Elden Ring has recently released numerous updates, and these patches have put a lot of foolish ambitions to rest. Suffice it to say, many builds that were once overpowered are more or less dead now. On the bright side, that gave rise to more innovations among the community and placed other meta stuff in the spotlight.
As it is, there are still several Elden Ring builds that are capable of cheesing the most challenging aspects of the game. Will they survive the next nerf wave via updates? Only time will tell. But at the moment, these builds are the ones that befit an Elden Lord.
Updated August 6, 2025 by Erik Petrovich: In the more than three years since Elden Ring launched, more and more overpowered builds have been discovered by Elden Ring players. But there’s still one weapon that often goes overlooked, despite having one of the most powerful weapon skills in Elden Ring. Ghiza’s Wheel deals Bleed damage with its Ash of War, Spinning Wheel, and if you maximize your Stamina and boost its damage, it will all but rip and tear every enemy in the game. This guide to the most overpowered builds in Elden Ring has been updated to include a Ghiza’s Wheel build that maxes out this veritable chainsaw of a weapon with specific talismans, spells, armor pieces, and stat suggestions.
Ghiza’s Wheel Bleed Build
Maximize Ghiza’s Wheel To Shred Bosses With Bleed
Ghiza’s Wheel is an incredibly strong weapon in Elden Ring, but under normal circumstances, you can’t use its rapid bleed-proccing weapon skill for very long. If you hold down the left trigger as you perform the 
Spinning Wheel Skill, you will continue to spin the wheel like a chainsaw and eat through your Stamina bar.
If you build heavily into Endurance alongside Dex and Strength, you will have significantly more Stamina (and therefore more time) to use Spinning Wheel and shred through boss HP bars. Though many Bleed builds call for high Arcane stats, you actually don’t need it for this Ghiza’s Wheel build – but you can enhance the weapon art further with specific talismans and spells.
Equip the 
White Mask head armor and the 
Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman to enhance your bleed damage. The 
Shard of Alexander will enhance the damage of Spinning Wheel, the 
Carian Filigreed Crest reduces the initial FP cost of the weapon skill, and the 
Bull-Goat’s Talisman will reduce the chance that you get staggered.
Get Faith up to 25 to be able to cast a handful of self-buffs: 
Bloodflame Blade for more weapon damage, 
Golden Vow for damage and defense, and 
Flame, Grant me Strength for even more damage. Take the 
Stonebarb Cracked Tear to break boss stance faster, then enter the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC to pick up the Viridian Cracked Tear, which grants infinite Stamina for 10 seconds.
Combine these pieces and, as long as your target isn’t resistant or immune to Bleed, Ghiza’s Wheel will tear through just about everything in the game.
Dragon Lightning Priest
Lightning Remains On Top In Elden Ring
One build that starts off strong is this lightning-addicted maniac. 
Lightning Spear does the majority of your damage here, and if players want to conserve FP, they can just buff up 
Uchigatana with Electrify Armament. Meanwhile, the Dragon Lightning skills are certified boss killers, especially when used alongside the 
Death Knight Set from the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which amplifies Ancient Dragon incantations with each piece..
The Incantations scale well into the endgame., but you’ll want to equip powerful Faith weapons to supply your spellcasting. After beating the final boss, players will want to nab themselves a 
Sacred Relic Sword by trading its Remembrance with Enia. It’s the best area damage Weapon Skill in Elden Ring, and scales particularly well with this Faith-focused build.
Unga Bunga Build
Demolish Opponents With Two Massive Colossal Weapons
Melee builds aren’t lagging behind Sorcery builds when it comes to one-shotting bosses – though melee builds still require a lot of setup to maximize damage. This Strength-oriented build utilizes the pile of buffs before ultimately running at the enemy, jumping, and then doing a heavy jump attack with both Hammers.
At full HP, start with a drink from your Physick flask (with the Opaline Bubble and Winged Crystal Tears), then cast Golden Vow, Flame, Grant me Strength, and finally Royal Knight’s Resolve Skill. Make sure both hammers hit the target with your jumping attack guarantee enormous damage (and practically instant poise-break) on all but the sturdiest of bosses.
Sacred Relic Sword Farmer
Farm Millions Of Runes Per Hour With This Weapon
Some of the best Elden Ring builds empower players’ capabilities while playing the game normally, but some of the most useful builds in Elden Ring are targeted towards very specific goals. The Sacred Relic Sword Farmer build is one of these targeted builds, in this case, targeted towards Rune farming.
With the Ash of War on the Sacred Relic Sword and gear that amplifies Rune Gain and Weapon Skill damage, players can easily farm millions of Runes per hour with this build. Head to Mohgwyn Palace, specifically the Palace Approach Ledge-Road Site of Grace, and look for a huge group of Albinaurics resting on a slope nearby.
Buff yourself, consume a Gold-Pickled Fowl Foot, and clear out all of them with the Wave of Gold Skill Weapon Skill. Then, sit at the Grace, turn around, and do it again – with each swing, you should net tens of thousands of Runes. Just don’t bring this build into PvP or against particularly tough bosses – it’s meant to farm enemies in AoE, not necessarily perform well in one-on-one combat.
Scavenged Bleeder
A Great Dual Bleed Build With Style
For a simpler Bleed build that still does well against bosses or enemies that are immune to Bleed, one can go wrong with the Occult 
Scavenger’s Curved Sword. For best results, players need two of these, which means either a second playthrough or getting it from other players via item drops.
Before entering combat, players just need to apply the Seppuku Skill buff to both weapons, drink the Physick Flask, and then attack the enemy with a dual jumping power attack (usually LB/L1). With this setup, your hits will proc the Bleed effect and cause enormous Hemorrhage damage incredibly fast.
If the target is immune to Bleed, then buff the weapons with Golden Vow and Flame, Grant me Strength, then continue with the jumping power attacks. You won’t inflict the Bleed effect, but your hits will still hit very hard. Thankfully not too many enemies in Elden Ring are immune to Bleed.
Magma Pyromancer
A Faith And Fire Incantation Wielding Monk
While Pyromancy builds and methods were mostly overshadowed by the more wrathful and powerful lightning incantations, this combination is more than competitive. This Pyromancy build revolves around spamming two to three skills and incantations, primarily.
Against bosses or regular enemies, 
Magma Shower Skill with the dual Magma Blades or 
Burn, O Flame! can both knock them down and make quick work of them. Meanwhile, tough and single targets are pretty susceptible to 
Giantsflame Take Thee.
Of course, don’t forget the buffs and flasks to empower yourself even more. As an Incantaiton build, you have easy access to Golden Vow, Flame, Grant me Strength, and 
Blessing’s Boon, which can give you a serious edge defensively and offensively before you start slinging some firestorms.
You can either wield two Giant’s Seals or two Magma Blades for this best Elden Ring build (with a Giant’s Seal in your second off-hand slot). Your primary source of damage is from your spells, so be sure to assign more uses to your Cerulean Tear flask.
Guts
Take The Berserk Inspiration To The Next Level
For a pure Strength build, one can’t go wrong with this Berserk tribute build which happened to be overpowered. It takes full advantage of the 
Ash of War: Lion’s Claw in a Colossal Greatsword. Players will mostly spam that skill and go in for critical attacks once the enemies have been staggered.
For multiple targets or large enemies, then 
Flame of the Redmanes Skill will do the work to stun them. And yes, this build can and will humiliate 
Malenia, Blade of Miquella solo with no summons. With the amount of defensive provided by the Berserk-inspired armor set, and the sheer amount of power going into its specific strengths, you’ll be almost unstoppable cosplaying as Guts.
Marais Executioner
Cosplay as Elemer of the Briar
This build revolves around taking advantage of the charged variant of the 
Eochaid’s Dancing Blade Skill. It spins multiple times like a drill and does so longer if charged, just like the Elemer of the Briar boss. There are a lot of ways to increase your damage with weapon skills in Elden Ring, and ways to increase damage with repeated attacks, too.
The Shard of Alexander will guarantee more damage with the Ash of War, the Godfrey Icon will empower the drill skill when fully charged, and Millicent’s Prosthesis and the Winged/Rotten Winged Sword Insignias increase damage as the drill rapidly hits its target.
Paired with these talismans that increase damage on successive attacks and charged attacks, a single use of Eochaid’s Dancing Blade is usually enough to take massive chunks off of enemies’ HP or outright kill them.
It does take a while to get used to this playstyle, and you will be vulnerable to hits from the side while using the weapon skill, but the payoff is worth it. It’s essentially like a Flail build taken to the next level, making it one of the strongest builds in Elden Ring that doesn’t rely on a status effect.
Lunar Frostmage
Frost Magic Is Borderline OP, So Capitalize On It
This build is all about interweaving spellcasting and melee fighting, as you will wield Frost spells in addition to the Moonlight Greatsword, one of the best weapons in Elden Ring and the foundation of this overpowered Elden Ring build.
It’s more of a battlemage build, but the idea is the same as other Frostmage builds. Instead of spamming just 
Glintstone Icecrag, players will rely on 
Dark Moon Greatsword‘s 
Moonlight Greatsword Skill heavy attack to shoot projectiles.
Glintstone Icecrag is a backup here. For boss fights, players will want to start off with 
Ranni’s Dark Moon and then follow up with Icecrag for large enemies or 
Night Cometfor fast and evasive bosses.
One-Strike Lightning
When It Hits, It Wrecks – But It Has To Hit, First
The creators of this build (the community) swear by its one-shot potential, but the sequence of buffs for ensuring that is a little complicated. So for bosses, follow these instructions swiftly and carefully, it’s crucial to do them in quick succession:
First, equip the 
Black Dumpling helmet. Then, cast 
Howl of Shabriri repeatedly until Madness triggers and until HP is low (which triggers 
Red-Feathered Branchsword). Switch to the 
Mushroom Crown helmet, and cast Golden Vow.
Activate Contagious Fury Skill from the 
Jellyfish Shield, then trigger Poison on the character using the 
Poison Pot (which activates Mushroom Crown buff). Finally, remove the Poison using boluses.
Quickly enter the boss arena or fight after completing all of these steps, and then cast 
Ancient Dragons’ Lightning Strike on the boss. If they’re not dead, or they entered the second phase, then cast Ancient Dragon Lightning Strike again. Most regular enemies will simply die to Lightning Spear or something similar without the need for elaborate buffs.
Backhand Blades
Slice n’ Dice n’ Block n’ Bleed (When Infused)
The 
Backhand Blade build is one of the most overpowered Elden Ring builds that has become available with the launch of the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. This build relies on the use of the Backhand Blade (which can be Two Handed for a Dual Wield moveset), Buffs to empower your consecutive attacks, and the 
Deflecting Hardtear for defense.
The Backhand Blade does not come with an innate Bleed affinity, but if you infuse it with the Blood affinity and raise your Arcane to at least 40, its normal damage scales well and its Bleed buildup gets much stronger. The Backhand Blade Dual Wield moveset is particularly fast, and you can usually expect to proc Bleed on most enemies by the time you finish one full attack sequence.
To strengthen this build, use the 
Ash of War: Seppuku on an offhand Uchigatana, and drink the 
Thorny Cracked Tear and equip the 
Rotten Winged Sword Insignia for more damage with consecutive attacks. The Lord of Blood’s Exultation boosts damage when Bleed happens nearby, and the 
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman ensures you will have enough Stamina after long attack chains to dodge.
The Deflecting Hardtear is a particularly strong Crystal Tear for the Flask of Wondrous Physick, and because you can block with the Backhand Blades, Elden Ring players who are able to time their blocks perfectly will be able to avoid nearly all incoming damage. It’s tough to master, but it’s an essential part of the best Elden Ring melee builds when performed correctly.
Additionally, equipping the 
Gravebird’s Blackquill Armorand the 
Claw Talisman will empower your Jumping Attacks, which are a great way to enter combat with this build.
Moonveil Mage
Moonveil Katana Makes For A Snazzy, Starry Samurai
Moonveil‘s poise damage has been nerfed a bit, so the weapon barely makes the cut when it comes to “overpowered,” but it still slaps hard. Much like Blasphemous Blade builds, players will simply have to abuse Moonveil’s 
Transient Moonlight Skillweapon skill (usually the heavy variant) to deal magic damage from a safe distance.
Moonveil scales well with Intelligence, and pairs extremely well with a Sorcery-oriented build. If you don’t have time to cast a Sorcery before an enemy gets to you, Moonveil can unleash its weapon skill incredibly fast instead.
Moonveil also deals a small amount of Bleed damage, and can be paired with a second Katana to unlock the dual-wielding moveset, if you have the Weight to stay in the Medium Weight category. Consider pairing this with a Scavenger’s Curved Sword or Rivers of Blood to maximize your Bleed damage in melee range, but keep a staff equipped in your off-hand to cast Sorceries when needed.
Comet Azur Wizard
Arguably The Strongest Pure Caster in Elden Ring, Situationally
Most likely the build that everyone’s been talking about, this wizard is all about one-shotting the enemy with a Kamehameha wave of 
Comet Azur. Buff up using 
Terra Magica, drink the Physick Flask, and then fire away with an 8-second unlimited beam of magic that will deplete a stationary boss’ HP (or at least halve it).
For even more damage, do some Seppuku with a modified Uchigatana until low HP to trigger the Red-Feathered Branchsword‘s buff.
Blasphemous Paladin
The Blasphemous Blade Is Still Ridiculously OP
Quite possibly the most powerful fire paladin build at the moment, this build relies on abusing 
Blasphemous Blade‘s weapon skill; Taker’s Flames Skill. It deals staggeringly high fire damage, which is further increased by the talismans.
To maximize Ritual Sword Talisman, make sure HP is full before firing off the weapon skill. Radagon’s Soreseal makes characters a glass cannon, but this can be mitigated with the Golden Vow buff. That, in conjunction with Flame, Grant me Strength, will also buff Taker’s Flames’ damage to astronomical levels.
Dual-Wield Rivers of Blood
Fearsome In PvP, But Not Great Elsewhere
No pairing of weapons and no build is quite as feared in Elden Ring PvP as the Dual Rivers of Blood build. By going into New Game Plus or trading with another player, one can get two 
Rivers of Blood for the ultimate bleed combination. Paired with armor, talismans, and other items to boost the power of your Bleed buildup, this build is nigh-unstoppable.
However, the nature of Bleed damage is that, while it’s extremely powerful against fleshy foes that can bleed, its borderline useless against enemies that don’t bleed. In PvE, the Rivers of Blood dual wield build is only OK, but against other players (and in areas of the game with lots of humanoids), this build shows its teeth.
Black Flame Reaper Paladin
Black Flame’s Percentage-Based Damage Is Great On Bosses
This is a build that can start out strong and become even stronger late-game. Players will start with the 
Winged Scythe and take advantage of its weapon skill, which deals Holy damage and has incredible range. Later on, players can swap the Winged Scythe with the 
Godslayer’s Greatsword which also has a very abusable weapon skill.
The Queen’s Black Flame skill creates a tornado of Black Flame around the caster, unleashing immense AoE damage and reducing enemy Max HP. Pair this with a swathe of Black Flame Incantations (and the Godslayer’s Seal), and high-HP bosses will melt under the power of the Godslayer’s Black Flame.
Lord Of Blood
Mohg Demands Blood, So Sate Him
Thanks to the fixes introduced in past updates, bleed is not only a viable tactic now, but it’s also quite busted. It made 
Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear a little too powerful, where abusing its 
Bloodboon Ritual weapon skill can gradually deal more than 10,000 points of damage, which is usually enough to kill bosses using less than a full bar of FP.
The best part about Mohg’s spear is that it’s a thrusting weapon and can be used with a shield. Meanwhile, both Rivers of Blood and 
Eleonora’s Poleblade are powerful thanks to proper Arcane scaling and can be used for smaller encounters. Of course, this build isn’t that powerful against enemies that can’t bleed, so use it wisely.
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