Please remember this video is just for fun, it isn't a be all end all. Some of you are getting pretty hostile in the comments. Everyone's list is going to be different. The reason I had them do a 1v1 against bosses was to show how much damage they do on their own. It would be very difficult for me to measure how good a spirit is if I'm attacking them simultaneously. If a spirt summon can almost kill or completely kill a boss on their own, then obviously they are a strong spirit summon. I also couldn't include EVERY spirit because this would have been like 2 hours long. Depending on your play style, weapons, and stats, everyone's experience is going to be different.
Redmane knight ogha has a special move he can do as well if you stand near him and use battle cry or whatever the hell its called he shoots a bunch of gravity arrows in the air at the enemies but he can only do that once per summon.
I think the problem with these tests is leaving the summons to 1v1 a boss is a bad play. As like in the case of the Jellyfish or Finlay, they are support summons... not really meant to solo tank/fight a boss for you but it outputs some pretty consistent DPS with their DOTS and can take the occasional hit, and in Finlay's case give you a fantastic buff. In general you are right about the pros and cons, but you are using the support summons wrong which heavily skews the result. You have to get in there and either fight the fight as well for the most accurate test, or use the threat generating item, imo.
The lone wolf ashes were the first ones I maxed out in level. Had nothing to do with their end game viability. They just helped me so much in early and mid game that I felt obligated to reward them.
I take it this is from a Melee player's perspective. As glass cannon Mage, the Great Shield Soldiers are S+ tier. They surround a mob in a way that both distracts the boss and prevents them from moving much. This makes it super easy to annihilate them quickly with Commet Azure. They might not be good for soloing the boss...but that's not really the point.
Well I ranked them based off of how well they did on their own. But those are some good points, everyone's list will be different based on the build which is what I think is so cool. Tons of replay value.
the great shields all survived my godfrey and let me obliterate raddagon elden beast sadly melted them. but yeah great shields are mages best friend i assume jelly is similar for melee builds but unsure as im not a melee
@@scycosis One unit can't surround the boss though. Bosses move much less when they are surrounded. Making it much easier to finish them quickly. For melee, it is a different story.
The Dung Eater does Bleed Damage, He buffs his damage, debuffs the enemies damage and defense, he casts ranged attacks, and he is a monsterous tank. Theres a reason he is a nightmare to fight again
If your struggling with not being able to summon high fp summons you can set your physic potion with the cerulean hidden tear which gives you unlimited fp for 10 seconds allowing you to summon anyone within that 10 seconds even if you don’t have the right level of fp 👍🏼
oh shit thanks for the tip! I didn't even think about that. I got dung eater as a summon but was like gah I don't have enough FP to summon him. well this solves that problem
Bonus about Latenna: I also thought she was stationnary and pretty good already... but then I found out today through a youtube clip she has a mobility option: wolves. If you summon her in a zone containing wild wolves, and one of them gets close to her, she will tame it and ride it, increasing her attacking speed and allowing her to run around at mach speed. It doesn't really do anything in most, if not all, boss fights, since wolves are mostly found in the overworld and not in boss rooms, but it's a cool hidden mechanic unique to her. Edit: Many of the comments have specified this to me, so I will correct a bit of misinformation on my part: it doesn't work on ALL wolves, only SOME wolves. They have to be about as big as the wolf she had when you get her ashes, so dire wolf size. The wolves in front of the Ranni Castle work, but I don't know if they appear in other places in the world.
Fun fact about Letannya: if you use her ashes when fighting wolves, there’s a chance she will jump on one of the wolves and ride it around while firing her arrows. Completely caught me off guard when she did that.
The shieldmen are def top tier. Their ability to welcome nearly every boss to the west side of watever realm they reside in by relentlessly curb stomping them into a corner is unprecedented.
They did help me against the Elden Beast. Like, a lot! They did the agro and I could kill it without taking damage. Tiche and Mimic didn't cut it this time so I agree with you on this one. They are top tier for sure! At least on some bosses.
@@TheJensL glad to hear it! I had to resort back to the mimic for Rad and Elden Beast, they triggered his aoe way too much fo me, but against 85% of the rest of the game sheildmen are great!
@@KillingMachine56656 Tiche and mimic are still my go to, but on the final boss they took point and I got time to rain down deadly meteors on the bastard so that he died. That's all 🤷♂️
Having used the Jellyfish, I think the issue is that it's tier is based on how well it does on it's own. Jellyfish is a pretty decent tank and is good as a support spirit. It's good for players who want to use spirits but want a more active role in the fight.
@nguyentranthanhlong5452 yah but ur bad at the game that's why u wanna use the mimic it's basiclly playing the game on easy mode some of us are not straight noobs so we don't need mimic
I feel like summons should be judged in different categories Like there’s summons that are support, aggressive summons, defensive summons, etc Anyone else agree? (Also Tiche is probably the best summon imo (next to the mimic depending on your build))
The Skeletal Militiamen are also pretty good, since they revive themselves endlessly as long as they aren't hit while they are reforming on the ground once their HP hits 0. This can make them very handy against certain bosses. They're not great against something like the Magma Wyrm since they're a melee summon and the Magma Wyrm can leave those pools of magma behind, and they're also less effective against bosses with AOE multi-hit attacks. But against a boss like the Leonine Misbegotten that is pretty much just a single-target boss, they are a near-constant presence as long as you can survive long enough for them to revive whenever they get downed.
Yeah, these tests really only rank how good summons are if you go AFK. Ashes that do status buildup or multi-creature ashes that can constantly interrupt enemy attacks are FAR more useful in many (most if you're a melee build) situations.
One of my favorite summons, that I didn't see mentioned, is Stormhawk Deenh. The bird flies around dive-bombing enemies and will occasionally screech, giving you a HP regen buff. Definitely won't solo any bosses but it's a great support summon.
Stormhawk deenh is also one of my favs, uppon summoning he gives you an instant buff for attack damage and he’s great for tacking agro, he doesn’t have a lot of health but still a great summon. And he just looks badass!
I had the Hawk Bro out during the invisible mage city in Caelid. Hawk Bro gave ZERO SHITS about their invisibility, dive bombing them back to reality. It was hilarious and I didnt even get a spell shot at me the whole time
I use Latenna surprisingly a lot. Her range insane and her glint arrows track. If there’s a high ground overlooking a boss location you can leave her up there where’s she’s safe. Alternatively you can play tank with Shabriri’s woe equipped to help force aggro and let her do all the work.
I 100% agree. Cannot stress enough how good she is if you are playing a melee build. Her range is amazing and her arrows actually stagger tf outta enemies combined with ur hit, I staggered every single boss I fought with her at least once. She is squishy at first but if you upgrade her and she can take a beating not a tank obviously but deals consistently good damage with shit ton of range and stagger value.
ik, been using her all the way in my second playthrough, she does some INSANE DAMAGE when she is able to fire constantly, besides, being the only spirit beside jelyfish that has a questline, makes a lore friendly build for my taste :D
@@anmakesart i mostly play melee builds and latenna is probably the best summon for me. She’s really good at fighting flying bosses and ditching out constant dps and maintaining your poise damage against bosses.
Another thing about the red mane knight, using the “war cry” ash of war when he is summoned, makes him do a rain of arrows (he can only do this once per summon but it’s still pretty cool
Interesting note about the Latenna the Albinauric: if you summon her and she makes contact with a wild wolf, she will tame the wolf and ride around on it like the Albinaurics you see in the mountain top of the giants area.
@@BigHuskyGG it needs to happen every time for her to be mobile. Unfortunately, she doesn’t keep the wolf, but regardless she’s a powerful archer and the wolf thing should be seen as a solid bonus where applicable.
@@nicholasballesteros4448 ah understandable thanks for letting me know! I didn't get her summon on my first playthrough so I'll definitely get it in this NG+ run
Can't sleep on the Imps. They're melee or midrange, VERY aggressive and VERY fast, with bleed weapons and grenades. Some enemies have trouble just trying to land hits on them. They're not tanky though. Good B or *maybe* A rank summons, especially early game.
One of the things I really love about Elden Ring is that almost everything can be viable depending on your build. And that can be especially true for spirit ashes: magic based spirits might be low tier if you are also a magic build and same if you're a tank with a tank spirit, but if you get spirits that are a different class as yours those can be the defining factor of whether you win or lose. Love trying them all out whenever I change my builds!
That is true but some spirit ashes, especially regular ones, will just sadly never find a home because they are average at everything instead of filling a combat role that a player needs.
@@griffinwik the strictly average ones still are just fun though. Super fun wearing blaidds armor and clearing out dungeons or areas with a pack of wolves or something like that. The all rounders shouldn’t excel at anything but also shouldn’t be weak to anything in particular. Wolves are pretty bad for most bosses tho
@@thelocdesiringentryintoyou3686 I wish we could run entire dungeons and caves with our average summons to give them a little more value. Something like "regular ashes can be used anywhere but special ashes can only be used in the boss room."
Please be aware if you are using Luhtel the Headless that when it teleports, it loses aggro from the enemy(ies). You may end up surprised in a fight when it starts taking the heat and then suddenly you find yourself getting focused out of nowhere
Marionette Soldiers have literally carried me through the entire game. There are a few enemies that trounce them, but the sheer amount of stagger damage they can output and the aggro they draw is far and above any other I’ve seen. Many times a boss will shift aggro between them and basically get stunlocked, allowing you to do literally anything to them. In the double crucible knight fight, they solo’d one of them while I took down the other.
I too used Marionette Soldiers most of the game, and only stopped after getting Mimic Tear (I was at Fire Giant late when I got Mimic Tear). I agree; they're great for stagger, and deserve to be at least A+ tier on the list.
I also main the bois. I play a towershield and spear faith/strength build and they do exactly what i need them to, shoot about 4000 arrows into the ass end of the big guy im tanking hits from. Medium sized bosses they decimate and extra large ones they distract long enough for me to get the life lead i need to win.
I love those guys, they always go so hard. They’re great at distracting the boss. Every time I’m in an evergoal fight that doesn’t allow summons I’m like damn this would be so much easier with da boyz backing me up… 2 bows each, so 4 bows total 🤤 my favorite ashes for sure
Though they didn't make the list, I absolutely adore the Demi-Human ashes. I have 2 Golden Halberds so I always buff them before they go in. They are also much stronger and more aggressive at night which is a really cool detail. They're nothing special by any means but I love my little Demon Death Squad 😆
I 100% agree, they were my go to summons till mid game and I'd purposely pass time till nightfall to get that extra aggro out of them. They're super useful outside boss arenas though and it feels good when you're charging into mobs with your own mob of goblins!
The Dung Eater is even better than you think: his big AoE blast leaves a lingering debuff on enemies that lowers their dmg reduction AND resists so not only do they take more damage but statuses build up easier as well. Dung Boi is S+ tier.
I feel like the Marionette soldiers do extremely well in non-boss situations, especially compared to a lot of other summons who can die easily from being swarmed.
Personally I think they fair well enough in bosses. Like they aren’t gonna win by themselves or anything but they’re decently helpful. For non bosses ya they’re absolutely amazing, I wholeheartedly agree with you there.
One thing I do like about the lone wolf ashes is how quickly they can re-agro a boss because they are so aggressive. Like if you just pulled the boss after a big hit, it only takes a couple seconds for them to pull agro again. They definitely don't tank well though, but you can find a better balance by pulling the boss off them sometimes, especially if they are stuck in a corner or taking AOE damage or something.
Haven't seen a comment in the top 20 or so mentioning this, so PSA: if you want your spirits to attack one specific enemy, throw a Cursed-Blood Pot at it. You get the recipe from the cookbook found in the Rose Church in Liurnia.
The mimic is absolutely crazy, with staff of the dead prince and just one spell, like Adula's moonblade, he keeps using it quickly, destroying everything. He solo most of the bosses in NG+2
Even though I still died a lot, my mimic tear and I just stunlocked Melania to death with our Eleonoras. Most of the time, it would outlive me since it could tank a lot of the hits, especially the infamous waterfowl dance. Most times too, the mimic would just interrupt Malenia's waterfowl so it made the fight a lot more bearable.
@@chefalbert223 NG+ is starting a new game but you use the same character u finished the game with and u get to keep all ur equipment. The enemies deal more dmg and have more health.
I used the Demi-humans for most of my first playthrough. They helped a ton because they do pierce, slash, blunt and standard damage and just swarm the enemy. Granted, they are squishy but they can do a crap ton of damage and just destroy those annoying crystallians
I also use them. really good to help you kill at lest half of the bosses health. when they die. you would still have alot of health potions to use in the rest of the fight. the only early "half cheesing" summon in the game. I planing to use the headless and elite knight once I have enough fp. but sadly I can't level them yet. because I don't have the follows for them yet. because I only scan 60% of the world map so far in my run.
🤣🤣🤣what tough battles? I want a video or it didn't happen. I've got my character to lvl 562 and I can tell you with all the ashen remains I have the jellyfish remains one of the worst. This is a Souls game not the Tweenies so there's no room for sentimental feeling just because it's 'cute' 😂 The only use you can have for the jellyfish is to reunite her with her sister to get access to the chest.
@@johnbuchanan3455 XD Keep in mind it’s because you’re a higher level player that you’re view of things will be radically different. This is some peoples first Souls game. The Jellyfish is likely peoples first, naturally tanky, summon. Add to that it’s ability to poison the enemy, and it could make a big difference to players who are still learning their paces. True the early game bosses aren’t exactly monumental for Souls vets, but they could absolutely be challenging to people just coming in. And 562…? XD Just… why…? I mean I imagine that puts you new game +7+, but good lord…
I’ve enjoyed having Lhutel the Headless tanking for me, but the one thing I did notice is that when she disappears to teleport, the boss will also lose aggro and start coming after me instead.
Kristoff might do you better then, he has almost double the HP of Lhutel (through some testing I found out that Lhutel at +10 has between 5,200-5,500 HP, while Kristoff has between 9,600-9,800) with slightly higher damage on his spear (especially after he buffs it with his lightning strike attack)
Great review overall! However, it seems kind of hard to rank them all the same way when they aren't really supposed to be used the same way. For example, the Rot Dog isn't really built to keep aggro the whole time. If I were using the dog, I'd try to maintain aggro for the entire fight and just have the dog proc rot over and over.
@@found6393 if you have the boss attention and tiche just spams out the blood flame bosses like the dragons are going to get annihilate and for malenia she just destroys her if you get her trapped or tiche is knocking down or up her
The explosion the dung eater does also applies a debuff that reduces all damage negation and status resistances for all nearby enemies via the "Shriek of Milos" skill from his sword. So he makes you do more damage, he bleeds, has very high poise, and is pretty aggressive. Also he's such an asshole I don't feel bad at all making him my puppet.
Even though my Rotten Stray was under levelled, it was still very useful against the Draconic Tree Sentinel as the scarlet rot was very effective against it while I rode around on my horse avoiding it's attacks
I hope Fromsoft adds a bonus upgrade to Latenna when completing her questline in the future where she summons alongside her spirit wolf. She would immediately be number 1 summon from me.
@@F4M3Resistance yeah, she rides it but definitely doesn't tame it, as she continues to, as you said, shoot it in the back of the head lol...is real cool to see though!
the thing is that could make her far worse she is what he says she is a torret if you place her in some place high where the mobs cant touch her she will shoot non stop with taking hits i use her against the fire giant and she hit him through all the fight she has good range and good damage but if she mounted the wolf she cant last more than 10 seconds with some bosses but thats my opinion though but i do think that they should do like summon her again and you summon her wolf and then you can make her go
yeah, and things like the lone wolves arent meant to solo bosses, they are meant to help do some damage while you distract it. Not to mention a lot of his lower tiered ashes are early game ashes.
I agree he's using the support summons incorrectly, but I think the major point being made here is there are many ashes that can solo bosses and many other things in game without help, so naturally ones that are able to do that are inherently better than ones that you need to take aggro for so they can do the damage slower
@@aperson4319 I usually go the other way - have the ashes district the boss while I do the damage. In the case of the wolf ashes, they're great when they can stagger a boss. I can't remember who it was, but I used them to keep one boss basically perma staggered while I melted him.
@@Gr1pp717 I think where the lone wolf ashes truly excel are in the little fried areas with a lot of enemies. Against bosses they kind of aren’t the best but it’s situational.
I think all the summons are great, provided you know what each summons is for. Dont use the Greatshield bois as a melee build. Use them for a mage build. Jelly is good against anything that it can poison, and against floor based damage.
Sadly poison is kinda redundant when compared to rot inducing summons like the Stray Dog or Finlay :( Having said that, both Jelly and best boi really struggle to even proc their status effect on most end game bosses.
I'm amazed at how early you get the wolves because of how good they are for SO long. Even in the late game I found myself still using them because they are so sporadic and take the focus of the boss that I could kill the boss before they would die. They suck if you want them to kill the boss all on their own, but they make for a great team.
@@knoven- leveling up is a mechanic and the game is somewhat prepared for it unless yo go level 200 or more. Summoning npc FOR FREE without the boss getting its health buffed is absolutely broken and trivializes completely every single fight in the game to the point is not even fun.
@@JiryStark I hate to break it to you but summoning is a mechanic and the game is absolutely prepared for you to summon (and in most cases assumes you do)
some of my favorites: Cleanrot - Slow and steady boss kill with rot. Holy attacks are also a + against undead. Tiche - Awesome for fast killing bosses. Possibly the highest dps output out of all the ashes. That dot is chef's kiss. Dungeater - Insane debuffs. Therolina - Heals for days. Her aoe heal can insta stagger some enemies. (that fast/annoying multiarm grafted enemy for example) Skeletons - Great for slow bosses (like those cat stone bosses) they will never die. Headless - Great tank. Will zip through a lot of enemy attacks. Latenna - Great DPS uptime against mobile bosses, especially big mobile bosses like dragons. Doggos - My personal favorite against Crystalians. Especially great during 2v1 and 3v1 boss encounters. Stagger one and move on to the next. They will permastagger them to death lol Shieldbros - Awesome for phys/mag ranged builds. Sit back and pew pew while they hodor the enemy.
@@puffman06 totally understandable. i agree she sucks at probably 99% of the content. But in those back to back to back encounters against revenants (fast crawling mf's) in elphael, her heal insta staggers every encounter and it's a dream to watch. lol
Headless 5 shield bros Mimic tear In every boss, in its specific situations, these are the strong 3 as they are the most versatile and survive the longest
An additional note about the mimic tear is that is doesn't experience overload. If you you put on heavy armor and can't move, it can still roll, jump, and sprint as if it has a medium load.
Re overload: Does it also do full damage if I put on 2 massive greatswords that I personally can’t wield? Re warming stones: does it need to be the item currently showing when casting him, or can it for example be the fifth item on toggle?
@@Steph1 well you have to be carrying the swords when you cast him, and you have to have the warming stones in your inventory wheel. He will be able to use them.
@@SinoMaticPayne sweet, thanks. Might be a fat rolling issue but I can probably fix that faster than I can have enough strength to wield them in one hand
It does really well with a high Faith build, and you can cast things like Golden Vow and Blessing of the Erdtree on it and yourself at the beginning in many encounters. Only have strongest casts equipped when you fight the boss so it's using things like Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike and not Catch Flame.
This is a great video. It displays all these ashes in action even though I kinda disagree with how the tests are performed. You’re not wrong at all about the lower tier ashes being fragile or not dealing enough damage, but this testing environment favors the hardiest and brutalist among the summons. The lower tier ones function better as extensions of your toolkit. The wolves work great on foes that stagger easily as there’s three of them and they’re relentless, but work together best with a player who is just as relentless, gaining more aggro to keep you both alive and pummeling the boss so they can’t fight back. Similarly Dolores and Miss Jellyfish work best when YOU focus on drawing most of the aggro, as they’ll take some away while shooting at the boss to give you a chance to breathe but you have to take it back to make sure they don’t get overwhelmed (and obvi best used on foes you know are more vulnerable to sleep/poison respectively). Of course the hardy more expensive ones are more versatile in just being a staunch ally to fight alongside you, but the cheaper spirits function well if you’re using them as tools for their intended purpose. Not detracting, great video, super informative.
it depends on which boss you use em with.. obvy your gonna use weak early summons on weak early bosses.. then yes like u said u pick attacking(Wolves) or tank(Jellyfish) depending on scenario/type of enemy/boss/situational
But if something can do better then something solo. It can probably work better as a teammate. Each player and their style/build can make anything work, but some are just all around better so will work in more situations.
The Lone Wolves have always been my favorite, mostly because they're meant to compliment a playstyle rather than be backup. The way I like to think of it is they are supposed to be the pack behind their alpha, aka the player. And that player leads them, maybe takes a step back to heal sometimes while they distract the boss. So for me they've been very effective
The problem with Spirit Summon tier lists is that summons will be better or worse depending on your character's build and your playstyle. For example, if I have a purely bow/crossbow build, I'd probably find a tanky melee spirit like the Greatshield Soldiers more useful than Dolores.
Pls stop.. You know they die in 2 hits. Against Godrick Soldier they're good but whe it comes to enemies/bosses what are dealing big damage they die instantly
Any summon does the same thing it can easily distract and tank to buy you time and ur liking them just cz of a single reason which any summon can do and they're horrible against enemies which have high splash and area damage the single tanky summons are just way better than having multiple lower health summons which can't even deal as good damage as other summons
Ashes are very situational. Dolores for instance is the best against the Godskin bosses, specially the duo, but yeah, as you showed, she does not really work if the boss cannot be put to sleep. Great video, it took you a looong time to do, much appreciated.
The thing about the Jelly fish summon. It’s not about “letting the summon do the job” but more for “letting the summon distract the enemy while I’m doing some damage”
i'm gunna assume he knows this, consdidering that is obvious information regarding the Jellyfish. I knew this since early game, so im sure he knows this information , butr it still has Lower HP, so even when does distract, it doesn't do it long enough or well enough for a lot of situations. that's what ive found anyway, and im sure that he has found this also through his testing.
The jelly attacks so rarely that it's lucky if you can even use her to draw aggro, much less poison. Ok against Margit, terrible for pretty much anything after him
I’m not sure what people love so much about that jellyfish and whether it’s Just because it’s given by some hot babe Roderica but jelly fish imo is just bad all round compared to the other summons. I would say even the raya Lucaria soldiers would do better in everything from damage tanking and holding aggro.
Ancestral spirit is good because his arrows can stun enemies, really helps to break an enemies combo and let u slash away, gonna use him for whole game I think
Having 5 huge ass shiny greatarrows sticking to the boss's ass or face is the best thing about him, I died so much to his bs aimbot shots so I was extremely happy after getting him as a cheap summon, he was extremely useful through the whole game.
Greatshield soldiers solo any boss that is even slightly slow. They're really strong, S in my opinions I also feel you put way too many summons that were just "pretty good" in A tier. I feel like some of them should have gone in B at least, because this tierlist rn is very top heavy
My favorite thing about the skeleton crew is their ability to take aggro. As long as I'm engaging consistently with the boss, there's a good chance they'll survive for some time. That means that I can take a moment to rebuff or heal or reposition when I need to and feel safe that they are holding aggro for me. It also means that I can comfortably use a summon without feeling like they did all the work for me/cheesed the boss for me.
Lol I ran pretty much the entire game with Lhutel bc I was impressed with her immediately. Tried some other summons here and there and most of them fell flat in comparison - glad to see I wasn't just flat out wrong and she actually holds up!
I'm surprised about Perfurmer Tricia. My top two are her and the mimic. She's super useful. Keep her health up, and she will keep casting the protection spell as well as attacking the enemy.
in case you didnt know, stormhawk deehn is a decent pick if you are an aggressive attacker because the hawk gives a damage buff at summon and refreshes regularly
as a mage luhtel has been a lifesaver. she's never died when i've summoned her, even when i have. her teleport ability is delightful, especially when fighting multiple enemies.
I've run lhutel like the entire playthrough. She is arguably THE best spirit summon. She has a shield, a huge health pool, teleports to avoid damage and to help you instantly. Not to mention she has death on her spear and will instant kill any boss without death resistance.
@@grahamgillmor5919 after watching the video i finally got tiche and upgraded her to +10. she doesn't have as much HP as luhtel but damn she hits hard and is super aggressive attacking enemies.
Godrick Soldier Ashes are also pretty good, lower FP cost than some of the ones on this list, more HP than the wolves, and there two of them. They can use crossbows or hammer and shield, making them ideal against any enemy weak to striking damage (such as the Crystallians). Easy to get, too, since they're just in a graveyard to the west of Stormhill Shack. Honestly I'd say they're at least B tier, if not A tier against bosses vulnerable to strike damage. Definitely an early game upgrade over your starter Wolves.
You missed Stormhawk Deenth. They are pretty great, getting all the benefits that the Jellyfish has (avoiding aoes and environment damage and slams) they do decent damage, and they buff your damage with a screech skill. I like the Perfumers too, they provides decent buffs (Tricia will give the damage reduction buff from the Bubbletear) and they also use various perfumes.
I would at least argue for the Greatshield Soldier Ashes to be at least A tier. They are great at absorbing damage and they are cheap. The primary damage dealer to bosses is the player. They are great for those shy spell casters too afraid to get their hands dirty in melee! :D
"The primary damage dealer to bosses is the player" say that to Tiche :D I watched her beat the hell out of Malenia, her flame wave doing constant damage but the best part was that knock down she's doing all the time ^^ Malenia were on the ground most of the time : Tiche the bully > Malenia
For real, the greatshield soldiers have been s tier for me using dragon communion and blood spells. I just need to not get melted and I can end a boss fight pretty quick. These guys usually have most of their hp left at the end. How it's in b is just beyond me. I have Tiche and she's great, but she just doesn't keep the aggro like they can.
survival and aggro control > dps for spirits. luthel and swordstress puppets should be S tier great shield soldiers can also easily be one of the best ashes in the game
As others have pointed out this is list is..sort of...melee biased. Melee want summons that do DPS and just enough tankiness to survive distracting the boss so you can get the occasional heal off. Meanwhile Casters want summons that are MAXIMUM CHONK for distracting bosses so they can get off their high damage spells.
Lhutel is S tier in my book. Some people don't like her teleport because it drops aggro but I don't mind it because it makes her practically immortal sometimes, she can draw aggro and then phase out of a boss's grab or homing missile attack. And she's one of the tankiest summons even when she doesn't randomly dodge every attack. Tiche is S tier for bosses but Lhutel is S tier for clearing out field camps.
@@zombiekungfumaster Yeah I was surprised this person didn't put Lhutel in S tier as a solo spirit ash with no help from the actual player (it is what the test was all about). If anything he is the best solo spirit ash without help from the player due to his tankiness and teleport (avoiding attacks), to include range and melee attack, etc. The other thing better than him is a high level well put together mimic tear. Dungeater maybe a good competitor against Lhutel as well I personally do not think Latenna is an S tier solo spirit ash without help from the player.. she maybe do alright against bosses in the bigger arenas by herself, but I think she'd still get beat down quick. Her by herself she is not that good. If anything she is A tier as a solo spirit ash, maybe B. However, once you pair her with the actual player fighting along side her and especially in the larger boss arenas/areas, ie. ancestral spirit boss, astel, fire giant, etc. then she begins to become an S tier for sure
The pack of wolves are actually really useful when fighting groups of enemies in the open field, and the amount of chaos they can create is hilarious to watch
The strength of the wolves lie when combined with the player. They build up a ridiculous amount of stagger which easily triples the rate at which you get staggers in, and them coming in 3 and having high mobility means they prevent falloff. Their skittish nature also means bosses AI get confused
I really want them to work but there's too many instances of all 3 wolves getting stunned and died in the first 20 seconds of a fight for any boss that had poise or AoE.
They are good early game. Bosses do not hit that hard so they are there to draw aggro and do some stagger damage. But around mid game I had to change to Oleg as the wolves were getting destroyed to first AoE combo. The problem with early game fan favorites is that they are really good early for damage and tanking but they are lacking scaling. Come mid game there is definetly better options be it damage or tanking.
They don't really build up ridiculous levels of stagger and most mid to late game bosses won't be confused by them. As the video said, they are great early game. But they lack the HP to stand up to mid to late game bosses. Also a solid AOE will wreck them. Early game you don't see a lot of AOE and the ones that you do see are not as strong as ones later in the game. This makes it easy for the wolves in early game but not so much mid game and forward. As for the player, you aren't adding too much to what the wolves are capable of later in the game. The wolves aren't bad per se. They just can't compete with late game material. Plus you will get MUCH better options as the game progresses. By mid game you are likely to do more stagger than the wolves. I know I currently can out stagger the wolves. When talking about early game summons you really have to consider how well they handle mid game material and whether or not you have summons that can do the same amount of stagger or damage but also won't die as fast. Sadly, most of the early game summons simply do not keep up with options you get latter in the game.
Redmane ogha has a special attack he does when your character does barbaric roars. I recommend reading the item description. I think that is one of the coolest interactions I have ever seen!
The 2 6 armed archers, I forget what they are called, are beastly when leveled up. The constantly stagger low poise enemies. Marionette soldiers… they are awesome
Piece of advice: though your testing wouldn't show it, Oleg is one of the best summons in the game against Malenia. Not only is he tanky enough to survive a full on Waterfowl Dance with a good chunk of health remaining, nearly every single attack he does can stagger her, plus his dash is an excellent gap closer. He's not as high-damaging as Tiche, but he survives longer and distracts her better, and is more reliable at staggering her than Mimic (post-patch, at least).
I completely agree, I been using him through the entire game. He is the best spirit summon. He is very strong health wise and does good damage and at +10 he is a beast.
I used black knife tiche for her she did great stunned her few times to shes at 10+ shes also my favourite has took down so many bosses also fly swarm helped to on her
I haven't really seen the performance there in all the testing I've done. She teleports more than attacks (which can often drop aggro). For the same FP category I feel Oleg and Engval perform better.
Great video. The greatshield soldiers are lately showing up in community vids and comments as an S-tier summon for sorcerer builds who want to stand back and deal spell damage. Now it would be interesting to see 2 future separate vidoes showing the best summons for tank build and best summons for sorcerer.
The skeletal boys are actually quite good at just barricading the smaller bosses. I had them barricade Ordovis and his "friend" while I went around and nailed them with comet azure. Easy mode lol.
The thing about the Jellyfish is that what makes it good (for me anyway) is a combination of both poison damage, and being chunky in terms of health. The jellyfish can take a couple hits, and when they’re not being smacked, they’re applying poison damage while you fight the boss. It serves as a meat shield for when you’re healing.
Yeah, Jellyfish isn't designed to be a combatant. It's a predictable and robust distraction to pair with a player who intends to do all of the winning themself. The game even groups it with the land squirts in the menu, iirc. These tests were clearly about which spirits make the most successful fighters, so it makes sense that a jellyfish doesn't do well. I personally find bosses harder or at least more annoying when I am fighting alongside a second combatant, because it's hard to predict their movement and targeting. Jellyfish is better than nothing for me and nothing is better than most of these other spirits.
My dude Lhutel is an easy S rank , she does a lot of damage, has decent HP and the fact that she goes spectral between atacks and dodges many of the enemies atacks on her makes her top tier , shes on par with Ogha, even a bit better depending on the boss. Idk how you miss that because she was literally soloing the boss in front of you .
Glad you said this for me because I was about to say it my self used Lhutel till I got the mimic and even after for some bosses and it’s absolutely broken against big damage bosses because of the spectral tbh the only thing on the list I disagree with
Lhutel is S tier imo. She’s got pretty solid damage yet so much survivability, she can solo a ton of bosses in the game with ease. It just takes her some time.
So hey, just we know, the jellyfish actually has a sister you can unlock later in the game. Summoning the sister next to her unlocks a door, and chest with a really nice magic talisman that lowers MP for casting spells. Pretty useful actually, and it adds another jelly to your summon.
Neat Tip for Redmane Knight Ogha: if you use a Warcry type ash of war near Ogha when summoned, he will shoot a raining volley of gravity arrows from the sky, just like the Radahn fight Edit: it even says in its summon description
I’m surprised you didn’t include the avionette solders ashes. That one has done so much for me. They can fly, they can proc bleeds doing huge damage and throw fire pots at range making them good in a variety of boss fights. They do good stagger making it hard for midsize bosses to fight back. 10/10
There are summons that overall can do those things but better. Remember what he said at the end, if he didn't discuss an summons then it was likely because another one performed those same functions but better. Plus they have the same weakness as the normal ones, if they miss their dive attack they'll get all crazy and flop around on the ground. Given that when you reach mid to late game you are seeing a lot of AOE attacks any flying summons that randomly throws a tantrum after missing an attack is simply not going to stack up to others that don't make themselves vulnerable. Their strengths simply do not outweigh their weaknesses.
Wolves do pretty good clearing out camps in the early game. The demi humans are better tho. But mid to late game they get wrecked. You can get Olaf the duel swordsmen pretty early. He carried me until late game mimic tear and Black knife niche.
Am I the only one who recognizes Jarwight. He can deal so much damage while still tanking a bunch. Sure there is RNG involved, but he throws pots so fast that you barely notice. If you get 2-3 good pots in a row, he melts bosses. And honestly, I like the RNG, I think he's fun to use since I'm not dependent on summons anyways. Also, Chad points since he's naked.
One of my favorite summons was the mad pumpkin head ashes. He does alot of damaged and he has alot heath and takes no damage when hit the head and I rarely see him stagger
I have to say, the Fanged Imps are pretty decent for distractions on bosses and crowds. Bleed damage plus a ranged explosion, they can also take a hit pretty well
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by the fanged imps myself. They're pretty versatile and aggressive. Not the tankiest, but real cool to start the game with.
The Wolfes are actually really good in combo with a meele char, cause they stagger a lot, they don't need to be tanky when the boss gets staggered constantly
In my experience they don't do enough damage to stagger most of the bosses I do. My winged scythe often doesn't even interrupt the enemies half the time anymore
Yeah, that seemed to be their best use early on the few times I used them. They're aggressive and there's three of them, so you can stagger certain bosses easily. However, even with that knowledge, they're not that great. They can only really stagger earlier bosses. The later ones often get a chance to react and wipe them out in just a few hits. But like many of the better summons, they can really come in clutch for the more niche fights, so if you have the extra upgrade materials and don't have a better spirit, they're not the *worst* option to improve.
@@jhemp there is a method to posture breaking though. Two handed will always be better than 1 no matter the build for breaking posture. Jumping attacks do the highest amount of posture damage, specifically jump heavies, although fully charged regular heavies might be more. I don’t have the exact figures. I’ve just done a lot of testing using the Greatsword(guts reference one in caelid) and I can reliably stagger every enemy in the game with the right combo of jumps and charged heavies. Really easy to consistently full charge heavies in this game too. You can often times out poise bosses if you really want to. I got in a slugfest with a cemetery shade and we both just wailed on each other and both almost died but I broke his posture before he could get the last hit. Fuck man I want to play elden ring now again😂
@@thelocdesiringentryintoyou3686 yes 2 handing does more for stagger per hit, but that’s not true that 2 handing is always better no matter the build. a lot of times power stancing is much much better. in a lot of cases, especially with katanas and katana like weapons you are much better off power stancing and for the best poise breaking, use a jumping L1 or whatever your keybind for a light attack with both weapons. this also is more efficient for whatever status effect (bleed, rot, poison, etc) you have on that build. a lot of enemies don’t need much to be staggered so it’s often better to just use 2 quick weapons with good range than 2 handing a great sword and getting a few free hits before you run out of stamina
if you want something really good that will mainly just take the focus in a fight try the great shield guys. it’s actually funny how much space they can give you. super tanky and on top of that there are 5 of them and they will constantly be slapping the boss breaking down their poise. super fun broken summon for smallish bosses
A thought for a different type of test. I'm a hyper aggressive melee fighter, so I hold agro more than not. Maybe do a test where you have a huge shield and the trinket that pulls agro and see what summons burn the boss best when you're acting as a tank for it? Just a thought for another content video down the road if you're interested.
This was my thought, there are clearly different roles for the summons like tank/ damage/ support. These tests were 1v1 so the ones best at survival shined more, but isn’t completely representative.
Yeah exactly, arguably some summons are downright OP in every condition like Tiche and Mimic. But conditionally some summons are very good. Like the Jellyfish is very useful in distracting the bosses, and can give you a window to pop a heal or something.
@@priyanshubagga3650 you just saw the jellyfish getting melted. Why use it to pop a heal when tiche can give you the same window to heal while damaging the boss as well? If you need a summon that can tank, there are literally so many summons for tanking that are miles above the jellyfish. But let's say you're the aggro and you need something to dish the damage out then you still shouldn't be picking the jellyfish since other summons can do that job way better. I feel like so many players love the jellyfish cause it helped against the earlier bosses but mid to late game it's not just viable imo.
Try dung eater the guy is so aggressive and the shriek of Milo's that he does debuffs the boss so you do even more damage and it lowers status effect resistance so it's easier to proc bleed,sleep, frost etc. To top it off he has a ranged attack and his weapon bleeds, by far I think he's probably the best overall summon for every build style because he'll always be useful someway whether you're a mage, melee, faith or Arcane build.
@@DarkGreenFire not anymore, when the game first released it was bleed but they updated it to poison, which makes more sense but makes it far less viable.
The Jellyfish summon is more of a support ash, ti support you with poison damage and the occasional aggro draw for you to back up. It isn’t meant for prolonged aggro, just enough to get you recovered from an attack and get back in
I do think some of these could be ranked a little different based on their performance if you are drawing attention away from them or if you are using them to draw aggro.
Yes Dung Eater! Easily my favourite. One of the big baddies from the game who you can turn into your puppet through quest and dialogue options. Everything about him is awesome.
Using Latenna with my paladin character is really fun. When I have aggro on the enemy she can deal a lot of damage. I killed the Glinstone dragon so easily when I positioned her on top of a rock while I played the role of a tank.
Not seeing it on the list, but the Skeletal Bandit is pretty decent. It can tank the boss, die, then come back to life so long as you draw the bosses agro. It can really allow for some easier fights
I find that the marionette soldiers helped me stagger the enemies a lot more because they would continue hitting the boss which would not let the stagger bar drain down
If you summon Latenna the Albinauric in an area with large wolves, there is a chance she will capture one and use it as a mount while helping you fight.
Yes, but the thing is, if you need help with a boss fight she will be kinda useless, since she stays still and doesnt move, and she is ranged, also its rare to find wolves when you need them in a boss fight, there might be a few bosses that have wolves near them but mostly none, though she is good if you put her somewhere far so you can tank aggro whilst she fires arrows at bosses, like dragon.
@@owlbearnecessities6026 yeah I know she is good if you want to keep aggro but she is useless if you want to do massive damage and have a tanky summon to take aggro like most playstyles, it really just comes down to how you play the game, and the main thing is that most boss places don't have wolves, actually I don't know if any bosses have wolves, maybe some bell bearing hunter bosses like the one near storm veil Castle, but thats about it lol, that feature is kinda useless.
@@owlbearnecessities6026 mhm, Possible one of the best but not THE best, yknow? She just don't fit many playstyles and some situations she is a bit useless like maliketh, she would probably die straight away in his boss room, she would be the best if you just want damage assistance and you tank damage and aggro, the best for that type of playstyle, me personally, I run with the dung eater summon, good damage, very tanky and good HP, I've seen him roll before to dodge attacks but he doesn't do it often, not as agile as black knife tiche, he has a status effect which I think its madness, its like a yellow black flame colour, also a cool little thing I found messing with dung eater is that if you progress his quest line, he will help you with 2 bosses, morgott the omen King, and mogh Lord of blood, as an NPC summon, so if you are on ng+ you get 2 dung eaters 🤣
Great video. I’d say as a full mage build I find the mimic underwhelming. Typically I need something tanky to help me and the mimic usually gets 1-3 tap killed. All my strength buddies absolutely love it though. Black knife has been a game changer for me.
I'll give Jellyfish Bro this. He straight up won me the Godrick fight via poison damage. Something about that second phase I just dont get the timing on, but managed to survive long enough that the poison ganked him midswing
Godrick is actually designed perfectly. I had your problem too and it's the timing of his attacks. 1st phase his attacks are faster and his pacing is higher. Phase 2 his wind up time extends massively and you burn stamina with 2-3 rolls before he even swings. Phase 1 tempo is meant to make the phase 2 hard to read and vice versa. I've noticed it's easier to fight him when moving/dodging counter clockwise
If you're going to cover the dung eater you should probably covered nepheli loux as well. One thing I'm still curious about is whether the priestesses can ride ants the way Latenna the albinauric can ride wolves.
Please remember this video is just for fun, it isn't a be all end all. Some of you are getting pretty hostile in the comments.
Everyone's list is going to be different. The reason I had them do a 1v1 against bosses was to show how much damage they do on their own. It would be very difficult for me to measure how good a spirit is if I'm attacking them simultaneously. If a spirt summon can almost kill or completely kill a boss on their own, then obviously they are a strong spirit summon. I also couldn't include EVERY spirit because this would have been like 2 hours long.
Depending on your play style, weapons, and stats, everyone's experience is going to be different.
Got Dung Eater and haven't
tried using anything else cause he's so good 😝
Redmane knight ogha has a special move he can do as well if you stand near him and use battle cry or whatever the hell its called he shoots a bunch of gravity arrows in the air at the enemies but he can only do that once per summon.
bro you already spent so much time...just ignore those haters....you did a very good job on this list ....thumbs up man
@@lov.2.g Thanks, this video took me like a week to make.
I think the problem with these tests is leaving the summons to 1v1 a boss is a bad play. As like in the case of the Jellyfish or Finlay, they are support summons... not really meant to solo tank/fight a boss for you but it outputs some pretty consistent DPS with their DOTS and can take the occasional hit, and in Finlay's case give you a fantastic buff. In general you are right about the pros and cons, but you are using the support summons wrong which heavily skews the result. You have to get in there and either fight the fight as well for the most accurate test, or use the threat generating item, imo.
Even if the Jellyfish isn’t at the top of this tier list, it still has a place at the top of my heart.
It is still S-tier relative to the point in the game you obtain it. ;)
Me too! I love my jelly!
Jelly has saved me a few times, although jelly is now retired in my playthrough, they will forever be my favorite
For me is the lady latenna so far in my playthrough.
jelly is the sole reason I beat Margot at the beginning of the game
The lone wolf ashes were the first ones I maxed out in level. Had nothing to do with their end game viability. They just helped me so much in early and mid game that I felt obligated to reward them.
I'm this way with the Demi-human ashes :D. They're not the best but they took care of me so well through soooo many bosses
Wolves and Skeles totally kick ass. Wolves ALWAYS pull agro, Skeles just keep coming back
I didnt realize skeles come back I havnt used them cause my wolves or headless knight were doing work lpl
They're the only ones I have right now and o absolutely love them, I'm still early game and they are so helpful.
@@emdeejay7432 Oh yeah, the wolves will definitely pull their weight early game. Just watch for bosses with AoE attacks.
I take it this is from a Melee player's perspective. As glass cannon Mage, the Great Shield Soldiers are S+ tier. They surround a mob in a way that both distracts the boss and prevents them from moving much. This makes it super easy to annihilate them quickly with Commet Azure. They might not be good for soloing the boss...but that's not really the point.
Well I ranked them based off of how well they did on their own. But those are some good points, everyone's list will be different based on the build which is what I think is so cool. Tons of replay value.
Those greatshielders can trap godfrey and can easily cheese him and others alike lmao
or just use mimic with aggro talisman works like a charm
the great shields all survived my godfrey and let me obliterate raddagon elden beast sadly melted them. but yeah great shields are mages best friend i assume jelly is similar for melee builds but unsure as im not a melee
@@scycosis One unit can't surround the boss though. Bosses move much less when they are surrounded. Making it much easier to finish them quickly. For melee, it is a different story.
The Dung Eater does Bleed Damage, He buffs his damage, debuffs the enemies damage and defense, he casts ranged attacks, and he is a monsterous tank. Theres a reason he is a nightmare to fight again
He’s the shit
I LOVE THE LOATHSOME DUNG EATER
Dung eater was a nightmare for me.
I didnt have to fight him because the damn crab killed him
@@acevolutions6763 lmmfaooo
If your struggling with not being able to summon high fp summons you can set your physic potion with the cerulean hidden tear which gives you unlimited fp for 10 seconds allowing you to summon anyone within that 10 seconds even if you don’t have the right level of fp 👍🏼
*you're Stay in school, kid.
@@solotango5576 lol, bet you’re the fun friend
oh shit thanks for the tip! I didn't even think about that. I got dung eater as a summon but was like gah I don't have enough FP to summon him. well this solves that problem
@@DarwinzTheoryz You need to _have_ friends to be any genre of friend, I would think.
@@solotango5576
MVP
Bonus about Latenna: I also thought she was stationnary and pretty good already... but then I found out today through a youtube clip she has a mobility option: wolves.
If you summon her in a zone containing wild wolves, and one of them gets close to her, she will tame it and ride it, increasing her attacking speed and allowing her to run around at mach speed.
It doesn't really do anything in most, if not all, boss fights, since wolves are mostly found in the overworld and not in boss rooms, but it's a cool hidden mechanic unique to her.
Edit: Many of the comments have specified this to me, so I will correct a bit of misinformation on my part: it doesn't work on ALL wolves, only SOME wolves. They have to be about as big as the wolf she had when you get her ashes, so dire wolf size. The wolves in front of the Ranni Castle work, but I don't know if they appear in other places in the world.
Wow! I never knew this was a thing, but that’s prettyyyy cool!
So this comes handy with the wolves outsid Ranni's tower
April fools
@@jd_9144 it's not
Press X
Fun fact about Letannya: if you use her ashes when fighting wolves, there’s a chance she will jump on one of the wolves and ride it around while firing her arrows. Completely caught me off guard when she did that.
Fun fact: Its actually factual
Too bad a lot of those arrows she fires are in the back of the wolves skull lol.
@@Dan-Simms She only attacks the wolf when the other nearby enemies are dead, from what I’ve seen from her.
Firing arrows AT the wolf she is riding.
It has to be a dire wolf. Small wolves it doesnt work.
Mimic tear is the only co-op companion that don't instantly send me back to my world
10/10 would recommend
well its considered the best ash so.
He is good when it actually attacks, most of the time it just stands behing me doing nothing
@@clapped_globe2368not really depends
@@clapped_globe2368 maybe ur game is glitched bcz my mimic always attacks the target
@@clapped_globe2368 your mimic is a conscientious objector apparently lol just load him up with healing and buffing abilities/ items to keep you alive
The shieldmen are def top tier. Their ability to welcome nearly every boss to the west side of watever realm they reside in by relentlessly curb stomping them into a corner is unprecedented.
They did help me against the Elden Beast. Like, a lot! They did the agro and I could kill it without taking damage. Tiche and Mimic didn't cut it this time so I agree with you on this one. They are top tier for sure! At least on some bosses.
@@TheJensL glad to hear it! I had to resort back to the mimic for Rad and Elden Beast, they triggered his aoe way too much fo me, but against 85% of the rest of the game sheildmen are great!
Shieldmen get clapped in 3 seconds by anything that goes past their shield 💀💀
@@KillingMachine56656 theres already plenty of vids out on em, nobody told you to take your level 0 shieldmen to go fight maliketh
@@KillingMachine56656 Tiche and mimic are still my go to, but on the final boss they took point and I got time to rain down deadly meteors on the bastard so that he died. That's all 🤷♂️
fun fact: mimic tear with blasphemous blade can heal himself a lot now and can solo a lot of stuff in the game
even after nerf?
@@LordFerbombi ye
Or with intense blood damage. My blood build mimic is hella OP. We double team (pause) bosses like it’s nothing,
@@taylorleegang bloody slash
@@pepperpeddler I do uchikatana/nabakiba with seppuku. Straight filf 🤢🤮
Having used the Jellyfish, I think the issue is that it's tier is based on how well it does on it's own. Jellyfish is a pretty decent tank and is good as a support spirit. It's good for players who want to use spirits but want a more active role in the fight.
Came to say this. Very good for distracting enemies while you eat away at their health. Very helpful for me on the abductor ladies near volcano manor
Abductor ladies boss*
I hate Jelly. Mimic tear is the best
@@beatsbygoldie2383bout to try this out currently running through volcano manor and those things give me so much trouble
@nguyentranthanhlong5452 yah but ur bad at the game that's why u wanna use the mimic it's basiclly playing the game on easy mode some of us are not straight noobs so we don't need mimic
I feel like summons should be judged in different categories
Like there’s summons that are support, aggressive summons, defensive summons, etc
Anyone else agree? (Also Tiche is probably the best summon imo (next to the mimic depending on your build))
Also judge them on grave vs ghost for upgrades.
The Skeletal Militiamen are also pretty good, since they revive themselves endlessly as long as they aren't hit while they are reforming on the ground once their HP hits 0. This can make them very handy against certain bosses. They're not great against something like the Magma Wyrm since they're a melee summon and the Magma Wyrm can leave those pools of magma behind, and they're also less effective against bosses with AOE multi-hit attacks. But against a boss like the Leonine Misbegotten that is pretty much just a single-target boss, they are a near-constant presence as long as you can survive long enough for them to revive whenever they get downed.
Dung eater is the best now. The guy wrecks bosses and is so damn tanky. He's got everything, bleed, spells, debuffs, buffs.
Yeah, these tests really only rank how good summons are if you go AFK.
Ashes that do status buildup or multi-creature ashes that can constantly interrupt enemy attacks are FAR more useful in many (most if you're a melee build) situations.
@V then you for the heals
One of my favorite summons, that I didn't see mentioned, is Stormhawk Deenh. The bird flies around dive-bombing enemies and will occasionally screech, giving you a HP regen buff. Definitely won't solo any bosses but it's a great support summon.
The giant rats didnt get attention too. Just the better version of the wolfs but they are so good holy moly i just use them all the time
Stormhawk deenh is also one of my favs, uppon summoning he gives you an instant buff for attack damage and he’s great for tacking agro, he doesn’t have a lot of health but still a great summon. And he just looks badass!
@@aircaite3699 the best part about them is that they cost nothing to cast. No HP or FP requirement.
I had the Hawk Bro out during the invisible mage city in Caelid. Hawk Bro gave ZERO SHITS about their invisibility, dive bombing them back to reality. It was hilarious and I didnt even get a spell shot at me the whole time
Deenh gives you an damage buff when you initially summon it and it can reapply that buff to itself and you if you stand near it during the fight
I use Latenna surprisingly a lot. Her range insane and her glint arrows track. If there’s a high ground overlooking a boss location you can leave her up there where’s she’s safe. Alternatively you can play tank with Shabriri’s woe equipped to help force aggro and let her do all the work.
Oh my God, I totally forgot I had that talisman. I couldn't figure out what purpose to put it to. Thanks for the tip! :D
I 100% agree. Cannot stress enough how good she is if you are playing a melee build. Her range is amazing and her arrows actually stagger tf outta enemies combined with ur hit, I staggered every single boss I fought with her at least once. She is squishy at first but if you upgrade her and she can take a beating not a tank obviously but deals consistently good damage with shit ton of range and stagger value.
Yep, you can also slap that talisman onto your mimic then unequip it after the mimic summoned.
ik, been using her all the way in my second playthrough, she does some INSANE DAMAGE when she is able to fire constantly, besides, being the only spirit beside jelyfish that has a questline, makes a lore friendly build for my taste :D
@@anmakesart i mostly play melee builds and latenna is probably the best summon for me. She’s really good at fighting flying bosses and ditching out constant dps and maintaining your poise damage against bosses.
Another thing about the red mane knight, using the “war cry” ash of war when he is summoned, makes him do a rain of arrows (he can only do this once per summon but it’s still pretty cool
Interesting note about the Latenna the Albinauric: if you summon her and she makes contact with a wild wolf, she will tame the wolf and ride around on it like the Albinaurics you see in the mountain top of the giants area.
does the wolf stay with her after that in a future summons or a one off thing that needs to happen every time?
@@BigHuskyGG it needs to happen every time for her to be mobile. Unfortunately, she doesn’t keep the wolf, but regardless she’s a powerful archer and the wolf thing should be seen as a solid bonus where applicable.
@@nicholasballesteros4448 ah understandable thanks for letting me know! I didn't get her summon on my first playthrough so I'll definitely get it in this NG+ run
She rides it but definitely doesn't tame it, the wolf will still attack you, and she will continue to shoot it lol.
@@Dan-Simms Yea if its the only enemy left she'll shoot it. Kinda funny.
Can't sleep on the Imps. They're melee or midrange, VERY aggressive and VERY fast, with bleed weapons and grenades. Some enemies have trouble just trying to land hits on them. They're not tanky though. Good B or *maybe* A rank summons, especially early game.
Oh hey it's Plague! Love your videos. Hope you're doing well!
The elusive Plague, much like the merchants can be found in the most random of places.
Old farmer Plauge come down from his farm to dispense some wisdom on the youngin's.
Prisoner class for life
Hm. Those Fuckers are pretty annoying as enemies... I'll give em a shot tho, thx!
One of the things I really love about Elden Ring is that almost everything can be viable depending on your build. And that can be especially true for spirit ashes: magic based spirits might be low tier if you are also a magic build and same if you're a tank with a tank spirit, but if you get spirits that are a different class as yours those can be the defining factor of whether you win or lose. Love trying them all out whenever I change my builds!
That is true but some spirit ashes, especially regular ones, will just sadly never find a home because they are average at everything instead of filling a combat role that a player needs.
@@griffinwik the strictly average ones still are just fun though. Super fun wearing blaidds armor and clearing out dungeons or areas with a pack of wolves or something like that. The all rounders shouldn’t excel at anything but also shouldn’t be weak to anything in particular. Wolves are pretty bad for most bosses tho
@@thelocdesiringentryintoyou3686 I wish we could run entire dungeons and caves with our average summons to give them a little more value. Something like "regular ashes can be used anywhere but special ashes can only be used in the boss room."
That's why the MIMIC TEAR is definitely an S+ tier. Very flexible.
People say this, but I’m not convinced. Half of the weapons, talismans, ashes, tears, or more are basically placeholders in my inventory.
Please be aware if you are using Luhtel the Headless that when it teleports, it loses aggro from the enemy(ies). You may end up surprised in a fight when it starts taking the heat and then suddenly you find yourself getting focused out of nowhere
Thank you!! I noticed that but hadn't fully.connected it to his teleporting in my mind.
@@AVB512 thank you for the heads up was gonna use it but I'm a mage.. I can't hold aggro lol (or i don't want to)
I use lhutel aswell but i never had problems with her losing aggro/focus. I dunno why she just keeps focus
Is there even such a thing as aggro? In the traditional sense? It sure doesn’t seem like it
This Video's S-Tier List:
1) Black Knife Tiche
2) Latenna, the Albinauric
3) Mimic Tier
4) Redman Knight Ogha
5) Dungeater Puppet
You're Welcome
Sweet
Thanks
Hmm interesting #2
Try pickle, then praise Elden Ring
Facts
Marionette Soldiers have literally carried me through the entire game. There are a few enemies that trounce them, but the sheer amount of stagger damage they can output and the aggro they draw is far and above any other I’ve seen. Many times a boss will shift aggro between them and basically get stunlocked, allowing you to do literally anything to them. In the double crucible knight fight, they solo’d one of them while I took down the other.
I too used Marionette Soldiers most of the game, and only stopped after getting Mimic Tear (I was at Fire Giant late when I got Mimic Tear). I agree; they're great for stagger, and deserve to be at least A+ tier on the list.
I also main the bois. I play a towershield and spear faith/strength build and they do exactly what i need them to, shoot about 4000 arrows into the ass end of the big guy im tanking hits from. Medium sized bosses they decimate and extra large ones they distract long enough for me to get the life lead i need to win.
I’ve been wondering if they were as helpful to you as they are annoying to fight against. Good to know cheers, I’ll get them upgraded
@@khimaros its really dependent on your build, they need someone to hold aggro or they go down quick but if you can tank for them, theyre amazing
I love those guys, they always go so hard. They’re great at distracting the boss. Every time I’m in an evergoal fight that doesn’t allow summons I’m like damn this would be so much easier with da boyz backing me up… 2 bows each, so 4 bows total 🤤 my favorite ashes for sure
Though they didn't make the list, I absolutely adore the Demi-Human ashes. I have 2 Golden Halberds so I always buff them before they go in. They are also much stronger and more aggressive at night which is a really cool detail. They're nothing special by any means but I love my little Demon Death Squad 😆
I just got those (new to game), and they’re perfect for helping grind runes. And I also like that they go feral at night!
These were my 1st “good” ashes. I love my lil goblin squad lol
I 100% agree, they were my go to summons till mid game and I'd purposely pass time till nightfall to get that extra aggro out of them. They're super useful outside boss arenas though and it feels good when you're charging into mobs with your own mob of goblins!
demi humans summons 5 units; perfect distraction for bosses, helped me through mid game
I only watched this video to see where they ranked.
The mimic tear proved what ever DS player has thought for years, the best summon is just a clone of themselves
No fp needed either.
The Dung Eater is even better than you think: his big AoE blast leaves a lingering debuff on enemies that lowers their dmg reduction AND resists so not only do they take more damage but statuses build up easier as well.
Dung Boi is S+ tier.
Yup yup yup, Dung Eater straight to S tier!!! High on that S list
Man is insane with my bleed build, by far my favorite summon. He's insanely aggressive too so he's amazing on every build.
"The Loathsome Dung Eater!"
man loathes so much he makes everyone else do the same too
Isn’t it better to just put the sword on and summon mimicry for the same effect?
@@longphan7656 The sword doesn’t send out projectiles like his ability does AFAIK. Plus where’s the fun in NOT using the LOATHSOME DUNG EATER?
I feel like the Marionette soldiers do extremely well in non-boss situations, especially compared to a lot of other summons who can die easily from being swarmed.
Personally I think they fair well enough in bosses. Like they aren’t gonna win by themselves or anything but they’re decently helpful.
For non bosses ya they’re absolutely amazing, I wholeheartedly agree with you there.
One thing I do like about the lone wolf ashes is how quickly they can re-agro a boss because they are so aggressive. Like if you just pulled the boss after a big hit, it only takes a couple seconds for them to pull agro again. They definitely don't tank well though, but you can find a better balance by pulling the boss off them sometimes, especially if they are stuck in a corner or taking AOE damage or something.
Haven't seen a comment in the top 20 or so mentioning this, so PSA: if you want your spirits to attack one specific enemy, throw a Cursed-Blood Pot at it. You get the recipe from the cookbook found in the Rose Church in Liurnia.
Holy fuck. You guys actually have massive brains. My mind just opened to so much possibilities.
I just flip flop my aggro trinket for my mimic, but I'll use that pot with others. Thanks
The mimic is absolutely crazy, with staff of the dead prince and just one spell, like Adula's moonblade, he keeps using it quickly, destroying everything.
He solo most of the bosses in NG+2
@@SoSpaced0ut i like it i don't have time to place it all of the times and if he places it i really benefits me too
Even though I still died a lot, my mimic tear and I just stunlocked Melania to death with our Eleonoras. Most of the time, it would outlive me since it could tank a lot of the hits, especially the infamous waterfowl dance. Most times too, the mimic would just interrupt Malenia's waterfowl so it made the fight a lot more bearable.
Boss: "Time to slaughter!"
Mimic Tear: "Come at me!"
Me: Lay down and drink some tea.
what is “NG+@“ or what is NG in general
@@chefalbert223 NG+ is starting a new game but you use the same character u finished the game with and u get to keep all ur equipment. The enemies deal more dmg and have more health.
To protect Latenna the Albinauric you can use the Shabiri's Woe to atract the agro from enemies.
You can do the opposite with mimic tear. Summon it with the talisman equipped then swap out the talisman for yourself.
Shabiris Woe only works in Co-Op not in Single Player.
@@Deluxta not true it works to either protect your spirit ashes or to dump agro towards your mimic tear if you do some talisman swaps
@@Deluxta It works on singleplayer, dafuq are you smoking.
@@Guardian_Arias plus a full defense talisman setup, bullgoat and fingerprint shield. You get Havel on your side
I used the Demi-humans for most of my first playthrough. They helped a ton because they do pierce, slash, blunt and standard damage and just swarm the enemy. Granted, they are squishy but they can do a crap ton of damage and just destroy those annoying crystallians
They're really good at stunlocking bosses too because of their numbers
I also use them. really good to help you kill at lest half of the bosses health. when they die. you would still have alot of health potions to use in the rest of the fight. the only early "half cheesing" summon in the game. I planing to use the headless and elite knight once I have enough fp. but sadly I can't level them yet. because I don't have the follows for them yet. because I only scan 60% of the world map so far in my run.
Jellyfish has gotten me through a lot of tough battles. I can't abandon them now
I mean using her after you reunite her with her sister would seem wrong though.
Her*
@@Neuviletteiudexofmemes same bruv
🤣🤣🤣what tough battles? I want a video or it didn't happen. I've got my character to lvl 562 and I can tell you with all the ashen remains I have the jellyfish remains one of the worst. This is a Souls game not the Tweenies so there's no room for sentimental feeling just because it's 'cute' 😂 The only use you can have for the jellyfish is to reunite her with her sister to get access to the chest.
@@johnbuchanan3455 XD Keep in mind it’s because you’re a higher level player that you’re view of things will be radically different. This is some peoples first Souls game. The Jellyfish is likely peoples first, naturally tanky, summon. Add to that it’s ability to poison the enemy, and it could make a big difference to players who are still learning their paces. True the early game bosses aren’t exactly monumental for Souls vets, but they could absolutely be challenging to people just coming in.
And 562…? XD Just… why…? I mean I imagine that puts you new game +7+, but good lord…
Great list! FYI, you can un-summon a spirit by "summoning" it again. That way, you won't have another accident like the Black Knife Tishe one.
I think he knows but couldn't catch it in time. He mentioned doing the same with dung eater
@@lobehold2263 he died on the Dung Eater one without desummoning
Tiche*
I’ve enjoyed having Lhutel the Headless tanking for me, but the one thing I did notice is that when she disappears to teleport, the boss will also lose aggro and start coming after me instead.
Kristoff might do you better then, he has almost double the HP of Lhutel (through some testing I found out that Lhutel at +10 has between 5,200-5,500 HP, while Kristoff has between 9,600-9,800) with slightly higher damage on his spear (especially after he buffs it with his lightning strike attack)
Or get good who needs summons
@@canadat4380 Easy enough for someone who lives in their parents’ basement and has nothing more in life to do. Have at it.
Great review overall! However, it seems kind of hard to rank them all the same way when they aren't really supposed to be used the same way. For example, the Rot Dog isn't really built to keep aggro the whole time. If I were using the dog, I'd try to maintain aggro for the entire fight and just have the dog proc rot over and over.
The same with the Jelly. Top comment
Use shabriris woe ( sorry for spelling)
@@ZE-BREAD-KING it doesn't work that well honestly, unless they've patched it. I think it just increases the range at which you can hold aggro
Yes every player can find ways to make all summons useful in ways. However the ones higher on the list can do those things and a bit more.
I audibly exclaim BLACK KNIFE TEEEEESSSHH, When ever I need her help, summon her, and she never disappoints
She didn't do so hot against Dragonlord Placid Ducks, he puts out monstrous amounts of AoE. But against everything else, she's also my default go-to.
she’s the best but at like NG plus 2 3 Tiche starts to get killed faster but at that point the boss is almost dead 😂
I literally wouldn't have beat Melenia without her.
@@found6393 if you have the boss attention and tiche just spams out the blood flame bosses like the dragons are going to get annihilate and for malenia she just destroys her if you get her trapped or tiche is knocking down or up her
She can never keep aggro for me
The explosion the dung eater does also applies a debuff that reduces all damage negation and status resistances for all nearby enemies via the "Shriek of Milos" skill from his sword. So he makes you do more damage, he bleeds, has very high poise, and is pretty aggressive. Also he's such an asshole I don't feel bad at all making him my puppet.
Dung boi is an amazing summon good on any build type, I honestly think he's the best one
Hey how do you figure this shit out? Esp for things like the name of the skill he uses. Thanks for the info
@@DetectiveStablerSVU it's on his sword he uses called the sword of milos, and the spell is regal omen Bairn from the capital boss Remembrance!
@@weaponizedrationale6691 that's awesome. I love that ppl figure this stuff out.
lol yeah, I want to turn him into a puppet just for being a dick, so knowing that he's a powerful spirit really reinforces that desire.
Even though my Rotten Stray was under levelled, it was still very useful against the Draconic Tree Sentinel as the scarlet rot was very effective against it while I rode around on my horse avoiding it's attacks
Good to know, I might try this cus he's still whooping me
I hope Fromsoft adds a bonus upgrade to Latenna when completing her questline in the future where she summons alongside her spirit wolf. She would immediately be number 1 summon from me.
She’s good coz she’s Not moving around and giving constant damage.
There is niche, but really cool interaction with her while fighting wolves. She just tame one of them and mount up. Really nice detail
@@FlashCZ0901 Yeah but it´s kinda bugged, when I did it she kept on killing the wolf she was riding and shot him in the back of the head :D
@@F4M3Resistance yeah, she rides it but definitely doesn't tame it, as she continues to, as you said, shoot it in the back of the head lol...is real cool to see though!
the thing is that could make her far worse she is what he says she is a torret if you place her in some place high where the mobs cant touch her she will shoot non stop with taking hits
i use her against the fire giant and she hit him through all the fight she has good range and good damage but if she mounted the wolf she cant last more than 10 seconds with some bosses but thats my opinion though
but i do think that they should do like summon her again and you summon her wolf and then you can make her go
I feel like with the way you test them by letting them solo the boss can be a bit skewed when most of these summons are SUPPORT characters
yeah, and things like the lone wolves arent meant to solo bosses, they are meant to help do some damage while you distract it. Not to mention a lot of his lower tiered ashes are early game ashes.
I agree he's using the support summons incorrectly, but I think the major point being made here is there are many ashes that can solo bosses and many other things in game without help, so naturally ones that are able to do that are inherently better than ones that you need to take aggro for so they can do the damage slower
On top of that, using godskin apostle as a replacement for a zamor knight is a very jarring difference in boss difficulty.
@@aperson4319 I usually go the other way - have the ashes district the boss while I do the damage. In the case of the wolf ashes, they're great when they can stagger a boss. I can't remember who it was, but I used them to keep one boss basically perma staggered while I melted him.
@@Gr1pp717 I think where the lone wolf ashes truly excel are in the little fried areas with a lot of enemies. Against bosses they kind of aren’t the best but it’s situational.
I think all the summons are great, provided you know what each summons is for.
Dont use the Greatshield bois as a melee build. Use them for a mage build.
Jelly is good against anything that it can poison, and against floor based damage.
Sadly poison is kinda redundant when compared to rot inducing summons like the Stray Dog or Finlay :(
Having said that, both Jelly and best boi really struggle to even proc their status effect on most end game bosses.
The villagers summons kinda sucks.
@@niklasmitfussl2639 yeah, but ill doggo MURDERS the early game bosses.
As a mage, I don’t recommend the greatshield and Jelly. Yes they’re very beefy, but most of them are not good at pulling aggro in the late game
@@aizen3606 im my experience, NONE of the summons do there job of pulling aggro,i die ALOT cause they dont do there jobs
I'm amazed at how early you get the wolves because of how good they are for SO long. Even in the late game I found myself still using them because they are so sporadic and take the focus of the boss that I could kill the boss before they would die. They suck if you want them to kill the boss all on their own, but they make for a great team.
I love the summons for this game. They feel incredibly fair and the sheer diversity of them makes them fun to use on any character type.
they aren't fair lol, what. they make the game way easier.
@@sicthemutt Leveling up isn't fair, it makes the game way easier
@@knoven- leveling up is a mechanic and the game is somewhat prepared for it unless yo go level 200 or more. Summoning npc FOR FREE without the boss getting its health buffed is absolutely broken and trivializes completely every single fight in the game to the point is not even fun.
@@JiryStark I hate to break it to you but summoning is a mechanic and the game is absolutely prepared for you to summon (and in most cases assumes you do)
@@JiryStark doing damage to the boss isnt fair, makes the game way easier.
some of my favorites:
Cleanrot - Slow and steady boss kill with rot. Holy attacks are also a + against undead.
Tiche - Awesome for fast killing bosses. Possibly the highest dps output out of all the ashes. That dot is chef's kiss.
Dungeater - Insane debuffs.
Therolina - Heals for days. Her aoe heal can insta stagger some enemies. (that fast/annoying multiarm grafted enemy for example)
Skeletons - Great for slow bosses (like those cat stone bosses) they will never die.
Headless - Great tank. Will zip through a lot of enemy attacks.
Latenna - Great DPS uptime against mobile bosses, especially big mobile bosses like dragons.
Doggos - My personal favorite against Crystalians. Especially great during 2v1 and 3v1 boss encounters. Stagger one and move on to the next. They will permastagger them to death lol
Shieldbros - Awesome for phys/mag ranged builds. Sit back and pew pew while they hodor the enemy.
therolina sucks imo she gets staggered/stunned way too easily and she casts heals when far away from you for no reason
@@puffman06 totally understandable. i agree she sucks at probably 99% of the content. But in those back to back to back encounters against revenants (fast crawling mf's) in elphael, her heal insta staggers every encounter and it's a dream to watch. lol
My favorite and the only i use is the doggo my latena don't have a high lvl so I use most the doggos and I feel like an artorias with 3 sif
Headless
5 shield bros
Mimic tear
In every boss, in its specific situations, these are the strong 3 as they are the most versatile and survive the longest
An additional note about the mimic tear is that is doesn't experience overload. If you you put on heavy armor and can't move, it can still roll, jump, and sprint as if it has a medium load.
Also is you only have one of those warming stones that heals you when thrown in the ground , he has unlimited amounts of those.
Re overload: Does it also do full damage if I put on 2 massive greatswords that I personally can’t wield?
Re warming stones: does it need to be the item currently showing when casting him, or can it for example be the fifth item on toggle?
@@Steph1 well you have to be carrying the swords when you cast him, and you have to have the warming stones in your inventory wheel. He will be able to use them.
@@SinoMaticPayne sweet, thanks. Might be a fat rolling issue but I can probably fix that faster than I can have enough strength to wield them in one hand
“Mimic tear is great.”
Switches to a clip of the mimic getting obliterated and not hitting the boss once
It does really well with a high Faith build, and you can cast things like Golden Vow and Blessing of the Erdtree on it and yourself at the beginning in many encounters. Only have strongest casts equipped when you fight the boss so it's using things like Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike and not Catch Flame.
The Mimic Tear can be placed anywhere between D - SSS+.
It all depends on the players build.
This is a great video. It displays all these ashes in action even though I kinda disagree with how the tests are performed. You’re not wrong at all about the lower tier ashes being fragile or not dealing enough damage, but this testing environment favors the hardiest and brutalist among the summons. The lower tier ones function better as extensions of your toolkit. The wolves work great on foes that stagger easily as there’s three of them and they’re relentless, but work together best with a player who is just as relentless, gaining more aggro to keep you both alive and pummeling the boss so they can’t fight back. Similarly Dolores and Miss Jellyfish work best when YOU focus on drawing most of the aggro, as they’ll take some away while shooting at the boss to give you a chance to breathe but you have to take it back to make sure they don’t get overwhelmed (and obvi best used on foes you know are more vulnerable to sleep/poison respectively). Of course the hardy more expensive ones are more versatile in just being a staunch ally to fight alongside you, but the cheaper spirits function well if you’re using them as tools for their intended purpose. Not detracting, great video, super informative.
I 100% agree with this comment
I used the wolves all the way up to volcano manor
Exactly. You cant grade these ashes on how they perform against things completely solo, when thats not how they will be used.
it depends on which boss you use em with.. obvy your gonna use weak early summons on weak early bosses.. then yes like u said u pick attacking(Wolves) or tank(Jellyfish) depending on scenario/type of enemy/boss/situational
But if something can do better then something solo. It can probably work better as a teammate. Each player and their style/build can make anything work, but some are just all around better so will work in more situations.
The Lone Wolves have always been my favorite, mostly because they're meant to compliment a playstyle rather than be backup. The way I like to think of it is they are supposed to be the pack behind their alpha, aka the player. And that player leads them, maybe takes a step back to heal sometimes while they distract the boss. So for me they've been very effective
If you wear the aggro talisman with them it would probably do a lot more damage, yeah.
The problem with Spirit Summon tier lists is that summons will be better or worse depending on your character's build and your playstyle. For example, if I have a purely bow/crossbow build, I'd probably find a tanky melee spirit like the Greatshield Soldiers more useful than Dolores.
Pls stop..
You know they die in 2 hits.
Against Godrick Soldier they're good but whe it comes to enemies/bosses what are dealing big damage they die instantly
Any summon does the same thing it can easily distract and tank to buy you time and ur liking them just cz of a single reason which any summon can do and they're horrible against enemies which have high splash and area damage the single tanky summons are just way better than having multiple lower health summons which can't even deal as good damage as other summons
@@cluster4583 exactly 👌💯
Ashes are very situational. Dolores for instance is the best against the Godskin bosses, specially the duo, but yeah, as you showed, she does not really work if the boss cannot be put to sleep.
Great video, it took you a looong time to do, much appreciated.
Kristoff is such a goddamn badass having the entire Lightning Knight move set
Same feeling for the banished knights
The thing about the Jelly fish summon. It’s not about “letting the summon do the job” but more for “letting the summon distract the enemy while I’m doing some damage”
i'm gunna assume he knows this, consdidering that is obvious information regarding the Jellyfish. I knew this since early game, so im sure he knows this information , butr it still has Lower HP, so even when does distract, it doesn't do it long enough or well enough for a lot of situations. that's what ive found anyway, and im sure that he has found this also through his testing.
The jelly attacks so rarely that it's lucky if you can even use her to draw aggro, much less poison. Ok against Margit, terrible for pretty much anything after him
Almost every summon does that, doesn’t say much about the jellyfish
I’m not sure what people love so much about that jellyfish and whether it’s Just because it’s given by some hot babe Roderica but jelly fish imo is just bad all round compared to the other summons. I would say even the raya Lucaria soldiers would do better in everything from damage tanking and holding aggro.
@@perckmalice70 sentimental value and waifu pretty much. Understandable tho, I ride and die with my wolves into the late game
Ancestral spirit is good because his arrows can stun enemies, really helps to break an enemies combo and let u slash away, gonna use him for whole game I think
Smae with the jelly. It kills combos and can take a lot of damage.
Having 5 huge ass shiny greatarrows sticking to the boss's ass or face is the best thing about him, I died so much to his bs aimbot shots so I was extremely happy after getting him as a cheap summon, he was extremely useful through the whole game.
Greatshield soldiers solo any boss that is even slightly slow. They're really strong, S in my opinions
I also feel you put way too many summons that were just "pretty good" in A tier. I feel like some of them should have gone in B at least, because this tierlist rn is very top heavy
My favorite thing about the skeleton crew is their ability to take aggro.
As long as I'm engaging consistently with the boss, there's a good chance they'll survive for some time. That means that I can take a moment to rebuff or heal or reposition when I need to and feel safe that they are holding aggro for me. It also means that I can comfortably use a summon without feeling like they did all the work for me/cheesed the boss for me.
100% this, if you draw the boss’ attention immediately when they die, they won’t get hit on the ground and respawn. Carried me through the whole game.
I used the respawning skeletons and the helper sorcerer to defeat Margit. Distraction was the only way to beat him early.
Interesting enough with the lone wolf summons...they do blunt dmg so they are VERY useful against the crystalian bosses
The 3 wolves do blunt damage?
I’ve gotta try this. Still unable to beat the trio in Caelid.
@@MrDoubleblades I think he was talking about the lone rot dog.
I levelled up the night rider flail just for breaking the crystal bosses. Works really well. I'll try the Wolves though and see how they do.
Technically what you’re looking for is “strike” damage.
Lol I ran pretty much the entire game with Lhutel bc I was impressed with her immediately. Tried some other summons here and there and most of them fell flat in comparison - glad to see I wasn't just flat out wrong and she actually holds up!
I'm surprised about Perfurmer Tricia. My top two are her and the mimic. She's super useful. Keep her health up, and she will keep casting the protection spell as well as attacking the enemy.
dude Perfumer Tricia is amazing, especially on PC in a trio. Shields for the team, and the teams summons.
in case you didnt know, stormhawk deehn is a decent pick if you are an aggressive attacker because the hawk gives a damage buff at summon and refreshes regularly
deenh*
Cool
as a mage luhtel has been a lifesaver. she's never died when i've summoned her, even when i have. her teleport ability is delightful, especially when fighting multiple enemies.
I've run lhutel like the entire playthrough. She is arguably THE best spirit summon. She has a shield, a huge health pool, teleports to avoid damage and to help you instantly. Not to mention she has death on her spear and will instant kill any boss without death resistance.
@@grahamgillmor5919 after watching the video i finally got tiche and upgraded her to +10. she doesn't have as much HP as luhtel but damn she hits hard and is super aggressive attacking enemies.
@@grahamgillmor5919 Lol liar, death blight only works on Tarnished AKA pvp
@@LordFerbombiWhich is extra silly since I know of no places where you can use spirit ashes in pvp
@@Kumbunchamushroomppl Damn they got caught in 4K
Mimic Tear with pulley xbow and xplosive bolt is like a visit from the spacemarines
I'm dead 🤣
Godrick Soldier Ashes are also pretty good, lower FP cost than some of the ones on this list, more HP than the wolves, and there two of them. They can use crossbows or hammer and shield, making them ideal against any enemy weak to striking damage (such as the Crystallians). Easy to get, too, since they're just in a graveyard to the west of Stormhill Shack. Honestly I'd say they're at least B tier, if not A tier against bosses vulnerable to strike damage. Definitely an early game upgrade over your starter Wolves.
You missed Stormhawk Deenth. They are pretty great, getting all the benefits that the Jellyfish has (avoiding aoes and environment damage and slams) they do decent damage, and they buff your damage with a screech skill. I like the Perfumers too, they provides decent buffs (Tricia will give the damage reduction buff from the Bubbletear) and they also use various perfumes.
I like the storm hawk too..
He is so beautiful but he is a shit too i use him for fun always
I would at least argue for the Greatshield Soldier Ashes to be at least A tier. They are great at absorbing damage and they are cheap. The primary damage dealer to bosses is the player.
They are great for those shy spell casters too afraid to get their hands dirty in melee! :D
"The primary damage dealer to bosses is the player" say that to Tiche :D
I watched her beat the hell out of Malenia, her flame wave doing constant damage but the best part was that knock down she's doing all the time ^^ Malenia were on the ground most of the time : Tiche the bully > Malenia
For real, the greatshield soldiers have been s tier for me using dragon communion and blood spells. I just need to not get melted and I can end a boss fight pretty quick. These guys usually have most of their hp left at the end. How it's in b is just beyond me. I have Tiche and she's great, but she just doesn't keep the aggro like they can.
survival and aggro control > dps for spirits.
luthel and swordstress puppets should be S tier
great shield soldiers can also easily be one of the best ashes in the game
As others have pointed out this is list is..sort of...melee biased. Melee want summons that do DPS and just enough tankiness to survive distracting the boss so you can get the occasional heal off. Meanwhile Casters want summons that are MAXIMUM CHONK for distracting bosses so they can get off their high damage spells.
@@luketfer This tier list is based on how well the Ash Summons do on their OWN, not with the player helping them
Lhutel is S tier in my book. Some people don't like her teleport because it drops aggro but I don't mind it because it makes her practically immortal sometimes, she can draw aggro and then phase out of a boss's grab or homing missile attack. And she's one of the tankiest summons even when she doesn't randomly dodge every attack. Tiche is S tier for bosses but Lhutel is S tier for clearing out field camps.
@@zombiekungfumaster Yeah I was surprised this person didn't put Lhutel in S tier as a solo spirit ash with no help from the actual player (it is what the test was all about). If anything he is the best solo spirit ash without help from the player due to his tankiness and teleport (avoiding attacks), to include range and melee attack, etc. The other thing better than him is a high level well put together mimic tear. Dungeater maybe a good competitor against Lhutel as well
I personally do not think Latenna is an S tier solo spirit ash without help from the player.. she maybe do alright against bosses in the bigger arenas by herself, but I think she'd still get beat down quick. Her by herself she is not that good. If anything she is A tier as a solo spirit ash, maybe B. However, once you pair her with the actual player fighting along side her and especially in the larger boss arenas/areas, ie. ancestral spirit boss, astel, fire giant, etc. then she begins to become an S tier for sure
@@kyiaao You’re really missing the point everyone has made to spam this comment like people are stupid. Incredible.
The pack of wolves are actually really useful when fighting groups of enemies in the open field, and the amount of chaos they can create is hilarious to watch
The strength of the wolves lie when combined with the player. They build up a ridiculous amount of stagger which easily triples the rate at which you get staggers in, and them coming in 3 and having high mobility means they prevent falloff. Their skittish nature also means bosses AI get confused
Yessir making them amazing early game and extremely helpful for the noobies just getting into souls.
I really want them to work but there's too many instances of all 3 wolves getting stunned and died in the first 20 seconds of a fight for any boss that had poise or AoE.
They are good early game. Bosses do not hit that hard so they are there to draw aggro and do some stagger damage. But around mid game I had to change to Oleg as the wolves were getting destroyed to first AoE combo. The problem with early game fan favorites is that they are really good early for damage and tanking but they are lacking scaling. Come mid game there is definetly better options be it damage or tanking.
Oleg is a better stagger machine. Wolves die too fast to late-game boss AoE
They don't really build up ridiculous levels of stagger and most mid to late game bosses won't be confused by them. As the video said, they are great early game. But they lack the HP to stand up to mid to late game bosses. Also a solid AOE will wreck them. Early game you don't see a lot of AOE and the ones that you do see are not as strong as ones later in the game. This makes it easy for the wolves in early game but not so much mid game and forward.
As for the player, you aren't adding too much to what the wolves are capable of later in the game.
The wolves aren't bad per se. They just can't compete with late game material. Plus you will get MUCH better options as the game progresses. By mid game you are likely to do more stagger than the wolves. I know I currently can out stagger the wolves.
When talking about early game summons you really have to consider how well they handle mid game material and whether or not you have summons that can do the same amount of stagger or damage but also won't die as fast. Sadly, most of the early game summons simply do not keep up with options you get latter in the game.
Redmane ogha has a special attack he does when your character does barbaric roars.
I recommend reading the item description.
I think that is one of the coolest interactions I have ever seen!
The 2 6 armed archers, I forget what they are called, are beastly when leveled up. The constantly stagger low poise enemies.
Marionette soldiers… they are awesome
The Lone Wolf versus Rennala is straight up broken…like wow…hopefully the devs don’t realize how trivial that fight becomes with the Lone Wolves.
Piece of advice: though your testing wouldn't show it, Oleg is one of the best summons in the game against Malenia. Not only is he tanky enough to survive a full on Waterfowl Dance with a good chunk of health remaining, nearly every single attack he does can stagger her, plus his dash is an excellent gap closer. He's not as high-damaging as Tiche, but he survives longer and distracts her better, and is more reliable at staggering her than Mimic (post-patch, at least).
Nice! I'm about to fight her on my new game plus so I'll have to try him out
I completely agree, I been using him through the entire game. He is the best spirit summon. He is very strong health wise and does good damage and at +10 he is a beast.
I used black knife tiche for her she did great stunned her few times to shes at 10+ shes also my favourite has took down so many bosses also fly swarm helped to on her
Tiche sends Malenia flying with each heavy hit, it's quite funny seeing my summon trash around Malenia like a ragdoll
For me I used tiche, the dot is nice and her heavy attacks staggered melania every time
Headless definitely takes out bosses by herself for me. She deserves to be S tier for sure.
I haven't really seen the performance there in all the testing I've done. She teleports more than attacks (which can often drop aggro). For the same FP category I feel Oleg and Engval perform better.
Great video. The greatshield soldiers are lately showing up in community vids and comments as an S-tier summon for sorcerer builds who want to stand back and deal spell damage. Now it would be interesting to see 2 future separate vidoes showing the best summons for tank build and best summons for sorcerer.
I would suggest a third option, Dps.
Tank, Sorcerer, and dps
The skeletal boys are actually quite good at just barricading the smaller bosses. I had them barricade Ordovis and his "friend" while I went around and nailed them with comet azure. Easy mode lol.
The thing about the Jellyfish is that what makes it good (for me anyway) is a combination of both poison damage, and being chunky in terms of health. The jellyfish can take a couple hits, and when they’re not being smacked, they’re applying poison damage while you fight the boss. It serves as a meat shield for when you’re healing.
Yeah, Jellyfish isn't designed to be a combatant. It's a predictable and robust distraction to pair with a player who intends to do all of the winning themself. The game even groups it with the land squirts in the menu, iirc. These tests were clearly about which spirits make the most successful fighters, so it makes sense that a jellyfish doesn't do well.
I personally find bosses harder or at least more annoying when I am fighting alongside a second combatant, because it's hard to predict their movement and targeting. Jellyfish is better than nothing for me and nothing is better than most of these other spirits.
It's great against slow moving bosses if you're a caster.
My dude Lhutel is an easy S rank , she does a lot of damage, has decent HP and the fact that she goes spectral between atacks and dodges many of the enemies atacks on her makes her top tier , shes on par with Ogha, even a bit better depending on the boss.
Idk how you miss that because she was literally soloing the boss in front of you .
Glad you said this for me because I was about to say it my self used Lhutel till I got the mimic and even after for some bosses and it’s absolutely broken against big damage bosses because of the spectral tbh the only thing on the list I disagree with
stop being hostile
⁸
Nah she's ass never aggros the boss and hits like a wet noodle. There's a reason they put her so early in lol
I actually agree with Lhutel being A rank. She's a great summon and a good tank but definitely not as good as the S-ranks
Lhutel is S tier imo. She’s got pretty solid damage yet so much survivability, she can solo a ton of bosses in the game with ease. It just takes her some time.
I was looking for this comment.
I used the hell out of her. The only reason I’ll agree she’s a tier is late game survivability. Perfect summons until then.
100%
So hey, just we know, the jellyfish actually has a sister you can unlock later in the game. Summoning the sister next to her unlocks a door, and chest with a really nice magic talisman that lowers MP for casting spells. Pretty useful actually, and it adds another jelly to your summon.
Wait what?
It adds another jelly?
@@theartillery9724
I think it specifies sorceries
No it doesn’t add another jelly to the summon lmao
I love when creators just straight up admit “yeah my last video blew up. I want more views, I’ll do it again.”
Keep that grind set
Neat Tip for Redmane Knight Ogha: if you use a Warcry type ash of war near Ogha when summoned, he will shoot a raining volley of gravity arrows from the sky, just like the Radahn fight
Edit: it even says in its summon description
I’m surprised you didn’t include the avionette solders ashes. That one has done so much for me. They can fly, they can proc bleeds doing huge damage and throw fire pots at range making them good in a variety of boss fights. They do good stagger making it hard for midsize bosses to fight back. 10/10
Trye
There are summons that overall can do those things but better. Remember what he said at the end, if he didn't discuss an summons then it was likely because another one performed those same functions but better.
Plus they have the same weakness as the normal ones, if they miss their dive attack they'll get all crazy and flop around on the ground. Given that when you reach mid to late game you are seeing a lot of AOE attacks any flying summons that randomly throws a tantrum after missing an attack is simply not going to stack up to others that don't make themselves vulnerable.
Their strengths simply do not outweigh their weaknesses.
Excellent list. You’ve done a fantastic job of explaining everything with all the research you’ve done. Bravo, sir!
Only 3 I even slot at all times (all are +10 too) are Tiche, Latenna, and Mimic so...glad to know I'm not the only one who sees their value
The wolves helped out a ton with margit and godrick. Like you said they don’t have very much health but they do a great job of drawing aggro.
Wolves are trash after you find actual spirits
@@fernybern I agree but at the beginning of the game when it’s one of the only summons you have, it’s definitely a massive help
Wolves do pretty good clearing out camps in the early game. The demi humans are better tho. But mid to late game they get wrecked. You can get Olaf the duel swordsmen pretty early. He carried me until late game mimic tear and Black knife niche.
@@ppineapple2737 i find the jellyfish to be way better against margit
@@ppineapple2737 the skele bois that you can get pretty easily is better
Am I the only one who recognizes Jarwight. He can deal so much damage while still tanking a bunch. Sure there is RNG involved, but he throws pots so fast that you barely notice. If you get 2-3 good pots in a row, he melts bosses. And honestly, I like the RNG, I think he's fun to use since I'm not dependent on summons anyways.
Also, Chad points since he's naked.
One of my favorite summons was the mad pumpkin head ashes. He does alot of damaged and he has alot heath and takes no damage when hit the head and I rarely see him stagger
I have to say, the Fanged Imps are pretty decent for distractions on bosses and crowds. Bleed damage plus a ranged explosion, they can also take a hit pretty well
Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by the fanged imps myself. They're pretty versatile and aggressive. Not the tankiest, but real cool to start the game with.
@Jay_Hendrix they were a great addition to my blood sorc run. Small bleed on the blades helped with abysmal bleed spells in early game
The Wolfes are actually really good in combo with a meele char, cause they stagger a lot, they don't need to be tanky when the boss gets staggered constantly
In my experience they don't do enough damage to stagger most of the bosses I do. My winged scythe often doesn't even interrupt the enemies half the time anymore
Yeah, that seemed to be their best use early on the few times I used them. They're aggressive and there's three of them, so you can stagger certain bosses easily.
However, even with that knowledge, they're not that great. They can only really stagger earlier bosses. The later ones often get a chance to react and wipe them out in just a few hits.
But like many of the better summons, they can really come in clutch for the more niche fights, so if you have the extra upgrade materials and don't have a better spirit, they're not the *worst* option to improve.
@@jhemp there is a method to posture breaking though. Two handed will always be better than 1 no matter the build for breaking posture. Jumping attacks do the highest amount of posture damage, specifically jump heavies, although fully charged regular heavies might be more. I don’t have the exact figures. I’ve just done a lot of testing using the Greatsword(guts reference one in caelid) and I can reliably stagger every enemy in the game with the right combo of jumps and charged heavies. Really easy to consistently full charge heavies in this game too. You can often times out poise bosses if you really want to. I got in a slugfest with a cemetery shade and we both just wailed on each other and both almost died but I broke his posture before he could get the last hit. Fuck man I want to play elden ring now again😂
@@thelocdesiringentryintoyou3686 yes 2 handing does more for stagger per hit, but that’s not true that 2 handing is always better no matter the build. a lot of times power stancing is much much better. in a lot of cases, especially with katanas and katana like weapons you are much better off power stancing and for the best poise breaking, use a jumping L1 or whatever your keybind for a light attack with both weapons. this also is more efficient for whatever status effect (bleed, rot, poison, etc) you have on that build. a lot of enemies don’t need much to be staggered so it’s often better to just use 2 quick weapons with good range than 2 handing a great sword and getting a few free hits before you run out of stamina
if you want something really good that will mainly just take the focus in a fight try the great shield guys. it’s actually funny how much space they can give you. super tanky and on top of that there are 5 of them and they will constantly be slapping the boss breaking down their poise. super fun broken summon for smallish bosses
A thought for a different type of test. I'm a hyper aggressive melee fighter, so I hold agro more than not. Maybe do a test where you have a huge shield and the trinket that pulls agro and see what summons burn the boss best when you're acting as a tank for it? Just a thought for another content video down the road if you're interested.
This was my thought, there are clearly different roles for the summons like tank/ damage/ support. These tests were 1v1 so the ones best at survival shined more, but isn’t completely representative.
Yeah exactly, arguably some summons are downright OP in every condition like Tiche and Mimic. But conditionally some summons are very good. Like the Jellyfish is very useful in distracting the bosses, and can give you a window to pop a heal or something.
@@priyanshubagga3650 the best for boss fight, the only one who can take a lot hits
@@priyanshubagga3650 you just saw the jellyfish getting melted. Why use it to pop a heal when tiche can give you the same window to heal while damaging the boss as well? If you need a summon that can tank, there are literally so many summons for tanking that are miles above the jellyfish.
But let's say you're the aggro and you need something to dish the damage out then you still shouldn't be picking the jellyfish since other summons can do that job way better. I feel like so many players love the jellyfish cause it helped against the earlier bosses but mid to late game it's not just viable imo.
Try dung eater the guy is so aggressive and the shriek of Milo's that he does debuffs the boss so you do even more damage and it lowers status effect resistance so it's easier to proc bleed,sleep, frost etc. To top it off he has a ranged attack and his weapon bleeds, by far I think he's probably the best overall summon for every build style because he'll always be useful someway whether you're a mage, melee, faith or Arcane build.
The thing about the jellyfish is that it’s good as long as you hold the Aggro. You want him to bleed the boss, so let him sit back and do it.
Jellyfish doesn't do bleed it does poison
Yeah... what he said 👏 🙌 😌
@@DarkGreenFire not anymore, when the game first released it was bleed but they updated it to poison, which makes more sense but makes it far less viable.
@@bobjoe2955 yeah, its more like using the jelly to get back stabs off. You take the agro, when the jelly attacks, u backstab the enemy ez clap
Fun fact the Jellyfish is a girl actually
The Jellyfish summon is more of a support ash, ti support you with poison damage and the occasional aggro draw for you to back up. It isn’t meant for prolonged aggro, just enough to get you recovered from an attack and get back in
I do think some of these could be ranked a little different based on their performance if you are drawing attention away from them or if you are using them to draw aggro.
Yes Dung Eater! Easily my favourite. One of the big baddies from the game who you can turn into your puppet through quest and dialogue options. Everything about him is awesome.
Try crouching, then it's time for dung
Saving my potion for that nice lil puppet haha
Using Latenna with my paladin character is really fun. When I have aggro on the enemy she can deal a lot of damage. I killed the Glinstone dragon so easily when I positioned her on top of a rock while I played the role of a tank.
Not seeing it on the list, but the Skeletal Bandit is pretty decent. It can tank the boss, die, then come back to life so long as you draw the bosses agro. It can really allow for some easier fights
I find that the marionette soldiers helped me stagger the enemies a lot more because they would continue hitting the boss which would not let the stagger bar drain down
If you summon Latenna the Albinauric in an area with large wolves, there is a chance she will capture one and use it as a mount while helping you fight.
Yes, but the thing is, if you need help with a boss fight she will be kinda useless, since she stays still and doesnt move, and she is ranged, also its rare to find wolves when you need them in a boss fight, there might be a few bosses that have wolves near them but mostly none, though she is good if you put her somewhere far so you can tank aggro whilst she fires arrows at bosses, like dragon.
@@LeafyReuploadsI used Latenna for almost every boss I came across, as long as you can keep the boss on you she's a beast
@@owlbearnecessities6026 yeah I know she is good if you want to keep aggro but she is useless if you want to do massive damage and have a tanky summon to take aggro like most playstyles, it really just comes down to how you play the game, and the main thing is that most boss places don't have wolves, actually I don't know if any bosses have wolves, maybe some bell bearing hunter bosses like the one near storm veil Castle, but thats about it lol, that feature is kinda useless.
@@LeafyReuploads that's entirely fair lol, if she had Lobo then she'd easily be the best ash imho
@@owlbearnecessities6026 mhm, Possible one of the best but not THE best, yknow? She just don't fit many playstyles and some situations she is a bit useless like maliketh, she would probably die straight away in his boss room, she would be the best if you just want damage assistance and you tank damage and aggro, the best for that type of playstyle, me personally, I run with the dung eater summon, good damage, very tanky and good HP, I've seen him roll before to dodge attacks but he doesn't do it often, not as agile as black knife tiche, he has a status effect which I think its madness, its like a yellow black flame colour, also a cool little thing I found messing with dung eater is that if you progress his quest line, he will help you with 2 bosses, morgott the omen King, and mogh Lord of blood, as an NPC summon, so if you are on ng+ you get 2 dung eaters 🤣
I’ve found that using a throwing knife will Agro the mausoleum soldiers on the targeted enemy. Really helps when they’re being stubborn
Great video. I’d say as a full mage build I find the mimic underwhelming. Typically I need something tanky to help me and the mimic usually gets 1-3 tap killed. All my strength buddies absolutely love it though. Black knife has been a game changer for me.
I'll give Jellyfish Bro this. He straight up won me the Godrick fight via poison damage. Something about that second phase I just dont get the timing on, but managed to survive long enough that the poison ganked him midswing
Godrick is actually designed perfectly. I had your problem too and it's the timing of his attacks. 1st phase his attacks are faster and his pacing is higher. Phase 2 his wind up time extends massively and you burn stamina with 2-3 rolls before he even swings. Phase 1 tempo is meant to make the phase 2 hard to read and vice versa. I've noticed it's easier to fight him when moving/dodging counter clockwise
If you're going to cover the dung eater you should probably covered nepheli loux as well.
One thing I'm still curious about is whether the priestesses can ride ants the way Latenna the albinauric can ride wolves.