Best Elden Ring Quality build: stats, weapon, armor and talismans

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How to play with the Quality build in Elden Ring

Unlike other builds, such as the Sorcerer or the Faith ones, the Quality build is not strictly limited to a single play style or gameplay loop. In general, this is a melee, physical-damage-centred build that doesn’t rely on powerful incantations or sorceries to defeat enemies. But, what actually characterizes it is the stat distribution. For this build, Strength and Dexterity are the most important stats and you want to raise them equally.

Splitting most of your points into the two stats related to physical damage instead of focusing on only one might seem a less optimal strategy since Strength and Dexterity-focused builds are also pretty good. However, the Quality build is not that far behind in terms of damage and, in addition, it lets you use a larger variety of weapons.

In Elden Ring, you find a great number of Strength and Dexterity-scaling weapons as well as some that scale with both stats. In this guide, you will find more than one option of weapons, but our main suggestion is to go with the Bloodhound’s Fang. Besides having a solid Ash of War – Bloodhound’s Finesse – that can make you invulnerable if you time it correctly, the Bloodhound’s Fang scales well with both Dexterity and Strength. In addition to all of this, this sword causes Bleed buildup, which is one of the best detrimental effects in the game.

By using the Bloodhound’s Fang with a medium to light armour set, you can easily handle the whole game. You won’t one-shot bosses, so a little bit of practice is required. You definitely want a good set of armour with decent Poise. However, since your stats and talismans won’t help when it comes to carrying more weight, you can only rely on your gear to increase the chances of surviving during a fight.

Best Quality build stats in Elden Ring

The Quality build is based on spending most of your points on Strength and Dexterity, but there are other stats to consider when playing this build. Vigor and Endurance come right after to give you enough life and stamina to handle the close-range combats you will be taking part in.

Because there are two primary stats and two secondary stats that are super important, you can’t have excessively high figures. You want to have Strength and Dexterity at least in their soft cap, so at level 150, your stat distribution should look like this:

• Vigor: 55
• Mind: 18
• Endurance: 30
• Strength: 55
• Dexterity: 55
• Intelligence: 9
• Faith: 9
• Arcane: 7

For this example, we’ve selected the Vagabond as our starting class. In case you’d like to buff your character with a few basic Incantations, the Confessor is a solid option too.

Best Quality build weapons in Elden Ring

Choosing the best weapon for this build is actually the fun part since there is a long list from which you can pick. In order to show the wide range of play styles this build allows, we’ve selected a few weapons that you can run with this Quality build.

One of the best weapons for this build is the Bloodhound’s Fang. This curved greatsword requires 18 Strength and 17 Dexterity and scales with these two stats. With this build, you face any enemy with this weapon throughout the whole game. The Bloodhound’s Fang’s passive builds up blood loss, making it extremely effective against most bosses in the game. Another positive aspect of this weapon is the fact you can acquire it pretty early, while you’re still in Limgrave, by defeating the Bloodhound Knight Darriwil.

The Cross-Naginata is another weapon that scales well with this build and that you can find early in the game in the Gael Tunnel dungeon in Caelid. As a spear, the Cross-Naginata allows you to keep some distance from enemies between attacks. The requirements to use it are 16 Strength and 20 Dexterity, and it also causes Bleed buildup. You can run this weapon alongside another spear, a good combination to kill bosses in the game.

As you progress in the game and reach places such as Altus Plateau, more options become available to you. The Great Stars is a great hammer that, besides causing considerable physical and posture damage, heals you when enemies are hit. All this while it also inflicts Bleed buildup. This is a powerhouse for midgame that requires 22 Strength and 12 Dexterity and a great tool to stagger enemies. Great Stars is a slower weapon compared to the other two, so how you approach fights might have to change. You can find two copies of this weapon in the game. The first is by defeating Magnus the Beast Claw, an optional boss who you find at Writheblood Ruins in Altus Plateau. You find the other copy at the back of a carriage near a site of grace called Road of Iniquity.

You can find new weapons for this build even in the later segments of Elden Ring. Different from all the other types mentioned so far, the Gargoyle’s Twinblade is a strong and cool weapon that scales with Strength and Dexterity. With this weapon, you’re capable of striking enemies with sequences of slashes that pressure them, allowing an aggressive play style. You need only 18 Strength and 15 Dexterity, which you will probably already have when the time comes to face the Valiant Gargoyle. By defeating it, earn their weapon.

Best Quality build armor in Elden Ring

The Quality build is not dependent on the armour pieces you use, so you can basically run whatever you enjoy. The only rule you should follow when picking the armour set or making a brand new combination to meet your fashion standards is to keep your Equipment Load at medium. Otherwise, you will be too heavy to roll out of attacks and it doesn’t matter how strong your build is if you can’t stay alive.

But, if you want some ideas of which armour sets you could use in the different stages of the game when running this build, we have a couple of suggestions. At the beginning of the game, you can spend half an hour to get the Royal Remains set. To do so, you need to grab half of the Haligtree Medallion, which triggers an invasion by Ensha when you go back to Roundtable Hold. By defeating her, you find her set near Gideon Ofnir’s room. This is a great set with decent damage resistance and a great passive that heals you when low health.

A little bit further into the game, in case you’re interested in completing D, the Hunter of the Dead questline, you can acquire the Twinned Set. This is a great set for this build since it is not too heavy but offers good defence. Because it’s tied to a specific quest, it might take a while before you can have it, but the Royal Remains set is more than enough until you get the Twinned Set.

Later in the game, a great armour set that works fantastically well with Bloodhound’s Fang aesthetic is the Blaidd’s set. This one is a little bit heavier than the Twinned Set but has more Poise and defence all across the board. To get this one, you need to complete the Ranni questline, which is only possible in the late game. If you’re planning on getting one of Elden Ring’s special endings, you might choose Ranni’s and get this amazing armour for you.

Best Quality build talismans in Elden Ring

For the Quality build, you don’t need to worry about having all the top-tier talismans equipped. Actually, until you reach the late portions of the game, a couple of initial talismans are the best ones for you. Consider picking the talismans for the remaining slots based on situational needs, such as increasing resistance against certain types of damage.

In the Fort Faroth, a castle you find northeast of Sellia, Town of Sorcery in Caelid, you find Radagon’s Soreseal. There are a couple of reasons why this talisman works well for this build. First, it increases your Vigor, Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity, all the best primary and secondary stats for this build. Secondly, you reach Fort Faroth pretty early in the game by using a teleport behind the Third Church of Marika. Because of this talisman, you can speed up the build in some levels and get stronger fairly quickly.

With the Radagon’s Soreseal talisman in hand, you need to go look for the Starscourge Heirloom talisman. To get this item, you need to visit Forte Gael, located northwest of the Cathedral of Dragon Communion. Within the building, you find this talisman in a chest in the upper section. You want to have the Starscourge Heirloom because it raises your Strength. It’s simple but considering how important this stat is for the Quality build, this talisman is extremely useful when you’re still at the beginning of the game.

Now, while you’re still in Caelid, you should look for Gowry and complete the sidequest he gives you. By doing so, you’re rewarded with the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom, which has a similar effect to the Starscourge Heirloom. However, instead of raising your Strength, this talisman gives you some points of Dexterity.

All these three talismans aren’t the best ones in the game. Nonetheless, since they raise more than one point in all the important stats for this build – which would require you to level up multiple times to achieve the same numbers naturally, they help you see the build working faster.

Next build: Samurai build

Need more help? Jump back to our list of Elden Ring builds or our Elden Ring walkthrough.