Elden Ring Battlemage Guide - Items, Ashes, Spells, and Playstyle

One of the great joys of playing Elden Ring is experimenting with different builds. Through the plethora of Elden Ring items and the ease with which you can acquire runes, the game offers many options for players who want to explore new ways to slay foes.

Coming up with build ideas, though, can be a bit challenging. There are so many possibilities that it’s hard to know where to start or what’s fun to try out. This is where build guides come into play, like this one.

For this article, we've got a bit of a treat for you. The Battlemage is a hybrid melee and spellcaster archetype that works incredibly well in Elden Ring. Through a combination of close-quarters combat, buffs, and spells, this build's playstyle feels swift and effective even against the toughest foes.

Ever fancied infusing your weapon with magical energy to deal tons of damage? Then read on!

Early Game (Level 1-50)

Overview & Strategy

In the early stages of Elden Ring, you’ll want to keep things simple with this build. Your primary damage source will come from buffing your Estoc or Rapier with the mighty Scholar’s Armament spell. Don’t forget to have both your staff and sword equipped and in hand. Otherwise, the spell won’t work. The enchantment will buff your melee damage nearly two times over. In combination with your rapid attack patterns, you’ll be melting down enemies in no time.

If you need to thin out a herd of multiple enemies, you can make quick work of the weaker ones with Glintstone Pebble. We highly recommend doing this as groups of more than two or three can be pretty troublesome for this build. Pebble will, naturally, also help you take out ranged foes.

Your bread-and-butter for bosses and bigger foes are going to be Carian Slicer, a spell that turns your staff into a spectral blade that deals oodles of damage. Your strategy is to wait for an opening in a boss’s pattern before unleashing a few swipes with this bad boy. An early bad boy will be taken down swiftly.

The one issue to keep in mind with Carian Slicer is that it’s terrible for Stagger. Therefore, it’s imperative that you attack it at the right moment and make sure your timing is on point. Shields can be somewhat beneficial for getting more openings. However, the amount of Stamina damage you’ll take from guarding will limit your counterattack potential.

Pre-requisite

When starting out your journey as a Battlemage, you want to kick off your playthrough with the Prisoner class because of its stat distribution and starting items. You’ll be literally given an Estoc which is going to carry you a great deal in the early levels. You’ll also have a Glintstone Staff and a Rift Shield you can swap between depending on the situation.

Stats & Flasks

Early in the game, focus on dumping your levels into Intelligence and Vigor. Intelligence is the backbone of your damage potential, while Vigor is a must for a glass-cannon build like this one.

You can put some points into mind when you feel you need a bit more juice to chuck out spells and buff your weapon. Dexterity can also be upgraded slightly to accommodate item requirements.

As for your Flasks, make sure you split them evenly between HP and FP. Depending on your ability to dodge out of harm’s way, you may opt to tip the scales towards HP, but you’ll have to be efficient with your Carian Slicer usage.

Items

When picking up early armor in Elden Ring, the rule of thumb is simple: as long as you don’t fat roll, wear it. This holds true for this Battlemage build. Any items you find can be regarded as complementary so long as you can at least medium roll. If you find an item that adds to your Intelligence stat, then put it on.

For your weapons, you’ve got a good start with the Estoc, but you can also choose to go with a Rapier or any other one-handed Dexterity weapon. As for your start, you should seek out the Demi-Human Queen’s Staff as soon as you’re strong enough. It’s head and shoulders above your Glintstone Staff and will serve you well for a long time to come.

Skills & Spells

Impaling Thrust is a solid choice for the weapons you’ll be using with this build. Not only will it ignore 85% of your foes’ damage negation if they have shields, but also it’ll give you a way to close the gap from the midrange.

As already mentioned, you’ll want Scholar’s Armament, Glintstone Pebble, and Carian Slicer for your spells, as they’re the core of your early Battlemage build.

Late Game (Level 50-100)

Overview & Strategy

We’re switching gears in the mid-to-late game part of Elden Ring, which means we’ll start to get a bit pickier with our items. Your strategy will now shift to using Scholar’s Armament on a Rapier while at the same time unleashing Glintstone Phalanx for added damage and support.

The Ash of War does some pretty decent Stagger to foes, allowing you to go for a critical strike with your Rapier. Thanks to its high Crit rating, you’ll be able to make quick work of tough enemies.

As with the early build, Pebble is still available to trim down large groups of enemies from afar. You’ll also now switch to using Carian Greatsword when you find yourself swarmed. It’ll also work wonders when riding Torrent.

Stats & Flasks

As you might have built a decent amount of Vigor by now, you’ll want to make it a secondary stat and focus more on Dexterity. Because your big source of damage is going to come from those critical blows, you’ll want to buff up your Rapier’s potency as much as possible. Of course, don’t leave Intelligence on the back foot, as it’s still equally as important due to all the spells and buffs you are using.

For your Flasks, you’re going to start learning more about FP rather than HP, but only a bit. Keeping yourself alive is still going to be challenging due to your squishiness, so make sure you can heal enough times.

Items

Time to get specific about our armor. For this part of your build, you’ll want to pick up the Carian Knight Set. It’s a fitting set of items that’s quite easy to obtain at this point in the game. Its main advantage is that it’s balanced for both Physical and Magical defense while also offering some great elemental protection.

At 25.1 weight, it’s also pretty solid for your needs as it keeps you just a bit out of fat rolling range.

As for your weapons, you should look to replace your Estoc with a Rapier if you haven’t already. Your staff can remain as is.

Skills & Spells

Now’s the time to do some skill upgrading. Specifically, you’ll want to retire Impaling Thrust and replace it with the Ash of War called Glintblade Phalanx. It’s going to give you that much-needed Stagger potential that’ll open up challenging enemies to critical strikes.

All of your spells can remain the same except for Carian Slicer. Now that we’ve got a new win condition, we no longer need it, which leaves us open to using a more AoE-oriented spell. For this, you’ll want to get Carian Greatsword, which deals big damage in an arch in front and around you.

Endgame (Level 100+)

Overview & Strategy

You’ve finally made it. You’ve crossed the boundary and into the game’s late-game stages. Now, you’re ready to do some serious damage and make your Battlemage build that much more interesting.

For this upgraded build, you’ll want an entirely new set of items and a few updates to your spells and skills. The main change to your items will come in the form of the Jellyfish Shield. Yeah, we know. We said that shields aren’t great for Battlemages, but at this point, you’ve got more than enough power to handle using one. Plus, this one is special.

It comes with a Skill attached called Contagious Fury. Activating it will increase your attack power by 20% for 30 seconds, which is pretty huge. To take full advantage of this buff, we switch back to relying on Carian Slicer for damage.

For bosses, you’ll be switching to using a Dagger in your right hand to buff yourself with Royal Knight’s Resolve. In tandem with your Contagious Fury buff and your Carian Slicer attacks, you’ll melt boss health bars in the blink of an eye.

Your spell library remains largely the same, with the inclusion of Loretta’s Greatbow to make quick work of all enemies that dear attack you from afar.

Stats & Flask

Your primary stat can now be purely focused on Intelligence to beef up your spell damage exponentially. Mind and Vigor can both be given some love when you deem it appropriate. Strength is also a feasible option due to the Jellyfish Shield but doesn’t spend much here unless necessary.

For your Flasks, you’ll want most charge to be in FP, with a few necessary ones in HP. Your mana consumption will grow a fair bit at this stage, so you’ll need the extra juice.

Items

When it comes to armor, pretty much any set of items will do, as long as you are medium rolling at the most. The above-mentioned Carian Knight set is still a decent option to keep, but if it’s no longer your style, you can experiment with other sets.

For your weapons, the items you’re looking for are the Carian Glintstone Staff and a Dagger. The staff is one of the best in the game for spectral weapons like Carian Slicer, as it adds a 15% boost to their damage. You’ll also see a noticeable uptick in your Carian Greatsword’s potency.

Of course, you’ll also want to get the Jellyfish Shield for the Contagious Fury buff.

Skills & Spells

The main skills you’ll need will both come pre-equipped on your Dagger and shield. Contagious Fury will give you a 20% buff to your attack damage, while Royal Knight’s Resolve will add extra damage to your next attack.

For your spells, you’ll be keeping Carian Slicer, Carian Greatsword, and Glintstone Pebble. In addition, you’ll also want Loretta’s Greatbow for some ranged fun and Carian Piercer to give yourself an extra attack that’s useful against shield-bearing enemies.

How to Upgrade Past Level 150

At level 150, the sky is pretty much the limit when it comes to your build and items in Elden Ring. Your power level is pretty high, so you can make a few choices of your own.

As for what would make a natural upgrade pathway for this Battlemage build, you can opt to continue using the Jellyfish Shield as the buff is pretty good. You can replace the Dagger with Lusat’s Glintstone Staff, which is even stronger for spells like Carian Slicer.

You can also swap out Carian Greatsword for Adula’s Moonblade to deal with bigger foes and large groups. Finally, you can beef up this build further by adding some Frostbite into the mix. Two spells that’ll give you this capability are Freezing Mist and Glintstone Icecrag.

For your items, you’ll definitely need the Snow Witch Hat to boost your frost sorcery potency. You can also further enhance your power with Graven-School Talisman, Graven-Mass Talisman, Magic Scorpion Charm, and Ritual Sword Talisman.

Struggling to Make This Build?

Putting together a build is fun but can also be time-consuming. If you don't have the time to level up and gather the resources you need, you can buy Elden Ring runes directly from MmoGah.com. It's fast and simple!

And if you want to just dive into using our Battlemage build without needing to grab all the gear you need, we've got a nice stock of Elden Ring items you can buy to enjoy some build experimentation hassle-free.