In this Elden Ring Claws guide, I’ll be showing you my Cold-Blooded Raptor build. This is a level 100 build that focuses on the use of the claws weapon. Claws deal very high damage per attack, as well as inflicting the frostbite and hemorrhage status effects.
Elden Ring Claws Build Guide – Cold-Blooded Raptor
A Strength/Intelligence Build that uses Claws to deal damage rapidly, and to also set the Hemorrhage and Frostbite status effects.
We have over 110 Elden Ring Builds now, for all classes and playstyles. This Build is recommended for Level 100.
Elden Ring Claws Build – Equipment
Originally, when I started making this build, I started out with daggers. However, I quickly found out that daggers tend to miss more often than I would like. Their reach on specific enemies wasn’t long enough. Claws aren’t that much longer, but they do have a little bit more reach than daggers. I did like the attack pattern a little bit more, so I switched over to claws.
One thing I really like about claws over daggers is that they all have native status effects on them. Three of them have bleeding on them, while one has poison. You can’t supplement that with other status effect quite easily. It’s really a shame that daggers don’t have bleeding or poison on them by default, because they attack pretty quickly.
The claws I chose for this build are the Bloodhound Claws. You can actually choose the Hook Claws or Raptor Talons for this build as well. We won’t use Venomous Fang because it has poison instead of bleeding. Keep in mind that if you do choose the Hook Claws or Raptor Talons, your stat spread is going to be a little different because those scale primarily with Dexterity instead of Strength.
The way this build works is that I set the cold infusion on the claws in order to gain the frostbite effect when you’re attacking. The claws will also have bleeding on it, so you can proc frostbite and hemorrhage simultaneously. This staggers enemies while also dealing incredible damage. Your claws deal physical and magic damage off of this, so it scales with Strength and Intelligence. You can also increase your damage by putting Royal Knight’s Resolve on our claws.
What’s really cool about claws is that they only count as one weapon. However, when you two-hand them, you get a claw in either hand. When you buff yourself with Determination or Royal Knight’s Resolve, it actually ends up buffing both claws because it’s only considered as one weapon. This allows you to do an R1 attack while you’re two-handing, or a jump attack. These attacks deal substantial damage because you’re effectively buffing both weapons with one buff, which is something you can’t do with any other weapon.
If you want to use a staff for this build, I recommend the Academy Glintstone Staff. You’ll be able to meet the requirements for it, and it’s pretty much the best staff you can use with the Intelligence that we have.
Another thing that I really like doing with this build is that I use a Sacrificial Axe on my left hand. When I kill enemies, I’ll gain 4 FP back. This applies to however you want to kill them. Even if you use magic spells, you’ll gain 4 FP back. This helps with your FP consumption. What’s great about this is that when you two-hand your claw, it still counts as carrying the Sacrificial Axe because it’s technically in your left hand. It also doesn’t weigh a ton, so it doesn’t add a lot to your equip load.
When it comes to armor for this build, I use the Haima Glintstone Crown in order to give me Strength and Intelligence, at the cost of a little FP. We don’t really lose out too much FP as we don’t have a huge FP pool. That gives me extra points in Strength and Intelligence, which are the exact stats we need for this build.
I also like to use the Raptor’s Black Feathers. This increases your jump attack damage by 10%. You do a lot of jump attacks with this build, so increasing that damage is great. Other than that, the last two pieces are probably going to be something light in order to keep your equip load down. We don’t have any points in Endurance, so we’re not going to be able to wear very heavy armor.
Elden Ring Cold Claws Build – Talismans
When it comes to talismans for this build, I use: Claw Talisman, Winged Sword Insignia, Green Turtle Talisman, and Lord of Blood’s Exultation.
The Claw Talisman further increases your jump attack damage by 15%. As I mentioned, we do a lot of jump attacks, as it usually finishes enemies off in one attack.
Winged Sword Insignia is there because you attack rapidly with both weapons at the same time, building up your attack power to get more damage.
Green Turtle Talisman is there because you expend a lot of stamina when you’re going to town with your claws. You need to regenerate it quickly in order to get back into action quickly.
Lord of Blood’s Exultation is there because it increases your attack power by 20% for 20 seconds when you set the bleeding status effect on someone or on yourself, in this case it’ll be the enemy. You’re going to gain increased damage when you naturally attack enemies, which is good there.
There are other talismans you could use for this build, like the Ritual Sword Talisman which increases your damage by 10% if you’re at max health. If you want to use it if you’re confident, you can. It’s very difficult in my opinion to be at 100% health all the time when playing a melee build, but it’s an option to increase your damage even further.
Dragoncrest Shield Talisman also isn’t a bad idea for this build. It increases your defenses further, which you need because you’re wearing light armor. If you’re someone who’s really aggressive and likes to trade, this wouldn’t be a bad choice. The talisman I would replace with this or the Ritual Sword Talisman would probably be the Winged Sword Insignia. Enemies die long before I get that buff up, and it’s hard to pull off long combos in boss fights.
Elden Ring Claws Build – Gameplay and Spells
The way this build works is that I’ll be running around the landscape using jump attacks on enemy. That’ll usually kill them in one hit or stagger them. Then, I’ll go to town with R1 spamming with both my claws out, which’ll usually set bleed or frostbite, or even both, in rapid succession. That’ll usually finish off most enemies, even the tougher ones.
What’s great about this build is that you don’t have to use any buffing incantations. We aren’t using any faith buffs like Golden Vow, although you could put it on your Sacrificial Axe if you want. You can use that extra damage and protection when you’re going to face tough enemies. You don’t really need it because your damage is very high, so if you don’t like buffing constantly, this is a great build for you.
When it comes to spells, if you choose to use them for this build, I recommend using Great Glintstone Shard. This is a medium-range single-target spell that’s fantastic when you get into a situation where you need to thin out enemies. Magic Glintblade is also a good alternative to that, if you’d like something that can set a buffer for you to attack.
Loretta’s Greatbow is a really good long range option. There are scenarios in the game where killing something before it aggros onto you is ideal, just to make things easier.
Greatblade Phalanx is probably the one I would recommend using if you’re going to use spells. It has very good stagger damage, and you can throw it up. It lasts for a long time to set-up for you, so you can run in and it’ll hit about the same time as your attacks.
You can either use the Carian Greatsword or Adula’s Moonblade if you want in order for you to have an AoE option. You don’t really have much AoE with this build, so these are good incantations for scenarios where you get surrounded by enemies.
Elden Ring Claws Build – Attributes
For the stats for this build, I have: 35 Vigor, 20 Mind, 10 Endurance, 40 Strength, 15 Dexterity, 40 Intelligence, 14 Faith, and 9 Arcane.
35 Vigor is there because you’re going to get hit when you’re playing a melee build. You have light armor, so enemies are going to hit pretty hard. I would like to get this up to 40, but there really aren’t too many more stat points to be found. If you don’t have points in Faith because you aren’t a Confessor like I am, you’ll probably have more points put into Vigor.
20 Mind is there just to give you some FP in order to play around with when you’re out on the landscape. Royal Knight’s Resolve costs 15 FP, even though you do get 4 FP back from killing an enemy. Usually, when you buff with Royal Knight’s Resolve, jump attacks pretty much one-shot anything except tough enemies, so it’ll really only cost 11 FP. That’s going to get you 7 or 8 casts before you need to drink a potion, which isn’t terrible. This will probably need to be increased as you approach 150 in order to make it more viable.
10 Endurance is there because we don’t need Endurance for this build. It would be great to have more stamina for this build, but we can’t really justify points here at this point in the game. We may put some more points into this as we approach level 150 to get better armor and have a little more stamina, but our stat spread is spread way too thin right now.
40 Strength and 40 Intelligence are there to increase your damage with the claws. Both physical and magic damage are increased with these attributes.
15 Dexterity is only there to meet the requirements for the claws. This is going to vary depending on which claws you use. As I mentioned, if you use either of the other two claws, you’re going to put points out of Strength just to meet the requirements. If you decide to use those claws, you’ll be putting points towards Dexterity instead of Strength.
14 Faith is only there because my starting class was a Confessor. This isn’t ideal, as you should be playing something like a Prisoner build, or some other class that doesn’t have any points in Faith.
Arcane isn’t necessary, so you shouldn’t put points in this attribute for this build.
Elden Ring Claws Build – Final Tips
I tried testing the other claws versus the Bloodhound Claws. The Raptor Talons‘ description said that it increases your jump attack damage. However, in my testing, the damage is about the same for jump attacks. If you’re thinking of using the Raptor Talons for that, it’s not really going to make that much of a difference in terms of jump attack damage.
If you decide to go with a Quality set-up for this build, and go Strength-Dexterity instead of Intelligence, I recommend at least getting 10 Arcane in order to use Bloodflame Blade. Putting that in your claws is going to make your bleed build-up go a lost faster.
If you’re using the Flask of Wondrous Physick, I would recommend using Greenburst Crystal Tear to increase your stamina recovery. You definitely have stamina issues with this build, as you go through it very quickly. Using Greenburst Crystal Tear would be a big help to assist with this build’s stamina issues.
I would also recommend using Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear to give you more damage. This will be a good combination with the Greenburst Crystal Tear, as increasing magic damage and stamina will help you deal more damage.
That’s it for our Cold-Blooded Raptor 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!
