"we got a lot of spells, like: Carian Slicer ranged Carian Slicer big Carian Slicer frostbite Carian Slicer Carian Slicer if it was a hammer"

The meteorite staff has the scaling of a +18 Academy glintstone staff for anyone wondering

A small tip for "Mad Pumpkin Head". Glintstone Arc can easily be free-aimed slightly downwards, and it'll hit him bellow the helmet. Makes him easy to kill from range, even from the front. Another tip is to get the Sacrifical Axe from the Deathbird at Weeping Penninsula after getting the Meteoric Staff. Even if you don't reach the requirement, if you keep the axe in your other hand (or even on your hip) you still get the FP per kill passive effect. I think it's around 3 to 4 FP per kill, so every Slicer OHK basically refunds itself.

I love "build" videos like this. Straight to the point and without unecessary bloat. Would love to see more thematic builds from you

I love being pure caster the pvp is so fun with it having 10 weapons to use and combo with is the most fun i had in any souls game Edit: sellen is hot indeed

One of the most fun and useful spells you can obtain very early is the Night Maiden's Mist. It deals a whopping 1500 damage per cast and covers a huge area when fully charged. It goes through walls and is great for blocking chokepoints in PvP or mass enemy destruction in PvE. It was the bread and butter of my mage playthrough all the way up to Leyndell. All you need to do to is kill the O'Neil boss in Aeonia Swamp and you'll unlock it for purchase from Gowry. The boss is very easy on horseback even at SL1 as none of his attacks can hit you.

If you have the equip load to spare, you can carry a sacrificial axe(dropped by the deathbird in weeping peninsula at the cube ruins past the wall near the night's cavalry location) on your back/offhand during exploration. It has a similar affect to the ancestral budding horn talisman acquired from the rememberance of moose, restoring some FP for every enemy killed. Useful if you want to have more fp before needing to refill at a grace!

thank you Scott, I have never even considered carrian piercer. You are a revolutionary. editing to specify that obviously this is a joke, fellas. no need to explain to me in the comments how amazing carian slicer and piercer are

I've been using the new Gravitational Missile spell from the DLC, and it is actually a great addition to this type of build, especially for PvP. It's just a short range orb that lingers and explodes 4 times. You can cast it as an opener and walk into it, making you dangerous to approach for several seconds and also somewhat masking your subsequent spells. If you cast it at the ground, it will do its final large explosion immediately instead, which means you can quickly aim your camera down if you just want an instant AoE in case you've been rushed down.

i like that you showed all the spells on the fire knights cause those guy are actual cancer

Thank you Scott 😭 I've abandoned my sorcerer playthrough cause I still ended up needing a sword half the time. Now I've gotten the spells you recommended and I'm having a blast.

Been running this build for years and its so fun! Glad more people will pick it up and try it.

8:46 another niche thing specifically for pve about magic glintblade is the fact its probably the easiest spell to use on torrent, since you don't need to bother with r1 or l1, you just do whatever one you like and not have to worry about awkward angles

I would actually also like to point out that what makes me use the Regal Scepter over the Lusats besides just the chepaer fp cost is the Regal Scepters unique weapon spin ash of war. Does AMAZING stagger and stunlock potential it basically adds an 11th spell to your lineup. Though I suppose if you're trying to run ONLY casting you arent rly casting a spell. But the ash should not be underestimated if you wanna break that rule a little bit.

I love your constant search of proper spell builds since DS3. The dedication is duely noted

There are at least three spells I recommend from the DLC even for a pure caster. Glintblade Trio, Miriam's Vanishing, and Gravitational Missile. The first is just Magic Glintblade but x3 but doesnt have as long of a delay. However, it does do similar damage to the Magic Glintblade, Shard Spiral, and Collapsing Stars combo while being far faster and more FP efficient. Gravitational Missile is useful for several reasons. Firstly, standing inside of the aoe allows you to have a zone of safety, and it has a super cheap fp cost while also being a large amount of damage if it detonates or is cast directly into the ground for trading scenarios/damage through walls. It allows for combos during the pull, deals chip damage if someone is in the field, and isnt too slow to cast which allows you to have a large zoning tool. Something that is actually lacking for mages since they don't have access to things like Fire Serpent, Greyoll's, Placi, or any of the other dragon incants or Ancient Dragon's Lightning/Death Lightning/Burn o Flame type spells. Miriam's vanishing breaks lock and allows you to skip some startup frames on spells after the duration. This allows for both defense or aggression if using defensive spells or offensive spells respectively.

Really cool to see an in depth video like this from you Scott.

scott please do more build videos like this. this is amazing

I actually started a pure spellcaster a few hours before you released this because I was trying to think of a build I wanted to play that was fun and remembered you talking about how it is your favourite.

If you can't comfortably claw grip, but still want to be efficient, consider getting back buttons for your controller. If you are modding the controller yourself, there are very solid, cheap options out there. This is something that has made my experience better in virtually every soulslike, since running is almost always attached to a face button.

God I love me a Scott Jund souls video, always so high quality

About comet azur, while I was playing my INT build, it did actually come in handy on romina saint of the bud. half of her hp can be melted by comet azur as she takes very long to approach at first. not 100% cheese, but maybe worth a shot if any of my fellow mages are struggling out there!

Been meaning to do a caster only run. Currently the closest build I have is my Morgott Cosplay build, which is an Arcane focused build using the albinuric staff for carian slicer, piercer, and gavel of haima to simulate his summoned weapons! The high dex you need for the cursed blade compliments the casting speed of the already fast casting melee spells

I don't know if I should consider myself a pure caster because I use the wing of Aztel as second weapon on my right hand. But I use it just for the ability. I play as a "assassin mage" who kills without being noticed and that skill is really useful to kill mobs behind the walls or that sheep rolling non stop on the DLC!. Nice guide! I love it!

To add onto the Carian Piercer, as it's one of my favorites as well - it can stagger Crucible Knights, trivializing them as well.

there are 3 rules in fromsoft games: parry is OP, greatshields are OP, and the giant beam spell is garbage.

loving these build guides

Highly recommend this build it has been one of my favorite for a long time and is very rewarding to master. It gives a sort of feeling like when you learn to parry a boss so well it looks like you're bullying your opponent.

Awesome guide! Thanks!

If you ever get around to it I’d love an in depth video on invasion tactics mages can make use of. What spells to use in situations, how to make use of the environment, combos etc

I have a dual sense edge controller which allows me to have my back button as my spell switching button which helps so much with spell combos

thank you for the wonderful guide will follow your guidance after finishing my large club run

Damnnohtml, i'm so glad to see you back playing that game!

I have some tips: 1. You can use the Jellyfish Greatshield for 20% more damage and gain the option to block 2. Passive ability's on staffs such as "Boost casting speed", works if it's in the other hand, so if you have on the left a Azur Glintstone Staff and in the other the Lusat one, even if you use the Lusat, the spell casting will be increased, but there's a catch, if the staff have a negative effect, its also shared with the other, but some staffs like the Metorite and the Carian, doesn't have negative effects and buffs specific magic types, so it can be useful for more damage at no cost 3. As most of the staffs doesn't have a ash of war, you can change the controller settings to change spells when pressing the Ash activation button (LT in Xbox) 4. Use Lusat against bosses and in Pvp, use the Carian regal during the rest of the time 5. Millicent Prothesis is also a awesome talisman because the more you hit, the stronger it becomes, not only that but it gives you 5 dexterity, which can increase the cast speed, multi hit spells such as the one said in the video to be good against larger enemies will easily trigger this effect, the Tear for the wonder physics is also incredible good, with these two I was doing massive damage on Bayle

When ER first came out, I went into pure caster since there were so many cool spells. And it was, by far, the most difficult playthrough I did. Bleed/Strength/Faith/etc were all vastly easier. Outside of the comet setups, INT builds just die if they get breathed on and there are so many gap closers it's nuts. The DLC cranked it up even more.

There are 3 types of spells in Elden Ring: 1. Bread and butter effective damage spells single target/AoE. 2. Utility spells and spells that buff your damage somehow by either debuffing enemies like frostbite or moon spells or buffing your own damage like Terra magica. 3. Roleplay tier spells like bubbles, ghostflame explosion, aspects of the crucible, mining spells, magma spells, tibia summons etc. Roleplay tier spells are definitely the most fun to play with and have a themed setup with but sometimes they are either so bad or straight up don't have enough spells in the archetype to not get stale.

amazing video, good level of “production value” for a video like this

Youre my go to for awesome knowlege information. Cheers Scott !

Very cool guide Mr. Scooter.

thanks for saying how hard it is to be a pure caster because now I know I’m not crazy 😂 I was really struggling but once I got the wing of astel I finally was able to do things like gaol bosses alone and the beefy red knight that you showed in your video too

Scott I just wanna say it's so odd hearing your voice so often these days, I was so used to seeing a bunch of other new content creators cover this game these last two years that it's been quite jarring actually hearing about it from somebody I recognize. Keep it up, it's great to have you back 👍

THOPS, MY MAN BEST 10 RUNES I EVER SPENT

Thanks Scott

This game is amazing. So much build variety. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to dark souls. Thanks for the guide!

Staying at a lower int and using melee spells for bosses while making up for the lower damage with hitting the boss with ranged spells for when the boss cannot be approached in a way that melee builds can't sounds like a really fun way to play and makes me want to try out a caster build.

Scott is the best at what he does

I really miss weaving in different spells the mixups felt so good

now you got me wanting to do the pure caster incantation run so things dont get stale id run a lot of claw spells similar to how you ran a bunch of "weapon spells" like dragon claw bloodflame talon both beast claws and maybe that new spell furious blade you could add black blade and at that point id start running stuff like the twin red lightning spear spell and the red lightning halberd.

I recommend swapping your keybind for changing spells with either block/left cast or with Ashes of War keybind. I just started my first magic playthrough a few days ago and this was a huge QoL change.

Prisoner doesnt get enough love. I started a Carian Knight build(all Carian sorceries+Carian AoW and DMGS) and Magic Glintblade is stupid useful. Not to mention i only needed to level str to 16 to have access to a bunch of magic attunement friendly weapons and DMGS. Plus the Estoc's Impaling Thrust is useful as well until Carian Grandeur

I'd like to add the off-meta recommendation of crystal release, at least for pve. It works as an alternative to critical attacks when you stagger a boss, doing absolute gangbusters damage if the boss is big and you position well. It's also super satisfying if you can find a window to sneak it into a blindspot in a bosses move set.

I know you mentioned that you wouldn't do faith due to how limited it is, but I would still love to see a guide on it regardless! I enjoy faith, but as you've said, it's quite limited, so I would like to see how you make it work!

I’ve actually done this run with only spellcasting and was surprised by how fun and versatile it was, though I did try to avoid comet Azur and Terra magica. The only reason I wouldn’t do it again is that I hate finding all of the things for getting more slots idk why I despise doing it so much I just do id rather it just be tied to a stat

I'd like to say Magma Shot is a really good spell to have in your pocket for enemies weak to fire, as its something Int builds dont typically get access to

I used impenetrable thorns for mostly everything in the dlc. Equipped it on my mimic tear and was pretty good against the final boss.

I didn’t end up playing claw grip on my caster build back in my early playthru, I have a very particular unorthodox controll scheme to allow me to cycle spells quickly and still roll run and cast

Pure faith casting is far from spamming catch flame, there's a lot you can do with it. I also did int+fai pure caster and it can also be pretty fun, even if it's not good at meta levels.

Gravitational missile is definitely the best dlc sorcery. There's a trick with it where when you aim it at the ground or a nearby wall it will instantly explode. Basically prevents enemies from approaching you carelessly. It's also a great area denial tool. Casting it in front of a doorway basically prevents most enemies from chasing you down. Edit: Another really solid spell is collapsing stars. It basically tracks an enemy down and pulls them closer to the player doing decent damage and sets up for melee combos like gavel of haima, carian piercer, etc. It's a really versatile spell for a lot of different builds.

The dlc's Blue dew drop talisman has been my Fundamentalists BFF since drop

for the pumpkin fight, dont lock on to him and cast glintstone arc. It makes the fight super easy and looks cool killing him this way.

I am trying some hydrid, one handed, carian knight like build, it is pretty difficult to set up, god damn. You gave nice tips

SCOOOOOOOTTTTT!!!!! I needed this, I spent the last 24 hours scouring for an updated full caster for Int. Separately can you cover int/faith caster hybrids for pve and pvp in the expansion? Thank you, sir!!!!!!

There's one detail I recall. I'm not sure if this is still true, after a fair few patches since last I played. But if it is, then holding the Staff of loss in your off-hand makes Night Shard (an other night sorcery) the single most efficient fp-to-damage spell in the game

The only other sorcery I’d recommend is Ambush Shard. In combination with the Arrows Reach talisman, it’s one of the longest reach spells in the entire game at a third of the cost of Loretta’s Mastery. Additionally, if an enemy has a shield, or is obscured by something in front of them, you can just hit them in the back and it’s another night sorcery, so the enemy won’t react to it.

The new gravity bomb spell will explode immediately if freeaimed at a wall or the ground. Its like a faster cannon of haima on yourself. Probably not great for pve (you dont want to cast without hyper armor when enemies are near you) but for pvp it is top tier

I’ve had a lot of fun with a RL150 dual caster using 60 Int and 42 Fai. Using Azur’s Staff (with Rad Icon) and Golden Order Seal, I’ve had the most fun I’ve had in any FromSoft game and I even tried PvP with and enjoyed it regardless of winning or losing. Being able to combo Carian Slicer into stuff like Gavel and Stone of Gurranq or throwing lightning spears and black fireballs before throwing out Adula’s Moonblade makes you feel like a kickass battlemage. The build’s not optimal, but I’m not amazing by the game by any means, so if I can do it, it’s definitely got some merit. The Int/Fai battlemage set up also got some great new tools with the DLC, even if a certain talisman has a penalty far too steep for my liking.

Can't recommend this build enough, I put many hours into pvp back when the spell combo bug was still in the game. Sad that got patched, but still super fun, I've been taking it through the dlc having a blast, until I hit the final boss on ng+ and had to level to 200 for more mind and shit lmao

On my first character I did "sorcery only" on NG+4, it was probably the most fun run I've ever done.

Being a pure faith caster build was honestly really fun in the DLC, and I'm working on a fresh sorcerer run, though at this point I'm looking more like a Gandalf the Gray build since my character is almost exclusively using a Magic infused Claymore with Carian Sovereignty (I've beaten the DLC already I don't care about moving things through friends to new characters) and it's been working pretty well lol. There's a lot here I hadn't considered the last time I played a Sorcerer (which ended up getting respec'd into a Radahn's Swords character) and I can't wait to have 6 staves equipped for various spell type buffs xD

I have been using the carian sorcery sword. It's both a weapon and a catalyst at the same time. I won't lie and say it's the best for sorcery scaling because it's not but I have a thrusting sword that can cast scholar's shield and it's S scaling with int after the buff. In PVP it's a mixup god weapon they never know what's coming next. I have a shield and some decent armor and spells at my disposal for both damage and utility so it's been very fun and versatile so far. If you haven't tried it I suggest giving it a shot.

I try to rely mostly on incantations, but I also stick to a theme, which is something like "barbaric sorcerer", which means I'm throwing Stone of Gurranq, Beast Claw, Greyoll's Roar, and Crucible spells out instead of the best spells in the game. It's a struggle. Stone of Gurranq is my best attack and I've loved it since I got it 2 years ago, but it's still slower than a Greatsword swing even with max cast speed. Melee builds have so many ways to put out insane damage. Anyone who says magic is "easy mode" is insane.

I know it’s not important but I would’ve like to see a section on armor in the vid. Choosing good armor on a character with a low equip load can be hard to decide, and giving some pointers would have been cool. Also important to note that some armor has bonus effects, like the glintstone crowns increasing Int or the snow witch hat boosting moonblade

Don't sleep on Scholar's Shield if you want to add blocking(+parrying) for close quarters combat. It can make your average low-req medium shield almost as good as a greatshield with a bit of END, plus a huge magic resistance boost.

Zamor ice storm is also pretty useful in pvp as a “get of me” tool so you can heal or restore fp.

Hey Scott, great guide One thing I want to point out, is pure faith can be a lot of fun, if you use dragon cult incants, lightning builds have a great amount of tools, and if I can reasonably kill the final dlc Boss with it on max new game, I'm surr might find it pretty enjoyable

While it's true almost all spells from the DLC are kinda useless, there are two which I found to be a bit situational but have been pretty good in those said situations: Glintstone Nails works well as annoyance since it hones in on targets and travels pretty far, think of it like an int Pest Threads. Gravitational Missile can work as a knockdown/keep away if aimed at your feet or cast at a wall a target is hiding behind. Never use it locked on. Another use for Swift Glintstone Shard is the ability to pull enemies away from groups. *Also Night Maiden's/Freezing Mist can work to drive out a gank camping a room and is often the cause of death due to its chipping damage. *Oh yeah and the Blessed Blue Dew Talisman is pretty good for exploration, not so much for a boss or pvp unless you find yourself on the run from a gank.

Terra magica's aura actually extends a few steps outside the circle, and lingers even when exiting. So it can be used hit and run style a little

Mage builds are the best. No idea why ppl say they are easy mode, but they are definitely the most fun 🤩

Anyone who says a pure caster build is easy clearly has never done it. And also probably uses heavy armor, 60+ vigor, 50+ endurance, and a great shield. By the by, i would LOVE to hear how you handled the final boss as a pure caster with no summons. Or Gaius.

Its a little complicated to do a mage only build but here's a step by step guide 1.) Use glintstone pebble

Regarding FTH purecasting, Yeah it's not as easy to pull off and factually there aren't really B&B spells to use that match what slicer does, leading to the catch flame conundrum. However, some new spells with the DLC add to the repertoire that are actually pretty good I think. Fire Serpent is really good, doesn't have super long range but is still a ranged, *chargeable* attack, and doesn't have you at point blank range like catch flame does. And let's not forget Messmer's orb which is a tactical nuke. And the Dragon Cult sect got the new lightning spear that does a metric crapton of damage and thus shelves its predecessor into a B&B role. It's still not as varied as sorceries by any stretch of the imagination, but it's at a better state now than it was before.

Miyazaki robbed me of the chance summon light weapons with incantations like Morgott and I'll forever cry about it

I usually always do a spell sword with my spells as various utilities, but this vid is a good reminder thay ive never tried a pure caster

Awesome guide. Just a quick note: the Academy Glintstone Staff is actually better than the Carian Regal Scepter at 60 INT and below. Azur's staff has deceptively high scaling with high amounts of INT as well.

Was considering doing a magic acher build only using carion spells for melee. Good to know it does damage. Seller is mommy.

17:00 if you want to play the most powerful kind of caster (casting power, not combat effectiveness) in fromsoft games you will want to invest lots into mind and dex as well as int to maximise your cast speed, max casts and damage. you're also sacrificing healing flasks for FP. You're also using lots of offensive talismans to boost cast speed or damage, and if you're dual wielding no shield. So you kinda have to be less tanky to be the 'best' mage, talisman opportunity cost is real and investing heavily into int/mind/dex has to come from somewhere, even if you take 60 vig you might be losing out on endurance which means your armor is lighter. The trope doesn't apply as heavily to souls games but there's definitely truth to it, ESPECIALLY early on when you desperately need int just to access your staves/spells.

1:08 You can also spam Stone of Guranq, Madness Burst, and Lightning bolt instead if you want. Alternatively, a dragon arc/faith (mostly arc) pure spell build is the easiest build in the game, spamming dragonclaw/dragonmaw with the above faith spells for range cast off of communion seal's magadjust

I played a bleed build when the game came out and just made a sorcerer for the dlc. The game really is on easy mode with sorcerers, even considering the horrendous nerfs to the bosses they made.

No need for a claw grip. Just remap interact to square and spell cycle to triangle. You can also remap blue flask to the top slot of your toolbag to easily use it by pressing square then triangle

If you're struggling with the second phase of the fire giant that's when you use comic azure , drink your flask line it up and bury him. As soon as the phase kicks in.its in my profile vids. Got commander niall too

I've done an incantation equivalent with Dragon Communion stuff, but admittedly it can be tricky balancing everything

Magic glintblade and the DLC cation of this are so handy and fun to use. I combo them with Rellana’s duel blade magic ash of war for an apocalypse of random projectiles I also don’t go to 60 vig. I see everyone saying it’s required. It isn’t for hybrids. My vig is at 45 with my int at 70 and Mnd at 40 Guess it’s more required for pure builds as I tend to use light and medium armors for my magic builds. 🤷🏿‍♂️

I really like those types of videos! Can we have a Faith one on this format?

I love using the new fp regen talisman when cooping. Let's me save my reduced blue flasks for the boss.

Honestly very solid video and advice but I’m slightly confused about a few things like the heavy focus on the finer details of FP efficiency but then tossing that out the window for Lusat’s Staff with only 10% extra damage. I would personally use stronger spells with carian regal over lusats and weak spells. And I kinda preferred focusing on leveling up mind early just so you can utilize the FP flasks to their potential and make up the difference with more HP flasks. Especially when it feels like the damage upgrades from intelligence seem to be less important than the staff level, that’s just me though either direction is viable

Glintstone spiral helped a lot when I fought the baleful shadow

Can't do claw :/ But will definitely start a complete new playthrough for this.

Glinstone nail is the most fp efficient sorcery in the game and has good tracking. Glinstone nails also has good tracking

For me i've always ordered my spells as, ranged gping from most to least cast, melee mos to least cast and buffs depending on longest to shortest duration

All you need is a staff of loss in the offhand and Night Comet. That's all you need for pve.