White Shadow is an extremely aggressive mid-range building from Elden Ring. It can defeat enemies by utilizing a variety of weapon arts, while also giving you the option to use other parts of the building to deal massive damage.

So this build doesn’t just rely on critical strikes, but treats critical strikes as an extension of dealing damage. The ideal class for this build is Prisoner, just as White Shadow is a prisoner of her own power.

Ice Spear & Impaling Thrust

For the core of the build, I’ll be running Ice Spear as my remote option. This also helps us apply Cold and Impaling Thrust for faster high Poise damage melee options. This option also handles shields, as well as Glintblade Phalanx as Poise break support, as a tool when we break away from bosses to set up Poise break combos.

Previously, Flame of the Redmanes build required pretty much only Misericorde. So it allows you to choose any other main hand weapon you want to complement your build. Obviously, you can also just use Dagger and spam Redmanes. That’s why this build is so powerful.

Why Choose Clayman’s Harpoon For Powerstance Spear?

Since we’re running Ice Spear and Impaling Thrust for White Shadow, our options are even more limited. With limited options, I chose Clayman’s Harpoon for Powerstance Spear.

Because Powerstance Spear’s Running Heavy Attack and basic Powerstance attacks are fast. It helps clear out mobs without needing to use weapon arts.

Not only does it give you an extra option for close range damage, but it also has slightly higher base Poise damage. This is one reason I use Clayman’s Over Powerstance Lance. In comparison, Powerstance Greatspear Moveset is not as good.

Additionally, Ice Spear’s projectiles have a constant 25 Poise damage regardless of the weapon’s base Poise damage.

Another important reason we build as Intelligence can amplify the damage of Ice Lance and Phalanx to Magic Infusion. And, as you probably know by now, Clayman has a pretty good Magic Infusion, thanks to his base magic damage and scaling.

You can indeed switch to a Cross-Naginata for extra range and blood damage, or a Lance for more Poise damage in future games. However, without investing in a certain amount of Elden Ring Runes, you can only get one of them in a single play through. But don’t worry, because you can get 5% off at IGGM.com with the code “CSCCA”.

The other thing is that Clayman has lower stat requirements and weight, so it’s definitely the best way to build without being top level, because we can focus our investments better.

Advantages Of Ice Spear

Some people wonder why we use Magic Infusion for Ice Spear instead of Cold Infusion. This is because Magic Infusion allows you to do more damage with Ice Spear.

Although we lose the cold buildup of Ice Spear spin section without Cold Infusion. But we mostly use Ice Spear as our long-range option, so the benefits outweigh the costs. Because Ice Spear’s projectiles always apply 160 Frostbite buildup regardless of Infusion.

However, you have the option to use Impaling Thrust on Spear for Cold Infusion. Or you can also do Cold Infusion at a higher level when Cold Infusion’s attacks are harder than Magic Infusion. Also, Clayman’s Harpoon loses its advantage over Cross-Naginata if your character is higher level.

Wing Of Astel

Wing of Astel is also a bonus weapon art that you can choose to spam certain large bosses. Since other weapons don’t use Somber Smithing Stones, you might as well find a place to use them.

However, I use it almost infrequently. That’s why it’s in the secondary offhand slot. This is the slot we use least often, as its Poise damage depends heavily on how many explosions you can land.

Other Weapons

Speaking of the other weapons, they’re set up in such a way that you can easily switch to any of the three weapons with a single command. This is a very important layout. Your dominant hand is Misericorde, since you can easily set up Phalanx. Then go back to Powerstance Spear. When you pick Ice Spear in the offhand, you can easily pick your Dagger crits.

It takes some practice, but once you get used to it, you’ll be able to switch to the correct settings quickly and quickly in the heat of battle. Impaling Thrust just gives you another close range, high stagger option that you can weave into your attacks.

If you don’t find yourself using Impaling Thrust a lot, I would insert Ice Spear in the dominant hand. This way you can also switch weapons more easily, since you only need to change your primary hand. This is a much wider build and you’ll find yourself switching back to Phalanx more often to combine with Ice Spear. I leave the choice up to you.

Also Read: Elden Ring Rune Arcs Basic Info

Armor, Talismans, And Physick

Finally, Armor, Talismans, and Physick are all pretty standard. All I did was keep Armor above 50 Poise at the breakpoint.

As for Talismans, Magic Scorpion Charm works well, since most of our damage is magic damage. We can also use Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman to make up for the lack of Magic Scorpion Charm. Shard of Alexander is also important to our damage as we use weapon arts a lot.

Finally, Assassin’s Cerulean Dagger is better for early game maintenance when you don’t have that many Flasks.

If you have max Flask charges or you are upgrading to build level 150. I’d definitely replace it with something like a Dagger Talisman for more damage. Assassin’s Crimson Dagger also gives you more support in battle. And, pretty standard Physick helps us do less damage and do more.

How To Use This Build To Challenge The Boss?

The way to challenge the boss with this build is to use Phalanx to get into Ice Spear spam. This allows you to cold apply first so that the applied debuff deals 20% more damage. After that, it all depends on the situation as you find the perfect range to fight the boss.

You can go for the safer spam of Phalanx and Ice Spear, or you can go for a more aggressive close-range combo of Impaling Thrust and your raw damage, Powerstance Spear. Then, just add Wing of Astel to the mix.

All in all, that’s my detailed guide for White Shadow build. Hope this guide will be helpful to you. A new crit build has been born, give it a try.