In this Elden Ring Frost Guide, I’ll be showing you my Royal Frost Knight build. This is a level 150 version of the Frost Knight build. It sort of upgrades it and changes a couple of things about it.
Elden Ring Royal Greatsword Guide – Royal Frost Knight
A Strength/Intelligence Build that uses the Royal Greatsword and Clayman’s Harpoon to set Frostbite and destroy enemies.
We have over 110 Elden Ring Builds now, for all classes and playstyles. This build is recommended for level 150.
Elden Ring Royal Greatsword Build – Equipment
The new addition so this Elden Ring build is the Royal Greatsword. This is a Colossal Sword that deals substantial magic and physical damage. It has possibly one of the highest attack ratings in the game. This weapon has a significant attribute spread, requiring 26 Strength, 22 Intelligence, and 18 Dexterity in order to use it, which is one of the reasons I decided to use a Greatshield with this build.
Its skill, Wolf’s Assault, has been buffed in patch 1.04. It triggers a lot faster, has better recovery time, and its damage is staggering if you land the initial attack and the AoE. The initial attack is much harder to land in my experience, but the AoE is almost guaranteed if you can get anywhere near the enemy, particularly if you’re fighting big enemies. It works really well for groups of enemies as well because it has kind of a huge AoE area that will one-shot anything inside of it that gets caught.
Another thing I really like about Wolf’s Assault besides the animation is the FP cost. It only costs 20 FP, and this goes down to 15 FP if you’re using Carian Filigreed Crest. That’s not a lot if you have 150-200 FP depending on your set-up. You’re going to be able to use this 10-12 times before you need to pop a blue flask which allows you to get away with a few blue flasks allotted while keeping a lot of health flasks.
Clayman’s Harpoon scales with Strength when you’re using the cold infusions. With the 26 Strength requirement to use this one-handed, you could add a few more points so you could use a good Greatshield. It fits that knight theme we’re talking about with the Frost Knight playstyle being able to use block counters, being able to use Ice Spear as well, and also using Wolf’s Assault now. We don’t need any weapon skill on the Shield, so this allows you to use Wolf’s Assault while having your shield out, which is great.
You’re going to use Clayman’s Harpoon similarly to the way you did in the Frost Knight build. You’re going to have Ice Spear on this, allowing you a ranged option. You’re going to have both of these weapons equipped at once, which will allow you to swap back and forth between them on the fly. You’re going to swap to Clayman’s Harpoon when you want to use Ice Spear to attack something at range before it gets to you. Ice Spear has a huge stagger potential, so you can stagger enemies very easily with it. You’re going to want to lead with this before they get to you, then swap out to Royal Greatsword then block counter or use Wolf’s Assault to finish them off.
What I like about having two weapons is that it gives you a lot of flexibility on what you can do. You’ll notice that Clayman’s Harpoon also scales with Strength and Intelligence very well, so even though the damage is less because it’s not a Colossal Weapon, you can do block counters with substantial damage and Poise damage as well. You can attack while blocking with it in scenarios where you’re not sure what enemies are going to do.
Since you’re using a Greatshield, you can attack enemies more easily with block counters because they tend to rebuff off of your attacks. The Greatshield I’m using here is the Eclipse Crest Greatshield. It has a decent Guard Boost at 75. It’s probably not the highest that you could get for a shield at this point, but you’re trying to balance between your overall equipment weight, protection, and Guard Boost that you can from a shield. If you go higher with the equip weight, you’ll have to put more points into Endurance in order for you to do a medium roll, which means you will pull points out of other attributes that give you damage.
There’s a fine balance here, but we’re leaning a lot more into the damage side of things with this build. The Eclipse Crest Shield is probably the bare-minimum when it comes to these things, as it has a low Strength requirement and a relatively low equip weight so that we don’t sacrifice other attributes.
When it comes to the headgear for this build, I’m using Haima Glintstone Crown. This gives me a couple of points in Strength and Intelligence, which fits perfectly for this build as our weapons scale off of these attributes. It reduces your FP by 10%, which isn’t a big deal because you have plenty of FP already. I’m also using the Tree Surcoat and pieces of the Chain Set to round out this build. The reason for that is that if I go heavier, I’ll have to put more points in Endurance. You can choose whichever armor you want, as long as you can do a medium roll.
Elden Ring Royal Greatsword Build – Talismans
When it comes to talismans, I’m using for this Royal Greatsword Build: Shard of Alexander, Carian Filigreed Crest, Great-Jar’s Arsenal, and Radagon’s Soreseal.
Shard of Alexander increases the damage of Wolf’s Assault and Ice Spear, so it’s really good. Both of these abilities hit kind of hard. although Ice Spear drops off at this point of the game compared to how it was doing at level 100. Wolf’s Assault hits like an absolute truck, and you want to boost that even further if you can.
Carian Filigreed Crest reduces the cost of both of these weapon skills. It reduces Ice Spear’s FP cost by 3, and Wolf’s Assault by 5. That’s a significant amount of FP saved, which is why I have it here. It allows you to use these weapon skills liberally and not have to worry about FP.
Great-Jar’s Arsenal increases your maximum equip load by 19%. We have it here because we’re using a Greatshield, two weapons, and medium armor. Without this, you would have to invest even more points in Endurance, which means you’re going to put attribute points towards Endurance instead of attributes that are going to increase your damage. It’s not really an option here, unless you want to wear very light armor, or even no armor.
Lastly, Radagon’s Soreseal is here for a couple of reasons. It adds more Endurance, which means that we get more equip load, which we really need. It also gives you more health, Strength, and Dexterity to meet the requirements of the Royal Greatsword. You don’t really invest in Dexterity because both the Greatsword and Spear have bad scaling with it. It’ll give you a bunch of attribute points you can invest towards other attributes that will benefit the build.
Out of all these, you could probably pull out Carian Filigreed Crest and replace it with Ritual Sword Talisman. I like the convenience of being able to use a weapon skill multiple times, as I feel like the overall damage output is higher as you can cast it many times. This is something you can play around with depending on the situation, so that’s really up to you. I don’t recommend using the Magic Scorpion Charm because you already have Radagon’s Soreseal reducing your protection.
Elden Ring Royal Greatsword Build – Gameplay
Generally, how this Elden Ring Royal Greatsword build works is that I’ll run around on the landscape, usually with the greatsword out. It depends on the area, so sometimes I’ll have the spear out. Keep in mind that normally, one block counter with either weapon will stagger most regular enemies, so it doesn’t really matter which one you have out. If you’re fighting a group of enemies, the Royal Greatsword is a much better option because it has horizontal hitboxes with your R1. You can cut through multiple enemies with one slice or if you use Wolf’s Assault, you can AoE a bunch of them at the same time. Clayman’s Harpoon has a very narrow hitbox, and it usually just hits straight. It’s better in situations wherein you’re fighting one enemy at a time, or if you’re fighting a difficult enemy and you want to be able to attack and block at the same time.
Also, Ice Spear is really good to use against enemies that you can lock onto specific body parts, like their head or leg, because this usually staggers them quickly because they take more stagger damage in those locations. If you also need to range an enemy down, this will be your option.
Also, we have zero spells slotted for this Royal Greatsword build. If you’re somebody who doesn’t like to buff, doesn’t want to deal with a hybrid build in terms of magic and melee, this is a really good build for you. You’re just going to equip everything, run around, swap weapons, and fight. You don’t really ever have to do anything else, which is great. If you want to add some spells to this build, I highly recommend Scholar’s Shield to give you more protection with your shield’s increased Guard Boost. It’s not necessary for this build, but you can do that if you want to.
Elden Ring Royal Greatsword Build – Attributes
The stats I have for this Elden Ring Royal Greatsword build are: 50 Vigor, 26 Mind, 32 Endurance, 52 Strength, 18 Dexterity, 52 Intelligence, 14 Faith, and 9 Arcane. 14 Faith and 9 Arcane are just there because I’m a Confessor. If you’re a different class, these will be lower. You’ll have points in other attributes to have a better spread. You don’t need either of these attributes for this build.
Vigor is at 50 because you’re going to take damage. This is a tanky build, but since you have Radagon’s Soreseal equipped, you’re going to take more damage than you would otherwise. Your protection is kind of low and you’re not using Golden Vow. You do have a Greatshield which is going to prevent you from taking hits. When you do, however, you’re going to take a substantial amount of damage, which is why we have 50 Vigor.
26 Mind is there to give you enough FP to use your weapon skills regularly. You lose some FP because of the helmet, but it’s not a lot. You should be able to use your weapon skills around 8-9 times before using a flask, maybe 2 or 3 between each Site of Grace. You can allocate more flasks towards HP, since you’re not using a lot of FP.
32 Endurance is there because we need that for equipment weight. It’s also good for stamina anytime you’re doing a block build. Having more stamina is good particularly if you’re not using Barricade Shield. It’s kind of a double-edged sword there as we get it for stamina and equip weight. We have two weapons equipped, one of them being a Colossal Weapon, a Greatshield, and armor that is medium weight. You have a good amount of Endurance combined with Great-Jar’s Arsenal to be able to medium roll. If you don’t care about medium rolling, you don’t need as much points in Endurance and you can swap out Grea-Jar’s Arsenal, although I feel like it’s a must-have for most builds.
We have 52 Strength here because we’re scaling off of Strength and Intelligence. The damage drops off after 50 Strength, although we have an extra 2 points here because of the helmet we’re wearing. Since Haima Glintstone Crown gives a +2 in Strength and Intelligence, you can allocate those four points towards Mind if you want, then swap out Carian Filigreed Crest for something like Ritual Sword Talisman or Curved Sword Talisman.
18 Dexterity is just there to meet the requirements for the Royal Greatsword. The two weapons we’re using doesn’t really scale well with Dexterity, so we’re not going to put any more points into it than necessary.
52 Intelligence is pretty much the same reason as Strength. The increase to magic damage starts dropping off after 50. I didn’t use spells for this build because I didn’t feel like 52 Intelligence was enough to justify using spells regularly. You don’t have a lot of FP and you’re not dealing tons of damage with spells with this build, so you’re better off using your weapon skills as you’ll probably outperform them in terms of damage-to-FP cost ratio. I don’t feel like using offensive spells for this build, but you can add them if you want.
Elden Ring Royal Greatsword Build – Final Tips
You do the Frostbite build-up with the weapon skill of the Royal Greatsword, as you don’t deal it with its normal swings. I don’t know why you don’t, considering the description of the weapon. The weapon skill of Royal Greatsword and Clayman’s Harpoon do Frostbite build-up, as Clayman’s Harpoon should be Cold infused.
Lastly, if you’re going to use the Flask of Wondrous Physick with this build, I recommend using the Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear in order to increase your magic damage. Both of your weapons deal magic damage, so this is a good fit here. You should also use Greenburst Crystal Tear as it increases your stamina recovery. I love stamina recovery in my builds, and this is a great way to get it. You’re going to be blocking a lot with this build, so getting that stamina recovery during boss fights is going to help maintain your blocking, as well as letting you attack more and still be able to block.
That’s it for our Royal Frost 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!
