Buffs and Mono Scaling Spells (must watch for hybrid builds) Elden Ring

This guide was a bit hard to make because selecting examples is difficult without overloading people with math. I also just added the mono-scaling to the front of the buffs video with a short discussion on their usage before the buff discussion. I hope this video allows you to think of potential builds in a new light!

0:00 Intro
0:44 Mono-Scaling Sorceries
1:49 Mono-Scaling Incantations
5:28 How good are buffs?
7:48 Importance of Opportunity Cost
10:02 Should you use buffs?
10:47 Your guide speaks

[Chrightt]

Yep, realized I forgot to mention Clayman's Harpoon which is the only non-unique weapon with base magic secondary that can still be infused with an ash of war. It is especially good with scholar's armament for some bonus damage while already scaling to int! Thanks for pointing that out. The Erdsteel Dagger scales to faith (but the scaling is to physical rather than fire or sacred) so this one is another option for faith buff users. Treespear (is unique unlike the previous two) has faith scaling and holy damage but can still be buffed as well. Weapons like these are especially good for buffs.

Regarding a post on buff MVs, it is NOT the case that if an attack has 2 hits the damage of the buff is split into 50 + 50 rather than 100. However, depending on the damage MV of the buff, it can be reduced to 90 + 90, 50 + 100, etc. instead of getting the full 100 + 100.

As for some other buffs that aren't mono-scaling buffs:
1. Frozen Armament applies 48 frost buildup to your weapon. It is like Bloodflame Blade without the additional fire damage (same rules apply and lasts 60s). This one is ok, but slightly weaker if you consider bleed = frost.
2. AoW buffs like Sacred Blade kind of suck. Sacred Blade gives 85 holy damage and only lasts for 20 seconds. This is a fraction of damage at a fraction of the duration and takes up the weapon art slot which becomes a big waste.

[holdengoodall]

The biggest advantage with weapon buffs is that you can actually see the effect on your weapon, making it look so much cooler.

[ShinnyMetal]

I really hate that Vyke's Dragonbolt isn't good. I just looks so incredibly cool but always sad to know I could be doing better with electrify armament every time but I suffer it for looks sometimes

[HCG]

I stumbled onto this channel and my god man, what exquisite content. I've been looking for extremely in depth content on data, and you happen to be creating exactly what I was looking for. Great work--I know how long videos like this take, so thank you for putting in the time.

[BoxyBrown]

This is one of the few things DS2 did well, damage scaling calculation for buffs. Buffs in DS2 scaled up on bigger weapons with higher base damage, meaning the heavy weapons like the greatclubs got more elemental damage from the buffs than say curved swords. Just giving a flat elemental damage boost based on the catalyst scaling usually leads to the old DS1 darkmoon Falchion R1 spam builds since faster weapons always benefitted more from the flat damage addition over scaling it by the base damage of the weapon.

[mesgotsits]

These videos are super informative and incredibly underrated. I'd be interested in seeing a twinblade video among the next few weapon videos you do, since that's what I'm running right now and trying to figure out a good build for them.

[jamesm]

worth pointing out the Clayman's harpoon. It's an outlier, a weapon with built in magic damage that can be infused, and buffed. for an int build standard infusion + scholar's armament can do some chunky damage.

[TheValiantBob]

It is such a shame that mono-scaling spells is a thing. It makes me wonder if it is intentional or a bug, although at this point I feel like it is probably intentional. When I discovered the clawmark seal, I was so excited about the prospect of being able to use a heavy weapon with a weapon buff that was also increased by my strength as it would have been a really neat niche.

[Rhodare]

I have to say these have by far been the most informative and interesting videos on fromsoft buildcrafting I’ve seen. I can’t wait to learn more :)

[generationxpvp]

Hey thanks for all the number crunching you do behind the scenes so you can explain these concepts in a way for my troglodyte brain to understand. You are a valuable asset to the ER community 🙏

[sebastiantirado]

Along with other comments, what about Claymans Harpoon? Natural dual scaling and can be buffed

[LestatTheVampire]

These videos are the best. The typical-case breakdowns like "what's the damage like if you have X-Y-Z stats" really help show off realistic usefulness.

[Toogzoog]

I love the building progression of knowledge in this series, and I'm eager to see it all through.

[opalescent]

Personally, and I know it's really easy to just swap infusions at every grace, but I like weapon buff spells because they give me versatility. It's also the fantasy of being able to throw a buff on before a fight and get some extra damage.

[fiddlenn]

man, your videos unlock ideas in my braaaain. keep it up, mang

[Kazz]

I'm on the end game currently at 50 faith on a hybrid buff build, with a normal sacred seal, no wonder why i felt that my build was to weak LMAO.

And the fact that most of the final bosses are ALMOST inmune to holy damage make it much worse, i was dual weilding schytes that scale with faith and deals holy damage, and from soft decides to give the end game bosses 80% holy damage negation :(. I was forced to go for a buff build to use my faith points. this videos are being so much, thanks to you now i know that i need to go for the godslayer seal with my build, THIS VIDEOS ARE SO MUCH HELPFUL, KEEP ON, THANK YOU FOR SHARING WITH THE COMUNNITY :D

[shitaolin]

this channel is insane, this is information what I search for, with status and explanation objective, no “I think” no “ I guess”

[andrew]

One thing I’d be really curious about is if you could look at the greases in elden ring. I don’t understand how they work, or if any are really good, or if there’s any kind of scaling involved. Could be a cool video

[cursedvanity]

im sorry it took so damn long for me to sub; you words at the end were really inspiring and i hope the bigger pvp'ers in the community will utilize your data and help grow your channel. thanks for the hard work!

[listnode]

Absolutely in love with how well this community has compiled and archived the game's data. Doing some research for learning the mechanics of status as it pertains to fast weapons, and I remember being told that bloodflame blade is typically better than bleed or occult for fast weapons since you can get high ar from keen/heavy scaling as well as better bleed. Did some of my own math for 2h/paired hits on claws based on the status MV's and bf blades 40 per hit, and found this to be true, so I was confused seeing you say that venomous with blood is better bleed. Given how strong status is, I figured they might have nerfed it, so I checked the spreadsheet for an older version, which they have a bunch of archived, clicked the oldest one, and I was right. On 1.03.2 bleed status MV's for a paired claw hit was 90%+90%, now it is 60%+60%, which gives bloodflame blade a massive advantage thanks to its flat 40 bleed per hit. Anyways, great videos, theyve been pretty helpful in learning how this game works.