One of the newest Greataxes in Elden Ring DLC, Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe comes with a skill that gives it a hard-hitting power, and it’s also a satisfying weapon to play with thanks to its devastating lightning leaping attacks and lightning strikes.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to get the most out of this weapon, explain the challenges you can face with this weapon, and help you overcome them, ultimately learning how to build a Lightning Emperor build.

In addition, I’ll cover Lightning Emperor’s playstyle, the latest gear for this build, and tips for using the game, among other things. So if you want to get the most out of your Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe, then this guide is definitely for you.

Gameplay

Lightning Emperor is able to manipulate the power of lightning, dealing with fierce leaping attacks and devastating Lightning Spears. With a variety of play styles, this build is highly versatile, allowing the user to be effective in almost any combat situation.

Additionally, we have the powerful Lightning Incantations that deal most of AOE and ranged attacks, and punish enemies with Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe’s jumping attack, breaking their stance in the process.

Lightning Emperor does most of its damage from melee range, so if you want an exceptionally strong melee gameplay experience, this build is for you.

Stats

Now that the basic gameplay of this build is covered, let’s take a look at its stats.

First, let’s start with Vigor. I assigned 50 points to Vigor because the user is likely to get hit while performing the weapon’s unique skill animation. However, if you think you really need more health when adapting to the gameplay of this build, you can adjust it to 60 points.

Next is Mind, which I assigned 29 points to. Because both Incantations in this build require a lot of Focus, you can bump it up to 35 if you like.

Next is Endurance, which I assigned 30 points to Endurance. This build uses up a lot of stamina when performing its most powerful movesets.

Strength and Faith will be the main stats for this build, so I’ve allocated 70 points to each.

While the lightning properties unleashed by Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe scale with Dexterity, I feel that increasing Dexterity would be a waste of points, and focusing on Strength and Faith would be more beneficial. By focusing on Strength and Faith, you’ll ensure that you’re performing at your best in both melee and ranged combat.

Weapons

With stats covered, let’s move on to Lightning Emperor’s equipment.

Main Weapon: Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe

Start with the major weapon of the build, the aforementioned Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe. This greataxe requires 23 Strength, 10 Dexterity, and 18 Faith to properly use the weapon.

Moving on to the unique ability of Death Knight’s Longhaft Axe, Blinkbolt: Long-hafted Axe. Just like Death Knight’s Twin Axes, pressing L2 will cause the user to blink, transforming into a fast-hitting lightning attack as a gap-closing ability.

It’s worth noting that in the middle of Blinkbolt animation, the user will get I-Frames. Therefore, we can use Blinkbolt while dodging an incoming attack and counterattack with an available follow-up attack.

Now, based on user inputs, pressing R1 will cause the user to perform a normal Light Attack combo after a Lightning Strike. Pressing R2 key will allow the user to perform a fierce leaping overhead attack that not only deals huge damage but also heavy stance damage.

After the tip of the axe hits the target, a Lightning Strike is summoned for additional damage. Note that this will be your primary damage attack in melee range.

Secondary Weapon: Gravel Stone Seal

Moving on to the secondary weapon for this build, we will only be using Gravel Stone Seal for this build. This Seal will allow us to access the key buffs of this build and enhance our Dragon Cult Incantations later on.

Spells

Let’s move on to the spells. The first on the list is Flame Grant Me Strength Incantation, which grants an additional 20% of Physical Attack Boost and Stamina Recovery Buff.

The second buff is, of course, Golden Vow. This buff increases overall damage by 15% and adds 10% damage negation, which is very helpful for this build.

Knight’s Lightning Spear is one of the newest and coolest lightning spells. In addition to its ideal damage multiplier, its amazing range also provides great flexibility in combat. Not only can it easily hit fast-moving targets at super speed, it can also make enemies flinch and even deal stance damage.

Talismans

Spells are out of the way. Now let’s take a look at Talismans I recommend for this build.

The first Talisman on the list is our core, Shard of Alexander. This can increase skill damage by 15%, especially when performing our Blinkbolt skill.

Since this build relies heavily on lightning attacks, it is very necessary to slot in Lightning Scorpion Charm to get 12% more lightning damage.

We will be using Knight’s Lightning Spear in this build, so I recommend slotting in Flock’s Canvas Talisman, as this Talisman can increase the effectiveness of your spells by 8%.

As always, you can easily replace Flock’s Canvas with Dragoncrest Greatshield to get an additional 20% physical damage negation. It will improve your overall survivability, especially if you are not used to the play style of this build.

The last Talisman of this build is the mandatory Two-Headed Turtle Talisman. As mentioned before, all moves in this build consume a lot of stamina, so if you want to damage your opponent every time you start, it is normal to consume stamina.

Armor Set

Finally, let’s talk about the armor set of Lightning Emperor.

We equipped Elden Lord Crown as a headpiece, Cleanrot Set as an armor piece, and Gauntlets and Greaves. With this combination, I achieved the look I was going for. Of course, you can definitely style it to your aesthetic, as long as you have enough Elden Ring Runes.

If you don’t mind the look and want to further optimize your damage, wear the full Death Knight Set to get an additional 8% damage bonus to Dragon Cult Incantations.

Pros And Cons

Knowing the pros and cons of this build can improve your gameplay.

Let’s start with the pros. The first pro I can think of is the versatility and dynamic gameplay of the build. Switching out Knight’s Lightning Spear in a ranged fight and using Blinkbolt skill to get up close is an easy and fun way to play.

As mentioned above, casting Knight’s Lightning Spear will be your usual method of dealing damage at a distance, and you’ll tend to use up a lot of Focus in the process. But Blinkbolt skill only consumes 13 Focus peruse, so you’ll keep a healthy Focus management when switching attacks.

One of the biggest advantages of this build is its huge stance damage because of Blinkbolt’s overhead attack. If you take advantage of the burst opening, you can easily knock enemies down.

Now for the cons. I found that the damage dealt by Blinkbolt Overhead attack is not very high. You may not notice this when playing DLC, but once you use it in the base game, you can easily see its damage output.

Considering the stamina cost of this skill, I hope it gets a buff in the future. I’m not saying it’s trash, just don’t expect it to be top-tier in terms of damage.

Also, its skill tracking is poor against fast-moving humanoid targets with fast sideways abilities. Again, you won’t notice this on normal bosses, especially large ones.

The last thing I can think of is how stamina-consuming this setup is when doing full combos. But you can only notice it if you’re dealing the highest damage possible with each opening.

Conclusion

Overall, Lightning Emperor is a nice and fun build that offers dynamic gameplay. It offers good options in both melee and ranged combat. Players who like to play the role of Lightning God will definitely like this build!

As always, if you want to find some like-minded players, you might as well join IGGM Discord. What’s more, we will also post some giveaway activities here from time to time. So hurry up and get involved!