Top 15 Elden Ring BEST Buffs [My Recommendations]
With hundreds of hours in Elden Ring, Here are my Top Picks for the best buffs.
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Elden Ring has some of the best buffs, and it could be difficult to decide which ones you want to include in your build. From Ashes of War to incantations or consumables, here are the 15 best buffs I think you should consider trying out.
- Elden Ring has four types of buffs: Ashes of War, Consumables, Incantations, and spells.
- These buffs include both beneficial buffs for your character and negative buffs or debuffs for your enemies (players or monsters alike).
- Buffs are rated based on their power, usefulness, and versatility.
- Not every buff is usable on every build; some of the best spells or incantations have specific stat requirements.
- Consider using the Old Lord’s Talisman to increase the duration of incantations or spells.
- Author’s Note: After experiencing everything that Elden Ring had to offer for more than 750 hours, you can trust my judgment on the best buffs.
Ashes Of War
These Ashes of War are incredible for enhancing your build or granting you special effects.
1. Commander’s Standard
- Why I Chose This: The Commander’s Standard’s unique Ash of War increases damage and defense by 20% for 30 seconds. Useful for any situation.
Starting with one of the most well-known buffs in the game, the Rallying Standard is a unique skill to the Commander’s Standard weapon. It provides a massive 20% increased damage dealt and negated.
The only issue here is that the buff is much weaker against players, coming in at only 2.5% more damage dealt and 5% damage negated. Combined with the short duration of only 30 seconds, this buff is good when trying to do a lot of damage in a short amount of damage. However, it lacks a lot when it’s put up against players, unlike many of the similar but more powerful buffs I have mentioned below.
- Substantially increases your dmg dealt and negated.
- The buff can be provided to nearby summons and is spammable.
- The effect of the buff is reduced considerably in PvP.
- The weapon is only acquired after defeating a boss.
2. Barricade Shield
- Why I Chose This: The Barricade Shield deflects heavy blows from enemies and can reinforce the shield to tank strong attacks with ease.
Next I have the Barricade Shield. It is hands down the best non-parry Ash of War to use on your shield. What makes it this strong isn’t just the base buff of 40% increased guard boosts for 5 seconds. It also gives you tier-4 hardness, meaning most weapons will bounce off your shield.
This buff is incredibly powerful against players. More so if combined with other guard-boosting items like the Greatshield Talisman, making you an immovable wall.
- Reduces the stamina required for blocking attacks to half.
- Effective in shielding against bosses and elites.
- No prominent affect on greatshields.
- Has slightly low duration of 10s.
3. Barbaric Roar
- Why I Chose This: Barbaric Roar increases your physical dmg dealt, adds increased Str scaling to your weapon and alters heavy attacks, best for Str builds.
Although there are many roar-type buffs in Elden Ring, I think Barbaric Roar is the best. Along with providing a 7.5% increase in physical damage, it increases your strength by scaling by 5 points for 20 seconds.
Like the other similar Ashes of War, this buff has your character do a menacing roar, changing your weapon’s heavy attack. In particular, it makes it, so you do a flurry of rapid attacks. This is a great synergy with heavier strength-based weapons, which have trouble repeatedly attacking in a short period of time.
- Provides physical dmg bonus and Str scaling to your weapon.
- Also changes charged attacks into chains of multiple strikes.
- The dmg buff provided is lower as compared to other benefits.
- Less useful for Dex scaling weapons.
4. Endure
- Why I Chose This: Endure lets you tank the heaviest of hits and increases all your resistances with a low FP cost and thus is spammable.
One of the most underrated buffs in the game comes in the form of the Endure Ash of War. This skill has your character assume a powerful stance. It grants a 5-second buff that completely prevents stagger or stun (doesn’t apply to knockdown). It also increases all damage absorption by 45%. This allows you to safely trade attacks with most enemies or players and come out on top.
- Increases all-type dmg absorption by 45%.
- Greatly increases your poise, allowing you to tank heavy hits.
- The buff only remains active for a few seconds.
- Heavier weapons have high recovery frames with this Ash.
5. Cragblade
- Why I Chose This: Cragblade Boosts your ability to break enemy stances by adding increased stagger dmg as well as a physical dmg bonus to your weapon.
Next, I have the Cragblade Ash of War. This skill has your character thrust their sword into the floor and pull it out covered in rocks. Granting a 15% physical damage boost to the weapon, along with a 20% stance damage boost. This buff allows you to break your opponent’s poise or get them to drop their shield faster.
- This buff lasts 60 seconds.
- Increases physical dmg and stagger potential of the weapon.
- Can be infused on almost any weapon type.
- The stagger dmg of the weapon has been nerfed to 10%.
- Leaves you vulnerable to dmg while you charge your weapon.
6. Sacred Order
- Why I Chose This: Sacred Order grants holy dmg and slight Faith scaling to your weapon and increases all your attacks’ dmg by 10%. It also melts Undead enemies.
While less useful for player vs player content, the Sacred Order ash of war is extremely powerful in other situations. This skill utilizes the power of the golden order to buff your weapon with holy essence for 60 seconds.
The ash of war is incredible for bleed builds and can be utilized with two dual-wielded weapons that feature inherent bleed. You would have to use the skill while two-handing your left-hand weapon. After that’s complete, you would dual-wield but not two-hand the right one and use the skill again. This leaves you with two fully bleed-buffed weapons capable of causing an almost instant bleed on most enemies.
- Increases the dmg of all your attacks by 10%.
- Provides a 100% dmg increase against Undead foes.
- The buff is reduced greatly in PvP encounters.
- Decreases the physical dmg of the weapon as it changes it’s affinity.
7. Royal Knight’s Resolve
- Why I Chose This: Royal Knight’s Resolve buffs the dmg of the next strike considerably and also has a large stamina dmg that can break guards easily.
One of the most important skills for creating a powerful single-strike build is the Royal Knight’s Resolve ash of war. The skill has your character hold up their weapon to their face and pledge resolve to the Elden Lord.
This buffs your next attack that you land against an enemy, making it deal an increased 80% damage. And on top of that, a massive 300% increase in stamina damage. Therefore, allowing you to break through any enemy’s guard with ease. In my opinion, this skill is extremely helpful for those that prefer larger weapons.
- Buffs the dmg of the next strike by 80%, best for one-shot builds.
- This strike would let you break guards easily.
- The buff only remains active for the next hit which can be missed.
- Cannot be used to buff magic attacks or staffs.
8. Seppuku
- Why I Chose This: Seppuku adds additional dmg to your weapon and greatly increases it’s ability to bleed, very viable for bleed builds.
One of the most powerful ashes of war, given the right build, Seppuku has your character thrust your choice of the weapon into their stomach, staining it with blood for 20 seconds.
Firstly, this adds a base 30 damage increase to the weapon. It also makes your attacks cause bleed buildup, which scales with your arcane stat.
The ash of war is incredible for bleed builds and can be used utilized with two dual-wielded weapons that feature inherent bleed. You would have to use the skill while two-handing your left-hand weapon. After that’s complete, you would dual-wield but not two-hand the right one and use the skill again. This leaves you with two fully bleed-buffed weapons capable of causing an almost instant bleed on most enemies.
- The weapon recieves a dmg and bleed buff for 60s.
- This Ash of War adds the blood affinity, greatly increasing its ability to bleed.
- Obtained at the end-game area.
- Costs your HP upon use, needs to be used carefully.
Best Buff Consumables
In terms of consumables, most buffs can be implemented into your build for almost no cost. However, these are the main ones that make the largest impact.
1. Crimsonburst Crystal Tear
- Why I Chose This: Crimsonburst Crystal Tear has the longest HP regenerating effect in the game and is very useful in early-game encounters.
The Crimsonburst buff is one that can be obtained by using the similarly named Crystal Tear in your Flask of Wonderous Physick. It provides 180 seconds of steady +7 health per second, totaling 1260 total health restored over the whole duration.
While not seeming incredible at first glance, I assure you, this is the longest-lasting health regeneration buff in Elden Ring. Because of that, the healing will make a massive difference over the duration of any fight.
- Increases your HP for a lot of time by 7 each second.
- Can be acquired early in the game and remains helpful.
- Does not provide any buff to dmg in any way.
- The HP regen per second is pretty low and not useful against difficult bosses.
2. Crimson Bubbletear
- Why I Chose This: Crimson Bubbletear helps you when you make mistakes and take a bunch of dmg as it will heal you when you are close to dying.
Similar to the previous entry, the Crimson Bubbletear is also a crystal tear and can be used in conjunction with Crimson Burst.
This crystal tear provides a unique buff lasting 180 seconds. This buff doesn’t actually do anything until you take enough damage to drop below 21% health. Once you do, the buff will fade, and you will have 30% of your health restored back.
This buff is incredibly useful when used prior to a duel against another player or before entering a boss fight. It grants a safety net allowing you to recover from mistakes better.
- Can save you in the heat of battle if your HP drops below 20%
- The effect lasts for 180s so can be used before entering an arena.
- Will not save you from one or two shot attacks.
- This tear is acquired at the end-game area.
3. Exalted Flesh
- Why I Chose This: Exalted Flesh increases the physical dmg of the equiped weapon and can be crafted, making it an ideal choice for any kind of build.
Unlike every other buff on my list, the Exalted Flesh is a consumable item, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s less powerful. In fact, it has one of the highest physical damage increases, coming in at a bonus of 20% for 30 seconds. However, it reduced to 15% against players.
Being a craft-able consumable means you can use it with any build without requiring specific stats or ashes of war. Therefore giving it very high versatility to be used with many builds.
- Provides physical dmg bonus for 30s.
- Can be crafted and thus can be used infinitely.
- The crafting materials can be quite tedious to farm.
- The buff is reduced in PvP and has a relatively low duration.
Incantations
Here are the best incantations you can use to enhance your build.
1. Flame, Grant Me Strength
- Why I Chose This: Flame, grant me strength is a well known buff in Elden Ring due to its versatility as it boosts all Physical and Fire dmg and also increases stamina recovery speed.
A forbidden fire monk incantation, although only lasting 30 seconds, “Flame, grant me strength” is a powerful self-buff that grants the caster a 20% increase for all physical and fire damage dealt (both reduced to a 15% buff against players). Therefore, it makes for a great addition to any pyromancy build.
If that wasn’t enough, it also buffs your stamina regeneration rate by 11%. Furthermore, this spell stacks multiplicatively with the next one on my list, making for a very powerful combination.
- Increases Fire and Physical dmg of all types of attacks.
- Further increases stamina recovery speed for more combat capabilities.
- Lasts for a relatively short duration.
- Requires proper faith investment to utilize.
2. Golden Vow
- Why I Chose This: Golden Vow is an all around best body buff in the game as it increases all types of dmg sources and also provides dmg negations for a long duration.
Not to be confused with the Ash of War version of Golden Vow, this incantation is one of the most useful all-rounder buffs in the game to all nearby players.
It grants a 15% overall damage increase (reduced to 7.5% against players), which stacks with the previous effects of “Flame, grant me strength.” For this reason, this spell is one of the most useful ones to have in your arsenal, it has a requirement of 25 faith.
Moreover, it also grants a 10% reduction to all damage taken (reduced to 5% against players). Many players use this spell as a buff before dueling.
And if all of that wasn’t enough, the buff lasts a whopping 80 seconds by default, going up to 104 with the old lord’s talisman.
- Increases all elemental and physical dmg by 15%.
- Has great duration and also provides dmg reduction.
- Requires high Faith to use properly.
- The buff is reduced considerably in PvP.
3. Barrier of Gold
- Why I Chose This: Barrier of Gold lets you face mage enemies very easily and safely as it increases your magic defense considerably.
Barrier of Gold is a defensive Erdtree incantation, powerful against magic. It places a protective buff on all nearby players, reducing magic damage taken by a massive 60% for 70 seconds.
I must say, this is an incredibly helpful tool to have, especially since it only requires 24 points in faith. Thus allowing you to almost completely counter any magic casters, heavily reducing their potency on the battlefield.
- Greatly boosts defenses against magic dmg.
- Has high duration with a low FP cost.
- Leaves you vulnerable to dmg while casting.
- Would not be effective against non-magic attacks.
Spells
Although only one, this is hands down the best magic-based buff in Elden Ring.
1. Terra Magica
- Why I Chose This: Terra Magica is a must use for Int Builds as it increases the dmg of sorceries and innate magic damaging weapons significantly.
One of the keystones spells for any intelligence build, Terra Magica places a magical sigil on the ground. The sigil raises the potency of all spells cast while standing on it by a huge 35%.
I recommend using this spell along with long-range high-damage spells such as Cannon of Haima or Loretta’s Mastery. Hence granting you the ability to demolish your enemies from a safe distance or assist your allies in dealing with enemy players without being an easy target.
- Buffs all types of magic dmg by 35%.
- The field lasts for a lot of duration and the buff is spammable.
- The buff vanishes immediately after leaving the field.
- The area of the field is small and you can get knocked out of it.
My Thoughts On Best Buffs
In my opinion. the Golden Vow is the best buff in Elden Ring as it provides a straight forward buff to all types of damage which is beneficial for every type of builds. Flame, Grant Me Strength has great utility as well, mostly due to its stamina regen buff. Overall, Elden Ring has an incredible number of buffs in the form of spells and weapon skills. It’s important to remember that you should experiment and try out different ones for your builds.
Check out my list of the best Elden Ring builds for examples if you’re not sure where to start. Alternatively, if you’re completely new and unsure where to start, check out my starting classes guide for a point of reference on how to begin your journey.
Next:
- Elden Ring Spells Tier List
- Elden Ring Weapons Tier List
- Elden Ring Incantation Vs Sorcery
- Elden Ring BEST Ashes of War
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