Achieving immortality in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is more possible than you might expect. And Great Stars are one of the ideal tools to achieve this goal. This unique weapon restores your health with each use. Not only does it deal massive damage if used properly, it can also help keep your Tarnished away from death.
The best thing about this weapon is that it motivates players to attack aggressively when appropriate, or to choose an Ash of War that can attack in rapid succession. Here is a detailed guide on how to build this pointy hammer.
Pros And Cons Of Great Stars
Great Star is a unique Great Hammer that restores 1% of your max HP with each attack. While the basic Great Hammer move can be a bit boring because of its slow swing and limited vertical tap range, its heavy attacks hit in a large arc, and any Ash of War attached to this weapon can also trigger its healing effect. The limited range of the vertical light swings can be a little annoying, but once you get used to where they land, these attacks are still fast enough to hit most opponents.
Great Stars heal you for 1% of your max HP with each hit. Any Ash of War equipped with this weapon also triggers its healing effect. While the vertical light swings are limited, once you get used to where these attacks land, you’ll find that they come out fast enough to hit most enemies.
This weapon has two major features: First, players can find two of the same weapon in the same game, making it ideal for dual-wielding (powerstancing) strategies, as players can get double the healing and status effect build-up. Second, it is the only Great Hammer that inflicts Bleed on enemies.
In combat, combined with Raptor’s Black Feathers and Claw Talisman, players can quickly defeat powerful enemies. In addition, because of its inherent bleeding effect, it can be used with any elemental effect without losing its bleeding properties.
Given the many advantages of Great Stars, this weapon has become an ideal choice for players who pursue efficient combat and resource management. On this basis, using Elden Ring Runes to further optimize your character build can significantly improve your gaming experience and combat efficiency. In addition, there is a gift channel for this game in IGGM discord, which will release product gift information from time to time. Remember to be active in the discord group.
Best Shields With Great Stars
While powerstancing can effectively enhance healing and status effects, using a shield in the off-hand to block attacks is also an effective strategy for use with Great Stars. The core of this strategy is to choose a large shield or a shield with chief defense and excellent attributes to resist enemy attacks. No matter how many times you suffer damage during blocking, you can restore your health by counterattacking.
Great Shields are preferred for this strategy, as you can avoid taking too much damage with your shield, and the little health you lose can be easily restored with Great Stars. Medium Shields are also a good choice if you’re willing to take a more aggressive approach when healing is needed.
For specific shields to consider, Fingerprint Stone Shield and the more easily available DLC-cousin, Verdigris Greatshield are both great choices, as they have high guard boost and 100% physical resistance.
Among Medium Shields, Brass Shield and Wolf Crest Shield are very close to Great Shields, both of which provide high Guard Boost and 100% physical resistance, meaning you can defend yourself against almost unlimited physical attacks.
Alternatively, Carian Knight’s Shield with a Greatshield Talisman also performs well when used, and is particularly good at blocking Holy and Magic attacks, although its modest defense boost can sometimes limit the shield’s performance.
Best Ashes Of War And Infusions With Great Stars
Ashes Of War
- Ash of War: Prelate’s Charge
- Ash of War: Wild Strikes
- Ash of War: Chilling Mist
- Ash of War: Cragblade
Infusions
- Cold
- Heavy
- Blood
Since Great Stars have the innate bleed and passive healing, you should use three different infusions in your build, including Bleed, Cold, or Heavy for raw damage. For Ashes of War, you want anything that can hit multiple times to get as much healing as possible. Since you already benefit from fast, repeated attacks, applying status effects like Cold or Bleed will also fit perfectly into your build.
Cold builds will use Cold infusion, and use Cragblade or Chilling Mist for Ashes of War. With Chilling Mist, you can heal yourself with each attack; while Cragblade provides a steady medium damage output.
Additionally, Frostbite triggers to deal 10% damage based on the target’s maximum health (7% for boss enemies), and also increases the target’s damage taken by 20%. When used in conjunction with Great Stars, these abilities combine to significantly increase the weapon’s overall damage output.
Bleed builds will feature either Blood or Heavy infusion, with either Wild Strikes or Cragblade as Ashes of War. Blood is the better choice if you don’t invest more points in Strength than is necessary to equip the weapon.
However, if you’re looking to give your swings more power and rely solely on Hemorrage triggers for the extra damage and all the benefits it brings, Heavy infusion is a better choice. Regardless of which infusion you choose, White Mask, Blood God’s Exultation, and Bloodflame Flame Blade are key damage-boosting items that can take your damage output from mediocre to devastating enough to destroy average foot soldiers and demigods alike.
Best Stats With Great Stars
Ideally, you should focus on Strength to maximize your damage output, or, if you want to maximize bloodloss damage, then you should focus on Arcane. To ensure that each swing deals maximum damage, reaching 80 Strength is ideal.
With Bleed builds, you’ll want around 45 to 50 points of Arcane to reach the softcap. Beyond that, you can allocate additional points to Strength, Vigor, and Endurance.
So embark on your journey with Great Stars and let its power guide you through the challenges of Shadow of the Erdtree in Elden Ring.
