The Duchess class in Elden Ring Nightreign offers an exhilarating blend of agility and deadly precision, making her a top-tier choice for players keen on mastering nimble assassins. With strong DEX-scaling capabilities and impressive movement, she excels at wielding daggers and casting INT-based spells. However, her balance of power comes with challenges, particularly her low HP and stamina reserve, making her less beginner-friendly. To help you maximize your potential in this agile Nightfarer role, we’ve crafted a comprehensive guide focusing on the best Duchess build in Elden Ring Nightreign.
Best Duchess Weapons in Elden Ring Nightreign
Daggers perfectly align with the Duchess’ playstyle, emphasizing speed and precision. Seek out daggers that inflict status damage—like Bleed or Scarlet Rot—to enhance your offensive capabilities. The unique dagger moveset allows her to land additional hits during light attack combos. Don’t overlook using a staff in your off-hand for casting spells, giving you versatile options to retreat safely from combat.
Rare daggers might not be easy to find, but light swords imbued with magic or bleed-afflicted Katanas can also serve you well. Regardless of the weapons chosen, ensure they come with effective Passive effects.
Here are the Passive effects to prioritize for the Duchess:
- Damage Negation on Successive Attacks
- Successive Attacks Improve Attack Power
- X Type Attack Power Up (adjust for Nightlord weaknesses)
- Increased Spell Casting Speed
- FP Restoration on Attacks
- Improved Sorceries
- Reduced FP Cost for Sorceries
Weapon Arts play a crucial role in the Duchess’s effectiveness, offering dynamic offense and defense through enhanced animations. The ideal Weapon Arts for her emphasize quick, high-DPS attacks that complement her agility:
- Quickstep
- Repeating Thrust
- Reduvia Blood Blade
- Blade of Death
- Corpse Piler
Best Duchess Relics in Elden Ring Nightreign
Relics serve as game-changing progression items in Nightreign, adding a layer of strategy to your build. As you progress, focus on the character’s Remembrance quest for two powerful Relics that can enhance your gameplay significantly.
Here are key Relics to bolster your Duchess build:
- (Duchess) Dagger chain attack reprises event upon nearby enemies
- (Duchess) Improved character skill attack power
- (Duchess) Defeating enemies while Ultimate Art is active increases attack power
- Increased Dexterity
- Increased Intelligence
- Increased X type status effect build-up
- Improved character skill cooldown
- Improved stance breaking when dual-wielding
- Consuming Flasks heals allies
- Increased HP
- Increased FP
- Improved Stamina Recovery
Best Talismans for Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign
Talismans in Nightreign have a similar function to those in Elden Ring, enhancing specific attributes while introducing a randomized acquisition method via defeating teardrop scarabs. These items are vital for improving damage output and providing necessary survivability.
Here are the top Talismans recommended for your Duchess build:
- Milicent’s Prosthesis: Enhances Dexterity and boosts attack power on successive hits
- Erdtree’s Favor: Increases maximum HP and stamina
- Crimson Seed Talisman: Boosts HP restoration through Flasks
- Green Turtle Talisman: Improves stamina recovery
- Blessed Dew Talisman: Provides continuous HP recovery
- Lord of Blood’s Exultation: Increases attack power from nearby blood loss
- Kindred of Rot’s Exultation: Enhances attack power from poison and rot
- Twinblade Talisman: Improves chain attack finishers
- Cerulean Amber Medallion: Increases Maximum FP
- Dagger Talisman: Boosts Critical Hit damage
- Graven-School Talisman: Enhances Sorceries
- Magic Scorpion Charm: Increases Magic Attack Power
- Radagon Icon: Speeds up Spell casting
Best Tips for Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign
While the Duchess embodies agility and offensive capabilities, her vulnerability lies in a low HP pool. Master her playstyle, and you can weave in and out of battles expertly. Understanding her Passive ability, Magnificent Poise, empowers you to dodge without depleting stamina rapidly.
1. Don’t Sleep on Duchess’ Dagger
Your starting dagger may not seem exceptional, but its potential significantly increases with a magic affinity. This weapon excels during the early game, enabling you to leverage status damage effectively. It’s advisable to dual-wield daggers to enhance damage when you find a second one.
2. Dual-Wield Daggers If Spellcasting Isn’t Your Thing
For players who prefer physical combat, dual-wielding daggers leveraging the Duchess’s DEX-scaling is a winning strategy. Equip two daggers that inflict status damage and combine them with her Restage skill for efficient enemy takedowns.
3. Use Ultimate Art to Revive Teammates
The Ultimate Art, Finale, grants temporary invisibility, allowing you to revive fallen teammates strategically. While it’s tempting to engage enemies, using this skill to bring allies back can turn the tide in boss encounters.
4. Coordinate Restage with Your Teammates
Timing the Restage skill with your team can create devastating attack combinations. If all Nightfarers synchronize, especially an Ironeye archer, you can optimize damage output as the skill reapplies previous hits within seconds, achieving rapid boss defeat.
With these insights into building the optimal Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign, you’re ready to elevate your gameplay. Whether you lean towards spellcasting or prefer brutal, swift strikes, the Duchess holds incredible potential. Explore more strategies and builds at Moyens I/O to further improve your gaming experience!