u/PinkPepperPizza95

Miquella: "Tarnished, hear my words. Yield the path to us. To I, Miquella, and my promised consort, Radahn."
Me: "Nah, let me tank him."

With the Tarnished Edition, the Silver Grooved Shield is introduced as an early-game medium shield. Pair this with the also quick-to-acquire Rogier's Rapier, and what you get is an early-game Let Me Tank Him build that trivializes your Elden Ring experience, all for the low STR requirement of 9.

Stats:
RL 200
60 VIG
42 END
9 STR
80 DEX
60 ARC

Class:
Bandit (best stat-wise)

Talismans:
Two-Headed Turtle Talisman (10/s stamina)
Greatshield Talisman (20% guard boost)
Spear Talisman (15% counterattack damage)
Lord of Blood's Exultation (20% damage when blood loss occurs)

Weapon:
Rogier's Rapier
Ash of War: Seppuku
Affinity: Blood

Shield:
Silver Grooved Shield
Asha of War: Barricade Shield
Affinity: Standard

Physick:
Thorny Cracked Tear (9/13/20% successive attack buff)
Bloodsucking Tear (20% damage for 3 minutes)

Consumable:
Pickled Turtle Neck (10/s stamina for 60 seconds)
Shield Grease (35% guard boost and 20% damage negation for 60 seconds)
Exalted Flesh (20% physical damage for 30 seconds)

Great Rune:
Radahn's (15% HP, FP, and stamina)

Summon:
Stormhawk Deenh (periodically casts 20% physical/stamina/poise damage)

New Best Shield:
The reasons why the Silver Grooved Shield is one of the best shields is due to its early-game accessibility, low stat requirements, and being the lightest 100% physical damage negation shield in the game. It is available at the start to purchase from the merchant near the Bellum Church and needs 9 STR and 12 DEX to use. Other shields that are argued as the best are found much later in the game, require more strength investment, and have more weight.

Focus on DEX:
Most shield poke builds focus on STR because of greatshields like Vergisis and Fingerprint Stone shields need high STR to use, but the Silver Grooved Shield only needs 9 STR which lets you focus your investment into high DEX-scaling weapons.

Stats/AR Comparison of Thrusting Swords

Rogier’s Blood Rapier ( 9 STR 80 DEX 60 ARC)

Scaling
STR: 0.27 DEX: 1.37 AR: 494

Cleanrot Knight’s Blood Sword (99 STR 13 DEX 60 ARC)

Scaling
STR: 0.76 DEX: 0.51 AR: 477

Cleanrot Knight’s Blood Sword (55 STR 55 DEX 60 ARC)

Scaling
STR: 0.76 DEX: 0.51 AR: 498

Blood Antspur (10 STR 99 DEX 60 ARC)

Scaling
STR: 0.65 DEX: 0.89 AR: 455

Blood Antspur (60 STR 60 DEX 60 ARC)

Scaling
STR: 0.65 DEX: 0.89 AR: 501

As shown above, Rogier’s high DEX scaling results in it doing more damage than other thrusting swords with minimal stat investment. Cleanrot and Antspur can only outdamage Rogier’s Rapier when you invest evenly in both STR and DEX. At that point, you are creating a Quality/Bleed Build.

Greatshield Con:
Greatshields require high STR investment, which results in wasted stat investment because most thrusting weapons have poor STR scaling. Rogier’s high DEX scaling paired with the Silver Grooved Shield’s low STR requirement results in optimal stat investment from early game all the way to endgame.

Burst DPS Tank:
The high DEX scaling damage of Rogier's Rapier results in big returns with damage buffs. In regard to your Physick Tears, your shield pokes with thrusting swords come out fast so it can make use of the Thorny Cracked Tear while the protection from your shield gives you more survivability to counter out the glass cannon nature of the Bloodsucking Tear's 1% HP loss per sec. The Spear Talisman gets high usage since all shield pokes can do counterattack damage. Lastly, the high amounts of blood loss ensures Lord of Blood's Exultation is always up.

Shield Poke Bleed Synergy:
Bleed builds require you to be aggressive and attack consecutively to build up blood loss to trigger bleed. With shield poking, you can do this behind the protection of a 100% physical damage-negating shield. While blocking, you can attack several times with your Seppuku-infused sword, dealing at least 166 bleed per second.

Guard Boost Stacking:
The Silver Grooved Shield has 62 stability when fully upgraded. This can be enhanced with the Shield Grease and the Greatshield Talisman to reduce stamina loss when blocking by 48%. During boss fights, Barricade Shield will be your backup buff because the long animation of applying Shield Grease leaves you open for attacks.

Stamina:
The more stamina you have, the more you can attack, which means the more bleed you can build up. Also, since you are using a rapier, you will consume only a small amount of stamina with each shield poke compared to using other larger and heavier shield-poking weapons.

Stormhawk Deenh:
Deenh is one of the best summons because of their powerful buff. Deenh will release a rally cry that grants you an aura buff that provides 20% physical/stance/poise damage for 60 seconds.

Conclusion:
This DPS shield poke bleed build lets you burst down bosses with high amounts of physical damage and blood loss while you block attacks. So long as you monitor and manage your stamina, you become an unmovable, unyielding, and undying shield as your enemies burst into blossoms of red upon the battlefield.

This high-risk high-reward Giant-Crusher build combines the massive amounts of blood loss buildup of a bleed build and the big damage of a roar build to give you literally the strongest bleed build possible with 99 STR. As a result, you are not only dealing thousands of damage but also inflicting hundreds of bleed buildup per bonk.

Stats
RL 200
60 VIG
27 END
99 STR
60 ARC

Class:
Hero (best stat-wise)

Talismans:
Axe Talisman (10% charged attacks)
Two-Handed Swordman (15% two-handing)
Roar Medallion (15% roar damage)
Lord of Blood's Exultation (20% damage when bleed occurs for 30 seconds)

Weapon:
Temporary Hammer or Axe (starting weapon)
Ash of War: War Cry
Affinity: Heavy

Stone Hammer (midway weapon)
Ash of War: War Cry
Affinity: Heavy (Blood if you have the Black Whetblade)

Giant-Crusher (final weapon)
Ash of War: Braggart's Roar
Affinity: Blood

Highland Axe (off-hand weapon)
Ash of War: Golden Vow
Affinity: Heavy
Passive: 10% roar damage

Physick:
Spiked Cracked Tear (15% charged attack damage)
Bloodsucking Cracked Tear (20% damage but 1% HP loss per second)

Consumable:
Sacred Bloody Flesh (7% physical damage/10 Arcane/18% damage when blood loss occurs)

Great Rune:
Radahn's (15% increase to HP/FP/Stamina)

Summon:
Stormhawk Deenh (20% physical/stamina/stance damage)

Gameplay:
The gameplay for this is very simple where all your doing is getting as close as you can to the enemy before you unleash a devasting altered charged attack. This is then followed up by another altered charged attacked. You will likely pop bleed with your first bonk resulting in your second bonk being buffed by your bleed related items. This is a high-risk high-reward playstyle where you try to trade blows with bosses fitting the title of a berserker.

Strongest Bleed Build:
I call this the strongest because you have 99 STR where as most other bleed builds that claim to be the strongest focuses on DEX and fast multi-hit attacks to stack successive damage buffs. This build instead relies on hitting the boss as hard you can with your first hit that instant bleeds and then hit them harder with your second one.

Roar/Charged-Attack/Bleed Stacking Damage:
The meat of your damage comes from the various roar and charged attack damage buffs you have. This is because the altered heavy attack of Braggart's Roar is treated as both a roar attack and a charged attack. Add in the large amount of bleed you can do, you can take full advantage of the buffs you normally get from a Bleed Build from items like the Lord of Blood's Exultation and the Sacred Bloody Flesh. The Bloodsucking Tear further helps boost your damage ceiling while further fitting the Berserker theme of this build.

Massive Blood Loss:
Braggart's Roar has a status multiplier for its altered attack. The value depends on the weapon type, ranging from 1.5x - 3.0x. For the Giant-Crusher, you get access to the full 3.0x multiplier. With the fact that Colossal Hammers have the highest bleed buildup of any weapon, you will inflict a ridiculous 496 bleed per bonk. This is enough to instantly pop bleed on most bosses with your first bonk.

Stance Damage:
The charged heavy attacks of the Giant-Crusher normally does 42 stance damage. When you two-hand it, it increased by 10%. This is then further increased by 20% with Stormhawk Deenh's buff. Also, the running animation of Braggart's Roar deals 3 stance damage. This is because the running animation can hit enemies 3 times with each hit dealing 1 stance damage. This results in a total of 58 possible stance damage with each charged attack.

Offhand Highland Axe:
In your offhand, you should have the Highland Axe for its passive roar damage increase by 10%. This effect even applies if you are two-handing your main/right-hand weapon. For it's Ash of War, you can equip it with Golden Vow so you can further buff your damage.

Stormhawk Deenh:
Stormhawk Deenh is a key part for this build because Deenh unleashes are battle cry that increases your physical/stamina,/stance damage by 20% for 60 seconds. This is responsible for a big chunk of the physical and stance damage you are doing with this build.

Sacred Bloody Flesh Farming:
Sacred Bloody Flesh is a powerful DLC consumable that increased you physical damage by 7% and adds 10 points into your Arcane for 30 seconds. Also, like Lord of Blood's Exhultation, you received an 18% damage buff when blood loss occurs. A big issue about this item is that it is DLC-locked because it is dropped only by Bloodfiends. The best place to farm Sacred Bloody Flesh is Rivermouth Cave.

Conclusion:
This build is very simple with you doing charged attacks until whatever you are smashing is dead. The instant bleed pops that come with each bonk adds extra flavor to the already big damage you are doing with your attacks. If the boss is still standing, they are then already or close to having their stance break so you can finish them off with a critical hit of use that opening to deliver another devasting blood bonk.

Gilgamesh: "Hey, I'll take a number 9, mongrel."
Blade: "Give me a number 9, just like his."
Mem: "Lemme get a number 6 with extra dip~mem."
Saber: "I'll have two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large soda." needs the calories for the Mana Transfer later

9.6% of players: "Cipher in the streets, Cifer~NYA in the sheets."

https://preview.redd.it/fs6995v02xfh1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4acc2009fad86d082fbe607ea7b1e0df632e4afe

This 13 million damage was done with an E0 Cipher using an E0S1 Archer/Rin team. With SW LVL 999 teams using Trailblazer and Yao Guang, I was able to get at least 10 million damage during 0 Cycle re-runs.

Apparently, Cipher's E1 increases her recorded tally by 150% of its original value. This means you should gain 50% more tallies at E1. As a result, if I can nuke Graphia with 10 million then an E1 Cipher would have done 15 million instead. Therefore, someone with an E1 Cipher has the potential to just nuke the entire health bar of Phase 2 Graphia while 0 Cycling. Graphia seems to have about 17 million health so you need around 17000 tally to one-shot Phase 2 Graphia.

For those who have E1 Cipher, please try this current AA with Graphia to see if you can reach that 17000 tally and can one-shot Graphia when she enters Phase 2. Try to use your best hypercarry team to finish Phase 1 Graphia while also keeping in mind the 0 Cycle limit. However, the best team that can easily reach the needed 17000 tally is an Archer team because you will want to pick off the mobs Graphia summons one-by-one to get as much tally as possible when you enter Phase 2.

If you have Rin, you can save Rin's gems and start using them for her Special Skill to blitz through Graphia's Phase 1 when you are nearing your 0 Cycle limit. If you do not have enough tally when you start spamming Rin's Special Skill, hope the damage you do will be enough to build enough tallies when you enter Phase 2. As shown in this picture, I was able to do 13 million damage with an Archer team so if you have a great Archer build then he should be able to snipe the mobs one-by-one to build up enough tallies to reach that needed 17000.

From the very beginning of the fight, save Cipher's ultimate and all of the tallies up until you enter Phase 2 and use it immediately once you enter. Otherwise, Graphia will immediately STAR RAIL your entire tea, especially your ultimate ready Cipher, which may down them.

Lastly, all the numbers like the 17000 tallies equally 17 million damage are purely based on my own tests with my E0 Cipher. As a result, the numbers may vary because there was something I did not consider when calculating the number of tallies needed to one-shot Phase 2 Graphia.

Please post your results so people can enjoy your One-Ult Kitty.

JP Cipher: "ABSOLUTE CINE~NYA :3"

EN Cipher: "ABSOLUTE CINE~MEOW :3"

CN Cipher: "ABSOLUTE CINE~MIAO :3"

UMA Cipher: "ABSOLUTE CIN~UMA :P"

9.6% of players: "I want her to have my kitties!"

This is a hypercarry E6S5 Saber build with minimal support investment. You need have the free Gilgamesh and his free signature lightcone, E6 Rememberance Trailerblazer with her signature light cone, and your last support is a Fast Tribbie build.

For stats, Saber is your P.A.W.G. (Phat A$$ White Girl) who has no speed due to all the crit and attack stats you are dumping into her. For her three support characters, their most important stat is speed to do as many actions as they can to carry the Fat King up the action order. For their ropes, Saber and the three supports should all have Energy Regeneration so they can all quickly get their Ultimates up.

For Saber's relics and ornaments, she should have the Wavestrider Captain and the Cosmic Life Sciences Institute sets. The Wavestrider works well for her to give her more crit damage and attack buffs. For the boots, give her attack boots to further boost her damage since you won't need any speed investment. The new Cosmic Life ornament gives Saber 32% overall damage because of her Ultimate's 360 energy cost.

For Gilgamesh, his relics are any two 2-piece sets that provide speed. Speed is important for him to quickly build up tallies to launch joint-follow-up attacks with Saber. This gives them both massive amounts of energy and increases the damage of Saber's ultimate. For ornaments, Gilgamesh should have the Lushaka, the Sunken Seas for its energy regeneration and to further give more attack to Saber. Also, Gilgamesh provides a teamwide crit damage and attack buff based on energy cost. Saber gets a massive 120% attack and crit damage buff because of this. Essentially, he is a "rapid-charge battery" for Saber that boost her overall attack and crit damage and quickly recharge her ultimate.

For the Rememberance Trailerblazer, you will want World-Remaking Deliverer to increase Saber's overall damage when her memosprite is up. Her ornanment should be the Lushaka, the Sunken Seas for the same previous reasons. Trailblazer's kit strongly syngerizes with Saber's kit. This results in Mem's skill easily being charged up to let Saber have many actions to make up for zero investment in speed in exchange for attack and crit stats. Mem should always advance Saber forward so she can get the chance to charge her ultimate. It also gives her a 3 turn 50% True Damage buff to Saber do immense damage. With Saber, Trailblazer serves as a "power saver" by recycling energy from everyone's attacks, but mostly from Saber's, and will use that energy to advance Saber's action forward to the top of the order.

For Tribbie, hers is the simple Fast Tribbie build, but she should have the Lushaka, the Sunken Seas for her ornament to the same reasons. My Tribbie is E1 because the game wanted me to get Double Tribbie in a 10 pull to forever remind me about Trianne, but you don't need E1 since that increases Tribbie's overall damage. Her E1 is then pointless here since Tribbie is dealing no damage here. Tribbie serves as another “power saver” as she recycles energy from every attack the party does to charge her ultimate. This synergizes greatly with the Dance! lightcone as it results in you having more actions before a turn cycle ends. Tribbie serves as another “power saver” like Trailblazer, but she advances the action of all party members with the Dance! Dance! Dance! light cone effect resulting in the party having more actions before a turn cycle ends.

Together, Saber is capable of doing millions of damage with her ultimate while also attacking many times consecutively due to her own action forwards with Mana Burst. Saber nicely fills that niche of being pure raw damage Wind DPS. Other options include Feixiao and Black Swan, the prior being a follow-up attacker and the latter being a DOT dealer. Pretty sure, the next King in Check boss is going to be Asat Pramad who already has Wind Weakness so this build will probably do a lot better against him than it did to Graphia since she has Wind Res.

Asat Pramad who has Wind Weakness: "NAH, I'LL DIE."

None of you seems to understand... I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with ME!