The Prisoner is one of the many classes you can start within Elden Ring. This class lends itself better to magic-centric builds, though it is flexible enough to take it in many different directions. If you’re looking for the best Prisoner builds, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we’ll review two builds for the Prisoner class in Elden Ring. We’ll cover everything from the best weapons, spells, and Ashes of War to the best Talismans, flasks, and more. Let’s get into it.
Elden Ring Prisoner Spellblade Build Overview
The Prisoner Spellblade Build combines melee and magic damage to deliver a build that inflicts massive amounts of damage. This class also excels at stance-breaking, which makes it perfect for taking down larger enemies.
- Starting Class: Prisoner
- Flask Spread: Equal split between HP and FP
- Stats: Strength and Intelligence (primary), Endurance, Vigor, and Mind (secondary)
- Weapons: Claymore (Heavy or Magic affinity)
- Staff: Carian Regal Scepter
- Shield: None
- Ash of War: Impaling Thrust
- Sorceries: Glintblade Phalanx, Scholar’s Armament and Carian Slicer
- Spirit Summons: Mimic Tear or Lhutel the Headless
- Armor: Raging Wolf Set
- Flask of Wondrous Physick: Cerulean Hidden Tear and Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear
- Talisman: Ritual Sword Talisman, Radagon Icon, Graven-Mass Talisman and Graven-School Talisman
Elden Ring Prisoner Archer Build Overview
The Prisoner Archer Build excels at ranged damage and is perfect for taking down enemies from a distance. This build is at a slight disadvantage owing to the inherent weak nature of bows in the game, but it works fairly well.
- Starting Class: Prisoner
- Flask Spread: HP leaning
- Stats: Strength, Vigor, Endurance (primary), Mind and Intelligence (secondary)
- Weapons: Horn Bow and Lazuli Glintstone Sword
- Shield: None
- Ash of War: Mighty Shot and Glintstone Pebble
- Spirit Summons: Banished Knight Oleg or Kaiden Sellsword
- Armor: Black Knight Set
- Flask of Wondrous Physick: Opaline Hardtear and Crimsonburst Crystal Tear
- Talisman: Arrow Sting Talisman, Arrow’s Reach Talisman, Carian Filigreed Crest and Green Turtle Talisman
Best Stats Choices
Stats at level 60
| Stat | Spellblade build | Archer build |
|---|---|---|
| Faith | 6 | 6 |
| Mind | 20 | 18 |
| Dexterity | 14 | 17 |
| Strength | 28 | 25 |
| Endurance | 16 | 21 |
| Vigor | 17 | 23 |
| Intelligence | 29 | 20 |
| Arcane | 9 | 9 |
Stats at level 100
| Stat | Spellblade build | Archer build |
|---|---|---|
| Faith | 6 | 6 |
| Mind | 25 | 24 |
| Dexterity | 14 | 17 |
| Strength | 41 | 34 |
| Endurance | 23 | 28 |
| Vigor | 23 | 35 |
| Intelligence | 38 | 26 |
| Arcane | 9 | 9 |
Stats at level 150
| Stat | Spellblade build | Archer build |
|---|---|---|
| Faith | 6 | 6 |
| Mind | 30 | 28 |
| Dexterity | 14 | 17 |
| Strength | 53 | 55 |
| Endurance | 33 | 42 |
| Vigor | 32 | 43 |
| Intelligence | 52 | 29 |
| Arcane | 9 | 9 |
Best Weapons for Prisoner Build
For the Spellblade build, our main weapon will be the standard Claymore. The Claymore excels at thrusting and slashing attacks, making it the perfect vessel for the number of spells we’ll be using with this build.
The Claymore can be found inside Castle Morne, a location you’ll encounter within the first few hours of the game. The most important thing to note about this weapon and to maximize its damage is to give it either the Heavy or Magic affinity. If you prioritize strength in the early game, go with the former, and if you prioritize Intelligence, go with the latter.
In your off-hand, equip the Carian Regal Scepter. This stuff gives incredible sorcery scaling, which boosts your damage output considerably. To acquire this staff, you’ll need to give Remembrance of The Full Moon Queen to Enia at the Roundtable Hold.
As far as the Archer build is concerned, we’ll be going with the Horn Bow, which has some of the best bow damage in the game. This weapon scales with Strength, making it a perfect part of this build. To make this build work, however, you’ll need to use Magicbone Arrows, which can be crafted after you acquire Glintstone Craftsman’s Cookbook [5].
You’ll use the Lazuli Glintstone Sword in your off-hand, mainly due to its high magic and physical damage. This weapon can drop from the Lazuli Sorcerers in Caria Manor or Raya Lucaria Academy. It is to be used as a backup because bows aren’t very powerful in Elden Ring, and you’ll need a reliable weapon to fall back on from time to time.
Best Ashes of War Picks
For the Claymore, we’ll be going with the Impaling Thrust. This Ash of War charges a heavy attack that ends with an impaling thrust, breaking your enemies’ guard. While the default Skill is good, too, Impaling Thrust inflicts far more damage.
The Carian Regal Scepter comes with the Spinning Staff Ash of War, but we won’t be using it. It doesn’t do much in the way of magic damage, and since it is equipped in the off-hand, it doesn’t make much sense to use it anyway.
The Horn Bow works best with the Mighty Shot Ash of War. This skill charges a single arrow shot that deals devastating damage, and when paired with Magicbone Arrows, the damage is increased manifold.
Lastly, the Lazuli Glintstone Sword comes with the Glintstone Pebble Ash of War, and this is what we’ll be sticking with. Once again, this is more of a backup should you get overwhelmed, as bows aren’t that strong in Elden Ring.
Best Sorceries
Only the Spellblade build uses Sorceries. We’ll be making use of a total of three sorceries, which are all Carian sorceries:
- Glintblade Phalanx: This sorcery conjures up four blades that swarm you for a short while before they go forward and hit your enemies. This spell is perfect for stance-breaking, letting you get through even the toughest enemies.
- Scholar’s Armament: The Scholars Armament imbues your main weapon with magic damage, which stacks on top of the weapon’s standard base damage.
- Carian Slicer: Lastly, the Carian Slicer lets you summon a large sword that slices every enemy within a close radius of you.
Best Spirit Summons Picks
For the Spellblade build, you can adopt one of two strategies: either use a tanky summon like Lhutel the Headless to distract your enemies or the Mimic Tear to inflict double the amount of damage you normally would. However, for the Archer build, you can only adopt the former strategy as you need to give yourself significant time and space to shoot your arrows:
Spellblade Build
- Lhutel the Headless: Lhutel the Headless is a slow tank with harder-hitting attacks and a huge health pool. He is perfect for tanking enemy attacks while you work to chip away at their health.
- Mimic Tear: The Mimic Tear summons a replica of your build that fights alongside you. With this Spirit Summon, you’ll essentially have twice the damage output.
Archer Build
- Banished Knight Oleg: Banished Knight Oleg is another tanky build that works great at distracting your enemies. Given his high health and damage output, he becomes an indispensable part of the build, especially during boss fights.
- Kaiden Sellsword: Kaiden Sellsword is also great at distracting enemies, mainly because he’s on horseback and can reposition extremely fast. This allows you to charge up your shots without worrying about getting hit.
Best Armor Choices
You’ll be good with any medium armor set that allows for good mobility for both builds, so we recommend either the Raging Wolf Set or the Black Knight Set.
The Raging Wolf Set can be acquired after you defeat Vargram, the Raging Wolf, and Errant Sorcerer Wilhelm during the Volcano Manor questline. The Black Knight Set can be found in individual pieces in and around Castle Ensis.
| Stats | Raging Wolf Set | Black Knight Set |
|---|---|---|
| Damage Negation | ||
| Physical | 25.9 | 31.8 |
| Physical (Strike) | 23 | 27 |
| Physical (Slash) | 25.9 | 31.8 |
| Physical (Pierce) | 24.9 | 35 |
| Magic | 19.8 | 27 |
| Fire | 22.1 | 28.2 |
| Lightning | 13.8 | 23.6 |
| Holy | 18.5 | 24.7 |
| Resistance | ||
| Immunity | 75 | 94 |
| Robustness | 131 | 150 |
| Focus | 42 | 55 |
| Vitality | 42 | 53 |
| Poise | 42 | 60 |
Best Flask of Wondrous Physick for Elden Ring Prisoner Build
The Flask of Wondrous Physick allows you to use two temporary buffs in a single-use Flask. For the Prisoner builds, we recommend the following:
Spellblade Build
- Cerulean Hidden Tear: This Tear temporarily negates FP use, allowing you to use your sorceries without draining your FP budget.
- Magic-Shrouding Cracked Tear: Magic Shrouding Cracked Tear increases the potency of your sorceries by +20%.
Archer Build
- Opaline Hardtear: Opaline Hardtear increases your total damage negation for a small time.
- Crimsonburst Crystal Tear: This Tear steadily increases your HP regeneration for a small period.
Best Talismans for Prisoner Build
Talismans let you buff your builds in different ways. For the Prisoner builds, we recommend going with the following Talisman:
Spellblade Build
- Ritual Sword Talisman: This Talisman increases your damage output by +10% when your health is at maximum.
- Radagon Icon: Radagon Icon greatly reduces the casting time of your spells by giving you virtual Dexterity.
- Graven-Mass Talisman: This Talisman raises the potency of your sorceries by +8%.
- Graven-School Talisman: The Graven-School Talisman raises the potency of your sorceries by an additional +4%.
Archer Build
- Arrow Sting Talisman: This Talisman increases the attack power of your arrows by +20%.
- Arrow’s Reach Talisman: The Arrow’s Reach Talisman increases the range of your arrows.
- Carian Filigreed Crest: The Carian Filigreed Crest lowers the cost of FP for skills by +25%. This will be useful as you’ll be using the Might Shot considerably.
- Green Turtle Talisman: This Talisman increases the rate at which you recover your stamina, which will again come in handy as firing arrows depletes your stamina bar.
