Elden Ring Best Samurai Builds 2024

Elden Ring provides extensive character customization through its deep RPG systems, allowing players to craft specialized builds around specific weapons, skills, and stat distributions. The Samurai starting class stands out for players seeking elegant yet deadly combat centered around traditional Japanese weaponry.

The Samurai’s base attributes make it particularly suited for Dexterity-focused combat, with excellent starting values in Vigor, Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity. This foundation enables multiple build directions while maintaining the core identity of a master swordsman. Understanding how to leverage these inherent strengths forms the foundation for mastering any samurai build.

Starter Uchigatana & Long Bow Build

This entry-level configuration provides an excellent foundation for newcomers, emphasizing the Uchigatana’s innate bleed accumulation combined with the Long Bow’s utility for pulling enemies and dealing safe damage from distance. The weapon combination teaches essential spacing and timing fundamentals while remaining forgiving during the learning process.

Primary attribute investment should target Dexterity and Vigor, with mid-game benchmarks of 25-30 in each stat. Dexterity enhances both weapon damage and bow effectiveness, while Vigor ensures survivability against tougher opponents. Many players underestimate the importance of maintaining proper distance with the bow before engaging in melee combat.

Pro Tip: Use the Long Bow to apply poison arrows before closing distance, creating additional damage over time while you focus on bleed procs with the Uchigatana. This dual-status approach significantly increases your damage output against health-sponge enemies.

Bleed Nagakiba Build

This powerful configuration utilizes the extended reach of the Nagakiba katana combined with the Double Slash ash of war and Black Flame Blade incantation. The extended blade length provides superior spacing advantages, allowing you to outrange many enemy attacks while applying consistent pressure.

Essential stat requirements include minimum 12 Faith and 10 Arcane to enable the Black Flame Blade buff. Primary scaling priorities should focus on Vigor (40+), Endurance (25+), and Dexterity (50+). The Black Flame Blade’s percentage-based damage makes it exceptionally effective against high-health bosses and tanky invaders.

Advanced Technique: Time your Black Flame Blade application during enemy attack recovery animations to maximize buff uptime. The fire damage also helps against enemies resistant to bleed effects, providing coverage for the build’s primary weakness.

Ice Dragonscale Blade Build

This hybrid build centers around the Dragonscale Blade katana, enhanced with frost and lightning damage through the Ice Lightning Sword ash of war. The dual-element approach creates multiple damage vectors that can overwhelm enemy resistances.

Dual wielding katanas significantly increases your damage per second while applying frostbite buildup. Frostbite not only deals immediate damage but also increases all subsequent damage taken by the affected enemy by 20%, creating devastating damage amplification opportunities.

Key attribute distribution emphasizes Dexterity (45+) and Faith (25+), with talismans like the Winged Sword Insignia and Shard of Alexander dramatically improving your sustained damage output during extended combos.

Combo Strategy: Initiate with ice-based dragon incantations at range to apply frostbite, then close distance with dual katana attacks to capitalize on the damage vulnerability window. This build excels against enemies weak to either element while maintaining pressure through status effects.

Ronin Build

This agile configuration focuses on maximizing bleed output through high Dexterity and Arcane investment, utilizing weapons like the Gargoyle’s Twinblade and Blood Godskin Peeler. The combination creates a whirlwind of slicing attacks that rapidly build up blood loss on targets.

Essential skills include Seppuku for dramatically increasing bleed buildup on your weapons, and Bloody Slash for powerful, high-damage attacks that sacrifice minimal health for massive payoff.

Critical Mistake to Avoid: Don’t spam Bloody Slash recklessly—the health cost accumulates quickly and can leave you vulnerable to being one-shot by boss attacks. Time your usage during guaranteed damage windows or when you need to finish low-health enemies quickly.

The Ronin’s mobility allows for constant repositioning while maintaining offensive pressure. This hit-and-run style proves particularly effective against aggressive enemies that punish extended engagement.

Odachi Build

This strength-focused configuration centers around mastering the Odachi—a massive katana variant that trades speed for overwhelming power and reach. The weapon’s hyper armor during attacks allows you to trade hits favorably against smaller weapons.

Essential skills include Unstoppable Force for breaking enemy guards and creating openings, and Dragon’s Roar for area denial and stance breaking against groups.

Primary attributes should emphasize Strength (50+), Endurance (30+), and Vigor (40+). The high poise damage of the Odachi makes it excellent for staggering even heavily armored opponents.

Poise Management: Time your heavy attacks to coincide with enemy aggression, using the Odachi’s hyper armor to power through their attacks while delivering devastating counter-blows.

The Odachi’s charged heavy attacks can break the posture of most enemies in one or two hits, creating critical strike opportunities. This build excels in situations where trading damage is unavoidable or strategically advantageous.

Katana Build

This balanced approach emphasizes tactical versatility through the combination of Serpentbone Blade and Dragonscale Blade. The dual katana setup provides coverage against various enemy resistances while maintaining the samurai’s signature elegance in combat.

The build incorporates skills like Moonveil for powerful magical ranged attacks and Meteoric Ore Blade for gravity-based crowd control and stance damage.

Elemental Switching: Master the art of adapting your damage type based on enemy vulnerabilities. Fire-weak enemies fall to the Serpentbone Blade’s poison and fire hybrid damage, while frost-susceptible foes succumb to the Dragonscale Blade’s icy onslaught.

This configuration requires careful stat distribution across Dexterity (40+), Intelligence (18+), and Faith (15+). The stat investment pays dividends through unparalleled adaptability in both PvE and PvP scenarios. For players seeking specific weapons to complete their build, various reputable marketplaces offer Elden Ring items from trusted sellers.

Each samurai configuration offers distinct advantages tailored to different combat philosophies and encounter types. Understanding when to employ each build’s strengths forms the core of advanced samurai gameplay.

PvP Applications: Bleed builds dominate invasion scenarios due to their ability to quickly overwhelm opponent health bars. Elemental hybrid builds counter specific defense setups while providing unexpected damage vectors.

Common Beginner Mistakes: Many new samurai players spread their stats too thin trying to use every weapon. Specialization typically yields better results than generalization in Elden Ring’s combat system.

Endgame optimization involves fine-tuning your talisman selection and weapon infusions to maximize damage output against specific boss types.

For comprehensive guidance on mastering other aspects of Elden Ring, our Complete Guide provides detailed strategies for all character classes and playstyles.

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