Phantom Slash, Youwy has talked this one to death, but I somewhat recently got this ash (mostly because I just ignored that Night's Cavalry) and it's AMAZING for several reasons; 1. Even if you get staggered out of your attack, the phantom will still attack 2. It can stun lighter enemies (Banished Knights) making your own attack safe 3. It covers a lot of distance, making it a pseudo-ranged AoW 4. You can send the phantom one way while dashing a DIFFERENT direction (like to the side), meaning that you can use it to dodge 5. It does solid damage even if you chose to dash a different direction from what you're attacking It's a lot of fun locking onto something, then breaking lock after hitting LT/L2 and going to the side while the phantom attacks for you.
Tip for spectral lance: its damage is not dependant on AR but just on weapon lvl, so short spear is the most efficient use of weight (even implied by animation lol)
@@joeyjones9041 totally, not to mention the uniqueness and fun factor. I run dual Guardian Swordspears, and I sometimes use it on my off-hand one (I usually have ice spear on it for ranged damage and utility)
@@AdAce21 I use Giant Hunt on a Guardian Swordspear on my Faith Holy Paladin build, sometimes dual Swordspears, and it terrifies people in pvp lol. Between that, Ordovis's Greatsword, and Inseparable Sword, my Holy Paladin is really good in pvp, and as far as I can recall, its undefeated in pvp. I have 10 builds/characters so I haven't done a ton of pvp with each build. But yeah, it's one of the better performers. My Faith/Dexterity Lightning build uses two Banished Knight Halberds, one with Stormcaller, and the other with Storm Assault, I use a couple of Banished Knight Greatswords as well, Storm Blade, Lightning Slash, and one other but I can't remember atm, on the Guardian Swordspears I run again Giant Hunt and Thunderbolt on the other. Really good move set for Dual Halberds. My Lightning build uses the entire Banished Knight Armor Set, Unaltered with the Cape, except I used the Greathelm and his backstory is one of the Elite Banished Knights that served the Storm Lord Placidusax and therefore uses Ancient Dragon Lightning Incantations and Lightning and Storm themed Ashes of War to go with the theme. I also have Dual Bolt of Gransax Spears and Dual Dragon King's Cragblades, but I'm not huge on the Pokey playstyle so I stick to the regular weapons. I try to have all my builds have a theme and backstory that fits them in a particular faction or area of the Lands Between. To me that is one of the coolest aspects of the game. Anyways sorry for the novel, have a good one lol
@Joey Jones you got some cool builds going dude. and I also use giant's hunt; it's just too good not to use. I do prefer Piercing fang against many of the bosses since it's faster though and the damage is comparable
@@AdAce21 Thank you! I run Piercing Fang a lot on some of my builds, It comes out quickly and does solid damage, I like to use it on Standard Greatswords like the Iron Greatsword.
This thing was nuts on my shield + spear run. Carried me for awhile and then had uses against deathbirds and so on even later (when black flame tornado was too hard to set up)
I really like Lion's Claw, Troll's Roar, Earthshaker, and I get great results with them, but everyone says they're trash lol. Lion's Claw on Golem's Halberd will pancake Malenia, she has no answer for it lol. I personally don't care for the straight buff Ashes like Cragblade and Seppuku, I like a dedicated offensive attack for my Ashes but I can definitely see why people like them. Does crazy damage on the right setup. There's a couple Ashes I've literally never used Stamp Sweep, Charge Forth, and Square off are among them lol, just doesn't speak to me
Storm Blade spanks Fire Giant and most enemies, it's really good in pvp and pve, I like to run it on a Greatsword or Dual Bandit's or Dual Grossmesser Curved Swords. I agree with just about every pick. My top 10 Ashes of War 1) Giant's Hunt 2) Lion's Claw 3) Vacuum Slice 4) Storm Blade 5) Sword Dance 6) Bloody Slash 7) Sacred Blade 8) Waves of Darkness 9) Flaming Strike 10) Phantom Slash Tons of honorable mentions that work really well like Stamp Upward Cut, Piercing Fang, Eruption, Prelate's Charge, Golden Land, Blood Blade, Carian Grandeur(if you can time it right, does crazy damage), Thunderbolt and Lightning Slash, Various Roars, Ice Spear, Spectral Lance, and Chilling Mist. I love Gravitas and Troll's Roar but people seem to think they're kind of trash. It all depends on how you use it and what build/weapon you're using.
@@JT48373 not a Colossal Greatsword, but Standard Greatswords yes you can. I personally prefer the Iron Greatsword that you can farm from the Leonine Misbegotten. I have at least two of them with different Ashes on all my builds. Really good AR on all Affinities and I just like the look and move set of the Iron Greatsword. There's one in the Capital of Leyndell by the chill dog that doesn't attack, right before you leave to the Forbidden Lands and Mountaintops of the Giants, and then there's two at the Haligtree that I've got them from. One is really close to a Site Of Grace so perfect for farming, but if you want it earlier then the Capital is your best bet, the run back an forth from the grace sucks ass tho. I know Lost and Saint_Riot have videos using it and talking about it. It is among my favorite weapons in Elden Ring.
@@JT48373 that would be nuts lol, you can run Sacred Blade on the Guts Greatsword, it's very similar with the fairly quick ranged attack and the follow up buff.
Random question but would Ice Spear work better in the Cross Naginata or Clayman's Harpoon? Main stats are INT/DEX btw, although Dex is a bit on the lower side.
Way better on clayman ‘s harpoon, the scaling is fantastic, naginata is better in general, because in more versatile, but not in this case, ice spear is for clayman’s harpoon
The damage of the projectile itself is independent of your weapon and only depends on the affinity and stats. If you are speccing heavily into int, then clayman's will generally give you more AR on the cold /magic affinity vs a magic naginata (and bleed vs frost is personal preference from there).
What this guy said, ☝️I just got done with my Strength/Intelligence build and Ice Spear was badass on a Nightrider Glaive, I use it on a Clayman's Harpoon since it scales with Intelligence, but honestly it all depends on the moveset, which do you prefer not counting the Ash of War? I prefer the Cross Naginata's moveset. If you like the Pokey Playstyle then Clayman's Harpoon is the way to go. AR between the two probably isn't that different. Just depends on your stat allocation and the Affinity yo uh set the weapon to.
Just imagin if they add that if you give your katana with the ash of war unseath a buff for example with red dragon thunder. That you should out with the heavy hit a little range attack wich is focused on what buff you got on it.
yes. First use takes health, but as long as you don't get interrupted or stop doing the animation, you can keep spamming it from that point on without the health cost.
This should prob get nerfed to do damage on use every time. Because with that much dps and with the common 60 vigor in pvp that damage isn’t going to be noticeable unless you hella spam it
@@JT48373 I've never found it to be too big an issue in pvp. You can always parry the blood slash with carian or golden retaliation and it takes a decent amount of stamina to use for a projectile that doesn't really track and has lower than average range, making it easy to punish by outspacing with your own projectile (like thunderbolt or beast roar), or just straffing it while closing distance.
Wait I am scared now can you do weapon bleed buildup plus blood flame build up plus blood blade build up? That is insane if it’s true. I have not tried 1.09 pvp but I run level 300+ so that bleed damage can get crazy
100% agree. It’s a crime. I like Square-off better than Unsheathe. Usually don’t disagree that much w/ their repetitive lists, maybe one or two I disagree with - but this list is an abortion. No Sword Dance, Double Slash, Stormcaller, Phantom Slash, Lions Claw, Wild Strikes, Spinning Strike’s, Black Flame Tornado etc... And Blood Blade #1? Meh
@@skipjacks85 I like your list way better lol, I did agree with some of his picks like Storm Blade, but no Phantom Slash? And in my opinion Bloody Slash is better than Blood Blade. On the right weapon of course. Lions Claw is right up there with Giant Hunt for me as the best Ashes of War, Waves of Darkness on a Zweihander or Great Mace/Great Stars is another badass Ash of War, Sacred Blade. I like to use Piercing Fang on an Iron Greatsword and immediately switch to Zweihander with Stamp Upward Cut or Earthshaker. Gotta have them both equipped and get the timing right but it's nasty and like Giant Hunt, it terrifies people if you hit them and they dont die outright lol
@@joeyjones9041 haha, thanks! Waves of Darkness, good call bro - I totally forgot about that one. I love that AoW, it’s devastating on a Str/Int build. Slap WoD on the Great Starts w/ Cold infusion, you have that devastating damage + bleed + frostbite & hp regen on each hit. It’s a phenomenal setup. Love Earthshaker too, awesome Poise damage. Same w/ Piercing Fang. Geez they really blew it w/ this list. It’s worse than I thought LOL. Also agree re: Bloody Slash. It’s way better than people give it credit and I prefer Bloody Slash to Blood Blade as well. And Lions Claw is absolute fire. Possibly the best AoW in the game.
Reduvia is arguably better, but this list is all non unique ashes of war. The only reason to not use reduvia is because you have no range with daggers.
@@freedmfe8934 it already feels impossible without crosshairs though, you’re just guessing on your accuracy, it feels like only an FPS god can get 100% consistent headshots without a scope.
Just a curious question, has anyone reached 700, then reset all attributes to zero, did a ng plus, went to ranala and leveled up their attributes to max? If so, do you think there is a difference if you didn't reset attributes? Who knows, it may or may not, but I highly doubt it and just asking.
Bleed as a concept run is just strong in general, in my opinion they should make it a heavy poison type thing, where you take damage over time and while you are bleeding you are more susceptible to rot/ poison. Could also open up possibilities for dlc, they could add ashes of war to counter that sort of bleed. At least with this way of bleed I’d stop being instant killed from dual reduvia spammers
@@rowlissthebenigndrow3145 it's not a game about middle age Europe. At best it borrows architectural influences for some of its fantasy tropes from medieval Europe. And Japanese devs can of course do that, the same way American animators and story tellers can borrow influences from Asian cultures (Avatar the Last Airbender being a prime example). Your own logic for this is also flawed. Why would Americans make games on middle age Europe? Shouldn't they be making games on middle age America? Also, kinda racist and offputting to refer to people from Asia (and Japan specifically) as "Orientals".
Phantom Slash, Youwy has talked this one to death, but I somewhat recently got this ash (mostly because I just ignored that Night's Cavalry) and it's AMAZING for several reasons;
1. Even if you get staggered out of your attack, the phantom will still attack
2. It can stun lighter enemies (Banished Knights) making your own attack safe
3. It covers a lot of distance, making it a pseudo-ranged AoW
4. You can send the phantom one way while dashing a DIFFERENT direction (like to the side), meaning that you can use it to dodge
5. It does solid damage even if you chose to dash a different direction from what you're attacking
It's a lot of fun locking onto something, then breaking lock after hitting LT/L2 and going to the side while the phantom attacks for you.
Hollow is the testing the hell out of elden ring weapons and AoW.
I'm all in for that. Keep up the good work!!
Don’t encourage this recycled content.
@@darrionrobinson8553 amen!!!
Tip for spectral lance: its damage is not dependant on AR but just on weapon lvl, so short spear is the most efficient use of weight (even implied by animation lol)
Honorable mentions to Lion's Claw and Piercing Fang. Piercing Fang is fast, has fantastic range, and does great damage.
Yep, those two are amazing, Phantom Slash on a Nightrider Glaive or any Halberd is badass as well.
@@joeyjones9041 totally, not to mention the uniqueness and fun factor. I run dual Guardian Swordspears, and I sometimes use it on my off-hand one (I usually have ice spear on it for ranged damage and utility)
@@AdAce21 I use Giant Hunt on a Guardian Swordspear on my Faith Holy Paladin build, sometimes dual Swordspears, and it terrifies people in pvp lol. Between that, Ordovis's Greatsword, and Inseparable Sword, my Holy Paladin is really good in pvp, and as far as I can recall, its undefeated in pvp. I have 10 builds/characters so I haven't done a ton of pvp with each build. But yeah, it's one of the better performers. My Faith/Dexterity Lightning build uses two Banished Knight Halberds, one with Stormcaller, and the other with Storm Assault, I use a couple of Banished Knight Greatswords as well, Storm Blade, Lightning Slash, and one other but I can't remember atm, on the Guardian Swordspears I run again Giant Hunt and Thunderbolt on the other. Really good move set for Dual Halberds. My Lightning build uses the entire Banished Knight Armor Set, Unaltered with the Cape, except I used the Greathelm and his backstory is one of the Elite Banished Knights that served the Storm Lord Placidusax and therefore uses Ancient Dragon Lightning Incantations and Lightning and Storm themed Ashes of War to go with the theme. I also have Dual Bolt of Gransax Spears and Dual Dragon King's Cragblades, but I'm not huge on the Pokey playstyle so I stick to the regular weapons. I try to have all my builds have a theme and backstory that fits them in a particular faction or area of the Lands Between. To me that is one of the coolest aspects of the game. Anyways sorry for the novel, have a good one lol
@Joey Jones you got some cool builds going dude. and I also use giant's hunt; it's just too good not to use. I do prefer Piercing fang against many of the bosses since it's faster though and the damage is comparable
@@AdAce21 Thank you! I run Piercing Fang a lot on some of my builds, It comes out quickly and does solid damage, I like to use it on Standard Greatswords like the Iron Greatsword.
The spear throw ash of war was something I picked up for my strength build and it became a go to for breaking stance
This thing was nuts on my shield + spear run. Carried me for awhile and then had uses against deathbirds and so on even later (when black flame tornado was too hard to set up)
Phantom slash on Heavy Nightrider Glaive +25 is my fav at de moment…
Storm caller. I belive is the one im thinking of. It has a 360 dmg radius. It become my go to ash
Yup. Just completed a new run using ice spear on godskin peeler. Was very op lmao. Also used Stormhawk Deenh to help me.
Run solo. Running w no summons made me much better
Square Off, Impaling Thrust and Wild Strikes are also great.
Shout out to craigblade, square off, lions claw we still love y’all
I really like Lion's Claw, Troll's Roar, Earthshaker, and I get great results with them, but everyone says they're trash lol. Lion's Claw on Golem's Halberd will pancake Malenia, she has no answer for it lol. I personally don't care for the straight buff Ashes like Cragblade and Seppuku, I like a dedicated offensive attack for my Ashes but I can definitely see why people like them. Does crazy damage on the right setup. There's a couple Ashes I've literally never used Stamp Sweep, Charge Forth, and Square off are among them lol, just doesn't speak to me
Storm Blade spanks Fire Giant and most enemies, it's really good in pvp and pve, I like to run it on a Greatsword or Dual Bandit's or Dual Grossmesser Curved Swords. I agree with just about every pick.
My top 10 Ashes of War
1) Giant's Hunt
2) Lion's Claw
3) Vacuum Slice
4) Storm Blade
5) Sword Dance
6) Bloody Slash
7) Sacred Blade
8) Waves of Darkness
9) Flaming Strike
10) Phantom Slash
Tons of honorable mentions that work really well like Stamp Upward Cut, Piercing Fang, Eruption, Prelate's Charge, Golden Land, Blood Blade, Carian Grandeur(if you can time it right, does crazy damage), Thunderbolt and Lightning Slash, Various Roars, Ice Spear, Spectral Lance, and Chilling Mist. I love Gravitas and Troll's Roar but people seem to think they're kind of trash. It all depends on how you use it and what build/weapon you're using.
Wait can you run storm blade on ultra greatsword? Just seems like it would be op because poise on innacial hit and then bleed if you have it on
@@JT48373 not a Colossal Greatsword, but Standard Greatswords yes you can. I personally prefer the Iron Greatsword that you can farm from the Leonine Misbegotten. I have at least two of them with different Ashes on all my builds. Really good AR on all Affinities and I just like the look and move set of the Iron Greatsword. There's one in the Capital of Leyndell by the chill dog that doesn't attack, right before you leave to the Forbidden Lands and Mountaintops of the Giants, and then there's two at the Haligtree that I've got them from. One is really close to a Site Of Grace so perfect for farming, but if you want it earlier then the Capital is your best bet, the run back an forth from the grace sucks ass tho. I know Lost and Saint_Riot have videos using it and talking about it. It is among my favorite weapons in Elden Ring.
@@JT48373 that would be nuts lol, you can run Sacred Blade on the Guts Greatsword, it's very similar with the fairly quick ranged attack and the follow up buff.
Unsheathe imo is a good option for the entire game, of course there are better options but definitely not limited to early game
So glad to see unsheathe get some love, it's my favorite ash and I'm currently running it with a blood flame katana
Giant hunt on the Greatsword, turns every humanoid enemy including all npc invaders into a joke. A bit harder on pvp tho
Switch to the zweilhander for R2 poke , leads right into giants hunt and lands all the time in pvp.
Double Seppuku Occult Flamberges is very fun to use, and procs bleed on basically every jumping L1. Jus' sayin'.
Dual Scavvys is faster, get 4 hits in air, but that's also cool
Im more of a fan of lions claw cuz it has amazing hyper armor
I beat the whole game with a keen uchigatana and the unsheath skill with no weapon buffs. The skill is definitely amazing.
Unsheathe carried me for three different builds. Int Dex, Faith Dex and Faith Str. I stand behind Unsheathe one of the best Ashes in the game.
Flaming strike plus erdsteel dagger with faith is a nice thing
Eruption with great star is extremely cool
Check out Eruption on Butcher Knife, and Sacred Blade on Erdsteel, if you're running Fai, although Great 🌟 is excellent for Eruption
@@jonnybravvo4282 you mean golden slam or?
@@Blutgolem Sacred Blade. My bad
What armor are you using in the unsheath part of the vid? 0:54
I’ll definitely gonna give eruption try after this vid. Looks fun.
Square off never gets any love, it’s a hidden gem.
I would say the moonveil ash of war is basically unsheathe but whatever.
Random question but would Ice Spear work better in the Cross Naginata or Clayman's Harpoon?
Main stats are INT/DEX btw, although Dex is a bit on the lower side.
Way better on clayman ‘s harpoon, the scaling is fantastic, naginata is better in general, because in more versatile, but not in this case, ice spear is for clayman’s harpoon
The damage of the projectile itself is independent of your weapon and only depends on the affinity and stats. If you are speccing heavily into int, then clayman's will generally give you more AR on the cold /magic affinity vs a magic naginata (and bleed vs frost is personal preference from there).
What this guy said, ☝️I just got done with my Strength/Intelligence build and Ice Spear was badass on a Nightrider Glaive, I use it on a Clayman's Harpoon since it scales with Intelligence, but honestly it all depends on the moveset, which do you prefer not counting the Ash of War? I prefer the Cross Naginata's moveset. If you like the Pokey Playstyle then Clayman's Harpoon is the way to go. AR between the two probably isn't that different. Just depends on your stat allocation and the Affinity yo uh set the weapon to.
Just imagin if they add that if you give your katana with the ash of war unseath a buff for example with red dragon thunder. That you should out with the heavy hit a little range attack wich is focused on what buff you got on it.
On blood blade, it looked like when you were chaining it into itself it only took health on the initial usage. Is that how it's supposed to work?
yes. First use takes health, but as long as you don't get interrupted or stop doing the animation, you can keep spamming it from that point on without the health cost.
This should prob get nerfed to do damage on use every time. Because with that much dps and with the common 60 vigor in pvp that damage isn’t going to be noticeable unless you hella spam it
@@JT48373 I've never found it to be too big an issue in pvp. You can always parry the blood slash with carian or golden retaliation and it takes a decent amount of stamina to use for a projectile that doesn't really track and has lower than average range, making it easy to punish by outspacing with your own projectile (like thunderbolt or beast roar), or just straffing it while closing distance.
@@common_undead it's really only great close range imo
Wait I am scared now can you do weapon bleed buildup plus blood flame build up plus blood blade build up? That is insane if it’s true. I have not tried 1.09 pvp but I run level 300+ so that bleed damage can get crazy
Square-Off didn't make it? A sad day, indeed.
100% agree. It’s a crime. I like Square-off better than Unsheathe. Usually don’t disagree that much w/ their repetitive lists, maybe one or two I disagree with - but this list is an abortion. No Sword Dance, Double Slash, Stormcaller, Phantom Slash, Lions Claw, Wild Strikes, Spinning Strike’s, Black Flame Tornado etc... And Blood Blade #1? Meh
@@skipjacks85 I like your list way better lol, I did agree with some of his picks like Storm Blade, but no Phantom Slash? And in my opinion Bloody Slash is better than Blood Blade. On the right weapon of course. Lions Claw is right up there with Giant Hunt for me as the best Ashes of War, Waves of Darkness on a Zweihander or Great Mace/Great Stars is another badass Ash of War, Sacred Blade. I like to use Piercing Fang on an Iron Greatsword and immediately switch to Zweihander with Stamp Upward Cut or Earthshaker. Gotta have them both equipped and get the timing right but it's nasty and like Giant Hunt, it terrifies people if you hit them and they dont die outright lol
@@joeyjones9041 haha, thanks! Waves of Darkness, good call bro - I totally forgot about that one. I love that AoW, it’s devastating on a Str/Int build. Slap WoD on the Great Starts w/ Cold infusion, you have that devastating damage + bleed + frostbite & hp regen on each hit. It’s a phenomenal setup. Love Earthshaker too, awesome Poise damage. Same w/ Piercing Fang. Geez they really blew it w/ this list. It’s worse than I thought LOL. Also agree re: Bloody Slash. It’s way better than people give it credit and I prefer Bloody Slash to Blood Blade as well. And Lions Claw is absolute fire. Possibly the best AoW in the game.
@@skipjacks85 if I could like your comment twice I would, lmao, I couldn't agree more with everything you said
Any ash of war can slap when you buff stack. I've been relying on unsheath since day 1
I've w8 for this video ❤thx
So for pve should I use giant hunt or lion claw
Spirit slash is also amazing
Lion's Claw is one of the best where is that ?
Idk might of got nerfed I was surprised to saying giant hunt was up there and tha wasn’t
It's amazing, but the recovery now feels like it takes a little too long when compared to something like Giant Hunt.
@@dynamicflashy I test it and is still really good
Unsheathe is brutal until new game +4 with mixed attributes.
Great list, and great music!! TY
How did spinning strikes not make the list?
I never heard of red mane flame and ice spear where can I get them
Wait I thought storm blade no longer applies status?
i cant find giant hunt
youtube data is incorrect
is reduvia still better or did they made blood blade now better than reduvia so blood blade actually gets usefull ?
Reduvia is arguably better, but this list is all non unique ashes of war. The only reason to not use reduvia is because you have no range with daggers.
No Waves of Darkness?
Blood blade at top 🔝 nahhhh
Oh yeah, Spectral Lance is the best.
POWER!!!!!
How do you headshot? I can only lock on to the body.
@@freedmfe8934 but then I can’t hit anything reliably, locking on guarantees that.
@@freedmfe8934 it already feels impossible without crosshairs though, you’re just guessing on your accuracy, it feels like only an FPS god can get 100% consistent headshots without a scope.
You can only use unsheat on katanas sooo, its not universal
Niceu
Do not follow this advice. You willa absolutely get hard stuck endgame or in ng+ and beyond.
Just a curious question, has anyone reached 700, then reset all attributes to zero, did a ng plus, went to ranala and leveled up their attributes to max? If so, do you think there is a difference if you didn't reset attributes? Who knows, it may or may not, but I highly doubt it and just asking.
Pretty sad that bleed bs is still dumb strong
Bleed as a concept run is just strong in general, in my opinion they should make it a heavy poison type thing, where you take damage over time and while you are bleeding you are more susceptible to rot/ poison. Could also open up possibilities for dlc, they could add ashes of war to counter that sort of bleed. At least with this way of bleed I’d stop being instant killed from dual reduvia spammers
@@JT48373 yea i wish maybe it just cut healing in half and did maybe 5% of current health. 10% of max hp is just wayyyy to strong
@@JT48373 get sum range from them. You'll be ok
Elden Ring was made by Americans!!!!
???
@@common_undead Why would Orientals make a game about Middle Age Europe???
@@rowlissthebenigndrow3145 it's not a game about middle age Europe. At best it borrows architectural influences for some of its fantasy tropes from medieval Europe.
And Japanese devs can of course do that, the same way American animators and story tellers can borrow influences from Asian cultures (Avatar the Last Airbender being a prime example). Your own logic for this is also flawed. Why would Americans make games on middle age Europe? Shouldn't they be making games on middle age America?
Also, kinda racist and offputting to refer to people from Asia (and Japan specifically) as "Orientals".