Top 3 Elden Ring DLC Best Bleed Builds & Combos 1.12.3

One of the most powerful things in Elden Ring Erdtree of the Shadow is bleed buildup. In our Elden Ring DLC bleed build guide, we talked about the top 3 best bleed builds after 1.12.3 patch. These will be pure bleed builds, the main damage of the build either comes from bleeds themselves or it is entirely based around a weapon set on bleed affinity.

Elden Ring DLC Best Bleed & Combos - Top 3 Best Bleed Builds After 1.12.3 Patch

In Elden Ring, bleed build does percent damage to enemies when it procs, meaning that it scales with the difficulty of your enemy being better against healthier foes. Most importantly, if you manage it correctly, you can use it to skip a normal phase skip point by thousands of damage. Over damaging an enemy pass when they would normally move phases and making the enemy who normally has a much tougher secondary phase. Simply get to spend less of their time alive in the tougher phase, making the fight easier as a whole in its entirely unique way. Bleed is special and while there are some bosses that are resistant or even immune to it for good reason, there are surprisingly few of those in the DLC. Next, let's break down the top 3 best Elden Ring DLC bleed builds and weapons in 1.12.3.

No.3 Elden Ring DLC Best Bleed Build

The third best Elden Ring 1.12.3 bleed build is any colossal sword that is set to bleed affinity while using the new Spinning Gravity Thrust Ash of War from Commander Gaius. All Ash of War colossal swords will hit the same amount of bleed buildup on bleed affinity, same with Gaius's Sword Lance Heavy Thrusting Sword. The weapon with the highest AR while in an appropriate setup is the classic Guts Greatsword that everyone loves. The trick here is simple, spinning gravity thrust is a ton of small weapon hits in a row. But unlike most fast-hitting weapon skills, every tick of damage counts as being hit by the weapon itself. It applies status buildup and builds up the multi-hit successive hit bonus talisman and the effects too.

How to play this build?

Level Arcane to 45 for the soft cap on bleed scaling. This boosts your bleed buildup significantly.

Wear Talismans that increase successive hit damage and status buildup after a burst, like Claw Talisman.

Use Spinning Gravity Thrust in close range for trading attacks. Its high poise allows you to resist being staggered during the skill.

Time your attacks to maneuver past your opponent's strikes and spin through their attacks uninterrupted.

Take advantage of the posture damage and status proc chances to pressure enemies and gain the talisman buffs.

Once bleed is procced, spin again for massive damage with status and successive hit bonuses stacking up.

Play aggressively to continuously build bleed and chain spin attacks for high DPS combos with great poise. Just watch your health.

No.2 Elden Ring 1.12.3 Best Bleed Build

The second best Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree bleed build is Bloodfiend's Arm. It sets to bleed scaling and then abusing the unique heavy attack and the way that it double stacks bleed buildup. Before the patch, it was consistently one charged heavy attack per bleed proc, now it is two sometimes more. The bleed buildup though on this is definitely lower than it was before the patch by a decent amount but it still hits ridiculously high amounts of bleed buildup and it's still far from the realm of balance if you know how to set it up properly.

How to play this build?

• Level Arcane to 45 for Elden Ring best bleed 1.12.3 scaling from the weapon.

• Use Royal Knight's Resolve on openings to temporarily boost bleed buildup. Use a charged heavy during its effect.

• Use Infinity to tank a hit in return for a charged heavy. Its regen also helps in aggressive trades.

• Equip Claw Talisman and/or Ritual Sword Talisman for increased consecutive hit damage after a status proc.

• Two-hand the weapon and use Great-Champion's Rune to boost charged heavy attack damage.

• Play aggressively and chain charged heavies. Back off after a proc to re-apply buffs safely.

• Against groups, use charged heavies to stack bleed on multiple enemies quickly.

• Consider a 100% physical block shield for defense when not attacking.

No.1 Elden Ring SOTE Best Bleed Build

The most powerful bleed build in the Elden Ring DLC is Impenetrable Thorns after patch 1.12.3. What makes this spell insane is that it fires out three lines of bleed applying thorns but they apply damage along the way of their path. If you have a target selected and if that target is relatively close to you, every single bit of thorns from the attack will hit them and each one applies its own separate little bit of bleed buildup. This is by far the most inconsistent. Sometimes it will go funky on the targeting and only do 200 to 300 damage, sometimes it will go directly through an enemy without even connecting with them in the first place. But other times it will go nuts and hit for 13,000 or more out of nowhere.

How to play this build?

• Use the Maternalwood Staff and equip Impenetrable Thorns sorcery.

• Level Arcane to 45 soft cap for magic bleed scaling from staff and sorcery.

• Use Terra Magica to boost magic damage before casting Thorns. Stand in it for the buff.

• Use Blood Exaltation and White Mask for additional damage buffs.

• Consider Rotten Winged Sword Insignia and other damage boosting talismans.

• Wear Ritual Sword Talisman and Claw Talisman to boost consecutive hits after status proc.

• Use Injury talisman and Dagger to apply Injury buff, then quickly swap to staff.

• Cast Thorns at close range when Injury buff is active to maximize hit rate.

• Leverage status procs and damage boosting buffs to deal massive burst damage.

• Play defensively between casts to avoid damage during long animation.

• Re-apply buffs when safe and seek openings to reliably trade with Injury.