG time. Dryleaf Arts and Dane's Footwork are really fun but not great for fighting him honestly LOL. Good times. Not sure if I'll do another run soon or what I'll do for it.

[conjoinedpubes]

The Dexterity Cheatsheet

Was inspired by this video. which asked the question; 'what does Dexterity have as a build niche?'. Hence, decided to come up with a easy reference for all the reasons to play a dex-character.

At its most basic, Dex gives the following...

1. Attack Power for weapons with Dex scaling 2. Cast speed 3. Reduces fall damage 4. Harder to fall-off horseback

Bonuses 3+4 are not relevant in most combat scenarios, and should not be taken into account for buildmaking.

Weapon Infusions

Dexterity has 2 infusions; [Keen] and [Lightning].

Keen - the physical infusion. Raises weapon AR scaling with Dex, also scales damage on certain Weapon Skills.

Lightning - The elemental counterpart to Keen. In PvP, lightning is advantaged over other elemental damage - as it tends to be the lowest defense on player characters.

Lightning is also affected by environment. Wet targets (eg. in rain) have reduced lightning mitigation. Hiting water with lightning causes an 'explosion' that deals an burst of AOE damage.

However, elemental infused weapons cannot be buffed by most sources. Lightning Infusion also splits damage between physical and lightning; hence mitigated by both the enemy's physical and lightning defenses.

Cold - Adds magic damage, int scaling and Frostbite status. Also retains more of a weapon's physical scaling than other caster infusions. Hence, on a innately dex-scaling weapon - Cold will scale well from both Int and Dex; hybrids take note.

Weapon Skills/Arts

Damage for Weapon Skills is very complex.

In general - skills that swing the weapon care about the weapon's attack rating (AR). Skills that shoot projectiles care about stats. (A detailed explanation can be found in this video)

Listed here are Weapon Skills of specific Keen/Lightning affinity. There are many excellent 'general use' Weapon Arts, just not innately dex-focused.

Thunderbolt Lightning affinity, bullet art. The infamous spam tool of arena duels; effectively gives ranged magic without needing to build a caster and while using any weapon. Lightning Slash Enhanced hit. Adds a fixed lightning damage buff to your weapon regardless of whether it lands. 'Elemental Slash' type weapon arts are one of the few ways to buff weapons with elemental infusions. Beast Roar Keen affinity, bullet art. Another infamous ranged spam, this time a physical projectile. As with Thunderbolt, effectively gives access to ranged on any weapon.

Cast Speed

"Shortens the animation when casting spells"

This is a complex stat, do note that...

This is based on specific breakpoints unique to each spell, there is no global %cast speed modifier. In general, 70 Dex is the cap for cast speed. Items that add Cast Speed (eg. Radagon's Icon) add 30 virtual dexterity (vdex), treating your cast speed as if you had +30 Dex.

Hence, if you plan to make a dex-caster hybrid - spell choice and your dex-int/fth split affects how much of an impact cast speed will make.

Consumables

"Consumables with scaling in Dexterity"

Throwing Knives (All) - Exceptional dex scaling on Fan Daggers (A) and Kukri (S). Others like Poisonbone Dart have significant scaling in both Dex + Arc.

Throwing Pots (Lightning) - 2 variants, Lightning Pot and Dragonbolt Pot.

Spark Aromatic - Damaging perfume, unusual in having fire damage while being dex scaling.

Noteworthy Weapons

This is not a list of best weapons, but weapons that are noteworthy within each class for dex characters.

Many weapon classes such as Halberds have broadly good movesets and can be scaled in many ways. Similarly, a weapon can be good purely off its moveset, even if the numbers are not the most optimal.

Dagger - Misericorde, Scorpion's Stinger, Celebrant's Sickle, Bloodstained Dagger, Great Knife Dex friendly weapon class in general. Misericorde is a critical-hit tool with high AR on Lightning, it also has the longest reach in class. Though in practice, this means little Scorpion's has innate rot and a dex bias scaling. Celebrant's has sheild pierce and high AR. Bloodstained and Greatknife are both regular weapons with innate bleed, while also scaling well with dex. However, do note that unless you started as a Bandit, these weapons are hard to acquire.

Straight Sword - Warhawk Talon, Noble's Slender Sword Among regular straight swords, these 2 have a bias toward dex scaling. The difference in reach and AR between regular straight swords is quite minor. Broadswords etc. are all very useable.

Greatsword - Flamberge Of the regular weapons, Flamberge is the only one with a distinct dex bias. Most other Greatswords have a Str bias, though many (eg. Claymore, Knight's Greatsword) are very playable on dex.

Colossal Sword UGS - Zweihander, Greatsword, Godslayer Greatsword For regular weapons, Zweihander has the lowest str req and scales best on Keen. Greatsword has higher str req, but has more AR on Lightning. Godslayer has faster standard attacks and is a rare source of dex-scaling fire damage.

Thrusting Sword - Cleanrot's Knight's Sword, Estoc, Antspur Rapier A dex-biased class overall, in general... Cleanrot's has longest reach and most AR at lower dex levels. Estoc has the most AR at dex softcap 80. Antspur has a 'Scarlet Rot' status while being infusable.

Heavy Thrusting Sword - Dragon King's Cragblade Longest weapon in class, innate lightning damage, has very high dex req. (37). HTS in general is a dex-biased weapon class, any of the regular options are also good.

Curved Sword - Bandit's Curved Swords Only weapon in class with a clear dex bias. Shamshir and Scavenger's are also good options.

Curved Greatsword - Bloodhound's Fang Bloodhound Fang scales very well to dex and is obtainable early. Dismounter is longest in class and infusable, but is drop-only.

Katana - Uchigatana, Nagakiba All weapons in this class (except Meteoric Ore Blade) are dex focused. Nagakiba has the longest reach by a significant margin, Uchigatana has the most AR for both Keen and Lightning. In short; Uchi for damage over reach, Naga for reach over damage. The Hand of Malenia is also noticeable longer than other katanas but still falls short of the Nagakiba. It is also not infusable.

Halberd - Guardian's Swordspear Unusual in having mostly sweep and slash moves. Highest AR in class on Keen, the 'big numbers stick'. Its Lightning infusion is noticeably worse than Keen for some reason, also has high str req. (16) for a dex weapon. Remainder of the Halberds (beside Gargoyle and Nightrider) can all be built toward Dex. Here, Banished Knight's Halberd tends to be the jack-of-all trades in AR and moveset.

Spear - Cross Naginata, Bolt of Gransax Of the regular spears, Naginata has innate bleed and dex scaling bias. Unusual in having a slashing attack-chain by defqult. Being a spear, the min-max setup is to dual wield and ignore the 'core-moveset'. But if you already knew that, you dont need to read this post. Bolt of Gransax; unique weapon with exceptional range (2nd highest) and innate lightning damage. Has very high dex req. (40), scales VERY poorly with str despite having 20 str req.

Greatspear - Lance, Treespear Lance is the only regular weapon in class. Treespear scales very well to dex (physical damage only) and has innate holy damage, it also one of the rare buffable weapons with an innate element. Vyke's War Spear scales well to dex, but is mostly a status weapon for pvp, hence its AR is not generally a consideration.

Reaper - Scythe, Grave Scythe The Scythe has longer reach, dex bias on Keen and features a unique double heavy attack. Grave Scythe has more AR in all cases except 80 dex + Keen. However, it has higher str req. and weight. Worth noting; is that Grave Scythe is rare drop. While the Scythe is a guaranteed drop and can be found early.

Hammer - Monk's Flamemace A str biased class in general. Monk's is the only regular hammer with a dex bias, it is drop only. The default Hammer does not have any dex bias, but has great range and moveset. It is likely a better choice than the Monk's even for dex builds.

Greathammer - None A very str-biased class, no standouts for dex.

Axe - Forked Hatchet Only weapon in class with a dex bias. However, it makes a poor weapon due to low range and damage. A dex weapon by technicality not practicality.

Greataxe - Butchering Knife Only weapon in class with a dex bias, highest AR on Keen. However, Lightning infusion narrows the AR gap for many of the regular Greataxes. Worth noting, as the Butchering Knife has very short heavy attacks.

Colossal Weapons - Duelist Greataxe Class with overwhelming str bias. Both the regular Duelist Greataxe and Rotted variant are the only weapons in class with dex bias. However, they suffer from low AR and have a significant str req. Another "dex weapon by technicality".

Whips - Urumi Exceptional dex scaling, has unique charged heavy attack with great precision and reach. All other whips also have a dex bias (except Giant's Braid). Fists - Katar Only fist with piercing damage and a dex bias. Has slightly longer reach than most.

Claws - Raptor's Talons, Venomous Fang This is a status focused class. Raptor's is another case of a weapon that technically has a dex bias, but this does not make it a good weapon. Venomous Fang is the only infusable weapon with innate poison status, it also has very high base AR.

Twinblades - Godskin Peeler Weapon class predominantely used for statuses. Peeler has a dex-bias relative to other twinblades, it also features a distinct moveset.

STARTING CLASS

Vagabond - A favourite shell for PvP characters. While it may not seem like a dex starter, this class saves a ton on stats for defense. This allows one to start with general defensive base and build dex as you see fit. Most weapons also have some str req. so the base str is also rarely wasted.

Samurai - 2nd highest dex, while having a good spread of hp, endurance and str. Wastes no points for 'caster' stats, good option for full martial dex characters.

Prisoner - Exceptional dex and int, very low base faith. Great starter for that specific hybrid stat combination.

Warrior - Highest dex of all starter classes. That said, its often less efficient in the long run (vs. Vagabond/Samurai) due to having an unusual stat distribution (few use cases for having extra Mind + Int + Arc).

Bandit - High Dex + Arc. Similar to Warrior in being less effecient for pure dex due having odd 'spare stats'.

In short, Vagabond/Samurai will be your go-to for generalist dex characters. The remainders are options provided you have a specific dex hybrid in mind. When in doubt, use the Elden Ring build planner here.

Thanks and Credits

Chrightt and his community for providing much of the in-depth math this post is based on. Rorydobson for the Elden Ring build planner.

[lrdvyke]

incantations created by Vyke:

Vyke's Dragonbolt — incantation of Vyke, knight of the Roundtable Hold. summons red lightning to bolster both the caster's body and their armament held in the right hand. enchants armaments with lightning-affinity attacks and increases maximum equipment load. however, lightning damage negation will be reduced. of all the knights, Vyke the Dragonspear was the one Lansseax loved the most.

reason, there was a want to adapt the incantations he had been shown for his own style of fighting. before he began his journey, Vyke focused solely on the physicality in fights. how to swing a spear seemed far more necessary than how to aim a pebble of magic in his mind. that was, until he met with those at the ancient dragon temple, and they gave him the tools in order to be more efficient through both his abilities with the spear and magic. thus, Vyke's Dragonbolt became a mix between two incantations ( Dragonbolt's Blessing and Electrify Armament ) to which bolstered not just him, but his spear in more fast-paced fights where casting times become a detriment to his survival.

what it feels like, a bolt of red lightning strikes the steel of the weapon, covering the entirety of it before it travels like a surge towards the heart of the user, filling them with the power of the ancient dragons. it is felt like a rapid pulse, urging you to move, to strike at any foe in your way. it makes you lighter on your toes, allowing for those quicker movements to bring down the enemy as fast as possible before you are onto the next one. your fingers feel numb from the electricity it produces, but your grip is sure and never slackens. once it eventually fades, everything starts to feel slower, as if you came to a dead stop after a short sprint. lungs need air, the electricity left limbs numb, but you call upon the dragon's lightning a second time and find the will to fight once more.

Frenzied Burst — incantations originating from the maddening Three Fingers. releases concentrated blasts of the yellow flame of frenzy from the caster's eyes. charging enhances potency, enabling the blasts to penetrate the enemy's guard. in times past, every single person who attempted to control the flame of frenzy succumbed to madness after a desperate internal struggle. this incantation is testament to a meager victory.

reason, his ideals never fully aligned with that of the Three Fingers, holding more to questions despite following Shabriri down into the depths. this was for his maiden to survive, for that alone he would do what he must. thus, when he saw the fingers behind smoldering doors, past the broken bodies that fell in their same quest, he tried to turn back. in his fear, in his weakness, he backed away before he was grabbed and forced fed the frenzied flame through his own roughened screams and Shabriri's crowing laughter. stuck to his fate, he tried to make the best of it. his maiden will still survive, thus he began learning the incantations as if they were tools. difficult as it proved to be, often ending himself brimming with madness, before he finally was able to control it enough for one piercing burst.

what it feels like, unlike the other frenzied flame incantations that build and come out uncontrolled like a wildfire intent on hitting any and everything nearby, Vyke deems to control that very flame. as it builds inside of him, burning from behind his eyes in unbearable pain, he forces the flame to gather in that one place and not spread throughout him. thus, with it still within his head, he is able to force it out of his eyes in two solid, concentrated lines ( somewhat twisted together ) that are aimed directly towards the victim rather than the area around. madness still builds up, but it is minimal compared. Vyke is able to keep a stronger mind during fights, even if that too wanes as the flame rages in the want for more, increasing its intensity from within.

[elden-ring-item-descriptions]

Vyke's Dragonbolt

Incantation of Vyke, knight of the Roundtable Hold.

Summons red lightning to bolster both the caster's body and their armament held in the right hand. Enchants armament with lightning-affinity attacks and increases maximum equipment load. However, lightning damage negation will be reduced.

Of all the knights, Vyke the Dragonspear was the one Lansseax loved the most.

[dragon-communion]

Does Miquella have any healing spells...? Seems odd to not, but all I know about from him are smiting spells. Boy's out here cleansing the world in searing light. I think the only spells we have for cleansing rot are Law of Regression (Golden Order) and Flame Cleanse Me (Giants)? And Dragonbolt Blessing sort of helps with resistances in general. But like. If he's trying to cure his sister then shouldn't he have actual healing spells? Or did the devs just give Marika every healing spell and decide more would be too much?

[ghostofashina]

only now i discovered there's no dragonbolt grease in the base game, only in the dlc. one at fog rift catacomb, other at enir-ilim. considering it's "said to have been a favored tool of the dragon-cult knights who once served the prince of gold", how in the hell is this at enir-ilim, of all places?

[sillovn]

Adventures of the Aurora Saint

Became inspired to play ER again, so I finally finished the game on the Int/Fth character. Here's some thoughts.

~ Background ~

I still very much like (and stuck with) the character theme of "Snowfield Paladin". The idea being Cold status and the Light spells (ie. auroras) would be central to the build.

Lore wise, I imagined him as an ex-fundamentalist or "proto-Miquellan Knight"; a servant of Miquella who traveled into the northern snow in search of a place to plant the (future) Haligtree. He dies on expedition, but is revered as a minor saint in future times.

~ Build ~

Character ended being a spellsword+support incants. We had a very distinct Int=offense, Fth=defense split in our kit; both for lore and ease of control reasons. As per usual, I don't like pure-caster or 'dual-caster' sorc+incant styles, hence the focus on melee.

Here's the final stats...

Mainhand: Glintstone Kris

Offhand: Zweihander + Golden Order Seal

We want to use Glintstone Kris' projectile weapon art quickly in fights. Meanwhile, buff incants and using 2H Zweihander (we cannot use it 1H) is something done before combat (or at least requires a big disengage during fights). Put simply, Mainhand = "fast actions", Offhand = "slow actions".

This works because Mainhand takes priority for weapon arts (when off-hand has 'No-Skill'). By soft swapping to our 2nd Offhand (Seal), we get to immediately fire Glintstone Kris. Thus, if you do the reverse (Offhand - Kris), one also needs to 2H the Kris to use it's weapon art. Having G.Kris + Seal out at the same time also lets us easily access all our ranged combat tools in the same place.

Essentially; swap "style" from melee to ranged with 1 button. Though switching back to melee requires 2 buttons (swap Offhand > 2h grip). Its not that big of a deal though, since ranged combat gives you space from the enemy; and thus time to switch back to melee.

-

Zweihander was used with magic infusion. The original cold infusion idea is not very good on our stats. Still, its possible to have most of both worlds thanks to 'Freezing Mist' AoW. It procs cold more less in 1-hit, and there's few other weapon arts that pair well with colossal sword class anyway.

Feeding into this, we had Banish Knight Halberd as a 2nd melee weapon (Offhand hardswap). Here, we had a ranged frost attack in 'Ice Spear'. Ended up using the Halberd sparingly, mostly because I enjoy the distinct melee/range swapping style the main weapon setup had - having another range attack was excessive IMO.

Some alternatives to Glintstone Kris as a 'bullet stick' were any light weapon + Glintblade Phalanx. And of course, Sword of Night and Flame.

-

Spell options were largely lore-driven, I used support incants + Golden Order sanctioned offense spells (ie. Golden Order discs + assorted Dragonbolts). Though, having assorted Int weapon arts meant that 'generic projectile' Incants had no real use. By the end, incants were largely for buff, though the occasional Discus/Lightning Spear still had a use (namely, evasive enemies don't dodge them well).

Which then brings up the question; is it a good idea to run such an odd hybrid just to use some buffs? Unlikely.

Yeah, Golden Vow is good. But what if instead of spending FTH for a temporary dmg/def buff - we just add INT for more damage, or END to wear better armour?

-

Since we finished the game before hitting Meta-level, there's still a few points to spend. The current MIND/END values are not optimal, and one can easily throw more END for better armour. Alternatively, more STR to 1H Zwei.

In the end, Im really fond of the character. Sure, hes mostly a 'jank spellsword' with support spells - nothing that a pure 60 INT character couldn't do better. At least, if you only count offense in solo play. The weird combo of Int missiles/frost + Fth buffs, IMO make him a very interesting PVE coop phantom - and Ill taking him to the DLC as such.

Below is some discussion about INT+FTH hybrid weapons.

~ 50 for Damage ~

One common statement about Int/Fth is the lack of weapons besides Sword of Night+Flame. And while its true that Int/Fth has no dedicated infusion, consider that in ER - damage is pretty free.

What Im trying to say is; ER lets you have way more damage than you ever need. Also, plenty of weapons/spells will hit hard without optimal stats.

The idea I ended going for is "50 damage stat". This something Ive picked up from PvP, where you get 50 in your main damage stat and spread out the rest to wear more armour/use a greater diversity of weapons. Sure, this isn't a PvP char - but the logic here is to do an uneven split of Int>Fth, treating Fth as a utility stat (sort of).

Main reason for Int > Fth stat spread is that you get more utility splashing Fth than Int. Int>Fth gets to use Int offensive tools + Fth utility tools - while the inverse doesn't work since Int doesn't have much in the way of utility.

Since Golden Order Seal scales Int/Fth equally within the 30-45 softcap bracket (eg. there's no difference between 40/30 or 35/35). Thus, the ideal Int/Fth ratio depends on what incants you want, and if offensive spellcasting is your main goal.

Worth noting that for Incantations, going above 30 Fth gives few new spells (above 35, even fewer). For support incants - Protection of the Erdtree (35 fth), is last the major one. There's the advanced heals/regen spells but those are not that much/strictly better than the basic versions. For offense, pretty much all 30+Fth incants are some form of cataclysmic AOE attack (see. Radagon's Ring, the various Dragon Lightnings). How many do you really need? (if any at all).

The 45 softcap also means that our weapon/spell ideal stats are not in sync, which leads to...

~ The 45+5 setup ~

A solution I settled on was 45 Int + Heirloom talisman (Int or Fth). Throw on the +5 Int if you want to swing weapons, hitting the magic infusion softcap (50). Swap for +5 Fth to in you want better offensive casting.

This was because we were squeezed for levels during most of the playthrough. For the final build (depending on target 125-150), you can easily ignore this swap.

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That is all for today.

[ghostofashina]

hold on a second...

Dragonbolt Blessing: Superior incantation of the capital's ancient dragon cult. Summons lightning to bolster the caster's body. Attacks become easier to deflect and resistance to all ailments is increased. However, lightning damage negation will be reduced. Only those loved by dragons can survive the ordeal of cladding their bodies in lightning.

It's found at Stormcaller Church, near a memorial of Godwyn befriending Fortissax. I am not crying, I am not crying, I am not—

i am not overexaggerating when i call florissax my wife