Best Poleblade of the Bud build in Elden Ring

Most Arcane builds in Elden Ring revolve around effects like Hemorrhage and Frostbite. The often-overlooked Scarlet Rot builds made a comeback in Shadow of the Erdtree with the Poleblade of the Bud. After you defeat Romina for this weapon, this is how you can build around it.

The best Poleblade of the Bud build in Elden Ring

Scarlet Rot builds are generally rare in Elden Ring because they don’t deal as much damage as bleed builds or have as much crowd control as frost builds. However, with the new Poleblade of the Bud Remembrance weapon in Shadow of the Erdtree, this build will amplify your Rot damage, making it great against bosses and in PvP.

Since you will be inflicting Scarlet Rot as much as possible, this build is going to be an Arcane build. If you are running a different build from the base game, respec your character before getting started with this one.

Stat distribution

The main stat in this build is Arcane, so invest 40 points into it before moving on to Vigor and Endurance. Get Vigor up to 40 and Endurance up to 30, then invest some points into Strength and Dexterity for scaling purposes. The rest of your leftover points are best invested into Arcane until it hits the 60 soft cap.

This is what your endgame stats should look like:

• Vigor: 50
• Mind: 15
• Endurance: 30
• Strength: 20
• Dexterity: 25
• Intelligence: Base level
• Faith: Base level
• Arcane: 60

From this point on, any additional points can either be used to improve your Vigor for survivability or Arcane for more damage. Getting Arcane up to the 80 soft cap is a good way to progress your stat distribution once your Rune Level goes beyond 180.

Crystal Tear concoction

The best Crystal Tear for any endgame build is the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear. Mixing this tear into your Flask of Wondrous Physick will grant you a 20 percent boost to all your damage output. This effect lasts for three minutes and also drains your health every second it is active, so make sure to mitigate the health loss with optimal health flask usage.

The other optionfor this build is the Thorny Cracked Tear. For any build that utilizes rapid attacks, granting each successive attack a damage boost is worthwhile. This Tear increases your consecutive attack damage by nine percent, going all the way up to 20 percent as the attack stacks increase. Mix these two Tears, and your damage output will skyrocket.

Gear breakdown

The two main weapons in this build are the Poleblade of the Bud and the Antspur Rapier. The Poleblade of the Bud has an inherent Scarlet Rot buildup with its attacks. This buildup is further amplified by its weapon skill, Romina’s Purification, which unleashes a series of Rot-infused slashes to deal damage and quickly build up Scarlet Rot.

The Antspur Rapier is your offhand weapon for this build. Not only does this weapon have an inherent Scarlet Rot buildup, but with the Poison affinity, it will also cause Poison buildup per attack. This effect is improved by the Poisonous Mist Ash of War which quickly spreads Poison in a small AOE, inflicting enemies with the status.

Both of these statuses benefit from the Kindred of Rot’s Exultation talisman, boosting your damage output while the Poison and Rot status effects are active.

In terms of armor, use the Mushroom Crown for a damage increase whenever Poison or Rot is inflicted. This effect also stacks with the Kindred of Rot’s Exultation. For the rest of your armor pieces, we recommend using the Rotten Duelist Set or any set that lets you medium roll.

Talisman breakdown

Four talismans work perfectly for this build:

• The Kindred of Rot’s Exultation is the talisman you want for a Poison/Rot build. Your damage increases by 20 percent every time an enemy is afflicted by either Poison or Scarlet Rot.
• Millicent’s Prosthesis increases your damage with consecutive attacks. Since you will be constantly attacking with both your weapons and Romina’s Purification, your damage boost will be constantly active. The additional Dexterity also helps your damage scaling.
• The Rotten Winged Sword Insignia stacks with Millicent’s Prosthesis by increasing the damage of your consecutive attacks. Between these two talismans and the Thorny Cracked Tear, you will be shredding enemies as long as you keep the damage buffs up.
• The Shard of Alexander boosts your skill damage, directly affecting the damage output of Romina’s Purification and Poisonous Mist. This talisman will give you a great endgame boost to your skill damage as your Arcane stat goes up.