Sorcery Spells Tier List (PVE) Elden Ring

[@Chrightt]

CHANGES: Magic Glintblade D => C, Star spells F => D I am convinced that Magic Glintblade is C tier due to it also being a good option against enemies that dodge (they dodge on cast not the blade itself) and its ease of use on mounted combat (although if the target is a mounted enemy, this will unlikely hit. But it definitely doesn't require meticulous aiming). On the same note, for those of you who do like Magic Glintblade, I would suggest trying the Great Oracular Bubble too. For a tad bit more FP, you're doing a lot more damage with AoE and a large stun. Enemies also suck at dodging this because of its slow travel speed. I definitely sold Magic Glintblade short because I personally don't do a lot of delayed hits and just go for kills :P One more note on Glintblade: Yes, I have used this extensively (my first character was a prisoner so I literally started the game with it. My first playthrough was blind so I used glintblade for a large portion of the game as I tried searching for more spells). Remember, this is an endgame tier list, and I find that at level 100+ with a completed build, delayed attacks like Magic Glintblade doesn't serve a huge purpose. For my builds, I can always come up with something that is faster at killing, more efficient, harder hitting, doesn't suffer from enemies dodging, or many/all of the above. I think Magic Glintblade is more of a bandaid if your build lacks in many aspects, but I do respect how well it can perform for people (hence the C rating). The star spells (i.e. stars of ruin) are changed to D tier for their convenience. While they lose out to just about everything in terms of damage/FP and is also below average on damage/sec, they are indeed "convenient spells" where you don't have to think much and can waste FP for certain damage when you don't have night sorceries (as spells like glintblades can still be dodged when the glintblade fires off). For those idiots who are merely arguing star spells should be A or S tier, I pity you. Take a look at some facts or actually attempt to try the other spells.

[@OdysseyHome-Gaming]

Funny, I was about to mention glint blade being rather fun in being a timed spell for my prisoner class restart. You beat me to it. 😊

[@OdysseyHome-Gaming]

I also recently saw someone use amush shard to knock an enemy off a rooftop at a very far distance away. As long as you can lock on to a target the shard spawns behind them so it's like a sniper for mages.

[@blondsucre8179]

Carian greatsword should be b or A it's so slow, it's nowhere near as strong as slicer or rock sling. Carian piercer fully charged knockdowns and do A LOT of damage very usefull to stunlock ennemies should be A

[@Chrightt]

@@OdysseyHome-Gaming If the guy you saw was very far, you will need the arrow's reach talisman for this. Just a heads up.

[@ZeStreD]

@@Chrightt Ambush Shard has exceptional range even without that talisman. I honestly think you didn't give it enough credit in this video. That spell is extremely useful because it allows you to hit from behind cover and compensate for weird angles that other spells cannot hit. Ambush Shard can fire virtually anywhere within its range bubble allowing you to do things like hit enemies directly under you or above you that other spells cannot arc around to. It is also fast and cheap, I use it to clear out entire hordes of bats or other swarmers that are sometimes positioned in such a way that you are going to risk being overwhelmed in any other method of engagement.

[@capitalismnumberone]

wake up babe elden ring stat man posted

[@robinlutz8795]

Woken up at 4 am

[@monolith_g]

IM THE STAT MAN

[@higguma]

Based.

[@alexanderanghel7946]

I'm the scat man

[@gnperdue]

I totally use Comet Azur on singular Imps I stumble on in dungeons. Sends a message to the other Imps out there

[@ZeStreD]

Try out the Sword of Night and Flame. Its skill is a mini Comet Azur that actually really balances out Comet Azur nicely. Makes it more viable to use against large non-bosses like Monks, Trolls, Omens, and Prelates

[@gnperdue]

@@ZeStreD and it also sends a message to all the Imps too, LOL

[@buckhughes1637]

This comment made me laugh lol

[@lepindre9193]

@@ZeStreD it's quite useless to put 22 point in faith in a int build for a weaker version of you're spell

[@larrydotson2625]

Yeah man, show'em who's the boss!

[@syn010110]

I find carian piercer to be incredibly useful in pve because it knocks over basically any enemy that isn't huge.

[@BigDBrian]

it even knocks down Malenia

[@TheRejiy]

and you can charge so it benifits greatly from godrey icon talisman

[@BigDBrian]

@@TheRejiy only on the full charge that matters but yes

[@swordmastersam483]

I came here to say this. There are several tough enemies that I've cheesed by simply repeatedly knocking them over with Carian Piercer, such as Black Flame Monks.

[@0ceanking]

Came here to mention this. Several tougher enemies can be completely trivialized by charging carian piercer over and over again, and it lets you stab enemies through walls. This can be useful when there's an enemy on the other side of a pillar or wall that you really don't want to engage up close but can't really kite them from afar, like in buildings or dungeons. It's very satisfying when you know the game is about to jump you with a Page around the corner and so you just carian piercer them right through the wall!

[@NickCombs]

I wish starlight lasted a lot longer because the quality of the light is way better than the lantern, especially in foggy areas.

[@hottoast16]

Starlight should be permanent until you rest at a grace. It takes a spell slot, has a stat requirement, and uses FP when you can get a lantern for 1800 runes at the start of the game. Why they chose to make it have a duration is beyond me. I really wish it was better because it's a great spell for roleplaying an exploring sorcerer.

[@qwormuli77]

@@hottoast16 They should have also done the AotA treatment of it revealing hidden walls. Not a great buff, especially for those who know the spots, but an interesting application nonetheless.

[@jzargo8578]

Great Tier List! However, i disagree on magic glintbalde. It's bae in PVE for a few reasons: 1. When fighting on horseback, you can cast it when riding away from an enemy, and it will fire backwards, unlike most other basic damage spells (i.e. glintston pebble). 2. you can cast a ridiculous amount of glintblades before the first one fires. In combination with the high range, that means you can kill most overworld enemies very efficiently before they even engage the fight. You just cast a ton of glintbaldes, ride away when they aggro and they still die. 3. Enemies dodge the cast, not the blade itself 4. Very spammable (like the pebble) AND very chargeable (unlike the pebble) I mean, it aint S Tier, but it sure as hell is better than the briar spells in 95% of situations

[@Chrightt]

Thanks for the detailed feedback. Updated in pinned comment.

[@123698lol]

Should be noted that magic glint blade rolls npc invaders/enemies because they dodge the cast but not the actual spell, it's a free hit on a lot of enemies that are otherwise hard to hit.

[@NickCombs]

Same thing happens with rock sling, but that's good to know.

[@monsieurdorgat6864]

That does help! But I agree with Chrightt here on the ranking. Once you get access to the night sorceries, they'll be better since they're not delayed and perform the same function.

[@gostreiver8036]

Glint blade is god tier in PVE. No enemies respect that it’s there. It has a huge reach and the delay attacks assist in stagger build up while you are hitting

[@toryunaminosaki1022]

the thing Carian Piercer does is knockdown. Makes it incredibly useful against enemies like the dual sword banished knights

[@ωις-λ3π]

Starlight has utility in Sellia, Town of Sorcery if you want to see invisible sorcerers. I haven't seen anyone ever mention it.

[@sametekiz3709]

Cool

[@gostreiver8036]

Cool interaction. And maybe useful if you plan on playing a No torrent run

[@viggen88]

I'd argue that stars of ruin is at least d tier. It's great for enemies that naturally move around a lot, like black knife assasins and night's cavalry. The amazing tracking almost guarantees headshots vs stuff like dragons and deathbirds as well

[@bodbyss]

I got decent use out of Stars of Ruin against Malenia. In terms of damage, it was more FP efficient than spamming the moon spells. Though I did end up going with Rannis' moon for the kill anyway, since frostbite is so strong and you can buff the moon with her witch hat.

[@monsieurdorgat6864]

By that same token though, if the enemy is fast and rushing you down like the assassins, you won't want that slow casting time. Your more efficient option will be using a faster and more efficient spell at short range, and you have better initiation options at long range. I think Stars of Ruin is still a great option if you like to co-op though. If you co-op, you're dealing with PvP and PvE simultaneously, and Stars of Ruin will give invaders an aneurysm while also helping you deal with mobs, even if not fully efficient for those mobs.

[@gostreiver8036]

Can we confirm do headshots count as ranged critical hits? Dagger talisman?

[@mimimalloc]

I think it's worth mentioning that there's an early point in the cast of Rock Sling where the cast is guaranteed to continue even if you take damage. This lets you trade into any attacks that don't kill you and brute force many bosses. Also, Ambush Shard can affect anything in range you maintain a lock on even if they are behind an obstruction like a wall.

[@TheKoolAidMan0hy3ah]

Fun thought, in dark caves, starlight is my absolute favorite. Lantern is very dim, and starlight is quite bright and when it goes out and everything is dark it adds a really fun laser battle while in combat with the light effects while you're still casting spells. Plus the added danger when the lights go out make things a bit more interesting.

[@DeoSiege]

Or just turn up your game brightness and never need it ....

[@ShupperDupper]

i've made some characters that i leveled int JUST for this spell. i love it, like having a fairy navi!

[@PierceArner]

Ambush Shard is the only spell that I would bump up to A tier… _HOWEVER_ that's *only* within the context of using it in tandem with the Arrow's Reach talisman. With that combination, it actually replaced Night Comet for my primary use spell in dealing with all standard mobs. The insane reach it has means that it gets a monstrous advantage against everything, PLUS - you can hit targets that you don't have a direct Line of Sight to so long as you can get a target lock. If you can rotate the camera to reveal the mob enough to get a target lock and cast as soon as you do, you can hit 2-3 times before the lock breaks. At higher levels that's enough to kill most mobs before they even notice you. Even in places like Stormvale Castle, you can attack mobs behind cover in a way that no other spell in the game does - especially at that distance. If you're using the Black Knife armor, there's only a handful of times that a mob will be able to detect you, and even get into range to be able hit you before they die. Plus, the fact that Arrow's Reach _also_ boosts the range of Rock Sling, which is already an S tier spell means that it makes the best spell in the game into something even better. Plus, since you're almost never going to move while casting those, Terra Magicka can boost the damage if you're running into enemies that you can't one-shot. It's just _SO insanely good_ with that one talisman that I felt that it needed a mention, but it absolutely deserves its placement here without it.

[@shinzoux5912]

Glintstone pebble is the best spell in the game because it's the only spell my character can cast

[@ranewolfe19]

there are three rot crystallians in the haligtree roots.. lobbing a few nightmaidens mist on those three can help kill them without even alerting them.. that's my revenge on the three rot crystallians boss.. :| since this is a level 100-200 int build, my appreciation for Carian Glintblade may not matter.. this spell, along with stone sling carried my starting level to lvl 100 especially when I leveled Mind (and VIG) to 40 before starting on INT..

[@antm.1541]

Regarding rancorcall and ancient death rancor, I see that it does immense staggering against most human sized enemies. Malenia for example, will almost always stagger at each hit, provided she not starting an attack, and it's useful for letting friends get more attacks in while the enemy recovers. Maybe not a very wide use aspect, but just something I thought made the rancor spells a little bit better

[@tsuribachi]

I actually defeat Melania in most of my playthrough with ADR staggering her almost non stop. also great against npc invader, they get staggered til death

[@jlhill17]

Yep. I defeated Malenia by spamming ADR together with my mimic. Neither of us got hit at all. Absolute cheese mode.

[@MiguelAngelGutierrezRamirez]

Early game I was using ADR+Rock Sling, I'll add Rykard's Rancor now that I think of it.

[@Kriegskanzler]

This is awesome. I am now using all your S Tier spells. Really wanted to look for FP efficient spells, and I am a guy easily convinced with math.

[@ixiahj]

Ambush shard can lure a single enemy in a group. If you see several enemies hanging out and you don't want to deal with all of them, lure them towards you one at a time with ambush shard. You can even do it against enemies with no line of sight as it appears from a portal behind them.

[@waffle8247]

Incantation tier list next?

[@Chrightt]

I will be covering incantation tier list after I go back to some more weapon videos. I mix them up so it doesn't get too repetitive on similar content.

[@exodus9001]

@@Chrightt bettter be doing STRANTH WEAPON BOIII Shut up they're pvp viable ;o;

[@Z3rgatul]

Finally a tier list with Rock Sling in S grade. I have 220 lvl, and I often cannot find better spell for bosses or regular mobs. I never saw someone put this spell in S tier, but for me it was S.

[@pouyathedestroya9095]

its so slept on. especially considering you can get the meteorite staff at the start of the game which boosts it

[@jamesruth100]

@@pouyathedestroya9095 Even if the meteorite staff didn't exist I'd still say that rock sling is one of the best sorceries in the game. The combination of good damage, acceptable FP cost, great range, huge poise damage, and the ability to even hit targets directly below you makes the spell nearly busted _before_ you add on any modifiers like the meteorite staff.

[@pouyathedestroya9095]

@@jamesruth100 facts

[@Z3rgatul]

@@jamesruth100 in some rare cases (like bird in palace approach farm spot) Rock Sling has better range than Loretta spells

[@jamesruth100]

@@Z3rgatul technically, if you're casting it with your left hand, 2 of the 3 stones (the center and rightmost stones) have infinite range because of a bug. That means that if you can lock on to a target the boulders will reach them even if they run away after you finish casting.

[@jollygator9080]

Well I know stars of ruin is not the best spell, but I think it deserves D at least for having a good way to hit fast enemies like bloodhounds and knight cavalry. It relies on landing the moon debuff first hit to keep up with the damage splits however. I think you would recommend I try the carian slicer on these foes and you might be right, but the stars can serve as a more accurate mid range spell.

[@chriscarlson1541]

Something to note about roiling magma is that it acts as a lure when you miss a direct hit. Beast type enemies will ignore you entirely and walk towards the blast and other enemies will be drawn towards it when they are unaware of you. This makes it incredibly good in certain situations with large groups of enemies, where you can either one shot the entire group by drawing them all in or soften them all up and finish them off with another spell that you swapped to while the magma explosion was charging. It takes a little bit to get a feel for free aiming the spell to get it in the right place, but when you do it is so fun to watch enemies curiously walk up to it and get incinerated!

[@somegalnamedseelpit3713]

Ahh, because of enemies' AI wanting to "check out" sounds! It didn't occur to me consciously that the spell also counts as noise. Clever use case, like an int build should try to find!

[@desmond1164]

During my pure caster run I found Stars of Ruin really good. It basically never misses, even against things that Night Comet sometimes miss, such as horseback enemies. I mitigated the big FP cost with Primal Glintstone Blade.

[@curtharakaly4620]

yea maybe stars of ruin was garbage when he made this video or something, but putting it at F tier is just flat out retarded. It uses 32 fp yet he was acting like it was the worst fp to damage spell and used so much. It does double or triple what my comet does with sometimes doing 4k damage charged with no extra buffs.

[@monhi64]

@@curtharakaly4620damn I can’t get it above 2.6k damage and I have 80 int. I think I did hear stars of ruin was nerfed

[@cloudcultdev]

I’m really surprised that Spiral Shard isn’t A, perhaps S tier because it absolutely shreds with multiple hits x 2 and stacks. It’s a boss vaporizer in a lot of use cases, and slowly follows enemies. There’s only a few fights I can see where it lacks because of boss dodges.

[@jlhill17]

I agree. I used it to melt the Elden Beast.

[@TheSandkastenverbot]

I also got to love the spiral shard as it helped me kill Fallingstar Beast with relatively little effort. The only downside is its range so it's not the most versatile of all the spells

[@Hirotoro4692]

Chrightt mentioned that you can't really call the Star spells good on DPS, even though he bumped them up a couple tiers. I did decide to try some of my own maths to try and figure out if there's any way you can actually make these spells good in PvE. I'm not talking about PvP here, just PvE. So, most enemies in the game have a defense value ranging from 100 to 123. This is datamined and I haven't found an exception. The game also uses the same defense formula for reducing damage, that Dark Souls 3 uses. With access to the spells motion values from the spreadsheet, and the caster's sorcery scaling, we can quite accurately account for the fact that Stars of Ruin hits multiple times and passes through the defense equation TWELVE times. As we all know, the trick to multi-hit spells is that they suck at low Sorcery Scaling levels, but at high scaling they actually start to shine, where the innate damage of each hit starts to overpower the defense formula. With 99 Int/Fai and a prince of death staff, you can achieve a whopping 448 Sorc Scaling. If we assume the target enemy has 123 Defense (highest you'll go against in PvE) just to bias this against Stars of Ruin, and Lusat's helm for the extra 15% damage (for an effective sorc scaling of 515.2) , an uncharged SoR does 1922 damage. (Charged, 2546). Now let's compare it to Night Comet, which btw has like 2/3rds of the FP cost AND can be chain-cast once you've done the initial cast, whereas SoR cannot: At 99 Int, Staff of Loss has 352 scaling, but it's 457.6 effective scaling because of the x1.3 modifier to night sorceries. This gives Night Comet a damage output of 947. But we gave Stars of Ruin a best case scenario, so it would hardly be fair not to do the same for Night Comet, no? So we are now dual wielding staff of loss. the x.1.3 stacks multiplicatively so now 594.88 effective sorc scaling. Now Night Comet hits for 1231 (charged 1477) Chain-casting Night Comet obviously closes the difference significantly, but it's a petty significant difference. In summary the Stars of Ruin is actually really freaking good, but it requires extremely high levels of sorcery scaling to pull it off. And this was a punishing example for Stars of Ruin, as I could have input a lower enemy defense, like 110 or even 100. Simply dropping down to the best single-stat staff, the Carian Regal Scepter, at 99 Int, Stars of Ruin drops from 1922 damage down to 1550. That is a huge difference that brings it very close to a best-case scenario Night Comet, which is now easily the clear winner as it can be chain-cast and the AI won't dodge it, and costs less FP. So in summary the stars spells are potentially OP, but you need the literal pinnacle level of sorcery scaling, so for most players yeah they kind of suck. Bonus mention: A fully charged carian piercer will knock most foes on their ass and has extra step into the lunge for added range. It's pretty damn good for knights etc if you can time it right. Sorta feels like a sorcerer's version of Giant Hunt AoW.

[@Chrightt]

There are two mistakes here. At 99 int/faith prince of death staff in mainhand is better than 2x loss so night comet should do even more damage. And yes, in PVE defense growth is far less than for PVP, so at very high levels defense doesn't hurt SoR as much as it does during the first few playthroughs. The other issue is multipliers happen AFTER defense calculation. Therefore, you should do the defense calculation first with the sorcery scaling and MV and then do the bonus 15%/30% multipliers which will result in a weaker SoR as you seemed to do the multiplier first before the defense (didn't check if you actually did the defense calc for the final damage but I assume you did). So, after fixing these points your night comet damage should increase while the SoR damage should decrease and is therefore still inferior even at level 713 let along the lower levels :) It is certainly better at higher levels though.

[@livegolfismygt]

The ancient death rancor could be placed higher, since it has a ton of stagger. Chain cast it towards an unsuspecting enemy, and the chain of skulls keeps them stun locked and then breaks poise too

[@Melodia-.-]

Elden Ring is my first From game and I've been taking my time so I'm not quite at endgame yet, but Ambush Shard is a very useful utility for my stealthy/careful playstyle in exploration. As you know, with the Arrow's Reach talisman Ambush will strike any enemy you can get a lock on regardless of distance even if you break line-of-sight, as long as the lock remains active and there's no object between the projectile-spawn and target. One of the ways I utilize this is to choose which enemies I want to aggro onto me; the others in the area do not aggro. This allows for some control over engagement by opening with Ambush, and then either switching spells or just fighting with the Wing of Astel & shield to get better at the melee mechanics of this beautiful game. Or to aggro them from an awkward position, luring them to an environmental death of some sort. Or in a pinch, I can just cheese with it if I'm outmatched but need to press on anyhow, if the enemy type and flask reserves allow for it. Damage and efficiency aside, I find too much value in utility to remove it from my spell-set-- whenever I try to run without it I invariably come across a scenario which would have been made less complicated by it. There have been situations where I've leaned on Ambush much more than Loretta's Greatbow. I've never cast Ambush at a boss though and probably never will: I'm a noob, not a dummy! ;p Thank you for your content-- it is as necessary for me as Ambush is for my build

[@Melodia-.-]

Just for clarity: I'm arguing that Ambush holds the same overall weight as Loretta. Whilst Loretta is excellent for opening against power/boss, it can miss in some scenarios. Ambush is a guaranteed strike from range, often offering superior utility in exploration. I rate them, overall, equal in PvE.

[@venn2001ad]

I am sad that you put Stars of Ruin in F tier. When my INT mage was stuck on Malenia, it was the spell that saved my bacon. I just spammed it nonstop with my mimic, and melted her in a very short time. She likes to move around a lot, but the tracking of the spell made it a non-issue.

[@ladwarcoffee]

You could have used the night spells and not worried. Plus mimc has probably has changed since you beat her. Mimic no long spams spells or ashes of war and thus is much weaker for pure casters.

[@venn2001ad]

@@ladwarcoffee I beat her after the mimic nerf. I just held a staff and a shield in my hands, and then summoned the mimic, while equipping only the Stars of Ruin. Hence, the mimic had nothing to use but the spell. And Night spells can still miss, when the boss is hopping around all over the place, which she often does. However, the superior tracking on Stars of Ruin simply made it moot.

[@daznis]

Same here I just did it without a mimic. It's insanely great spell for enemies that "dodge" fast. The only boss that I used comet azur was on the damn Fire giant in phase 2 . I got too frustrated with phase 1.

[@jackieclan815]

Oh I agree!

[@Kristalya]

Zamor Ice Storm should move forward slowly from the starting point to make it into a proper spell. ❄🌪

[@Gracklef1int]

Your videos always make me want to play again, but also make me play better. Thank you!

[@playmsbk]

About ambush shard, it's probably the only spell that manifests behind the target so it can be very useful with some creative camera work.

[@schnozgaming989]

Star sorceries are cool against Malenia and you can boost it with Godfrey's icon

[@RalorPenwat]

I'd say the stars spells are pretty good for fights with moderate size enemies with high mobility, like the large demigods or the falling star beasts. Especially considering how much they benefit from the winged insignia and related talismans. Obviously large or slow enemies it would be better to use comet azur, but the stars spells are much faster and track.

[@Chrightt]

Hello, spells (and bullets like glintblade phalanx ash of war) don't count toward continuous hits from talisman.

[@RalorPenwat]

@@Chrightt okay so I was mislead, I've seen people say it works with spells in the past, without the pretty big asterisk- it seems like it only works for the melee spells i.e. carian blade sorceries, gavel, and moonblade. Pretty critical information people are leaving out there 😕

[@Diamon_Boots]

Finally, Rock Sling is in it's propper place! Honestly, one of my favorite spells to use in this game, maybe even all FromSoft games. Good ol' Rock Sling, nothing beats that!

[@marcusmoore7600]

Agreed 💯

[@somegalnamedseelpit3713]

Interesting to see how this list compares to Rusty's Sorcery ranking, both in agreements (Rock Sling being very good, Lucidity being awful) and its disagreements (Zamor Ice Storm). I know that Rusty's list also takes PvP into account, and time-wise considers recent buffs/nerfs/tweaks, but still!

[@DadEternal]

Carian Piercer can chain knockdown some enemies, making them harmless

[@captainenot3185]

Man, I love your content. Nightwielder build is super fun and interesting. And this video is just a blessing. I am sure you will get millions of subs one day. Thank you very much for this video).

[@cupsYT]

Awesome breakdown. I feel Piercer could be higher ranked if you consider its usefulness alongside the other summoned swords; it rounds out the other 2 spells perfectly if you treat them as a set. Again, great list!

[@nathanielwerick2616]

another fuckin crucial video, and doubly appreciated as a PVE player who has played bonkus stronkus outside of Elden ring and bloodborne

[@AlteraLin]

I would put the Gavel of Haima in S tier simply because it poise breaks or straight up knocks down enemies. It's especially good against human-type enemies. You can flatten Malenia pretty easily and keep her down.

[@flurf_uwu]

dang, for my mage playthrough i was only casting the 3 pebbles through almost the whole game

[@mllhild]

Glint blade and Rock sling and Hlintstone Pebble where kinda the spells that carried me throu the entire game. I would put Glint Blade as A or S tier since it was the only spell to reliably hit human sized bosses that like to dodge and it having a shorter cast time than Rocksling. Oh I forgot about the Magic bow spell that was responsible for 90% of my dragon sniping in the ope world.

[@darkphoenix2]

aww I could've sworn you covered PvE and PvP in the last video I gotta hear you talk about how cool I am for using Stone of Gurranq and Crucible Horns and Dragonmaw in PvP

[@hunterterrat9105]

Great list. can you do an incantation tier list next??

[@nauseousegg6416]

Miracle build? Wait wrong channel

[@Rigel_6]

Honestly, Carian Piercer power lies not in it's damage but rather its knockdown stunlock potential medium-large enemies like Omens and Cleanrots get bodied by it, just need to space correctly. Also, eternal darkness is a godsent in Haligtree against these ridiculous one-shot bubbles, letting you safely pepper the bastards with comets

[@TheRejiy]

yep hopefully cright sees this, it also can be charged up in contrast to carian GS which is not chargable so it benifits from godfrey icon (which i kinda confused he didint talk about talisman setups at all during this whole tier list, as some spells can over shadow others with talismans) also the un charged piercer feels faster than carian GS

[@Chrightt]

Heya~ Carian Piercer only does the knockdown on charged piercers (If my memory serves me correctly. If not - my bad). That's the only reason I still gave it a C really. If it was for raw damage or damage/FP ratio and hitbox it would rank lower. But, you know, if the enemy is dead then I won't need the knockdown which means you can find multiple ways to not need the piercer cast especially because you have to charge it up, which takes quite a while mid-combat. An extra note: Chargeable does not automatically make the charging of the spell itself better. In fact, even with the Godfrey included you will find that you can deal higher DPS in most scenarios with non-charged versions of the spell. As for Godfrey Icon, you can counter this by saying other spells can slot in ____ Talisman for it to work better too etc (i.e. projectiles let you fight at a range so you would be more likely to stay at 100% health for ritual sword) but talismans do not actually hold a large impact for spells (think about it this way. If somehow all your attacks are charged moves which I doubt, then the maximum impact is 15%. Now subtract that by what another talisman can do for your build like saving stat points or just a raw 8% damage to all sorceries. As talisman combinations are more nuanced than that and there are no superbly outstanding talismans that only affect certain spells, I do not believe it is worth including).

[@TheFilthySpaniard]

@@ChrighttCharging Piercer actually can guarantee it hits against certain dodge-happy enemies, because they dodge on the cast, and then get knocked down by the charged version - and then you can cast it again and loop the knockdown until they die or you need to drink a flask. I found it super useful on elite mobile enemies, NPC invaders, and some bosses - in particular Black Knife Alecto. It trivialises some of the fights that Comet Azure doesn't work on.

[@supernoodles908]

Magic glint blades imo is a great spell. Due to the delay, mobs and bosses dodge on cast rather than when it actually fires. Furthermore they track the target. You're undervaluing it's utility in the game especially against dodging bosses (you can get the into a long dodge loop)

[@endermage77]

Carian Piercer I found was almost always better to use than Carian Greatsword, because you can chain the charged cast into itself repeatedly, stunlocking a large variety of mobs by knocking them down before they can do anything over and over. This stunlock trivalizes even highly magic-resistant bosses like Rennala, which is why I think it is deserving of a higher spot than C.

[@Knights_of_the_Nine]

Definitely using this guide to make my mod. The overall goal is just to make no F and D tier spells, so buffing crappy spells to be at least C tier.

[@Chrightt]

Sounds great. Would love a way more balanced gamme for sure.

[@Knights_of_the_Nine]

@@Chrightt What I would like to do is base it on is FP efficiency. So more FP spent should have more FP efficiency. But efficiency varies WILDY because of defense. Honestly, with just 21 edits, I can reduce every single enemies magic defense to zero, and that would make it way easier to balance, lol. Every single spell with more than 1 attack gets obliterated by defense. But that would make early game magic super strong.... it's tough.

[@Victorkhahaty]

i would put adulas moonblade higher, paired with moon veil this thing dominates, when a boss is parried you can hit them and apply frost with it

[@SerbianKnifeFight]

I'll echo other people's sentiment here and say i found carian piercer extremely useful for dealing particularly heavy enemies. Things like the area's respective knights and npcs just tend to walk into it and get knocked over. It even manages to stagger crucible knights.

[@SinSaving]

My man did starlight dirty. It is sooo much brighter than lantern and every torch. I feel blind without it. Never leaves my set up in exploration content. But yeah, combat wise it is useless.

[@OroApostropheUnderscore]

About Carian Piercer I'd like to add that it has an amazing amount of poise damage. A fully charged Piercer will often put down enemies even some beefy ones, and if doesn't it will still stagger them a lot. A great way to cheese some enemies, especially "player-like" NPC's. A really good spell to have eqquiped in open world (I'd say A-tier), but not so much against bosses that's true (C-tier) I'd put it on B tier

[@wewoor]

I would recommend it for catacombs and caves personally, as other staggering spells become much trickier to use there.

[@BigDBrian]

for the purpose of poise in pve you should divide everything by 10 e.g. margit has 80 poise (value the game actually uses internally) and flame of the redmane does 40 to him in ng, staggering in 2 casts

[@Chrightt]

Yeah, I got too used to PVP poise I forgot to convert it into PVE terms >.> Someone told me about it on my discord too.

[@alchemicalguns]

do you have, or are you going to consider making a video like this for incantations? i don't know how much there is to rank on that, but i'd love a complete set. your videos are always so informative and you really talk through your reasoning! i really feel like i can trust your advice regarding elden ring, and i'm confident there would be no other source on the topic i would hold in as high regard as you.

[@Chrightt]

Yes, I can definitely do an incantation one :)

[@Vertocal]

Hi, just found this video and looks like there’s been quite a bit of change to sorceries since this was posted and was wondering if you had plans to make an updated video or if there’s Google docs to refer to

[@pedrodarosamello64]

Have you checked the viability of frost spells while using the Snow Witch Hat? Normaly I would not count equipment on the viability of spells due to opportunity cost, but the helmet slot is pretty free on mage builds anyway. My testing was more rudimentar than yours and quite a few patches ago, but Glintstone Icecrag was quite a nice mid dmg/FP spell for me through the game with the hat on.

[@Chrightt]

Yes, but as mentioned in the video, Icecrag's low range means you're likely to fight at melee/near melee distance while using a projectile spell. This limits your range a ton and if you cast a longer range move (assuming it isn't ranni's) you will usually do damage to the monster so that if now you're spamming icecrag, the frost might apply very late or when the monster dies. If there are other frost options that combo well with icecrag at a longer range, it will be able to properly use its advantage of being decent at dmg/FP ratio at close range.

[@TheRejiy]

@@Chrightt yes its so underwhelming having icecrag as a standard cast with "shard" range.. would be much better to have it as a "shard" type spell with lower dmg like night shard (also better to apply frost as you spam more shards before the kill) or at least have it 0.8 pebble range and not the 0.3-0.5 it is rn. hopefully we get more ice/grav spells in DLC :D

[@SophiaLilithUwU]

If we allow helmets to factor in the tiering then comet shard and comet would still outdo it, because they get a boost from azur's crown. Granted that one also increases FP consumption, but in an endgame build you can account for that with sufficient mind investment/cerulean amber +2

[@pedrodarosamello64]

@@SophiaLilithUwU Idk, I give much more credit to stuff that has no downsides. Even in endgame areas my FP was not enless when you consider the amount of enemies you face in, say, the haligtree or the blood place.

[@EpsilonRosePersonal]

Is there a public link to your Elden Ring spreadsheet? It looks like it would be a huge help in figuring out what I want to do with my sorcerer build.

[@CrampedCasket]

Carian Piercer is really good against Melania. It stuns her out of an animation consistently. Take your Mimic in against her & you can back her all the way into a corner essentially stun-locking her between you & your Mimic. Good range, not the quickest to cast but by no means the longest (using Radagon Icon with base Dex - 12 (Astrologer)) & good poise damage.

[@iota-09]

it really is intersting how unseen form is so much less useful than hidden body, simply because of two reasons: 1: you get it WAY later in the game than in ds1 and 3 2: crouching. crouching negates almost entirely the need of unseen form and basically entirely the need of a crepus's vial and similar. i would considered hidden body A tier in ds3 but here? meh.

[@Diamon_Boots]

Yeah, I used to play a stealth mage on DS3 and hidden body was the entire basis of that build, which I still think was one of my favorite builds to play, but in ER you can be a stealth mage by just pressing one button, without any FP cost or timer.

[@iota-09]

@@Diamon_Boots yup... but i feel like maybe it's better this way? arguably. at least in invasions you have things like ambush shard that can be really fun if you use it correctly.

[@andy4an]

what great explanations. will you be doing faith videos as well?

[@Chrightt]

Yes, I will! :)

[@p1ngerss]

stars of ruin's tracking is useful against fast enemies like farum azula beastmen

[@Chrightt]

As explained, you can do the same with other spells and less FP cost (i.e. fast spells, delayed attacks like great oracular bubble/glintblade, or just leading with a large attack so they're low on HP)

[@Chrightt]

@FaggonDraggon Ok, this I can agree with. It seems like the lazy spell that'll work still with the main selling point as convenience.

[@joeeveryman6960]

This has to be from pre patch Zamor Ice Storm. It builds up so much frostbite and a charged Zamor will proc frostbite on anything that can be frostbitten and do truck loads of damage for a very low FP cost.

[@JaneViolet_]

Putting all the homing star spells in F is a big blunder because they're the most reliable option against enemies with extreme mobility like red wolves. Any other spell will miss half the time but with the homing spells at least you can be assured to chip them down gradually.

[@0ceanking]

Another great aspect of swift glintstone shard in PvE: It doesn't slow your movement down on torrent.

[@ArantyrDarkhand]

Great video, love your work. Waiting Incantations... becouse they look cooler =). I guess my weird style its last. Will you do a mace comparation?

[@jamesnesran2348]

my sorceror loadout has night comet, comet, rock sling, terra magicka, comet azur and rannis dark moon

[@BossBoomBox]

I wish they'd give us the opportunity to level up spells instead, with all staves being like the Meteor Staff in not leveling up, but each staff being good for certain types of spells by default.

[@JoriMikke78]

Never used moon spells, sword spells or any other gravity spell than rock sling (the best spell/inc in game)

[@Diamon_Boots]

Ah yes, another person who sees the great benefits of throwing rock! Good ol' Rock Sling, nothing beats that!

[@123afish]

Could you do a video regarding enemy levels in different areas?

[@swordmastersam483]

For the Glintstone projectile spells, you talked about chain casting glintstone shard into comet. Didn't patch 1.05 remove chain casting of this nature?

[@Chrightt]

You can still do jump chain casts which is why spells that are cast-able while jumping gain additional utility value (swift glintstone shard/night shard).

[@swordmastersam483]

@@Chrightt Given the manner that From got rid of regular chain casting, do you think it is likely jump chain casts will stick around? I know it's really hard to figure out exactly what their intent is when it comes to things like this.

[@Chrightt]

@@swordmastersam483 If it doesn't stick around... rip. Not sure about their intentions either cause bugged double chain casting is still here and they didn't fix it.

[@Knights_of_the_Nine]

Going through defense multi times is a misnomer. Defense doesn't take off a flat amount, but a percentage, just like absorption. Going through a percentage multiplier doesn't change the overall damage just because it's split up. (100 * 0.5 = 50 = (50*0.5 + 50*0.5). What defense does is scale it's percentage reduction based on the size of the number. So, bigger numbers get less %taken off than others. So it's not that it has to go through defense twice, it's that 2 lower numbers get hit harder than 1 big number. Also, enemy defense in Elden Ring is literally 100 for every single enemy. Technically it does go up based on that enemies tier, but the highest tier enemy in the game is Malenia, and her defense scale up to just 123.

[@Chrightt]

Defense takes out a % based on the "hit" dealt, so it works more like a flat reduction hence why the % multiplier GREATLY affects overall damage. This is why I introduced defense as more of a flat damage reduction in my defense calculation video. Do not be fooled to think that just because defense shaves off a % it is acting like negation. It is not. For proof, check out my dual wield staff guide that shows off a spell split into 9 hits with far greater MV than a spell with one single hit with less MV but ends up hitting harder: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2ico4ybhaicpZY

[@Dr.Happy11]

Every day I wake up to a new Chrightt upload, is a good day.

[@atomicwinter31]

Honestly the F tier bubble spell destroys some boses that like to stay close to you. Like, it's a shotgun, and its casting time isn't too bad. I saw a guy doing around 1200 damage per cast with it against Hoarah loux, and could get a cast kn before a lot of moves.

[@manateemadness2234]

I, I have a spellblade going right now and recently started a pure mage because a lot of the ranged spells seemed cool on paper but I wanted to keep the essence of the kind of "magic knight" going with the other character. Confused your PVP and PVE videos and was using the first Glintstone Stars spell in Stormveil Castle and was like "Good fucking lord this thing takes forever to cast and does negative damage" and had to come back here to see if I was tripping or not. I now see and remember you placed them in F tier lol. Early game mage is so sad. Mostly glintstone pebbling and arcing, I grabbed the meteorite staff and Rock Sling but there are soooo many areas in the game where one or even two rocks break on something and it's a bit FP heavy early game. I cannot wait to have a large FP bar and better spells. Carian Sword sorceries hit sooooo much harder earlier than glintstone sorceries it feels like. Slicer and Greatsword are insane. EDIT: While i understand it would probably take an ungodly amount of time, testing, and math, I and perhaps many others would probably love to see some more PVE tierlists but smaller ones based on different Rune Level checkmarks, like "Very Beginning," LVL 30/50/80/100 maybe. While some of the spells here are unreal for endgame, a fair bit of spells seem to have crazy backloaded damage (that is, they are borderline unusable until you start nearing 80 INT). Appreciate the video though, even though I'm not a very technical player or a tierlist slave I still love seeing a highly informed player break this stuff down. Same with your weapon breakdowns. You rock.

[@marutukus5349]

Hey man, loving your amazing vids and details. One of a kind - keep going. Used your excel and did some calcs and was wondering about ancient death rancor with fully upgraded prince of death dual wielded. (Can't test it in real as I'm on vacation...) but looks to me like the more superior spell compared to nightwielders night comet (and I absolutely love that build in cinjunction with gravity magic chewing through the bosses and pleb mobs). Didn't figure in detail at which points level adr surpasses nc, but for a lvl 300 it seems to be the more potent choice. Invisibility is mostly compensated by tracking capability and FP costs are the same while damage before any other buffs looks like more than double with ADR. What's your view to ancient death rancor?

[@Chrightt]

A lot weaker. You should take a look at my dual wield staff video that introduces the calc to understand why it is a ton weaker. Ancient Death Rancor is split into 9 projectiles which means that it goes through defense 9 times (not reflected in my calculator because you'd have to know the defense/negation). Even if we're only using the lowest defense for PVE Night Comet will easily surpass rancor in terms of raw damage. EDIT: link for access: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2ico4ybhaicpZY

[@marutukus5349]

Thanks for answering to quickly. Makes absolute sense of course, just forgot the defense which is a huge factor on 9 projectiles obviously. Btw, if channeling spells like Comet Azur, how is defense handled in this case? Is it applied only the first time or every time the channeling is paying the upkeep?

[@Smartzombie74]

I'd like to request a tier list for pve incantations as well!!

[@Chrightt]

Noted!

[@ts6603]

can you conduct research on spell/incant staggering and poise damage values?

[@Chrightt]

Already have the resource in my discord spreadsheets.

[@ts6603]

@@Chrightt lovely

[@doma7956]

Carian piercer combos off slicer and does a lot of poise damage

[@exodus9001]

Man you better be doing faith or strength stuff next or I'm gonna shid and fard

[@Xx_Gam3r_xX]

Hi Chright, can you do a in-depth video on poise please.

[@Chrightt]

Ok. PVE actually uses more than just poise, which is probably where all the confusion is coming from.

[@jellydamgood]

I think I will continue casting fist.

[@bleghb6342]

Does crystal barrage stack with consecutive attack buffs?

[@Chrightt]

No. Ranged projectiles do not trigger consecutive attacks.

[@youluvana]

which one is better for invasion, Cannon of Haima or the big fireball incantation that is similar?

[@franc0cean-m4q]

Is night comet just unambiguously better than comet or is there any tradeoff? I’m running Carian Regal at 80 INT & I use comet, should I switch to night comet?

[@Chrightt]

The only tradeoff is you need too hold a staff of loss in your off-hand (and you can do even better in NG+ Go watch the Nightwielder vid and you'll see the math). But I judge spells based on available builds as long as you don't need to jump through a ton of hoops. Spells that don't require additional pieces like dual wielding staff to be good also get a bonus score though (i.e. crystal barrage).

[@penguin_1806]

Is night shard really worth s-tier after the chain casting nerf? I only ever used to chain cast into night comet but that's sadly gone. It deals less dmg than pebble unless you are going to dual wield staff of loss which most players won't be able to until ng+. Even with dual staff of loss, the dmg isn't that great late game when you would rather just throw a night comet at most stuff. The invisibility also isn't worth when you can once again throw the night comet on stuff that dodges. So why pebble so low and night shard so high? The night comet is definitely worth the s-tier though, super underrated spell.

[@Chrightt]

Because it still has better dmg/FP than pebble while using less than half the stamina cost. It is also as fast as the swift glintstone while carrying the same benefits like jump casting (which you can still use to chain cast and is comparatively just superior to swift glintstone shard). Just using the regal + staff of loss would still work for NG and let you use other spells in tandem. It also remains un-dodgeable by enemies and is the best complement to night comet as it is the best chain cast as a jump cast and also the best at poking low health targets rather than loading up a new night comet.

[@penguin_1806]

@@Chrightt oh nice, forgot that jump chain casting still works.

[@adc7071]

are the night spells still good without staff of loss?

[@Chrightt]

Much more mediocre. One staff of loss on the offhand is all it takes for the night spells to be S tier though. You can just use Carian Regal on the mainhand.

[@adc7071]

@@Chrighttwould you consider the night comet to still be the best of the glintstone pebble/shard type spells

[@bodbyss]

Isn't your evaluation of the night shards tainted by the fact that you evaluated them with two staff of loss? Nobody gets that unless they're arranging a trade, or muling, or deep in NG+ And in just NG, staff of loss isn't even that good until the extreme endgame regardless.

[@Chrightt]

You can make use of it with Carian Regal + Staff of Loss (like an upgraded swift glintstone comparison rather than an upgraded pebble). The utility lies in its speed and its ability to jump cast so you can lead into other slower sorceries like Night Comet (or any other you prefer). You go from Carian Regal + Staff of Loss => 2x Staff of Loss => Prince of Death + Staff of Loss

[@ZlyLudekPL]

Find it hard to believe that black magic skelly boys are not F- tier

[@ewutermohlen]

The only intelligence build I've played with was with moonveil and rocksling on my first playtrough when the game came out. Finding good spells felt to troublesome so I never touched sorceries again. And went with a more dex focused build for the end game. I want to try a Melee focused Int build again this tier list helps a lot with which spells I should aim for.

[@Workhorse1011]

Spells got a balance update after the first month or so making bigger spells worth using. Most of the changes were fp adjustments. Before the patch rocksling and pebble seemed like the only ones worth using.

[@ishmaelsviel2490]

5 AM? It's a good time for look a video.

[@RawJur]

EDIT - scholar's armament can no longer be applied to Clayman's Harpoon

[@Raldavar]

How come night comet gets double staff of loss bonuses but other spells aren't calculated with jellyfish shield buff?

[@Chrightt]

Even on one staff of loss the difference is obvious. Jellyfish staff not only weighs more, is not permanent, requires additional FP, requires way higher strength requirements, and takes away the ability to just swap your mainhand for another weapon art because if you swap off jellyfish shield, the buff is gone. You can, say, mainhand a Carian Regal and offhand a staff of loss and have night comet be the best spell in game already while swapping your mainhand off easily if you suddenly want to just do poise damage with something like Moonveil. This is much more flexible than Jellyfish Shield.

[@Raldavar]

@@Chrightt Offhand staff of loss with Carian regal scepter night comets still does less damage than jellyfish + Carian regal scepter with a lot of spells though. In fact you can kill every boss in the game, which includes Malenia and Rykard, much faster with jellyfish shield + Carian regal scepter spamming shard spiral than with double staves of loss spamming night comets.

[@TheLikeButtonLMAO]

Unseen form is only good if you want to go through the ordina evergaol without getting absolutely shredded by the black knife assassins.

[@TheSandkastenverbot]

I never really saw much sense in these sword spells in PVE. Maybe I use them wrong but I have better range and damage using a moonlight katana. Plus they're really inaccurate. Even when they're visibly cutting through multiple enemies only one or zero of them is damaged.

[@DemonDragonify]

Night maiden mist should be S tier, first is, in volcano in one room is a virgin and with mist i cheesed him out, second, on haligtree, 3 rotten crystalians, idk if is a bug but after i cast on them mist, they dont react and i kill them easly, but most important now, since my second play was mage i was a glasscanon and again, in volcano i pick fight eith a wyrm and i find good spot got using a mist, still was on his attack range but i dodge it, so if you find good spot so any moving target can die

[@alisweatshirt7405]

Thank You

[@JaysWalkThrus]

personally i keep magma shot on for Malenia coop because i use frost weapons against her and i think fire resets frost buildup like it did in Dark Souls 3. just frost magma repeat

[@cordyceps182]

I expected Adula's to be higher than B tier, honestly. Especially for endgame, and especially above Carian Greatsword.

[@Chrightt]

Swap from Adula's to Greatsword for general mobs and see the difference. Adula's is better for bosses, but for bosses there are much better options than a not too fast casting mid-range move that needs to be close range to do full damage.

[@cordyceps182]

@@Chrightt I generally use Adula's against bosses and large enemies, though I haven't been using it much after the patch that fixed DMGS's vertical tracking. I'll give Carian a shot.

[@sgt.whales889]

oop guess i gotta go find half of these now