Elden Ring: Best Strength & Dexterity Build - The Dragon King Build

Here, I will introduce you to my best strength and dexterity build in Elden Ring, which is called the Dragon King. This build feels so balanced and makes for a great PVE experience and it requires very little skill.

The Gear

Let’s start with a more in-depth look at the gear and setup. By the way, if you can prepare enough Elden Ring Runes in advance, the process of upgrading equipment will become very convenient. And if you use code "CSCCA", you can get 5% off.

We’re using the Dragon King’s Cragblade as our main weapon and the Golden Greatshield. We also have the Frenzied Flame Seal adding no additional equip load for our incantations. We have our usual attack buffing incantations: Golden Vow and Flame, Grant Me Strength. Or, if you want to further boost your defense, we have Dragonbolt Blessing.

• You can get the Dragon King’s Cragblade by trading the Remembrance of the Dragonlord with Enia at the Roundtable Hold.
• The Golden Greatshield drops from Leyndell Knights, which you can see wielding it. Check around Leyndell Royal Capital for them.
• The Frenzied Flame Seal is rewarded at the end of Hyetta’s questline.

As for gear then, we have the Haligtree Knight Helm, boosting our Faith by two points. We have the Malformed Dragon Armor, which is giving us nice resistance buffs. It gives us 66 Poise, and it’s the perfect Elden Bling for the build. We have the Cleanrot Gauntlets for a bit of weight management and more Elden Bling. And we have the Malformed Dragon Greaves.

• The Haligtree Knight Helm can be looted from a corpse located near the Elphael Inner Wall Site of Grace. It is in the room at the top of the ladder adjacent to the Site of Grace.
• The full Malformed Dragon set can be obtained from the Draconic Tree Sentinel in Crumbling Farum Azula before Maliketh.
• The Cleanrot Gauntlets are dropped from the Cleanrot Knights at Inner Aeonia and Elphael Brace of the Haligtree.

Also Read: Free Elden Ring Runes & Items Giveaway(Updated in July 2023)

As for our Talismans, we can chop and change them up depending on how we are playing. We have the Shard of Alexander, boosting the Thundercloud Form skill. We have the Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman, greatly boosting defense. We have the Greatshield Talisman, boosting our guard ability. We have the Green Turtle Talisman, boosting our stamina recovery speed. We have the Erdtree’s Favor +2, boosting our health stamina and equip load. And we have the Lightning Scorpion Charm, boosting our lightning damage.

• You can get the Shard of Alexander from Iron Fist Alexander when beating him at the end of his questline in Crumbling Farum Azula.
• The Erdtree’s Favor +2 is found in the Leyndell, Ashen Capital after Maliketh. Take the lift from the Forbidden Lands to a closed off area and find this Talisman to the south on a corpse on a tree route.
• The Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman is found in Elphael Brace of the Haligtree, found on a chest on an elevated platform inside the large building in the Northeast guarded by several pests.
• The Green Turtle Talisman is found in the Summonwater Village in an underground area behind a Stonesword fogate.
• The Greatshield Talisman can be found in a carriage chest east of the Erdtree Gazing Hill Site of Grace.
• The Lightning Scorpion Charm can be found in the Wyndham Catacombs in a room sealed by an Imp Statue.

In the Flask of Wondrous Physick, we have the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear, boosting our lightning attacks and stacking with the Lightning Scorpion Charm. Then, in the second slot, you can look at changing things up depending on the loadout. For now, I will just list the Greenburst Crystal Tear for faster stamina recovery and the Stonebarb Cracked Tear for breaking enemies Poise faster.

• The Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear is dropped by the Erdtree Avatar in the northeast of Liurnia of the Lakes.
• The Greenburst Crystal Tear is dropped by the Erdtree Avatar in Caelid east of the Smoldering Church.
• The Stonebarb Cracked Tear is dropped by the Putrid Avatar in Caelid.

As for our incantations, we have Golden Vow, boosting our damage and defense. We have Flame, Grant Me Strength, boosting our damage further. And if you want more defense and a body hardness of level 2, then we have the Dragonbolt Blessing. This will make us really tanky with attacks less likely to interrupt us and it looks really cool as well.

• Dragonbolt Blessing can be found at the Stormcaller Church inside a chest. That's against a wall.
• Golden Vow can be found in Mt Gelmir at the Corpse-Stench Shack.
• Flame, Grant Me Strength can be found in Caelid around the back of Fort Gael.

Stat Spread

Next, let's move on to the stat spread.

I started with the Vagabond class. We have Vigor at 56, Endurance at 40, Strength at 34, Dexterity at 50 and Faith at 23 (This will be boosted to 25 thanks to the Haligtree Knight Helm). And we don't touch Mind, Intelligence and Arcane.

Combat

Let's have a look at the combat and we'll start with our first of two strategies and loadouts.

First up, Sword and Board. It's very simply. We are going to hold up our Golden Greatshield and then poke away with R1 using our Dragon King's Cragblade.

For this tactic, I use the Greatshield Talisman, the Dragon Greatshield Talisman, the Erdtree's Favor +2 and then I switch between the Green Turtle Talisman for faster stamina recovery or the Lightning Scorpion Charm. It all depends on what we are fighting.

In the physick, I like to use the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear and the Greenburst Crystal Tear for more stamina recovery. Honestly, if you can manage your stamina well, you can basically tank anything in the game.

I also tend to choose the Dragonbolt Blessing over Flame, Grant Me Strengt for this one, as it's all about their tanking and defense. You hold a shield up and poke away.

Our second approach is based on spamming Thundercloud Form. So for this, I use the Shard of Alexander to boost its power the Erdtree's Favor +2, the Lightning Scorpion Charm, and the Dragoncrest Greatshield for more survivability during the Thundercloud Form animation.

In the flask, I again use the Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear and I like to use the Stonebarb Cracked Tear to help the final attack of Thundercloud Form get us over 80 Poise damage to stagger most bosses. And with this one, I prefer Flame, Grant Me Strength over Dragonbolt Blessing as I just want to do as much damage as possible.