In this Elden Ring Ordovis’s Greatsword Guide, I’ll be showing you my Crucible Knight build. This build is an NG+ build that focuses on using Ordovis’s Greatsword, Crucible Axe Set, and some of the Aspect of Crucible Incantations.
Elden Ring Ordovis’s Greatsword Build Guide – Crucible Knight
A Strength/Faith Build that uses the Ordovis’ Greatsword and Aspect of the Crucible Incantations.
We have over 110 Elden Ring Builds now, for all classes and playstyles. This Build is recommended for Level 150-200.
Elden Ring Ordovis’s Greatsword Build – Equipment
First up, we’ll be taking a look at the weapon we’re using, Ordovis’s Greatsword. This weapon is primarily a Strength-scaling weapon. Faith-scaling on it past 20 Faith is extremely poor, so if you’re trying to maximize the damage of this weapon, focusing on Strength will get you far more damage than focusing on Faith will. However, because we’re trying to incorporate the Erdtree Incantations into this build, we are going to increase Faith because there isn’t a good way to get incantation-scaling without some Faith, unless you’re using Dragon Communion Seal and you’re doing an Arcane build.
In this build, we’ll be needing a combination of Strength and Faith. You’re going to put some points in Faith, which isn’t exactly optimal for Ordovis’s Greatsword. Ideally, you should take Strength up to 80, then increase Faith up to 20 or 25 in order to use Golden Vow. You wouldn’t really take it much higher than that. If you’re trying to make a build around Ordovis’s Greatsword and nothing else, you should focus primarily on Strength.
There have been some buffs to this weapon with patch 1.07. The first is that your Poise damage with two-handed normal attacks with this weapon is going to be higher. It’s going to be easier to stagger enemies. You’re normally going to kill regular enemies with one attack anyway, so this isn’t going to play a huge part in this build. Another change that was added to Greatswords as well as other weapon types is that the Poise of some attacks have been increased. If you’re still below 51 Poise, you’re still going to tank through attacks and still hit. This isn’t going to matter that much because you have a very high amount of Poise. If you don’t, this will be helpful for you. Lastly, Ordovis’s Vortex’s attack power and cast speed has been increased. These buffs will be beneficial for this build, as we want all of these buffs in the build.
Ordovis’s Greatsword deals both physical and holy damage, which is at around a 2:1 ratio. Holy damage isn’t a great damage type in this game, as there are a lot of bosses in late game that fully resists this damage. However, you’ll primarily be doing physical damage so you’re going to be fine. Ordovis’s Vortex deals damage at a same ratio, so you’re really going to be using mostly physical damage with this build. Our Erdtree Incantations are physical damage, except for Aspects of the Crucible: Breath, which deals fire damage. This is good for your build as you have a lot of different damage types here.
We’ll be using the Clawmark Seal here in our offhand as it scales off of Strength and Faith, with an incantation scaling of 285. With the way this build is set-up, there really isn’t a way to get higher incantation scaling with this build. If you’re not going to use Ordovis’s Greatsword, you could put more points in Faith and use a different seal that has better Faith scaling. Since we’re cosplaying the Crucible Knight, this is the best option at the moment, until you reach NG+.
If you’re taking this Ordovis’s Greatsword build into NG++, you will probably increase Faith at some point, where another sacred seal would outperform the incantation scaling of Clawmark Seal because this caps out lower than other seals that are pure Faith. There may be one that’s better, you’d have to check and see. At this point, it’s the best option we have.
For the armor I’m using, it will be the Crucible Axe Set, which gives us fantastic protection. If you’re using Golden Vow with this while having Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman equipped, you have about 50% physical protection, which is absolutely nutty. It allows you to survive pretty much anything, which is awesome. The other reason we’re using this armor set is because of high Poise. This allows you to pull off Ordovis’s Vortex and regular attacks without getting staggered. You’ll also get a 3.5% increased damage with these Aspect incantations for each piece of armor you’re wearing, so we’re getting around 15% increased damage. We need all the damage increase to these, as our incantation scaling isn’t as high compared to a pure Faith build.
Elden Ring Ordovis’s Greatsword Build – Talismans
For the talismans we’re going to use for this build, I have three that I pretty much use constantly, and one as a flex slot. I have Shard of Alexander to increase Ordovis’s Vortex. Godfrey Icon increases the damage of Ordovis’s Vortex when you charge it, which you really should if you can. Also, all three Erdtree Incantations are chargeable, so you get increased damage if you charge them up. You’ll also be using Flock’s Canvas Talisman as it increases the damage of your incantations. Again, you need all the damage you can get with these.
When it comes to the flex slot, there are so many great options. You can use Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman. As I suggested, it gives you enough physical protection. You’ll have 50% protection when Golden Vow is up with this talisman, so this is a good option. Claw Talisman isn’t bad if you’re doing jump attacks. This increases your jump attacks by 15%, which is fantastic if you do those regularly. Ritual Sword Talisman is also not a bad choice if you’re not getting hit very much. I tend to play really aggressive, so I don’t use it as much, but that would increase your damage with weapon attacks, Ordovis’s Vortex, and incantations.
There are other good options for talismans, such as Taker’s Cameo which gives you back HP whenever you kill an enemy. You could also use Ancestral Spirit’s Horn to give you back FP whenever you kill an enemy. You kill lots of enemies with your AoE, so it’s a good way to get health or FP back, whichever you’re struggling with.
Other talismans I would like to mention are: Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Winged Sword Insignia, and Millicent’s Prosthesis. I’ll explain below why these talismans are good options to use.
Elden Ring Ordovis’s Greatsword Build – Gameplay and Spells
Moving on to the spells, we have Golden Vow to increase all of our damage and defenses. We also have Flame, Grant Me Strength because the weapon damage that you deal is mostly physical, so this is a good choice. Aspects of the Crucible: Horns and Aspects of the Crucible: Tail both deal physical damage, while Aspects of the Crucible: Breath deals fire damage, so Flame, Grant Me Strength buffs all three of them.
Now, we’re moving on to the Erdtree Incantations. Aspects of the Crucible: Tail does a sweeping AoE that hits in a large AoE around you, mostly in front of you. It doesn’t seem to hit behind you very well. It’s not one of the largest AoE we’ve seen, but it’s a pretty good size. The reason to use this spell is that if you’re using one of the three talismans I mentioned: Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, Winged Sword Insignia, or Millicent’s Prosthesis, hitting enemies with this spell will trigger these talismans. It’s a fantastic way of boosting your attack power quickly if you are going to fight a pack of enemies. It won’t count with Ordovis’s Vortex as it only counts as one hit.
Up next, we have Aspects of the Crucible: Horns. It charges you forward with a horn summoned in front of you, which can be charged to go even further and deal more Poise damage. You want to charge it if you can so you’re going to get damage from Godfrey Icon. What I really like to use this for is for tough enemies and bosses. You can rarely walk up to a boss or a tough enemy and use Ordovis’s Vortex, so we’ll be using this incantation. This will let you get into range of the boss, and it could stagger or flinch them. If you cast it again when they flinch, it could make them flinch again or you can knock them up into the air. When they’re staggered, you can use Ordovis’s Greatsword and deal massive damage to them while they’re kind of helpless. It’s a really good combo, although the spell itself doesn’t deal a high amount of damage. It’s a gap-closing skill while also giving you a chance to stagger enemies, which is really good.
Lastly, we have Aspects of the Crucible: Breath. This spell deals fire damage in a cone periodically as you walk forward. If you charge it, you’ll do this even longer but it will cost more FP. Again, it’s good to charge your spells to take advantage of Godfrey Icon’s buff. This can cause constant flinching, depending on how much Poise enemies have. You’ll have to practice which enemy types you can use it on, so you’ll know when it is efficient to use. You have a lot of options for AoE damage with this build, so this may not be always the best choice.
Elden Ring Ordovis’s Greatsword Build – Attributes
When it comes to the attributes for this Ordovis’s Greatsword build, we have: 50 Vigor, 26 Mind, 31 Endurance, 55 Strength, 13 Dexterity, 16 Intelligence, 45 Faith, and 9 Arcane. You don’t need any Intelligence and Arcane for this build, so you can disregard any points you have there. My starting class started out with these attributes, so if you pick a different class, it’ll look a little bit better at level 166 than what I currently have.
50 Vigor is there to give you health to trade blows. You do that a lot with this Ordovis’s Greatsword build, as you’ll be charging your skills such as Ordovis’s Vortex or the Erdtree Incantations. This will keep you alive, but you have really good protection with this build so you probably won’t need it to be higher than 50. You could take it up to 60 at some point if you want to be more tanky.
We have 26 Mind, but this is a bit lower than what I want it to be at this point in the game. You go through a lot of FP between buffing with Golden Vow, using Ordovis’s Vortex, and all of your spells. You’re constantly going to be chugging FP pots with 26 Mind, so getting this up to 35-40 would be ideal in the long run as you go through NG+. You should definitely increase Mind to 30 right away before you increase your damage.
31 Endurance is just enough equip load to medium roll with this build. If you’re using a different weapon or armor set, your equip load will vary a little bit. However, if you want the exact equipment we’re using here, this is what we’ll need in order to pull off a medium roll.
We have Strength at 55 for Ordovis’s Greatsword and Clawmark Seal. Ordovis’s Greatsword starts to fall off at around 53 or 54 Strength, so I wanted to stop there to get Faith up in order to keep our incantation scaling relatively good. If you were just focusing on Ordovis’s Greatsword, you could probably increase it up to 80 while keeping Faith at 25 to be able to use Golden Vow.
13 Dexterity is there to just meet the requirements for Ordovis’s Greatsword. You will get some damage out of this, but I don’t recommend putting points here anytime soon because of the way this build is shaping up to be. Theoretically, if you have 80 Strength and Faith, you could increase Dexterity to further increase the damage of this build.
45 Faith is the soft cap for the Clawmark Seal. Going above 45 Faith doesn’t yield any good results for incantation scaling with this seal, so you need to make a decision with what you want to prioritize with this build. You could prioritize Strength to have increased damage as this build is based on, or you could get Faith to around 60-70, get little damage with Ordovis’s Sword, and get another seal with better incantation scaling. It’s really up to you which direction you want to go with this build.
Elden Ring Ordovis’s Greatsword – Final Tips
If you’re using the Flask of Wondrous Physick, I would recommend using Stonebarb Cracked Tear to increase your Poise damage. It’s very easy to stagger bosses and enemies with this build, so if you use Stonebarb Cracked Tear, it will be much easier. You can also use Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear to increase the damage of Aspects of the Crucible: Breath, if you want to use it. Otherwise, you can go for Holy-Shrouding Cracked Tear to increase Ordovis’s Vortex’s holy damage, but it’s not a lot of additional damage.
You can also go for Strength-knot Crystal Tear or Faith-knot Crystal Tear in order to give you more damage with your spells or weapon. You can also use Greenburst Crystal Tear for stamina recovery as you tend to burn through your stamina pretty quickly. It really depends on what strategy you’re going for or which boss you’re fighting, so you can swap these around.
If you’re looking for which Great Rune to use for this build, Godrick’s Great Rune is probably the best choice. You need to invest in 6 of 8 attributes, which Godrick’s Great Rune provides.
An alternative to the weapon and armor are Siluria’s Tree and the Crucible Tree Set if you’d rather cosplay that. It has the same attribute spread, and almost exactly the same build if you want to use the Erdtree Incantations. This has an absolutely deadly weapon skill as well in Siluria’s Woe. This is an alternative so that you’re not locked into only using Ordovis’s Greatsword.
That’s it for our Crucible 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!
