Elden Ring Dark Moon Greatsword Build Guide – Darkmoon Spellblade

In this Elden Ring Dark Moon Greatsword Guide, I’ll be showing you my Darkmoon Spellblade build. This is an update to the Magus build, which is a level 100 variation of it.

Elden Ring Dark Moon Greatsword Build Guide – Darkmoon Spellblade

A melee mage build that focuses on the use of the Dark Moon Greatsword and other Glintblade Sorceries to destroy its enemies.

We have over 110 Elden Ring Builds now, for all classes and playstyles. This build is recommended for level 100.

Elden Ring Darkmoon Greatsword Build – Equipment

The first thing you’ll need for this build is the Dark Moon Greatsword. This is such an iconic weapon throughout the FromSoftware titles that we couldn’t not make a build with it. You want to upgrade this weapon as much as you can. Its weapon ability, Moonlight Greatsword, allows you to buff the weapon for 60 seconds. It not only increases your magic damage, but it also changes your R2 attack into a wave of moonlight that shoots out of your swing. You can do a regular attack with your R2 or charge it until it fires off. The second one has substantially more stagger damage, and we’re going to focus on it a bit later.

The staff you want for this build is the Carian Glintblade Staff, and there are a couple of reasons for that. It buffs Carian Glintblade Sorceries by 15%, and we use several of that in this build. It also has a D-scaling in Strength, and E-scaling in Dexterity, meaning you’re going to get damage from this with those attributes, although not a lot. You do have some points in STR and DEX in this build, so that’s going to improve your overall sorcery scaling and damage. In my testing, the Academy Glintstone Staff and Carian Regal Scepter outperforms the Carian Glintblade Staff in some cases. It’s not always true, but I feel like you’re slightly getting more out of Carian Glintblade Staff than the Academy Glintstone Staff, but you could use either one. If you already have your Academy Glintstone Staff upgraded, it’ll be fine to use.

For armor, it’s not super important what you choose as long as you’re able to do a medium roll and get as much protection as you can. I do like the Preceptor’s Big Hat here because it gives you increased Mind for reduced stamina. You need a lot of FP for this build, and not a lot of stamina, so having that extra FP Is great. The charged R2 attacks take away a lot of stamina anyway, so you’d have to invest a significant amount of points in Endurance to make it pay off, so it isn’t worth it.

Elden Ring Darkmoon Greatsword Build – Talismans

The talismans I use for this Elden Ring Darkmoon Greatsword build are: Godfrey Icon, Radagon Icon, Stargazer Heirloom, and Green Turtle Talisman.

Godfrey Icon not only increases the damage of charged spells but charged skills and Moonlight Greatsword when you’re holding down R2 to get that heavy attack wave of moonlight. The regular charged R2 attack doesn’t benefit from it, but the charged R2 attack with Moonlight Greatsword will, which you’ll be using most of the time. Additionally, Magic Glintblade and Loretta’s Greatbow can both be charged, so Godfrey Icon will also increase the damage from those spells.

Radagon Icon reduces spell cast time. With this, you’ll get out of the spell cast animation faster, so you can attack with your Greatsword or dodge hits. This allows you to prevent hits that should’ve happened if you’re not wearing Radagon Icon.

Stargazer Heirloom is there not only to increase the damage of your Greatsword, since it scales with Intelligence primarily, but also for your spells and to meet requirements for those spells. This is a good all-around talisman for that.

Lastly, we have the Green Turtle Talisman. Even though you don’t need a lot of stamina for this build, you want your stamina to regenerate fast. When you use those charged R2 attacks and regular R2 attacks, you chew through your stamina pretty quickly, so you want to regain it quickly so you can continue using the spells we use for this build.

Elden Ring Darkmoon Greatsword Build – Spells

The spells we use for this Darkmoon Greatsword build are: Glintstone Pebble, Magic Glintblade, Greatblade Phalanx, Loretta’s Greatbow, and Unseen Form.

Glintstone Pebble is pretty self-explanatory, it’s there when you need a little bit more range than you’re going to get from your Magic Glintblade. It’s a bit cheaper to use as well. You don’t have to use this in this build, but I feel like it’s a staple for any build. If you don’t want to use it, that’s fine.

Magic Glintblade puts a little ball in the air that fires a blade at an enemy after a little bit of time. Charging it makes it do more damage and delays it even longer. What you want to do with this is you want to cast it, then you want to hit your R2 with your Moonlight Greatsword, then fire it off immediately afterward while you’re doing your next swing of Moonlight Greatsword. You’ll continuously stagger enemies, and it works really well. What’s great is that this spell benefits from the staff because that boosts Glintblade Sorceries and Godfrey Icon which increases your charge damage.

Greatblade Phalanx is our Phalanx spell for this build. I did some testing with all the different spells and Carian Phalanx. I opted for the Ash of War version of Carian Phalanx because I wasn’t using it for the stagger, so the damage isn’t really what we’re using the ability for. The damage for both of these Phalanx spells are comparable, although Greatblade Phalanx deals more damage than Carian Phalanx. What’s really important about the spell isn’t the damage, but the stagger. This spell does the same amount of stagger as the Ash of War, so we’re replacing it here so we can use Moonlight Greatsword and still be able to get that stagger. You’ll get this deadly combination when you put this on. You’ll do the wave attack on an enemy, and Greatblade Phalanx hits into the enemy at the same time. It’ll stagger them, so you can go in for that critical strike. You can then throw these spells in a chain, so it’ll repeatedly stagger big enemies. This build is an absolute boss killer. In a lot of scenarios, being really aggressive with it usually pays off most of the time.

Loretta’s Greatbow is there for ranged attacks for enemies that are very far. There are scenarios where having long range will prevent you from getting hit or will just save you a lot of hassle. Again, this benefits from Godfrey Icon because you can charge it.

Unseen Form is a bit of an interesting spell. I like it because it allows you to walk around without getting hit by ranged enemies. A lot of times, it’s not going to save you. Enemies are still going to see you if you’re pretty close to them, but it’ll prevent you from getting seen a lot of the time which allows you to get the drop on enemies. It’ll help you set-up your attacks and get your combos out. It’s very situational, so you’re not going to use it most of the time. It is nice to have, though, and it kind of fits the theme of a Spellblade.

Elden Ring Darkmoon Greatsword Build – Gameplay

Generally, the way you’re going to go about it is you’re going to charge up your Moonlight Blade before you get to a group of enemies. Whether you’re in a legacy dungeon or landscape, and depending on what you’re facing, you’re either going to pull out your Greatblade Phalanx if it’s a big enemy, or Magic Glintblade if it’s not, to conserve FP. You’re then going to go to town, start attacking when you’re a good distance away from the enemy. You shouldn’t be too far, as you don’t want your wave from missing.

If enemies are charging towards you, you want to pre-charge your Moonlight Blade so that they’re running into it and your spells would be connecting with them. Then, you’re going to hit them again as they’re coming off the stagger of the spell. You can range things down with Magic Glintblade if they are higher than you. If you want, you can also use Glintstone Pebble as it works really well. You can just keep transferring target with this spell, then go back to meleeing on the ground. These things will usually take care of the enemies, particularly if you have Unseen Form on, as enemies from afar wouldn’t be able to see you.

Elden Ring Darkmoon Greatsword Build – Attributes

The attributes for this Darkmoon Greatsword build are: 30 Vigor, 30 Mind, 15 Endurance, 16 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 61 Intelligence, 14 Faith, and 9 Arcane. You do not need any Faith or Arcane for this build, so disregard these attributes. If you’re using a different class, then you’ll probably not have as high points here, which you can then put on other attributes.

30 Vigor is there because you’re playing a melee build and you want to be alive. You’re also not using very heavy armor, so it’s going to make up for the fact that you don’t have a lot of protection from your armor. You’re also taking chances with this, as you’re going to be holding R2 down sometimes when enemies are right up in your face to try to get them staggered.

30 Mind is there because this is a very FP-hungry build. It’s probably more FP-hungry than any other sorcery build that I’ve made at this point, and you absolutely need all the FP you can get. You could probably go a little bit lower than this, but you don’t want to lower it too much.

15 Endurance is there to give you a bit more equip weight so you can wear a little bit heavier armor and still use the Dark Moon Greatsword and Carian Glintblade Staff. This will vary depending on what your set-up is. You might not need any more points in Endurance, or you might want more to wear heavier armor. This will be entirely up to what armor you want to use for this build.

16 Strength is just there to meet the requirements to use Dark Moon Greatsword one-handed. You only deal like four more damage two-handed compared to one-handed, so it gives you the flexibility of casting a spell or attacking with a Greatsword. 12 Dexterity is there to meet the requirements of Carian Glintblade Staff. You’ll need 11 Dexterity anyway for the Greatsword.

61 Intelligence is there to increase your damage and meet the requirements for spells. The more damage you deal, the faster things die.

Elden Ring Darkmoon Greatsword Build – Final Tips

If you’re walking up to an enemy or approaching a boss and you’re not going through a fog gate, always cast your Greatblade Phalanx first. These blades will last for a long time indefinitely. That way, when you’re buffing with Moonlight Greatsword, you won’t have wasted the time that it took to cast Greatblade Phalanx. It’ll save you a few seconds of Moonlight Greatsword, so you won’t have to rebuff with it all the time.

In tougher boss fights, if you don’t pull off the chain stagger combo fast enough, or if it doesn’t allow you to pull it off, you’re going to have the rebuff your Moonlight Greatsword. Make sure that you find an opening to do that, as enemies usually do a long combo chain, which’ll give you an opening after. Once you get the hang of it, it won’t be an issue for you.

For most boss fights, you’re going for that kill in the first minute. You should get the kill fast with your Greatblade Phalanx and Moonlight Greatsword, just going as hard as you can in order to kill things fast. Again, you want to do the chain stagger combo, then do a critical strike once there’s an opening. While they’re getting up, you should cast Greatblade Phalanx again then do your charged R2. They’ll never have any time to respond to it, but it doesn’t always go that smoothly.

That’s it for our Darkmoon Spellblade 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!