Garnet the Dragon Dancer

Garnet the Dragon Dancer

A RL 125 Dragon Communion build focused mainly on the use of Eleonora’s Poleblade and the Dragon Communion Seal. Designed for PvE and Invasions and balanced around the lowest recommended level for the DLC. Serves as a solid foundation for higher level builds as well.

My goal with this build was to create a red-themed build with a focus on dragon spells, blood, and Bloodflame.  Garnet’s sacred seal of choice is the Dragon Communion Seal, while her primary melee weapons are Eleonora’s Poleblade, Rivers of Blood, and Reduvia.  All of these weapons scale off Arcane to some degree, so I made this a primarily Arcane build with some investment into Faith and Dex as well.

I also chose fashion sets for this character that fit a red and black aesthetic.  For light load, I chose the Dancer’s Set, a very beautiful red and black dress that buffs Eleonora’s Poleblade’s Bloodblade Dance skill.  For medium load, I chose a mixed set that incorporates Drake Knight and Fire Knight pieces to fit her dragon knight theme.

Enemies

The idea behind this build is to combine bleed weapons with dragon incantations.  You can engage enemies from a distance with dragon breaths, then rush in and finish them off with your bleed weapons.  You can also use consecutive attack talismans and the Lord of Blood’s Exultation to build up attack boosts, then hit enemies with melee-oriented spells like Dragonmaw and Dragonclaw.

Bosses

For bosses, you can open up at range with Rotten Breath or Ekzyke’s Decay to proc Scarlet Rot, then take the fight to melee range with your blood weapons.  If you equip a Faith stat boost, you can also begin the fight with Greyoll’s Roar to reduce the boss’ defenses and attack power.  Ancient Dragon’s Lightning Strike, Dragonmaw, and Dragonclaw all work well for big openings as well.

Tips

• You’ll use primarily Dragon Communion and Blood Oath incantations, but you can also incorporate some Dragon Cult incantations like Ancient Dragon’s Lightning Strike.
• The Faith-Knot Crystal Tear grants enough Faith to use Placidusax’s Ruin, should you wish to incorporate it.
• Sacred Bloody Flesh grants enough Arcane to use Bayle’s Tyranny and Bayle’s Flame Lightning if you wish to use these as well.
• Use Mohg’s Great Rune to empower summons and get more bleed procs. Synergizes with Sacred Bloody Flesh and the Lord of Blood’s Exultation as well.  Mimic Tear naturally works well for this.  I also like Stormhawk Deenh, as birds are descended from dragons in the lore of Elden Ring, tying into Garnet’s dragon theme.  Spirit summons that summon multiple enemies should work as well.
• With only 16 Dex, use a stat-boosting talisman (i.e. Radagon’s Soreseal, Millicent’s Prosthesis, or the Prosthesis Wearer’s Heirloom) to meet Eleonora’s Poleblade’s 21 Dex requirement. If you raise your Dex to 21 at higher levels, you can use the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia instead.  Bear in mind you can only get either Millicent’s Prosthesis or the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia in any given playthrough, so you’ll have to choose which one you want until NG+ and beyond.