Elden Ring Melee Build Guide: Mastering Close-Quarters Combat

Elden Ring offers immense flexibility when it comes to character builds. With hundreds of weapons, spells, skills, and more to choose from, you can create unique playstyles catered to your preferences. In this 1900-word guide, we‘ll explore some of the best melee builds for dominating enemies at close range.

Overview of Melee Builds

Melee builds focus on high damage output through weapons and skills. Rather than relying on spells or ranged attacks, you get up close and personal with enemies. The key stats for melee users are:

• Vigor – Increases your health and survivability in battles. You‘ll need high vigor to withstand hits.
• Endurance – Determines your stamina and equip load. With more endurance, you can swing weapons and dodge more often.
• Strength/Dexterity – Boosts attack power for strength and dexterity-scaled weapons respectively. Prioritize one over the other.

We‘ll cover top melee builds utilizing these stats effectively:

Bandit Bleed Build – Fast and aggressive playstyle using bleed and blood skills. Great for PvE.
Moonveil Samurai – Blends magic and melee with the powerful Moonveil katana. Well-rounded for most content.
Colossal Weapon Warrior – Extremely high strength for staggering enemies with colossal weapons. Fun brute force playstyle.
Parry-Riposte Fencer – Focuses on parrying and critical attacks. Rewarding but challenging to master.

Now let‘s explore these builds in-depth!

Bleed Bandit: Aggressive Melee Pressure

The Bandit class makes for an excellent bleed-focused melee build in Elden Ring. With high arcane and dexterity, you can shred through enemies by inflicting constant hemorrhage damage. This build also utilizes the Bloodhound Step ash of war for evasive maneuvers in battle.

Key Gear

• Weapons: Blood infused hook claws, raptor talons or similar dex/arcane armaments
• Ash of War: Bloodhound Step – replace your weapon‘s skill with this for enhanced mobility
• Armor: White Mask to boost attack power when enemies bleed
• Talisman: Lord of Blood‘s Exultation to amplify damage against bleeding enemies

How It Works

The key is to play aggressively – get in close and unleash a flurry of attacks while dodging with Bloodhound Step as needed. Keep pressure on the enemy so bleed builds up quickly. The white mask and talisman synergize to exponentially increase your damage.

This high-risk, high-reward style is perfect for experienced players but can be difficult for newer ones. Make sure to keep your equip load low for fast dodges!

Moonveil Samurai: Magic Warrior Hybrid

Blending powerful magic with melee skills, this prisoner build revolves around the Moonveil katana found in Mt. Gelmir. It delivers exceptionally high damage and stance breaks easily. By investing in both intelligence and dexterity, you get excellent spell-casting and weapon capabilities.

Key Gear

• Weapon: Moonveil Katana – Shreds enemies with its weapon skill Transient Moonlight
• Staff: Carian Regal Scepter for heavy sorcery damage like Glintstone Cometshard
• Spell: Glintstone Pebble and Carian Slicer give strong ranged magic attacks
• Armor: Battlemage armor provides solid physical and magic protection

How It Works

The Moonveil‘s weapon skill can one-shot most standard enemies. You can quickly stagger larger foes for a critical hit. Use ranged spells like Glintstone Pebble to weaken enemies as you close distance.Then punish with the Moonveil‘s skill or strong attack combos.

This versatile build handles groups and bosses well. New players can also adapt it easily by relying on the Moonveil‘s power!

Colossal Weapon Warrior: Raw Strength

If you love giant hammers, axes and greatswords – the colossal weapon warrior is the melee build for you! Using the Hero class, you push strength to the limits to flatten enemies with each earth-shaking blow. Slow but utterly destructive!

Key Gear

• Weapons: Grafted Greatsword, Giant Crusher etc – the bigger the strength requirement the better!
• Ash of War: Lion‘s Claw adds a devastating charged jump attack
• Armor: Bull Goat set offers massive poise to tank through enemy hits
• Talisman: Axe Talisman for charge attack damage and Great-Jar‘s Arsenal to equip heavy weapons

How It Works

Colossal weapons are extremely slow, often leaving you vulnerable. However, the insane damage makes up for it. With Bull-Goat armor providing super armor and axe talisman boosting each charged heavy blow, you can smash through areas and stagger larger beasts with ease.

Time your charged attacks carefully though. Patience is key until an opening reveals itself for you to crush all opposition!

Parry and Riposte Fencer: Precise Swordsmaster

The parry focused build requires mastery of timing and precision to pull off, but delivers immense satisfaction. Using a buckler shield and keen infused thrusting sword, you can counter enemy blows to land devastating ripostes.

Key Gear

• Weapon: Any thrusting sword with keen infusion like the Estoc
• Shield: Buckler with Carian Retaliation ash of war for parry skills
• Armor: Light armor that doesn‘t weigh you down. Insctitor Outfit provides great elemental defense.
• Talisman: Dagger Talisman to increase critical damage after parries

How It Works

The buckler shield has generous parry frames making it ideal. Bait enemies into attacking, parry perfectly then riposte for massive damage. You can also utilize Carian Retaliation to reflect enemy spells back!

Weaknesses are range and groups of foes. But with practice, no enemy is safe from your precise reaction parries and lethal counters. Lock on to a single target, wait for an attack then make them pay.

Master this elegant yet deadly swordsman playstyle for perhaps the most satisfying melee experience Elden Ring offers!

Conclusion

Elden Ring revels in build variety, letting you craft unique warrior styles to your liking. These melee setups provide just a taste of what‘s possible to unleash at close quarters. There are no wrong answers, as you leverage your preferred weapons, skills and attributes!

Some additional fun melee archetypes to try include: frenzied flame berserkers, frost elemental knights, dragon incantation paladins, guard counter sentinels and so much more.

Mix matching gear and experiment freely. That joyful journey of discovery is what makes each playthrough special.

Now get out there, Tarnished warrior. Blade in hand, meet your foes eye to eye – and unleash melee mayhem upon them!