Elden Ring DLC: Best Weapon Skills Tier List in Patch 1.13

The recent Elden Ring DLC patch 1.13 has dramatically reshaped the weapon skill meta, introducing crucial balance changes that demand strategic adaptation. Understanding these adjustments is essential for maximizing your combat effectiveness across both PvE encounters and competitive PvP scenarios. This comprehensive tier list evaluates skills based on damage output, utility potential, build requirements, and overall versatility in the current gaming landscape.

Evaluation Methodology: Each skill undergoes rigorous testing across multiple scenarios including boss encounters, invasion combat, and cooperative play. The rankings consider factors like FP efficiency, animation speed, hyper armor properties, and synergy with popular character builds. Weapons that scale effectively with key attributes often provide the highest return on investment for skill usage.

S-Tier Weapon Skills

These elite abilities represent the pinnacle of combat effectiveness in the current meta, offering unparalleled damage potential, defensive utility, and build versatility that can single-handedly determine battle outcomes.

Taker’s Flames (Blasphemous Blade)

• Combat Analysis: This devastating skill not only delivers massive area damage but provides substantial health regeneration on every successful hit. The healing mechanic scales directly with your Faith attribute, making it exceptionally powerful for extended engagements against both groups of enemies and formidable bosses.

• Strategic Advantages: Exceptional damage output combined with sustain capabilities allows players to maintain aggression without constant retreat for healing. The skill’s wide arc makes it ideal for clearing clustered opponents while maintaining safe positioning.

• Build Requirements: Optimal performance demands significant investment in Faith (typically 40+ points) and benefits from talismans that enhance fire damage or reduce FP consumption.

• Common Mistakes: Many players underestimate the skill’s range or fail to account for the animation commitment, leaving them vulnerable to quick counterattacks from agile foes.

Bloodhound’s Finesse (Bloodhound’s Fang)

• Tactical Breakdown: This sophisticated skill sequence combines a powerful forward strike with an immediate backward evasion, creating a unique rhythm of offense and defense. The follow-up attack can be delayed for unpredictable timing that catches opponents off-guard.

• Combat Applications: Exceptional for hit-and-run tactics against aggressive enemies and bosses with punishing melee combinations. The mobility component allows repositioning while maintaining pressure.

• Optimization Tips: Pair with light equipment load to maximize distance covered during the evasion phase. The skill’s dexterity scaling makes it particularly effective for agile builds focused on evasion and counter-attacking.

Bloodhound’s Step

• Movement Mastery: Provides arguably the best mobility option in the game with generous invulnerability frames that can bypass even the most relentless attack patterns.

• Strategic Value: Invaluable for repositioning during complex encounters, creating distance from threats, or closing gaps against ranged opponents. The low FP cost relative to its utility makes it spammable in critical situations.

• Weapon Compatibility: Functions exceptionally well with virtually any weapon type, though it synergizes particularly well with fast-hitting weapons that benefit from quick positioning adjustments.

Seppuku (Death Ritual Spear)

• Bleed Optimization: Despite balance adjustments, this skill remains devastating for hemorrhage-focused builds. The self-inflicted wound dramatically amplifies bleed buildup on subsequent attacks.

• Combat Effectiveness: Deadly in both player versus environment content and competitive duels, especially when paired with weapons that already possess innate bleeding properties.

• Advanced Techniques: Skilled players can time the self-damage component to occur during enemy attack animations, minimizing the practical risk while maximizing offensive pressure.

A-Tier Weapon Skills

These highly effective skills deliver consistent performance across most combat scenarios while offering specialized utility that complements specific playstyles and character builds.

Revenger’s Blade (Falx)

• Combo Potential: This skill executes a devastating double-swipe sequence culminating in a powerful finishing strike. The multi-hit nature makes it exceptionally effective for triggering status effects like hemorrhage or frostbite rapidly.

• Strategic Limitations: The extended animation lacks hyper armor properties, making users vulnerable to interruption from heavy attacks or poise-breaking abilities.

• Optimization Strategy: Best utilized after creating distance or following a successful stagger, ensuring the full combo connects without interruption.

• Common Pitfalls: Many players attempt to use this skill as an opener rather than a punish, resulting in predictable patterns that experienced opponents can easily counter.

Spearcall Ritual (Death Ritual Spear)

• Area Control Applications: Creates a persistent zone of descending spears that excels at controlling space, interrupting enemy casting, and applying pressure to defensive opponents.

• Positioning Requirements: Demands precise placement to maximize effectiveness, as the spears target a specific area rather than tracking mobile targets.

• Tactical Deployment: Most effective when used to deny area access, control choke points, or create separation during group encounters.

Golden Parry

• Defensive Superiority: Significantly expands the parry timing window while also increasing the effective range, allowing deflection of attacks that would normally be out of reach.

• Skill Execution: Transforms standard parrying into a much more accessible defensive tool, particularly valuable against fast-attacking enemies and in player versus player combat where timing precision is critical.

• Build Integration: Essential for shield-focused builds and players who prefer reactive combat styles. The extended range makes it possible to parry weapon arts and special attacks that standard parries cannot reach.

• Advanced Applications: Experienced users can parry at the maximum extension of enemy attack ranges, creating unexpected counter opportunities that most opponents don’t anticipate.

Lion’s Claw (Claymore)

• Damage Potential: Executes a powerful somersault slam that delivers exceptional poise damage and stagger potential against heavily armored foes.

• Animation Properties: Provides forward momentum with hyper armor during execution, allowing players to power through incoming attacks while delivering devastating blows.

B-Tier Weapon Skills

These competent skills remain viable options that can deliver impressive results when used by skilled players or in specific combat scenarios that play to their strengths.

White Light Charge (Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword)

• Speed Advantage: Delivers surprisingly quick thrust attacks for a colossal weapon class, followed by an area-of-effect explosion that can catch multiple opponents.

• Performance Analysis: While not achieving the highest raw damage numbers or stagger potential compared to top-tier options, the skill’s combination of range and speed makes it valuable for specific engagement types.

• Strategic Applications: Excellent for punishing recovery animations or creating space against aggressive opponents. The explosive finish provides additional utility for crowd control situations.

• Build Considerations: Works best with strength-focused builds that can leverage the weapon’s scaling while maintaining mobility through equipment load management.

Blind Spot (DLC) (Backhand Blade)

• DLC Exclusive Mechanics: This Shadow of the Erdtree addition enables a sidestep evasion followed by an immediate counter-strike, creating opportunities against enemies with predictable attack patterns.

• Attribute Synergy: Scales exceptionally well with dexterity and offers dual-wield compatibility for players seeking aggressive, mobile combat styles.

• Combat Integration: Particularly effective against large, slow-attacking enemies where the evasion component creates perfect positioning for counter-attacks to vulnerable areas.

Sword Dance

• DPS Capabilities: Executes a rapid sequence of slashing attacks that can quickly build up status effects or overwhelm opponents with low poise.

• Performance Limitations: Struggles against heavily armored enemies or those with significant hyper armor during their own attacks.

• Optimal Use Cases: Most effective against human-sized opponents and in situations where sustained pressure can be maintained without interruption.

C-Tier Weapon Skills

These specialized skills possess limited effectiveness in the current meta or require very specific conditions to deliver their full potential, making them less reliable for general gameplay.

Flame of Frenzy

• Performance Assessment: Unleashes an impressive cone of frenzied flame that can visually intimidate opponents but suffers from inconsistent hit registration and limited effectiveness against mobile or distant enemies.

• Strategic Limitations: The wide spread pattern often fails to connect against single targets or agile foes who can easily sidestep the primary damage zones.

• Optimal Conditions: Most effective in confined spaces where enemies cannot easily evade the area coverage, or against large opponents with substantial hitboxes that guarantee contact.

• Build Requirements: Primarily benefits faith-focused builds and requires significant investment to overcome the skill’s inherent limitations through stat scaling and damage amplification.

Sacred Blade

• Elemental Specialization: Imbues your weapon with holy energy that adds substantial damage against vulnerable enemy types but proves ineffective against those with holy resistance.

• Combat Applications: Situational effectiveness that excels specifically against undead and death-related enemies while struggling significantly against magical or holy-resistant foes.

• Alternative Recommendations: Consider replacing with more versatile weapon skills unless specifically building for holy damage optimization or facing enemy types particularly weak to this damage category.

Impaling Thrust (Milady)

Impaling Thrust delivers a focused forward thrust capable of penetrating enemy guard stances and bypassing defensive formations. The skill benefits significantly from Keen Affinity modifications and functions optimally with thrusting-oriented weapons and armaments.

Endure (Giant-Crusher)

Endure represents a fundamental defensive skill accessible through Ashes of War application to most melee weapons. This ability provides substantial defensive benefits for tank-oriented playstyles focused on absorbing incoming damage while maintaining offensive pressure during exchanges.

Conclusion

This diverse selection of weapon skills enables numerous combat approaches ranging from sustained healing and massive damage output to tactical mobility and area control capabilities. Understanding each skill’s strengths, limitations, and optimal applications will dramatically enhance your performance whether focusing on PvE progression or preparing for competitive encounters. The evolving meta demands continuous adaptation as future balance patches may further adjust skill effectiveness and combat dynamics within Elden Ring’s expansive Shadow of the Erdtree expansion content.

Meta Adaptation Strategy: Successful players regularly experiment with different skill combinations to counter prevailing strategies and exploit emerging weaknesses in opponent loadouts. For comprehensive guidance on character development and progression systems, consult our Complete Guide to ensure your build remains competitive through future updates and balance changes.

No reproduction without permission：OnLineGames Guides » Elden Ring DLC: Best Weapon Skills Tier List in Patch 1.13 Master the top weapon skills in Elden Ring DLC with expert rankings, combat strategies, and build optimization tips