In this guide, we’re going to be going over the top 5 builds to use in Elden Ring 2023 for patch 1.09 including the tank build, lightning build, bleed/strength build, and mage build with the best weapons/spells. Every build on here is more than capable enough of handling new game plus. Nothing bad here, only better options.

#Top 5. Best Tank Build in Elden Ring 2023 Patch 1.09

A lot of people don't like these, but you can't deny their effectiveness against almost every enemy in the game including bosses. The playstyle may be boring, but it works. You're able to absorb so much damage like it's nothing and throw it right back. Even with the latest nerfs to Great Shields, they still make for a solid option to pick. If you play with friends or Spirit summonings it only gets better cause you just face tank all the damage distracting whoever while your teammates get free hits off. You can apply different status effects like freeze, bleed, poison very easily because you're just constantly hitting your target at the same time. This makes using grease or ashes of war that buff the weapons basic attacks a lot more desirable. And there's quite a few to choose from, so you're always going to have tons of options for different situations.

Here are some negatives of this lightning build patch 1.09:

• The first issue with this is it takes a long time to kill enemies in general. It'll take them down out, it's just going to take double or triple the time because when you're turtling behind your Shield, your damage takes a huge dip which is why it's good to pair this up with a status effect.

• Secondly, if you end up fighting bosses or people in PvP that use status effects or elemental types of damage, the shield isn't going to block all of it. It reduces it by a ton, but the way you would wear down your opponent they would do the same thing back to you. And if you end up being guard broken, you are fully open to take whatever hit you have come towards you.

• Lastly, with these kinds of builds is you aren't protected from the side. So when you're fighting multiple targets, you really have to make sure they stay in front of you or take out one of them as fast as possible. If you enjoy a really safe play style with little difficulty and also want to have more of an RPG element when playing with friends, use this kind of build, you'll get through the entire game stress-free.

#Top 4. Best Lightning Build in Elden Ring 2023 Patch 1.09

If you want something that's a lot more fun flashy and can also take out really strong enemies easily, you'll definitely want to try out lightning builds. Unlike tank setups, you usually try to fight from a distance, and on top of this, you do a lot more damage as well. You can either go the faith route that has quite a few different incantations to choose from with one of them being the hardest-hitting attack in the game. Or you could go the ball to the grand sax route which is one of the best weapons you could get, either one works really well. With the incantations, a lot of them have a wide area of effects so it makes it really easy to land on targets. And sometimes if they're big enough, it can hit them twice for even more damage. The best example of this is the ancient dragon's lightning strike, it's got the potential to kill some of the toughest bosses in the game with just a few uses. When you use this, it's completely random if it's going to pay off or not. The bolts of lightning come down in different directions and there's no way of aiming this, so you just get as close as you can and hope for the best, which is why this works really well against bigger targets making it somewhat more consistent. 

Now the only issue we have when using the other incantations is their damage isn't the best in comparison with the builds higher up. You would definitely notice it taking a bit longer to get rid of the stronger guys in the game. You could say because they're so easy to land that makes up for this a bit. However, there's another issue with lightning builds aside from the incantation's damage and that's their weapons. Most of them either have an e, d, or c scaling with very few having b. So that's not really ideal, they still come with a good amount of flat damage so it's not the worst, but what makes it horrible is the fact that they scale with dex and not faith. You have to choose whether you want to use incantations or weapons more. Because if you try to level them both up to make them equally effective, you're going to end up dumping a ton of levels in your character or they're both just not going to be efficient. Whichever one you end up choosing is going to be really good because there isn't a bad option here. They both do tons of damage.

Related Read: Top 5 Best Lightning Builds for PvE Elden Ring 2023

#Top 3. Best Pyro Build in Elden Ring 2023 Patch 1.09

There are builds that cover the issue entirely and that's the Pyro builds. They do even more damage with most of their attacks having a good size blast radius and the best part about it is the weapons you would use for these setups also scale with faith. So you can use both the incantations and weapons instead of having to pick either one. They also have the Blasphemous blade to go with them, another extremely good weapon. So the incantations are all amazing with Giantflame Take Thee being the best one in the game. It does do less damage than ancient dragon's lightning strike, but it's a lot more consistent, takes less time to use and you don't have to be up close to your target as well. Even the other incantations like flame fall upon them, the flame of the fell god, black flame. And if you want to count frenzied bursts which is more of a madness build, but it also deals fire damage, that's also really effective. 

When you fight the most difficult boss Melina with a pyro setup, it ends up feeling like a tutorial enemy. You toss her around obliterating her health bar. If you take away the incantations and are just left with the weapons, you can still get through tough fights easily. Not a lot have good scaling and faith, but still better in comparison to lightning builds. And on top of this, the Blasphemous Blade which is usually a staple for pyro builds has a crazy passive on it that restores Health on kills and whenever you land the Ash of War. There are not any downsides to these setups except for not having the best ashes of war for regular weapons. And when you come across a fire-resistant boss, you're kind of screwed. You almost always come across one enemy in the game that's going to be resistant to your setup. 

#Top 2. Best Bleed/Strength Build in Elden Ring 2023 Patch 1.09

The number 2 build on the 2023 best Elden Ring builds list 1.09 is a hybrid of strength and bleed builds. When you place the bleed affinity on some of the heavier weapons in the game like colossal swords or colossal weapons, they automatically come with a flat amount of 120 bleed buildup. Power stancing these weapons, you don't even have to put any points into your acane to proc a blood loss quickly. And additionally, half of them have a b scaling and strength, so you get both that physical damage and bleed buildups. It doesn't end there either, because they're really heavy weapons, they also do a ton of stance damage bringing the toughest enemies down to their knees for free hits. You'd think the downside to these setups would be coming up against bleed resistant enemies, but no, it's not. Because when those guys show up, you just switch the bleed affinity to heavy, so that it has better skilling with strength. You basically trade the passive bleed build-up for extra physical damage, because strength is a primary stat you would level up and arcane is more of a nice bonus. The only bad thing about this is having to be up close to whoever you're fighting. Not really much of a bad thing when you're throwing out tons of damage with just a few hits. 

#Top 1. Best Mage Build in Elden Ring 2023 Patch 1.09

The only reason Bleed/Strength Build didn't make it to the number one spot which is saved for mage builds is because they pump out even more damage while at a distance. And they have so many good weapons to go with them like the Darkmoon Greatsword, Moon Veil, Death's Poker and the Sword of Knight and Flame. These weapons alone can solo pretty much every enemy in the game and these aren't even the most powerful thing about Mage builds, it's the spells. You got some that could instantly kill bosses like Comet Azur draining all of their health bar in one move. Others that enemies won't dodge and do lots of damage like Knight Comet and then you have one that'll increase the damage of all magic-related attacks by 35%. Lastly, if the damage wasn't enough, you can also place the free status effect with some of the spells and weapons. There are so many powerful options with Mages, it's kind of hard to mess it up.