Arcane scaling is a stat in Elden Ring that increases the buildup of Blood Loss, Poison, Sleep, and Madness on weapons. This scaling can be added to weapons using a Blood, Poison, or Occult Enhancement, such as the Black Whetblade. Madness is inflicted via various means, including Weapons, Skills, and Spells. Once the Madness meter is filled, the effect is triggered, reducing the target’s resources for using Spells and taking health.
The raw damage of spells does not scale with any stat; to cast a spell, the correct weapon (staff/seal) is needed. The scaling of the weapon affects the overall build. In Elden Ring, the perfect Madness build is a Dexterity and Faith build, focusing on the Vyke’s War Spear Great Spear. This build is slightly more optimized for damage over applying large amounts of damage.
Madness damage is innate, dealing 100+15 max health to an enemy every time it procs. It deals damage equal to (15 Max HP) + 100 to the target and causes FP drain of (10 Max HP) + 30. The Madness effect can be mitigated by raising the Madness status effect.
Madness builds are not as viable in PvE due to madness only working in certain cases. Offensive spell damage is based on the Incant Scaling of the seal, which is displayed based on the stat scalings of the seal. While arcane increases the buildup of weapon affinities like rot, frost, bleed, poison, madness, and death, spells like the Frenzied Flame Seal receive a 20 damage boost.
📹 Elden Ring Madness Incantation Build Guide – How to Build a Frenzied Acolyte (Level 100 Guide)
Elden Ring Madness Incantations Build Guide – How to Build a Frenzied Acolyte (Level 100 Guide) In this Elden Ring Build Guide …
What alleviates madness in Elden Ring?
A player’s resistance to Madness is determined by their Focus, which increases with their Mind stat leveling. Lighter cloth armor or mage-like outfits have a higher focus, enhancing resistance. The Clarifying Horn Charm increases Focus, but may require more Talisman Pouches in the Elden Ring. Players can craft two items to temporarily increase focus and resistance to Madness if other options don’t fit their current build. These items include 5 Rimed Rowa, 1 Sliver of Meat, 1 Slumbering Egg, 1 Eye of Yelough, and 1 Strip of White Flesh.
How to stop madness buildup?
To avoid the madness flame on a tower near Frenzied Flame Village, craft several Clarifying Boluses and consume one every time your madness bar increases to neutralize the effect temporarily. Alternatively, head to the top of the tower and kill the NPCs that flame the madness. If you don’t have the related cookbook, the second method is to destroy the madness flame by spawning in the Grand Lift of Dectus Site of Grace and riding southeast. You will be affected by Madness during this phase, but you can wait at the tower’s foot until the effect fades.
What spell alleviates madness in Elden Ring?
Lucidity is a restorative Carian Sorcery in Elden Ring, dropped by Preceptor Miriam in the Carian Study Hall in East Liurnia. It Alleviates sleep and madness buildup and can be cast while in motion. To obtain it, defeat Preceptor Miriam, the unofficial boss of the Carian Study Hall, who leads to the Divine Tower of Liurnia. The spell requires 17 Intelligence, 10 FP, 10 Stamina, and 1 memory slot.
Can you make a madness build in Elden Ring?
Madness, a formidable weapon in Elden Ring, inflicts fire damage and is typically eschewed in PvE due to enemy immunity. Nevertheless, it can be crafted with the appropriate weapons, spells, armor, and statistics. The most efficacious incantations, which provide optimal buffs and healing options, necessitate a seal for casting and exhibit scaling properties with respect to Faith. Such configurations may be constructed through the utilisation of Faith and Faith.
What stat makes spells stronger in Elden Ring?
The text outlines the various stats that can be used to enhance a character’s abilities. The Vigor stat, which governs Health Points or HP, is crucial for a tanky build, as it increases damage potential. The Mind stat, which governs Force Points (FP), is essential for magic, particularly offensive Sorcery and support-based Incantations. Both disciplines draw on this stat in terms of power, but they require separate stats for mastery. Sorcery primarily uses Intelligence and Faith for incantations, while FP is also used by non-magical classes with certain items or special skills on weapons.
Investing in VIG can help avoid one-hit kills, while the Mind stat governs FP, which is used by non-magical classes with certain items or skills. It is essential to invest in these stats to avoid one-hit kills and maximize the effectiveness of your magic abilities.
What stat affects madness buildup in Elden Ring?
The Elden Ring Madness effect inflicts damage upon a target with a maximum HP of 15 and a FP drain of 10 HP. It is possible to mitigate the effects of this attack by increasing the Focus stats and improving the Mind stat by allocating points. The target is then subjected to a stun animation, accompanied by the emission of yellow flames. This effect is specific to players and enemies alike, and may be enhanced through the elevation of Focus statistics or the allocation of points to Mind.
Do any Sorceries scale with Arcane?
Arcane is a powerful weapon in Elden Ring, used to scale various sorceries and incantations. It is not commonly used due to its rarity and the rarity of enemies and weapons capable of causing the Death Blight status effect. However, 15 weapons in Elden Ring scale off the Arcane stat, which can deal blood loss buildup or fire damage. These weapons include the Albinauric Staff, Bloody Helice, Clinging Bone, Dragon Communion Seal, Eleonora’s Poleblade, Marais Executioner’s Sword, Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear, Morgott’s Cursed Sword, Reduvia, Regalia of Eochaid, Ripple Blade, Ripple Crescent Halberd, Rivers of Blood, Serpent Bow, and Varré’s Bouquet.
What is the strongest madness spell?
The Flame of Frenzy is a powerful Madness incantation that can be obtained from Callu Baptismal Church in Weeping Peninsula without fighting enemies. It requires a low 16 Faith requirement, allowing Prophet-class characters to cast it without leveling up. New Mechanics include mounts, crafting, and stealth, while returning Mechanics include power stance, parrying, and online co-op. Crafting materials can be found in various locations, and players can also obtain unlimited Smithing Stones, somber and ghost smithing stones, and other items like Grave Glovewort, Ghost Glovewort, and Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones. Other items include gold-pickled fowl foot, bewitching branches, and cracked pots. The game offers a variety of crafting materials and crafting materials to enhance the experience.
What does madness count as in Elden Ring?
Madness is a status effect in Elden Ring that inflicts heavy stagger and drains HP and FP, making it a more dangerous version of Sleep. The player’s resistance to this ailment is determined by their Focus stat, which is increased by the Mind stat. Madness works by building up and slowing damage until the effect bar reaches the max. Curing and Mitigation can help mitigate the Madness status effect.
What do spells scale with in Elden Ring?
The Gelmir Glintstone Staff and Prince of Death’s Staff augment the scaling of sorcery with Intelligence and Faith, yet exhibit diminished Intelligence scaling in comparison to the majority of staves. The Staff of the Guilty exhibits no scaling with regard to Intelligence and instead exhibits scaling solely with respect to Faith.
How do you alleviate madness buildup?
Yellow boluses crafted from cave moss serve to mitigate the accumulation of madness, which occurs at a gradual pace and results in significant damage and a reduction in FP once the threshold is reached.
📹 How ARCANE Actually WORKS (And Why it’s Busted) – Elden Ring
Elden Ring has many build varieties, but none as odd and strong as the Arcane stat. Arcane is VERY good por PvE… but it can …
3:44 for the arcane explanation. At only +8 the Dragon Communion Seal achieves S scaling with Arcane. This is used in combination with the other seals that offer buffs to certain damage types, placed in your left hand. You always cast with Dragon Communion Seal in your right hand, and switch your left hand Seal as needed, depending on what spell your casting, because those off-hand seals are only equipped to take advantage of the damage boosts they offer (basically passive buffs. Extra talismans in the form of equipped weapons). In the beginning (pre-level 100) Faith is only leveled as needed, to meet specific requirements of spells (and in turn, anything else you want that needs faith, I assume). The reason is because of the higher damage scaling with Arcane, offered by the Dragon Communion Seal as your active seal used for casting. 11:17 he explains that Aracne has a drop off in damage gains after 45 points (thats called a softcap). Once it’s at 45, you focus on pumping Faith to have more effective damage gains with each level you gain. Once Faith and Arcane are both at 45, you level them together (i.e. pump Faith one level, then pump Aracane the next, etc & so on). My understanding is this build can be pretty flexible. I plan to combine this with Dragon spells and make a Lews Therin Telamon character. I think it’ll work out. Also, please if yall see this comment pin it to the top if I explained it properly.
This one has me excited, My first build was a prophet, and he was abandoned for a warrior Dex Bleed. And I’ve been working on a Faith Strength confessor just to make an explosion build. My prophet was a beast and it was almost easy mode, definitely trying this madness build. Thanks Again! Ohhh man! Caught that at the end. I can’t wait for ALL the lvl 150 articles!!!!
This is a good start for lvl 100 but if you are trying to min-max at 150+ in lategame and become cyclops from x-men then there are a few things you improve. First the passive from frenzy flame seal can be applied twice if you dual wield them for +40% dmg, so go grab it again in NG+. Seals also have stat softcaps that depend on the scaling rank. For frenzy flame +10 this is C C C B in str dex int and Faith. The most dmg you will therefore get for the cheapest investment is 30 str 30 dex 30 int and 45 faith which comes out to 289 incant scaling. For reference 99 in str dex int and faith only gives you ~400 incant scaling which is why putting all points into faith for its B scaling will have you do less dmg overall than this stat spread. Lastly black dumpling helmet gives you a 10% dmg boost for 1m after becoming fully afflicted with madness. Howl of shabiri gives a 25% dmg boost for 20s and helps build up your own madness but increases dmg taken by 30% and doesnt stack with Flame grant me strength so you may want to try those out if the play style suits you.
I’ve had these incantations in my arsenal for almost 60% of my playthrough and never used them. I feel like a fool. I’ll take advantage of them though now that I’m in the end area of the game. I’m even using your Crumbling Farum Azula article walkthrough. I just beat the Godskin Duo yesterday. I went back to the church of vow to turn in the dragon prayer book to get those incantations. Back to Farum tonight.
I’ve been wanting to make a more caster focus build like this. Double dipping in Arcane (if you wanna call it that) seems like much, but I guess something to realize is that as you get to 100 and beyond, you’re going to have two attack stats to help boost your damage and that can be enough to differentiate it. Thanks for the build! Looking forward to the 150 builds.
This build looks awesome! I’ve been out looking for all the spells and gear today. Word of caution though to people who haven’t beaten the game, if you pick up the frenzied flame seal before getting to the forge of giants with Melina she’ll no longer help you and you’ll be pegged into the lord of chaos ending. Didn’t realize this before getting the seal.
Just a suggestion for anyone wanting to run a madness build and prioritize Elden Bling, Perceptor’s Set with Mask of Confidence(if you don’t want the big goofy hat), Vyke’s Warspear, and Fingerprint Shield when not running seals(later than lvl 100 for stat spread). Azur Glintstone set is also a good armor set to wear if the previous is too bland for you but it’s what I prefer. You can also use the Godskin Peeler previous to that with either Occult Bloodhound step or Seppuku if you still want a melee option. Serpent Bow with either Serpent, Bloodbone, or Rotbone Arrows is also a solid non-FP ranged option for random mobs out in the world or in legacy dungeons, catacombs, or caves. Keeping either Rotten Breath or Ekzyke’s Breath is also a good stand-by nuke if you don’t mind breaking theme a bit. You’re welcome! 😉
pit would be awesome to see you do a giants flame incantation build, the damage is very very good and it pairs well with the blasphemous blade for a faith focused build, fire scorpion charm, fire monk incantations, godfrey icon, giants seal are all great pieces you could look at. You’re articles have made this game so much more fun, the quality and depth of these articles is amazing, thank you bro!
the Funniest thing that i did if this build was turn the tarnished into Ciclops from Xmen and i have so much fun in pvp, the other player didnt know what is happening and see they running and stagging madness on then is incredible, because many players didnt upgrade the resistence against madness and they go crazy really fast and if you dont stop shooting at then they will need a straightjacket when you end, simple awesome and have fun build
Really awesome job on the build! Once I get a computer again, I’m going to have a hard time deciding between this and the Blasphemous Herald build. Also, just wanted to say that I hope that if/when they release DLC for Elden Ring, I hope they add more madness stuff. I need more weapons and spells because I LOVE the madness incantations and invoking frenzy on enemies.
Superb build as always. Why not use Vyke spear? I understand we are not looking to cause madness effect on enemies as the weapon has madness buildup, but it will help if it happens + its art of war is pretty great and unique. I guess the only two downside to it is its a HEAVY spear You need the bloodhound step to move around. Personally, I would go with the bloodhound step as that is my play style. I just hoped you would mention this weapon.
Hmmm for some reason I maxed my frenzied flame seal and the golden order seal with my last 2 legendary dragon somber stones. Didn’t realize the dragon seal would be so useful. But I can get it to +9 with some grinding before NG+. It’s cool that stats I totally ignored as a sorcerer are going to come center stage in NG+. Just as excited for the second playthrough as I was for the first.
I’m like one month late to this article and it may already have been said but since a lot of the madness incantations launch a but load of projectiles, each one doing damage, you can unlock from wherever you targeting and aim for there feet to absolutely erase whatever/whoever you happen to dislike at that moment. Works better and easier the closer you are to the thing you wanna erase from the earth.
if you want to abuse madness incantations and know you can survive if you get attacked while getting madness inflicted on yourself, the black dumpling is a good mask to grab. it increases your AR by a good amount that also stacks with golden vow and flame, grant me strength when you are inflicted with madness.
A build like this is something I’ve been looking for, albeit with a little more melee as a backup. I’ve always wanted to incorporate madness spells for flavour, and if they actually hit hard that’s just a bonus. An occult-scaling weapon with something like BHS in the pocket is a great idea; I might use the nagakiba because I’m a weeb, though.
I have a “Frenzied Assassin” build that is similair but pure Faith. The idea behind it is to use Erdtree Seal as a casting tool, because it scales better with Faith and the Yellow Flame as an off-hand to boost Frenzied Flame Incantations damage. As a weapon I use the Erdsteel Daggers (dual wielding em) because it’s a weapon that has an innate scaling with Faith and that can be infused with an Ash of War. The beauty of it is that its physical damage scale with faith, so if you infuse it with a Flame or Sacred ash, both its elemental and physical damage will scale with Faith.
Great stuff here. I’m basically planning on getting every ending, and each playthrough is gonna have a different build. Definitely gonna incorporate this one into the character that gets a very specific and obvious ending when looking at the build in question lol. But he’s gonna be a mix of melee+madness incantations.
So, I was trying to get some runes last night, so I put on the Taunter’s Tongue in Leyndell where the weird horn dudes are. I got invaded by one guy trying to do the Frenzied Burst cheese. I parried with Carian Retaliation, and he didn’t get to do Frenzied Burst anymore. One of the few times I haven’t felt bad about Carian Retaliation not being nerfed yet.
this is pretty much my exact build. The dragon communion seal also causes status build up so it actually stacks with the frenzy flame seal to build up madness, this together with high arcane is lethal in pvp and it is also just as effective on human/tarnished npc’s in pve. Incantation wise ive also added in swarm of flies which is excellent in both pvp and pve. rather than the regular lightning incantations ive gone with the dragon cult lightning ones just because i personally think they are cooler. frenzy flame burst is also my range incant so i dont need lightning spear. i also went with a bleed weapon to take advantage of the high arcane but it does have bloodhounds step which has saved my ass plenty times. i might swap this out for a polearm weapon as you mentioned as im often too far from the enemy after the step to hit them, thanks for the tip!
Vykes War Spear is a great weapon alternative here, though you lose the bloodhound step, the weapon art builds madness and the weapon scales on faith. Ripple Crescent Halberd has S tier arcane scaling and can use Bloodhound Step. As well, making any generic spear/halberd scale off Holy/Lightning/Fire/Occult would scale well with this build.
Idk, I have a +9 Dragon Communion Seal and a +24 Gravel Stone Seal. Was still doing about 200+ more damage with Lightning Spear while using the Dragon Communion Seal because of the scaling and my stat distribution (25 Faith, 50 Arcane). Weapon level matters, but the specific bonuses don’t outweigh raw scaling power
Question about using arcane over faith. So lets say you want to push this build to ~150, would the better move be to just run a faith build over an arcane and use the erdtree seal with the frenzied flame seal on the off hand? I understand it takes 40 faith to weild it but you get S tier scaling like you do with the dragon communion seal however that lets you be a little more felxible with points because youre not putting points into both faith and arcane. You can run more points into dex and mind to possibly get more scaling on a vykes war spear or a different dex/faith weapon.
The Arcane scaling on the Dragon Communion Seal is so busted, to the point where it is the best seal for most incantations, and not just the Dragon Communion ones. AFAIK, the only incantations that the seal falls behind, compared to other seals, are the healing ones, since those scale off of only the Faith portion of a seal. It pretty much shoehorns the Arcane stat into what’s suppose to be “a pure incantation caster” build, because the conventional “pure Faith-only caster” build is simply outclassed by this hybrid setup. IMHO, you could just replace the Frenzy incantations with the Dragon Communion incantations, or just about any other high-damage or nuke-ish incantations, and turn the build into some other type of an incantation caster build. Additionally, due to such investment into the Arcane stat, you might as well as bring a Bleed infused weapon as well, to speed up the fights when you’re forced into a melee.
I was waiting if you’d ever do a madness build and now here we are seeing you create a guide for one but I’m thinking what class I should choose because what would be best to choose? Also thank you for the guide as it’ll be helpful but also why censor the name of bosses? Wouldn’t it be pointless because you’re fighting the bosses?
So I could be totally missing something here, but it seems like your arcane is wasted stat points. If you aren’t focused on getting madness procs on enemies, and already switching seals depending on the spell cast then what’s the point of the dragon seal + arcane stat? Would it not be better to keep the BHS weapon in the right hand to always have access to your escape tool while always having access to your spell casting rather than having to choose between them? The only reason I can think of is you only have to upgrade the one seal, but you get 38ish points to put where ever you want (assuming vagabond starting class) + always having access to your escape without switching equip slots. It seems like a pretty good trade off as well as not sacrificing your physical damage because of the helm or adding a helm that gives you faith to get extra points somewhere else. I appreciate all the work Fextralife does but just curious as to why it is the way it is, since I could totally be missing something.
If not utilizing dragon incantations, then why increase arcane & use dragon communion seal? Is it because enabling both faith and arcane as a damage scaling factor is more effective compared to investing in just faith and mind using erdtree seal? If that is the case then is using something like the golden order seal instead and investing in intelligence and faith instead of arcane and faith also viable? And then use something like the sword of night and flame for melee, use prince of death staff, get access to bunch of sorceries even if for just utility sake, and also make golden order incantations that require intelligence viable? Or should I dare say, a faith&incantation oriented swordsage build instead of focusing on intelligence&sorceries?
How important is it to use the proper seal for the incantation category? I use the erdtree seal all the time and have never bothered to upgrade any of the other seals. Now that I’m in the end game and I like to use incantations from different categories or churches, I’d have to carry at least three seals on me at all times to take advantage of the buff. But I also have a shield and a sword and a bow because I’m mostly a combat or malee character that uses incantations to do range attacks or to thin down a boss’s health before I go in and swing with heavy attacks. At the same time I also use a spirit summons in most boss fights and take advantage of the ashes of war on my weapons. So I’m a little all over the place which makes it harder for me to be in the mix of battle and also remember that I need to switch my seals out to get a 15% buff.
To add to this for PVP: Adding the Unendurable Frenzy Incantation to your repertoire and mixing your Flask with Crimsonwhorl Bubbletear and Cerulean Hidden Tear is a disgusting combo. That flask converts damage you take into HP and grants FP cost elimination. This incantation is similar to the one in the article but you can move while using it. You can literally turn into a walking nuke they have to run away from or die.
?? weird to say the single cast aoe is more dmg than frenzied burst it is one of my highest damage spells, usually hits for over 3k & the websiteed frenzy spell is incredible even with mediocre focus, with decent intellect and a +25 seal(i use the golden order one, highest spell rating for me at 448) you can pop bosses before you hit madness, also don’t forget the Black Dumpling helmet increases attack power when you are inflicted with madness if you’re doing a hybrid melee/incant madness combo
hi i’m following your builds from the very begging of it. game has some serious performance problems and it’s not optimize for PC players like me and what im asking is as biggest part of community make quick article and ask from software to do something about it in upcoming updates. i’m sure you will be heard.
If I wanted to do both a madness incantation and melee build. What would be the best approach? What melee weapons would be awesome? Bloodhound blade since bleed scaling with arcane or something else? Curved swords with bleed on? Help. I want it still to be effective enough damage wise and let the attributes also intertwine with the weapon I use somehow
I’m pretty sure it’s not correct that madness works on any humanoid enemies your size. It only works on NPCs and invaders, plus a handful of bosses. Normal soldiers and mobs, whether they look like a normal sized human or not, are immune. Not that you’d proc madness on them before your spells kill them, anyway
I wouldn’t say this is much of a frenzy flame build, you could swap out the frenzy spells for any fire incantations and nothing would really change. When it comes to themed builds, the main theme of the build has to be the well… Main theme, you shouldnt be able to swap out the main focus of the build with something different and have the same outcome. A real frenzy flame build would make use of most of the frenzy flame spells, flame give me strength, use only the frenzy flame finger seal, vykes war spear. Since the main theme is “Frenzy Flame” thats what the build should rely on and use the most. This build is just a glorified faith build, that uses frenzy flame spells rather then a frenzy flame build itself
@fextralife Im perusal this vid a couple months post release, but i didnt hear you mention this about the dragon communion seal and madness. Madness build up actually scales off arcane, but if you arent casting with a seal that scales off arcane, you’d never notice. In pvp, Dragon Communion Seal is the only real option for a viable caster build because lets be real, vykes war spear is overdone and so is the fingerprint shield.