Elden Ring Guide | Faith Build with Sword of Darkness

One of the most interesting new Straight Swords in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is the Sword of Darkness. Because of its unique Ash of War and scaling qualities, this weapon gives you a new way to fight. Its basic moves will feel familiar if you've used other Straight Swords. 

However, recent updates have made the poise damage for dual-wielded straight sword setups stronger, so now is a good time to see what it can do in Elden Ring.

Weapon Overview and Mechanics

Your Sword of Darkness's basic moves are the same as those of other Straight Swords; they don't do anything very different. 

But the recent patch that made poise damage better when using two Straight Swords at the same time opens up new tactical options that you might want to include in your build plan in Elden Ring.

The Darkness Ash of War

The unique thing about this weapon is its Ash of War: Darkness ability, which sends an attack out from your sword in the shape of a cloud. This ability does pure holy damage and lowers your opponent's resistance to holy damage by 20% at the same time. 

For the most part, this debuff will work well with other holy damage sources you have available. There are some problems with using the Ash of War because it is hard to land correctly. 

You can increase your chances of success by using the Endure skill, which stops enemies from stun-casting you during the first part of Elden Ring.

Timing the activation to happen during the spawn invincibility frames also gives you a safe time for execution. Instead of focusing only on direct damage, you should use Darkness as a debuffing tool to make your next strikes stronger.

Stat Allocation Strategy

Because it has two different scalings, your Sword of Darkness needs careful thought about how to distribute your stats. The main damage of the weapon goes up with Faith, while the Ash of War damage goes up with Strength in Elden Ring.

By trying out different setups, you'll find that keeping an almost even balance between Strength and Faith works better than investing as little Faith as possible and focusing only on Strength.

If you want to do the most damage with your weapon, a pure Strength build might look appealing. However, a balanced method greatly increases your Ash of War output without significantly decreasing your primary damage in Elden Ring.

Because of this, the split allocation works better overall, especially when using the weapon's debuffing skills.

Recommended Talisman Configuration

When choosing Talismans, focus on those that enhance the dual-wield straight sword playstyle. The Consecutive Attacks talisman works really well with this setup, taking advantage of the fast attack patterns that come with dual-wielding.

In particular, you should stay away from the Shard of Alexander, even though it usually works well with Ashes of War. Due to its pure holy damage classification, this Talisman does not currently increase the damage done by the Darkness ability. 

This makes it a useless choice for this build. Instead, focus on Talismans that enhance your overall fighting abilities or provide valuable perks that complement your dual-wielding style.

Also, check our Elden Ring Review, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review, and other guides below:

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