Elden Ring Necromancer Build Guide (PvE) (2024)

A complete Elden Ring Necromancer PvE Build and Guide to the class. Designed to help you create a versatile, powerful, ranged caster character on your first playthrough, detailing everything you need to know for the mid and late-game!

The Guide is up-to-date for Patch 1.10

Necromancer Build Summary

Main and Late Game

• 60 Vigor
• 40 Mind
• 20 Endurance
• 12 Strength
• 12 Dexterity
• 40 -> 60 Intelligence
• 40 -> 60 Faith

NG+

• 60 Vigor
• 45+Mind
• 40 Endurance
• 12 Strength
• 12 Dexterity
• 80 Intelligence
• 80 Faith

Introduction to Necromancer

Welcome to my guide on playing a Necromancer in Elden Ring! This guide is oriented towardPvEand will coverrecommended Sorceries, staves, melee weapons, talismans, Physick mixtures, armor, and statsas well aswhere you’ll need to goto find all this stuff!

Elden Ring lacks what most would consider a completely pure Necromancy build that’s exclusively focused on summoning the dead. You do have a bunch of weapons and armor to choose from, but only about half of your Memory Slots will be filled with Death sorceries that would qualify as Necromancies since that’s all there are in the whole game. However, all the spells I recommend synergize strongly with one another to create a fun build that feels quite distinct from other caster builds.

The other half of this build is all about fire and magma. Some of the Necromancies involve the freezing Ghostflame while the capstone Sorcery of Mt. Gelmir and, Rykard’s Rancor, summons a flaming skull that repeatedly explodes.

It’s clear that From Software intended for this to be a cohesive build because all of the Sorceries synergize so strongly and fit together exactly. In addition to the gameplay synergies, they make visual sense and look good together as a fairly cohesive school of magic.

My recommendations are focused on what you should be working towards in themid to late gameon your first playthrough and what you should have for NG+. There aren’t nearly as many Death or Magma Sorceries compared to something like Glintstone or Carian, so playing through will feel more like you’re becoming more specialized over time rather than honing the fundamentals.

For those of you that are more familiar with Elden Ring and Dark Souls, this guide explains how to play ahybrid Intelligence-Faith ranged caster buildthat relies primarily on Death and Magma Sorceries.

All of your stats and Flask allocations are meant to primarily boost the power of your ranged attacks, though you will likely be using your melee weapon fairly frequently because all of the options have pretty potent and unique skills, including the one I recommend, the Sword of Night and Flame is quite powerful.

Still, some boss fights will feel quite different as a ranged build because you don’t have to focus as much on staying in melee range; it’s almost like a dance where you dodge attacks and figure out how much magic you can fling before they try to hit you again. Since you’re at a distance, it’s easier to see the full attack so you might get the impression that attacks feel less cheap because you can see them coming allowing you to fully appreciate their style and grace.

What Makes Necromancy Unique

Necromancers are visually and functionally distinct from your standard Sorcerer. Only a subset of your spells actually deal magic damage; the rest deal fire damage instead and these damage type differences are reflected in the visuals.

The main challenges with Necromancy concern timing and positioning. Which spell to cast is determined almost exclusively by how far away you are from your target as most of your long-range spells have a significant delay before they start dealing damage. These delays create the potential for combos where you’ll have a bunch of damage going off at once.

The delay before the damage goes out on many of your attacks does mean that combat can last a bit longer compared to other schools of magic, but each attack is so reliable you can start walking to the next group of enemies as soon as you’ve finished casting something at everything. It’s not as visceral as other caster builds, but it still feels pretty amazing to watch legions collapse as you walk past them. It’s the same vibe as walking away from a huge explosion.

Since most of your attacks, cover a large area, feature strong homing, or deal some portion of unblockable damage, you should be able to land hits pretty reliably. I’m not a hardcore PvPer, but these traits should make Necromancy more effective in PvP, meaning you should have better odds against invaders compared to other Sorcery builds. The visuals are also quite distracting and overwhelming which will give you some cover as well.

Sorceries

Default Sorceries to use with this Build

I highly recommend using this exact order because it mostly corresponds to the range of each Sorcery, which will typically match the order you want to use them in. As your target gets closer, you want to be able to just cast the next spell on the list rather than have to cycle through the whole thing again.

Don’t mistake this for being some sort of rotation like you’d find in an MMO. The spell you cast will still be determined mostly by circ*mstance and you’ll basically never use all of them against the same enemy.

Ancient Death Rancor

Ancient Death Rancor summons a whole bunch of spirits that travel slowly toward your target and trigger a tiny explosion when they hit, causing a small amount of hitstun that is only enough to stop enemies from moving. Charging Ancient Death Rancor just makes it deal more damage, though damage output is more dependent on how many spirits actually hit the enemy; they don’t all hit at once and some will arrive before others.

The spirits all bloom out of your staff at the same time, causing some to be slightly closer to the target. Those that start on a more direct path will reach the target sooner while those that come out of the side of the staff will take longer and are more likely to collide with objects in the way. Make sure you have a mostly clear shot so you maximize the damage dealt.

It also features incredibly strong homing, which makes up for the slow travel time. Even if the enemy moves, the spirits will often be able to adjust their course to still hit them. Their maximum travel distance is also quite far, which greatly improves the overall reliability of Ancient Death Rancor, which is absolutely not the case for your other spells, which will typically deal more damage if you can land a clean hit with them.

The only time where this particular Necromancy suffers is at very close range where the spirits have a harder time actually hitting their target because they crash into something while trying to turn around. Thankfully, most of your other spells are most effective and often more damaging at the range where Ancient Death Rancor performs poorly.

Don’t get me wrong, Ancient Death Rancor is quite powerful. You could probably get away with exclusively using Ancient Death Rancor and your melee weapon. You’re able to finish off most regular enemies with a single cast while the strongest regular enemies can be dispatched with 2-3 casts. Your other options just become more efficient and more damaging at close range and/or when multiple targets are present.

Ancient Death Rancor drops from defeating the Death Rite Bird (that only spawns at night) near the northern edge of Academy Gate Town in central Liurnia.

Tibia’s Summons

This Necromancy will summon 3 skeletons to surround your target that each swing a big sword downwards shortly after spawning. Tibia’s Summons deals almost the same damage as Ancient Death Rancor (assuming all hits land from each) and has a similar max range, but it’s super buggy.

If you don’t have a super clear line of sight to your target, the skeletons will spawn in the wrong place even though you’re locked on. In addition, there’s no homing, so if your target moves at all, they will probably evade all 3 hits. These bugs probably have you scratching your head wondering why you’d ever want to use such a spell, but there are a few strong arguments for whipping out these skelly bois every once in a while:

• Sometimes they can hit enemies that are difficult to hit with your other attacks, especially if they’re near a ledge at a higher elevation.
• They’re much faster than Ancient Death Rancor at actually dealing damage, especially against enemies that are further away, so if you know it’ll only take a single cast to defeat something, this will be the quicker option.
• They’re extra spoopy.

The travel time of Ancient Death Rancor matches the cast and animation time for Tibia’s Summons such that the spirits from your most recent cast of Ancient Death Rancor will usually arrive at roughly the same time as the skeletons from Tibia’s Summons begin swinging.

The hitstun from Ancient Death Rancor also makes Tibia’s Summons more reliable and having so many attacks hitting at the same time can be enough to overwhelm some enemies, breaking their guard. I’m not 100% sure why this happens, but I imagine it would be relevant if an enemy had a relatively small stamina pool but a very fast regeneration rate or short regeneration delay.

Still, Tibia’s Summons is probably the least useful spell, so feel free to swap it out if you want something else. The only real reason I consider it essential is that summoning skeletons from the great beyond is about as necromantic as it gets.

Tibia’s Summons drops from defeating the Tibia Mariner at Wyndham Ruins in the southwestern area of the Altus Plateau.

Rykard’s Rancor

Each cast of Rykard’s Rancor summons a single flaming skull that travels for a set distance toward your target, leaving a trail of warm, gooey ectoplasm in the air behind it. Once the flaming skull reaches its target, it continues orbiting and leaving that trail until it has reached its maximum travel distance. After 3s have elapsed, explosions begin to trigger along the trail, consuming the ectoplasm like gunpowder igniting in a fuse, though there isn’t a bigger explosion at the end as you might expect, at least not from Rykard’s Rancor.

You can cast Rykard’s Rancor from pretty far away, but since these ectoplasmic explosions detonate along the trail, your target won’t get hit by very many. They’ll get hit by more detonations the closer they are to you since the skull begins leaving the trail behind itself as soon as you summon it.

The flaming skull travels for 7s and the trail it leaves is long enough to detonate up to 12 times. These ectoplasmic blasts aren’t as large as some of the other explosions in the game, but they’re still reasonably powerful individually. You need to hit a single enemy with 4 of these explosions from a single cast in order for it to surpass your long-range Necromancies in terms of damage per cast.

These limitations mean that Rykard’s Rancor is best used against groups and gigantic, slow-moving, enemies from mid-range. In general, you’d use this at a similar range to Magma Shot when you expect it will perform better, and it takes 4-5 explosions for Rycard’s Rancor to deal more damage than Magma Shot against a single target depending on charging and lava damage.

Since it takes 3s for the explosions to begin, Rykard’s Rancor is somewhat risky to use the closer you are to your target; however, the alternatives with higher damage potential are far riskier. Thanks to its extremely short cast time, Rykard’s Rancor is often the best choice when it’s not safe enough to use your point-blank options.

To be clear, Rykard’s Rancor is quite powerful at close range, but you can hit harder with other Sorceries that have extremely short range. You still want to consider using this Sorcery though because dealing some damage and evading an attack is better than dealing no damage and subsequently taking damage because got interrupted by an enemy attack.

Each explosion also can interrupt enemies with low poise and the whole spell confuses evasive enemies because they’ll try to dodge each explosion. This might even be an intentional feature as the spell is visually overwhelming, sometimes even for you.

Rykard’s Rancor can be purchased from Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold in exchange for the Remembrance of the Blasphemous, which drops from defeating Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy at the Volcano Manor.

Magma Shot

Direct hit + splash, weaker than Roiling up-front while having the potential to do more against targets without a weak point, interrupts, fast, short-range

Magma Shot conjures some magma from Mt. Gelmir that you fling from your staff at your target. The molten rock splashes against your target dealing a decent chunk of fire damage and leaving a puddle of lava (it’s not magma anymore since it’s above ground) where it landed. The lava deals additional damage and applies a small amount of hitstun while the enemy is standing in it.

The initial hit of Magma Shot is weaker than that of Roiling Magma, but the damage dealt by the lava will result in Magma Shot dealing more damage per cast while being cheaper.

Magma Shot isn’t as long-range as your other Sorceries, but it’s much better at hitting things that your long-range Sorceries struggle with and can deal significantly more damage per cast. For example, if something is too close to hit with Ancient Death Rancor, you’ll be able to (and want to) hit them with Magma Shot instead.

Magma Shot is given to you by Lady Tanith at the Volcano Manor after informing her that you have defeated your first tarnished for the Manor, Old Knight Istvan, who can be invaded in front of the Limgrave Colosseum.

Roiling Magma

Roiling Magma works a bit differently depending on whether it lands on the ground or hits an enemy. If it hits an enemy directly, it’s basically just a burning rock that hits harder than Magma Shot’s initial hit but can deal less damage if the enemy takes damage from Magma Shot’s lava.

If it doesn’t hit an enemy directly, the projectile just sits there radiating heat that makes nearby enemies curious (if they aren’t aware of your presence), so they walk over to it to get a better look. After a short time, there will be a bright flash immediately followed by a powerful explosion accompanied by lava that’s almost always enough to defeat regular enemies and sometimes even stronger ones.

The explosion from Roiling Magma is one of your strongest individual hits, but you have to wait without engaging the enemy, so it’s not very exciting to use on its own. The direct hit used to be a lot weaker to the extent that it was useless, and it’s still considerably weaker than if it were to explode, but it’s not the end of the world if you miss the ground.

The delay before the explosion enables Roiling Magma to enable combos and function as a timer for your other attacks where multiple casts will deal their damage at the same time. You throw it out first at either your or the enemy’s feet and then immediately begin casting another spell. The cast times for other spells are the same as the delay for Roiling Magma such that the projectile will explode right as your next spell hits. Charging it gives you an extra 3s before detonation, which is barely enough time to cast 3 uncharged spells total or 1 charged + 1 uncharged spell.

Roiling Magma can be looted off a corpse inside the Hermit’s Shack on the southern side of Mt. Gelmir.

Founding Rain of Stars

Founding Rain of Stars summons some magical clouds above where you cast it from that makes it rain stars for a little bit after a brief delay. This star rain deals damage and applies a bit of hitstun to anyone beneath the clouds you summoned. Founding Rain of Stars deals a fair bit of damage but requires you to be dangerously close to other enemies for maximum effect.

Since the area of effect isn’t huge and there is a delay before the damage starts going out, it’s best to use Founding Rain of Stars before (a group of) enemies have noticed you, while they’re busy with an attack you’ve already evaded, or are incapacitated.

This Sorcery is particularly effective against gigantic enemies that take up much of the area underneath the clouds. It also works well as a spacing tool if you know an enemy is going to approach you, so you’ll force them to walk through the storm to hit you. If you time it right, the storm will mostly only be active while the enemy walks through it.

Founding Rain of Stars deserves 2 of your Memory Slots despite not being a Necromancy or Magma Sorcery because it deals a lot of damage and synergizes so strongly with your other spells in terms of timing and positioning. The damage can go out at the same time in the same place as several of your other attacks.

Founding Rain of Stars is located in achest atop the Heretical Rise, which is located in the eastern region of the Mountaintops of the Giants near Castle Sol and a Minor Erdtree.

If you want more information on how to obtain Founding Rain of Stars, check out my guide on All Legendary Sorceries and Incantations Locations in Elden Ring.

Gelmir’s Fury

Gelmir’s Fury summons magma from the earth, and you can channel it to continue spewing lava. This Sorcery takes almost no time before it starts dealing (Fire) damage and while its range is fairly limited, Gelmir’s Fury hits pretty hard. It also offers some lingering protection as the lava sticks around for a few seconds, dealing a substantial amount of additional damage that enemies will often ignore while causing hitstun just as Magma Shot does.

Gelmir’s Fury differentiates itself from Explosive Ghostflame because it does not cause any knockback, deals consistent fire damage with each cast, and is capable of dealing a higher amount of damage sooner than Explosive Ghostflame.

Keep in mind that while the damage does go out pretty fast, it’s still fairly risky to use because you need to be near whatever you want to hit with it, so you have to be careful during the initial cast.

Gelmir’s Fury is given to you by Recusant Bernahl back at the Volcano Manor once you talk to him after completing his mission by dispatching Vargram the Raging Wolf and Errant Sorcerer Wilhelm alongside him at the physical Roundtable Hold in Lyndell, Royal Capital.

Explosive Ghostflame

Explosive Ghostflame is extremely similar to Gelmir’s Fury, but there’s no channeling, just a huge initial hit that sends freezing Ghostflame out in 5 directions. The initial explosion deals about the same as Gelmir’s Fury and has a wider range, but you can’t squeeze quite as much damage out of a single cast as you can with Gelmir’s Fury.

The Ghostflame left behind deals damage and applies hitstun just like the lava does from some of your other Sorceries but also causes a bunch of Frost buildup, meaning most enemies that stand in it will get Frostbitten, which makes them take another big hit upon application and makes them take more damage from future attacks.

The Frostbite effect is what enables Explosive Ghostflame to deal comparable damage to Gelmir’s Fury. If an enemy is already Frostbitten or there isn’t enough time for Frostbite to trigger, I recommend casting Gelmir’s Fury instead.

Knockback will typically be the deciding factor greatest impact on whether you choose to use it Explosive Ghostflame or Gelmir’s Fury since the knockback from Explosive Ghostflame will stop many enemies from attacking because they’re knocked over, but it doesn’t combo as well with lingering damage from lava or Founding Rain of Stars.

Explosive Ghostflame drops from defeating the Death Rite Bird (at night) at the end of the river near the Apostate Derelict church in the western region of the Mountaintops of the Giants (Haligtree side).

Roiling Magma Combos

The travel time, cast time, and delay line up perfectly with that of Roiling Magma such that the rock will explode right as other attacks go off. There are 3 such combos I’ve discovered so far:

Volcanic Eruption

1. Roiling Magma (charged)
2. Founding Rain of Stars (charged)
3. Gelmir’s Fury (channel)

The Volcanic Eruption combo requires a considerable amount of setup and is typically only doable when enemies aren’t actively attacking you or you otherwise aren’t in danger of getting hit. The payoff is that you get to deal a massive amount of damage over a relatively short period of time. In boss fights, it’s best used when they are recovering from getting critically hit after their guard was broken.

Firefrost Explosion

1. Roiling Magma (uncharged)
2. Explosive Ghostflame

Compared to the Volcanic Eruption, the Firefrost Explosion combo requires less setup, covers a larger area, and will cause enemies that remain in the vicinity to get frostbitten. Make sure that Roiling Magma detonates first or Explosive Ghostflame’s explosion might knock them out of harm’s way from Roiling Magma’s detonation.

Skull Blast

1. Rykard’s Rancor
2. Roiling Magma (charged)

The Skull Blast combo is more of a long-range alternative where Roiling Magma will detonate right as Rykard’s Rancor explodes for the last time, thereby giving you a proper satisfying ending to the cast where it feels like the skull is actually exploding.

You can also technically do Rykard’s Rancor and immediately transition to the Volcanic Eruption combo, but I don’t think any boss in the game features such a long opening and anything else will be dead long before you finish that combo.

Catalysts

Prince of Death’s Staff

The Prince of Death’s Staff is the only easily-accessible staff in the game that makes your Sorceries scale their damage off both Intelligence and Faith. Since most of your spells require both Intelligence and Faith to cast, this is the clear winner so none of those stats are wasted.

In addition, the Prince of Death’s Staff boosts the damage dealt by Death Sorceries by 10%. Death Sorceries include:

• Ancient Death Rancor
• Tibia’s Summons
• Explosive Ghostflame
• Rancorcall

Notably, Rykard’s Rancor is not boosted by this staff because it is considered a Magma Sorcery.

The Prince of Death Staff can be looted off a corpse at the top of a tower in the Nameless Eternal City in Deeproot Depths.

Regarding the Gelmir Glintstone Staff

The Gelmir Glintstone Staff also makes your Sorceries scale with both Intelligence and Faith and will enable your Sorceries to deal more damage than the Prince of Death’s Staff while you have less than 50 Intelligence and Faith, so it’s only useful in your first playthrough.

It also boosts Magma Sorceries by 15%. Magma Sorceries include:

• Magma Shot
• Roiling Magma
• Gelmir’s Fury
• Rykard’s Rancor

This staff has a low chance to drop from the Man-Serpent with an egg on its head that wields the staff and guards the portal to Rykard’s boss arena at the Volcano Manor. Since it’s so rare and difficult to farm, I only recommend using it if you happen to luck out and get it to drop. It’s not worth going out of your way to farm since it’s only slightly better for a very short time.

Melee Weapons

Melee weapons (what you’ll be using in your right hand) are going to come down more to preference, though you do want to make sure to use a weapon that either already scales with Intelligence and/or Faith or can at least be made to scale with one of those by using an Ash of War to change the weapon’s affinity to either Magic, Cold, Sacred, or Flame Art.

I recommend sticking to weapons that have Strength and Dexterity requirements that are below 20 because you can’t afford to spend more stat than that until you make a fair bit of headway into NG+.

I want to emphasize that I don’t think the differences in damage output between these weapons aren’t all that consequential. Most of the time, you’re gonna be casting spells anyway, especially against more difficult enemies where damage output matters, so pick the weapon that you find most fun to use or that you think looks the coolest.

Sword of Night and Flame

The Sword of Night and Flame is one of the more popular weapons in Elden Ring, and for a good reason: it effectively features 2 powerful skills instead of 1. It’s perfectly valid to make this weapon the cornerstone of your entire build as opposed to just having it as a secondary component like it is here because it’s just that strong.

Activating the skill (pressing LT/L2/SHIFT+RMB) just changes your stance, it doesn’t do anything on its own, so you have to follow it up with either a regular or strong attack, which will determine which of the skill effects is used. The regular attack causes you to stab forward and do a shorter-range, non-channelable version of Comet Azur (the magic beam Sorcery) while the strong attack causes you to do a horizontal slash that produces a giant flame arc.

Both attacks feature basically the same range, though the flame slash is considerably stronger and can easily hit multiple enemies. However, the swing itself is quite slow, so it’s prone to getting interrupted just like a normal strong attack would be. The mini-Comet Azur beam is faster, still deals enough damage to take out normal enemies, and knocks enemies down, and doing them both back-to-back can be enough to take out stronger enemies.

The raw power of the Sword of Night and Flame comes from the fact that its stat requirements align perfectly with how you want to allocate your attribute points since the mini-Comet Azur beam attack scales with Intelligence while the flame arc scales with Faith. Meanwhile, you only need 12 Strength and Dexterity, so you are free to spend those scarce attribute points on other stats that will provide more value.

One of this sword’s bigger limitations is that its skills cost quite a lot of FP compared to most Ashes of War, especially considering that they don’t provide any sort of lingering boost. This is a non-issue for Necromancers though because you’re already putting a ton of attribute points into Mind and using a bunch of Cerulean Flasks in order to increase your FP.

The Sword of Night and Flame isn’t without actual drawbacks for this build though. Its normal melee attacks are fairly weak and have pretty average range for a straight sword, which is pretty short compared to some other weapons. You’ll be more reliant on casting spells and using the weapon’s skill than actually

In addition, while the weapon looks cool, its visual aesthetics aren’t a perfect match for the Necromancer. The flame arc fits with the lava just fine, but you’re drawing your magical power from death, not the Primeval Current. It would make a lot more sense if From Software changed the visual effect of the beam attack to the gray one that the giant skeletons shoot out of their eye socket.

The Sword of Night and Flame can be looted from a chest in Caria Manor in northern Liurnia of the Lakes. If you want more information on how to obtain the Sword of Night and Flame, I encourage you to check out my guide Caria Manor: All Item Locations.

Death’s Poker

This greatsword features similar skill functionality to the Sword of Night and Flame in that it effectively offers 2 skills instead of 1 depending on whether you follow up the skill activation with either the regular or strong attack.

Both of these skills are signature attacks of the Deathbirds. The normal attack creates a small explosion at the tip of the Poker that sends a trail of ghostflame toward your target while the strong attack creates a larger and more damaging frosty explosion.

Each of these options is basically a component of your Explosive Ghostflame spell, so you’re not getting too much in terms of expanded functionality, though the initial swing does happen fast and cause a fair bit of hitstun, so it’s a lot more reliable at dealing damage.

Death’s Poker also causes Frost buildup with each swing, which adds to the greatsword’s already decent damage.

Its stat scaling and synergy are not as good as the Sword of Night and Flame on paper, but the Death’s Poker still feels stronger as a melee weapon. In my opinion, Death’s Poker also looks quite hideous unless you’re using it with the Royal Remains armor set, but that’s okay because you’ll probably have to give up some Endurance and wear lighter armor to wield it anyway if you’re using this build on your first playthrough.

I recommend using Death’s Poker instead of the Sword of Night and Flame if you want to actually be effective when swinging your melee weapon or desire a weapon that more closely matches the Necromancer aesthetic.

Death’s Poker drops from defeating the Death Rite Bird located in southeastern Caelid near the Nomadic Merchant and Southern Aeonia Swamp Bank Lost Grace.

Death Ritual Spear

The Death Ritual Spear differentiates itself from other weapons by offering the most expanded functionality while still managing to stay on-brand as a Necromantic weapon.

Most of this expanded functionality comes from its skill, Spearcall Ritual, which gives you a fast, potent, long-range AoE attack. Yes, you do have several other, more powerful AoE attacks, but they’re quite risky to use as they require you to be at point-blank range. Yes, Roiling Magma can be used from range, but it takes a while for the damage to go out.

The melee attacks are on the weaker side since they primarily scale with Dexterity, but you can hit things from pretty far away since it’s a spear. Its range also does a great job of telling you when you’re in range for Gelmir’s Fury and Explosive Ghostflame and helps to keep enemies from getting too close to you.

The Death Ritual Spear drops from defeating the Death Rite Bird south of Castle Sol in the Eastern region of the Mountaintops of the Giants.

Scythe + Chilling Mist or Hoarfrost Stomp

I wanted to include a Scythe using an Ice Ash of War for those of you that are after more of a Grim Reaper vibe. The Scythe deals decent damage while having fairly long range and being able to cause both blood loss and frost buildup with the Cold Affinity. You can use either the regular or Grave Scythe, though the regular Scythe requires less overall Strength and Dexterity to wield.

The regular Scythe can be looted off a corpse in Cliffbottom Catacombs, which is located along the southern edge of Liurnia of the Lakes.

I recommend trying out both Chilling Mist and Hoarfrost Stomp. Chilling Mist will offer more damage, but covers a smaller area, whereas Hoarfrost Stomp is more of an area denial attack.

Chilling Mist is dropped by defeating a dung beetle that’s just South of Renna’s Rise at Caria Manor in northern Liurnia of the Lakes.

Hoarfrost Stomp also drops from defeating an invisible dung beetle, but this one is slightly south of Caria Manor.

Alternative Options

There are a few other alternatives that match the overall aesthetic of the Necromancer, but don’t meaningfully expand your capabilities or otherwise have major issues with stat requirements or scaling.

• Helphen’s Steeple
• Family Heads
• Clinging Bone
• Ringed Finger
• Sacrificial Axe
• Mantis Blade
• Sword of Milos
• Nightrider Glave or Flail

To be clear, none of these weapons are objectively terrible, and they do match the Necromancer aesthetic, but they are weaker than the main options.

Talismans

I recommend using the Graven-School Talisman, Graven-Mass Talisman, Radagon Icon, and Godfrey Icon. These talismans consistently maximize the damage output of all your spells.

Default Talismans

Graven-School Talisman

This talisman provides a 4% damage boost to all sorceries, which is effectively a 4% damage boost. It doesn’t seem like much, but it can be the difference between defeating many enemies in 1 hit instead of 2.

The Graven-School Talisman is located in a secret area at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.

For more info on how to find this talisman, check out my guide onAll Item Locations at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.

Graven-Mass Talisman

This talisman provides an 8% damage boost to all sorceries, so it’s literally just a stronger version of the Graven-School Talisman. Unlike most other talismans with upgraded version, you can equip both Graven talismans at the same time!

The Graven-Mass Talisman can be found atop the Albinauric Rise at the edge of the Consecrated Snowfield on the western side of the Mountaintops of the Giants.

To remove the seal and enter, you’d need to solve a quick puzzle – put two imps to fight each other. You can easily do that by summoning the Fanged Imp ashes.

Radagon Icon

This talisman increases your casting speed by giving you 30 Dexterity which only counts toward increasing your casting speed. This increase may be subtle at first, but if you wear it for a while, then take it off for a while, you’ll feel slower and start to regret ever taking it off.

I think the Radagon Icon is particularly valuable for this build because so many of your spells must be used when you are very close to your target, which is risky.

The Radagon Icon can be found in a chest on the second floor of the Debate Parlor where you fought the Red Wolf of Radagon at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.

For more info on how to find this talisman, check out my guide onAll Item Locations at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.

Radagon Icon is one of theLegendary Talismans in Elden Ring. You need to get it if you want to complete the Legendary Talismans Achievement.

Godfrey Icon

This talisman increases the damage dealt by fully charging chargeable Sorceries by 15%. I think the Godfrey Icon is valuable because almost all of your Sorceries are chargeable and you already have strong incentives to charge many of them.

The Godfrey Icon drops off of defeating Godefroy the Grafted at the Golden Lineage Evergaol in southern region of the Atlus Plateau.

For more information on how to find this talisman, check out my guide onall Legendary Talisman Locations.

Alternative Talismans

Warrior Jar Shard or Shard of Alexander

These talismans boost the damage dealt by your Skills (Ash of War) by 10 and 15% respectively, though you can only have 1 equipped at a time and only obtain 1 per playthrough.

Magic and Fire Scorpion

These talismans boost your magic or fire damage by 12% respectively but each also makes you take 10% more damage. Since (a component of) an attack can only ever be a single damage type while the increase to damage taken always stacks, I don’t think it’s worthwhile to use either.

The true benefit of using these talismans over things like the Radagon Icon, Warrior Jar Shard, Shard of Alexander, and/or Godfrey Icon is that they will consistently maximize your damage dealt instead of situationally at the cost of reducing damage negation.

Flask of Wondrous Physick Mixtures

There are several approaches to concocting a mixture for yourFlask of Wondrous Physickdepending on your priorities. Beyond picking something that’s effectively useless, there isn’t really a bad combination of Crystal Tears, so I recommend that you pick 2 that cater best to your preferences.

Here, I’ll be recommending 2 concoctions that are uniquely optimized for the Necromancy build in terms of boosting damage output based on the specific types of damage dealt by your attacks.

Intelligence-knot and Faith-knot Crystal Tears

The Intelligence and Faith-knot Crystal Tears increase your Intelligence and Faith stats by 10 respectively for 3 mins, which will increase your damage output as all of your attacks scale with those stats. These Crystal Tears are better if you’re using this build in your first playthrough.

The Intelligence-knot Crystal Tear can be picked up out of a basin at the northern edge of Liurnia of the Lakes, just south of Caria Manor.

The Faith-knot Crystal Tear can be picked up out of a basin on the northern edge of the Weeping Peninsula.

If you need to, check the guide explaining what is the Flask of Wondrous Physick in Elden Ring, how to get it, how to mix Crystal Tears in it and where to find and obtain all Crystal Tears in the game!

Magic-Shrouding and Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tears

The Magic and Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tears increase your magic and fire damage by 20% respectively for 3 mins, which will increase your damage output as all of your attacks scale with one or the other of those tears.

These Shrouding Cracked Tears begin to surpass the Knot Crystal Tears as you exceed 60 Intelligence and Faith, so I recommend using them in NG+.

The Magic-Shourding Cracked Tear is dropped by defeating the Erdree Avatar at the base of the Minor Erdtreee in eastern Liurnia, north of the Church of Vows.

The Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear is dropped by defeating the Putrid Avatar at the base of the Minor Erdtree in northwest Caelid near the Rotview Balcony and Smouldering Church.

Armor

Armor sets are subject to individual preference and exactly how much weight you can carry, which is determined by your Endurance stat. I think the following sets best match the archetypal appearance of a Necromancer.

Technically, the Sage robes worn by Necromancer Garris in the Sage’s Cave could be considered more lore-accurate garb, but you need more than 20 Endurance in order to wear that set and still have a light equip load, which you can’t afford in your first playthrough. The set doesn’t have gloves either, so I don’t think it’s a good option in general.

Royal Remains

The Royal Remains set only requires 15 Endurance to use with the other equipment I recommend while retaining a medium equip load. It’s also accessible super early in the game and offers a nice bonus.

I recommend using the Royal Remains set earlier in the game if you’re using this build on your first playthrough or if you want to use a different weapon besides the Sword of Night and Flame.

The Royal Remains armor set can be found by returning to Ensha’s post outside Sir Gideon Offnir’s office at the Roundtable Hold after defeating him. Ensha becomes aggressive the next time you enter the Roundtable Hold after you’ve obtained either half of the Haligtree Secret Medallion.

If you want more information on how to obtain the Haligtree Secret Medallion pieces, check out my guide on Haligtree Secret Medallion Locations, Ordina Puzzle, and Latenna Quest Guide.

Night’s Cavalry

The Night’s Cavalry armor set requires less than 20 Endurance in order to wear with the other equipment I recommend while maintaining a medium equip load.

The Night’s Cavalry Armor set drops from defeating the 2 Night’s Cavalry guarding a caravan near the western edge of the Consecrated Snowfield in the western region of the Mountaintops of the Giants (Haligtree side).

Maliketh

Maliketh’s Armor set requires less than 20 Endurance in order to wear with the other equipment I recommend while maintaining a medium equip load, it has the exact same weight requirements as Night’s Cavalry, so pick whichever you think looks better.

Maliketh’s armor set can be purchased from Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold after defeating Maliketh at Crumbling Farum Azula.

P.S. I highly recommend using Radahn’s helmet with this set instead of Maliketh’s since it provides slightly more mitigation while (IMO) looking cooler and still staying within the 20 Endurance requirement.

Lionel’s (NG+)

Maliketh’s Armor set requires approximately 40 Endurance in order to wear with the other equipment I recommend while maintaining a medium equip load. It’s heavier

Lionel’s armor set can be picked up off presumably his corpse in Lyndel, Royal Capital, in the same room as the Lost Grace called Lower Capital Church.

Check out the complete Elden Ring Armor Sets Catalog and pick whichever you like the most.

Stat Targets and Flask Allocation

Since so many of these Sorceries for this build aren’t accessible until pretty late in the game and you can benefit from way more Intelligence and Faith than you can afford without hitting diminishing returns, I think Necromancy makes more sense as a build for a second playthrough.

To be clear, it’s still fine to do a Necromancy build on your first playthrough, but you won’t have much in the way of a functional build until you’re over halfway through the game and there are hardly any direct upgrades like there are with Glintstone Sorcery and Pyromancy.

Level 190 Stat Targets

• 60 Vigor
• 40 Mind
• 20 Endurance
• 12 Strength
• 12 Dexterity
• 40 -> 60 Intelligence
• 40 -> 60 Faith

Intelligence and Faith will directly affect your damage output and there isn’t anything in the way of hard caps that you can realistically achieve with those stats on your first playthrough. The other stats are hard caps that will directly impact your survivability and other capabilities. 40 of both Intelligence and Faith is enough for most of the game, so you should focus on reaching the other targets before reaching toward 60.

You need 12 Strength and Dexterity in order to wield the Sword of Night and Flame. If you’re using a different weapon, adjust those stats to the minimum requirements in order to wield the weapon.

Level 260 Stat Targets

• 60 Vigor
• 45+Mind
• 40 Endurance
• 12 Strength
• 12 Dexterity
• 80 Intelligence
• 80 Faith

Focus on getting your Mind to 45 first just so you can have a little more breathing room with your FP, then bring your Intelligence and Faith up to 80. As soon as you have over 70 Intelligence and Faith, remember to switch over to using the Magic and Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tears.

Endurance is the last thing to upgrade since you’ll start wanting heavier armor to help mitigate the harder hits. You can also give up some Endurance to hit 20 Strength and Dexterity if you want to slightly boost the damage dealt by your melee weapon.

Flask Allocation

None of your spells cost a massive amount of FP, so you won’t need quite as many Cerulean Flasks as some other caster builds. In general, I found I needed about twice as many Crimson Flasks as Cerulean ones. Against the later bosses, I needed a 10th Crimson Flask and could get by with only 4 Cerulean Flasks, but preferred a 9:5 ratio outside of boss fights.

Remember, your goal is to run out of both types of Flasks at roughly the same time, so treat the ratio I recommend as a starting point, not as gospel.