As an Elden Ring aficionado with over 400 hours played, I‘ve dedicated endless time fine-tuning quality builds to their full devastating potential. This comprehensive guide will unpack everything you need to know to craft the ultimate quality character – one that can readily smash through both PVE and PVP with remarkable proficiency.
Quality Builds Explained
Quality builds invest heavily into both strength and dexterity, allowing you to equip weapons that scale damage with both stats. This grants harder hits than pure dexterity setups, while retaining quicker swing speeds than full strength alternatives.
I‘ve rigorously tested various build approaches, and time and again quality reigns supreme for physical melee damage output. By level 150, my quality characters reliably hit over 800 AR (attack rating) on weapons with quality affinity, outshining what most other builds can achieve.
The balance of offense and defense quality provides enables tackling virtually all content the game offers. You retain enough speed to evade attacks, yet quickly retaliate with crushing blows. Trading hits becomes more viable given your augmented health pool and substantial Stamina for blocking.
Add the ability to equip most non-magical weapons effectively, and quality builds offer remarkable flexibility compared to specialized setups. I can freely experiment with a litany of armaments without losing damage output. This alleviates the stagnancy pure builds often encounter.
Mathematical Damage Analysis
To help demonstrate why quality performs so well, let‘s break down the math on damage calculations.
Without delving too far into formulas, your attack rating on weapons (the attack power value listed) gets multiplied by enemy defense ratings on hits. Thus maximizing your AR is key for increasing final damage.
Quality builds excel here because points into both strength and dexterity stack additional percentage-based scaling. By level 40 strength and dexterity, you may see weapons gaining 80% or more total combined scaling.
Compare this to pure builds that often plateau damage scaling far earlier. Sixty points in a single stat may only provide 65% bonus damage on some weapons. Spreading those points over two scaling stats keeps scaling higher for longer.
I‘ll include specific weapon and upgrade analysis further below. But in short, quality enables much higher attack ratings, feeding multiplicatively into final blow damage. The numbers don‘t lie – quality brings the pain!
The Top 3 Quality Builds
Now that I‘ve covered core concepts, let‘s dive into my personal top 3 recommendations for quality build loadouts:
#1: The Balanced Quality Juggernaut
For a versatile build that retains evenly balanced strength and dexterity scaling, I suggest the following allocation:
Vigor: 50-60
Mind: 10-15
Endurance: 30-40
Strength: 50-60
Dexterity: 50-60
Intelligence: 16-18
Faith: 16-18
Arcane: Base
Aim for at least 50 in both strength and dexterity to maximize damage returns on scaling. Pushing these stats higher continues increasing AR but offers diminishing returns past 60. I prefer stopping at 60 to allow more points in survival and equip load.
With equal stats, the Bloodhound‘s Fang continues to be my personal choice for its balance of power and speed. The unique Bloodhound Step skill also remains extremely potent for evasion and mobility.
However, the beauty of this build is having flexibility across many quality weapons. My own arsenal includes armaments like the Claymore, Banished Knight‘s Halberd, and Gargoyle‘s Twinblade that all perform wonderfully. I encourage you to experiment freely!
Recommended Weapons:
- Bloodhound‘s Fang
- Claymore
- Banished Knight‘s Halberd
- Gargoyle‘s Twinblade
- Loretta‘s War Sickle
- Guardian‘s Swordspear
This build has fantastic solo performance and also plays well in co-op, tanking hits while providing reliable stagger damage against bosses. It‘s the quintessential quality experience – truly excelling at everything!
#2: The Dextrous Quality Dance
If you prefer faster attacking speeds and advanced evasion tactics, this alternate quality variation may suit you better:
Vigor: 45-55
Mind: 12-15
Endurance: 25-35
Strength: 35-50
Dexterity: 60-80
Intelligence: 16-20
Faith: 16-20
Arcane: Base
Pushing dexterity much higher boosts swing speed, allowing you to dodge frequently while racking up hits. I lean towards lighter armor to enable faster dodges and stamina recovery for endless assault chains.
The Uchigatana enhanced with innate bleedalongside quickstep or bloodhound step ashes truly brings the heat. You become a whirlwind of steel, dismantling foes before they can react.
Advanced players can implement meticulous evasion techniques against even the quickest enemies. Favor dodging over blocking, and death becomes an uncommon occurrence. Patience is key however – wait for safe attack windows to avoid trading hits.
Recommended Weapons:
- Uchigatana
- Nagakiba
- Flamberge
- Godskin Stitcher
- Bandit Curved Swords
I lean on this build when I want battles to feel almost choreographed. The relentless exchanges of dodges, combos, and fatal counters make each encounter thrilling. Give it a try if you want fluid, heart-pounding skirmishes!
#3: The Quality Tank
Lastly for those who prefer soaking hits while dealing devastating punishment, this strength-focused alternative shines:
Vigor: 60
Mind: 12-15
Endurance: 45-50
Strength: 80
Dexterity: 45-55
Intelligence: 16-20
Faith: 16-20
Arcane: Base
Here maximum vigor and endurance take priority for monstrous health and equip load limits. Heavier armor with robust blocking or damage reduction keeps you alive against hordes of enemies.
Titanic strength weapons like Guts‘ Greatsword and the Giant-Crusher will smash foes outright with their 6-figure attack ratings. Their substantial weight matters far less given your vast endurance.
While trading hits can be risky for some builds, your gigantic health bar and stability from blocking allows it more safely. With the right ashes, you can even counterattack automatically after blocking!
Charge boldly into the fray and obliterate adversaries with this virtually unstoppable heavy quality build. Fear no enemy when you‘re built like an Elden Lord!
Recommended Weapons:
- Guts‘ Greatsword
- Giant-Crusher
- Watchdog‘s Greatsword
- Ruins Greatsword
- Iron Greatsword
I rely on this tanky alternative when my goal is leading co-op charges against bosses. Letting summons draw aggro, I step in with crushing counter blows for tremendous damage. Survival is laughably easy!
Advanced Quality Build Tips
Now that I‘ve outlined top-tier build options, I want to share some key optimizations all quality aficionados should know:
Chase the Highest Base Damage First
When shopping for weapons, prioritize equipping ones with already high base attack ratings before factoring scaling.
For example, the Iron Greatsword out-damages weapons like the Lordsworn‘s Greatsword thanks to 200 higher base damage, despite worse scaling ratios. This base damage then gets multiplied by your tremendous scaling for astronomical attack ratings.
Upgrade Along Somber Paths First
Somber smithing stones only upgrade special weapons, but provide much greater attack boosts per level than standard smithing. +10 Sombers beat +25 standards.
I push one chosen Somber weapon to +10 as soon as possible even with minimal stats. This supercharges damage early when scaling is weaker.
Beware Soft Caps
While quality builds benefit from points in both strength and dexterity, beware of soft caps.
Returns diminish drastically past 40-50 in each stat. Consider more vigor, endurance, and optional int/faith after 50/50 to enable greater build diversity.
Consider Supplemental Damage Types
While physical is my focus, supplemental elemental damage from weapon buffs or consumables can tack on 100+ extra damage per hit. This bypasses enemy armor to boot!
Bleed and frost remain especially deadly options. Occult affinity on weapons also scales well off decent arcane investment.
Master Combat Fundamentals
No matter your exact build, true experts practice key techniques like spacing, footsies, punishing whiffed attacks, roll catching, and reading telegraphs.
Learn your chosen weapons‘ precise range and swing arcs to perfectly hit enemies at max range while staying safely out of reach.
Rolling directly into attacks then countering is also better than panic dodging. Remain calm and collected against even the most vicious foes.
Application Against Bosses & Enemies
To demonstrate quality builds in action, let‘s analyze taking down some notorious challenges:
Against Crucible Knight and Misbegotten Warrior:
These imposing duo demand patience and mastery of roll catching. Keep composure as the Misbegotten charges you, dodging last-second. As your dodge ends, catch the still-recovering warrior with a jumping heavy attack.
Against the Knight‘s combos, maintain distance, strafing slowly around the arena. Dodge twice to evade long chain attacks without panic rolling, then move in for a jump attack during his recovery. Have faith in your vigor and absorption to take a hit if needed – greediness kills!
Facing Radahn Pre-Nerf:
This still deadly iconic festival called upon flawless horseback combat. Galloping around the battlefield dodging relentless arrows quickly taught me my horse‘s limitations.
Closing in at opportune moments to deliver my own punishing mounted attacks remains key. Patience pays off greatly here – I‘ve spent 5+ minutes in drawn out battles of attrition waiting for safe damage windows. Don‘t get greedy! Survive first, strike second.
Blasting Through Winter Lanterns in Nightmare Frontier:
These ethereal songstresses posed a devious threat – approach carelessly and watch your health vaporize from frenzy buildup!
Only relentless aggression proves effective here. I charge straight at them unleashing my fastest attacks the moment they spawn. Stunlocking them through posture breaks prevents them ever using their grab attack. Fearlessness and preemptive strikes carry the day!
As evidenced above, quality builds offer solutions to nearly any encounter. Let‘s wrap up with some final conclusions.
Parting Words
While any build can potentially beat Elden Ring‘s content given sufficient skill, quality remains the clear winner regarding raw damage capabilities. The balanced attributes and versatility grant quality superiority across the widest range of weapons and scenarios.
I hope this extensive guide has shed light on why quality reigns supreme and how you too can attain domination with these talent loadouts. Whether you crave a balanced juggernaut, dexterous dancer, or unstoppable tank, a properly cultivated quality build will serve you well from Limgrave to the Mountaintops of Giants.
Feel free to bookmark this page and share it with fellow Tarnished. And may your quest to become Elden Lord be filled with eviscerated foes courtesy of quality‘s might! Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions – I could talk all day about quality‘s strengths!
