Best Spells in Elden Ring: Maximize Your Magic Power

Elden Ring provides players with a wide variety of available playstyles.

Magic is one of the of powerful options you can use during your playthrough, but with so many different spells to choose from, you might ask yourself – what are the best spells available in Elden Ring?

To help you answer this question, we have compiled a list of the best Sorceries and Incantations you might want to use while traversing the Lands Between.

Sorceries vs Incantations

There are two different types of magic in Elden Ring. Both of them have different requirements and provide you with different options.

Before you select the best spells for you, it’s beneficial to understand the difference between Sorceries and Incantations and decide which flavour of magic is the best option for you.

Sorceries are similar to wizard spells in other magic systems. For the most part, they are governed by the Intelligence stat. Not only do they require a certain level of this stat, but their effects usually scale with your Intelligence.

This means that a spell becomes more powerful as you invest more points in this attribute – although sometimes, a secondary stat is also taken into consideration To cast Sorceries, you have to equip a special type of weapon – a Glintstone Staff.

Most of the Sorceries available are focused on dealing damage, although there are some that can be used for other purposes, such as crowd control.

On the other hand, Incantations are akin to divine/cleric spells in other systems. They are dependent on the Faith attribute, requiring you to reach a certain value before you can equip them.

Instead of a staff, you will have to wield a Sacred Seal in order to cast Incantations. The effects of your Incantations are modified by the Seal you’ve equipped.

Faith scaling is a common feature of those special weapons, but there are some that also use a secondary stat for scaling. Incantations provide you with a wide variety of effects – not only can they be used for dealing damage, but also for healing, curing status effects, (de-)buffing, enchanting enemies, and more.

If you’re still not sure which type of magic you want to use, don’t worry – you can successfully combine both of them if you equip a staff and a seal at the same time.

The Shadow of Erdtree DLC also introduces a special staff – Staff of the Great Beyond – which enables casting both types of spells and scales with Intelligence as well as Faith.

Apart from Faith and/or Intelligence, make sure you invest in the Mind attribute to increase your FP – a resource spent to cast spells, similar to mana/MP in other systems. Don’t neglect your Endurance either, as casting uses up Stamina on top of FP.

The best Sorceries in Elden Ring

So you want to become proficient at casting Sorceries?

We’ve got you! While most Sorceries can be useful depending on the circumstances, some of them are more efficient – meaning you can deal more damage per FP spent, or you can land the spell relatively easily. Here are some of the best options you can choose from.

Comet Azur

This spell allows you to blast an enemy with a continuous beam of devastating energy, making it possible to one-shot slower-moving enemies if you position yourself strategically.

The downside of Comet Azur is that it requires you to remain static, making you vulnerable to attacks. As such, it’s not ideal for every situation – but it’s amazing for multiplayer scenarios. Have your companions distract the enemy and blast it from afar, potentially one-shotting it.

Terra Magica

Similar to Comet Azur, this one also requires you to stand in one spot – but it’s definitely worth it. Casting Terra Magica creates a glyph which increases your magic damage as long as you stand on it.

It’s a great way to take your offensive spells to the next level and works especially well with Comet Azur – if you have to stand in one place anyway, why not stand on a magic-buffing glyph?

Glintstone Pebble

Yes, you’re reading it right. The most basic spell of the Glintstone Sorcery branch is also one of the best Sorceries available in Elden Ring. It’s the starting spell of the Astrologist class, but you will find yourself using it for the majority of the game.

The reasons for it are its low FP cost, respectable damage that scales well as you level up, short casting time, and minimal recovery time. All that makes Glintstone a great Sorcery to spam your enemies with, even at higher levels.

Comet

There are many Glintstone Sorceries across the game that are stronger versions of the Glintstone Pebble with a higher FP cost.

Most of them are actually less effective than the trusty pebble when it comes to FP-to-damage ratio, but the Comet is an exception. Its high FP cost is rewarded by incredible damage, especially if you spend time to fully charge it.

Rock Sling

Similar to the Glintstone Pebble, the Rock Sling is a relatively low-level Sorcery with low FP cost with a good FP to damage ratio.

Its range is very impressive, and it can take out groups of clustered enemies. On top of that, it deals physical damage, which is a rare damage type for a full caster. It’s a must when facing enemies with high magic resistance.

Ranni’s Dark Moon

This Sorcery conjures a moving dark moon projectile, which, apart from looking incredibly cool, offers a wide variety of effects. First of all, it deals magic damage to anyone it hits, while also dispelling all spells it touches.

Apart from that, it applies a 20% (10% in PvP) debuff to magic resistance. As if that’s not good enough, it also inflicts a Frostbite build-up.

If Frostbite is triggered, it will stack with the spell’s innate magic resistance debuff, reducing its target’s magic resistance by a multiplicative total of 32%.

Roiling Magma

Cast this Sorcery to fire a ball of magma which explodes with a small delay upon making contact with the environment, leaving a patch of magma behind.

If enemies are not alarmed to your presence, they will approach the ball of fire to examine it – hopefully just in time to get hit by the explosion.

Alternatively, the spell will inflict single-target damage if it hits an enemy instead of the environment. It’s also important to note that, unlike many other fire spells, Roiling Magma doesn’t reset the Frostbite debuff upon hitting a single target, although the explosion does.

Carian Slicer

This spell provides your caster with a melee option – and a great one at that. The FP cost is laughably low when compared with the damage it offers. Its casting time is also incredibly low, making this the best close-range melee option for Intelligence-reliant builds.

The best Incantations in Elden Ring

While Sorceries are largely focused on dealing damage, Incantations are much more diverse. Apart from ways to inflict damage, they provide you with many utility options – from granting useful buffs to you and your companions, through healing and curing status effects, to inflicting ailments on your enemies.

Fire, Grant me Strength

An incredible buffing spell which increases the physical and fire damage you deal by 20% (15% in PvP) for 30 seconds. It also boosts your Stamina regeneration rate and can stack with other buffing Incantations, like the Golden Vow.

Golden Vow

We have mentioned that the Golden Vow Incantation stacks with Fire, Grant me Strength. While this Incantation is pretty costly, it grants a 15% (7.5% in PvP) damage boost that works for all damage types.

Apart from that, it also offers a 10% (5% in PvP) damage negation buff. It works for you, as well as for your allies.

Bloodflame Blade

This weapon buff allows you to temporarily improve your main-hand weapon by increasing its damage, adding fire damage, and granting a hemorrhage status build-up.

It stacks with your weapon’s innate bleed/haemorrhage effects, so it’s especially effective used on weapons like the Uchigatana.

Fire Cleanse Me

Rot and Poison are some of the most debilitating status effects and are especially prevalent in areas like the Lake of Rot and Caelid. It’s a must-have when venturing there.

Rotten Breath

Since we’ve already established that the Rot status effect is a huge pain, why not use that to your advantage?

The Rotten Breath Incantation enables you to inflict Scarlet Rot and deal damage at the same time.

Erdtree Heal

This is the best instant healing Incantation in the entire game, allowing you to heal every ally in your vicinity for an insane amount.

On the flip side, it’s very costly and has a big Faith requirement, making it a great option for late-game full casters, unattainable for others.

Other great healing options with lower cost and requirements are the basic Heal and the Great Heal which offer a good FP-to-healing ratio and are useful at various stages of the game.

Black Blade

One of the most powerful damaging Incantations, Black Blade is especially effective against bosses and enemies with large HP pools.

On top of a solid amount of holy damage, the Black Blade inflicts a brutal debuff that temporarily reduces max HP by 10% and saps the enemy’s HP over time for a total of 2% 20 HP.

It also stacks with Blade of Death or the Destined Death skill – though not both at the same time.

Summary

That finished our list of the best spells in Elden Ring. Whether you want to play as an Intelligence- or Faith-based caster (or both!), you will surely benefit from using some or all of those Sorceries and Incantations.

Even if your build focuses on melee rather than casting, you can still make use of some of the options with lower stat requirements and FP cost. After all, part of the fun when playing Elden Ring is to match and mix different elements of the game to create a build that fits your needs best.

Of course, the fact that a spell is missing from our list doesn’t mean that it’s bad – as we mentioned before, nearly all spells in Elden Ring can be effective in the right circumstances. Make sure you try out as many options as possible to find the perfect combination of spells for you.