In this Elden Ring Arcane Guide, I’ll be showing you my Magic Dragon Knight build which is a level 150 version of the Dragon Knight build. This sort of continues the similar play style of using Dragon spells primarily to absolutely melt bosses from a distance.
Elden Ring Arcane Build Guide – Magic Dragon Knight
An Arcane Build that uses Dragon Spells to their fullest, melting Bosses and enemies in mere seconds.
We have over 110 Elden Ring Builds now, for all classes and playstyles. This Build is recommended for Level 150.
Elden Ring Arcane Build – Equipment
First up, I’ll be talking about the weapon I’m using for this build. I’m using the Ripple Blade, which is an axe that has an S-scaling with Arcane. It deals a good amount of damage with this build because we have a lot of Arcane. You can do block counters with it effectively. We’re actually using a talisman that boosts block counter damage because we’re using a great shield. Enemies tend to rebuff off that shield, making block counters very easy to do. This weapon isn’t mandatory for this build, you can actually use any weapon that you want that has Arcane scaling. I like that this weapon is very light, and I haven’t really used axes in any other build, so I like to use one here.
Besides this, we use the Dragon Communion Seal. This scales very well with Arcane, and it boosts Dragon Communion Incantations, which we use a lot, so this is a natural fit for this build.
We are going to use the Jellyfish Shield. As I mentioned, it’s very good for block counters because enemies rebuff off of it. It doesn’t have the greatest guard boost, at around 60 or so fully upgraded. This means you’re not going to block huge hits with it. With regular enemies, however, this shield makes block countering normal attacks easy. What we’re really using this shield for is the Contagious Fury ability, which boosts all of your damage by 20% for 30 seconds. This is going to include your melee attacks and spells, which Dragon Communion Incantations are. You’re going to get both the boosts from both the ability and the Dragon Communion Seal at the same time.
When it comes to armor for this build, I’m using the Silver Tear Mask. The reason for that is that this increases your Arcane by +8. We have a lot of demand on our stats for this build, so getting extra points where we can is huge. It does reduce your melee damage a little bit, but it’s not substantial.
As for the other armor I’m going to use for this build, I’m using the Banished Knight Set here. It doesn’t really matter what armor you use, as I’m going for something that has significant Poise in it. If you could get more Poise, it would be better. You’re going to want to not be interrupted when doing your Dragon spells, you’re going to want to tank through the attacks in some cases. You’re going to do the attacks from far away, so you shouldn’t be getting hit. Nonetheless, you don’t want to be interrupted if you can help it.
Elden Ring Arcane Build – Talismans
When it comes to talismans for this build, I have the: Flock’s Canvas Talisman, Curved Sword Talisman, Ritual Sword Talisman, and Magic Scorpion Charm.
Flock’s Canvas Talisman increases your incantation damage by about 8%. This is really good for this build. Your spells are going to hit very hard, and you want them to hit as much as possible, so we take this talisman here.
The Curved Sword Talisman is here because you do a lot of block counters with this build. You actually do a lot more damage than you would think, doing around 1200-1300 damage on a block counter. This is a lot of damage for a one-handed axe. This talisman further boosts that damage, making those hit very hard, so you can use it to great effect.
Ritual Sword Talisman boosts your total damage by 10% when at full health. The idea here is that you’re going to nuke bosses and tough enemies from range before they ever get to you, or you’re going to block counter them and you know you can take them out with a critical attack combo, so you’ll be at full health.
Lastly, I’m using Magic Scorpion Charm. This will boost our magic damage by a further 10%. I find that Smarag’s Glintstone Breath is probably the spell I use the most with this build, which is why I have this talisman slotted by default. However, you can swap this out for the fire version if you’re using something like Agheel’s Flame if you’re fighting a group or a boss that’s specifically weak to fire damage.
Elden Ring Arcane Build – Spells
For spells, I have Golden Vow. This boosts our overall damage by 15% and increases our defenses by 10% for 90 seconds. This is really good as it’ll boost both your attack and spells, which is fantastic.
Next, we have Smarag’s Glintstone Breath. This is the shining star of this build, in my opinion. This is the spell you’re going to be using the most. A lot of enemies are weak to magic damage, or not as resistant to magic damage. It does insane damage with this build, it’s it’s just better than Borealis’s Mist in a lot of cases. Borealis’s Mist can set the frostbite effect, have higher FP, but you’ll also just outright kill enemies before you see that frostbite effect. This can be used for certain instances, such as fighting an enemy with high HP. However, generally speaking, you can nuke most enemies with just Smarag’s Glintstone Breath, and it costs less FP.
Agheel’s Flame is there to give you a fire version of these types of spells. For circumstances where fire is a more effective damage type, which I feel is a little less frequently than Smarag’s Glintstone Breath. When you’re using fire in an area or against a boss, you’re going to swap out the Magic Scorpion Charm for the fire version to boost your fire damage by 10%.
Lastly, we have Ekzyke’s Decay. This sets the Scarlet Rot status effect on enemies and does physical damage. It’s not going to be benefited by the Magic Scorpion Charm, or Fire Scorpion Charm, so you may want to replace these if you end up using this spell more frequently than the others. I find its damage subpar compared to these other spells, so I don’t use it that frequently.
Elden Ring Arcane Build – Gameplay
This build works similarly to the Dragon Knight build. We’re going to buff ourselves with Golden Vow as we go around the landscape to increase our damage and defenses. We’ll use Contagious Fury as necessary to further increase our damage. It only costs 9 FP, so you can use this constantly. You’ll block counter enemies, or just attack them with jumping attacks with your axe. You’ll pull out your breath spells as needed, when you’re fighting a big group of enemies or a tough enemy from range to soften them up or outright kill them. Chug a blue potion, and continue on your way.
When you get to bosses, things change up a little bit. You’re still going to use your buffs such as Golden Vow and Contagious Fury, but you’re going to select the spell and your talisman depending on which breath attack you’re going to use. You’re going to judge by the weakness of the enemy. If you’re fighting a dragon that’s resistant to fire, you may want to use magic damage. Generally, I default to Smarag’s Glintstone Breath as this has the highest damage between these spells, because of the way resistances work.
What you want to do is use Cerulean Hidden Tear in your flask along with the Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear to increase your magic damage, then hold down the breath spell which won’t use any FP for the first 10 seconds. Try to chip off as much damage off a boss from a distance, as you don’t want to use melee in boss fights with this build. Your axe’s range is quite short, so it’s very difficult. You also can’t always block counter big enemies, so you want to rely on your breath spells in order to wipe out bosses. You can also trade damage with them, as you have high health and decent armor.
Elden Ring Arcane Build – Attributes
When it comes to stats for this build, I have: 40 Vigor, 22 Mind, 27 Endurance, 20 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 9 Intelligence, 25 Faith, and 80 Arcane.
40 Vigor is not as much as I would like. You are primarily a spellcaster with this build, even though you have a shield, weapon, and heavy armor. You are focusing, especially on boss fights, the hard parts of the game as a spellcaster. We really can’t justify any more points here in order to meet the requirements, so 40 is about as high as we can get it, but I’d like to have more. If you take this build higher, you definitely want to increase your vigor.
When it comes to mind, I wish we had more in this build. 22 Mind isn’t a ton; however you’re going to use the Cerulean Hidden Tear for boss fights, which would bring their HP down to about half. In a lot of cases, you don’t use as much FP as you think you would. When you’re out there anyway, you’re not chucking breath spells left and right. You’re using them selectively in certain areas, so you can get away with lower FP here.
For endurance, we have just enough in order to medium roll. I’d like to have more here in order to wear even heavier armor with more Poise. That way, you can tank even more hits while continuing your breath spells. I would highly suggest you increase this if you take this build higher. You can increase Vigor to 50, Mind probably at 30, and Endurance to like 35. You’re going to want to increase all three stats.
20 Strength and 14 Dexterity are simply there in order to meet the requirements of the Jellyfish Shield. This gives you a greatshield that makes it easier for block countering, and it also gives you an additional 20% to damage when you buff with Contagious Fury.
25 Faith is there in order to meet the requirements for Golden Vow. You also need around 23 Faith for most of the spells anyway, so you’re going to have some points in Faith. Putting a few more points to get Golden Vow is a no-brainer.
Lastly, we have 80 Arcane. This is there to not only increase the damage of your weapon that has S-scaling, but also to increase your spell damage. This is kind of a double whammy, so these points aren’t wasted. You don’t really need to get this higher, as the diminishing returns significantly drop off from this point forward. Which is why I recommend increasing the other stats if you decide to take this build higher.
That’s it for our Magic Dragon Knight Build Guide! As always, let us know if you have questions or other tips in the comments below. We have a ton more builds coming for Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree so stay tuned for those. If you need help finding items, and securing some personal objectives, make sure to check the Elden Ring Map. Happy building!
