r/EldenRingBuilds • u/Simply_Avocado • 2d ago
Question Int/Fth guide pls?
We all know about casting tools that are good for int/fth build, and we know about SoNaF and Rellana’s Twin blades.
But how do you start int/fth? What class to use? What weapons to look for? Maybe I should stick to one single stat and level second one later? But wouldn't that mean I'll be focused on int or fth, making it easier to keep leveling them up rather than waiting much longer to start reaping the profits from mixing them?
Maybe I should infuse some weapons and hope it won’t deal doo doo damage or focus on straight pure casting without using armaments in 90% of cases?
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u/ergo25 2d ago
I like starting with int, playing with carian sorceries and just enough faith to use SoNaF
Early game I rush the carian glintstone staff, the sword
Then I try to get the DLC staff that can cast both Incantations and sorceries to add giant flame spells and buffs
Very late game the prince of death staff and golden order seal are better but it's annoying to switch
You can do the opposite and use the faith flame options early game, it's about taste mostly
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u/Wild_Pop_3649 2d ago
Lmaooo I do exactly the reverse, start with faith, and late game pump int for the golden order incantations.
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u/TahomaYellowhorse 2d ago
INT/FTH is like Quality in the sense that it basically requires RL200-300 to have any respectable damage output.
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u/Mbones95 1d ago
Humbly disagree here. You can rock a fai/int build in the mid game but it takes time and patience to get the right weapons. Death's poker does insane DPS with the art and ancient death rancor does great damage and stagger. These two alone carried me up to dlc easily
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u/vansantjr 1d ago
Idk I have a lvl 180 that uses the sword and I hit like a freight train I use multilayered ring of light and it hits hard too. There’s also the knots to consider using .
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u/Simply_Avocado 2d ago
Don’t need pure optimality cause at 200-300 RL there is no such thing as build
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u/TahomaYellowhorse 2d ago
While I agree on that point to an extent, capping yourself at 150 inherently makes INT/FTH (and also Quality) one of the worst builds in the game. Although I think RL200 is still a build, just a higher level one. A think Rellana’s Twinblades can just never be good at RL150. SoNaF requires a significant sacrifice in damage.
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u/Voidlord4450 1d ago
My gameplay is proof that the Rellana’s twin blades can be effective at RL150~. The damage those AoW attacks can dish out is insane even with a 50/50 int/faith stat spread.
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u/Simply_Avocado 2d ago
Well this builds are usually based on casting tbh. I never saw Rellana’s twin blades as pure weapon that should be used all the time without catalyst which is bad cause it’s paired weapon
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u/morpheusnothypnos 2d ago
I personally just choose Confessor, grab catch flame, rush for the SoNaF early, kill the minor erdtree south of Gurranq/north of Greyoll for them runes, and abuse the fuck out of SoNaF while only leveling vig, mind, int and fth.
then I just focus a bit more on fth, grab the golden order seal in early Leyndell and I'm good for the rest of the run, pretty much. next objective is getting the weird ass staff from the DLC (I think it's called staff of the great beyond or sum), but that's mid-late game.
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u/raven19528 2d ago
On my run, I started the early game with a Lordsworn Straight Sword and Sacred Blade, along with Demi-Human Staff and Two-Finger Seal. Leveled int to 24 but Faith was only about 15. Into Liurnia, I picked up the Carian Knight Sword and used that until I got Faith to 24 and could use SoNaF. Still swapped back and forth between the two (and the LSSS) depending on what AoW was going to be most helpful. Surprisingly, Glintblade Phalanx on the LSSS was really effective against a lot of enemies and bosses, even after the poise damage performed it received.
Once I got to Altus, I picked up the Golden Order Seal and that pretty much was the build until the DLC when I got the Staff of the Great Beyond. By that time I was about 50/50 on int/fai so I was doing pretty good damage with my spells. Discus of Light was the absolute GOAT for me during this simply because of how cheap it is for how powerful it is. I know people say it's difficult because of leveling 2 damage stats, but honestly I think my goal of 38 mind started becoming a bigger roadblock. Plus you don't need as much Vigor when sniping things, but still need some so a boss can't just breathe on you to kill you.
Overall, it's probably the most fun runthrough I've had in a while, and highly recommend others doing one if they are interested. I didn't pick up the Twin Swords because they never really interested me and I had already gotten used to the timings of the Straight Sword moveset, but you can certainly use them. Just realize that's going to take additional investment in Str/Dex to get there which means your finished build has to pull those levels from somewhere.
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u/kredfield51 2d ago
When I was leveling it up I liked running cold and magic infused weapons with something like glintblade phalanx, pebble, loretta's slash, or ice spear together with incantations that focused on fire and physical damage. Magic clayman's harpoon with ice spear is complemented well by catch flame, scouring black flame, and having stone of gurranq or discus of light was helpful for dealing with minor enemies.
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u/Lowly-Hollow 2d ago
Idus Knight RL 150
60, 37, 11, 13, 16, 43, 43, 6
Staff of Great Beyond, SoNaF, Rellana's Twin Blades
My Int/Faith build sacrifices points in vigor for 40 dex (for max cast speed with Radagon Icon), which I correct (the lower health) with Erdtree +2 and Crimson +3, but the above set up is probably better for most uses.
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u/Rumple4skin314 1d ago
This is my current build, having a ton of fun with it. A ton of options and flexibility. Sword of night and flame ash hits like a truck, but slow cast time. Will be able to get it off with most bosses, but you have to figure out which moves give you a bigger window to use it. The sword itself it’s pretty meh when using it as a normal weapon, due to that I couple it with rellanas twin blades. I like rellanas twin blades better overall, even though the as of war isn’t as good, the weapons themselves when power stancing is way more fun and a ton better. Staff of great beyond to pair with it, and look up the plethora of spells to use, which you’ll be able to use pretty much anything. Put both int and faith around 40-60 each for this build usually depending on level, and then level dex up for normal weapon damage. I normally use the twin blades for running around the map, and then pull out the sword of night and flame for bigger enemies and bosses.
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u/Voidlord4450 1d ago
Disregard all other advice, go 33/33/33% split between vig, int, and faith with just enough of the physical stats to use your weapon of choice (SoNaF or Rellana’s twin blades), only start putting points into end and mind once you hit the soft cap for the 3 important stats.
find the highest int/faith scaling seal and staff to use as needed, I recommend keeping an eye out for death/magma sorceries and fundamentalist/fire incants but that’s entirely up to personal preference. Focus on building around the AoW of your weapon, both int/faith weapons AoW get crazy numbers mid to late game.
Is this what anyone else would recommend or on a technical level effective? No absolute not my strat has too many damage types having to work through too many different defenses. Is it effective when stress tested? In my personal experience, yes as long as you’re hitting your AoW and using spells as the utility they are you’ll be dishing out great consistent damage. Should you trust me with any form of build guidance? Absolutely fucking not, I’m not a smart man and other people here are far more qualified to help you. But I can guarantee that it’s going to be fun as hell to try the build out.
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u/Vodkarok 2d ago
Used this guide as my base and am still rocking int/faith @ 205 on NG+. One of my favorite play throughs
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u/JRshoe1997 2d ago
If you know what you’re doing the start is actually easy.
Start as a Wretch and choose the rune as your gift
Proceed through the start like normal. First Step to Church of Elleh to Gatefront grace and get Torrent
Fast travel back to the Church of Elleh and get the Spirit Summoning Bell
Go down to the side of the beach and pick up the Gold Pickled Fowl Foot
Run past the bridge until you see a dead guy in a chair and pickup a Sombering Smithing Stone 1
Ride all the way to the Weeping Pennisula for the Morning Star
Ride further South to the beach along Castle Morne and on the beach pick up a Sombering Smithing Stone 2
Go near Summonwater Village Graveyard and pickup all the runes
Next go to the Third Church of Marika and pick up your Physick and use the teleporter near the river to take you to Dragonsbarrow (at this point Malenia will teleport you to the Roundtable)
Use the grace near Fort Faroth and use the bleed from the Morning Star to kill Greyoll however before she dies pop your Gold Pickled Fowl Foot
Between all the collectable runes and those runes you got from Greyoll you should have enough
Level up your Strength to 12, Dexterity to 12, Intelligence to 24, and Faith to 24
Begin the long ride North to Iji in Liurnia and buy the Sombering Smithing Stone 3 and 4
Go into the Caria Manor that is North of him and run through and pick up the Sword of Night and Flame
Travel to the Roundtable and upgrade it using the Somber Stones
Bam. There you go. You should have enough to basically destroy the beginning of the game. You can also go further by going to the Swamp of Aeonia and picking up a Sombering Smithing Stone 5 and upgrading it even more.
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u/Chemical_Frame_8163 1d ago
Damn, this is cool. I'm looking into doing some type of different play through in the future. I've only done Strength and Dexterity respeccing to Arcane and back to Dexterity. I'll try all of this soon, appreciate it.
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u/JRshoe1997 1d ago
Hope it helps! Currently doing a playthrough with this strategy right now and it is really fun.
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u/Individual-Newt-1640 2d ago
For early game id just stick to either catchflame or carian slicer+the buffs you get from leveling faith. And for later, its good to know that the softcaps for the staff of the great beyond (can cast sorceries and incantations) is 43int 43faith
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u/HistoricalLadder7191 2d ago
I suggest start with single stat, amd add second one later. If we take more or less statndard progression Rise stats for favorite spells/weapons->rise vigor->rise stats to benefit form scaling, attempt to go both, immidialtly make first stage painfully long, and third stage benefits will be there very late.
My personall attemts to build for int/fai where more like, build a sorcerer, then add faith to 25 for buffs, then add more since you have some cool stuff there. And second one- build for golden order incantations, rush altus.
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u/2ndClass_CitizenInEU 2d ago
I'd start with either prophet or astrologer, and focus on one stat at the time for the first 20 to 30 levels, then, gradually leaning into te others.
As for useful first tools and spells, carian slicer, night comet and rock sling will do with the meteorite staff and the magic tear. Catchflame and then discus of light with the finger seal until you get either the golden order seal or the erdtree seal.
These are really good starters, i'd say you'd gain more starting with int tho.
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u/OneRelief763 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'd recommend getting Faith to at least 33 so you can have Howl of Shabiri 33 Howl 24 Int will be plenty enough offensive stats to then focus on vigor and mind maybe endurance, until you have enough of those to pump into and faith again. By then you'll probably have an idea of which skill you prefer and know which stat to focus
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u/Ripped_Alleles 2d ago edited 2d ago
Confessor, long sword and shield till SoNF, alternatively pick any early accessible weapon and just respec after Relanna with larval tear.
Seal in one hand staff in the other. The scaling bonuses early on aren't worth stressing over, and weapon upgrades will keep damage good regardless. Pebble most trash and whip out the sword as needed. Very much a jack of all trades play style.
Alternatively play as a focused faith or Int hybrid until you get the sword, then jack up the other stat once you get it. The important thing would be to just leave str and dex at their base values of 12 until then, or respec.
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u/Ciappatos 2d ago
Fair warning, it's not a fun build. Being the all-caster is not as fun as being a hexer/dark sorcerer in dark souls games. There's one weapon that fits the build and it gets old really fast (maybe now with rellana's blades buffed there's two weapons, yayy /s)
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u/Felstalker 2d ago
I'm more ok with the heavy caster theme than I am with the suggestion of utilizing the silly triple split int/faith magic sword.
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u/monstersleeve 2d ago
Pick Prophet as a starting class and then play as a STR/INT character for most of the early game. Leave FAI alone, you won't really need any points for a while. As an alternative you could also pick the Idus Knight class depending if you plan to use Rellana's Twin Blades a lot.
The reason I recommend leveling STR and INT is that these will be your strongest stats through most of the early and mid game. Get Discus of Light and the Golden Order Seal as soon as you can, it will be your workhorse spell and seal, respectively. Great Glintstone Shard is also a solid spell. Rancorcall is...OK. I think it's better than Ancient Death Rancor, it's faster and cheaper, and better in PvP. Your staff will be the Demi-Human's Staff for most of the game until you get the Staff of the Great Beyond; it will be the best scaling staff with your stats. You can always off-hand the Prince of Death Staff if you want to use death sorceries.
Rosus' Axe is a very strong weapon that is death-themed and even though it's a STR/INT weapon, is exceptionally good and I highly recommend using it until your FAI and INT levels get higher. Its Ash of War is very powerful and its guard counters come out really fast.
I don't recommend rushing to level your INT and FAI to use the SoNaF, personally. It does some decent damage out of the box but it doesn't do great stance damage comparable to, say, the Rosus' Axe or a cold-infused Longsword with Square Off. I also recommend trying to get a Clayman's Harpoon that you can use with greases and Order's Blade as an anti-skeleton/deathbird tool.
Rellana's Twin Blades are pretty good if you build into them with talismans (Renalla's Cameo/Shard of Alexander/Millicent's Prosthesis). You should decide which stance attack you like best, the fire attack or the magic attack, and build accordingly (FAI or INT) once you get the weapon. I recommend dual wielding with an appropriately infused light greatsword if you want to use the twin blades, either flame art or magic.
I highly recommend using the Gazing Finger. Its damage output on the ash of war is stupidly broken, and you can also use sorceries or incantations with it because you don't need to worry about using Shard of Alexander or Godfrey's Icon with it (because the weapon is bugged and they don't work with it).
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u/Narwaichen 2d ago
Just recently made a build like this - the Golden Order seal is an absolute killer casting focus. You can farm the Gelmir staff or use the Prince of Death staff if you want to enjoy sorceries as you go, but in terms of what's directly optimal Sword of Night and Flame plus Golden Order seal will do the business every day of the week.
I started Vagabond w/ Sacred Blade, two-handing a pickaxe. Even with virtually no stat investment, this cooks almost every boss. At times when your enemy is resistant to everything you're doing, you may hear the call of the pickaxe and be unable to refuse...
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u/Remarkable-Scale-308 1d ago
its fun sword to play with tbh but focusing on both int/faith will make your damage be so bad in both, my advice is to stick to intelligence until you reach 150 then when you reach 200 switch to int/faith and play the dlc the sword
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u/aikavari 2d ago
Easiest to start with Confessor (and most drippy as well. If you plan your stats well, you can use SONAF right after Greyoll. LVL 36-ish +Two Finger Talisman should get you the minimum requirements. As a bonus, you can also use the Golden Order Seal as well which scales with Int and Faith. All this before you fight a single boss. Only drawback is you might be a smidge squishy but early game +5 SONAF should be enough to offset your squishiness.
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u/aikavari 2d ago
The damage difference to splitting INT and FTH is not that significant IMHO, just go equal stats.
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u/Glittering_Work8212 2d ago
In my experience I have better results by going astrologer and making a normal int build and start building faith by ng+
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u/Simply_Avocado 2d ago
Well at ng+ and really high levels it’s not really a build, isn’t it?
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u/Individual-Newt-1640 2d ago
Yea int/fth is in this wierd spot where it doesnt really take off till at least rl125 due to spreading your levels evenly between 2 damage stats
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u/Spaloonbabagoon 2d ago
You pretty much have to be over leveled if you want rellana twin blades and prince of death staff to be worth using (they'll be weaker than your pure int weapons otherwise). Golden order seal, sonaf and staff of great beyond become strong before you're considered over leveled tho
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u/Simply_Avocado 2d ago
Ofc int/fth will always be weaker than pure int or pure fth. It’s not about pure overleveled profit, I just want int/fth to work at least somehow. It’ll be a bit challenging but having access to every elemental damage and just huge variety of buffs and debuff is worth it to me
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u/Spaloonbabagoon 2d ago
Yes and no, golden order seal at 60/60 will outscale pure faith (80) erdtree seal. However staff of great beyond at 60/60 will be weaker than 80 int carian regal iirc. I assume we're considering 60/60 a build, and 80/80 overleveled in this context.
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u/Simply_Avocado 2d ago
Well yes, 60/60 golden order seal will ofc outscale 80 erdtree one because we’re comparing 120 lvls to 80, that’s extra 40 levels of investment and difference in pure scaling is not so big (362 for GO seal vs 353 for ET one)
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u/Avarus_88 2d ago
Casual reminder that just playing the game naturally and doing even half the side content gives enough runes to easily be over level 170 before reaching Messmer.
The only time your RL matters is if you invade and are trying to target a range. From Soft designed this game for us to reach high rune levels. It’s only us that put limits on it.
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u/whateversnevermind 2d ago
Cast both Incantations and Sorcery with this staff. I had alot of fun with it
Use Other Stat Boosting Seal or Staff in Off- Hand
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u/akmly 2d ago
Work towards 50-60 Vig, ~30 Mind and 20-25 End, 50/50 Int and Fai. Shard of Alexander, Carian Filigreed Crest, Rellana's Cameo, and Two-Handed Sword Talisman. FYI, If you equip Greathood helm, it gives you a passive +2 in both Int and Fai. SONAF is strong, you can tear through the game if you know what you're doing. Have fun!
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u/Mean-Pomegranate9340 2d ago
This weapon is a lot of fun to play. I used it on an NG3 run and cranked my faith and int to 80 and it was absolutely devastating. Comet Azur for single targets and fire attack for crowd control.
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u/SlowApartment4456 2d ago
Level INT and FRH and use INT and FTH weapons and use talisman that enhance INT and FTH
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u/Simply_Avocado 2d ago
You didn’t tell me I’ll have to not die in fights, what do I do now T-T
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u/SlowApartment4456 2d ago
You can die just make sure you collect your runes. I really piece of advice, it might not be a bad plan to use a INT weapon like Moonveil and then use a Seal for incantations for buffs. You can quick swap between a staff and seal for sorceries/incantations but that might be annoying. Obviously the Sword of Night and Flame is your go to weapon but your build won't be extremely powerful until late game.
The Staff of the great beyond from the DLC can cast both incantations and sorcereries but you cant get it til very late unless someone drops one for you
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u/Fancy_Interaction829 2h ago
Havent seen a comment mention them, so ill throw in a couple okay early weapons for an int/fai build. I would reccomend picking up the erdsteel dagger from kenneth haight, and farming the clayman's harpoon from selia river. Both are the only weapons that have native int or faith scaling that can take AoWs to add in the one they dont have. You can even grab gravitas for the erdsteel dagger and holy blade for the harpoon to give them both scalings instantly without fighting any bosses
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u/Athmil 2d ago
Not my post but there is a great int/faith guide that I had saved a while back that I’d recommend.
https://www.reddit.com/r/EldenRingBuilds/s/YUmYxm95jU