Are you unsure which class to choose in Elden Ring? Then our guide will help you decide, because there are a few things to keep in mind.
Which class to choose?
If you’ve ever played a Souls-like game, you probably know that the choice of your class becomes more or less irrelevant after a few hours of play. In Elden Ring, things look a little different. There are important things you should consider when choosing your class.
We have summarised the classes, what makes them tick and what you should know beforehand in this guide – so that you will still be satisfied with your choice after many hours of play.
Table of Contents
These are the available skills
First get an overview of your skills. They are comparable to the available skills of past Souls games, even if some names differ:
- Power (Vigor): The classic vitality that extends your life bar and boosts your immunities to fire and poison
- Mind : Extends your mana bar and boosts your focus-related resistance
- Condition (Endurance) : Extends your endurance bar and increases your physical defence
- Strength (Strength) : Increases your attack power on Strength-focused weapons and your maximum load. Also affects which heavy weapons and armour you can carry
- Dexterity : Increases attack power on Dexterity-focused weapons, shortens spell casting time and mitigates falling damage. Also affects which advanced weapons you can carry
- Intelligence : Increases your spellcasting power and magic resistance
- Faith (Faith) : Required for summoning spells and enhances your summons.
- Arcane Energy (Arcane) : Increases your death resistance and affects some arcane spells.
This is an overview of all 10 classes and their values
In the beginning you have the choice between 10 classes, which all have a starting level and certain skill levels for all abilities. With each additional level that you unlock through runes, you can distribute another skill point. The number of runes required increases with each level. You can choose from the following classes and stats:
Watch out for the weapons
In fact, after a short time, the stats that your starting class brings with it are no longer too relevant. Especially at the beginning, you level up several levels within a few hours and can adjust all your stats almost at will. There are also no class-bound abilities – theoretically, anyone can learn anything and even a warrior can cast spells, as long as he has a wand and the corresponding scrolls.
But this is exactly where it gets exciting, because finding good and especially sought-after equipment is a difficult undertaking in Elden Ring. Wands and dexterity weapons in particular can take several hours to find. This is due to the open-world design – because here you can run past something much more easily than in classic half-open Souls worlds. The order in which you do which areas is up to you.
The starting equipment is more important than ever in Elden Ring. Since you may keep your starting weapon for quite a long time, you should decide whether you want to cast spells directly at the beginning (in this case, the astrologer is a good choice) or have a good dexterity weapon (in this case, choose the samurai, for example).
This is how re-skilling works
If you later find weapons or spells that you find exciting but don’t have the right skills for – no problem! Because you unlock the possibility to easily reset and redistribute your skills.
To do this, you need to complete the second Legacy Dungeon. In the Raya Lucaria in Liurna next to the beacon “Great Library” you will find an NPC from whom you can change your appearance or experience “rebirth”. The latter costs a larval tear, which you can find in Raya Lucaria or buy from some merchants. You will then be reset to level 10 and can freely distribute all levels to new skills.
If you’re looking for more tips on how to get started in From Software’s masterpiece, we recommend our comprehensive beginner’s guide:
Elden Ring Beginner’s Guide: 14 things we wish we’d known beforehand
How did you make your choice? What is most important to you for your class in Elden Ring? What classes have you played in Souls prequels and what else are your roleplaying favourites? Drop us a line in the comments
