Here, I want to give you another Elden Ring build for Patch 1.10, which is called the Nightblade.

Stat Spread - Starting Class & Point Allocation 

Let’s start with the class and stats.

You can start this build with the Astrologer class. You can set your Vigor at 55, Mind at 20 (and can be boosted by your Navy Hood from 20 to 21), Endurance at 12, Strength at 8, Dexterity at 50, Intelligence at 68, Faith at 7, and Arcane at 9.

The Gear - Weapons, Armor, Talismans, Ashes of War, Flask of Wondrous Physick 

Let’s have a look at my gear first. And next, I will go over where you can find each piece of gear, Ashes of War, and Sacred Tear.

I have a Rapier with a Cold affinity - Cold Rapier, as our melee weapon. And what I love about this is not only the critical rating of 130 but also the fact that adding Frostbite lowers enemies’ defenses by 20%. 

The Ash of War Glintblade Phalanx is going to be used to break the enemy’s stance, leaving them open to boost Critical Hits. 

You can cast the Night Sorceries with the Staff of Loss, the best staff for them. And what’s great is that they are invisible, so bosses don’t dodge them. We can really keep our distance in battle. 

Fully charged Night Comets do respectable damage. Night Shard is great for mobility as you can cast it whilst running and jumping. And although Ambush Shard is not being boosted by the Staff of Loss, it is also great for enemies that are out of range and for keeping up the chip damage, so their stance doesn’t reset. I mean, sometimes you kill Melania with it.

Of course, you can start most fights by firing off Ranni’s Dark Moon to get Frostbite proct to lower enemies defenses by 20% before you unleash your Night Sorceries and Critical Hits.

These are the Talismans that support and boost the build:

The Graven-Mass Talisman, which raises your sorcery damage by 8%. 

The Godfrey Icon, which boosts the damage of your fully charged Night Comets by 15%.

The Magic Scorpion Charm, which boosts your magic damage by 12% and increases any physical damage you take by 10%. It is a worthy trade-off.

The Dagger Talisman, which increases our Critical Hits by 17%.

Now, if you don’t want to lock yourself into charged Night Comets and the Godfrey Icon, you can switch in the Graven-School Talisman and along with the Graven-Mass Talisman. You’ll have a +12% overall damage boost to your Ssorceries.

In the Flask of Wondrous Physick, you can pick the Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear, boosting all your magic damage and you can pick the Greenburst Crystal Tear, speeding up your stamina recovery as the bar is a little low.

Now your armor loadout is held and bling to the max. You can pick a Navy Hood, boosting your Mind stat by one point. This actually allows you to cast 6 Night Comets with a full FP bar before chugging.

The rest of the gear is the Black Knife Armor set. Not only does this look awesome, but it makes no noise, which means we can sneak about and ambush enemies.

Also Read: A Walkthrough Guide On Exploring Mistwood Ruins & Fort Haight Areas In Elden Ring

Combat 

Let’s have a look at some combat.

Start by chugging your Flask of Wondrous Physick and then pop off Ranni’s Dark Moon. Then, I like to throw up Glintblade Phalanx and switch to Night Comet to snipe away.

Depending on what you are fighting, you may just want to stay away and snipe enemies with Night Sorceries. But if you do want to get in close, keep Glintblade Phalanx up and hitting enemies to get their stance broken and your awesome Critical Hits in.

There’s something for everyone with this build. I just love switching it up depending on the boss.

Item/Gear Locations

Let’s have a look at the gear and item locations before I sign off.

The Rapier can be purchased from the Twin Maiden Husks at the Roundtable Hold for 1,000 Elden Ring Runes. Please note: if you use the code “CSCCA” here, you can also get 5% off.

The Staff of Loss can be found in Sellia, Town of Sorcery, on a corpse hanging off the balcony.

The Navy Hood and the rest of the noble sets can be found in the East Windmill Pasture.

The Black Knife Armor set is found on a corpse under an archway behind Ordina Liturgical Town in Consecrated Snowfield.

The Graven-Mass Talisman is found on the top of Albinauric Rise in the east of the Consecrated Snowfield.

The Godfrey Icon drops from Godefroy the Grafted found in the Golden Lineage Evergaol.

The Magic Scorpion Charm is obtained by giving Preceptor Seluvis the Amber Starlight after Seluvis tells you about his scheme

If you want to throw on the Graven-School Talisman, it can be found in Raya Lucaria.Take a detour through a fake wall. 

The Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear is dropped by the Erdtree Avatar in northeastern Liurnia of the Lakes .

The Greenburst Crystal Tear is dropped by the Erdtree Avatar found in the Minor Erdtree Avatar in Caelid, east of the Smoldering Church.

The Glintblade Phalanx Ash of War can be found after defeating Godrick the Grafted in Stormveil Castle. 

Rogier’s Rapier can be found in the Roundtable Hold by the balcony after speaking to him and receiving his Rapier.

Ranni’s Dark Moon could be found in the Chelona’s Rise after unlocking the tower.

Night Shard could be purchased from Gowry for 4,000 runes after completing his questline

Night Comet is found in a chest in Sellia, Town of Sorcery, after lighting the torch atop the tower.

Ambush Shard can be found on the Weeping Peninsula, found on a corpse in the underground jail of the Witchbane Ruins.

If patch 1.10 for Elden Ring revolves around Critical Hits for PVE, then we need a Critical Hits build, right? Yes. We’re going to use a combination of the Executioner’s Greataxe, the Brass Shield and some Critical Hit Talismans for some devastating guard counters. You can also use Golden Parry as yet another way to break an enemy’s stance and deliver devastating Critical Hits. 

This really is an easy mode. And thanks to the Brass Shield, you will actually find it easier just blocking attacks of any magnitude. We have some great Ashes of War to support the build and we have the Bloodboil Aromatic. 

All in all, this build is called The Stance Breaker. 

Stat Spread - Starting Class & Point Allocation

Let’s first start with the class and stats so we can wreck anything and everything. 

I started with the Hero class. We have Vigor at 57, Mind at 12, Endurance at 47, Strength at 78 (it can be boosted to 80 thanks to our Omensmirk Mask), Dexterity at 9, Intelligence at 7, Faith at 8 and Arcane at 11. 

The Gear - Weapons, Armor, Talismans, Ashes of War, Flask of Wondrous Physick 

The main weapon of this build is the Executioner’s Greataxe, which has a critical rating of 115. It’s great for our Critical Hits.On this, we have the Ash of War Cragblade. This boosts our physical damage by 15% and our stance damage by 10%. 

We have a dagger in the main hand as well, which we can switch to to cast the Golden Vow Ash of War for extra damage and defense.

In our offhand, we have the Brass Shield and we can choose between two Ashes of War on this. The first is Barricade Shield. This gives us tier 4 Hardness to withstand pretty much any attack while blocking. The second is Golden Parry. If you’re feeling a little more confident, you can Parry your way to delivering Critical Hits.

As for the armor then, we have the Omensmirk Mask, which will boost our Strength by two points. We have the Banished Knight Armor, the Fire Prelate Greaves and Lionel’s Gauntlets. This gear gives us an insane 101 Poise and we still have a medium load.

As for our Talismans, we have the Curved Sword Talisman boosting our guard counters, the Dagger Talisman boosting our Critical Hit Damage by 17%, the Great Shield Talisman reducing Stamina damage whilst blocking, and the Bull-Goat’s Talisman, which raises our Poise by 33%.

Now, there is a fifth Talisman, the Axe Talisman, which we can swap in when fighting enemies we are not guard countering more on this when we look at combat.

In the Flask of Wondrous Physick, we have the Greenspill Crystal Tear, which boosts our maximum Stamina and the Stonebarb Cracked Tear to help break enemy Stance quicker.

Before we look at combat, I need to mention the Bloodboil Aromatic. This little beauty is increasing our physical damage by +30%, our Max stamina by +20%, but we do take 25% more damage. But let’s be honest, we have our Shield up, so who cares about that?

Combat 

Next up, let’s look at the combats start by switching to the dagger and buffing with Golden Vow, switch the Executioner’s Greataxe and buff it with Cragblade, then pop the Bloodboil Aromatic, then I would advise to pop the Flask of Wondrous Physick as late as you can. 

Hold up the shield and wait for enemies to attack, then hit with your heavy attack. R2 on PlayStation to deliver a guard counter, you will find yourself more often than not breaking an enemy’s Stance in as little as two guard counters. Then, you deliver your Health melting Critical Hits.

Now, a really cool tip to keep the Stance damage from resetting on the more mobile enemies is to throw daggers at them to keep the Stance damage ticking over. When it comes to the odd enemies that don’t really give us a chance to use guard counters, you can of course break them with Golden Parry or even easier, just hit them with charged heavy R2 attacks with the Executioner’s Greataxe two-handed.

If doing this just swap out the Curved Sword Talisman and the Great Shield Talisman for the Axe Talisman and a damage negation Talisman, depending on what damage you are taking.

What’s great about two-handing the Executioner’s Greataxe is that you can still guard counter if you want to. With this, it will not be as effective as using a shield, but you still have the option. 

Also Read: Changes To PVP Damage Mechanics In Elden Ring Patch 1.10 - Nerfs & Buffs

Item/Gear Locations 

The Executioner’s Greataxe can be dropped by numerous skeleton enemies you see wielding it. You can grab a dagger from the Twin Maiden Husks at the round table hold for 400 Elden Ring Runes. Please note: if you use the code “CSCCA”, you can also get 5% off.

The Brass Shield can be dropped by numerous enemies, mainly the Godric soldiers and as early as the start of the game.

The Omensmirk Mask is dropped by a Lesser Omenkiller outside the Lower Capital Church Site of Grace in Leyndell, Royal Capital.

The Banished Knight Armor is dropped by numerous Banished Knight enemies. 

The Fire Prelate Greaves can be dropped by Fire Prelate enemies.

The Lionel’s Gauntlets can be found on a bed in the building with the Lower Capital Church Site of Grace in Leyndell, Royal Capital.

The Curved Sword Talisman could be found by Stormveil Cliffside Site of Grace and Stormveil Castle. Go up the stairs on the side of the castle and up to the third floor of the Wine Cellar. Enter the door on the eastern wall to find a dark room with a Banished Knight as well as a chest with this Talisman.

The Dagger Talisman is in the hanging cage room behind the Imp Statue fog gate in Volcano Manor.

The Great Shield Talisman is found in a carriage chest east of the Erdtree Gazing Hill Site of Grace. Watch out for the three fire arrow balliste guarding the carriage.

The Bull-Goat’s Talisman can be found in the back of Dragonbarrow Cave. From the entrance, take a left onto the Giant Bear’s patrol route. Search that side of the cave until you find the Talisman at the very end on a corpse.

The Axe Talisman is found in a cellar underneath the Mistwood Ruins in eastern Limgrave.

The Greenspill Crystal Tear is found in Mistwood founded on the altar next to the minor Erdtree Mistwood, along with the Spiked Cracked Tear. 

The Stonebarb Cracked Tear is obtained by defeating the Putrid Avatar in Caelid.

As for our Bloodboil Aromatic mats, you will need the Perfumer’s Cookbook (2), Altless Bloom x2, Budding Cave Moss x1, Land Octopus Ovary x1 and Arterial Leaf x1.

The Cragblade Ash of War is found west of the Impassable Greatbridge in Caelid on a Scarab near the Sword Monuments.

The Ash of War Golden Vow is obtained by defeating the mounted Godrick Knight to the east of the Stormhill Shack Site of Grace

The Ash of War Golden Parry is found on a Teardrop Scarab in the Royal Capital Outskirts

The Ash of War Barricade Shield can be obtained by defeating the Night’s Cavalry on the Weeping Peninsula.