Is Faith Good in Elden Ring? Yes, Faith Builds are Extremely Powerful

As a passionate Elden Ring player and builder of many faith-based characters, I can definitively say that faith builds are extremely powerful in Elden Ring PVE and PVP. The versatile toolbox of ranged offenses, buffs and sustain from incantations, along with excellent holy damage weapons, makes faith an outstanding build option.

Why Faith Builds Excel in Elden Ring

There are a few key reasons why faith builds stand out:

Devastating Offensive Incantations

Faith builds gain access to some of the strongest ranged attack spells in the game via incantations. I‘ve played over 100 hours with faith builds across multiple characters, and incantations absolutely melt bosses and tough enemies.

Some of my personal favorite heavy hitters:

Ancient Dragons‘ Lightning Strike has become my bread-and-butter for chunking down tanky enemies fast. With the Gravel Stone Seal and Lightning Scorpion Charm, it hits for over 1300 damage on a mere 18 FP cost and extremely quick cast!

Meanwhile Inescapable Frenzy, while slow and costly, absolutely demolishes bosses by directly reducing their max HP by 80%. It‘s riskier to use, but watching a boss melt before my eyes never gets old.

And that‘s just a small sample – Honorable mentions to Giantsflame Take Thee, Swarm of Flies, Ekzykes‘s Decay and more. Faith gives you an incredible array of tools to aggressively dismantle foes.

Best-in-Class Buffs

While dealing damage is important, survival is key. Many incantations offer powerful defensive and offensive buffs that can really turn the tide of battle.

Golden Vow is my personal go-to – a simple 15% damage buff for a whopping 90 seconds off just one cast! It has nearly 100% uptime, and the damage difference is quite noticeable.

Meanwhile Flame Grant Me Strength offers an even more intense 20% attack buff for shorter encounters. I lean on this heavily duringLegacy Dungeons and Boss attempts where I need to maximize my damage windows. Those extra percentages really add up!

And the utility goes on – Lord‘s Divine Fortification for boosting Holy defense against Crucible Knights, Elden Beast and more. Blessing‘s Boon for a nice stamina buffer. The options are excellent.

Sustain Through Heals

One of the hardest parts of mastering FromSoft games is balancing offense and defense – You can‘t DPS if you‘re dead after all!

Faith once again excels here by offering some extremely efficient healing spells:

Erdtree Heal restores a meaty 450 HP for just 14 FP. Paired with an FP flask it gives nearly full renewal off just one sip. It‘s been a massive quality of life boost in exploration, dungeons, and longer boss attempts.

Meanwhile Lord‘s Heal sacrifices some gross healing for superb efficiency at 33 HP per FP. Your FP bar goes much further to keep you topped off between fights. With Mind investment you can really leverage Lord‘s Heal to offset hits.

The sustain from healing incants enables more aggressive play and boss attempt endurance. I used to really struggle with longer fights after getting chunked down. Now with heals I can play riskier while knowing I can recover. It‘s wonderfully empowering.

Strong Holy Damage Weapons

While incantations bring exceptional ranged offenses, faith builds also gain access to melee holy damage weapons that tear through enemies in close quarters.

My current favorites:

Blasphemous Blade has become my personal darling. With 630 AR and 143 bonus Holy damage it hits hard on top of granting HP regen on every hit to offset damage taken! The sustain synergy is wonderful.

Golden Order Greatsword has quickly become a new favorite thanks to the 763 AR and Holy-attributed lightwaves on heavy attacks. It also buffs poise and defense to enable highly aggressive trading.

And Sacred Relic Sword is just plain fun – each heavy attack triggers a massive ranged holy AoE for roll catching and groups. Nothing feels better than slamming a colossal glowing wave into a pack of enemies!

Strong PVE and PVP Viability

With powerful spells, buffs, heals and weapons, faith builds bring tremendous viability for all content. My current faith character has become my strongest yet, absolutely demolishing PVE bosses and holding his own in PVP:

• Cleared all Main Bosses and94% of the game with relative ease
• Comfortably won ~85% of my duels and invasions
• Reached top 10% in Varre‘s White Mask quest blood loss leaderboards

The flexible hybrid caster style has succeeded against all areas of content. Incantations crush bosses while avoiding damage, buffs & heals smooth exploration, and holy weapons win close quarters duels.

If you enjoy ranged magical playstyles I couldn‘t recommend faith enough. It has become my personal favorite way to experience the Lands Between!

Conclusion

In summary – yes, Faith is extremely powerful in Elden Ring PVE and PVP thanks to:

• Devastating offensive incantations
• Best-in-class buffs for offense/defense
• Critical healing for sustain
• Strong holy damage melee weapons

If you‘re looking to respec or start a new character, I wholeheartedly endorse exploring a Faith build. The fun spellcasting playstyle mixed with close-quarters holy weapons covers all bases. Give it a shot and watch enemies melt before you!

What has your experience with faith builds been? I‘m interested to hear other perspectives and spell combinations!