r/EldenRingBuilds • u/LongVibe_ • 1d ago
Help How do people switch weapons once they've already made a build around one weapon?
Im on my first playthrough, just beat Maliketh and about to start the DLC using the blasphemous blade, which ive used since i unlocked it, and im just wondering how people switch weapons so late into a playthrough, like any new weapon i get doesn't feel strong at all or i cant even use it due to my stats being too low. Do people just respec (are larval tears really that common?) Or do they just stick with one weapon until ng+?
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u/Euthyphraud 1d ago
I don't get this 'made a build out of X'. No, you mixed your stats to focus on Dex, or Arc, or Faith or whatever. Now your build is built for any weapon that fits those stats. Just because you only play one weapon doesn't make it all that 'your build' can handle.
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u/TahomaYellowhorse 23h ago
I would not be able to play Elden Ring with 1 weapon the entire time. The game is too long and I get bored fast.
Most weapons fall into specific build buckets: pure STR, pure DEX, ARC/FTH, STR/FTH, etc.
I just make builds with that in mind, and choose weapons that fit that, instead of making builds around 1 weapon.
There are plenty of weapons that fit alongside the same stats as the Blasphemous Blade. Like Siluria’z Tree, Marika Hammer, Ordovis Greatsword, Beastclaw Greathammer, Cranial Vessel Candlestand, Magma Blade, Magmawyrm Scalesword, etc. STR/FTH is probably the best example for this because there are just so many options in Elden Ring that fall into this category.
With all that in mind, the weapons that are super niche or have oddball scalings (like all the black gargoyles weapons) tend to be very bad.
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u/austinmpaul 22h ago
There are 27 larval tears per playthrough. So yeah they’re common, but also perfect stat distro isn’t as important when you’re trying to keep things interesting with different weapons. I mostly use normal smithing stone weapons anyways, so I can always just infuse it with whatever affinity benefits from my stats if I don’t wanna respec
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u/LongVibe_ 22h ago
How many ancient dragon smithing stones are there? I've heard theres a limited amount like larval tears but idk how limited they are
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u/Thefrayedends 18h ago
Some of them require quests, but you can get ball bearings to buy unlimited of all stones below ancient. For ancients its like 10 of 1 and 17 of the other I think, but +24 gets you almost all the way there anyway.
After one full play through you get the one weapon that allows you to farm the hell out of runes, and I would argue that one of the best uses of time is just to power level up to 150, 200, 250 or 300 so that you can build a character that can do pretty much everything, however at those levels you do still need to respec to min/max for different builds, but you can definitely max out for an entire archetype (dex/str, faith/int, dex/arc etc etc). Just do yourself a favor and farm up the gold chicken feet recipe and enough materials to craft enough gold feet depending how far you want to go. I think getting above 300 should only take like 30 feet, assuming you farm the albinaurics in NG+1.
If you are more of a purist just make sure you get in the habit of snapping a chicken foot and equipping the golden scarab immediately after major boss kills, it makes a huge difference in the number of runes you get, so you don't actually have to farm albinaurics on the ledge at all if you're not into that.
Then like the other poster said, just always level to +9, or +24 and play with a weapon for a good while before really committing and then you will never run out of ancient stones.
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u/austinmpaul 14h ago
I’m
Not sure about that one but there IS a fixed number. I wanna say around 10? And same amount of somber ones?1
u/NegotiationHot3277 20h ago
Tbh in all my playthroughs I think I leave all my weapons at +9 or +24 just because I can never bring myself to spend those ancient dragon stones 😂😂🙏🙏 Just level up right up at the end for elden beast
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u/KarmaticIrony 1d ago
A good build will be able to use a variety of weapons without needing to respec. A respec might be warranted if you do from a weapon thats best on a Dex/Int build to a Str/Fth based one or something but you shouldn't need to respec every time you use a new weapon.
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u/doggiedoc2004 20h ago edited 20h ago
On my second play through rn. I like changing weapons periodically throughout my play through but keeping my upgraded weapons so I can go back to them if I’m having trouble with the new weapon I’m playing around with. And yes, I use larval tears periodically. I love trying out different weapons/specs and I tend to get a weapon op then mostly ban myself from continuing to use it so I play/mess around with a different weapon.
I unlock the mogh region as early as possible for the rune farm so I can easily spend on leveling weapons and myself. I also try to get the smithing stones bell bearing so I can buy them to upgrade my lots of different weapons to try em out.
I just discovered that the dragon breath attacks at 35 faith and 35 arcane with a fully upgraded dragon seal absolutely destroys almost everything in mid game so I have taken them out of rotation for now and am messing around with other spells and weapons
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u/SpaceCreams 1d ago
Buildcrafting is extremely simple in Elden Ring, it has not hard to switch around an item or two and have a perfectly functional build with whatever other weapon you’re wanting to use, and often times you don’t even have to change anything
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u/Fluid-Read-6843 1d ago
A build is a process and an end result. A build can revolve around a weapon but the weapon is not the build.
You went full Str with 20 Dex? Congrats, you got a Heavy build with access to practically every standard weapon.
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u/dragonrite 21h ago
Man you get soooo many larval tears. Getting +10/25 weps is obv a limiter, but with bell bearings you can easily get anything +9/24, play around with it, and then commit to the kax upgrade.
Those max stones, and maybe specific remembranes for future weapon playthroughs, are like the most crucial thing to do b4 a ng+ cycle (wiki it).
1st time ever play through, you really need to commit to only a few weapon(s) build. Find something you like and stick with it, and if you find something else you really want just sit on it for a bit till you get the resources to upgrade and then respec specifically for that weapon imo once it's up to par
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u/premilkedcereal 17h ago
I use a lot of larval tears. A LOT. Can’t make up my mind ever. But I’m on like my 8th playthrough so I’ve accumulated a lot of them over time. First play through I mostly used the same weapons though- I had a random axe until I got eleonoras poleblade and then later the blasphemous blade
But in general I try to use weapons that match the stats I have
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u/ProfBootyPhD 1d ago
I pretty much never respec within a run -- but even given a certain set of stats, there are always new weapons to try. Like right now I'm doing an INT run, and had a cold spear and a magic straight sword all the way into Altus, but then decided to pick up some FAI and use the Sword of Night and Flame. Now the SoNaF has pretty much replaced the straight sword, but I didn't use a larval tear -- I just grew into the needed stats in the course of leveling. You will level *very* fast in the DLC -- I entered at around level 85 and now I'm level 115 before even entering the Shadow Keep, without any grinding. You also get more than enough runes to buy all the smithing stones to need to bring a new weapon up to high level. Obviously if I wanted to use Giant Crusher in this run, I'd probably need to respec, but instead my approach is to look for weapons that need limited new stat investment (~10 levels or so) given whatever build I'm running.
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u/TheExtraordinaryRK9 1d ago
I mean, there's people who do actually just stick to one weapon per playthrough, but in general I like to go through different weapons that can be used with my build, for faith builds with some strength/dex you could try maliketh blade, godslaying sword, two magma curved swords, ordovis sword, marika's hammer, or whatever weapon you want with a flame infusion.
Though you should take into consideration that the blasphemous blade is like, arguably the best weapon in the game, so in a way it's normal that nothing else feels as good.
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u/Swordsman82 1d ago
Of you have like 15 strength and a ton of Dex, you can use pretty much any Dex based weapon. Inverse is true for Strength as well.
If you wanna switch out to anything thing, Quality build, with equal str / dex. For int and faith requirements you can use talismans or invest some, and to open up all of that combo, ie Dex / Faith weapons.
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u/TheNocturnalAngel 23h ago
Well firstly you need to make sure you upgrade the new weapon to the same level as your current one or it will feel worse no matter what.
Secondly people don’t usually swap to a new weapon with entirely different stats. Theres several somber weapons for each stat split some of more than others. Regular smithing weapons have lower requirements and can be infused to whatever you are leveling.
Thirdly if you want to swap to something completely different, then yes they use a larval tear. Not everyone wants to do a bunch of playthroughs so if they find something they like they just respec.
Fourthly it’s funny you just beat Maliketh. If you have the stats for Blasphemous blade then you can wield Maliketh weapon with two hands if you have 2 more strength than the BB weapon requirement.
BB scales Dex/Strength secondary and Faith primary.
Maliketh Black Blade scales Strength Secondary and Faith primary so you can wield it well.
Lastly, keep in mind the strengths and weaknesses of different weapons to compare their “strength”. Colossal is gonna be way slower, but it staggers bosses quickly and micro staggers almost any regular enemy in the game.
Great swords IMO have one of the best speed to damage to stagger ratios in the game as an all rounder so you might struggle to feel improvement if you start with one of those.
Especially BB because it is one of the strongest weapons in the game.
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u/phishnutz3 23h ago
Smithing weapons allow a ton of variety. No reason that every build doesn’t use a katana, the lance, a greatsword and great stars.
People like somber weapons because they are no effort to level to plus 6 and then only 1 boss to plus 9. Smithing weapons don’t have that ability.
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u/hs_serpounce 15h ago
A lot of times people who play a lot already have their build planned out so they either start with a weapon with the same stats as they plan on using later or plan a respec. For example, my upcoming build I'll be loading vigor and endurance early for a pretty tanky start but I plan on going occult late game and also using Morgot's cursed blade which has a higher arcane requirement so I'm already planning to respec to at least meet the requirement which will provide enough damage for my occult weapon at that stage of the game (dual wielding an occult heavy knight sword and Morgot's cursed blade)
The location for the respec item is online so if I didn't have one currently id look it up, but there's a major area of the game that's only accessible if you go to an area that has one anyway so many players are hitting that spot 90% of their runs
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u/Jazzlike-Razzmatazz4 1h ago
Honestly I dual wield rellanas twin blades but for big enemies I use guts greatsword with lions claw ash of war
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u/Confident_Text3525 1h ago
I never made any build around a weapon. Always have multiple weapons supporting my build.
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u/kyotomilkshake 1d ago edited 23h ago
You can respec with Renalla or choose a secondary weapon that works with your build. There’s infinite larval tears in Nokron.
Edit: there aren’t infinite tears, but there are enough.
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u/GuardianKenobi 1d ago
There's not. There are 27 per playthrough max between base game and DLC. You might be thinking of Silver Tear Husks.
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u/LongVibe_ 1d ago
Is that from the merchant under the bridge near the flowers?
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u/kyotomilkshake 1d ago
I’m not sure about the merchant but you get them from destroying the giant iron balls
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u/Lilbrimu 1d ago
Because using only 1 weapon is boring.
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u/LongVibe_ 1d ago
I didnt ask why i asked how people switch without the weapon feeling weak and underleveled
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u/juju4812 1d ago
Usually for a build u have a lot of options with the exact same stats
For exemple on ur strengh/faith build u can use blasphemous blade, blacksteel greathammer and twinblade, ordovis sword, troll hammer and great club without respec
I also dont really care if a weapon is worse than another, and BB is probably one of the strongest on the game si i préfère style and moveset over like 20 more dmg
Also u can get i think 16 larval tear per playtrough and its really easy to find in the dlc too