In this Elden Ring Advanced Paladin Build Guide, I’m going to be showing you my Crusader build, which is a level 150 version of the Paladin build, or an evolution of the Lightning Lancer build using a Greatsword instead of a Lance.

Elden Ring Advanced Paladin Build Guide: Crusader

A melee/caster hybrid that focuses on Faith and Block Counters to obliterate enemies with holy or fire damage.

• Class: Any
• Flask Spread: Mostly HP some FP
• Weapon: Gargoyle’s Greatsword & Erdtree Seal
• Shield: Brass Shield
• Armor: Haligtree Knight Helm & any armor that allows you to medium roll
• Talismans: Curved Sword Talisman, Flock’s Canvas Talisman, Shard of Alexander & Sacred Scorpion Charm/Fire Scorpion Charm
• Primary Stats: Faith & Vigor
• Secondary Stats: Mind
• Skills: Barricade Shield & Sword Dance
• Spells: Golden Vow, Blessing of the Erdtree, Elden Stars, Lightning Spear, Black Blade, Black Flame’s Protection

We have over 110 Elden Ring Builds now, for all classes and playstyles. This build is recommended for Level 150-200.

Beginner Builds	Level 50 Builds	Level 100 Builds	Level 150 Builds	Level 150-200 Builds	All Game Builds
Paladin	Templar	Lightning Lancer Thundering Swordspear	Crusader Lightning Dragoon Golden Champion Black Knife Assassin Moonlight Crusader Flame Dancer	Black Blade Golden Sword Sage Godslayer Sword Saint Drake Knight Frost Paladin	Perfect Paladin Coldstorm Cleric Warrior of Waves Tower Knight

Crusader Endgame Paladin Build: Equipment

Let’s start with the weapon that I’m using for this. I am using the Gargoyle’s Greatsword, and there are a couple of reasons for that. First up is the fact that you can change the Ash of War on this weapon. That allows you to use a lot of good Ashes of War, and it allows you some flexibility as well. The one I’m using is Sword Dance. You could use different ones if you’d like. But I find this one to be particularly effective for this build. Additionally, because you can change the Ash of War, you can go back and forth between the Sacred and Flame Art affinities, allowing you to change the supplementary damage from Holy to Fire and back again, depending on what the enemy you’re facing is resistant to.

There are a lot of enemies late in the game that are resistant to Holy damage, so being able to swap it back and forth from Holy to Fire will definitely make you have to be more effective in those scenarios where if you’re playing a weapon that you can’t change it, and it’s only Holy damage, you’re going to struggle against certain enemies or bosses. Secondly, it has B-scaling and Faith at max level, and it’s the only greatsword in the game that has B-scaling and Faith that you can change the Ash of War on, making it a particularly good choice for this build. I also like the fact that this weapon attacks pretty quickly compared to some other weapon types, and the block counter on it is not as long as some weapons.

It’s not as fast as the straight sword, but it does have more reach, allowing you to connect a lot more frequently. The reason that I chose Sword Dance for this build is that it has a very low FP cost. It’s 6 FP. It gives you 2 hits for 6 FP, and then if you do the third hit, it’s another 6 FP for a total of 12. You don’t always have to use that third one if you don’t want to, but this is very efficient on the FP side of things. Additionally, the Gargoyle’s greatsword doesn’t have an extremely long reach compared to some other weapons, making, spinning slashes and repeating thrusts not as effective. But what I really like about Sword Dance is that it actually pulls you forward when you cast it quite a ways, and actually, you can fly by enemies if you don’t use it from far enough away. So it’ll actually gap close a little bit for you, allowing you to start the animation early and pull you into the enemy where a lot of times the attacks will go right over you. One other thing I want to mention too before we move on from this weapon is that it has very low requirements. It has 18 Strength and 10 Dexterity. That means with that with most classes, you’re going to have to put 0 points in Dex and just a few points into Strength in order to meet the requirements, and then you can just crank Faith in order to deal really good damage with this sword and then have very good incantation scaling.

When it comes to the shield that I use for this build, I’m using the Brass Shield, no surprise here. If you’ve played either the Paladin build or the Templar build, this is typically the shield you’re going to be using, and the reason for that here is that it requires 16 Strength.

We have 18 only in this build, so there aren’t too many great shields that you can use at 18 Strength, and I don’t think any of them are better than the Brass Shield really when it comes down to it, so I lit on this one. Fully upgraded, the Guard Boost on this shield is 69, allowing you to use Barricade Shield and still take no Stamina damage when blocking. Obviously, Barricade Shield has been nerfed since the last time we did one of these builds, so it’s a lot more difficult to use. However, it is still very usable with this setup, and you just have to be a bit better with it in order when to use it. You can’t spam it as much as you used to be able to do and just wait for something to attack you and then counterattack. Instead, you have to be a bit more precise about when you use it, but it’s still very good in this build.

The seal that we use for this build is the Erdtree Seal. This seal gives you 353 Incantation Scaling at 80 Faith. I think I’m at 79 here, which is why it’s showing 349. So, it’s very good. It’s the best Seal to use if you’re using a pure Faith build if you’re going for very high Faith. And it’s extremely important that you use high Faith if you’re using the seal as well because it actually scales worse than some other seals below about 70 Faith.

So, you want to make sure that you get as close to 80 as you can as possible because you gain a lot of Incantation Scaling between 70 and 80 Faith. So, if you’re going to go 70 Faith or lower, you might be better off with a different seal, but because I’m going all the way into Faith here, the Erdtree Seal is the one I’m using.

When it comes to armor for this build, you can pretty much use whatever you want. I recommend you use the Haligtree Knight’s Helm, though, as this increases your Faith.

This will give you a couple of points of Faith that you can then take out of points for this build and put into something else. And it kind of fits the theme for a Templar Paladin-style build anyway. Otherwise, you can pretty much use whatever you want, just as long as you can medium roll. You’re not going to need tons of Endurance into this build, so you’re not going to wear super heavy armor, but you’re going to be in that medium-ish armor area.

Elden Ring Endgame Paladin Build: Talismans

When it comes to Talismans for this build, I change up my Talismans a lot depending on what I’m doing. So, just keep in mind that the ones I use here are the ones I kind of default to, but you can swap other ones in and out depending on the circumstance. So, normally what I default to is the Curved Sword Talisman, Shard of Alexander, Flock’s Canvas Talisman, and the Sacred Scorpion Charm.

The Curved Sword Talisman increases your block counter damage by 20%. If you’re playing a build with a shield, you should really be doing block counters, and this will boost the damage that you deal by 20%, which is fantastic. Builds that use shields, in my experience, typically do lower damage than other builds that do a wield or use just pure magic or have some two-handed setup that takes advantage of some combination. Because you’re trying to get a good balance of offense and defense. So, getting as much damage as you can is fantastic

Shard of Alexander is there to boost your Ash of War damage by 15%. In this case, for me, it’s Sword Dance or whatever one you choose. I use this all the time. Again, it costs 6 FP. I spam this thing like crazy. It usually one or two shots just about any enemy. So, being able to just run around and one-shot or two-shot enemies with it is fantastic.

Flock’s Canvas Talisman is there to boost the damage of your incantations by about 8%. This is really good for this build because you have such high faith and you have a really good seal. You can cast spells extremely effectively for very high damage. So, boosting that even more is good.

Lastly, we have the Sacred Scorpion Charm. This boosts your Holy Damage by 10% but increases the damage you take a little bit. This is good for this build because the weapon we’re using, we have the Sacred Affinity on it. So, it does Holy Damage. So, boost that and some of the spells that you use to deal Holy Damage as well, like Elden Stars. So, it boosts the damage of that as well. You can swap this one out for the Fire version if you change to Flame Art Affinity in order to boost Fire Damage. Or if you’re casting something like Black Flame regularly, this would be a good synergy there. Or any of the other Fire spells that incantations have. They have so many Fire spells. So, this is a good synergy for that. And you can swap this out back and forth as necessary. Another good talisman for this build is the Ritual Sword Talisman.

This boosts your total damage by 10% when you’re at full health. This applies to your regular attacks and spells. And since this is a hybrid melee caster build, this will apply to all your damage, which is good. The downside is you have to be at full health. However, since you are playing like a Paladin-type build and you can use incantations that heal you over time, it should be much easier to maintain this than some other builds. So, it is not a bad option as well.

And lastly, you can swap in the Green Turtle Talisman as well. If you find yourself doing a lot of blocking or a lot of block countering in a particular area of the game, it’s not a bad option to have. Just keep in mind that there are certain bosses where block counters are not very effective the Fire Giant, for instance, or maybe you’re fighting a Dragon. So, in those scenarios, you’ll actually want to swap out the Curved Sword Talisman for something else like the Ritual Sword Talisman. Because you simply won’t be using it in that instance. And this is kind of, again, what I meant by swapping these around depending on what you’re facing. When it comes to incantations, you have access to all the incantations in the game, except for the ones that require Arcane and Intelligence. So, you have a huge variety of spells you can use. But I’ll run you through some of the ones that I like to use with this build.

Crusader Build: Spells

First up is Golden Vow, self-explanatory. 90-second buff that increases your damage by 15%, and protections by 10%. It couldn’t go any better in a build than a Paladin build. So, this is really good for this. And, again, this applies to both your melee and ranged spells or any spells. So, it’s just a really good buff in general. I also like to use Blessing of the Erdtree with this build.

Just like Golden Vow, it can buff those around you if you cast it near them. And it gives you 12 HP per tick and lasts 90 seconds, which is fantastic. Again, if you’re trying to keep your HP topped off in order to use something like Ritual Sword Talisman, this is a great way to go. And I like to buff with Golden Vow and this back-to-back when I go into boss fights.

If you’re using the Flame Art Affinity, Flame, Grant Me Strength is a good synergy there as well. Because it’s going to boost your physical and fire damage, which the weapon will then do. And it’s a really good addition. It has a very short duration, so I recommend using that only during boss fights or tough enemies. But it’s really good if you’re using that setup. And it can boost your fire spells if you have a lot of fire incantations in your setup.

Another spell that I use regularly is Lightning Spear. This gives me a third damage type. I can swap back and forth between Flame Art and Sacred for the sword, and then I can use Lightning Spear to give me lightning damage, which is really good. There are some other good lightning spells, but in my opinion, I feel like Lightning Spear is probably the best pound-for-pound lightning spell out there. It’s easy to use. It can be charged up for extra damage, it can be cast rather rapidly, and it has a decent range. A lot of the other lightning spells can miss, they cost a lot more FP and they have really long cast time, so they’re very hard to use in certain boss fights.

I also like to use Elden Stars as this is kind of like the granddaddy of holy damage incantations. It requires 50 Faith to use. This has a really long casting animation, but then it shoots out this golden star that travels for a very long distance, shooting out these little stars that continuously hit an enemy. The damage on it isn’t super high, even with our setup, but it does do considerable poise buildup and it gets damage onto an enemy from very far away, which means you can throw it up and run into the enemy and fight them or they can come to you while it’s still dealing damage to them. You can only have one of these out at a time, so you can’t spam it, but you can throw it up to begin a fight to get some early damage in and some early poise damage in on an enemy so that you can stagger them more easily with a Block Counter.

You can also use Black Flame for a fire damage spell here. I really like that this puts a dot on the enemy as well, but there are a lot of really good fire spells you can play around with if you want something else.

And finally, I really like Black Blade with this build as well. This incantation you won’t get till very far into the end game, but it does crazy damage from range. You can chain two of them together really rapidly and switch targets between, and it also puts a bit of a dot on the target. And it’s really good for fights where an enemy is just hanging back and isn’t being really aggressive or if you can create separation and get it off, it does a lot of damage, which is good. And it gives you another ranged option. It’s really good to have melee and ranged options, and melee is kind of covered on this build, so another ranged option is great. 

Crusader Build: Attributes Recommendations

When it comes to stats for this build, I have 50 Vigor, 30 Mind, 22 Endurance, 18 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 9 Intelligence, 79 Faith, and 9 Arcane. 50 Vigor is there because you are playing sort of a tank build. You’re going to be in melee range a lot. You’re going to be doing block counters. Sometimes you trade damage on those, and that’ll help keep you alive. 30 Mind is there because you’re going to be using weapon arts constantly. If you’re using Barricade Shield, that costs 12 FP per cast.

You’re going to need a good FP pool to get you through a fight without having to drink a ton of pots. That’s there. You’re casting a lot of spells and buffs. Those chew through FP, so you need a lot of FP for this build as well. 22 Endurance is just enough for the armor that I’m wearing in order to medium roll. This will fluctuate slightly depending on what armor you’re using, but it shouldn’t be any more than is necessary in order to medium roll. It would be great to have higher here in order to use heavier armor or a heavier shield if you can get a little bit more strength, but we just don’t have the points with the setup we’re going for. And when you’re using Barricade Shield, you’re not expending any stamina when you’re blocking with that, so you don’t need a huge stamina pool if you’re going to be using Barricade Shield. 18 Strength and 12 Dexterity are there to meet the requirements for the weapon.

You actually only need 10 Dexterity, but my class has 12. That’s why I have 12 here. So if you don’t have 12 Dexterity and you have a little bit less, it would be actually better for this build. But the weapon doesn’t actually scale that great with Strength. After about 50 Faith, I’d say, Strength and Faith give you about the same damage per point, up to 80 or so. So you can just crank Faith and you come out about the same as if you put points into Strength. Obviously, Strength would give you physical damage. Faith gives you holy damage or fire damage if you have Flame Art. So there is a little bit of a discrepancy there. But since we want the Faith in order to be able to cast spells for more damage, it just makes sense to keep going with Faith past 50 in order to get those spells to deal as much damage as possible.

You don’t need any Intelligence or Arcane for this build unless you want to use spells that use them as well. There are some incantations that require Intelligence and Arcane. So if there are ones you want to add to this build, you’ll just take those up to the minimum for that. And lastly, Faith is our primary stat here. If you’re using the Haligtree Knight Helm, I would suggest getting 78 Faith. This will give you 2 from the Helm. That’ll give you a total of 80 Faith. I’m not wearing the helm here, which is why I have 79. But this would give you an extra point. You could either put in Endurance or you can put in Mind or something like that. Or maybe you want to put in Arcane for something else. It’s completely up to you what you do with that. But that’s there in order to get maximum damage. As I mentioned, the Erdtree Seal shines between 70 and 80. So you really want to get as close to 80 as you can.

Crusader Build: Final Tips

You can actually use other greatswords for this build as well. One example is the Gargoyle’s Blackblade. This weapon has a fantastic weapon art that you can use in range.

And I do want to note, though, that if you’re using that weapon, you’d be better off going 50 Strength and 50 Faith because it just scales really good with Strength up to 50 and really good with Faith up to 50. But past those, it really drops off. So if you’re going to use that weapon, you want to go 50-50 instead of 18-80 or whatever. So just keep that in mind.

In that case, you would want to use the Clawmark Seal to get points out of Strength in order to increase your incantation scaling. You’ll end up with markedly less incantation scaling if you do that, which is one of the reasons that we use Gargoyle’s Greatsword. But nonetheless, you can still use that weapon if you want to play this way. And that weapon has much, much higher attack rating when buffed compared to this weapon. So its melee damage will be a lot higher, but you’ll sacrifice some spellcasting. Additionally, you could use the Blasphemous Blade here as well. It has a lower overall attack rating than the Gargoyle’s Greatsword or Gargoyle’s Blackblade. However, its weapon skill is one of the best in the game, so there is that. And the way its stat spread works is that it gets about the same amount of damage from each point in Strength, Dexterity, and Faith. However, you will probably do some sort of Strength-Faith split.

I used the same stat spread with the same equipment and put as many points as I could into Strength and Faith. So you’re going to use the Clawmark Seal if you’re using this setup as well. And you’ll probably have even lower incantation scaling than either of the other two setups. And that’s because you need five extra points in Dexterity for the weapon in order to meet the requirements. And points into Dexterity don’t increase your incantation scaling with that seal, so you kind of lose out a little bit more on there.

That wraps up our Crusader build. I have two other builds in the works right now. A Gravity God build and a Black Flame Bushido build. I’m also working on a couple of other builds, so stay tuned for those. As always, let us know if you have questions or other tips in the comments below.

We have a ton more builds coming for Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree so stay tuned for those. If you need help finding the spells, items, or equipment in this build, and securing some personal objectives, make sure to check the Elden Ring Map.