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Although not as highly regarded as the other two methods of combat withinElden Ring’sColosseum, Combat Ordeal is a hectic representation of what happens when the game’s most broken mechanics come together in one free-for-all to the death. With six combatants on the field at any given time (and even more, if you bring Spirit Ashes), the sheer chaos that is Combat Ordeal would make even the Frenzied Flame jealous.
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Builds that work the best in Combat Ordeal are those that specialize crowd-control through either powerful, distant strikes or debilitating AoE’s capable of clearing a map if your opponents are careful. Bring your best, bring your worst; Combat Ordeal is where the strangest ideas become the community’s worst nightmare.
Lord Of Nightmares
True to the nature of chaos that is Combat Ordeal, we begin our best builds with the appropriate Lord of Nightmare. It is aSleep-Frenzy build that scales with Arcaneand your opponent’s frustration. The primary purpose of this build is toinflict sleep on your opponent and then finish them with a Frenzy spell, ensuring a kill.
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Playstyle:
TheRipple Crescent Halberd is the weapon of choicefor this build, and it scales nicely off of the Arcane stat this build centers around. Additionally, it has the range necessary to make the best out of Combat Ordeal.
Pair it with the Soporific Greaseto enchant it with the Sleep effect and either the Dragon Communion Seal or Frenzied Flame Seal when you aren’t two-handing the halberd in order to cast incantations.
Unendurable Frenzy works best for Frenzy spellsgiven the nature of Combat Ordeal and the many participants you’ll likely be surrounded with. to optimize the damage output of your spells, you shouldinclude Flame, Grant Me Strengthto bolster the attacking damage of your Frenzy spells since they too are affected by this incantation.
Packing the long-distance Frenzied Burst can aslo allow for sniping unsuspecting low enemies and stealing kills for additional points.
You can also bring Sleeping Pots to Combat Ordeal, and their effectiveness is greatly increased by the number of combatants in the arena. Throwing it from a distance, you are far more likely to strike an unsuspecting enemy.
However, the trade-off here is that whomever they are facing might get to kill them before you do, giving your opponents an upper-hand against you if you can’t close the distance to finish them off fast enough. If you plan on doing this risky approach, the Companion Jar Talisman might be effective here.
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Lightning Sniper
Few builds feel so incredibly unfair as the Lightning Sniper when it comes to free-for-all arena combat. With the potential to reach the opposite side of an arena and deal massive amounts of damage - sometimes even one-shotting weaker players, you’ll make a very fast enemy of your fellow combatants as a lightning-throwing, Bolt-of-Gransax wielding sniper.
This is a Dex-based build that primarily uses Weapon Skills to their greatest advantage and can easily juggle playing distance and melee.
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Faith can be invested in up to 24to allow you the ability to use the Barrier of Gold Incantation, but if you find it unnecessary, you’re able to take points out of it and re-invest them into your choice of Strength or Mind, depending on whether you prefer having more damage per hit or a greater casting pool for skills.
Playstyle
to use all the weapons in this build, you’ll need to manage juggling your inventory items a tiny bit while in combat, switching out to not have them in your immediate inventory and weigh down your equipment load.
You cankeep the Bolt of Gransax two-handedwhen you’re using it,spamming Ancient Lightning Spearfrom a distance to pick off enemies across the field, and thenswitch to the Noble Slender Blades when enemies close the distanceto deal with them quickly. Additionally, you canswitch out the Bolt of Gransax for the Dragonking’s Cragblade when the occasion calls for it.
This can be a risky move in PvP if you’re not used to manually swapping equipment mid-battle, but it can allow you to catch your opponent unawares if you manage a very quick weapon swap and transition into a stabbing thrust or Thundercloud Form when they least expect it.
For spells and incantations, you’ll only be using them for buffs at the beginning of a match or perhaps to use Urgent Heal or Bestial Vitality when urgent enough to warrant using them.
If you’re not a fan of the Noble Slender Blades, you can try using the Antspur Rapier, but it doesn’t have quite the length of Noble Slender Swords. What you may make up for in damage will result in sacrificing reach, which can be dangerous in an arena filled with polearms.
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Golden Headache
No arena build is quite complete without the incorporation of the dreadedWave of Gold Faith build.It is recommended to use this build at your own peril and to keep your Waves of Gold in moderation to avoid making a permanent enemy of every soulless body you encounter thenceforth.
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Your strategy here is touse incantations for your choice of buffs at the beginning of combat and when you respawn after a defeatwith your Erdtree Seal and thenseparate yourself from the masses, using your Halo Scythes to cut down anyone who is brave enough to chase you.
Once in a good position, you canuse Wave of Gold to delete any groups of combatants that are busy fighting each other, hopefully eliminating at least one of them in the process of sending out your wave. Use theRing of Light Weapon Art from your Halo Scythe to remove any threatening playerthat attempts to turn their attention onto you and close the distance.
Jump-attacking with both scythes or two-handed one and going for the crouching quick slash can be a handy way to deal with them in melee combat.
you may also substitute using the Halo Scythes either to wield just one and dual-hand it to cut down on weight limit or switch the Halo Scythe for the Winged Scythe in order to take advantage of its dangerous Angel Wing’s Weapon Art (which can allow you to float over magma or ground zoning effects for a short time). This is purely up to taste.
