Elden Ring Frenzy Build: Stats, Gear & Playstyle (2024)

The Elden Ring Frenzy or Madness Build is a type of playstyle that places an emphasis on causing the Madness status effect on enemies. And like most status effects in the game, you build this up gradually using various weapons and spells, until the meter fills up completely and shaves off a massive chunk of the foe’s health.

And yes, since this is an Incantations-focusedplaystyle, it is also a type of Faith Build, so players utilizing something like a Prophet or Confessor build can easily switch into it whenever they want. The only real barrier standing between them is actually finding the various different Incantations hidden throughout the game world.

So with this Frenzy Build or the Elden Ring Madness Build, if you prefer, we’ll guide you on how to effectively inflict this status effect on your enemies. We’ll also show you the best Weapons, Armor sets, and Talismans that complement this playstyle.

For your ease, here’s the Frenzy Build Summary:

Frenzy Build Overview

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The most unique feature of the Madness status effect is that on top of massively damaging a target’s health, it also drains their Focus meter. So as you hurt them, you also take away their ability to cast Sorceries and Incantations as well. Another thing to note is that most spells and items that do Madness damage to enemies, also deal it to you at the same time. So using this Build is a double-edged sword.

Now, most regular enemies in PvE aren’t really impacted by this reduction to their FP, as they don’t really use it. The vast majority of your foes are going to be monsters, animals, and demi-human bosses that can spam their abilities endlessly. But there are some special Tarnished foes that actually do use Focus, and you’ll encounter them in the game sometimes, particularly when following routes like the Volcano Manor questlines. Frenzy spells are extremely effective against these.

Apart from these few unique encounters in the campaign, the Elden Ring Madness Build is suited mostly for PvP, where everyone has an FP meter. You can still use this build purely as a damage dealer in single-player, and it will still work great at causing Madness on humanoid enemies. But the emphasis seems to be on fighting other players.

And as far as your Starting Class is concerned, you can pick and choose from anything you want. in the long run, your choice does not matter. But to get a head start in terms of your Faith stat and a Sacred Seal, you should choose either a Confessor or a Prophet.

Madness Build Gear

Unlike a lot of other playstyles like the Bleed build or Black Flame build, there are no Incantations that help apply Madness damage to your weapons. This is unfortunately not something players can use to boost the amount of Madness they inflict on their enemies at a moment’s notice. And so you cannot casually choose a weapon from your arsenal and hope that it works out, which does severely limit the flexibility of this play style.

To make matters worse, the game doesn’t even have a proper selection of weapons that do Madness damage on their own. All you have at your disposal are two extremely specific pieces of gear that have the potential to work out extremely well for an Elden Ring Frenzy Build, but the conditions are that you actually have to invest in the stats necessary to wield them and acquaint yourself with their specific movesets.

If you want, you can also straight-up choose to ignore these two items and simply pick whatever armaments work best for you personally, and focus on doing Madness damage exclusively through the use of spells. But if you do want to fully commit to the Elden Ring Madness Build, take a look below.

Vyke’s War Spear

Attack Stats:

Guard Stats:

The Vyke’s War Spear is the only armament in the entire game that is capable of dealing Madness damage to targets. This is a Great Spear that is not only heavy but also requires 16 Strength, 18 Faith, and 20 Dexterity to wield. And if you happen to be playing something like a Strength or Dex Build, wielding it should be absolutely no problem. But that’s not what we’re going for.

Remember, we are making an Elden Ring Frenzy Build here that is primarily going to be a spellcaster. And so even though we have the Faith requirements covered, stats like Strength or Dexterity are probably going to be lacking. So you’ll have to devote a significant amount of levels to both of these, and I recommend not doing so unless you’re 100% sure that you want to wield the Vyke’s War Spear.

But once you do commit to using it, you’ll find that this is a fairly powerful weapon that deals a decent amount of physical damage to start with. It’s nothing special, but it also doesn’t have to be either. Its true strength comes from the fact that it also inflicts 65 Madness damage with each and every strike, and all it takes is for a handful of blows to land before the target goes Mad and leaves themselves open to more follow-up attacks.

The weapon’s unique ‘Frenzyflame Thrust’ skill is also something extremely special. While using it, the player imbues the spear with the Flame of Frenzy and jumps into the air for a moment, before falling into a slam attack that deals both Health and Madness damage is a large area of effect. It takes a while for the animation to complete, but landing it properly is an excellent way to get multiple enemies with a single attack.

The armament also scales mostly with Dex at a starting rank of C. Faith takes second place with D-rank and Strength comes in last at E. At +4, the Str ranking changes to D and stays there for the rest of the upgrade tree. Dex and Faith however both change to B and C ranks respectively at +7.

Fingerprint Stone Shield

Attack Stats:

Guard Stats:

Now, this item might be too unreasonable for an Elden Ring Madness Build, but exploring it is still worthwhile for the truly devoted. It’s essentially one of the best shields under the Greatshield category, and it’s an exceptional one at that as it allows you to block 100% of all physical damage and even has great damage negation for all of the other elemental damage types.

As a Greatshield, it also allows you to endure a lot of attacks that might otherwise quickly stagger you, and you even have a much greater chance of staggering the foes attacking you. This is of course predicated on the fact that you actually have the shield drawn when the attacks land on you.

In terms of how this item relates to an Elden Ring Frenzy Build, it’s actually a pretty decent Madness weapon. You see, Greatshields are great at using bash attacks to both damage and stagger enemies, and that is also true for the Fingerprint Stone Shield. But on top of regular physical damage, it also deals a decent 70 points of Madness damage per hit. That’s actually higher than the Vyke’s War Spear’s passive.

And using both of these pieces of gear together is an excellent way to deck yourself out as a melee build Frenzy player. Granted it’s not nearly as effective as some of the Incantations in this article at causing Madness, but it’s nice to have the option available for players who want it.

The downsides however are that this shield requires a whopping 48 Strength to wield. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that’s a reasonable ask for a build centered mostly around Faith. And I don’t think it’s reasonable to invest the time, effort, and Runes it would take to meet this requirement, especially if you’re not devoted to making a Strength Build. On the subject of runes, read our Elden Ring rune farming guide and learn how to get thousands of them quickly in the game.

Madness Build Sacred Seals

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In order to cast any spell in Elden Ring, players require a catalyst through which they can channel their magic. For Sorceries these catalysts are Staffs, and for Incantations, they are Sacred Seals. And since Frenzied Flame spells fall into the Incantation category, we have to go with seals.

Now although it is possible to use any Incantation in the game with any of the Sacred Seals, not all seals are made equal. Some of them are clearly more suited to a specific class of Incantations over others, and finding the right one for your build is key to maximizing your damage output.

So we will now look over the ones best suited for an Elden Ring Madness Build.

• Frenzied Flame Seal: The Frenzied Flame Seal is custom made for this Build, as it acts to boost the power of all Frenzied Flame Incantations by +20%. It reaches B rank with Faith at +7, and melee attacks made with it also cause Madness Buildup. You will also have to pursue the Lord of Frenzied Flame Elden Ring ending to get this.
• Erdtree Seal: Although the Erdtree Seal does not boost any particular type of Incantation, it is still one of the best Sacred Seals in the game. At +5, it attains S rank with the Faith stat, which is faster than any other Seal in the game.
• Godslayer’s Seal: This seal specifically boosts the power of Godslayer Incantations by 10%. It also scales well with Faith overall and reaches S rank at +14.

Your first choice should always be the Frenzied Flame Seal with its massive 20% increase in power. But if you do not have access to it for whatever reason, the other two work perfectly fine as well.

Incantations

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When it comes to the selection of Frenzied Flame Incantations in the game, we only have five different ones at our disposal. And although this may not be a large collection, the spells themselves are diverse enough to be useful in a number of different situations. We have everything from an area of effect attack to a grapple and even a long-range laser beam.

And all of these can be utilized in a variety of combat encounters, but the key thing to remember is that you cannot use them rapidly over a short period of time. Because as we mentioned above, these spells inflict Madness on both your character and the enemy you are targeting. And although your own meter builds up much slower, it’s better to not risk Madness as that would leave you vulnerable for a few seconds afterward.

With that said, let’s take a look at these Incantations and evaluate how useful they are for this Elden Ring Frenzy Build.

The Flame of Frenzy

The Flame of Frenzy is likely to be the first Incantation on this list that you find, and it’s a bit tricky to get the hang of. Because, unlike a lot of other more focused spells in the game, this one is akin to a wildfire that simply extends before you from your eyes. You cannot really aim it apart from determining the direction your character is facing, and the flames that emit from you cover a large cone that damages everyone in its path.

Using this against beast-type enemies is great for the damage, but due to the way this Incantation spreads out, you aren’t likely to hit faster-moving foes like dogs with it easily. But if you can afford the buildup on yourself, a sustained stream of attacks is great at decimating groups of foes. And if any of them happen to be humanoid, you can get them down even quicker as the Madness takes effect.

All in all, this is a pretty solid one to start with. It’s flashy, you can get it early on, and it will make short work of crowds if you have the FP to spare.

Unendurable Frenzy

At first glance, it might seem like Unendurable Frenzy functions almost identically to the Flame of Frenzy. Your character fires out flames in the same cone, and the damage and Madness buildup is also the exact same. But there are a few key differences that really differentiate it from the first entry on this Elden Ring Madness Build Incantations list.

To start with, it’s pretty apparent that both the Faith and the FP cost of the Incantation is significantly higher. The Flame of Frenzy requires 16 Faith to wield, and it also costs 16 FP to use. Unendurable Frenzy on the other hand costs 31 Faith and 42 FP to use. Now that is a staggering difference between the two spells, but it should also be noted that the latter deals significantly more damage. Additionally, you can also move while using it.

Secondly, Unendurable Frenzy has a second stage that really differentiates it from the other. When you are using the Incantation and you decide to stop, your character rears back their head and lets out flames in a 360-degree angle. This stage is wild and uncontrollable, and it deals much more damage.

Frenzied Burst

The Frenzied Burst is my favorite spell of the bunch because it has great range and it’s the most fun to play with. While using this, your character takes a second to position their head towards your targets and then launches a concentrated beam from their eyes that deals a large amount of damage. Not only does this look like a laser being fired, but it’s also lightning fast and it can be focused on one specific enemy.

You can also choose to hold the casting button down to charge up the beam even further, dealing significantly more damage and also increasing the amount of Madness buildup that will be caused. Charging also has the added benefit of allowing the Incantation to penetrate shields, letting you damage those annoying guards that block all your ranged attacks.

And as far as the requirements are concerned, the Frenzied Burst is fairly reasonable. You require 22 Faith to wield it, and each use then costs 24 FP. So using this regularly should not be a problem as long as you’ve been putting points into the Mind stat.

Inescapable Frenzy

Now this entry is extremely hard to use, and I really think players who fully intend to play only PvE should ignore it if possible. But if you happen to be into PvP, and you aren’t afraid to put yourself in harm’s way regularly, then you cannot miss out on this Incantation.

When using the Inescapable Frenzy, players grab onto the target’s head, hold their eyes close to theirs, and spew forth flames that cause an astonishing amount of damage and more Madness buildup than any other spell in this list. It’s actually so broken that latching onto an enemy is almost a guaranteed kill since they cannot run away from you.

There are however two downsides to this Incantation that you should be keenly aware of. First, you actually have to get really close to your foes to actually initiate it, which puts you into melee range with them. And second, you cannot use this against non-humanoid targets. So don’t even bother wasting your time during the campaign.

Howl of Shabriri

As the name implies, the Howl of Shabriri is literally a screech that creates a sphere of noise around the caster and affects everyone in a 360-degree radius. But unlike previous entries on the list, this Incantation is not exactly a massive damage dealer in the regular sense. It does low, yet consistent, damage over a long period of time, but that is really not enough to justify using it. Even the Flame of Frenzy deals much more damage than this, and it does so in a fraction of the time.

The real strength of the Howl of Shabriri lies in its ability to inflict a tremendous amount of Madness in an instant on any humanoid enemy that is within range. Using this, you can walk in between a couple of foes and let the spell loose, instantly downing anyone near you that happens to hear it.

It’s an extremely effective way to cause the Madness status effect, but it leaves you open to attack. You are defenseless while using the Howl, and anyone who manages to close the distance with you can deal a lot of damage. Additionally, this is exclusively useful in PvP, so don’t even bother with trying to use it against beasts or the like.

Frenzy Build Armor Sets

It should be mentioned once again that your choice of armor sets should be determined by your specific playstyle, and should not be based on any unique abilities they might give you. Because yes, some sets have certain buffs that they confer that sound really good on paper, but when it comes to actual gameplay you should go with your gut for this Elden Ring Frenzy Build.

Do you feel confident in dodge rolling away from attacks? Then maybe you should pick up a Light or Medium armor and ditch the shield. Or are you willing to block incoming attacks instead and take a few hits if necessary? Seems like you should keep the shield and pick up a Heavy set on top of that.

All those fancy values like weight, damage reduction, and Poise don’t mean anything if you are not using a set that gels well with your own particular style of combat. So feel free to ignore everything we are going to list below if you have something better in mind that works for you.

We also have a few sets that worked best for us, and we’re going to justify our choices below.

Haligtree Knight Set

Damage Negation:

Resistance:

As you get further and further into Elden Ring, enemies keep getting stronger and the cost of leveling up consistently goes up as well. Choosing which stats you want to invest in becomes more crucial than ever before, and even a single point can be the difference between being able to use a spell or not.

And so for a build like this one, any piece of equipment that can boost your Faith is indispensable. And the Haligtree Knight Set does exactly this by adding 2 points to the stat for free. On top of this, it has really decent damage negation and the weight is extremely reasonable for a heavy set.

Raging Wolf Set

Damage Negation:

Resistance:

The Raging Wolf Set is one of the best medium armors in the game, and even one of the best sets overall. It’s light enough that players can easily maintain a medium load with only a few points in Endurance but sturdy enough that it provides decent damage negation against almost all types of damage. The only weakness it has is that it doesn’t do all that well against lightning attacks, but that problem can be solved by switching to another set temporarily when a particular foe has attacks of that element.

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I was not exaggerating when I said that this is one of the best sets in the entire game, and it’s especially great for an Elden Ring Madness Build. A lot of the Incantations you’ll use with this build leave you vulnerable to attacks because of how long they take to cast, so having a medium weight armor that can both endure a few attacks and quickly dodge out of danger is a massive boon.

Azur’s Glintstone Set

Damage Negation:

Resistance:

The Azur’s Glintstone Set is not an armor you would expect to see in an Elden Ring Frenzy Build, because it is focused on primarily boosting the power of Sorceries. You literally get this as part of the Sorceress Sellen Questline, which also includes some of the best spells in the entire game. But there are two aspects of this set that make it work really well for a Frenzy Build.

First, it reduces the FP cost of all spells, not Sorceries specifically, by a respectable 15%. Secondly, it has the highest combined Focus of any set in the entire game. This is incredibly useful because Frenzied Flame Incantations inflict Madness on you as well as your targets, and the rate at which it builds up can be reduced by having a higher Focus. So while you have this armor equipped, you can continue using Incantations for much longer before you have to stop.

Madness Build Talismans

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Elden Ring features a wide selection of Talismans that can change the way your character functions, allowing you to fine-tune your build until it suits your exact playstyle. Some of these simply enhance your stats like your Health or Stamina, while others massively boost the types of damage you do or how much FP you consume per spell use.

And as far as this Elden Ring Madness Build is concerned, we have a few recommendations that will really help round out your character.

Mottled Necklace

Whenever you use Frenzied Flame Incantations in the game, your character also sees their Madness meter go up at the same time. This prevents you from using these spells in rapid succession, as that has the potential to completely fill up the meter and leave you vulnerable.

In order to slow down this buildup, you have to increase your Focus. And one of the most convenient ways of doing this is by equipping the Mottled Necklace Talisman. This raises your Robustness, Immunity, and Focus by 40 points each. And if you can manage to get your hands on the +1 variation of this talisman, then the stats actually increase by 60.

Flock’s Canvas Talisman

The Flock’s Canvas Talisman has a pretty simple purpose, but it’s fairly powerful nonetheless. It boosts the potency of all Incantations by 8%, allowing them to deal more damage than they usually would. This bonus also stacks with other Talismans and items that give similar buffs, allowing you to increase the damage dealt by much more than the stated 8%.

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It should also be noted that this 8% boost does not apply to any support Incantations, which doesn’t affect us since there are no spells of that type in the Frenzied Flame class. All of the Incantations mentioned in this article have to do with damage alone.

Fire Scorpion Charm

Frenzied Flame Incantations are technically flame spells, and as such, they are impacted by items that boost the power of Flame attacks. So what better way to buff these Incantations, than by using the Fire Scorpion Charm. This increases all of your Fire attacks by a decent 12%.

This is great by itself, but it also stacks with the bonuses given by other Talismans like the Flock’s Canvas Talisman, bringing your total up to 20%. And while this is great in terms of damage output, you also happen to take 10% more damage when the Fire Scorpion Charm is equipped. To me though, this is a worthwhile sacrifice for an Elden Ring Madness Build.

Godfrey Icon

Many spells in Elden Ring, including the Frenzied Flame Incantations, can be charged up to increase the amount of damage they do per attack. But with the Godfrey Icon Talisman, this damage is further boosted by 15%. So this incentivizes you to charge as much as possible to get the maximum amount of damage.

Furthermore, the bonus granted by the Godfrey Icon stacks with both the Fire Scorpion Charm and the Flock’s Canvas Talisman, bringing your total up to a massive 35%. With all of these equipped together, you should be mowing down enemies in seconds.

Frenzy or Madness Build Playstyle

As a Frenzy player, your first and biggest priority is to build up your opponent’s Madness bar before doing anything else. This will not only damage them but also sap their FP and prevent them from using spells against you. Luckily, most Frenzied Flame Incantations allow you to inflict Madness on top of dealing damage.

But even if your attacks are not effective in dealing damage, you have to push on for the buildup alone. Spells like the Howl of Shabriri simply do not have much effect on your foe’s health bars, but it builds up Madness at a staggering rate so it’s worth keeping around.

Most Frenzy spells also cause your character’s own Madness to go up as you use them, so a close eye has to be kept on your meter. In situations like these, it’s useful to carry around items like the Clarifying Boluses or Sorceries like Lucidity, as they both alleviate Madness.

This has been our Elden Ring Frenzy Build. While you’re here, why not also check out our other Builds:

• Elden Ring Poison Build
• Elden Ring Astrologer Build
• Elden Ring Bow Build
• Elden Ring Comet Azur Build
• Elden Ring Intelligence Build
• Elden Ring Best Builds