What is the best Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess build? The Duchess is the most agile Nightfarer of the bunch, providing you with the tools you need to avoid enemy attacks with ease. She also has access to an invisibility cloak that can get you and your party out of serious trouble, making her an excellent option.
If you're the type of person who pays close attention to how your teammates are doing, she could be the best Relics to the ways you should utilize her unique abilities.
How to unlock the Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign
You're going to have to prove you're worthy of playing as the Duchess by defeating, Tricephalos, the first Night Lord. Once you do, you'll receive the Old Pocketwatch, which can be given to the Priestess at the Roundtable Hold. As a token of her appreciation, the Priestess reveals herself to be the Duchess, unlocking her as a playable class.
If you're struggling against the Night Lord, fear not, as you can also acquire the Old Pocketwatch by going on five expeditions. Even if you don't succeed, the game will pity you and give you the item for free.
Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess best build
To get the most from the Duchess, you need to be good at analyzing the battlefield. When your teammates are struggling against Elden Ring Nightreign bosses, you can bail them out of trouble with your ultimate art. Likewise, you have to pay attention to how much damage everyone is dishing out to maximize your character skill.
The Duchess' stats show that she's capable of wielding a wide range of weaponry, but her high intelligence makes her an excellent spellcaster, so you'll want to grab a staff alongside a one-handed weapon. Ideally, you should aim to use daggers due to the Duchess' extra attack animations when cancelling from dodges. To our knowledge, no other weapon class lets you use these animations, so it's worth sticking to daggers if you can.
She has the fastest movement speed in the game, creating situations where it's possible to land critical hits on enemies because she can close the gap between them easily, similarly to Elden Ring Nightreign Wylder with his Clawshot ability.
Here are the Duchess' base attributes:
- HP: C
- FP: B
- Stamina: C
- Strength: D
- Dexterity: B
- Intelligence: A
- Faith: B
- Arcane: C
The Duchess' biggest flaw is her lack of health, forcing you to retreat during inopportune times. While you have the capabilities to dodge out of the way of most attacks, you're going to need to be on your toes – if you do take a hit, it's probably going to be fatal. In the right hands, she has the potential to become one of the best classes in the roguelike game, but there aren't many people with the skills to utilize her unique moveset.
Duchess best Relics
When you're starting out as the Duchess, you may struggle to put together a powerful set of Relics with her default Relic Rite. After a few expeditions, get some Murk together and head to the Small Jar Bazaar at the Roundtable Hold. Purchase the Duchess' Goblet for 1200 Murk as soon as you can to unlock considerably better options for your Relics.
Here are the Relics you should use as the Duchess in Elden Ring Nightreign:
- Polished Luminous Scene [Yellow]: Mind +2, Fire Attack Power Up
- Polished Luminous Scene [Yellow]: Mind +2, Dexterity +2
- Night of the Beast [Green]: Stamina recovers with each successful attack +1, Starting armament deals fire damage
We're doubling up on Polished Luminous Scene Relics, taking the Duchess' high FP to new heights with a whopping Mind +4. It also provides the Duchess with Dexterity +2, increasing her weapon speed and spellcasting speed. Finally, one of the Relics comes with extra damage to fire attacks, synergizing perfectly with our next Relic.
Night of the Beast is a great option for the Duchess as you hopefully will have it unlocked after defeating the first Night Lord. With all the sprinting and dodging you'll likely be doing, it's never a bad thing to have access to more stamina. More importantly, it provides the Duchess' dagger with fire damage, making each attack that more much powerful.
Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess abilities
The Duchess has an incredibly high skill ceiling, requiring you to be alert at all times. You must watch out for your teammates to pick the right moment to activate your ultimate, while also recognizing when they've dealt a lot of damage to give you the best opportunity to use your character skill. At the same time, you need to be cautious of overextending, as you can easily be knocked down due to her lack of health.
Here are the Duchess' abilities:
- ive Ability – Magnificent Poise: Reduced stamina when both attacking and dodging. Can dodge twice in quick succession.
- Character Skill – Restage: Summon phantoms of enemies to inflict damage that has recently occurred. This skill can be activated at any time.
- Ultimate Art – Finale: Temporarily hide yourself and your teammates using an invisibility spell, stopping enemies from targeting you.
Duchess Magnificent Poise
Magnificent Poise gives the Duchess her impressive dodging ability, equipped with plenty of invincibility frames to get you out of difficult situations. This ive ability also ensures you're always stocked with stamina when on the offensive and defensive, making it possible to deal huge amounts of damage when coupled with Restage.
Due to the power of this ability, you will rarely face situations like Elden Ring Nightreign Raider where you're waiting for your stamina bar to recharge so you can engage in combat. Magnificent Poise makes the Duchess a threat at all times, whether that's as a damage dealer, or occasionally pulling aggro for your teammates so they can line up a deadly attack.
Duchess Restage
On the surface, Restage might not seem like the best character skill because it can be fairly lackluster damage output-wise, but once you understand how it works, you can take this ability to new heights. The key thing to is that Restage reinflicts the damage an enemy has recently taken, but that damage doesn't have to be applied by you.
By paying attention to when your teammates deal heavy damage, you can summon a phantom that will deal 50% of said damage. What's more, these attacks also include any status effects, so if you attack using a poisonous weapon, that poison effect will apply to your phantom's next attack. This is especially useful when you play alongside the Elden Ring Nightreign Recluse – time your attacks to give your Recluse an opportunity to create deadly Magic Cocktails.
Keep in mind that this ability can be used regardless of what you're doing. Even when you're taking damage, you can activate Restage when you're in the middle of recovery animations, potentially creating an opening to break an enemy's stance. While you should try to activate Restage when someone in your party uses their ultimate, that it does recharge relatively quickly, so don't feel bad ing it after a flurry of standard attacks.
Duchess Finale
When things start to get overwhelming, be sure to activate Finale to give your party ten seconds to regroup and strategize. Use this short window to heal up, or if you have any teammates that need reviving, focus your attacks on them to get them back up.
This ultimate doesn't do exactly what it promises, as there are some enemies that can sense you even when you're invisible. Don't forget, Finale only makes you temporarily invincible, it doesn't make you invulnerable. If an enemy happens to throw out an attack and you get in the way, you will receive damage as you would when you're uncloaked.
It's also worth pointing out that this ultimate doesn't feature any invincibility frames during its start-up animation, meaning you can't just pop it in the middle of combat and hope that everything will be okay. You need time and space to cast Finale – when you're ready to activate it, be sure that there aren't any nearby enemies waiting for the opportunity to strike.
That's what you need to put together the best Elden Ring Nightreign Duchess build. With your loadout finally set up, it's time to start thinking about all that Murk you're about to accrue in the Elden Ring Nightreign skins guide a read to see all the costumes on offer.