Melee weapons in Elden Ring come in all shapes and sizes. You can choose from a vast arsenal of weapons based on your playstyle. One of the most overlooked weapon types is the Mace weapon and this build will showcase a viable Mace choice: the Great Stars.
This is how you build around the Great Stars.
The best Great Stars build in Elden Ring
Great Stars is a powerful Mace in Elden Ring. This item is dropped by Magnus, the Beast Claw after you invade and defeat him. The build of our choosing is a Strength build, using the Heavy affinity on the Great Stars while imbuing the weapon with the Prelate’s Charge Ash of War.
The way you play this build is by buffing up your Great Stars with Bloodflame Blade and Golden Vow, then using Prelate’s Charge to mow through groups of enemies. This will deal a good mix of physical damage and fire damage, with a high chance of inflicting blood loss.
If you are running a different build from the base game and want to try this build through your Shadow of the Erdtree DLC run, respec your character before getting started.
| Build parameters | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Recommended level | 150 or more |
| Primary stats | Strength |
| Secondary stats | Vigor, Faith |
| Weapons | Great Stars Clawmark Seal |
| Armor | White Mask Fire Monk Set |
| Talismans | Lord of Blood’s Exultation Fire Scorpion Charm Rotten Winged Sword Insignia Shard of Alexander |
| Weapon skills | Prelate’s Charge |
| Additional spells | Bloodflame Blade Golden Vow |
Stat distribution
Since the main stat of this build is Strength, first get the stat up to 40. Next, invest points in Vigor until it hits 40 and Endurance until it hits 30. Then invest some points into Dexterity, Faith, and Arcane to hit prerequisite levels before moving back to Strength. The remaining points should be allocated to Strength until it hits the 50 soft cap.
This is what your endgame stats should look like:
- Vigor: 50
- Mind: 15
- Endurance: 30
- Strength: 60
- Dexterity: 12
- Intelligence: Base level
- Faith: 25
- Arcane: 10
Any stat points you gain beyond this level can be invested into more Strength. If you’re lacking survivability, getting Vigor up to 60 would help as well. If you feel like you need even more damage, keep leveling up Strength until it hits the hard cap.
Crystal Tear concoction
The best Crystal Tear for any endgame build is the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear. Use this tear to gain a 20 percent boost to your damage output, including physical and fire damage. This effect lasts for three minutes, during which you will lose some health every second. Use healing flasks accordingly to mitigate the health drain.
For the other Crystal Tear, you have two options. If you would rather boost your physical damage, you can use the Strength-Knot Crystal Tear for additional Strength. If you would prefer to increase your fire damage output instead, you could opt for the Flame-Shrouding Cracked Tear. Both of these Tears stack well with the Bloodsucking Cracked Tear’s damage output.
Gear breakdown
The main weapon of this build is Great Stars. With the Heavy affinity, the weapon has an A-tier Strength scaling, making every point of Strength improve its physical damage quite a bit. Imbuing the weapon with Prelate’s Charge synergizes with the Great Stars’ innate ability to restore health per hit. Every instance of damage will restore your health, including the bursts of fire.
On the other hand, Clawmark Seal is needed to cast Golden Vow and Bloodflame Blade on your Great Stars. Bloodflame Blade will increase its fire damage output and the blood loss buildup on every enemy. Since the Clawmark Seal scales with Strength and Faith, it is the best Sacred Seal for this build.
When it comes to armor, the only mandatory piece is the White Mask helm for its damage boost every time you proc blood loss. The rest of the armor can be filled with components from the Fire Monk Set. You can use any other set pieces you like as long as you can maintain medium load.
Talisman breakdown
Four talismans work perfectly for this build:
- The Lord of Blood’s Exultation is the talisman you want for any build that can proc blood loss. Your damage will increase by 20 percent every time you inflict blood loss on an enemy.
- The Fire Scorpion Charm is great for a build that utilizes fire damage. This talisman increases all your fire damage output by 15 percent, making it great to use with Prelate’s Charge.
- The Rotten Winged Sword Insignia increases the damage of your consecutive attacks. Every hit of the Prelate’s Charge counts as a separate instance of damage, making this talisman extremely valuable for the build.
- The Shard of Alexander boosts your skill damage, increasing the damage output of your Prelate’s Charge even further. The 15 percent damage boost stacks with every other buff included in this build.
